1) Getting LASIK and having an easy recovery. I am so glad I made the decision to get LASIK and so pleased with how everything turned out. My recovery has been so very easy with very few side effects. It’s so fun to be glasses-free! Even if I do need reading glasses later in life, that’s much easier to handle than glasses I have to wear all the time or else I’m blind.
2) Returning to Silent Book Club. I took a brief hiatus from Silent Book Club in August and September. Mostly because the timing of the events didn’t line up with my schedule. Thankfully, they’ve added a second book club meeting on Monday evenings, and I can typically make those meetings. It’s a nice way to kick off the week!
3) Escape room book club. We had our second escape room book club of the year! We went back to the same place we went in August, this time to do their harder escape room. I didn’t enjoy this one as much as the last one; the other one had better puzzles to solve, IMO. But we did escape (with 3 seconds to spare!) and had a good time together.
4) Getting my flu + Covid shots and having no side effects. Every time I get the new Covid booster, I expect to have a day of feeling shitty, but I keep lucking out! I don’t know what it is about my immune system; maybe it knows I’m such a big baby that it gives me a pass? HA. I got both the flu shot and booster at the same time and felt just fine the next day. Hooray for that!
5) Monitor arms and excellent customer service. I bought monitor arms for my desk and installing them was quite an adventure! First, I realized that my monitors do not have VESA screws so I had to buy a bracket adapter from Amazon. Then, I had to apply the adapter (it’s an adhesive) and wait 3 days to install my monitors. And then when I tried to install the monitors, it seemed like my monitor arms had been installed backward. This would have been a manufacturer issue, so I contacted them. Within THREE MINUTES of sending them an email, they had responded and asked me to send photos/video. So I did and we had a few back-and-forth emails until everything was installed! My monitor arms are from Rocelco and while time will tell if they are high-quality, I will say the customer service is TOP-NOTCH. They were very patient and helpful with me, even when I had really silly questions. And now I have monitor arms! They aren’t quite as wide as I want them (they cut off my laptop a bit), but I do enjoy having the monitors off my desk.
6) My ladder bookshelf. I’ve had a vision in my head to create a “favorite books” bookshelf and I finally got to make it a reality in October. I ordered a ladder bookshelf from Wayfair, which was super easy to put together, and styled it one weekend. It makes me so happy to look at it every night as I go to sleep and every morning as I wake up!
7) Recording all of our episodes for season 7. Bri and I got together three times in October to record all of our episodes for season 7 of the podcast. I really loved these episodes and had such a great time discussing all sorts of mental health and personal subjects with Bri. Our trailer is releasing on Tuesday so make sure you’ve subscribed to The Friendship Paradox to start listening!
8) An impromptu dinner date with my bestie and her girls. I am not someone who says yes to same-day dinner plans, but I decided to let myself be a little spontaneous when my best friend texted me to see if I was up for dinner with her daughters. We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant and it was a really lovely time! I’m glad I said yes.
9) A six-day staycation. I took a nice staycation from work in October and it was much needed. My last day off was in July! (And we have flexible time off, so there’s no excuse.) Honestly, I didn’t do a lot during my staycation (well, aside from my LASIK procedure, ha, which happened on my second day of staycation). I took lots of naps, did some organizing around my apartment, and read a lot of books. It was perfect!
10) Favorites of the month.
- Favorite book: Drowning by TJ Newman
- Favorite romance: The Fiancee Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
- Favorite purchase: Fresh Balsam candle from Bath & Body Works
- Favorite podcast episode: Fall Extravaganza on The Girl Next Door podcast
- Favorite post: My LASIK Experience
What did you love about October?