What next? I thought, as I sat in my car, as tears slid quietly down my face. Having just dropped off dinner for my boyfriend at his house, leaving it in a paper bag outside his bedroom door, I wandered in a daze back out to my car, got inside. I turned the ignition but didn’t leave...I couldn’t see past the blur. So instead, I buried my face in my hands and sobbed, feeling overwhelmed, and helpless.
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Read MoreOn Thursday morning, I woke up like I did every other day. I got up, dressed in the outfit I laid out the night before, and drove to work. When I arrived I pulled out my phone to lock up for the morning (I work in a secure facility), and saw a text from my aunt: Hey! Are you thinking about canceling your trip this weekend?
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Read MorePush my brand new boss for a later start date...me? Can I do that? Is that allowed?
Several years in the working world, and I finally did.
Hear me. When we’re talking about most “asks” in my job, I practically break into a sweat. By and large, I hate making waves - in my personal life, or professional. Negotiate more PTO? I’d sooner clean every toilet in the District with my mouth (not not being dramatic...).
Read MoreAh, Raleigh. The City of Oaks, the Oak City. Equidistant from the mountains and the beach, not quite big enough to render one lost and overwhelmed, but not small enough that you feel uncomfortably magnified in a town as populous as the ghost-towny setting for the Twilight series. This city was my first post-college home, where I found my first very own apartment, first job, and many firsts of navigating a new city solo, all whilst equal parts dirt poor, and full of hope and curiosity for my new town.
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Read MoreMany of you may know that I recently visited France and Hungary in February. Imagine coming back home to frigid February in Washington, DC, and feeling more determined than ever to make trips like this happen at least once a year.
Guess what? I fully intend to.
Read MoreWashington, DC is the town for the cool cats and home to many, a hipster haven in coffee shops. There are a multitude with both quality brew and plenty of character to boot, but since I’ve been here I picked seven that I would recommend to my closest friends.
Read MoreIn the words of everyone ever, “There’s an app for that.” And in a world that’s more globalized than it’s ever been, the same applies to apps related to traveling. We all can relate, taking a trip is freaking exciting… and one of the few things that gets you out of bed in the morning to squeeze your peach into a suffocating pencil skirt and show up at a job that has you drooling at your desk by 3pm. But then you remember, you’re there for that PAYCHECK to treat yo’self to a lil trip over to Cabo. Or Iceland. Or Bali.
Read MoreOn Saturday, emerging designers had their moment to showcase new collections and launch their name into the District’s fashion market. Night two of #DCFW 2019 presented the M.E.D.I.A. Showcase (that is, Metropolitan Emerging Designers & Indie Artists). On a vibrant evening punctuated by pounding music and flashing cameras in Capitol Hill’s Liaison Hotel,
Read MoreCouture has enchanted me for ages. Since I was a little girl, reading about couture gowns and flipping through books that study fashion through the ages, I’ve always been captivated by its romance and delicacy. It is soft, alluring, but simultaneously subtle and striking. It celebrates femininity and heightens your standards - for dressing, for carrying oneself, for living.
Read MoreI know, I know. Getting your butt into a gym – somewhat regularly, anyway – is a pain. No one enjoys feeling like a lamb walking into a meat market (thank you, gawking gym bro’s) or being territorially shunned by Gym Barbies. Hard pass.
Also, do I really want one more time suck stealing away my beloved two hours with The Bachelorette? After waking up every morning at an ungodly hour to squeeze these thunder thighs into a pencil skirt and show up at the office on time five days a week without spilling coffee on myself, what do you think?
Read MoreI’m reading a book right now (because I studied English and yes I geek out over a great book) by Brene Brown, called Daring Greatly: How the Courage to be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Let that one marinate for a second. In it, Brown shows her findings from studying vulnerability and shame, among both men and women. She lays out the myths we’ve clung to that warp our perception on vulnerability, that it’s a way of showing weakness. But the truth she presents, is as crucial to know as it is terrifying: vulnerability is a great strength, not a weakness. And although it’s shame (beliving I am bad, rather than I did something bad) that keeps us from being vulnerable, vulnerability is the key to establishing meaningful connections with other people. That means we have emotions for a reason, and ignoring them will not make them disappear.
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Read More“You can sleep when you’re dead.”
