Highs & Lows

The high of my week was book club! While it wasn’t a “traditional” book club in the sense that we all read a book together, it was a way for us to reconnect and get back in the flow of monthly meetings. Not everyone could attend but it was so very nice to see the ones who could and chat about our lives. We met outside in a park and kept our distance (aside from the quick photo we took together!) And we picked a book and meeting time for April, just like old times! It feels really good to get back in the swing of book club.

The low of my week was a lonely Saturday. I don’t get lonely too often—I’m usually very happy with my own company—but this weekend was one where I didn’t have any plans to see anyone, and Saturday felt especially hard for some reason. Thankfully, I made plans to go over to my mom’s on Sunday so at least I could interact with a human being at some point last weekend, but Saturday was a day of moping and wallowing and feeling sad. It happens!

What I Read

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur (★★★☆☆)

This was a cute romance, the first female/female romance I’ve read. After Darcy and Elle have a disastrous first date, Elle is shocked when she finds out from Darcy’s brother (the one who set up their blind date) that Darcy said it went well. Thus begins their “fake relationship” (a common romance trope). Darcy begs Elle to pretend they hit it off and are now dating to get her brother off her back. Elle goes along with it, as she needs to bring a partner to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner to prove she’s not a failure at relationships. At times, I could very much tell that this was a debut novel (it could have used a tighter edit) but it was still very enjoyable and sweet. I don’t know if I fully bought into the love story, but in the end, I was rooting for them to make it.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal (★★★★☆)

Oh, what a fun story this was! I really enjoyed it. It follows Nikki, a Punjabi young woman living in London, who begins teaching a writing class for Punjabi widows. She thinks she’s going to teach them English so they can write letters and such, but after Nikki leaves a book of erotic stories (a gag gift she was going to give to her sister) in the room and the widows find it, they decide to start penning their own erotica. The novel weaves in these widows’ erotic stories, and some of them are very steamy! But it was also a really wonderful look at Punjabi culture, love, and family. I truly enjoyed every minute I spent with this book.

What I Spent

Friday, March 19

• Savings: $1,000 (thanks, stimulus check!)
• Student loan: $105
• Candy Crush: $7
• Amazon (e-book): $8

Saturday, March 20

• Pizza: $26

Sunday, March 21:

• Peacock TV subscription: $5
• Gas: $28
• Groceries: $75

Monday, March 22:

• Target (cleaning solution, body wash, toilet paper, and mouthwash): $35
• Medicine: $11
• Publix (Pub sub): $9
• Internet: $80

Tuesday, March 23:

• No-spend day!

Wednesday, March 24:

• Ubereats: $18

Thursday, March 25:

• Ubereats: $25

Final Tallies:

• Savings: $1,005
• Bills: $185
• Food: $153
• Toiletries: $35
• Auto (gas): $28
• Health (medication): $11
• Shopping (e-book): $8
• Entertainment: $7
• Subscriptions: $5

Monthly Goals Progress

• Log 10 Peloton workouts. I’ve logged 6 workouts, so I’m going to cut it close with this one! I need to get 4 workouts over the next 5 days, eeks.
• Dust off my Fitbit and log 3,000 steps every day. I missed two days this week, womp womp. One day, I was just feeling lazy and didn’t want to wear my Fitbit and the other day, I was so busy with work that I didn’t get out for a walk (and then didn’t feel like walking around my apartment to get in my steps). It happens!
• Spend less than $100 on personal purchases. Still doing well! I spent $8 this week so I still have a $17 buffer.
• Wash and vacuum my car. I’m doing this today! Hopefully.
• Cancel my gym membership. Another thing I’m hopefully doing today! Fingers crossed.

What I’m Recommending

• This toy ($6), which I bought for Chip for his birthday and he has yet to destroy it! (My mom jokes that he finds it a very frustrating toy to play with since he can’t figure out how to destroy it, haha.) It’s a toy for “power chewers” but I’ve gotten him toys categorized like that before and he’s destroyed them within minutes. This one has staying power! If you have a destructive chewer, check this one out!
• This adorable video of this little 4-year-old singing and dancing to Selena in the car. I have watched this video dozens of times because this little girl is so cute and her expressions are hysterical. I love her!

Tell me something good that happened in your life this week!

Highs & Lows

The high of my week was hard to choose! There were so many great moments from this past week:

• Attending the Florida Strawberry Festival with Briana. We had such a great time!
• The first official game night of 2021 with my mom, my brother, and my older nephew. So many laughs!
• Celebrating Chip’s third birthday on Tuesday. He got soooo very spoiled!

The low of my week was experiencing a really difficult mental health day on Monday. I don’t really know what was up, but I was on the struggle bus all day. I found it hard to focus on work, hard to shut off my depressive thoughts, and hard to summon the energy to do much. And then, of course, that night, I couldn’t sleep at all and was tossing and turning until 2 a.m. Ugh. Thankfully, my moodiness didn’t last all week, but man, those low days are brutal, aren’t they?

