Stephany Writes

Categories: Life

All the Jobs I’ve Had

A few weeks ago, Kate wrote this super interesting blog post detailing some of the jobs she’s had in her life. I loved it so much that I decided to steal her idea. This blog post is long, but hopefully it’s an interesting look at all of the different jobs I’ve had over the course of my life. Enjoy!

Baby-Sitter

The summer after fifth grade, my grandma decided to hire me as a babysitter for my twin cousins who were four and her next-door neighbor’s granddaughter, who was a few years younger than me. It wasn’t babysitting in the real sense of the word because my grandma was always there, but she just wanted me to hang out with them and keep them out of trouble and she’d pay me. Fine by me!

Unfortunately, this arrangement didn’t last very long because, well, I kinda just wanted to be alone. I didn’t want to hang out with three kids with tons of energy every day during the summer. I wanted to read! And write silly stories! So I just stopped hanging out with them and thus, the baby-sitting money dried up.

Daycare Cleaner

When I was twelve, my brother and I helped out at the daycare where my mom worked, cleaning toys and chairs. I suspect it was my mom’s way of keeping us from spending the entire summer inside, but we got paid and it was a fun little gig! I can’t remember how long we did it, but it definitely wasn’t very long. We started washing all of the toys in the center and then moved on to washing all of the chairs with bleach. An odd little job, for sure, but I remember having the time of my life working side-by-side with my brother.

Associate at Panera Bread

I was in 10th grade when I applied for a job at Panera Bread, and I was thrilled to be hired! My brother had started working at 15 and I was feeling a little self-conscious about not having a high school job. I attended a training in Tampa and I came home bursting with all sorts of facts about Panera that I’m sure my mom was oh-so-interested to hear.

And then I started working. And it did not live up to my expectations. For one thing, I was only scheduled to work on Saturday and Sunday evenings for a couple of hours. For another, I was basically a glorified dishwasher. I simply spent my time at work cleaning off tables, washing the dishes, and making sure the coffee was always fresh. I also had to sweep and mop the entire dining room on those nights, which was not an enjoyable job in the least. Every now and then, they’d schedule me to work at the register, but I was really not good at it because I couldn’t understand their menu system. This all sounds very whiny, I know, but I was sixteen and it was essentially my first job. I am allowed to be a little whiny, ya know?

Anyway, this job didn’t last very long. Maybe only a few months, until they told me that they no longer needed me anymore. I can’t say I was upset. Nope – I was super relieved and walked out of there with a spring in my step.

Associate at Aeropostale

I worked at this short-lived job the summer after 10th grade. How short-lived? One freaking day. This was such a weird situation because the store went through all this trouble to hire and train summer workers (there were around five of us in the training), but then decided they didn’t need any of us. I felt completely out of place at this job, though, so I wasn’t too mad about it.

Concessions Associate at a Movie Theater

I worked at my local movie theater the summer before I went off to college, and I loved it. I worked with a great group of young people (high schoolers and college kids) and we always had a blast, especially on Friday and Saturday nights when the movie theater was packed.

For the majority of my time at the movie theater, I worked in the concessions, which involved a lot of scooping popcorn, pouring drinks, and dealing with customers who were trying their best to earn that free movie ticket if I didn’t ask them if they wanted to try a combo. (True story.) Every now and then, I’d get to work in the box office, which was honestly my favorite because if I worked there on a slow weekday afternoon, it meant I could kick back and read a book – and get paid for it. Sounds like the perfect deal to me!

I stopped working at this job right before I left home to attend college. I thought about transferring to the movie theater near my college, but since I didn’t have a car, transportation would have been tricky. Oh, well. It was fun while it lasted!

Book Hustler at the Campus Bookstore

During my freshman year of college, I spent a few months working in the campus bookstore, in the textbooks. This was a time in my life when I was depressed and I needed something to do that wasn’t going to class or being alone in my dorm room, so I got a job working at the bookstore during their busy season (the end of fall semester/the beginning of spring semester). My first job was working in the buyback program, scanning the textbooks that students brought in and telling them how little they were going to get back. (Not the most fun job, that’s for sure.) Then, during the beginning of the spring semester, I helped students find the books they needed for their classes when they came into the bookstore, as well as packaged up books for students who placed online orders.

