Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday: Things I Bought This Week

I’ve gone a bit wild in the shopping department lately. There were just some things I needed after life stopped for a few weeks, and of course, I felt the need to engage in some retail therapy. So let’s talk about some of the things I bought, five for Friday style, shall we?

1) Adhesive cat scratcher for furniture

Let me show you what my reading chair looks like:

The culprits? My sweet little girls. They may look innocent, but they have done a great job destroying my reading chair. They have plenty of scratching pads all around the apartment, but I guess nothing feels as good on their claws as this chair. There are a lot of options when it comes to protecting furniture from cat claws, but I opted for something that would still allow them to get a good scritchy-scratch without destroying my chair any further. Let’s hope it works!

2) Advent calendars

Yes, calendars plural and yes, I bought them in October. Last year, all of the advent calendars I had my eye on sold out by mid-November so this year, I wasn’t messing around! I started my research early and was happy to get them in the mail yesterday. They’ll go on a shelf until I’m ready to use them, but I’m so excited to start opening the gifts in December! Here’s what I got:

I treated myself to two calendars this year since I wasn’t able to get one last year. I’m excited to dig into these calendars—I’ll definitely report back on whether or not they were worth the price!

3) Car accessories

When Gladys was towed away originally, I was feeling a little frantic about things so I didn’t grab everything out of my car that I wanted. (We were also late meeting the tow truck driver, and I felt terrible that he had been sitting and waiting for us for 20 minutes.) And also, I was hoping everything was going to be okay and Gladys would be repairable. I could have gotten a ride to the dealership to get stuff out of the car afterward, but I just wasn’t in the headspace for that. Anyway, this means there were a few car accessories that I needed to buy for my new car, such as:

I also need to buy a new window decal for my car. I had this one on Gladys and I’m tempted to buy it again, but I also have my eyes on a few different options, like this one that combines all of my favorite things in one decal!

4) Floating bookshelves

I’ve had my eye on these floating bookshelves for so long (years!), which is silly when they aren’t even that expensive ($20 for four shelves). I finally purchased them and I’m looking forward to finding a cute way to display all my editions of Anne of Green Gables as well as my Taylor Jenkins Reid collection and maybe some other favorite reads of mine.

5) Ruby

She’s heeeeere! Ruby, my brand-new Kia Soul, arrived on Wednesday and we have had a good time getting acquainted with each other. She’s a red-hot bombshell (her official color is “Mars Orange” so she’s more like an orangey red) and a blast to drive. It also just feels so nice to have a car again after being without one for so long. Would you believe that tomorrow marks one month since Helene? It’s crazy to think about all we’ve been through since September 26th. I’m just happy I was able to get all of this taken care of and can now fully put this last month behind me. (And I really must sing the praises of Geico – they handled my claim quickly and within 10 days of filing, I had money in the bank. One of my mom’s friends also had her car flooded during Helene and she is still waiting for her claim to be handled; she uses a different car insurance company and I am immensely grateful I’m not dealing with the headaches she’s going through.)

Did you buy anything this week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in October

Loving… false fall. Last week, we had a brief period of fall-like temps with highs in the mid-70s, which felt amazing. The cooler weather hasn’t stuck around (highs are back to the mid-80s, womp), but we are enjoying some cooler mornings with temps in the upper 60s. I’ll take it! It’s nice to get a break from the relentless heat and humidity and it makes me very excited for the next few months.

Loathing… losing my fitness. My gym attendance during the last few weeks hasn’t been great for obvious reasons, and when I went to HIIT last Wednesday, I felt like I was going to die. Or, more accurately, I felt like I did when I started taking these HIIT classes. I told my trainer at the end of the class that I felt like I had lost all of my fitness in the last three weeks. To which he replied, “Well, you’ll get it back!” And that was a good reminder. Did I feel weak and exhausted during HIIT last week? Yes. But will I keep going to class so I can regain the fitness I feel I’ve lost? Also yes. It’s okay if it feels hard right now. It’s okay if I need to take more breaks. It’s okay if I finish a HIIT class and feel like I could have pushed myself harder than I did. All in due time.

