What’s Next…

We’re all set up here in my parents’ house in Tennessee, unwinding from the last year and turning our sights to the next big thing. SVV actually didn’t wait five days after our return before starting work for my dad. My dad, among many other financial enterprises, runs a CPA firm, and as you can [...]

In 2011…

2011 was meant to be “the year I stayed home.” After going round the world and back a handful of times in 2009 and 2010, I was ready for a break. And then…things happened—purely awesome, life-altering things—and I found myself visiting 21 states and 13 countries and moving 2,300 miles and then going around the [...]

Out at Sea: What I Read

With little Internet access and a need to be laying horizontal each night after dinner following long days in the office, I read A LOT of books on our Semester at Sea voyage. Seriously—how great is it to have a Kindle and be able to download a book in under a minute the second you’ve [...]

What Semester at Sea Taught Me

Throughout our four months on the M/V Explorer, I have heard various reasons why students chose to study abroad on this particular program: “I wanted to travel.” “I wanted to see the world.” “I’m graduating soon, and I wanted one last hurrah.” “I’m lost…I’m hoping to find myself.” I can’t say any particular one of [...]

Sweet Tea, Fireflies and 90 Good Years

Our time in the South was but two very action-packed weeks, but it was enough to instill a heightened feeling of excitement in making Nashville our permanent base once we return from Semester at Sea. It’s the things that I grew up that are so alarmingly familiar to me but that are so foreign to [...]

Lucky 13: Moving Across Country, Part II

Our life arrived in Tennessee! Our life arrived in Tennessee! After bidding all of our belongings adieu back on July 30, our 1-800-PACK-RAT pod showed up in the South without a hitch on Aug. 15. Truth be told, we could have even accessed it sooner as the company called about delivering it last week, but [...]

Lucky 13: Moving Across Country, Part I

It was this very week a decade ago that I moved away from home for the first time. Since then, I have relocated exactly 13 times (not counting my summer jobs in Arizona in college). (Insane, I know. I start to wonder about my state of mental health, too.) I’ve always done your typical broke-and-in-your-twenties [...]

Coming Home

So there’s something I’ve been hiding from you for eight long months. And I realize what that sounds like, but it’s not what you think. Rather… We’re moving to Nashville. Not only are we moving to Nashville, but we’re officially leaving San Francisco in FOUR DAYS. I know, right? I’m sort of blown away by [...]

Getting to Know You: The Girl Behind the Blog

As an avid fan and devout seeker of mysteries I’ve embarked upon a series of Q&A sessions with my wife, Kristin Luna. There are some things that therapy an open relationship cannot answer in the daily grind of life and since she puts a lot of information about herself on the Internets (that I never [...]

Celebrity Tell All: Moonlighting as an Entertainment Reporter

Richard Gere called me “honey” in the most patronizing manner and told me to get my priorities straight. I peed next to Dianne Lane, who was the loveliest of bathroom companions. Beyonce’s bodyguard shoved me into a wall. All in a day’s work for a celebrity reporter. (And don’t you dare call me a paparazzo! [...]