My Days in Doha (with My Sons)

A log of the two weeks my boys spent with me in Doha, Qatar over the 2018-19 winter break. 25 December – Christmas Day 5 minutes into the start of Christmas Day, my sons were scheduled to arrive at Hamad International Airport in Qatar. About 30-40 minutes after their plane touched down, they both emerged… Continue reading My Days in Doha (with My Sons)

Three Christmases

Christmas Past  After my sons’ mother and I separated, she became a Jevohah’s Witness, which meant it would be entirely up to me to celebrate all future birthdays and Christmases with them. That first Christmas I took my boys to my hometown of Ironwood, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. My plan was to take them… Continue reading Three Christmases

8 Ways of Saying Qatar

This week's blog post was influenced by three things: me lying in bed musing about the different ways of pronouncing Qatar (see NPR newscast); me learning about the Nabati Poetry tradition and the subject matters for the form; and my love for Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Catara Before the start of class, a student tells me… Continue reading 8 Ways of Saying Qatar

Sunday Morning, 11 November

“Sunday morning, rain is falling/ Steal some covers, share some skin/ Clouds are shrouding us in moments unforgettable/ You twist to fit the mold that I am in” - -Maroon 5, “Sunday Morning”   “You came in with the breeze/ On Sunday Morning/ You sure have changed since yesterday/ Without any warning” - -No Doubt,… Continue reading Sunday Morning, 11 November

Building a Better Koshari

While living abroad for the past year, I have had the pleasure of exploring a multitude of new sensory experiences, and most of the time in my blog posts, I try to convey an approximation of what I have experienced through visual and auditory imagery: I want my blog reader to see what I have… Continue reading Building a Better Koshari

On Medical Matters

In the past several weeks, I have spent more than six hours in a hospital ER—not for my own medical treatment, mind you, but to help others with their unforeseen emergencies. So, after these curious curative experiences, I thought I would spend this week’s post detailing them and ruminating about the state of medicine in… Continue reading On Medical Matters