Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 41)

The high of my week was book club where we all got to take turns snuggling baby Eleni! We met at Bri’s house and I was so happy that Mikaela was able to come with the baby. We all got to have our moment with her—she’s such a teeny tiny little gal (just 7 lbs at four weeks old)—and it was such a delight. Aside from all of the baby snuggles, we also taste-tested six different frozen pizzas (Screamin’ Sicilian and DiGiornio’s Rising Crust came out heads and shoulder above Red Baron Classic, Tombstone Original, and Totino’s Party Pizza). I am definitely going to start getting the Screamin’ Sicilian for my frozen pizza stash. It was excellent! (And yes, we did talk about the book, haha. We read The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. Two people gave it 3 stars, one person gave it 4 stars, and the rest of us gave it 5 stars.)

The low of my week was going through some emotional turmoil, stemming from a really difficult therapy session. I think I forgot how much therapy can excavate old wounds that I thought were long healed and force me to look long and hard at all the ways I am letting those old wounds continue to affect the way I live my life. Maybe I’ll write a blog post about this soon, as there is so much to dig into and process, and it may be really cathartic for me to do so. Suffice it to say that I am feeling very tender and emotional, crying frequently (and I am not a crier by nature), and I think this is just something I have to go through in order to truly break free from some of my more toxic thought patterns and behaviors. But it still sucks and I hate it and I just want all of this emotional turmoil to be over with.

A blog post I enjoyed was Redefine the color nude by The Anti-Racism Daily. It’s embarrassing that when I received The ARD’s daily article yesterday, I realized I had never considered how harmful and white-centering the term “nude” is when referencing it as a color. After all, the color nude means something vastly different depending on your skin color and yet, most “nude” colors are for white skin tones.

“From dresses and underwear to bandages and cosmetics, descriptions of “nude-colored” or “flesh-colored” cater to those with fair skin. Even as moves to diversify commercially-used products grow, they fail to address how discriminatory design practices prioritize and center white bodies, making Black and Brown people an afterthought.”

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Cait Flanders: Purposeful Healing & Romancing Yourself on The Pop-Up Pod. Nothing like listening to a podcast episode on a Thursday morning and crying! This episode really spoke to me on so many levels, from Cait’s experience in romantic relationships, to setting boundaries with her mom that led to an estrangement, to learning how to let go of her people-pleasing tendencies that were impacting her relationships (romantic and not). It was as if Cait was pulling out the words from my soul and eloquently describing them in this podcast episode. It was exactly what I needed and the episode was such a healing one for me.

For my workouts, I completed a 30-minute strength workout on Monday (20-minute full body class with Rad Lopez and a 10-minute crushing arms and shoulders class with Daniel McKenna), a long walk outside on Tuesday, a 30-minute Cody Rigsby ride on Thursday, and a 30-minute Leanne Hainsby ride this morning.

The best money I spent was on a cruise deposit! Oops? I don’t know what made me log onto Royal Caribbean’s website and start poking around at cruises. But I did and they were running an incredible sale, and my mom was all, “Book it!” So I booked a birthday cruise. We don’t leave until November (the day before my birthday!) so we have a long, long time to go, but I am so stinkin’ excited. I used to cruise yearly before the pandemic (my last cruise was December 2019) and I have missed cruise life so, so much. I can’t wait to be back on a ship in 219 days! (But who’s counting?)

My plans this weekend include a massage this afternoon (yay!), spending Saturday afternoon with Bri to work on our creative project, game night with the fam on Saturday evening, and going for a 5K walk in a local park on Sunday morning. And Sunday is also Eloise’s 4th birthday! We will celebrate with a dish of wet food with a special topper and some prezzies. The cats never get wet food (they free-feed with dry food) so this is a special treat for them. 🙂

What was the high of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Snapshot of My Day | April 19, 2022

Time I woke up: 7:00 a.m. A “sleep in” day!

First thing I did upon waking: Lots of snuggling with the cats! Eloise was sleeping in the middle of my bed, which she hasn’t been doing lately, so I gave her lots of pets and told her how happy I was that she slept with me. And then because I was giving her so much attention, Lila jumped up on the bed to get petted and loved on, which I was very happy to oblige. Then I played the day’s Wordle (got it in 4).

