Category archives: Uncategorized
The odds
My car is stopped in the middle of the interstate right now. My fault. Ran out of gas. So I’m here, right now, waiting for help. I have no where to go. It’s OK.
Poetry
I recently downloaded an app on my phone called “Poet’s Corner.” I was immediately ambushed with amateur poems of angst and personal problems, reaching to be universal but achieving only vagueness, and I wanted to understand why I despised the majority of poems written on that forum. My starting point was this quote from Robert Rowland Smith (via Explore):
Vacation days
I’m learning how to ration my vacation days. If I could save them forever, I would pile them up into a big heaping pile called a sabbatical. But my vacation days expire, so I had to use them — and with those days I went to a Red Sox game and a Greek restaurant and a car dealership and a beautiful park on a sunny day. I sat in the 10th row, ate the best meal of my life, got an oil change and had a conversation that had been delayed far too long.
A profession of empathy
I recently got an e-mail from an editor thanking me for my work, and I told him the honor was all mine. The story helped vulnerable people; that’s why I got into journalism, but it may be a naive notion.
The warrant on Alvin Chang
I just got back from the police station. I had to clear my name. I was told I had a warrant on me. I was told it was a sex offense. It’s been a terrible day.