Loving… the slow packing process. Gosh, I love packing. And I love it because a) I’m only packing up my own stuff and b) it fulfills something deep within my organizing soul. Right now, I’m not packing up much. Every day, I pick a few things to pack away (mostly things on the walls or kitchen items I know I won’t need anytime soon). I’m also going through the difficult process of culling my book collection. It needs to be done and it means there will be room on my shelves for MOAR BOOKS, but it’s a hard process.

Loathing… high electric bills. I just paid $271 for my electric bill in September, which makes me want to throw up. Almost $300 for a 715-square-foot apartment! It’s never been this high, even during the height of summer. Yes, I keep my AC running hard (70 degrees at night, 73 degrees during the day), but even still, this feels excessive. I did some research on my past bills – in July 2024, I actually used more energy (by 154 kWh) but paid almost $10 less. This year, the energy charges have increased by 35% and boy, am I feeling it. I found this thread on the Florida subreddit and it makes me feel less crazy.

Reading… a few books. I’ve picked up Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, which I can tell is just going to make me feel bad about my sleeping habits. Since that’s a dense nonfiction book, I’m putting it down every 50 or so pages for a romance, and right now, I’m reading Any Trope but You by Victoria Lavine. I’ve only read about 30 pages, and I’m not sure if I’m going to stick with it. And on audio, I’m about halfway through Hestia Strikes a Match by Christine Grillo. It’s good, but I’m kinda tired with the narrator. Basically, my reading life is GOING GREAT.

Watching… football. It’s going to be a bad year to be a Dolphins fan. We look embarrassingly bad, and I don’t think our head coach is going to make it very far into the season before he’s axed. I’m trying to figure out what other team I’ll be rooting for this year, since the Dolphins have failed me so spectacularly. Maybe the 49ers, since they’re my brother’s favorite team. Or maybe I’ll go rogue and root for the Eagles. (It is Superman’s favorite team, after all, and I’m still obsessed with him.)

Listening to… Teaching Texas. I feel like someone in this blogging community recommended this podcast to me, but I can’t remember who. It is so good. It’s the story of how textbooks come together, and how a couple with zero experience in education somehow became big players in that world. They had a very specific Christian worldview and wanted things like slavery and the Holocaust whitewashed. What’s wild is that this directly impacted me because these were the textbooks I was learning from as a child! I still remember the day I sat in a college classroom, learning about the truth behind Christopher Columbus, and someone in class raising their hand to say, “Why weren’t we taught this in school?” I think the host of this podcast does a fantastic job of explaining the impact of this kind of rhetoric being infused into textbooks and not letting any of her interview subjects off the hook.

Anticipating… a very busy October. It’s going to be quite the month for me! First, there’s the London trip. My mom and I leave in THIRTEEN DAYS! Yesterday, my mom asked if it was too early to start packing. Ha! We are so excited! And then when I come back from London, I’ll be spending the rest of the month packing and moving! I was able to get my move-in day switched from September 27th to October 8th, which I’m really happy about. We fly back on October 7th, so I’ll be able to get the keys and check out the space the day after I come home. No post-vacation blues for me! And then I’ll do a slow move-in process throughout the month. I’ll probably do the full move-in (furniture and boxes) the last week of October, which will give me two weekends to clean my old apartment before it’s time to turn in the keys.

Thinking about… my budget. I’m having some anxiety about my increased living expenses (the increase will be around $350) and a little bit of, “Who do you think you are to rent a two-bedroom apartment? You are not Ms. Moneybags!” I know I will have to get a bit stricter with my budget, but there are so many easy ways to cut down expenses. (Hello, how about I stop spending $200 a month on takeout?) And honestly, when I think about the pros and cons of staying put, there is only one pro on the list: cheap rent. And while that’s a very important reason to stay put (and the reason I’ve stayed for more years than I planned), it’s not enough for me anymore. I know I can afford these increased living expenses, and it’ll be good for me to follow a stricter budget, I think.

Buying... little things for the new apartment. Mostly the boring purchases, like toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, etc. It’s the stuff I’ll want to have at my apartment during the slow move-in process. But you better believe I’ve been spending a lot of time looking up coffee tables and nightstands and bathroom decor. I need to be careful (see above!), but I think I can allow myself a few new things.

Grateful… for tiny joys. Things like mini chocolate ice cream cones, Facetiming with my mom, a cat jumping up on my desk and asking for pets, wood wick candles that make my apartment so cozy, pumpkin spice season, time blocking, the Happy Color app, and Marco Polos with Mikaela.

What are you currently anticipating?

Loving… false fall. Last week, we had a brief period of fall-like temps with highs in the mid-70s, which felt amazing. The cooler weather hasn’t stuck around (highs are back to the mid-80s, womp), but we are enjoying some cooler mornings with temps in the upper 60s. I’ll take it! It’s nice to get a break from the relentless heat and humidity and it makes me very excited for the next few months.

Loathing… losing my fitness. My gym attendance during the last few weeks hasn’t been great for obvious reasons, and when I went to HIIT last Wednesday, I felt like I was going to die. Or, more accurately, I felt like I did when I started taking these HIIT classes. I told my trainer at the end of the class that I felt like I had lost all of my fitness in the last three weeks. To which he replied, “Well, you’ll get it back!” And that was a good reminder. Did I feel weak and exhausted during HIIT last week? Yes. But will I keep going to class so I can regain the fitness I feel I’ve lost? Also yes. It’s okay if it feels hard right now. It’s okay if I need to take more breaks. It’s okay if I finish a HIIT class and feel like I could have pushed myself harder than I did. All in due time.

Reading… two books. On audio, I’m listening to Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano, which is the fourth book in the series. This is my first time listening on audio and the narrator isn’t great, but I’m getting through it. I’m also reading The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce. I read and loved her previous novel, You with a View, earlier this year and this one is hitting the spot, too.

Watching… Love is Blind, season 7. This show is so messy and I love it. I love the ridiculous people they cast, I love watching the one couple that is no-drama and makes it to the altar with no problem, I love all the juicy gossip that comes out about the cast mid-season. This season, we have a deadbeat dad who ghosted his children to be on the show! It’s wild, you guys. WILD.

Listening to… Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. This podcast series is fascinating. I’m learning so much! It brings together historians and NYC natives to tell the story of policing and the NYPD in particular, starting with its formation and showing how its racist beginnings still reverberate today.

Anticipating… a cruise in December! Eeks. I’m so excited about this. Originally, my mom, my stepdad, and I were going to go to Asheville during the last week of December but, of course, those plans had to be cancelled due to the horrific flooding from Helene. Asheville is going to be dealing with the aftermath for a long time. Still, my mom and I wanted to do something because life has been a LOT lately and we haven’t taken a cruise vacation in at least two years. (This will be my 12th cruise.) We found a quick five-day cruise out of Miami that leaves December 2nd, so we booked it! I’m so excited to get away and enjoy cruise life for a week.

Thinking about… NaBloPoMo. I considered skipping NaBloPoMo this year because it’s a lot of work between writing posts and keeping up with other people’s posts (and I know it gets overwhelming for those of you not participating but following along!). And I still might change my mind, but right now, I’m leaning towards doing NaBloPoMo again. This will be my fourth year doing the challenge and even though I get nervous about keeping up with everything in the days leading up to it, I always have a good time. I already have my schedule all planned out so if I have the ideas, I might as well put them into action, right?

Buying… a new Kia Soul. I went car shopping on Friday. I first went to a Toyota dealership where I test-drove a Rav-4 and loved it. It was so much fun to drive, but unfortunately, once we got back to run the numbers, it was very clear that a new Rav-4 would not be in my budget. I only have $4,000 to put down as my down payment and no car to trade in, so once I learned that my payments would be in the $600 range, it was time to jump ship and head on over to Kia. (I didn’t even consider test-driving anything else, as the other cars were around the same price as the Rav-4 so I knew I would be SOL.) I test-drove another Kia Soul and gah, it felt like coming home. I miss driving my zippy little Soul! So, I put a deposit down on a 2025 Kia Soul that should arrive in the next few days. And here’s the kicker: my car payment is going to be less than it was with Gladys! And maybe I can trade up for the Rav-4 in a few years—with a car to trade in, my payments might be more in my price range. Or maybe I’m just a Soul girl through and through.

Grateful… for normalcy. I am so happy to be back in my normal routine. Working from my desk at home with my three screens. Cuddling the girls before bed. Nights on the couch watching stupid reality TV and coloring. Cooking for myself again. Even cleaning feels exciting (okay, not exciting but I like that I have the bandwidth and time for it again). Getting back into my blogging groove. I missed normal life—and I know I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to enjoy normalcy again when my friends are still living in rental homes and will be there for many, many months while they wait for their actual homes to be restored.

What are you currently anticipating and watching?

Loving… the reinvigorated Democratic party. Like many people, I was happy when Biden stepped aside and Kamala stepped up. I was even more excited when Kamala chose Tim Walz as her running mate because every thing I read about him just makes me love him more. It’s been amazing to see the groundswell of support for Kamala and Tim and how this has reinvigorated the presidential race and politics as a whole. Things feel hopeful again! I’m going to believe this means good things for November.

Loathing… summer colds. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold (sometime last year, I’m guessing), but I woke up from a nap on Saturday with a sore throat and now I’m downing Dayquil like it’s my job. Thankfully, it hasn’t been too bad. The sore throat went away within a day and now I’m mostly dealing with nasal congestion and an overall blah feeling. I took a Covid test on Monday, which was negative (I’ll re-test today to make doubly sure). I think it’s just one of those run-of-the-mill viruses.

Reading… The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, which I just started yesterday so I don’t have much to say about it yet. On audio, I’m almost done with His & Hers by Alice Feeny, which has been a wild ride so far. It’s making me feel a bit icky but I also need to know what happens, so I keep listening.

Watching… Master Chef. I just started season 13, which means I only have one more season until I’m all caught up on past seasons. Maybe I’ll go back to Hell’s Kitchen next? That show is a little more stressful, though. Master Chef feels like the nice version of Gordon Ramsey. Of course, what I’m not watching is Suits, which I told myself I needed to watch this month for my TV watching goal. I don’t know why I’m not watching it! I loved the first season and I love drooling over Harvey and Rachel (aka, Meghan Markle) respectively. But there’s just something easy about reality TV. I don’t have to give it too much attention and the stakes feel lower.

Listening to… mostly podcasts and my current audiobook. I am still behind on my goal to listen to one new album every month. I listened to Billie Eilish’s newest release last month and I have Gracie Abram’s The Secret of Us queued up to listen to soon. Any other albums I should listen to?

Anticipating… football season. We’re a little over a week away from the kickoff to the NFL season and I couldn’t be more excited! My family has completed our draft, I’m reading everything I can about my beloved Miami Dolphins prep for the upcoming season, and I have been so pleased to see that our coach is back to being a national treasure. I spend every Sunday at my mom’s house with my brother and nephews, watching the games, and I can’t wait to get back to it!

Thinking about… moving. I am still waiting to hear from my apartment complex if my rent will be increasing this year. (My lease is up November 1st but I have to give a 60-day notice, which will be September 1st.) If my rent does not increase, my plan is to stay put for another year and then live out the next 14 months as if my rent has increased by $400. This way, I can know if moving to a new apartment with more expensive rent is doable for me and it will allow me to save a lot of money in that year (for moving costs, movers, new things for my new apartment, etc.) If my rent does increase, then I will probably move this year. If I’m going to pay more in rent, I’d rather be in an apartment that better meets my needs.

Buying… so many clear bins. I have been feeling very disorganized lately when it comes to my bathroom and I decided to invest in a handful of clear bins (these kind) to get everything in its rightful place. On the left side are bins for first aid, medicine/psoriasis creams, and extra small supplies. In the center are bins for hair stuff (like clips/headbands/etc), all of my hair color supplies, and miscellaneous items. And on the right side are all of my tampons, separated by type (light/regular/super). Is it weird to do an organizing project like this if I’m potentially moving in a few months? Yes. But I can’t be stopped when I get an organizing idea in my head.

(Eventually I will replace the Brightroom labels with custom labels.)

Grateful… that I am finally getting an APAP machine. Yesterday, I had an appointment with a sleep clinic to go over all the ins and outs of using these machines. It was a very useful appointment where they showed me the machine I’ll be getting (ResMed AirSense 11) and how to use it and take care of it. There will be a lot more cleaning in my future as some of the parts need a weekly soak/rinse and I need to keep jugs of distilled water on hand to fill up the humidifier on a daily basis. Eeks! The clinician on the phone also let me know that when the results came in from my previous sleep study (the one done in April), I experienced 47.4 apneas every hour. (An apnea is when you stop breathing while sleeping, and you have to have stopped breathing for 10 seconds or more for it to register as an apnea.) I knew my sleep was bad, as I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, but that just meant I stopped breathing at least 30 times a night. To know I was over that threshold by so much is very scary! And now my chronic exhaustion makes even more sense. My poor brain. It’s not going to know what to do with all this extra oxygen it’s going to get at night!

What are you currently anticipating and watching?