Recurring Series

A Friday Morning Coffee Date

It’s been a while since we’ve had a virtual coffee date, friends! Let’s sit down with a drink—I’m sipping on an iced vanilla latte myself—and chat about what’s going on in our lives.

If we were having coffee today… I’d start the conversation by gushing about my podcast for a little while! I’m having way more fun with it than I thought I would, and it’s been even better to put it out in the world and hear how you guys are enjoying it! We’re starting to plan for season 2 and have a recording date scheduled for next weekend, which I’m very much looking forward to! And we have a creative brainstorming session to figure out some bits and pieces we want to put together for season 2 on Monday. This little passion project really has my whole heart at this point!

If we were having coffee today… I might talk about mental health. My anxiety has been in an up-and-down state these days. Some days, I’m fine. Other days, I’m not. I’m trying to do what I can to keep myself mentally well: taking my meds, going for walks, seeing my therapist, hanging out with friends/family, checking in with my moods, etc. But it’s exhausting to never know how I’m going to feel on a particular day. Or to do something that I think is going to be good for my mental health, but it turns out to cause me more anxiety. And there’s a part of me that doesn’t want to talk about all of this on my blog because oh my god, can I just get it together already? I have this incessant need to “win” my anxiety disorder and when it takes me down, I feel so defeated, as if I wasn’t strong enough to battle it like I should have. I feel as if I am letting other people down when my anxiety isn’t as stable as I want it to be. (Could I be any more of an Enneagram 9? Sigh.) I’m trying to be better about just letting my anxiety disorder be what it is and not be defeated by this up-and-down trajectory of symptoms. Easier said than done.

If we were having coffee today… I’d probably groan about how difficult dating is. Do you know that I was all set up to go on a date with someone and he canceled on me the day of the date? And that the next time I set up a first date with someone different, I logged into my Hinge profile to send a message the morning of the date, only to find out he had unmatched with me? Or that I’ve had four different lengthy and deep conversations through Bumble with women I really liked… only to get ghosted after a few days? Y’all, my self-esteem is not great right now. I feel undateable. I don’t know where to go from here but, oof. This return to dating apps has not been good for me.

If we were having coffee today… I might admit that I got myself in a bit of a pickle financially. I don’t really know how it happened but in the last month alone I’ve had to withdraw money from emergency savings to save myself from overdrafting in my checking account. I’ve mentioned before that I have two separate savings accounts: one is with my bank, and I try to keep $500 in that savings account so that I can quickly transfer money to my checking account if I don’t have enough in there to cover a bill. The other savings account is through CapitalOne, and that’s where I keep my various saving categories: emergency savings, pet savings, Christmas, etc. I built up a nice little nest egg in my emergency savings that I haven’t had to touch, but I got myself into a bit of a jam at the beginning of this month. With only $80 in my bank savings, I didn’t have enough to cover a bill that would be autodrafting from my checking account, so I had to dip into my CapitalOne emergency savings. Ugh! I’ve been doing so good at not living paycheck-to-paycheck, so it’s a bit demoralizing to have this happen. So, until I get my credit card fully paid off, my bank savings back to $500, and my emergency savings back to $3,000, I am on a slight shopping ban. It’s not a full-scale shopping ban because I am going to be here for, ehh, a few months I think. I’m giving myself $30 to spend each pay period. But I’m definitely saying no to any major purchases, unnecessary Ubereats orders, and retail therapy. I know I will feel so much better when everything is back to normal, and September is a three-paycheck month, which should really help!

