On (Lack of) Blog Type

"What do you like to do in your free time?"

This is the second most common question I get asked when meeting with new people. (The first being "What's your major?" - though now that I've graduated college I expect that to change.) My answer is always the same:

"I like to read and write."

"What do you write?" is usually the question that follows.

"Oh, you know," I'll say, "whatever. Short stories. Long stories. I like to blog."

"What type of blog?"

This is the question that always throws me. Why do I need to have a blog type? Does this blog even have a type? I would say it doesn't, and that's just how I like it.

I once tried to explain this concept to a well-meaning coworker. This isn't a fashion blog or a history blog or a travel blog (all blog types I've tried and failed at in the past). It's kind of just... whatever I feel like writing.

I've tried blogs that stay within one topic in the past and do you know what happens? I get bored of them. I can't hammer myself into a tiny hole for too long. It gets boring and exhausting. If I try to write only about history, what happens when I want to do an entry about aliens? About this cool restaurant I tried? About a short story I wrote?

"Ah," she replied. "A lifestyle blog."

I don't think that's entirely accurate, either. When I think of lifestyle blogs, I think of those typical white "bohemian" girl blogs where they post instagram-worthy shots of yoga positions and Starbucks drinks and manicures and write about how Coachella was just so inspiring you guys. Maybe that's not entirely fair but it's what I think of.

I don't think this blog is that. Or else where do my entries that aren't about my life fit in?

See, I don't think this blog needs a label. Moreover, I don't want one. I kind of like having a blog that defies labels. It's freeing.

If that's what my young coworker wants to call this blog, I won't stop her. Some entries do fit into that box. Not all of them. But some.

However, to me, this is just my blog. Not a lifestyle blog or a travel blog or a history blog. Just my blog. And that's enough.

-Nym-

How to Make Candles

Believe it or not, I actually can be a pretty crafty person when the mood strikes me. I consider myself to be a creative person. I write, I draw, I keep an artsy journal, I paint. But with the big move coming up, I haven't had much time or energy to devote to more extreme crafts. That, and I can't exactly try to make something huge when I'm in the process of getting rid of a bunch of stuff.

When the craft bug bites, though, sometimes there's little one can do but just make something.

Thus, candle making. Candle making is simple, and the end product is small and makes a great gift. I've done it before - the red one in the photo is a cinnamon/vanilla scented one from a few months ago. And when the crafting bug bit today, I made lavender candles! Why? Because I love lavender. It's one of my top favourite smells. It's calming, it's grounding, and yet it's magical and ethereal.

This time around, I took pictures every step of the way. So if you ever get the urge to craft, here's how I did it...

A (Not So) Serious Conspiracy Theory

I wanted to do this hot on the heels of my last post, about Marion "Daisy" Merriman, because this is kind of a follow up. And also, it's kind of not. This post is more about how the Winchester Mystery House came to be.

160 rooms. 40 bedrooms. 13 bathrooms. 6 kitchens. 3 elevators. Say what you want about the Winchester Mystery House, but you can't conceivably call it small. This mansion is ginormous, to the point where I still haven't seen every bit of it!

And part of the mystery is that we really have no idea why the house was built to be so big. Was Sarah Winchester building it to confuse spirits? Was she hoping to eventually move her whole family into the house? Did she just really like building? Was it conspicuous consumption?

Laura, a coworker of mine, offered (I assume jokingly) a different theory. A conspiracy theory, which I would like to submit for your consideration. Maybe... Sarah Winchester didn't exist! (Dun dun dunnnn!)

Will the Real Marion Merriman Please Stand Up?

Working at the world-famous Winchester Mystery House, I talk day in and day out about the lady of the house, Sarah Winchester. I love Mrs. Winchester. This blog has made it perfectly clear that I adore the old woman as if she were a member of my own family, and I know I'm not the only Winchester tour guide that feels that way.

But there was another lady of the house. According to our records, the daughter of Mrs. Winchester's younger sister Isabel came to live with her Aunt Sarah (or, as she probably called her, "Aunt Sallie") in 1890, and moved out sometime between 1903 and 1905 when she got married. (Though she and her husband may have stayed with Mrs. Winchester at later dates as well.) Her niece's full name was Marion Isabel Merriman (until she got married to a Mr. Marriott), but she often went by the nickname "Daisy".

And she fascinates me. I sense a "kindred spirit" in her, to borrow a phrase from a childhood favourite novel, Anne of Green Gables. She seems to have been a free spirit with a big heart. I like that, I like to think we would have been friends. I like to think she's the type of friend who would drive to your house at 1 AM for a spontaneous trip to IHOP.

I mean you don't pose in fountains for photos if you're not a free spirit.

But she is just as mysterious as her aunt. We don't know a lot about her. So I decided to try to gather, in one post, everything I know about Marion Isabel "Daisy" Merriman Marriott. As it seems to have been the nickname she preferred, I will be referring to her by the nickname "Daisy" for most of this entry.

Project: Wonderland (A Concept)

A few years back, over the summer I began to write a script of a webseries that was meant as a retelling of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (one of my favourite stories of all time, as long-time readers know), a personal psychological study, and a love letter to favourite spots in the Bay Area. Alice would meet the Mad Hatter at a local San Jose tea shop, for example, or the Cheshire Cat in Kelley Park, or the Mock Turtle down at Natural Bridges beach in Santa Cruz.

This scene would have taken place at the San Jose Rose Garden, for example

 It was a cool idea in theory. I still like the story I wrote for it. But let's be real, I was never going to make it. I have neither the time nor the funding to shoot a webseries, and where would I find other actors willing to trek up and down the San Francisco peninsula for 6-minute webisodes in funny costumes?

