closer

You told me I didn't need to stop by, but I did anyway.  I sat on your couch while you made dinner.  Can I help? I asked What can I do?  

In the kitchen,  the radio said, A little bit of Monica in my life, A little bit of Erica by my side. You were singing along, in a big goofy voice.

There was a ballgame on tv and your team was ahead in the first and ahead in the sixth, but you punched the off button on the remote before we could watch them blow yet another lead. 

They need a closer, you said. 
 
When you walked me to my car, you opened the door for me and then you shut it.  You tapped on the window and, when I rolled it down, you put your hand on top of mine.  You said goodbye.  You said take care.  You probably even said see you later. 

I put the car in gear.  The road was empty and, as far as I could see, every traffic light was green or turning to green.  I didn't cry until I got all the way home.

                                                *     *     *
                                                     
As you probably realize, goodbyes are not exactly my strong point.  So I'm not going to say it and you don't need to say it either.

You know where to find me. 

Or, to put it another way, exit, pursued by a bear.

focus

And the lucky, lucky winners (chosen totally randomly) thanks to random.org  are:

Erica (chocolate)

MFA Mama (coffee)

Email me at like.niobe.all.tears at gmail dot com with an address that I can send your loot to.

And, because we spent way too much time at the playground this weekend, here's yet another shot of Cole.  And, yes, he does carry that little car just about everywhere. 

long weekend

fourth of july

hit and run

Although it's technically the first Friday of the month, given the long weekend here in the US (and, I suppose, in Canada as well), I'm going to postpone our regularly-scheduled snark-fest 'til next Friday.  Try to bate your breath until then.  Or, depending on your view of this sort of thing, you have been warned. 

In other news, there's still time to enter the fun and educational giveaway.  Just add your comment to the previous post, specifying whether you'd prefer inhaleable chocolate or coffee.  A super-secret hint: since I'm doing the two drawings separately and since very, very few people have signed up for the coffee sweepstakes...well, you do the math.

And, finally, the lovely and talented Angie is featuring one of my photos today at Still Life 365, a very cool blog featuring creative works of various kinds focusing on the topic of loss.  Check it out -- and consider submitting a work (poem, photo, craft object, painting, whatever) of your own.

sweet as chocolate, light as air

Because I'm all generous and selfless and, most importantly, have finally managed to get my hands on the semi-new product that everyone seems to be talking about, I'm giving away (wait for it) Le Whif. 

What is Le Whif?  Well, the short version is that it's chocolate.  That you snort. 

Learn all the tasty, tasty details at lewhif.com.  But, basically, it was invented by some biomedical engineer at Harvard and is supposed to give you a calorie-free choco-high that's legal in all 50 states (and likely numerous foreign countries as well).  Plus there's a coffee version.  And, yes, I'm giving away one of those too.

How does this giveaway work?  Just follow (in order) the simple steps below:

1. Leave a comment to this post expressing your interest. It might read: Chocolate. Or perhaps Coffee. Or even: I just can't decide, so you choose for me, sweet, sweet Niobe.
2. Get chosen by the random number generator.
3. Receive Le Whif.
4. Inhale.

***comments closed ... stay tuned for winners***

Full disclosure: While I wish that Le Whif were subsidizing this post in some way, such is very much not the case.