Man missing his son

Tristan King sat and stared at the flashy green sign in front of him. ‘25 Miles to Atlantic City’ it loudly proclaimed.
“Fucking waste of tax money,” he mumbled as he loosened his tie, bent over, and threw it in the suitcase at his feet. "Like anyone in Jersey doesn't know where Atlantic City is." He looked across the street at the busy playground. Kids all shapes and sizes running around, happy for their freedom. Bright yellows, reds and blues made his eyes tear.
"Man up, King" He whispered to himself. He wiped his eyes and tried to keep the bad memories at bay. He remembered bringing Danny to that same playground, pushing Danny on the tire swing as his little hands held on tight and yelled, "Higher Daddy, higher!" He looked at his watch impatiently, 4:30. Time seemed to go by at a slower pace since Danny died, though it had been six months already, everyday seemed like a struggle. Not to his wife though. No, Mrs. Susan King was living it up, enjoying her life.
"Move on" she said. He wondered what his wife would think of his idea of moving on. He looked at the suitcase filled with the money from their joint bank account and savings, and some clothes he grabbed. As the 4:35 bus pulled up, he thought that Atlantic City was the perfect place to 'move on'.

Spring Break read

Over spring break, I read the novel ‘What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day’ by Pearl Cleage. This is Pearl Cleage’s first novel; she’s originally a playwright and after reading her novel you can definitely tell. Her characters are well-rounded and the dialogue she uses is powerful, thought provoking, and moving. ‘What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day’ is a story about a woman, Ava Johnson, who comes to Idlewild for the summer where her sister Joyce lives. The book deals with a lot of heavy issues. Ava is HIV positive, while Joyce works at a shelter with deals with teen pregnancy, rape, domestic violence, addiction, and a pedophile priest. Though there are a lot of tense moments, the light moments make the book. Ava eventually meets a man Eddie, and they fall in love, despite her illness. It’s an intense book but it’s the witty narration that doesn’t make it to heavy. Passages like this describing her HIV status, “Most of us got it from the boys. Which is, when you think about it, a pretty good argument for cutting men loose, but if I could work up a strong physical reaction to women, I would already be having sex with them. I'm not knocking it. I'm just saying I can't be a witness. Too many titties in one place to suit me.” She makes these horrible issues funny and witty, which is really difficult. It's definitely a new take on a romance novel. I would definitely recommend this book to others.

Notes to my Biographer critique

I really enjoyed Notes to my Biographer.It went from really funny to really sad. First, the title is great. It really pulled me into the story. I thought he had some great descriptions that made me literally laugh out loud like, “The mental-health establishment can go screw itself on a barren hilltop in the rain before I touch their snake oil or listen to the vision less chatter of men half my age.” or “I could run circles around those kids. They're spoon-fed Ritalin and private schools and have eyes that say, Give me things I don't have.” My favorite line is "All I can think is I hope this guy isn't out here trying to get acting jobs, because it's obvious to me right away that my son is gay and is screwing this character with the expensive-looking glasses".
It also had some very sad parts;his family doesn't want to see him,he hasn't seen his family in four years, and his son thinks he might be dead after all that time. The character is really like able though very eccentric, I didn't know if I should laugh with him or at him or if I should feel sorry for him. I was upset he left his son in the hotel room by himself, but I'm glad he left the note for him. The only issue I had was I wished I knew what was wrong with him. Clearly there was an issue with him, I'm just curious to know what. All in all though I loved it.

My sensational but nonchalant event

As I unwrapped my Subway turkey sandwich, I knew exactly what I was going to see. I looked up at my parents and hoped they didn’t see the disappointment in my eyes.
“Oh no, they put mayonnaise on it?” my mom said as she looked up from her sandwich. I shouldn’t have been surprised my mom has always seen right through me.
“It’s OK mom. I’ll just wipe it off.” I went to the kitchen and grabbed a handful of napkins as I walked back into the living room, I noticed my parents whispering together.
“So what’s up guys, why did you wanna see me?” As I looked at the goopy white stuff on the delicious bread I gagged.
“Well the thing is we got a letter the other day hunny. And there’s something we need to tell you.” My mom wrung her hands together and my father grabbed them.
“Son, the letter was from your real parents. We adopted you twenty-six years ago and now you’re real parents want to meet you.” My dad put his head down in shame.
“Well twenty-six years is a long time but I guess I can give them a call or something, right?” As I scrape the mayo off the turkey, I tried to avoid getting it on my fingers. It was pretty gross stuff.
“Joe, do you understand, we’re not your parents? Are you mad, do you have any questions for us?”
“Yea ma, I get it. I told you I’ll call or something, squeeze them in but can you get me some bread. This shit is all over.”