If we were having coffee today… and I felt really comfortable with you, I might bring up some of the things I’ve been thinking about in regards to weight loss, dieting, and body image. Here’s my truth: I want to lose weight because I am not at a healthy weight and the last time I had bloodwork done, some of the numbers were concerning. For a while, I thought about rejoining WW for the 8th, 9th, 10th, who knows, time. But then I thought about how much I hate counting points, how demoralizing it is to have to restrict when I run out of points (yes, you can eat whatever you want, but you’re still restricting yourself to fit into a certain daily points range) (and also, ugh, I do not love that feeling of needing to exercise to “earn” extra points – NO). I just don’t have it in me to do that to myself again. I do believe that WW can work for many people; I’m just not one of them. I’m considering Noom, but I also don’t really love the idea of grading my food on a scale of good, neutral, and bad, because I don’t believe food is inherently good or inherently bad. I am most definitely not going to redownload My Fitness Pal and track every calorie I eat because that just leads me down a negative path. So what’s a girl with eating issues to do? I don’t have a solution here. I might end up trying Noom, especially because they keep sending me emails about getting 6 months free with a one-year subscription. Or maybe I just need to find small ways to add healthier foods into my diet. For example, I switched my breakfast from eggs and toast to string cheese and Greek yogurt. Instead of having a ton of different chocolates and Little Debbie snacks around, I have one bag of dark chocolates. I don’t love dark chocolate and can only eat a few at a time since it’s so rich, so it gives me the chocolate fix without tempting me too much. Is it enough? I don’t know. But I know I need to get serious about what I’m putting into my body because there’s nothing I want less than heart disease and diabetes.

If we were having coffee today… I would, of course, give you an update on the cats. My little ladies are doing great! Eloise has been loving my new habit of making my bed every morning, as I find her curled up on the bed all morning long. (However, she seems to take issue with the process of me making my bed, as she swipes at me with her claws while I’m doing it. I’m not a fan!) She’s also still demanding that I share the office chair with her while I’m working. She’ll stand on the arm of the chair until I move over to let her curl up next to me. I let her do it because I love the closeness! Lila has always been my shy, skittish kitty who hides under the couch when company is over. But she is so open, snuggly, and lovey with me. She lets me snuggle her close to my side in the morning when I’m in bed and has even started curling up next to me on the couch when I’m watching TV. That’s a new habit for her, as she used to be very particular about where she would sleep and didn’t want to be too close to me. She also loves licking the inside of my elbow, which isn’t always the most pleasant feeling with her rough tongue on such sensitive skin! But I let her do it because I’m a sucker and her cute lil face is hard to resist.

Whew! This turned into a very serious coffee date. Thanks for listening to me! Tell me what you would talk to me about on this coffee date. 🙂

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments | July 2022

1 – Moving my desk! My beautiful standing desk is on wheels so it’s very easy to move around. I think I’m going to try to move it every 3 months or so just so I can have a different view. Previously, it was facing the big window in my living room and now it’s facing the wall next to the window!

2 – Visiting my mom, who just tested positive for Covid. Since I just had it, I’m one of the only people who can visit her without getting sick, too! I brought her lunch and we played some games together.

3 – Starting Good Girls on Netflix. The first episode was so good!

4 – A low-key 4th of July. I slept in, did a long workout, visited with my mom, and took a short nap.

5 – Making a yummy dinner for myself.

6 – Watching the Big Brother premiere with my mom (and the dogs!)

7 – Sleeping in until 8 and then having snuggle time with Lila before getting up.

8 – Making a Reel (my first one ever!) for my mom’s birthday. I also went to dinner with my friend Amber and we had a really good conversation about dating, singleness, and loneliness. I can’t stress enough how amazing it is to have another “single in our 30s” friend to talk with.

9 – Snuggling up with baby blankets that Mikaela brought into Starbucks from her car during our writing date. It was freezing in there!

10 – Scheduling an emergency therapy appointment. Today was a hard day for my anxiety and I’m glad I reached out.

11 – A really healing therapy session. I cried a lot and it felt so good.

12 – Making a small speech in a meeting with 200+ people. It was so scary, but I was proud of myself for saying yes when my director asked me to do it.

13 – Putting together the cat’s new tower! It’s so much bigger and fancier than their previous one.

14 – Ellie spending most of the day on the cat tower. I was really expecting both cats to ignore the tower for a few weeks, as they normally do with new things. But she wanted to use it right away!

15 – Ordering in pizza and watching a comedy special on Netflix.

16 – Recording the last two episodes of season 1! I can’t believe we did it!

17 – Being able to sleep longer in the morning because the coffee date I had planned for that day was canceled. His loss!

18 – Starting off the week with a strong workout (20-minute spin, 20-minute strength, and a walk around the block)

19 – Taking a walk in the morning to take pictures of all the crepe myrtles around my apartment complex. Crepe myrtles are my favorite!

20 – A day off! I took Eloise to the vet and she received a sparkling report. Later that night, I had book club and it was a wonderful time.

21 – My robot vaccum was delivered! Once it charged for a bit, I let it do a spin around my bedroom and it did an insanely wonderful job!

