When I was 22, my mother was excited for the first day at my new job, but not so much that she couldn’t wait to tell me about the demon that... more

I loved it immediately, though I was surprised when my mother approved it.  

Sometimes I stop talking to my boyfriend for no reason.

We’ve taken our son, my wife and I, to get his first haircut. He is nearly two, and once I place him in the seat they’ve... more

I didn’t know how long it’d been since he’d last eaten. I also knew he needed water.

The last night of the trip, you stay with one of his friends in Vallecitos, New Mexico.  

Soon sunlight would be replaced by nighttime.  I felt this, the same way my grandma could feel the rain coming on.  

I don't notice anything when the television is on.  A bomb could go off in my kitchen and I wouldn't notice the wreckage until the next commercial break.

In 1994, I subscribe to a magazine for wholesome Christian tweens, recommended by the Amy Grant fan. My mom approves; unlike the ones I sneak into our grocery cart, its cover never hints at sex.

Like a punch. Like Margera. BAM.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music is smaller than the Met and cheaper than the Met... more

In the 150 years before the typewriter reached mass production and public consciousness, there were a wealth of origin stories and nearly a hundred inventors: a medical doctor in New York; the head of an institution for the blind in England; a bicycle inventor in Germany; a priest in Brazil. 

I was halfway to the Drew Barrymore/Gwen Stefani hybrid image of my dreams; a few more years, I thought, and I’ll work at the Coffee Beanery at the mall.

The man I love who does not love me back sends me someone else’s tweet. The only text is a hashtag: Notre Dame. The... more

We know who has her period and who is still waiting. If a girl takes her backpack to the bathroom or sits pool-side in swim class, she has her period. So do the girls who—when they ask Can I go to the bathroom? and the teacher says, No—say But I really need to go.

I was aware, somehow, that people tended to get intense feelings about the bands they loved and that music had Mystery, capital M. But my family was not intense. We were American cheese on Wonder Bread.

What I do know: Janet Wellington made eye contact with me in the YMCA pool. I also never had a chance to look my mother in the eye and say goodbye. 

On a cold and rainy Sunday afternoon when I didn’t want to walk outside: a box proclaiming to be synthetic urine for sale in Nirvana, next to Louie’s Tux Shop and across from C.J. Banks in the Muncie Mall, behind the counter where they sell glass pipes blown to resemble tiny carrots and octopi, next to a rack of Rasta wigs.

I turn 30 next month but I’m no longer afraid because I read somewhere that time is an illusion. I am purchasing an anti-aging moisturizer, just in case. It’s expensive, but money is no object. I’m worth four figures.

I was looking forward to ruining my chances of being able to run or march anywhere. 

I found out about William Bates when I begin struggling with vision loss, in my mid-twenties. If you try to research vision loss in any capacity, you find him.

I’ve been tasked with digitizing my father’s slides, a hundred or so he inherited from his aunt.

I was going to see Verdi’s Falstaff with Robin.  My driver said “I hate Bill de Blasio. The MTA is corrupt. Uber is corrupt. I’ve been driving... more

And yet, when it came to hitting a baseball, I always liked my odds.

The solidity of contact is registered first in the hands. The knowledge radiates outward from there. 

“You can’t pee here,” Brendan tells me as I climb inside the doorway leading into the belly of the Green Monster. What he... more