Snorting Pumpkin Spice(and other not-so good ideas for Fall)

It’s finally here. That time of year when hoodies and jeans are a staple of the Midwest fashion diet. Sure, there’s some that try to hurry that fashion trend into regular rotation at the beginning of September, but they’re the ones sweating walking from their car to the grocery because they saw dew on the […]

Ode To A Friday

From the 4th grade up to 9th grade my favorite day of the week was Friday. That’s not all together odd, really. I mean, I’m sure there were LOTS of people whose favorite day of the week was Friday. For me it started around 3pm when we’d get all of our graded tests and homework […]

A Patch Of My Childhood

Behind my mom and dad’s house, the 1,070 sq ft brick ranch I grew up in, is a patch of my childhood. A weathered and shadowed two acres of gnarled, twisted pines where I would disappear on hot summer afternoons. This is where I would pretend to be on the forest moon of Endor battling […]

I Don’t Feel Tardy

As quickly as summer break blew in, it’s just as quickly ending. Yes, we are in the midst of first day of school eve. With the oldest two hours south at her new school(she’s been there since August 3rd), my two youngest have picked out their clothes, brushed their teeth, and are making the fateful […]

She’s Leaving Home

Growing up I never liked camp. The thought of it gave me anxiety. For me, I much preferred the comforts of home; the smells that emanated from my mom’s kitchen, the confines of my small but neat bedroom, the cynically pointed yet painfully honest comments that came from my dad after work, and just the […]

Summer’s Almost Gone

As usual the summer seems to be slipping through my fingers like sand. It promised me back in June that it wouldn’t be in a hurry to leave. “Yeah J, I’m sticking around for a bit. I know I blew through last year but this time it’s different”, Summer distinctly told me back at the […]

Corvette ’61

For a time when my dad was between 8 and 15 years old he lived in a small town in Northeast Indiana called Lagrange. That is where his obsession with cars started and where he would become what the car folks call a “gearhead”. The obsession may have started before, but in Lagrange is where […]

Schoolz Out

School’s out for summer Today is the day every boy and girl anticipates from the time the school year starts: the last day of school. Yes, every day, every piece of homework, every convocation in the gym, every computer lab, and every field trip throughout the year is nothing more than passing time until that […]

Judy

Judy was my mother-in-law. Judy died on May 19th, 2014 in her apartment from complications due to alcoholism and subsequently Cirrhosis of the liver. It was the solitary life for her because that’s what her alcoholism required. She was alone most of the time I’d known her, which was 23 years when she died. When […]

In Dreams

Dreams can be such humbling things. Even in the most bizarre, awkward ones there’s still some element of truth wrapped into the center of them if you dig hard enough. Strange places with vague similarities to ones from your waking life. Objects that have a visceral importance in a dream turn into something completely different […]