Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Monthly Review | May 2026

I’m revamping my monthly review format! I felt that it was time for a change.

May: The Quick Snapshot

  • Title of the month: The Introverted Social Butterfly
  • Weather notes: Hot, humid, and not enough rain. We did get a few of those delightful afternoon thunderstorms that I love so much, but we’re currently in a severe drought and things are dire.
  • Mood: Mostly upbeat. My anxiety remained stable, and I’d give my mood an 8 out of 10!

The Best Parts of May

  • Two book clubs – We kicked off the month with a delayed April book club, where we went out on a friend’s boat and then spent time floating in her pool. Later, her husband made delicious smash burger tacos that hit the spot. At the end of the month, we had May book club! This time, we went out for Greek food, did an escape room, and ended the night at a brewery.
  • Visiting Grandma – On Grandma’s birthday (May 3), my mom and I took flowers to her gravesite. It’s nice to have a place to “visit” her and mark these occasions with something special.
  • Volunteering with Feeding Tampa Bay – My mom and I really enjoy volunteering with Feeding Tampa Bay! This was our third time, and it’s something we would like to do on an annual basis.
  • Organizing projects – I spent a lot of time this month working on different organizational projects around my apartment! I already talked about The Great Reorganizational Project of 2026. I also reorganized the junk drawer in my kitchen and pared down my wardrobe a bit.
  • Mother’s Day – We went to brunch and then painted pottery. My little sign came out so well! It was a great day, and I hope my mom felt how loved she is.
  • Meeting Caro Claire Burke! – I had a great time at the Yesteryear book event and fell even more in love with Caro Claire Burke. She is such a delight and I love the way her mind works.
  • A night out – It was a lot of fun to spend Friday night with friends! Even better is that I didn’t have to worry about driving/parking because Bri’s husband was our chauffer for the evening! We went to dinner first, where we enjoyed the hell out of a chicken tender tower as an appetizer, and then we went to see the musical Six! Afterward, we got ice cream. It was the perfect evening.
  • Giving a presentation on the Enneagram! – I was so nervous about this! But I had such a fun time putting together the deck and talking about the Enneagram in our meeting. It would be a dream to be able to do more of these presentations, delving into other aspects of the Enneagram or even just personality frameworks as a whole. We’ll see!
  • A dog’s birthday party – I do want to make fun of my brother for hosting birthday parties for his dogs (when he was adamant that my cats did not need presents for Christmas… a stance he held until he got dogs and realized that yes, they are part of our family!), but I can’t because I love it so much. Moose turned two, and they were also celebrating his “gotcha” day, and I loved watching the dogs go crazy at a local dog water park!
  • Chip and Lucy time – I got lots of great time with my favorite doggos at the end of May. There was Memorial Day, where we enjoyed some good pool time and the dogs had fun floating on the raft (and sometimes getting in the water). And then, we also took them to the monthly Tampa Bay Weens meet-up. Lucy wasn’t the only dachshund who didn’t want to leave our side, but we’re hoping she’ll slowly start to come out of her shell the more she’s exposed to social environments. Chip would run away to sniff some butts and then come back to us, repeating the cycle over and over again.
  • Winning a culture award at work – This was so validating for me, and as a Words of Affirmations gal, it definitely filled up the part of my soul that craves recognition for my hard work. And I got a $100 gift card to any place I wanted so I chose… Barnes & Noble. Muahaha! MORE BOOKS FOR MEEEEE.

The Hard Parts of May

  • Starting injections – I’m still not quite where I need to be with my psoriatic arthritis treatment. It can be frustrating, especially since it means I’ve been on steroids for four months now. The wait-and-see approach is a difficult one. After my last appointment with my rheumatologist, we decided to start injections. I’m happy to report that giving myself an injection isn’t difficult (the needle is very thin), and I’m hoping to start weaning myself off steroids next week with the blessing of my doctor.
  • Bloodwork numbers – It probably was a bad idea to get bloodwork done for my PCP while I’m still taking steroids and my PsA isn’t fully under control, but I did and the numbers weren’t pretty. My A1C is back to diabetic range, and my cholesterol is high. Some of this could be due to being on steroids and still having some inflammation issues, so we’re going to retest everything once I’m fully weaned off the meds.
  • Therapy – Oh, these therapy appointments. They take everything out of me. This isn’t my first rodeo in therapy, but I’ve never had a therapist who can dig so deep and make me feel so much. She is exactly the therapist I need right now.

