Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 105)

1) Read later FTW

A few weeks ago, Elisabeth talked about how she uses the “read later” function on Feedly to mark the blogs she’s read and wants to comment on. She usually reads blog posts on her phone and then waits to comment until she’s in front of a computer. I thought this was a such a great idea! First, it opens up the world of reading blogs from my phone. It’s something I never do because I don’t like commenting from my phone, but now I can just hit “read later” and voila, problem solved! Second, it allows me to read blogs faster because I don’t have to worry about commenting right away. I just click “read later” and come back to it when I have time to comment. Elisabeth, you are a genius!

2) A special birthday

My mom had a very special birthday on Monday, and my brother and I got to celebrate with her on Sunday afternoon. I booked us time at The Candle Pour where we could make candles (this is my third time making candles. I made a coffee-scented candle this time that smells amazing). Then, we went out for dinner in downtown St. Pete and got ice cream at our favorite local shop. It was a great day celebrating the best person I know! It was also really special to have my brother there; we didn’t think he’d be interested in making candles with us but when my mom asked if he wanted to come with us, he said yes. What a delight!

3) Anxiety, my old friend

I haven’t had a major anxiety spiral in quite a while, so I guess I was due for one. This anxiety spiral happened because I couldn’t get ahold of my mom on Saturday so I was convinced she died in her sleep overnight. When these anxiety spirals happen, logic just does not work for me. Sure, I can tell myself that my mom is in good health (better health than me, even!) and she likes to sleep in on Saturdays, and there is a super small chance that she’ll have a brain aneurysm and die suddenly. But it’s that small chance that my anxiety brain will clamp onto. And clamp it did.

Here’s what happened: I texted my mom at 11:00 a.m. to tell her I had booked the workout class we were taking tomorrow. She usually texts back immediately, especially for something like this. Then, I recorded a podcast episode with Bri, all the while keeping an eye on my watch to see if my mom had texted me back. When we finished recording, it had been an hour since I had texted my mom so I Facetimed her. No answer. After 30 minutes, I Facetimed her again. No answer. I was already spiraling, but I started spiraling even more. Thankfully, I was spiraling at Bri’s house. I had come over to record a couple of podcast episodes, and we took a break after the first one to have lunch. Somehow, I managed to choke down the tacos Bri had cooked (not a slight to Bri! I was just so deep in my anxiety that it was hard to eat), and then I knew I wouldn’t be able to do anything productive until my mom called me back. This isn’t the first anxiety spiral Bri has witnessed from me, so she knew the drill. We sat in front of the TV (her husband was watching the EuroCup, which was a great distraction) and Bri also distracted me with conversation. Even though I didn’t contribute much to the conversation, it helped me step outside myself for a bit. In a recent book I read (Abby Jimenez’s Just for the Summer), the author talked about how the main character would get “small” when she was going through a mental health crisis, and that was accurate for me. I felt like I was fully curled up within myself, safely hiding inside my shell, as my brain conjured up all sorts of terrible scenarios. I am so glad I spiraled with Bri because she was able to give me the support I needed.

Eventually, though, my mom did call me. It was only 2 1/2 hours since my original text, which I know for most people isn’t that long to wait for a text back. Sometimes, I take that long to text back! But my mom and I have a different sort of relationship (some may call it co-dependent…) and while I have been doing better about not spiraling when she takes longer to call me back, sometimes the brain is having an off day. It’s a reminder to stay vigilant about my mental health and the next time it happens, to make sure there’s a friend who can be there for me. Being with Bri and Sean made this spiral a bit less stressful and terrible.

4) A decade in the making

Yesterday, I noticed that I had a comment on one of my Goodreads reviews from a long time ago – a whole decade ago, in fact. It was a pretty scathing review for a Harlequin romance, and while I don’t think I would leave such an unkind review today, I was shocked to learn that the author of the book left a snarky comment on my review. Listen, I stand by my review. While I don’t remember anything about this book, if I felt like it was terribly written, it probably was. I didn’t attack this author personally in the review; I was simply honest about how I felt about the book. I don’t leave reviews like this anymore, but 2014 was a different time in the book world. Let this be a lesson to authors: stop reading reviews of your books! Do not under any circumstance read 1-star reviews of your books! And remember, Goodreads is for readers, not authors. *steps off soapbox*

5) Weekend plans

This weekend should be a good one! Tonight, I have plans with a few friends to go see Inside Out 2 (yes, we’re in our thirties without children, and yes, this is what we choose to do on a Friday night). Tomorrow, I have my writing date with Mikaela and then game night with the fam. And Sunday, all I have on the agenda is a workout class. Yay!

