Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | July 2024

Books

In July, I read 8 books. My favorite was This Spells Love by Kate Robb and my least favorite was What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall. Some other stats:

  • 88% fiction, 12% nonfiction
  • 3 print, 2 e-books, 3 audiobooks
  • 3.9 average star rating
  • 12% diverse
  • Abandoned books: 3 (The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict, God Spare the Girls by Kelsey McKinney, and Family Family by Laurie Frankel)

This Spells Love by Kate Robb (print, owned)  ★★★★★ | The Last Chance Library by Freya Sampson (audiobook, library) ★★★★☆ | Five Little Pigs by Agatha Christie (print, owned) ★★★☆☆ | Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert (e-book, library) ★★★☆☆ | Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection by Charles Duhigg (audiobook, Spotify) ★★★★★ | Part of Your World by Abby Jimenez (e-book, library) ★★★★★ | What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (audiobook, library) ★★☆☆☆ | The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (print, owned) ★★★★☆

Media

  • Big Brother – It’s summertime so I am all about Big Brother once again! I am loving this season so far. It’s been delightfully messy with lots of complex houseguests—and there’s even a local guy on the show, so that’s been fun!
  • The Paris Olympics – Like the rest of the world, I’ve been enjoying the Paris Olympics! I have been deeply invested in gymnastics and it’s been really fun to watch Simone do her thing. Mostly, I’ve been watching the primetime coverage on Peacock, although every now and then I’ll turn on a random sport to watch (like women’s rugby). And now it’s track and field’s time to shine, and I am really enjoying watching those races!
  • Survivor: Tocantins – I’m trying to watch older seasons of Survivor to familiarize myself with people and storylines that are still talked about today. I decided on Tocantins (which is season 18 and released in 2009) because one of my favorite current Survivor podcast co-hosts, Stephen Fishbach, was on that season and it was so much fun to watch him play!
  • Two Guys, Five Rings (podcast) – This has been a pretty fun podcast to listen to! It’s hosted by Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers and talks about all different Olympics topics. It was a little more active before the Olympics surprisingly, but has a fun, light-hearted feel.

On The Friendship Paradox, we came back from our summer break with three great episodes in July. We released episodes about the Predictive Index Assessment, subtypes of the enneagram, and how personality plays into our food choices.

Buying

  • Cordless vacuum ($100) – This purchase was so worth breaking my No-Spend July rules. I am so happy with it! It’s so nice to be able to zoom around my apartment with it and collect all of the cat hair and dirt that accumulates in my little apartment.
  • Can opener ($8) – A boring purchase but when my can opener broke near the end of No-Spend July, I immediately purchased a new one on Amazon. I really like it – and I got it in a fun color (pink).

Moments

In July, I met up with two friends twice for hair color night! The three of us have been going to the same (very expensive) salon for many years and it’s time to start cutting back on expenses, so we decided to learn how to color each other’s hair. It’s been so fun! Our first time around, we messed up so many things. We didn’t have a proper cape to protect K’s clothes, we only had one pair of gloves to use between two of us (so we left with very stained hands and arms!), we didn’t have clips to keep hair separated. We had a lot of learning to do, but judging from the photo above, we had a lot of fun doing it! Plus, K’s hair came out great and I might have a new future as a hair stylist? We decided that my name would be the Silent Stylist because you could come to me and just read your book while I colored your hair. Ha! I am hoping to get my hair colored at our new “salon” this month, so hopefully it goes just as well!

I love this picture of the three of us! For my mom’s birthday, we went to The Candle Pour to make candles (I made a coffee-scented candle that smells divine) and then went out for dinner and ice cream. It was such a great afternoon/evening with my favorite people!

I had a fun day at the dog beach with my favorite doggos! They are not huge water dogs so we brought out the float so they could hang out in the water but be protected from the scary ocean! Lucy spent most of her time on the float barking at all the birds. While on the beach itself, Chip enjoyed exploring and meeting all the other dogs. Lucy stayed by our setup and barked at any dog who tried to get close. (I’m more of a Lucy than a Chip.)

