Posts tagged “Friendship”

A Yankee In The Deep South – Part 2

joecarro

Posted on December 6, 2019

Categories: A Yankee In The Deep South, Travel

Tagged: 14th Star Brewing Co., 1800's, Abigail, Ale, Alehouse, Armand, Away With Words, Beer, Blog, Blogging, Breakfast, Burger, Burgers, Chloe Viner Collins, Coffee, Collins, Costume, Country, Deep South, Diary, Discussion, Eggs, Entertainment, Fall, Family, Farm, Food, Forest, Friendship, Fun, Geek, Hamburgers, Hens, Home, Humanity, Humor, Ideas, Inspiration, Internet, Joseph Carro, Journal, Julian, Lake Champlain, Life, Lifestyle, Maine, Maple, Maple Stout, Maple Tree, Maple Trees, ME, Media, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, News, November, Opinion, Party, Photography, Photos, Portland, Rant, Relationships, Sarah, Shane Collins, Shower, Sleep, Spirits, St. Albans, Stout Beer, Swanton, Travel, Travel Journal, Traveler, Travels, Vermont, West Swanton, Wild, Wilderness, Winter, Woods, Wordpress, Writing, Yankee

The Bike

A few years back, I bought a bike at Target. It was one of those “couples” purchases I made as a husband. My wife at the time bought one as well, on the same day. We resolved to go biking on a regular basis. To enjoy the rural Saco life, pedaling slowly by dairy farms and pet cemeteries and sprawling forests. Well, we only really biked together that first day. Real life, and then relationship troubles, got in the way of any sort of regular couples cycling. Eventually, we didn’t even want to stay in the same room as one another, let alone spend quality time together gently cycling through our neighborhood. Eventually, she and I split up. I took my bike with me,…

Categories: Creative Non-Fiction

Tagged: Advice, Apartment, Away With Words, Bicycle, Bicycles, Biddeford, Bike, Bitch, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Car Loan, CNF, Couple, Couples, Court, Courtroom, Creative, Creative Non-Fiction, Creative Writing, Creativity, Cycling, Divorce, Entertainment, Ex Girlfriend, Ex-Wife, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Fun, Geek, Home, Humanity, Humor, Husband, Ideas, Inspiration, Internet, Joseph Carro, Judge, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Life, Lifestyle, Maine, Marriage, Married, ME, Montage, Mr. Carro, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, News, Non-Fiction, Opinion, Portland, Post, Rant, Real Life, Relationships, Romantic, Rural, Saco, Schwinn, Split, Target, Thoughts, Travel, Troubles, Vehicle, Wife, Wordpress, Write, Write Life, Writer, Writing

Simple Man

joecarro

Posted on January 24, 2019

I’m a pretty simple guy. Definitely not perfect, but real simple. Over the past couple years I’ve sort of disrupted my life and tossed it all around. So far, it’s largely unaffected me (aside from the fact I am now a married man)…mostly because to keep myself sane – I keep it simple. Some folks need to have really nice cars. I don’t care what car I have, as long as it drives. And, to be honest – I’d almost never really want to have a nice-looking car because so far mine has been broken into twice and it was a pretty average ride (and I say “was” in the past-tense, because that car has been gone for a year, now). So, I can’t…

Categories: Opinion

Tagged: $, Advice, Anecdote, Art, Away With Words, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Comfortable, Complicated, Cooking, David Bowie, Dean Winchester, Dry, Expensive Food, Family, Family Members, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Fun, Geek, Genuine, Happiness, Happy, Hobbies, Home, Homes, Humanity, Ideas, Inspiration, Internet, Joseph Carro, Life, Lifestyle, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Maine, ME, Mistakes, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, News, Nice Cars, Opinion, Outlook, PB&J, Perfect, Perfection, Portland, Rant, Relationships, Roof, Simple, Simple Guy, Simple Life, Simple Living, Simple Man, Spacious Homes, Spaciousness, Star Wars, Supernatural, Travel, Video Games, Walls, Warm, Wordpress, Write, Write Life, Writer, Writers, Writing, Writing Life

Two Joes Walk Into A Cafe…

joecarro

Posted on January 5, 2019

I was sitting in the cafe where I work one afternoon when, as my boss was leaving for the day, she caught my attention – waving and saying “Goodbye, Joe” as she walked out the door. I looked up from my work, responding with my own “goodbye” before resuming my work and thinking nothing about the man on my right; The college kid who was impeccably dressed, and who looked absorbed in his own work. I stared instead at the charging symbol on my phone, willing it to download faster than it was. I had a lot of work to do. I heard a laugh come from his direction, and I reflexively turned to face him. I noticed he wore glasses with black rims.…

