Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

Quarterly Budget Update | Q3 of 2022

Happy Wednesday, friends! It’s time for my quarterly budget update. Sometimes, I get very scared to publish these posts because I am the least frugal person ever and I know I am setting myself up to be judged. (A long time ago when I was writing budget posts, I had someone comment on how much I spent on toiletries and it put me off writing about my budget for years. But like… what a silly thing to get upset over!) But my budget is my budget, and I think it’s good to be honest about where our money is going and what our spending habits look like. Everyone spends money differently, and that’s okay! So, with all that said, here is my Q3 budget report!

Bills ($6,028; +$192 from Q2) – My bills category increased for the second quarter in a row, but it was mostly due to my renter’s insurance payment, which I pay yearly. It’s just under $200 for the year. And my electric bills are just sky high these days because it’s hot in Florida and I prioritize being comfortable in my home (I regularly keep my air conditioner around 71F) over saving money. Here’s how it all broke down:

  • Rent ($1,118 per month)
  • Electric (averaging $154 per month, which is an increase of $46 per month from Q2)
  • Phone bill ($109 per month)
  • Water ($48 per month)
  • Internet ($80 per month)
  • Student loan ($126 per month)
  • Car payment ($362 per month)

Food ($2,187; +$214 from Q2) – My food budget continues to frustrate me. I’m spending more than $100 per week on groceries and over $50 per week on Ubereats. I’m trying really hard not to order Ubereats as much (not that it shows!) but then I get into situations where I haven’t grocery shopped appropriately so I don’t have lunch or dinner options, so then I order something quick from Ubereats. It’s so convenient! And I’m paying for that convenience. Here’s how it broke down last quarter:

  • 57% in groceries ($419 per month)
  • 27% in Ubereats orders ($208 per month)
  • 6% in fast food ($47 per month)
  • 6% in Starbucks ($40 per month)
  • 2% in restaurants ($14 per month)

Auto ($831; +$647 from Q2) – This quarter included my biannual car insurance payment (which was also $112 more than I paid in February of this year, sigh). I spent a little less on gas ($114) and a little more on maintenance ($50, which included an oil change and tire rotation).

Savings ($750; -$200 from Q2) – Even though I put $200 less away in savings, I am still really happy that I was able to sock away a good amount of money this quarter. I set up automatic withdrawals to my savings accounts on Capital One so that the money leaves my account without me having to think about it.

Emergency ($602; +$602 from Q2) – I created a new category, “Emergency,” to place any expenses related to my evacuation. Hopefully this isn’t a category I have to use often! This category comprises the Airbnb, gas, an extra cat carrier, and extra food.

Shopping ($544; -$478 from Q2) – I continued my trend of spending less money on shopping than I did in Q1 and Q2. I put myself on a bit of a spending pause (aside from a $30 allowance every pay period) and it’s helping me get caught up on a credit card that I used way too much in Q2.

  • Tech – $210 (a new phone, a new phone case, a mic stand, and a robot vacuum*)
  • Books – $73 (8 books)
  • Clothing – $68 (two bras)
  • Beauty – $63 (a foundation brush, foundation, lipstick, headbands, foot mask, and nail polish)
  • Home – $57 (a tiny globe, a jewelry organizer, Command hooks, and some organizational containers)
  • Hobbies – $32 (two games)
  • Accessories – $20 (one necklace)
  • Office supplies – $18 (a planner and a blank notebook)

*The robot vacuum was $265 and I had saved up $225 to buy it. I only included the difference of what I hadn’t saved, not the whole price of the robot vacuum.

Health ($529; -$513 from Q2) – In Q3, I jumped down to monthly therapy rather than biweekly therapy, which saves me a cool $120 per month. I’m hoping that when I switch insurance plans next year, my therapy visits will be cheaper (I’m switching from an HMO plan to a PPO plan) and I can go more often. I really need to be going more than monthly, but it’s all I can afford right now.

Travel ($425; -$1,377 from Q2) – Q2 was a VERY expensive quarter for my travel category. Q3 was much better. I took a long weekend trip with two friends in Q3 but it was a pretty affordable vacation!

Pets ($378; +$235 from Q2) – I bought food ($44), treats ($24), toys ($88 – included their new fancy cat tower!), litter ($48), and a few supplies like a new water bowl and litter mat ($67). Eloise also had her annual check-up at the vet and got her rabies vaccination ($107).