I had my CPAP Titration Sleep Study done in July and my doctor has ordered an APAP machine for me to use at night. APAP stands for automatic positive air pressure and differs from a CPAP in that it adjusts the pressure automatically throughout the night as my breathing patterns change. I am still unsure if this will also help the blood oxygen issues I had while on the CPAP machine at the sleep clinic, which is a question I need to ask my doctor about. But at least I have some therapy headed my way soon!

Mikaela treated me to my first pedicure in over a year! I used to get them regularly but then I started dealing with ingrown toenails, which made getting pedicures very unpleasant! While I still hate when they scrub the bottom of my feet to remove all of my dead skin (I’m so ticklish!!), but it’s so nice to have painted toes again.

What’s the best book you read in July? What was a highlight of your month?

Categories: Life

Julys of Years Past

I’m continuing my series of going through photos of previous months of my life. This time, let’s take a walk down memory lane with July photos of years past. I was able to go all the way back to July 2010 (but then couldn’t find anything for July 2011, so I had to skip that year). Let’s recap!

July 2010

Sweet little Dutchy boy. I love this photo of us! I was 22 and Dutch was 7. Such a cute little goober. This was obviously taken at one of our game nights. We were playing Mad Gab, which is always a supremely funny game. Have you ever played it?

July 2012

Ooh, check out that old-school Instagram border! Remember when all our photos had to have a specific border? Ha! I believe my mom and I took this photo on her birthday right before going into a restaurant.

July 2013

Gah, I look so young here! I was firmly in my bang era and loving it. I was 25 here but I feel like I look way younger. A month after I took this photo, I would quit my job as a marketing assistant at a very small company (10 people total!) and join the company I still work at today. I was likely going through the interview process at this time and still remember one of the bosses taking a look at my employment history and making noises about how it looks like I never stayed in one place for very long. Joke’s on him!

July 2014

I am pretty sure I took this picture after my mom and her boyfriend (now husband!) came home from a week-long cruise. We were living together at the time and I missed her a lot while she was gone. This was our reunion shot, and it felt so good to have her home again.

July 2015

My mom and my stepdad got married in July 2015! Helping to plan my mom’s very low-key wedding was such a highlight of my life. We had a friend officiate, found a quiet area of downtown St. Petersburg to have the ceremony, and then took up the back area of an Outback Steakhouse for the reception. This was the last big event my grandma went to (she would pass away three months later). She was battling cancer and had just had a chemo appointment before the wedding. But she rallied and hung out through the ceremony and reception, and even managed to eat most of her meal. It was a true testament of her strength; she wasn’t going to miss her daughter’s wedding for anything.

July 2016

Just another photo of me and my boy! He was 14 in this photo and not a single gray hair to be found. People were always shocked when I told them how old he was because he looked young and acted young. He was my bestest friend.

July 2017

More Dutch photos! He was so much fun to photograph. In July 2017, things were okay on the health front. Dutch was starting to slow down a lot and there were more appointments at the vet’s office. He was on medication to help him calm down at night because he got very restless and wouldn’t settle down easily. But he was energetic during his walks and eating fine, so it was not something too concerning yet. I spent a lot more time at home because he needed more supervision and frequent walks.

July 2018

In July 2018, our book club took a fun weekend trip to Anna Maria Island, which is about an hour south of us. We worked together to make it also a surprise bachelorette weekend for Bri who was getting married in November. Bri is a classic enneagram 2 who will go all out for other people but hates having the attention on her, so it was fun to make sure she got some good, old-fashioned love showered on her during our weekend away.

July 2019

I have a fairly large extended family, but it’s rare for everyone to get together. Even in this photo, there are people missing but we got a good amount of us together for a 4th of July party on the beach and it was a lot of fun! It was our first big family gathering after Pops’ death in October 2018, and it was really nice for all of us to be together for something happy.

July 2020

For my mom’s pandemic birthday, we went to a nail salon to get pedicures and then went to an outdoor restaurant. Pandemic birthdays (especially during the height of things!) were so weird, weren’t they? And the pandemic in Florida was much different than other areas, of course. (Well, the pandemic itself was the same, but the way our state approached it was vastly different.) Salons were open for business in July, but this salon had a very strict policy about masking, hand washing, social distancing, etc., so I felt comfortable being there.

