Claire Bidwell Smith

Hello from Chicago! It’s cold here. But it feels oh-so warm and lovely to be seeing old friends and family. We spent yesterday afternoon and evening at Greg’s sister’s house and Vera could not have been more thrilled to be reunited with her cousins. I can’t even tell you how happy it makes me to Read more…

I returned home yesterday from a week in Chicago and Boston and I feel like it’s going to take me just as many days to recover as I was gone. It was a fantastic trip, and had I not been pregnant and toting a husband and toddler with me, it probably wouldn’t have been as Read more…

As of a few hours ago I’m in Chicago. Perched on the 12th floor of my downtown hotel room. A bland and muted news program flickers on the television set, a little pile of M&Ms from the minibar sits next to me on the desk, and there is a generally stunning view outside the window. Read more…

The past twelve months have truly been some of the most exciting of my life. Book deals, cross-country moves, second pregnancies. It’s been a lot, and it’s been more than I ever could have asked for, in every good way possible. Along every step of the way I took photos. I recently revisited 2010′s Year Read more…

Four years ago this fall, I was easing into my new life in Chicago. It had been a rough transition, but I’d finally begun to make some friends and develop a few job leads. My first friend in Chicago was a really cool girl named Stacy McKinley. I met her through a friend of mine Read more…

I’m in Chicago right now, typing this out in my friend’s downtown loft apartment while Bug sleeps behind the next wall. Greg just landed in Los Angeles and is headed home to Topanga, to a week of solitude while Vera and I have a girl party in Chicago and then attend my friend Ashley’s wedding Read more…

Four years ago I made a decision that completely changed my life. I was on Cape Cod for my grandmother's funeral and instead of flying home to Los Angeles afterwards like I was supposed to, I changed my flight on a whim so that I could stop in Chicago and meet a guy named Greg Read more…

My social calendar is taking this weird track right now where I'm suddenly penning down more and more LA plans at the same time that the Chicago plans are ticking off towards their final one. Life in LA is truly beginning to materialize. We found out this week that we are going to be the Read more…

Yesterday I turned 33 and our Chicago friends threw us the most fantastic party. They asked to hold it here at our house, on our deck, for one last night at the Boose household, but they provided everything (tacos from Big Star! margaritas! cake!) and made sure we had nothing to do but enjoy ourselves. Read more…

The biggest difference between my parent's deaths was the circumstances surrounding them. My mother died in a hospital in D.C. at 3 in the morning. Her sister was with her, but my father and I were not. She had been in that hospital for 6 weeks, undergoing experimental surgeries for "last hope" patients. Two months Read more…