Category: Inspiration

The (Kind Of) Invisible Woman

April 27, 2022

As I sat alone at the bar at Chez Josephine, I hung my pink beach ball purse on the hook under the bar and ordered my favorite champagne. Before long, the bartender saw my purse and gasped, so I pushed it over to her. She slung it over her arm and paraded around the restaurant for people to admire her. The other women sitting at the bar began gushing about my feathered cape and entire ensemble. I was surrounded by red velvet walls, a blue tin ceiling, dripping chandeliers, and massive images of my favorite icon, Josephine Baker. Someone was singing boisterously in French, and the bar was lively with people shouting and laughing.
I sat quietly, bathed in the soft lights, and just… was.

The Night I Became a Mom

April 4, 2022

It was a wild messy gorgeous terrifying journey, the journey of a new life heading into the world over 24 primal hours…

Cat Fashion Show

February 25, 2022

If we had previously looked like Dali’s melted clocks, it now felt like we’d been dropped into one of his surreal paintings.
I watched cats dressed as Dorothy Parker and Harpo Marx, parade by me in the arms of their owners, with people jostling to get photos of them. Try to picture how thrilled the cats were to be dressed up and paraded around.

Stargazing on the Rooftop with Kim

January 30, 2022

Kim and I were exhausted after our ritual, like we had taken a night ride in the velvet of darkness in a kingdom where the boundaries of space and time were tossed into the sea.

A Pocket Full of Starlight

January 22, 2022

Is it strange that I want to shrink my Mom and carry her in my pocket so I can have her with me all the time, like a pocket full of starlight that I can throw up in the sky when it seems especially dark?

The Purple Skirt, My Journal, and Me

December 31, 2021

I bought this skirt for $5 in Venice Beach in 1990, and wore it backpacking all over the world for years. Together we drank cappuccinos in Hemingways cafe in Paris, and espressos on the cliffs of Greece with the cafe owner who didn’t speak English. It was always my skirt, my journal, and me, sitting on the train station steps somewhere.

Not the Christmas I Expected

December 29, 2021

Christmas this year was not what I expected…

Travelers: Packing Tips for Hats

December 21, 2021

Packing tip: if you are traveling with large hats, don’t pack them, wear them.
Wouldn’t it be dreamy if people started wearing large hats while traveling? Out with sweatpants and messy buns… in with large hats and beautiful travel attire!
Whenever I enter a hat shop while traveling, my fantasy world kicks into overdrive, and with each one I try on, I become different characters dropped into fantastic worlds.
I inevitably fall in love with the biggest, most ornate ones, and I’m overcome with that feeling of “My life will not be complete without you, oh darling hat!”

The Butcher and the Butterfly

December 18, 2021

My bus arrived, and I loaded my bags and sat down. When I looked back out my window, the butcher was standing outside, looking at me, his moustache curled up as he pointed his finger. I looked where he was pointing, and saw the butterfly fluttering right by my window, the sun shining through its wings like they were delicate stained glass windows in an ancient cathedral, and I had to glance down to make sure I was actually on a bus and not a magic tapestry.

A Book That Changed My Life

December 7, 2021

One of my favorite dinner party questions is, “Name three books that changed your life.” I love to hear people really think about this question and answer as I usually learn a lot about them. If someone were ever to ask me this question, the first book I would name is Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky.