Home in Boston, I have whole days to myself to watch the rain, sleep, go on a walk with my Mother, and think about art. As the Snowflakes near completion with just one more to finish this week, my energies already turn to the next project and the one after …
On my slow last evening home, I read my mother’s copy of Hillbilly Elegy in which autobiographer J.D. Vance depicts the travails of growing up poor and neglected in decaying Middletown, Ohio (quite close to my brother Ray’s home). Not only does novelist J.D. sift through the wreckage of his …
As my free time grows short until starting work again – a little over a month left – I crave adventure. Of all the activities I wish I could have done more in my time away, the top one is travel, not travel to the places I know well, like …
My parents are broken. My brother is broken. I am broken. We are too late to fix. Instead, I look through the mangled pieces and wonder about the wreck. Out of guilt, hope, and regretful ritual, I travel home to Wellesley, Massachusetts twice a year – summer and Thanksgiving – …
In 2003, I sailed east to The Netherlands to commence at brief chemistry post-doctoral stint at the Technical University of Eindhoven. Shortly after arriving, I was installed at a chemistry fume hood in Lab Twee (not Lab Ein, Drie, of Vier). Across the way was one Renatus (Rene) with whom …
My brothers and I have a peculiar Thanksgiving tradition. On the “Black” Friday after Thanksgiving, while many frustrated families plunge into the malls, the brothers embark on a brewery bar crawl. We start early afternoon, after a leftover Thanksgiving lunch, and finish drunken well after the sun sets. One year, …
Such panic over Thanksgiving organization: Andrea keeps a gluten-free diet; can Lee come as a last minute guest; the John Dudek’s prefer that all ten guests sit at the same table, and not get scattered across two rooms; is a 16-pound turkey enough for ten people; how do I not …
Thank you. I spend so much space in these pages just complaining: complaining about my failed job, complaining about relationships, complaining about slights, failures, and missed opportunities. For once, and hopefully much more than once, I would like to be grateful. I’m home. All the family Dudek is home. We …
Hurray, I have a job. The company, where I interviewed last Thursday, sent me on Monday a provisional offer of employment. I still need to negotiate the details, but I do want to work for them. Although I dread the daily commute down the Peninsula, I am already grateful for …
Looking for work, I peruse LinkedIn to learn about the careers of my contacts. I have friends on the site from my college years, as well as the Netherlands, Boston, and Texas. Where are they now? I thought I would be wracked with envy. Alain de Botton counsels never go …