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So, we're getting whimsical this summer, huh? I found my gnome doppelganger. 26 years ago exactly (starting something on a decade, century, and millennium-starting year sure makes it easy to remember), I was preparing myself for my first summer as a tarot card reader at a renaissance festival. I didn't choose the whimsical life, the whimsical life chose me. As a former Manic Pixie Dream Girl, I am happy to share my tips for a whimsy-filled summer to distract from The Horrors.

Apparently, the influencers are currently stocking their Amazon Storefronts with "Summer Essentials" that are really only essentials if you're into overconsumption... I mean, I live in Michigan, and I'm still only working with five bathing suits, and I feel very weird saying "only five." I don't have an Amazon Storefront, and most of my essentials aren't really consumables, anyway, but I'm still going to drop some non-sponsored links to products I do use. One: Japanese Sunscr

The first part of the blog post I wrote this morning was a lot of me thinking out loud about how to practically prepare for a drought potentially severe enough to cause water rations. Yes, like I'm sure most everyone else my original thought was how to stockpile water, but that's not practical at all... not only would you need the collection and storage equipment (I don't have the space for a water tower, I measured), but water goes stagnant. The question to ask is, "how do I

I'm from the Midwest, and both of my grandfathers are military veterans - one in WWII, one in the Korean War - so "Dopp Kit" is one of those traditions and terminologies that got persistently handed down in my family, much like calling chipped dry beef in cream sauce served over toast "shit on a shingle." But I digress. A Dopp Kit is a particular design of men's toiletry bags used for travel. Nowadays, there are many travel kits out there, and the kind that fold open and hang

After 10 years of Tent Camping While Disabled, I have a gear collection and my own setup down pat. And since I could use a new packing list after a forced two years away from the campgrounds, might as well make this blog content while I'm at it, right? I should point out that this is the car camping in state campgrounds kind of camping. It's music festival camping (which is how I got into camping in the first place). It's kind of half between rustic camping and "glamping." An

While I'm over here reminiscing on Millennial Summers of Yore, remember when Evian launched the mist bottle of Evian water? That's it, it's just Evian in an aluminum mist bottle. And it was THE beach and gym bag item of the summer the year it was launched, probably somewhere in the 2017-2018 years. Y'all, they sell that stuff for $3 an ounce. It's... water. Mineral water, yes, I have sea salt in my cabinet, too. Here's how the trail of innovation happened... I bought a contin

Here's a hyper-regional reference for you: use an orange slice and dilute it just enough and no one will know it's not an Oberon... Fellow Millennials, remember when rosé wine was the symbol of Summer 2015? When all of us 20- and 30-somethings, and by "all" I generally mean feminine women, were wearing short white shift dresses with gladiator sandals and big, floppy straw hats with giant designer sunglasses to brunch, where we spent three hours gossiping over chilled bubbly r