I’m golfing with D.J., D.P., and my brother J. The country club is crowded. But it’s also indoors. The terrain is varied as one would expect: little hills, sand traps, scrubby woods, water hazards. But this whole course is under the kind of ceiling that you’d find at a grocery store or a warehouse. We […]
They’re throwing a birthday party for me at… RiRa? It’s a big party. The staff has shoved together a bunch of tables to make a huge square table that probably seats at least twenty. And we’re still overflowing into side tables. I work my way around the table, saying hello to everyone, shaking hands. There […]
While I was in the living room, A. rearranges all of the furniture in the house. She swaps H.’s bedroom with ours, puts everything into new and impossible configurations, and then when my back is turned, she does the same thing in the living room. I ask what motivated this and she explains that it […]
It’s some kind of All Wrangler Congress or Extended Family Reunion. Everyone is there, plus some “new recruits” or “applicants” or whatever you might want to call new friends. We’re all in some kind beach house. You can hear the ocean in the far background. I’ve woken up and stumbled into the kitchen to find […]
We’re headed out into the country on a drive; the idea is to find this obscure camping site. We have directions but they are vague and the roads do not match up with them and many of the landmarks are missing and many of the street signs are covered with mud. David Sedaris is at […]
We spend far too long at the store. Between the research and the trying out different items and then finally filling in all the paperwork for the service agreements and all of that. Since when did A. become obsessed with HDMI? And why? She has even gone so far as to say that this whole […]
I suppose it’s played like a game though the urgency suggests that the threats are real. But how can a half-dozen people locked in a 15’×30′ room really qualify as a civilization? No matter. When we detect the interlopers down the hall, we get the door slammed and barred before they can see us. But […]
To get there on time we need to leave on time. But how can we leave into that dark cold winter night without being properly equipped. Everyone else rushed to the door, cavalierly donning whatever barely warm-enough coats they could find. I took my time, plowing through the closet to find my warmest coat. The […]
It’s a party? Since when did B.S. have a house by a … lake? It’s like Robert Downey Jr.’s house from Iron Man but crossed with a rustic cabin. There’s about a dozen people here. Everyone seems to be waking up, slightly hung over. It is too early for this group of alcoholics to be […]
I sneak in to grab a few things from my room. I am not due back here for another week or so and do not want to arouse suspicion. No one recognizes me anyway. I turn the corner and a few folks look up but say nothing. There is perhaps a faint glimmer of recognition […]