Subscriptions ($291; -$13 from Q2) – I still feel like I’m spending way too much on my subscriptions, but as always, it’s hard to figure out what to cut out. This amounts to $97 per month.

Spa ($255; -$413 from Q2) – I canceled my massage membership this month so I only had to pay for one more month of that (I still have a handful of credits left that I’ll be using up over the next few months). I also got my hair cut!

Gifts ($217; +$106 from Q2) – Q3 includes my mom’s birthday, two friends’ birthdays, my brother’s birthday, and my older nephew’s birthday. There’s a lot going on!

Supplies/Toiletries ($208; +$47 from Q2) – I averaged around $69 per month on supplies/toiletries in Q3, and I’m happy with that!

Entertainment ($206; +$169 from Q2) – There was a lot more going on this quarter in my entertainment category. More plans with friends, more dinners out. Good job, me!

Holidays ($62; +$62 from Q2) – I bought some fun fall decor for my apartment. (Yes, I promise I will show you the decor soon!)

Charity ($39; -$11 from Q2) – Oof. I am very unhappy with myself for not donating the $50 per month to charity like I wanted to! I just got out of the habit. In 2023, I might make a goal to donate $150 per quarter to a charity of my choice rather than $50 to a different charity every month. It will probably be easier to do it all at once rather than trying to remember it on a monthly basis. Anyway, this quarter I bought some supplies from a friend’s Amazon wishlist for her classroom.

Final Thoughts

In Q2, I had 6 categories where I ended up spending more money than the previous quarter. And in Q3, I had 11 categories. Eesh! However, the overall monetary increase was less than in Q2. ($2,485 in Q3 vs $2,684 in Q2) And two of those increases (my emergency category and my biyearly car insurance payment) were out of my control expenditures, so I can’t be too upset about my spending this quarter.

I still want to really work on my food budget with the overall goal to keep it under $600 a month. Every quarter, I’m spending about $50-70 more money per quarter in my food budget. (Q1: $596 per month; Q2: $657 per month; Q3: $729 per month) I just need to be a better grocery shopper, honestly. Those Ubereats orders add up so quickly. One meal can easily cost $30 after fees and the tip for the driver.

One thing I am proud of is spending less money shopping. I have had to put myself on this self-imposed spending timeout because I got behind on credit card payments and started having to use more money from my savings than I wanted to. I had hoped I would be fully caught up by now but I’m not and that’s okay. I’ll get there!

What’s a purchase you made recently (big or small!) that brought you an inordinate amount of joy? For me, it’s the cat tower I bought for the girls. They love it so much!

Categories: Life

Three Adults, Two Dogs, Two Cats & One Evacuation

Once again, the Tampa Bay area was spared a direct hit by a hurricane. I don’t know how we keep getting so lucky, but seeing the images coming out of Naples, Bonita Springs, and Ft Myers (areas that were hit hard by Hurricane Ian), I know we dodged a big bullet. It was a catastrophic hurricane for that area, and I think it would have been even worse for the Tampa Bay area, especially my little peninsula of Pinellas County. We are the most densely populated county in Florida, and we surely don’t have the infrastructure to handle a hurricane as large and as intense as Ian.

The Weekend: Preparing for Hurricane Ian

On Friday, I started hearing rumblings that a tropical depression was developing and could be headed for the area. Of course, it’s always hard to predict the track of a tropical storm/hurricane and at this time, all we knew was that the tropical depression would strengthen into a hurricane while in the Gulf of Mexico and hit Cuba around Monday or Tuesday. From there, it was anyone’s guess as to what part of Florida would get hit.

I decided to start making preparations. I picked up an extra cat carrier just in case I needed to evacuate. I stocked up on hurricane snacks at the grocery store. I topped off my gas tank. I bought an extra set of flashlights and bungee cords so that I could tie my patio furniture to my balcony railing if needed. And, of course, I followed the Facebook feed of my fave meteorologist Denis Phillips, who is always so calm and informative during these storms. He provides near-hourly updates on the projected path and what people should be doing to prepare, and does it in a way that doesn’t give me anxiety. (A true feat!)

