I woke up to the braying of donkeys. Opening the window to morning air perfumed by wisteria and honeysuckle, I could see the herd — 16 sweet-eyed animals in all — grazing by the olive groves of La Pescaia, a country estate turned idyllic inn that embodies a fantasy of pastoral happiness for me: life…
After years of renting apartments in Brooklyn, Alex Kalita was finally ready to buy in 2017. The idea of investing in real estate was appealing, but as the founder of Common Bond Design, an interiors firm, she also wanted the opportunity to renovate, so her home could reflect her sense of style. “I made my…
Experts share five tips for making (and keeping) commitments.
How becoming a regular at a neighborhood shop soothed my loneliness.
A decade ago, Johnny Javier Hau Dzib took a nighttime drive around his Denver neighborhood, his mind in a suicidal thought loop. Several years later, Kenneth Wayne Felts was at home alone in nearby Arvada, Colo., contemplating death by a different means. Chemotherapy for a Hodgkin’s lymphoma diagnosis was robbing him of life’s pleasures. “I…
Melissa Jeanne D’Andrea had already envisioned a future with Karissa Heleene Sullivan before they met. “I picked out our wedding hashtag before our first date,” Ms. D’Andrea said. It was a play on both their names: #issawedding. On Oct. 4, 2021, the two matched on Her, a dating app for people who identify as lesbian,…
The night Emily Kate Dobies and Sal Steiner shared their first kiss in 2016, Ms. Dobies had been trying to orchestrate a match between Mr. Steiner and a mutual friend. The friend was in a troubled relationship, and Ms. Dobies thought that Mr. Steiner, with his warmth and honesty, could remind her that good dating…
We thought it would take only a couple weeks. It took three months. Every time a piece of mail came for him, I got my hopes up, but it was never the letter he needed. One official letter came addressed to “Kenneth Sean,” and Robby despaired. He had been through so many disappointments that he…
Sachi Alita Takahashi-Rial and George Carl Gaetano Carollo sent out their online wedding invitations in March, which left some people amused, and others guessing. It said: “You’re invited to the first Investor Offsite for pre-eminent investors worldwide. This exclusive event combines insights, innovation, vision, and, of course, cake.” Questions then quickly rolled in, mostly to…
The Supreme Court on Thursday temporarily blocked a bankruptcy deal for Purdue Pharma that would have shielded members of the billionaire Sackler family, which once controlled the company, from additional civil lawsuits over the opioid epidemic and that capped the Sacklers’ personal liability at $6 billion. The order is likely to delay any payments to…