[Witty Title Here]

Through the Lens: photos from June

July 2, 2014 by Cassie

Once again, another month has flown by, but July marks a special anniversary for me.

In mid-July of last year, John and I hit the road for an epic cross-country road trip. We were headed West by way of the suburbs of Baltimore.

I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost a year now, which is surreal to say. It seems like just yesterday we were crashing at a family friend’s house scouring Craigslist and Padmapper and Zillow and every other rental site you can think of for a place to call home. We’ve come a long way since then.

But before I get all nostalgic for last year’s big adventure, let’s take one last parting look at June’s adventures.

John played a couple of gigs, and I even joined him on background vocals for a few songs. We met some awesome people those nights.

I got to check out the L.A. Zoo, discovered my new favorite fish taco stand in Silver Lake, peeked into windows and dreamed about the houses in the hills.

This month’s highlight was a road trip to Big Bear Lake, just a couple hours east of L.A.

Big Bear was incredible. We camped there for the weekend and found the perfect site in Hanna Flats campground. The weather was perfect—crisp air and insanely blue skies. The highlight of the trip might’ve been the drive itself. As we climbed up more than 7,000 feet, we rose above a thick bed of clouds. I felt so small in the best possible way up in those mountains.

Every time we go on a new adventure like this mini road trip and our last trip to Joshua Tree, I’m reminded of last summer and how I explored so many new-to-me parts of the country for the first time. I plan to always make that kind of adventure a regular part of my life. Being on the road and seeing how insanely different the landscape can be in just a couple hours’ drive blows my mind every time I get out there. I think that mind-blowing factor is good exercise for the brain.

For my fellow road trip enthusiasts out there, I’ve got something special planned for July that I think you’ll enjoy.

I’ve reached out to a handful of travel and photography enthusiasts who are going to be sharing their adventures in a summer road trip series, which will kick off this Friday (the Fourth of July!) and last throughout July—possibly longer. Because you can’t romanticize the Great American Road Trip enough.

So keep an eye out for that this week and join me in welcoming July! What are you looking forward to this month?

Filed Under: Photography Tagged With: angel city brewery, big bear, la zoo, photo roundup, photography, road trip, silver lake, through the lens

Interweb Finds: Strong female characters, summer camp for adults & more

June 29, 2014 by Cassie

Happy weekend friends!

As you read this, I’m a couple hours east of Los Angeles at Big Bear Lake! John and I are camping for the weekend (will share photos soon!), but I planned out some good interweb finds for you in advance.

Check ’em out:

An interesting article about the lack of strong female characters in films:

“Bringing in a Strong Female Character™ isn’t actually a feminist statement, or an inclusionary statement, or even a basic equality statement, if the character doesn’t have any reason to be in the story except to let filmmakers point at her on the poster and say ‘See? This film totally respects strong women!’”

OK Go’s new video for “The Writing’s on the Wall” is so darn brilliant and clever. I’d love to be on set for something like that.

I’ve been fantasizing about New Orleans lately. (The architecture! Swoon!) So I loved coming across this gorgeous NOLA house tour.

Lauren talks about the lost art of eating in, and I couldn’t agree more myself. Cooking at home is so much fun!

Genius: summer camps for adults. YES, PLEASE.

Bad Photoshopping aside, this experiment on different beauty standards around the world was pretty fascinating (and hilarious in its ridiculousness).

So cool! The history behind Zzyzx Road. We passed this exit on our way to L.A. out of Las Vegas. I had no idea what it was.

That’s all for this week! I’ll have some photos to share on Tuesday when—gasp!—it’ll already be July.

How was your weekend? What are you looking forward to this week?

Filed Under: Interweb Finds Tagged With: Apartment Therapy house tour, eating in, esther and jacob, global beauty standards zzyzx road, Interweb Finds, OK Go music video, strong female character, summer camps for adults, Yes and Yes

What’s the “healthiest” drink at the bar? Your 4 best bets

June 27, 2014 by Cassie

Happy hour is one of my favorite pastimes, and our blender at home gets a lot of use. (Margaritas.) But I’m always wary of drinking too much because a) sloppy drunk looks good on no one; b) hangovers make me want to die; and c) THERE’S A LOT OF SUGAR IN ALCOHOL. Luckily, Claire of Eat Well. Party Hard. is here with a few suggestions on the best drinks to order at the bar when you want to treat your body right (while still having fun).

To get straight to the point, I like to drink.

Drinking is fun, whiskey tastes great and, in the right context, alcohol catalyzes the kind of crazy adventures* that spark new friendships and solidify old ones.

However, it’s common knowledge that from a physical standpoint, drinking night after night is extremely taxing—on your waistline, your digestive system and your ability to wake up without a painful, productivity-killing headache the next morning.

This isn’t great news if your career and/or social pursuits place you in bars several nights a week.

That used to be my life.

Those of us who spend a significant amount of time in alcohol-heavy environments have to get crafty when it comes to juggling the social situation and our health. So to avoid unknowingly consuming buckets of creepy chemicals, artificial ingredients or a few hundred (sometimes thousand) extra calories, here are your four best boozing bets for a fun, relatively healthy night.

