Two Steelers fans found themselves thousands of miles away from home. In fact, both were in Texas during what may or may not have been the most significant game of the season for Pittsburgh. What did they do? Brad sent me a text message at 1:46PM yesterday from the Dallas airport: “do you know the [...]

Thanksgiving, for me, is about the little thank yous, the ones that make you smile and make you realize that no matter how crap things can get sometimes, people still love each other enough to break bread and say thanks. This can never be a bad thing. Even if we’ve somehow made shopping a part [...]

A few weeks ago I invited some friends over for game night. No one wanted to play Trivial Pursuit, Cranium seemed trite and overdone, and the excitement over Electronic Cathphrase wore out soon enough. What to do? Jamie Bono suggested Pictionary. Well, I offered, I have a clipboard, some paper, and a permanent marker. But [...]

Every now and then, I like to write about sports. Usually, it’s soccer, because… I’m a huge fan of watching soccer (does one really need an explanation for this sort of thing?). But I decided to take on a new project this semester: the Steelers. You see, I teach creative writing at a large university [...]

My friend Marissa sent me this earlier this week in an email, and as I read the poem, it reminded me of how ephemeral everything really is, which sounds maudlin, but I don’t really mean it that way. Like the way summer slowly turned into fall this weekend, but I hope summer comes back, and [...]

Sometimes I like to blame my family issues on being first generation US American. Except I don’t think I am first generation, as I wasn’t born in the US, although I am a naturalized citizen. Wikipedia says I’m first-gen, although my parents might be the ones who are first-gen by their definition, which essentially means [...]

Since I returned to Pittsburgh, I’ve been buried in writing my thesis manuscript. I keep saying it’s done and then I go back and throw away chapters at a time, because I suddenly realize I hate them. I’ve rewritten the ending twenty-two times. Not kidding. I need to stop myself before I go crazy. Two [...]

I’ve been buried in work. It is examine week at Pitt and I just ate a whole personal sized pizza.  Turned in a 21 page paper, went to the doctor, took a long nap. Now I’m writing about torture and I’m avoiding Microsoft Word. Tomorrow, at noon, the showdown is over. Doctor says I’m allergic [...]

Today the weather sings like Julie Andrews and dances like Baryshnikov. Today the sky is cerulean like James Colburn like In Like Flint like peepers. We played at identifying flowers today, on a long walk uphill to the picture show—my city in celluloid. I thought every plant was Japonica. The dinosaur celebrated the lack of [...]

A man at a bar called me a “dirty spic” this weekend. Earlier this week, I was hanging out with some brown folk and a friend dropped in on us. “Who invited the white girl?” someone asked when my friend C went to go get herself a drink. Everyone at the table laughed. This weekend, [...]

Missed dates and missed steaks. I can’t stay on topic these days with my writing. Been starting essays on writing and ended up writing about soccer (again). Wrote about dead cows and ate a steak. Went to Houston. Drove to South Texas. Saw my mother. The dog is cuter than I am. The dog behaves [...]

Scotland unveiled a new slogan today: “Welcome to Scotland.” My students workshopped the hell out of six essays in class today. On the essays we workshop, I change the student name to protect the innocent, although sometimes it is fairly obvious who the author is. I have found that changing the name frees up the [...]

Ed Mabrey was in Pittsburgh last night. I sent emails to most everyone I knew, begging them to tell people. I really wanted Ed to have a packed house. Nine of my students showed up. I offered extra credit. Before I know it, Ed is on stage talking about how he’s not erotic, and I [...]