Favorites of May

  • Favorite show: Brooklyn 99 (I’m starting my fourth rewatch, no regrets)
  • Favorite podcast: Shelf Respect (I caved, and became a Patreon supporter)
  • Favorite meal: Probably those smash burger tacos at book club
  • Favorite cat moment: The girls asking for their “medication” every morning
  • Favorite purchase: My Oura ring (of course, they come out with the fifth generation mere weeks after I ordered the fourth generation!)
  • Favorite ordinary moment: Laughing in the car with my mom on our way to trivia <3
  • Favorite decision I made: To start grocery shopping twice a week, which has been a wonderful new routine for me
  • Favorite thing I learned: How to stop ants from getting into my cats’ wet food bowls! (The trick is to put an elevated food bowl inside another food bowl, which has a shallow layer of water. The ants don’t want to cross the water barrier!)

Looking Ahead to June

  • One thing I’m looking forward to: Our book club trip at the end of the month
  • One yearly goal I want to work toward: Catching up on my goal to watch one TV show/movie and listen to one new album every month
  • One big hope for the month: That I can finally wean off steroids
  • Something I want more of: Movement
  • Something I want less of: Staying up late

What was a highlight of May for you? Any lessons learned?

Categories: Life

Time Logging | May 2026

I spent last week time logging! I’ve done this in the past (2022, 2023, and 2024). I skipped last year, but I was influenced by SHU and Kae to try my hand at it again this year.

In the past, I’ve used a spreadsheet with each day broken into 15-minute increments, which is exceedingly tedious, and tallying everything up at the end of the week takes a while. This time around, I used the Toggl app to keep track, and it went so much better. While it was still a bit tedious to start and stop a timer when I did any activity (or try to remember how long I spent on a specific activity if I forgot to start a timer), it was really nice that the app does all the math for you! I still wanted to break things down by day so I could look at trends, but it was a lot easier to just pull the time from my Toggl app.

As always, time logging can be a bit difficult because it’s not often that we’re only doing one thing. For example, when I’m eating dinner, I’m usually also watching TV and coloring. When I’m on the phone with my mom, I might also be working. When I’m working through my morning routine, I’m also doing chores like tidying and emptying the dishwasher. I went with the primary activity in those instances.

Another thing I changed is that I removed working and sleeping hours entirely. For me, I’m more interested in how much free time I really have. How much time do I spend on chores in a given week vs blogging vs podcast duties? I am not someone who struggles with work/life balance, and I tend to get 7ish hours of sleep a night, so I’m not too concerned with how I’m spending that time.

So, with all of those disclaimers, let’s get into how I spent my free time last week!

Social (22% – 17 hours, 38 minutes)

Social events took up the majority of my week, and that’s because I had a much busier week than usual! I had dinner and a book event with Lynn on Wednesday, dinner and a show with friends on Friday, a long afternoon spent with my mom on Saturday, and a writing date on Sunday (which is half-social, half-novel writing). Typically, I’d probably have maybe 1-2 social events in a week.

In 2022 and 2023, my social time was much lower (by more than half!), but we were also not fully out of pandemic life, so that makes sense. In 2024, my social hours looked similar to this year, so I guess I chose another socially heavy week to document!

Cooking/Eating (10% – 7 hours, 47 minutes)

Who knew I spent so much time cooking and eating? Or maybe just under 8 hours isn’t a lot, especially for those with children, ha. This is on par with 2022 and 2023 numbers, although 2025 was a lot lower.

The days I spent the most time cooking/eating were Monday and Thursday, and that’s because I actually cooked a meal for dinner. My lowest was Friday because I had to scarf down lunch between meetings, and then my dinner was tied into social time.

Chores (9% – 6 hours, 49 minutes)

I combined cleaning tasks as well as regular tidying and organizational tasks into one big chores category. I also built my new 16-cube shelf this week, and counted that towards chores. Four out of the seven days, I spent over an hour doing chores (my highest-spend day was Tuesday at 1 hour, 44 minutes). Friday and Saturday were the days I spent the least time on chores, likely because I was much more social on those days.

This time is way, way, way above what I logged in previous years. Did I even clean my apartment then?!

