1) Book club 2025

For the past two years, my book club took a different approach to our monthly meetings. Essentially, since we had six members, every member got to “own” two months (their birthday month, since none of us share a birthday month, and a non-birthday month). When it was your turn, you chose three book selections that the group would vote on and planned a fun book club outing. This year, we decided to switch things up because a) we now have a seventh member, which makes evenly splitting the year was not possible and b) it can be a lot of pressure on people to own all of the planning for one month. Instead, we all came to our January meeting last weekend with a selection of book ideas and a selection of activity ideas. We all wrote our ideas on Post-It notes, folded them up, and placed them in two jars. Now, every month, we will select three book ideas and three activity ideas to vote on! This is going to make things very exciting, I think.

We kicked things off by selecting our February book (our February activity was already chosen; it was actually supposed to be our January activity but the place we were going to had to cancel on us) so we only chose a book during our meeting (it was between The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, Good Material by Dolly Alderton, and What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon—we chose Good Material). The books/activities that aren’t chosen go back into their respective jars to be perhaps picked another month.

God, I love my book club. We’re the best.

2) Goods Unite Us

My friend Amber introduced our group to this app during book club called Goods Unite Us. The app shows you all different companies and where they stand politically. It takes into account any donations made to political campaigns by the organization and its senior employees. It also gives each company a Campaign Finance Reform Score from -100 to 100. You want a positive number here. As the app states, “The higher the score, the more likely that purchases from the company or brand will lead to meaningful campaign finance reform.” And vice versa – buying from a company with a negative score means helping to keep corporate money in politics. I’ve been obsessed with looking up companies on this app, and I feel like it is one small way I can try to make a difference by not shopping (or shopping a lot less) at companies who (a) lean Republican and (b) have a negative CFRS.

You can also answer a few questions to learn what your overall rating is and CFRS. That was a sobering experience for me. (My score was -4, sigh.) But knowledge is power, right?

One big change I want to make is to switch from Publix (86% Republican with a -86 CFRS) to Aldi (they have a perfect CFRS because they do not give significant money to political campaigns). I love shopping at Publix, but do not love their political contributions, so this is an easy change I can make. (Plus, Aldi is a lot cheaper than Publix so that’s a win/win if I’ve ever heard one.)

3) Medical routines

There’s nothing that screams “I’m getting old” than talking about medical routines, eh? I seem to be building a repertoire of them. Let’s discuss:

• Radial nerve pain – Every night, I use a hand massager to try to reduce some of the inflammation and then I slather on topical lidocaine all over my fingers, palm, and wrist. Right before going to sleep, I put on a splint to keep my wrist immobile.
• Scalp psoriasis – Every night, I use a prescription-grade scalp solution on my problem areas (I have three of them, two on each side of my head and one at the base of my scalp) and 1-2 times a week, I wash my hair with a prescription shampoo (clobetasol propionate).
• Sleep apnea – Obviously, I sleep with my machine every night. In the mornings, I wipe down my mask and dump out the humidifier water. Once a week, I take apart the whole machine and soak it in unscented, gentle detergent.
• Hidradenitis suppurativa – My newest condition! Twice a day, I slather on antibiotic ointment and whenever I shower, I use a prescription-grade soap for my underarm where the burst cyst is located. Hopefully, this will clear up within a few weeks.

And if I have to add an entire diabetes treatment regimen to all of this, I might lose my mind.

4) Mushrooms (not those kind)

One of my goals for this year is to try one new thing every month. I almost missed January because the thing I was going to choose as my “one new thing” ended up getting cancelled. But I did my new thing this week, which was eating a new type of food! This week, I made beef stroganoff and typically I leave out the mushrooms because ick. But then I got to thinking… are they ick? I’ve never actually tried mushrooms. Maybe I’ll love mushrooms! So this time around, I dumped in a whole carton of mushrooms into the meal and hoped for the best.

And… ick. My spidey senses were correct. I do not like mushrooms. Live and learn!

5) Weekend plans

Oh, I have a beautiful plan-less weekend ahead of me, which is great because my upcoming weekends are going to be quite busy. I will have my regular writing date with Mikaela on Saturday morning and my mom and I are going to try out a new yoga class on Sunday morning. Other than that, the weekend is all mine!

1) The elephant in the room.

We’re only a few days into the new administration, and I am struggling, you guys. I vacillate between feelings of despair and rage with every new story I see. It’s so bad already and this is only the beginning. I hate that we’re back to this nonsense. I hate that these idiots are celebrating. I hate that every time I open Instagram, I see another crazy story. I hate that Monday could have been a day filled with joy and history and hope, and instead… we got Nazi salutes and stupid speeches about renaming the Gulf of Mexico.

