Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 35)

(Behind the scenes of this photo: Chip, my fur-brother, basically destroys anything he comes in contact with and he particularly loves destroying blankets by putting holes in them. This is the blanket in his crate and, well, you can see how he spends his time while he’s in there. Sigh. This crazy dude!)

The high of my week was surprising a friend for her birthday! Tomorrow is her birthday and my friends and I decided on a mid-week surprise so that she wouldn’t suspect a thing. She was properly shocked and we must give major kudos to her husband for helping us plan this and find the best time for the surprise. Yay! Afterward, we all hung out in her backyard (properly distanced, of course!) and chatted about life and coronavirus and all that jazz. (Although, I swear anyone walking by her house when we were all there would have thought we were the WORST people ever, since we had NINE cars shoved in her driveway, haha.)

The low of my week was work stress. It’s been a really stressful week in my work life, where I feel like I can’t take a minute to breathe from the moment I turn on my computer at the beginning of the day. The end of the month is always pretty crazy as I work on a monthly schedule and have to get everything done by the last day of the month, but it’s felt crazier than normal. I’ve also had a lot of other deadlines fall into my lap that are outside my normal monthly work, so it’s just been a lot.

An anti-racism resource I’d like to share is this white privilege questionnaire. It came as no surprise to me that I scored a 30 (the highest score). White people, even if you understand your white privilege, I still think it’s worth looking over the questions and recognizing all the different ways BIPOC are discriminated against.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Tom Hanks on Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend. Yes, this episode has been out for a while, but I’m wayyy behind on my podcast queue. Tom Hanks is a national treasure and this podcast just reaffirmed my obsession with him. He is hilarious, warm, kind, and just an all-around good guy. (Also, the beginning segment with just Conan and his two co-hosts had me crying with laughter so that’s worth a listen alone.)

The best money I spent was $14 on a new pack of markers. I’ve talked before about my love for adult coloring books. I always have an open coloring book on my kitchen island next to a cup full of markers and I’ll usually color while I’m watching Netflix or Hulu, or while listening to a podcast. It’s such a fun, relaxing activity for me, but I go through markers so quickly now! I think I have to buy a new set every 6 months or so because my favorite colors always start drying out. I’m sad that Amazon doesn’t seem to have my favorite markers anymore so I had to buy a different type. Fingers crossed I like them!

My plans this weekend include… not a damn thing! Which is good because it means I can catch up on work this weekend. It’s not ideal, of course, to work on the weekend but if it takes a bit of the stress off my shoulders, then it will be worth it. I may go for a swim at my mom’s and I have my weekly writing date with M. But that’s about it for me! I’m not too bummed… last weekend was so busy that I only got to take one nap (oh, the horror!) so I’m looking forward to a much more relaxed weekend.

What was the high of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 60)

1) Exciting news! I signed a lease for a new apartment. I will be moving in mid-September to one of the bigger one-bedroom apartments in my current complex. It’s a third-floor apartment, which I’m not stoked about, but does have a fairly nice view (part of it is of the parking lot, but it’s tucked into this corner near a tall tree). My rent will only be increasing by $175, too, so that’s really nice! I’m planning on taking five full days off work while I move, which sounds excessive considering I could literally walk over to my new place in less than five minutes, but I want to take my time with the move. Plus, my apartment is going to need a deep scrubbing after four years (and three pets)! I wish I was moving sooner than September, but maybe it won’t be a million degrees by then? (HAHAHAHAHAHA. I wish.)

2) In less exciting news, this is what my bookshelf looks like today:

No, I haven’t started packing already (although, believe me, I have been tempted). As I was re-shelving books this week, one of my shelves fell over and that’s when I realized that most of the shelves weren’t sitting level anymore. I don’t exactly know what the problem is, but I think it might have to do with the backing. It’s not fitting snugly into the sides of the bookshelf as it should, and it’s caused some of my shelves to not sit perfectly on their anchors anymore. I did a deep dive into hacks for this IKEA bookshelf and found a great forum with lots of comments about what other people have done. One comment suggested using different anchors and screws, ones that will be a lot sturdier, so I ordered everything noted in the comment at Home Depot and picked it up yesterday (curbside). Hopefully, I can get the bookshelf back to order with this hack! I love this bookshelf soooo much and just need it to do what it’s supposed to do.