July 2021

There is a lot of emotion behind this simple photograph. This is where I got a text from Mikaela with a video of Olive ringing the bell after successfully finishing cancer treatment. (And she’s had clear scans ever since—after another clear scan this month, she’s graduated to yearly scans rather than every few months!) This is also where I went on a date with a woman, a relationship that I could feel had a lot of potential. It was my first queer relationship and I remember being so excited about where it was going but also a little insecure because we had been on a few dates at this point and neither of us had made any ~romantical~ moves toward each other. “Does she think she’s just hanging out with me as a friend? She does know we’re dating, right?!” I remember texting Mikaela. Being a baby queer in my thirties was a weird experience.

July 2022

The beginning of July 2022 was such a difficult time for me. I started my One Line a Day journal in 2022 and reading over the entries from July took me right back to that period. On July 1st, I took a Covid test and tested negative for Covid, which was great because I had been testing positive for a few weeks at that point. But then I found out that my mom got Covid, then my brother, and then my stepdad, and I am pretty sure I was patient zero there. (I followed the CDC guidelines at the time, but I definitely should have continued isolating until I was testing negative.) I felt terrible and my mom had a really tough go of it, which of course, led to my own panic attacks. I even had a dream one night during this period where I was Facetiming my mom and she answered from the back of an ambulance! Stupid subconscious. Anyway, it was hard and I felt like the worst person, but everyone recovered.

July 2023

A much better July! My mom and I took a weekend trip to Charleston for her birthday, which was a ton of fun. We went to a fancy steakhouse for her birthday dinner, walked all around Charleston, and spent way too much money at their outdoor market. It was a good time!

July 2024

Last weekend was my cousin Rachel’s baby shower! Her baby boy is due in September, and we’re all so excited! She found out she was pregnant mere weeks after her father died of cancer. She was deep in the depths of her grief and it was almost like it was a sign from above. It felt special and also omniscient. With death comes new life, and all that.

If you had to show a photo from a July in your life, what year would you choose and what would picture would you show us?

Categories: Life

My Experience With a CPAP Titration Sleep Study

This weekend, I finally had my CPAP Titration Sleep Study! I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea (which means I stop breathing at least 30 times an hour while I’m sleeping) way back in May and had to wait over two months to finally get this sleep study done, which will help my doctor figure out the type of CPAP mask I need and the correct oxygen levels for the machine. I went into this sleep study completely blind, as I didn’t really know what to expect or how the night would play out. So I figured I would write it all down here, both for other people’s benefits as well as my own.

I arrived at the sleep clinic a few minutes before my appointment time of 8 p.m. I had to get buzzed in by the sleep technologist who would be monitoring me throughout the night. She was warm and kind, and she immediately put me at ease! I was really worried about the logistics of sleeping with someone watching my every movement (would it be weird or creepy?), but she made me feel a lot better about the situation. Plus, she told me that she would spend most of the night monitoring the data coming from the sensors and such, not so much watching me sleep.

I was taken to the room where I would be staying, which was very bare bones. For some reason, I was expecting something a little nicer? I don’t know why! I even had to use a communal bathroom. The bedroom consisted of a chair, a bed, a bedside table that had all of the CPAP equipment, and a little armoire in the corner. When I arrived, I filled out some paperwork and changed into my pajamas, and then the technologist came in to test one of the CPAP masks on me. It was a nasal mask that was pretty small—it fit right under my nose with two little cushions that were jammed into each nostril to deliver air. Once we figured out the right size for the CPAP mask, the nurse turned on the machine so I could get used to it and she could make sure it was delivering the right amount of oxygen. It was really weird at first! I’m so used to breathing through my nose and exhaling through my mouth, but with a CPAP, you have to keep your mouth closed since it’s delivering continuous oxygen. You have to breathe in and out through your nose. It took some getting used to!

After getting the CPAP adjusted, the technologist removed it so that she could start placing all of the sensors around my body. She had me sit in a chair at the front of the room for this task. And there were a lot of sensors:

  • A belt that went over my chest and over my belly
  • Two sensors on my legs to monitor leg movement during sleep
  • Two sensors placed on my back and two sensors placed on my chest to monitor my heart rate
  • One sensor placed on my neck to monitor snoring
  • A bajillion sensors placed all around my head—some on my face and some on my scalp to monitor brain and muscle activity

Once all the sensors were placed, the nurse clipped them together behind me and then hooked all of the wires into some sort of contraption. Then, we walked together over to the bed where I laid down as if I was going to sleep so she could hook the contraption onto the bedside table next to me. She wanted to make sure I felt comfortable and that all of the sensors were accurately calibrated. She left the room to check on the sensors at her station and then came back to help me put on the CPAP mask. She also put a pulse oximeter on my middle finger. Once she confirmed that everything was working well with the mask, she told me “good night” and turned off my light!