Phone (8% – 6 hours, 35 minutes)

You know, I’m pretty pleased with this number! This is less than an hour a day on my phone, and that time is way down from the previous years (in 2023 and 2024, it was over 10 hours!). Phone time mainly comprises playing games (I’m a sucker for the NYT games and Happy Color), scrolling Instagram (I have a 30-minute time limit, and don’t go on the app every day), and sometimes online shopping. Granted, my screen time is much higher than this because I use my phone while watching TV or in short increments as I switch between tasks at work, which I didn’t factor in. But all in all, I’m happy my overall time spent solely on my phone has decreased dramatically.

Naps (6% – 4 hours, 56 minutes)

This is another category where my time spent went way down! I took three naps this week – one on Monday when I was feeling crummy and just needed to get away from my desk for a bit, one on Friday, and one on Sunday. The Sunday nap was the longest of them all (just over two hours), but the other naps were shorter than 90 minutes. This may seem like long naps to some of you, but trust me that this is a massive improvement. I used to have to set an alarm to make sure I didn’t nap for 4+ hours (and I can see from my time log that my weekend naps in previous years were 4 hours or longer). Now I am usually good after an hour or so, and don’t even need to set an alarm to wake up!

Reading (6% – 4 hours, 26 minutes)

I didn’t spend a ton of time reading this week, probably because my week was so busy and so was my weekend. It amounts to just over 30 minutes of reading time each day, which is usually how long I try to read every weekday, with longer reading bursts on the weekend (although I read less this weekend than usual). My biggest reading days were Monday and Tuesday (1 hour and 1 hour, 4 minutes respectively), and my lowest was Saturday (22 minutes). Audiobook listening time isn’t added to this total since I listen while doing other things.

This reading percentage follows a trend in my other time tracking logs—every year, my reading time lessens. In 2022, I spent 9.5 hours reading. In 2023, it was down by two hours to 7.5 hours of reading. And in 2024, it was down another two hours to 5.5 hours of reading. I mean, at least I only went down by an hour this year, but damn. Every year, I seem to finish fewer and fewer books, and I can see right here why that may be.

Morning Routine (5% – 3 hours, 35 minutes)

My morning routine this week was a little messed up, as I skipped it completely on two days (Monday and Saturday). Oops! And then two of the other days, my morning routine was over an hour long because I did the whole shebang—shower, morning routine, drying hair, styling hair, doing make-up, etc. My morning routine also includes things like making the bed, starting a load of laundry, emptying the dishwasher, taking my meds, etc., so some of this falls into chores/life admin, but it’s all grouped as one event.

Podcast (4% – 3 hours, 32 minutes)

I don’t spend 3.5 hours every week on podcast stuff, but this was a recording week, so it was busier than usual. This time comprises building out an outline, filling out two outlines for episodes, and the act of recording the episodes themselves. We recorded two episodes this week, which took just under two hours. Some weeks, I might spend maybe 15-20 minutes at most to create Instagram graphics. There is more I should be doing for the podcast on the weeks we’re not recording, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Mom FaceTime (4% – 3 hours, 29 minutes)

Honestly, this is probably a lot higher, but sometimes I chat with my mom while I’m working or doing other tasks, so I didn’t include those phone calls in my time log. This number is down from 2022 and 2023, but much higher than 2024. Our highest FaceTime day was Wednesday (58 minutes), and we did have a goose egg on Saturday (but that’s just because I spent five hours hanging out with her that day, ha).

TV/Coloring (4% – 3 hours, 4 minutes)

This is a new category for my time log, and it’s not a pretty one. What I do is I sit down with lunch or dinner and put on a TV show. When I’m done eating, I transition to coloring, and sometimes I will continue watching shows because I just don’t want to stop coloring. Is it a bad habit? I don’t know. It’s soothing and a little creative and fun. But it definitely cuts into the time I could be spending doing other things. My highest-spent days were Tuesday and Sunday, where I spent almost an hour coloring while watching TV.

Blogging (3% – 2 hours, 38 minutes)

This comprises four posts I wrote start-to-finish: my Wednesday post on my beige flags, my Friday TGIF post, my One Photo a Day post on Saturday, and then my Monday reading post. That averages out to spending around 40 minutes per blog post, although the photo post definitely takes less time to write. That post only took me 15 minutes, so when we take it out of the equation, it’s around 48 minutes per post. Almost an hour to write a blog post! And those were pretty easy blog posts that didn’t require a ton of editing, inserting extra photos, etc.

