sustainable systems & storytelling
Last week, the while-haired woman behind us at Costco noticed a bag of macadamia nuts in our cart and gasped, asking where I'd found them. My boyfriend immediately offered to go grab her a bag and I smiled to myself, still proud of my catch six years in. Once I'd checked out, I explained to... Continue Reading →
A dear friend is trudging through the perilous minefield that this mid-life dating and spills over with emotion every time we meet. The tears, laughter and longing are always followed by a smile and the phrase, “You two give me hope.” After spending over 2,000 days attached at the hip, my boyfriend and I are... Continue Reading →
At the start of the year, my boyfriend proposed an idea to save some extra fun money. Each time either of receive a $5 bill, we drop it into a glass mason jar. Less than three months in, we've collected over $500. Out of one hundred $5 bills, I've contributed approximately five. Each evening, we... Continue Reading →
Today, my boyfriend and I will exchange cards in honor of Female Love Reassurance and Gift Exchange Day and then call it good. Both of us view February 14th as a grossly over-commercialized holiday, yet we both appreciate a good card. At some point today, my sweetheart will open a little miracle card that reads, "I... Continue Reading →
With my boyfriend's birthday fast-approaching, I've been begging him to just tell me what he wants.With each holiday, he insists that he doesn't need anything. I proceed to buy him something really fun or highly practical, and he always thanks me for my thoughtfulness as he insists that we don't need to be spending money... Continue Reading →
“What you do everyday matters more than what you do every once in a while.” Happy (belated) New Year! 2018 is behind us and I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for the fresh start that is 2019. Though the first of the new year is an arbitrary date, I always try to take... Continue Reading →
There is a nasty bug traveling around in my neck of the woods and, for the first time in several years, I caught it. After twelve days of soothing my fever, snot, and persistent irritability, my boyfriend began began developing symptoms. Oops. We were both gifted the full post-Christmas shebang: fever, chills, sneezing, cough, sinus... Continue Reading →
Later this month, I will celebrate five years with my better half. Oh, how the time flies! Our time together has been filled with the predictably unpredictable ups and downs, as well as plenty of surprises along the way. Through it all, one thing has held true: we are equally committed to ourselves, our partner,... Continue Reading →
My boyfriend has joked that if I were to die, he would face his own demise within three weeks. Death from a broken heart, you ask? Nope, starvation. I've joked, that if he leaves this earth before me, I'm not going anywhere, and neither is he! Several years ago, he suggested that I would probably... Continue Reading →
The other day, my distracted mind mind was quickly drawn back into conversation when my boyfriend nonchalantly said, "let's get you a hare." After years of back-and-forth about the inhumanity of leaving an oversized mountain dog alone in a small house without a backyard for 10 hours a day, the possibility of him suffering through... Continue Reading →
One of my boyfriend's favorite bands is in town for two nights this week. Many months ago--back when I could sometimes stay up until 9pm--he bought a set of pit tickets...for both nights. Now, he's in a bit of a pickle. Should he sell the two sets of tickets and pocket the $600? Should he go... Continue Reading →
When my boyfriend and I first began dating, it quickly became clear that while I preferred schedules, he enjoyed going with the flow. A perfect example of this was when, just a month into our relationship, he proposed that we do something spontaneous so I could experience the uncertainty and excitement of a blank to-do... Continue Reading →
After a brief hiatus, I am continuing Elizabeth Gilbert's online course, What is Creative Living? The third portion of the course involves identifying the ways in which we serve our creative life, and the ways in which we needlessly sacrifice joy. Humans have been making art for 30,000 years, and you can bet that the earliest artists... Continue Reading →
I've been rather isolated over the several months, trying to keep my sanity and find ways to be productive as my body struggles through the fatigue, nausea, and impending threat of coccidial meningitis. The other day, I read a quote from Yara Bashraheel that really resonated with me: "Maybe home is nothing but two arms... Continue Reading →
My boyfriend is a bit of a smartass. Whether pranks (like the April Fool's Day he convinced his father that Costco was closing and my mother that we were expecting), puns (which his mother refers to as two-thirds of a pun--a "P U") or miscellaneous silliness (like caressing my hair with a creepy "little hand"... Continue Reading →
