READING

I read 14 books in July, which is my highest reading month in a while! I didn’t even realize I read so many books until I counted them all up. This puts me at 79 books read for 2019, which means I’ll probably hit my goal of 100 books sometime in September. Here are my three favorites:

• Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, which was a thrilling legal drama that had great courtroom scenes and a satisfying conclusion
• Anne of the Island by L.M. Montgomery, which is the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series and such a sweet read
• White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo, which is a book every white person needs to read because we all have racial biases and assumptions and we need to work to dismantle them

WATCHING

• Schitt’s Creek, seasons 3 and 4 – I’m flying through Schitt’s Creek seasons now, finishing up two of them over the month of July. This has truly become one of my favorite shows. It’s so damn funny and smart!
• Big Little Lies, season 2 – I’m slowwwwwly working my way through season two of Big Little Lies. I don’t find it as engrossing as season one so I’m not as inclined to watch it. I really want to finish up the season, though, so I can cancel my HBO subscription. That’s $15 down the drain every month!
• To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before – I finally watched this adorable rom-com and I am so glad I did! I wasn’t a fan of the book but I figured I’d love the movie because what came off as overly saccharine and juvenile in the book translated into a sweet teenage love story on screen. I loved the cast, the plot, and just how heartfelt the whole movie was.

BUYING

• Nightgown ($20) – I don’t know if I should feel like a little old lady now, but I bought a nightgown from Target this month and it might be life-changing. It’s so comfortable and so much better than wearing pajama pants that cut into my stomach.
• A new shelf ($20) – I wasn’t even looking for a shelf but when I found this at TJ Maxx last weekend, it was too beautiful to pass up!
• Bookcase ($150) – I finally took a trip to Ikea to buy the Hemnes bookcase I’ve been eyeing for such a long time. I wasn’t planning on buying the bookcase just yet but my small bookcase that sat next to my bed fell completely apart when I tried to move it away from the wall to reach the plug behind it. Like, seriously fell apart. One of the sides detached and all my books fell. That’s what you get when you spend $11 on a bookcase! Heh. I haven’t put this bookcase together yet (that’s a project for this weekend) but I am so looking forward to having a gorgeous tall bookcase for all my books!

LISTENING TO

• Broken Harts – I’m halfway through this miniseries about the Hart family. (<– Link to a news article about them, if you’re not familiar.) It’s really well-researched and I’m enjoying it, even though it’s super heartbreaking and what these women did (both before the tragedy and the tragedy itself) is hard to wrap my mind around.
• The Dropout – Everyone has heard of Elizabeth Holmes by now, right? Currently, there’s a book about her (Bad Blood), an HBO miniseries (The Inventor: Out for Blood), and this podcast. I still need to read the book (just picked up my copy from the library, actually!) and watch the miniseries, but I thought I’d start with the podcast. Infuriating at times and head-scratching at others, the podcast really dives into how she got away with her lies for so long.

THE HIGHS

• Celebrating Mom’s birthday – My mom’s birthday was on the 8th of July and I had already planned to take the day off work to give myself a long weekend, so when she also took the day off work, it meant we could have a full day of celebration! We started with lunch at Chick-fil-A and then went to Practically Pikasso for a crafty afternoon! We both picked out plates to paint and it was such a fun time. We both really enjoyed ourselves, especially since we could work at our own pace and just make it our own. After painting, we went to a nearby bakery for cupcakes and then had some downtime at her place before going out to dinner with my brother and older nephew. Such a fun day!
• Dying my hair purple – I did it, you guys! I dyed my hair purple and it is such a fun change. I love it immensely and I’m curious to see how well (or not well) the color holds. It was an expensive appointment because it involved highlights so I’m probably not going to keep the purple for very long, but I’m enjoying it so far!
• Bowling with the fam – My older nephew has been taking bowling lessons for a few months now and is in a league, and I’ve been wanting to play with him for a while. Bowling is one of my all-time favorite pastimes, even though I’m not a super-great bowler. I just think it’s fun to play! So this month, in lieu of one of our family game nights, we went bowling! My nephew seriously impressed me with his skill and we all had such a fun time. He was also the sweetest at being encouraging to the rest of us who were struggling, which melted my heart.

Honorable mentions (because this month was seriously amazing): seeing my favorite aunt and uncle when they were in town, enjoying lots of family time during the 4th of July, a five-day weekend, Potty Mouth Pottery at Practically Pikasso, going axe throwing, no cavities at the dentist (haven’t had a cavity since I was in high school, booyah!), and babysitting Chip for a weekend.

