30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 14: “Where can I get a good blintz?”
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This is a love story borne of coffee, compassion, fatigue, and dry humor. There’s also something in there about blintzes.
Category: Writing
The Last-Minute Best Man
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 13: “Unintended”
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Sometime around January 3rd of this year, my brother, J, gave me a call and asked me to be the Best Man at his wedding. He caught me by surprise with this request, but I considered it a high honor, so of course I accepted. J’s wedding was scheduled for the weekend of January 12th — and yet there he was, calling to invite me to play a huge roll in the proceedings with little more than a week’s notice. Prior to that phone call, J had told me that he and his fiancĂ©e were not planning to have traditional wedding parties filled with bridesmaids, groomsmen, and sentimental speeches. Stupidly, I believed him.
The United Strip Malls of America
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 11: “Road Trip”
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Sometimes I think the United States should rename itself the “United Strip Malls of America”. No matter where you travel within the contiguous forty-eight states, you’re bound to notice the uniform effect of the Twentieth Century’s grand homogenization of the great American landscape. On countless roads in most developed parts of the country, all you’ll see as you drive around this sprawling nation are parking lots, open-air shopping centers, franchised restaurant chains, and the occasional cluster of gas stations.
John Mayer for Mayor
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 10: “The Mayor”
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Sometime in the early 2000s, back when singer-songwriter John Mayer first started to gain commercial success on the American music scene, a good friend of mine confided in me to explain why she disliked John Mayer. “I don’t hate his music or anything.” she told me. “His songs are all right, and he’s actually not a bad musician. It’s just that, well — he creeps me out. He eats babies.”
Call Me a Messenger
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 9: “15 minutes”
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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.
Of Text Messages and Dopplegangers
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 7: “Texting”
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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.
Some Grand Revelation (Conversation with God Continued)
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 6: “Haven”
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KEVIN: I wish you would just give me a straight answer.
GOD: About what?
KEVIN: Well, about most things. About anything. Why does every conversation with you feel like a game of theological dodge ball?
To Gain and Lose (Reposted)
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 4: “Friendship”
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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 times and anxious introductions. Yet just beneath the surface of every meaningful meeting lies the inevitability of loss, heartache, and a bitter farewell, whether by death, or by some trivial variant of a piddling manmade catastrophe. Even so, despite the promise of pain, we dare each day to put our hearts on the line with a fresh set of ill-fated beginnings.
All We Have to Do
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 2: “Hold On”
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We all reside within the universal link, the brotherhood of necessity, this life with its remarkable complexity and manufactured meanings. We wade through waves of the mundanely surreal, through so many declarations of certitude marked with the confidence of meaning found in misplaced authority. All we seek in this life is direction, to understand the might of ambiguity, the strength of suggestion, the grand certitude of maybe. Maybe one day we will fully understand. I have faith in the promise of maybe.
Cheesy
30 Minus 2 Days of Writing
Day 1: “Cheesy”
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Don’t be cheesy. You can be earnest and full of good intentions, but please don’t ever let me catch you being cheesy. You’re so much better than that. The path of unbridled cheese leads you to the precipice of a treacherous cliff overlooking a chasm of disingenuous crap. In honor of today’s “Cheesy” writing prompt, let’s call this chasm “Gouda Gorge”. I live every day in constant fear of Gouda Gorge.