Monday, I Will Smack You
To beat an over-used expression to death, I am having a serious case of the Mondays. Scratch that – I have had a case of the Mondays for the past week or two. Would that make it a case of Periodic Blech Syndrome? I know I swore I would only be posting “quality content” on here, but screw it – not everything’s gonna be an award-winner. I’ve gotta let loose and be silly sometimes or my brain will self-destruct and possibly detonate and destroy civilization… So this weekend I had a mini-meltdown. No, it’s okay, it’s just my usual monthly panic over where my life is going, will I ever get…
I Would Make a Horrible Spy
I’ve always been drawn to tales of international intrigue and adventure. Movies about espionage (as long as they’re good) and even domestic criminal activity are one of my favorite genres of movie: living vicariously at its finest, ladies and gents. So naturally, I’ve fallen in love with Homeland in an absence of any more Game of Thrones episodes until March (why, HBO, why?). A bi-polar female acting as an intelligence operator during this oh-so-explosive current international atmosphere of terrorists and Middle Eastern conflict. This is a recipe for a show Natalie can’t stop watching. See, I also enjoy shows and movies with strong female leads – Netflix told me so.…
Crunchy Any Way I Can Get It
You don’t grow up in California without turning out a little crunchy. That is, at least the California of the eighties and nineties; if you were paying any attention to conservation talks in school involving talking dolphin puppets admonishing us to cut up the plastic soda rings so their babies won’t choke to death. Heck, maybe it’s that combined with my upbringing of camping every year with my family (leave the campsite cleaner than you found it), or reading so much as a kid (The Lorax is still my favorite Dr. Seuss book). Or maybe I’m just ultra-sensitive to conservation propaganda. In any case, I emerged crunchy. A tree-hugger. Environmentally conscious. My personal belief…
Man, the Desert is a Weird Place
For those who don’t live here, California is a magical land, particularly the L.A. area (which I hate, but that’s for another post). Within a two-hour radius, one can find mountains, snow, the beach, one of the world’s largest metropolises, and the desert. I went to the desert last weekend. What a freaking weird place. The desert not only has its own climate, but culture too. As an outsider looking in, I saw a lot of A.T.V.s, tricked out versions of off-road vehicles and dirt bikes. I saw a lot of hole-in-the-wall honky-tonks and down-home restaurant-type establishments. I saw a lot of overweight people drinking a lot of cheap bear…
My Husband Doesn’t Like Halloween. How Did this Happen?
Let me preface this by saying that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I mean, why wouldn’t it be? It’s an excuse to eat candy from which you ordinarily abstain (heck yeah I want some bite-sized Snickers wrapped in sour strawberry belts! Get in my mouth!), watch terrible scary movies from the seventies and love every minute of it, dress up as a witch/clown-if-you’re-a-sick-freak/nurse/princess/serving wench in order to live out your repressed Freudian dreams, and absorb all things atmospherically spooky. I love spooky. Plus, It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is pretty much my favorite television special of all time. For reasons I cannot fathom, Mike doesn’t like Halloween. My husband, my beloved, the one…
A Post of Random Charms Captured in the Big City
More New York stories today, yippee! I will be a travel writer yet, in spite of the many obstacles (including my inability to travel as frequently as I would like)…and in spite of Condé Nast’s total disinterest in my CV. I am not a quitter. In addition to all of the crazy stuff I documented yesterday for your viewing pleasure, we also saw a variety of historically significant/artistically brilliant/socially fabulous/only slightly touristy monuments as seen not through the lens of my warped perception, but through my other, more standard way of viewing life… See, there is a side to me (in fact, it’s probably the most significant side of me – the…
New York as Seen by Me, For You: UPDATED
Hi all. I am back. From the best trip EVER. I’ve missed you guys. SOB. But I won’t leave you EVER AGAIN. Until my next vacation. Then I’ll totally be all “see ya later!” and will probably forget to bring you a souvenir because I’m careless and souvenirs usually suck with gimmicky cheapness anyway. Except for the spiky souvenirs that attack you with tiny rusted nails, like the one my sister brought back from Castle Bran in Romania. A souvenir from Dracula’s castle that inflicts bodily harm represents the best of everything right and awesome in this world. I took a million pictures on this trip, almost literally. “Almost literally,” when used…
Journeying with the Cutthroat Traveler, Or, Why I Am a Fanatical Planner
My trip to New York is rapidly approaching, so of course I can think of little else lately. Job? What job? My mind is filled with packing lists and errands I need to run and the bridesmaid dress I need to fit in and where I am going to obtain bagels on this trip… BECAUSE THIS WILL BE THE BEST TRIP EVER. [I say this before every trip I take.] I am of the obsessive breed, like a rat terrier with a rag in its mouth. Which is why I was such a successful student that I remained in college for a decade. Just dedicated to the cause, comrade. One…
Adventure Junkie?
The closing post for Adventure Week! Hopefully I’ve gotten it out of my system, and can return to reality refreshed and restored (love me some alliteration). Probably not completely though. Because hello, my name is Natalie, and I’m an adventuraholic with too big of an imagination for my own good. I’m starting to see that I may be an adventure junkie. This is very useful; I’m working some things out on this blog. Cheaper than therapy, and all my readers get to feel totally normal for five minutes. Everybody wins here. I’m doing this for humanity. Back when Mike and I were dating, long ago and far away, we would…
Adventures in Reading. No, Not a Mistype.
Adventure Week continues with an obligatory book post. You thought you could escape the book post, didn’t you? I live and breath literature, so OF COURSE there was going to be a book post. What’s so adventuresome about books? Listen up kids, school’s in session. THE FUN KIND OF SCHOOL!!!! [Insert maniacal laughter] As an ungainly youth with severe social anxiety, reading was always my preferred method of self-soothing. I was the child who got in trouble for the book skillfully hidden under my desk, as I pretended to listen when I was, in fact, reading. Books took me away from the cruelty of children’s taunts and the long division…
