The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by nerdycellist:

After lamenting the demise of Mother's Cookies I have realized that I am a very fortunate monkey indeed. I have friends, family, a dog, my health (mostly) and enough stuff. But what I would mourn terribly if I lost it are:

1.) My terrible, half-plywood cello. It has been upgraded as much as is reasonable and played with love for over two decades. Despite its obvious flaws, it has a sweet voice. I fantasize about landing a few thousand unexpected dollars and upgrading, but then I don't know where I will fit two cellos in my apartment.

2.) The amazing bow for my cello, which lost its original screw and therefore its provenance and was subsequently affordable to me.

3.) My Nauga, bought by my parents a decade ago to atone for selling my childhood security-Nauga at a yard sale for a dime.

4.) My bright red raincoat, which cheers me on the few days a year we get drizzle in L.A.

About "Awk": It took me a couple of seconds every time I saw an "AWK" on one of my papers to remember it was an abbreviation for "Awkward", and not an onomatopoeic device. I'm glad to hear that my first guess may have been right.

Re: Birth Control and bizarre magical thinking - when I was growing up in the late 70's/early 80's there was a book out by noted Mormon "prophet" Spencer W. Kimball called "The Miracle of Forgiveness". Now I was too young to have wanted to read the book, but it must have been excerpted and referred to in many a Young Women's lesson, since by the time I was in high school I had internalized this concept:

"Even in a forced contact such as rape or incest, the injured one is greatly outraged. If she has not cooperated and contributed to the foul deed, she is of course in a more favorable position. There is no condemnation where there is no voluntary participation. It is better to die in defending one's virtue than to live having lost it without a struggle."

I remember sitting in the back of the class confused and fuming when the teacher for the rape/self defense module of health suggested that if the attacker had a gun, we might consider that he could possibly kill us and that if the choice were raped and alive or dead - well, our loved ones would prefer we live. I knew it wasn't true - better dead than dishonored. I heard it in church.

I wasn't a stupid kid, but I was trying to be a "good girl". My parents had no idea what kind of garbage they were teaching the youth until I brought it up a couple of years ago. Mom apologized profusely. But I suspect there was a certain percentage that did (and possibly still do) believe that they'd rather have a dead kid than one who had had pre-marital sex.

Well, the most notable people born on my birthday are Mata Hari and Elizabeth Bathory. Clearly there's something to be said about astrology. Think I'll go bathe in the blood of some virgins and then maybe spy on someone, or at least make a series of crummy choices regarding men, and get accused of spying on someone.

(OK, so David Duchovny is a bit less notorious.)

We seem to have lucked out in Los Angeles (touch wood) - I was able to take my water-phobic dog out for a walk during a break in the rain about an hour ago. She was severely displeased yesterday, when even a three-minute piddle break soaked her to the skin. It's currently mostly dry, although the sky has that spongy gray quality that threatens to start raining at any time. So far we've avoided most knock-stuff-over winds, at least in my Hollywood neighborhood. Not sure about flooding yet. Hopefully we'll be able to get the mutt to and from the groomers before the rain starts again.

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