It might look like I’m celebrating the annual Food & Wine Festival at California Adventure Park, which I was. I was also celebrating a birthday, spring in general, and a few much-needed days off work. I’ve been celebrating UConn’s journey to another March Madness championship game (I picked them winning in my bracket), today’s eclipse, and a new delicious lemon recipe to make with all my tree’s lemons.

Well, after avoiding it for 4 years, I finally caught Covid.

Do you ever consider where you were when you read a certain book? Or who gave you the book? Who recommended it?

It surely looks different for everyone, these ideas of home and family, but I do hope each of you gets whatever form of home and family you are needing this Christmas.

I participated in Oceanside’s “Write On” event yesterday, a wonderful day that celebrates writing, books, and authors.

I blame (or thank?) the cute boy with a guitar who I heard play ‘Omaha’ when I was 17 for the fact that I’ve been stuck on the Counting Crows ever since. I saw them in concert for the sixth time over the weekend, and it’s probably a very small percentage of people who have seen the same artist/band six different times. And if it’s up to me, this won’t be the last.

After running some 5K races in 2022, I ran a 10K in January, and although it’s always nearly impossible to imagine only being halfway done when you finish a race like that, the thought did occur to me that I could probably train up to do a half marathon.

I was recently in Philadelphia for work, my first time visiting the historic city. The upside of traveling for work is you do get to visit fun/exciting/awesome/new places, but the downside, of course, is that you are working and don’t have time to get out and see anything.

This country has long been considered a beacon of safety, and for many who come here after fleeing unimaginable circumstances in other countries, it is, and always will be.

This is all to say that I am enjoying this test and learn approach to growing things, and equally enjoyable is celebrating small victories, even as small as a single flower blooming. I’ll close with a mention of writing, which is something I enjoy doing outside by the way, with the scent of jasmine and roses wafting over from the planters.

I hope all women helping to influence and shape the coming generations (so, all women) feel valued, loved, and honored, on this Mother’s Day and always. Keep that shit up.

It’s funny how even with something as regular and inevitable as seasons that there is still variation. Living so close to the Flower Fields at Carlsbad Ranch, I am very familiar with how they come together each year. And when. There is, in fact, a particular weekend each year when I make my paid visit and take some pictures. It’s the weekend that tends to be, in my opinion, the most peak. The weekend where the most number of flowers look their best and fullest.

I recently renovated my master bathroom. My first attempt at such a thing, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I’d never been involved in this type of project before. Never had various contractors give me estimates, never had a room completely gutted down to the studs, never had people in my house working every day for a couple of months. And I’d certainly never picked out tile.

See, never once has this tournament actually seen all four #1-seeded teams ending up in the Final Four. It’s literally never happened. So if that’s what you pick, you’ll be wrong. You have to pick some upsets. Of course, there are so many potential upsets to pick, that this becomes the trick. Picking the right upsets.

I recently participated (for the second time) in the annual Author’s Night that the Oceanside Sunset Market puts on.

One thing I do have my sights set on is running, as one of my 2022 goals had been to run a race. I ended up running 3 of them in 2022, all 5Ks, and when I’d set out as a new runner early in the pandemic, being able to run a 5K was really my only eventual goal. Having met it, and really having enjoyed the process, I found myself gradually increasing the distance of my runs. To the point that I knew I wanted to tackle a 10K in 2023.

As a writer, and, more specifically, as a writer who writes pretty much exclusively about stories from my life, I’ve long been a fan of The Moth. There are few things I enjoy more than hearing real people tell real stories from their real lives. It’s so much more satisfying than fiction could ever be. It’s why I love reading memoirs, and it’s why I’ve read all The Moth’s story collection books and listen religiously to their weekly podcast. I, quite simply, love stories.