According to my mom, my first boyfriend was a kid from preschool named Josh. I have no recollection of Josh and few memories of preschool in general, other than the time a classmate caused a commotion during snack time by choking on a raisin. (The teacher leapt into action and Regan was fine by the […]
The Man That Got Away Read More »
My parents had me in their early twenties, which meant we grew up together. They weren’t emotionally prepared for marriage or parenthood then, and if their upbringings had been happier we might have all been spared our fates, but that’s the way the cookie crumbled. Despite their tender ages, I was a second-chance baby, one
It took me a couple tries to admit that I was gay. It’s a story I’ll explain more fully one day, but for now all that’s relevant is that I came out to myself at 14 and to a lesbian aunt within a year of that, on our way to see Life is Beautiful at
Hanging on the Telephone Read More »
I was waiting in line to order a burrito when I sent my family a text message announcing my engagement. My sisters still find this bizarrely informal (they must’ve expected herald trumpets), but we were hungry and Crankenstein’s acceptance of the proposal had been a foregone conclusion. When we first discussed marriage, she made it
I don’t remember who gave me the generous gift of a shiny red “My First Sony” Walkman sometime in the early ’90s, but allowance being what it was then for an early grade schooler, I could generally afford no more than cassingles.* The earliest cassette I recall being gifted was the Oliver & Company soundtrack,
The Warmth of the Sun Read More »
My grandfather was one of those men who was widely and charitably remembered as a “character” by people too polite to call him an asshole. Friends, family, passing acquaintances, even Bob Costas — yes, he had a long-running personal beef with the smarmy sports announcer, the particulars of which we won’t get into here today
As a kid I saved a portion of my meager weekly allowance and spent the rest at the used bookstore. Located in a suburban strip mall alongside a sandwich shop, Payless shoe store, a rotating cast of tax preparation franchises and a Blockbuster Video, it was filled mostly with romance novels and Tom Clancy paperbacks.
You Are — Your Life, And Nothing Else Read More »