Party like a Rock Star

Indulged any residual All Hallow’s Eve hunger for the strange and weird with a second helping of ZombieLand tonight in the bowels of our nation’s capital.  Meanwhile Mom, Kate, Bree and  our cousin Kathleen learned about friendship, celebrity, and sequined hot pants at  the Miley Cyrus concert next door.  Having carted my group of screaming [...]

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Conversations Overheard While Carpooling Sophmores

“Hey, Murph, have you seen it?” Kevin asked jumping into the car, his shirt soaked in sweat and dirt by hours on the football field.  I unconsciously open the windows, allowing his not-so-fresh scent some other means of escape than through my lungs.  His friend Joe dives into the back seat.  His gear is tossed [...]

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West Coastin’: Daring Disney

Dasad, I discovered had never experienced the beautiful chaos that is the Disney theme parks.  This realization shocked me a little, as Dad has our yearly exodus to Florida planned and booked at least a year in advance (Typically, the week after returning to Maryland, growls are heard, demanding our schedules for next summer).  Visiting [...]

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West Coastin’:Epilogue

So I decided to write the epilogue to this particular story first.  Travel narratives in many ways usurp any and all attempts at suspense if the writer has indeed survived to relay the tale.  He or she went off somewhere else and survived, not having been eaten by alligators, sharks, or cannibals.  Said author now [...]

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A Minor Hazard

Communication is an important tool in most families.  Though rarely perfected, peaceful coexistence depends upon one’s willingness to express and understand feelings, needs, or instructions.  Imperfectly applied, communication might lead to undesired results such as the kitchen fire of July 12, 2009 which after some hastily issued orders concerning the bacon sizzling on the stove [...]

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Gibber-Jabber

The fallout from the whole Tower of Babel debacle left man and his children rather befuddled. As the dust settled, humanity severed all connection to those that did not speak and therefore think like themselves, dispersing the human population into nations, cultures, and warring soccer communities. Of course, the children are the hardest hit.

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Growing Pains

Today is Bree’s birthday, and she is ensuring that the whole family does not forget.  Thirteen years old. An unlucky number for even the most loving parent or older brother.  For marking the threshold into the teenage years, my baby sister, the youngest of my siblings has emerged into the second-most-difficult epoch of her life [...]

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Studies in Stereotypes: Trekkies

Common practice in today’s world takes great joy in reproofing stereotypes.  Artists in particular relish breaking down the barriers that all too often pigeonhole groups of individuals with various – and often untrue – adjectives: stupid, violent, awkward, materialistic.  One could hardly dispute the honesty and justice of such protests, expounding the potential of each [...]

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The Fool’s Guide to Wine-Tasting

The first skill of any successful wine connoisseur necessitates the ability to speak the lingo or at least French. I reason that people are more likely to tell you what you’re suppose to taste if can correctly pronounce the label. This in turn allows the fake connoisseur to easily impress his or [...]

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Tea-ed Off

Dunkin’ Donuts’ iced tea is the worst, foulest muck that I have ever tasted.  Granted having never actually tasted authentic outdoorsy muck, grime, or slime before, I suppose my digust is a bit of an exaggeration.  Nonetheless even the dysentery-drenched swill that circulates through the wells of many a Mexican pueblo refreshes the body more [...]

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