A Nice Person
November 20, 2002

I write Ilan a breathless email. I'm fan of yours, I tell him. I want to drive to College Station to meet you. I want to sit in on your classes. I want to know EVERYTHING. Weeks pass. I hear... more

A Day Late and 5'2" Short
November 19, 2002

Oh boy, have I been late on deadlines. Ugh. So I'm back, and I'm tired of the Sandra Cisneros interview. Here's something else instead. When I was a kid, I read teen magazines the way some people read porn. Even... more

Why Can't I Just Be Cool?, part 2
November 12, 2002

in which the author continues her overly long and ponderous explanation about why she had such a bad interview with Sandra Cisneros. So I read Caramelo. Caramelo is Cisneros' latest novel, about a girl named Lala whose family moves from... more

The Instigator
November 07, 2002

I have to interrupt my own story about the Sandra Cisneros interview to tell you this: Last night I saw Rhett Miller play at the Mercury, and it had been a bad day and a frustrating evening, one of those... more

Why Can't I Just Be Cool?, part one
November 06, 2002

I first read Sandra Cisneros in college. 21 years old, heart stomped on by a half-Mexican chef, cute and cocky and all of 23, who announced one night, in the bed that we shared, which was really my bed before... more