I know, I know. After not posting for a year, I’m on a roll. Initially, I was going to include this post in my 2022 gift guide, but the gift guide got too long and I thought it was best to split them up into two. Given how much I love reading, I wanted to spotlight the books that I thought were worth spending some time on. I can’t read anywhere near as much as I used to, given my spinal CSF leak, but when my brain is up for it reading remains one of my favourite things to do. I have divided the books I’m recommending into categories, to make it easier for you to choose what you may want for yo ..read more

I did my first ever holiday gift guide for travelers a few years ago, which was fun to compile. Readers seemed to enjoy the various items, and I was happy to share some of the products that accompanied me on the road. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. For starters, my life is a little different – something all of you already know. As a result, my own gifts to family and friends aren’t souvenirs from far-away places, but fun things I’ve discovered. I wanted to share some of them here, especially as many are small businesses like myself. This year, I’d like to share two cat ..read more

I did my first ever holiday gift guide for travelers a few years ago, which was fun to compile. Readers seemed to enjoy the various items, and I was happy to share some of the products that accompanied me on the road. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. For starters, my life is a little different – something all of you already know. As a result, my own gifts to family and friends aren’t souvenirs from far-away places, but fun things I’ve discovered online. I wanted to share some of them here, especially as many are small businesses like myself. The items below are from arti ..read more

I did my first ever holiday gift guide for travelers a few years ago, which was fun to compile. Readers seemed to enjoy the various items, and I was happy to share some of the products that accompanied me on the road. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. For starters, my life is a little different – something all of you already know. As a result, my own gifts to family and friends aren’t souvenirs from far-away places, but fun things I’ve discovered online. I wanted to share some of them here, especially as many are small businesses like myself. The items below are from arti ..read more

It’s been awhile, and though I do share tidbits more frequently on social media and via my newsletter, I wanted to do a full write up of what has been going on. I haven’t published a blog post since April, so this is a long overdue update. It shares some exciting professional news, but also the personal as it relates to my health. This community has been a huge part of what has kept me afloat during the last few, difficult years. With my limited bandwidth due to the ongoing spinal cerebrospinal (CSF) leak, I have had to cut out some of the work I want to do. The blog was put on hiatus first, b ..read more

A few weeks into December, I received a message in my “requests” folder on Facebook. I didn’t know it at the time, since it was buried in Facebook purgatory. It was only a month later that I thought to check my requests inbox. I found the following message. Hi, you don’t know me, but we found a backpack with your credit cards in it on my roof in Park Slope Brooklyn. Did you by any chance lose or have a backpack stolen in the last few years? If so, let me know; there are a couple of things still in it. My heart just about stopped in my chest. For those newer to the site: when I was in the ER ..read more

It’s been a long while since I’ve written on Legal Nomads. When people ask how I’m doing, I’ve taken to saying, “I’m hanging in as best as I can.” What else can we all do? These are pretty unusual, extreme times, and honestly I’m just impressed with anyone who makes it through each day without cracking at least once. While I haven’t been writing much here, I have been working (in 20 minute standing increments!) on some really rewarding things, which I am excited to share with you here. 1. I’ve Launched My Patreon Many of you have asked about ways to support me at a time where I can’t physicall ..read more

I’m late to my own party, but April 1, 2020 marked twelve years since I quit my job as a lawyer to travel the world. By now you guys know the drill: each year I wrote an annual update post for April 1st, about my state of mind and the state of my business. I’d usually also have a get together with friends to celebrate, wherever I was. In Saigon, it was a party with bun cha and rice vodka. In Oaxaca, it was mezcal and quesadillas. This year, the date fell during the long trek back to Montreal from Florida. I was trying to move quickly enough to get home safely, but slow enough to not exacerbate ..read more

Legal Nomads began in 2008 as a travel site, and during the subsequent decade it morphed into a travel and food site as I lived around the world. Then, it shifted into a place to share the reckoning and grief that accompanied an abrupt life change. These days, it remains a place to share my thoughts on what’s going on around us, even if now we are all not able to explore the outside world. For now I wanted to talk about masks. Specifically cloth masks. Specifically the fact that many people are resisting wearing them. I’ve been banging on about masks since I wrote my previous COVID-19 piece in ..read more

A friend of mine recently texted me in a fury. “Someone just posted on FB that we’re doing things to stop the virus only because it’s going to ‘hurt old people’s feelings’ if we don’t,” he said. His mother has respiratory issues and thus falls into the “older person vulnerable to the new coronavirus” category, as do many others. Like me. And I can read. So when I read tweets or posts about how it’s basically “just a flu” (false) that “only hurts the vulnerable,” it makes me worry for us as a society. If we can’t protect our most vulnerable, what are we doing? Don’t panic. Doctors/ virologists ..read more