Reading… two books. On audio, I’m listening to Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano, which is the fourth book in the series. This is my first time listening on audio and the narrator isn’t great, but I’m getting through it. I’m also reading The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce. I read and loved her previous novel, You with a View, earlier this year and this one is hitting the spot, too.

Watching… Love is Blind, season 7. This show is so messy and I love it. I love the ridiculous people they cast, I love watching the one couple that is no-drama and makes it to the altar with no problem, I love all the juicy gossip that comes out about the cast mid-season. This season, we have a deadbeat dad who ghosted his children to be on the show! It’s wild, you guys. WILD.

Listening to… Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. This podcast series is fascinating. I’m learning so much! It brings together historians and NYC natives to tell the story of policing and the NYPD in particular, starting with its formation and showing how its racist beginnings still reverberate today.

Anticipating… a cruise in December! Eeks. I’m so excited about this. Originally, my mom, my stepdad, and I were going to go to Asheville during the last week of December but, of course, those plans had to be cancelled due to the horrific flooding from Helene. Asheville is going to be dealing with the aftermath for a long time. Still, my mom and I wanted to do something because life has been a LOT lately and we haven’t taken a cruise vacation in at least two years. (This will be my 12th cruise.) We found a quick five-day cruise out of Miami that leaves December 2nd, so we booked it! I’m so excited to get away and enjoy cruise life for a week.

Thinking about… NaBloPoMo. I considered skipping NaBloPoMo this year because it’s a lot of work between writing posts and keeping up with other people’s posts (and I know it gets overwhelming for those of you not participating but following along!). And I still might change my mind, but right now, I’m leaning towards doing NaBloPoMo again. This will be my fourth year doing the challenge and even though I get nervous about keeping up with everything in the days leading up to it, I always have a good time. I already have my schedule all planned out so if I have the ideas, I might as well put them into action, right?

Buying… a new Kia Soul. I went car shopping on Friday. I first went to a Toyota dealership where I test-drove a Rav-4 and loved it. It was so much fun to drive, but unfortunately, once we got back to run the numbers, it was very clear that a new Rav-4 would not be in my budget. I only have $4,000 to put down as my down payment and no car to trade in, so once I learned that my payments would be in the $600 range, it was time to jump ship and head on over to Kia. (I didn’t even consider test-driving anything else, as the other cars were around the same price as the Rav-4 so I knew I would be SOL.) I test-drove another Kia Soul and gah, it felt like coming home. I miss driving my zippy little Soul! So, I put a deposit down on a 2025 Kia Soul that should arrive in the next few days. And here’s the kicker: my car payment is going to be less than it was with Gladys! And maybe I can trade up for the Rav-4 in a few years—with a car to trade in, my payments might be more in my price range. Or maybe I’m just a Soul girl through and through.

Grateful… for normalcy. I am so happy to be back in my normal routine. Working from my desk at home with my three screens. Cuddling the girls before bed. Nights on the couch watching stupid reality TV and coloring. Cooking for myself again. Even cleaning feels exciting (okay, not exciting but I like that I have the bandwidth and time for it again). Getting back into my blogging groove. I missed normal life—and I know I’m one of the lucky ones who gets to enjoy normalcy again when my friends are still living in rental homes and will be there for many, many months while they wait for their actual homes to be restored.

What are you currently anticipating and watching?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday: More Hurricane Musings

1) A slow return to normalcy

Things are slowly returning to a new place of normalcy after the hurricanes. My mom and my brother were without power for multiple days, but it was finally restored on Monday (for my brother) and Tuesday (for my mom). Hooray! We were under a boil water advisory from Thursday-Monday since 30+ water mains broke during the storm. I was oh-so-happy when that advisory was lifted! We have gas at gas stations again (not every gas station, but enough that the situation doesn’t feel as alarming as it did over the weekend). Places are finally reopening after being without power for so many days, although there are still so many restaurants and businesses that can’t open due to flooding, which just hurts my heart so much. Our grocery store situation continues to be dire with lots of empty shells still. Deliveries stopped for a week (or maybe longer… I’m not sure), so it’ll take some time for the shelves to be replenished. It’s a slow but steady process, this return to normalcy, but we’re getting there.

