The end is here! I can’t believe the 30 day of #NaNonFicWriMo have flown by so fast. I gave myself this 30 day challenge to jumpstart a largely untapped writing habit. This daily writing challenge tested an undefined limit. I’ve written articles and essays largely only for work, with a…

Maybe it’s a rite of passage, learned behavior or simply genetics. But all of us become our parents somehow. My initial relationship with my mother was one of admiration: Baby Vanessa wanted to emulate her mother’s love of reading. Every week, my mom would take my siblings and I to…

I used to call gratitude one of those Polly Anna feelings. Can’t you visualize the Hallmark card with pastels, flowery cursive script and gauzy ribbon? Hear the violins of the Lifetime-like soundtrack in the background? In reality, I was wrong. Gratitude is deceptive, not naive. It’s easy to express appreciation…

I’ve lived in San Francisco, longer than I have lived anywhere else in my adult life. In those six years, I’ve lived in four apartments, had four jobs and one business, dated two boyfriends and a few others not worth titling, written one novel with the current boyfriend, lost 20…

Open water both soothes and terrifies me like nothing else. Anyone who knows me well has heard me say that the beach is my happy place. As a lifelong night owl, beaches are the only thing that I will gladly wake up early for. I love nothing more than waking…

At the beginning of this year, I wrote the following words above my yearly goals: Seek joy. Choose joy. Joy will take you further. At the time, I was recovering from the worst year I ever had. After six months of everything going wrong that could go wrong, I finally…

Happy #SmallBusinessSaturday! Yesterday I was at a mall for the first time in ages. Of course, it happened to be on Black Friday. Fortunately, there was none of the violent pushing and shoving that Black Friday has become famous for in prior years as people jockey for discounts on the…

San Francisco loves costumed festivities like Bay to Breakers, Burning Man and SantaCon. Costumes offer opportunities to shake off the boredom and monotony of daily life in exchange for a sillier, sexier or more confident alter ego. …

It’s funny how holiday gatherings with family are so delightful in childhood yet shift into a source of stress in adulthood. As a kid, the worst part about Thanksgiving consisted of obligatory eating of vegetables before getting the highly coveted dessert. …