Reading Blogs (3% – 2 hours, 33 minutes)

I am perpetually behind on my blog reading, and that’s because I just do not devote the amount of time necessary to keep up with my feed. There were two days when I spent less than 15 minutes reading blogs, and then one day when I spent nearly an hour, and I didn’t seem to make a dent in the number of unread posts. I’m just going to be forever behind on commenting, and I hope that’s okay.

Evening Routine (3% – 2 hours, 22 minutes)

When I do my full evening routine, it can take 20-30 minutes, depending on how tired I am. But I don’t always do my full evening routine. I try to do some of it (the most important pieces like brushing my teeth and tidying up my home), but I’ll usually skip most of the skincare routine and some of the more life admin tasks like filling in my One Line a Day journal and checking on my daily goals.

Novel (3% – 2 hours, 16 minutes)

I am slowly plugging away at my novel. During my writing date, I spent 1 hour, 22 minutes writing, and then spent about an hour the rest of the week working on my story. It’s not a lot, but on a busy week where I had lots of podcast work to do, I’m happy with that!

Errands (3% – 1 hour, 58 minutes)

Some of this was grocery shopping, some of this was dealing with stupid adulting tasks like Amazon returns, and some of this was driving around to and from said errands. This total is lower than how much time I spent running errands in 2022 and 2023, but much higher than in 2024. Likely, there are just some weeks where I spend more time running errands than other weeks. (Captain Obvious over here.)

Driving (2% – 1 hour, 56 minutes)

I did a lot more driving than this, but a lot of times, I categorized that as “social” (for example, driving to an event) or errands, if I was driving to the grocery store or something like that. But some of this drive time didn’t have a specific category, so I threw it in its own category. I could probably combine this with errands if I wanted to be more pedantic about it.

Medical (2% – 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Oh man. I didn’t even have a medical category in 2022 or 2023, but it showed up on my 2024 time log thanks to annoying sciatica pain. And now it’s just a normal part of my week. I had to get bloodwork done, had to give myself my first injection (!), and spent far too much time asking ChatGPT why I’m suddenly so hot all the time and what I can do to help with relentless heartburn. Having a chronic inflammatory condition is fun!

Getting Ready (2% – 1 hours, 23 minutes)

How does getting ready differ from my morning routine? Sometimes, it does happen in the morning (like it did on Saturday), but more often than not, this is when I’m getting ready for some sort of social time. I spent a few minutes primping before meeting up with Lynn on Wednesday, and a much longer time getting ready for my dinner-and-a-show date on Friday. That one took over an hour.

Life Admin (1% – 1 hour, 5 minutes)

I was really curious about my life admin category, and I really thought I spent more time on it any given week! This category includes setting up my weekly budget, reviewing my goals, setting up the new weekly spread in my planner, etc. So I guess all of this doesn’t take as much time as I thought!

This post is getting long enough, so I’ll save all of my insights for another post. For now, I have a good idea of how I’m spending my free time and can now look to how to better optimize it for my life.

What do you think would be your highest category (minus work/sleep) if you logged your time?

Categories: Life

Monthly Review | April 2026

WATCHED

  • New Girl, season 3 – Unpopular opinion alert? I’m not a huge fan of New Girl. I’m going to move on to something else. It’s fine, but the humor just doesn’t work for me.
  • RuPaul’s Drag Race, season 1 – I’m committed to watching all of the seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race, after watching the most recent season last year. It was a rough first season, but I can see the little glimmers of what RuPaul made the show into today.
  • Friends, season 5 – I totally forgot that Rachel and Ross got married in Vegas at the end of season 5. My Friends knowledge is severely lacking!
  • The Greatest Showman (HBO) – I started this movie on a whim on a Friday night. I had scrolled through Peacock and Hulu, and none of their movie options were calling to me. So I pulled up HBO, and this was one of the first movies that popped up. I’ve never seen it! It was excellent, and I had the songs stuck in my head for days.
  • Project Hail Mary – Ryan Gosling 4ever. This movie was everything I wanted it to be, and then some. I enjoyed the humor, the science, the score. Everything was perfection!

