live fabulous Archives - Rhymes with Fabulous

March 29, 2020

Quarantine Goals

Quarantine goals are a sure way to ward off the boredom that accompanies being trapped in your apartment for 1,864 days at a time. Once I cycled through the other boredom-deflecting activities (AKA naps and re-organizing all closets), I found it was time to settle in and start working on some long-term projects. It gave a sense of larger purpose to my Netflix-addled days. In pursuing my quarantine goals, I decided not to order myself a whole new life on Amazon (because, poor Amazon workers!). So, the goals below reflect objectives I can pursue based on the items currently in my possession. After reading, let me know all about your…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

March 22, 2020

Lent During Coronavirus Quarantine

Lent and quarantine have three important things in common. First, the root word for both comes from the Latin quadragesima (translated into modern English as ‘forty’). For Lent, this signifies the forty days before Easter. In the case of a quarantine, quadragesima (or quarantino in Italian) represented the forty days passengers were kept in isolation at Mediterranean ports during the era of the bubonic plague. Historically, we consider this to be the first period of quarantine. Though isolation time now varies, the name remains the same. Second, they are activities completed with a degree of loneliness. Quarantine requires a certain measure of solitude. Despite the boom in online communication, the…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

March 15, 2020

Coronavirus in Madrid: Updates and Advice

Coronavirus has officially arrived in Madrid. As recently as last week, I watched news of the unfolding pandemic with shockingly limited perception. I listened when friends explained the long-lasting effects on the economy and the importance of social distancing. But the phenomenon still felt far away. I scheduled yoga classes. I visited museums, worried about my book edits and generally went on about my life. That’s crazy about everything happening in Italy, I would think when I browsed through Instagram. I agreed that the phenomenon certainly seemed serious. But, even as the streets in Madrid grew quieter, it seemed serious somewhere else. Somehow, the idea that the same measures would…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

January 27, 2020

Aconcagua: Interesting Facts

To celebrate the New Year (and my second year on sabbatical, but who’s counting), I climbed Mount Aconcagua in Argentina last week. Aconcagua, at 22,841 feet/6,962 m, has several rather impressive statistics about it’s height: Facts about Aconcagua: Height It’s the tallest mountain in South America. This makes it an uncontested member of the seven summits club. (Not all mountains are so lucky as there is some controversy regarding the European and Oceaniac peaks ) It is the tallest mountain in the world outside of the Himalayan range. The current height was caused by the subduction of the Nazca Plate under the South American plate. This process started 8-10 million…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

January 2, 2020

New Years Resolution: Don’t Worry

I’ve spent a lot of time learning how not to worry. The below is what I know after a close-to-forty-year study of the subject. As a child, I took worrying very seriously. I routinely worried about topics ranging from the death of my little finger (long story) to the probability that California would break away from the rest of the United States and float out into the ocean to sink (with my older sister aboard). When we learned to write letters in school, I eschewed the offer of a traditional pen pal. Instead, I promptly reached out to President George H. W. Bush to detail a short list of my…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

November 7, 2019

NYC Marathon

Is this just a gratuitous post so I can show off my pictures of the NYC Marathon, you ask? Yes. Yes, it is. But it will also be interspersed with facts about the history of the race and the current course. In case you haven’t noticed, I’m sort of an ‘interesting-facts-about-various-places-and-activities’ nerd. Luckily, the NYC Marathon is the perfect event to celebrate that affliction. So without further ado: NYC Marathon Interesting Facts and Pictures Staten Island The race starts in Staten Island on the Verrazano Bridge. This bridge provides transit between Staten Island and Brooklyn. It is named in honor of Giovanni de Verrazzano, the Italian credited as the first…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

October 10, 2019

Things You Can Accomplish in Twenty Minutes

In my sabbatical time, the organization of my days can feel overwhelming. My savior has been ‘The Pomodoro Technique‘, a time management strategy where you set a timer for twenty minutes and concentrate on a given task. As a result, I’ve learned there are a LOT of things you can accomplish in twenty minutes. Here’s a short list of things I’ve checked off using the Pomodoro Technique lately: Things You Can Accomplish in Twenty Minutes SEO optimization on 1-2 blog posts (Apparently, Google ranking is a big deal. Who knew?) What I like to call the ‘house-keeping hat trick’: Clean bathroom/fold laundry/unload dishwasher A large amount of research about shin…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

September 17, 2019

GUEST POST: Sadie Chelsea ‘Two Simple Rules for Bettering Your Writing Life’

Today is extra special for us because we have a guest writing the post for you. Please welcome Sadie Chelsea from Pick Up The Pen! She’ll be sharing with you two super simple rules to help better your writing life (and, hey, maybe even life in general). Here we go! Two Simple Rules for Bettering Your Writing Life Writers are everywhere now, along with writing advice. This is great news! Especially considering what a bad rap the writing lifestyle got in the earlier days. However, because of all the writing craft information out there, it’s easy to get overwhelmed in the writing world. Fear not reader! Though there’s crazy amounts…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

September 11, 2019

Tier 3 Activities: Test Yourself

A few weeks ago during a trip to Maine, I was sitting outside a backcountry hut in Baxter State Park, talking to some hikers. I was there to attempt to climb Mt. Katahdin (spoiler alert-I made it. See photo.) and we were comparing route tips and other adventure stories. Somehow we got on the topic of fly boarding, one of my very favorite outdoor adventure activities. (For those of you that are not familiar, fly boarding consists of hooking a platform with a water spout on its underside up to a jet ski, then using the spout to push the platform up into the air above the water so you…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

August 13, 2019

Pitch Wars: The Hope Inside Yourself

Yesterday, the mentors were announced for Pitch Wars 2019. For those unfamiliar with Pitch Wars, it is a once-a-year manuscript submission contest. Chosen participants spend six months working through their novels with a trained, professional editor/writer. More often than not, the finished products are picked up for literary agent representation and then publication. Basically, in my mind, the coolness-factor of the whole thing is right up there with Coachella or a reservation at Frenchette. As I obsessively perused glanced over the list of participating faculty for this year’s Pitch Wars program, I started thinking a lot about the importance of mentors. The term ‘mentor’ is actually a homage to the…

written by carolineschley@gmail.com - Posted in live fabulous

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