Category: non-fiction

• Six Days Can Be A Long Time

  [Photo credit: Mel Brown] The moment happened a few hours ago.  I was probably sitting in Starbucks on Broadway and 75th Street when the time came and went.  I was aware of the time, but I was likely checking my email.  Our apartment wifi was dead for the time being. It was an arbitrary time,…

  patrickjegan

  June 13, 2017

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Family, Love, Memories, New York City, non-fiction, seniors, Uncategorized

  bleeding disorders, hemophilia, mount sinai hospital, NYC, retirement

• May Day, 2017: Take the Long Way Home

  [Photo source: Me] So, here I am looking at the new page of my really cool calendar.  It’s May.  Most people will think of flowers and perhaps rising waters.  I used to think of crocus.  That’s when my mother always said spring was here. “The crocus are up beneath the evergreens,” she would say….for so…

  patrickjegan

  May 1, 2017

  Blogging, Creativity, Melancholy Thoughts, Memories, non-fiction, Real Personal History, Uncategorized

  birthdays in May, growing old, reflections on ageing, turning 70

• Love at the Beacon Bar

  I spend most of my time alone…here in New York City, a city of 8.4 million people.  Sometimes I get very lonely and sometimes I feel forgotten.  None of this is Mariam’s fault.  She works very hard at Mount Sinai…slowly but steadily toward total retirement which should happen sometime after the middle of May.  Sometime…

  patrickjegan

  February 17, 2017

  Blogging, Love, New York City, non-fiction, Objects of Beauty, Time

  Beacon Bar, love, NYC, Valentine’s Day

• I Am…

  It was the day before the inauguration. I found a local gym that offered a month to month membership.  No long-term contract.  And, it was only$49 per month.  Ok, there is no pool (I don’t like to swim anyway and ALL pools have water that, to me, is just above freezing.  “Heated pools” …just a…

  patrickjegan

  January 31, 2017

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Love, non-fiction

  gyms, New York City, posters, social conscienceness

• The Man in the Crowd

  [My photo: Not on the night of the party] I was surprised that the Beacon Bar didn’t just close for night to provide the space for the private function.  Only the bar itself was open to regular customers.  The rest of the space was ‘reserved’ for a party…or whatever it was.  And a party it…

  patrickjegan

  January 27, 2017

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Memories, New York City, non-fiction

  Beacon Bar, conversation at parties, crowds, loneliness, office parties, wallflowers

• Coal For Christmas

  [Artwork:Watercolor sketch by Paul Egan (Date unknown)] Note to my readers: If you think you’ve read this blog before, don’t thing you’re getting senile…(the doctors won’t release such information)..this is perhaps the third, maybe fourth time I’ve posted it.  Hey, maybe I’m the one getting senile.  I’ve tweaked the story several times to try to make the narrative better,…

  patrickjegan

  December 8, 2016

  Childhood, Everyday Events, Family, grandparents, Holding onto the Past, Home, Love, Memories, non-fiction, parents, Real Personal History

  Christmas story, Coal, farmhouse, Grandparents, Northeast Pennsylvania, winter

• Here I Sit In Space #275 In The Rose Reading Room: Yet I Am Not Insecure

  It was an afternoon in mid-October.  The rain had fallen most of the morning so when I arrived at the wet slippery steps of the Main Branch of the New York Public Library on 5th Ave., the scattered metal tables were mostly empty and wet.  I posted a photo of the wet tables on Instagram.…

  patrickjegan

  November 16, 2016

  Blogging, Creativity, Holding onto the Past, New York City, non-fiction, Objects of Beauty, Real Personal History

  American writers, Bob Dylan, fifth avenue, Great writers, NY Public Library, NYC, Rose Reading Room

• The Blind Date

  [Source: Google search.] My wife and I arrived at a popular Upper West Side restaurant about fifteen minutes before our friends.  Mariam remained by the door to wait.  The place was crowded and noisy.  We’d been here before.  It was always like that. I made straight for the bar to get a beer and wait…

  patrickjegan

  October 31, 2016

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Love, New York City, non-fiction, Real Personal History

  bars, blind dates, loneliness, NYC, online dating

• Thirty Feet From My Pillow: A Tale Of Love, Sex And Perhaps Death Outside My Bedroom Window

  I can’t recall seeing so many clusters and varieties of Fungi in my front yard in the sixteen years we have owned our home on the hill above Rainbow Lake.  I was on my knees examining a species that was unfamiliar to me.  I was on my knees in three inches of yellow, red and…

  patrickjegan

  October 12, 2016

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Home, Nature, non-fiction, North Country Life

  bird mating, bird nests, birds, birds eggs

• The Great And Silent Feast

  I felt the breeze… I stumbled on a tree root when… Finally, we reached the pond… Concentrate. Start over. When I was a teacher I was often given the dubious privilege of “lunch duty”. A room, nearly the size of a gym, filled with 5th & 6th graders…or 9th & 10th graders and a hand…

  patrickjegan

  October 9, 2016

  Blogging, Everyday Events, Food, Nature, non-fiction, North Country Life

  Adirondacks, autumn, cycle of life, decay, fungi, lichen, rebirth