I really, really enjoyed this job and had a blast during the few weeks I got to work here. It got me out of my dorm room, too, which is exactly what I needed at this time. I wish it could have lasted longer, though. (I was really hoping I would be hired to work in the actual bookstore, but it wasn’t to be.)

Infant Teacher at a Daycare

The summer after my freshman year of college, I strolled into a daycare center, intent on applying to become an aftercare teacher for elementary-aged kids. At this point in my life, I was studying to become an elementary school teacher, and a lot of my peers in my classes worked in these types of aftercare programs. Unfortunately, this daycare center did not have such a program, but they did have an opening for an infant teacher. I decided to apply because hey, I needed a job. I was hired.

I spent this summer working full-time with infants and it was the best birth control I could have possibly asked for. Ha. But I loved those babies so much, and still remember each of their birthdays. As an infant teacher, my days involved changing diapers, feeding them, playing with them, taking them on short strolls around the yard, and rocking them to sleep. It wasn’t a bad job, but it was also pretty boring, and I didn’t always love the teachers they placed in my room.

Once the summer was up, I needed more flexibility with my school schedule, especially once I started interning at elementary schools for my teaching degree. My boss tried to work with me, but it just became too difficult to accommodate my crazy schedule, so I had to let the job go.

Office Assistant at a Printing Company

My mom was friends with the wife of the owner of this printing company, so she got me the job as a glorified office assistant for the summer after my sophomore year of college. My main job was to answer the phones, sign for packages, and do the invoices, all of which took approximately 5% of my workday. Every now and then, they would let me run a printing job, which was always fun. I wish I got to do more of that!

The printing company was tiny, as the only employees were the two owners, an older gentleman who ran the printing presses, and me. For the majority of the time, I was alone in the office. There was a TV right next to my desk, and I was told I could watch whatever I wanted, so I just tuned it so I could watch The Price is Right and sitcoms like Reba and George Lopez. They also didn’t care if I fooled around online, so honestly, I got paid to watch TV and fill out surveys on Xanga. Tough life.

“Floating” Teacher at a Daycare

Another daycare! What am I even thinking? Well, I’m thinking that I have experience in a daycare setting and I like that working in a daycare keeps my weekends free. I started this job at the beginning of 2009, which would technically be my junior year of college, but since I changed degrees, I wouldn’t end up graduating college until 2011. But anyway, I started this job and I was basically deemed a “floater,” which meant I would be placed in whatever room needed a teacher.

So, one week I might be in the infant class, the next week the two-year-old class, and the following week working with the pre-k kids. Daycare centers have a pretty crazy turnover rate with teachers (it’s a tough job!) and each class always has to maintain the proper ratio of children to teachers, so I basically just jumped into a room whenever they needed an extra pair of hands to maintain that ratio. I’d also help out with making breakfast and lunch and distributing it around to the different classrooms, and giving bathroom breaks to the teachers. (Man, once I started a “normal” job and realized I could go the bathroom whenever I wanted… my life changed.)

I worked this job all the way until I graduated college, and near the end of my schooling, I had to drop down to just working a few hours in the morning and I am so grateful that my boss was able to accommodate my schedule.

Marketing Assistant

My first post-grad job was working as a marketing assistant for a direct marketing company, a job I worked at for two years from 2011 to 2013. I was so excited to get hired so quickly out of college that I didn’t even balk at the starting salary (brace yourselves… $25,000 before taxes).

My boss managed the intense marketing campaigns for the different promotions we ran throughout the year, and she was so overwhelmed with work that she needed an assistant to help with the more mundane administrative tasks. So my job involved stuff like filing, creating promo codes for the different ads we ran, and editing ads. Gradually, I was given more and more responsibility as I grew in my position and truly became more of a marketing data analyst than a marketing assistant. A good chunk of my workload involved data analysis.

I started looking for a new job just a year after being with this company because I wasn’t happy. One of the biggest reasons for my unhappiness was that I never really had enough work to keep me busy, so I was bored a lot. Another reason for my unhappiness was the fact that my salary wasn’t proportional to the tasks I was doing, and I knew I’d never get the raise I deserved. But I think the biggest reason I started looking for a new job so soon after starting this one was the fact that I didn’t want to do data analysis as a full-time job. It wasn’t a passion of mine.

