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I’m Nick. I grew up in East Boston in a family that ran a sub shop, a bakery, and a grocery store on Three Corners for 30 years.
By the time I was 28, I’d burned every bridge, owed money to people you don’t want to owe money to, and woke up homeless on a beach with a bottle of Hennessy and no plan.
That’s when I ended up at North Cottage—a halfway house where drag queens, ex-cons, jailbirds looking for a way out, and guys who thought two beers and a Tylenol was rock bottom all lived together in one chaotic, unlikely family.
This memoir is about those six months and the people who saved my life—not because they had the answers, but because they were just as lost as I was.
Posting Schedule
🗓 Mondays: Scenes from the Cottage — the recovery timeline: Bob, group therapy, the makeover, all of it.
🗓 Thursdays: Stories from Before — the acid trips, the cons, the wreckage—how I got there.
I’ve been sober 35 years now. I’m not a guru. I’m not selling hope. I’m just telling you what happened—the ugly parts, the funny parts, the parts that shouldn’t have worked but did.
If you’ve ever felt like you were almost good enough but never quite made it, this one’s for you.
New scenes drop Mondays and Thursdays. Everything’s free. If you want to support the work, there’s a paid tier with bonus content—but you don’t need it to follow the story.
Thanks for being here.
—Nick