BirthYay!

A few years ago I started marking each actual year of my life, answering these same set of questions each birthday to help me measure moments. Here are the last 365.25 days: new hair for a new decade! first time...

On turning 40 and being a Now it all.

a moment from last year's birthday! It is birthday week! Around lunchtime, seven days from now, I will officially have been out of the womb and in the world for 40 years. That's 14,610 days. What the heck does that...

Chefchaouen

One of the great things about social media is that it can introduce you to places around the world you might not have heard of. You see a picture, you get interested, excited, obsessed, you plan a trip there. It...

of all the gin joints . . .

hassan II mosque. gorgeous. I’m lucky that my schedule as an international teacher allows me to travel a lot, and my income teaching in Hong Kong supplements this desire, and my sometimes dangerously (I like to think comically) low levels...

Silent Ball Pager Code Improper Fractions and Kathy

Every once in a while as a teacher you experience a true “a-ha” moment, watching a lightbulb go on and experience the joy of truly teaching someone something. For me this happened this week when I taught my students the...

**glimmer**

A note - the soundtrack to this is - "Always on my Mind" by Willie Nelson, "Anytime" by Brian McKnight, and "All I Can Think About is You" by Coldplay. flowers, because thinking of you. Maybe you’ve seen that post...

flatting. meet cute?! be the one.

my little life This month marks my three and a half year anniversary of living on my own (when you don’t have a partner or kids, you have the mental capacity and also the emotional imperative to notice and celebrate...

a wrap on the 2023 season

rachel, christmas 1985 the philosopher ferris bueller once said - life moves pretty fast. i can/can't believe i'm sitting here at my parents house, puppies warming my feet, rain on the tin roof, a drink poured but no makeup and...

i think i like this little life

There are a few days that really make me miss home, and Thanksgiving is one of them. I don’t have any American friends here and the way I feel about the day doesn’t translate cross-culture. I’m coping well - bought...

Having samosa fun in Delhi

India Gate "So, what brings you to India?" Our tour guide Harsha sat us down the first night in the basement of our locally owned, somewhat sketchy motel, and began the dreaded ice breakers. I wasn’t super prepared for the...

dear teachers in the month of october . . .

Hey, you. That time of year again, huh? Where you’re a few weeks into the new school year and questioning all your life choices? Wondering why this is the career you picked? Well, hold on. Hold on, now. Let’s have...

good morning, vietnam

After ten years of living abroad, I have finally cracked the jetlag code - the key is to just go immediately on vacation! It’s that simple, folks. Here’s how I did it - I flew from SFO to HKG, which...