Today’s weather: It was a pretty nice day today – sunny with a high of 81F. When I woke up, it was in the upper 60s and that was such a delightful surprise!

Something I spent money on today: $25 to restock the cats’ treats. They got a huge new carton of chicken-flavored Temptations as well as a new carton of tuna-flavored Greenies.

An out-of-the-ordinary thing that happened today: My apartment is right off a very busy highway and my desk faces this highway. Today, there was an undercover cop in a black truck parked on the highway who was pulling people over left and right for speeding. I counted 7 instances of the cop pulling people over in the span of a few hours. It was crazy!

Last thing I read (not on the Internet): Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake. This book is so stinkin’ cute.

Last thing I read (on the Internet): NGS’ blog post about what she wears during the spring to walk her dog. 🙂

Last text I sent: I sent my mom a picture of my bubble bath with three hands-up emojis. (I haven’t been able to take a bubble bath in two weeks thanks to my stitches. I got them out today and I’m so happy to have bubble baths back in my life!)

Last text I received: “Lol. If they’re made right.” From our book club group chat. We were talking about pizza in preparation for our frozen pizza taste test. (Our resident vegetarian Mikaela was talking about how Pizza Hut pepperoni was the hardest meat she had to give up, hehe.)

Last website I visited: Google. I was trying to figure out if there was a better descriptor for the highway I live off. (Aside from the actual name of it, of course; I just wasn’t sure if there was a better way to describe it.)

Last show I watched: My weekly episode of The Office so I can listen to today’s episode of Office Ladies when it drops!

Last thing I said: “Am I bugging you?” I said this to Ellie as I turned on the kitchen sink to wash some dishes. She was laying on a stack of reusable shopping bags near the kitchen sink. (The answer is yes because she immediately jumped down.)

Last thing I ate: A loaded baked potato! One of my favorite meals. (I add butter, cheese, bacon, and sour cream.)

What I was doing an hour ago: I was FaceTiming with my mom. We ended up chatting for 40 minutes!

What I will be doing an hour from now: Hopefully, I will be sound asleep. Or else I will be reading or listening to ASMR videos on YouTube.

Current whereabouts of other members of my household: Both cats are just moseying around the apartment and occasionally, one will try to pounce on the other. It’s their usual nighttime routine. 🙂

One thing I crossed off my to-do list today: I finally mopped the dining room and kitchen! That’s been on my to-do list for a week, I think. Oof.

*Snapshot of My Day inspired by Torrie

Categories: Recurring Series

A Weekend in Pictures – The Easter Edition

My weekend kicked off with a nap and then a lovely 30-minute walk outside. It was H O T (mid-80s) but the warm sun felt good on my skin. As I rounded a bend to start my second loop, I saw some scary dark clouds in the distance and had to send a prayer that those clouds would stay put so I could finish my walk. Thankfully, they did! It started pouring maybe 10 minutes after I finished my walk.

Most of my evening was spent on the couch, finishing up the second season of Bridgerton! I didn’t love this season as much as season 1—and they veered so far off the book’s plot that it was unrecognizable—but it was still a fun show to watch and I’m looking forward to season 3. In this photo, you can see that Ellie likes to sit on my lap desk while I’m coloring.

I painted my nails on Friday night. I had gotten two weeks out of my previous nail color, which I think is due to wearing a new gel polish and gel topcoat (the white bottle is my gel topcoat). So I’m testing to see if the gel topcoat will provide the same long-lasting wear with regular nail polish. Will report back!

My Saturday started off slow, which is just how I like ’em. I used to spend my Saturday mornings at Starbucks with my friend Mikaela, working on our respective projects. But we’re on a hiatus since she has a wee babe who is too small to fit in any sort of stroller just yet. We’re hoping to get back to them sometime during the summer! This Saturday I was trying my best to get into the book I’m reading The Final Revival of Opal & Nev, but it just wasn’t working. I decided to abandon it—for now. I didn’t add it to my abandoned list on Goodreads because I’m going to try it in audiobook form. I think that format will work much better for me! (This is definitely a case of me, not the book. The book is very good and well-written, but I just wasn’t in the right headspace to focus on it.)