It was earlier this year that I begun to wonder if maybe, instead of something ambitious as a webseries, I turned it into a photography project? Instead of having to shoot and reshoot around tourists, I could snap photos and edit them in Photoshop? Art for art's sake, you know?

However, this still doesn't take care of the fact that I have neither time nor money to do so. I have equipment. I don't own a video camera or a boom mic or good editing software, but I own cameras and photoshop! But when I'm working to earn a living and saving for a cross-country move, I just can't afford to do a photography project all over Northern California.

So the solution that presented itself is obvious: If I ever do choose to do this (and that is a big IF), I'll have to do so in New York. Thus, I began the task of picking new locations to match the aesthetic I need...

(Photos included are either my own, or labeled for noncommercial reuse and used under creative commons license)

The Little Witch in the Big City

A Short Story 

Art by me

“A witch ought never to be frightened in the darkest forest, Granny Weatherwax had once told her, because she should be sure in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.”~ Terry Pratchett

The little witch had grown up with that quote. She had lived by that quote, even graduating at the top of her class from Baba Yaga's Black Forest Academy for Young Witches. She had been so sure of how her life was going to go. Build a cottage deep in the forest, wait for young maidens and dashing heroes to come through looking for magical favours, commune with nature, paint with all the colours of the wind... it was just what was done.

So what, then, was she doing stepping off of a subway train in the middle of a large metropolis?

Thirteen Things I Still Need to do in California

This is a companion to the last post.

Where little cable cars climb halfway to the stars...

Those of you who know me in real life may remember that time I tried a project called 'The Bay Area Bucket List', meant to be a blog detailing my efforts to visit all the cool places in the Bay Area before leaving it, possibly forever if I may be overly dramatic for a second. It failed for a few reasons. Not least of which being that I just don't like Wordpress that much. (I know a lot of bloggers prefer it but there's a reason I moved back to this blogging platform, which suits my needs much better!) Other reasons included lack of money, lack of free time, and the fact that writing the same type of entry over and over is exhausting and not particularly rewarding.

But that doesn't me that the 'bucket list' itself doesn't still exist. I still have the list of all the things I had hoped to do, and I've picked out the 13 I want to do most. (Though the last two, being so far away, will probably not be done before I leave. Oh well. I can dream.)

Just like the last list, there's no particular order to this list. Just like the last list, these are all stock photos or labeled for noncommercial reuse.

Thirteen Things I'm Looking Forward To in New York

Concrete jungle where dreams are made of...

 I am so glad I pushed my flight back from 26 July to 8 September, because let me tell you, the quicker 26 July approaches, the more I realise that I am completely starting to freak out.

But I also (at least at times) believe in the power of positive thinking. Granted, ~*~positivity~*~ is not going to cure my depression or anxiety or PTSD or anything like that. However, I think it's high time I remind myself that New York City isn't just there to terrify the shit out of me. There are a lot of cool things I'm really looking forward to seeing!

So I decided to list here, in no particular order, 13 of them. Why 13? Well, why not? And I promise that not all of these are going to be museums. (Although a great many of them are. It is me, after all.)

(All photos included are free stock photos in the public domain)

That Time I Filled Out the Proust Questionnaire

I was looking through my old journals trying to find a recipe when I found an entry from last December where I filled out the Proust Questionnaire. 

Because why not, right?

If you're curious, read on, friends!

Venting About my New York Panic

This is going to be a not-entirely-coherent vent post because I feel like I just need to get it out.

I've been wondering lately if perhaps I really am just fucking insane, going over to New York City with nothing but a couple thousand dollars and a bachelor's degree. I know a lot of people are successful with far less than that in NYC, but as my flight date draws closer and begins to feel real I'm starting to get very anxious. What if my anxiety is right and I am destined for failure? I had a rather severe anxiety attack about it the other night, in fact, set off by the fact that SJSU has not mailed me my degree yet even though it's posted to my transcripts. (A friend told me 'since the original premise is wrong, the rest of that is wrong too' which was sweet and helpful of him to say, but the anxiety is still there.)

Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna go. I feel like I have to do this. I have something to prove to myself. I don't know what but all signs I've gotten have pointed towards needing to do this. That doesn't mean I'm not secretly scared out of my fucking mind, though. I'm going over to something completely unknown - of course it's scary. Not knowing things is terrifying. Once I'm there I think I'll be okay but the not knowing is the worst!

Confessions of a Fake Pokemon Fan

So I, like most of the population, have been playing "Pokemon Go" pretty much non-stop since I downloaded it.

Look at this smug fucker I found in the stables at work

Here's the thing, though. I was never a Pokemon kid. I was very stubbornly a Sailor Moon kid, I was never interested in Pokemon. I wasn't even going to download the game until one of my friends pointed out that most of the Pokestops are areas of historical interest and sometimes have interesting little educational blurbs. And yet, despite my initial skepticism... I love it.

I am a 'fake pokemon fan' having the time of my life with a game that I know none of the backstory of.

My Recent San Francisco Vacation

Recently (on the 5th, 6th, and 7th - I've been in a post-vacation exhaustion haze since then) I took a vacation to San Francisco, meant to be kind of a last good bye to one of my favourite cities. New York may have my educational opportunities but San Francisco will always have my heart, and I could think of no better way to celebrate my graduation/leaving California than to go do things in the city by the bay. (Though honestly I hope to go back at least once more before I leave it for good.)

My itinerary was meant to be a combination of things that I already know I love to do and things I'd always wanted to see, and all in all it was practically perfect.