SEO Content Writer

And now we’ve come to the end (nearly 2,000 words later, eeks!). I started working as an SEO content writer for an Internet marketing agency in 2013 and I have loved it since day one. I spend my days writing, editing, and doing online marketing strategy. It’s everything I could want in a job, honestly. I get a few work-from-home days during the month and my weekends start at 11:30 a.m. on Fridays. I get paid a decent wage and I feel acknowledged and accepted at this company.

When I started working here, my job was simple: write SEO content. But over the past four years, the job has changed dramatically that I can barely remember a time when all I did was write all day. It’s changed because my company has developed different growth opportunities for writers and also because SEO is an ever-evolving field and we’ve had to change our practices to grow with this industry. I honestly feel that no day is ever the same, and even if the writing can sometimes be mundane, there’s something comforting about that. I welcome those mundane days because they balance out the crazy ones.

Whew! So there you have it! All of the jobs I’ve had in my life. It’s crazy to see this evolution and was really fun to put this blog post together.

Tell me some of the interesting jobs you’ve had!

Categories: Life

10 Things I Loved in March

1) Getting cleared for activity by my orthopedic. In early March, I went for my final orthopedic appointment to check the status of my ankle (which I fractured the first weekend in December). I was pretty positive that the x-ray would show that the fracture had healed, but I had twinges of pain every now and then that made me a little wary, but thankfully, everything was good! My ankle was healed and I could resume normal activity (which meant I immediately registered for spin class the next day because damn, I had missed that workout). My ankle still gives me trouble from time to time, and I think it’ll always be a little tender and easy to fracture, but as long as I stay off hiking trails, I should be A-OK.

2) Trying some new breakfast restaurants. And I loved each and every one! For me, trying new restaurants can be anxiety-inducing and I think it’s due to my social anxiety, which is something I might elaborate on in a future post. But I tried some new restaurants this month, two with my mom and one with my girlfriends, and they were all so delicious. First, my mom and I went to The Brunchery in Brandon after she ran a 5k race and we loved it. Not only was the food delicious, but the service was phenomenal as it was a small, local restaurant where the entire staff worked together as one unit. So, one person brought us menus and took our drink order after we were seated. Another took our food order and brought us our food. A different person cleaned our table. Yet another one brought us the check. It was so out of the ordinary, but made for a super smooth and seamless dining experience. I can’t wait to go back!

I also went to 2nd and Second with my girlfriends, a new 24-hour diner that opened in downtown St. Pete. I got the chocolate chip French toast and then proceeded to eat all of my friend’s home fries, oops. The food was great, though, and the atmosphere so much fun.

Lastly, my mom and I tried out this cute diner in Largo called Speggtacular. The name leaves something to be desired, but we were pleasantly surprised by how good our chocolate chip pancakes were! Super light and fluffy with just the right amount of chocolate chips. And they have fun iced coffee flavors to try, so I will definitely be back.

3) Game night with my girls. For book club this month, we decided to get together for game night and it might have been one of my favorite book club meetings to date. We ordered pizza, one friend made her “famous” salad, and three of us brought dessert. So, I did not go home hungry that night, that’s for sure. And just being with all my girls and playing fun games was exactly what my heart needed.

4) Finally making progress on my novel. Over the past two weeks, I’ve written almost 4,000 words in my novel and I’m finally making some forward progress after being totally stalled for most of this year. Obviously, there wasn’t much creative writing happening in February after Dutch died, although I still met up with my friend M. on a weekly basis. I just wasn’t doing much writing. One time, I literally just spent two hours reorganizing my Google Drive. But these last two writing dates have gone so much better and the words have been flying out of my head and onto my WIP. I’m feeling inspired again and that feels awesome.

5) Instagram Story templates. I’m sure you’ve seen these fun templates all over Instagram Stories, and I’m sorry not sorry that they are my new favorite thing. I have probably 30+ saved to my phone and once a day, I just pick a couple and complete them on Instagram Stories. They’re silly, but fun, and we all need a little bit of that in our lives these days, don’t you think?

