Queen Juicy J

We’re in Charleston for Shawna’s birthday. It’s never ceased to amaze me how much this town feels like Boston without the angry, scowling, jaded faces of the New Englanders. It’s not crowded on the streets, horns aren’t blaring, and you can park a block from a venue easily. The theater with the murder mystery is small but comfortable. Perhaps the limit of my tolerance, but people have nice faces here. They smile more, so I don’t feel hostile. It’s a great show and I even participate, marveling at my newfound social energies. Afterwards we walk down the streets to the ice cream parlor. It’s a whole group, and I know them all in some form. What’s more is the fondness I feel for them. More so than I would have believed a year ago. Snippets of their voices float up to me, and I’m holding Matt’s hand, grinning. We’re pointing out the things that look cool, things that looks charming. Things that remind us of a life before but so much more warm and welcoming here. I could spend a multi...

“Do you prefer Jewel or Jules?” It’s my familial nickname, used by closest friends and family. It causes a warm sensation with every use, usually residing somewhere in my chest. For the last eleven years it’s been rare to hear. So rare it may have been down to a handful of times after it was near common place. It suggests a closeness I miss. It implies kindness, care and closeness. I haven’t felt close enough to many to allow it. Usually people try and I speak up, asking them not to. It can make me feel far too personal, far too intimate, preferring my much more common nickname of Jewel. My legal name is only for when I’m in trouble or for clarity’s sake. The first real moment I recall hearing it down here was from a cousin of his. Perhaps it had happened sooner but this was the first moment I recalled hearing it and not wanting to correct it. His young cousin passed me in the kitchen at a baby shower and as casual as if we were related said “Hi Jules.” I stared at the back of he...

I used to write these instead of New Year resolutions since a recap was better for starting with a vow I’ll break in a month or less. So, I suppose without any further ado, my 2018 review. January It started out pretty par for the course. I met a guy named Mike and Matt had been dating a woman named Chasity. Things were going alright, pretty lukewarm in the poly department. I finished training in my job and my truck was still bright and shined new. We saw a Southern ice storm that had us locked in our house for the first few days of the year, but things warmed up fairly quickly again. My big focus was getting a couple of fire departments online and briefed on social media, but for the most part it was pretty sedentary and we were adjusting to our new life. We  had two red-tail hawks, birds I often associate with my brother, land on the back fence of my yard one afternoon. I took that to be a happy omen of things to come. A blessing, as it were. February Things with Mike f...