THE LOWS

• A Lila scare – Lila gave me a good scare on one of my work-from-home days. She spent a good 8 hours under my couch, refusing to come out. She hasn’t hidden under my couch since the first few days after I brought her home and if she needs to hide away, she’ll usually go under my bed but that’s never for longer than a cat nap. I was in worst-case scenario mode and googling my vet’s hours to make sure they were open over the weekend in case I needed to make an appointment. Eventually, though, she came out and I nearly cried I was so happy to see her little face! What I think caused the hiding was my Swiffer mop that was leaning against a wall in my room (usually, this mop is hidden away). I think she may have gotten scared of it for some reason, poor baby.
• A bout of mental unwellness – This month had a few days where I felt mentally unwell and didn’t want much to do with anyone. Thankfully, it passed as it always does but man, I hate how dark those days feel.

ANTICIPATING

• Seeing the Backstreet Boys in concert with some girlfriends
• Celebrating six years at my job (!)
• Game night with book club

Tell me one highlight from July for you and something you’re looking forward to next month!

READING

I read 12 books in June, bringing me to 65 books read this year. Woop! Right now, I’m on pace to read 130 books this year, so I’m still reading at an insanely fast pace. I’m not even trying hard here! I just really love reading and make lots of time in my schedule for it. (Also, audiobooks are KEY. Being able to knock out a few books a month while commuting is such a blessing.) Here are my top three books from June:

• Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, which is an oral history of a fictional rock band in the 70s and is a must-read for just about anyone
• Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, which is a sweet love story that gave me ALL of the happy feels
• An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole, a historical romance that both charmed me and made me think

WATCHING

• Always Be My Maybe – I watched this adorable romcom with a friend one Friday evening, and it was so delightful! I am not a huge fan of Ali Wong’s comedy so I wasn’t sure how I would like a movie written by her, but it was surprisingly sweet and heartfelt. Definitely add this one to your watch list.
• Murder Mystery – I didn’t have high expectations for this Netflix movie starring Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston, and it… met my mediocre expectations? Haha. I have a soft spot for Adam Sandler and really enjoy his movies, and this one was exactly what I expected. Goofy and ridiculous, but I was actually surprised by the ending so there’s that.
• Schitt’s Creek, season 2 – I’m almost finished with season 2 of Schitt’s Creek, and you guys, I am so glad I kept watching. It is so funny!! It definitely needed that first season to lay the groundwork and allow you to figure out the characters, and I’m glad I didn’t give up on it.
• Big Brother – IT’S BACK! I am paying $6 a month for CBS All Access so I can watch this ridiculous reality TV show. My mom and I started watching the show 11 years ago (!) and haven’t missed a season. (Well, aside from Celebrity Big Brother. That one gets a big fat NOPE from me.) The season just started so I don’t have any favorites or villains yet, but they’ll come with time. 🙂

BUYING

• Cheap e-books ($12) – I subscribe to all of the different daily deal emails for Kindle, but it’s rare for me to actually buy an e-book from these emails. I have placed certain restrictions on myself: (1) the book must be priced $1.99 or cheaper, and (2) it must be a book that I have marked as want-to-read on Goodreads. This keeps me from spending willy-nilly on e-books. Well, apparently, these email lists figured out my system because all of a sudden, they’re sending me daily deals for books I’ve been meaning to read. Like, Hope Never Dies by Andrew Shaffer and No Exit by Taylor Adams and Otherwise Engaged by Lindsey Palmer. So now I have a whole slew of new e-books waiting to be read on Kindle. Oops.
• EIMIN 3/4-sleeve, v-neck cardigan ($23) – I mentioned this cardigan in my last TGIF post and I can happily report that this cardigan is perfect. It has elbow-length sleeves and fits me great. I wish it were a smidge longer but you can’t have everything, right? 😉 I’m happy with it and looking forward to buying one in every color!

LISTENING TO

• From the Front Porch – I’ve tried a bunch of bookish podcasts in the past few months but most of them haven’t been right for me. So, I finally downloaded From the Front Porch, which I’ve heard so many good things about and I’m really loving it! It’s hosted by an independent bookstore owner and a member of her staff and discusses all kinds of bookish things. It’s a fun podcast to listen to!
• This Land – This is the newest Crooked Media podcast and it’s a docuseries about a Supreme Court case involving a 1999 murder that will decide if half the land in Oklahoma is Native American land. It’s so damn interesting and also very enraging to recognize how much atrocity Native Americans have suffered at the hands of white people. Please give it a listen!

