"My mom is a writer, she lives in Arizona."

"Oh, I guess...that's really cool."

But it's all so much more than "mymomisawritershelivesinarizona"; that simple sentence that is dumbed down to the point of being banal cannot encompass what I would really like to tell you about her:

"My mom is one of my very best and certainly my oldest friends, you see she's a writer and she passed her gift on to me, and I treasure it and sometimes when the words aren't forthcoming I feel…

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When the local art guild’s newsletter advertised life drawing sessions at the college, Pawel Jonca thought he’d died and gone to heaven, but he remained very much alive for six more weeks.

Every Tuesday night before the heart attack, the 70-year-old widower lost himself in charcoal renderings of unclothed youths, filling his sketch pad with images he’d revisit daily, remembering a…

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It is warm here, comfortable and familiar and cozy. 

I know the boundaries here, I know what is acceptable, and I know that if I stretch my foot out here I will bump up against a barrier and it will hurt me.

But if I stretch a different way, just here, there is an opening...a small one, but a way out, a way up. 

My umbilicus binding me here is  growing weaker and my arms, my legs, my wings are growing, ever upward. 

They are tender,…

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I would have bathed naked in the Virgin River and laughed at the irony I was too young to understand, spent less time in the hotel room when we had one, and more time exploring, pushed for the Pig and Clam Roast with the bull rider in Durango, and stated my honest opinion about the jargon-spouting bitch with the crayons. 

I would have flirted with more boys with dreadlocks, drank more wine and whiskey, played more cutthroat poker with my mom that was so loud it drew people for…

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I am deeply sorry that the douchebag agent with the retarded name turned down your brilliantness. He is obviously too stupid to see what a wonderful talented awesome gifted writer you are. His loss, frankly, and he will feel like a sincere idiot when you make millions and win the Nobel prize. Keep your chin up and keep looking don't let this get you down. he is obviously a substandard agent if he doesn't recognize true talent when he sees it. I love you.

This goes out to my…

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I'm not talkking about a horse or motorcycle or anything of that matter< I am just talking about my ride through life since April 07 when I was diagnosed with Neurofibromatosis Type Two (NF2).



This has not been a smooth ride, filled with radiation, eyelid surgery, facial nerve to tongue nerve grafting,hearing loss, & now chemotherapy every couple weeks, but I have met some of the greatest people & now have the best group of friends that I could ask for.



There is… Continue