Recurring Series

Thank God It’s Sunday (v. 1)

The high of my week was starting a daily walking exercise with my mom. It’s been so fun! Every day, we’re aiming to go for a 15-20 minute walk. No matter what, we have to get this walk done! We do a daily text check-in to keep each other honest. At first, I was planning on combining these daily walks with some Peloton workouts, but then I decided I wanted to keep things as easy as possible for me. That’s how to build a habit, after all. You have to start with the simplest daily step and for me, it’s taking a single loop around my apartment complex once a day. Eventually, I’ll add time to these daily walks and also add in a Peloton strength or spin workout a few times a week, but for now, this is what feels good and feels easy enough to accomplish daily.

The low of my week was FINDING MY PRESCRIPTION SUNGLASSES AFTER I HAD ORDERED NEW ONES. Didn’t everyone tell me this would happen? And it did. My old sunglasses had been hiding on this little ledge that I didn’t know existed behind my gearshift. For a few weeks, I had been hearing this weird knocking sound whenever I made a turn; it just sounded like something was loose and banging from one side of the car to the other when I turned (but I could tell it was in this spot behind the gearshift since that’s where the noise was coming from). I couldn’t figure out what was causing this noise! Was it due to the loose cards I had sitting in the space behind my gear shift? Maybe. I removed the cards… but the noise persisted. Maybe there was something loose in my car door that was causing the noise… but there was nothing there. One day, unable to figure out WHERE this sound was coming from, I stuck my hand behind the little space behind the gearshift, and lo and behold, there was this little ledge I had never known about. On the ledge were my sunglasses. I wasn’t even happy about finding them because my new sunglasses have been ordered and were shipped a few days ago. I was mostly just annoyed at myself. Argh!

One nagging task I crossed off my to-do list this week was nothing. Eeks! I didn’t really get a ton accomplished this week, aside from starting NaBloPoMo! So let’s set some to-dos for this upcoming week: I need to do laundry, clean my bathroom, rehang my world map, and run the Roomba.

I’m currently reading The Smart One by Jennifer Close and The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. The Smart One has been an interesting read; it’s very character-driven, and the characters are wholly unlikable, but I’m enjoying it so far. Katherine Center is a hit-or-miss author for me, but her newest release is working really well for me right now.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Hallmark Movies Explained on The Popcast. You guyssss. This episode had me dying, mostly at all the super ridiculous plotlines of Hallmark movies (both real and imagined). It is their best work so far.

The best money I spent this week was on booking our last cruise excursion. I’ve been holding off on booking our Jamaica excursion (river tubing). I always like booking through the cruise ship when I can, but the excursion I wanted to do was fully booked by the time we got around the booking our excursions. Ugh! I was able to find the same excursion through other excursion agencies, but kept forgetting to actually book it. On Thursday, I finally decided to book the damn excursion finally and decided to check Royal Caribbean’s website first to see if a few spots had opened up—and they had! Woohoo! I was able to book our excursion through the cruise line, and I’m really excited about it. We’re going to have so much fun. We leave 3 weeks from today!

This weekend, I had a lovely hair appointment on Friday afternoon where I got my highlights touched up and a cute haircut (see above; I joined the curtain bangs trend!). In the evening, I went over to Bri’s to record our last episode of season 2! Woohoo! On Saturday, I attended a celebration of life event for my aunt’s mother who passed away, had a writing date with Mikaela and Eleni, and then spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of Love Is Blind (#guiltypleasure). And today, the plan is to watch football with the fam and make my oh-so-famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (Here’s the recipe I use!)

What was a bright spot of your weekend?

Categories: Recurring Series

Ask Stephany Anything | Round 1

Happy Saturday, friends! And welcome to the first round of questions in Ask Stephany Anything. You can still ask me your burning questions – either comment on this post with your questions or fill out my Google form. For today, I picked out five questions to answer, so let’s dive in:

From Elisabeth: I’m curious if you always had pets growing up. I feel like you’ve probably mentioned this, but I can’t remember.

I did always have pets growing up! When I was in early elementary school, we had a bird named Rachel and also two hamsters. I named my hamster Shadow and he was the sweetest little bebe. I can’t remember what my brother’s hamster was named, but he was a little shit. Every time we tried to take him out of the cage, he would bite us and run away.