THE HIGHS

• Pool party – I had a blast at a pool party my friend and her husband hosted at their home. I got to catch up with old coworkers, chat with my beloved besties, and snuggle an eight-week-old puppy! I stayed for five hours and didn’t get a sunburn, so it was a win all around.
• Sunken Gardens – To celebrate our five-year friendiversary, my friend, B., and I visited Sunken Gardens, which is a botanical garden located in the middle of my city. Can you believe I’ve lived in this area my whole life and have never been to Sunken Gardens? Crazy! It was a really fun morning, though. The flowers and trees and plants were gorgeous, of course, but the birds really stole my heart. They were so talkative! It was fun to have conversations with them. 😉
• Brunch at The Library – I have found my new favorite place in town. The Library is a restaurant in downtown St. Pete that is book-themed. The walls are filled with bookshelves and your receipt comes inside an old book! It’s so cute and the food is fantastic, too. I’d love to see if I could arrange a silent reading event in the space. It’s something I’ve been mulling over!

THE LOWS

• 17 bug bites – As much as I loved my day at Sunken Gardens, I did not love all the bugs. I came home with 17 mosquito bites on my legs. SEVENTEEN! I could feel them attacking me while I was there and the bites itched like crazy the first two days. My mom even asked what happened to me because it seriously looked like I had chicken pox or a crazy rash on my legs.
• Being told my sweet Ellie is overweight – My vet had the audacity to call my sweet Ellie Girl overweight. She’s just under 11 lbs. I was definitely not expecting to hear that because she seems to be normal to my eyes and doesn’t seem overly greedy about food. I have been giving the girls less food (one full cup split between two bowls; I was putting 3/4 cup into each bowl, but I also wasn’t filling it daily, only when it got low) and dropping down to treats only a few times a week and not every day. Let’s hope that helps, but I’m also not stressing about it. She’s happy and healthy!
• Reminders – June is always a tough month for me, but I made it through. My dad’s birthday was surprisingly difficult for me (it’s not always) but I met up with two friends and had a Fireball sangria, which took the edge off. 🙂 Father’s Day was another difficult day but I stayed off social media, buried myself in work, and then met up with a friend for a bowling date, so it passed by uneventfully.

I wasn’t able to get my April monthly recap up before my trip, so I decided I would combine April and May into one recap. I thought it would make this post a lot longer than it actually is, but it’s a pretty normal size. Yay! Let’s dive in:

READING

I read 21 books between April and May – whew! This puts me at 53 books read for the year, so I’m well on my way to crushing my yearly goal of reading 100 books. Not sure if I’ll beat last year’s record of 134 books, but maybe! Here were my top three favorites:

• On the Come Up by Angie Thomas, which was such a unique story about a girl trying to become a rapper and the complexities that provides.
• All Fall Down by Jennifer Weiner, which was a story that gripped me from beginning to end. It’s a story about drug addiction from the perspective of a white, middle-class woman, and was incredibly powerful.
• The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, which is going on my shelf of all-time favorites. It’s about a gay man named Cyril who was born in Ireland in the 1940s and follows him throughout his life as he comes to terms with the feelings he has for his best friend as well as what it means to be gay in a society that believes homosexuality is a criminal act.

WATCHING

• Jim Gaffigan, Noble Ape – I watched Jim Gaffigan’s latest comedy special on the plane to Ireland where I had to do a lot of silent laughing with tears streaming down my cheeks. I highly recommend his special, but also recommend watching it in the safety of your own home where you are free to laugh as loudly as you need to.
• Schitt’s Creek, season 1 – I watched a good majority of season 1 on my plane rides and then finished it up in early May. I thought I would like it more than I do, which is disappointing. However, I heard from a friend that season 1 isn’t great so I’m hopeful I’ll start loving the show more as I go.
• Mad Men, season 5 – I breezed through the majority of season 5 in May (I have two episodes left!). It’s so, so good. Jon Hamm is everything to me.
• Nailed It! – I watched seasons 2 and 3 in May, and this show is just such a delight. If you haven’t watched it yet, give it a try!
• Cheers, season 2 – I’m slowly working my way through season 2 of Cheers and still in love with Sam Malone. Although I have to say that Carla might have my heart most of all. Her sarcastic one-liners are everything!
• Wine Country – I watched this Netflix movie with some friends on a Friday night, where we drank lots of wine and talked through most of the movie. Ha. The movie is… not great, lol, so watch it with friends + wine if you do give it a try!

