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Nora's Archive

Trial, Error and Hard-Earned Fashion Lessons

17 comments

Tuesday May 10, 2011 by Nora

I might be writing the most #firstworldproblems sentence possible when I say this, but it’s been a struggle for me to find my personal style. And dad, if you’re reading this, yeah, I have a personal style. I call it Recovering Catholic Schoolgirl, as its roots lie in the fact that for 11 years of my life, I wore a uniform.

During school hours, we slowly graduated from plaid jumpers (adorable!)...

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Don'ts For Dating

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Tuesday May 3, 2011 by Nora

You know what I’m really good at giving? Gifts, hugs and dating advice. The first two are just because I’m naturally thoughtful and sometimes overly touchy. The third is because I am a lover of love and, more importantly, an expert at learning from my own mistakes and the mistakes of friends, family and celebrities.

After my friends and I had dated our collective way through a string of...

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Hello Nora My Old Friend

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Tuesday April 26, 2011 by Nora

"You know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different." -Bill Watterson

When I was a junior in college, I studied abroad in London. You know the story: girl flies across the Atlantic, takes photos of monuments, kisses an English boy, finds self. In reality, my story went more like: girl flies across the Atlantic, cries of homesickness, meets...

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The Wedding Date

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Monday April 18, 2011 by Nora

It’s not often that my personal milestones go unnoticed. A few weeks ago, I was officially the last person in the world to discover Angry Birds. Yesterday, I was the first person over age 13 to be injured in a recreational kickball league for ironic adults. In 8th grade, I got very close to winning my school’s Geography Bee . Yes, that is a thing.

But two weekends ago, I had an unrealized...

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Don't We All Have A Litttle Rebecca Black Inside?

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Thursday March 31, 2011 by Nora

Let me state, for the record, that I was not a cool middle schooler. I was 5'10" and about 115 pounds, at an age where being tall and thin is anything but cool. Add in some sweet braces, facial features I had yet to grow into and my complete unfamiliarity with a blow dryer and round brush and you have the definition of "awkward phase," as seen in the photo above.

When I was in middle school,...

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An Ode to the Guy Friend

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Thursday March 24, 2011 by Nora

Since I was just a lady-child (known in most circles as a little girl) I've been one of the boys. I was more than a tiny bit pleased when Hulk Hogan mistook me for a boy on my 10th birthday, I prided myself on being one of the first picks in gym class and I've always had close friendships with dudes.

Not friendships where we sometimes kiss. Not friendships where we are secretly in love....

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The Yes Gal: Learning to Say No

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Thursday March 17, 2011 by Nora

I'm writing this from a conference room at SXSW where Dave Bruno is talking about his 100 Thing Challenge, a year he spent paring his belongings down to—you guessed it—100 things.

Now, I'm not much of a minimalist. I have a closet that is bursting with still-tagged clothing, a skincare routine that includes a myriad of daily potions and I've burned my way through at least four...

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The Single Girl's Guide to Growing Up

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Monday March 14, 2011 by Nora

I'm only three months into it, but 2011 has been a year for personal growth, a year for self-improvement and self-actualization...and a year where I realized I'm officially too old to ride a party bus, drink cheap keg beer or be enticed by $1 shots.

I know-- really deep stuff.

There are many stages of my youth I hope to never outgrow: hot pink nail polish, dresses that are more like...

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TV, Intellectual Junk Food, and Why I Need to Diet (...starting on Monday)

8 comments

Wednesday March 2, 2011 by Nora

As a child, I was raised on a steady diet of whole milk and public television. For fun, I would read books or write short stories for my father to critique. On really crazy nights, my cousins and I would get to rent a VHS of the Pippi Longstocking movies, not even noticing how poorly they had been dubbed into English.

When my parents finally agreed to get cable during my middle school years, my...

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On Fear, Sweating, and My Lady Gaga Moment

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Tuesday February 22, 2011 by Nora

"All that ever holds somebody back, I think, is fear. For a minute I had fear. I went into the dressing room and shot my fear in the face..."
~ Lady Gaga

I'm afraid of just three things in this world: spiders, the look my Dad gives me when he's truly angry with me, and speaking in front of people.

The first two make perfect sense: spiders are the devil's children sent to terrorize me with...

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