When I was in fourth grade, my parents surprised my brother and me with a dog! They kept the whole process a secret from us and then, one afternoon, picked us up early from school to drive to the SPCA to pick her up. WE WERE SHOCKED! She was a beagle-terrier mix named Minnie and I loved her with my whole heart and soul. She died at age 10 from cancer, but she was the best girl ever.

Also from Elisabeth: What is your absolute DREAM job (the sky is the limit – you would, in this universe, have all the skills needed to complete said job so if your answer was “be a famous rock singer”, you’d be able to sing/play an instrument already sort of thing).

My dream job has not changed since I was a kid: I would love to be an author. Specifically, I want to write romance novels. It’s been something I’ve wanted to do my whole life but it is really hard to write a novel and most authors don’t make a full-time living from writing. Plus, there’s the whole marketing side of being an author, which feels very overwhelming to think about. But still, if the sky is the limit and I have all of the skills and time and passion to make it happen, I would be a successful romance novelist.

From Lisa: if you could live anywhere in the US, where would you live? Does your answer change for when you are retired?

The only other place I could see myself moving to would be North Carolina (Charlotte or Asheville, specifically). I think the weather there would really suit me, and the pace of life would be similar to what I have in Florida. Mainly, I just want to be able to experience all four seasons without dealing with the drudgery of winter for too long. However, I don’t think I would ever move from where I live right now because this is where my family and friends are, and having that community is extremely important to me. I also live in a very progressive area of Florida, and that matters greatly to me.

Florida tends to be the place where people retire, so I can’t see myself leaving the state for retirement. The real question is what Florida will look like in 30-40 years and how climate change will affect our state. Sea levels are continuing to rise, we continue to break heat records, and hurricanes continue to become more powerful. It’s hard to predict how all of this will impact our state.

From Suzanne: When I first started reading your blog, you had a dog. (Sweet Dutch. I remember him fondly.) How did you go from a dog person to a cat person? Or maybe you were always a cat-and-dog person?

Awww, thank you for remembering my sweet boy. He was the bestest.

I’ve never been anti-cat. It was just that, in my family, we had dogs. I think part of the reason is that my grandma was allergic to cats, but after she died, my cousin adopted two cats and I loved petting them when I came over to visit.

The last couple of years of Dutch’s life were really, really hard. He had to be walked at least every couple of hours because he couldn’t hold his bladder as long as he used to. This meant that someone always had to let him out at lunchtime (I worked five days a week in an office that was 30 minutes away; thankfully, my mom’s office was nearby so she often took care of this for me) and I could rarely make evening plans because I’d need to be home for Dutch’s after-work walk. Nighttime was also extremely difficult for him. He was restless and anxious, and it would take him forever to settle down to sleep. (I’m talking 2+ hours of him whining and moving around in bed.) Eventually, the vet put him on tramadol to help with his nighttime anxiety/restlessness, which definitely helped. Many times, I would come home to find Dutch had made a mess, and then walked all over the mess. So not only did I have to clean up the mess, but I’d also have to bathe him. (This was a sign of his declining cognitive health.) I was happy to take care of Dutch in the last years of his life, but it was a lot to deal with on my own.

I knew I would adopt another pet once Dutch passed because they make life so much sweeter. Even as difficult as it was to deal with Dutch dying, I didn’t regret a single minute I had with him. He made my life a billion times better. At the time, I was still working full-time in an office (with a work-from-home day allowed here and there) and didn’t see that changing anytime soon. I knew having a cat would be so much easier. For one, they are easier for us apartment-dwellers as they don’t need to be walked for every bathroom break. For another, I could leave a cat alone for far longer than I could leave a dog. Having a cat just seemed like the easier option for a single person like me.

What I didn’t expect was to fall head over heels for my girls. I expected to love them, of course, but I honestly thought I had experienced the one true love of my life in Dutch, and didn’t think I could feel that intensely for my cats. After all, aren’t cats aloof and mean? WELL. Ellie and Lila sure showed me. I love those girls with the same level of intensity I loved Dutch. And being aloof and mean? Not them! They have oodles of personality, so much love to give, and the sweetest little faces that make me grateful every day that I get to be their mom.

I am still a dog person. I love my fur-brother and -sister to death. Chip and Lucy are my babies and I would do anything for them. But now, I am also a cat person.

From San: I know you’re very close with your brother, but did you ever want to have a sister?

YES. I always wanted a sister! In fact, growing up, I would have gladly given up my brother to have a sister. (Sorry, Mark.) My brother and I did not get along at all when we were kids, and I always wished I had a sister I could hang out with when things got rough between us. I was always a little peeved that my mom didn’t try to have a third kid because wouldn’t it have been so nice to have a little sister? Sigh.

