LawsonRay.com
LawsonRay.com
It’s the last Thursday of the month, which means it’s wrestling night at Ol’ Shenanigans with the boys. It’s a tradition Pete, Jim and I have kept up for thirty years and we ain’t about to change tonight. And I wouldn’t want to. Pete orders his rum and coke, Jim gets his Jameson on the […]
I’ve never been afraid of my own reflection. In fact, I’ve quite enjoyed it. I’m sure anyone would with a reflection as stunning as mine. If I bite down in just the right way and push my tongue into the roof of my mouth, my jawline looks more chiseled than that of a Greek God. […]
When a mother conceives, she immediately starts to fret. She frets over whether she has what it takes. She frets about how the kid will turn out, and whether she’s got any control over it either way. She wonders why anyone in their right mind would let her leave the hospital with a living, breathing, […]
It’s been seven years since I was put in the nursing home, which is four more than I thought I’d be here and seven more than I wanted. But I understand how life works. You live your days in as much comfort, love and bliss as you can until one day when you can’t. You […]
Gail and I have always been fortunate in life. We’ve been blessed with great kids, relative financial success, and of course we found each other. Our friends and relatives would always call our fortune ‘luck’, but I’d always preferred to think we had a hand in our own success. The two of us had been […]
Peggy-Sue always knew she should smile more. Miss Mercy ‘d say go and play with the other children now. If your grin appears too thin, you’ll lament what might have been. Turn that frown upside down, if you want a home one day, Or face your doom down inside the Smile Room. The two jump […]
Even after all the days I’ve endured it seems to get colder. My knees are shivering, but my heart whimpers more. Bugsy’s long floppy ears are as strained as I’ve ever seen them. His ribcage shows and his gnawed legs shiver more as daylight wanes. His breaths are short and his nose twitches along with […]
My radar started going nuts only a couple minutes ago. I finally found the lively shipwreck Davis always said was the best for catching bass. I put hand over hand as fast as I can to spin that stubborn old wheel to the left and reach down to cut the engine at the same time. […]
They say you and nobody but you can change your life for better or worse. I suppose in some demonic manner I found that to be true. I awoke one dreary Monday a little over a year ago perhaps on the wrong side of the bed, but certainly not planning on ruining my own life. […]
I’ve learned a lot in my 78 years on this Earth, but the leanings of madness have been the most impactful. Madness is truly only erroneous perceptions from which one comes to justifiable conclusions. And those erroneous perceptions are only based upon the veil of reality: a standardized perception we expect all to employ. But […]
I never really liked toys that were meant for boys. Something about firetrucks and army men didn’t catch my eye. I wasn’t interested in their implied chaos and disaster even when I was too young to fully attribute the toys to their places in the world. My father would even try to drag me down […]
I’ve lived in New York City for all my career, which is somewhere between seven years and eternity. It’s hard to get a decent grasp on time in the city that never sleeps, but what I do know is that my days in the city has been a grind. A grind that blunts your bones […]
Dating has been tough for me lately, as I’m sure it’s been for all us singles. I just didn’t know how strange it would be. Where are you supposed to meet people these days? My preferred means was always through organic interaction, but I can’t leave my house, and whenever I do strangers treat each […]
Enzo is a gifted kid, always has been. And I know what you’re thinking: don’t know all mothers claim their son is ‘gifted’? They act like he’s the second coming of Jesus but with traces of Superman, Ghandi, and Einstein. They say he’s bound for Harvard because he learned how to walk three weeks earlier […]
Professor Wendell began working through his tell-tale signs moments before announcing a sadistic assignment. He’d flick his pen back and forth between his index and ring finger twice – three times if it was particularly devious. “Oh no, there he goes,” I whispered and nudged Frank Scelto, my only friend in the class. Frank looked […]
Reed and I were together for five years, but sometimes I lost track. As they say: time flies when you’re having fun. He was everything I’ve ever wanted in a man. Reed was handsome, patient, attentive and passionate. Recently, I had the pleasure of stringing nearly one hundred iterations of the word “yes” together, clutching […]
I used to always hate history class, especially in middle school. If we weren’t covering a war then the class just dragged on about tiresome theory, writings, and unrelatable struggles from hundreds of years ago. Who cares about what life was like in the 1500s under British rule? I envied them in a way – […]
Frank’s Route 66 Diner As I approached mile marker 43 in Missouri I subconsciously curled my foot around the top of the pedal. My 2012 Honda Accord sunk towards the ground and purred in a struggle to match my desired pace. The car ripped by the exit too fast to read the signage. Suddenly I […]