Category: Uncategorized

approximatelyLeave a comment

W E    L I K E   T  O   E A T    P I Z Z A   I N   P A R K I N G   L O T S.  The takeout special, one large, two-topping pizza for $7.99, it couldn’t be beat. We’d order — I had them on speed dial — jump in the car and drive the six-to-ten blocks to the pizza shop. Sitting in your car with the pie, cardboard lid flipped back, our eyes big as though staring at gold, the fumes of cheese and meat (yours) and pineapple (mine) filling the space, we’d inhale a piece or two before coming to a satisfactory slow.

We ate pizza in parking lots all through the years. We ate through blizzards, in sunshine, your car, mine. We’d talk with cheese dripping from our teeth and grease on every fingertip. As years passed we watched the price rise from $7.99 to $8.99, to $9.99 and beyond. “Pizza’s getting so expensive,” we’d think, but hindsight reveals that it wasn’t about the pizza or the price. It was always about being together.

Eating pizza in parking lots was just one of the infinite ways we celebrated our friendship. For seven years I have had the most compassionate, inspiring and loving best friend to share pizza and life.

The happiest day to beautiful Holly, who has given me so many reasons to smile and feel incredible about the world.

approximatelyLeave a comment


standing ovation,
three ages combined (two years younger),
do you know what stings?
NO PROBLEM (on man’s bag),
three cards every week from my mother,
bricks on Crosby Street,
standing on a roof overlooking Prospect toward the city,
someone asks me who I am, but I’m not them,
Do I look that old? Do I really look that old?
He play all day.
—Ten consecutive observations from Spring 2012
approximately2 Comments

Was looking for something to pick me up tonight and I saw this photo I’d taken a few weeks ago. No matter what happens from here to the train, the train to the office, the office back to the train back to here — this is still the most comforting thing to me, knowing that I can return to this little space full of everything I love. I would work so hard to have a place like this always.

Something for the last day of February (I’ll be tearing off the big, black calendar page to reveal a white March) —

shine on

approximatelyLeave a comment
This past week I got news. It was news of the bad sort; a call in the middle of the afternoon from a college friend that never called, a voicemail that seemed urgent and unusual. At work and unable to talk on the phone, I emailed back, “Everything okay?” though I somehow already knew it wasn’t.
I soon learned the worst. An old college friend had passed away abruptly in a bizarre accident. He was 23, full of life, talent and love for the world. Nick Wieme was his name. From his hometown of Pipestone, Minnesota, Nick moved to Moorhead to attend MSUM in Fall 2007. I met him during my rounds as a resident assistant and could never forget him, his voice, his laugh, his jokes, his films. 
Nick was a treasure. He was a comedian to the core and every moment in his presence was entertainment. He once invited me to a party to play Settlers of Catan, which quickly showcased his competitive nature in the most hilarious way. His ability to bring out the best in others was extraordinary, and his immense following of friends a testament to his ingenuity and admiration.
I cannot express how much Nick will be missed by those lucky enough to know him, but I can say it is a great sorrow. His 23 years undoubtedly brought tremendous happiness to those he met, and many, many, many laughs. He accomplished so much in so little time, and I imagine he is still making people laugh in a higher place.
There has never been a better time for me to say, life is unexpected, and can be unexpectedly short — and to those you see every day or hardly at all, keep sight of those you love and care.
For Nick Wieme, shine on —