The airplane safety lecture drones through the warming engines at the gate. Flight attendants look as tired as I wish I felt while they demonstrate proper seat buckling and flotation device finding techniques, the latter of which will serve us well flying over Alabama, Tennessee, and Illinois. I wonder how many of these people will [...]
#Life
a story worth telling is a life worth living
Tag Archives: #Gainesville
The stories I tell to strangers
As I set out to romp the streets of Gainesville on St. Patrick’s Day, I replaced my usual red pen with a black sharpie. The idea was to put one ring around my arm for every green beer I drank. I stole the idea from my friend Campbell, who used a similar method to keep [...]
LINK: Uttered prayers for our uniformed youth
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/us/sept-11-reckoning/troops.html These are a few stories of soldiers and sailors who have served since 9/11. The stories are honest and touching, and they highlight people who have contributed more than their fair share. Ryan talked about how news organizations are treating this anniversary, and I’ve been living through those complex decisions. I work for The [...]
Absent-minded ranting
My girlfriend came to visit this past weekend, Thursday through Tuesday. It was wonderful to see her and we had a lot of fun, even though most of our planned activities got rained out. It was also the first time she had seen me perform my poetry in front of an audience, which actually made [...]
I promise it’s not as gross as it sounds
Lately, I’ve been cleaning up my apartment and packing in preparation for a move to a new complex (a whopping .8 miles away) that will better suit my needs. Namely, I won’t have to carry my 14 foot kayak up and down from the third floor and then wrestle it into it’s tight fit against [...]
If only I were Stretch Armstrong
Last week, I was attending a poetry reading event and one of the pieces by another local poet resonated with my emotions and is still haunting me. He used an image that is all-too-familiar to how I feel, especially in the six months since I’ve moved to Florida. When he introduced the poem, he said [...]
Leave my drinking habits alone
Upon arriving at my desk this morning, I found 2/3 of a swallow of Diet Mountain Dew left in a bottle on the folded sheet of paper I use as a coaster. The bottle had been left open (as I’d thrown the cap at a coworker for saying she couldn’t read the paper she was [...]
How many sticks does it take to get the bow on your brother’s behind?
Each year, I try to convince myself that I’m going to try opening my Christmas presents the same way my brother does. The way it works in my family, we all take a turn opening presents one at a time, oldest to youngest. Though it was hard to tolerate as a small child, I do [...]
Nerdy as hell from Oregon to Florida
It’s probably no surprise to anyone that I’m pretty nerdy. Sometimes I do forget, though, how awesome it is to be nerdy around other nerdy people. One of my favorite counterparts in this regard is a friend from college who now lives and works in Oregon. This is an excerpt from a conversation we had [...]
Giving thanks for work
Rogue 3, one of my friends from the Quad-Cities, sent me a text yesterday asking when I’d be home for Thanksgiving, and so I told him that I wouldn’t be because I had to work. And it doesn’t really bother me. I’m the low guy on the ladder and I wasn’t even employed at the [...]