A short, short story. Today I finished my first MFA Writing residency – ten days of intense learning and workshopping before jumping into the first term. Then we do this all over again four more times. Words used regularly that I had to google for definition: Ekphrastic, Perspicacity, Magical Realism, Peripatetic, Belies, Frowsy, Obsequiousness, Autofiction,…
It has been one full year since I shaved my head. Clearly I was prescient in knowing that the whole world was about to implode so I thought I’d make a drastic move in anticipation. Over the summer, about six months in, I still had people asking me But WHY? Why did you do it?…
Four sweltering summers ago, I was meandering the streets of Nolita. My sabbatical was coming to a close and I was interviewing for a new job, so I wanted to relish every last minute of purposeful aimlessness. I stopped for an ice cream, then turned down Mott to stand in front of Old St. Patrick’s.…
Lately I’ve been thinking about the journey from where I began, when I was first able to grasp the concept of working for something, to where I am – having left my career mid-March (conveniently in line with a global pandemic) and about to embark on graduate school. Some people’s paths are clear from day…
Today I figured out my six degrees of separation from Taylor Swift. Like all good retrospectives, it took a long time to develop. In the fall of 1993, I was living with Richard’s brother and sister-in-law in Redlands, CA, and nannying for their two young sons. It was an arrangement that sounded good initially, free…
First, the doorbell rings. I think it is way too late for visitors and assume it is the police. My sister Jeanne is a teenager and always seems to be in trouble, at least with my father. I sneak out of bed and crack my door open to hear who it is. I hear a…
Oh, showers! There is nothing like you after a long run, a cold morning, a late night. Even better outside and unexpected. You bring me comfort. You wake me. You shake me from a funk. I remember you in Brooklyn, testing the patience of those around me. While I sauntered along the sidewalk, my neighbors…
In the summer of 1994, I was working at a safari travel agency in downtown San Francisco doing admin work. The office was on the ninth floor of the historic Shreve building, a downtown icon that survived the 1906 earthquake, and quite small by late 90’s American standards. The intimacy provided a quick study on…
TW: Sexual harassment When I was 19, my father encouraged me to get a life insurance policy. I can’t recall what his reasons were, perhaps he was reflecting on my brother’s death 20 years earlier. Or that he knew he himself would be dead inside of ten years. Could have been something external that prompted…
I always wanted to leave. For as long as I can remember, I dreamed about living somewhere else. Home wasn’t an awful place to be. Inside were parents and siblings and toys and blankets and radios and televisions and food. I was not lacking for material things but I never felt satisfied. I wanted adventure,…
