Today marks the first year of being officially married to Bariguy, my other half here at 2phatgeeks.  We’ve been together for years, so long that everyone who knew us simply assumed we were already married. So it was a shock that early last year I revealed that not only were we not married; but that I had to return to Canada to get my paperwork in order for us to get married. Luckily, everything turned out alright. And here we are,...

I write a lot about my mother. Probably not a whole crazy-much-bunch that some might, but I write a lot more about her than I do my father and some (HI DAD!) might think it’s a bit unfair. Do I hate my father? Do I have some sort of horrible scarring trauma about him and the varying reincarnations of his mustache and beard that send me into shrieking nightmares every night? No, not exactly. You see, when I was a little girl, I was a...

Outside of the Baptist Church I went to every Sunday as a little girl was a great stone obelisk. It sat, massively tall to my stunted height just to the right of the U shaped dirt drive way. Or at least, it would had you been driving toward it up the road from where we lived. It was a dark gray granite that hovered near black with a large, flat rectangular base. In the middle sat the long piercing spire that pointed toward heaven. Within...

Diabetes. When I say that word, what do you picture? Do you see the fat kid from fourth grade stuffing his face full of cake? Do you see an overweight woman struggling up and down steps or do you see an obese man with stomach hanging over his jeans? When I hear the word, Diabetes, I see neither. I see my mother. My mother is not overweight. She was (contrary to what she will say as she has a habit of looking at her older pictures and...

Wish List/Ways you can make Mel Squeal: Purchasing a $2 avatar || Commissioning me for a tiny piece of art that only costs $5-$10 (I will totally adjust my prices so long as the image isn’t HUGE AND COMPLICATED. Srsly, d00ds.) || Purchasing a Print from my D.A. Gallery! (Did you know that if you choose the smallest sizes available, some of them are no more than THIRTY CENTS right now! THEY’RE ON SALE RIGHT NOW!11! Why? Every...

April 17  II 2009 Atlanta loomed large and sleepy in late night, early morning orange street lamps. Their flickering orange lights highlighted my own reflection in uv darkened bus windows as I found myself spending more and more time simply staring out of them in the hopes it would make this trip go faster. I don’t honestly remember much of Atalanta, although I remembered the bus station. I’d been through there before several...