1. Craft or locally brewed beer—but only if you’re having one or two.

Beer—especially beer with real flavor to it—is high in empty calories and carbs. Several “light” options are typically available (your Bud Lights, Miller Lites, Michelob Ultras, etc.) for between 90-100 calories per 12-oz serving, but virtually all commercially brewed beers are laden with sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup or dextrose, additives like caramel coloring and a huge array of other chemicals. Food Babe actually asked spoke one-on-one with several mainstream breweries about what their beers contain, and her findings are pretty depressing. Sierra Nevada, Heineken and Amstel Light appear to be the only major companies who don’t use artificial ingredients, stabilizers or preservatives in their brews.

To avoid the chemical trap of commercial beers, it’s best to stick with craft beers and microbrews, or to opt for a German beer if available (the Reinheitsgebot purity law in Germany requires all beers to be produced with only a core ingredient list of water, hops, yeast, malted barley or wheat). However, with the knowledge that these choices are significantly higher in calories than the cheap-o “Lite” stuff, be mindful of how many calories are in that mug o’ tastiness.

2. Wine

Wine is lower in calories and carbs than beer, though like beer—or any other mass-produced food or drink—commercial wines are made to a specific taste; this ensures that the second bottle of Yellowtail pinot grigio you open will taste just like first. This uniformity is achieved, of course, by heavy processing, chemical manipulation and the use of various additives. So be aware that at the bar, your glass of wine won’t likely be as pure as those that come from small-scale vineyards, but at least the carb count is lower than the Bud Light your friend ordered.

3. Your favorite liquor + club soda + lime

Calorically speaking, liquor is the best bang for your buck at around 100ish calories per 1.5-oz serving—the mixers that go with them, though, get real dangerous real fast.

Though old-school versions of most drinks are relatively harmless, bars more often than not are stocked with pre-mixed versions of the classics—and once again, commercially packaged = tons of sugar, coloring and chemicals. According to WebMD, a 6-ounce piña colada packs on about 380 calories, and an 8-ounce mojito is 214 calories.

Rather than pulling out a calculator at the bar, order your preferred liquor with club soda/seltzer (not tonic water, which is super high in sugar) and a splash of lime—the fizz and citrus will keep it interesting.

4. Your favorite liquor, straight

If you dig the taste of your chosen liquor on its own, try ordering it on the rocks or neat. Too strong? Dilute it with some water as you acquire the taste.

What’s your favorite healthy(ish) drink?

*Said adventures are too numerous to list fully, but do include many nights running around New York ’til sunrise, snagging a cop’s hat and posing for photos on said cop’s motorcycle (with said cop present) and skinny dipping at Coney Island, among others.

Make sure you check out Claire’s blog, Eat Well. Party Hard. for more kickass posts like this one. (Seriously. She’s one of my favorites.) You can also follow here on Twitter and Instagram.

Filed Under: Arts & Culture Tagged With: claire sullentrop, cocktails, craft beer, drinking, Eat Well Party Hard, guest post series, healthiest drinks at the bar

Must Reads: For anyone who learned about love the hard way

June 24, 2014 by Cassie

I’ve always loved YA fiction. It is smart, it is complex, and it is heartbreaking. Uses for Boys is all three.

This page-turner took me less than two days to read, and in that time, I found myself hoping the protagonist, Anna, wouldn’t keep making the same mistakes over and over. But like a real human being, she does. With no father to speak of and a once-loving mom who now makes herself scarce, Anna is forced to navigate much of her childhood and teen years on her own. She seeks comfort in all the wrong places, mistaking sex for love and being punished for it as a result. Uses for Boys is a raw and real book that deals with abandonment and abuse, and it highlights the story of the kind of person society tends to shame by victim-blaming.

I did a Q&A with author Erica Lorraine Scheidt about some of the most important themes and moments from the book.

And her responses were so thoughtful that I’m really excited to share them with you now. Check out our Q&A below.

Uses for Boys author Erica Lorraine Scheidt (Photo by Marnie Webb)

WTH: Anna’s a tragic character who can’t seem to help but make the same mistakes over and over. Why was her story so important for you to tell?

ELS: I was writing into the question of how we make our way in the world. I started thinking about a teenage girl for whom sex was a salve to loneliness. And I was curious—why is it so easy for a girl to get sexual attention, but so difficult to get other kinds of attention? I thought, and I still think, that Anna’s story is important, because we are all lonely, we all have to learn how to be in the world. Anna just had to learn out loud, with little support or direction.

Some of the sex scenes are pretty detailed for a YA novel. How did you tread the line between being realistic and not romanticizing it too much?

I started out interested in what it meant that Anna learned about sex in the moment, from her partners, and not from frank, respectful conversations with caring adults. I was specifically interested in all the mistakes she made—and even when intimacy was surprising or tender or fun for Anna, it never occurred to me that it was romanticized. I think because because her experiences were also awkward or hurtful or confusing at times.

I did know, even when writing the earliest drafts, that the book was more explicit than many YA novels. But I feel strongly that we have to have safe ways to talk about sex and sexual situations—and fiction is one of those safe ways. We need to have more than fade to black and everything works out—because how do young men and women learn to navigate consent and pleasure without having some models for what works and what doesn’t work?