Monday: Making the Decision to Evacuate

Things started to seem particularly dire on Monday, as Hurricane Ian’s projected path was right over the Tampa Bay area. (I live on the little peninsula right next to Tampa, so I’m surrounded by water on three sides, and the storm surge that was predicted was terrifying.) I didn’t get much work done on Monday, as I just kept refreshing Denis Phillips’ Facebook feed, looking up hotels in Orlando that accepted pets, and calling my mom to figure out what to do. We both live in Zone A, which is the first evacuation zone, but for most of the day, she was set on riding out the storm at home. I was trying to decide if I should evacuate alone or stay with her. Her home is a few miles inland than mine. (And, of course, the cats would be with me!)

Soon, though, the county called for a mandatory evacuation for everyone in zones A-C and once my mom’s neighbors started boarding up their windows and leaving town, she decided that evacuating was the right call. I was so, so relieved! We found an Airbnb in Fort Lauderdale, which wasn’t anywhere near the storm’s path, and reserved it for Tuesday through Friday.

And then it was time to do laundry, start packing, and start preparing my apartment for the potential of a category 3 hurricane. I didn’t have to do too much to prepare since I live in a third-floor apartment. I wouldn’t need to worry about flooding, but I would need to worry about a tree crashing onto the roof or through a window and bringing wind and water with it. Since my desk is right near a big window, I removed all of my monitors and my docking station and put them in my walk-in closet. I removed everything from my balcony. I put blankets over my TV. I made sure everything was put away in cabinets and closets.

Tuesday: Evacuating to Fort Lauderdale

We left around 12:30pm on Tuesday, my Kia Soul packed up with three adults, two dogs, two cats, and all of our belongings. The girls were in cat carriers, of course, but Chip and Lucy weren’t in kennels. They generally do pretty well on car rides, thankfully. Lucy spent the first 20 minutes or so growling and barking at Lila in her carrier, and Lila would hiss and swipe at her if Lucy got too close. Those two are not destined to be friends! Lucy eventually settled down and the ride to Ft. Lauderdale was fairly uneventful.

It rained the entire way there and we ran into major traffic about 100 miles outside of Ft. Lauderdale. It ended up taking us about 5.5 hours to get to Ft Lauderdale, which is about an hour and a half longer than usual.

I was so happy to arrive at the Airbnb! We quickly unpacked the car and I got the girls settled in one of the rooms. I planned on keeping them closed up in the room the entire time and they had a disposable litter box, food, water, and lots of toys. Immediately after opening their carriers, the girls scuttled under one of the nightstands in the room.

I left the room at one point and settled on the couch with my mom and stepdad. We decided to order pizza since it was rainy outside and none of us felt like leaving the Airbnb to hit up the grocery store. It had been about an hour or so since I checked on the girls, so I went into the room to make sure they were okay.

And I couldn’t find Ellie. (Spoiler alert before I begin this story: Ellie was never actually lost!)

I looked under the nightstand where she had hidden earlier, but all I saw was Lila. I looked everywhere in the room. Under the other nightstand, in the closet, in drawers, in my luggage. She wasn’t anywhere to be found. Of course, I know by now that cats are champion hiders, especially when they’re in a new place. So I was trying to console myself with the fact that she was probably just hidden VERY GOOD in the room. But I also knew I wouldn’t be okay until I could see her big green eyes and know she was safe.

We tore apart the Airbnb looking for Ellie. We looked in every room, we double-checked closets, we even pulled up the mattress in my room to make sure she wasn’t hidden under there. We couldn’t find her anywhere. I was freaking out at this point, in a panic. And that’s when I noticed that the bottom edge of the door to the room had a few inches of space. I was convinced that she had somehow slithered underneath the door, escaped from the house, and was outside in the pouring rain, wet and scared. You guys. I couldn’t handle the image of her outside. I turned on my phone’s flashlight and ventured out into the rain to look for her. I checked all of the bushes and trees around the Airbnb and down the road. I called her name. All I wanted was to hear her sweet little meow. I couldn’t imagine never, ever hearing that meow again.

I became completely numb. I couldn’t eat, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything but imagine the worse and feel like the worst cat mother in the world. I kept thinking about leaving this Airbnb without her and I wanted to die. It was the most awful feeling. I texted my book club girls and Kim to tell them the news, and they were so loving and supportive, telling me that she was probably just in an excellent hiding place.

