It was late, far later than my Catholic parents would ever have let me stay up. My eyes were drowsy, closing on their own accord in two-minute intervals. Part of me was aware of a tingling reaction to "Dirty Dancing, " which Lisa had just watched with me for the first time, but the rest of me was nearing exhaustion. I would have already been asleep but for the fact that Lisa was still talking, still trying to elicit respo...

I started water skiing when I was just six years old and over the past fourteen years I don’t think it would be bragging to say I have gotten to be a pretty good slalom skier. My dad traded up for a really nice ski boat last year with a big inboard motor that is a dream to ride in and ski behind. Unfortunately it seems to spend more time on a trailer in a storage building than in the water. As the years have gone by we ha...