It was almost midnight, on a snowy winter's night in Dayton Ohio. I was leaving a trendy new night club, after having had a few drinks with some friends. "It's bitter cold," I thought as I began the walk to my car. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed an old homeless man pushing a shopping a cart full of discarded soda cans . The harsh wintry weather had caused icicles to form in his untrimme...

During this past November, my brother and I had one of the wildest experiences in New York City. We took the train into Grand Central Station in the morning and planned to stay the whole day, catching the last train possible that night. Arriving at nine that morning we would have a solid 10 hours until we had to catch the seven o'clock train home. It was our first time going in to the city a...

I discovered my father has cancer today. The news came while sitting alone at a coffee shop in San Diego at eight thirty in the morning trying to give a shit about the difference between a fact, an opinion and an estimate. I was preparing to take the exam to become a Licensed Real Estate Appraiser but I didn’t want to. My father suggested it. Fear lived within the pages of this decision in an...

DOWN BY THE OLD MILL POND: Sixth grade was pretty exciting for me. It was the grade where my teacher acknowledged my writing skills to the whole class and to the PTA. She read one of my stories to them and I got a reward. You would think that after having such a good experience in school that I would have had sense enough to leave well enough alone. But no, I had to push my luck. My best fr...

Nearing the 1964 Christmas break during my fifth grade, thirteen inches of snow blanketed my street late on a Thursday evening. Losing a school day to the elements was a beautiful thing. Friday morning, my friends and I mushed over to Central Park towing our sleds through the middle of the street. Milking the day to the last of the light, we rode every hill until our feet froze. Back from the s...