February 1, 2020 It’s About Time… It’s officially been seven months since I moved back home from Taiwan, and I gotta say, things are settled. They have been settled for quite some time, but I wish it would have happened sooner, because I had many plans for my books to be released this year. That’s right, books.
January 25, 2020 Persistence and Patience If you’re anything like me, sometimes patience escapes me. I know it does. I’m not afraid to admit that sometimes, I just want things to happen quickly. Patience has always been something I have worked on, and still do to this day. I know I’m not the only one who has to remind myself to take a deep breath, be patient, but persistent.
January 18, 2020 How Do You Know? Growing up, I often times daydreamed about love. Call this a result of all the princess movies I watched or all the Disney VHS tapes my parents kept on hand, but I couldn’t help myself. All the books I read had some love component, whether platonic or romantic, and all the stories I wrote had a little bit of love intertwined into the mix. Even if I wouldn’t admit it, much like everybody else out there, I was anxious to find love of my own.
October 12, 2019 Pencils, Snakes, Perdita, Oh My! Compared to our house, the Nigari house was like traveling a century into the future. All you could see when you came up to their front door was glass, covering nearly every inch of the exterior. Their walls were as plain, except for the perfectly measured picture frames that showed off their family: Kyle, Nikita, Thomas, and his older sister, Lula. Everything about their house screamed the Jetsons to me.
September 21, 2019 Work Now, Play Later As a twenty-five year old single woman living in America, I’ll admit: the struggle, unfortunately, is very real sometimes. Life gets us down and we have to get back up, but that’s how it is, isn’t it? There are challenges, ups and downs, but we prevail in the end. Something I have never understood, however, is when we make deliberate, pleasure-based decisions and purchases that keep us down when all we want to do is get out of whatever rut we got stuck in.
August 31, 2019 What is it REALLY Like Living in Florida? A little more than a year ago, when I first made the decision to move to Florida, I got a lot of the same sorts of questions from people: What are you going to do there? I’m going to work. Why Florida? I went to Florida because honestly, after living in Taiwan and experiencing absolutely not one snowflake of snow in nearly three years, I was not too keen on jumping back into the Chicago frozen tundras again.
August 3, 2019 A Simple Choice Every morning, Ted rises at six in the morning. He grabs his cup of coffee, makes some breakfast, and sits in front of the TV to see the news. It’s the same themes, different faces and locations. But Ted enjoys it. It fills his empty home.
July 6, 2019 Shiver Me Timbers The river pulsed with more strength than I think any of us expected. The closer we came to the dark rushing water, the more deafening it became. My ears twitched as the five of us stood at the river bank, all glancing to each other. All eyes remained on Sam, the oldest of us and the most trustworthy, ironically. Leave it to my brother, the werewolf who had been here all but one time to be left to make these kind of dangerous decisions.
March 13, 2019 What’s the Deal With Cupping and Scraping? Prior to leaving Taiwan for the United States, I will admit: I over indulged in some things, like bubble tea, stinky tofu, night market games, and of course, massages. I am pretty sure I hit up at least three or four massage centers in the last month I was in Taiwan! I have always wanted to try cupping and scraping (yeah, call me crazy, I know I am) and I made it one of my goals to do that before I went home. So that’s just what I did.
December 26, 2018 In the Spirit of Giving Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year, right after Thanksgiving which is equally as thrilling for me. Both holidays embody what I love most: family and friends. It’s all about giving and spending time with those you love, no matter how far and wide your circle of comrades spreads. And while the idea of spending Christmas in Chicago next year is exciting, I couldn’t help but get a little nostalgic thinking that this was my third and final Christmas spent on the island of Taiwan.
