All of my belongings scattered around me and my iPad in hand, I casually searched for the plane ticket I had saved in my e-mail while the attendant laughed at me. “How do you ever get anywhere you want to go?”  I looked up at him and smiled-- because the answer/… Read full post »

I met Rose when she convinced me to stay in one of the bungalows she owned. She convinced me before her glasses broke, but once they did I knew we would be friends. Covered head to toe in a burka and a floral shirt with a flowing pink skirt,… Read full post »

Technically it wasn't my fault, although I did quote Robert Frost when I sensed they were swaying.  In their silence, those who did not dissent agreed and as we sat on the side of the road debating the better choice, I quoted the poem. "Two roads diverged in a… Read full post »

The sound of the rooster strikes me awake so astutely that I must not have been very asleep.  In the distance it sounds like someone's dragging furniture across the clouds and the night flashes bright. I know a storms coming and then the drops start and its here--… Read full post »

We arrive in Mui Ne along with the rain that followed us the entire way, slithering and snaking alongside the coastal road.  Every hour found us pulling off to meet Jessie on the shoulder, her face red and fuming with frustration, her bike red and wheezing with exhaustion. … Read full post »

The alarm goes off at four in the morning and the beeping sounds more like laughter.  It's laughing right in his face. He's not going now.  “Pouring” doesn't describe the type of rain we're hearing.  It sounds like we're all sleeping under a tin roof beneath Niagara… Read full post »

My last year of college, I lived in an area in Knoxville where the asphalt cracks and roaches scratch across the sandpaper cement. Orange lights drew circles on the streets at night and didn't hide the occasional prostitute that would open the door of a slowed vehicle. The money to restore downt… Read full post »