House

As a stranger, I'm visiting a San Diego household containing a picture perfect family.  They all have tan skin and button noses. This is the father's second marriage, but he's still close with his ex who makes an appearance in a family video they show me. They are sitting in front of a Volvo and the kids are moving in and out of the picture. The ex is in the background smiling. The grandmother shows me her handmade quilts and freshly picked radishes from the garden out back. The house feels suburban, but the stuff inside is more authentic. I want to find something wrong with the family, but have a difficult time doing so. 

The Flinging of Maps

A group of friends and strangers and colleagues and I are getting ready for a trip. I'm in charge of packing everything up: the cameras, scripts, maps. We are going to Iraq to shoot photography. I'm feeling pressured and uncertain about all of this. One of the women in my group is from Iraq, but she hasn't been home in 10 years. She comes from a wealthy family and will be staying with them in a safe, gated community outside of all the chaos. I examine maps with her. The airport customs people search through our things, all of which are in a massive trunk. They fling papers and maps all over the place.  

Small mom

My mom is small and feeble, sickly almost. She vomits and I pick her up and hold her like a baby. There are friends and strangers around the house, which is on a series of hills and greenery. Festivities are happening and a guy I barely know is trying to talk to me. I put my mom in bed. The guy follows me into another room and tries to kiss me. 

It's a Hard Knock Life

Michael, Beckett and I are in Brooklyn, specifically in Red Hook, under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. We are walking to Carol Gardens. Things have changed. The neighborhood doesn't feel as rough. We're looking for an apartment to live in and end up seeing one that we like. It's giant and has multiple windows, a porch and a big kitchen. But the current tenants smoke. They are younger college boys who are throwing a party at the place while people are there to hunt for an apartment. Everyone searching for an apartment has kids. Later my sister, Beckett and I find an atrium with parrots. We song it's a hard knock life and the parrots mimic us. Beckett loves this and we are all laughing. I sing like a Mexican crooner, surprised how close and clear my voice sounds in this way.  I think to myself that I haven't been funny in a while, or playful, and how good it feels to do this. My sister and I laugh.