Writing
I have borderline personality disorder. This is what I want you to know.
“Run. Away. Screaming.” That’s what I told Russell when we started dating in early 2008. Now, we’re married with two teenagers. I’ve been trying to make sense of the first thirty years of my life for the last fifteen. People with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are among the most suicidal and toughest clients to counsel….
Resetting the time machine
My husband and I drove to Atlanta in a time machine to see Marilyn Manson at the Tabernacle on May 20, 2025. By that, I mean I went to recreate my experience of following the band’s first headlining tour for the band’s 1994 release Portrait of an American Family, when I was a teenager and…
alice doesnt understand
I decided this morning to listen to Ugly Kid Joe’s “America’s Least Wanted.” The idea grew out of the music that is videos playlist, which is a collection of songs first introduced to me through video. Some of the songs I had been familiar with before seeing the artist’s music expressed visually. That has shifted…
party at the end of the world
I think I was 13 when I hosted an “end of the world” party with Jack Daniels drinks to celebrate summer vacation. I swear I don’t remember how we got the Tennessee Whiskey. Of course, I soaked my anxiety and brought a mixed drink of depression and teenage hormones to the party. I stirred alcohol…
a mirror can reach to your back
There’s no going back, literally. Time machines are a worse idea than self-driving cars. But we can return to old ideas and revive ancient project ideas. “Let’s start a business!” I’ve said to more than a few people over more than a few years several times in my life. you don’t need someone to be…
the sirens of middle school
Bon Jovi brings a flood of memories to my mind. I mean, the band had about a billion hit songs between my elementary and middle school years. I’m pretty sure four of the 10 songs on “Slippery When Wet” were incessantly played on the radio. Surely, you’ve heard “Livin’ on a Prayer” more than once….
too many ghosts?
My return to writing in journals was like a return to active drug addiction after a handful of relapses with my drug of choice: the pen. I grip the barrel of the pen tightly between my fingers, and press the ballpoint tip and empty the ink chamber. Music didn’t have everything to do with it;…
the water’s edge
I’m not from New York and I don’t live in Atlanta, but they’re my landmarks. An island city and a landlocked one. There are 27 landlocked states. Of course. But Georgia isn’t one of them. I just live closer to the city where Sherman began his March to the “Sea” of Savannah, which sits at…
how i reeled in a thrasher with a plastic guitar hero hook
i think the only video game systems ive ever played were Atari, Nintendo, and xbox. That’s how i remember hearing them discussed. Just Nintendo as opposed to Sega. i really dont know. and i never cared until 2007. so it’s completely ironic and a little downright hilarious that the first of the “guitar hero” style…

