When I first realized I was gay and had my first crush, Adrienne, I was a little southern Baptist girl living in a small town insulated by the ideas of the church, handed down to me by the imposing hands of my foremothers and forefathers.  Adrienne came to… Read full post »

I live in Springfield, Missouri, a town most known for being the childhood home to Brad Pitt and the epicenter of Bass Pro, a major merchandiser of hunting and fishing goods.  We have a population of 160,000 in city limits, but boast a metro area (if you can call it that)… Read full post »

It was going to be a long day at work.  I was thankful to have a job.  After all, I'd been jobless for a couple of weeks a few months back, and buying groceries had been my fear.  My car had just broken down and I had to borrow money from… Read full post »

I was posting a comment on another "Editor's Pick" about the tragedy in Aurora, Colorado when I started to feel all of these emotions of extreme frustration and anger on top of the sadness for all of the victims and families.  Not only did I have more than a few things… Read full post »

In running a business, it's best to try to appeal to the widest audience with the most money.  The fast food industry is a competitive market, especially considering that low-end brands rule, oftentimes needing the income of diners to support marketing and brand recognition.  Yes, people ne… Read full post »

This one always told me she wouldn't hurt me.  There I sat, in a new house on a strange street, strange noises in my ears, alone.  My blue corded phone thrown down in the bedroom, off the hook and whining while my cordless phone was thrown somewhere across the vast living… Read full post »

Driving into Springfield, Missouri, you might get the hint of metropolitan air.  You might smell a little bit of city life in this college town, but that smell is just the wafting of church socials.  On each street between liquor stores and fast food restaurants, you'll find a church to mat… Read full post »

I'm not 43 years old.  I'm not old enough to remember the Stonewall riots that occurred in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 in a gay bar in New York.  My mother isn't even old enough to have been a participant in the Stonewall riots.  I've never even been… Read full post »

Twenty-nine year old Kansas City, Missourian Jacole Prince reportedly locked her eldest daughter up in her closet for who knows how long in her own excrement, punched her in the back, neglected her, and starved her.  She was ten years old and weighed 32 pounds.  For reference, an average te… Read full post »

It was my sophomore year in high school.  She was a zillion feet tall, looming large and so brilliantly skinny.  She did a million things at once with relative ease, going between dance practices and band performances with all the energy of a fireball.  She even had time left over for… Read full post »

Hey, North Carolina... What would be the reason you would deny gay couples all of the rights, even, of gay marriage?  You already had a ban on gay marriage in the first place, but to add insult to injury, you banned domestic partnerships in all forms.  And you allowed a popular… Read full post »

It's been since 2008 that I've had problems with my eyes.  They've jutted back and forth over a landscape I'm not too focused on like an impressionist painter just bringing the landscape to life in the first place.  Since then, I've lost vision in my left eye three times to varying… Read full post »

Sitting in the middle of a group of 20 or so relative strangers aside from my microbiology professor, in my head I'm praying the rain outside continues.  The teacher of the Community Emergency Response Team training at our local Emergency Management department is hoping that we get out into the… Read full post »

I went back to school with a goal in mind.  I'm going to get in, learn, and get out with a degree that will be of use to me and that I will enjoy for years to come.  I want to be a nurse.  It's a field that's ever in demand,… Read full post »

Surburbia (n):  residential areas that exist on the fringes of larger cities, usually of the quick-build by an individual developer, same style, straight-street type, with or without cul-de-sacs (extra points with them, though!); a great place to raise children, build fences from nosy neighbors… Read full post »

I had a dream last night my partner cheated on me.  Not just cheating, even.  She brought the offending party in our house, then laughed in my face WHILE cheating on me.  I tried to slap the offending party, but my partner just kept laughing at me while my slaps were… Read full post »

"Does anyone have any advice for lowering interest rates/minimum payments due on credit cards?"

A question by a friend of mine on Facebook, directed to all of her 250 or so "friends."  Several had replied with things that will not work in this environment, one had replied with a for-profit "debt… Read full post »

We say goodbye to him this upcoming week.  He was cremated with his kippah, his remains will be laid to rest in a cemetary in a small town east of here.  He'd struggled since he and his husband left for their cruise with osteosarcoma.  He refused to die in the hospital,… Read full post »

A judge in Aransas County, Texas, William Adams, beat his 16-year-old daughter with cerebral palsy over downloading pirated music and games. He hears cases frequently over the fitness of a parent to take care of children, yet he was videotaped by his daughter flinging a belt at her multiple time… Read full post »

I've been closely following the "Occupy Wall Street" protests with fervor and wonderment.  It's been somewhat of a restorative to my faith in people to organize and protest, and somewhat of a detriment to my hope that we're being honest with one another.

I read through a… Read full post »

For as long as I can remember, anyone I've ever told even bits of my childhood serial to have wondered how I didn't evolve into a drug-addicted petty criminal.  They've looked at me with a blank stare as I've shared my secrets of child abuse, neglect, and emotional trauma over the… Read full post »

Imagine your formative years having just one side of the story.  My mother never really told me much about my father except when she was forced to pony up.  His mother and father saw me three or four times (for appearances, you know), I knew where they lived in the same… Read full post »

I stayed with my grandparents a lot as a kid, and I'm sure that's what made me as sane as I am today.  I was born in the 80s, which was about the time that TV was becoming the babysitter du jour.  My grandma and grandpa had a video I'd been… Read full post »

I don't quite remember when I started smoking, but I never thought I'd become one of "those smokers."  Those smokers being my mother, who smoked a pack a day, who ran to the gas station every morning, who smoked in bed to avoid the smoker hack, who threw her butts out… Read full post »

She was a woman who smiled back at me when I smiled at people in the hallways at work.  She was a woman who worked arm in arm with us in a department that you're constantly getting people who are more than likely mentally ill screaming at you, calling you names,… Read full post »