It was probably right around 9 p.m. at this point and I wasn’t expecting to go to bed so early! I had brought a few books to read and my laptop to keep me busy until I was sleepy. But apparently, that was not the mission here.

I found it really hard to get to sleep. For one, I wasn’t a fan of the pillow situation. I love big fluffy pillows and I want a lot of them. I meant to bring a pillow from home (since that was allowed) but completely forgot. Big mistake! The pillows were super flat and I am not used to sleeping with such little pillow support. And, of course, it was hard to sleep with the CPAP machine and all the wires. The ones on my leg were the most annoying because they got tangled at some point and made it hard to move my legs. (I should have called the sleep technologist to untangle the wires, but I didn’t want to be a bother. HI, I’M AN ENNEAGRAM 9.)

I think I fell asleep for maybe 30-45 minutes at some point and then I woke up because the mask was bothering me a lot. Since the cushions were jammed into my nose and I have a hoop in one of my nostrils, that side of my nose started aching. But the bigger issue was the way the mask was pressing into the area of skin between my nose and upper lip (which Google tells me is called the philtrum, TMYK). It was hurting a lot and I kept trying to draw the skin away from the mask by drawing my upper lip inside my mouth, but that only worked for a little bit. I told myself if I was still awake and dealing with this issue around 11:15, I’d call the technologist. But because she was so wonderful, she came in a little after 11 to ask me if anything was wrong because I’d been awake for quite a while. So I told her about the mask issue.

She removed that mask and gave me a different one to try and I could immediately notice a difference. This one was also a nasal mask but it had a sort of suction-like cup that went over my whole nose, rather than jamming cushions inside my nose. It felt so smooth and nice on my face, and since the hose was connected at the top of the headgear (rather than at the bottom of the mask like the previous one), it also was easier to sleep with. I like this new mask a lot more!

I didn’t get a picture of myself with this CPAP mask, but this is what it looked like.

Eventually, I fell asleep and slept off and on throughout the night. The technologist came in a few times during the night because she was having trouble getting a good blood oxygen level for me. She tried clipping an oximeter to my ear but that didn’t work, so then she gave me a smaller oximeter for my index finger.

At one point, I had to sneeze so I pulled the mask away from my face to sneeze and that caused one part of the headgear to unclip. I was trying to clip it back in myself but was having a hard time and was scared I was going to accidentally mess with the sensors around my head so I called in the technologist.

Around 5:15am, the nurse came into the room to wake me up. My sleep study was done! And then I got the news that she couldn’t ever get a good blood oxygen reading during the night and I may have to do another sleep study. It was really disheartening to hear that because I thought that was the whole point of a CPAP, but apparently, my blood oxygen levels are still low even while on the machine. (My sleep app told me my blood oxygen was at 90% on the night of my sleep study, which is the percentage it’s usually at when I’m not on a CPAP.) So I don’t know what happens next. My doctor will get the results soon and call me about the next steps. I’ve tried googling to figure out why I would still have low blood oxygen while on a CPAP but couldn’t find a conclusive answer.

Anyway, once the nurse woke me up, she removed the mask and then went through the process of removing all of the different sensors. She gave me a washcloth so I could remove any sensor goop from my face. Then, I filled out paperwork to notate how I slept, changed into street clothes, and was out the door by 5:30! The nurse sent me home with the two masks I used at the sleep clinic, but I can’t use them without the machine (well, I mean, I could wear them for shits and giggles but that would be weird), so now I wait to find out what my doctor wants to do next: another sleep study or a specific CPAP therapy that will help my blood oxygen levels? IDK!