In the afternoon, I had a fun adventure day with my mom, stepdad, and the dogs! We started with lunch at Clear Sky Draught Haus in Dunedin. The dogs weren’t exactly on their best behavior (I gave them a D; my mom gave them a C+), but it was their first time eating at a restaurant and they just need to be trained. They barked at our server every time she came by our table (we made sure to give her an extra tip for dealing with them, haha). Dachshunds are notorious for being fiercely protective of their people, so it’s not surprising that they were so suspicious of every person who walked by our table but hopefully, my mom and stepdad can take them out to more places so they can get used to being out.

Our second adventure was the day was to visit Salty Paws! This is a dog ice cream bar in Dunedin that a friend has raved about, and I really wanted Chip and Lucy to experience it. We got them the cookie crunch ice cream, which is vanilla ice cream with “cookie” crumbles on top. They devoured it within maybe two minutes, haha. They loved it! We’ll definitely have to make a trip back for more ice cream this summer.

Salty Paws also has a really cute retail shop. Most of it is dog-centric, but there was a small shelf with cat toys and treats so I was able to buy the girls a few toys and treats. They also have lots of really cute and funny dog biscuits that are homemade in-house, so I bought the dogs two Easter biscuits. I wish I had taken a picture of all the dog biscuits, but I failed on that account.

Oh and also, when I was checking out at Salty Paws, a man came in with a cat on a leash! AHHH. He was so cute and sweet. (The cat, not the man. Although, come to think of it, so was the man.) It made me want to teach Ellie how to walk on a leash because I think she’d be all about it.

After our busy afternoon, I was so happy to come home and veg on the couch for a while. I started a new book, which I am loving. It’s so cute and exactly what I need right now.

The rest of my night was pretty low-key! I ate dinner while watching Brooklyn 99, did a little computer work, and then got in bed around 9 because I was so tired from my busy day. I love when Lila jumps on the bed at night and shows me her belly. I always give it a pet and say, “I love that little belly!”

(Sorry for the major boobage in this picture. This dress—the one from Stitch Fix!—is so very low-cut, whew.) On Sunday morning, it was Easter! I got up early so I could do a workout before Easter brunch. Then I got ready and headed to my mom’s house to pick up her and my stepdad for our brunch reservations in Tampa. It’s not often I get to get all fancy, so I enjoy it when I can.

I wish I had more photos from our Easter brunch but I kinda sucked at taking photos, oops. But I did take a photo of my watermelon mimosa! It was so, so, so good. My mom ended up ordering their bottomless mimosas and just kept topping off my glass whenever I was getting low, ha. We went to Kona Grill for brunch and I can’t say I was too impressed with them—I ordered a typical breakfast platter of eggs, sausage, toast, and breakfast potatoes and it was all just fine. I probably wouldn’t go back, at least for brunch. I waited too long to make brunch reservations, though, so we had slim pickings on where to go!

After lunch, I dropped my mom and stepdad back home and then went back to my place and took a nice, long afternoon nap. It was just what I needed! The rest of my night was fairly low-key. I did a little bit of computer work, tidied up my apartment, and finished Brooklyn 99. I can’t believe I finished the series finally!

All in all, it was a lovely, lovely weekend and I’m preparing for a good week ahead. I finally get my stitches out (from my mole removal) so I can take baths again (!!!), I have book club where we will be taste-testing different types of frozen pizza, and I have my second therapy appointment. Woo!

How was your weekend?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 81)

1) Passport anxiety

I’m a little worried that I won’t have my renewed passport in time for my Niagara Falls trip. It is currently listed as “in process” as of April 8th and it reportedly takes 8-11 weeks for a passport to go through the renewal process. Wellll, 8 weeks from April 8th is June 3rd—just five days before my trip. EEKS! Why did I wait so long to mail my passport? Why didn’t I use expedited mail? Ughhhhh. My mom thinks it will all be fine and I’ll receive it in time, but my brain doesn’t operate that way. I think what I’m going to do is try to switch my passport from regular processing to expedited processing—paying the extra money for expedited will be worth it for my peace of mind.

