Lifestyle Category

There are so many different factors that determine how we’ll lead our lives and what kind of precautions we’ll take to stay healthy and safe. In normal circumstances, we often take our wellbeing for granted, and so many different perks of modern living, such as going out to restaurants, concerts, or visiting our families abroad. As soon as the pandemic has started changing the dynamics of how we live, work, and socialize, we’ve realized certain simple truths about our own decisions and choices. Suddenly, a simple act of washing handsRead More

Dear Club Member, I’ve been where you are before, but you’re there now and that’s what matters.  We are members of a club that does not discriminate, but no one wants to be included.  I remember telling you I was part of this club only to have you look at me with compassion and forgiving eyes, but telling you I hope you don’t have to join for a million lifetimes.  But you’re here, with me by your side, wishing we were anywhere but here. We stand side-by-side because one parentRead More

Knowing that I would be undergoing rotator cuff surgery was frightening enough, but having to worry about what to do during my time off was a stress I did not expect. I was a little nervous and apprehensive, thinking of friends and colleagues of mine who complained of post-surgical blues when they had to take their own medical leave. This is in part due to normalizing a life of going at 100 mph (including holding a full-time job, attending to a family, countless other activities and obligations), and then abruptly slowing downRead More

“But, the Spanish eat cheese and bread with everything!” This is what I commonly heard when talking to people about my diet restrictions on gluten and dairy prior to leaving on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain – a 500-mile pilgrimage that would require me to eat close to 5,000 calories a day in order to handle trekking an average of 15 miles a day, while only being able to carry 15 lbs on my back.  Here’s to hoping the Camino provides (a common phrase you hear throughoutRead More

May 11th: Unfortunate Items to Carry On Public Transportation 1. Super Tampons  A charge had been placed on all bags in stores such as, Walgreens, Target, Safeway, Sex Stores, and Taco Bells alike. (I get really touchy, by the way, when I have to pay ten cents for the transportation device of my bean and cheese burrito with no onions and seven packets of mild hot sauce.) This means that when I am trying to support the environment and the survival of baby seals and not pay ten cents that I sometimes am facedRead More

Those on the inside already know that this happened a couple of months ago, so it should give you some indication about how busy life can be balancing work and the duties of a first-time parent. In any case, I’m back, and I finally have time. As Brittany and I began to look ahead to the birth of our son, we worked towards preparing for the insane number of variables that go into the planning of delivery. How will you birth your child? Naturally? Will you use painkillers? Are youRead More

At the age of 25, I have decided that I have my life in order. I have finished postsecondary education. I have a teaching job that I love despite the low-ish pay, but that salary will only increase over time. I have health insurance, I have a roof over my head, and for the most part, I am debt-free. And I’m having a kid. Well, not me per se. My wife, Brittany, is the one actually having it, meaning, giving birth. We met each other over five years ago andRead More

I’ve been here before; it’s an old familiar corner, an imaginary coalition — The Sad Girls Club. It exists solely for the sads that sprout from nothing. Pounding hearts, jaws that clench, minds barren of rational thought and practicality, as one cries as hard as the shower water comes down and tries to get it together enough to shave an armpit (or two). This exists in me and in the small veins in my temple, and the large veins in my opposite elbows, and it holds a weight that IRead More

“Merry Christmas!” “Happy Christmas!” “Happy Hanukkah!” “Happy Kwanzaa!” “Happy Holidays!” “Festive Pagan Solstice!” Whichever greeting you prefer this time of year, odds are, someone will be unreasonably butthurt by it. “How dare you have a different upbringing from mine…” they’ll scoff, while lumping you in with the real terrorists, with their filthy, minimalist, “war on Christmas” Starbucks cups. Damn heathens… But no matter what their self-righteous, butthurt poison, we can all agree on one thing: our friends, families, co-workers, mechanics, pets, dentists, and Jimmy John’s delivery guys have disappointed usRead More

Last week was Thanksgiving. In addition to all of the things I’m usually thankful for around this time of year – my family, my friends, my health, and so forth – I was uniquely thankful for my friends at Mercedes-Benz this holiday season. That’s because for one special week this Thanksgiving, Mercedes-Benz was nice enough to grant me the incredible privilege of driving a Mercedes-Benz S550 4Matic home for the holidays. Driving this incredible luxury car was truly a life-changing experience. I’ve always loved luxury vehicles – I mean, whoRead More

College is well underway and it’s that time of the year, everybody! The time when you want to slowly smother your roommate with a pillow when they sleep because their little habits are starting to seriously annoy you, and you’re wondering why you didn’t just shell out the extra three thousand for the single suite. Interspersed with the grand moments and adventures where you find yourself really grateful that you didn’t opt to live alone, of course. But if you still find yourself sighing loudly instead of laughing loudly becauseRead More

If you know someone who loves whiskey, and someone who has very expensive taste – and if these people happen to be the same person – Orphan Barrel Whiskey Distilling Co. has teamed up with Neiman Marcus to create the ultimate fantasy whiskey package of all time. Titled The Orphan Barrel Project, the gift consists of two parts. First, a lucky someone will receive a bespoke whiskey cabinet stocked with the entire Orphan Barrel collection to-date, as well as a VIP trip to the Stitzel-Weller Distillery in Louisville, Kentucky to taste recently-discoveredRead More

From your resident college student, here are five things you absolutely should not do while attending college. I mean, you can do them, but people will not like you and will probably write mean things about you on Yik Yak. 1. Introduce yourself to the professor in a 300-student lecture I know it’s like the new “thing” – introducing yourself to the professor increases the chances of them giving you extra credit or letting an absence slip by – but please, for the love of all that is good and holy, doRead More

I never know when the outburst will occur. When tears will start rushing down my face without any barriers to block them from my lips. The saltiness of my tears tantalizes my tongue and I am brought back to the moments I want to forget. This is what grief feels like: for a death, a loss, or a departure of some sort that was not warranted or desired. Good-byes were always a wretched sound to me, even if their time was now and I should have met them yesterday. IRead More

Dear Sir, I’m not scared. I know how it begins, at least. San Francisco isn’t synonymous with shy. There’s a lack of permanence to this city that must exist in the fog. It will fall apart. It will end. When? I don’t know. It’s never predictable. I’m not scared of you, this time, your skinny frame. Yes, you’re another one. You have a Southern accent. And beard stubble that scrapes my chin. And one of your front teeth is quite charming in its crookedness. Your vocabulary is more advanced thanRead More