How This Started

I got a wild hair and got mad at the internet.

That’s half true, but also not the whole story. For a while, I’ve found myself getting more and more sucked into social media, and I think sometimes that fries your brain. You start doing the motions, liking the stuff, and sharing things without doing much thinking of your own. But what I loved about tweets and statuses is that they’re like little stories. Instead of firing away at those things, I wanted to get back to telling little stories that are probably longer than a status or a tweet, but not so long that they’ll take up your whole damn day. We’re all so busy.

These are little stories about people and experiences, past and present. And maybe, if the timing is right, they’ll apply to something larger in the world. Maybe they won’t. The mission here is to tell you a nice story, link out to some things I’m proud of, and make sure you have one good song to listen to once a week.

Single Christian Mother?

Yes. That’s me. Hello, can I get you an iced tea? Some bourbon?

I’ve gotten into a really dumb habit of calling myself a single Christian mother because I think it’s funny, but it’s also a vibe I really connect with. My whole idea of what adulthood would look like got smashed back in probably seventh grade, so this is the reality I choose. I’m a parent to two cats, and if I have to choose, I just think mothers are so cool. I’m a Christian all the time, even when my fellow Christians are really screwing things up. And I’m single, in that at any moment, I’m a single disappointment from an emotional outburst.

Oh, Sorry, You Don’t Know Me.

My name is Justin. I’m originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. I write for Esquire, and I’m an Aries sun, fried chicken rising.