Just the Tip

Just the Tip

Jul 8, 2015 | Stories

I was not a great cocktail waitress. My junior year of college, I worked at a bar called the Country Playhouse, and the very first guy I waited on ordered eight draws of beer for him and his friends. I scampered like an excited puppy up to the bar and put in my order,...
Used Soap

Used Soap

Jun 1, 2015 | Stories

After college, I lived in Manhattan, Kansas, and worked at radio station KQLA-FM. During that time, I was so poor that at one point all I had to eat for six weeks was frozen English muffins. I was so poor I qualified for government cheese, but I didn’t know...
Wacky Anniversary

Wacky Anniversary

Mar 5, 2015 | Stories

Today is the anniversary of my arrest. Let me explain. My sophomore year of college, I took a semester off to work at a Colorado mountain resort so I could enjoy my latest existential crisis at altitude. I would get to live the dream: earn $3.35 an hour, sleep in what...
Blame it on the Boomtown Rats

Blame it on the Boomtown Rats

Jan 28, 2015 | Music, Stories

In my second senior year of college at KU (long story), I lived in an ancient studio apartment building across from the Beta and ATO frat houses on Tennessee Street. It was so old it had dumbwaiters in the halls and murphy beds in the apartments. The closet was only...
Headstone

Headstone

Apr 27, 2013 | Stories

What an idyllic scene. In the corner of our yard grow three mammoth pine trees, in one of which an owl roosts occasionally. Underneath it is sand, Tonka trucks and…is that a…headstone? Well, yes and no. You see, my dad passed away in our old house. Andy...