Alley Oop: Santa Cruz's Best Kept Secret
Some places announce themselves. Alley Oop doesn't. Hidden in downtown Santa Cruz, this moody speakeasy serves cocktails, caviar, and enough intrigue to make an ordinary night feel like a scene from another era. I went for a drink and left feeling like I'd discovered a secret.
My New Local Loves in Santa Cruz
Discover my favorite local spots in Santa Cruz, from cozy coffee shops and charming bakeries to beachside boutiques, farmers markets, and breathtaking sunset views. After moving from San Francisco, these are the places that have already become part of my everyday rhythm — plus a look at what I still miss from the city and what I’m more than happy to leave behind.
Love Yourself Erotically
What if self-love was never supposed to feel like self-improvement? What if it was meant to feel like devotion? This essay is an invitation to stop treating yourself like a project to fix and start romancing your own existence. Light the candle. Buy the flowers. Wear the perfume. Fall madly in love with your life first, and watch how the rest of the world begins to follow.
Anastasia | On Presence, Vintage Finds & Building a Life That Feels Like Home
We spend so much of our lives chasing the next thing that we forget how much beauty already exists in the life we're living. Anastasia reminds us that living well isn't about having more. It's about paying attention. From moving across the world to finding joy in yoga, vintage treasures, fresh peaches, and late-night dance floors, this conversation is an invitation to slow down and notice the moments that make a life feel delicious.
Known.
The ocean is beautiful when it's calm, but the tide always changes. So do we. This is a reflection on growing older, letting go of performance, and wondering whether someone will ever love us for the parts that can't be captured in a photograph.
The Most Expensive Thing You'll Ever Lose Is Yourself
How much of yourself have you negotiated away in the name of "keeping it casual"?
The greatest cost of a situationship isn't the relationship that never happened. It's the quiet erosion of your instincts, your certainty, and the belief that you're worthy of being chosen without ambiguity.
This isn't about modern dating. It's about remembering that love should never require you to become smaller to keep someone around. It's about grieving the version of yourself that settled for confusion and reclaiming the one who knows clarity isn't too much to ask.
The Romantic's Manifesto
We've been taught that romance is something another person gives us.
I don't believe that anymore.
I think it's a way of paying attention. A refusal to rush through ordinary days. A decision to notice beauty before life asks us to.
This is for anyone who wants to live a little slower, love a little deeper, and remember that a beautiful life is built one ordinary moment at a time.
Absence Changes the Scale
I've spent a lot of hours under a tattoo needle, but my last three were different.
My artist used a numbing spray. Every time it wore off, the pain didn't just return... it felt louder.
It made me realize something.
Absence changes the scale.
When you've gone a long time without love, the smallest glimpse of it can feel enormous. A good morning text. A little consistency. Someone remembering your favorite drink.
But maybe it isn't extraordinary.
Maybe the absence of love has simply made the bare minimum feel profound.
Desire Is a Compass
Desire has gotten a bad reputation.
We've been taught to confuse it with greed. To call it impractical. To believe that wanting more somehow makes us ungrateful.
But what if the things that keep calling to you aren't distractions?
What if they're directions?
The cabin. The passport. The garden. The person who makes your nervous system exhale. The life you can't stop imagining.
Some dreams don't disappear because they were never meant to.
Maybe desire was never the enemy.
Maybe it's been trying to lead you home all along.
Fuck Nonchalant - Give me the Wildfire
Somewhere along the way, we started confusing emotional maturity with emotional distance. We wait to text. We pretend we don't care. We play it cool until the spark dies before it ever has a chance to become a fire. Maybe being healthy isn't about feeling less. Maybe it's about being brave enough to feel deeply without apologizing for it. Because life is too short for nonchalance. Give me the wildfire. 🔥
The Things I Hope I Never Get Used To
A love letter to the ordinary moments I hope never become background noise, from Pacific sunsets and cold ocean water to fresh coffee, live music, new books, and the kind of kiss that briefly quiets the world.
What Happens When No One Chooses You… You Then Learn to Choose Yourself.
I spent years looking for the answer in the people who left, the family I never knew, and the life I thought I was supposed to have. It took me decades to realize belonging isn't something someone else gives you. It's something you build. This is the story of how an unnamed baby became a woman who finally found her way home.