BUYING

• YAMIU 7-piece packing cubes – On the recommendation of many friends, I bought a set of packing cubes for my Ireland trip. At first, I was uncertain if a set of seven cubes could hold everything I wanted for a seven-day international trip but I was proven completely wrong. The packing cubes were perfect and I didn’t even need all seven (I used five of them). Since I lived out of my suitcase during the trip, it was so helpful to know exactly where everything was. I didn’t have to go scrounging around for underwear or a T-shirt. I’m a fan and will be using them for all my trips going forward.
• Catit bench scratcher – I bought this bench scratcher for Eloise’s birthday in April, knowing she’d love it. She’s always seemed to prefer sleeping on scratchers than cat beds for reasons I can’t understand. She loves this bench scratcher but so does Lila – so much so that Lila will sometimes force Ellie off it so she can sit on it herself. Guess I need to buy a second one!
• Johanna Basford “World of Flowers” coloring book – I’m rather obsessed with adult coloring books. I finished my last one in mid-April and had to immediately buy a new one. This is from the same artist as my last one, and I’m really enjoying it.

LISTENING TO…

• Over My Dead Body – True-crime podcast series are everywhere now and I’ve just started keeping a list of the ones I hear about so I can go back to listen to them when I have time. I listened to this series in May and while I found the ending a little confusing, I really liked it! It was about this perfect couple who end up having a pretty volatile divorce that leads to a murder – but you don’t know who was murdered or why.
• Cold – This investigative podcast follows the disappearance of Susan Powell and the subsequent murder-suicide of her husband and two young sons. It’s fascinating and super well-researched. I’ve never heard of this case, but man, it’s sad and I’m infuriated by Susan’s husband. What a monster.
• Throughline – I could have sworn that I have talked about this podcast before on my blog, but a search doesn’t bring any results, so apparently not? It’s such a great podcast, though, for news junkies like me. It takes present-day news headlines and discusses how we got here by looking at it through the lens of history. The tagline is, “We go back in time to understand the present.” I haven’t always followed the news as closely as I do now so there is a lot of background info I’m missing, and this podcast does a great job of explaining things like how China became a superpower and how Mitch McConnell has won eight consecutive elections when he’s demonstrably unpopular.

THE HIGHS

• A friend getting married – It was a joy to watch one of my dearest friends marry the love of her life. She asked me to photograph her low-key wedding, which I was so happy to do for her, and then we all celebrated their marriage the following weekend at her reception. The best!
• IRELAND – Obviously. The highest high ever! Ireland was amazing and everything I could have wanted. The weather was beautiful, the sights were lovely, and the company was fantastic. I can’t wait to go back!
• Wine and cheese night – I got together with some coworkers on a Friday night to enjoy lots of wine, cheese and apps, and the movie Wine Country. As expressed above, the movie wasn’t great but the night itself was exactly what I needed.
• Big moves – Two big moves happened in May: my brother and his wife became homeowners and moved into their new house, and my mom and stepdad moved into an apartment closer to me (with a much easier parking situation, as her old place had very little visitor parking and it was ALWAYS a crapshoot if I’d find a spot!)

THE LOWS

• Extreme anxiety – I discussed this when I was recapping my Ireland trip but May was a month of lots of anxiety due to being off my meds for two weeks. That period of time reminded me how much I need to be on my meds, and what a stabilizing force they are for me.
• The news – The news was pretty fucking depressing in May with abortion ban after abortion ban being passed. It’s so upsetting, and I can just hope and pray that nothing comes of these bans. I signed up to volunteer with my local Planned Parenthood because I want to do more than just be angered by the headlines, so I’m hoping I’ll receive some info about that soon!
• Getting back into the dating scene – After taking a year off the dating apps in 2018, I’m back on them (and off them, and on them… it’s not a great scene out there, friends). I went on a date with someone in April and it was pretty damn lackluster and his message to me after the date was… not great, so it’s a bit discouraging.

Anticipating

• Attending a Silent Reading Party – I’ve been wanting to attend one of these parties for a few months now, and I have been too intimidated to go on my own. I brought it up to a group of friends so hopefully one or two of them can come along and I can finally make this happen!
• Going to a friend’s pool party – My dear friend, B., is hosting a fun pool party at her house and I cannot wait to hang out and have a good time.
• Brunch at The Library – This is our book club meeting spot for June, and I’m looking forward to finally experiencing this restaurant that’s inside our local children’s hospital and built to look like you’re dining inside a beautiful library. Is there a more perfect place to have book club?!

Tell me something good that happened to you in May!

READING

I read 9 books in March to bring my total of books read in 2019 to 32. I’m well on my way to read 100 books this year! My top three books from the month were:

• Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating, for anyone looking for a sweet and fun love story. I adored Josh and Hazel so much!
• The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, which had such a unique plot that kept me on the edge of my seat from beginning to end. One of those books I’ll be rushing to recommend to everyone I know.
• Pachinko, which is a sweeping novel following a Korean family living in Japan at the time of World War II. It follows this family from the 1930s to the 1990s. I learned so much about Korean and Japanese culture and realized I know very little about how the war affected this part of the world.

