Busking by USA Rail Pass: How I Handled a Belligerent Wino in Chicago
https://youtu.be/psf7KjiAaWU My train from Chicago to New York City was rescheduled a day later due to mudslides, so I ended up having two days of busking in Chicago. I checked a bag for 24 hours in the Chicago Union Station, and booked a hotel online. I wrangled a slightly early check in and then headed...
Are you allowed to be tired?
Of course you are. But you are also allowed to push yourself. One of my favorite concepts is from Coach John Wooden, something along the lines that some kids need more whip cream, some need more discipline. The same thing applies to yourself. For example, tonight I would like to livestream, but I feel tired...
Your amazing body
A few weeks ago while training for a half marathon I tripped in the dark running downhill on the sidewalk and hit my knee straight on the hardest I’ve ever done. I had no choice but to keep running to get home but the next day my knee swelled up and I knew I had...
Little signs
Around this time of year, I am usually in my annual winter blubber battle. So I decided to track my food for 2 weeks, not missing a day. The results were not instantaneously positive. In fact, my weight climbed, my husband continued to bring home donuts, cakes and pan Mexicano, and I continued to eat...
A student of life
365 day blog challenge Day 5 I watched a video today (see below) from this stretching guru whose YouTube channel, called Strength Side, has really taken off. He said something that resonated about not just choosing goals that you’ve heard about or that you think will impress others. Instead of always chasing the results, think about...
Get rich slowly
In a society obsessed with speed, we forget the power of going slowly. Here are a few riffs on applying that concept to practice, exercise, diet, life, travel and wealth.
Youth is wasted on the young
Traveling through Europe in 2018 and 2019, I was able to do whatever I wanted — and mostly be completely left alone. Contrast this to my experiences as a 20- and 30-something traveling nationally and internationally for work. Then, I worried constantly about unwanted attention and had many strategic conversations with men to avoid misunderstandings...
How To Stay Sane While You Work From Home
For most of my career as a writer and songwriter, I’ve worked from my home office. Thanks to Coronavirus quarantine, a lot of people are working from home for the first time and wondering how to stay sane. Here’s how I maintain razor sharp social skills so that people find me irresistible and not at...
‘Never Too Late’ by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“It is too late!” Ah, nothing is too late— Cato learned Greek at eighty; Sophocles Wrote his grand “Oedipus,” and Simonides Bore off the prize of verse from his compeers When each had numbered more than fourscore years; And Theophrastus, at fourscore and ten, Had begun his “Characters of Men.” Chaucer, at Woodstock, with his...
When The Worst Happens, You’ll Need Your Mind To Be An Ally
Have you ever noticed how compact thoughts are? A sentence tells a story. Your mind seizes upon that sentence, proudly, turning it like a gem and examining every facet. “That’s apt,” your mind thinks, and proceeds to repeat that motto. There’s only one problem. The motto is wrong. It’s cruel. Why, you would never let...
Bad Gigs by Tuck Andress (of Tuck & Patti)
I first posted this on August 11, 2005 on my old blog, but it came up today so I thought I’d repost here. At the time I had seen this posted all over the place, so with credit to Tuck Andress, here are a few hilarious situations that will make you feel better about gigging....
Does abundance make you more selfish or more generous?
One of the problems I have with Law of Attraction is that at times it seems to be a philosophy about living at the leading edge of individualism rather than collectivism. Viewing the world’s suffering as “contrast” is useful advice for detachment but can seem to point to extreme selfishness. I was outside sweeping the...
