—IN A QUIET MOMENT AT THE THEATER, I COULD HEAR THE TRAIN  

 

 

…It’s easy to see the beginning of things but a lot harder to see the ends.

 

…Should you apologize for not expressing more grief? Maybe, but not if it’s not eating you inside out, stealing your words and taking your breath away.

 

…My watch is like, “Take a 20 minute walk” and I’m like, “No, you fucking take a 20 minute walk.”

 

…What kind of guy gets chippy with their watch? Oh, yeah.

 

…When you’re young, you do so many things to be noticed, but when you’re older you think about how silly and artificial you were, how being noticed doesn’t matter at all in the end.

 

…Slide to release.

 

…Sometimes it’s easier to put off the people you love rather than tell them the real story.

 

…When people die, you learn a lot about the character of others. 

 

…I’ve been reading Steve Almond’s new craft book (which is excellent) where he implores writers to write about their obsessions, but it feels like I’ve doing that waaayyyyyy too much.

 

…So far, as I’m writing this, it’s my third straight day without crying. I don’t know if that’s a good thing, or whether I should be ashamed.

 

…Thanks so much for asking. Oh wait, you didn’t.

 

…If you don’t learn to adjust, you learn to die.

 

…You can write something and it doesn’t mean anything at all to you, then you can write something else and it means everything.

 

…You can only pluck so many grey lashes from your eyebrows until you have none left.

 

…The worst out is number three.

 

…Seems like the only thing that grows on me anymore are my fingernails—pale and striated.

 

…Our first Christmas!

 

…The burden of hope is really all we have.

 

…Silence is deadly. It makes you consider any number of things.

 

…“I think I got a little mushroom in my eye.”

 

…When it’s late and you’ve got nothing else going on, it’s always a good call to play “Too Much Heaven” or else “Nightswimming.”

 

…I still hear John every day, like he’s still alive saying, “Doesn’t it feel like you were born for this?”

 

…We laugh to keep from wallowing. And sometimes that’s enough. 

 

…“You should try suicide. It works!”

 

…I don’t have a lot of answers, but I sure as hell have a lot of questions.

 

…It’s all fiction, unless you don’t want it to be.

 

…I’d like to think I’m the kind of person who can laugh at himself, but it’s been a while since that’s happened.

 

…It doesn’t make sense—where are all of the boats?

 

…What’s with all these ads for apps that let you track your sleep? Most of the time I’d rather forget what I’m dreaming about. 

 

…On a walk the other day right here on Wonderland Road, four deer flew by me on my left, the very picture of grace in motion.

 

…It’s really something to see this dog run across the dock, plunge into the lake, then grab that water toy. Pure entertainment. I could watch him all day.

 

…They say the hardest thing to do in sports is to hit a baseball, and yet there are a number of successful switch-hitters.  

 

…It may not seem like it, but I’m always looking at you.

 

...God, if I could just be…

 

…I’ll probably still be here next week, moaning over the same things.  

 

…It’s near the end, but I’ve still got a long ways to go.