6) House-sitting for a pair of beagles. My mom’s coworker was in a pinch and needed a dog-sitter for his two beagles for one night and I was happy to help out! The dogs were all sorts of lovable and fun and it was a pretty easy “job” for a night. We went on a nice long walk and then they ate dinner and played in the backyard before coming inside to snuggle me. They also slept with me in the guest room and while I didn’t have a ton of room for my legs, ha, it was just fine because one of the beagles spooned me all night long and I didn’t realize how much I needed that. Dogs just know it seems. I must say, though, walking two beagles is no joke. They were fast and furious with their noses to the ground the entire walk. So much different from walking a geriatric dachshund, ha!

But even as nice as it was to be around dogs, it also made me miss Dutch so, so much. It was all the little things like walking him, having something following me all around the house, all of the adoration and attention, the nighttime snuggling. I miss it so much and I just wish my buddy was here with me. Sigh. Grief is such a winding round, isn’t it?

7) Implementing a new skincare routine. I’m really lazy about washing my face, which isn’t a great thing since I don’t have perfect skin and my face actually needs a lot of help. I scrub my makeup off every day with a wipe, but actually doing the whole skincare regime thing? Nope. Inspired by this post, I decided to start implementing a morning and nighttime skincare regime to hopefully counteract some of the problems I experience (redness, oily face, breakouts, etc.) with my skin. I’m using a cleanser, toner, and moisturizer twice a day, and it feels good to take care of my face for the first time ever. Now, let’s see if I can keep it up! (Also, if you have a skincare product that you feel worked like magic for you, let me know! I’m on the hunt.)

8) Learning how to trim my own bangs. I’ve had bangs for just about three years now and most times, I stop by my salon for a quick bang trim. Usually, they don’t charge me, but I still have to tip the stylist and then there’s the hassle of making an appointment and finding time to go to the salon. I just didn’t want to do it anymore, so I invested in a bang-trimming kit (although, really, all I needed was the scissors) and set to work watching all of the YouTube videos I could find to learn the proper way to trim my bangs. It was actually much less scary than I anticipated and I wound up doing an okay job my first time around. My bangs were (mostly) straight and not too short, so I consider it a win and now I’m glad I can just trim my bangs myself whenever they need it (which is often because my hair grows so damn fast!)

9) Getting through Dutch’s birthday without too many tears. Dutch would have turned 16 on March 2nd, and celebrating his birthday without him hit me harder than I expected. I tried to give myself a lot of grace to be as sad as I needed to be and boy, did I live up to that. But I got through it! I survived! And I don’t feel like I’m drowning in my grief like I was just a few weeks ago. Progress!

10) Jim Gaffigan comedy specials. My mom and brother love Jim Gaffigan and quote him all the time, but I’ve actually never seen one of his comedy specials until this month! He has a bunch on Netflix and I watched two of them that made me realize that Jim Gaffigan may be my spirit animal in comedian form. He’s fantastic and so damn funny.

What was a bright moment of March for you?

Categories: Life

My 30th Birthday Celebration(s)

My 30th birthday was one for the record books, that’s for sure. It was a whole week of celebrating me with both my friends and my family.

It may come as a surprise with how shy and reserved I can be, but I love celebrating my birthday. I love being showered with attention by my friends and family. My birthday is probably the only time of the year that I love the attention on me, so I relish in it.

I also take my birthday very seriously. I mean, it’s the one day set aside for me, so I might as well live it up, yes? Being born around Thanksgiving means I often have the day off from work, but every now and then, my birthday falls during the week after Thanksgiving like it did this year. It was on a Tuesday and I knew I was going to take that Tuesday off work, so I decided to treat myself by taking the Monday off work, too. This means, as everyone was moaning and groaning about going back to work after the Thanksgiving holiday, I was sleeping in and lazing around. Yeah, I was pretty happy with my decision to give myself a super long, six-day weekend. 😉

Here’s how I celebrated my birthday this year!

Monday

On Monday evening, after a fully lazy day where I simply read my book and worked on the blog posts I published last week, I met up with one of my best friends for dinner. While she would be the one to plan my little birthday bash later on in the week, she still wanted to treat me to dinner, just the two of us. We met up at a steakhouse and it was the perfect time of catching up, after not seeing one another for a few weeks. After our dinner, we decided to round out the night with froyo, which was an A+ decision on our parts! It was the perfect kickoff to my birthday week!

