Essays written from or about my corner of the world.
March 20 At the coffee shop, I tend to yell "take care" as customers exit as a way of saying, Get outta here, pal. But now, I say "take care" to say, I charge you to guard yourself and your loved ones, lest you get a disease deceptively comparable to the flu, which will at…
March 13 Last night I drove down to my childhood home in Puyallup, where David and Ashley and the baby were hanging out with Mom. The mood was weird and dismal. We all talked about how we were nervous. But also, it was okay and it got better it was good to be together. Apparently…
February 29 Matt and I went to dinner at his friends’ house so we could hammer out details for the Philippines trip in May. Everyone is on board and we almost have the locations nailed down. We just need to buy the tickets. One of the friends works for Amazon like Matt, and she said…
I have been a barista for over two years. I've written a book and traveled a lot. But what I've neglected to lay out is that for the last two years, I have spent most of my time behind the counter at a coffee shop. I have a world of knowledge about pulling espresso shots.…
On a Friday afternoon last August, I received the last of three major invoices from my editor. Along with the invoice was what I then thought was a PDF of the completed interior of Leave It All. There were a few things that needed fixing so I sent my requests back. Then I paid the…
It's Friday, December 7... and this is the day the first copy of "Leave It All" comes in the mail.
It’s so hard to write. It used to be easy. I used to post blogs all the time. I posted when I was on the World Race, I posted when I was walking the Camino de Santiago, I posted a bunch in between. I could blog and journal and email and everything. This year, I…
I'm finishing up the edits on the draft of my book because I'm writing a book about my experience on the World Race in 2014. It's so much work and I'm still chugging, I've been chugging since it was dark and cold and now it's hot and light and I'm still chugging. I still don't have…
I boarded the 40 around noon on Thursday and there weren't many people on it, but there was a woman with sensible pink lipstick and cropped gray hair and a pleasant demeanor speaking with a man across the aisle who had a red beard and a dirty reusable grocery bag full of old things and…
Invariably, when I go on a run, I put on running clothes, sure and lace my Camino shoes tight. I find the earbuds that don’t fall out and I take the house key off my keychain put it in the tiny pocket in my shorts and bolt out the front door. I run for two blocks…
Continue reading ➞ What I Actually Mean When I Talk About Running
Today is April 5, 2018. On April 5, 2017, my grandma, my dad’s mother, died. On December 5, 2016, when she was sick, I wrote this letter. I wish I had given it to her, but I can still give it to you. Dear Grammy, Tonight I put lotion on the burn that the angry…
It is seven o'clock on Sunday night and I have been on the couch since two o'clock with a mild case of writer’s block. Which is annoying because I'm writing a book. I say "mild" because it’s not that I can’t write. It’s just that I can’t write anything that's not crap. I was trying…
Chelsea the Writer 