By U.S. State
By Country
Stale Bread
by Catherine Kramer | Jul 13, 2016 | Placeless
I have spent the past few months reading and laughing and feeling a part of a larger community of people who frequented the site. The Toastie community is known for its camaraderie.
My Fair-feather Friend
by Abby Zwart | Jul 12, 2016 | Placeless
It was decided, with enthusiasm on their parts and mild curiosity on mine, that we should have a bird in the house.
How to Age with Style
by Elaine Schnabel | Jul 11, 2016 | Placeless
Last night I met a twenty-something who is in her last year of undergraduate work. She seemed so young, so bright-eyed and comfortable. I swear I heard my knees creak.
Becoming Who Everyone Already Thinks You Are
by Bart Tocci | Jul 9, 2016 | Placeless
Because my last name is the same as the company name, I am sometimes asked if I am the owner of the company. Which always seems funny to me. “You think I’m responsible enough to own something?
Songs for the Soul
by Paul Menn | Jul 8, 2016 | Placeless
Spending weeks dealing with a really messed up world and a debilitating weakness have made me really depressed. So, I did the only thing I could to raise my spirits—I made a mixtape.
Carpool Confessions
by Caroline (Higgins) Nyczak | Jul 7, 2016 | New York
John has a car and offers to drive home from grad class every Tuesday and Wednesday night for three months. There are four of us for a twenty-minute drive home, and I quickly come to love the car rides and the camaraderie.
andy and emily and markus and me
by Josh deLacy | Jul 6, 2016 | Washington
The apple tree shines, and someone puts on Springsteen before the fireworks start. New girlfriends, new jobs, new lives.
Training Collar
by Alissa Anderson | Jul 5, 2016 | New York
People know that collar = priest. Seeing a twenty-something woman in a collar is something of an anomaly.
Airport Purgatory
by Ben Rietema | Jul 4, 2016 | Australia, California
Of course, it’s unfair to judge a culture based on experiences in airport terminals.
Sydney
by Sabrina Lee | Jul 3, 2016 | Kentucky
About eight hours and one time zone away from me, in eastern Kentucky, tucked between the steep, short mountains, there is a small city with a population of around 7,000.
Culinary Show Binge-Watching Bingo
by Jacob Schepers | Jul 2, 2016 | Placeless
Shows like these, the structural elements composing each episode, have taught me (oddly) as much about genre as any work of theory.
I Found Myself Alone
by Katerina Parsons | Jul 1, 2016 | Honduras
But sometimes I am lonely, so lonely that I can’t take this solitude as a gift. It feels embarrassing or unfashionable to admit this, that after almost a year, I feel untethered and empty sometimes, even despite support systems and good friends.
What We Talk About When We Talk About The Fire Alarm
by Meg Schmidt | Jun 30, 2016 | Grand Rapids
We had been bearing all of these trials patiently enough, however, until the day the toilet started belching. I want you to imagine what that must sound like, and after you have, I want you to imagine me hearing those sounds alone in the apartment—which coincidentally, did not contain a plunger.
Pandas and Perspective
by Becky Jen | Jun 29, 2016 | Placeless
Regardless, it’s foolish of me to believe that a panda can be anything but cute and cuddly. If I fail to see and acknowledge the less-than-cutesy aspects, I remain in a state of partiality and partial truth.
A Whisky Silence
by Bekah (Williamson) Medendorp | Jun 28, 2016 | Placeless
Although Christmas in June is not an actual tradition, you’ve been good this year so I want to reward you with the gift of silence, and Nick Offerman.
K-Strass
by Brad Zwiers | Jun 27, 2016 | Placeless
It’s all part of the character, that character we’ve all met at some point or another: so-called professionals who are no good at what they claim to be at, like a magician who can’t hide a card.
Momentos de Tejas
by Nick Meekhof | Jun 26, 2016 | Texas
By the end of the night, the musician had burned himself out, Ed was snoozing on a table in the back, and a thirteen-year-old girl who’d somehow snuck in was able to snag a selfie with “the Michigan Boys.”
To The Class of 2016: What I’ve Learned Since Graduation
by Ryan Struyk | Jun 25, 2016 | Placeless
It’s not always easy chasing after whichever field God points you toward, especially if the words “vile” or “sordid” sometimes apply.
Dear Class of 2019
by Lauren (Boersma) Harris | Jun 24, 2016 | Placeless
I know adults aren’t easy to trust, and teachers least of all, but please trust me. Trust that I know what I’m talking about, even just a little bit. Trust that I might, on occasion, be right when you’re wrong.
PrideTube
by Michael Kelly | Jun 23, 2016 | Placeless
If you are looking for a powerful, enlightening, and comforting essay about the devastating loss our community suffered on June 12th, 2016, I cannot find the words for you right now.
Learning to Mourn
by Gabe Gunnink | Jun 20, 2016 | Florida
What I really want the smiling broadcasters to say is that there is no silver lining. This is not an opportunity or a warning call or a new beginning. It is an ending, and endings should be mourned.
15 Things I Learned From My Father
by Mary Margaret Healy | Jun 19, 2016 | Placeless
10. If it’s broken, don’t buy a new one: try to fix it. Hot glue, superglue, epoxy, solder. In that order.
A Game of Croquet
by Ben DeVries | Jun 18, 2016 | Placeless
Jessica, meanwhile, cut against the interpretive grain. She saw in Stephen’s lurching movements, his silent fury, his body at war with itself, something that looked like her.
Postcards from England
by Geneva Langeland | Jun 17, 2016 | England
Dear Reader, I’m writing to you from my bathrobe. In a window seat. In a castle. In England.
The Psalmic Patience of Chance the Rapper’s ‘Blessings’
by Andrew Knot | Jun 16, 2016 | Placeless
But the author of the Vespasian Psalter and his fellow blessing traditionalists needn’t despair. If blessings could jump the shark on the heels of one rapper, could they possibly be redeemed by another?
The Coffee Chronicles
by Cassie Westrate | Jun 15, 2016 | Placeless
Because once you’ve been compared to mayonnaise, things can only get better.
Plain
by Will Montei | Jun 14, 2016 | Grand Rapids, Wisconsin
I was not just leaving behind a friend, but someone who loves the parts of me I don’t. Sometimes adulthood just feels like a dawn of frequent partings.
I Don’t Wanna Pray
by Catherine Kramer | Jun 13, 2016 | Placeless
I don’t pray anymore. I feel like I should want to, but I don’t. I bow my head in church and before meals, but those are more habits than prayers.
Go Forth
by Abby Zwart | Jun 12, 2016 | Placeless
A lot of commercials lately seem to be taking on social issues, and I think it’s important for us to see our world through the lens of an advertiser.
I Am Donald Trump
by Elaine Schnabel | Jun 11, 2016 | Portugal
Entitled. Selfish. Hostile. Angry. Fearful.
