Silence Is Not Acceptance

I was very nearly drunk for the first time that night. I was at a wedding. Improbably, my girlfriend Lori, whom I’d met at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp four years prior, was getting married. She was just a year older than me, having graduated last spring. I had driven to her house on the [...]

Something New

Amazingly, my mother allowed me to drive out to see some of my camp girlfriends that fall.  We lived in a triangle, the three of us, with my location being the most distant from the two of them.  Lori lived about an hour southwest of Kristen, and she lived about three hours west of me.   [...]

Coming Back for More

I had always been insecure and compared myself with others.  I still do that as an adult, and it is one of those things that I’d always wished I’d grown out of, but I never did.  I cope with my insecurities better these days…I’ll hide away for a few days and not talk to people [...]

There He Was

I sent him a note via Facebook yesterday. I do this from time to time, just to make sure he’s still out there in the world. And it might take a week, or a month, or a day, but so far I’ve always heard a reassuring, “Yes, I’m still here” in response. I haven’t heard [...]

Blue Lake Times Three

This was the third summer I was going to attend Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp. This year was different; I wasn’t being sent away to keep me away from my brother. There was no alternative subtext to the joy I felt at spending two weeks in the western part of the state, far away from [...]

A Boyfriend…Finally

The phone was ringing. In those days before the advent of Caller ID, you took your chances on who might be on the other end when you picked up the phone. These were also the days before cell phones, so the person on the other end could be calling for anyone in the house: me, [...]

Poetry In Motion

Dawn and I were working on a poetry book. Since the ensuing months had brought nothing from Rick Springfield and his “people” regarding my book, and all of our tour letters brought one letter to me from up and comer Corey Hart and one letter to Dawn from Rick’s bassist, Mike Seifrit, we decided to [...]

A Brave New World

My late night experience with a Real Boy freaked me out enough to remind me why it was safer to be infatuated with a rock star 21 years my senior. Rick Springfield didn’t expect things, didn’t mess with my head, and certainly didn’t touch me in ways that my fourteen year old self didn’t really [...]