Epilogue: For the first time in my adult life, I didn’t have a goal. I wanted a lasting relationship, a reason to stay, a purpose for a life in Brooklyn.
The Book
The Art of Jumping
Chapter X: The progression of the day had brought us together, our legs touching as I argued with myself whether or not I should kiss her. It seemed a foregone conclusion, but I’d been wrong before.
Allston That Ends Well.
Chapter IX: Allston is the cirrhosis-stricken liver of Boston’s college nexus. Calling it rat-infested inaccurately characterizes the natural ecosystem.
St. Roch Blues: A storm rages in New Orleans
Chapter VIII: She held out a box cutter. “Take this. Just in case.” The darkened St. Roch neighborhood was no place to walk without protection.
Gray Clouds: Diagnosed and depressed in the Emerald City
Chapter VII: It was mid-January and I had returned to familiar territory: jobless and scrambling to put together enough income to make it another month.
Letting It Ride: Remembering (and forgetting) what mattered in Music City
Chapter VI: I arrived in Nashville defeated. I had crawled through San Francisco and Chicago amidst the worst of the Great Recession and come out the other side, officially in the latter half of 10 Cities/10 Years; I was drained, bitter, and ready to give up.
How to Fail in Love, or: What a man will do
Chapter V: Chicago brought its share of challenges for Selene and me, financial and personal, but whereas in San Francisco there were common foes and foils to unite us, in Year 5, it was just the two of us.
Making it through: Surviving the Great Recession on opioids and vodka
Chapter IV: It's hard to express just how disastrously those first months in San Francisco went for us, but consider this: we moved to one of the priciest cities in the world in the month that economists have identified as the nadir of the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression. So, not great.
10 Cities/10 Years 