What I Learned at Life Today
Look Ma, I Made a Thing
Just when you think a little shelving project will be simple and breezy, along comes Pinterest. Want to add a simple shelf to the bathroom? Are you sure you don’t instead want to create a Rube Goldberg-inspired, steam punk-themed shelving system that makes your bathroom look like a boiler room from the Victorian Age? (Do […]
It’s a Tooth!
A friend and I met to have a brown bag lunch today at Reed College, her place of employ. While she was grabbing her lunch from the fridge, the narwhal photo (because of course there was a photo of a narwhal magneted to the staff fridge at Reed College) prompted me to wonder at the […]
The Bookshelf Test
Tinder. Bumble. OK Cupid. Coffee Meets Bagel. Online dating platforms abound, and they can suck up as much time as you let it. Whether you have tried out a dating app for yourself or not, you have probably heard of the “swipe left / swipe right” decision point. Swipe left, and the person’s profile is […]
Grief and Cycling
This is a probably-three-parter series about loss, because that’s been the kind of month/year/half-decade this has been. One of the inspirations for writing 30 blog posts in 30 days (we’re going to make it!) is my Dad’s legacy of openness, which I am trying to build more firmly into my being. At his memorial service, […]
Gabby Smashes!
Today’s blog post is a shameless cross-promotional log roll of the Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About This? podcast. In this episode, “Gabby Smashes!“, Alexis Gabriel and I talk with Dawn Jones Redstone and Luann Algoso about how Gabby Antonio has been smashing the Imperialist, White Supremacist, Capitalist Patriarchy. What I learned at life today: Podcast editing […]
The Joy of Budgets
Friends help friends budget better, so before going any farther, I want to give shout outs to those who got me on the life-bettering path of budgeting: Esther Harlow, Heidi Guenin, and Lillian Karabaic of Oh My Dollar! Our collective relationship to money is a strange, complicated thing. Merit is often ascribed in direct proportion […]
Out of Office
Automatic responses may have become a necessary communication technique to explain that a response may be delayed, but they can feel…boring. I learned from my former coworker, Ash, that out-of-office responses need not be relegated to yawning status. Animated hedgehog GIFs have become my favorite out-of-office visual confections. What I learned at life today: Giving […]
Minute to Win It
My sister-in-law, Jo, is one of the more creative people I have met. She is a choir teacher, a professional musician, and the mom of two precocious children. Her response to statements of nonplussedness? “Boredom is a choice.” As our immediate side of the family is spending the week on vacation, Jo has brought a […]
Triathlon Sprints Are Hilarious
This is only vaguely related, but one thing I learned this morning was to always go to the restroom before a morning run, especially in a new place. It was a rough lesson that I’m not likely to forget. When doggie bag dispensers look like the next best thing… Moving on! I had been thinking […]