Tuesday

Tuesday was my actual birthday and I had a full day of happiness planned. I started by sleeping in and waking up slowly, reading my book and snuggling with Dutch. Around noon, I headed to my favorite nail salon to get a pedicure. I haven’t had a pedicure in maybe three months and my feet were seriously needing some attention. I opted for one of their specialty pedicures that included a paraffin wax treatment that felt soooo luxurious. I read my book while getting my pedicure, and enjoyed every minute of my time in the salon.

After my pedicure, it was time for a massage! I recently discovered that I actually do like massages, but I just need to be clear with the massage therapist that I’m looking for something relaxing with light pressure. I had booked an hour-long relaxation massage for 1:30, and it was so very nice to spend an hour lost in my thoughts and the calming music and the therapeutic touch of another person. I’m really glad I took the time to get a massage on my birthday because it really felt like the ultimate treat.

Once I was finished with my pedicure, my next stop was Starbucks for a peppermint mocha. I relaxed on one of their comfortable couches, sipped my mocha, and finished the book I was reading. I also read a few pages of a new romance while I finished my drink. Perfect!

I came home after my visit to Starbucks and took Dutch on a nice, long walk before taking some time to lay on my bed and read the romance I started at Starbucks. Then it was time to get ready for the evening festivities: dinner with my family!

Unfortunately, my brother and his family couldn’t make it because my brother had to unexpectedly work late. So it was just my mom and stepdad and we met at an Italian restaurant for dinner where I ordered the most delicious peach sangria and ate my weight in bread before dinner. As you should! During dinner, my brother texted me to see about meeting up for dessert. He felt terrible about missing my birthday dinner, and I was super touched that my brother took the time to see me after he had had a long and stressful work day. It meant a lot.

Saturday

Saturday was my birthday party with my girlfriends! My best friend, B., organized the whole event without me, which I am so damn grateful for. A party planner, I am not. I get way too overwhelmed, so I’m glad she threw herself into planning the party and making it happen for me.

Originally, I planned a big shindig for my 30th birthday with a huge guest list, renting out an event space, having themed drinks… I wanted to go all out. And then I realized that isn’t me. I’m not the type to go all out like that. I don’t particularly enjoy parties like that, so why would I force myself to have a party like that for myself? Instead, I opted for a small party with five of my closest girlfriends. The menu would be light appetizers and pizza and cupcakes. The itinerary would be games and laughter and funny selfies. And that’s exactly what happened!

We started the fun around 6:30 at B.’s house where we snacked on apps before the pizza arrived. Then we gathered in the living room to eat pizza and I told the story of a hilariously bad date I had on Friday. After that, it was time to play some games! B. had bought this fun game called Jackbox, which is played on the TV and on your phone. My friend’s Jackbox purchase came with five games to play and our favorite was Quiplash, which was a twist on Cards Against Humanity. Basically, there would be two prompts displayed on your phone (like, “Queen Elizabeth’s wrestling name”). The prompts were different from person-to-person, but each prompt would be answered by two people in the group and those answers would go head-to-head in the battle round. Once everyone had submitted their answers (I think you had 90 seconds), it was time to battle it out! The prompts and answers would be displayed one-by-one on the TV and you’d select the answer you liked best on your phone. I hope I’m explaining this in a way that makes sense! It was just super interactive and hilarious and we didn’t even break out the other games we brought to play! Jackbox was too much fun!

After an hour or so of playing Jackbox, it was time for cupcakes and presents! The girls sang to me and then we noshed on some delicious Publix cupcakes (mmm!). Then, I opened my presents and my girls outdid themselves. Between the poem my friend made me of my name, the “30 Reasons We Love Stephany” print, all of the bath bombs, the cute bag of Sephora goodies that my friend got me because she loves how I reveal my Sephora PLAY box every month (I was commissioned to reveal the goodies in the same kind of Instagram Stories video soon, haha), tons of books, dachshund socks, an anchor Tervis, and more stuff that I know I am forgetting… I don’t know how I got so lucky to have thoughtful friends like them! Everything was so perfect.

