A must-read

Speaking of summer camp, it was there when I first read Hope for the Flowers by Trina Paulus. Have you heard of it? When Lindsay and I were co-counselors, we would read one chapter each night to our cabin of giggly 13-year-olds. It's one of those children’s novels that's made for adults. The story follows Stripe, a tiny, fuzzy caterpillar who’s determined to break away from the everyday routine of munching on leaves and climbing caterpillar towers to the sky (yes, a candid but well-presented allegory of humans climbing the corporate ladder). 

Paulus lovingly reminds her readers there is always hope, whether or not you're a caterpillar wishing to fly. With curious illustrations and darling handwritten type, it would make a perfect birthday or graduation present...and I just discovered it comes in all sorts of languages!

*Photo courtesy of www.anniebethericsson.com.

Echoes: living simply

Let’s talk about money. I think everyone has a love-hate relationship with it. But the absolute best ever advice I’ve ever heard about saving money wisely is:

“Live above your needs and below your means.”

Of course, it’s not always easy. In fact, my first blog post ever on The Tori Story was actually about the difficulty of job hunting and surviving as an eager-to-succeed 20-something in today’s world.

But as fellow 20-something Ella Walker wrote, “We have our whole lives to own houses, send our future children to ‘good schools’ and go on cruises.”

She’s right. Living well in your 20s never meant living lavishly. It means making smart choices. I am thankful for my great job (however busy), good car (however rumbly), nice apartment (however small), and all my loved ones surrounding me. Simple as that!

Decisions, decisions

Ready? Go:

Chocolate or vanilla?

Bike or walk?

Soup or salad?

Shorts or jeans?

Unsweetened or nonfat?

WAIT, WAIT, I’M THINKING! I heard that the average person makes thousands of decisions each day and can make about 200 decisions per day on food alone. I’m one of those people that will stand in front of the shampoo isle in Target for a half hour smelling each one and contemplating my decision. What a waste of time.

So when I read one of author Gretchen Rubin’s “Secrets of Adulthood” in her book The Happiness Project, I thought “huh!”

Rubin eliminates this entire decision debacle by noting:

Most decisions don’t require extensive research.

This applies to smaller decisions like where to eat dinner and larger life decisions. (Should I enter a relationship? Should I take the job?) Sometimes, you just have to go for it and see what happens! You can read about Gretchen’s decision secret HERE.

* Photo from Fort Laramie, Wyo.

Summer camp

Here are two things you need to understand about summer camp:

1) It’s all fun and games.

2) It’s not all fun and games. 

My friend Lindsay posted this great article about summer camp on Facebook yesterday and it quickly garnered "likes" from our camp friends.

The writer makes a FANTASTIC point about camp being an invaluable life and job experience for the young adults who work there. My favorite part is when she compares working as a camp counselor to having a summer internship.

“…you are on call 24/7, sleeping six hours a night and spending the remaining 18 outside, running around with your campers, planning programming, catering to every need of your cabin and getting more mosquito bites than you thought physically possible…You want an easy, restful summer? Go get an internship. You can sleep all weekend long and get paid a lot more, too.”

So true. Reading the story brought back a lot of great memories.

Camp is one of those quintessential growing-up experiences. Though I never went to camp as a kid, I’m so thankful that my friend Kim and I randomly decided to sign ourselves up as camp counselors way back when. I ended up working two summers at Mountain Meadow Ranch Summer Camp in Susanville, California and learned way too much (how to wakeboard, how to get kids to listen to directions, how to make 100 pancakes on a little camping stove…) During my second summer, I was part of the lake staff. I drove this giant 18-passenger van filled with kids back and forth to Lake Almanor everyday and we spent hours tightening life jackets, driving boats in circles, handing out sunscreen and making sure everyone got back to camp happy and exhausted. It was the time of my life.

And it’s the only time in my life I’ve found it acceptable to show up to dinner in neon tights and pigtails or sing at the top of my lungs on a hike. I met other counselors from all over the world—from Israel to New Zealand to Scotland to Australia—and I still consider some of them my best friends. I'll never forget my campers either, and hope we left them with some good advice and tools for growing up. Many have them have since gone on to be counselors themselves. We’re all scattered around the world now. But the cool thing is, for a brief flash of existence, we once all sat on logs around the crackling campfire laughing and singing “M.T.A.” :)

Read the entire article HERE.

* Top photo of beautiful Mountain Meadow Ranch circa 2008, bottom photo of the awesome Apache cabin circa 2009

Outdoor inspiration: parachute

It's been a hot, sticky, sunny summer here in NorCal, but I still miss going camping. Back in June, my family took a day trip out to the lake and my friend Rachel's parents brought along a parachute! I never would have thought of this, but it instantly added some shade and a pop of color to the area. We tied it up between the cars because there were no trees around, but this thing could go anywhere. (I'm thinking it would be really fun for a big backyard party!) If you do some quick digging, you can find all sorts of used parachutes on eBay for a couple hundred dollars. Happy camping!

