Neurotic As Hell

March 7, 2016

My totally teal kitchen.

Whenever anyone compliments my interior design abilities, I tell them my secret: if you just buy everything in the same color your decor will always match. OK, so there's probably a line that you can cross in going from just enough of a single color to look put together to swimming in an over-the-top monochrome jungle. My teal kitchen might just be tiptoeing that line. I didn't really mean for my kitchen to become an explosion of all things teal (and aqua and powder blue and turquoise). Although OK maybe I did. I mean, have you seen my couch? I just...

This is what my kitchen looks like. Always.

March 3, 2016

in Apartment, relationships

I kind of never want to live with someone ever again.

I moved into my apartment last March, and have been living alone, happily, in this one bedroom place for a year. The fact that it's been an entire twelve months is crazy to think about. In a lot of ways it doesn't feel like I've lived here that long, but, thinking back to when I first moved in, I guess it really does. I remember those first few weeks in my new apartment, when everything was so empty and everything was so new. Things I hadn't seen in years came out of boxes, so many new things were acquired, and all...

February 29, 2016

in Chicago Life

And the everyday turned solitary, so we came to February

Sometimes, I wish I was an artist. February reminded me of that. Between an afternoon at the Van Gogh bedroom exhibit at the Art Institute and coming across this gorgeous painted travel journal/blog/store, I just kept thinking, "I wish I was better at art." I've always been really involved in the arts. In high school I was in dance, choir, drama. I'm a photographer. I'm a writer. I work in opera. But drawing and painting? No. Not at all. I guess you can't be good at everything. I guess. Two years ago I did take a drawing class. I wasn't terribly good...

February 26, 2016

in Apartment, Bedroom, shopping

My Bedroom Wish List

It's hard to ever really declare something as "done." Usually things come to a point where you've "done enough" or where anything else you do is really just nitpicking or when you're just so over it you can't do any more. It was like that when I launched my new site last year. It came to the point where I'd "done enough" to go live, even if the site was far from ready. I just couldn't put it off any longer. Yes, even still, I have a laundry list of things I need to fix and, yes, I still have...

February 22, 2016

in Asia, Koh Samui, Thailand, travel

Samui

I didn't particularly love Koh Samui the first time around. Nothing against it, it just wasn't the most memorable place. But that's where I ended up for my last few days of vacation in Thailand. I was having a terrible time deciding on where to go, what to do, and was second guessing everything. I had every intention of going somewhere new, somewhere I hadn't been before. But, when it came down to it, I just wanted to go somewhere easy. Somewhere with a beach. So, I chose somewhere I could fly to. Truth was, all I wanted to do with my...

February 19, 2016

in Asia, Chiang Mai, Thailand, travel

Chiang Mai & the eternal question: can you go home again?

If you walk about a block and then turn right and walk another two blocks, past the woman selling fried chicken and meat on a stick from a cart, you'll find the closest 7-Eleven. If you turn left at the sleeping dog, right at the temple, walk a few blocks, turn left again, walk another block or two more, you'll find my favorite spot to get khao soi for lunch. Before you get there, across the street and a few doors down, there's a good place for a massage and a couple of funky boutiques. If they're open on that particular day,...

February 15, 2016

in Apartment, Dining Room

My dining room and my buy-once philosophy.

I have a buy-once philosophy: I don't like spending my money on things that I know will only be temporary, that I know I'll want to replace eventually or upgrade. Sure, things wear out, things break, things go terribly out of style, not much lasts forever. Things, sometimes, have to be replaced. But the key phrase there is "have to." There's a difference between replacing something because it no longer functions and replacing something because it wasn't what you really wanted in the first place. Replacing a placeholder. I try only to buy things with the intent that I'll have...

February 12, 2016

in relationships, travel

On love and travel.

I'm single. Very very single. Truth is, I've been single for a long time: I broke up with my last actual boyfriend in 2003. No, I didn't misplace a one there. I said 2003. He's now married and lives in the suburbs with a kid and I'm totally happy for him and all that crap. And yes, if you've been reading for a while, I have had my share of "relationships." But those have been mostly men I've met while traveling, temporary things, the longest being two weeks and the shortest probably a few hours. They weren't boyfriends, they weren't actual relationship...

Me and the boys. They were pretty much the reason I went to Thailand.

February 9, 2016

in Asia, Bangkok, TBEX, Thailand, travel

Same Same, But Different: Returning to Bangkok.

There's a smell to Asia. A mix of lemongrass and coriander and durian and mango. A mix of incense and sweat and fermented meat. Something like that. It's a scent that's enhanced with the sticky humidity. Intensified. It's a scent that's just there, saturating the air. It was a comforting, familiar, smell when I arrived in Bangkok last October. I could breathe in and know I was back in Asia. I was back. If only for a two-week vacation. It was odd returning to a city I hadn't been in for three years, returning to a country that meant a lot to...

Valentine's Day Cards you should probably give me.

February 4, 2016

in shopping, Valentine's Day

Valentine’s Day Cards you should probably give me.

Valentine's Day is next week. So there's still time to profess your love for me and make reservations at White Castle. Not that I even like White Castle. But it would still be one of the most romantic dates I've ever had. I'm low maintenance. And I'd probably put out. Just sayin....

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