2) CPAP in a hurricane

I’ve been off CPAP for three weeks now, and I’m not feeling good about it. First, I didn’t take my CPAP machine with me when I stayed with my mom after losing power after Helene. I figured I’d only be there maybe two nights and I’d be okay. Unfortunately, it was almost a full week before I was able to go back home. And then I was able to use CPAP for a few nights before we had to evacuate to Ocala for Milton. I brought my machine with me, but when we went to the grocery store on our first day, I forgot to buy distilled water, which I need for the humidifier. (I’ve used my CPAP machine without water in the humidifier a few times, always on accident, and it is not a pleasant sleeping experience!) I probably should have put more effort into finding distilled water in Ocala, but I had other things on my mind. When we got home from Ocala, that’s when I realized my HUGE mistake: Finding distilled water in any store was impossible. They were fresh out of almost all water, and especially distilled for some reason. I’m hoping to find some today – I think Target might finally have it back in stock.

It’s a weird thing, dealing with a major natural disaster right after getting a piece of medical equipment I’m supposed to use nightly. I wasn’t prepared for what I needed to do to make sure I can continue using my CPAP, and it was a very important lesson to learn. I should have lots and lots of distilled water bottles on hand at all times. Distilled water is being added to my hurricane kit, that’s for sure.

3) A reading slump

I’m in a weird reading mood these days. It’s been so weird that I’m not even abiding by my super-strict TBR list right now. That’s when you know things are serious. I am not a mood reader by choice; I love listing out the next 10ish books I’m going to read and sticking like glue to that list. But I’m allowing myself to be a mood reader right now. Mostly, I’m moving between romances, thrillers, and lighthearted fiction. I’m spending a lot of time in front of my bookshelves, looking at the books I own but have not read and letting my mood dictate what comes next.

But even with the books I am sitting down to read, I feel like I’m not giving them a fair shot. For example, yesterday, I abandoned Colton Gentry’s Third Act, which is a book that people are raving about and I was excited to read. But I was just so bored by it. I didn’t love The Husbands, which feels like an unpopular opinion, and I have a review coming up next week for a thriller from an author I usually love and whose book I just despised. And the book I’m reading now (The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, which is the follow-up to The Maid) is feeling like a slog. Mehhhh.

I’m trying to read books that fit my mood, but even still, reading hasn’t been that pure fun escape that it normally is. I feel broken because reading is my favorite hobby, but I know it’s just the season of life and things will improve.

4) Updating the hurricane kit

There was a lot I learned about how to be better prepared for hurricane season from the past few weeks. I have a semblance of a hurricane kit, but not one that is as robust as I need it to be. I have flashlights and portable charges and disposable litter boxes for the times I have to evacuate with the cats. But these back-to-back hurricanes taught me that I need a lot more than that. For example:

  • Battery-operated fans – When the power went out for a week, I was able to stay at my mom’s house but I was really worried about the cats. It was very hot that week and my apartment got as hot as 87 degrees. Whew. I want to purchase a few battery-operated fans that I could set up in my room so the cats would have a cool place to sleep.
  • More portable chargers – I only have one portable charger that works really well (I have this one) but I would like to purchase a few more, probably some solar-powered chargers so I wouldn’t need to find charging stations to keep them juiced up.
  • Lanterns – If I ever do need to stay in my apartment when the power is out, it would probably be a great idea to have a few lanterns on hand so I can see what I’m doing at night.
  • Gas can – I should have an extra gas can on hand that I can fill up before a hurricane to give me extra peace of mind if fuel becomes extremely limited like it did with Milton.

