BOULDER, CO- 

I come from a family nestled deep within the bosom of the Evangelical church. My parents were academics and argued for faith with conviction and logic.  Before the age of 20, I estimate that I attended church services on the order of 3,120 times.  It took me well into my 20s until I finally found the strength, the courage, and perhaps caught just enough of a glimpse of the outside world to rebel.  Having come out on the other side – still with belief in The Divine I think, although with vastly different definitions and expectations – I find that I am forced to confront my past on a daily basis.  I write this as a sort of therapy.  It’s healing.  And wacky.  Regardless, it’s bound to cause me some embarrassment.  So here goes: Hi.  My name is Erika, and I’m a recovering Evangelical.  Now, let’s get started…

**************************

Despite my parents’ best efforts, I think it’s safe to say that they failed with me.  The thing is, I love rock ‘n roll.  Love hip hop.  Love Elvis clear on through to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Indigo Girls. 

Now, maybe this isn’t a big deal to you, but to my family, this is a whole world of wrongs.  I was not only NOT allowed to listen to the radio when I was a kid, but I was also subjected to the cultural alternative at least daily.  

(more…)

LAS VEGAS, NV -

Aeroplane

The story of Daedalus and Icarus is essentially a story of a son not listening to the advice of his father. Father says don’t do it, son does it. In this case, Daedalus, the father, tells his son (who’s outfitted with wings his father made) not to fly too close to the sun or too close to the sea. Doing either will damage the wings and send him into the sea to meet his death. 

Icarus goes for the former, melts his wings (the feathers were held together by wax) and falls to the sea and dies. I first heard of this story in the 8th grade. I bought Iron Maiden’s Piece of Mind album and on there was this song called “Flight of Icarus.”

Booming tune with galloping guitars, a thumping bass line, and Bruce Dickinson wailing about an old Greek tale. 

(more…)

BOULDER, CO- 

I need money. 

I’m not talking about myself personally (although, as a writer, I’m not exactly turning checks away), but my company.  I’m a partner in a small tech start-up. A couple of months ago, we took a long, sober look at the writing on the wall and determined that it’s now or never.  If we are going to make a real go of this company, we need to seek a serious round of funding – and soon.

Thus, a couple of weeks ago, I attended one of those events to which one goes when one is trying to find money.  There were techies, there were investors: there was money.  The idea was that I would make the rounds, network – see if I could connect with somebody who could help me attain my goal of corporate gold digging.

“Hi,” I would say in a sultry voice, which would simultaneously suggest intelligence and a hard work ethic.  ”I’m looking for a Series A.  I couldn’t help but notice you have an impressive bulge in your pocket there.  Your back pocket, that is.”

(more…)

MIDDLEBURY, VT-

Aquí hay dos historias: una que ya sabes y otra que no.

La que ya sabes cuenta lo que pasó primero, anoche, en un bar que se llama Dos Hermanos. Ya sabes la historia porque a lo mejor has vivido una experiencia parecida o si no, la has visto u oído alguna vez: Empieza con una cerveza y termina con demasiadas. El protagonista se llama Raúl y la noche previa fue su cumpleaños. De hecho, él, como yo entre otros, estuvimos en la historia que no te he contado haciendo lo que ya sabes.

(more…)

NORTHFIELD, VT -

When will our consciences grow so tender that we will act to prevent human misery rather than avenge it? - Eleanor Roosevelt

I was barely 20 when the 9/11 attacks happened. It was a bright fall day in the peaceful town of Northfield, Vermont on a military college campus 300 or so miles north of the Big Apple, and I wasn’t even awake when the first plane hit.

I didn’t have class until 10…I had at least another hour before I had to be awake and I was using the opportunity to sleep in, especially because my thesis work would begin in another week or so and sleep would be a thing of the past.

My mom called me that morning and even through the fogginess of exhaustion I could tell that something was off in her voice, that something terrible had happened.

(more…)

BURBANK,CA-

Picture this: Hungover semi-employed writer chain smoking on balcony in last night’s skimpy yet very comfortable and flattering outfit, unable to produce.

Yeah, that’s me. I haven’t mentioned the shoes I’m wearing, but trust me, they’re fabulous. I picked them up in Portland last week. Actually, I got two pairs, one in red and one in black. I’m wearing the black ones.

Still.