3) While I had planned to do a culling of my book collection before I moved, this bookshelf fiasco is allowing me to start that process early. I have a stack of maybe 20-30 books that I want to get rid of, and I’m not sure what to do with them. Most places don’t seem to be accepting donations at this time, which is understandable, and I’m not sure if any of the used bookstores around me are buying books right now either. It’s a conundrum! (I was thinking about maybe putting them up on Instagram for people to grab, but perhaps now isn’t the best time to be getting mail from a random person?? Darn you, coronavirus!)

4) I had to deeply involve myself in the world of COVID-19 for a work project this week, and now I feel like I know more about coronavirus testing, treatment, and CDC guidelines than the average person should. It’s rather interesting to read up on it, though. There’s a lot that I didn’t know! I went down a rabbit hole of trying to figure out the purpose behind antibody testing (mostly helpful for research purposes), exactly what a person who has COVID-19 needs to do (ISOLATE!), and the ins and outs of the actual testing procedure (*shudders*). I have to say, I think I might want to get the antibody test after all the research I’ve done! It would be super interesting to find out if I had COVID-19 without knowing about it! (But how crazy that you could be completely asymptomatic but could spread this disease to someone else who could die from it. Science is whack.) (Also, wear your mask!)

5) Things I say to the cats on a daily basis:

Do you need mama love?
Is mama your best friend?
There’s my Lila Bear! (She often hides under the couch or bed for hours at a time, so I always get excited when she emerges for attention.)
Ellie Bellie, you’re the one. You make my life so much fun! Ellie Bellie, you’re the one for meeee. (To the tune of Sesame Street’s Rubber Duckie.)
Do you want some yum-yums? (This is what I call treats and I have no idea why.)
Yes, I’m mama. (I swear Ellie meows “mama” to me. Don’t tell me otherwise!)
Hi, beautiful!

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 34)

The high of my week was… visiting my mom and stepdad’s new home! They closed on it yesterday and my mom invited me over to see it after work. They’re planning on doing a lot of work before officially moving in (tiling the living room, having new carpet installed in the bedrooms, and painting the bedrooms) and their lease isn’t up until mid-August so they can take their time moving in, which is nice. I got to dip my toes in the pool and I am very excited to spend oodles of time there. 🙂

The low of my week was… watching Florida’s COVID-19 cases continue to rise. We’re now seeing 2,000+ cases on a daily basis and passed the horrific milestone of 3,000 deaths this week. Our governor attributes the rising case numbers to more testing, so he refuses to take any further action. Right now, I’m paying close attention to how many hospital beds we have available. (35 in my county—it was at 61 at the beginning of the week.)

An anti-racism resource I’d like to share is… Anti-Racism Daily, an e-newsletter written by Nicole Cardoza. I believe it is free to subscribe, but I’ve joined her Patreon to support her work. This newsletter gives you one anti-racism task to do every day and explains the why behind it. I have found it instrumental as I go about my own anti-racism work and I truly appreciate what Nicole is doing.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was… American Police by Throughline. (I feel like I am constantly recommending Throughline episodes, but they are just so informative!) This episode talks about the history of American police and it’s as horrific as you might imagine.

The best money I spent was… $80 for my keyboard replacement! My laptop is FIXED and I am oh-so-happy to have it back in working order. I am going to be so careful with keeping open containers on my desk now because I definitely don’t want to go through something like this again. (Especially right now, when I need my laptop to work!)

