Hey, I just saw Kristen's piece on her student letters in my new English Journal!

I was all "Hey, I totally know her! I've read that!"

woo and hoo, on the actual publication of your piece!

Priorities

"Shit!"

Not sure which cat brought it indoors. I suspect Tekla; Pig hunts exclusively things with fur, and Fluff just sits around being Persian. My Siamese? She hunts, and catches, and usually kills and eats.

"Gordon Bennett!"

The damned thing circles, just under the skylight. It's magnificent, if you like bats. I do, but not indoors; N's afraid of them.

I take the wrought-iron stairs, fast. "Um, honey? Little help?!?"

Crash! Pig. He's jumped after it; now he's yowling, maybe in pain.

I'm left in a cloud of dust as N passes me. After all, that's his cat that yelled.

drabble

I saw you today. And not ten minutes before, I was thinking, "Hey, I think I'm finally getting over it."

I'm not.

We used to travel together, until the day you turned to me and said, "No, I can't bear to be around you anymore."

Thing is, we still run in the same circles. Of course we'll intersect. But I'm no longer allowed to be the person who ran at your side.

When I see you, do you see me? Or do you keep your eyes in front of you, intent on the trail that I can't travel anymore?

Susie Bright suggested in passing that someone needs to write a new version of "Ransom of Red Chief" where an identity theft proves to be way more trouble than it is worth. I pass it along in case it sparks anything worthwhile for anyone.

X-posted with Natter:

I just submitted this to Reader's Digest for "All In A Day's Work":

I work for a building management company and I process all of the utility bills for our retail stores. One in particular kept giving me grief because each month, the bill was significantly less than the month prior. I called the utility company to ask if we could have a new meter read and they asked what the name of the store was. I looked down at all of my bills – Weight Watchers.

That's awesome, Aimee -- what's the prize now?

$300.

*shrug* It's true and it's funny. I should get it.

Hell, RD should Buffdive on a monthly basis and put the cash toward our F2F's and server maintenance!

Dude, three hundred dollars?!?! I'm totally writing down funny shit from now on.

And you should totally get it.

Drabble: two people running

You always loved running. Noise-canceling headphones over your ears, iPod clipped to your shorts, you'd lose yourself in the miles. Your stress spooled out like cable on the treadmill: breath, breath, breath. Your face shone with the pure sweat of the diligent.

Music wasn't enough for me to ignore the tedium, the loss of breath. I counted the steps, watched the clock. Wanted it over. Ran as little as possible.

Funny, isn't it. My feet took me so much further than I'd ever intended to go, and you're still running in place.