Once the presents had been unwrapped, we played Jackbox for a few more hours before calling it quits around 10:45. (And yes, we were all very pleased with ourselves for staying up so late. We’re all grandmas at heart, haha.)

I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday celebration. Honestly. I don’t think I would have had nearly as much fun if I had done a big shindig. This small get-together was perfect and I will be forever grateful to my friends for showering me with so much love and affection.

I think my thirties are off to a wonderful start. But let me tell you, my next decade of birthdays has a lot to live up to.

Categories: Life

10 Things I Loved in September

I’ll be completely honest: this post was difficult to put together this month. September was not a great month for me. There was the hurricane and all the emotional turmoil that caused. There was crazy work stress because I essentially lost an entire week of work due to time off for the hurricane. And then, at the end of the month, I got sick and was out of commission for a few days. Suffice it to say, I am glad to see September go and I’m ready to see what good things October has in store for me. Because it has to be better than September, right? Right.

But even though September was a shitty month, it wasn’t all bad and I managed to come up with 10 good things about September:

1) A long Labor Day weekend. After realizing I had some extra PTO days to use, I decided to give myself a five-day weekend over Labor Day. I didn’t make any major plans but just wanted to relax and read and spend time with Dutch. While it was such a lovely long weekend, I found out on the last day of my “staycation” that Hurricane Irma was barreling toward the U.S. and it was probably a good idea to stock up on food and water. I headed to Publix around 11 a.m. on a Tuesday and it was packed. I’m really glad I got the majority of my hurricane shopping prep done then because it just got crazier and crazier throughout the week.

2) Surviving Hurricane Irma. I am so grateful that the Tampa Bay area was spared a direct hit. By the time the storm passed through our area, it had shifted slightly to the east and weakened to a Category 1. (Projections on Saturday showed a direct hit by a Category 3 hurricane, the likes of which we haven’t seen in our lifetime.) I’m also very glad my mom, Dutch, and I went to her work to ride out the storm because we got to be around other people and since we were in such a big building, we didn’t have to hear any crazy winds or trees breaking around us! (I’m sure that would have terrified me because storms are not good for my anxiety!) I don’t think I’ll ever forget the impact Irma had on our community.

3) Football is back! I’m so happy to have football back in my life. Spending a Sunday at my mom’s with my brother watching the games fills me with joy unlike anything else. There is something about the simplicity of a football game that brings me comfort when life feels out of control. I’m so, so happy to have this much-beloved sport back.

4) Coloring. A few years ago, I decided to jump on the adult coloring books train and then I put them away in my closet and haven’t really brought them back out. But last month I brought them back into my life, as something calming to do while watching TV or listening to a podcast. It’s an activity that feeds my creativity but doesn’t expect much out of me. It’s exactly what I need right now.

5) Celebrating all of the birthdays. September is such a crazy birthday month in my family (anyone else?). We have my brother, my nephew, and my stepdad. And a bunch of my friends have birthdays as well. Thankfully, the hurricane didn’t affect celebrating the birthdays of my loved ones. My nephew – who turned NINE, and it’s killing me – celebrated with a pool party with all of his friends and it was so much fun! Pool parties > any other kind of party, amirite?

6) Finishing Gilmore Girls. You guys, I finally finished Gilmore Girls! It took me forever. At least a few years, haha. I have a lot of thoughts, especially after watching the revival episodes. I loved A Year in the Life and thought it was just about perfect. After watching the entire series, I realized that I don’t like Rory as much as I thought I did (especially once she went off to college), Lorelei is everything to me but Kirk comes a close second, I’m the only person in the world who actually liked Digger and thought he was a great match for Lorelei, and the final four words were laaaaaame. Oh, and #TeamJess forever! I’m trying to decide what my next binge show will be. I was thinking about going back to Friday Night Lights (I watched the first season, but then put it aside to watch Gilmore Girls), but it’s not on Netflix anymore, wah. So, now I’m debating between Mad Men and The West Wing. Thoughts?

