Chuck is dead. I found out on Facebook a few months ago but couldn't bring myself to post a public condolence. Eventually, after a few days, I clicked on the "crying face" emoji. He would have laughed at that.

He taught in the fiction department in Pittsburgh and I was in nonfiction, but he still ended up being my closest mentor. I met him in 2005 ( Read more... )

Last night, in bed, I rolled over and felt a million little sharp objects and heard a crunching sound. I rolled the other way, and there was more crunching. What the fuck? I thought, half asleep. I reachd down to feel what was there and retrieved my hand to find the crumbs of frosted corn flakes. Yes, not just any corn flakes, but frosted corn ( Read more... )

Early morning at the office, the day after the third big announcement of someone major leaving the company, I spot him in the hallway by the women’s bathroom on the fourth floor. He wears jeans and a plaid shirt like all the other guys, but it’s the lazy eye that makes him unmistakable ( Read more... )

It’s been six months since I joined a tech company in Seattle. I have highs and lows but, for the most part, I’m getting used to it. It’s constantly amazing to me how they find all these smart kids to hire who know *so much* about what they do… but so little about anything else. There’s this mindset here that anything can be solved with technology ( Read more... )

"The doors of hell are locked on the inside."

~ C.S. Lewis

1. What did you do in 2018 that you'd never done before?
I sold my place, purchased a new home, moved to a new city, *and* started a new job in a new industry... all at the same time.

2. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Camille had a baby girl!

3. Did anyone close to you die?
Thankfully, no.

4. What countries did you visit?
I went to the UK ( Read more... )

My official smoking window is in the dining-room. Sitting on the sill, I can hear: seagulls, the jingle of the streetcar on Broadway, airplanes on the flight path above, the faraway ghost sound of waterfront trains (always wondering: how does that sound travel all the way up here?I've added "reading Trump's Twitter comments" as a daily activity ( Read more... )

I was in London when 9/11 happened, so it felt very familiar when I happened to be in London for the whole Kavanaugh debacle. It was Friday night when I returned to my hotel room and tuned the TV to Susan Collins' senate speech. I was listening to what she was saying, trying to decipher a hint of which way she was leaning. I finally decided it didn ( Read more... )

Hello Livejournal. I miss you. This is still the place where the old memory of "The Promise of the Internets" still feels most authentic. Everything else has gone to shit. My eyes hurt from all the constant squinting at my mobile device ( Read more... )

And so the puzzle pieces sort of fell together:

I got a job... and it pays more than my NYC job. I start next week.

I bought an apartment on Capitol Hill... and while it's not two blocks to Tompkins Square Park, it's across from Cal Anderson Park. And while it's not three blocks to the L-train, it's one block to the light rail! And while it may ( Read more... )