When it came to reading, I used to be all fiction, all the time. I loved (and still do love) the escapism, the imagination and the different writing styles that are all part of the genre. But a couple years ago I picked up my first memoir, Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone, the first of her three memoirs chronicling her food-influenced childhood up through her years as the NYT Restaurant Critic, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. These days, I think what pulls me into memoirs is that there must be an aspect that I can relate to or am interested in, Continue reading
Category: Home
Bookcase Baskets
When we first moved to Bethesda, I was contemplating getting my own desk for our apartment, in addition to the desk that we brought from Hoboken. Jeff had always used that one more, especially during grad school, so it felt like “his” desk, and I thought that if I would be working from home it would make sense for me to get my own. But as the apartment came together and we discovered how much space there truly was, we decided instead to finish off the “office” with a bookcase that matched the desk we had. Continue reading
Inspirational Art
My senior year of college, I wrote an English thesis on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s nonfiction. Probably my favorite part of writing my thesis was that I had a thesis carrel in the library where I could keep books and work on my paper. It was on the top floor in the back corner in a section that few people used, next to a window overlooking the quad, and I thought it was lovely—but I’m someone capable of finding a desk lovely. Continue reading
Houseplants for the Black Thumb
There’s a lot of research out there on the benefits of having plants in your house. When we breathe, we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. When plants undergo photosynthesis, they take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. They purify the air, pulling toxins into their soil. And then there are the obvious perks, like they’re pretty to look at. Continue reading
What I’m Reading: Nicotine
One of the things I’m going to do consistently here is post about the books I’m reading after I’ve finished them. When we moved to Bethesda, we decided to only get a cable box for the living room, so we don’t have live TV in the bedroom. I was pretty excited about this, because it meant more reading before bed, and for years I felt like I didn’t have enough time to read. Continue reading
How To Creatively Hide TV Wires
I don’t know if you’ve looked behind your TV lately, but there are a lot of wires. There’s one that connects the TV to the wall, one that connects the cable box to the wall, one that connects the TV to the cable box, and probably a few others if you have speakers or anything else extra. Continue reading
So long, Hoboken
I moved to Hoboken right after college. It was my first real adult home, if you will. I had rent and bills to pay, meals to cook, bathrooms to clean and all the requisite things that come with adulting. And I honestly don’t think I could have picked a better place to do it. Hoboken is known as the Mile Square City, because it literally covers a square mile, but is packed with over 50,000 people. Continue reading