Writing on adventures both exotic and banal.
On a day like today, I think about Going To Alaska. I escaped work by trudging over to the gas station on the corner. Slowly. Slowly. Keeping the snow below the edge of my sneakers, and keeping my feet under me. I drive a stick. I live upstairs. I can’t be breaking my ankle. It was […]
Read More The Last FrontierI went straight from a Midwestern Baptist-style funeral to summer-steamed New Orleans. One minute I was singing a hymn in a pew, and hours later I was on a bus staring at the rehabbed Superdome, seeing the ghosts of the abandoned along the clean sidewalk. I had to say some firm, abbreviated goodbyes to get […]
Read More DancingSetting: An oral surgeon’s office in the second-wealthiest county in the United States. On one wall are paintings of pitchers and bottles. On another, a huge ugly abstract painting with a black frame. In front of the black-framed picture sits a woman, 32, with blonde hair and dark roots, and dirty black patent-leather shoes. She […]
Read More Mother CourageI needed massages when I became a teacher. If you sit at a desk and type all day, you don’t need massages. You like them, your eyes roll up in your head, but you don’t need them. You need a massage if part of your job is telling people the same thing 6-100 times a […]
Read More The Student Massage
Going On 