Three confessions

1) I’m currently in the process of reorganizing my organizational system. This means I opened up every bin and box and cube and container in my home, took everything out, and made piles all around my apartment with my various categories. There was an “office” category with Post-It notes, tiny staplers, extra pens, etc. There was a “tech” category with extra smart plugs, multiple tech cleaning kits, random tools, etc. There was a “coloring” category with extra coloring books and way too many markers than I feel comfortable talking about. There was a bundle of different types of tape, a group of assorted batteries, and a handful of Command strips/hooks. There is even a basket that I’m calling “extra organizing supplies” because that’s how Type A I am. My problem is that I’m… too organized? Like I forget which box I’ve put XYZ item if it doesn’t have a very specific place. I have tons of tape because I kept forgetting which bin had the tape! So, what I’m doing is reorganizing everything and then, I’m going to make a spreadsheet of where everything lives, so I can find it easily. (I am such a goddamn nerd it hurts.)

2) I’ve started a new routine of going grocery shopping twice a week. I used to do it once a week, usually on Sundays, and would make a meal plan for the whole week, but I always found it hard to visualize what sorts of foods I would be in the mood for on the weekend. Now, I go on Sundays and only have to think about breakfast/lunch through Wednesday and dinner on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. (Wednesday is a standing trivia night at a local sports bar!) Then, I go again on Thursday mornings (which I try to combine with other errands) and only have to think about Thursday – Sunday afternoon. There is just something about only thinking about a few days of meals at a time that calms me.

3) We have valet trash at my apartment, which means that we just have to put a designated trash can outside our door on the specified days (Sunday-Thursday), and someone will pick it up between 7pm – 10 pm. It’s a great system, but what’s not so great is Rocky. Rocky is a raccoon who really loves our valet trash program because he gets a delicious meal five nights a week! He’s gotten into my trash more than once, and I even caught him in the act one night, and we locked eyes before he ran away. Anyway, I invested in some rodent-repellent trash bags, and we’ll see if they work. So far, so good.

Three books I’m never going to read

1) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – At over 800 pages and commonly referred to as “trauma porn,” I can safely move through the rest of my life without picking up this book.

2) When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – Another book I’m never going to read simply because it will make me too emotional. I could barely handle Two Kisses for Maddie!

3) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – Why would I read a book that’s 1,200+ pages long? No. NO. No, no, no.

Three cute habits my cats have developed

1) Cat medication – No, my cats don’t take medication, but they seem to think they do. Every morning when I open up my pillbox and dump the pills on the counter, it never fails: Lila comes into the kitchen, meowing at me. Then she runs over to the table where they typically get their treats. Eloise soon joins her and they stare at me expectantly like, “It’s time for our medication, too!” Their medication being, of course, a handful of Temptations. I need to break them of this habit, but it’s so goddamn cute.

2) Mom reading = cat petting time – Whenever I’m in my reading chair in the office reading or I plop down on the couch with a book, Lila will immediately stop everything she is doing to prance over to me. She’ll meow sweetly at me and poke me gently with her paw to say, “I’m ready for pets!” Except she doesn’t want me to actually pet her. She wants me to put my hand down so she can bump her forehead against my hand and rub her face all over it. I’m not allowed to give her any attention. I’m just a vessel for her petting needs.

3) Sunshine pancake – It’s so nice to be in an apartment with so much natural light, but nobody enjoys that more than my cats. When I open the blinds every morning, a few minutes later, I can usually find them splayed out in a spot of sunshine, snoozing away. And with Eloise, she magically turns into a pancake during her sunshine snoozes! She stretches out so much that she looks two-dimensional. I call this her pancake pose. Sunshine just makes her body stretch and stretch and stretch until she turns into a pancake!

Three apps I recently downloaded

1) Decibel Meter – I downloaded this so I could record Chip and Lucy during some of their louder barking moments. They both hit over 100 decibels at one point (separately!), which is equivalent to chainsaws, loud concerts, and motorcycles.

2) Yarn Fever – Another silly iPhone game that sucked me in. There’s no skill to this game. You’re just unwinding a puzzle filled with yarn, and it is extremely soothing.

