Prosaic Shades of Gray
Menu
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Links
Menu

Category: Friendship

So Long, Nicky

Posted on April 5, 2016February 22, 2022 by KZ

It’s been a little over a week since I’ve learned the news that Nicky has passed away. She was gorgeous, kind, full of warmth and wit, and devastatingly funny. She was one of two writers who updated and maintained a humor blog called We Work For Cheese. Nicky was my friend. I miss her dearly.

Read more

Pub Talk

Posted on September 9, 2014October 15, 2022 by KZ

This is a conversation about Ben.

“Jesus, what motivates somebody to shoot himself in the head?”

“I suppose some people’s lives just suffer a deficit of meaning.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly.”

“I’m about to shoot myself in the head if you keep that shit up.”

Read more

Musings of a Sentimental Drunk

Posted on February 5, 2014October 15, 2022 by KZ

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing (2014)

Day 5: “The empty bottle”
________________________________________
I was struggling with today’s writing prompt, so I decided to mine my old writing journal for something worthwhile. I came across something that I had drunkenly jotted down nearly ten years ago back when I was kid in my early twenties. I wrote it when I was at a party at a friend’s house where there were lots of people, plenty of beer, three guitars, and a joyful consensus of enthusiasm for group singing. I tend to get sentimental when I drink — and during those moments of shared joy, something moved me to commemorate the moment in the only way I knew how to.

Read more

A Song of Goudas and Grays

Posted on February 1, 2014October 15, 2022 by KZ

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing (2014)

Day 1: “Gouda”
________________________________________

This is Day 1 of the new “30 Minus 2 Days of Writing” challenge for FY14. The first writing prompt is Gouda. Frankly, this prompt annoyed me, because what the hell can you do with “Gouda”? Well, I figured something out in the end.

Read more

A Weekend of Love

Posted on September 22, 2013October 14, 2022 by KZ

On September 21, 2013, I married Diana, the love of my life. Thank you so much to everybody who could be in attendance that night. And even if you couldn’t be there, thank you just the same for your support and well wishes. My one regret of the night is that I didn’t get a…

Read more

Invocation

Posted on February 27, 2013October 13, 2022 by KZ

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing

Day 27: “And That’s Why I Got Drunk”
________________________________________
We raise our glasses to the inexhaustible variety of life, to all of those separate moments of sameness wrought with stagnancy, or trifling human catastrophe — to those tentative steps towards hopeful beginnings, or in deference to sadder times marked with the bitterness of inevitable ends. We toast to friends both new and old, to the promise or passing of lovers, to mothers both living and long since lost.

Read more

Call Me a Messenger

Posted on February 9, 2013October 13, 2022 by KZ

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing

Day 9: “15 minutes”
________________________________________
They say the course of an entire lifetime can change in the span of fifteen minutes. During that final moment of violence in Ben’s unremarkable life, I imagine he required no longer than just a few seconds to take his aim and fire. I don’t really know for sure, because I wasn’t there. I suspect it had been a very long time since anybody had come around to check on Ben.

Read more

Of Text Messages and Dopplegangers

Posted on February 7, 2013October 12, 2022 by KZ

30 Minus 2 Days of Writing

Day 7: “Texting”
________________________________________
I was tempted to repost my Mirror Universe entries for today’s “Texting” prompt, but then I remembered that I’ve been sitting on a gem of a text messaging story for over three years now.

Read more

My Finest Moment of 2012

Posted on December 30, 2012October 12, 2022 by KZ

Just in case you needed a reminder: I’m kind of a sarcastic bastard. So long, 2012. It’s been real.

Read more

To Gain and Lose

Posted on June 3, 2012February 23, 2022 by KZ

Life is a seamless collection of hellos and goodbyes. They stitch together the totality of our days, and they have a way of tearing us apart until nothing remains but memories, and the hollow sting of lingering regret. The start of each new day brings the promise of a thousand hellos — thousands of first…

Read more
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Next

Recent Posts

  • To Troll a Mockingbird
  • What Comes Tomorrow
  • Abundance in Perpetuity
  • Carry On
  • So Long, Nicky

Featured Posts

How Bert and Ernie Let Big Bird Down

How Bert and Ernie Let Big Bird Down

The Station at the Edge of the Great Unknown

The Station at the Edge of the Great Unknown

A Fine Romance

A Fine Romance

Copper: The Lifeblood of Lincoln

Copper: The Lifeblood of Lincoln

To Gain and Lose

To Gain and Lose

Favorite Posts

  • An Excerpt from My Conversation with God
  • That's Right, I Said "Boo"
  • Hope Against the Inevitable
  • Call Me a Messenger
  • To Gain and Lose
  • Visions of the Collective Breath
  • When KZ Proposed to Diana
  • Couplehood KZ Style
  • "Abbott & Costello" Ain't Got Nothing on "Dawn & KZ"
  • The Rules of Love

Post Archive

Categories

  • Blog Meta
  • Books
  • Complaints
  • Conversations
  • Diana
  • Friendship
  • Human Condition
  • Humor
  • Lists
  • Love
  • Mundanity
  • Music
  • Observations
  • Paintball
  • Parenthood
  • Pets
  • Poetry
  • Religion
  • Tangents
  • Topical
  • Writing
If people bring so much courage to this world the world has to kill them to break them, so of course it kills them. The world breaks every one and afterward many are strong at the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry.~Ernest HemingwaySource: A Farewell to Arms
©2025 Prosaic Shades of Gray