Random Threesome: His Side
Fellow blogger Penelope and I are answering the following three random questions on our blogs today, each of us answering from our unique male/female perspectives. 1. What if you were sitting on a flight, getting ready for take off, and they found a problem with the plane and had everyone de-board because the plane was [...]
The Purpose of Pleasure
I recently read a remarkable book by Margaret Atwood called Oryx and Crake. Without giving too much away, one of the characters creates a race of post-human beings that are, according to him, more perfect creatures than humans. One key characteristic he designed into these new creatures is that they don’t have sex for pleasure. [...]
Are Writers More Likely to Get Migraines?
Lately on Twitter I’ve noticed a lot of people talking about their migraine headaches. I’ve been getting a lot of headaches lately too. Today it dawned on me…these people are all writers. Every one of them. Is this a coincidence, or are creative people more likely to get migraines? I’ve been getting migraines since I [...]
Oprah Isn’t Always Right
Traditionally, Catholics give up something for Lent. I work at a Newman Center, so I’m privy to the various sacrifices people make. Most involve something like candy; something that’s somewhat hard to give up and that can be gorged on as soon as Lent is over. My personal take on Lent is that I like [...]
Two Things to Do If You’re Bored
If you want to laugh out loud, read the following two excerpts from David Cross’s book, “I Drink for a Reason.” These are a few of his suggestions of things to do when you’re bored. “When an employee at a store (the Gap, or anywhere where you are hounded as soon as you enter by [...]
How I Started a Publishing Company Today
Last summer, I decided to start taking my writing more seriously. I didn’t want to go back to school, but I knew that I needed to start getting high-quality feedback on my work (and learn from the experience of giving feedback of my own). Plus I wanted the experience for my startup, TypeTribe. Thus I [...]
The Chase Theory
Can guys and girls be friends? Short answer: No. Long answer: I believe that men and women can’t be friends, regardless of attraction. I learned the two laws of men and women way back in preschool: Guys chase women. Women like to be chased. Thus is the paradox of an attempted friendship. The guy’s instinct [...]
The Best Story of the Best Spaghetti Sauce Ever Made
Yesterday I wrote about going to the grocery story to buy spaghetti sauce in a jar. Oh, the outrage! Several people wrote to me, dismayed that I would dare to purchase such spaghetti sauce. The thing is, I make a pretty good spaghetti (red) sauce from scratch. What I was actually buying that day was [...]
Is It Easier to Choose a Hummus than a Woman?
A few days ago I was at the grocery store. Two of the items I was in the market for were spaghetti sauce and hummus. In the sauce aisle, I found myself looking at a sheer wall of sauces as far as the eye could see. There were dozens of varieties and brands and shapes [...]
Love Languages
Years ago, my parents told me about the five love languages: Gifts Quality time Physical touch Words of affirmation Acts of service The languages, I learned, could be applied to any type of relationship (familial, friend, romantic, work, etc.). The premise is that you should figure out your love language–the way that you feel most [...]
Romance
This question was posed to me recently, and I had to really think about it. At its heart, what is romance to me? In light of Valentine’s Day (a holiday I generally celebrate in some way the weekend before or after but not the weekend of, just to show the industry who’s in charge), I’m [...]
Pet Please #21
Please excuse the temporary state of this blog. I’m in the process of moving to WordPress.org and adapting a new theme, which will essentially look like this. I will ask for your opinion on the new theme, but until it’s finalized, please hold your thoughts. I’m going to be up front about this: I don’t [...]
Take Note
I will smell your hair every time I see you. I’ll love your scent. I will take forever to brush my teeth. Every time. I will dance to songs at home in ways that may appear fruity to the untrained eye. I will communicate only by grunts and chirps in the middle of the night. [...]
Pet Peeve #8
Over the years, I’ve noticed a phenomenon related to how people deal with dirty glasses when they are visiting someone else’s house. Some people–myself included–put glasses in the dishwasher (if it’s clearly dirty) or on the counter. Others put their glass in the sink. Those people are crazy. Here’s why: You can stack dirty plates on [...]
An Ode to Buzz
Last year on February 3, the only grandfather I ever knew as an adult, passed away. I knew him as Buzz. In memorial, here’s what I said at his funeral. I’ve never called Buzz my grandfather. He’s always been Buzz to me. I’d address envelopes “Grandma and Buzz Dunn,” or sometimes “Grandma Lessard and Buzz [...]
What Past Girlfriends Have Said About Me
I’ve been single now for 3 consecutive months, the longest stretch in 5 years. I dated two women during that time, both of whom were very supportive of my writing. So much so that they wrote some entries on this blog. I recently went back and read some of these entries. I have to say, [...]
Confession #11: The Missed Kiss
My senior year at Wash U, I started to get to know a girl who had a long-distance boyfriend. Let’s call her Marsha. Marsha had been dating this guy for many years. He was her first and only everything. That had long been planning to finally live in the same city after college and get [...]
Breaking News
A few months ago, I found out about an author named Dan Ariely. His work fascinated me, so I blogged about it a few times (How to Get Someone to Say Yes, The Power of an Irrelevant Option, and The Power of Origin Stories). I also started reading his blog. A few months ago, Dan [...]
Fight or Flight?
Yesterday I left a party around 12:30 in the morning, walked over to my car, and saw a man with a gun sitting in the driver’s seat. I turned and ran. Fortunately, this was a dream I had last night, not a real experience. Unfortunately, the dream didn’t end there. I ran and ran until [...]