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 104)

1) I had a lot of social anxiety in the lead-up to my weekend with Kim. This has nothing to do with Kim and everything to do with the way my brain works—it didn’t matter who I was going to be spending the weekend with, the social anxiety would be rampant. (Okay, not if it’s my mom because, well, she’s my mom.) Even though I felt really silly having such an emotional response to something that was going to be fun, I have gotten a lot better in recent years of acknowledging that my brain works differently than other people and it’s okay to have anxiety about things that don’t make other people anxious. And guess what? You can be anxious and still do the thing! The moment I saw Kim at the airport, all of those silly anxieties floated away. Just seeing her smiling face made me immediately feel at ease!

2) Let’s do a scalp psoriasis update, shall we? I went to the dermatologist last Wednesday for my annual skin check and my psoriasis follow-up. Something you should know about me is that I have this tendency to downplay how I’m feeling. Even when I was going for regular chiropractic adjustments, I would tell my chiropractor that I was feeling fine when I wasn’t. I don’t know why I do this. I guess I just don’t want the doctor to feel like they’re failing at their job because I’m not feeling better, lol. I’m such a goddamn enneagram 9 it hurts. Anyway, at this appointment, when the nurse asked me how my scalp psoriasis was doing, I told her, “Terrible.” And proceeded to talk about how bad it had been these last few months. I’m proud of myself for being honest! When my dermatologist came into the room, we talked about all the different options available to me. She still feels strongly that we should try to treat this at its source rather than doing a systemic treatment that has lots of additional side effects. Since the topical steroids weren’t doing their job, I opted for injections. Essentially, this entailed injecting steroids right into my scalp to hit the deeper skin layers that a topical steroid can’t really get to. I was admittedly apprehensive about getting injections in my head but after a month of pretty excruciating psoriasis pain, I was ready to try anything. Getting the injections wasn’t pleasant, of course, but it honestly wasn’t any worse than what I’d already been experiencing. She stuck the needle into multiple spots where I have the dry skin patches, and since then, I have seen some improvements in my condition. The patches haven’t cleared up completely but the itchiness/pain has reduced considerably. I’m still using steroid treatment (I started a new one, calcipotiene, which is formulated specifically for psoriasis) and hopefully that does the trick to clear up the patches completely.

I have a follow-up appointment in two months—the injections often provide relief for up to 6 weeks, so it’s something I may have to get done frequently. For now, I’m happy with how the injections helped my itchiness/pain, but I may have to look into a different treatment if the dry skin patches don’t clear up.

3) Remember how I talked about how weak I felt during my workouts a few weeks ago? Every workout felt like it was taking everything out of me and was so challenging. This week, I have felt so strong! During my regular Tuesday evening class (which is a 20-minute weights-based full-body workout), I was able to complete all of the exercises without feeling like I was going to die, and even felt like I could push myself a bit further than I would normally go (which I did, and then felt like such a badass, lol). I even felt strong during my Wednesday evening HIIT class and felt like I didn’t have to modify nearly as much as I normally do. I’m getting stronger! It’s a good reminder that I’m going to have weeks where things just feel harder and there can be myriad reasons for that. On those weeks, it’s best to listen to my body and do whatever feels right, whether that’s reducing the weight, taking the modifications, taking more breaks, etc. Odds are, I’ll be back at my best the following week.

4) Last night, Bri and I went to a really fun book event in downtown Tampa. There were tons of vendors, local authors selling books, a book swap, and some bookmobiles. It was a crowded event, too, which made me really happy. I loved being surrounded by all the bookish people—so many great bookish t-shirts and totes! I also counted seven dachshunds, which delighted me to no end. We donated some books to the book swap and then Bri and I stood in line to check out the two bookmobiles that were there. One was for a bookstore that is hoping to open a brick-and-mortar location soon in Ybor called Bookends. I bought a cute bookmark and a new edition of Red, White & Royal Blue (my current one is an ARC that I got for free from a Goodreads giveaway, and I’ve been wanting to replace it). We also visited The Sated Bookworm, which was a romance-centric bookmobile. We got there a little late, so all of the good stuff had been picked over (which is awesome for the vendor!) but I did buy a book from her. And I’m now following her account on Instagram so I can keep an eye on her location. I feel like I missed out on some seriously cute items, so I want to visit her shop again soon!

