| Maria: | Brendan, you really are getting good at frying sweet and sour chicken. I like eating it when you make it, and I appreciate your making dinner tonight. I just have one request. |
| Me: | (standing in the blasted, grease-spattered wreckage of our kitchen) Yeah? |
| Maria: | Don’t do it. |
Dear gentle reader: this blog has been operating continuously since I was a teenager. The writing below is at least a decade old. In that time every molecule of my body has been replaced, along with many foolish ideas and flighty beliefs. I want to keep some of those things public out of an honesty and humility I owe the world. I trust you to carry that context with you.