22 – A really long, satisfying nap.

23 – Working on some podcast stuff, like finalizing our cover art and drafting some Instagram posts to announce our trailer episode. It’s all coming together for real!

24 – A movie date with Amber to see Where the Crawdads Sing. I really liked the movie!

25 – Booking a Labor Day getaway with Bri and Amber. We’re spending a few days at a gorgeous resort in Orlando that has a huge pool and lazy river. !!!

26 – Cooking a new recipe that was so good, and will definitely be a part of my regular rotation. (Recipe here, and yes, it’s from Tik Tok.)

27 – A lady date with Bri where we talked through some emotional friend stuff I’m going through, ordered pizza, and watched a comedy special.

28 – Buying some items off a friend’s classroom wish list. It felt really good to be able to support her in this way!

29 – Getting a massage that was so relaxing that I fell asleep. Oops!

30 – Celebrating mom’s birthday finally with game night and cake. My nephews were both in really great spirits, too, and my younger one, especially, had us cracking up with his one-liners. (I swear he’s going to grow up to become a comedian!)

31 – Publishing our podcast! Eeks… so nerve-wracking and exciting!

What was a highlight of July for you?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in July

Feeling… reinvigorated about dating after reading and loving the book How to Not Die Alone by Logan Ury. I’ve long felt apathetic about dating and after reading the book, I think it stems from my fear that I will go through a long and arduous dating process, wasting my precious time and money, and never find that great love of my life. And I’ve also felt like it should be easier to date, that because dating felt so hard meant there was something wrong with me. But dating is a skill; it’s really not natural for us to try to find love in this modern era of dating apps, so it makes sense that it takes work. Anyway, I am planning on writing a blog post soon about the lessons I’m taking away from this book and how I’m going to apply them to my dating life.

Watching… a lot of reality TV right now! It’s summertime so, of course, I’m watching my yearly fave, Big Brother. This show is on three times a week, there are accompanying daily podcasts to listen to, and live feeds of the contestants to watch, so it’s quite the time commitment! But I love it. I’m also watching The Challenge for the first time ever, which pits former reality TV stars together in a series of very, erm, challenging physical competitions. I’m finding it so fun to watch! And, lastly, I am watching The Bachelorette. It’s a weird season because they have two bachelorettes and it seems like production didn’t really figure out how this was going to work beforehand, so I think it’s going to get really messy really soon. But that’s why we watch reality TV, right?!

Listening to… Fad Camp. This podcast was recommended for people who love Maintenance Phase but wish it focused more on diets/diet culture and less on digging into diet-based research. I want to be clear that I love Maintenance Phase for what it is; I love when they get nerdy about research and find their episodes fascinating. But what I love about Fad Camp is that it focuses more on the hosts’ individual experiences with diets and diet culture. I love hearing about all the different diets we subject ourselves to so that we can fit into this idealized version of ourselves. The hosts are funny, self-deprecating, and seem like genuinely good friends. Plus, they have wonderful Irish accents that are fun to listen to!

Grateful… for my therapist. Being able to schedule an emergency therapy appointment with her earlier this month was amazing. I really needed her calming presence and helpful guidance as I worked through a really difficult anxiety spiral. Knowing I have her in my back pocket to help me when I get into these dark places is a sense of relief and comfort that I wish everyone could have.

Anticipating… our podcast launch! I can’t believe we’re releasing our trailer episode in just a few days! And then our first episode comes out on August 9th. This is going to be such a wild ride and I cannot wait for us to finally launch this little creative darling of ours into the world. We don’t have anything up on Instagram just yet, but you can follow us here if you’re so inclined.

Loathing… Covid. It has been a month of person after person in my family falling ill with Covid. First it was my mom, then it was my stepdad, and the latest person to get it was my brother. Thankfully, everyone recovered just fine and no worse for wear, but it has not been a fun month for us. We haven’t even been able to celebrate my mom’s birthday! I think we will finally be able to celebrate it this weekend, three full weeks after her actual birthday. But while everyone in my family getting Covid was scary and anxiety-inducing, I am just glad we got it now—when most of us are vaccinated and the strain is a lot less intense than previous iterations.