7) Seeing John Mulaney with my mom. My mom and I both love John Mulaney. She loves that he’s not crass and vulgar in his comedy, and I love his self-deprecating sarcasm. When I heard he was coming to St. Pete on his tour, well, I couldn’t buy tickets for us fast enough! We had a splendid evening – we went out to dinner in downtown St. Pete and then to Mahaffey Theater for the show. John Mulaney was just as funny as I expected and it was so exciting to see him in person after watching all of his comedy specials and his short-lived TV show. The only downside to the event is that Mom and I had to be seated next to the most annoying group of friends who kept screaming “WOOHOO” every other minute and yelling things at Mulaney (except we were seated near the back of the theater in the balcony – he can’t hear you!). It put a damper on my evening because they made my ears ring (yay, HSP probz), but it is what it is. Maybe next time, I’ll opt for seats on the main floor.

8) Dutch sleeping so much better. I mentioned this in my recap post last month, but it bears repeating because I can’t tell you how grateful I am that Dutch is sleeping better. Before he was on his anti-anxiety meds, I never knew what kind of night was in store for me. Would he fall asleep in 10 minutes? Would it take two hours? Would he spend an hour crying? And now, I don’t have to worry about any of that! As long as I give him his meds early in the night, he falls asleep easily (it still takes about 15-20 minutes, but that’s nothing compared to what I was dealing with before) and stays asleep all night. It’s so nice to get a full night’s rest again!

9) A night out with book club. This past weekend, I had a fun night out with my book club ladies. We had dinner at this adorable, hole-in-the-wall Italian restaurant and then planned on going bowling, but when we got to the bowling alley, we found out that open bowling wasn’t until 9 p.m. (it was 8 at this time). So, we scrapped those plans to get some ice cream and just chit-chat! It was a fun evening, even though I was starting to feel under the weather, and I was proud of us for making it to 9:45 p.m. before we all called it a night. 😉 We’re some wild women! Also, how cute is this photo that my friend captured? We were all laughing our heads off about something!

10) Getting a new iPhone. I’m so happy with my decision to get a new iPhone, especially considering the space issues I was having with my old one. (I had 4 gb left of space on my old phone. On this one, I have 50 gb left!) And it’s nice to have a functioning battery again. I can usually go all day without a charge! What a concept. 🙂

What did you love about September?

Categories: Life

Everything I Learned from Hurricane Irma – Part II

Hello, friends! I am back with part two of my Hurricane Irma lessons. Here in Tampa, we are definitely still thinking about this hurricane, especially considering some people in the area just got their power restored. It’s on everyone’s minds and it’s all everyone wants to talk about. When I was at the hair salon this weekend, I talked to my hair stylist about it. When I was out to dinner on Saturday night, I heard the people around me talking about it. When I was at the grocery store, I heard people talking about it. It’s permeating our every conversation. But there’s a camaraderie to it. We’re in this together. We’re fine. We made it.

Here are some of the other lessons I learned from Irma:

11) Hurricanes are emotionally exhausting. I can’t deny how emotionally exhausted I was after going through Irma. It was hard to give myself grace to feel this emotion because I got really lucky. My home was not damaged and even though I lost power, I just stayed with my mom for a few days, which honestly wasn’t a big deal. Yeah, it sucked not being in my own space, but it’s not like other friends who were staying with friends and feeling totally misplaced. But I am allowed to feel drained after dealing with the anxiety of this storm. A Cat 3 hurricane is no joke and our city is not prepared for something like that. (See: this Washington Post article.) I was terrified of what my apartment was going to look like, of what our city was going to look like, of how we would rebuild. And coming down from that level of anxiety would drain any normal person. It’s okay that it’s taken me up until this week to finally start to feel a semblance of normalcy.

12) It’s not as simple as “just evacuate.” If you’ve never actually been through a hurricane, then I beg of you, please stop pretending you know what it means to evacuate. You have no idea. It may seem like an easy decision, but it’s not. If you have pets, you have to either find family to stay with or a pet-friendly hotel or a pet-friendly shelter. You have to deal with stand-still traffic on the roads and find gas stations that still have gas. You have to board up your house and protect your valuables. You have to prepare as if you won’t have a home to come back to. And speaking of hotels? By Thursday, just about everything in Florida and Georgia was booked. It is actually a really difficult decision to decide whether or not to evacuate. There are a lot of factors that come into play. I’m definitely not commending people who lived on the beach and decided to “ride out the storm,” because no. If you were under mandatory evacuation, you should have done everything in your power to evacuate. But I also want people to understand that the decision is not an easy one.