Categories: Creative Non-Fiction

Tagged: 1980's, 1990's, Anecdote, Aspirations, Average JOE, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Boss, Cafe, Chat, CNF, Coffee, Coffee Culture, Conversation, Creative, Creative Non-Fiction, Creative Writing, Dreamer, Dreamers, Dreams, Egypt, Event, Experience, Faith, Family, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Geek, GI Joe, Grad School, Humanity, Humor, Ideas, Inspiration, Internet, Joe, Joseph Carro, Latte, Life, Lifestyle, Maine, ME, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, Non-Fiction, Opinion, Phone, Pop Culture, Portland, Post, Relationships, School, Space, Starbucks, Story, Stranger, Strangers, Student, Sudan, Talking, Wordpress, Work, Write, Writer, Writers, Writing

The Midnight Hike

joecarro

Posted on January 4, 2019

It was fall and I was much younger, then. I was living with my grandparents in Casco, Maine at the time and my brother Gary was visiting from Lewiston and staying the night. We were both having some troubles in our lives and we kept coming back to them via conversation. We talked about life, about women troubles, about things we liked to do. Brother stuff. Bonding stuff. Late that night, I had an idea. It was close to midnight but I felt like we both needed some adventure in our troubled, mundane existences. I could tell he was feeling down, and I felt like I couldn’t do much to help. We both were living in different cities and weren’t able to hang out…

Categories: Childhood Story, Creative Non-Fiction

Tagged: Adventure, Advice, Anecdote, Away With Words, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Brother, Brothers, Casco, Checking In, CNF, Cold, Comforting, Connection, Conversation, Creative, Creative Non-Fiction, Creative Writing, Cry, Dark, Dragons, Evening, Experience, Family, Fantasy, Fantasy Weapons, Forest, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Fun, Gary, Geek, Gold, Happy, Hike, Hiker, Hiking, Humanity, Humor, Ideas, Innocence, Internet, Joseph Carro, Laugh, Life, Lifestyle, Magic, Maine, Maine Woods, ME, Midnight, Moon, Moonlight, Mountain, Nature, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, Night, Noise, Non-Fiction, Opinion, Portland, Problems, Rattlesnake, Rattlesnake Mountain, Relationships, Sad, Sibling, Siblings, Sky, Stars, Story, Swords, Talk, Talking, Travel, Whimsy, Wind, Woes, Woods, Wordpress, Write, Writer, Writers, Writing, Writing Life, Youth

The Rundown

joecarro

Posted on December 11, 2018

When I was fifteen years old, the world was my enemy. And why shouldn’t it have been? It was 1996. Up until that point, the world had done its best to drag me, sometimes screaming, through metaphorical gutters of the worst kinds of waste. At that young age I had already been half-starved, covered in lice and fleas, abused in the worst kinds of ways. I was a victim, but also a survivor. The constant battling only made me harder, scooped out the soft spots in large chunks so what I was left with was a veritable chitinous exoskeleton, impervious to the outside world. As a result, when I moved to the middle-class neighborhood in New Hampshire, filled with anxious folks living in high-end…

Categories: Childhood Story, Creative Non-Fiction

Tagged: 15 Years Old, 1996, 2Pac, Adventure, Alternative, Alternative Rock, American, Anger, Away With Words, Beaker, Black Guy, Black Man, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Boys, California Love, Childhood, City, CNF, Compassion, Conversation, Cop, Creative, Creative Non-Fiction, Creative Writing, Creativity, Crime, Cute, Dana, Drug Running, Drugs, Exeter, Family, Fifteen, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Fun, Geek, Guys, Hobo Jungle, Humanity, Inspiration, Internet, Joseph Carro, Life, Lifestyle, Maine, ME, Media, Metal, Middle Class, Muppets, Music, Neighborhood, New England, New England Writers, New Hampshire, Opinion, Portland, Post, Rap, Real Solution #9, Relationships, Rob Zombie, Rock, Running, School, Teen, Teenager, Teens, The Rundown, The World, Trouble, Tupak Shakur, White Guy, White Neighborhood, White Zombie, Wordpress, Write, Write Life, Writer, Writers, Writing, Writing Life

Mike Wieringo

joecarro

Posted on December 8, 2018

Almost a full decade ago, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favorite comic book writers – Todd Dezago. He made an appearance at the first ever Coast City Comicon here in Portland, Maine. Due to scheduling conflicts, I couldn’t attend the con for more than a day and thus I didn’t meet him that year – but the following year I finally made it when he came back. I caught him at one point when he was sitting by himself at his booth. I never imagined I would get any one-on-one time with him, but it was important that I talk to him because if I was a fan of Todd Dezago, I was doubly a fan of the amazing Mike…

