I’m not exactly a globetrotter, but I have been doing a decent amount of traveling these days for business and pleasure. My takeaway: there are almost as many #traveltips as bags that won’t fit in the overhead bin. So I thought I’d share my carefully curated list of tips and tricks for successful travails—er—travels. Clean before you leave: Yes, yes you’ll arrive home to a … Continue reading Trippin’

There’s a slew of movies and TV shows in which dead people are dead wrong thinking that they’re alive. I recently discovered that just as the deceased don’t always know they’ve passed on, some of us don’t realize that the things we thought were typical…well… aren’t. Case in point: my garage door opener. Until just (mumbles date), I thought that I needed to preserve the … Continue reading Who knew?

As some of you know, I recently moved. Despite my copious complaining and a ridiculous amount of packing tape, it wasn’t the Herculean effort I made it out to be. I threw things in boxes, I occasionally labeled said boxes, and I rented and drove a moving truck for the very first time. The real excitement came after I moved in and started setting up … Continue reading Killer Décor

You know what they say…the more things change, the more we wish they didn’t. Or maybe that’s just me. I’ve never been a super-fan of change. In fact, I’m more than fine with same-old, same-old. There’s something comfortable in the predictable. Even the mundane. I once spent the better part of a decade having the EXACT same thing for lunch every day. Did I mind … Continue reading A chunk of change

Hello! Or should I say, HELLO!!!!!(??!!!) I’m moving today (yes, yet again), which is so exciting, I thought I’d reshare this post about my excitability about punctuation!!! (x a gazillion) My reality TV of choice is the true crime variety that airs on Investigation Discovery, the channel that features such inimitable classics as BrideKillas, Murder Loves Company, Deadly Dentists and Elder Skelter.  But every once in a while, … Continue reading Oh, exclamation point!

In my day job as copywriter, I spend a decent amount of time coming up with names for companies, products, and services. Sometimes it’s an easy lift like, say, when I’m tasked with incorporating the owner’s namesake. (The George Foreman Grill comes to mind.) But more often than not, it’s a process that requires in-depth research, tedious trademark queries, and copious complaining. It isn’t just … Continue reading The name game

My daughter just turned 15. I know. Thank you for your thoughts and prayers. But I don’t want to talk about teen angst, the dangers of social media, or why I’m accused of being “totally cringe” when I drive her and her friends around. I want to talk about fashion. I don’t know about where you live, but in my little corner of Oregon, the … Continue reading It’s, like, totally fashionable.

Ah, 2021. It was the worst of times. And the worst of times. But The Year That Must Not Be Named did usher in a number of lessons for me, some of the cosmic variety, some simply to be filed away under Huh…Who Knew? Here, then, in no particular order, are a few things I learned in 2021: Never, ever declare “THIS is going to … Continue reading Things I learned in 2021

Not to be dramatic or anything, but I call this time of year The Solstice of the Soul. The runup to the shortest day is heralded by 4:30 p.m. sunsets, cloud-pocked skies and barren trees. Everything seems to be dying, including the light, and I find myself turning inward, hibernating, contemplating the chill of endings as the sun turns its back. And yet in the … Continue reading Solstice of the Soul

In the advertising world, we’re discouraged from falling in love with our ideas in case the client hates them or they die on the cutting room floor. (And by “cutting room” I mean “creative director’s.” And by “die” I mean “squashed like grapes made into a post-work glass of wine.”) Despite decades of adherence to this edict, I didn’t apply it novel-writing, not because I … Continue reading Playing favorites

At work, the managers like to end our weekly meeting with a thought-provoking, let’s-really-get-to-know-each-other question. This week’s theme: name something weird or surprising about yourself. My response: How would you like my list of weirdness? Alphabetically? Chronologically? Small to large? Mundane to outrageous? I have a lot of material. I could have talked about how my fingers are so double-jointed that I have to concentrate … Continue reading Two Truths and a Lie

  I recently saw an ad for an app that helps YouTube pros hunt down and eliminate filler words from their speech. You know…um, uh, well and…you know. As someone whose own dialogue is replete with Valley Girl-isms a là “Like, it’s like, I mean,” this sounded like the app for me. Except for the fact that I’m not a professional YouTuber. I am a … Continue reading My word