Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in March

anticipating a few nights with the dogs next month while my mom and stepdad are on a cruise

researching brunette hairstyle colors as I’m making my triumphant return to brunette soon

buying new Airpod Pros, as they were on sale for $200 and my old earbuds were continuously failing me

thinking about cleaning up my eating and how to do that in a way that doesn’t feel like punishment

needing to restart my AppleTV subscription so I can watch season 3 of Ted Lasso!

happy to be back in standard time. I love a late sunset!

excited for the Taylor Swift concert in just a few weeks! It’s going to be an epic night.

wondering if it’s time for me to “graduate” from therapy. I think I have gotten exactly what I needed to get out of it at this moment in my life, and I can move forward with the tools I was given.

embarrassed that I put in a maintenance request for what I thought was a broken garbage disposal… turns out, I just had two measuring spoons stuck in the disposal that were causing it to not work.

hoping to visit Charleston this summer… doing some light research to find out if it’s feasible with my budget

loving our book club experiences this year. We are doing so many fun things and more to come! (I’m considering an escape room or axe throwing when my month to pick the activity comes around.)

wanting some summer clothes that fit my body well and make me feel good. I placed a big order on Old Navy over the weekend when they were having a 30% off sale, and I’m hoping everything I ordered fits me well.

writing podcast outlines and blog posts… but no fiction. I keep wondering when I’ll get the urge to go back to my novel, but it just isn’t happening.

loathing Ron DeSantis. He’s the worst and the way he is making life so much harder for teachers, trans kids, queer people, and girls is so frustrating. Why do these Republican politicians think queerness is something to go after when there are so many bigger issues out there?

watching Happy Endings. It’s such a travesty that this perfect show only has 3 seasons, but when I realized it was on HBO Max, I knew I had to dive into a rewatch. At least it’ll be a quick one?

preparing to start planning for the next season of the podcast! We’ll release season 4 over the next 6 weeks and then take a few weeks’ break. We’ll probably take a month off recording episodes and then get back to it sometime in May so we can release season 5 at the beginning of June. Whee!

feeling giddy about a budding relationship (it’s in its early stages, but there have been lots of fun dates and excitement so far!)

What are you currently anticipating and watching?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 91)

1) Time logging

I have spent my week time-logging, which is something I did last year around this time. It’s a tedious process, as I have to keep an eye on the clock and know what I’m doing in 15-minute increments, but I also find it fun to keep track of. This isn’t something I’d want to do often; once a year is feasible for me. It will be interesting to see if my time has changed dramatically from 2022! The practice of logging my time, though, has shown me how much time I spend on my phone. I already knew my phone is a great distraction for me and my way of dissociating from the world. But I’m also learning that I use my phone when I’m transitioning from one task to another. It seems like I can’t just go from task to task: from my workout to my shower to my morning routine to my desk… I need 15 minutes on my phone between tasks, which is a wildly ineffective time management strategy. I’m not exactly sure how to solve this, but at least I’m more aware of this practice now.

2) Valet trash update

Thanks to everyone who weighed in about the valet trash debacle from a few weeks ago. And for reminding me that valet trash is not a common thing. I thought it was! Almost every apartment complex where I live offers it. It’s so common, in fact, that I wouldn’t move to a complex that didn’t offer this service. Thankfully, after a few weeks of inconvenience, valet trash is back up and running. Yay! It’s so nice to just drop my trash bag in the valet trash container, set it outside my door, and know it will get picked up!

3) Commitment issues

I might be going through a book slump. Maybe. I’m not ready to call it that yet because I am determined to get myself out of it before it becomes too slump-y. This week alone, I have abandoned three books. I abandoned The Gown by Jennifer Robson (historical fiction) because I have grown so tired of historical fiction novels that jump back and forth between a past and present-day storyline. We don’t need this! Stop doing this! The present-day storyline was so boring and bland. So then I started Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig but the book was so disjointed and filled with so many long lists about nothing important. I abandoned that one after 50 pages. And lastly, I was about halfway through a romance with characters who kept doing annoying things that made no sense, and abandoned that one as well. Last night, I started The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb and I am hoping, hoping, hoping that this book works for me. I am pro-abandoning books, but I don’t like when it feels like that’s all I’m doing in my reading life.

4) Chip & Lucy

This month, Chip and Lucy have birthdays! I thought it might be cute to take each of them on a PetSmart shopping spree on my own, so that’s what Chip and I did last week. (His birthday is March 16th.) He got to zoom around the store in a cart and we tested out a whole bunch of toys for him to take home. My favorite part of the adventure was putting this hipster hat on him. Doesn’t he wear the hipster look so well?!