My plans this weekend include… painting at my mom and stepdad’s new place, a Zoom writing date, and family game night! I’m also planning on doing virtual tours for two apartments… and I’ll talk more about why I’m doing that next week. (Suspense!)

What was the high of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

A Day in the Life: Monday, June 15, 2020

This year, I have a goal to write one “day in the life” post a quarter, and as Q2 draws swiftly to a close, I realized I needed to document one of my days! I chose Monday, a fairly average day where nothing exciting happened because it was a good look at what life these days looks like for me. Enjoy!

6:30AM: My alarm goes off. I snooze it and then Lila wants to snuggle with me. I’m more than happy to oblige!

6:45AM: I get up and get dressed for a workout. I do one walking loop around my apartment complex (around 15 minutes) and then come back inside for a 30ish-minute strength workout. (In my Notes app, I made a list of around 30 body weight and dumbbell strength moves, and for my strength workouts, I selected 10 of them to do. This way, every workout involves different moves so I don’t get bored!)

7:45AM: I take a shower and it feels AMAZING. I love starting my day with a shower, but I typically only do so when I work out in the morning. Otherwise, I let myself sleep in as long as possible. I also put on my “day pajamas”—this has become my uniform for working from home.

(Excuse my dirty mirror!)

8:10AM: I log into work and send an email to my manager about my to-do list for today. It’s going to be a busy day, but most of the tasks are more “admin-like” and won’t require much brainpower from me. Then, I make breakfast and eat while starting this post.

8:45AM: I start my workday with some admin tasks for one of my sites that launched a new design last week and then edit a blog to send to a client. After that, I listen in on a meeting that took place last week. Since I don’t need to take notes, I can listen while I brush my teeth, put dishes away, and tidy up around the apartment.

10:00AM: I take a break and read two chapters of my book. Then, Ellie starts to loudly meow at me for pets, so I oblige her.

10:20AM: I answer a call from my director who talks to me about a meeting I missed on Friday. (I kept getting kicked off the Zoom call because there were too many people logged in, womp!) The meeting was all about our return to the office. As of right now, the office is reopening on July 7th and will be open twice a week for people to come in and work if they want to. All common areas will be shut down. While I don’t have any desire to go into the office, I would like to go in and clean out my desk a bit! When I left the office in mid-March, I didn’t realize I wouldn’t be back for such a long time!

10:30AM: I have a Zoom meeting to discuss the contract for a new client. I am really excited to work on this account because it’s a woman-owned mental health clinic! Talk about my wheelhouse!

11:00AM: The meeting goes a little longer than normal, and once it’s over, I get to work finalizing meeting notes for a meeting that was held last week.

12:00PM: I take a break to leave a video on Marco Polo for a friend, and then heat up pizza for lunch. I eat lunch while reading Reddit and then lay on the couch to read my book. I contemplate taking a nap but decide I’d rather finish up work early than work late today.

1:15PM: Back to work! I read through my emails and then finish up the meeting summary. Once the summary is uploaded to our project management system, I work through some QA tasks for one of my websites.

3:00PM: I need a break from my computer, so I lay on the couch to finish my book. It’s a longer-than-usual break, but ah well, that’s the beauty of work-from-home life! I also make myself a snack of string cheese and Greek yogurt. While I work, the girls enjoy relaxing in the sun. 🙂

3:30PM: Back at it. I work on updating metadata for one of my sites and completing admin tasks for a site that launched last week. That ended up taking much longer than I expected because I needed to create very detailed notes about posting to this client’s website for the writer who will be taking over the account.

5:45PM: Finally done with work. I expected to finish up earlier than this (I don’t really have an “end” time now that I work from home. I typically work until I log a specific number of hours or complete the tasks I assigned myself for the day.), but my last task of the day took longer than I imagined! I log off and hop onto my bed to play Candy Crush and zone out with a podcast. Lila jumps up to nap next to me, which is so cozy and lovely. I also start reading The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living.

