north stars There’s a long list of things that can be painful or annoying about being single; getting a zipper up on the back of your dress, applying sunscreen in the right spots, opening a stubborn jar of pickles, a... Continue Reading →
me, very cool, through almost all of my birthday, crying at anything nice said to me. (literally 90% of the pictures are a version of this.) The soundtrack for this blog can be found here. And I recommend the heck... Continue Reading →
a moment from last year's birthday! It is birthday week! Around lunchtime, seven days from now, I will officially have been out of the womb and in the world for 40 years. That's 14,610 days. What the heck does that... Continue Reading →
hassan II mosque. gorgeous. I’m lucky that my schedule as an international teacher allows me to travel a lot, and my income teaching in Hong Kong supplements this desire, and my sometimes dangerously (I like to think comically) low levels... Continue Reading →
Every once in a while as a teacher you experience a true “a-ha” moment, watching a lightbulb go on and experience the joy of truly teaching someone something. For me this happened this week when I taught my students the... Continue Reading →
A note - the soundtrack to this is - "Always on my Mind" by Willie Nelson, "Anytime" by Brian McKnight, and "All I Can Think About is You" by Coldplay. flowers, because thinking of you. Maybe you’ve seen that post... Continue Reading →
my little life This month marks my three and a half year anniversary of living on my own (when you don’t have a partner or kids, you have the mental capacity and also the emotional imperative to notice and celebrate... Continue Reading →
rachel, christmas 1985 the philosopher ferris bueller once said - life moves pretty fast. i can/can't believe i'm sitting here at my parents house, puppies warming my feet, rain on the tin roof, a drink poured but no makeup and... Continue Reading →
There are a few days that really make me miss home, and Thanksgiving is one of them. I don’t have any American friends here and the way I feel about the day doesn’t translate cross-culture. I’m coping well - bought... Continue Reading →
The end of a school year is always bittersweet - saying goodbye to colleagues moving on or away, cleaning out classrooms, changing year groups. It’s especially challenging when you teach in an international school and city because people - both... Continue Reading →
Lots of people do round-ups for New Year's Eve, but a few years ago I started marking each actual year of my life, answering these same set of questions each birthday to help me measure moments. Here are the last... Continue Reading →
“Habibi - for you, special price, almost free. Look, I give you these earrings. Make myself. Are you married? I can marry! I nice Egyptian man for you.” His name was (shocker) Mohammed and he was one of the many... Continue Reading →
Sunglasses Always Fit 