LISTENED TO

  • Noble Blood (podcast) – I have a whole bunch of podcasts that I want to listen to, except I have a completionist personality, so I always want to start from the very beginning and listen to every single episode (or most of them). So that’s what I’m doing with Noble Blood, which has over 280 episodes in its queue. Luckily, the episodes are short, so I try to listen to a few at a time. I really love the setup of this podcast, where host Dana Schwartz walks you through a fascinating tale about a royal from history. There’s a lot of tragedy in the noble line! Each episode almost feels like a vignette, and Dana’s soothing voice brings me right into the story.
  • Chappell Roan, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess (album) – Chappell Roan’s album came out in 2023, and this is the first time I’m giving it a listen. I like it, but don’t love it. Favorite songs: Femininomenon, After Midnight, HOT TO GO!, and My Kink is Karma.

BOUGHT

  • Throw pillows – I’ve been on the hunt for new throw pillows for my couch, and I found the perfect ones at Home Goods. While they weren’t cheap ($25 per pillow), I couldn’t help myself. They feel like relaxing on a cloud!
  • Planner notepad/habit tracker – I used my expensive planner for a good 3 months before I gave it up for something else. Now, I’m using this planner pad to write out my weekly to-dos and get an idea of my week at a glance. I also bought a habit tracker so I can check things off throughout the month, which has been very satisfying.
  • Keurig – I mentioned this in a previous post, but my beloved Keurig broke last month, and I didn’t waste any time ordering a new one. I can’t live without my coffee!

LOVED

  • My reading retreat – My reading retreat was everything I hoped it would be! I am so glad I gave myself the gift of a reading retreat, and it will definitely become an annual tradition for me.
  • Our reading crawl – My friends and I met up for a reading crawl downtown, where we visited multiple bookstores and clocked 2.5 hours of reading time total. There was also a lot of chit-chat involved, don’t you worry!
  • A peaceful mom – My mom is thriving. She is making her house her own, enjoying the quiet, and seems to have more energy and pep in her step. When I told her I noticed a difference in her, she said that what she felt most was peace. And I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.

LOATHED

  • Steroid side effects – The side effects from being on prednisone for three months started to take their toll. I’m dealing with puffiness, heartburn, overheating… I’m very much ready to wean off the steroids, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet with my pain management. All in due time.
  • A ripped reading chair – Oh, my beloved reading chair! It ripped one evening, and I was so disappointed! Thankfully, my sewing wizard Mikaela was able to sew it up for me, and I was delighted to have my baby back.
  • Grief – The saddest part of the month was saying goodbye to a dear friend’s beloved dog. This came as a surprise, as she found out on the last day of March that her dog had cancer, and within a few weeks, she knew it was time to let him go. My heart is so broken.

SUPERLATIVES

  • This month’s chapter title: Booked & Busy
  • Weather notes: It’s hot. It’s going to get hotter. I’m trying to prepare myself.
  • Favorite meal/snack: I nearly devoured an entire large pizza by myself from my favorite local pizza place one evening (I’m blaming that intense steroid hunger because I am not someone who can do that ever!)
  • Something I learned: I’m learning a lot about codependency in therapy. Specifically with my mom and the intense fear I have of failing her as a daughter. (There’s a lot more I can say on this topic, and maybe someday I will. Right now, there’s been a lot of excavating emotions during therapy.)
  • An unexpected delight: A full belly laugh during game night that came with tears, wheezing for breath, and aching ribs. Nothing like it!

What’s something you watched in April?

Categories: Life

Monthly Review | March 2026

WATCHED

  • The Traitors UK, season 4 – There is always something special about a new Traitors UK season! Claudia 4ever. Season 4 may go down as one of the best seasons of Traitors UK in my mind. It was so good!
  • Survivor: San Juan del Sur (season 29) – I’m continuing to jump around and watch previous seasons of Survivor. I decided to watch this season because many people cite the winner as their all-time favorite. I was happy with the winner, but I don’t think they were my favorite.

