Category: Trips Down Memory Lane
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Checking In at The White Lotus
Quick and sharp switch up here: Is anyone watching season 3 of The White Lotus? Man, I love that show. Solving a murder in a luxury hotel? What’s not to love? It’s two of my favorite things. And, as with all things, there has been quite a bit of talk on social media (well, Threads,…
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How to Become a Successful Freelance Writer in 11 Easy Steps
I have an acquaintance who recently reached out to talk about how they “might approach getting into freelance writing.” This sort of request happens fairly frequently and I always oblige. I have to say though, my track record of selling freelance writing as a career is less than stellar. Maybe it’s my sales pitch. Here’s…
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Grieving When You Don’t Feel Grief
Two big things happened since I last popped in here: One, we went to New Zealand for three weeks in November. It was an amazing trip and I plan to blog all about it. But not today. The bigger thing that happened is that my mother died in September, which is such a weird thing…
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Ode to El Paso
I’m from El Paso. It’s my hometown. Yes, I’ve lived in other parts of Texas, including Austin, and Dallas. I have family in San Antonio, and in Oregon, in Louisiana and other places, I’m sure, but we all came from El Paso. My mother’s dad exited the military while he was stationed at Fort Bliss…
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Remembering ‘The Voice of Mission Control’ on the Apollo 11 Anniversary
It’s a pretty exciting time to be in Washington D.C. The whole town is amped up over the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. The Saturn V rocket is being projected onto the Washington Monument, Neil Armstrong’s space suit is back on display at the National Air and Space Museum and the National Symphony Orchestra…
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Wasted Years*
(*The title is an Iron Maiden reference, off the 1986 “Somewhere in Time” album.) It was a friendship built out of a kindly act and a wave of gratitude. I was the new kid at school. I was always the new kid; we moved around all the time, like a ragtag band of trailer park…
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What I Learned About Africa the First Time Around (and Why We’re Going Back)
I uttered what I think might go down in history as the most bougie phrase ever known to mankind last week. “Weeeeell, last time we were in Africa, we stayed at…..” I said it not once, but TWICE while catching up with friends, both of whom probably immediately regretted asking me what big exciting trip…
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Risking it All (or Not) for My Youth Back
I was at a sort-of networking/motivational speaker-type event recently, the kind of event where you have to wear nametags, but since this was an event for creative folks, they’re not just straight-forward, run-of-the-mill nametags…they’re free-expression, icebreaker-type nametags. “Hello. I’m ______________. I would RISK it all for _______________.” I stood hunched over the registration table, Sharpie…
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Fairytales for Grown-Ass People: London Edition
Once upon a time….o.k, 1981…there was a young girl who lived way out in the dusty fields of West Texas who became infatuated with princesses and castles and royalty. One day when she was nine years old, the little girl got up very, very early to watch a beautiful blonde maiden in a humongous poofy…
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Back to the Basque
Hola, mis gentes. And Happy New Year! (Where did 2015 go? Seriously. I can’t believe it’s a new year. I’m woefully unprepared.) My travel-compadre-for-life and I have had a sort of travel rule for the last 10 years, which is: “Let’s go to new places. Places that neither of us have ever been.” After all,…