This has been a very long post, but I want to end it with some of the things I learned doing an in-clinic sleep study and some of my tips:

  • Bring what you need to sleep comfortably. Whether that’s extra pillows, a specific blanket, a noise machine, or cozy socks… you want to be as comfortable as possible so you get a good night’s rest and the sleep technologist can gather as much data as possible.
  • You are not going to have lots of downtime, so maybe just bring your Kindle. My sample size is 1 so maybe this is different depending on the sleep clinic or the technologist, but I brought a bunch of things to keep me busy when it was honestly get in, get sensored up, go to sleep, go home. I didn’t even get to read before she turned out the lights, wah!
  • The sleep technologist wants you to have a good night’s rest, so if you need a specific temperature to sleep, want a fan on, or extra blankets/pillows, tell them! (In hindsight, I should have asked if I could have had an extra pillow or two, but #enneagram9.)
  • This may feel weird to you but it’s a normal workday for the sleep technologist. They aren’t there to watch your every move while you’re sleeping, but rather to keep track of the data coming from your sensors and make any adjustments necessary from there. I thought I would feel weird sleeping while someone monitored me, but it wasn’t at all!
  • The day before the sleep study, wake up early, steer clear of caffeine, and do not take a nap. You want to be extra sleepy for this study! It’ll be hard but worth it.

That’s how my CPAP Titration Sleep Study went! Have any further questions for me? I’m happy to answer any and all of them! 

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | June 2024

Books

In June, I read 9 books. My favorite was Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera and my least favorite was Detransition, Baby. Some other stats:

  • 100% fiction
  • 4 print, 2 e-books, 3 audiobooks
  • 4.1 average star rating
  • 33% diverse
  • Abandoned books: 2 (Everyone On This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson and Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton)

Love Irresistibly by Julie James (e-book, owned)  ★★★★☆ | Go as a River by Shelley Read (print, library) ★★★★★ | Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera (audiobook, library) ★★★★★ | The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (audiobook, library) ★★★★★ | Finley Donovan Jumps the Gun by Elle Cosimano (print, library) ★★★★☆ | Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (print, owned) ★★★★★ | Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson (print, owned) ★★★☆☆ | The Queer Principles of Kit Webb (e-book, library) ★★★☆☆ | Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (audiobook, library) ★★★☆☆

Media

  • The Traitors UK, season 2 (Peacock) – I am obsessed with The Traitors, a reality TV show that combines social skills, strategy, and straight-up psychopathy at times. Peacock just released season 2 of their international versions, so I watched the UK version in June. It was so good! Highly recommend diving into this show if you haven’t yet.
  • Brooklyn 99, season 7 (Peacock) – I’m in my Brooklyn 99 rewatch phase right now, and enjoying it immensely.
  • Suits, season 1 (Netflix) – I finished season 1 of Suits while on the plane from Chicago, and I can’t wait to keep going. It’s a great show!
  • Lemme Say This (podcast) – When Hunter Harris announced she was doing a podcast, I couldn’t download it fast enough. Did we need yet another pop culture podcast? I don’t know, but I find this one pretty enjoyable and an easy listen.
  • Slow Burn, season 9: Gays Against Briggs (podcast) – Ugh, this podcast is a heavy listen at times. It’s about the Briggs Initiative that sought to remove gay and lesbian teachers from the school system. It was sponsored by John Briggs, a California state legislator, who was such an awful, hateful man. It’s also hard to listen to this and realize that we’re still dealing with the same issues today, nearly 50 years later.

Purchases

  • Replacement ear tips ($13) – This is a boring purchase, but such a necessary one. If you also have issues with Airpods staying in your ears, may I suggest replacing the ear tips? These are my favorite. They are made with memory foam to better conform to the structure of the ear, and I love them. I bought a new set in June because one of the ear tips kept popping off whenever I would pull the Airpod out of my ear.
  • All in Motion skort ($25) – I found this adorable skort in the workout section of Target, and I love it! I wore it on Saturday in Chicago when Kim and I went to the Pride festival and then the Popcast live show, and I think I’ll get a lot of use out of it.
  • Pool lounger ($17) – I had a fun pool day with my mom and the dogs last weekend, and bought a pool lounger at Target right beforehand. I like this one because the bottom half sits right under the pool water to keep you cool. (Chip did not love this lounger because he does not appreciate getting wet when he’s sitting on a lounger in the pool!)
  • Purride tee ($20) – I bought this tee for Pride and it did not disappoint! I got a lot of compliments on it, too.