We have a long four years ahead of us and sure, we survived it last time but this time feels different. This time, he has people bowing at his feet and all of the tech bros at his side doing whatever bidding he wants them to do. He has staunch loyalists on his team and I don’t trust the Republican party to stand up to him. Hell, there are some Democrats I’m looking at sideways these days. But what can we do but resist? Call our elected officials and volunteer for organizations fighting the good fight and do what we can to take back the House and Senate in the midterms. I know I’m looking into ways to get involved, especially locally, and I’ll share more as I figure out what I’m going to do.

2) Stupid bloodwork.

Let’s talk about my bloodwork. The last time I got bloodwork was March and my doctor was fairly concerned with some of my numbers. I was prediabetic and had high cholesterol/triglycerides. I joined a gym and later, found out I had severe obstructive sleep apnea. I hoped that working out at a higher intensity and being on CPAP therapy would improve some of those numbers. Did I clean up my eating? I mean, somewhat. I definitely drank less soda and tried to cut down on the sugary snacks, but I could have done a lot better.

Anyway, I went for labs in early January and was not happy with the results. The scariest number was my A1C that now puts me firmly in the diabetic category. (6.6% – anything over 6.4% is considered diabetic.) I saw my doctor on Monday and was scared she was going to berate me and make me immediately go on medication. Thankfully, none of that happened. She was kind and helpful and supportive. She is giving me three months to clean up my eating and after that, we will do more labs and see where I stand. I don’t have family history of diabetes, which my doctor said is a good thing since this means it likely can be controlled with my diet.

What really stuck out to me is what she said if I was officially diagnosed with diabetes. “This isn’t a punishment,” she said over and over again. “If we need to get you started on diabetes treatment, it’s to ensure you can be the healthiest version of yourself.” I needed to hear that. I have been really down on myself for letting things get to this point because it’s something I can control. “I’m going to be that fat person everyone hates,” I moaned to my mom when I got the bloodwork back. “The one who’s the strain on the insurance industry!”

Maybe this is the wake-up call I needed, though. Maybe it needed to get to this point where I’m about to be put on diabetes medication (which will also entail being put on a statin and cholesterol meds, since all of those are connected). And now it’s time to really hone in on my eating habits so I can return to my doctor this spring with good news.

3) Nerve pain.

Sometime in December, I started noticing carpal tunnel symptoms that were getting progressively worse. Every morning, the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger of my right hand (my dominant hand) would go numb as I tried to operate my mouse. I was waking up with throbbing pain in my thumb at night. The left side of my right hand just felt weak and sometimes I would feel dull pain radiating around my wrist and hand throughout the day. Sometimes if I tried to pick something up with my right hand or even pet a cat a certain way, I’d feel a sharp pain. I figured it was carpal tunnel syndrome and started wearing a splint at night, which helped a lot, and taking ibuprofen when the pain got worse.

When I saw my doctor on Monday, we talked about the symptoms I was experiencing and she does not think I have carpal tunnel but rather radial nerve pain. And hey, guess what one of the causes of radial nerve pain? Diabetes. My treatment regimen now is to wear a thumb splint to bed (finally got one yesterday!), ice my wrist and hand twice a day, and use topical lidocaine if the pain gets bad. And the hope is that by cleaning up my eating and lowering my A1C number, I can solve this condition, too.

4) Frozen Florida.

Okay, let’s talk about something less alarming than politics and medical conditions. It’s COLD in Florida! And I mean, it’s cold enough that northern Florida saw snow–one city saw a record-breaking 8.8 inches this week. Is climate change real, or are historic weather events continuing to happen throughout the globe? While we’re not going to get any snow here in the Tampa Bay area, we are seeing some very cold weather (for us, at least). The warmest it’s been the past week is the mid-40s. One morning, I took a look at my thermostat and it was 59 degrees in my apartment! (I didn’t have the AC or heat on.) I swiftly turned on the heat because I am not about that shivering-in-my-home life. And yes, I know that cold fronts in Florida are laughable for those of you up north, but remember, weather is relative and us thin-skinned Florida people are not used to this kind of cold!

5) Weekend plans.

I don’t have too much going on this weekend! I have no plans tonight so I may try and zoom through the last 200 or so pages of The Shell Seekers because I am dying to move onto a new book. Tomorrow, I have book club with my girls and we are doing brunch at a fave local spot. And Sunday, I have a writing date with Mikaela and then the NFL championship games later on. I’m so sad that there are only three games left in this season! I truly do not care who wins any of these games, so go sports!

What are your weekend plans? Do you wish it was in the 40s where you live?!