Embarrassing Moment

I’ve had a lot of awkward moments in my life. Being a klutz, it was normal for me to trip over air or hit something daily. In fourth grade, at the age of ten, I did something a little out of the ordinary. I was in my Science class, a class that I loved at the time. We were learning about plants and the water cycle, and my teacher Ms. DeLuise told us we could plant our own plants and see how they grow. I have to admit I was pretty geeky and excited to get a flower, the only bad part was that some people would have to share because she was short some flower packages. I was certain that I didn’t want to share my flower. My plan was to be the first one to go get their flower packet and then the ones at the end would have to share; I would already be busy planting my flower. The only issue was that Ms. DeLuise, though a sweetheart and every kids favorite teacher, was also very scatterbrained. While she was busy looking for some papers and writing assignments on the board, I was waiting patiently for the picking of flower packets to begin. As I was waiting, I started to get that feeling deep down. I started jiggling my leg but it wouldn’t go away. I thought of dry desserts full of sand and rolling around in the laundromat dryers, but nothing. I had to go to the bathroom, desperately. I thought in my head that we had to pick flowers soon, class was almost over. I could even take the packet with me in the bathroom, so I definitely wouldn’t have to share, it was a better plan then I had before. Finally, Ms. DeLuise realized what time it was and let us pick our flowers as I was getting up to rush over, I tripped on the side leg of my desk and fell…and peed. I couldn’t hold it in without my legs crossed. I thought I could get away with it, just rush to the bathroom and wait until the bell rang. That was until my archenemy, Mike Haluska yelled out to the class, “Stephanie peed her pants.” It was the worst moment of my life; I can still remember everyone turning to look at me on the floor. I didn’t even get a flower.

5 Stereotypical Characters and their changes

5 Stereotypical characters

1.) The Jock- tall and handsome, strong, well built, charming, not smart, usually a jerk or a jerk turned good, dates a cheerleader or a popular girl
2.) The Girl Next Door-the ‘perfect’ girl, she is pretty but really sweet and smart too, down to earth, friends with everyone, usually ends up with the jerk turned good or a jock
3.) The Stoner- smokes and eats, unkempt, never gets anything done or adds up to anything, the losers, thinks weed can make any situation better
4.) The Snob- mostly a popular girl, pretty but not very smart, blonde, wants everything to go her way, doesn’t associate with losers, gossips and usually spreads nasty rumors about someone innocent
5.) The Nerd-too smart for his own good, picked on by his peers, either unkempt or extremely neat, not very good looking, usually corrects people when they speak or say anything incorrect, losers, probably wears glasses, dresses out of style

Not so Stereotypical characters

1.) The Jock- fakes an injury to get out of sports to see if he can get into college by his own merit, he does and becomes a sportscaster
2.) The Girl Next Door- goes to college, starts experimenting with drugs in her dorm, ends up with a bad crowd, fails out of college, goes back home and with the support of her parents gets her drug problem under control, goes to nursing school and becomes the head nurse at the local hospital
3.) The Stoner- smokes until his fifteen year old son finds his stash and asks to smoke with him
4.) The Snob- realizes that idle gossip isn’t for her and majors in journalism and communication studies in college; she gets a job as a local news reporter spreading truth across the area
5.) The Nerd- becomes a lawyer to help the ‘little people’ who can’t help themselves

My town

Bound Brook
When I was eight I moved to a small town called Bound Brook. It is one of the smallest towns in New Jersey. Length wise it’s only a mile long and it only has three major streets: Union, Mountain Ave, and Main Street.
Union Avenue is where everything important is. Whether it’s Chinese, Italian, Mexican, subs, sweets, hotdogs, burgers, or a grocery run, you’ll end up on Union Ave. Union Ave. has two Chinese restaurants, an Italian restaurant and bakery, a Subway, a Dunkin Donuts, a Quick Check, Burger King, a Weiner Heaven, Tony’s Pizzeria, Jose’s and a Shop-Rite; you cannot go hungry on this street if you have a couple of dollars. Besides food though, you can also fill your tank, and get all your sporting good needs at the Gulf and Efinger’s. There are also two pediatricians, a dentist, the high school, and some houses littering this street.
Vertically from Union Ave is Mountain Ave. This street, old-timers call Amen Ave. Mountain Ave has 3 churches, one Roman Catholic, one Methodist, one Protestant; it has a temple, a funeral parlor, and a cemetery. It is the most depressing or uplifting street you can be on, depending on who you ask.
The last street, parallel to Union Ave, is Main Street. You could call Main Street the ‘bad part’ of Bound Brook. Main Street is where the train station and the Bound Brook community housing is, or the projects to people who live there. It is a big Hispanic community and a lot of people living there are illegal immigrants or may have family who has illegal immigrants. In 2001, Hurricane Floyd ripped through our area leaving Main Street and many other parts of Bound Brook underwater, literally. Because of this hurricane, a lot of businesses and homes on Main Street were unlivable due to mold and water damage. Unfortunately, because of the status of some of the occupants downtown they were thrown out of their houses and businesses and downtown was left destroyed.
The next year, Bound Brook was hit again by Hurricane Katrina. The brook overflowed this time and most of town had to be rebuilt. The water had come so high that it hit the traffic lights and many had to be re-wired. Again, Main Street got ignored and many people had to leave their homes.
It was only until a couple of months later when Hurricane Rita came that our mayor decided it was time to do something. Lately they have been putting up walls to block the water from coming on the main streets. Main Street is an on-going project. Many houses and businesses had to be knocked down because of the condition and neglect, and many are sitting there empty. Only time will tell if it will go back to its original state.