'“Babe, you are so smart,” he would say, while welding at you.' <- might be my new favorite sentence in the English language.

I should have known better than to read this at work. So much undignified snorting.

I have loved the Mountain Goats for a few years now, but I couldn't really put into words how JD's songs could work at their best until I saw them live. Something about a whole bunch of people, in a whole bunch of different emotional states, all screaming "No Children" together - somehow it made that song into something that could save you, and that's how I've experienced it ever since. (Thank you, JD, for helping me start figuring out how to stare down the ugly, sad parts of myself without freaking out and running away.)

Also, I want to say thank you for writing this, because it's beautiful, and because I had to stop and remind myself to start breathing again after several different lines, because they expressed things I have thought and felt SO perfectly.