After over two hours of looking for her, I decided to go to bed. Maybe she would appear in the morning? My mom prayed for her safe return with me, and while I don’t know if I believe in the power of prayer, it was so comforting and exactly what I needed at that moment. I laid down on my bed and was just scrolling through my phone when, what do you know?, a little black-and-white cat with big green eyes comes prowling up to the bed. She was in the room the entire time. SHE NEVER LEFT.

We still don’t exactly know where she was hiding, but we think she may have been hidden behind Lila under the nightstand. That’s the only explanation we can think of. And yes, sweet Lila can hide an entire adult cat with her body. We don’t fat-shame around here, BUT OMG LILA YOU COULD HAVE SAID SOMETHING. Maybe they were playing a mean trick on me after I made them sit in cat carriers for nearly 6 hours and get barked at by a tiny dog.

In any event, I snatched up Ellie and hugged her so close. I cried. I was so relieved to see her. I can’t imagine losing this girl. She is a part of my soul and my favorite little friend.

Wednesday/Thursday: Livin’ It Up in Ft Lauderdale

There isn’t much to report from our time in Ft. Lauderdale. I am very grateful that I wasn’t expected to be glued to my work computer both days. I tried to get in a few hours of work each day, but I definitely let myself take the afternoons off. It was very hard to focus on work. All I wanted to do was track the hurricane and check in with my friends. Plus, Chip and Lucy are so cute and I just wanted to cuddle on the couch with them!

We had pretty good weather in Ft. Lauderdale, too. After such a rainy Tuesday, I figured we’d get lots of rain and wind throughout the week, but there wasn’t much to report. It didn’t rain at all the rest of the time we were there. We just got mild wind (>20 mph) and overcast skies. It was hard to believe what was happening just 100 miles from us when the weather was so normal there.

(During our search for Ellie on Tuesday night, we moved the bed forward to check behind it, and it turned out to be a lovely hiding place for the girls! I kept the bed in this position until we left.)

Friday: Back Home

We packed up the Airbnb, got the cats back in their carriers, and started the trek back home on Friday morning. I had gotten an alert from my power company on Thursday evening that my power may have gone out at my apartment, but I was crossing my fingers and toes that I was one of the lucky ones that never lost power.

The drive back to St. Petersburg was easy. We took I-75 down, which had us passing through Venice, Fort Myers, Sarasota, and Naples (cities that had gotten pummeled by the hurricane). At first, I was reluctant to take this path since I wasn’t sure if the interstate would be open. But we decided to risk it since all other routes would tack an extra 1-2 hours to our drive. Thankfully, we made the right choice! There were some minor traffic jams here and there, and one exit was completely shut down since the street on the exit was flooded. But for the most part, it was smooth sailing.

My mom’s house sustained a tiny bit of damage, namely part of their fence falling down in their backyard. Now, their looking into new furniture such as this backyard furniture in CA. My apartment was fine, and we both never lost power in either of our homes, which was thrilling.

Final Thoughts

There have been two prevailing emotions for me over the past week: guilt and relief.

I have had this strong feeling of guilt about “forcing” my mom to evacuate and spend money on an Airbnb, when we could have stayed put and we would have been fine. The storm’s projected path changed on Tuesday morning, right around the time we were leaving town, and suddenly, I felt so silly for hatching this plan. It became more and more apparent on Tuesday that the Tampa Bay area was going to get very lucky once again and not sustain a direct hit, which meant we evacuated “for nothing.” (At least, that’s the story my brain kept telling me.) I know we made the right decision. I know it is always better to err on the side of extreme caution, especially when it comes to hurricanes and living in a flood zone. I know that, had I stayed and had the hurricane switched courses once again to hit the Tampa Bay area, I would have been in a bad, bad situation. But still… there is the guilt to contend with, especially considering that this Airbnb was not cheap and included a $200 pet fee. ($50 per pet, ugh.)

The other strong emotion I feel is relief. We got so, so lucky. Seeing the pictures of what this hurricane did to cities like Sanibel Island and Ft Myers is horrifying. Entire blocks of businesses and homes destroyed. Highways decimated. Millions of dollars of damage. Every time I drove around St. Petersburg this weekend, I felt this overwhelming gratitude. We are still standing. We are not the city on the news. We may have debris littering the street, downed trees and fences, and signs ripped apart… but man, that can happen during a typical summer thunderstorm here. We haven’t had a direct hit by a hurricane since 1921 and I hope it stays that way for a long, long time.