Thinking about… finally making the Peloton plunge. Well, I’ve been on the Peloton train for a year now but I don’t have the actual Peloton bike and there’s a part of me that really, really wants one. It would be nice to know if the resistance I’m using is anywhere close to where it needs to be (I have a cadence sensor but I don’t think there’s any tool I can get to track resistance) and to monitor my output. Since I am planning on canceling my massage membership, that will give me around $80-$100 back in my budget. And it got me thinking about financing a Peloton bike (no, I can’t afford to pay outright for a $2,000 bike)—the monthly cost of the bike + the additional membership fee ($44 a month for all-access membership, which is required if you have their bike, vs $15 for the bare-bones, app-based membership). It would come out to about the same price as what I was paying for the massage membership. I’m not fully convinced I want to take the plunge, but I’m about 70% of the way there.

Buying… lots of fun stuff:

A new cat tower – The cats love their new tower! Eloise is particularly fond of sleeping on the top platform while Lila loves curling up in one of the caves. I’m hoping Lila starts using the hammocks soon, since that’s the reason I bought this particular tower, but she’s a slow adopter of new things so it may just take some time.
A Roomba – I am so damn happy with my decision to get a Roomba! On Monday, I let it vacuum my entire apartment and it spend nearly 90 minutes scooting around my 700ish-square-foot space while I worked. It does a much better job of vacuuming than I could ever do on my own!
A new phone – It was a no-brainer to upgrade my phone, especially since the lease price for an iPhone 13 Pro is only going to cost me $4 a month! I’m really happy with my decision.

Loving… my new glasses! I finally ordered new Warby Parker glasses (from this post, I went with option 2!) and received them on Sunday. I’m still getting used to them but they honestly don’t feel too different (size-wise) from my previous glasses. It’s fun to have something new to wear around, though!

What’s something fun you bought this month?

Categories: Recurring Series

Three Things Thursday (v. 8)

Three confessions

1) While I really enjoyed my experience as a poll worker for the 2020 general election, I never want to be a poll worker again. It’s such a long day (you’re there from 6am until 8pm or later) and it can get a little boring. (Since Florida had early voting and mail-in voting during that election cycle, we really didn’t get a LOT of people coming in to vote on election day.) Anyway, I really need to get my name off my county’s poll worker list because I keep getting assignments for upcoming elections that I have to then cancel. Ugh.

2) I am really bad at burning my candles. It’s not that I’m “saving” them for some specific reason; it just never crosses my mind to light a candle. I even have a candle sitting out on my coffee table and I don’t remember the last time I lit it. It had to have been months and months ago. I want to get better about lighting candles, though. I do love the homey feel they provide! I just need to put a reminder in my phone or something.

3) I’ve been in my apartment for almost two years and haven’t used my dishwasher a single time. There just isn’t a point when you live alone! I handwash everything, and I actually really enjoy it.

Three of my most-used apps yesterday

1) Chrome (1 hour, 41 minutes)

2) Happy Color (1 hour, 11 minutes)

3) Overcast (59 minutes)

Three books I just added to my Goodreads TBR

1) The Love of My Life by Rosie Walsh – Anne Bogel really sold me on this novel during one of her recent podcasts, so I was quick to add it to my Goodreads TBR!

1) How to Not Die Alone: The Surprising Science That Will Help You Find Love by Logan Ury – Bri recommended this book to me, saying that one of her single friends is reading it and finding a lot of value in it. I don’t really like self-help like this (especially books that tout an outcome that the author can’t control, re: “find love”), but I’m intrigued enough to give it a try!

2) White Space, Black Hood: Opportunity, Hoarding and Segregation in the Age of Inequality by Sheryll Cashin – One of my Goodreads friends read this recently and had good things to say about it, so I added it to my list. Housing inequality is something I’m really interested in (I loved Evicted by Matthew Desmond), and I think this will be a really impactful read.

Three things I love about my cats

1) The way Lila will sleep on just about any article of clothing or pair of shoes on the floor. My stinky workout clothes? SLEEP. My bra? SLEEP. My gross sneakers? SLEEP. She’s a little mama’s girl, I guess!

2) The way Ellie will “talk” to me. I’ll ask her a question and she’ll meow back at me, so I’ll ask her another question and she’ll meow some more. It’s like we’re having a full-on conversation! I’ve been wanting to capture this on camera for a Reel.

