I haven’t been inspired to write lately, so this will be brief. This past weekend, we stayed at an old farmhouse outside of Monterey, Virginia, in Highland County. Years ago, I read an article in a newspaper about the Highland… Read More ›

So, I never truly understood why people want to leave rural places…until our recent Labor Day trip to Bath County. I don’t think I fully understood the difference between being in the mountains and being by the mountains. Most of… Read More ›

It’s been a very domestic summer. Since our Memorial Day trip to upstate New York, we haven’t wandered more than 20 miles from home. So far, the number one highlight of my summer has been getting sucked into (as a… Read More ›

I’ve never been much of a beach person. This is because I hate sand with the burning fury of a thousand suns. The water is nice, the sunsets are nice—even walking on the shoreline where the water has pummeled the… Read More ›

My brother lives in Seattle, so we (my parents, sister, brother-in-law, husband, baby, two cousins, aunt and uncle) decided to rent an Air B&B in the Capital Hill Neighborhood not too far from my brother’s apartment. The house was great,… Read More ›

I feel like I’ve spent every winter since elementary school (when the possibility of snow days were almost as exciting as Christmas morning) waiting for spring to come. My state of winter-induced “restless melancholia” usually starts around mid-November, when the trees settle… Read More ›

When I was a kid, my dream was to be a farmer. Not just any kind of farmer though — I would be an exotic animal farmer with ostriches and alligators, and a generous one too, giving away baby chicks and… Read More ›

I’ve had excellent intentions to bike to work for the last three years, mostly because I (theoretically) see myself as the kind of person who bikes to work. Plus, it’s good exercise and makes a (very tiny) dent in my… Read More ›