Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of March 6, 2022
There’s a cop who lives down the street from us. They fly a Blue Line American flag. This week, they swapped it out for a green American flag with one of the stripes replaced with four leaf clovers with the Ireland flag colors in them. So, not only does this officer of the law degrade the American flag by flying ones with manipulated colors, they’ve incorporated another country’s flag into our own. Patriotism is strange. But what should I expect from an Irish Chicago cop?
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of February 27, 2022
One of the Oath Keepers pleaded guilty to sedition. Could be going to jail for the better part of a decade. Boy, those antifa folks sure are committed to the mission.
The Forgotten Woman in the Gold, Oval Frame
The woman stood in a gold, oval frame. The frame hung above the small desk in my grandparents’ bedroom for at least since I was born. This was the desk where my grandmother, Nonny, wrote notes and cards and checks. The desk where she kept things like pens and stationary and correspondence and a few important documents.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of February 13, 2022
I read a comic book to my son the other night at bedtime that I wrote. I haven’t read it since it was published six years ago. It’s not very good. Too wordy. When we finished it, the kid said, “I like that story.” He has terrible taste but is very kind.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of February 6, 2022
I wish I had more time to iron my clothes, write my stories, and read more books. Instead, I fart through the wrinkles reading work emails with the TV on.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 30, 2022
It’d be funny if Biden appointed Anita Hill to the Supreme Court. Of course, it won’t happen. She’d never accept. But it’d be funny in the most tone deaf, hateful way imaginable.
Love Story for Sale: Wordle and the New York Times
Part of the charm was that it was one word for all of us. You get one shot at it a day giving us all something to look forward to in moderation. Anyone with access to the internet could play. Wordle was connective tissue in an otherwise disconnected world.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 23, 2022
There are only seven stories in the world. And the storytelling community continues to think we’re not bored with all of them.
![Holding My Son as We’re Violently Burned to Death [REPOST]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/579fa3912994ca0eff850271/1580565403490-JCYKP1F40GF6OIQNO5V5/heart-on-fire.jpg)
Holding My Son as We’re Violently Burned to Death [REPOST]
But, son, I was not lying when I said I’d do anything to protect you.
Anything to keep you safe.
Sometimes that meant watching you put yourself in harm’s way.
Life is pointless without risk.
Sometimes it meant watching you get your heart broken
or hearing your bones break from the bleacher seats on the sidelines.
Harm and hurt, you see, are unfortunately, required of us.
The Universe demands it.
They are two of the many ways we learn and become stronger, better people.
Or so I always tried to be better
and I hope that I instilled that desire in you.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 16, 2022
Parenting is sometimes you and your kid getting pissed at each other over how fast he eats his box of raisins.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 10, 2022
Want evidence that humanity sucks? Look no further than a parking garage and the way humans park far outside lines and leave their SUVs in spots marked “Small Car Only.”
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of January 2, 2022
The season one, second episode of The Book of Boba Fett should have been called, “Dances with Sand People.”
A Brief Poem About a Writer Who Doesn't Write
They say—they being creative writing professors, esteemed novelists, and hacks with wordy Instagram posts alike—that writers write. Writers who get their shit out there—not all of it, but enough of it—are the real writers. True warriors of the pen and keys.
Y2K 2.0: One Man's Struggle with an Unforgiving Virus
Could I have used the watch as it was with its minor malfunctions? Yes. As a sport watch, sure. But Katie paid good money for KITT and I see nothing wrong with wanting new Christmas presents to work as intended. I also expect a lot from Apple products even if they do give me the heebie-jeebies. And they do. But not because I’m afraid of technology but because I carry the Y2K virus in my blood. I am a thriving host for this 21st Century strain of panic.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of December 26, 2021
We all want to be new versions of ourselves with each New Year. But change is hard and it’s much easier to love the one you’re with. To tolerate the one you are.
Merry Christmas from the Afterlife
I can see them when I sneak out from the basement, walk to the front of the house and peek into the windows like a pervert, but I cannot participate in their life. I can hear them occasionally talking about me, but the longer I’m down here, the less I come up in conversation. In another few days, I expect to hear the voice of a man telling Katie he’ll love Harry like he was his own just before he moves his shit into my house.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Christmas Eve, 2021
Santa Claus is as real as the fact that this time next year, covid won’t be a problem.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of December 5, 2021
The first two minutes of And Just Like That, the Sex and the City spin-off, is worse than the entire day of Sept. 11, 2001.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of November 28, 2021
Shredded parmesan cheese tastes better than grated parmesan cheese. Fight me.
Notes from the Post-it Wall | Week of November 14, 2021
In my opinion, pineapple can go on pizza. But the idea of drizzling gooey cheese on a piece of warm pineapple repulses me. I have been working through this complicated realization for a week now and the logic is not any closer to revealing itself.
...that, as we age, good footwear is more important than a girlfriend.