1) Getting cleared for activity by my orthopedic. In early March, I went for my final orthopedic appointment to check the status of my ankle (which I fractured the first weekend in December). I was pretty positive that the x-ray would show that the fracture had healed, but I had twinges of pain every now and then that made me a little wary, but thankfully, everything was good! My ankle was healed and I could resume normal activity (which meant I immediately registered for spin class the next day because damn, I had missed that workout). My ankle still gives me trouble from time to time, and I think it’ll always be a little tender and easy to fracture, but as long as I stay off hiking trails, I should be A-OK.
2) Trying some new breakfast restaurants. And I loved each and every one! For me, trying new restaurants can be anxiety-inducing and I think it’s due to my social anxiety, which is something I might elaborate on in a future post. But I tried some new restaurants this month, two with my mom and one with my girlfriends, and they were all so delicious. First, my mom and I went to The Brunchery in Brandon after she ran a 5k race and we loved it. Not only was the food delicious, but the service was phenomenal as it was a small, local restaurant where the entire staff worked together as one unit. So, one person brought us menus and took our drink order after we were seated. Another took our food order and brought us our food. A different person cleaned our table. Yet another one brought us the check. It was so out of the ordinary, but made for a super smooth and seamless dining experience. I can’t wait to go back!
I also went to 2nd and Second with my girlfriends, a new 24-hour diner that opened in downtown St. Pete. I got the chocolate chip French toast and then proceeded to eat all of my friend’s home fries, oops. The food was great, though, and the atmosphere so much fun.
Lastly, my mom and I tried out this cute diner in Largo called Speggtacular. The name leaves something to be desired, but we were pleasantly surprised by how good our chocolate chip pancakes were! Super light and fluffy with just the right amount of chocolate chips. And they have fun iced coffee flavors to try, so I will definitely be back.
3) Game night with my girls. For book club this month, we decided to get together for game night and it might have been one of my favorite book club meetings to date. We ordered pizza, one friend made her “famous” salad, and three of us brought dessert. So, I did not go home hungry that night, that’s for sure. And just being with all my girls and playing fun games was exactly what my heart needed.
4) Finally making progress on my novel. Over the past two weeks, I’ve written almost 4,000 words in my novel and I’m finally making some forward progress after being totally stalled for most of this year. Obviously, there wasn’t much creative writing happening in February after Dutch died, although I still met up with my friend M. on a weekly basis. I just wasn’t doing much writing. One time, I literally just spent two hours reorganizing my Google Drive. But these last two writing dates have gone so much better and the words have been flying out of my head and onto my WIP. I’m feeling inspired again and that feels awesome.
5) Instagram Story templates. I’m sure you’ve seen these fun templates all over Instagram Stories, and I’m sorry not sorry that they are my new favorite thing. I have probably 30+ saved to my phone and once a day, I just pick a couple and complete them on Instagram Stories. They’re silly, but fun, and we all need a little bit of that in our lives these days, don’t you think?
6) House-sitting for a pair of beagles. My mom’s coworker was in a pinch and needed a dog-sitter for his two beagles for one night and I was happy to help out! The dogs were all sorts of lovable and fun and it was a pretty easy “job” for a night. We went on a nice long walk and then they ate dinner and played in the backyard before coming inside to snuggle me. They also slept with me in the guest room and while I didn’t have a ton of room for my legs, ha, it was just fine because one of the beagles spooned me all night long and I didn’t realize how much I needed that. Dogs just know it seems. I must say, though, walking two beagles is no joke. They were fast and furious with their noses to the ground the entire walk. So much different from walking a geriatric dachshund, ha!
But even as nice as it was to be around dogs, it also made me miss Dutch so, so much. It was all the little things like walking him, having something following me all around the house, all of the adoration and attention, the nighttime snuggling. I miss it so much and I just wish my buddy was here with me. Sigh. Grief is such a winding round, isn’t it?
7) Implementing a new skincare routine. I’m really lazy about washing my face, which isn’t a great thing since I don’t have perfect skin and my face actually needs a lot of help. I scrub my makeup off every day with a wipe, but actually doing the whole skincare regime thing? Nope. Inspired by this post, I decided to start implementing a morning and nighttime skincare regime to hopefully counteract some of the problems I experience (redness, oily face, breakouts, etc.) with my skin. I’m using a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer twice a day, and it feels good to take care of my face for the first time ever. Now, let’s see if I can keep it up! (Also, if you have a skincare product that you feel worked like magic for you, let me know! I’m on the hunt.)
8) Learning how to trim my own bangs. I’ve had bangs for just about three years now and most times, I stop by my salon for a quick bang trim. Usually, they don’t charge me, but I still have to tip the stylist and then there’s the hassle of making an appointment and finding time to go to the salon. I just didn’t want to do it anymore, so I invested in a bang-trimming kit (although, really, all I needed was the scissors) and set to work watching all of the YouTube videos I could find to learn the proper way to trim my bangs. It was actually much less scary than I anticipated and I wound up doing an okay job my first time around. My bangs were (mostly) straight and not too short, so I consider it a win and now I’m glad I can just trim my bangs myself whenever they need it (which is often because my hair grows so damn fast!)
9) Getting through Dutch’s birthday without too many tears. Dutch would have turned 16 on March 2nd, and celebrating his birthday without him hit me harder than I expected. I tried to give myself a lot of grace to be as sad as I needed to be and boy, did I live up to that. But I got through it! I survived! And I don’t feel like I’m drowning in my grief like I was just a few weeks ago. Progress!
10) Jim Gaffigan comedy specials. My mom and brother love Jim Gaffigan and quote him all the time, but I’ve actually never seen one of his comedy specials until this month! He has a bunch on Netflix and I watched two of them that made me realize that Jim Gaffigan may be my spirit animal in comedian form. He’s fantastic and so damn funny.
What was a bright moment of March for you?
We watched Jim G’s new special on Netflix and we laughed so much!! I should watch his old ones. I didn’t realize I would like him so much.
Hooray for being cleared for exercise. Those pesky fractures can take so freaking long to heal!
It’s easy to pick my bright spot – the birth of sweet baby Paul! I will say that March was the longest, shortest month. It’s kind of crazy that he’s been in our lives for a month already but at the same time, my c section feels like sooo long ago!
Jim Gaffigan is FANTASTIC. And I like that he’s a clean comic. So many comics rely on vulgarity and I’m not about that.
I can’t believe it’s already been over a month since you gave birth! Whoa – that went by fast!
My book club alternates doing a social and reading a book each month, which is pretty fun. We’ve done movie nights and group outings to a wine and desert place and dinner and all sorts of fun and different things. It’s nice to mix it up every now and then and I’m loving my book club ladies every time we get together.
I’m also trying to be better about skin care. I’m just not as consistent as I’d like to be, but I really am trying to be better.
That sounds like so much fun! My book club likes to do something fun each month. Some months, we’re all too busy to make it happen, but every other month or so, we get to do something more social than the normal dinner date. I love it!
I love trying new breakfast places! I am glad you found some new favorites! 🙂
Keeping up a skin care routine can be hard, but it’s all about getting into the habit and then just keep doing it. One of my favorite skin care investments has been the Clarisonic brush. I’ve had it for a few years (and yes, it was an investment), but I really feel it cleans my skin extra well and prepares it for skin care products.
My latest obsession in skin care products is the Truth Serum that I mentioned in my last Favorites post.
Yes! I use a Clarisonic, too, and I do really love the way it makes my skin feel after using it. I just have to get better at making my skin care routine a habit and not slacking on the days I’m too tired to go through the whole routine.