The day it happened, another set of cupcakes for Nicole's birthday was en route to the office. I had ordered them first thing that morning. Through a stream of incessant tears, I heard JB as he grabbed on to my arm and said, "You have got to cancel those cupcakes! We can't do this now, not like this, no way, no way..." I kept nodding and somehow ( Read more... )

The office is a large one and is split up into six distinct areas. We are Area 6 - a close-knit group who engage in back-and-forth banter as if we were perpetually sitting around a dinner table piled high with steaming-hot comfort food ( Read more... )

Yesterday was no ordinary day. Yesterday I was not capable of writing because of it. Yesterday was full of tears, cupcakes, and drawing clear lines in the sand. Today there is a winter storm ( Read more... )

Okay okay. Yes I know that the entire world knows what Amy Winehouse's bra looks like. I know everyone wonders how often she could possibly wash her knotted hair since she seems to spend most of her time too drunk and cracked out to care about hygiene. And I know that most people look upon her with some disdain as she shows up in the tabloids ( Read more... )

How appropriate that approximately three weeks before the first day of the Lunar New Year, I finally figure out what kind of Chinese I am. Having done this explains much about why I could never understand the long beloved American stereotype of a Chinese woman being ultra-compliant, subservient, and exceedingly willing to please. The opinionated ( Read more... )

Goodbye to

The Russian Demon Child upstairs
The wrong side of the Hudson
Insomnia

Hello to

180180180!
One of Two Conveniently Located Boroughs
Enduring Hope
Fortitude

and the smarts to know when to keep trying and when to let it go.

Carrie Underwood in cascading curls crooning on the Jumbotron, a stranger decked out in flashing pink 2008 glasses and the free giant red party hat supplied by Pontiac, and the random shots of enormous neon billboard advertisements that, as a 19-year resident, I should have known better than to take. These are all the shots I should have forgone ( Read more... )

"He graduated at the top of his class at the Academy. A master of all weapons. His work is his life. He has no wife, no children. He has no one ( Read more... )

Yes, it's true. At this date, two weeks prior to the expiration of the year, I am trying in earnest to hold myself together with drugs and scotch tape, but to no avail ( Read more... )

It's Sid's fault. I blame it all on Sid ( Read more... )