I was a macabre kid from the get-go, let's just get that right out there. For some reason I had very romantic notions of death since childhood. I blame Tim Burton movies, with his quirky, stylized and early-Goth aesthetic in movies such as Edward Scissorhands, Beetlejuice, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. I used to swan around my hometown's cemetery as a moody teenager, sneaking in with my high school boyfriend and getting delicious chills with every spooky trick of the li

The State Department is where I've spent the last fifteen years of my career. I was fascinated by the lives of diplomats past and present. That's why I was thrilled to make the acquaintance of Evangeline (nee Bell) Bruce, one of the women I feature on my #LadiesoftheGeorgetownSet tour. I don't mean literally, as she unfortunately passed away in 1995. I met her through my research for the tour, and I'm sad there aren't more sources on her and her life. I can't tell you everyt