3) How much the cats love their new tower! They spend so much time each day sleeping in the caves and Ellie has recently discovered that one of the top platforms is an excellent place to take a nap.

Three things that made me happy this week

1) A mid-week day off – I took a day off yesterday because I just needed a mental health day, and it was so nice! I took Eloise to a vet appointment (yearly checkup + rabies shot), ran some errands, took a nice long nap, and enjoyed book club with my ladies. It was wonderful!

2) Purchasing a new phone – I was able to lease a new iPhone 13 Pro for just $4 a month! The typical lease price for this phone is $46, so that’s quite the deal. I couldn’t turn it down! The phone is backordered so I likely won’t get it until next month, but I’m excited!

3) My mom and stepdad feeling better – My mom is back to normal after her bout with Covid, and I am so very grateful for that! She tested negative mid-last week. My stepdad is also on the mend. I was really concerned about him because he’s in his 60s and unvaccinated and while he seemed to get the sickest out of all of us, he’s also recovering well. I’m so relieved!

Three things on my Amazon wish list

1) ASUS Flip 2-in-1 Touchscreen Chromebook – Whenever I decide to upgrade my laptop, this is what I’ll be getting! It can flip fully over to become a tablet, which is why I’m eyeing it. I don’t know how often I’d use the tablet function, but I want to find out!

2) A mic stand – Bri and I are going to need to invest in mic stands when we start recording the next season of our podcast. This two-pack is very affordable, but I need to find out if it will fit our mics.

3) Bidet Toilet Attachment – Y’all, I really want a bidet. That is all I’ll say about that.

Three things on my to-do list

1) Create cover art for our podcast – I commissioned podcast cover art from an Etsy creator a few months ago, but I wasn’t super happy with it, so I decided to try to design cover art on my own. Thank goodness for Canva Pro and their array of podcast cover art templates!

2) Cancel my massage membership – My massage membership is increasing by $10 to $70 a month, and that means it’s gone up by $20 since I became a member a few years ago. It makes sense for it to increase, but I just can’t stomach paying $70 a month for this membership, especially considering it’s nearly impossible to get in with my favorite massage therapist these days! I’m sad to lose my regular facials/massages, but it’s for the best.

3) Hang up my jewelry organizer – I bought a jewelry organizer to hang up all my necklaces and earrings and now I just need to hang it up and reorganize all of my jewelry. I’m hoping I can just hammer some nails into a wall and hang it up that way, but we’ll see.

Three things I’m looking forward to

1) Releasing our podcast into the world – We have a launch date: August 2nd! That’s when we will be releasing our trailer episode. I’ll be sure to add a link here when it’s live!

2) A getaway to Sarasota for Labor Day weekend – We haven’t done a book club weekend since 2019, for obvious reasons, and we were hoping to get a group together for a little weekend away this year. Unfortunately, 3 of our 6 members won’t be able to come but the other 3 of us are still going to get away for a long weekend in Sarasota.

3) A cruise in November – The cruise is still months and months away, but I am so excited for it! I know some people probably think we’re crazy to go on a cruise but I think we’ll be fine, especially since all cruisers/crew have to be vaccinated and have a negative Covid test to get on the ship.

Three podcasts on my to-be-listened-to list

1) The Ancients – One of my writers mentioned this podcast as her “share” for the day (I have one person on my team each day share something they’re watching, listening to, reading, recommending, etc, on our team Slack channel) and it is right up my alley!

2) Normal Gossip – I’ve heard really great things about this podcast that just discusses gossip sent in by regular people. Who doesn’t love a good gossip sesh?!

3) Fallen Angel – I love a good podcast docuseries and this one about the rise and fall of Victoria’s Secret looks to be very juicy!

Three things I’m doing this weekend

1) A writing date with Mikaela – I love our standing writing date! This week, I’m going to start working on show notes and Instagram posts for our podcast.

2) A 5K walk – One of the reasons I’ve been so lazy about going for my 5K walks is that I have to get up early to beat the heat and I usually don’t feel like doing that on the weekend, ha. I think I may try to go out on Friday evening for a walk, though. We’ll see!

3) A reading date – Hopefully, Amber and I will be meeting on Sunday for a fun reading date. We haven’t had one in a while!

