For Lent this year, I gave up excessive social media and internet time. In all honesty, I think I had been looking for a bit of an online detox, and since Lent is generally encouraged to be a season of self-reflection and sacrifice, the added layer of piety made it even more appealing. Besides, when you tell people you’re going to quit social media, they look at you like you’re embarking on something really, really cool. (So much for piety.) {Read More}
If 18 year-old Me saw me now. (A helpful primer!)
March 1, 2019 By Leave a Comment
20 years ago, I was a college freshman. I had plans back then, you guys. Like Plans in capital letters. I was thinking about this baby version of myself the other day as I was living my fully grown, decidedly non-college freshman life. This train of thought quickly turned to “Oh my goodness, what would 18 year-old Me think if she were plopped down into my 2019 day?” (I can’t be the only one who has thoughts like this every {Read More}
Valentine’s Day & mental illness & I promise this one ends well.
February 14, 2019 By Leave a Comment
Yes, this one concerns a bit o’ mental illness… But it’s really a Valentine’s Day story. (With a tiny bit of mental illness all up in there too.) I promise that it is. So. Back when I was little, I was convinced that the perfect Valentine’s Day involved cellophane-wrapped hearts and truckloads of roses and lilies and Golden Era romantic comedies on a loop. (To be quite honest, that is the perfect Valentine’s Day. It just is.) But as I’ve {Read More}
I love winter now. Thanks, polar vortex!
January 31, 2019 By Leave a Comment
I think I might love winter. This may be an unpopular opinion, but I’m totally great with this polar vortex. I might even go so far as to say that I love winter. For those playing along at home, Chicago (a.k.a. Chiberia) has been showing off with negative degree weather. Tap-dancing, really. In stompy boots. We’re talking -20 days with a wind chill of close to -50, snow swirling sideways, and winds that sound as if they’d really, really like {Read More}
My least- and most- ambitious word for 2019
January 4, 2019 By Leave a Comment
You’ve seen ’em, right? Everybody with their shiny, hashtag-worthy word for 2019. Like, #achieve or #love or #pony. (Hey, a girl can #hope, right? Also, why doesn’t anyone ever keep it real with a word like #cheese or #nap?) In the past few years, my words have been about career growth, writerly encouragement, and other money-making, soul-enriching kinda stuff. Good stuff, really. But then I started feeling not-so great towards the end of last year. And, as anyone who’s felt {Read More}
6 ways to do more on Black Friday
November 23, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Black Friday and beyond Happy Black Friday, everyone! Ready to do more? Today kicks off a huge shopping weekend which steamrolls into Cyber Monday…and then Giving Tuesday! With all of the opportunities to buy, I was thinking of ways to do things like, you know, give back…reduce waste…teach some good ol’ fashioned values to my Google-at-their-fingertips kiddos… And then Suzy totally schooled me. The kids’ elementary school is in the midst of a holiday toy drive and the girls asked {Read More}
Politically cheated, globally exhausted.
November 8, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Politically cheated. Sometimes I feel cheated. Specifically, I feel politically cheated. But hear me out as to why. I never planned on being eyeballs-deep into American policies and relations and amendments and candidates with- jeebus– horrific skeletons in their Terrible Person closets. Don’t get me wrong- civics class was fun. I wrote a pen pal letter to Chelsea Clinton in 1992. Heck, touring the FBI’s headquarters in D.C. was a highlight of my nerdy, nerdy, in-love-with-Mulder youth. But otherwise? I {Read More}
Procrastination. Or, A List of Things I Am Doing Right Now.
October 25, 2018 By Leave a Comment
Ways I am embodying “procrastination” today (And, in embracing procrastination, the ways I’m avoiding actual work, housework, or any other kind of work.) (A true story.) Staring off into the middle distance. Staring off into the nearish distance. (Seeing my coffee cup and reheating it.) Checking Facebook. Refinishing a table. <—(Aggressive avoidance, right there. However, the table looks fantastic.) Marveling at red, autumnal trees. Wondering why we don’t have red, autumnal trees in front of our home. Googling trees. Literally {Read More}
