Pura Vida, popularized in Costa Rica, signifies the good life — something we should all strive for and enjoy on the regular. Literally, pura vida is pure living. Growing up in a small town on the Mexican border, we valued hard work, family, and moments of joy; pura vida is the end goal but something you have to work at. I’ve become really good at getting there through irreverence, insatiability, and trial and error. Consider me your curandera for la pura vida, and Pura Vida. Sometimes. your playbook and an invitation to join me in the good fight for balance, peace, and happiness. Sit with me for a bit and I’ll share all the juicy tips, shortcuts, and truths to get you to where you want to be.
It’s hard to imagine a woman like you
The last year has been difficult across the board, for men, women, children, and everyone in between. As the pandemic continues, our challenges have become compounded by what is largely recognized as a women’s recession. Today, on International Women’s Day, I’d like to recognize all the women that are keeping families, business, economies, and nation states running smoothly.
Prime Day clean beauty and wellness steals
I don’t know if I’m getting cheaper in my old age or whether I’ve done a better job of scavenging, but I’ve found you some really worthwhile deals for Prime Day 2023. I always recommend buying local, from small shops, and directly from the brands (where you can often take advantage of great loyalty programs), but – let’s be honest – mama can’t pass up a deal. This Prime Day clean beauty and wellness steals list is as much for me as it is for you. Sometimes I buy consumer electronics and camera equipment on Prime Day, but this year […]
Reasons to fall in love with Mexico City
There’s a newness every morning in Mexico City, as store owners wash their sidewalks and prepare storefronts, the sun peeks over the horizon into the cool blue sky, and vendors take their bikes and carts to the streets to sell tamales, coffee, and more, filling neighborhoods with sounds and smells like urban birds singing. Opportunities to experience this unique and beautiful culture are served up, rolling by, on street corners and peeking out of unexpected places – yours for the taking. The beginning of my Mexico City love affair My senior year of college, with and insatiable sense of curiosity […]
What others are reading
Letter to My Daughter: Keep Kicking Butt
Dear Warrior Princess, You’re another year older – a year full of surprises, fun, love, and sometimes challenges. You are cuddly, caring, and sweet, and also increasingly self-assured and terrifyingly independent. Like your mama, you don’t need validation from anyone else (including me!), and you don’t like being told what to do. Your personal strengths and inclinations won’t guarantee you an easy life, but we were made like this for a reason. They will call you bossy, and when you also have authority, they’ll call you aggressive – it comes with the skirt; but follow your heart, do what you […]
Loving Someone With Lymphedema
As many as 200 million people worldwide suffer from Lymphedema, but diagnosis can often leave patients feeling alone and stranded. If you love someone with Lymphedema (LE), there are a few regular habits you can establish to help them feel comfortable, understood, and loved. LE is a dysfunction of the Lymphatic System – the body’s network of filters that helps the Circulatory System clear bacteria, infection, and by-products of blood circulation. Lymphedema can be primary (genetic) or secondary, as the result of trauma or damage to lymph nodes, often as a result of cancer treatment. Fluid back-up in the limbs makes […]
Becoming Self Made: Latinas and Financial Freedom
Growing up, most of my heroes in life, films, books, and TV were the rebels. I never liked the prescribed protagonist, most likely because she was nothing like me and I identified more with those on the periphery. As I got older and more self-aware, I realized none of my role models were Latinas. I grew up in a border town, but publicly, our successes were not celebrated. Fast forward to now, I’ve built a respectable career but I haven’t yet realized my full potential and I still need Latino heroes. There’s a particular set of challenges we face, and as I […]
A Huge Border Wall is Not the Answer
In the late 1800s, my family came from Solingen, Prussia and built their homestead in a canyon on the Mexican border before Arizona was a state. At that time, Nogales was literally a walnut grove bisected by an international line with little more than a railroad station and post office. My grandmother and all her siblings were born on that land, as was my father and his siblings, and it’s where we spent summers when my mom dropped us off with family and went to work. When I was growing up, the fence, as we called it, was literally a […]
How Microblading is Done (Great Brows Changed My Life)
I was born without eyebrows. Well, they’re there, but not visible to the plain eye. My hair is dark, my eyebrows belong on a blonde. My Irish face didn’t do me any favors growing up in a Mexican border town, where girls are known to be olive-skinned, put-together and beautiful, with a dramatic brow, long before that was a thing. I felt the disparity and tried to compensate with all the smoke and mirrors, but still, in the morning I wake up freckly and Irish and by the time I go to work, I look at least half Mexican. My […]
You Know Nothing About Cuba