Categories: Creative Non-Fiction

My Friend Mikey

joecarro

Posted on December 5, 2018

Sometimes, I think back about friends I had who are no longer with me. This doesn’t have to have anything to do with death, mind you. Sometimes, as people, we just outgrow each other. You move, you go to different schools, you get married. Those kinds of things happen and are pretty inevitable in life. One of these friends I had who fits into this category was named Mike. We all knew him affectionately as Mikey. We met one summer when my mom moved us to Shawmut Street in Lewiston, Maine. We lived in a crappy apartment, infested with fleas and in a bad part of town at the time. We didn’t notice much of that as children, though, only remembering it when we…

Categories: Childhood Story, Creative Non-Fiction

Defeating the Darkness

joecarro

Posted on November 13, 2018

Whenever I get too down on myself, it’s mostly because I’ve become too caught up in my everyday life. Work, bills, laundry, taxes, dishes, etc. No matter what I do to try to remedy the “everyday blues” – it can be hard to pull myself from the oppressive black hole of the mundane. At that point, I try to take stock of my surroundings. I remember that ultimately it’s the things I choose to do, the things I’ve been courageous enough to try, the things I partake in to set off the constant edge I feel. Those things are all more important to me in the long run than the momentary stresses and anxiety of the day-to-day. I’m no musician, but I’ve spent a…

Categories: Creative Non-Fiction, Write Life

Tagged: Art, Away With Words, Band, Blog, Blog Post, Blogger, Blogging, Books, CNF, Commercial, Cook, Cooking, Creative Non-Fiction, Creative Writing, Dance, Dancing, Dark, Darkness, Depression, Entertainment, Eric Peyron, Erica Smith, Essay, Explore, Faith, Family, Films, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Fun, Geek, Ghost Hunter, Ghost Hunting, Ghosts, Happy, History, Humanity, Ideas, Inspiration, Instagram, Internet, Joseph Carro, Life, Lifestyle, Lip Sync, Maine, Maine Writer, ME, Media, Mental Health, Movies, Music, Music Video, Musician, New England, New England Writer, New England Writers, Non-Fiction, Opinion, Paranormal Investigator, Portland, Rage, Rage: Bane Of Demons, Rage: Worm Of The Earth, Rant, Relationships, Review, Sad, Short Film, Travel, Tyler.Matt.Joe, Wordpress, Work, Write, Write Life, Writer, Writers, Writing, YouTube

Cosplay Confessions: Mike Lavoie Cosplay

joecarro

Posted on April 3, 2018

Cosplay Confessions is (what used to be a) monthly feature I added to my blog, though I’ve sort of been away from posting for a few months (almost a year, really) due to my job and getting married and other developments. Every month (and maybe twice a month), I tried featuring a different cosplayer and my interview with them, along with photos featuring their cosplays. This will not only be beneficial to the cosplayers themselves – because any publicity is good publicity when it comes to updating your fans on which conventions you’ll be at, and what you’re working on – but it will also be beneficial to those who are interested in cosplay as a hobby. If I can reconnect with enough cosplayers, I…

Categories: Cosplay Confessions

Tagged: Austin Powers 2, Away With Words, Bad Guy, Bangor Comicon, Batman, Blog, Blog Post, Blogging, Blues Brothers, Cartman, Cheesy Poofs, Chris Farley, Coast City Comicon, cosplay, Cosplay Confessions, Cosplayer, Cosplaying, Costume, Costumes, Costuming, DC Comics, Deviantart, Dr. Mario, Dr. Robotnik, Elwood Blues, Eric Cartman, Facebook, Fat Bastard, FirstPerson Shooter, Friday The 13th, Friend, Friends, Friendship, Ghostbusters, Horror, Hunter, Interview, Jake Blues, Jason Voorhees, Jon Decker, Joseph Carro, JtPetrin Photography, Leatherface, Left 4 Dead, Lewiston, Machete, Maine, Maine Photography Studio, Male Cosplay, Matt Foley, Matt Foley Motivational Speaker, Mike Lavoie, Milton Waddams, New England, Office Space, Pau Bearer, Penguin, PortCon, Portland Comic Expo, Sadsack the Tramp, Santa, Santa Claus, Saturday Night Live, Scary, SNL, South Park, Super Mario, The Penguin, Undertaker, Ventriloquist, Writing, WWE, WWF