I learned that if you want an eternal tube of toothpaste, just buy the worst charcoal toothpaste you can find. It will hardly foam, it will leave your sink and your toothbrush black and weirdly greasy, it won’t freshen your breath by much, and no matter how many months and months you use it, it will never ever run out. Ever. Money saving hack, so you’re welcome for that. I learned I’m not a huge fan of being thought pregnant….
My decade began and ended with a miracle. Around the start of the decade I was living in Honduras, terribly burned out and sad from years of too much loneliness and a few too many griefs. I decided to ask God for the impossible, and asked Him to move us back home in the spring, and not only back to North Carolina, but back to our old house we had left there. This was ridiculous for a variety of reasons….
I am surrounded by friends and sisters with the most gorgeous, luscious curls that spring from their heads in little ringlets. And then there’s me. Wavy hair at best, and frizzy a good deal more of the time. Part of this is my own fault, because I cannot stand a routine that requires me to spend many dollars and hours in the bathroom coaxing my hair to do exactly what I want. I call it low-maintenance because it sound better,…
I didn’t grow up really celebrating Christmas- Thanksgiving was more our thing- so I don’t have a lot of nostalgic traditions around this holiday. However, we had one little tradition which I loved. Nearly every year we would find a free performance of Handel’s “Messiah” and pack ourselves into the balcony. We’d sit there with binoculars, (the homeschooler version of opera glasses, I guess) and pass them about, taking turns watching the faces in the choir and the orchestra with…
I know Thanksgiving has come and gone, and Christmas is now making its presence known with blaring music and lights everywhere I look, and even the prettiest snowfall, drifting down on this city of mine and creating a hush in the mania. But for those of us trying to fill our lives with gratitude, every day is Thanksgiving day, right? So without further ado… Dear Tough Decisions, I hate making you, and I love when you are made, much…
I won the lottery. I imagine almost everybody has, at one point or another, fantasized about what they would do if they won the lottery. I certainly have done so, building grand castles in the air of traveling with part of it and investing the rest and living on interest and being able to spend my life doing all the things I actually want to do that don’t make a living. Surely you’ve made plans for the day you’ll win…
Good evening, ya fine folks. I am perched on my bed as I type this, gingerly leaning against the wall and hoping against hope that my somewhat broken bed does not come crashing down off its wobbly pedestal. It has been known to do that, you know. I had my fine friend the Little Kumquat come visit me and first thing, as soon as she sat on the bed and leaned against the wall, SMASH, the whole operation came crashing…
New York City is one of the fashion capitals of the world, I hear, alongside Paris and other such progressive places. It certainly is a place where you can expect to see just about anything and everything walking down a sidewalk, and even though there’s enough weirdness here that I should be used to it by now, sometimes I still find someone so interesting I can’t help sneaking a picture from the hip. Wanna see? Sometimes what you see is…
When I learn something new that particularly delights me, I want to share it with the whole world, over and over and over. After I started dance lessons a year or two ago I couldn’t shut up about HOW MUCH FUN it was, and how everyone should try it. (I still think that, by the way.) My friends patiently nodded along and probably rolled their eyes behind my back, but I couldn’t really blame them for that, because I ceaselessly…
So, I did this thing. It’s been a pipe dream for years, but not something I ever thought would happen. Just kind of like living in Paris for a year- I mean, many are called but few are chosen, amiright? Of course I want to live in Paris for a year, but naturally I don’t expect it’ll ever happen. But this thing, well, here’s what went down… I was planning to audition sometime for the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, not necessarily…
I have made no secret of the fact that I love birthdays. I mean, I’m one of those annoying people who counts down the days and tells everyone when it comes and marches around collecting all the free drinks from coffee shops and that kind of thing. Ya know? I love to analyze the past year and see where life has taken me and for me it’s also a good mid-year time to make a few new resolutions. Finally, it’s…
A couple weeks I sat in a coffee shop feeling particularly homesick and forlorn and in need of adventure and decided to see what it would cost to go somewhere for the weekend, anywhere cheap. So I began browsing inexpensive flights and lo and behold, there was one for that very weekend to Charlotte. On a whim I snatched it up and spent the next few days of work just barely able to contain my excitement as I waited for…