5) This weekend should be a good one. As of right now, the only plans I have are a girl’s night in tonight, a writing date with Mikaela on Saturday morning, and a HIIT class on Sunday morning. I’m hoping to fill up the rest of my weekend with reading, napping, and getting some chores done. A restorative weekend it shall be.

What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in June

Loving… all the time off work I’ve had recently! I had 6 days off work at the end of May/early June and this week, I took Wednesday-Friday off. We already get Wednesday off for Juneteenth and then I was going to take Friday off to travel to Chicago… why not give myself the gift of a five-day weekend? No sense in working on Thursday! I’ll probably log into work today and tomorrow just to clear out emails/Slack messages and handle some of my daily tasks, but otherwise, I’m taking it real easy!

Loathing… scalp psoriasis. I’m sorry to be a broken record, but it’s truly my biggest challenge these days. Today, I finally have a follow-up visit with my dermatologist to figure out next steps. (It was supposed to be on May 1st, but I had to move it and her next availability was 6 weeks out, argh.) I have been taking photos of my scalp on an almost daily basis to show her the cycle (it goes from dormant to dry patches to red patches, over and over again) so I am just crossing my fingers she has a solution for me. I am at the point where I will gladly get injections in my scalp (because yes, that’s an option) to make it all go away. I’m also going to schedule follow-up appointments every 2-3 weeks with her until I go into maintenance because I can’t go this long between appointments anymore! Blergh.

Reading… the same books I was reading on Friday. I have a few hours left in The Rose Code by Kate Quinn and I’m about halfway through Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (it has a very triggering element for me, so it’s not the breezy romance I was expecting). I expect both books to be 4 stars, but we’ll see if that changes!

Watching… Suits, where mainly I drool over Harvey Spector. I’m nearly finished with season one and I have enjoyed every single episode so far. I can’t wait to keep going!

Listening to… no new music right now. Confession: I am two months behind on my goal of listening to one new album every week. Every time I think about starting a new album (I’m thinking my next one will be Billie Eilish’s newest release), I just throw on my TAYLOR playlist and jam out to my favorite songs I know backwards and forwards. I think I just want something familiar and comforting right now, and that’s what my TAYLOR playlist gives me. But I will hopefully get back on track with this goal soon!

Anticipating… my weekend in Chicago with Kim! She has dubbed it Stephany & Kim’s AMEOWZING Popcast Weekend, and I am so excited! Kim gave me a detailed itinerary, which I am much appreciative of because I am a details gal. I fly into Chicago in the morning and fly out on Sunday, so we’ll have most of Friday and all of Saturday together. And, of course, I am super excited to go to the Popcast Live! I get to see my best friends (parasocially, of course) live and in person! I think it will be a raucous evening and I am really looking forward to it. And I am really, really looking forward to seeing Kim’s cats and forcing them to fall in love with me. That’s how it works, right?!

Thinking about… Pride posts. I’m a glutton for punishment so I can’t help but click on the comments of any business that puts up a Pride post. It’s always a cesspool, as one might expect. A lot of American flags with comments like, “This is the only flag I care about!!!!” And a lot of “ew, why do people have to shove this in our faces?” Of course, nobody ever says that when we see a heterosexual marriage proposal or wedding or “gender” reveal. It’s ignorance, I know, but it still makes me really sad knowing there are so many people who hate the queer community. What is it hurting you if we get to love the people we want to love? Ugh.

Buying… Pretty Litter. I’ve used World’s Best cat litter for the entirety I’ve been a cat mom, but after Eloise’s health scare, I realized there’s a lot I don’t know about the girls’… erm… bathroom habits. When I had a dog, it was easy to understand if he was peeing a lot more than usual or had weird poops. It’s a lot harder to know that with cats. Pretty Litter purports to monitor a cat’s health by changing the color of the litter (it starts off white) when they pee. As long as the litter stays yellow or olive green, things are good. But if there’s an issue like a UTI or kidney disease, the litter will change to blue or red or orange. I’m trying it out for now, and we’ll see if I like it enough to keep using it!

Grateful… to have so many wonderful Little Free Libraries around me! Within 10 minutes of where I live, there are at least 15 different spots. On Sunday, I made a list of all the different addresses and went around town dropping books off in different libraries. Some of them were so cute and curated! I know I’m lucky to have so many nearby and I’m glad I was able to leave some good books in these libraries.