One thing I found interesting and refreshing about your book is how it depicts the abortion. While it is a fragile and challenging situation, the abortion is not nearly as dramatic or traumatic as it’s so often made out to be. It was a big moment in Anna’s life, but it wasn’t a defining moment. Did you take this approach on purpose, and if so, why?

I saw the abortion as one of the few times in Anna’s young life that adults were looking out for her physical and emotional wellbeing. And I loved the idea that Anna noticed these strong, caring women in the clinic and wondered what they had, why they were different than the other women in her life. I worked in an abortion clinic when I was 18, and I was so impressed by the women who worked there—kind, strong, generous, knowledgable women who were committed to serving others. It made a profound impression on me.

Anna’s mom’s absence throughout the book is such a presence, ironically. The whole time I was reading, I wanted to know how she justified spending so much time away from her daughter. What don’t readers know about her that you do?

I’m fascinated by villains. And the idea that the villain of your story can always justify his or her actions. Anna’s mom thought she was providing for her daughter by seeking financial security. I also suspect that Anna’s mom didn’t know how to make a different kind of home for Anna. I have a lot of hope for Anna, but I also have hope that her mom will change and grow.

Your website says you’re working on a new novel. Is there anything you can share about that?

Yes, only to say that it’s been difficult. And I won’t know until it’s finished, but the project seems to be taking a new turn and I’m very excited about it.

Thanks to Erica for sharing her thoughts and insight. Pick up a copy of Uses for Boys here or at your local bookstore. Follow Erica Lorraine Scheidt on Twitter here.

Filed Under: Arts & Culture, Books, Feminism Tagged With: author Q&A, book review, books, erica lorraine scheidt, interview, must reads, novel, uses for boys, YA fiction

Write for yourself today

June 22, 2014 by Cassie

When was the last time you just wrote?

Without aiming for perfection, without criticizing yourself throughout the process, without intending to share it on your blog or Facebook?

I’ll admit, it’s been a while for me. Now, I have a hard time tuning out the editor in me because of it. I have a lot of ideas, but before I can finish jotting down my thoughts, I find holes in the logic or realize someone else has already said the same thing, but better. (Because surely, there’s no way I might have anything to add to the subject, right?)

But then I turn to my favorite writers for guidance, find the most perfectly fitting quote for my writer’s dilemma and go on with my life. (I can always count on you, Anne Lamott.)

Today, I won’t be writing for an audience. Today, I’ll write for myself. I encourage you to do the same.

What are some of your favorite quotes from writers? And how do you deal with feelings of inadequacy?

Filed Under: Thoughts on Life Tagged With: anne lamott, bird by bird, quotes, write for yourself, writer quotes, writing

Go play in the dirt

June 18, 2014 by Cassie

planter

These days, I spend most of my time in front of a computer.

I haven’t added up the hours (I don’t want to know), but most of my week is spent writing for school, writing for work, writing for my blog, reading blogs, procrastinating on Facebook or Twitter, and on and on and on.

To top it all off, our WiFi has a consistently inconsistent pattern of coming in and fading out, causing a few tantrums and meltdowns from yours truly. (It’s not pretty, let me tell you.)

This week, I’d had it. I was sick of the eye fatigue, the hunched shoulders and the guilt of ignoring my actual physical surroundings.

So I went outside and dug in the dirt.

urban garden

Our one-bedroom apartment is small. It doesn’t have a dishwasher, the A/C unit groans from exhaustion and the plumbing is old. But for all its quirks, it’s a pretty sweet spot. And one of its best features? It comes with a 2×11-foot garden.

Actually, it originally came with a 2×11-foot mess of tangled weeds and overgrown succulents, but that all came up easily enough when I first tried my hand at urban gardening months ago. That attempt was noble, though it ultimately fell short. Soon, our garden began to wilt, the weeds grew back in and the flowers I’d planted died.

This week, that all changed. I bought a couple of shrubs, some soil and gardening gloves, sprayed on my sunscreen and got to work.

before & after

And you know what? It felt really good. I spent hours digging up all the landscape pebbles we’d spread out and properly weed-proofed the dirt below. I mixed the new soil with the old, dry and dusty soil. And, the most fun of all, I added some greenery.

When we found out our rent was going up at the beginning of the next lease, I momentarily lamented the work we’d put into a place we don’t even own. Why hang things on the wall? Why plant in what’s technically someone else’s garden? But the fact is, like a lot of people in my generation, I may never own a home, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t take ownership and pride in wherever I’m living. It’s important to nest, and it’s important to love where you live.

chimes garden

And I do. I love our tiny kitchen where John and I make kickass dinners every night. I love our bedroom with the pretty curtains and my “girly station,” I love our living room with party lights on the wall and funky rugs on the floor. And now, I love our garden.

Now that I have a garden to take care of for real this time, maybe I’ll spend a little less time staring at a screen.

Have you played in the dirt lately?

Filed Under: Thoughts on Life Tagged With: garden, love where you live, nesting, play in the dirt, renting, succulents, urban gardening