In the afternoon, I explored Midtown, visiting Grand Central and Bryant Park and the New York Public Library. The sun was out in full force. A pleasant surprise. The weather reports had anticipated rain for weeks. I was a little startled by how quickly everybody walked. People moved with extreme speed in Grand Central. Extreme. … More Afternoon in Midtown
1. Sometimes I look back and wish I had done something differently. Sometimes it is inconsequential. Other times it is very much consequential. This is a reminder to myself that, in that moment, I made the decision for a reason. I made that choice based on all the information I had had. I should trust … More Several Things
After a wonderfully raucous meeting with my new art group – a story I’ll save for later – I went ice skating with an old friend. I also ended up befriending two little girls who asked if I could teach them to skate. One thought I was 15 years old – turns out I was … More Figure Eight
It’s a bizarre and paradoxical, growing up. Here I am, looking ten years my junior while planning to attend the university reunion with my best friend, because we’re at that age where our class starts to, like, have reunions. I’ve honestly never been much of a rah-rah reunion person, but I do have more attachment to my alma mater than other institution I’ve been a part of. My best friend will be there and hopefully it will be nostalgic and magical. … More That my Best Friend
I have been reading the book Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. It’s like Drawing 101, but now I’m putting theory to practice. I would find myself using these art tactics without fully understanding why. Instead of doing all the activities at once, I’m taking my time, absorbing the concepts and following the … More Sketchbook Challenge
At 11:53 PM NYE, we stood on the hotel terrace, looking across the lake and shadowy mass of mountains. In the afternoon, we had taken the train from Switzerland to Italy. The hotel desk person had informed us that fireworks would start around midnight. At this point, though, there were two distant fireworks – behind … More Happy New Years from Italy 🎆
At le beau’s insistence, we popped by a place called Moods for brunch. In retrospect, the name and menu should have tipped us off. See, we wanted hearty. We knew we wanted hearty. Nothing hearty was on the menu, but we ordered anyways, hoping there would magically be bacon, eggs and potatoes tucked underneath somewhere. … More A Mood and Moco
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This is how we live. Day to day. In the present. Carpe diem and all that. I used to live in the future, I used to plan my life, and then I got there, and I was like, you know what? This is underwhelming. I spent so much time fixated on the destination that I entirely forgot about the journey. I listened to a song waiting for it to end, and when it ended, it was quiet, and I was like, goddamn. In a similar vein, I can’t look to what other people are doing, feeling, or saying, and I can’t treat life like a song that I’m waiting to end. … More Carpe Diem and All That
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Happy Hallow’s Eve! This year, we didn’t dress up, but: Labor Day barely bat an eye before I had thrifted everything orange and arranged it on the mantel. Le beau was initially reluctant – he had helped set up the 8 ft Christmas tree that blocked our whole hallway in early November. After a day … More And It Was All Orange
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Happy 2/22/22! Thought I’d repost this from last Fall. I shared something similar on my Tumblr blog in 2011, too, on 1/11/11, although I’d never been bombarded by numbers until recently. (Also, this stopped around December.) Right before we went on our road trip for the 4th, I started noticing something weird: repeating and consecutive … More Repeating Numbers
On a whim, I returned home and decorated my childhood room. I added heaps of pillows, pots of plants. I dusted an old leafy rug to place beneath the cherrygloss side table. I added decorative books, vases, flowers. I’m not sure why I felt compelled to decorate a bed I no longer sleep on – … More Empty Nest
As I interview for new jobs, scanning each hiring manager’s face for clues, red flags, and tics, I find myself reflecting on the better jobs and bosses I’ve had. In retrospect, my favorite job was my teaching job, the one I had before graduate school. During that time, I was doing research and applying to … More And My Favorite Job Award goes to….
We are driving home on country backroads, Beatles blaring. It is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, perhaps the single worst day to drive home. I am watching the orangey amber fall foliage pass us by, flickers of warmth and shadow. We drive by grazing cows, trailer parks, rebuilt homes, abandoned houses. The town’s Main Street is … More Thanksgiving Travel Nightmare
Happy Thanksgiving! This month, I practiced thankfulness by making a Gratitude Tree. Every day, I added a leaf that listed out what I was grateful for. As I generated leaves, I tacked them onto the empty branches – now that it’s Thanksgiving, I have my very own Gratitude Tree: Hope everyone is having a festive, … More Gratitude Tree
The best dates are accidental – the bookstore/coffeeshop you didn’t expect, the historic square you didn’t anticipate, the flea market you didn’t know about. Today had all three – the bookstore/coffeeshop, the historic square, the flea market. I had an itch to go somewhere, maybe a bookstore or coffeeshop, preferably somewhere with space, parking, novelties, … More Accidental Date II
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Lately, we’ve been on the same wavelength in slightly eerie, but mostly sweet, ways. Like how he’ll dream of a specific situation that I wake up in the morning drawn to. Or how we’ll both blurt out “thanks for cleaning the apartment” and “thank you for putting your stuff up” at the same time. Or … More Like Fish in Water
Le beau took me to the unpaved trail by the lake. When our bikes hit the loose gravel, I was reminded of the time we went off-roading in Colorado. On the trail, my legs burned. It was up, up, up, and then down. And then back up. We then turned back around, where I felt … More Déjà Vu
(Because why not stay up until 3 AM drawing comics?)
coolpeppermint 