The Jonestown massacre happened when I was eight. Many of the victims came from the original People’s Temple in Bay Area, so for me this was all local news, and an ongoing story at that. It is so much more than the phrase “drinking the Kool-Aid” for me. If you…

If you have been a UX designer for any length of time, you may have had a recruiter call you about UX design positions at companies where they are just starting to invest in UX. If so, you have heard things like “you’ll be the first UX hire, but you…

A big reason why I am writing this series is to let other people know that getting laid off multiple times can and does happen. I have also had chronic depression for most of my life. Because of this, I know that depression tells you that you are the only…

If the Commonwealth of Virginia is known for one thing, it is funny place names. There are odd names for things all over the state, just in the past month for example I passed by the Big Otter River, the Little Otter River, Difficult Run, a town named Toga, and…

Years ago, when walking in an indoor space was considered a healthy thing to do, I was doing my lunchtime walk in what I call “the fancy mall”, or Tysons Galleria, the local home for Prada and Chanel and the brands that aspire to be just like them. I was…

Every weekend, I (still) get the Washington Post and I save the Second Glance puzzles for my husband. If you’re not familiar, those are the photo puzzles where you have to guess the 12 edits in the second photo. Most of the time, he gets 10 or 11, then gives…

For years I have been watching birds. I originally got into birdwatching as we live on the edge of a woodsy area and we got some very colorful visitors. …

One of the things I love about living in the DC area is that you never know if the boring office building you pass by every day is the site of something that in a few years will be historically monumental. For example, in 1988 some monkeys escaped from a…

I remember the first time I got laid off. I was in my early thirties and I was starting to get the gray hairs that I knew were on their way to taking over my head. At the time, I thought I could get by putting expenses on credit cards…