The other day, I read a blog post about the first nice, spring-like day in Paris (this year). The writer chronicled her day which mirrors a lot of my days. She grabbed a chocolate croissant and sat on a green, wooden bench where she watched the pigeons gather at her feet waiting for crumbs. She…
Category: Dear Diary
There’s Also this Other Side
I frequently write about life’s complexities: the minor keys and sepia hues of memory, the spaces between belonging and solitude, the subtle art of letting go with one hand what we hold tightly with the other. Sometimes, I wonder if I present (at least in this space) as a dour and sour malcontent who uses…
Morass
Despite the profile saying “Still after the dream of long term monogamy” she said she recently broke up with the love of her life and their sex is better than it’s ever been. This was towards the end of our video chat. A chat which she ended in almost business-like fashion by saying something along…
Rain, Couples Therapy, and Growth
It’s a rainy Tuesday morning. The sky is trying to brighten. By noon, it’ll be sunny again. I never thought there could be too much of a good thing – such a glutton am I for good things: eating too many plums until I’m sick, staying out an hour later than I had planned, encores…
A Little Philly Special Sauce in the Bay
Last night I went to another show. I had been sitting at my bar a week ago when I saw that G Love would be in town. G Love is a blues/rap/rock singer from Philly. His band is called Special Sauce. They’re touring in celebration of their 30th anniversary. Sitting alone at the corner of…
Read This First: Caveats and Qualifiers
Hey there!
Welcome to TurtleSloth.
Before you come in, I’m going to ask that you take off your shoes and obey all posted signs and placards – by which I mean check your assumptions at the door, but more importantly…
Stymied
I’m stymied. I’ve been writing a lot and getting nowhere fast. As of this very moment (not including this blog post), I’ve written close to 4,000 words spread out across three different draft blog posts. One is about the mental anguish I feel over not being disciplined enough (or perhaps capable enough) to sustain long-form…
Civic Duty
I performed one of my civic duties today and voted. Actually, the voting part was the easy part. I was mailed a ballot. I filled it out, sealed it, signed the back of it, and walked to the polling place not more than 50 yards across the street from my apartment. There, I said hello…
Did You Ever Wonder…
Much like the transitions in a werewolf movie, my eyebrows grew bushy and white, the skin on my face and neck sagged a bit more, I put on a few pounds, and my voice cracked in a nasally/whiny way: “Did you ever wonder why we’re constantly paying more for less? There’s an old saying, ‘you…
I Hope It Gets Funnier
Humor has been missing from my life. I don’t see, read, watch, or hear nearly as many funny things as I used to. I blame, at least in part, the digital environment of our current age and my recent living situations. There was a time, back when I owned a house, when I would read…
Not Measuring the Moments, Listening to the Happys
There’s a sign that hangs from a crooked chain link fence at a vacant lot on Van Ness. I pass it on my evening walks. In green letters on a washed-out yellow background, it says “LISTEN TO THE HAPPYS”. I think the sign is wooden or metal, though it looks like cardboard. I assume it’s…
Grabbing the Bull by the Horns, or Whatever
Sometimes, at night, before I go to bed, I’ll feel a sense of restless can-do determination towards how I’ll attack the new day (or this old but new life). This usually happens when I’m scrolling through Twitter where I’m reading poems, and reading about writing and magazine acceptances and submissions. This usually happens when I’ve…