What are you currently watching and grateful for?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 64)

The high of my week was starting Bridgerton! I held off on watching season 3 until all of the episodes were released, and now I am firmly entrenched in the world of my favorite fictional family. I have been waiting for Penelope’s story because she is by far my favorite character, and it has not disappointed. I’m only a few episodes in and I’m savoring each episode because I know the length of time between seasons is looooong. (I saw a Thread that it takes two years between writing, filming, and editing each season, which means we probably won’t get season four until summer 2026? Ugh!)

The low of my week was difficult workouts. I did a circuit training class on Tuesday that felt so hard and I really struggled to catch my breath during the routine. And then on Wednesday, I had my regular HIIT workout class and felt like I was going to just plain die. My heart rate was high and my muscles felt so fatigued. Have you ever had weeks where your body just feels like it took three steps backward? Oof. I’m trying to remind myself that I’m not a robot and I can’t be expected to work out at the same level of intensity every week, but wah. I want to see progress!

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list was um, nothing? Oops. I have a whole list of things I need to get done, but I guess that’s going to have to happen this weekend!

I’m currently reading two books. On audio, I’m almost halfway through The Rose Code by Kate Quinn. It’s a WWII novel about code-breakers and it’s fascinating! I also just started Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez.

A Reel I loved was this very excellent joke from a stand-up comedian. It made me laugh a lot!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Go West Young Man on Good Christian Fun. I don’t remember the last time I laughed so much listening to a podcast episode. I was in tears at one point! I still giggle to myself when I think about the part of the episode that had me cry-laughing. So good!

The best money I spent was $23 on this adorable “Purride” shirt on Etsy. I couldn’t help myself when I came across it!

My plans this weekend include not much! I have a podcast recording date with Bri (our last recording date was over a month ago!) and a video chat with Kim to discuss our plans for next weekend (!!). I may drive around my city and drop some books off in Little Free Libraries. I have a big stack of books in my closet that need to go to new homes, so I think this weekend is the perfect opportunity to do just that.

What was the highlight of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series, Travel

Five for Friday | The New Orleans Edition

1) Delayed flights

I’ve been pretty lucky when it comes to plane travel. I’ve only had one delayed flight, if you can believe that. Well, not on Wednesday! It was hard to find a nonstop flight to New Orleans for some reason, so we were flying to Charlotte first and then catching a connecting flight to New Orleans. Our flight to Charlotte was scheduled for 2 p.m. and we’d have about an hour until our flight to New Orleans around 5:30 p.m. We’d get to New Orleans right around 8 p.m. Unfortunately, our flight to Charlotte was delayed by over two hours, which meant we’d completely miss our connecting flight. There were a lot of frustrated people at the airport that day! Thankfully, we got rebooked on a new flight automatically through the American Airlines app so we didn’t have to worry about anything. Unfortunately, the new flight was at 8 p.m. so we wouldn’t get into New Orleans until after 10 p.m. That connecting flight was then delayed by half an hour so it was closing in on 11:30 p.m. (after midnight to our bodies that were on Eastern time) when we finally got to our hotel. Whew, what a travel day! Thankfully, our flights home did not have any delays.

But the exciting part of our flights were that we didn’t have anyone in the third seat with us for three of the four flights! That meant we could stretch out with one of us at the window seat and one of us at the aisle seat for those flights, which was pretty sweet!

2) The saga of my house keys

I’m always worried about losing my house keys when I travel. I always put them in the same zippered part of my backpack, but still, I worry that somehow they will drop out of my bag. When we got back into town, my stepdad picked my mom and me up from the airport and then we went to dinner. Then, he drove us back to my place. Before I let them leave, I checked my backpack to make sure I had my keys. And I could not find them anywhere! I took everything out of my backpack, everything out of my purse, and even opened up my suitcase to see if I had somehow stuffed them in there. The keys were nowhere to be found. At this point, it was 9 p.m. so I called my apartment’s emergency line to see if they could help me out. When an hour went by without any word from them, I had to start calling locksmiths. The first locksmith I called didn’t have anyone available until the morning, the second locksmith said he could come out in an hour (but then there was an issue where he called my phone and I didn’t answer because my phone, for some reason, sent the calls right to voicemail, so when I realized he had called and called him back, he said he had taken two jobs in the 10 minutes he was waiting on me—felt suspicious, but whatever). Finally, I got ahold of a locksmith that was able to send someone out right away. He arrived within 20 minutes of my original call.