Which, in my bent mind, just proves me right about what good taste I have in shoes.

I love to be right.

(more…)

COLUMBIA, MD -

I’m barely through the door when the miniature ball of energy that Jilly calls a dog meets me with pointed ears and a wiggling nub of a tail. I often wonder, when he greets me this way, if he isn’t confused by who I am, if all the dark hair in this house allows him to greet us all happily and to then distinguish between us by who returns his affections with as much glee as he gives them.

I am not one to return almost anyone’s affections, much less a fourteen pound Rat Terrier with a Napoleon complex…but it’s nice to know he loves me even though I’m his aunt and not his biggest fan. It gives me hope.

Jilly is in the kitchen and when I round the corner, my black bag hanging from my arm and Duke running circles around me with the hope I’ll drop something edible, she turns to face me with the refrigerator door open and two long neck bottles in either hand.

‘Sam Adams Cherry Wheat or Stoudt’s Belgian Ale?’

(more…)

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE-

A birthday is a miserable God-forsaken thing unless you are seven years old with red velvet cake and a Slip and Slide.

I turned seven once, with red velvet cake and a Slip and Slide and I told my mother I wanted nothing at the party but girls and I am sure she felt I would either grow up to be a flaming homosexual or a pimp.

My birthday came around, a lazy overcast day with lots of young ladies from school, Katie Collie with her hair in pigtails, Sherri Murphy and Hott Bridgette Brock, Rebecca Anne Denny and some of their girlfriends even and then some boy cousins and a few neighbor guys showed up and my mother let Donald Aspern, a completely loud and irritating boy who stood too close when he talked, cut the cake.

(more…)

COLUMBIA, MD -

The trip north from Maryland to upstate New York can take anywhere from six to nine hours…it all depends upon your final destination and how many horrible drivers you’re forced to share the road with.

I leave Columbia in the middle of a biblical flood on Friday morning, bright and early as the clock strikes 6:30, and I head north on the back way to the Adirondacks.

(more…)

COLUMBIA, MD -

It’s spring and the Earth is green and for the first time in what seems like forever I can feel it moving beneath my feet again.

We went from barren limbs, to blossoming branches, to glorious green canopies in only a few short weeks. I know this because my allergies have finally tapered off and I can breathe without worrying that my lungs are going to collapse from the weight of the pollen in the air.

(more…)

LOS ANGELES, CA-

On November 13th, 2005, in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, an electronics technician named Dale Airsman was attacked by his four-year-old llama named Charlie.

The first indication of potential danger came early that morning, when Mr. Airsman walked out onto his property and heard Charlie let out an unusual growl, which then evolved into a high-pitched squeal.

Charlie then spit, flattened his ears back, and bared his choppers, which included three sets of razor-sharp “fighting teeth,” which llamas use to rip the scrotum (more…)

*This post is by Greg Boose and Claire Bidwell Smith.

CHICAGO, IL and LOS ANGELES, CA -

GREG:

It’s common sense; it’s not just something you are told as a child and then realize is bullshit by the time you’re nineteen.

(more…)

THE DEEP SOUTH-

At the break in the cinder block wall there was a red dirt hill, tall as the pinewood balconies behind the apartments where my daddy lived.

(more…)

SAN DIEGO, CA-

On Friday morning, January 21, 2007, my friend Giavanna died.

Perhaps you can imagine how horrible I find that.

How incomprehensible.

(more…)

CHICAGO, IL-

The Federal Aviation Administration is not investigating a report that a group of United Airline employees swore they saw a UFO hovering over O’Hare Airport last fall, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Some of these employees were pilots, a fact that pleases me, and these pilots said that the object in question didn’t have any blinking lights (or tractor beams or little round windows with green monkey faces pressed up against them), but that this thing did hover in one spot over an airport terminal before shooting straight up through the clouds.

(more…)

SAN DIEGO, CA-

How’s that for a back-handed apology?

Maybe I could be a politician, after all.

So as you know, I went to Eastern Pennsylvania for Thanksgiving weekend.

(more…)

SEATTLE, WA-

In twelve days I will be thirty years old. 

If the current life-expectancy projections stand, and if I don’t do anything stupid that would end my life sooner, I should keep ticking for another 47 years. I suppose that’s not so bad considering all the things that could happen over the course of that time. I’m sure that I have many eventful days ahead of me. (more…)