Houston – Page 19 – …on the B.L.

A Ballerina Halloween

October 31, 2018June 23, 2019 RaeAnna

My pink, tulle skirt. || Beau’s pink, tulle skirt.

Halloween has never been a holiday I get really excited about. I’ve always viewed it as the gateway holiday to the real party.

Last year, Beau and I didn’t do anything because we were roadtripping to Washington D.C. Not this year! After starting Blog + Dog two weeks ago, I realized Halloween fell on a Wednesday. Brilliant!!! It was a sign we needed to celebrate. This year, we decided to be ballerinas!!! Mommy-daughter ballerinas. She took this costume to the next level of cuteness.

In a previous life, I was a ballerina. It has always been close to my heart even when I am out of shape, less flexible, and entirely unballerina-esque. Beau is the love of my life. I decided to combine the two into a matching costume!!!

Several months ago, I bought a pink tulle skirt because every self-respecting adult woman needs one. It makes me happy. I ordered mine through Amazon, and honestly it is the best $21.99 I have ever spent. It’s lined and comes with a sash, so I can wear it out without flashing anyone. All I had to do was order one for Beau! I headed over to Amazon for hers too. For a steal, I bought hers for $10.89 and had it within the week. Her’s is perfect because it isn’t lined, so she can walk and run freely. Although, I take it off, so she doesn’t pee on it. It’s so cute on her, and, oddly enough, she loves wearing clothes. It’s a children’s size. I cut about eight inches off one side, so she wouldn’t step on it. I used the tulle for a bow in my hair and around her neck. I grabbed an old pair of tights and leotard to complete my look!

One of my amazing friends is a photographer here in Houston; she did me a huge favor and took tons of amazing pictures of us. We took the pictures at The Boardwalk at Towne Lake in Cypress. We were on the dock with the lake and sunset in the background. Beau did such a good job being patient and posing. So many people stopped to watch and comment on how cute Beau looked in her tutu. Several asked if they could take pictures of her! I can’t blame them.

I had such a great time celebrating Halloween with my beautiful girl!!!

xoxo,
Beau and RaeAnna

Blog + Dog

Starbucks

October 24, 2018 RaeAnna

Starbucks is a beautiful thing. We love it because the service is always good, the drinks are Starbucks, they treat their employees well. Oh, did I mention there is one right next to my apartment? Convenience factor is high.

When I adopted Beau, one of the first outings was to Starbucks. Beau had a hard life, and she deserved Starbucks. If you’re not in-the-know, Starbucks has puppaccinos – or puppy-lattes depending on the location – perfect for your puppy friends. What is it? Whipped cream in a cup. Honestly, I’ve thought about getting one for me. How much do they cost, nothing.

We go on a frequent enough basis, many of the employees know Beau. I’m pretty unnoteworthy, but Beau is memorable. They remember her cute face!

Beau is very neurotic from her years of abuse. There are so many things she is terrified of. Including straws. EXCEPT the green straws. The green straws mean Starbucks. Starbucks means puppaccinos. If, for some catastrophic reason, there are green straws in the house without a puppaccino, Beau whips out her sassy teenager attitude. Dogs are red-green colorblind, so she must have a system for being able to tell… She’s a smarty-pants.

Anyways.

Today was grey and kind of rainy, which has been the case for a week, so I haven’t been able to take Blog + Dog pictures I wanted. So we walked the 532 steps to Starbucks to cheer up my rained out pooch.

Blog + Dog

October 17, 2018October 17, 2018 RaeAnna

Hi I’m RaeAnna! I’m a freelancer and a blogger. This is Beauvoir, my dog; she goes by Beau. We’re almost inseparable. Why? Because!

Honestly. This is our usual! (Don’t those pumpkin scones look delicious?)

Being a freelancer and blogger means, for me, I work from home. It’s a great gig. I have pretty much zero complaints. My constant companion and the being I spend 90% of my time with is Beau. I absolutely love being a stay at home dog mom. It’s the dream. (Actually, it’s been a huge blessing after rescuing Beau, which I’ll explain another time.)

My life is very dog centered. I have always been surrounded by dogs, but Beau is my first dog on my own as an adult. There’s a certain bond that comes with being the sole financial benefactor, health manager, food distributor, love giver, exercise provider, leisure planner, plaything procurer, and everything else she could possibly need. Yes. I am the crazy dog lady. No shame. I have a bunch of mugs to help with the announcements.