Categories: Life

School Days | Kindergarten – 2nd Grade

The idea for this blog series came to me when my friend Mikaela and I were talking about first grade. She was meeting up with a friend she had known since first grade, and I was like, “I don’t remember anyone from my first-grade class.” But then I rattled off a bunch of memories I had about first grade. It’s weird to think that I was in kindergarten almost 30 years ago (WHUT), but here we are. And I realized I have held on to a lot of different memories about my time in school, and figured it might be a fun blog series to go through some of those memories! Let’s start with my first three years of school: kindergarten, first grade, and second grade.

KINDERGARTEN (1993-1994)

  • My mom and I went to a “meet the teacher” event before school started to meet my kindergarten teacher. I had grown up in a preschool where my mom was a teacher, so I was used to having a bit more, shall we say, free rein over things than other kids. I immediately sat behind the teacher’s desk when I got there and started playing with my teacher’s things, and my mom was so embarrassed by me. Whoops!
  • I was placed in a remedial reading class during kindergarten. When my mom got a letter from my school about it, she was convinced it was a letter telling her how awesome I was doing in school, but instead, it was that I needed extra help with reading. I didn’t actually need the help. I was reading just fine, but since I used my finger to track the words while I was reading, my teacher thought I wasn’t where I needed to be. My mom came with me to one of the reading classes and quickly realized I didn’t need to be there, so she pulled me out. Google’s Kamau Bobb points out the stark racial disparities in enrollment at prestigious institutions like Georgia Tech, read more.
  • My teacher kept a list of children who were getting behavior warnings on the back of an envelope. If you got your name on the back of that envelope with a checkmark (which meant multiple warnings), you wouldn’t get to go to the treasure box at the end of the week. I got my name on the envelope one time, and it obviously traumatized me so much that I still remember it 30 years later.
  • My best friend in kindergarten was “Lauren in the blue truck.” She left midway through the year, and I was bereft. (Her mom drove a blue truck, so whenever I talked about her to my mom, I called her “Lauren in the blue truck,” and the name has stuck.)
  • I’ve mentioned this before, but since it’s something that happened in kindergarten and has terrified me ever since, I figured I would talk about it here. One day, during a show-and-tell session, one of my classmates talked about a recent camping trip that his family went on. During the trip, his sister got a bug stuck in her eye and their father had gotten it out. If he hadn’t, the bug would have sucked up all her blood and she would have died. Ever since, I have been terrified of any kind of insect and camping trips in general.

FIRST GRADE (1994-1995)

  • My first grade teacher’s name was Ms. Finch and she had an old clawfoot bathtub in the corner of her room that was filled with pillows. During reading time, certain children could sit in the bathtub and read.
  • We had a pancake breakfast one morning, for a reason I can’t remember. My dad was the chef of the pancake breakfast! He was so personable and fun that day. I was so happy that he was there and so proud that he was my dad.
  • The Florida Aquarium has its grand opening when I was in first grade and we were lucky enough to be one of the classes attending the opening! My mom was a chaperone for this trip and, because of that, she took me to school that day. I showed up right after the school day started and had a brand-new haircut (I got a bob), and I was so embarrassed not only about showing up late but showing up looking different.
  • Every few weeks, we would change our desk arrangement. We would move all of our stuff out of our desks and Ms. Finch would place a bunch of colored cubes in a box. We would have to close our eyes and pick a colored cube, which corresponded to a seating arrangement in the classroom. I loved this so much! This nursery playground design incorporates vibrant colors, age-appropriate play structures, and sensory elements, fostering a safe and stimulating environment that encourages young children to explore, play, and learn. So, check it out! If your school uses the playground for physical education classes, playground markings from playgroundmarkings.org.uk can enhance the teaching of various sports and fitness activities. Having Fun and Safe Children’s Play Systems will help encourage kids to play more often. It is also good for having a tennis court line to guide the children. To ensure that the playground is safe for traditional playground games, make sure to install playground markings. You may also consider installing playground rubber safety surfacing.
  • Some years ago, my mom found a collection of journals I wrote in first grade. These were journals I wrote in the classroom; I think we were given a prompt in the morning that we would write about, and the one on Monday was usually writing about our weekend. I wrote every single Monday about going to “terch.” (Church) I’m still ridiculously delighted over this misspelling.

