The Fam

Of Mothers and Moons

November was a hard month for us. Because Scarlett, dear, you are a puzzle and sometimes Daddy and I don’t feel like we even have all the pieces, let alone know where to put them. But when you started crying inconsolably every day around 5:30, we knew it was time to trash the Dr. Sears [...]

Road Trip, Part One

I had decided to drive home for Christmas. And once I put all those images of me stranded in a cornfield and then approached and kidnapped by Asgrow O’s Gold-logo’ed-mesh-hatted trucker in a locked drawer at the back of my head, it started to sound like the perfect idea. There would be pit-stops at interstate-side [...]

The Gift

Growing up, my Mom taught me that going the extra mile meant giving the extra gift. So I selected souvenirs on trips and kept emergency items in the guest bedroom drawers. You never knew when a silver duck-head wine opener or a pear-scented candle set might be right. A small gift, she said, was a [...]

George Loved Him

I’ll never forget the night my brother Dustin took over. It seems so silly now, our fear. But at the time it was very real. Mom and Dad, soft and sparkling, not much older than myself at this moment, had gone out for the night. We were watching TV. My youngest brother Philip sucked his [...]

Running Home

About nine months ago, I rediscovered the satisfaction of catching a ball. We were at the final Peace Corps retreat up in the mountains. I was playing a little catch with a couple volunteers after a glorious run up the switchbacks. My stubby fingers fit neatly inside the leather, like so many hands before me. I [...]

Sophia

Since we’ve let the United States, two years and six months ago to this very day, I realize that there’s three of us on this trip. Me, Michael and Sophia. Sophia, as many know thanks to popular culture, stems from the Greek word for wisdom. Its root rests between suffixes and prefixes throughout the English [...]

Peace Corps Moment

Four weeks ago: “Hi, how are you?” (My 25 year old brother, Philip, in Arizona) “Hey, what’s up!” (Me, in Bulgaria) “Sucks. It’s 109 degrees in Arizona and the AC in our house is out.” (He lives with his dog, Castro, and Saudi Arabian roommate, Faisal, and perhaps a slough of other dogs. . I [...]

Effortless Communication

I was half-watching a terribly cheesy movie the other night while cooking dinner. The heroine was in the backseat of a taxi as the driver swerved across one of New York’s bridges. And at that moment, this woman realized that the man on the motorcycle in the next lane was in love with her and [...]

Feliz Navidad

I’m warning you, this first part is cheesy. On Christmas Eve, we hosted South Dakota Toni and Bulgarian Bobi over for a little holiday hootenany. Michael soaked, boiled and mashed beans for burritos. He made sweet and sour for margaritas and mashed hard, unripened avocado’s into guacamole. I combined eggs, sugar, vanilla and cream for [...]

The Bears Are Winning

A few years ago, finding the phrase “Night Train to Bucharest” on a page in my planner would have sounded exotic. The idea of crossing the Danube River on a communist-constructed train tressle in the middle of the night would have inspired travel research and work on my Peace Corps essay. Now it’s just what [...]

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