May Day, or, A Story of Luck and Visitors from the Past

May Day, or, A Story of Luck and Visitors from the Past

Just over 90-years ago a young man lazed absently about the streets of downtown Seattle. A would-be writer, he’d recently lost his job as a journalist and was looking for adventure. He came across a notice in the local paper about a trip to Alaska aboard the...
Riding the Rails

Riding the Rails

I sat down earlier to write a post about a recent experience I had at work. I got midway through what had initially seemed like an interesting anecdote when I realized, This story sucks—I’m riding the rails. I quickly scrapped the original plan and instead...
Reading the Signs

Reading the Signs

This spring I will turn 37, which means that for nearly 30-years I’ve been wearing eyeglasses. I got my first pair in early elementary school, when anything that made me different was a cause for embarrassment for me. I switched to contact lenses in high-school...
Bye, Bye, Bye

Bye, Bye, Bye

Growing up in The Midwest, we had each of the four standard seasons—winter, spring, summer, and fall—and we had them in spades. Winters are cold and snowy, summers hot and humid, and spring and fall expertly straddle the extremes. Fall was always my favorite, and each...
On, The Novel, or You Can Call Me Al

On, The Novel, or You Can Call Me Al

This isn’t a subject I write about often because it’s a convoluted and complicated mess. But, like everyone else around, I have a father. I didn’t grow up with this man, and in fact only met him for the first time several years ago. Without getting...
TMI

TMI

On the spectrum of sharing personal matters with others there are those who wear their hearts on their sleeves, for all to see, and those prefer to keep their hearts’ desires contained well within the confines of their rib-cages (the latter being the position...