Watching WWE
On a good neighbor. You can see the room where Mario would watch TV from our backyard. In the winter, it would just be the blue glow from the screen through...
Taking an L
On admitting defeat. My brain has felt very smooth lately, I have to admit. For example, on Monday, I left my home with the express purpose of running an...
Cats, Part 2
On good company. C. has been away for a conference, so it’s just been me and the cats all week. It’s a bit funny, being right here on the cusp of probably...
Allergy Season
On muddling through. My eye is so watery lately, is a thought I have each spring, a perennial mystery to be solved. One of the big oak trees in my...
When All the Trees are In Bloom
On returning. During the spring of 2020, I read somewhere that dinosaurs ate magnolia blossoms. I didn’t really care to verify it—one of those things that...
Solar Eclipse
On the cosmos. Programming note: Hey, what the hell! These keep not sending out as expected! Here’s an unintentionally late edition of Enthusiasms for your...
Gay Easter Parade in New Orleans, Louisiana
On miracles. I caught a fistful of beads—with my left hand, no less—before they flew past and hit someone else in the face. French Quarter Journal/Melanie...
Getting Caught in the Rain
On being prepared. Shit, I thought, looking at the blue-grey clouds rolling in. Left my umbrella at home. Rain Landscape, Wassily Kandinsky/Wikimedia Commons...
Daylight Saving Time
On the future. Because of the time change, the sun was blasting right in my face. Going west on the Pike, riding the bus home from work. On top of that, one...
The Weather in Other Places
On user experience. I don't know why Apple won't let me have the one thing I want: to know the weather in every place I've ever been. It's windy in Edinburgh...
120 Film
On waiting and seeing. I accidentally put a roll of black-and-white 120 film through the scanner at the airport. Do you think it will still come out? I asked...
Accidentally Stealing $8 Worth of Pizza
On misunderstandings I would like to formally apologize to the new-ish pizza place in Harvard Square, which my friend S. and I visited for the first time the...
Guy on the Bus Bringing Home Flowers on Valentine's Day
On labors of love. Roses were always so much work. They shipped in a long, skinny box—all the flowers did, and it was my job to unpack them at my part-time...
Liquid Nitrogen
For medicinal purposes It's never good when someone says, This might hurt. In fact, it's usually a good indicator that whatever it is and whoever is saying...
The Stairs Outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art
On souvenirs I kept getting annoyed at the people in front of us. Every couple of steps, they would stop to turn for a photo that someone below was ready to...
Dance Dance Revolution
On High Scores I kept missing the arrows, which I blamed on the shoes I was wearing—my big, hideous Sorel snow boots that, for a weekend in January in...
Eating Alone at Yume Ga Arukara
On getting it perfect. Is this technically a restaurant review? The other night, after getting a haircut, but before getting home, I needed dinner. The...
Hanging Out with a Cat at the End of His Life
Hanging Out with a Cat at the End of His Life On the in between. By the time we arrived, just before Christmas, Moose’s interest in food had already waned....
2023 in Enthusiasms
If my long-neglected embroidery-in-progress is any indication, it is not always easy to keep up with a creative project. But in 2023, I have come here...
$12 Milk Frother from Williams Sonoma
The mega-yacht owners of the world would have you believe that luxury is a rarity reserved only for those who can afford it, but I am here to tell you that...