Moments

Our book club meeting in June was a fun one! We did a flower arrangement night. One of our friends bought a whole bunch of flowers from a wholesaler and we brought a few vases to make our own unique bouquets. We had a really good time and we may make this an annual thing.

Bri and I were back in our “studio” (aka, Bri’s home office) this month to record an episode of The Friendship Paradox. We took the month of June off because Bri was out of the country for almost two weeks on an amazing European vacation. It was fun to get back on the mics!

I spent one Sunday morning driving around town, dropping books in Little Free Libraries around me. We have so many cute spots! I was glad to give these books away to new homes, and I hope my neighbors enjoy their new reads.

My friend Amber and I got together on a Monday evening for a reading date! We packed a picnic, appropriately went to a park called Picnic Island, and chatted for a bit before we opened our books and read for about 45 minutes. It was such a great evening!

Kiiiiiiiiim! I had such a fun weekend with Kim in mid-June. I got to see her beautiful home, fall in love with all of her cats, and explore Milwaukee/Kenosha. It was a great time!

Of course, the whole reason I was in Chicago was to go to The Popcast live show! It was such a fun time and it was great to be surrounded by other people who love Knox, Jamie, and Erin as much as we do! (I also like how we were properly attired in cat-themed shirts. We are nothing if not on brand.)

I went to a really fun book event with Bri in June! I was amazed at how many people attended this event and really happy for all of the vendors and authors who were there and enjoyed a record night of profits! I left with two books and a bookmark.

 

Categories: Life

Monthly Recap | May 2024

BOOKS

In May, I read 9 books. My favorite was All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir and my least favorite was How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly. Some other stats:

  • 100% fiction
  • 4 print, 2 e-books, 3 audiobooks
  • 4.0 average star rating
  • 33% diverse

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham (print, owned) ★★★☆☆ | All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir (audiobook, library) ★★★★★ | Knockout by Sarah MacLean (e-book, library) ★★★★☆ | Victim by Andrew Boryga (print, library) ★★★★☆ | Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena (audiobook, library) ★★★★☆ | How You Get the Girl by Anita Kelly (print, owned) ★★★☆☆ | Zorrie by Laird Hunt (audiobook, library) ★★★★☆ | A Murder is Announced by Agatha Christie (print, owned) ★★★★☆ | Planes, Trains, and All the Feels by Livy Hart (e-book, library) ★★★★★

MEDIA

  • The Bear, season 1 (Hulu) – I finally finished season 1 of The Bear. I liked it, but I don’t know if I liked it enough to continue watching the series. It’s a little too anxiety-inducing at times for my little enneagram 9 soul.
  • Suits, season 1 (Netflix) – On a whim, I started watching Suits since it’s available on Netflix, fully unaware I was going to become completely obsessed with the show, and Harvey Spector especially. Ughhh, that man is everything! It’s also fun to see Meghan Markle on the show.
  • New Girl, season 1 (Hulu) – I’ve watched episodes of New Girl here and there, but I’ve never sat down to watch the whole series front to back. I sped through season 1 early in May and loved it. I’m excited to keep going!
  • MasterChef, season 13 (Hulu) – I’m trying to get caught up on previous seasons of MasterChef and just finished season 13 on Sunday. This was a season where they brought back former contestants so it was fun to see some of my favorites return!
  • The Idea of You (Amazon) – I enjoyed this movie! I DNF-ed the book because it was stressing me out too much, but really enjoyed it in movie form. Apparently, a lot changed from book to movie, so it’s probably a good thing I never finished the book!

On The Friendship Paradox, we released two episodes: Trying New Things and Religion. I was really nervous about the religion episode, but I thought we had a good discussion and so far, no backlash to our opinions, which is a relief!

