My Life

Window of opportunity

11 September 2011

In May of 1998 I made my first trip to NYC, in the company of my friend, Diana. It was a very short trip, just a couple of days, so there wasn’t time to see much more than a couple of landmarks. I fought my acrophobia enough to go to the observation deck of the Empire State [...]

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Found Notes on Hurricane Andrew

17 August 2011

I was living with my wife in a Plantation apartment when Hurricane Andrew struck. I believe it was Marie’s first hurricane, and while I had been through several tropical storms during my twenty-two years in South Florida, it might as well have been my first, too. This comes to mind because I recently discovered a [...]

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Now Face North

1 August 2011

“Everybody complains about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” It is time I did something.

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Waiting Room

11 April 2011

“That isn’t an option. This is very serious. Without treatment you will die.”

I was perfectly calm. I may have even smiled. “I am uninsured and unemployed. I will not saddle myself with debt. I do not accept this treatment.”

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Gifts

20 December 2010

[This story originally appeared on December 25, 2009. Consider it a Hidden City Holiday Classic, if you will.] I was up late again, sitting at the computer trying to get some writing done until long after midnight. I was having a little trouble with my focus. The ideas just weren’t coming to me, probably because [...]

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Savior

2 September 2010

“I want to save the world, but sometimes the world doesn’t want to be saved.”

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Tumbling

30 July 2010

“When I was a child my grandfather had a rock tumbler.”

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The Other Side

30 April 2010

“As I made the right onto her street, I started to get a creepy feeling, like something was wrong. I saw her walking towards my car, from the bushes at the side of the road. She was saying something, but I had the AC on and couldn’t hear. I rolled down the passenger window to hear her, and she started to shout ‘Look out!’”

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Faith 2: Paradise

8 April 2010

“The first time I can remember being inside a church I was paid to attend. A high school classmate’s Baptist church wanted a brass quartet to perform an Easter service, and I was asked to play trombone. It was fun, if a little weird. We were positioned in the upper choir loft at the back of the church, so we weren’t visible to the congregation. It was an ideal perspective for witnessing some strange and new customs.”

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Faith 1: Punishment

8 April 2010

“I stole a Danish off the breakfast table. I didn’t want the whole thing; I just wanted the jelly in the middle. I took it when my mother wasn’t looking and then snuck into the family room to eat it. I carefully tore it in half and ate the dollop of cherry, then stuffed the doughy parts under the sofa.”

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