Last year, while reeling from a breakup, I decided to travel solo to Iceland in mid-January. The prospect of 24-hour midnight and $11 beers did not deter me; I was already alone so traveling by myself wouldn’t be a problem, and I wanted to see the Northern Lights. …

Female Co-worker #1: What happened with the riot on Sunday? Me: What riot? Female Co-worker #1: The riot downtown. Me: That wasn’t a riot, it was a peaceful rally and march. I was there. Female Co-worker #2: Well, there was a riot at the airport and I couldn’t pick up…

I just flew in from a tropical vacation abroad, and boy am I upset about the continuing dismantling of my country. Several months ago — before the election actually happened, in fact — my boyfriend and I planned our vacation. Notice I didn’t say annual vacation, because we don’t go…

As someone who generally distrusts holidays for one or more of the following reasons: 1. Expensive 2. Stressful 3. Likely ruined by a drunk and/or belligerent family member 4. Just fucking exhausting …I still have a soft spot for Christmas Eve. I think Christmas Eve is way better than Christmas…

Disclaimer: shit’s about to get dark, guys. Come back tomorrow for snide comments about interior design and bad TV or whatever. Some friends of mine left town today. They’re on their way to Standing Rock with a group of veterans from Washington. My veteran friend is going to fulfill his…

The term “guilty pleasure” gets thrown around a lot for things that don’t seem like they’d inspire actual guilt. It’s fine to like lame music or erotic fan fiction or weird retro food that your grandma used to make out of Depression-era canned goods and cheese — unless there are…

I am anemic. To be more precise, I have a hereditary iron-deficiency anemia that is resistant to changes in my diet. This means that I have always been anemic, I will always be anemic, and no amount of steaks or beans or iron supplements will do anything to improve that…

I’m lucky in a lot of ways: I can wear jeans to the office, I get groceries delivered to my house in an hour, and I don’t have to go home for Thanksgiving. It’s not that I don’t have family; I do, albeit a small and not-all-together one, but I…

Disclaimer: no, I did not write this article purely so I could Google “room full of corgis,” although I must admit that I was not disappointed by the results. About 15,000 years ago, the first species of domesticated dog, Canis lupus familiaris, appeared in Eurasia. That’s a really long time…