I was born on October 22, 1970, sometime around 12:31 P.M., at North Shore Hospital in Manhasset, Long Island. My mom's name is Beth and my dad's name is Jim. My parents were only about 25-years old when they had me--the same age I am now. After I'd been alive for 14 months or so, my parents and I took a year-long trip across the U.S. of A. in a red VW minibus. We found my dog, Kirpal (named after the guru Kirpal Singh), along the way, at a farm in Arizona.

Those days were innocent and carefree. We camped for three months out of our bus in the Arizona desert, right alongside the Mexican border, frolicking naked in the sunshine, drinking cool cervezas (they let me have a few sips) and laughing at the star-encrusted nighttime sky.

When the trip was over, we settled back into a happy and modest existence in New York. My dad worked as an college English professor for the better part each year. During the summers, he would lifeguard at Jones Beach state park. My mom taught figure-skating lessons for a while then got a job as a ground attendant with Aer Lingus (Irish Airlines). I was a "latchkey kid."

When I was about 15, we moved to Melbourne, Florida--where I went to high school and where Kirpal saw her final days. A few years later, I went to Boston College. In May of 1992, I got my degree in English (magna cum laude). After travelling around in Europe and Northern Africa for a little while, I moved to my grandmother's house in Douglaston, Queens. For a year and a half, I commuted into New York City on the Long Island Railroad (except for the times I was unemployed).

Now I'm a man. I live in Manhattan, I'm in a rock band (called Philco Bendyx) and I've got a cool job at a groovy, cutting-edge "e-zine". I've loved, I've lost...and the story of my life has just begun.