hootenannie

This little dream house… I can’t believe it, but I’ll be handing the keys over to someone else in July. My two years in Minneapolis have been abundantly sweet, rich, and healing — and now it’s time to go. I will miss the amazing friends I’ve made, my perfect fence, and the cheese curds. I…

In my most cliché move yet, I’m now on the Whole30. If you aren’t familiar, the Whole30 is a 30-day elimination diet that cuts out everything that makes me who I am: sugar, dairy, grains, and alcohol (also legumes and soy, although those mean less to me). It’s popular with girls on Instagram and your…

Over the course of the last four and a half months, I ran 434 miles. Last Saturday, all of that training culminated in me running — and I do mean running — the Fargo Marathon. I did it! I ran the entire thing! I never stopped, except this one time (we’ll get to that). First…

In less than a month, I’ll be running the Fargo Marathon. Now before you go trash-talking Fargo, let me tell you something. I drove through last September, and was immediately smitten by the small town feel. The tallest building downtown was… not tall. Several stories, maybe? I found shops and boutiques and restaurants, a brewery,…

I used to dream of being a professional songwriter. I didn’t want to be famous (still don’t) because I didn’t love to perform (still don’t) — but to be the mind and heart behind the music? That appealed to me so much. Life has taken me in a different direction than music, at least in…

My favorite song of the last year is Brandy Clark’s “Love Can Go to Hell.” If you haven’t heard it, please give yourself the sweet, melancholic gift of listening — if for no other reason than Brandy Clark is one of the smartest writers I’ve ever run across. But lest my love of this song…

I ran a lot in January, and of course I kept track because I keep track of everything. Including trespasses against me. My total for the month is 86 miles, and I’m proud of every single step. It’s tough to start running again after years away; when I started easing back into it in the fall,…

Over the past month or so, I’ve woken up several times in the middle of the night with a sudden panic that I’ve left Foxy outside in the cold. I sit up straight and call her name, scared to death that she is [morbid alert] frozen to death out in the yard. And each time,…

When I was a kid, my parents never told me that Santa was real. Quite the opposite, in fact: I was always explicitly told that Santa Claus is NOT real. That guy at the mall? Just a man in a costume — and no, you can’t go sit on his lap. After all, Jesus is…

In anxious anticipation of next week’s release of the Netflix special Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, I give you my ranking of the series’ characters, worst to best. Not mentioned is the wretched “La la la la laaaaaaa” soundtrack, which would fall somewhere between Mrs. Kim and April. Kirk Dean Taylor Morey Mrs. Kim…