No matter how many books you read, classes you take, or how up on current events you are, there’s no way to understand Cuba, even if you’ve been there. It is a country of contrasts and incomparable warmth and beauty. I studied and was obsessed with the country – its politics, revolutionary history, intellectual capital, and culture – for about 15 years before I had the opportunity to visit the island. After a week in Cuba, the one thing I knew to be true, in the words of Aristotle, was “The more you know, the more you know you don’t know.” I began studying Cuba at the university […]
Have Passport – F Your Rules
When I was literally 18 and a day, I traveled overseas for the first time. It was an amazing, illuminating experience – all that I’d hoped it would be, in most ways – but a couple of days into the trip I broke the travel rules and was labeled a delinquent and punished for the remainder of our travels. In hindsight, do I feel bad about what I did? Nope. I was invited to be part of a musical ambassador program, for high school musicians (or in my case, recent graduates) in which we traveled to seven countries in two […]
Letter to My Daughter: On Being a Workaholic
To my beautiful Warrior Princess: One of my greatest fears is that you will look back on your childhood and think that your mom cared more about work than about you. I would understand if my actions gave you that impression, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’d like to explain a few things with hopes you will view our life together with love and compassion and make good choices on how you want to live yours. Since I was 17, I’ve only ever not worked during three four-month spurts in my life. The first two were between […]
How to Be the Best Woman for the Job
I was invited to business development meeting with our director of operations and a potential partner from Spain – a well-dressed man in his 60s. We made introductions, talked about our ideas and possible synergies – an even interplay between the three of us in the room, but he and I also chatted briefly in his mother tongue. The Spaniard sat straight with his hands crossed, the director of operations had a small notepad and jotted things periodically, and I typed on my little laptop as we talked. At the end of the meeting, the three of us agreed it […]
The Fiend’s Peanut Butter Cup
If I was ever stranded on a desert island, I’d hope there were cacao beans and coconut trees. I have a chocolate problem. I love it in it’s most pure form. Milk chocolate can fly a kite; sugar and milk are impurities, as far as I’m concerned. I adore dark chocolate – the more bitter, the better. This Fiend’s Peanut Butter Cup hits the spot when I put myself on a diet desert island and when I’m safe and sound in the city. When I started eating low-carb, I felt so much better, I stopped being so hangry, I spent a […]
Why You Can’t Afford Not to Go Clean
When I graduated from business school, I decided I was going to make it big in the business of music and put my shiny new degree to good use, so I emptied my bank account and moved to LA where I was offered an (unpaid) marketing job working on a movie. When I wasn’t designing posters, conducting guerrilla marketing, or working screenings, I was interviewing for administrative jobs that I was “highly overqualified” for, and working on my tan. It was a great and very strange experience, and I made a really good friend out of it. One day as […]
Unalienable, Color-blind Love
At a few points last week, I felt so much grief, guilt, helplessness, and confusion that I found it hard to concentrate on anything. I welcomed any stupid distraction – the stupider the better – because no one likes it when their coworkers sob into their keyboards. Especially not IT. I wanted to express my sympathy for those I love and outrage at the senselessness of all the week’s events…at what could best be chalked up as hate crimes, but what is turning out to be an American epidemic and a global war on ignorance. Or maybe what we have for […]
Matcha Blueberry Morning Kick Muffins
I’ve developed quite a matcha obsession lately. In case you’re unfamiliar, it’s a traditional Japanese ceremonial tea, most often sold in powder form. It’s great hot, iced, as ice cream, in smoothies and matcha lattes – it has an earthier flavor than other teas, is absolutely refreshing, and gives me a boost when I’m trying not to drink so much coffee. Plus, matcha is good for you. Aside from being vitamin dense, it’s a great source of catechins (specifically EGCg) that fight cancer and, less important but also awesome, help with weight loss. Goooooo matcha! Caffeine is a good friend […]
3 Beauty Oils That Had Me at Hello
If I could go back in time share some words of wisdom with my tween self, I’d say, “Little G, eat whole foods and less sugar both for health and vanity, Noxema is not the answer to all your skin woes, just one dab of Electric Youth will do ‘ya, and a big one: middle school really sucks, but hang in there – nerds rule the world and you’re of royal lineage.” Still working my way up… Discovering beauty oils changed my life, and I doubt I’ll ever again buy another conventional moisturizer. These are the reasons, for me, there’s […]
Hasta Luego, Epic Empties
I used up a bunch of my faves and re-stocking is gonna be spendy, but always an adventure, right? I pay tribute here to a few of my friends over the last few years. They’ve made me beautiful, they made me happy, they’ve taught me that green can be luxurious. Tata Harper: This brand is a celebrity favorite with good reason. Originating on a farm in Vermont, this line is clinically-proven to be extremely effective, it feels high-end, and from each product emanates the sweet and subtle scent of flowers and earth. Any time I use Tata’s products, I breath […]
Your Hair is Begging for Detox
