My first year of law school I got my first ever apartment. It was still student housing owned by the university and the size of a shoebox, but it was a huge upgrade from a dorm. It even came with a free landline phone and phone line (back when people used landlines to conserve cell phone minutes).

Long-time reader, first-time writer. Apologies on the length.

My family and I live north of Chicago and bought a home last year. The previous homeowner’s parents built the home (in 1986) so we thought we knew everything.

The home has a main floor, upstairs (four bedrooms), finished basement (one bedroom) and attic. The…

You managed to drive it off, though, good for you!

This story happened to my friend Landon about ten years ago, when he was in his twenties.

I volunteer to join the angry jezebels doing the tossing

“Lost Dog”

Longtime fan of this contest, first time story-haver!

Probably helpful to clarify that some Romani and Travellers casually refer to themselves as “gypsies” but no one else should. 

“Gravel Shoes”

In 2017, I rented a house with my then bf. It was super expensive for the area but the landlord was the only one who would accept his absolute garbage credit and extensive history of not paying his bills. The landlord was super nice and had no problem letting us get a second dog (and both my boys are APBTs).

I don’t believe in ghosts. Not at all. For one thing, my family has owned a “haunted” hotel and restaurant for a century, and none of us have ever seen or heard anything supernatural. At this point, we’d actually like to experience the hauntings our guests describe, which include actual figures in period garb. I can…

I was working in a northernish reserve school in Alberta back in the late nineties. Everything in this world is political, and first nation reserves are no exception, so when the gym teacher (whose real name is actually the name I use to give anything a fake name so we’ll call him Jorge instead) came to us on a cold…

Nope, you know I never inquired probably because she said it so matter-of-factly I didn’t really want to know. To paint the picture, envision a very upbeat, cheery woman with a French-Canadian accent, who said “Her name is Meg” in the same way one would say “The milk’s in the fridge.” I was like ok, cool, glad we…

“The Dancing Doll”

Gypsy is a slur. Please don’t use it. They are Romani or Travellers.

I don’t even know how to unpack the world of no that is this sentence: “We decide to do a seance during our break as he’s descended from gypsies” 

I’m someone who gets very hot easily, especially when I’m trying to sleep. I’m the type that has the ceiling fan running alongside a fan at the foot of my bed, both at full blast and both running along with my air conditioning. My room needs to be like ice for me to sleep comfortably. So when the colder months come…

This is my winner so far. Holy fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I’m an actor in a local community theatre. All of our members must take part in some form of service for the theatre so for two years, I was the treasurer. It was my job to make sure all the bills were paid and to process income. My theatre is a lively place with people around much of the time which is wonderful, but s…

I did post this last year, but super late, so it never made it out of the greys.... and I have an update!  This story belongs to my dear friend, Carrie. We grew up in in the same tri-city area, but didn’t meet until our 20’s. She became my very best friend- and has remained so for 15+ years, even when we moved…