Every night, we eat dinner at 7:30pm. The meal does bring the family together for conversation so my mother frets for most of the day over the menu and attendees. Like in a bar, a rear television’s monologue fills silent gaps in conversation and distracts those that have nothing more …
Last night, I time traveled. Spring 2006, I had lived in Boston for three months, but could not make friends. Friday nights started full of anticipation and ended with empty stares at the ceiling before I slept disappointed on the living room couch. From Boston I confessed boredom over the …
I quit my job on April 4. Soon after, I hit the road with a Greg for the first leg of the trip. I drove 5340 miles, mostly east, through 15 states and two countries. I followed highway 94, the Lewis & Clark trail, freight trains crossing the country, and …
Ug. Food poisoning. Fever. 40 hours in bed. My body hurts from lying down for so long. I suffer from chills and boredom. There may be no better time for me to be ill than now at home with no commitments. Last year, my psychoanalyst advised me to slow down. …
Our family does not communicate much, and when we do, it is by indirection. We inquire about absent brothers. We critique the news. Direct questions would be far too scary. I told parents that I would build an art project in the basement. Yesterday afternoon, I hauled out cut PVC …
Two months begin of near-infinite daylight straddling the summer solstice. I unpack my car into drawers and bins. I could be here awhile. My father brings me to his auto mechanic for a look at my ailing Toyota. My kind parents take care of their returning son. They treat me …
6 weeks, 2 countries, 15 states: California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, New York, Massachusetts, Over 20 quarts of oil, 5340 miles. I am home – home home. I drive to my parents’ house of forty-five years and return to my birthplace …
Even car travel can discombobulate. I wake Saturday morning in Toronto. I sleep Saturday night three hundred miles later, in rural Oneonta, New York. I swap a giant Canadian city for a US college town and the home of my professorial brother, his wife, and two kids. Oneonta has no …