The Secret truths of Anagrams

Route 128
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

You've heard the famous ones:
George Bush= He Bugs Gore
Desperation = A Rope Ends It
The Morse Code = Here Come Dots
Slot Machines = Cash Lost in'em
and so forth.(Courtesy of wordsmith.org)

I've recently been introduced to my inner anagram reality.
Colleen Mchugh King= Me go hulk clenching.
I honestly can't imagine a better way to begin understanding yourself.

I'm holding up my life with a spork

Gulch Falls me/heather
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

Tomorrow I sell my computer. I wonder how this will influence our relationship.

Full and Happy

Chefling
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

When Jay was a baby he would ask for "Doose" which was, as far as I can recall, essentially anything he could eat or spill all over his little diapered self. A few days ago in my kitchen he invented a dessert out of miracles and cream. This dessert explored it all: smoke and spice, excruciating tartness, a rolling sweet cold warmth. He could probably sell it for eleventy dollars a teaspoonful at the local Bistro. I think we should call it "Doose."

So, how do you feel about this?

Hill Art, Colrain
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

They did a good job with the largest neon flag in the state (yes my friends, there are others) because everyone has a reaction when they see it. Doesn't that seem like art to you?

That's a fine head of hair, son.

Marc watches dog racing
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

Popular rumors are circulating about a certain someone, a person I met on my sister's barstool, who charmed me by stealing her "nature survival" journal and adding a certain comment about the displeasure of consuming one's own pinkie when one has committed to a life of vegetarianism, who channels dogs, laments the discontinuation of his favorite hair goop, who can pull off wearing an eye patch with a shaved head, who has read the dictionary in its entirety and who is haunted endlessly by the reigning stupidity imbibing the town of Greenfield. Let's give it up for birthday boy, Marc.

Aim for the stars, baby

Aspirations are important
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

I'd like to thank the Charlemont police for reminding me to set my goals low. We must assume that there are 15% of people who we'd rather didn't wear their seat belts, those subversive commies. I would never accuse the watchdogs of engaging in futile activities, because arbitrarily assigning numbers to habits we'd like to enforce is a really fun way to pass the time. I just wish they'd asked me if I could be the person hiding in the bushes on Route two, tallying up the commuters with a death wish.

I'm a Ski Nut, too

erin
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

So you remember this person, this tiny invasive beauty queen with clever clothing plopping right down in Your third grade classroom and be-bopping around school with a ponytail and an earwig-infested pepper and you knew instantly that you would be friends. Why does 18 years of knowing someone make you feel like you're just beginning? We have a long and winding story that can be told in seven seconds at a bar, my longest-standing (Have some fallen? I'll never tell) friend and I. Happy birthday Erin. I've been saving this picture for you.

A personal note about after school programs

More Van boredom
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

Our culture is desperately seeking a coming-of-age ritual, not to thin the childhood herds so much as to create a real boundary: here a little personal accountability begins.

Life Begins Again Every Thirty Seconds

You would never know she used to smoke
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

I spent the evening compromising my belief about people, about what is worth putting in my stomach, about being true. Scoffing rudely at the contents of the fridge, making martyrs of the counter-top ants, nosing through paperwork with numbers I shouldn't get to see, I travelled back to a time when that seemed okay. My mother's smiling face assured me that things were weirder than even I had supposed, her health improving, she said, since she moved out of this place. It isn't hard to imagine: the falseness this place inspires, the immediacy of feeding hungry males you never signed up for, the frightening assumption that THIS IS IT. What does visiting do but inspire old patterns to cobweb their way across everything formed in the time since life began again?

Morning visitor scares away the heron

moose
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

There are aspects of the commute that I will miss, no doubt. I've always wanted to assert the idea that if you really want to see things, you should get the hell out of your car, but, on the other hand, maybe getting your mind out of your car is all you need.

All Smiles

101_0040
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

This was the day my mother found out what college I went to.

Notes from a Supposed Peer

P1010098
Originally uploaded by mchughtie.

"You are young," she said to me, (at twenty, shadowed by women who had really lived.)
"and you don't know what you are doing."

Fisticuffed but Bobbleheaded, I had no real reply. Was she right by prophecy, luck or projection that managed to hold onto its recipient? A shame she only knew me in passing, through meetings. A shame my students never got to make the comparison: experience or vision.
But, regardless, it was true; I don't know what I'm doing. I also fail to see the problem.