I thought getting into my house would be easier because my cat sitter only uses the knob lock (not the deadbolt) on her last visit, so that she can leave my spare key inside of my apartment (rather than putting it under the doormat). But I think it might have been harder? The locksmith had to really destroy my doorknob to get it to unlock, which meant I had to pay even more money for this service. In the end, it cost me $390, which made me want to throw up, but what could I do? I had to get into my apartment! I hadn’t realized we were getting back so late, so I hadn’t had the cat sitter come the day we were coming home. The girls don’t have automatic feeders, so they hadn’t had food all day! I was terrified they were hungry and sad. (True story: I started crying when the second locksmith told me he couldn’t come because I just wanted to be home and with my girls.)

Anyway, the fun part of this story is that I found my house keys as I was unpacking!!! They were in my backpack all along!!! Three of us completely unpacked this backpack and felt around, and none of us noticed the keys!!! I paid $400 for no reason!!!

The expensive lessons I learned were: a) always ask my cat sitter to put the key under the doormat, b) always make sure my mom has a spare key at her house, and c) make sure the next apartment I rent has a smart door lock.

3) Souvenirs!

Whenever I visit a new city, I try to find a handful of souvenirs to bring back home: a magnet for my fridge, a Christmas ornament for my tree, a t-shirt, a mug, and locally made art. Yes, it’s a lot but I’m not always successful at finding all of them. In New Orleans, I was! I had great luck finding all of my souvenirs—and then some.

We’ll start with the books. At Garden District Book Shop, I purchased three books and was excited when my mom pointed me in the direction of their Agatha Christie collection. I picked out all of the Christie books I hadn’t read and then looked up the Goodreads rating. Five Little Pigs had the highest rating (4.03 stars, if you’re curious), so I bought it. And I also got a beautiful new hardcover edition of Anne of Green Gables.

I also found a magnet, Christmas ornament, mug, and t-shirt. Yay!

I found this piece of art in a local shop, but then we stumbled onto the art fair later on that day and I was bummed I already bought my piece! Ah, well. I love the one I selected!

And lastly, at the art fair, I did purchase this really cute cat painting. I couldn’t pass it up! It’s a cat and my favorite color? It also has pre-drilled holes so I can nail it into a wall easily.

4) The flare of all flares

Leading up to my trip, my psoriasis was the worst it’s ever been. I had these big red patches on both sides of my scalp and they were so, so, so itchy. I tried everything: my steroid gels, apple cider vinegar, OTC psoriasis cream, specialized shampoo, etc. I was ready to call my dermatologist and demand an emergency appointment because things had gotten to such a bad state. On Wednesday, the day we were flying into New Orleans, the flare was still really bad. I was trying to keep things at bay by applying the steroid gels every few hours, which would help my scalp calm down for an hour or so. (I was so desperate for relief on one flight that I started rubbing an ice cube from my complimentary drink over the affected areas.) On the first day of our trip, before we did anything else, I found a CVS where I bought OTC cream (Exederm) as well as a numbing cream. (When I was scrolling the psoriasis Reddit forum late one night, someone mentioned numbing cream that would provide a bit of relief and I was willing to try anything at that moment.)

I felt so sorry for myself in the days leading up to the trip, thinking about dealing with this stupid flare and how it would affect how much I enjoyed my vacation. I applied the Exederm twice (on Thursday night and Friday morning) but starting on Friday, my psoriasis cleared up! It wasn’t itchy and the redness had lessened a bit. Was it the Exederm? Maybe. But I think this flare was 100% stress-related and that’s why I was in such a bad state. I think I was feeling a bit anxious about the vacation—leaving my cats, the logistics of flying, getting to New Orleans safe and sound, etc—and once we were there and enjoying ourselves, my psoriasis flare went away. It was such a relief. It’s been over a week since that really bad flare and I haven’t been putting any steroid gel or cream on my scalp (I wanted to give my scalp a break), and things are still doing good. I have an appointment with my dermatologist in a few weeks, and we will have a lot to chat about!

5) New shoes + new exercise routine = not being sore after walking all day!

One of the things I like least about vacation is all the walking, which always leads to me having sore feet and a sore body at the end of each day. After a few days of this, I am usually ready to chop off my feet and less likely to want to walk around and do things. The whole point of vacation is to walk around and do things! (And relax, but this wasn’t one of those vacations.) One of the things I noticed about this vacation was that I didn’t end each day with sore feet! I felt like I could walk farther without getting tired, and it was a truly eye-opening moment to realize that I am getting fitter from my new exercise routine. And also, it probably helped that I wasn’t walking around in four-year-old shoes that provided zero cushioning and support. There’s that, too.

What’s the last souvenir you bought? Have you ever needed the (expensive!) services of a locksmith?