Meet Paige Worthy

Paige lives in Chicago. She is — in no particular order — a world traveler short on travel funds, a marketer, a mezzo soprano and home office karaoke superstar, an oenophile who loves big words, a French speaker and English writer, and an overly ambitious home cook who constantly underestimates how big a bowl she needs. Follow her on Instagram for photos of food, cats and her face. Or, buy pretty things from her online.

Q+A

What makes you laugh?

  • Fart humor — the stuff 14-year-old boys go nuts for
  • Cat videos (bonus points if they also involve cucumbers and/or babies)
  • Plays on words and Star Wars puns
  • Single-panel cartoons: vintage The Far Side and The New Yorker
  • Realizing I’ve been singing the wrong lyrics for years
  • Falling down
  • A daily glance at my bank account
  • Rap battles
  • Willfully ignorant politicians and their followers
  • Ten thousands spoons when all you need is a knife (Etc.)
  • When the answer to a question I’ve been struggling with is suddenly right in front of my face
  • When there’s no one right (or wrong) answer

What is your favorite song?
The four right chords can make me cry.
That’s a line in the song “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind. (Not my favorite song, though it’s up there.)
I’ve always been a lyrics girl; songs have the power to speak to me more than anything else. That’s why the song I play myself the most is “Can’t Go Back Now” by the Weepies.  The guitar throughout the song absolutely twinkles; it sounds like hope to me. And the words are a beautiful refrain that our lives are what we make of them. I can’t really say why everybody wishes they were somewhere else / In the end, the only steps that matter are the ones you take all by yourself. In a close second place: “Custard Pie” by Led Zeppelin. It’s just a deliciously, joyfully slutty song.

If you had to change careers, what would you do?
I get an inkling lately that another career change is more a “when” than an “if.” That much I know. Whatever it is — and whenever it takes place — it will be major. Less sitting at a computer, more human interaction. The real kind.
I want to change people’s lives for the better. And not in my spare time. I want to actively pursue it; if possible; I want to make it my career. I’ve thought about becoming a nutritionist or health coach, maybe getting certified as a yoga instructor. I’ve considered culinary school (to what end? I have no idea). Maybe a front-of-house career in hospitality. I don’t know what I want to do next. But I don’t believe any of us were set on this earth to do one thing forever. You have to allow yourself to evolve as you feel that push to change.

I will say this: When I find whatever is next, I hope it leaves me room — emotionally and creativity — to write again.

What is your favorite quote?
“Let go of the monkey bars.”
The day I signed the freelance agreement that would allow me to leave a full-time job for the first time, I was getting on the Union-Pacific Northwest Metra from Arlington Heights back to Chicago, tipsy on white wine, belly full of tapas from a nearby restaurant. My soon-to-be contract employer pulled a silver cuff bracelet from her wrist and handed it to me as the train chugged into the station. That’s what it said. To me, it means that in order to move forward, you have to accept the instability that comes with letting go of what’s behind you — and swing forward to grab what’s next. After several years of wearing the bracelet, I pored over typefaces in a folding chair in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood after brunch with friends during Memorial Day weekend. That afternoon, I took a deep breath and climbed into the beat-up leather chair where I got my first tattoo. My family lost it when they found out I’d , but I’m delighted every time I look at my inner-right wrist. Despite its imperfections — a misshapen “o” here, a too-dark “s” there — my personal mantra is now with me always, a reminder to be brave every time I need one.

What gets you through a rough day?

I work from home, so I deal with far fewer of the everyday frustrations that most nine-to-fivers experience. But when the world finds a ways to deal me a bum hand, here are seven things that can bust me out of a funk:

  • My cats, River Song and Brix. (Does that count as two?)
  • A brisk walk around the neighborhood
  • Browsing Giphy for ridiculous animated GIFs of animals flipping tables and otherwise raging like humans
  • Making myself an opulent lunch — without caring that it took me a couple of hours to prep and eat it. I can make up the work time another day
  • Changing my bed linens. The gratification is delayed, but there are few things lovelier than crawling into cool, crisp, clean sheets for the night
  • A midday yoga class
  • The promise of a glass of wine at 6 p.m., hand delivered by my glorious wine-buyer husband

Want more? Connect with Paige on Twitter and Instagram  

Photo Credit: Jamie Kelter Davis Photography