For the first half of my Japan trip, Kyoto was burning a hole in the back of my head. Each time we saw a temple in Tokyo or any of the other towns we visited I couldn’t help but think, I wonder how much more awesome they’re going to be in Kyoto. Once I got there, I realized that it wasn’t so much that the temples were better in Kyoto… it’s that they are everywhere. You can’t throw a stick in Kyoto…
I’ve written about The Little Prince on this blog before. I wrote about how Tim’s crooked path led me to discover the book (as many other things I’ve discovered), and how it helped grieve the loss of him. The words in that little children’s book gave a different meaning to death, and I needed them at the time. I keep them with me, but that’s not all I took from the book. There’s a passage in The Little Prince with the prince…
Long time readers will know that a certain nerdy bay horse has been absent from this blog a lot this summer. Fear not, it’s not due to any hidden injury or drama that I can’t post about. Simon is being Simon, and things are going well. The reason that I haven’t been blogging about him, is that my barn life isn’t really all that exciting right now. I haven’t put a saddle on my horse in three weeks, and although…
This is one of those time periods where life is hard and lonely and I don’t want to do anything but watch Netflix in bed with my dogs. That doesn’t make for insightful writing, so let’s talk about something near and dear to my heart — Samurai Cat. Hikone is a town that we stopped at for a night between Hakone and Kyoto, and it’s a little bit off the beaten path. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because this…
Sunday is the two year anniversary of Tim’s death. In the two weeks leading up to this milestone, I dreamt about him often. I dreamt that I was in a van traveling up the east coast, carrying his suitcase and things around with me. He traveled with me in the cargo area, but nobody else could see him. I asked him if he was upset he died young. “I accomplished a ton before I died,” he said. It was something…
Even though I’ve lived in Austin for seven years, I’ve never been to a Texas beach. It seemed like native Texans were the most hard on them. “Don’t bother!” “Watch out for flesh eating bacteria.” “You’re not missing anything.” “It depends on how recently the tractor has drug for seaweed.” Still, I like to explore around where I live so I decided to round up some friends to rent a house for a weekend in the sun. And honestly? It…
My number one “must do” for Tokyo was visit the Park Hyatt’s New York Bar. It probably seems like an unreasonable request. Sure, I’m a little bougie but it’s not like I made demands to go drink overpriced cocktails at expensive international hotel chains while traveling. But the Tokyo Park Hyatt is different, because that’s where Lost in Translation was filmed. While I did research in staying at the hotel, at $500-$900 USD that was not going to be an option for…
When I was younger, I kind of self-identified as a Tom Boy. I hated the color pink. A typical outfit for me well past college would be jeans and a horse t-shirt. While I wore a little makeup to cover up breakouts or maybe mascara, many days I left the house bare faced and felt absolutely okay with that. Though I didn’t hate dresses or dressing up, I only did these things when I felt like it. They weren’t something…