substance abuse
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last week, while biking from Times Square to Dumbo Park, this couple from out of town stopped me for directions to the Empire State Building. I often get stopped for directions, probably because I look like I know where I’m going. plus I’m not afraid to make eye contact with strangers. you notice a lot…
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our group leader uses this cool exercise to help us reflect on and address the fears in our lives. she calls it fear in a hat. in this exercise, each person anonymously writes down a fear on a piece of paper. you’re supposed to begin with the words, the worst thing that could happen would…
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I don’t know why other people make songs. I just want to show you how my life feels. here are my first 11. I recorded all of them in my room at home last year. this is the order in which I imagined the songs would be heard. I hope you will click through some…
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this is a new song called laundromatic. the tactile nature of going there, the act of washing and cleansing, the feeling of warm clothes and the smell of fresh laundry, I find comforting and soothing. and transforming, particularly on the days that I am low: the city on hard days. riding my bike past so-called…
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stand on any sweltering street corner of Brooklyn in July and something becomes really clear: people are edgy. maybe it’s the steam that rises from subway grates. or maybe the smell of black trash bags baking in the summer sun. if you study their faces, no one appears to be in a good mood. sometimes…
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in group we tell each other you can’t recover if you don’t know what you’re recovering from. I don’t know exactly what I am recovering from. hurt, maybe? hurt is almost always telling me a truth. all this week I was thinking about the times I stood on the toilet seat holding the stall door…
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I work at a donut shop in lower Manhattan. between shifts I earn extra income as a server. a few times a month I’m also a nighttime dishwasher. I pick up some part-time work at Macy’s Herald Square at Christmastime, and I have stood on 6th and Broadway with an ad board over my neck,…
cookie nieves 