Those words uttered by my dear old dad have peppered many of our conversations for as long as I can remember.
And while I get the appeal to this pithy little dictum - toughen up, buttercup...rub some dirt in it...youth is wasted on the young - it started taking a toll on my wellbeing when I took the sentiment a bit too far.
I like to learn from others’ mistakes before I screw up anything further on my own (spontaneous trips wandering into PetSmart and walking out with unplanned purchases aka pets, opting for a third helping of cruciferous vegetables on a second date, agreeing to help clean up a friend’s rotten watermelon in her kitchen - which nearly made me vom on the spot, swiftly - and acrylic nails, to name a few). So please, learn from my periodic moments of idiocy and heed to my newfound wisdom here.
Read MoreI’ve been following only a handful of Youtubers on the reg, and one of my favorites is the bright and bubbly full-time traveler, Sorelle Amore. Her tips on packing, solo traveling, and self-sufficiency are fantastic, and highly practical. So, when she shared her experience mimicking Tim Ferriss’ extensive morning routine to boost productivity and overall optimum day-starting, I thought I’d give it a shot. After all, when one’s mornings often comprise of sleeping through 45 alarms, followed by a nice little panic attack on our way out the door...perhaps it’s time for a baby tweak in my a.m. agenda.
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Read MoreAs a full-time 9-5er (which often ends up looking more like 7-7-er it’s fine), happily living the city life and as a result spending upwards of fourteen hours or longer out of the house, you may safely categorize me as a “busy” person. And thusly and therefore, when I do finally get to deny certain obligations outside of earning my living and remain in my dwelling place of choice, you may often find me buried in my Sherpa blanket, surrounded by food packaging of varying sorts, a haphazardly strewn book, a dead laptop (with its charger mate justtt out of reach), and an exhaustion so dire and drastic that I wonder with equal parts bafflement and terror how I’ll muster the energy to face the outside world once again.
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Read MoreHair removal has been a decade-long endeavor for me now. There are many proverbial thorns in my side I’d rather have been dealt with (a hidden third nipple, creepy stepsiblings, or even student loans among a few of them), but here I am, at twenty-six, and testing out yet another method of keeping my skin hairless and smooth (we’ll get to that later), wondering if and how this annoying, expensive, painful, and inconvenient journey will ever end.
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Read MoreThanks to social media, we can traipse through everyone’s Halloween jaunty romps and know where they went, how drunk they got, and - most importantly - what they wore (“Insta-ntly”...Done with the bad jokes now ‘k thanks bye...) Given our age and the modern way of celebrating Halloween, are we doomed to either succumb to the drunken festivities surrounded by our fellow woman dressed as un-ironically sexy kittens, and sexy sharks, and sexy candlesticks, and sexy whatever-the-last-box-office-movie-character-everyone-wants-to-dress-up-as...or do we yield to our ever-present desire to crawl into the depths of our bed covers only to emerge once all chances of having fun on Halloween have already passed once again?
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Read MoreNothing feels like a bigger punch than a breakup. Waking up already dreading the day (an all-too-familiar symptom of getting dumped) is a crappy way to start any new year. Dragging yourself out of bed and functioning as usual with a broken heart is difficult on its own, so forget any God-forsaken new year’s resolutions seeing the light of day. Year of the six-pack? #ByeFelish
Read MoreHeyyy ladies, Taylor back atcha with my first piece for our wanderlust fanatics out there. This is for all of us who are reliable over-packers…so basically all of us women in general. Compared to guys, we typically have more hair to deal with, more toiletries, and definitely more outfits.
Read MoreSo. You’ve just moved. You’re sitting in your empty and echoey apartment, surrounded by boxes and Chinese takeout, battling conflicting desires to start unpacking at 9:00 at night, or call it quits for the night and collapse onto your naked mattress. Maybe you’re head is spinning, either from sadness of leaving your last chapter behind, or excitement to start a new one…or both.
Read MoreWe all have our fears. Few things are better at revealing what makes us uncomfortable better than fear, and it’s normal to have them – be they spiders, failures, having visible love handles, farts, or sharks (what do these have in common? All of these are fears of yours truly. I’m equal parts angry and petrified that farting exists.) What’s not normal, at least not okay, is letting our fears hinder us from living our best life…
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