Now that I’m older and my brother and I do get along very well, I am glad I have him and also glad that I don’t have another sibling. It’s nice that it’s just the three of us and that I don’t have to share my mom with someone else. 🙂

What is your “sky-is-the-limit dream job”?

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments | October 2022

1 – Helping my mom with her car-buying process. She bought a 2023 Kia Sportage!

2 – Family day. My favorite! And the weather was so beautiful with temps in the 70s. Ahh.

3 – Lila comforting me when I was crying. She was so sweet! She jumped on the couch, put her paw on my back, and meowed at me. Then she snuggled next to me and let me pet her.

4 – Chauffeuring Mom around! (Her car won’t be delivered until late October.) She needed to go back to the Ford dealership to transfer her tag/title and finish the selling process (she sold her car back to the dealership). Then, in the evening, I took her to a hair appointment she had scheduled.

5 – A mid-day nap that felt so refreshing!

6 – Coworking with Bri so I could help her with certain tasks she can’t do right now, as she is largely immobile with her broken ankle (aka, getting her food, keeping her water cup filled, etc.)

7 – A fun birthday party for my cousin’s daughter where I got to see a lot of family members.

8 – A reading date with Amber and a relaxing pedicure by myself.

9 – A relaxing day at my mom’s, watching football with the fam. I love these days so much!

10 – Sleeping in and being able to slowly ease into my workday. The benefits of having a flexible work life! Yes, it meant I was working a little bit into the evening but it was well worth it to have a calm morning.

11 – Turkey chili for dinner! This is my go-to recipe. I omit the chilies and add cheese and sour cream.

12 – Ellie sitting in an empty Chewy box throughout the day. I love how much she loves an empty box!

13 – Leftovers for lunch AND dinner. Saving money and not having to cook – works for me!

14 – Coworking again with Bri. It means a lot that she reached out to me to help her, as I know it’s not in her nature.

15 – Recording episodes of The Friendship Paradox with Bri. Afterward, Bri’s husband ordered pizza and we watched college football together.

16 – Waking up on the early side for a Sunday so I was able to get some blog work done, run the Roomba, and read for a bit before heading over to my mom’s for the day.

17 – A Sausage Egg McMuffin for breakfast. My favorite breakfast of all time, and I’m not ashamed to say it.

18 – A therapy appointment when I needed it most. I am so, so glad I found this therapist.

19 – A day off work! I got to sleep in, get some stuff done, and just enjoy turning off my email and Slack messages for a day.

20 – Rescuing Mom from an event she wasn’t having fun at (#introvertprobz). She invited me into her house to watch last night’s episode of The Amazing Race and found out Robert was making tacos, so I got to have a delicious meal made for me, too! Wins all around.

21 – An easy workday followed by a wonderful afternoon nap.

22 – Sleeping in and then going on a Target mini-shopping spree (bought earrings, pajamas, and some Christmassy pillows).

23 – Tua is back on the field! And the Dolphins broke their losing streak. I was a bit emotional seeing him back on the field, considering the way he left the game three-and-a-half weeks ago (a truly horrifying concussion response). We didn’t know if he had any brain function or feeling in his limbs when he left the field on a stretcher, which was so scary. (This is when my love for football is so complicated. I love the game so much, but hate how violent it can be.) It was good to see him out there and to see him having fun. If he wants to be out on the field and his family is okay with him being on the field, then that’s all that matters.

24 – A lovely dinner out with Mom. We got to chit-chat a bit about our upcoming cruise, which got me so excited!

25 – Going for a walk outside in the evening. It was glorious outside and felt good to be outside and move my body after a busy workday.

26 – Book club! We went to a fave Mexican place, Eleni was handed around the table, and we had a good chat about our pick this month, which was Lessons in Chemistry.

27 – Ordering in pizza and starting the new season of Nailed It. (Why is it only 4 episodes, though?!)

28 – Talking to Bri about an anxiety spiral I was having (on this day, I was loaning my car to my mom for an event she had to go to for work, so of course, I was convinced she was going to get into an accident and die). She gave me a wonderful pep talk and just talking through the spiral with someone helped SO MUCH. I never want to burden other people with my anxiety spirals and moody episodes because I don’t want to bring them down, but friends have told me time and time again that they WANT me to reach out when I’m feeling like this because they want to be able to help me. This was such a good example of why I need to do that: I felt so much more relaxed after talking to Bri and the anxiety spiral was so minimal afterward that it was basically non-existent.

