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?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 44)

The high of my week was taking a mental health day on Wednesday. It’s so nice to have unlimited PTO and to be able to take days off during the week for no reason at all! This was a wonderful day to myself where I spent the morning in bed, went to lunch with my mom, and got a facial. It was so nice not to have to worry about emails and Slack messages and work drama on a Wednesday! A secondary high of the week was a nice little cold front blowing in. We’ve had 50-degree days the last two days and it was nice to turn off my air conditioner and wear cozy clothes for the first time in months! This cold weather won’t last too long (we’re back to highs in the 80s by the weekend), but it’s been a nice reprieve from the heat.

The low of my week was late bedtimes. Why can’t I seem to get myself together to go to bed at a decent hour? I used to be so strict about my bedtime and wore my early bedtime badge with honor. And now… I’m regularly turning out the light around 11:30 or later. It’s a problem. What’s the solution? I’m not sure. I just need to implement a better nightly schedule so that I’m not going to bed so late and can feel more rested every day.

An Internet find that really impacted me was this anti-abortion ad from Rep. Eric Swalwell. This is the future that awaits us if we let Republicans control Congress.

One nagging task I crossed off my to-do list this week was mopping my floors! I am so lazy about mopping my floors. Thanks to my robot vacuum, I’m at least getting all the dust and cat hair vacuumed up on a weekly basis but my floors need a good scrubbing way more often than I do it. At this point, my goal is to mop them monthly, though I should be doing it biweekly at the very least. But hey, I got it done!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Doppelgangers from Stuff You Should Know. I have one of those faces where I am constantly being asked if I am so-and-so or if I went to so-and-so high school. Nope, I just have one of those faces, I’ll usually reply. I need to find all of these women who look like me so we can form some sort of coalition, right? Anyway, this episode was interesting to me as someone who has dozens of Doppelgangers floating around in the world.

The best money I spent this week was $4 on a bag of Tootsie Rolls. This will be the only bag of Tootsie Rolls that I buy for myself for a long, long time because I am OUT OF CONTROL. I don’t even want to tell you how many I have eaten since I bought the bag on Monday, and I haven’t been keeping track so I can’t tell you. I am going to enjoy this bag of Tootsie Rolls and then move on with my life. Tootsie Rolls are going on the list of things I cannot have in my house regularly.

This weekend, I am having dinner with my mom and stepdad tonight, having a writing date with Mikaela and Eleni on Saturday afternoon, recording podcast episodes with Bri on Saturday evening, and enjoying football with the fam on Sunday. I may even make my famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on Sunday during football. I think I can be talked into that! (Okay, now I realize this is nearly identical to last weekend. Ah, well. I’m a creature of habit these days!)

What was the high of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 87)

1) Missing: My Sunglasses

Somehow, I lost my only pair of prescription sunglasses. I do not know where they went. I have searched my car and apartment multiple times and they are nowhere to be found. How is it that I can keep my $20 pair of Target sunglasses for years and years and years, but my expensive prescription sunglasses just go missing in an instant? Argh! I’ve already been perusing Warby Parker for some new prescription sunnies, since I cannot be without them. (I have light eyes, which are more prone to sun sensitivity, so I always wear sunglasses when I’m outside, even on an overcast day!) What do you want to bet that the moment I order new sunglasses, I’ll find the old ones?

2) NaBloPoMo 2022

It’s almost NaBloPoMo time! And yes, I’m joining the craziness once again. It was so much fun to participate last year and I honestly didn’t find it all too challenging to get a blog post up every day. (Of course, I do not have a partner or kids and my job is very flexible, so I have many advantages that make this kind of project easy!) I have already drafted my editorial calendar for November so I know what I will be posting every day, with the understanding that I may have to shift focus if I don’t have much creative energy and just want to get up something quick and easy. I’m someone who struggles with writing those quick and easy blog posts (shouldn’t every blog post take me hours to write?!) but NaBloPoMo forces me to embrace that aspect of blog writing. I like the challenge of trying to think of something to talk about on a daily basis and I’m excited to get started. I’ve also decided I’ll devote one week of November to “Week in the Life” (in which I write a “day in the life” style post every day for a week). I skipped Week in the Life last year, so it will be fun to bring it back in 2022. Plus, that takes care of seven blog posts for November.

The one challenging part of November is that I leave on my cruise on the 27th, so I’ll need to draft up a few posts to carry me through the end of the month, but I’m not too worried about that! Anyway, if you want to participate, please take a second to let San know. She’s the unofficial fearless leader of this NaBloPoMo event and is pulling together a list of participants!

3) Season 2 of The Friendship Paradox

We launched season 2 of our podcast this week! I am so excited for you guys to hear these episodes because they have been so much fun to record. This season, we’re talking about events and how differently we approach them based on our personality types. We’re going to talk about weddings, family events, parties like baby showers, birthdays, and our book club. These are the kinds of episodes I envisioned us recording when I thought about the podcast, and it’s been fun to put this little idea into action! Make sure you’re subscribed to The Friendship Paradox so you don’t miss an episode!

