It's all a swirl of images now: yellow kitchen, coral-colored bedroom, big windows, a copper teakettle, and a roof I can sit on. In all honesty, it's a perfect sex apartment. It's just that, lately, whenever I meet a guy who is straight in this town he has always hooked up with some girl I know and think is repulsive. This place is too small ( Read more... )

Freshman year, when I started feeling alienated from my group of friends, I started hanging out with Teresa. Last summer, when our relationship started to falter, I stumbled upon Elsewhere. The lesson I have learned: things always come when you need them ( Read more... )

On Friday, I gave the Tour of Downtown as it is meant to be given... spontaneous, on foot, receptive to newness. "I hate people who live somewhere and don't know anything about it," he said. "My sentiments exactly," I responded ( Read more... )

Yesterday was Allen's going-away party at "The Bean." He's off to travel the country, alone, going wherever the road may take him. God, I wish I was going too. I love Greensboro so much- as the summer wanes, there's nothing I love more than the onset of dusk, walking outside with Maxwell while the breeze tickles the back of my neck. Every day ( Read more... )

When the Danforth family's three kids were either college or high school age, they went on one last vacation as a fivesome and printed out T-shirts that had LAST DANFORTH FAMILY VACATION printed on them. It was (maybe... I hope...) the Last Marcus Family vacation this past week, and it was long overdue ( Read more... )

In another (self-imposed?) exile, I find myself immersed in love. I drove to Wilmington to see an old friend who has since been given a new name- Mira. I like the idea that you can earn a new name, sort of an Ursula LeGuin concept- Mira is named for a sixteenth-century princess who wrote devotional songs to Krishna ( Read more... )

My sister called me on Friday afternoon, crying, and said, "Come home. Dad's been in an accident. We're at the hospital ( Read more... )

I was driving down Friendly Road today, which is a mess of potholes and half-finished construction, when a sign appeared. Rough Road Ahead, it warned. No shit, I said. I love omens ( Read more... )

As my sister's graduation approaches, I am faced with the possibility of encountering people I have put out of my life forever. I'm not one of those people who violently hated high school and blames the public education for ruining my life, nor am I the type who had the time of her life in high school and considers everything since then an ( Read more... )

I'm working commencement tomorrow, then speaking at the English departmental graduation. My computer has been returned from the Dell hospital in record time. Tuesday is my first day as a United Arts Council intern, learning about cool things like grant writing and nonprofit management while getting free tickets to plays and museum openings at the ( Read more... )