What’s something that made you happy this week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 84)

1) Emergency therapy

Monday afternoon, I had an emergency therapy appointment and I am so, so glad I reached out to my therapist and scheduled this appointment. I needed it. One of the things you should know about me is that I don’t cry in therapy. I don’t cry much in general, and I’m also not a therapy crier. I only cried once with my last therapist and it was really only my tears welling up for a few minutes. I always feel so vulnerable when I cry and I hate to do it in front of people. But hoo boy, I cried my lil face off in therapy on Monday. I couldn’t stop the tears! It felt like so many emotions came to the forefront during this session and I blubbered them all out to my therapist. It felt so good! So healing. So calming. Maybe I’ll cry in therapy every time now! We talked about my worries about my mom and now my stepdad having Covid but mostly, we discussed the loneliness I’ve been feeling and what has triggered these feelings. Part of it is that I’ve passed a year since I had my first date with someone I thought was going to be a long-term relationship; the fact that it turned out to be short-term and I haven’t gone on another date since has definitely triggered these feelings. Another part is my lifestyle and isolating myself a bit too much. Some days, I don’t talk to another human face-to-face from Sunday to Saturday. That’s six whole days of no in-person human connection. !!! So I’m going to try to build some “people time” into my weekly schedule.

I want to commit to going into the office once or twice a month (it’s still not fully open, but we can come in if we want). I want to go to a new coffee shop every Friday morning to work, and invite friends/coworkers along with me. And I want to make a plan one night every week where I’ll get out of my apartment and see people. I usually have a regular dinner date with my mom, my cousin, and my cousin’s daughter, and I want us to get on a monthly cadence with that. I have book club once a month. Mikaela has invited me over to have dinner with her family whenever I want (she’s the best; when I told her about my loneliness, this is what she suggested. “I can’t do much in this stage of life [three children ages 7, 2, and 4 months], but you are always welcome to come over and have dinner with us.”), so I’ll do that once or twice a month. And I really want to bring back my monthly lady dates with Bri, which we haven’t done in a while. It may sound like a lot, and it feels like a lot to maintain as someone who is generally pretty lazy about friendships. But it’s still less than I was doing pre-pandemic considering I’m home all day. And human connection is so important. I’m missing that in my life right now.

2) Books

I am really grateful for all of your supportive comments on my post from Monday, encouraging me to pick up more light-hearted reads right now. When I’m going through a mental health crisis, I probably don’t need to read about heavy, serious topics! I put down Mediocre for the time being and I’ve been solely reading romance novels this week. I also set aside Missoula on audio in favor of the second book in the Truly Devious series. A fun mystery is much more my speed right now! Thanks for reminding me that I do not need to be so tied to my TBR list—sometimes, I need to be a mood reader and take care of myself!

3) A new toy

On Wednesday, the girls’ birthday present finally arrived—a brand-new cat tower! I had the hardest time deciding between two different cat towers and when I finally decided on the one I wanted, it was out of stock. It was back in stock last week, so I bought it and was so excited when it arrived on Wednesday. It’s so much bigger and fancier than the tower they used to have and Eloise has already taken to it. She loves climbing up to the tall platforms to survey her kingdom and taking naps in the little caves. Lila has been inspecting the tower and curled up in one of the caves for a time, but is still a little supicious of it. I bought this tower because it has two cool hammocks and Lila loves sleeping in a hammock. I hope she uses them!

4) goodreads_reviews

My new favorite Internet find is goodreads.reviews on Instagram. The person behind this account screenshots hilarious 1-star reviews of books and I spent one night last week swiping through their archives and giggling to myself. (And it was during a period of high anxiety, so I needed the relief!) Here are some of my favorites:

5) Weekend plans

What are your weekend plans? This one will be a busy one for me, and I am so grateful for it! There have been a lot of low-key weekends, which are good and fine and needed, but too many of those in a row can make me feel lonely. Tonight, I’m planning on ordering pizza and watching a standup special (I’m thinking Iliza Shlesinger’s Elder Millenial). Tomorrow, I have my writing date with Mikaela, I’m recording two podcast episodes with Bri, and then having a belated birthday celebration with my mom and family. (Mom tested negative for Covid on Monday!) And on Sunday, I’m going to check out a new coffeeshop in Tampa and probably take a nice long nap in the afternoon. 🙂

How do you combat loneliness? What are your weekend plans?