I've always been a big believer in the goodness of humanity, but man was that belief put to the test in this past week, only to be ultimately rewarded.  What happened this past week was a testament to not only that belief, but also the belief that goodness will always overcome evil if the hear, the courage, and the spirit is there. Evil prevails when good does nothing, after all.  I don't think doing some whole super eloquent writing of this would work for me. If you want to see some great writing of this, then you should check out some other writings including this piece from Charlie Pierce …

Today, my brother and sister both stopped by at different times of the day to show off their new cars. Instead of being bitter and cranky about this, since I don't really have a ton of money to my name and I have already decided that I need a new phone before I need a new car, I began to reminisce about my first ever car and the misadventures that I had gone with it from the end of my junior year all the way to my first year of college.  It wasn't that much of a car. No super special new shiny car. I got it about two and a half months after I got my license. It belonged to somebody that my …

As my mom and I were heading into the church this past Thursday to attend a memorial service for my third grade teacher / cousin (for those who had her for third grade, it was Mrs. Rawlings. She died this past Saturday), she turned to me and said "Remember, we are not to make eye contact at all during the service, alright?" which to some may think because if one of us is crying, the other will cry. However, with my family this is not the case. You see, we're both prone to fits of inappropriate laughter. Anytime my mom and I are together at any place where laughing is frowned upon, a case of …

I figure something on the lighter side would be a nice break from the heaviness of my last couple of columns. Plus it's my birthday week, so I feel like being goofy and lighthearted. So here's just a collection of random thoughts I've had in the past few weeks. * USA Today is having a contest for the Best Mascots per state. I originally thought that this was kind of fun, but then I saw that it was only five choices per state. Obviously whoever came up with the choices for Rhode Island was either really bored and lazy, or they’re are from Warwick. All three of Warwick's public schools are …

Editor’s note – Mel originally wrote this column last year, but due to an oversight, it got lost in the publishing queue. However, since the core concept still applies, we’re posting it today. When it comes to my birthday, it's probably at the most awkward time of the year for people.  On Tuesday, I'll be 28 years old. I'm still trying to grasp this concept of me being in my upper 20s. That kind of weirds me out. I get the feeling that perhaps I've missed the bus for adulthood a few times over. Or that I'll end up being, as the meme calls it, forever alone. These thoughts sometimes go through…

DISCLAIMER: The following is the opinion of myself and myself alone. It does not necessarily reflect those of the staff here at Patch or anywhere for that matter, but it is possible. You may not like my opinion, but that's fine. That's your right. I don't agree with it, but I respect your right to have an opinion.  I’m tired of being silent about my support for LGBTQ rights. Yes, I said it. I support equal rights for LGBTQ people. I had been silent about my support for years (at least publically) because of my own fears of being labeled as a lesbian because of the way I dress. People already …

It all started with a glance at an old map of Rhode Island from 1870.  I saw something on Reddit about an old map of Rhode Island from that year. I looked at it, at first, mostly just amused about how different the map looks in some ways but yet not at the same time. Narragansett was a part of South Kingstown, Warwick and Smithfield were both in one piece, and Lincoln and Central Falls were a year away from being incorporated as their own towns/cities.  While looking through this, I suddenly found myself becoming curious about my ancestors. I knew a little bit about them, mostly from things …

DISCLAIMER: This article may not be good for anybody who hates stories involving vomiting. If my immune system was a baseball player, it'd be the kind of player that'd end up grounding into a triple play in the clutch with nobody out and the bases loaded.  Colorful imagery aside, it's true. It seems that I always have a tendency to get sick when I sincerely don't want to be sick. It could happen before a big project is due and I'm actually ready to present it (never the other way around), my birthday (this happened twice), about to embark on the last week of an internship (now), or in front …

As I'm watching the snow fall outside my bedroom window, I remember when I was little and hearing that snow was in the forecast.  It was like a gift from the gods. No weather event makes children giddy quite like a snowstorm. It truly has something for everyone. For the nature enthusiasts, there's the fun snow filled nature walks. There is something very peaceful about walking through the neighborhood during a snowstorm. For the active kids who like to do crazy things, there's sledding and snowball fights. And who hasn't enjoyed those at least once or twice in their lives? Then for the …