I blog about books and travel and food. I love these things very much. Something has been missing from the narrative. The mundane. I want to start writing about the things which make my heart sing on a daily basis. The things that are important to the essence of my being. I want to bring you into the beautiful ordinary of the things that wouldn’t necessarily be highlighted on Instagram. These things are no less spectacular and perfect. I don’t need an oceanfront mansion in Miami or a mountaintop waterfall behind me to have a great blog post. Those are awesome and fill my heart with joy, but it’s not my daily life.

My day consists of working, blogging (also work), and my dog. Those three things are constants. I also realized: Beau rarely shows up in my posts. What??? She’s always with me. How is she almost completely absent from my digital footprint? Time to make a change.

After discussing with my best friend, Wednesdays will be, henceforth, Blog + Dog days. I’m going to write about the ordinary things Beau and I do together. I’ll probably share some tidbits on our favorite toys, our heartworm adventure, being a rescue mom, traveling with a big dog, and everything in between. It’s a crazy dog life, but it’s my crazy dog life. I love it! Hopefully my photogenic boxer-mix will bring a smile to your face every Wednesday!

Feel free to drop a comment with requests or suggestions! I’m always looking for new things to write about or fun adventures to go on with my white shadow.

xoxo!
Beau and RaeAnna

I love her kisses more than people kisses. Also look at those pumpkin scones!

Books, Fiction

How to Love a Jamaican by Alexia Arthurs

October 5, 2018March 29, 2019 RaeAnna

Worth a Read Yes
Length 256
Quick Review In How to Love a Jamaican, Alexia Arthurs compiles a book full of resonating short stories. I can’t stop thinking about the various characters and stories she tells.

Reading *How to Love a Jamaican* by Alexia Arthurs.

Alexia Arthurs was born and raised in Jamaica before emigrating to New York with her family at 12. These experiences are highlighted in her collection of short stories How to Love a Jamaican, which was published earlier this year. I was drawn to her stories because she attended the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and I’m from Iowa. I always root for people who have a connection to Iowa. Although, I have no idea if she liked her time in Iowa or not.

She starts of her book with a bang. Immediately she captured my attention. Even though I’m not black or Jamaican, I can completely identify with the story about friendship and college. It is incredibly relatable. I was taken by the sentiment: “I don’t know why more love stories aren’t written about platonic intimacy.” Boom. Feels were hit. I had to finish the book in one sitting; I was so captivated by her words.

Jamaica, immigration, and family are almost characters in their own right as they wind their way through How to Love a Jamaican. Each story fleshes out their entities more and more fully. Jamaica is ever present in the story and the characters minds, which extends to the reader.

Arthurs has a fabulous voice in these stories. It is personal and warm. Even when the topic is racism or immigration, there is always a warmth to her tone. This warmth, I can only assume, stems from a deep affection and desire to help effect change. There is a certain amount of nostalgia within the collection.

The stories are told from various perspectives. Depending on the story, the narrator is male or female. In some stories, there is a first person or third person point-of-view. It was done really well.

Two things I loved most about the stories are a constant search for belonging as well as a tension between the younger and older, or “country,” generations. They are very much part of the human experience. I believe everyone feels alone or out of place in the world. The feeling that the older generation just doesn’t get it is human. We all have grandparents or aunts or parents or friends’ parents who are out of touch with the norm of today.

There are so many things I loved reading in How to Love a Jamaican. It’s so exciting to read an author from a culture, which is probably known more for their bobsled team, than almost anything else. I just get excited when women of color win. This book is for sure a win. It was so good.

One story really hit home for me. The Ghost of Jia Yi is set in Iowa. (Yay Iowa.) It was eery. In the story, a college-aged woman is killed in Iowa. One of her classmates, the protagonist, ruminates on it. This was eery because two young women in college were murdered in Iowa over the past two months. One woman was murdered in my hometown. Very sad.

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Memorable Quotes
“I don’t know why more love stories aren’t written about platonic intimacy.”
“Iowa isn’t the kind of place Jamaicans talk about when they talk about America.”

Title: How to Love a Jamaican
Author: Alexia Arthurs
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Copyright: 2018
ISBN: 9781524799205

Lifestyle

Welcome to …on the B.L.

September 6, 2018September 6, 2018 RaeAnna

Still all about the books. Have no fear!

