As ridiculous as it, the miserable familiar still manages to be more appealing to us than the unknown. Why? Survival, for one. No matter how grueling or frustrating or debilitating our present circumstances, familiarity has helped us to develop mechanisms for coping specifically manufactured for the triggers we're facing. What we are accustomed to, we are equipped to survive. We know how to navigate the twisted web of personalities at the job we loathe. We ...

If we could build the perfect room from scratch, what would it look like? What features would it contain? Let’s have ourselves a little daydream… As everyone's thoughts turn to holiday hosting mode, and hours spent prepping family feasts, my own can't help but to obsess about how to Simplify the process (es). My most passionate, perpetually wondering is, "might there be a better way to do things? To do the storing of things?" Not ...

For the record, I am not the Grinch. I am not intent on being the ruiner of merriment and joy. But I am intent on speaking the truth that I feel is needed, and, yes, occasionally, positioning myself in opposition to the sirens of consumerism. My patience with holiday gift guides, in general, has not yet reached its breaking point (though I feel said point drawing ever nearer). The matter of hostess gift guides is ...

“So, did you move out here knowing anyone?” I asked the sweet nail tech who was in the midst of waging war on my cuticles. The newbie aesthetician, young and quite literally fresh-faced (she had just had her first ever chemical peel prior to serving me, she had, by way of apology, informed me) stopped clipping for a moment. She spun ever so slightly in her chair, her new layer of skin glinting under the ...

Here's what I am not going to do in this post: tell you what to do. Here's why: the decision to take action on the subject I'm going to address must come from you and you alone. You must arrive at it with crystalized resolution. Otherwise, you'll talk yourself out of it. Or you'll change your mind. Or you won't have the guts to rip off the band-aid. Here's what I am going to do: ...