4) Uber Driver, At Your Service

I’ve been playing chauffeur for my mom for the last few weeks. Right before the hurricane hit, my mom’s car stopped running properly so she had it towed to her repair shop. The Saturday we came back, she found out her car would cost $4,000 to fix. The car is 10 years old and American-made, and she really didn’t love the idea of putting so much money into a car that would likely continue to have problems. So, she sold the car back to the dealership and we went car shopping the first weekend of October! She ended up buying a 2023 Kia Sportage, but it wouldn’t be delivered until Oct. 22 at the earliest, which means I’ve been chauffering her around for the past few weeks. Thankfully, these days, being car-less for a few weeks isn’t too difficult, as she can work from home, do grocery delivery, etc. There were a few appointments I had to take her to, and I’ve been the lucky beneficiary of Friday night dinners (her and my stepdad always go out to eat on Friday night, so I get to tag along and get a free meal!) I’m excited for her new car to arrive, though. It has so many bells and whistles that her old car didn’t have, like wireless charging, a back-up camera, a digital dashboard, and Bluetooth. Am I a little jealous, even though my car is basically new, too? Yes, yes I am.

5) Weekend Plans

It’s going to be a busy weekend for me! Tonight, I’ll be meeting up with my mom and stepdad for dinner. Tomorrow, I’ll be chauffering my mom and the dogs to PetSmart for their grooming appointment, meeting with Mikaela and Eleni in the afternoon for a writing date, and then spending the night recording the podcast with Bri! We’re going to bang out the last three episodes of season 2. And Sunday will be a lovely, low-key day of sleeping in and then going to my mom’s to watch football with the fam.

Are you doing NaBloPoMo, too? What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments | September 2022

1 – A really excellent mid-year review with my boss. She had lovely things to say about me and my progress so far this year, and that felt so, so good.

2 – Day 1 of girls’ weekend! We had a lovely night in where Bri made pizza for us and we watched fun rom-coms.

3 – Pool time with my girls, mini-golf, and learning how to cross-stitch.

4 – Visiting a cat cafe and going on a sunset cruise.

5 – Getting home from vacation early and taking a long nap with my cats. I missed them so much!

6 – An extra day off! I didn’t do much with this day off, since I was dealing with a toe injury, but I did get a lot of reading done so that was lovely.

7 – Dinner with some girlfriends. Beforehand, I was feeling a little moody and a little “woe is me, my friends don’t even like me,” which is just something that happens from time to time. But I had a wonderful time and was reminded why these ladies are in my life. <3

8 – My toe finally starting to feel better. I can even walk normally again! Yay!

9 – Finishing Superstore! It was an excellent show and I’m excited to rewatch it sometime in the future.

10 – Cuddles with Eleni during my writing date with Mikaela. She’s become a very great little sidekick to these dates.

11 – The first day of football Sunday! And my Miami Dolphins had a great win against the Patriots, which made today even sweeter.

12 – Completely failing at making a grilled cheese sandwich, but managing to salvage dinner by making breakfast for dinner!

13 – A nap on my bed with Ellie curled up next to me.

14 – Starting a really fun project for work.

15 – Homemade nachos and starting a new season of Masterchef.

16 – A super long, super restful nap after a very busy day.

17 – Shopping for fall decor with Mom!

18 – A crazy historic win for my Dolphins. My heart is still recovering from that game.

19 – Bri’s birthday! It was fun to spoil her on social media.

20 – Taking a walk before starting my workday. I really need to do this more often!

21 – A clean colonoscopy for Mom! What a relief.

22 – A lovely evening spent at book club. And getting a Dairy Queen blizzard on the way home – great decision!

23 – A really relaxing facial. I meant to do some errands afterwards, but I was feeling so relaxed that I just went home and took a nap, ha.

24 – Visiting with my Briber, who broke her ankle so bad that she needs surgery. It was nice to be able to offer her some company since she’s going to be laid up for a few months!

25 – A fun, full day spent with Mom. We went to my nephew’s birthday celebration, then got ice cream, and then went back to her house for football and the Big Brother season finale (which was the most satisfying season finale in YEEEEARS).

26 – Being able to book a last-minute Airbnb so I could safely evacuate when it looked like Hurricane Ian was headed directly to us.

27 – Being able to take the day off work to evacuate and drive to Ft. Lauderdale. Also, finding Ellie when I thought she was missing!

28 – A lazy day. I am so grateful that we weren’t expected to work during this crazy time. I put in a few hours in the morning and evening, but also let myself take a nice long nap in the afternoon.

29 – Reports from friends who returned to their homes after evacuating; very minimal damage!

