10 Lessons from my 10-Year High School Reunion

I won’t lie. I looked for­ward to this thing for, like, five years. But I wasn’t expect­ing to be trans­formed. It won’t sur­prise you high school reunions now seem to me another expres­sion of a bro­ken social sys­tem. But man, the going. It was a bap­tism. Of what, well. I might have to get back to you in ten.

Boston, yes.

I’ve eaten well, got­ten mildly drunk, unpacked about half a box, and cooed at my home­town. Ah, arrival. I know your face almost as well as leaving.

To Answer an Old Question

In 12^th grade, my girl­friend asked every­one why we sing along to our favorite songs. It’s taken me about ten years to come up with a respectable answer. Given that this com­ing week­end hosts, coin­ci­den­tally, my 10-​​year high school reunion, I fig­ure now’s a fit­ting time. Erin Feeney, if you’re out there, this one’s for you.

Last Days Before Mass

Penn­syl­va­nia is an oth­er­worldly drive, through a land-​​bound cloud. It’s my last night in New York, I’m watch­ing Anthony Bour­dain on HBO, miss­ing EVERY­THING and EVERY­BODY. And I’m serv­ing a 48-​​hour adven­ture in food poisoning.

Ugh.

Who both couldn’t sleep last night and doesn’t want to leave the motel? This guy.

Here We Are, Then

I knew this was com­ing. This morn­ing I woke in Chicago and real­ized I’m only 4 days from Mass­a­chu­setts. I leave today for New York and more good friends, with a gra­ciously unso­cial overnight in Ohio. Back in city lim­its by Wednes­day morn­ing. Woot.

Photos!

Now that I’m safely parked in Chicago, and hav­ing dis­cussed almost none of the haps on the trip, it’s time for a recap. Let’s do a photo-​​post, so you can soak up some of my friends’ awe­some, a few strange rest areas, and all the meals I remem­bered to pho­to­graph before they were gone.

The Purpose of Stories, 3

Let’s take this dis­cus­sion back to the book. I’ve thought a lot about porta­bil­ity lately, and even about own­er­ship of words. Maybe the only way the story I’m writ­ing will sur­vive its book­ness is for me to release it entirely. My ver­sion of the story is just one. Yours will be next.

The Purpose of Stories, 2

I’ve had an amal­gam of texts at a rolling boil in the back of my head lately. They all deal with a spe­cial cul­tural dis­tinc­tion between between Taker (colo­nial) and Leaver (indige­nous) cul­tures: the strange insis­tance on his­tory over stories.

The Purpose of Stories, 1

My good friend Kevin and I have a when-​​in-​​town friend­ship, so we don’t get a lot of time to bull­shit. Yes­ter­day, after the day spent catch­ing up, we finally got to. And I gotta tell you, bull­shit is profound.