Alexis Hartz, Author

I'm a Gingerbread Master and it's gingerbread house season so I'm  perusing the internet for ideas and came across these real-life gingerbread houses in Martha's Vineyard. Click here to learn more about this unique neighborhood!

Location: Little Rock, Arkansas Target Attraction: Pinnacle Mountain On my way from the airport to the hotel I asked my Uber driver,”What’s the best tourist attraction in Little Rock?” He piped up right away, "Pinnacle Mountain! It's the highest peak in the state, right next to the river. There's a great hiking trail to the top, not too strenuous either."  (Hmm, what's the "not too strenuous either" part about. Do I look old to you sonny?) The next morning I googled "things to see in Little Rock" and Pinnacle Mountain State Park topped the list. A good hike is a rare find on any city attraction list and with two recommendations I planned my outing for Sunday prior my 3pm work start time. Shoulda… set my alarm. Normally I don't sleep past 6:30 am but this Sunday morning I roll over in my bed, grab my phone from the bedside table and do a double take when I check the time. NINE FoRTY Zeven? I haven't slept that late in ...

Sunday I celebrated a solstice of sorts. Twelve weeks until Christmas. The glorious season of HallowThanksmas is upon us.  In addition to the usual slurry of advertisements to over spend and over eat, this year we’ll participate in an important election. I’ll experience the birth of another grandchild and take a trip to Spain. Halloween. Thanksgiving. Christmas.  It’s going to be quite a season. My favorite holiday is Thanksgiving. I love that a day (and usually an entire weekend) is set aside to give thanks in our country. In our family we gather at my ex-laws home to celebrate with a prime rib dinner. Yup, prime rib with the ex-husband and his wife and the rest of the clan. The die-hard turkey eaters could really balk at the menu alone. But that’s not our priority on this day. Being able to set aside our differences and sit around the table together is. Just like every other family we have our fair share of family disharmony, but we choose not to let it interru...

Before becoming a full-time workamper I was focused on being the best corporate employee that I could be. Once I got on the ladder I climbed it as fast as I could. Within a few short years I doubled my income and received some pretty great perks for climbing the rungs. But that climb came with a price that surpassed what I was earning. The stress that came with it affected my health and my spirit.  I stepped off the ladder when I became a workamper living in a motorhome. I traded the corporate package benefits for a grand lifestyle, with grand vistas and even grander personalities in the transient world where I lived and worked.  Now I have a position that pays like a corporate job but allows me the freedom of living on the road. I found it by leveraging all of the talents I have developed from every job I have ever had and even then I still had to put hours of time and effort into training for my new position. Our jobs are so much more than just a conglomeration ...

In my last post I spoke about "simply living". It's a phrase that resonates deep within me. However, it's just a couple of words to most people that see it in my writing or on my business card. The two words melded into a way of life for me in 2002 when my entire life dissolved. Yes, dissolved, liquified into a state of chaos and nothingness simultaneously. Within a few hours I lost my home, my job, my car and everything I owned. It was a horrific experience. It was also a godsend. The greatest gift ever. The first night was the hardest. My mind wrestled with the grief of my losses, and then the anger that it happened to me . That little voice in my head spewed out survival options. Then it argued that I didn't have the resources or the strength to put any of those ideas into action. And finally it pointed to the source of all this calamity --- me. You see I had taken a step back from my faith during the two years prior to this day. Before then I truste...

Now stick with me here. We're going to talk about spiders. Yes, one of my least favorite things on this planet....or so I thought. I rarely saw spiders in the 20 years I lived in Arizona. And in Colorado most spiders that I came in contact with looked totally harmless. So it was easy to "live and let live". But, that's not the case here in North Carolina. Not only do the spiders here appear more frightful, they are far more plentiful than any other place I have lived. And, they aren't the only insects here either. There are beetles, and roaches, and inch-long thick , slimy, curly worms that crawl into the apartment at night, birth inch-long skinny , slimy, curly worms during the night. In the morning there's a community of these little guys inching their way around the apartment, only to dry up, die, and curl into Cheeto puff-like shapes all over the floor by noon! (Imagine taking a quick trip to the bathroom in the dark with that going on under your fee...

It's a dreary day here in North Carolina.  Not as dreary as South Carolina where residents are facing another day of unprecedented flood conditions. Not as dreary as the Bahamas where residents are cleaning up the mess left from Hurricane Joaquin.  Not as dreary as Oregon where families and friends are mourning senseless losses. All of that dreariness dampens my spirit. Writing about it floods me with guilt. There's enough sadness in these stories without me bringing attention to them in yet another blog. But I am compelled to write.  I see the bad news on television, the reporters perfectly dressed and prompted to present the dreariness with poise and professionalism. Their program is dotted with commercial breaks advertising products that will make our skin prettier, our bowels more regular, and our sex lives more active. Later in their program those same reporters will laugh about the entertainment headlines or show us the latest decorating trends to ma...