3) Shazam – I needed to find out the artist playing in Starbucks this weekend, so I had to redownload Shazam to do so. (For the record, it was Kina Grannis singing a gorgeous rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love.)

Three things I’m doing this weekend

1) Book club – We’re getting our May book club in just under the wire! We chose an escape room for this month, and I am very grateful for go-getter friends who will do the majority of the work while I pretend like I know what I’m doing. We’ll do dinner beforehand where we’ll talk about the book (How to Read a Book by Monica Wood, which was my suggestion!).

2) Podcasting day – Bri and I are really getting ahead of our podcasting game this year! We’ll record two episodes on Saturday afternoon, and that’ll have us set with epsiodes through July!

3) Tampa Bay Weens meet-up – My mom and I haven’t been back to this dachshund meetup since our first time way back in September, and we’re excited to go back and hang out with some little sausages for an hour on Sunday morning. Lucy gets really shy around other dogs (even though she’s a spitfire at home!), so my mom wants to give her more opportunities for socialization and hope she comes out of her shell a bit. (Chip, on the other hand, will make friends with any dogs he sees!)

Three things I Googled this week

1) “wyeth watts narrator” – I had to look up the narrator for a romance book I just listened to because he just did not have a very sexy voice. The images that pulled up were not what I was expecting!

2)  “do dogs have a swimming reflex” – Something that delights my mom and me to no end is that when we hold Chip or Lucy above water when we’re in the pool with them, they immediately start kicking their legs as if they’re doing the doggy paddle in the air. Apparently, it’s a very common dog reflex!

3) “how could someone young and athletic die from pneumonia and sepsis” – y’all, I’m really freaked out by the death of Kyle Busch. Not because I’m a NASCAR fan or even followed his career, but he was only 41!!! Our bodies are so damn fragile.

Three recent purchases

1) BuggyBands – It’s that time of the year. The no-see-ums are out in full force already, and I’m sure the mosquitoes aren’t far behind. I hate bug spray and have had good luck with these BuggyBands!

2) Battery storage case – My mom has one of these, and it’s so cute! I need one as well.

3) A small organizer tray – I bought this for my end table so I could better organize things like my remote, coasters, and other odds and ends. It fits perfectly!

Three upcoming podcast episodes

1) All About ASMR – I am really looking forward to doing research for this episode and introducing Bri to the wide world of ASMR. She’s familiar with the concept, but not to the level that I am. I’m even planning a “Bri tries ASMR” to see if any ASMR triggers give her the same tingles they give me!

2) An interview with Sean – We’re working our way through our Enneagram interview series, and our next guest will be Sean, Bri’s husband. He’s an Enneagram 7, so we’re going to interview him and make him talk about FEEEEELINGS.

3) Our 100th episode SPECTACULAR – We’ve almost hit our 100th episode, ahhh! Right now, I’m not sure what we have planned, but I thought it could be fun to do some Q&As. Here’s the form if you want to ask any questions about our podcast, our friendship, our book club… anything. And if you have specific questions for Bri or me, we’d love to hear those, too!

Three questions we got wrong at trivia this week

1) Within two years, when did the Phoenix Cardinals change their name to the Arizona Cardinals? (We guessed 1988, although I wanted to guess 1994 in honor of when my brother started watching football. The year? 1994.)

2) In the book Gulliver’s Travels, what are little people called? (My mom and I have never read this book, so we were lost.)

3) In order, name the colors of the flag of Ireland. (Ughhh, we should have gotten this one right! We said green, white, and yellow, and it should have been green, white, and orange. We were debating between yellow and orange.)

Three things I’m looking forward to

1) Book club weekend – We booked a sweet Airbnb in Orlando for two nights, and we will each have our own room. Yesss! (I always hate sleeping with other people because I’m self-conscious about my snoring.) The Airbnb has a pool and lots of great lounging spots. It’s going to be a great weekend!

2) Planning our New England road trip – Trip planning is one of my most favorite things. I’m so excited to plan this road trip with my mom!

3) Celebrating my mom’s birthday – I’ve already given my mom a few options for her birthday in early July, so it’s up to her what we choose to do! It’ll be a fun time, no matter what. <3

What’s a book you’re never going to read? What’s something you’re looking forward to?