Tag: memoir

Coffee shop Chronicles: An awkward coffee conversation

January 2017 Starbucks Livonia, MI My fingertips touch the grande cup of coffee when I think to ask, “This isn’t yours, is it?” “Oh no,” the guy next to me says. “I watched her make mine because I got hazelnut in it. I’m trying something new.” I didn’t really think it was mine; I was …

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Coffee Shop Chronicles: On staying and leaving,

Starbucks Cherry Hill, NJ October 2002 I’m shaking from hitting the curb as I pulled in. I don’t see any damage, but I’m uncontrollably jittery.  It’s a good thing I brought my journal tonight.  My mocha Frappuccino will just add caffeine to my jitters, but the journal, well, that’s relaxing.  I hope. It’s an older …

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Summer Camp – Part Two

  Still on two week National Guard duty at Phelps Collins Air Base in the 1960’s, I was a lowly Airman Second Class manning our medical infirmary late at night. Sometime after ten o’clock, with the outside floodlight casting a harsh glare over the parking lot, several cars pulled up. Anyone arriving that late could …

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Coffee Shop Chronicles: It’s all phone and games

Espresso Royale Ann Arbor, MI November 2016 There’s a PokéStop right outside the Espresso Royale–next door at Noodles & Company, actually–but I can spin as I sip my coffee. It’s Autumn Spice coffee today.  That’s new; I’ve never seen it here before.  Different, a hint of cinnamon and sweetness that’s smooth and full. I stare …

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Summer Camp

I was administering vaccinations against cholera, black plague, and black fever as part of an annual active-duty deployment. It was a hot, July afternoon at Phelps Collins Air National Guard base west of Alpena, Michigan. Trained as an Operating Room Specialist in the United States Air Force, I was qualified to assist in major surgeries …

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