The feelings in preparing to walk into a court hearing are unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. As a I sit outside the door, waiting to be ushered in, there’s a screaming in my ears so that I can’t hear or think of anything else besides what’s rushing towards me. And yet everyone and everything in ...
SF, Again
It’s been a while since my last business trip. As result my tolerance is high for getting up early, fighting the road warriors for an outlet at the airport, and waking up on the plane with neck pain. It feels good to be back in SF. How a Best Western in San Mateo can cost ...
White Noise
I’m having nightmares again. But not the predictive nightmares of murder and terror. These are of the type where almost nothing happens. They’re regular interactions and they make my heart ache. I have a dream where my grandmother, who died last year, is showing a quilt that she made to my daughter. She explains that ...
Excerpt: Mark’s Short Story
As the novel nears a finished state, most of the time that I spend with it now is in editing and small nit-picking changes. This is fine for something to do at the end of the day, and yet doesn't really meet the needs that had me writing the novel in the first place. As ...
Not the First to Think This
Memory is a strange thing. It was such an insignificant part of my life for a long time, ten years at least. When I was in my early twenties, I intentionally kept them amorphous, refusing to take pictures because I had little desire to remember things the exact way that they were, and instead hoped ...
Detroit (Briefly)
Landing in Detroit is oddly beautiful. The farms are small and divided in weird angles, and it looks more like Germany, than the perfectly efficient and boring farms I grew up around. The land itself is green and blue and lush, and bears no resemblance to the city itself. From up here it’s all hauntingly ...
Not Enough
I cry on most of the flight home and I don't know why. Not weeping, just eyes watering, falling on the pages of the book I'm trying to read, or caught subtly in my sleeve. I can't say for certain why it's so hard for me. This isn't a new trip for me. ...
Where We Come From
My hotel, the Schloss Wilkenhedge, is a “water castle”, which is a small castle surrounded by a moat in the countryside. After dinner, usually around 9 or 10, while the sunset is still intense, I go for a walk through the forest near the hotel. The trees in the forest are tall and thin, stretching ...
German Child Services
I'm sweating through my jeans in a hallway in Germany. I'm alone in the hallway, there's an empty wooden chair to my right. I came here unannounced, and they've stuck me out here because they don’t know what to do with me. The corridor is thin and lined with rooms. I can hear voices come ...
Scrambled
It's been a long weekend. I spent it with my sister in the Hamptons for her 30th birthday. I haven't had a running three day hangover in years, and the feeling is familiar, but with added effect. I used to feel that I could be mentally productive when I was hungover. There was belief that ...
