Annitsa (It's Ukrainian.)

This whole work from home thing is interesting. It kinda sounds like the dream, right? I mean, staying in your pajamas all day, lounging on the couch, watching reruns of Chrisley Knows Best in the background. Perfection. Welllll, don't be too quick to load up the DVR. It's not for everyone. You may be like me where you're the kind of person who likes to be busy. I actually like to have a place in which to go and feel productive. With that said, I'm glad I'm making the

So when I started writing a blog seven years ago (on Tumblr then) I set out to do one thing: be honest in order to connect. Over the years I've shared a lot of heartbreak and sadness, and I've gotten beautiful personal messages that have led me to believe that I've accomplished my goal even the tiniest bit. I've shared my adventures and triumphs. I've shared my dumbest moments. It is absolutely true that if only one person can feel understood by something I've written, if o

It dawned on me this morning that the summer is halfway over! I spent the entire month of June inside a hospital, so I decided to take my suits out for a spin today. I can't just have one swimsuit like I can't have one pair of shoes or one jacket. Still, I'm a single woman on a budget. I can never understand when people post about these fabulous suits that cost hundreds of dollars. I don't know anyone who can afford that. My most expensive suit cost $89, and that was a

For the past week my roommate Jess and I have been on a purging kick. I LOVE to have a spring/summer/fall/winter cleaning extravaganza! I get in these moods where I just have to find more to get rid of and declutter my life. I actually look around all the time and say, "what can I get rid of?!" Being in my place you'd probably wonder what it is we've lost because there certainly are no bare spaces, but still! You know how it goes with all the drawers and cupboards and no

Photo by Blake Lisk When you get home at 2:30 in the morning, arriving on your quiet street, walking quietly alone to your quiet apartment, it’s only right that your thoughts are at their loudest. Everything is clear and overwhelming. At your door the events of the day melt from your ears to your fingertips, to the mismatched hallway tiles, to the crickets dotting the sidewalk. The tales of broken hearts, the man who aggressively and drunkenly harassed you, the miles apart

"Great people do things before they're ready. They do things before they know they can do it." -Amy Poehler I'm banking on being great then? I quit my job without having anything full-time lined up. I couldn't spend one more second doing something that made me miserable. I'm going to spend the next few weeks hustling and enjoying the unknown as best as I can. How do you handle uncertainty? Photo by Austin Chan

"He who becomes the slave of habit, who follows the same routes every day, who never changes pace, who does not risk and change the color of his clothes, who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly. He or she who shuns passion, who prefers black on white, dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer, that turn a yawn into a smile, that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He reached out to grab my hand, interlacing his fingers with mine so seamlessly that I hardly noticed but to feel the jump in my heart. Sure that I was the one to fill his mind tonight. Such a small declaration to produce so much anticipation. His eyes looked soft and steady, straight ahead, leading me. His ease left me feeling completely free. Walking toward the night with nothing but our desire to leave everything else behind. Nothing mattered. Northing needed to mak

This is a photo of most of the Sprynczynatyks circa 1995 wishing you all the love. Whenever my dad would go on business trips we would say goodbye at the airport (back when you could still go to the gate without having a ticket) and give this heart gesture. We make a heart with our arms and combine it with our heads to show nothing but love with our whole selves. It was a silent way to communicate how we felt in front of a hundred strangers. We still use this to this day.

"There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep t