1. My first Escape Room experience. Early in the month, I traveled to downtown St. Pete to try my hand at an Escape Room. I’ve always wanted to do one of these rooms, so I was really looking forward to it. Thankfully, the experience didn’t let me down at all! It was super fun to figure out all the different clues and how they connected to one another. It only took us 35 minutes, too! I’m actually going to my second Escape Room experience this Thursday with some coworkers. I can’t wait!
2. An eventful day at the dog beach. My mom, stepdad, and I took Dutch to the dog beach in June, which was… well, eventful to say the least. Dutch drank too much salt water after swimming in the ocean and ended up getting sick. AND my phone slipped out of my hand and dropped straight into the ocean after I took a video of him swimming. (Thankfully, after spending a day in rice, it was back to working condition – and I was able to post the video of him swimming on Instagram. Heh.) All in all, it was quite the beach trip.
3. Celebrating Father’s Day. I never particularly enjoy Father’s Day, but this one wasn’t too hard for me for some reason. I spent this Father’s Day with my grandpa and I was so glad I did. It was special, having lunch with just him and my mom. We had deep conversations, some laughs, and some tears. Par for the course. Seeing him without grandma by his side always feels heart-wrenching, but he’s hanging in there as best he can.
4. Movie night with girlfriends to see Me Before You. Last year, my copy of Me Before You made the rounds with three of my coworkers. It was a little like a mini book club. When the movie release date was announced, we all made the decision to see it together and it was such a fun experience! I probably ended up crying the least out of all my friends (my heart is made of stone), but I loved the movie and think it’s a great portrayal of the book.
5. Painting for a cause. Attending a charity event at my local Painting With a Twist was so special. The event directly benefited the victims of the Orlando massacre and we raised more than $2,000! I probably won’t hang my painting anywhere in my home (I am not artsy at all!), but I had fun hanging out with my coworkers, eating all of the food, and sipping on a cider. I would do it again in a heartbeat – even if I do come home again with another awful painting!
6. My essays this month. I’ve been really proud of the writing I published on this blog in June. It’s always been my mission to blog vulnerably and openly, no matter how uncomfortable it makes me. I don’t want to simply publish memes or simple updates on my life but to use this space as a place to open up about how crazy and messy and wonderful life can be. Writing is what I always come to when I need to sort out my feelings, and that’s what I’ve been doing this month. I wrote about alone time because I’ve been having a lot of alone time lately and loving it. I wrote a (slightly controversial) post about motivation and why we can still go after our goals even when we feel unmotivated. And I wrote a post on singleness and what it feels like to be a girl who is 28 and has yet to be in a long-term relationship (which garnered lots of shares on social media and more comments than I’ve gotten on a post in a long time!) It delights me to no end that my writing is speaking to people because that’s all I’ve ever really wanted.
7. Long, deep chats with Roomie. It’s just so nice to have a friend who I can be totally honest with. I haven’t really had that in my life, save for a best friend in high school and my mom. Roomie is someone I can talk to about my anxiety and my struggles and she gets me. June was a month of lots of deep talks and opening up for the both of us, and it made me so grateful to have her in my life.
8. Quality time with Mom. Nothing makes me happier than spending time with my mom, and we had lots of quality time in June, which was so nice. I especially loved the day that we spent shopping because we were together from 10 in the morning until about 9 at night! (Not all of that was shopping, ha, because we also had game night with my brother later on that day.)
9. Ice cream social day at work. Twice a year, the building where my office is located holds a special dessert get-together and in June, that get-together was an ice cream social! I opted for the DIY ice cream bar (mine was chocolate ice cream with a dark chocolate shell and Oreo pieces!) Yum, yum!
10. All of the shopping. June was a pretty big shopping month for me! Most of it was stuff I needed to replace – like new work pants to replace old work pants that were falling apart (literally, the hems were coming undone). And then I wore a hole into my only pair of black flats, so those had to be replaced, too. During those shopping excursions, I bought two dresses (one was only $6 at Kohls!) and a blouse for work. I also started buying things for my new apartment, since there’s a big list of things I’ll need and I don’t want to wait until the last minute for some of these items. (Can you tell I’m a planner or nah?) So, yeah, June was a particularly spendy month, but most of it was stuff I needed so I can’t fault myself too much.
What were some of your highlights from June?
The DIY ice cream bars looks and sounds awesome! What a fun work event!
I can’t get over how young your grandpa looks (and probably is!). I bet he is closer in age to my parents, who are 68! I am glad you got to spend Father’s Day with him. I bet he loved spending some time with his girls!
June was kind of a blur for me, too, even though we were home most weekends. Some highlights were getting cleared to be able to bike outdoors and to take long walks, our weekend getaway to Wisconsin for a friend’s wedding, and buying out grill and enjoy many meals on it already!!
Sounds like you had a lovely June! My friends and I plan on trying out the Escape Room at some point this year; never been and always wanted to solve puzzles like Nancy Drew.
I love the idea of painting for a cause. Earlier in June, friends and I embarked on a Paint Nite excursion wherein you go to a local bar/pub and follow along at your easel as the instructor leads you through painting a beautiful scenic picture with fun music playing in the background. It’s a unique “girls’ night out” idea, and was certainly a highlight!
June was up and down for me as I worked through getting my work life into some sense of order – currently employed at a grocery store, and unfortunately it’s miserable working there. Another highlight was celebrating my friend’s birthday with snacks, laughter, and our group’s favourite games.
Been loving the essays you published in June too!
It sounds like you had an eventful and fun month! We have a recently opened escape room in the area that I’m interested in checking out sometime. It sounds really cool.
Oh Me Before You. I thought it was perfectly done. I loved it so much.
I’ve loved your recent blog posts too! I always read all of your posts though and think they’re all interesting. I really enjoy both reading and writing basic life updates and memes, but I take the most pride in my more creative essays. Some months, I crank ’em out and then other months I am lacking ideas. I’ve been on one of those “lacking ideas” streaks lately!
You had a stellar June! That ice cream treat still looks mouth-watering and amazing. YUM.
June- hosting our Chicago friends and getting into the swing of things with the kiddos here. Hard to believe that we are approaching the halfway mark of them being here. Time flies!
Sounds like a great month. That is crazy about your phone! So glad you got it working again!
The highlights of June for me were probably our family trip to Toronto at the beginning of the month and moving into our own place at the end of the month!