Category Archive

Life

We launched as Offbeat Home in 2011, but it has become clear that the site is about much more. In 2013, we relaunched as Offbeat Home & Life, with an expanded focus on Relationships, Budget & Career, Travel, and Style. This is the category for the non-home/rest of life stuff!

Yep, there are offbeat funeral planners and they're changing the way you think about funerals

Yep, there are offbeat funeral planners and they’re changing the way you think about funerals

My funeral is going to be at a Dairy Queen. I can just envision everyone eating Blizzards (hopefully Turtles!), sharing stories of their memories with me while my favourite ’90s playlist is blaring in the background (while someone is yelling “the music is too loud, can someone turn it down?!”). Of course, my ideas may change closer to when I die, hopefully in 60 years from now.

Luckily, the concept of an unconventional funeral is on the rise.

Suburbs to city living: How I gave up the house but found a life

How I gave up the house but found a life

For 22 years my family and I lived in Westfield, New Jersey, by many measures, the ideal place to raise a family. There are great schools, quiet leafy streets, multiple transportation options, a walkable downtown, and cultural and religious options to fit diverse tastes. Even its names evokes wholesomeness. When I arrived there in 1995, I knew within 30 minutes that it was the wrong place for me. It took us 22 years to undo that decision. I spent years telling myself that it was not so bad but always hating it. This is a story of finding my comfortable place in the world…

This modeling agency is hiring models over 60 and they are STUNNING

This modeling agency is hiring models over 60 and they are #GOALS

In news I am LOVING, a Russian modeling agency is making our lives by only hiring models over 45-years-old, most of whom are over 60. The youngest model at Oldushka, Sergey Arctica, is 45 and by far their youngest. While most of the modeling world is dominated by the white, young, and ultra thin, some agencies are stretching the boundaries of beauty and it’s working. Just wait until you see these knock-outs…

How to throw a rad AF Galentine’s Day brunch for all your (single and taken) pals

Galentine’s Day is coming soon! No, not the holiday for the couples, the wondrous holiday born from Leslie Knope on Parks and Recreation. The FUN one, okay? The one that celebrates all of your friends, gals and otherwise. Coupled or single or N/A. Celebrating the beautiful, naïve, sophisticated newborn babies. You beautiful tropical fish. You beautiful, talented, brilliant, powerful musk oxen. And of course, you poetic noble land mermaids.

If you’re wanting to celebrate all of your pals at a Galentine’s Day brunch, this is how I would do it…

The year I started dating god with a lowercase g

I think I’m in a polyamorous relationship with god.

This sounds insane in maybe 10 different ways, especially for ME to say, since for most of my life, my spirituality boiled down to don’t know, don’t care! … but it’s probably the most accurate description of happened for me this past year. Of course I’m talking about “god” lower case non-denominational, so maybe it’s a little less surprising than if the story here was “Offbeat Bride lady raised by hippies goes evangelical,” but still.

Tom Hanks will be playing Mr. Rogers in a biopic and my heart is going to EXPLODE

Many years ago, I remember my mother telling me how obsessed I had been with Mr. Rogers as a kid. Full-on, glued to the screen obsessed. The whole point of this zeitgeist is that our other pop culture hero Tom Hanks will be starring in a Mr. Rogers biopic based on You Are My Friend, an article published in Esquire 20 years ago by his friend and journalist Tom Junod. I read it and immediately starting feeling all the FEELS. This movie is going to kill me. And my entire generation.

6 ways to help an introverted friend find love (or to help yourself!)

6 ways to help an introverted friend find love (or to help yourself!)

“Many or even most of my dearest friends are geeky introverts who are (unhappily) single. They express that they want to be in relationships and start families and I’d love to be able to help with some advice. How do I help my beloved nerdy home-lurkers?”

We’ve got some tips…

The sacred rites of menstrual cup disposal, post-hysterectomy

The sacred rites of menstrual cup disposal, post-hysterectomy

My uterus and I had a complicated relationship, and a rather messy break up. About a week after my hysterectomy, I came across my menstrual cup and it hit me — I no longer need it post-hysterectomy. I’ll never need it ever again.

I think I need a ritual, a rite of passage, some symbolic way to move on from where I was to where I am. Disposing of my menstrual cup feels like an opportunity for just that. Anyone have any suggestions, ideas, thoughts on the matter?