I never know what to get my husband for anything. I used to try to dress him up with my holiday gifts, buying jeans and rugbies from the Gap and Banana Republic, but once he realized I was living some ’80s-Chicago-preppy dream and attempting to Jake Ryanize him, clothes as presents were off limits.…Continue Reading
Etcetera
Listen To Your Mother: So I Did
I knew Listen To Your Mother was coming. It’s a nationwide show, and surely one of the productions would settle somewhere near San Diego. I’d tried out before – in Los Angeles in 2011 – but had read something funny, which if you knew me in person, was an unwise choice. Writing funny and…Continue Reading
Time Savers from a Crazy Person
I don’t know what it is exactly – but I turbo hate to waste time on food and person prep. It’s like I just need to get to the next thing, and pesky irritants like using a cutting board to dice vegetables or taking my clothes off to iron them are too distracting. So,…Continue Reading
I’m Staying
I keep coming back here to write a response to the death of “old school blogging” and it’s all sounding the same: I miss how it used to be online; I’m not interested in marketing over making; and what happened to personal blogging for God’s sake? I’m reading more and more people saying similar…Continue Reading
Uncomplicated Style with J. Jill, and the Worst Photographer Ever
I’m obsessed with easy fashion because for years, I was certain it existed but somehow eluded me, like Paris Hilton’s intellect. I mean, “easy fashion” surely couldn’t be an urban myth, yet why couldn’t I grasp it? It’s supposed to be simple and uncomplicated. Still, I get confused. I’m not sure what goes with what…Continue Reading
PROMPTuesday #226: The Thank-You List
You may know the “thank-you list” as “giving gratitude” and it is exactly what you think: writing down the people, places, and things you are grateful to have in your life. Gurus (and Oprah) advise that speaking your gratitude to the universe is a powerful exercise that enacts a simple but fundamental shift in thinking…Continue Reading
Skin Authority Review
If you’re a friend or family member, you know that my search for good skincare products is legend. I’ve really and truly tried almost everything, but find that only a small portion of potions I’ve applied to my face don’t make me break out or manage my skin conditions (i.e. oiliness but dryness, clogged pores,…Continue Reading
Word Losing
(A re-post from September 2011) I’ve lamented these last several months my lack of coming up with anything to write. And when I do commit to words, my beloveds read wooden and trite, and superficial. Worse yet, I couldn’t figure out the problem, in fact, I obsessed over it, climbed up and down…Continue Reading
The Dope
I wonder a lot about “meant to bes.” Like what if I didn’t move to Los Angeles out of the blue in 1996? Would I have met my husband another way? What if I’d decided to stay at my last job? Would I have started this blog anyway? Was I supposed to get into the…Continue Reading
Oh My God. I’m Chillow’s Target Market.
Used to be I skipped right past ads for dentures. Same with Doan’s back pills and the Clapper. Nothing, not anything, appealed to me about these commercials or the old people who appeared in them. I simply didn’t relate to brittle bones and constant pain upon waking. I could still do back bends and pee…Continue Reading
California
The long and meandering response to this week’s PROMPTuesday… Eight months after I graduated from college, I took a job as a receptionist at a Milwaukee law firm. It wasn’t what I wanted to do, but after living with my parents for a brief time in San Diego, I decided to really be a…Continue Reading
Life As We Knew It
My end-of-the-world odyssey continues. This past week found me still searching for apocalyptic thrillers, culminating in a read of “Life As We Knew It,” by far, the most mild-mannered “we’re all gonna die” dystopian yet. I suppose it wasn’t dystopian as much as it was “is it the end of the world?” because the…Continue Reading
