This week marks six months in Melbourne, which means Steve and I are halfway through our visas here in Australia. While we still have plenty of time left for more exploring down under (trips to Cairns, Sydney, and Tasmania are in the works, as well as a few weeks in Japan during the Rugby World…
Favourite face: my makeup essentials
(and now for something a bit more lighthearted than my last post) When I was packing to move from the United States to New Zealand, I left a lot of my makeup behind, hoping that my sister or mom would get some use out of it. When I moved from New Zealand to Australia, I…
Heartbeats, holidays, hopefulness, helplessness
When I was in grad school in Ireland, my friends and I made an agreement that if one of us should find ourselves with an unwanted pregnancy, we would rearrange our schedules for an immediate “girls’ holiday” to the UK—cocktails, spa visits, shopping, all that fun, female stuff. And an abortion. It’s something that I…
The sounds of memories
Last week I was lucky enough to see two gigs by artists I have loved and wanted to see live for a long time. I still remember exactly where I was when I first heard Shakey Graves—down to which song (‘Dearly Departed’) on which radio station (NPR) and even which street I was driving on…
Six Months to Marathon
When I finished my first half-marathon, I thought “I’ll definitely do that again, but I’ll probably never run more than a half.” When I ran my second, I thought, “I could probably tack on a few more kms, but I’ll probably never run a full marathon.” After the third, when I had finally reached my…
What I Read in March
I almost never DNF (did not finish) a book and I rarely even read one that I don’t like. This isn’t because I’m not picky, but I’ve logged hundreds of books on Goodreads since I started using it eight years ago, and I read hundreds more before that, so at this point I have a pretty…