In progress: New Girl season 3, Friends season 5, RuPaul’s Drag Race season 1, Survivor 50

LISTENED TO

  • Benson Boone, American Heart (music) – Bri loves Benson Boone so I decided to listen to his latest album to see what all the fuss is about. And now I understand! This album is pure fun and such a bop. Favorites: Mystical Magical, Mr. Electric Blue, and Man In Me.
  • Curse of: America’s Next Top Model (podcast) – I was never a devoted fan of America’s Next Top Model (I watched a few seasons, but fell off pretty quickly), but someone posted about this podcast in a forum I follow, so I gave it a try. Apparently, there’s also a documentary on one of the streaming services, but I’m bad at watching TV (see above!), so I downloaded the podcast and inhaled the 10-episode series. From really exploitative contracts to the way a trans woman’s storyline was handled to the angry Black woman trope (<– which feels more insidious considering a Black woman was at the helm of this show), it’s appalling. This podcast series is well-organized, well-researched, and super eye-opening.
  • Sarahjane Case on Sarah’s Bookshelves Live (podcast) – I loved this episode about reading and the Enneagram with Sarahjane Case. Sarahjane is one of my favorite Enneagram experts and I felt very seen while listening to this episode, and it helped me understand my own reading habits better!

BOUGHT

  • Cat tower – I wanted a cat tower I could slot into the space between my desk and my closet, and this one fits more perfectly than I could have imagined! There’s a big bed at the top, two caves for the girls to hide in, and even a hammock that Lila may use at some point. And the cats are using it, which is even better.
  • Dining room table – I love my new dining room table so much! It’s a different color, a different shape, and a different style than my other one, and it makes me so happy!
  • Outdoor couch – Eloise and I are having a blast on our new outdoor couch. (Lila is still a bit apprehensive about the patio.) It’s so cute, fits the space perfectly, and is a sheer delight to relax and read on it.

LOVED

  • Bri’s play – I loved attending Bri’s play and seeing her perform on the stage! It was a local community theater, so everyone on the stage was a volunteer. You have to love theater to put so much time and effort into something you’re not getting paid to do, you know?! It was a great time, and Bri did amazing. (And so did her husband, Sean! It was a surprise to many people that he was cast in the play, which was really fun.)
  • Starting to see some gradual symptom improvement – We’re still in the “wait and see” phase of my psoriatic arthritis treatment (tomorrow, I’ll start week 7!), but I’m beginning to see very gradual symptom improvement. My two problem areas (my left shoulder and my left ring finger) are still flaring, but the intensity has dialed down a bit. My inflammation markers have improved, but I still need prednisone to get through the day. Here’s hoping I see a big change in how I’m feeling by the end of April!
  • A return to therapy – I go in waves with therapy. I don’t need it 100% of the time, but when I do, it makes a big difference. I re-started therapy with someone new in March, and I really liked her! She was easy to talk to, and we set up recurring appointments every other Tuesday.

LOATHED

  • Getting sick – It’s no fun being sick! But at least I was able to rest as much as I wanted, and could even take a sick day without it affecting my workload too much. And it only lasted a few days, so I don’t really have that much to complain about.
  • An impending change to our family – It’s been a big month behind the scenes, as my mom and her husband have decided to divorce, and he has moved out of the house. (She’s keeping the house and the dogs!) Since this is not my story to tell, I’ll leave it at that.
  • Lila’s vet appointment – There were some good things about Lila’s vet appointment, mainly that her bloodwork came back fine. But her body condition score was a 9 out of 9 and she gained another pound, putting her at a very chonky 17 lbs. It’s time to really get serious about cutting down her treats and food.

SUPERLATIVES

  • This month’s chapter title: The Turning Point
  • Weather notes: Mostly hot with a few “cool” fronts that gave us that last gasp of nice weather before everything falls apart. Oh, and the pollen levels are EXTREME. Gah!
  • Favorite meal/snack: Shepherd’s pie. One of my favorite meals, and I devoured this at a restaurant last month!
  • Something I learned: That Fed-Ex has no obligation to leave a package at your doorstep if you live in an apartment! They can just leave a 100-lb package at the foot of the stairs and it’s your responsibility to lug it up four flights. (Yes, I’m still annoyed by this. Yes, I should move on already.)
  • An unexpected delight: Getting to spend some time with my fur-niece and -nephew on a random Saturday afternoon! They were adorable and goofy and so lovable.

What’s something you loved in March?

Categories: Life

Monthly Review | February 2026

WATCHED

  • Survivor: Cook Islands, season 13 – I’m slowly working my way through past seasons of Survivor (I only started watching with season 41!), and this one had an insane premise: they separated the contestants into four tribes based on their ethnic groups (white, Asian, Black, and Hispanic). This season was released in the fall of 2006. A different time, to be sure!
  • The Traitors US, season 4 – What a satisfying season of The Traitors! This is why I watch and love this show so much.
  • The Amazing Race, season 8 – I’m also slowly working my way through past seasons of The Amazing Race, so I decided it was time to watch season 8. BJ + Tyler 4 ever!

