I’m currently on plane heading home from two weeks in Belize. A third-world country filled with poor people who do not know the luxury of driving to a Walmart to purchase a 50-pack of Angel Soft toilet tissue and five-pound packs of beef jerky. The person next to me is American. We’ve been sitting together for an hour and the only time she’s acknowledged my presence was when I had to pardon myself to pee and she rolled her eyes…
My mom called from Texas today to make sure that we were going to survive the hurricane. She’d heard that NC was under attack from God. It was the second call this week about it. I told her that we had nary a drop of rain in the forecast, and that NC is a very wide state. Just not as wide as Texas. “Well I’ve been watching the news and they’re talking about how bad it’s going to be there–so I…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – seek balance in life. Working until your fingers bleed to get the people in power to notice you so that you can climb the corporate ladder and earn the money necessary to attract a spouse and buy a big house and have kids who you’ll have to work even harder for to put through college so that they can have what you consider a good life – this is unsustainable. Learn…
Frankensteining (verb) – to take two or more dissimilar concepts and make them into one. If you’re an advertising creative, you’ve no doubt been asked to be Dr. Frankenstein at some point in your career. You know what I’m talking about – when you present three concepts to a client and they ‘love them all’ – then ask you to pull elements from each to create one super logo or tagline. This is called Frankensteining. Avoid it at all costs. Instead, it’s…
The first thing you hear is screeching tires. Then you turn in the direction you think it’s coming and you hear breaking glass. Then everything spins and spins. The next thing you remember is waking up with tubes in your arm. And a jackhammer in your head. And blurred vision. Then you go to sleep. You eventually open your eyes to find your husband standing next to you. Behind him, your parents. They’re all smiling. They start talking to you, but…
Six months ago I was a sullen soul standing in a swirling, biting, bitter wind. The coats had long been pulled from the attic and were now cluttering our closets. The summer sun a distant memory, my skin already ash. It was December. The winter solstice. Three months to go until spring. Probably a couple more until it was safe to wear shorts. And yet somehow, I smiled. I knew that the darkest days were behind us, and that…
