Follow the Lighted Promenade

Darkness lingers on Actually I feel much better thank you. I don't feel needy today, my mind isn't the same swollen soup that it was yesterday. When you are down, everything is painted in those same down colors so even good things look bad. But I can see that, for whatever reason, I was awfully depressed yesterday, and today those feelings have gone, leaving me wondering. I wrote most of the lyrics for a song I have been working on lately this morning and am mulling over two open mike nights this week, one at the Muse Cafe in Lansing on Thursday and one, if I get back from camping on time, on Sunday at La Rosa's in Hammond. The guitar is sounding better but I'm going to take it in tomorrow to see if I can get it shimmering again. It's been a week without caffeine this is so boring i know i'm sorry and have been moving a bit more deliberately than normal, but I am here, on a Sunday, to work on my novel. I am pretty much done with part one, which ring

I looked out the window, down on the corporate American haven of suburban Illinois and asked what have we done. What have we done? The beautiful summer evening unfolded over people in a hurry, everywhere everyone is in such a fucking hurry, filling their time with a bunch of shit that leads to nothing positive. The city is a lonely place when you're alone. No kidding, when I am alone in the country (are you ready for the country?) I don't feel alone, 'cause God is with me and the spirits are with me and around me. In the city I was alone, a lonliness that moved down inside me and ruined my day and hasn't left me. No one looked eachother in the eye, there were no eyes to look into. Adam and Jason had a full slate of fucking worthless shit and couldn't take the time to see the game (and they felt awful about it) so I went alone and sat beside a woman with Alzhiemer's who talked to me the whole game and made less and less sense as the game progressed and I s

Oh, my head. I have the absolute worst headache, seemingly emanating from everywhere at once. Ah. Anyhoo, i have been a busy bee lately, just not a very productive bee. Yesterday i completed my 25th circuit of the sun and launched, undaunted, into my 26th. To mark this significant event, we all went to the Olive Garden and had a good time, probably the most fun i've had on my birthday ever. Then Sarah came over and we fell asleep until about 2:30. She got me a Simpson's shirt and a William Faulkner book and i thought they were both incredibly thoughtful and so i kissed her right where her eyebrows meet. Ha ha. Just kidding Sarah. And thank you. We went to Chain O' Lakes State Park in Albion over the weekend too, Sarah and i, and had much fun. It's really been great with her, as i feel that we are just great friends in addition to boyfriend/girlfriend. There's never a dull moment. We went canoeing and hiking and did the usual camping fare, as well as sp

Here is the third and pentultimate installment of The Haunted Bridge . Parts one and two are below (6/11 and 5/30). Enjoy. Brenda fell asleep waiting for Gary, and that night Brenda had the most awful dream of her life. She never remembered it, of course, because what happened on waking in the tangly darkness was much worse. But she knew it was awful even as it unfolded. She was with Gary on the covered bridge. They were not entirely clothed. She looked out under the arch to the south and saw not the parking lot of the fairgrounds but only a dark and impenetrable forest. Moonlight lent an unreal, dreamy quality to the landscape. An owl hooted somberly. She moved against him, aware that it was a dream but completely incapable of influencing it in any way, awash in the inevitable. She felt the warmth emanating from inside her, the terrible thrill of losing control. She moaned his name as she came. She was still in the throes when she felt a hand on her shoulder. A col

Here is part two of The Haunted Bridge . If you've yet to read part one, it is below. Part three will be up soon. And then I'll stop sparing you the details of my mundane existance. Have fun. March 4, 1849 was a very unique day in the history of the United States. James K. Polk’s term as President had just ended the night before and old Zachary Taylor, the religious zealot that he was, refused to take the Oath of Office on a Sunday, leaving the office vacant, which, according to a mostly unknown law, made the Senate President the head man for a day, Mr. David Rice Atchison, a Slavery Democrat who didn’t know he had been President until several months later. Anyway, it was also the day that this particular covered bridge had been built. It spanned the mostly placid waters of Mercy Creek, linking the Ever’s farm to the surrounding town. The head architect, a Mr. Zeke Atchison, a distant relative of the unknowing President for the day, walked out early, ready to hammer