In progress: Survivor 50, The Traitors UK (season 4)

LISTENED TO

  • The Man in the Window (podcast) – This podcast is about the Golden State Killer, and it is creepy. I have not read I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, which is a true-crime book based on this serial killer, but the podcast was a great listen. (I could only listen during the daytime, though, ha. I’m such a wimp!)
  • Shelf Respect (podcast) – I’m so happy that this show is no longer fully behind a paywall. While I believe in paying creators for their work, things get a little dicey for one’s finances when it seems like every podcast now has a Patreon subscription. I already subscribe to a handful of podcast Patreons, and couldn’t justify adding another one to my list at the time. But now, they’re releasing two free episodes every month, and I couldn’t be happier!

BOUGHT

  • Office chair – This office chair was a long time coming, and I am so happy with it! I love that it’s pink, it glides so easily, and it’s comfortable. Eloise is less pleased with this office chair because there isn’t enough room for her to sit when I’m in it. Parenting fail, I guess.
  • End table – Sometime in February, I became obsessed with the idea that I needed an end table for my living room. I couldn’t stop thinking about how nice it would really tie my living room together, and so I found this end table, and I love it. It was super easy to put together, too!
  • Lamp – I love this lamp! I found it at Target. It’s so cute!

LOVED

  • Our Super Bowl party – While the game itself was a snoozefest, we had a great Super Bowl party! It’s a small event – just my mom, my brother, my nephews, and me – but we had plenty of food to keep us busy! I thought the halftime show was incredible, and it was especially sweet to watch it with my nephews, who are half-Puerto Rican.
  • Trivia nights – My mom and I started attending trivia on Wednesday nights. It’s just the two of us and our general knowledge is, ahem, not as thorough as it should be to win at trivia, but mostly, we’re there to have fun and laugh at ourselves.
  • Galentine’s Day – I had the best Galentine’s Day! My mom, Bri, and I went out for dinner, and then we saw & Juliet at the Straz. It was an amazing show. I didn’t expect to be so moved by it!

LOATHED

  • Joint pain – While I started on long-term medication for psoriatic arthritis in February, it’s going to take some time to see any sort of improvement. And even then, it might not be a strong enough dose to provide the relief I need! So I am in this trial period of figuring out the right meds and the right dose for my PsA, and I need to be patient. I’m still having joint pain (my left shoulder, my left ring finger, and my hips from time to time), and I’m still taking prednisone, which keeps the intense symptoms at bay. This is a slow process, though, and I’m trying to accept that.
  • Other medical ailments – After getting bloodwork and X-rays done, my rheumatologist noted a few “extra” ailments I need to speak to my primary doc about (enlarged heart, possible Hashimoto’s diagnosis, and high thyroid levels). I don’t have the energy to deal with anything else, so I haven’t made an appointment yet.
  • My eating habits – I first wrote “bad eating habits” and then realized I had just read a book about body image and not moralizing our food choices! See? My mind can still slip into fatphobia, even though I’ve been on an anti-diet culture/fat acceptance journey for a decade. What I want to say here is that I haven’t been nourishing myself in a way that makes me feel good. I really want to focus on hydration and getting more fruits and veggies into my days.

SUPERLATIVES

  • This month’s chapter title: Let’s Make This House a Home
  • Weather notes: It was pretty nice around here! We had some super cold (for Florida) days where my car even had a snowflake next to the temperature! And then we had some really nice, warm days in the 70s. It makes me excited for spring and wanting to spend some time at my pool!
  • Favorite meal/snack: Girl Scout cookies!
  • Something I learned: I was curious why Chip (my fur-brother) seems to delight in chewing holes in blankets. Is this anxiety or a nervous tic? According to ChatGPT, it’s a self-soothing behavior. It makes him feel calm, and it’s part of his relaxation routine. I told my mom that it’s a great business idea, though. Ever felt too hot while under a blanket, but then when you remove the blanket, you’re cold again? INTRODUCING… The Chip Blanket! With strategically placed holes, you’ll never be too hot OR too cold! 😉
  • An unexpected delight: A wonderful present from Kim out of the blue! It was so thoughtful!

What chapter title would you give to February? What’s something you loved this month?