7:00PM: I finally get up because my tummy is growling! I heat up spaghetti for dinner. (No, today was not the healthiest. It happens!) I eat while watching a few episodes of Life in Pieces. I also make some break-and-bake cookies for dessert, which were delicious!

8:00PM: I turn off the TV and play with the girls for a while and then give them treats. Then I clean up the kitchen, tidy up around my apartment, and clean out the litter boxes. I brush my teeth before crawling into bed.

9:00PM: I Facetime my mom, but she doesn’t answer, so I scroll through my phone for a while until my mom calls me back. We have a really nice chat, and she’s in a good mood since she closes on her house on Thursday. (!!!) I was feeling a little lonely and anxious and talking to her definitely helped. <3

9:45PM: I read another chapter in my book. It’s not totally grabbing my attention just yet, but I have faith that it will soon.

10:15PM: Lights out! (Unfortunately, it’s a pretty wretched night of sleep and I toss and turn until about midnight when I finally fall asleep, ugh. I haven’t been taking melatonin regularly, and I think I have to get back to doing so.)

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 33)

The high of my week was… the return of game night! We had a long hiatus from game night, as we pause our biweekly Saturday night tradition during football season. Usually, we start it back up after the Super Bowl but my brother got the flu and was out of commission for a few weeks and then Coronavirus happened. My brother texted my mom and me on Saturday, asking if we were up for game night, and we were both totally on board! It felt so nice and normal and wonderful to hang out and play games and eat pizza. I’m trying to continue to be cautious about venturing out and being around people, but I feel safe having my mom, stepdad, brother, and nephews in my circle.

The low of my week was… the horrific murder of George Floyd. It feels so trite to call it a “low” of my week, but his murder has been on my mind constantly. It’s not that these deaths are surprising, but they do make me feel so angry. And helpless. As a white woman, I don’t know what my role here should be. I try to educate myself as best as I can on racial injustice through books, articles, and podcasts. I try to educate other white people, although I could definitely do a much better job of that because I know how fragile white people are and I kowtow to their needs more than they deserve. I could also do a better job of lifting up Black voices on social media. Sometimes I worry that I’m just adding to the noise and doing something that doesn’t require any effort on my part. But maybe the point isn’t about my role in this—maybe it’s just about exposing the white people in my circle to Black voices and views in the hopes of breaking them out of their bubble.

An article I appreciated was… 75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice by Corinne Shutack. I encourage every white person to read this list and write down a few of the things you can do to either expose yourself to the Black experience or work on criminal justice initiatives in your community. I know I’ll be looking through this list this weekend and thinking about the steps I can take.

A podcast series I’m enjoying is… In the Dark: Coronavirus in the Delta. I’m way behind on my podcast queue so I’ve only listened to two of the episodes in this series so far, but it’s so very good. (I’d expect nothing less from the In the Dark team!) It’s all about how Coronavirus is affecting people living in the Mississippi Delta. Episode one focused on churches and episode two was about conditions at the prison. It’s unflinchingly honest—truly excellent reporting.

The best money I spent was… $291 on two new bar stools for my apartment! Whew, let’s take a swift left turn on this post. Since I am planning on staying in my apartment through 2021, most likely, as I save up for a down payment on a condo, I have decided to invest in a few things to make my apartment more livable for the time being. The first thing was trading in my rickety bar stool for two more comfortable ones! I found these bar stools on Wayfair available at a deep discount, so I bought two and they arrived yesterday! I have to put them together, which I’m planning on doing tonight. It’ll be so nice to have a comfortable place to sit and eat in my apartment! (And I know the cats will greatly enjoy them, too, and isn’t that the most important thing?)

My plans this weekend include… literally nothing. Ah, that’s how it is these days, right? I know I’ll be putting together my bar stools, doing my weekly grocery store run, and Zooming with a friend. Perhaps I’ll try to take a walk in a nature preserve? I’d like to spend time at the pool, but I doubt people will be properly social distancing there. Ugh.

What was the high of your week?