I really was hoping I could write about Christmastime approaching and all the joys of the holiday season. I wish I would rant about the whole obsession some people have with the Mayan apocalypse and how people who seem to be rooting for it to happen and being disgusted with that thought process. Or even writing about a silly Christmas story about how flat cookies mislead my dad into thinking I had a nervous breakdown. Okay, that last one needs a ton of context in order for it to seem funny, but regardless, I wish those were the things that I could write about, but not this time. After what …

The overly optimistic idealist in me always loves to pop out every December. I'm not entirely sure why but I'm thinking it's because of the imagery of the month where families come together and how the juxtaposition of the cold weather and the warm holiday feelings or because I'm able to get away with it. Trying to be optimistic and idealist any other month of the year will end up getting you labeled as having Pollyanna Syndrome and not being taken seriously. I hate when that happens...well the not being taken seriously part. I'm fine with people thinking I have Pollyanna Syndrome.  Last year…

With Thanksgiving fast approaching, we are soon to embark upon the stretch of time between Thanksgiving Day and New Year's Day that is known as the holiday season. This time is idealized as one for families, being with the ones you love, and making sure that the cold weather doesn't reflect upon your demeanor. Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus – it doesn't matter. It's all in the same time period, it's about the spirit of the season, not the technicalities.  That being said, there are plenty that annoy me about the holidays and the days preceding the holidays. I …

If there's one question that I can't answer it's got to be the eternal question of "How old is too old to go trick or treating?" And my inability to answer that question led to me beging really badly burned by some friends of mine my freshman year of high school.  Now, for the record, I went trick or treating until I was a senior in high school. I did tag along with a friend my freshman year of college who was taking one of her little neighbors out, but we mostly hung behind. Despite the fact that I could pass for 15 at that time, I wasn't going to use it to my advantage then, especially …

I may not be a leading expert on all things related to the matters of the heart. I'm the first to tell you that I'm a D-student in that course. I oversleep and miss all the important memos so that when the exam comes along, I end up either failing miserably or just doing good enough to get a passing grade which constitutes as being just friends. So maybe I am just not understanding the whole appeal of the "bad boy / loner / brooding / troubled boy / rebel" as a result of this.  It's probably the oldest trope in the book. We've seen it in all forms of media time and time again from Romeo and …

Everybody has one of those moments when their temper boils over and they end up snapping. What happens in these moments vary greatly. On one end of the spectrum, you have someone telling off someone else for something they did. Or at least yelling at them to just shut up because they are sick of their idiocy. On the other end, you have the much darker route, which I'm pretty sure everybody here knows that it ends up with a lot of bloodshed and not enough control.  While my temper can get pretty bad sometimes, I always tend to just go towards the most minor of the spectrum. I've only used …

Since writer's block has struck me again, haunting me like that my terrible 10th grade school picture, I have decided to bring back the Inner Mind Theater for another go-round. Some of you may think of this as a copout and I will agree with that accusation. It's between that or just smashing they keyboard in frustration and see what happens.  So without further ado, here's yet another edition of The Inner Mind Theater of Mel.  Lefty: Okay, it's time to get focused and start writing this article. You with me, Righty? (looks around ) Uhh....Righty? Righty: (is singing along badly) LET'S GET …

It's the one day that every schoolaged kid dreads. You can feel it coming in many ways -- the weather starts to cool a little too quick, the tourists seem to be few and far between, and the college kids seem to be slowly disappearing. Yes, I'm talking about the first day of the new school year. And it looks as if that day is coming up around the bend again as judging by the way things have been looking.  When it comes to the first day of school, I've had my fair share of memorable ones but I think I'll share the story of my second most memorable first day of school. Why second? Well, I …

Maybe my instincts are all wrong and maybe this 14-1 victory that the Red Sox just finished on Sunday will propel them into a miracle of a comeback. Maybe the Nick Punto Factor (every team that Nick Punto has been on in the past has gone on a miracle run... okay so it’s only the Twins and Cardinals, but it still counts) will activate for once. I'm not sure if these will happen, but I know that I hope I will. I hope that this is a jinx and I end up having to write a follow-up about how wrong I was. The thing is, as of right now, it's looking like the postseason will not be including the Red …

Whenever I hear people talk about the summer vacations that they went on in their childhoods, the locations always seem to vary greatly. They can vary from heading overseas to London to visiting family in California to going on some adventure and a half out in the great wide open. However, if there's one place that I always hear people talk about, everybody always seems to say that they've gone to Disney World or Disneyland.  Everybody has some kind of Disney yarn they like to spin when talking fondly of those moments of childhood that never leave. No matter how silly the story, the theme …