“Hello, this is David.” “Yeah this is Lee, from Triple A,” said the voice on the other end of the phone. “It’s not the Freon, it’s the compressor.” Compressor. A word I never want to hear from a person talking about my car. “Looks like it’s going to be about nine hundred dollars.” I could tell by his voice that he felt bad about the number. He was just the messenger. No use in being mad at him. “Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be there in a few minutes.” I took a sip of Gree

Things I love #2 As a South Carolinian, I have a special place in my heart for peaches. We are the true peach state, no matter what those lying thieves from Georgia might say. They are also, hands down, the greatest fruit. The fuzzy exterior. Perfectly sweet. Juicy. Just the right amount of give per bite. Best purchased from a road side stand in white paper bags. The color too. The light orange mixed with reddish hues. It looks like fall and tastes like summer. What could be

“Deciding whether or not life is worth living is to answer the fundamental question in philosophy.” -Albert Camus I’m currently rehearsing the play Every Brilliant Thing. I officially start two weeks from tomorrow, so these rehearsals have been taking place in my living room and on park benches. I was at a gazebo in Traveler’s Rest over the weekend. Apologies to those who bicycled by. The play is about a man who makes a list of all the amazing things in the world in an attemp

I just bought a plane ticketed and it was very stressful. That’s how it feels in the middle of a treatment. Unsure. Hesitant. I had to enter my card information several times. These days should be viewed as a day off with a hangover. That’s not a bad mental image. I’m not on chemo, I’m simply hung over. I’ll make up some fun shit I did the night before. I’ll do that until I feel like sleeping. Enjoy your day everyone. Thanks for checking in .

Last night I had a dream that I was smoking a blunt with Jay Leno. I woke up and thought, “It must be time for chemo.” It is time. I’m writing this from the chair. This is my fifteenth round overall, third for this cycle. The plan is to do six and take a scan. If/when that scan looks good, we will reassess our treatment options. The day before the infusion has become special. Last April, the night before the first one, it felt like the night before the first day of school. We

Today is the first day of school. I am here, sitting in my office at the Fine Arts Center, getting ready to contribute a small part to the artistic education of these talented Greenville County high school students. On this first day of school, I thought I would share the greatest lesson I learned in my years of studying theatre. It happened in graduate school. It happened completely by accident. During Christmas of my second year, one of my classmates, a man named Joe Klineb

I’m sitting on my parents back porch. The yard is pulsing. The cicadas and the breeze and the bird chirping in the trees. The neighbors have chickens and they're pecking around the yard. I don’t get the obsession with suburban chickens, but it does add charm to the place. Binx, the one eyed cat is lounging on the patio with me. He has a very, “Wake me when we go inside” vibe about him. There is so much life on this tiny little hill. For an entire universe of creatures, this i

A distraction is simply a chance to re-choose God. -Thomas Keating My parents are out of town, so at 10:30 last night I went to their house to check on the cats. When I got back, Jaimie was already in bed. The Cubs game was in the eighth inning and I went outside to listen to the end. One of my favorite feelings is leaving an air-conditioned room and stepping into the warm night air. I went back inside my apartment simply so I could experience the feeling again. I cracked ope

I'm doing a play. One that I did not write myself. I'm doing it at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. My alma mater. The play is called Every Brilliant Thing, and it's about the son of a mother who suffers from depression. In order to cheer her up, he decides to write a list of everything in the world worth living for. The play speaks to me for several reasons. 1. It's a great piece of writing. 2. While I am fortunate to not suffer from depression, I do have a disease that req

I’ve started running again. I had to quit for a while because the oral chemo I was on causes a condition called Hand Foot Syndrome. Apparently some of the medicine slips out of the capillaries and makes its way to a person’s hands and feet, making them turn red and feel sore. That bit of information falls directly into this new category I’ve created over the past two years called: Things I Wish I Didn’t Know. Hand Foot Syndrome wasn’t that bad as long as I didn’t try and, you