WATCHING

• Friends, seasons 8 and 9 – I’m nearly done with my rewatch and all I want to do when I finish it is start over from the beginning. I may be in perpetual binge mode with this show. It’s just the best.
• The Case Against Adnan Syed – I’m really glad I still haven’t canceled my HBO Go subscription, even though I don’t use it nearly enough to justify the $14.99 monthly expense. But it means I got to watch this four-part documentary about Adnan Syed (from Serial season 1). The documentary was a bit anticlimactic in my opinion, mostly because we already know what happened with his appeals, but I did find it interesting to learn what has been going on in the years since the podcast aired and to get more background on the people involved.

BUYING

• Sterilite stacking drawers – I bought this pack of six drawers ($34) that stack right on top of each other. I have four of the drawers stacked two-by-two underneath my bathroom counter to hold my washclothes, medicine, extra beauty products, etc., and it is perfect. The other two drawers are stacked in my closet.
• A library card – I spent $100 to buy a library card, which sounds crazy but I promise it’s not. My local library system is great for print books, but its online system is very much lacking in e-book and audiobook selections. The neighboring library system’s Overdrive is so robust and it actually saves me money to spend $100 to use their system rather than buying all the books I want to read. (Not to mention, I’d need to invest in an Audible subscription to listen to audiobooks.)
• A plane ticket to Boston! – For our yearly trip this year, my girlfriends and I are going to Boston (!!!) and we all purchased our plane tickets this month. We have an adorable Airbnb booked, too, and I am looking forward to a really fun time exploring Boston in the fall.

LISTENING TO

• Dr. Death – This podcast series was wild, and I’m so glad I finally got around to listening to it. While the first episode hit a little too close to home (considering my Pops died after having spine surgery), it gradually moved into an entirely different realm, one I could not have fathomed for the life of me. Definitely a great podcast that I recommend!
• Keep It – This month Keep It was killin’ it with its podcast guests. I especially loved the episodes with Mandy Moore and Busy Phillips. I have mad love for both actresses, and it was fun listening to them.
• Season 5 of Invisibilia – The fifth season of Invisibilia launched in March and every episode has been FASCINATING. I was especially drawn to The Remote Control Brain, which is about a woman who has severe OCD and depression and gets an implant in her brain that helps her control her mood. If you’ve never listened to Invisibilia, season 5 is a great place to begin (and then go back and listen to the archives!)

THE HIGHS

• Meeting Taylor Jenkins Reid – It was so fun to attend my first book signing and get to meet an author I greatly admire. TJR was everything I expected, and I’m so excited to have my first signed book on my bookshelf.
• Chip turned 1! – My little fur-brother is officially a whole year old. I bought him some presents to celebrate his very first birthday (a toy and some bones to chew on) and we sang happy birthday to him while he ate a “pup”cake. He’s not spoiled, nope, not one bit!
• A shopping date with my mom – On the last day of the month, my mom and I went outlet shopping. We left around 9:30 and didn’t get home until after 6, so we really did it big! It was so much fun to spend time with her, and she didn’t even complain when I made her stop at two used bookstores (and she even picked up two books of her own to read!)

THE LOWS

• Feeling disconnected – I’ve been feeling this weird sense of disconnection, a feeling that I’m not fitting into any specific group. It has me questioning a lot of things, mainly how I want to spend my time and who I want to surround myself with to do that. Growing pains, perhaps.
• A reading slump – I fell into a reading slump in early March and it was awful. I just didn’t want to read and none of my books interested me at all. I attribute the reading slump to trying to read The Grapes of Wrath, hating it so much, but wanting to finish it. Once I finally put that book down and gave myself a few days to get over it, my reading picked up again. But man, reading slumps suck. I’m glad mine didn’t last too long.
• Not meeting my no-spend challenge – Oof, it was hard to accept defeat for this goal. But March just wasn’t the best month to not spend money. And hopefully, I’ll learn from the mistakes I made in March.

ANTICIPATING

• Taking photos at a friend’s wedding – One of my favorite people is getting married this month in a low-key celebration, and she asked if I would come out and take some photos of the wedding. I was so honored! I’m looking forward to capturing their special day in the best way I can.
• A wedding reception – This same friend will be having a wedding reception the weekend following her wedding, and I am sooo excited! It will be a fun evening filled with dancing and love and laughter.
• LEAVING FOR IRELAND – Ahhhhh, yes. The best part of April will be leaving for Ireland on the 29th. I am so excited to explore Ireland with my favorite person!