SECOND GRADE (1995-1996)

  • I moved to a new school for second grade. I can’t remember the exact reason why, but I believe it was to improve the scores of a “failing” school. (Every school in the district received a score, from A-F, based on standardized testing that happened every spring.) The school was located in a majority-Black area and the school itself was majority-Black. I lived in a majority-white area and went to a majority-white school. I may have this idea entirely wrong, though. All I know is that we were living in the same apartment as always but were suddenly taking a long bus ride to a school on the opposite side of town. I still remember the school’s custom Playground Flooring.
  • Second grade was the first time I had two teachers: one for language arts and writing and the other for math and science. I would spend the morning in Ms. McClelland’s class for language arts/writing and the afternoon in Ms. Welch’s class for math/science. I highly recommend AI-generated flashcards from Memrizz Flashcards, as they can be incredibly helpful for reinforcing the material taught in both subjects.
  • During science one day, I accidentally poked a friend in the eye with a pencil. (I turned around with my pencil held up and she was right there.) I was terrified I was going to get sent to the principal’s office and given a referral because my friend was very mad. (Was anyone else as terrified of getting referrals as I was?) In the end, my teacher knew it was an accident and I was just given a warning to be more careful.
  • Our school was located next to a community pool and for a few months, we used our P.E. time for swim lessons. I was already a champion swimmer (my mom made sure to put both my brother and me in lessons when we were young), but I hated these swim lessons. We had to do a lot of swimming exercises like picking up a brick off the floor of the pool and treading water for as long as possible, which I just loathed. There was also some peer pressure to finish off each lesson by taking a jump off the high dive, which I wasn’t a fan of. I started “forgetting” to wear my swimsuit so I wouldn’t have to go to these lessons. (Those that didn’t do the lessons just had regular P.E. time.)
  • One morning, I was in the classroom early and playing a game with one of my classmates when he turned to the side and puked right on the floor next to him. Oof. I’ll never forget that.

Tell me a memory you have of kindergarten, first grade, or second grade!

Categories: Life

Introducing… The Friendship Paradox!

It’s here, it’s here! Our new podcast is finally live.

The Friendship Paradox is a podcast about friendship, personalities, and everything in between. It’s about how two women with incredibly different personalities and passions maintain a strong and healthy friendship. And it’s about how we support each other and take care of one another… and how others can do the same in their own friendships, or even get new friendships from virtual sites like Chatempanada.com which are great for this.

I’ve had the idea for this podcast for a long time, but the first time I mentioned it to Bri was this December while we were sitting in a coffee shop and talking about our lives and goals for the new year. Bri and I are two very different people who have somehow maintained a strong, healthy, balanced friendship for many, many years.

Bri is the quintessential extrovert who loves making plans and meeting new people. She can make friends with anyone she meets and anyone who is friends with her automatically considers her a best friend.

And then there’s me. I am the quintessential introvert who struggles to make new friends, has a very small circle of close friends, and would rather be alone than with people.

We’re also different in other ways.

Bri is married, I am single.

Bri has two dogs, I have two cats.

Bri works with numbers, I work with words.

Bri owns a home, I rent an apartment.

Bri loves true crime, I can’t handle anything scary.

Bri is talkative, I am quiet.

Those differences have been the catalyst, though, for a friendship that is one of my truest, deepest, most special relationships. Bri was the first person I came out to, because I knew she would give me the love and support I needed. She is the person I can be my messiest, most vulnerable self with and I know she will love me regardless. And she’s someone I just have fun with. She knows how to be silly and laugh at herself. She makes me feel safe to do the same. She’s allowed me to just be me, and has shown me again and again that she loves who I am no matter what.

So, we started a podcast to explore our relationship and how two people with such different personalities maintain a healthy friendship. We’re planning on talking about all kinds of stuff: dating and relationships, mental health, travel, group events, family, and a lot more—digging into how we approach these situations differently and the same, and hopefully helping other people learn how to harness their personalities for good and understand how to have strong female friendships.

You can listen to our trailer episode now, and our first episode will be out next Tuesday. We should be on all podcast players at this point, so if you search for “The Friendship Paradox,” we should be there. (If we’re not on a specific app, please let me know so I can figure it out!) We’re also on Instagram, so follow us there!