Next week, it will be Lucy’s turn! She was VERY upset with me for taking Chip away from her for the shopping spree, so hopefully, this will make up for it. She’s super attached to Chip, but we always joke that Chip can take or leave Lucy. It’ll be interesting to see how he reacts to Lucy leaving him!

5) Weekend plans

I have such a fun weekend planned! There’s not much going on tonight, but I do plan on watching a movie (Sleepless in Seattle, most likely) to fulfill one of my monthly goals. Saturday is book club! My friend Lynn is hosting at her house and we came up with the genius idea to do brunch “boards.” Each of us will do a special charcuterie-style board around a specific theme, like breads, dessert, fruit, etc. I’m doing a parfait board! On Sunday, Bri and I will be meeting up to record our final two episodes of season 4. I can’t believe it! Bri has a super busy April planned (she literally does not have a single weekend free!) so we jammed all of our recording dates into March to get ‘er done.

What are your weekend plans? What’s the last book you abandoned?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 90)

1) Scalp psoriasis

I think I briefly mentioned this issue in a previous post, but the scalp itchiness I was dealing with last month was diagnosed by my dermatologist as scalp psoriasis. She gave me a prescription steroid liquid to rub all over my scalp. I am supposed to put this liquid on my scalp twice a day for two weeks, but I have not been doing that. It’s hard to remember to do it twice a day! And it just makes my hair greasy. However, it has significantly helped the itchiness! (And by doing so, it means the scabs I had scratched into my scalp have healed.) My goal is to try to apply the liquid a few times a week (I have another full bottle to use up) and then, hopefully, my scalp will have healed. I’ve never dealt with psoriasis before, so this was a new development for me, but I’m glad it was a quick fix!

2) Knife skills class

I had a lot of fun and learned a lot at the knife skills class I took on Sunday with my friend Amber. The most disappointing lesson I learned was that if I really want to improve my knife skills, I need to shell out hundreds of dollars for high-quality knives. (For example, the knife I used in class costs $200 alone.) I’ll have to make do with the knife block I bought from Target for $40, heh. But I learned the proper way to chop all kinds of vegetables, including how to cut an onion without making yourself cry. (Hint: Don’t slice into the root!) It was a valuable class and I’m glad I did it!

3) A blah week

I’ve been having a very blah week. It started on Sunday when I woke up with a sore throat and then throughout the day, just felt very, very tired and blah. I was really worried I was getting sick! Thankfully, I woke up on Monday feeling okay, but dealt with a dull headache all day. And I still felt so blah that I ended up taking a Covid test, just to make sure I didn’t somehow get Covid. (It was negative.) On Tuesday, I woke up with a killer headache and thought I was going to have to cancel my plans to work from the office (we were having an in-person event), but ibuprofen did the trick. Is it the time change? Is mercury in retrograde? (Okay, I just checked and it’s not.) Is it because I just finished my period? Is it because I’m not a robot and sometimes I feel really energized and sometimes I don’t? Whatever the reason, I decided to listen to my body. For example, on Thursday, I set my alarm for 6am to do a workout before starting work and I was just so tired when my alarm went off that I turned it off and went back to sleep. I ended up waking up naturally around 7:45, feeling rested and refreshed!

4) Laundry, etc.

I got so many great comments on my post about laundry! It’s fun how differently we all approach our laundry chore. There were a few things I forgot to mention in my post that I’ll add here as miscellaneous items:

  • My current washer/dryer is SO LOUD. I’ve never had such a noisy one before. The washer always shakes like a madman halfway through the cycle, and I can’t ever have my dryer going when I’m in a meeting or watching TV. It’s that loud! (And my apartment is that small, sigh.) And then my dryer makes such an annoying noise when the load has finished (and there’s no way to turn it off). I am so ready to move and have a quieter washer/dryer. Please!
  • Another annoyance with my dryer is that the door doesn’t stay open. I have to keep it open by placing heavy-duty packing tape on the door (loop style) and then pressing the door to the wall next to the dryer so that the tape sticks to the wall and keeps my dryer door open. It’s so stupid.
  • Since I didn’t gross anyone out about my sheet-washing habits, how about this one? I wear jeans, pants, and sports bras more than once before I wash them. Even when I worked in an office and wore jeans all day to work, I’d give them a few wears before putting them in the washer. I just don’t think clothes get dirty as quickly as we think! Obviously, underwear, socks, and t-shirts are a one-wear-and-done for me (well, unless it’s a t-shirt I’m just wearing around the house, then it gets quite a few wears). Workout pants and sports bras… eh, unless I got super sweaty in them (which I rarely do), they get used multiple times before getting washed.

