At work, it’s been declared March Mustache Madness. This means that, due to peer pressure, I have cleared my chin of whiskers. I feel like a tool and probably look like one, but there are worse things. In honor of this event, I went through and developed the following guide to facial hair, since our [...] Read more »
Larry of Larry’s Boot Fitting. “Ma’am, if you’re patient, Larry will see you,” Mike said calmly into the phone, the knuckles gripping the handset white with aggravation. “Ma’am, please. Larry has a busy day and will be trying to help every–ma’am, if you’d just–” He held the receiver away from his face, took a breath [...] Read more »
“I heard the party was pretty great.” “Yeah, people seemed to like it,” I replied, my sleep-deprived brain luckily sober enough to conjure up an honest remark. “Did you have fun?” “I don’t know.” — It’s almost depressing knowing that any joy I derived from the event came from a combination of the joy of [...] Read more »
“I used to be a stock broker,” he rattles off, his voice distant as if recalling a story his grandmother passed down. “Would you ever consider going back?” I ask. He laughs, his eyes wrinkling and showing his age for just an instant, the youth snapping back elastically as he regains his composure. “Oh no. [...] Read more »
Kyle skis Eldora, thanks to his dad. I’m starting to wonder if I’m sleepwalking through life. the ink inscribed in my ankle had begun to lose meaning, my sleep pattern shifting from late nights and darkness to early mornings and soaking in the few rays of winter. Daily, I arise before dawn, scraping away the [...] Read more »
“More than anything else,” Tom told me, “more than any of the issues we’ve had living together or the little argument, I’m worried that he won’t be prepared when he goes back to school.” “I hear that,” I say. “It’s freaks me out as well.” “Going back to school?” “No, going back to anything I’ve [...] Read more »
My heart thrums. The seconds are counting down. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. I know I can do this. I know I can finish before the deadline. My fingers start slapping away. My veins pulse with adrenaline. It’s what I like to call magic time, when the impossible becomes possible and everything works. In an hour [...] Read more »
As some of you may know, I recently started working at the corporate bookseller Barnes and Noble. There was a certain excitement when I got hired. Aesthetically, the store is a great place to work: the music’s not bad, the decor is nice, the dress code is classy, good people work there, and I do [...] Read more »
I, by all accounts, am a slacker. I was a slacker in elementary school, never doing my homework, but helping my friends do theirs. I was a slacker at boarding school, doing just enough so that I could avoid trouble and even gain some privileges reserved for the “good” students. I was a slacker in [...] Read more »