in tenth grade the freaks found me. that was what the football players and cheerleaders called them anyway. a little group of suburban punks and goths and skaters and general outcast kids, joined together by their intelligence and interest in non-ma

My halloween plans were up in the air this year; whatever I ended up doing was going to be a last-minute thing. This made it easier to procrastinate on a costume until 4pm yesterday, when I sat at my desk at work and realized that the first halloween

after the show tonight, I stopped in at a halloween store for some costume inspiration. my two good ideas looked terrible in the trial run, and it's one day until my first party, so I'm sort of desperate. I wandered the aisles hopefully and came acro

the show was at an awful club, it was packed with little NYU students, and the band absolutely butchered one of their hit songs, roadies and tech guys rushing onstage to readjust monitors and try to right the sound. and still, somehow, I enjoyed the

six random facts that either tell you everything about me or tell you nothing at all(...for my all-time favorite holiday...)1) the first halloween costume I ever had was when I was seven months old. my mom dressed as a gypsy and made me her gypsy ba

last night my childhood friend Alina and I went to see "Cocoon: The Road Trip," Microcosm's zine/book/video tour. I really wanted to see the documentary, $100 and a T-shirt, but I was initially hesitant about going, partly because zine cul

did you know that getting hit on your chin (or tripping over another girl's skates and crashing down onto your chin) counts as a head injury? and head injuries sometimes equal concussions? and the symptoms of concussions sometimes equal my monday nig

at the office with two coworkers, one of whom notices my large, velcro-y leg brace for the first time.Coworker 1: What happened?Me: I fell rollerskating. I hit a slick patch and went down on the inside of my knee.Coworker 2: How very 1988.despite my

For instance, when you are skating in circles around a big, shiny roller rink and hit a slick patch and skid right down, all your weight crushing into your inner right knee, but make it back onto your wheeled feet and feel sort of okay and keep skati

at the Against Me! show last night, a political message:"Some of you know, I'm an anarchist. (cheering) So it might seem a little hypocritical for me to say, but this year everyone should go vote. (cheering) Because this year the stakes... (chee

Many months ago Xian asked me how I felt about publicly posting stories about young men I knew. After all, these young men knew I was a writer, were writers themselves - surely they would find the site and have some opinion about being the object of

today I went out to buy a winter coat. I came home instead with lots of things covered in skulls. photo albums with printed skulls, pajamas with screened skulls, socks with cartoon skulls, girly things with pink skulls. all of it cute and vicious a

I got my horoscope emailed to me today, but when I opened it up it was blank. so either my future is limitless, containing all variables of all possibilities in the universe, everything thought and unthought and beyond thought...or it all ends here I

so I don't usually post political stuff, divisive as it is. but I'd like to reiterate some recent news stories that are worth considering before november 2. one is the latest anti-US, terrorist-sympathizing nation to endorse this candidate (meanw

when Meg A lived in New York she knew a lot of awesome, crazy people. I knew some of them too, a little. but I was not then as I am now, and instead of inviting myself along to shows and on trips and to people's houses, I spent a lot of time with my

I was listening to the Tah Dahs last night and wanted to add them to my favorites list over in that left gutter, so I did a Google search. The band's site was the second entry and this is what it said:The TAH-DAHS! If you don't like to dance, you're

It was a disastrous first date, full of mixed signals and covered by a haze of confusion and followed all night by old dates trailing the proceedings like idealized ghosts. But even so, there was a moment, a moment when she entered the bar's back ro

today I cheated. entries have been accumulating in my draft file, things that are halfway begun or nearly finished or all the way complete but were not posted because my mood had changed or I worried I'd be misinterpreted. or maybe I worried I'd be

The skinny blond hipster behind me in line was trying to talk me into switching places. He wanted to get the female masseuse, the cute South American girl who he was flirting with as she kneaded his friend's shoulders. I didn't see a reason why I sho

I live alone and I own four sets of bedsheets. I have six bath towels and three pillows. Two different sets of dishes. And dish towels.I have a desk full of empty notebooks and blank greeting cards, all to be used someday, I'm sure, I hope. I have ca

today I got the best fortune cookie fortune ever. it said: "Two important decisions shall be made by you soon." it got me very excited. what could they be?

I've spent the last three days at work reading over revised book pages to make sure the author's changes were made correctly. Usually this is not a big deal, but this particular author is going through all her books (of which there are many), osten

walking around the city tonight I thought about CMJs past and realized that it wasn't just last year's October I was hoping for - it's all Octobers past. there's been precedent for falls full of possibilities over the last few years, surprises fill

I can't even learn from my own revelations. Today starts the CMJ music marathon, and I am as giddy for the next four days as I am every year. I love seeing bands and hearing music and just being in the middle of tons of strangers here to do the sa

I am chock full of false promises.