Here’s the dryer door. The arrow is pointing to my looped tape that’s keeping the door open.

5) Weekend plans

What a fun weekend I have ahead of me! Tonight, I’m going to one of my favorite local bookstores, Book + Bottle. (I have a gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket!) Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela in the morning and game night in the evening. And Sunday, it’s the March meeting for Silent Book Club. Yay!

What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 50)

The high of my week was watching my older nephew at his baseball game. He has gotten very passionate about baseball in the last year. He put himself on a strict diet and workout routine, only looked at high schools that had good baseball programs, and asked for all sorts of baseball equipment for Christmas. It was fun to see him at his game! He even got to pitch for an inning, which was thrilling. They lost 15-0 (eeks) so he was in sad straits afterward, but I hope I can see more of his games this season.

The low of my week was the saga of the valet trash. And what a saga it has been! Like most apartment complexes these days, we have valet trash. So, all I have to do is set my garbage bag inside the specific container and set the container outside my door. It gets picked up every night, Sunday-Thursday. Well, for the past two weeks, it has not been picked up. Last week, my garbage sat outside for four days before it was finally picked up. When it happened again this week, I called the office and was told that the company they use for valet trash is having staffing issues which requires them to utilize staffing agencies like roumain travail en france and wouldn’t be able to come for… who knows how long. (They couldn’t give me a timeline.) So then, I left a support request with the valet trash company and they said that they weren’t aware of any staffing issues! So now I’m just very confused and unsure about what’s happening. In any event, now I have to take my garbage to the trash compactor at the back of the complex, which entails putting it in my car to take it and driving to the compactor. Ick. (Also, yes, this is very much a first-world problem, but it’s very nice when those are the most difficult part of a week!)

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list was taking pictures of my bedframe and posting them on Facebook Marketplace! My bedframe is up and hopefully it gets sold quickly.

I’m currently reading The Lies I Tell by Julie Clark (thriller) and Lucky Star by Susannah Nix (romance). I’m very much enjoying both!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was COVID-19 Time Capsule from The Girl Next Door Podcast. This was really interesting to listen to, now that we’re almost three years past the original COVID-19 lockdown. They talked about what they were up to in March 2020, the good and bad of the early pandemic days, getting vaccinated, and more. There was something very cathartic about listening to their episode, and reminded me how far we’ve come since 2020.

An Internet find I loved was this Tik Tok of a cat fitting into all kinds of boxes. What a perfect little kitty!

The best money I spent this week was $35 on a mirror to hang above my new key hook shelf. My entryway wall transformation is complete! (Once I hang up the mirror, that is.)

My plans this weekend include nothing much tonight (other than watching episodes of The Traitors Australia because yes, I cannot get enough of this TV show and now I’m watching other versions of it, ha), recording podcast episodes with Bri and having a writing date with Mikaela on Saturday, and attending the knife skills class at Sur La Table with Amber on Sunday. A fun, full weekend where I get to see so many friends. What a delight!

What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Monthly Recap | February 2023

Good Stuff

Less anxiety. Oh, it feels so good to be at a place where my anxiety feels stable and manageable. I am so glad that I’m now seeing a psychiatrist who recommended simply upping my dose of Lexapro from 20mg to 30mg, which has seemed to do the trick. Of course, sometimes I start spiraling that it seems like every few years, I need to up my Lexapro dose by 5-10mg. What happens when I can’t up it anymore? But that’s a bridge I’ll cross if I come to it.

Jim Gaffigan. It was so much fun having a night out with my mom and brother to see Jim Gaffigan live. Netflix was actually at the show to film his standup for a new special, which was cool! He was hysterical, as always, and we were all in tears.

Super Bowl Sunday. The Super Bowl was so great, wasn’t it? (Well, unless you’re an Eagles fan.) We had a great party with lots of good food and really, really enjoyed the game. My older nephew has been a Chiefs fan his whole life, so this was a great game for him.

Amazing book club experiences. We had two really wonderful book club meetings this month (we had to push back our January meeting to early February due to scheduling issues). Our January meeting entailed getting permanent jewelry. I love having a tangible reminder of my friendship with these ladies! Our February meeting was last weekend and we had a pajama party/nacho night at my friend Amber’s house! Honestly, I think it might have been my favorite book club in a long, long time. The nachos were delicious, I was crying from laughter during a game, and I just felt so happy being around my friends.

Galentine’s Day. Bri and I have been doing a Galentine’s Day celebration for 8 years now! Usually, we order pizza and snuggle on the couch watching a rom-com. This year, we decided to take things up a notch and get dressed up and have dinner at The Library, a super-cute restaurant downtown. It was a good time and we both mentioned how we have gotten out of the habit of our monthly lady dates because we are doing the podcast. We are determined to get back to our lady dates this year!