When I told my coworker the premise of this post, and judging by her expression, I was wavering between “The Best Hair of Your Life” and “How to Get Amazing Hair and Not Be Disgusting.” I urge you to ditch your shampoo and work with what your creator gave you. My intention is to get you to go natural in your hair routine without smelling like an Ani diFranco concert (a.k.a. dread hell). Like most of you, my whole life up until a few years ago, I was stuck in a vicious cycle of shampooing every night – because I enjoy […]
About the Author
About Pura Vida Sometimes Pura Vida Sometimes is a labor of love – a blog about the imperfect path to the pure life. It’s a celebration and exploration of life’s trials, treasures, and travesuras for people who know the rules and like to break them. With every intention of being healthy, organic and balanced, we stumble along the way, and on Pura Vida. Sometimes. you’re in good company. Hungry in my own journey for truth, adventure, love, and happiness, with a total disregard for what I’m “supposed to do,” I’ve lived a few lives-worth of adventures and want to share with […]
Stayin’ Fly with Toiletries in Check
When you spend a lot of time on the road, you develop efficiencies so you can sleep that extra half hour, get through security quickly, roll up to the gate just as the doors are closing, and arrive at your destination with all your belongings intact. Whether I’m planning an overnight trip or a two-week vacation (I wish!), I’m happy to share my system with you for smooth travels, as far as travel toiletries are concerned. Be ready to skip town: I always leave a set of travel-ready toiletries packed and ready to go waiting patiently in the closet for […]
Why You Can’t Afford Not to Go Clean
When I graduated from business school, I decided I was going to make it big in the business of music and put my shiny new degree to good use, so I emptied my bank account and moved to LA where I was offered an (unpaid) marketing job working on a movie. When I wasn’t designing posters, conducting guerrilla marketing, or working screenings, I was interviewing for administrative jobs that I was “highly overqualified” for, and working on my tan. It was a great and very strange experience, and I made a really good friend out of it. One day as […]
Stayin’ Fly with Toiletries in Check
When you spend a lot of time on the road, you develop efficiencies so you can sleep that extra half hour, get through security quickly, roll up to the gate just as the doors are closing, and arrive at your destination with all your belongings intact. Whether I’m planning an overnight trip or a two-week vacation (I wish!), I’m happy to share my system with you for smooth travels, as far as travel toiletries are concerned. Be ready to skip town: I always leave a set of travel-ready toiletries packed and ready to go waiting patiently in the closet for […]
An Introvert Birthday in China 75 Floors Up
When I was a child, I grew up in a tiny town on a cul de sac lined with cute little houses in some variation of one of five models, where in each lived two to four kids, and most of the dads on the block worked with mine. Facing our house lived my best friend, my sister’s best friend, and my parents’ best friends – they are family, no way around it. On my sixth birthday, we strolled on over to my best friends’ like any other day and, “Surprise!” All my friends were there to celebrate with me, […]
Learning to See Through a Child’s Eyes
Over the long holiday weekend, we decided to escape the triple-digit heat in the Valley of the Sun and retreat to the pines, filling our lungs with clean air and disconnecting, if only for a few days. Excitedly anticipating a poor network connection, and being too Type A to not to have an agenda, my main business item was to clear out the photos in my iPhone. Easy enough – my idea of relaxing. I also had a list of attractions in the area to visit if the fancy struck us, to make the best use of our limited fun […]
Don’t Blow the Interview Before You Sit Down
First impressions are everything, especially when it comes to interviews, because sometimes that’s all you have. There are a number of ways to prepare for the Q&A, nerves are both natural and excusable, but if you really want the job, make sure you’re not sabotaging yourself before the grilling starts. There are a number of physical cues that let me, as an interviewer, know whether you’d have the presence you need in the office and with business associates and third parties, and whether you really want to work with me. For each open position, I may have interviewed 10 candidates […]
How to Be the Best Woman for the Job
I was invited to business development meeting with our director of operations and a potential partner from Spain – a well-dressed man in his 60s. We made introductions, talked about our ideas and possible synergies – an even interplay between the three of us in the room, but he and I also chatted briefly in his mother tongue. The Spaniard sat straight with his hands crossed, the director of operations had a small notepad and jotted things periodically, and I typed on my little laptop as we talked. At the end of the meeting, the three of us agreed it […]
Letter to My Daughter: On Being a Workaholic
To my beautiful Warrior Princess: One of my greatest fears is that you will look back on your childhood and think that your mom cared more about work than about you. I would understand if my actions gave you that impression, but it couldn’t be further from the truth. I’d like to explain a few things with hopes you will view our life together with love and compassion and make good choices on how you want to live yours. Since I was 17, I’ve only ever not worked during three four-month spurts in my life. The first two were between […]