2) My “Is this what will cause me to stop eating popcorn?” debacle

I don’t expect anyone to remember the weird gum irritation I dealt with in October. Basically, I was eating popcorn, chomped down on a piece, and felt a popcorn hull slice into my gums weirdly. For the next few weeks, my gums were inflamed and eating was so painful that I finally went to the dentist, thinking I had somehow gotten the hull stuck deep into my gums. The hull was nowhere to be found, but my dentist recommended doing a periodontal cleaning to see if that would clear things up. And it did! I was pain-free for the first time in weeks, and it felt great.

Sometime last month, I ate a piece of popcorn and THE SAME THING HAPPENED. In the same spot! I’ve been living with inflamed gums on the upper right side of my mouth for weeks now and it’s been miserable. Last Friday, I had an emergency dental appointment with my dentist. They did X-rays and tested my teeth and gums, and couldn’t find any reason for the inflamed gums. So we decided a periodontal cleaning was the best thing to do again. Unfortunately, this office only has one hygienist and she only works Mondays and Fridays. (!!) So they weren’t able to schedule me for a cleaning until May 16th. Five whole weeks of misery? No, thanks! I decided to try to see if another local dentist could fit me in.

So I called another dentist near me, and they were not only able to fit me in for the new patient consultation the next day but also the cleaning. It wasn’t a periodontal cleaning, but they numbed the right side of my mouth so that the hygienist could clean that area really well. Hooray for that!

I loved this other dental office, too. (Much more than my previous dentist.) Everyone was so friendly and sweet, and they had some really cool technology like a camera that they used to show my teeth and gums on a TV. (It was cool to see the area that was inflamed; it looks so puffy and sore!) Plus, they played funny animal videos in their patient rooms, which was a delight to watch during my appointment. 🙂

My mouth still feels sore after the appointment but I was able to eat pizza last night without any pain so I think I might be on the mend! Here’s hoping, at least.

3) Mole removal

Let’s stay on the topic of health, because it seems like all of my free time and money these days is being spent there. Last week, I went to my dermatologist for a mole removal, which was a quick and mostly painless process. They did a punch biopsy to remove as much of the mole as possible that they then sent to a lab to make sure the margins were free of abnormal cells. I got a call on Tuesday that the biopsy came back clear, which means I won’t have to go back in for more removal, which is a relief. I had to get a few stitches in my lower back and my mom (she has to change the bandage for me since it’s in an awkward place) told me yesterday that it’s healing perfectly. Yay! The stitches come out on Tuesday.

4) A new planner

Last month, on a whim (and because I needed to hit that $25 threshold for free shipping on Amazon), I bought an undated planner that looked perfect for tracking daily habits and monthly goals. Each two-page spread covers an entire week. On the left side of the planner, I track my weekly goals, weekly to-dos, and daily habits that I’m working on. On the right side of the planner are six boxes for each day of the week (one box for Saturday and Sunday). At the end of every day, I fill in one of the boxes with the next day’s date and the daily tasks I want to do. I include my workout of the day and the chore I want to complete (I try to do one chore a day) and then I look at my weekly goals/to-do lists and add a few tasks from there. My weekly goals are usually driven by my monthly goals, and I try to break those bigger goals into smaller tasks that feel much more manageable to complete.

The only change I would make to this planner would be to split up the weekend box into separate Saturday and Sunday boxes. It’s hard to fit all of my to-dos for the weekend into one tiny box! I may just end up sticking a post-it in there for weekend to-dos.

5) Weekend plans

I have a fun weekend ahead of me! I don’t have anything on my agenda for tonight, so I’m planning on taking it easy and painting my nails while I watch Bridgerton. Tomorrow, I’m taking the dogs to a dog ice cream bar near me! I cannot wait for them to experience this magical place. And Sunday is Easter (and also Pops’ birthday—he would have been so delighted for his birthday to fall on Easter). My mom, stepdad, and I have lunch plans at a steakhouse, which should be a good time.

Categories: Recurring Series

Everyday Moments of March

I love the practice of sitting down and listing one or more good things that happened to me every day. Some days have multiple good things, other days can be a struggle to find even one happy moment. But there is always something good in every day, even the hard days. Here is my good things list for March:

1 – A negative Covid test! I woke up with a sore throat (but no other symptoms) and took a test to be on the safe side. Not sure why my throat feels sore, though.

