About

In a nutshell, this website doubles as an exercise in self-expression and an experiment in self-employment. After a few years away from the writing world, the itch to express myself by way of the written word came back quickly and without warning. I’ve decided I need to scratch that itch, see where the rash spreads and hopefully pocket a few pennies by way of publication in the process.

Since graduating from Stonehill College in May of 2004 I’ve had an eclectic employment history, entering the working world as a counter clerk at McDonald’s before a temporary tenure as an esteemed apartment cleaner in Eugene, Oregon. After six weeks of less-than-gainful employment experience in Track Town, USA, I launched myself back east and landed in my parents’ basement, accepting a commission-based cold calling gig at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette hawking newspapers to anyone who wasn’t already getting one, and in some cases, signing up people who already had a subscription. Hey, times were tough, and circulation records weren’t always up to date, but as long as the newspaper was landing in someone’s driveway I had healthcare benefits.

As luck would have it, and desperation necessitated, I landed a supplementary stint at the bottom of the totem pole in the T&G newsroom for 10 bucks an hour, taking after-hours phone calls from crazed coaches and transforming a slew of screwed-up stats and cloudy commentary into rousing roundups for the next morning’s sports section. I embraced the energy of my new environment and eventually realized that I had a way of working with words. As fate often flies, everything came together for me at the right time: a reporter was relieved of his writing duties after penning a plagiarism-plagued Superbowl story, the staff subsequently got shifted around, editors took note of my emerging abilities and before anyone could object I was editing copy without much experience under my belt, making a decent dime for the first time in my life and no longer selling newspaper subscriptions. After two years of trying to push the paper on anyone who would stay on the phone long enough to listen to me, I just kept my mouth shut.

I spent my days treading trodden trails and my evenings coming up with catchy headlines. On weekends I wrote a running column. Life was good. After a one-day affair interviewing in the athletic department of a Big Ten behemoth whose football team plays in a place called the Big House, I returned home unimpressed and uninterested, made good on a promise to pick up some part-time hours at PR Running in Westboro, Massachusetts, and started schleppin’ shoes as a side gig of sorts. I was essentially working all the livelong day and absolutely loving every minute of it.

Eventually, though, the long days started dragging me down, my injury rate increased and my social life suffered, surely signs that sixty-hour work weeks were becoming hazardous to my health. At the same time, the shoe business started booming, the newspaper industry took a nose dive, a managerial position materialized and before I could hack another headline I was all of a sudden an ex-editor earning a steady paycheck as the head honcho at the only running specialty store in Central Massachusetts.

For a while I continued my column, interviewed some fast folks and blogged with the best of ’em, but all of those exciting endeavors eventually came to an end as my responsibilities at the store started to skyrocket. After a few years of sitting on the sidelines, however, I’m ready to get back in the game and put my name back in some bylines.