What I Read

I only finished one book this week—is this a record for me? Maybe. I’m oh-so-nearly finished with the romance I’m reading and halfway through my audiobook, but those reviews will have to wait until next week.

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Brittney Cooper (★★★☆☆)

This was an interesting read, although the author sometimes talked in circles and it inhibited the point she was trying to make. I really liked the emphasis on Black feminism and there were quite a few times I felt convicted by her words; it made me recognize all the ways white feminism is so limiting and excluding. Also, her chapter on dating gutted me because, as someone who has been single for a very long time (and not always by choice), I could feel the sadness and loneliness in her words. All in all, worth a read but not a standout for me.

What I Spent

Friday, March 12

• Dominos: $28

Saturday, March 13

• Strawberry Festival (parking, admission, lunch, and treats): $47
• Publix (Pub sub and drinks): $15

Sunday, March 14

• Groceries: $55
• Toiletries (3 bottles of body wash): $15

Monday, March 15

• Lunch from Chick-Fil-A: $9
• Dinner from Ubereats: $29

*This was my low mental health day, and you can see how I self-soothe: fast food and takeout.

Tuesday, March 16

• No-spend day!

Wednesday, March 17

• No-spend day!

Thursday, March 18

• Publix (mostly groceries + a Pub sub): $32

Final Tallies:

• Food – $113
• Entertainment – $47
• And $10 added to my no-spend fund (I add $5 every time I have a no-spend day.)

A very low spending week for me! Hooray!

Monthly Goals Progress

• Log 10 Peloton workouts. I’ve logged 5 workouts so far this month. I’m certain I’ll get this goal done, yay!
• Dust off my FitBit and log 3,000 steps every day. I’ve met this goal every day this month! Some days have been very easy and other days have been very hard. So it goes!
• Become Google Analytics certified. I’ve currently finished all of the lessons in the first unit (there are 4 units) and passed the first assessment so hooray! I don’t know if I’ll complete this by the end of the month, but I’m working on it.
• Spend less than $100 on personal purchases. I didn’t buy anything “personal” last week (I nearly spent $30 on handmade candles at a booth at the Strawberry Festival, but held strong!) so I’m still sitting at $25 left for the month.
• Play with the cats every day. Ugh, I’m still not doing this daily! I’ve only done this 4 or 5 times this month. My poor cats.

What I’m Recommending

• This long read from Rebecca Traister about Andrew Cuomo and his toxic workplace. It’s quite horrifying, a train wreck I can’t look away from. (Will this man step down already?!)
• Office Ladies broke down my favorite episode from The Office: Dinner Party! It was so fun to hear the actors talk about their experiences filming this episode, and how hard it was to get through some of the scenes (like when Michael showed Jim and Pam his tiny “plasma” TV). It’s such an iconic episode of The Office, and I loved the thought and planning that Jenna and Angela put into making this podcast episode.

Tell me something good that happened to you this week!

Hi, friends! Like I mentioned on Monday, I’m starting a new Friday series called “Weekly Wrap-Up.” Here, I’ll talk about my highs and lows for the week, the books I finished, the money I spent, the goals I made progress on, and some recommendations. I hope this becomes a new weekly series I do for years and years (like my “What I’m Reading” series was!) but we’ll see how I feel after putting these lengthy posts together week after week, hehe.

Highs & Lows

The high of my week was receiving two really sweet shout-outs from coworkers at a company-wide meeting. It takes a bit of effort to make these shout-outs (anyone can “shout out” an employee using a Google form, and the shout-outs are read during our monthly meeting), so I was really touched by their kind words! It made my day, for sure.

The low of my week was getting my period. Womp, womp. I only get a period about once a quarter due to the birth control I’m on, and I always forget how much it can change my whole mood! I was annoyed with myself for feeling so tired and unmotivated and crabby, and I had to keep reminding myself that all of this was likely due to my cycle and it’s okay if everything feels a bit hard this week. Why is it so hard to give ourselves the grace we’d gladly bestow on a friend?

