Can’t Travel Without: a Small Notebook and Pen

Indispensable during my travels was my small, purse-sized notebook where I wrote many of my thoughts, phone numbers of new friends and addresses of flats, restaurants and hotels, and still more musings, rants and suppositions. 

The first iteration was a staple-bound, craft paper, unlined beaut’. I picked it up at a street festival in Chicago, the Renegade Craft Fair, where, with two of my girlfriends, we traipsed up and down Division Street that summer weekend. In the notebook, I listed out the business of moving one’s life, chronicling, to use a favorite idiom, where all the bodies are buried. It was a pleasant reminder of home, all that I’d done to get on the road, and it fit right into my vintage leather purse from Detroit. Continue reading “Can’t Travel Without: a Small Notebook and Pen”

Museum of Letters & Manuscripts, Paris: Keepers of the Letters, Frail Histories of our Lives

Before electronic communication, we wrote letters. Now that most of our communication is online, we can access old letters, sent or received, anytime with a simple search. But what happened to those real, physical letters you sent to friends, family and maybe even a few pen pals or chain letter recipients pre-1996? Where are those pieces of paper, those little frail histories of our lives?  Continue reading “Museum of Letters & Manuscripts, Paris: Keepers of the Letters, Frail Histories of our Lives”

One No Closer to a Yes: How to Be Intrepid and Sell Cutco Knives

One summer during college, I sold $10,000 worth of knives. It was kinda crazy. When I started selling knives, it was to my family and friends – sorry, you guys! – but eventually, through their referrals, I took my knives to complete strangers’ homes, gave them demonstrations and tried selling knife sets to them. Can you imagine inviting a complete stranger to your home who is packing a bunch of knives? (Ok, even if that stranger is pretty innocuous, like me at age 19?)  Continue reading “One No Closer to a Yes: How to Be Intrepid and Sell Cutco Knives”

Help Me Win a Travel Writing Scholarship to SE Asia? Pretty Please?

Update, May 15, 2012: My entry is not on the scholarship shortlist. On Friday, I sent in my application to the 2012 World Nomads Travel Writing Scholarship. This is a six-week, paid opportunity to travel and write on assignment guided by three established travel writers in Singapore, Bali and Malaysia. Winning this scholarship will be my … Continue reading Help Me Win a Travel Writing Scholarship to SE Asia? Pretty Please?