After weeks of shopping, wrapping, preparation, and anticipation, Christmas is finally here. Jen and I are spending time with each of our families and enjoying much-needed R&R around beautiful Christmas trees and festively decorated dinner tables. Here is a peek at our holiday surroundings.
Depend on no one else to give you what you want. Here’s what I’m considering splurging on for myself this Christmas.
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Happy Thanksgiving! When we set out on this journey, we were focused on finding a creative outlet for ourselves. We knew we had a great idea to share our experiences as twenty-somethings with others and to call on our girlfriends to share their life lessons with us. The Single Diaries hit its three-month mark last Sunday, and we are overwhelmed with the response we’ve received from our extended circles in this short amount of time. When you’re focused on writing and getting posts up on time, it’s easy to block your view of where the website stands in the public sphere. Because of this, your words of encouragement, support and affirmation mean the world to us. We are grateful that you are reading. We are grateful that you find value in our words. We are grateful that you want to share in our vision. We are grateful to have you wonderful people as friends.
We wanted to celebrate our work, your work, and our friends, so we hosted our first Single Diaries Friendsgiving at Jen’s new place.
Last month my friend and I saw Sara Bareilles at the Greek. I have been a huge fan since I saw Sara play at a college music festival in 2009. We all know her #1 hit “Love Song,” but this woman is so much more than that catchy albeit empowering pop song. She is at home on stage in more ways than one. Firstly, her voice is completely powerful, and live it’s a religious experience… until she drops her first F-bomb then a dozen subsequent ones. That leads me to my second point: she connects to her audience. Someone yells out “I love you, Sara,” and she’ll call it out right back. The stage is her couch, and the venue is her living room; everyone feels at home as she tells you about the experiences that informed the song she is about to play.
Before she played “Manhattan” on that September night, she discussed her decision to leave Los Angeles—her home of fourteen years—to make the cross-country move to New York City: a need for change, a bittersweet good-bye, and the knowledge that this chapter of her life was coming to an end. She hints at a break-up, perhaps because she was back at the scene of the crime. The lyrics were chillingly beautiful. Written from the perspective of her ex, the one who’s left behind, you get a sense of the pain felt from both parties.
At the show at the Greek, she dropped the veil of detachment that she sometimes puts up while discussing her journey in making the new album. Perhaps it had to do with coming back to L.A. after moving. Perhaps it had to do with playing the iconic stage. Regardless, she showed raw emotion that struck a chord with me.
It was during this song that my eyes started to well up with tears. It was during this song when I had a moment of clarity accepting that all the tension I had felt in the months prior was for naught. After a stressful day, I’ll drive home from work to my quiet apartment trying to breathe deeply and think about anything else. It finally occurred to me that what was missing from my day was the ease of surrounding family and a feeling of home.
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Welcome to Single Girl Brunches With the Best—a series of conversations with friends and leading ladies who are fierce, fearless and inspirational. Some months we will talk over mimosas, others hot chocolate. This month, Jen and I sat down over pizza and vino at Sonoma Wine Garden so you can get to know us, and hopefully we will get to know you soon.