Who Knew

If you know me, you know I'm not an especially adventurous person. I'm terrified of heights (ask my mom about being at the top of the Empire State building in NYC- she loves to tell that story). I typically won't eat something if I don't know what's in it (half because of being a vegetarian, half because that's frightening). Being startled makes me cry and hyperventilate (and sometimes laugh at the same time depending on the circumstances). I truly admire those who are adventurous and get excited about jumping out of airplanes, or eating things that look funny or travel the world with nothing more than what they have on their back. And I want to be that person in so many ways. And I do try. I recently went to my first cycling class- something I've wanted to do for so long but has been so intimidating. I've now gone to 3 classes. I promised myself I would go to 5 and then evaluate if I wanted to continue going... and I think I just might. I've ...

This conversation seems to be coming up in my life more and more often lately, so I felt it was deserving of a blog post. As a single woman, I get asked a lot about my dating life. How's it going? Is it going? What stories do I have? Have I heard from 'him' (meaning Steve, the most recent ex)? And the most frequent non-date but relationship related comment I receive is 'I'm glad it's not me.' Yeah, dating is hard. It's really hard. People don't meet organically anymore.  I hear on a semi-regular basis, people guessing I'll meet someone on the grocery store. Maybe then that would be meeting organically since that's the part of the grocery I shop in? (I know, bad joke) But I've used online dating off and on again since about 2008 to try to meet men for 2 reasons: 1) because I'm busy and usually haven't lived in the city I've been in very long, so it's a convenient way to get connected 2) because most of the men I do meet...

I'm making a new commitment to health and wellness, of all varieties. And for me, this means with what I eat, how I spend my leisurely time, and what I'm doing to make myself feel good.  You can call it vain, but for me health is the whole package and I'm trying to take care of myself in every aspect --that is important to me.  (Because if I don't take care of myself, then who will? The answer is no one) And I've heard all sorts of things lately about coconut oil, so I decided to do some Googling and see what I could learn. I found this brief but informative link from Dr. Oz (who generally I don't take super seriously because to me, doctors and TV don't go hand in hand *cough* Dr. Phil *cough*) to give me a foundation to start from.  So I dug some more. Then I found this from Wellness Mama  and while 101 uses is a little absurd and totally not what I was looking for, I thought okay, it's game time now.  I've heard of people using coconut oil for t...

I've now lived 1 unit away from 2 different dead men. I'm starting to develop a complex. One was an old man who lived by himself in the unit next to mine when I was in grad school in Greensboro. We had a yard separating us, and I hardly ever saw him and we never actually spoke.  I knew something was up when I hadn't seen his underwear drying on his front stoop for several days and his mailbox was overflowing. But I was house-sitting and convinced myself I was over-reacting.  Nope, I wasn't making things off. His normal routine wasn't happening and he was in fact dead in his apartment. He'd had a massive heart attack in his bed. He had no family he was in contact with so it was a while before anyone figured out he was dead. I knew something in my complex was going on on Sunday night when a fire truck pulled in with its lights going and no sirens. I thought that it was an old man who lives on the first floor, maybe he'd fallen; nothing emergent but obvious...

The tough get a fever. This week was hard in so many ways and so many levels. Personally, physically, mentally, emotionally, professionally... any way you can think of, life got hard this week.  It took every ounce willpower in me to coach myself through each moment, each conversation and to be patient and kind to myself and with others as I went through the week.  I had to force myself to be fully present in each individual moment, because if I even tried to think one step ahead of myself, well, I wouldn't have been able to make it.  And at the end of the week, my body couldn't take anymore and I had a fever and a swollen throat and slept on my couch because I couldn't even make it to my bed. But here's the cool part. I also had a lot of really amazing moments happen too. Lots of authentic and candid conversations that wouldn't have happened otherwise. A great night with a friend I haven't seen in over 2 years. A trip to the beach. Exploring new areas of ...