13) I live 5 feet above sea level. That was fun to find out, when the storm surges were estimated to be 10 feet or higher, and I live right by the gulf. The price of living in paradise?

14) I would never, ever, ever leave Dutch. One of the sadder realities of hurricanes is how many pet owners leave their dogs to fend for themselves. There were reports of some owners in Florida tying their dogs up outside. It was unfathomable to think of ever leaving Dutch. As a pet owner, I have been entrusted to his care. He depends on me for everything and to break that trust, to just leave him during something as scary as a hurricane, is something I would never do. We’re a package deal. If I couldn’t find a shelter or a hotel that would allow him, I would have made other arrangements. There is never a good reason to leave your pet. Ever. If you want to have a dog, you have to take care of that dog always.

15) Another benefit of renting an apartment: cleaning up hurricane debris is not my responsibility! The area outside my apartment building was filled with debris. We had some downed trees and there was so much debris in the road circling my apartment complex that I could barely make out the color of the concrete. And none of that was my responsibility! While all of my friends were posting about cleaning up their yards filled with debris from the hurricane, I was tucked away inside, reading or napping. Muahahaha!

16) I will wait in line for 30 minutes for Chick-Fil-A. Oh, yes I will. Chick-Fil-A opened up on Tuesday (after being closed since Saturday), but only for drive-thru customers. The line was wrapped around the building twice, but you best believe I got my car in line and waited patiently for my turn. And that meal was the best I’ve had in a while, no joke.

17) Restaurants and grocery stores have limited options following a hurricane. It’s been interesting watching my community try to get back to a place of normalcy following the threat of Hurricane Irma. From Saturday until Tuesday (and, for some places, Wednesday), everything was closed. On Saturday afternoon, my mom and I tried to find something open for lunch and we couldn’t find a single place! Not even McDonald’s! And I’m not complaining because I’m glad these restaurants took precautions and closed so that the employees could evacuate and be with their families. It’s just interesting. Places slowly started opening up on Tuesday. I couldn’t find an open Starbucks, but Carrabba’s (an Italian chain) opened up with a limited menu on Tuesday and Publix was also open, albeit with bare shelves in some parts of the store. The limitations come from the fact that these restaurants and stores weren’t getting their normal deliveries due to the storm, so they could only offer what they had on hand. It’s crazy times! I can’t imagine what life would look like if the storm actually had hit us as a Category 3, though.

18) The reason it’s so important to keep a full tank before a storm: gas stations will be closed. Since I wasn’t planning on leaving the area, I wasn’t as concerned with keeping a full tank of gas in my car. But on Thursday evening, following a class at the gym, I found an open gas station that didn’t have any waiting, so I decided to just top off my tank. At that point, I had about a half-tank of gas, but figured it was better to be safe than sorry. And I’m so glad I did that because gas options were so limited following the hurricane! As of Friday, there were only one or two open stations around me. Everything else was still closed. Now I know: fill up that tank, even if you don’t plan on leaving the area!

19) There’s something apocalyptic about empty parking lots and roads on a Saturday night. Saturday night was when my anxiety ramped up severely because we were getting tracks from the meteorologists that showed the hurricane hitting our area directly. So basically everyone in my area evacuated that day if they hadn’t already. This led to empty roads and parking lots and there’s something super creepy about that. I went outside with Dutch on Saturday evening and it was silent. I was at my mom’s at this time and she lives right next to a major highway, so I never hear silence outside of her apartment. Even the parking lot at her apartment was nearly empty. It really did not help the anxiety I was already feeling!

20) Being with my mom was the best antidote to all my stress and anxiety. Man, I may be almost 30 years old but I still want to be around my mom when I’m going through something as stressful as a hurricane. I was happy that we decided to ride out the storm together and it really helped me to have a feeling of calm. Plus, being with her, I didn’t have to worry about her well-being. We were together and that put me at ease. There’s nobody else I’d want to experience a hurricane with!

What was the last natural disaster you’ve been through (if any!)?