Put Your Head Down and Focus

As anyone who has read this blog for more than a minute knows, I’m no athlete.  Field day was my least favorite day in the school calendar year; I was a scholar and a musician.  I got my geek on and enjoyed it, all the way through school.  It’s why I became a teacher, I [...]

Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast.  If there was a theme to Mr. Tymrak’s tenth grade Honors History class, it was that.  Compare and contrast. Every assignment could be boiled down to those two simple words.  Every lesson required us to compare and contrast people, situations, policies.  Find the similarities and the differences.  Lay them out.  Intertwine them, [...]

Drinking Alone

I was sitting alone, on the sofa that Thursday night in November.  It was quiet save for the sound of the television in front of me and the occasional clink of my wine glass on the table as I lifted it and placed it back down.  I hadn’t eaten dinner, but the plate of chocolate [...]

Worried

“I’m tired,” Tom said sheepishly, sitting down as the crowd at the local senior center dwindled. My girlfriends and I had been invited by our first selectman to join him for a campaign appearance at the town senior center; this was a tough crowd for anyone running for our local board of education.  Since we [...]

Philosophical Differences

“What the heck is this?” I said, handing over our town’s local paper to the person sitting next to me. We were at our First Selectman’s home on a Saturday morning in April.  He’d invited my group of education advocates over plus a few of his political allies in town to discuss the budget defeat [...]

Know When to Hold ‘Em, Know When to Fold ‘Em

I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Two weeks after I’d had my conversation with Rick in Atlantic City, and handed over my detailed, well thought out business plan which delineated levels of payment for differing levels of exclusive content, I found a new web link on Rick Springfield’s official website. “Access is official Rick Springfield advanced [...]

Another WTF Moment

The email in front of me contained a website link and just three letters:  ”WTF”.  I could see plainly that it was a link to Rick Springfield’s official website, and I was sure it contained something that would not sit well with me. Since the fan events in Rockford, things had started to get a [...]

Family Thanksgiving

“I’m trying to remember the last time we would have done this,” I said, standing at my kitchen counter, my sister at my side. It was Thanksgiving Day, 2003.  I had invited my side of the family to all convene on our place in Ohio for the weekend.  It was a risky proposition:  my sister [...]

Houston, We Might Have a Problem

“Trouble in paradise?” asked my friend Kim, who had recently started to work with me on some new graphics for the two Rick Springfield fan websites.  We were chatting on the phone while I nursed Michael and Melinda played with toys on the floor of the family room.  The room was an absolute wreck with [...]

I’m In

“That was amazing!” I said to Elizabeth as Rick and the band left the stage.  I looked up at the Studio 54 logo, still unable to believe that I was here, in Las Vegas.  I could still hear the strains of “Jessie’s Girl” ringing throughout the club. I looked around, still trying to process the [...]