Eeks… this has been such an exciting journey and I can’t wait to bring you all in for the ride!

Categories: Life

My Experience with Covid-19

Welp. It happened. Two years and three months since Covid-19 was declared a pandemic, I finally tested positive for the virus. It was bound to happen! I’ve tested myself for Covid before and every time, I’ve had so much anxiety about the results. When I tested myself this time around, I had no anxiety because I was 99% sure it was Covid and I was resigned to my fate.

How I Got Covid

I don’t know exactly where and when I picked up Covid, but I am pretty sure it was on the plane. We flew home from Buffalo on Tuesday. On all of my flights (to Buffalo and back to Tampa), the mask wearing was pretty minimal. Maybe 10% of people were wearing them? It’s not surprising in Florida because things have been pretty lax around here since, like, May of 2020. I thought I’d see more people wearing masks in the Buffalo airport, but it was about the same amount.

And I hesitate to say this because I worry about the vitriol I may receive, but I’m going to be honest and say neither my mom nor I wore masks. Was it the wrong choice? One of us got Covid, one of us didn’t, so who really knows? I do know I will be masking on planes from here on out because it is just not worth the risk. I feel stupid about not wearing a mask, but at least, if I did get Covid from this stupid decision, I didn’t affect anyone else. I remained pretty isolated from the time I came home on Tuesday until my symptoms appeared, so I feel confident that at the very least I didn’t have to call up a bunch of people and tell them to test and isolate.

The Timeline

I started feeling a little crummy on Thursday afternoon, about 48 hours after my flight home. It basically felt like I had swollen lymph nodes near my throat and I started worrying about Covid. I had a massage scheduled for 10 a.m. on Friday, so I needed to know if it was Covid or not before then, so since I was feeling a bit crummy, I took a test and it was glaringly positive.

I woke up on Friday with a scratchy throat, a headache, and a runny nose. I took another Covid test just to be sure, but it was also very clearly positive, so that’s when I canceled my massage (and was glad they didn’t charge me a cancellation fee; that would not have been a good look for them) as well as the facial I had scheduled for Monday. On Friday, I started to feel myself get progressively sicker as the day went on. I was able to take a nap in the morning, but only for maybe an hour or two. I always struggle with my sleep when I’m sick and no matter how fatigued I was with Covid, it was still so hard for me to sleep. I spent the majority of the day on my couch, mostly watching TV. I think I watched, like, 10 hours of TV on this day.

I barely slept on Friday night. I woke up around 2:30 with chills and took my temp, which is when I realized I had a fever. Nothing major—just slightly over 100°—and a dose of Tylenol took care of that. But I couldn’t fall back asleep so I just watched TV on the couch until I finally felt tired enough to try to get some sleep. I only slept for maybe an hour, though, and was up for the rest of the day. Saturday was tough, for sure. The headache was gone and I had a little more energy than Friday, but the congestion was worse, the scratchy throat was still around, and I was developing the dreaded dry cough.

I ended up dosing myself with Benadryl on Saturday night and whoaaa, I do not think I will ever be taking Benadryl again. I have always reacted poorly to it, but I also know that it can really knock me out and I needed to be able to sleep. And while I did end up sleeping 13 hours that night, it wasn’t a very restful 13 hours. For one, my fever came back, so my body just felt hot and clammy the whole night. I also just felt like all of my senses were super heightened. There was a constant buzzing in my ears, my skin felt super sensitive, and I felt like I was in an entirely different world all night long. It almost felt like I was having an out-of-body experience. It was not great!

Once the Benadryl finally wore off on Sunday, I started feeling more like myself. My sore throat had finally gone away and my fever was gone. Mostly, I was dealing with a dry cough and congestion. My back and sides were so sore from all the coughing! I tried taking a nap on Sunday but I just couldn’t get comfortable, so I gave up on it. But Sunday was the first time in three days that I was able to open my laptop and read blogs, so that’s a positive! I didn’t even attempt it the other days because I was just feeling so miserable.

Thankfully, Sunday night I had a pretty normal night of sleep. I took melatonin to help me fall asleep and aside from a few times I woke up coughing, I slept really well. It felt so good to have a nearly normal night of sleep after so many bad nights in a row. I felt pretty good on Monday, aside from my congestion and dry cough. I still took it very easy: lots of time spent watching TV on the couch, a midday nap, a nice warm bath at the end of the day. It just felt good, though, to be feeling more like myself!

