legacies from the men in my life

And I don’t mean money. I mean culture, understood in the widest sense.
Whatever about the men, intimacy with them put me in touch with a wide variety of microcultures.
I wonder what legacies, if any, they have from me.
* * *
from my first husband
Agatha [...]

and it came to pass…(part 2)

‘ A KEEPER’ (Saturday 2 August, c. 8:30 pm)
I can’t remember what if anything I said that provoked this comment. During the wedding dinner Plan C, seated on my left, turned to me and said, ‘You could be a keeper.’
* * *
My first response: pleasure. I was [...]

and it came to pass…(part 1)

the sister
‘Have you tried Astroglide?’ I asked.
* * *
Plan C’s sister (PCS) nodded; she had tried it, and Astroglide didn’t work for her.
* * *
I had been talking tête-à-tête with PCS for 90 seconds before the subject of vaginal [...]

mene mene tekel upharsin

wednesday 16 july
Plan C phones with a lousy cold and coughs impressively.
MIMI: Some people will do anything not to have sex.
thursday 17 july
I finally play back all the messages on my landline, something I forget to do, and find one from Plan C from two days ago inquiring after my foot.
He has called twice [...]

Practicing on my thumb and other thoughts of an almost-single sexagenarian woman

friday june 20th 11:45 a.m.
I’m at Cornelia, the midtown spa to which Plan C gave me a gift certificate, the polish on my toenails drying after a pedicure.
Tears are rolling down my cheeks.
Why?
The music playing is “Let’s fall in love” (Harold Arlen) followed by “They can’t take that away from me” (Gershwin), [...]

an interview with mimi about plan c

So Mimi, you’re still together with this wonderful man?
Yup. It’s been three months and two days. We met on February 10th.
Of course, you were also together with Performer for that long….
That’s true. I was.
How can you tell this relationship is better?
Oh god. Given my background — a terrible father, [...]

miscellaneous thoughts on my evolving relationship with plan c

SEX WITH ANIMALS
Plan C often likes to imagine how shocked our children would be if they knew what we were doing, e.g. spontaneously deciding to have oral sex on the sofa at 11 in the morning.
I also like to try to shock Plan C, arguing (as I did that morning) that anything [...]

the sleepover

These are vignettes from my first visit to Plan C’s house, about 80 minutes from Manhattan. I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights there, and am in fact typing these words on his extra computer before he drives me to the train.
THE CAT
Did you ever hear the joke about cats?
Who sleeps with cats?
Mrs. Katz; [...]

nose-picking, groping, domestic space, books, muscles, and so forth

What do these categories have in common?
* * *
You guessed it. They’re all points of comparison between Performer and SDF.
* * *
Masculinity.
I’m trying to understand it.
Maybe I’ll have to be an octogenarian before I do, but I hope not. I’m ready [...]

sexagenarian youth: four manhattan conversations

CONVERSATION IN UPTOWN BRANCH OF COMMERCE BANK AROUND NOON, THURSDAY 10 JANUARY
(as I hand the young, female teller a check and a deposit slip, she does something on a screen in front of her and then looks up at me)
TELLER: Are you sure that’s your account you’re depositing that in?
ME: [...]