The goal is that I will spend the 2025 hurricane offseason buying all of these supplies and not have to use any of them for years. Right?!

5) A new Gladys

Today is car shopping day. I’m trying to muster some enthusiasm for it because hey! At least I can put money down on this new vehicle thanks to the insurance payout. But mostly, I wish I didn’t have to deal with the headache that is buying a new car. I am leaning heavily towards getting another Kia Soul because I loved that car so, so much. But I want to do my due diligence so I’m going to test drive a few other cars: Toyota Rav-4, Toyota Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-5, and Hyundai Tucson. Those cars are higher in price than a Soul by a few thousand dollars, and I am 90% sure I’ll just wind up at the Kia dealership to buy another Soul, but we’ll see. One of these other cars might surprise me!

What was your last five-star read?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 107)

1) Anxiety, my best friend

It felt really cathartic to write my post about my most recent anxiety attack. I’m glad I was able to give people a look into what it’s like to have one of these spirals because the more we know about how mental illness affects other people, the more empathetic we become. Plus, there are a few of you who also deal with these spirals and while I don’t wish this on anyone, I’m glad to know I’m not alone. Maybe I can carry that knowledge with me the next time it happens.

I stopped going to therapy earlier this year (or maybe it was the end of last year) because I felt like I had gotten my shit together and I was feeling pretty good about things. However, I’ve been having these anxiety attacks more frequently (this was my second in two months, which is not the norm for me). Someone commented on my blog that I may find it helpful to seek out exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy because it sounds like I may have OCD. (I really wish this person had left their name, but they commented with my name and email address so I had to trash the comment.) While I’m not sure if my mental illness would classify as OCD, I am willing to try anything so I started looking for therapists that specialize in OCD and ERP therapy. The first therapist I emailed wasn’t taking patients, so I’m hoping to spend some time this weekend looking up therapists and sending inquiry emails. Fingers crossed!

2) A scalp psoraisis update

I don’t think I ever updated you guys on how things are going with my scalp psoriasis after I got my steroid injections. I got the injections in mid-June and I could almost immediately notice a difference in my symptoms. The itchiness and pain abated rather quickly and I also noticed less dry skin, although the dry skin never totally went away. I had a follow-up appointment this week with my dermatologist where we discussed the dry skin and decided to do another round of injections on the right side of my scalp since it was feeling a tiny bit more itchy recently. (I have plaques on both sides of my head, right above my ear, but the left side was a bit calmer on the itchiness front.) Those injections are painful, but they work and I’ll take a few seconds of pain over hours and hours of itchiness.

The dry skin and plaques are still bothersome, though, so I’m going to try a new prescription-strength shampoo and also use my liquid treatment (I use calcipotriene) every day. I also have a handful of other treatments that have been prescribed to me that my derm said I can use on an as-needed basis, so I’ll probably try to use those a few times a week to see if all of this together helps with the dry skin.

All in all, I am so glad I went with the steroid injections. My scalp psoriasis was such a big part of my life and now I rarely think about it!

3) A CPAP update

Let’s continue the good news train. Things have really improved in CPAP land. In my CPAP post from last week, I talked about how I was struggling with the mask. It was irritating my nose a lot and it was just very uncomfortable to sleep with. What a difference a week (+ a moisturizer) makes! My sleep clinic shipped me a new mask to try, but I’m still waiting for it to be delivered (bah!). While I’m waiting on that, I’ve slowly become used to my nasal mask. While it bothers me sometimes as I’m trying to get to sleep, it isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. And the moisturizer I talked about on Friday’s post has been a gamechanger. Right before I put on my mask every night, I put a tiny bit of the moisturizer right under my nose and around my cheeks. After the first night, I woke up to no dry skin. Ever since, the dry skin on my septum has cleared up and I am feeling so much better.

