by jo | Jun 23, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Memoir & Essays, Travel
I convinced her to do the hike with me. It’s called the Devil’s Punch Bowl. Some of the reviews and bloggers were surprisingly dramatic about how hard of a hike it is and how much water you need to bring with you. (One blogger suggested something like 5 gallons per...
by jo | Jan 7, 2015 | Everyday Stories, Myths & Cliches
“We need to talk,” she said to me in a serious yet conspiring tone. We walked with rushing feet to our personal conference room — the Children’s Church room at the back of the church where we’d hang out before church. We were two rambunctious 8-year-old girls who got...
by jo | Dec 9, 2014 | Everyday Stories, Travel
photo credit: [phil h] via photopin cc “Don’t tell them that you’ll keep in touch,” she said to us. “Because you won’t.” One of the school administration was talking to the group of 5 of us from the US who were brand new to the school and were there for the semester...
by jo | May 13, 2014 | Everyday Stories, Travel
I was in the famous Powell’s bookstore in Portland, spending over an hour browsing through their cards-and-quirky-things section when I pulled up one of the last cards that caught my eye, and it made me freeze. In the middle of Powell’s, I could see people meandering...