Insert edited picture of thin white woman in designer pajamas drinking wine on a couch that costs more than your salary.

2020, amirite?! Wow, this year has really been a rollercoaster. Can we cancel 2020 already? 0/10 would not recommend 2020!!

For real you guys, this year has been tough. It has presented me with so many obstacles and completely rearranged all my plans. Between Covid-19, the election (#biden), and all of the political turmoil I won’t get into here, I’ve had to overcome challenges like never before. But I also learned a lot along the way.

I always say…

Places like Big Basin Redwoods State Park are the reason I moved to California. Within weeks of my move, I discovered Big Basin, which is nestled in the Santa Cruz Mountains. I remember my first time walking through the sky-high trees, the scent of redwood floating around me, the forest trail leading to a sweeping view of the Pacific Ocean, thinking this is why I moved here.

Big Basin Redwoods is California’s oldest state park, established in 1902. Some of its ancient redwoods are more than 1,800 years old, over 50 feet wide, and soar as tall as the Statue…

Good day, greetings, hello.

Do you like Airbnbs? Summer vacation? Winter vacation? Spring vacation? Fall vacation?

Great, me too! As Airbnb’s biggest fan and frequent weekend traveler*, I have started my own blog and Instagram highlighting the best Airbnbs I’ve stayed in (and a few Hipcamps). They’re mostly located on the west coast, because I am located on the west coast, but there will be a few randomly located treats sprinkled throughout. For further reading and viewing, visit and follow my Instagram @sexyairbnbz and check out my blog at sexyairbnbs.com …

I first discovered Hipcamp two years ago when desperately searching for a last-minute campsite in Joshua Tree National Park. With two days until my trip, I was willing to settle for anything, but what Hipcamp gave me was an art-filled oasis in the middle of the desert — an experience I still talk about all the time.

Since then, I’ve used Hipcamp to stay in a geo-dome overlooking the ocean, a tiny A-frame surrounded by the forest in Oregon, and a tent next to frogs croaking by a pond. …

Hi, my name is Emma and I have depression. I always have. I was diagnosed with clinical depression at eleven, but it existed in me long before my mother took me to the doctor to treat the mental illness she so kindly passed down to me. I’ve been lucky; it didn’t take me long to find the right medication to stabilise my chemical imbalance. With little tweak every few years, I’ve been able to live a relatively happy and balanced life. But, as anyone with depression can tell you, medication is not a cure, it’s simply a treatment. …

In the dim, dusk hours of the morning before the attack on Pearl Harbor, my grandfather was happy. He awoke early, a sly grin playing across his lips, his excitement palpable. He was going home. One more day, and he was going home. And the first thing he planned to do when he got home? Bite into one (and then another and another) of my grandmama’s famous chocolate chip cookies.

But then the daylight came, and along with it came the bombers, the attack no one saw coming, and everything changed.

My grandfather fought for his life with all his…

There’s no better time to download TikTok, the app of the youth that just mere months ago I said I would never — ever — get. But times have changed, and we’re all finding new ways to entertain ourselves.

Before giving in and downloading it, my impression was that the app was that it’s a place for tiny teenage girls in crop tops to show off dance moves in their childhood bedrooms while celebrities try desperately to keep up. And don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of that content on the app — I can only imagine teenage me watching…