September – Uptown Moxie

Blog-tember Day 1 prompt: Imagine the front sleeve of a hard cover novel. Give us your “About the Author” so we can get to know one another, and for fun tell us what your imaginary novel would be about.

Between “The Girl” page and my Twitter bio, you could probably collect a pretty nice idea of me and my sense of humor, but sure, talk about myself more? Twist my arm…

Mandy grew up in a small Ohio town that boasts local holidays such as Drive Your Tractor to School Day. Shortly after graduating from college, she made the move to New York City with a few dollars in her pocket and a drive in her gut that hasn’t dimmed since.

Mandy is equally reliant on strong coffee, thesaurus.com, and late night television. When she isn’t writing or making awkward small talk in bars, she spends her time volunteering with the Junior League, rocking purposeful messy hair, and adding items to her online shopping cart but rarely purchasing them. Needless to say, she’s never owned a tractor.

As for my imaginary novel… it would likely be a memoir, a la Kelly Oxford. Not that I’m as hilariously witty or have a cult internet following a la Kelly Oxford (yet), but I have enough embarrassing stories and quippy anecdotes to fill a few hundred pages. Also, weirdly, memoirs are my favorite thing to read, and as they say, write what you know. I’d probably only get a few pages into my melodramatic teen angst/love-story set during the Mexican Revolution before waving the white flag. You’re right, I don’t know what I’m talking about. Nor do I really care. Sorry, love babies of the Mex-Rev.

Hello, there! How’s your summer been? I had my first Pumpkin Spice Latte today, and while the weather definitely wasn’t on it’s fall game, I’m very excited to be slowly segueing into my favorite season. The tail-end of last summer was when I really hopped back on the regularly-blogging bandwagon. I had every intention to do the same this year, but must acknowledge that jumping back into a routine is just not the easiest thing to do… thus, enter the #BlogtemberChallenge!

Bailey Jean from Brave Love thoughtfully crafted daily prompts for the entire month of September — designed to ease the struggle of coming up with something worthwhile to write about while uniting the blogging community in posting habits. She enforces a strict no-rule policy, and encourages bloggers to write as many times as they can throughout the month (and if it’s not everyday, still cool). I’m very excited that I found out about this in the nick of time and am excited for the adventure ahead. My only promise is to write more (which won’t be hard to do considering my past few months of absolutely nothing) and to read/connect more with other blogging participants. Good news all around.

To meet Bailey and check out her prompts for the months ahead, visit here. See y’all tomorrow, for post #1!

What am I reading?

Uptown Moxie (formerly known as Little Girl and the Big Apple) began as a way to document my crazy adventures when I moved to NYC as a young college graduate freshly plucked from an Ohio cornfield.

These days, I reside in Chicago and write when I can (which is never as much as I’d like). I utilize this as a place to tell stories, write about my passions, and share photos of whatever I capture when I have my camera on me (which is also never as much as I’d like). In the past five years, everything has changed and nothing has changed.

And because I sense your curiosity through the screen – it's called Uptown Moxie because Christie Brinkley is my alter ego and while I’ve seen Lost in Yonkers exactly once (and coincidentally have been lost in Yonkers exactly once), it left a lasting impression.

Tag: September

About the Author

The Blog-tember Challenge