Hard Stuff

Lila gaining 2 lbs in a year. Eeks. I know Lila is very, very fluffy but I was rather shocked when she clocked in at 14.3 lbs at her annual vet visit. (For reference, Eloise is usually around 9 lbs.) It’s time to start taking a look at what/how she’s eating to see if I can get her down to a manageable weight. I think her body trends toward fluffiness, but I’d like to keep her around 11-12 lbs if possible. The girls are free feeders, which means they always have access to their food 24/7 and I know that’s an easy change I can make. Right now, I’m cutting off food from 9pm-7am (I have a strong suspicion that Lila is a middle-of-the-night eater) and working on limiting treats. They still get their treats, but just a few fewer nibbles than usual. Hopefully, that does the trick for my fluffy lady!

Scalp problems. I have been dealing with quite the annoying scalp issue: itchiness! There are two spots, right above my ears on my lower scalp, that have been so, so itchy. I don’t know what’s causing it. It’s not dandruff. I think it might be some weird eczema flare. Right now, I’ve been using a very gentle shampoo/conditioner that is supposed to help with scalp eczema (it’s also sooo very expensive, ugh) and making sure I wash my hair every other day. Thankfully, I was able to snag an appointment with my dermatologist to have it looked at.

A disappointing tax refund. I got my lowest tax refund in years. Wah! I know I can’t complain because at least I got something. My refund was $80 and since I had to pay TurboTax $40 to file, it was really only $40. Oh, well. It could have been worse, next year I’ll be doing a finance company registration so hopefully it’s a lot better.

Stuff I Recommend

  • Jewelry organizer ($27) – I mentioned on Monday that I bought a new jewelry organizer that’s working really well for my earring collection. This is the one I have. It has so many more holes for earrings than my other jewelry organizer! I just need to figure out a better system for organizing my ring keeper necklace uk necklaces and I’ll be set.
  • The Climb – My mom found this reality TV show on HBO Max about a group of rock climbers who set out to find out who is the most well-rounded rock climber. They do all sorts of different styles of rock climbing and it was super interesting, even to someone like me who is not a climber and does not desire to be one. It was just cool to learn more about the rock climbing community and enjoy the competition aspect of this show.
  • Lazy Susan caddy ($22) – I’m using this caddy to keep things organized on my dining room table, which is used less for eating and more for blogging these days, ha. I keep a bunch of things organized in this caddy so they’re easy to access. Stuff like my phone and Fitbit chargers, mail I need to deal with, coasters, etc. I wish some of the slots were bigger, but overall, it’s working out.

Bookish Stuff

  • # of books/pages read: 9 books (3,198 pages)
  • Favorite book of the month: Code Name Helene by Ariel Lawhon
  • Least favorite book of the month: Ship Wrecked by Olivia Dade
  • Books I abandoned
    • Unwinding Anxiety by Judson A. Brewer – I was reading a chapter a day of this book, but it started becoming mostly about habit formation than it was about anxiety. It started off so good and I was taking pages and pages of notes, but then it just devolved into stories about people who “overeat” or chain-smoke and how he helped them form better habits. Blah.
    • My Lovely Wife by Samantha A. Downing – This could barely be called a DNF because I only read about 20-30 pages when I realized I didn’t care to be in the head of murderers.
  • Format breakdown: print books (2), e-books (3), and audiobooks (4)
  • Genre breakdown: Romance (4), nonfiction (2), historical fiction (2), thriller (1)
  • Most recent book acquired: Maame by Jessica George and Georgie, All Along by Kate Clayborn, which were my February Book of the Month selections

Goal Stuff

  • Go for a walk every day (17/28) – I did 2 fewer walks in February than I did in January, but we also had 3 fewer days so doesn’t it all work out the same in the end?
  • Drink a bottle of water every day (10/28) – I’m at a -3 with this goal, as I had 13 days of drinking water in January. But again! A short month! Ok ok, fine. This should be much higher and I’m working on it.
  • Complete 100 Peloton workouts (16/100) – I am one workout short of my goal but considering I had to take a few days off when I hurt my knee (falling in my bathroom, lol), I’m okay with where I’m at. March is a long month and I am feeling good about getting 9 workouts done this month.
  • Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials – I’m counting seeing Jim Gaffigan live toward one of my standup specials, so I’ve watched 1 movie (Glass Onion) and 1 standup special so far.
  • Redo my entryway – In progress! I have acquired a new key hook with shelf and I am planning on buying the mirror that will be placed above the shelf this weekend. Then I’ll be good to go with this goal, yay!

Tell me a bright spot of your February!