My FiRsT ENtry on BIg GiRL BLog

Ignoring the “Do Not Ride If You’re Pregnant” Signs at King’s Island: A LiveJournal Repost

I didn’t know it then, but I was about three weeks pregnant at the time of this trip. It was originally posted…ew, exactly 5 years ago. And this day will come up later in The Christina Chronicles. *** I haven’t been to an amusement park since we attempted to run amok at Six Flags in [...]

It Happened During the Salad Course

It was going to be so perfect. My first real dinner party, and a vegetarian one at that. Most kids my age would be planning clandestine keggers while their parents were away. I was a senior in high school that September in 1996, and opted out of my family’s weekend trip to Tennessee. If you [...]

A Sappy Friendship Post

There was a girl with whom I had a brief friendship in 1995.  Her name was Jessy and she was taken in by the family who lived at the end of the lane. The only thing we really had in common on the surface was that we were both sixteen, but there was an easy [...]

An Un-Ironic Post Card

P1010028, originally uploaded by appledale. My friend Mose came over Saturday night to drink wine and be a porch-sitter with me. Somehow the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast came up in conversation and I felt inspired to go back and look the pictures from when Henry took me there for my birthday. I think it [...]

The Christina Chronicles: When Boyfriends & Girlfriends Collide

The thing that made Henry angry about my inaugural lesbian dalliance wasn’t the fact that Christina and I, you know, DIDSTUFF (I’m still awkward as an eighth grader when it comes to this girlie shit, but if it was a dude I was writing about, I’d have no qualms telling you all about that), but [...]

The Christina Chronicles: The Death Tree

A green and black striped Henley and jeans with a hole in the knee was what I wore right before I lost my girl virginity. It was about a week after I leaked my secret to Christina, and we were sitting nervously together on her bed; she was more in the middle, I was perched [...]

VIDEO OF ME & MY FANTASTIC VOICE, OMG WATCH OR DIE

After yesterday’s heavy entry, I wanted to lighten the mood a little, so here’s that stupid video I kept threatening to post of Corey, Janna, Blake and me on some ridiculous ride at the Westmoreland County Fair called High Roller.This is from two summers ago. I know that because last summer, Blake brought Deanna with [...]

Just Another Normal Visit With Grandma

Sunday morning, I was determined to see my grandma; my mom even said she would help me. It shouldn’t be that tough, right? Get in the car and drive for fifteen minutes and walk in her front door. But there’s the Sharon factor. There’s always the Sharon factor. Ever since my grandma was admitted to [...]

Open Diary Night

Typical Friday night. Sitting on the couch, reading excerpts from an old journal to Henry. Really awesome tidbits about how suicidal I was (I ended one entry with: “Don’t be surprised when I check myself out someday” and another was about how I kept imagining jamming a shard of glass in my neck. LOLWTF.) & [...]

random 2005 memory

In my “serious research” for The Christina Chronicles, I’ve made it to the journal containing a good portion of 2005. Jesus Christ, I was a mess! Even messier than I am now, which is really saying something and I admit that I took a moment out of my day to feel utterly sorry for 2005 [...]

Chooch Nostalgia!: A Photoshoot, December 2006

(Ed.Note: He still makes these same faces when we’re together. I miss the days when he had no choice but to sit with me.] Related posts:Chooch Nostalgia: Day 2 – Aviaries and Dunking Chooch Nostalgia! Chooch Nostalgia!: That Was One Sturdy Roof Chooch Nostalgia: The Big Baptism Class Chooch and Erin’s Big Collaboration

Chooch Nostalgia!: That Was One Sturdy Roof

[Originally posted September 2006] Two and a half years. That’s how long it had been since I was last sick. Two and a half years. So it came as no surprise when I developed a cold the night before the baptism. Pair that with the fact that Brian waited until the eleventh hour to suggest [...]

Chooch Nostalgia: The Big Baptism Class

Ever since I got pregnant, I knew I would have the baby baptized, for the obvious reasons: 1. Babies dressed in uncomfortable garb while squirming under a deluge of water should be a spectator sport 2. The party afterward = food 3. Finally, a legitimate excuse to have Riley dunked (provided the church I choose [...]

Chooch Nostalgia: Day 2 – Aviaries and Dunking

[Ed.Note: Apparently, in the beginning, I tried extra hard to pretend we weren't actually calling him Chooch 24:7. This post was originally written June 2006.] Last week, I had Riley on the front porch and I noticed that he was staring at a bird perched above us on a telephone wire. Clearly, this meant that [...]

Chooch Nostalgia!

I guess Chooch turning four has really hit me harder than I thought it would. Not that I still considered him a baby, but goddamn, he REALLY isn’t a baby anymore. I was looking through some old pictures of him on Flickr and began reminiscing. It’s hard to imagine what life was like back then, [...]

Robert Smith Tribute: The Cure Pilgrimage, repost

(Reposted from May 23rd, 2008) IV: Pre-Show In the 3.5 miles it took us to travel across the Walt Whitman Bridge back into Philadelphia and parked the car at the Wachovia Spectrum, I managed to spend $14: $3 to cross that scary-ass too-big bridge and ELEVEN DOLLARS TO PARK. I’m used to shows at small clubs, where you [...]

The Christina Chronicles: The Big Meet Part 2

I was having some major internal conflict that Saturday morning. Before Christina had come to Pittsburgh, the plan was that I would drive back to Cincinnati with her the following Saturday morning, spend the weekend there, and come back on Sunday. But, and this is so corny, in the three years that Henry and I [...]

The Christina Chronicles: The Big Meet, Part 1

It was only inevitable that she’d want to meet one day. The Greyhound was scheduled to arrive on a Thursday evening in March of 2004, and I must have been excited for her arrival because in my journal that day at work, I wrote: Christina is coming. I’m excited. The bus got to Pittsburgh before [...]

The Christina Chronicles: Caught the Friendship Like an STD

2003 went out with a horribly traumatic bang for me. There were a bunch of us at my mom’s house for New Years Eve, and somehow Henry and I wound up on opposing Trivial Pursuit teams. I can’t remember–or maybe it’s more that I won’t remember–the gritty details, but there might have been a skirmish [...]

St. Forktrick’s Day

“You’re not wearing any green,” Henry said, semi-accusatory after he saw my new Facebook profile picture. “Uh, yeah. I kind of hate St. Patrick’s Day,” I said with a questioning intonation. I checked my mental calendar. Yep, nine years we’ve been together, that’s what I thought. And somehow he didn’t pick up on this? “Why [...]