29 – My mom finally getting her new car! It was supposed to arrive a week ago, but there were all these transportation issues. It is so high-tech and beautiful!

30 – Making Halloween treat bags with Mom to pass out to trick-or-treaters tomorrow. We filled up bags with candy, fun erasers, pencils, notepads, bubbles, and stickers.

31 – Halloween! I went over to my mom’s to pass out our treat bags, although we got barely any kiddos (less than 20, I think). But it was still fun to dress up as a cat, spend time with my mom, and see some really cute kids all dressed up.

Tell me a bright moment of October for you!

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 45)

The high of my week was doing my lil bathroom refresh! After many months of acquiring new items for my bathroom, I finally had everything ready to go. I changed out the shower curtain (and the liner, which was very, very gross) and got a new shower curtain rod. I added new pink towels (and they’re the luxurious bath sheets, which are so much bigger than a regular towel and make me feel like a goddess when I’m all wrapped up). I replaced the rugs. It’s a whole bunch of little things, but it makes the bathroom feel different and new.

The low of my week was driving anxiety. I have never really had anxiety about driving. I am a confident driver and have been that way since I started driving at 15. I live in a place where I have to drive everywhere, no matter where I need to go. Lately, though, I’ve been having a lot of anxiety while driving, especially when driving at night. My specific fear is that I will cause a terrible accident (or worse, harm a pedestrian). In my two decades of driving, I have never caused an accident. (#knockonwood) I’d like to think I’m a safe driver, so I really don’t know where this anxiety is coming from. It’s gotten so bad lately that I may schedule an emergency therapy appointment so we can work through this together, and I can hopefully start feeling less anxious about driving.

An Internet find that I loved was this silly Reel that I have shared with way too many people. 🙂

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list this week was mailing off my ballot! It’s been sitting on my kitchen table for way too long, so I finally filled it out and dropped it off yesterday at a dropbox (which was actually at my home library, how convenient!). So glad to have that done, although I have very little faith that Florida will do the right thing and kick DeSantis and Rubio out of office, ugh.

I’m currently reading Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson and To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn (the fifth Bridgerton book—Eloise’s story!). I am not too far into either of them (about 100 pages), but I’m enjoying both right now.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Young Black Voters in Atlanta on The Wilderness. I have really enjoyed this season of The Wilderness, which is a Crooked Media podcast that takes a series of focus groups that happen all across the US and tries to figure out what people are looking for in their politicians and how Democrats can better meet the needs of its people. I like this podcast because they speak to a lot of people who are apathetic about politics and voting in general. I have found it fascinating because I am locked in my liberal white bubble where we all hate Trump and Republicans as a whole, but that’s not the case for everyone (obviously, considering how popular he still is, but these aren’t your typical MAGA Republicans who love Trump; they are just looking for someone to shake up the status quo, and Trump certainly does that). Anyway, this episode was particularly enlightening.

The best money I spent this week was on my cruise excursions! We’ll be on a ship in just 30 days! Eeks. We finally decided to book all of our shore excursions (we’re stopping in the Bahamas, Haiti, and Jamaica) and it all feels so real now. We’re going to do a helium balloon ride in the Bahamas, a paint-and-sip excursion in Haiti, and river tubing in Jamaica. I can’t wait!

My plans this weekend include hopefully not feeling too crummy, as I’m getting both my flu shot and my bivalent Covid booster this afternoon. Last time, I started taking Tylenol right after getting my booster and I didn’t have any side effects. I don’t know if that’s why I felt okay, but I’m going to try it again and see what happens. If all goes well, I’ll spend Saturday afternoon with Mikaela and Eleni and enjoy football with the fam on Sunday. If all does not go well, I will be spending the weekend on the couch, watching lots of TV.

What was the best thing you spent money on this week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in October

Feeling… super excited to start NaBloPoMo next week! I have been looking forward to NaBloPoMo for so long, maybe since NaBloPoMo 2021 ended! It was such a fun challenge to complete and most especially, I loved that it introduced me to so many new bloggers. Not sure what NaBloPoMo is? Essentially, it’s a challenge to write one blog post every day in November. San and NGS both have great posts about NaBloPoMo that I encourage you to check out if you’re interested! (And if you are, let San know so she can add you to her list of participating bloggers!)