What I Read

• Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese (★★★☆☆) – This college-aged romance had a lot of heart, but there was just something missing in it for me. Perhaps it was Willa, the female protagonist, who made a lot of aggravating choices (then again, she’s 21). Perhaps it was the pacing, which seemed a little off. Perhaps it was the fact that this book is being billed as frenemies-to-lovers but… uh… these two are not frenemies. They are friends who like to tease each other, but always with an undercurrent of admiration and flirtation. But there was also a whole lot to love about this novel, like Willa’s NCAA soccer career, watching Willa and Ryder (the male protagonist) fall in love, and Ryder’s family. I could have done without the mom-with-cancer subplot, though. It was a good romance, but not a great one. (Open-door romance.)
• Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld (★★★★☆) – What if Hillary hadn’t married Bill is the premise of this novel, and it’s a fascinating exploration of women in politics and the effects of the decisions we make. I loved this version of Hillary, a woman who dated a very charismatic man named Bill Clinton in her twenties but broke up with him because he couldn’t be faithful to her. It was hard to parse out what was fact and what was fiction… and a little weird to imagine their sex life, tbh. But the novel really took off once she was free from him, and we follow Hillary’s trajectory over the next four decades. A fascinating read, and one I’d definitely recommend!
• The Push by Ashley Audrain (★★★☆☆) – This thriller is getting so much buzz, and I was so excited to pick it up because a ton of trusted sources raved about it. And it was just… fine. I think it was unique enough to stand out from all the other cookie-cutter thrillers on the market these days, but it was really very depressing and the ending was deeply dissatisfying to me. It’s about a mom (Blythe) who has a baby and doesn’t connect with her at all. In fact, there is something seriously wrong with her daughter—or so that’s what the mom thinks. The novel loops back in time to discuss Blythe’s experience with her own mother and Blythe’s mother’s experience with her mother, but nothing ever really came of these different subplots. (Other than to show the ways in which Blythe was destined to fail as a mother?) Anyway, I didn’t love this novel but I feel like I’m in the minority here, so give it a read if you love a good thriller!
• Know My Name by Chanel Miller (★★★★★) – What can I say about this book that hasn’t already been said? It’s incredible, difficult to read, inspiring, and heartwrenching. Chanel was known as Emily Doe in the Brock Turner sexual assault case, and here, she relives what it was like to go through every step of the process, from waking up in a hospital and going through a rape exam to the court case that delivered a just verdict but an unjust sentence. I knew this book would be hard to read, and it was, but it’s a must-read. It’s a wake-up call to the brutality rape victims go through, not just the physical act itself but everything that comes afterward.

What I Spent

Friday, March 5th

• Target (tampons, ibuprofen, eye drops, laundry detergent, a mouth guard, and a big bottle of multivitamins) – $100
  • Note: I bought $53 worth of laundry detergent since Target was running a deal of spending $50 on laundry products to get a $15 gift card.
• Phone bill – $122
• Electric bill – $89
• Water bill – $51
• Candy Crush – $7

Saturday, March 6th

• Lunch from UberEats – $18
• Dinner from UberEats – $26
• Spotify subscription – $11

Sunday, March 7th

• Lunch from McDonald’s – $8
• Chewy order (gifts for Chip’s birthday, litter, and food) – $79
• Groceries – $45

Monday, March 8th

• No-spend day!

Tuesday, March 9th 

• No-spend day!

Wednesday, March 10th

• Paula’s Choice (cleanser and moisturizer) – $37
• Publix (Pub sub, ground coffee, chocolates, and a Dr. Pepper) – $23

Thursday, March 11th 

• No-spend day!

Final Tallies:

• Bills – $262
• Food – $120
• Toiletries – $100
• Pets – $79
• Beauty – $37
• Subscriptions – $11
• Entertainment – $7
• And $15 added to my no-spend fund! (I add $5 every time I have a no-spend day.)

Monthly Goals Progress Report

• Log 10 Peloton workouts. So far, I’ve logged 3 beginner-level cycling workouts. I love the app so much! (I’m “stephanywrites” on there if you want to follow me.)
• Start using MyFitnessPal to record what I’m eating. Every day, I think about doing this, and then time gets away from me and I get overwhelmed about inputting everything I’ve eaten for the day. Oops.
• Log 3,000 steps a day on my FitBit. I am achieving this! There have been many nights of walking around my apartment to get those last 500 or so steps, and it’s also forcing me to get out of my apartment during the day for a quick 10-minute walk. But it hasn’t been too difficult so far.
• Spend less than $100 on personal purchases. I’ve spent $75 already this month so the last few weeks of March are going to test my resolve!
• Play with the cats every day. I’ve only done this twice over the last 11 days, but we’re working on it!

What I’m Recommending This Week

• A meat thermometer – I bought a meat thermometer last month when I read a blog post (all about the right way to cook delicious, juicy baked chicken—this system works) that said they are crucial when cooking meat. Why did I not realize how important this little kitchen tool is until now?! While I’ll usually slice into the chicken breast to make sure it’s cooked all the way through, that method is really a no-no when it comes to cooking meat (it releases the juices or something?). So now I just poke my thermometer into my chicken breast to check that it hits that 165° threshold and I’m good to go! It’s so simple and I can trust it a lot more than my own two eyes.
• Heaven Bent podcast – Season 1 of this podcast followed a revival at a church in Toronto and it brought back soooo many memories for me, as my own church went through a revival when I was in middle school. Sometimes, I’ll think back to that experience and how weird it was (but how, in the moment, it felt so normal). There were people lying all over the church “slain in the spirit,” people getting “drunk” on the Lord, people speaking in tongues, fire and brimstone preaching. It was a wild time, and I loved that this podcast showed both sides of the equation: the people who truly believe in revival and the healing/hope it brings and the people who were incredibly skeptical about it. (Season 2 is all about Bethel Church, which has its own kind of wild flavor.)

What was the highlight of your week? What are you reading now?