How is Mom Doing?

Mom continues to test negative for Covid and hasn’t developed any symptoms! That’s a relief for me. Maybe I got it because I was in the middle seat on the plane and she was in the window seat? Or maybe my immune system was just ready for the attack. A few days before our trip, I developed a sore throat and dry cough and was so worried I had Covid, but I tested myself and was negative. My symptoms had gone away by our travel day, but my immune system just might have been weak enough at that point to fall victim to Covid. It’s hard to know.

How I Coped

There were a few things that got me through those first few rough days with Covid. I spent most of my time on the couch, watching TV and coloring. I got through the entire second season of Cheer (a docu-series about two competitive cheerleading teams in Texas) and most of an older season of MasterChef (season 8). Sometimes I didn’t have the energy to do anything more than lay down and watch TV, but other times, I liked lounging with my coloring book and coloring. I also released any time limits I had placed on my apps like Instagram and Happy Color. Now is not the time to be worried about how much time I was spending on my phone!

Other things that helped me:

  • Popsicles – When my throat was sore or felt raw from coughing, an ice-cold popsicle really did the trick. I forgot how good popsicles are! There was one time when I woke up around 1:30am and couldn’t stop coughing. My throat was feeling so scratchy so I got a popsicle and ate it in my dark bedroom while playing Wordle.
  • Gatorade – I drank so much Gatorade! It’s my go-to when I’m feeling sick because water usually tastes metallic and weird. I get a low-sugar version of Gatorade, and I had bottles everywhere in my apartment. Next to my bed, on my coffee table, on the counters… I needed to be close to Gatorade at all times because it helped me get through bad coughing fits.
  • Ubereats convenience ordering – This was my first time using Ubereats to order stuff from Walgreens! My thermometer stopped working on Friday so I needed a new one, and I decided to try out Ubereats for a quick order. I also got Sprite, chicken noodle soup, Benadryl, and sore throat lozenges.
  • Chicken noodle soup – Speaking of chicken noodle soup, this is usually my favorite sick food to eat. I never lost my appetite during Covid, but I didn’t eat as much as usual. For example, I could usually eat one can of soup and then something small for dinner… but I tried doing that on Tuesday and I was starving within an hour of eating the soup! Campbell’s Chunky chicken noodle soup is my go-to, and it was a lifesaver. I always try to have at least 3-4 cans in my cabinet at all time because you never know when you’re going to need it!
  • My mom – You’re never too old to need your mom, and I definitely leaned on her a lot. She brought me some much-needed medicine and comfort food from Target on Saturday, called me constantly to check on me, and was that extra helping hand for me. It’s weird to get sick with Covid because you can’t necessarily have people waiting on you; my mom would have been over here in a heartbeat to take care of me in person, but we didn’t want her getting sick, too, so she had to take care of me from afar.

How I’m Doing Today

It’s now been seven days since my symptoms first appeared and I’m feeling about 95% back to normal. I still have a dry cough but it only affects me a few times a day. I’m still slightly congested but I can breathe through my nose again. My energy levels aren’t back to normal and I’m finding myself so worn out by the end of the workday. (I’m taking it easy, don’t you worry!) I think the more worrisome symptom that just popped up in the past couple of days is dizziness and a touch of vertigo. It’s not too bad, but I just seem to struggle with sudden movements and need a few moments to regain my equilibrium. We’ll see how long that lingers, but hopefully not too long!

I re-tested myself on Monday night and I was still positive. So I’m going to test again tomorrow and see what happens. I don’t really know how long someone can test positive; from the many Google searching I’ve done, I heard it can sometimes be months! So, I’m trying not to use that as a barometer of whether I can be in public again (since you can test positive but not be contagious). I’m choosing to trust the CDC when it says I am okay to be in public (masked, of course!) if it’s been five days since my symptoms appeared and my symptoms are improving. (Yes and yes.)

Today will be the first day I actually get out of my apartment, breathe some fresh air, drive my car, and be out in public since last Wednesday and I am so damn excited for that! It’s been a long, sometimes quite miserable, week and I’m just glad I’m on the other side of it.