30 – An easy drive home from Ft. Lauderdale. Having power when I got home. A long nap in my own bed.

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in September

Feeling… in a much more stable mental health space this month. And the funny thing is: I don’t know why! One of the changes I made over the past month was to start taking Lexapro at night, and maybe it’s a placebo effect, but it has made a real difference in my nighttime anxiety. But just like I can’t predict the days when I’ll feel bad, I also can’t predict the days I’ll feel good. For now, I’ve had many, many more good days than bad days this month and I am cherishing that.

Watching… new seasons of Survivor and The Amazing Race, as well as an older season of Masterchef (I’m in the middle of season 10 right now). Right now, reality TV is what my soul needs so that’s what I’m giving it.

Listening to… All-American: Venus and Serena. All American is a podcast series that spends every season focusing on a specific athlete and discussing the ups and downs of their sports career. Season 1 was all about Tiger Woods. I was super excited when they announced that the Williams sisters would be the focus of season 2. It’s been great to get an insight into their careers, as I don’t follow tennis very closely but I’ve always loosely followed what Venus and Serena were up to.

Grateful… that I didn’t break my toe! While it wasn’t fun getting injured on the last day of my vacation, I am grateful that it didn’t affect our plans too much and that the toe started feeling a lot better after a few days of ice and rest. I was in so much pain the first two days after the injury and I was convinced I had broken my toe (especially since it bruised up almost immediately), but I probably just strained a muscle or something during my tumble down the stairs.

Anticipating… recording the rest of season 2 of the podcast and launching it into the world! We still have three episodes of season 2 to record, and the plan is to record those in mid-October. However, everything is a little up in the air at this point as my poor podcast bestie broke her ankle and is having surgery on it this week. We’re taking things day by day, but I’m hoping she’ll be able to record a few weeks post-surgery! Our trailer for season 2 will likely launch on October 11th, so be on the lookout!

Loathing… Florida’s governor. He’s always been a despicable human (remember how he opened bowling alleys and movie theaters back up in May of 2020?). But he hit a new low when he promised a bunch of immigrants who are seeking asylum (a LEGAL process!) jobs and homes and shipped them off to Martha’s Vineyard… where there were no jobs and no homes. The amount of callous disregard for human life (ya know, from the party that believes in a “right to life”) Republicans have is staggering, and I just don’t know what I will do if DeSantis doesn’t lose his governorship this year. I am so sad for these people who were stranded in an unfamiliar place, pawns in a governor’s political scheme, and so grateful for the people in Massachusetts that stepped up. Once again, I’ll say it: You cannot be a Christian, you cannot believe in the teachings of Jesus, teachings of peace, hope, and love to EVERYONE, and be a Republican. There is just no way.

Thinking about… my next apartment. You guys, I am already so, so excited to move next year. I still have more than a year until that will happen! I need to temper myself. But I can’t help looking at apartment listings right now. Most apartments have virtual tours of some of their floor plans and it’s so fun to take a look and imagine myself in these beautiful apartments. My hope is to find a 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment within my price range. It’s a bit harder to find those floor plans because 2 bed/2 baths are much more popular, but I really don’t need a second bathroom (nor do I want to have to keep TWO bathrooms clean). I’m also excited to not have to contend with three flights of stairs every day! I’m hoping to find a first-floor apartment or, at worst, a second-floor apartment. Third-floor apartments are for the birds.

Needing… to decide on our cruise excursions! Okay, so we still have quite a while until the cruise (62 days!) but I’ve been starting to peruse the cruise excursion options at our ports of call (we’ll be stopping in Jamaica, Haiti, and Royal Caribbean’s private island in The Bahamas). So far, we’re thinking about river tubing in Jamaica, doing a “sip and paint” excursion in Haiti, and the Bahamas is a bit up in the air. We’ll be there on my birthday, so I have my eye on a hot air balloon ride, since I’ve never done one.

Buying… hurricane supplies. Ha! As I type up this post over the weekend, Florida is hunkering down for a hurricane. We’ve gotten real lucky this hurricane season, and from the latest hurricane trackers, it appears the Tampa Bay Area will be spared once again from a direct hit. But things were looking a little scary on Friday/early Saturday with the signs pointing to a potential Category 2 hurricane hitting us, so I got prepared! I bought a set of flashlights, bungee cords to tie my patio furniture to my balcony railing, an extra carrier for the cats, and lots and lots of snack foods. At this point, I’m expecting a lot of rain and wind, but nothing too serious. If things change, I’ll likely evacuate to my mom’s house with the cats. I don’t think it will come to that, but I’d always rather be over-prepared for emergencies like this.

Loving… football season (and the way my Dolphins have been playing!), the Fetch app, hurricane snacks, my apartment being decorated for fall, reorganization projects, Olive continuing to have clear scans 14 months post-treatment, breakfast for dinner, and when the cats show off on my Zoom work calls.