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The World Opens Up to You When You’re Not a Douche
I realize that the title of this post is a bit off-brand for me, but I couldn’t think of anything sugar-coated to really sum up my morning. Around 11am, I headed off to my usual coffee spot to get some work done. On my walk, I greeted the guy who owns the antique store, the […]
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Well, I Just Booked a Ticket to Portugal
Eleven years ago, I laid on my back across a bus seat on my way into Santiago de Compostela for the first time. As many of you know, I took a course about the Camino in college and spent three weeks flitting around Spain from the comfort of a coach bus with about 15 of […]
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Master of Two Worlds
Muscle memory can sneak up on you. It’s been raining off and on all morning, so I headed out to my usual coffee shop with our big umbrella, tapping it on the ground as I walked. Halfway through my trip, I caught myself hitting the umbrella on the grass beside the sidewalk instead of the […]
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It’s More Fun to Believe in the Magic of Coincidence
I’ve decided to make peace with living in emotional technicolor. Hear me out. I know that sounds like a bad hipster band name. But I’ve had a lot of coffee, so I’m rolling with it. Several months after my second Camino, I started having these wildly vivid dreams. The dreams themselves are pretty trippy. […]
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A Quick Rant About Socks and Toxic Masculinity
I stopped off at a gift shop on my way home this afternoon to look at something small for Ben. We don’t really make a huge deal out of Valentine’s Day, but I thought I’d grab a card or something else silly. There’s a company that makes these comedic socks — something Ben often wears […]
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Why I Walk
Pilgrim X is a nickname Claire and I gave a muscle-bound, chain-smoking hiker that we met on our Camino in 2009. She walked quickly, rarely stopped for lunch, and trekked ahead of the group with an angry, fevered gait of someone being chased. The last time we crossed her path, our current Camino family had […]
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My First Full Year of Freelancing
This is more of a practical post for a change. I’ve had a few people reach out to see how freelance writing was going, so I’ve written a a rundown of my experience in the first full year. Also, if you’re one of the many people who found this blog over the holiday season by […]
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A Note on Belonging
I had a pretty difficult time returning from both of my Caminos. The noise of American televisions, the lack of connection with people in your neighborhood as you walk down the street, the speed of everyday life. The biggest shock driving home from the airport was the rigid geometry of the streets in our suburban […]
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The Stories We Don’t Tell
When I was a teenager, my mom and I used to sit on the front porch as she’d tell me–usually with a touch of our family’s famous dark sense of humor–about her many brushes with danger. There was the time, while living in late-1970’s NYC, that a man followed her off the subway. When realizing […]
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The Light at the End of an Obstacle-Filled, Obnoxiously Long Tunnel
Whenever my stress hangs around for long enough, I start having Plainfield nightmares. Plainfield is the town where I grew up until I was 11. It was less than safe and far from pleasant. Last night I dreamt that that there were people outside the house, people I couldn’t see–I usually can’t–banging on the doors […]
Maybe There Will Be Cupcakes
travel, creativity, and surprisingly little about baked goods
Maybe There Will Be Cupcakes 