Aphrodite's Darling

This picture is of me and a bottle of Vietnamese Snake Wine. I received this as a gift from one of my students on what would have been my mother's 56th birthday had she lived that long. My mother was a snake-handler of sorts -- she froze snakes and spiders and made decorations with them, sort of a really messed-up Martha Stewart deal. Having poisonous snakes all around the house was so not a good thing at times! There's an actual baby cobra in the bottle of wine, and I love him! He's my sweet baby cobra. I've never had a sip of the snake wine because who wants to ruin something beautiful by opening it? The wine is supposed to cure lumbago, arthritis, and sweat of limbs. Who knew there was a cure for sweat of limbs?

Michelle's Spell of the Day
"Fuck the applause. Where's my drink?" John Berrymore

Aphrodite's Darling

3 parts Godiva chocolate liquor
2 parts UV cherry vodka (very affordable and lovely-tasting vodka)
2 parts vanilla vodka (any brand)

This is a lovely drink for all the girls. It's seduction and love and a chocolate-covered cherry.

Benedictions and Maledictions

First appeared in Out of Line

"From the bottom of a pool/fixed stars govern a life." Sylvia Plath

Bedtime Stories
Men hide under cars, slash a woman's
tendons so she can't run, my mother
said. These were the days of John Wayne
Gacy and Henry Lee Lucas, making
a person believe you had to have three
names to kill. Or maybe not. Consider
Ted Bundy. In a few years, my mother
told me, you will look exactly like all
those girls he killed. I had long black
hair, haunted brown eyes, the palest
complexion. We'd play a game before
bed -- What would you do if?, each
scenario with just enough opportunity
to escape if you were smart and quick,
the final question always being, Are
all your windows locked? The door?