On June 10, 2005, I heard the words, “You have MS.” I was twenty-eight years old, numb from the waist down, terrified, and completely unprepared for what came next. I remember the fear most of all. The way it wrapped around everything. I was afraid I’d never walk again, afraid that I’d end up in … Read more
We were sitting around a small table at my mom’s favorite spot, Cupz and Crepes, when something hit me. It was just the five of us. Pete, Rosie, Michael, Nicole, and me. No spouses. No kids. Just my family, the original crew. I couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. Maybe we were teenagers. … Read more
I almost quit. After months of writing, editing, sharing vulnerable stories from my life, and getting nothing but silence from literary agents, I sat at my desk and thought, Maybe this is it. Maybe no one cares. But that’s not the whole story. I’ve done everything they say you’re supposed to do. I broke through … Read more
The Day My Son Discovered MF DOOM Slept on My Couch Part Two Mason sat there staring at me, still stunned. “Wait… you’re serious?” I nodded. I had just said it out loud for the first time: MF DOOM slept on my couch. And the moment I told Mason that truth, something cracked open inside … Read more
It started with a sound. A familiar bassline drifted from my son Mason’s room, low and looped, laid-back but haunting. I was across the hall in my bedroom, scrolling through Netflix, when it caught my ear and pulled me back three decades like a hook in a song. I walked into his room and asked, … Read more
The Sedona Room is my writing oasis. An artist hand painted a sunrise over Cathedral Rock across the walls and ceiling, wrapping the room in warm desert hues, reds and oranges and blues stretching overhead while I sit with my feet kicked up on the couch, air conditioning humming, trying to make sense of fifteen … Read more
On a flight home from Boston, I found myself watching Bill & Ted Face the Music. It was Thanksgiving, and Jocelyn and I had just spent the holiday with my family, catching up with old friends and reminiscing about the past. As I settled into my seat and let the movie play, something about Bill … Read more
The conference room buzzed with tension. We were three days into a company summit in Sacramento, five round tables filled with team members hunched over laptops and printed documentation, hashing out our customer onboarding process. Papers rustled, pens tapped against notepads, and someone let out an audible sigh of frustration. What was supposed to be … Read more
Gerard and I were back at our usual lunch spot, sandwiches from Al’s, the window open to the noise of State Street, when he set his phone down on the desk between us and hit play on a grainy clip of a man in a red and blue checkered shirt sitting alone at a table … Read more