The Neighborly Thing

Edward Hopper, American Village, 1912

I wish I could say I was putting the finishing touches on a riveting short story when the doorbell rang, but the Google Doc page I’d opened this morning still had just five meandering paragraphs on it. Instead, I was on YouTube, watching SNL clips, the tenth or twentieth one that day. Laughing, but feeling bad about it.

I closed my computer and went to the door. It was C, the kid from diagonally across the street, dressed head-to-toe in kid-sized Army fatigues that were still a little too big. His mom had carefully rolled up the sleeves in one neat fold, and from beneath the slightly-too long pants, she’d matched his shoes: suede forest-green Vans.

“Is Artie home?”

Continue reading “The Neighborly Thing”

The Unemployment Diaries

Subway rider in winter

On the E train downtown, I took a seat near the door and turned on my Kindle. A small, dark man in baggy clothes who’d been behind me on the platform stepped on and stopped. I wondered if he was looking for a seat and scooted down closer near the door to make room on my right, but he stayed standing and looked around. He looked relatively clean and wore a dark jacket over a grey hoodie. He had on a North Face backpack. A bottle of Axe body wash was tucked into one of the side pockets. Continue reading “The Unemployment Diaries”

“Way Past Robitussin”: On Not Having Health Insurance

FuckJerry meme making fun of affordable healthcare

A million years ago I worked at Costco as a seasonal worker. I met a varied cast of characters:

The Sunday Seven: Unemployment

“She doesn’t even go here.”

Greetings from a Starbucks in Charlottesville, Virginia, where yesterday I saw my first college basketball game: UVA Wahoos vs. Virginia Tech Hokies. UVA won. I’ve never seen such a united display of school spirit, even though it seemed my classmates had plenty of it. I just didn’t. I also never paid attention nor participated in any sporting events aside from badminton. Though I did go to one football game at Berkeley (vs. Oregon) and sat on the wrong side. In a sea of folks dressed in forest green I said very loudly, “What color are we?”  Continue reading “The Sunday Seven: Unemployment”