So my camera’s broken. Dead. Kaput. No return. My third arm as a travel blogger – gone. And it’s all my own stupid fault. Picture it: Düsseldorf, 2010. American girl tries to balance her camera upright on a shaky wooden table in an attempt to perform a feat of self-timer derring do. It was a […]
The Writing Life
The Curse of Molly Malone
Classes finished last week, much to everyone’s chagrin. We’ve been paired with our portfolio advisors and still have 10,000 words to submit for two classes, but all anyone can talk about is What’s Next After the M.Phil? Good question. For most of us, it’s back to work. Some are heading back to school for MFAs. […]
Is There Life on Mars?
It’s chilly but sunny on 3/10; the day I turn 30 years old, an age that once seemed as distant as Mars. But here it is, all up in my grill, and after a year of dithering about the looming decade, I’m pleased to see that I haven’t vanished in a puff of smoke and there is indeed […]
Free Dish Soap With Each Membership
Amid the whirl of graduate school applications, international moves, apartment hunting and just plain ol’ adjusting to my third international move in as many years, it has failed to hit me until just recently that I am going to be a student again. As such, I must register at school and pose for a Student ID card. […]
Slàinte
So there are certain things one does when one is preparing to move abroad. I’ve been told by quite a few people in the past 2 years that they wish they could do what I’ve done – “simply run off” to a foreign country. Well, while I’m flattered by the admiration, moving abroad is far […]
The Next Big Thing
Time to update the ol’ Facebook Education Info: Crystal River High School, 1998 New York University, 2002. B.A. in English; B.A. in Physical Anthropology Trinity College 2010. Master’s of Philosophy in Creative Writing* *a.k.a, The Next Big Thing Come this August, I Eat My Pigeon: 私のハトを食べる New York Edition will flap its wings across the […]
In My Two Cups
Note: Today, I ventured to Nara prefecture to do some research for a “Day Trips” feature I’m writing for a travel magazine. So as not to scoop myself, I will only reveal that this involved being served some complimentary sake. I wrote this on the train coming back to Osaka. It is, obviously, part of […]
Greatness
When I was 15 – unreasonably angry and burning with a blistering passion for greatness that would extinguish itself by the time I was 18 – I made a list of possible careers. In my diary (hunched over my desk, pausing at intervals to enjoy a handful of crackers) I wrote: Broadway actress Novelist Lawyer […]
I eat my pigeon!
Before I moved to Japan, I did a little Japanese self-study. I bought a (rather lame) book designed to help me learn Japanese in 10 minutes a day and a (rather good) book to help me learn to write hiragana and katakana. Peaches also gave me the gift of a seriously good book on katakana […]
it’s no longer quite the springtime of my life…
… yet, the birthday was lovely – just lovely. A handsome bouquet of bright splashy pink and orange gerberas and a beautiful bouquet of dusky purple, yellow-tongued freesia combined to form a dazzling centerpiece for my squat living room table, though they wilt slightly days after the fact. Add to them the single white and […]