I put the phone down and lightly banged my fist against my head. My wife and I were newly married and I was up for a new job that would mean more money and, if we pinched our pennies right, could help speed up our bid to buy our first home. Unfortunately, though, the newspaper …
Category: Dream
An inauspicious first date
It was Friday night and the music boomed throughout the restaurant. Boom, ba, ba, boom, ba, ba, boom. The restaurant manager had the lights down low and the place was packed with people, with everyone seeming to be shouting to the person next to them. I could barely hear myself think, forget about hear my …
Going home again: My hometown through adult eyes
When I was a kid, I hated that we lived outside of town away from most of the other kids in my school. The distance was a mere three miles, but it felt like 3,000. To my way of thinking, we may as well have lived in another country. I should probably explain, when I …
Continue reading Going home again: My hometown through adult eyes
Climbing a challenging mountain one step at a time
I look in my son’s room and find him sitting one leg scrunched underneath him, the other hanging from his chair, pouring over his computer screen and a nearby tablet. He’s been working on his homework for much of the weekend. As a junior, he’s got a heavy load with Pre-Calculus and two AP classes, …
Continue reading Climbing a challenging mountain one step at a time
Tired daddy
I get up and walk downstairs to our kitchen to pour myself a cold glass of milk. I sit down at the kitchen table, the only light coming from a street light outside our house, and take a sip. I can’t sleep. My mind is racing with a million thoughts. Crying baby girl In the …
Worst case scenario
I’m dressed in rags and I look pale and haggard like I haven’t eaten or gotten a good night's sleep in weeks. My wife has left me. My kids have turned their back on me. I’m homeless and wandering aimlessly through town. Of course, I’m playing out this sad scenario in my mind. In reality, …
Good parent or a packrat?
Two miniature Polly Pockets have smiles on their faces and sit precariously on the ledge of a table in between several tealight candles and several old DVDs of long forgotten movies, National Treasure, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Little Women to be specific. In another corner, several Rescue Heroes have fallen over on their …
License to drive: Excited over a piece of paper
When I got my driver’s license as a young sixteen-year-old, I couldn’t wait to drive. I didn’t care that the car was our family sedan and that anything over 55 mph and the car would start to shake and shimmy. The car and my driver’s license, a small card that had my name and indicated …
Continue reading License to drive: Excited over a piece of paper
Coronavirus: A bittersweet drive
I pushed hard down on the gas pedal and raced up the highway. I’ve made the drive to Washington D.C. hundreds of times over the years and I smiled thinking of the great time I was making, I would be there in no-time. I left late at night, but I still figured I’d run into …
The sound of silence
I took the train home from work recently and I looked to be the lone person on the car without headphones. I noticed it first on the platform: everyone was head-down, headphones in place, looking at their phones. Later on the train, I sat up at one point to stretch my neck and looked in …
