A Renaissance Soul blogging on traveling, books, work, miscellany, and enjoying life.
Today marks one year since my mom died. In some ways, it feels like it's been maybe a handful of months but in other ways, it feels like it's been forever. I still think about my mom every day and I miss her. I miss being able to talk to her, I miss just the … Continue reading One Year
I have a sabbatical coming up early next year and I'm pondering walking the Camino de Santiago during it. The Camino has been in the back of my mind for years - since before my last sabbatical back in 2018 actually. That wasn't the right time for me to do such a solo trek for … Continue reading Considering doing the Camino de Santiago
Last week, the world lost one of my favorite musicians, Jimmy Buffett. For some people, his music is an acquired taste but for me, I grew up on it and always loved it. It's been described as a cross between country, pop, and calypso music but I saw it referred to as "trop rock" (as … Continue reading Jimmy
Today marks 10 years since I joined my current employer Automattic back in 2013. I suppose it's fitting that I'm spending the day traveling to a team meetup - a normal part of Automattic life, but one I've been missing over the pandemic years. The last time I was at a team meetup was late … Continue reading 10 Years at Automattic
My mom passed away unexpectedly a few months ago and I'm still struggling with the grief process. I know that grief is not a linear process, yet for some dumb reason, I expected things to slowly get better without sliding back into the heavy and dark emotions of those initial days and weeks. And for … Continue reading Grief
My daughter and I took a trip to Berlin at the very end of 2022 into the first week of the year and we had a great time! For once, I was the person tagging along and not working, which made for a nice change, since she was there to do research at a local … Continue reading Berlin on New Year’s Eve
I've had a link to this article, "Buy less, do more: 5 reasons why experiences make us happier than things" sitting in my post drafts for quite some time and thought that with the holiday season upon us, it's timely. Also I'm a sucker for a fun portmanteau, and "stuffocation" fits the bill nicely. 🙂 … Continue reading Avoiding “stuffocation” this holiday season
Went to a new local park today and spotted this critter casually sunning itself despite the number of people walking by. I didn't see any of its friends, but no doubt they're in the water there somewhere.
A while back, I wrote about a taking French lessons - first as part of some upcoming planned travel to France, then as a pandemic project. It's been a long road since then (in so many ways) but lookee here - I'm on a streak! While I can't credit Duolingo for taking me from A1 … Continue reading 1000 day streak
Here are some of mine: Fear of criticism Fear of being judged incorrectly Being a person who likes privacy yet posting in a wide open public space Figuring out what topic to even write about Caught between wanting to dash off a quick thought and feeling like your post draft has to be perfect to … Continue reading Obstacles to blogging
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