Thank you for explaining that my eye cancer isn't going to make me deaf. I feel so fortunate that an intellectual giant like yourself would deign to operate on me.

My parents always liked it when I cursed in front of them. I could see the pleasure of it in their faces. It signified that I trusted them, that I was myself in front of them.

But I could always tell in her eyes if she got really pissed at me, and her eyes were still pretty smiley

Even then, it hurt. The pain was always there, pulling me inside of myself, demanding to be felt. It always felt like I was waking up from the pain when something in the world outside of me suddenly required my comment or attention.

She was loved deeply, but not widely

Ben Starling, you better not have bought your token black friend a racist shirt

She taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry. She made me different.