Things I Know Now That I Didn’t Know Pre-COVID
The one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s aggressive foothold in the United States is fast approaching. A year of cancelled plans, shuttered restaurant dining rooms, and missed celebrations with friends; of postponed weddings, remote schooling, and working from home. On this day in 2020, none of us knew what we were in store for, but we could tell that this was not like SARS or Ebola — illnesses covered at length in the media, but with little impact on our day-to-day lives. I first knew that this was serious when SXSW was cancelled just a week before it was due to begin. We had many more questions about the virus…
4 Life Lessons from Behind the Bar
No, not namby-pamby lessons like the importance of teamwork or communication. I mean, I did learn those things during my years as a server and bartender, but I’m talking actual life lessons here. These are hard-earned, sometimes painful truths gleaned from deep within the bowels of this wild industry. The kind you remember after the tears have dried and you’ve moved on to a completely different stage of life. I haven’t stepped behind the bar in about six years, but there are some lessons you just don’t forget. 1. It’s okay to ask for help The hardest shift I ever worked was an AM shift at a neighborhood bar in…
The Art of Not Writing
There is a big difference between writing for other people and Writing for yourself. Writing for other people involves assignments, deadlines, and consequences for not meeting those deadlines. I am pretty good at it. But when it comes time to capital-W-Write for myself (by which I mean working on my own fiction and non-fiction) I have one exceptional talent that I’d like to share. It’s called Not Writing. I am world-class at Not Writing. Believe me, if there’s a topic to not be written about, I will Not Write about it with a passion and dedication that’s hard to match. I am so skilled at Not Writing, in fact, that…
