his is getting frustrating. People think I'm in Alaska when I'm really in Wyoming. People think I'm in Wyoming when I'm in Detroit. A resolution: I will add a line at the bottom of every entry with the location I'm writing from. Like this:

written in Kalamazoo, Michigan

That way, people will know where I actually am. By the way, I'm in Kalamazoo, Michigan. You heard me: Kalamazoo, Michigan. Back in the day, my brother and I spent our summers here in the suburbs with our cousins Joey, Becky, and Scotty. We learned every corner of Crossroads Mall, we filmed our own live version of Star Wars (the youngest, I was always R2D2) , we invented a secret language named after my hamster. We picked blueberries by the lake in the woods and put on shows and mashed ice cream and chocolate syrup and peanut butter together to make some special dessert whose special name currently eludes me, and at twilight, we ran around the front yard chasing lightning bugs. When they got older, Becky, Joey, and Scotty got jobs at the infamous Star World, a palatial Eighties arcade that was the centerpiece of the Kilgore strip mall. 10-cent hotdogs and all-you-can-drink Coke ( I mean "pop"). Still too young to work, I spent the summer of 1986 trying to get past the Banana stage on Ms. PacMan and lusting after 14-year-old Andy Kovach, who got wasted one night and admitted to me that he was in love with my cousin Becky, right before he threw up on himself and passed out. I loved him anyway, and wiped chunks of vomit from his hair. But the best was the summer of 1988, when Becky worked at Ponderosa. I fell hard for Scott Peterson, who was fuck-all older than me, and one night at the Wendy's Drive-Thru, I asked if he thought he might, by any chance, be in love with my cousin Becky. He said he might, and I burst into tears. Two days later, he kissed me on his front porch with dip in his mouth. It was heaven.

I haven't been to Kalamazoo in over a decade. Ponderosa and Star World are gone. The High Wheeler Ice Cream Parlour, where my brother ate the 24-scoop Big Wheel, is gone. Andy Kovach and Scott Peterson, on the other hand, never made it out, so maybe it's time to make my move. These days, my cousin's married with two kids.

Oops, I almost forgot:
written in Kalamazoo, Michigan