A pale winter morning greeted my uninterested eyes. Outside the tiny window, the sun was only pretending to care. The fire was out and the room was cold. Lonely for company and out of coffee, I went in search of both. This early, there were no rides coming down from the foothills, and it was an hour before I put my feet on the dirty black stripe that led into Anchorage. Snow ...

When we were kids, before my cousin was killed in a car accident and before I left the state, we were outside my aunt's house there on Park Street, throwing snowballs and building snow forts. Eventually we tired of fighting and throwing snow balls at each, so we turned on the traffic. First we built a little bunker behind which we could hide. We kept chucking snow balls at cars and hitting th...

It was the end of December and I was in a van with a man I absolutely despised. His name was Caleb and he was the most aggravating, sexist, opinionated, and rude man I have ever met. His personality was like that of mucus—you just wanted to scrub it off. He was my ride to our friend’s cabin in North Carolina. I had no other choice. My car couldn’t make the icy roads or the snow. He kne...

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...

MY INTRODUCTION TO THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF SKIING: At the tender young age of ten I was introduced to the wonderful world of skiing in Michigan. That was not necessarily a good thing. Let me explain. It was about noon on that fateful day of my introduction that I came home from school for lunch. My father was waiting for me at the door and sternly said “get into the back room. I have to ...