Five More Questions to Which I May Never Have Answers

Five More Questions to Which I May Never Have Answers

Comments 12 comments

Why does the world not contain more deviled eggs? You know those Sunday evening meetings that happen sometimes when a random guest speaker or singing group comes through the area? Nobody really quite wants to attend, because half the time the music is bad or the presentation dull, but at least there’s food afterward to buoy one’s spirits. You know the spread too- bowls of popcorn and vegetable trays and cookies and (if you’re from my NC church) lots and…

Read More Read More

This Ordinary Life

This Ordinary Life

Comments 8 comments

Hello friends, I’ve been wanting to write you a rambling sort of catching-up post for a while, but I keep finding myself at a loss for words. This year is bizarre in that there is always something huge coming across the news- explosions, natural disasters, weird laws being passed- but at the same time my personal news dwindles to things like, “Did I tell you I went grocery shopping and forgot my wallet at home?”  My roommate and I laugh…

Read More Read More

Let’s Talk Careers

Let’s Talk Careers

Comments 1 comment

A while ago I posted a few questions to my Instagram story about careers, as I struggled to make a difficult career-related decision myself. You guys responded en masse and with such thoughtful and interesting answers that I simply had to write up a post rather than just continue making ridiculously long Instagram stories with all your responses. Career is an interesting topic for me for several reasons: one, it’s not something which is discussed a whole lot for women…

Read More Read More

Five Benefits of Wearing a Mask In NYC

Five Benefits of Wearing a Mask In NYC

Comments 3 comments

Hello all, and welcome to the second half of 2020, the year of yellow skittles and socks which slide down and curdled cream in your coffee. Everyone likes to talk about “the new normal”, a term which I deeply dislike, but which does seem to pretty much sum up the human race trying to figure out their lives this year. One of “the new normal” things we’ve all had to learn to deal with, with varying levels of graciousness and…

Read More Read More

A Letter to My 2019 Self

A Letter to My 2019 Self

Comments 0 Comment

Dear Rachel, Oh, you dear, sweet, naive, innocent, little thing. It’s June, which means you’re just getting settled into life in the city, and still trying to figure out your roommate situation, and you’re slowly making a few friends here and there. The homesickness is setting in with a force, which you’re abating with frequent trips to NC wherever you can squeeze them in. Best of all, you’re still under the impression that 2020 is going to be an amazing…

Read More Read More

Matrimony and a Wicked Mouse

Matrimony and a Wicked Mouse

Comments 3 comments

It’s been a languid and sultry couple of days in New York City, the kind where you move slowly, sipping ice water and blowing a fan on your bare toes while you smile and look professional from the shoulders up for your zoom calls. Usually I don’t care for hot weather, but I’ve kind of been soaking it in these days and relishing my well-deserved shower every night. And did I mention I’m showering in my very own shower these…

Read More Read More

A Letter To You Who Are Far From New York City

A Letter To You Who Are Far From New York City

Comments 1 comment

I wasn’t sure what to call you at first. Fellow exile? No, that makes it sound like we’re being persecuted. Fellow displaced person? But we aren’t refugees. This extraordinary season we are living in makes me incapable of even addressing you properly, but regardless, I wanted to write to you.

Little Letters, Quarantine Edition

Little Letters, Quarantine Edition

Comments 1 comment

I’ve been meaning to write this post for dayyssss. So far I’ve managed to… Look through the photos from the choir Christmas party Google my name Apply to a random job I certainly won’t get Look up tall people jokes Look up short people jokes Read a post about celebrities wearing dresses over jeans Listen to Leslie Odom Jr’s Cheer Up Charlie Watch old videos of my dance class and of when I went to see the Brooklyn Tabernacle Singers in…

Read More Read More

Bookish Questionnaire

Bookish Questionnaire

Comments 10 comments

Some time ago my acquaintance-who-I-pretend-is-my-friend did a book week on her blog, and when I mentioned how much fun that would be, she kindly created this bookish questionnaire for me! I don’t have a whole week of book posts for you just now (hopefully coming later), but as a person who has wasted entirely too many hours doing stupid Buzzfeed quizzes, I great fun filling this much-better-than-Buzzfeed-quiz out. If you want to participate, I’d love to hear you answer your…

Read More Read More

Happy Anniversary To Me, With a Side of Pandemic

Happy Anniversary To Me, With a Side of Pandemic

Comments 0 Comment

March marks one year since I made the momentous move from my wee North Carolina town to Queens, NYC. On March 8, 2019, I was saying my soggy farewells to everyone who was gathered at the annual youth conference, then packing my damp self into the rental car with Abby and wending our way toward Virginia where we spent the night at a friend’s house before trekking the rest of the way to Queens the next day. Precisely one year…

Read More Read More

What’s It Like To Sing In the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir?

What’s It Like To Sing In the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir?

Comments 7 comments

Since so many of you are just dying to know what it’s like to sing in my lovely li’l choir (and by “so many of you”, I mean precisely one little cousin), I thought I might give you a bit of a rundown of what it’s like behind the scenes at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. I like to think of myself as the Amish representation in this extremely diverse choir. Sometimes I think of my Amish grandmother, and how agog…

Read More Read More

Oxford, Oh Joy

Oxford, Oh Joy

Comments 6 comments

When my girls and I planned our little dashing trip to London last fall, I thought with secret longing of how close we would be to Oxford, but I didn’t mention it much because our trip was already very short and surely there was no way we could pack a second location in. But upon arrival, we discovered that most of us had the same Oxford itch, and really, it wasn’t very far by train, and frankly, how could we…

Read More Read More