Helsinki By The Sea

Monk's Cape is how Wikipedia translates it into English, and I think it's one of the most beautiful names I have heard. Monk's Cape ticks all the boxes, except that it's far away from the center, but that too is an asset. Its hideaway quality, perhaps not unlike Malibu in California. Sleepy, yet alive, right…

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Thanksgiving Memories

I loved my godfather, with all my heart and soul. One of my favorite Thanksgiving memories is of us celebrating Thanksgiving on the base. The food was great, the tables groaned, we barely made it home. But that wasn't the best Thanksgiving of my life. Neither was the Thanksgiving I spent in Maine, or the…

Thanksgiving Thanks

I give the country my brother calls his own a lot of flack. It's deeply conservative, hypocritical, boys and girls can't be friends, and there's zero empathy. My brother made his life there, and in college I was there with him. It was a good life then, a great life. My brother was well-liked and…

Room I Love(d)

I moved in four days after The Most Important Person In My Life's death, and it became my place to get myself together while I mourn. It was only for a month and five days, but it saved my sanity and my life. The first few nights I just burrowed under the covers and stayed…

Und Tschüss – farewell to a place that is no more

My brother's method of dealing with things was always very pragmatic. "Focus on the issue at hand," he'd tell me, somewhat poetically in that other language we spoke together when we weren't speaking German. My brother was always more connected to Germany than I ever would be, but I never held it against him. It…

Protected: The Most Important Person In My Life

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Back in Business

Saturday afternoon, and I'm sitting in my usual seat at The Usual Place. Saturday afternoon, it has to be said, is more concept than actual time line. But it's not entirely a lie. Too many Saturday afternoons spent in The Usual Place to count, too many other afternoons as well. Along with evenings, nights, and…

Black Mountain Sea Conch

We met at an activity Past Life Mommy suggested I attend, in a very roundabout way. I was at The Usual Place, and Past Life Mommy happened to be there as well with her girlfriends. We nodded hello and then went about our business. She, focused on spending an evening with her girlfriends, me regressing…

1920s III

I was sometimes tempted to bring it up with the sixty-year-olds, just to see how they'd react, but common sense prevailed. Or rather, except for one woman, I didn't trust any of them. Someone had spoken about me once (that me from my 1920s life), before I became aware of my name from the '20s.…

1920s II

As it turns out I was indeed a gay man in that life, a very young gay man. Not anyone famous, but if you were a historian, or knew where to look, you'd probably dig me up. The thing is, I am the spitting image of him, only the female version. I sat among a…