Foodspotting

Have you tried the new iPhone Foodspotting app? It allows you to browse through people’s photos of dishes at nearby restaurants and recommends actual menu items. You don’t just read the restaurant’s name and random reviews; you actually SEE the meals people have tried and loved. I just downloaded it, but it's already insanely addictive…and is making me hungry right now.

Taking photos of your food is a popular trend these days…and has been for a while now. Remember Tucker Shaw, the guy who photographed every bite, snack and meal he ate each day in 2004? His book Everything I Ate: A Year in the Life of My Mouth, was a fascinating meal memoir before the days of iPhones and Instagram.

As a side note, my best friend Jeanne just returned from a grand tour of Europe and when she came back, she posted an entire food photo album on Facebook solely of some meals she ate. I was drooling over the Italian dried figs, Belgium waffles and Greek baklava (that lucky girl)! At the top is her plate of calamari and French fries in Greece, where she says the "food defeated us. That was the fullest I'd ever been." :) 

*Photos by Jeanne McAteer

Olympic snapshots

In the spirit of the Olympics’ closing weekend, here are some great shots from The Atlantic’s photography blog “In Focus.”

All the emotion, sweat, tears, laughs, splashes, leaps and finish lines are captured in the photos, but this one distinctive image (using a tilt-shift lens during the Dressage Grand Prix) caught my attention right away. It makes Greenwich Park and the little horse and rider look like they’re right out of a miniature toy set! I may have to experiment with this photography style one day…

Here are some more great moments:

You can view all the photos here:

*Grand Prix photo by Alex Livesey for Getty Images

Names in songs

I laughed out loud when I stumbled upon this song by The Kinks with my name in it. (My full name, that is.) Even though it's about grim life in 19th Century Britain, hearing it for the first time was quite funny! Especially the shouty chorus...

Some songs seem to define how certain generations view a moniker. So, is your name in a song? Are you a "Sweet Caroline," "Jessie's Girl" or "Maggie May"? :)

Just day dreaming...

...of traveling and far away lands. 

I wrote this poem in 2008 about ferrying around the world:

He took me as far as Baton Rouge
She drove me as far as Ghent

He took me as far as Lima

The furthest the river went

I told her I’d get off in Tulsa

That Third Street was close enough

I asked him to sing me a love song

His voice Venetian and rough

They brought me to Ambergate station

Came home for Christmastime

They took me 'cross Frisco bay

On a ferry when I was nine

A wayfarer, a crate, a stowaway

That’s how I made it through

A raft upon the Amazon,

Ask that man, it’s true

For all these traveler’s angels

I pray thanks for such fine deeds

And know upon this earth

Wherever we follow they lead

*Photo of Akaroa, New Zealand

Sacramento date day: Zoo + pizza

I work full-time in downtown Sac now, but I’ve barely scratched the surface of exploring the City of Trees. So, the weekend before last Andrew and I went on a little adventure.

We wandered through the Sacramento Zoo (where I hadn’t been since I was a kid) and checked out the lions and tigers and pythons, oh my! I also discovered my new favorite animal is a red panda. They were lazily hanging in the trees for hours on end.

For lunch, we stopped by Hot Italian and tried their pizza for the first time. Andrew tried one with prosciutto and I had the Murino, with sliced pears, gorgonzola and honey. But my favorite part of the meal was dessert—their carmel saluto (salted caramel) gelato with its burnt caramel flavor was to-die-for! We took a small bowl of it to go and ate it sitting in the grass just across the street at Freemont Park. :)

What are your favorite date spots in your home city? Hmmm?

Echoes: art and nature

"Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more."

- Vincent Van Gogh

*Photo of my grandfather's daisies in Pennsylvania four summers ago :)

(Actually) long-lasting nail polish

Stop the chipping madness! 

Here’s a secret: Rimmel Lasting Finish Pro in Pink Bliss.

It lasts...more than three days. And looks perfectly summery pink (great for a wedding maybe?)

That is all!

*Polka-dot photo by transientexpression.com. 

Emily and Jeff's big day

Everyone is talking about Emily and Jef (with one "f") lately. But, alas, this post is not about The Bachelorette. It's about my friend Emily and her college sweetheart Jeff, who were married July 14 in a wonderful outdoor ceremony at The Roth Estate in Nevada City! We laughed, cried, danced to “Shout,” and stuffed our faces with cake (it was funfetti flavor…how unique is that for a wedding cake?!)

Before the wedding, Emily invited me to take photos of her and her bridesmaids as they got ready for the day. So, my friend Rachel and I hung out with them and had a wonderful time at the salon in Grass Valley as they got their hair done and perfected their makeup. 

One of my favorite moments from the day was when Emily’s cousin Brittany and her sister (and maid of honor) Elizabeth helped the bride put on her dress... :)

It was honor to be part of Emily and Jeff’s big day and it made me even more excited for me and Andrew's marriage. I wish them all the best for their future together! 

You can view more of the photos I took on my photography website HERE.