Like bouldering, but on buildings. It's one of the many things we tried this summer, if briefly. My best friend and Ya-Ya, Amy, visited us in Oslo with her husband, Jeff, at the beginning of June. We did a bunch of fun stuff together. I loved playing tour guide in…
The Audrey Flower
When Dad got his first job teaching at Sinnott Elementary School, he made an executive decision and transferred all three of us kids to the school, as well. Even though this meant taking us away from all our lifelong friends, and even though it would put us through a 45-minute…
DIY: Upcycling a Flowerpot
"Mother said you could always tell a lady by her hands." ~ Suellen O'Hara, Gone With the Wind And I've got dirt under my fingernails. Not only is this an odd sensation, but it makes me feel even less "kempt" than usual. What's the good news? My rose, the one whose…
All the things!
There is a meme that has made the obligatory number of rounds on the interwebs and is now lodged, probably forever, in my life. This is Why I’ll Never be an Adult on the wonderful and hilarious blog Hyperbole and A Half . It is the story of one woman’…
Musikk in the City
My place is currently cluttered with camping and climbing gear. Coiled ropes, tents, sleeping bags, camp stove. A full backpack's worth of dirty clothes takes up most of the floor in my bathroom. This is the aftermath of a five-day camping trip in the Jotenheim region of Norway, about 5…
Two Solitudes
It's tough to put my fingers back on this keyboard. One week away from technology has made the plastic, clicking keys foreign to me. I'll get over it. But for the moment, my mind and heart are still back on a sandy, pebbly beach in the Grecian archipelago. Jonathan and…
Forge: Issue 6.1
It's not really a secret. As an aspiring writer, the desire for success (just a smidge of it... just a single acceptance letter at a time...) is immense, but the odds of it happening are so very small. However, earlier this summer I received that smidge from a publication called…
Four Seasons at Frognerparken
California girls don't understand seasons. Even if we've long said inane things like, Oh, Autumn is my favorite time of year! Even if we've once or twice strapped a snowboard to our feet and slid down a mountain on the backside of our rented coveralls. Even if we know all…