2 – Kim and Penn winning The Amazing Race! I was really pulling for them to win. They were so fun to watch, and Kim’s struggles with anxiety throughout the race were so relatable.

3 – A sleepover with Chip and Lucy. I came over to my mom’s house around lunchtime, worked for a bit on the couch while the dogs tried their best to distract me, and then we enjoyed playtime and snuggling in the evening.

4 – Having the day off. I kept thinking today was Saturday so it was really delightful to keep reminding myself that it was only Friday. I got a great haircut at Supercuts and finished two books.

5 – Lucy! She is just so much fun to wake up to. She bounds around my feet, so excited to see me and start a new day. It’s the cutest!

6 – Starting season 2 of Love is Blind. This show is crazy and I love it.

7 – Having a Monday off with no plans is the ultimate luxury. I got some reading and blogging done. And it was my first night back with my girls!

8 – I made a delicious new recipe, chicken and gravy. I served it over mashed potatoes. So good!

9 – A great creative brainstorming session with Bri. We got a lot done and Bri’s husband made us a delicious dinner.

10 – Finally starting to feel like I’m on the other side of this cold. The incessant coughing at night for a week has been rough.

11 – Taking a lovely long nap in the afternoon and then watching four hours of The Bachelor in the evening.

12 – Game night! We played Monopoly and Scattegories. Dominic (my 7-year-old nephew) did amazing at Scattegories, which can be a difficult game concept to grasp for some kids. I also made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that everyone raved about. (I think the molasses addition kicked these cookies to another level!)

13 – A lazy Sunday. I slept in, did a lot of reading, and finished Love is Blind.

14 – Dinner with my cousin Rachel, her daughter Mia, and my mom. My mom and I surprised Rachel with a birthday gift since her birthday was the previous week.

15 – Spending most of my day working on a project for work that used my brain in an entirely new way and made me feel really good.

16 – Book club night! We met at a Greek restaurant downtown and had a really thoughtful discussion about The Nothing Man.

17 – Celebrating Chip’s birthday! He turned four the day before. I stopped by in the evening to give him his birthday gift, which he proceeded to destroy while I was there.

18 – Having a relaxing Friday evening. I made homemade nachos, watched The Bachelor finale, and painted my nails.

19 – Finally selling my desk! My mom and stepdad came over during the handoff. The buyer and my stepdad hauled the desk down three flights of stairs. Glad I didn’t have to do any of the hard work!

20 – Yellow corn from Publix is BACK IN STOCK. It has been out of stock for months and is one of my favorite foods. I bought two large bags, and was tempted to get more just in case it goes out of stock again.

21 – Mikaela gave birth to Eleni! She’s a tiny little spitfire, just over 6 lbs, and I can’t wait to snuggle her.

22 – Phone calls with Mom always make me feel happy and more centered.

23 – My new sit/stand desk arrived early in the morning! I was able to quickly get an appointment with TaskRabbit for Saturday afternoon, so that I don’t have to worry about putting it together myself. Yay!

24 – I had a really good meeting with my director today. She told me she’s been really impressed with how much I’ve taken on lately. It felt really good to know that I’m not screwing this up.

25 – Taking a really long and satisfying nap (Half-day Fridays are the best!) and then watching Brooklyn 99 and painting my nails in the evening.

26 – Mom’s bump is just a cyst! Nothing to worry about! What a goddamn relief. We celebrated with brunch at The Library.

27 – A reading date with Amber at The Blend. It was my first time going there and not getting one of their coffee flights! I ordered an iced caramel latte and it was delish.

28 – My first day using my sit/stand desk. It’s going to take some time to get used to standing up throughout the day (I need to invest in a pair of comfortable, supportive slippers!) but I love having the option to sit or stand when I want.

29 – Lucy’s birthday! This little lady is a whole year old, and I can’t believe it.

30 – I won employee of the month for my entire division! It was a huge shock because I’ve been battling some major imposter syndrome lately. It is super validating to know that my director has been so impressed with my work so far that she recommended me for this award.

31 – A delicious chocolate ice cream cone after dinner. The best!