I think I was 15 years-old . . .
This was not going to be my first time, but it was going to be my first time with a girl I never met before. I was introduced to a girl from the next town over. I liked the idea that she knew nothing about me. This way, she might not judge me. I liked that we did not know the same people and she never heard any of the local rumors about me.
She knew nothing of my background and I knew nothing about hers. I met her through a phone conversation, but I had never seen this girl in the flesh. We began speaking by accident. At first, I thought she was a girl I met in a mall—but she wasn’t.  As it turned out, the girl I met gave me the wrong phone number. As a joke, she gave me the phone number of her friend instead of her own. (We’ll call her friend Jessica for now)

Jessica was a year older than I was. She came from a wealthy family and Continue reading →

I left my house around noon. I had no plans or intentions of meeting up with anyone. I had no plans of going anywhere—at least, not anywhere important. I did not feel the need to meet up with anyone else. I just wanted to be outside.
I had no destination in mind or expectation of anything special.
I walked along Glenn Curtis Boulevard, passed the empty field beside the baseball fields, and passed the parking lots to the glass office buildings, which, other than the hospital, the three glass office buildings were the only tall buildings in my hometown of East Meadow

I walked through Continue reading →

I have worked as a building engineer and in the building trades for more than 16 years. Throughout my time, from the beginning until now; it is clear to me that there are different types of people in his world, each with their own background, and each with their own stories.
Like most, I began my journey as an apprentice, or “Helper,” as they call it. I started in my late 20’s and since I was younger than everyone else in the crew, I was called, “The kid.”

I was never called by my name—just, “Kid.”
“Hey kid, bring me that pipe wrench.”
“Hey kid, get this,” and “Hey kid, get that.”
And, “Come on, kid. Move your ass!”

In my early days as an apprentice, I swept and Continue reading →

The snowfall began early this morning, but the real storm has yet to begin. As I write to you, the hour of daylight has passed, the street is empty, and everything is covered with snow.
The lights from windows inside the neighboring homes all shine in a way that only comes during wintery moments. They shine through window curtains with a soft, yellowish glow, which describes an inside warmth to oppose the outside temperature.
The streetlamps stand in place and light the street with a halo around the head of its glowing body. The snow is falling heavy and coming down in an angle, but overall, the worst is yet to come.

The weatherman says to prepare for Continue reading →

The songs I love most are songs that were written long ago. They have history to me. They connect me to different periods of my life and give depth to the times which I keep in the archives of my memory.
I remember a winter day from my youth. It was cold and rainy. I decided to take a walk to the record store because there was nothing else to do. There was no one else around—and even if there were—no one was interested in walking in the rain.

I was young and my hair was somewhere between boyish and bowl-cut to becoming decidedly long. This was not an easy thing for my parents. They did not like long hair. Most of all, they did not like long hair on me. They did not like the way long hair looked. They said the did not like what it represented . . . but I did.
I was Continue reading →