Watching… a lot of football, ha. I’m also watching the current seasons of The Amazing Race and Survivor, both of which are EXCELLENT this season. I have a lot of favorite shows that just came out with new seasons—Nailed It, Love Is Blind, and Only Murders in the Building, to name a few—and I’m looking forward to watching those shows next month.

Listening to… Taylor Swift’s new album! If I can be honest here, music isn’t really my thing. Maybe it’s because of the way I grew up, where I was only allowed to listen to CCM and anything secular felt like a sin against God. Or maybe it’s just the way I’m wired. But for whatever reason, music is something I could take or leave. However, Taylor Swift is my one exception. I adore her music, and I’ve been loving this new album! It’s just plain fun to listen to. Current favorites off her new album: Anti-Hero, Vigilante Shit, Karma, and Sweet Nothings.

Grateful… that we made it through another hurricane. It was a wild end to September with the threat of Hurricane Ian and a last-minute evacuation to Ft. Lauderdale. I am so grateful that the hurricane turned south just days before it was scheduled to directly hit the Tampa Bay area (at the time, they were predicting a Category 3 hurricane, but it ended up being just a few MPHs shy of a Category 5 when it hit Florida, crazy!) Ultimately, I am glad I evacuated because a) even though the storm’s predicted path turned south, it could have easily turned back north before it hit Florida, and b) I was in a mandatory evacuation zone and doing the responsible thing by evacuating.

Anticipating… my cruise! We’re a little more than a month away (we leave on November 27th!) and I am just so, so excited to spend 6 days on a cruise ship with my mom. This is the longest I’ve gone without being on a cruise ship (3 years!) and I am more than ready to get back to cruise life. I’m planning on getting my flu shot and Covid booster very soon so I can have a little bit of protection. I also plan on wearing a mask around the ship. I’m trying not to worry too much about getting Covid, and focus more on the excitement of another vacation.

Loathing… inflation. Aren’t we all? Costs continue to rise in a way that feels really scary. I’m seeing it with my trips to the grocery store, the biggest bump in rent I’ve ever had… even my therapist is now $20 more per session than she used to be. Oh, and I just got my notice to renew my car registration and car registration has increased by almost $10 in one year! It’s a wild time. I feel really grateful that, while it’s hard to stomach the cost of so many things, I’m still able to afford my lifestyle and do the things I want to do. I know that’s not the reality for so many families and I hope it eases soon.

Learning… more about cycle syncing, based on this post. Anyone who has had a period for any length of time understands that our hormones seem to ebb and flow based on our cycles. But the only hormones I really pay attention to are the ones that outwardly present as glaring PERIOD signs: the mood swings, the back pain, the lethargy. This post goes much deeper than that. For example, did you know that your most creative/energetic period is the 7-10 days after your period ends? Or that you can start to feel sluggish up to 14 days before your period begins (typically, it can occur when ovulation happens in the body)? I’m not sure what phase of my cycle I’m in (I’m terrible at keeping track since I only get my period every few months, due to the birth control I’m on), but I’m actually looking forward to getting my period so I can start tracking these different phases!

Thinking about… my 2023 goals! Is it too early to start thinking about what I want to achieve next year? Perhaps, but this is just who I am as a person. I’m thinking about breaking my goals into five categories with five goals per category: home, healthy living, hobbies, finances, and one-off tasks. This was something I used to do with my yearly goals but I switched to the straight list of goals for the past few years. It’s been very fun to think about these different categories and what I want to accomplish in all of them!

Buying… some new skincare products to try. I have been faithful to my Paula’s Choice products and I do still really love their skincare line, but I’ve wanted to branch out and try some other stuff to see if it helps improve my skin texture and acne scarring (although I know the best thing I can do for that is more intense regimens found at a dermatologist office). I’ve been intrigued by The Ordinary’s products for a long time because so many people swear by them and they are SO CHEAP. I bought their niacinamide serum (I’ve been using Paula’s Choice niacinamide for a year+ now and haven’t seen much of a difference, so I wanted to try something new), as well as a lactic acid/hyaluronic acid serum and an azelaic acid brightening cream. We’ll see how they work! (And if you have any skincare products you swear by, please let me know!)

Loving… cold fronts, playing chauffeur to my mom for a few weeks, baby-sitting Bri during the workday while she’s fairly immobile (or “Briby-sitting,” as her husband Sean calls it), releasing season 2 of the podcast, when Ellie sits in a box, Lila snoring next to me while I work, and finally completing my bathroom refresh (pictures to come!).

What are you currently learning these days?