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After seeing the most excellent Barbie movie this weekend with my wife, I’ve been thinking about my childhood relationship with the titular character. As people are in a frenzy to buy Barbie everything and debate the ‘vintage’ factor of their own childhood memories, I have one that I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world […]
Yesterday, we celebrated our 20th anniversary. Like many couples our age, we celebrate the day of our ‘coupling’ and the date of our wedding. In wedding years, we are on year two. Our day was low-key. I picked up groceries, Laura cooked dinner. I didn’t feel well so we kept it simple and I laid […]
I had a very nice prom experience 25 years ago. My BFF John was my date. He was four years older than me so that was cool. He loved to dance so that was cool. He cut a dashing figure in his tuxedo so that was cool. And he was an out gay man so […]
For as long as I’ve had this blog, I’ve written about my niblings – a gender neutral term to describe the children of our siblings, often referenced as nieces and nephews. We have six, ranging in age from 11 to 17. Two live in Philadelphia, four here in Pittsburgh. A few months ago, the youngest […]
Easter brings to mind a lot of bullet point memories In 1983, things were bleak financially. I was 12 years old and in 7th grade. So, of course, my Dad decided to join my cousins on a spring fishing trip to the Outer Banks over Easter. They weren’t high end, but it was still money […]
I didn’t know ‘dread’ is a clinical symptom. The difference between anxiety and dread is that anxiety is an unpleasant state of mental uneasiness, nervousness, apprehension and obsession or concern about some uncertain event while dread is great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror. So my spin through last week took me down a dark path […]
I’ve written hundreds of memorial profiles. This one is not new news, it is the one year anniversary of my mother’s death. I’ve just cocooned myself here at home. I didn’t post about it anywhere because I don’t want to answer questions or make decisions. I don’t want good intentions to intrude on my careful […]
Today marks two years since Laura and I had our backyard COVID-19 wedding. It was brief, simple, and cold. We made it into the ‘Society’ section of the Pittsburgh City Paper. We have a nice little registry and occasionally still get a surprise from it. And we have this Kai Devenitch original artwork to commemorate […]
This is my 10th year of writing memorial posts for victims of lethal anti-trans violence. Over the time, I’ve tried to stay focused on the very original request from my friend Jacob, a trans activist. He asked me to write a “decent post” that contained information about the crime(s) but also acknowledged the life of […]
Content Note: Alcohol, depression, death, grief In 2015, a woman named Heather completed the AMPLIFY Q&A and she caught my attention. This response in particular has stayed with me all of these years later. What motivated you to take part in this project? I don’t talk about this part of my life a lot, and when […]
