Note: This story should be read in chronological order. For most recent post, see sidebar. Thank you for following along.
This story should be read in chronological order. To read the latest post, please click here. Thank you for following along.
I’m going to share it all here. The mistakes, especially. I mean, it’s obvious – we all know that it isn’t easy to forge a path and then find out the map you are using has to be buried, maybe forever. I had a plan. I totally had a plan. And then – in a…
Living in these times means I can look at past texts, the calendar on my phone, emails, pictures, credit card statements, anything under the sun to try to put a timeline together. I can look at the list of past therapy sessions and doctor appointments, and remember what I was trying to accomplish or work…
To deviate a bit from my journey… I often get asked how to know if an AirBnB is going to be successful (also: define success; I’ll get to that in a moment). The key rule is to know your competitors. In the town or city you are going to be renting in, make sure you…
In 2022, Shane (the now-hubs. Yes, I remarried) and I flew from our home in the Bay Area out to El Paso, TX, to visit with my cousins, aunts and uncles. One day during our stay, just for funsies, we started looking at local home costs. We couldn’t get over the housing prices. So. Much….
So, Marin County, California. It is directly North of San Francisco, via the Golden Gate Bridge. To explain it, I’m going to explain a little bit about my growing-up years. Erm, scratch that. I need to tell you a little bit about my parents’ growing-up years, instead. My mom’s family, the Ortegas, as far as…
When we first began to do AirBnB, actually we did it on the fly. Winston Churchill said that “perfectionism is the enemy of progress.” Wise man. My advice is jump in and just do it. Accept that you will make mistakes. I want to share some I’ve made along the way to help you not replicate…
When I married Tim and moved to Marin in 2001 (note for context, we never lived together, I’d travel on Amtrak from the Central Valley to the Bay Area – about a 4 hour ride), my headspace was pretty muddled. My mom had been suffering from cancer all throughout my engagement, and she wasn’t able…
Before I go into the early days of motherhood, I’d like to introduce you to Shane – who has had such an impact on my role as a mom from 2012 until today. Shane was a casual friend of mine, and he emailed me one day, and I didn’t answer because Tim had just passed…
Today is the 11th anniversary of Tim’s passing. It’s so difficult to put words into a formation that can adequately express the way it felt to hear the news. A member of Tim’s family called me – he heard the news from someone who heard the news. I remember these things: I was at my…
Dear Readers, It has been some time, and there’s reasons aplenty for that. When I found myself beginning this blog, I embarked on the pain of it as I recounted some hard moments in my adulthood, but truthfully, writing it was a relief and even in the heartache of memory, I found joy. My attention…