Plus, my blood oxygen levels are continuing to improve. On Wednesday night, I even hit 100% at one point during the night! I haven’t seen those numbers above 95% since I started tracking my blood oxygen levels, so that’s exciting. (The average is still around 95% but even that’s better than the 91-92% average I was seeing.)

4) An ode to my HIIT trainer

One of the things I know about myself: I am not going to push myself hard in workouts. I am always going to take the easy way out and do the bare minimum to get the workout done so I can say I did it. Thankfully, my HIIT trainer seems to understand that about me, which is why he takes it upon himself to push me way beyond where I think my limits are. For example, if he sees me doing a workout with easy weights, he’ll kindly take them off my hands to give me much heavier weights. (Like when I was doing deadlifts with a 10-lb kettlebell and he replaced it with a 25-lb kettlebell.) Or when he sees me doing a wall sit and makes that motion with his hand, as if to say, “You can sit much lower than that.”

When I started taking his HIIT classes, he gave me all sorts of modifications and didn’t care if I chose a lower weight. But now that I’ve been going to his class for five months, he knows I can do more and he pushes me to do it. And I really, really appreciate that! It makes me feel powerful when he hands me a heavier weight and strong when he makes me do workouts the way he asks the “elites” to do it. It shows me how far I’ve come since I started these classes and that I am way more capable than I believe I am. While I hope that one day, I can find that extra gear to push myself when I feel like quitting, I am glad I found this trainer who has no problem helping me do that.

5) Weekend plans

I have another pretty low-key weekend ahead of me! I’m not complaining. Low-key weekends are really nice. Today, I have nothing on the agenda so the plan is to eat pizza and watch a couple episodes of Suits. Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela, some errands to run, and then another night to myself. And Sunday is a gym workout with my mom and then football!

What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 68)

The high of my week was having dinner with my former boss! We had such a great time catching up and talking about her new role. She talked about the imposter syndrome she faced for a little while, which was startling for me to hear. She seems so confident! And she is, but I suppose we all struggle with these feelings of inadequacy from time to time. It’s a good reminder that none of us really had it altogether, even when it seems like we do.

The low of my week was another anxiety spiral about my mom. Sigh. Why do I do this to myself? It feels terrible and makes me imagine a worst-case scenario THAT IS NOT HAPPENING. And she has been fine 100% of the time! But when I can’t get ahold of her, my mind always goes to a dark, dark place.

I’m currently reading Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan and I am loving it. All I want to do is sit down and read it! I also just started Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto on audio.

A Reel I enjoyed was this sweet dachshund “making coffee.” If you are not following this doggo, please do yourself a favor and give him a follow. His videos are delightful. He does very emotional “music videos” to Taylor Swift songs, which make me laugh hysterically. I am always so damn impressed with these animal content creators. How are they so creative?!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Smutty Romance and the Christian Reader on Faith Adjacent. I have been waiting for this episode. When I was a Christian, reading non-Christian romance always felt like this huge, terrible sin—people having sex before marriage? Blasphemy! I don’t consider it a sin anymore, but it took a long time for me to come to terms with that (and purity culture as a whole). I really enjoyed this episode!

The best money I spent this week was $13 on a moisturizer specifically designed for CPAP users. I mentioned the skin irritation I’ve been dealing with in my post on Monday and I am willing to try everything under the sun to help my poor dry skin. I’ve been slathering Vaseline on the troublesome areas before I put on my mask at night, which does help a little but I still have this terrible cracked spot on my septum that’s driving me crazy. And I’m starting to see some irritation on my face around where the headgear straps sit. Fun times! I’m hoping this moisturizer provides some relief, but I probably fell for some silly marketing ploy. Oh, well!

My plans this weekend include not much! Tonight, I am going out to dinner with my mom and stepdad. Saturday, my only plan is my writing date with Mikaela. And Sunday, it’s a gym date with Mom and football time with the fam! Sunday is also my brother’s birthday so we’ll be celebrating that as well. Yay!

What was the highlight of your week?