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I have no idea where my insatiable thirst for travel came from.

I remember the feeling though — a bubble-gut brewing in my seventh grade cafeteria in Stoughton, Wisconsin (or maybe that was the meatloaf).

I would always trade my packed-lunch snacks or candy bars for my friend Nicole’s mom’s mayo and pulled crockpot beef sandwiches on smashed Wonderbread. She loved the deal. I loved beef. Win-win.

I remember biting into that sandwich one day and thinking, “There’s GOT to be more exciting foods out there. There MUST be more than casseroles and crockpots!”

One kid brought a jar of Vegemite from Australia to school that week and BOOM. My curiosity had been sparked.

It was time to get the F out of Dodge. Well, actually it was Dane County. Dodge County was the county north of our town. Is that where the saying was born?

Anywho… It was time to get the F out of Dane.

Nobody in my family had ever been big travelers. But I knew I had to be the first. I knew Wisconsin would always be home — LOVE me some Wisconsin — but whatever soul inhabited my body at birth was one that needed to get out and see some shit.

That year, in seventh grade, I wanted to sign up for the People to People student ambassadors program headed to Europe that next summer — Spain, France and Italy. In order to earn money for the trip, I had to feed veal calves at 4am before school. Which I did all of 8th grade before taking the excursion the summer between 8th and 9th grade.

Travel hits different when you earn it. Learned that young.

Something about me has always felt a sense of home no matter where I go. I have friends, communities, creatives in so many cities. I used to pride myself on being able to be dropped anywhere and feel right at home.

This still checks out.

So where is home when you have so many?

I think home is a feeling. A belonging. Home is everywhere now that dad’s everywhere with me. Home is where you feel at peace. Have togetherness. Maybe a cheap Target wind chime.

Home is anywhere you let it be.

The Hustle

I saw a post the other day sharing that some of the best ideas of all time — the Nike shoe, the iPhone, even The Beatles first album — were all sparked from a stint of travel.

Travel isn’t just a way to feel adventure, connect, to become cultured and curious. It’s also a business strategy. We need it to create.

Different cities feed different parts of my brain.

Chicago gives me that Midwest work ethic and keeps me grounded. It’s an ambitious city, but the ambitions are vast and not specific to a singular industry. And everyone’s just real. People keep their plans. People show up on time.

LA brings out the entertainer and business connector in me. Everyone’s working in entertainment. Even a dog you meet on the street has shot a commercial. Everywhere you go you meet someone doing something “important.” Lots of opportunity, and proportionately lots of no-follow-through.

New York has this electric energy that makes me think bigger, move faster. Spaces in New York are tiny, so you always want to be out and about — always running into people, always street meet-cutes and altercations. It makes you feel alive.

St. Croix is my island spot — a place I’ve been going to perform for over a decade, and built a returning comedy scene where there was none. It’s gritty and lived-in and beautiful. I always feel at home again when I’m there.

London makes me feel more polished and gives me a different perspective on comedy. It’s got a lot of the best features of Chicago, LA and New York, except the weather… can’t win ‘em all. And it’s MASSIVE.

And of course, Wisconsin. Home home. Where all my best and longest friendships have come from, and the shit-kicker boot-wearing farm girl in me never dies.

I've done my best work when I'm toggling between environments. I feel like I resonate with so many homes.

My mom’s dream is for us to build a compound on land — somewhere we can all home-base but also have space to breathe. Me, her, the two grandmas… friends.

Now that it's just us ladies holding down the family, we need a headquarters. 

But I also want the freedom to chase inspiration wherever it leads. Maybe that's three months in London working on international projects. Maybe it's splitting time between LA and Chicago and New York like I have been. Maybe it’s long jaunts to the island or the countryside to reground with nature.

Maybe I belong many places and nowhere.

The goal isn't to collect addresses. It's to never feel stuck in one creative bubble.

If you’re new to my newsletter, you can catch up on the last few weeks in the H + C archives — it’s fun in there and reads like an episodic magazine:

Hustle + Chill Posts Archive

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The Chill

You know you've mastered multi-city living when you can walk into any local convenience store and feel genuinely at peace.

I have my spots in every city now — The coffee shop in Chicago where they know my matcha order that I’ll always take hot even if it’s 80 degrees. The hiking trail in LA where I go to think with coyotes. The halal cart outside my hotel in Manhattan where the guy behind the counter calls me "Funny Lady” and knows I want my kebob doused in the spicy red sauce. The bar in London where all the comics congregate to grab a Guinness after their prospective shows across the city. The beach in St. Croix where I can visit with the jet ski shop owners, take a wave runner out for a spin and have four Coronas while watching a sunset that will make you weep. The place we always grab gyros and cubans in Miami. The best Sunday spot to set up shop and watch football in Denver.

These aren't tourist spots. These are my spots. Our spots. The ones that make me feel like I belong instead of just visiting.

There's something beautiful about building a life that's bigger than one zip code. About having friends who text you consistently from different time zones. About having a Google Maps with over a decade of pins marked all over the world. About knowing which neighborhood has the best food in forty different cities.

I’d love to take mom and the grandmas to all these spots, now that it’s just us ladies of the HQ. I think they’re all secretly proud that I’ve built a world much bigger than the ones they grew up in.

I think there’s also something to be said about being happy. At home.

The concept of the compound isn't about giving up the multi-city life. It's about creating a home base that's worthy of everyone we’d want to bring there. A place where my Chicago friends can meet my LA friends. Where my grandmas can hear stories from all my adventures. Where we can have epic card games and nobody has to leave at the end of the night.

If I'm going to live everywhere, I need somewhere that feels like the center of it all. Somewhere that says "this is where all the love lives."

If I’m going to try and build mom’s dream barndominium compound, my grandmas better live to 200. I've got a lot of cities to show them, and building can take awhile.

Papa wasn't a rollin' stone, but he raised one.

Turns out getting the F out of Dane County was just the beginning. Now it's time to bring Dane County everywhere.

Upcoming Shows

This weekend I’m off to film in Charlotte. More to come in next week’s newsletter.

Show’s to earmark coming up:

Saturday April 11 — Decorah, Iowa

Thursday April 23 — Pitch n Pair at the Den Theater Chicago

Love you all and cheers to the hustle + chill. We bring home wherever we go.

xx NPH