(1955 – so far, so good) Born in Hoboken, NJ.
He gets along well with his parents, who are both dead.
Dana wandered the United States as a child at the whim of his parents, finally settled Huntsville, AL. When he became an adult he one day thought, Why am I living in Huntsville, AL? He packed up and split within a week.
Next stop – Los Angeles. He lived in Hollywood, which he loved because he no longer stood out as a weirdo. These are my people was his thought. He moved to Orange County twice, didn’t like the place, returned to Hollywood.
In ’91 he got a bitchin’ job in Santa Barbara County and moved to Ventura, CA which, a pretty cool place to live. He did not surf, the water’s too cold. Bought a house, married (mistake), divorced (correction of mistake). He lived there for thirty years, usually with dogs.
In 2015, at the age of fifty-nine, he wandered in to a Taekwondo Studio and signed up. Applied himself to it, was granted a first degree black belt. Applied himself some more, was granted a second degree black belt.
He had a career doing things with computers.
He does Tarot readings. Not about what your future will be, but about what you have to do to get the future you want.
He has constant computer problems.
Don’t get him started on the roommates he’s had.
In 2021, the Taekwondo Studio closed, another victim of COVID economics. At the same time, he decided that when there are riots in the capitol city of the country your living in, it’s time to go.
Thirty years prior, he read a detective novel set in the Central American country of Belize. The thought of Belize never left him, so in 2021, he went there for a month’s vacation, made an offer on a house, came back to Ventura, sold his house, packed up, bought the house in Belize, and split within three months.
He now lives in Belize. He’s working on a comic novel called (so far) Anteater & Spy. Click here if you’d like to be a Beta Reader. He teaches Taekwondo once a week in a martial arts studio. He lives far enough out of the city of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, Belize that he doesn’t have water (collects rain water in a cistern) or sewage connections (has a septic tank) or a mailing address (got a PO Box).
Things that happened to him that weren’t his fault:
His dog brought him a rat as a gift. It wasn’t dead.
Ended up in the middle of a rail union riot … in Brussels, Belgium.
Taught English in China.
Had a cell phone stolen by a passing motorcyclist in Ho Chi Minh city.
Lost a cell phone by leaving it on top of the hood of his so-called car.
Left a cell phone in a movie theater in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Ran through the main glass door in the biggest mall in Huntsville, AL at a peak hour.
Majored in computer science.
Majored in theater
Majored in business
Majored in psychology, which he actually got a degree in. All this took thirty-three years.
Showed up for a flight in the wrong airport in the wrong city in the wrong state. This story won the “Stupid Traveler’s Tricks” contest in Salon.com.
As Kurt Vonnegut said, “And so it goes.”
Drop him a line if you like.