I started the blog Bookish Liaisons on December 24, 2016. I love the title. In the year and half since, I have grown so much!!! What started as a passion project is now a job. Woah. How, oh how, did that happen? Well, a lot of work and late nights.

I began Bookish Liaisons with the intention of being a bookish-lifestyle blog. The name Bookish (me) Liaisons (my adventures). Over the past few months as I have traveled more, soul searched, experimented, and thought about it, I decided to change the name of my blog. I love books, and I am still just as bookish as ever. However, there are things I want to touch on more than I do. I was feeling a little hemmed in by the title Bookish Liaisons because people only saw me as a book blogger. Books come first on this site’s menu, and it’s what I’ll write about most consistently. I just don’t want to feel the need to constantly post pictures with books or write solely about books or relating to books because the word ‘book’ is in the title. My life is a lot more complex than being a bookworm. I want to start exploring that.

As I was searching for new names for my blog, I wanted to keep or, at least, incorporate Bookish Liaisons somehow. I came up with …on the B.L.

Why?

B.L. = Bookish Liaisons. Get it! I am …on the B(ookish).L(iaisons). of life, if you will.

Also it’s a play on the idiom “on the DL” short for “on the down-low” meaning “keep it hush-hush.” I liked this word play for a lot of reasons. 1) It’s word play. I am a nerd, you know. 2) So much of what I read is not necessarily mainstream. I like to read female authors, minority authors, and unlikely stories. 3) I also want to start talking more about my past of sexual abuse because I have an audience. I would be remiss not to speak about such important things when I have people paying attention to what I say. I used to lecture at Iowa State University, written blogs, talked, and advocated for change regarding sexual and domestic violence. This is not new for me in any way, shape, or form; it is just new here. I have a history, which has not been gone into on this platform, and I want that to change. 4) I also want to advocate and educate myself and others on issues of intolerance, racism, and more because these things need to change, and unfortunately they’re all still kept pretty hush-hush – along with point three. 5) The fun stuff: food, clothes, restaurants, vacations, etc. I don’t necessarily do, wear, see, eat, or go to popular places. I like to find the new and different. I like supporting small, local, independently owned, and/female business.

Mostly, …on the B.L. is meant to use my platform to help affect change, encourage others to use their voices, or support people and business who haven’t found theirs yet. That being said, I can’t always live that way. Target is pretty great. (Not sponsored, but I’d be happy to chat!)

Lifestyle

Off Goes My Wandering Soul

July 3, 2018 RaeAnna

Happy Tuesday Truth!

I have a wandering soul. I majored in languages at university for so many reasons. A big one being my love for travel. Seeing the world, communicating with people in their native language, and experiencing a culture the way the people do held an immense appeal, so I dedicated a huge portion of my life to learning languages.

A dream of mine for as long as I can remember: finding a way to make traveling my job. I quite literally want to go everywhere, taste all the food, and hear everyone’s story. Nothing trips my trigger quite like setting off on a new adventure.

I’m a freelance editor, writer, and translator. My job doesn’t include traveling; however, I can travel and do my job. I abhorred working in an office with two weeks of paid vacation a year. I was suffocating. I quit very quickly. Freelance was never on my radar as a possibility. Until it happened. It’s been a long road to being a self-sustaining freelancer… Sometimes, I wonder if I’m even there yet. For arguments sake: I arrived! My work can go anywhere, so I do. I go everywhere. I travel so much I wonder if my bed misses me.

One of the attractive things about being a blogger is the fact I can write about my travels. In a way, I am turning traveling into my job! No one is paying me… yet! I remain hopeful. I am always open to collaborating with an five star hotels with a spa.

On Saturday, I left Houston for a month long trip. (I’d be so fired if I had an office gig.) First! I’m in the Chicago area visiting family, enjoying the city, seeing friends, and going to a drag race. Over the weekend, I will be dropping my dog, Beau, off with her grandparents in Iowa as I head to Colorado! I’ll be there doing a whole bunch of outdoorsy shit and content creation for a week and a dayish. Lastly, I’ll be spending time with my family in Iowa for two weeks before my little brother gets married.

So be ready for lots of book reviews, travel posts, and other updates! I have a busy, busy month! I am so excited to bring you along on this big summer adventure of mine! Off to picturesque scenery I go. My wandering soul will be so well traveled after the month; I may just be ready to go home! For a little while anyways.

xoxo! Beau and RaeAnna

xoxo!
Beau and RaeAnna