PURCHASES

  • A new suitcase ($100) – I bought a new carry-on suitcase at TJ Maxx in May. It’s the perfect size and was a nice little companion on my trip to New Orleans.
  • Pregnancy pillow ($30) – I am not pregnant, but I do have back issues and I’ve heard great things about using pregnancy pillows as extra support during sleep. It takes up such a large part of my bed, but it almost feels decadent to sleep with it. I feel like I’m sleeping better and waking up with less pain, so that’s a win/win for me.
  • A new Kindle case ($21) – Remember when I said that I use my Kindle without a case? Well, I broke down and bought a case in May. I’ve been taking my Kindle to the gym every now and then, and it came with me on vacation, so it was time to get a more protective cover. I bought a really pretty cover a few weeks before my vacation, but didn’t realize until a few days before our flight that the case was too big for my Kindle. Oops! So I had to quickly hop onto Amazon and find a case that could be delivered ASAP. This one fit the bill! The case is a little boring but it does the job.
  • A fun new summer dress ($24) – I was searching for a dress to bring on vacation and this one caught my eye. I bought it for the fun pattern and crossed my fingers that it would fit me and I would feel good in it. When I put it on, I knew it was a keeper! It was so comfortable and I felt great in it. I wore it to the Nate Bargatze show with a pink cardigan.

MOMENTS

May kicked off with April book club (we’re always trending a little behind on our book club meetings, as we are busy ladies!). We met for dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then had a fun ice cream party at this really cute spot in Tampa. It was a great night!

I met up with my friends a few days later for a Cinco de Mayo party at Bri’s house. Bri’s husband made us delicious margaritas, we had a taco bar, and hung out in the pool. It was just one of those perfect afternoons where I felt so lucky to have these ladies in my life.

I switched out my nose ring! This was a really fun development in May. I’ve been wanting to switch out my stud for a hoop, and I am so happy with it. It makes me smile every time I see it!

BANGS! I am so happy with my decision to get bangs (even though it’s summer and I seem to sweat right along my hairline, so the bangs get sweaty and gross pretty easily when I’m outside for too long). I love the way they frame my face and add a little oomph to my appearance. Plus, they’re super easy to style: just wet the bangs in the sink, add a tiny bit of shampoo, rinse it out, blow the bangs dry, and straighten. It takes less than 10 minutes and immediately makes a difference to the way I look!

I got together with some girlfriends this month for a movie night. Look at this spread! My friend Lynn is the ultimate hostess. We watched The Idea of You.

I had my first-ever Topgolf experience in May! I was hoping to discover that I am a golfing phenom, but alas, I was pretty terrible at the game. I guess it’s for the best. Wouldn’t it be terrible to discover in my mid-30s that I should have been a pro golfer?!

I had a fun girls’ night in on a random Friday. It was Bri, me, and two friends that Bri had collected in the last few months: one she met on a flight and the other she met at her gym. Is she not the ultimate extrovert? Or maybe the ultimate enneagram 2? Ha! We had a good time. We had pizza, swam in the pool, and then played some games. And one of our friends brought over these insanely good s’mores bars. Here’s the link to the recipe. I made the bars the next night for family game night and while they weren’t as good as my friend’s, they were still freaking delicious.

I took Eloise to the vet in May because I was concerned about her lack of appetite. My vet thought it would be a good idea to get bloodwork done to make sure there isn’t something serious going on. Most of her bloodwork came back normal, but she did have elevated calcium levels, which could indicate a serious condition like cancer. To be honest, I needed time to process this news because I was stunned. Cancer?! I was not expecting that. The next step was further testing. She needed an ionized calcium blood test as well as additional tests to determine her parathyroid hormone levels. I took her back to the vet the day before I left on vacation for those tests. Last week, I got the call that while her calcium still measured high, the other tests came back normal, which means it’s very likely she has idiopathic hypercalcemia, aka there’s no known cause. I had two options for her next steps: do an abdominal ultrasound (which would be between $700-$1,000) to make sure there isn’t a tumor or put her on a diet that will help reduce her calcium levels and get her retested in a few months. I opted for the latter option. I am not massively concerned she has cancer because she has no other symptoms aside from not eating as much as normal (and there are days when she does eat normally!). She hasn’t lost weight, her energy levels are normal, and I haven’t noticed anything weird in the litter box. Would I like to get the ultrasound done just to be 100% sure she’s fine? Yes, of course. And if the diet doesn’t help lower her calcium levels, then we’ll get the ultrasound done. But I feel fairly confident it’s idiopathic and I’m hopeful that a diet change will help. So that’s what’s going on with Eloise.

May ended with a bang! My mom and I took a long weekend trip to New Orleans and while it wasn’t my favorite city, I enjoyed spending time with my mom and we had a good time together!

What was a highlight in May for you?