Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Three Things Thursday (v. 3)

It’s been five-and-a-half years since the last time I wrote a Three Things Thursday post, lol. Whoops! I don’t typically post on Thursdays (I have a strict M/W/F posting schedule), but I decided I wanted something light-hearted and fun to write about this week and Three Things Thursday fit the bill. I pulled some categories from my old posts and made up a few new categories. Feel free to play along!

Three confessions:

1) I haven’t been to therapy since quarantine began. My last session was sometime in February. I thought I would feel adrift without my monthly therapy sessions, but I don’t. I learned so much for the two years I was going to regular therapy and I’ve been able to use all the tools I learned and apply them when needed. That feels really good!

2) I’m having low-grade anxiety about settling into my new apartment. Transitions like moving are an anxiety trigger for me, and those first few days in a new place always feel scary and overwhelming because it’s not yet home and home is where I feel safe. So I’m a bit worried about how I will handle being in a new space, but I’m trying to set myself up for success with fun TV shows to watch, feel-good books to read, and my mom on standby to call if I need her.

3) I constantly have no less than 15-20 apps open on my phone at one time. I recently learned that all of those open apps could be affecting my Facetime signal so every time my mom Facetimes me and she tells me I’m “breaking up,” I have to close out of all my apps and it takes… longer than it should. Is anyone else bad about having so many apps open at once?

Three things that made me happy this week:

1) Pool time with my mom

2) Texting with my brother about how excited we are for football to start

3) Anticipation for my move (I haven’t had this much excitement about something in a really long time!)

Three favorite Instagram follows:

1) Kate Beckinsale, mostly for the hilarious videos she posts of her cats

2) Rachel Cargle, for the exhausting work she does day after day to educate people

3) The Bitchy Calico, for all the gorgeous photos they take with their cat

Three things COVID-19 prevented me from doing this year:

1) Taking a trip to New Orleans

2) Getting my third tattoo (just not a risk I’m willing to take!)

3) Taking our annual girls’ trip

Three things I want to do next year (provided COVID-19 is under control):

1) TRAVEL. Hopefully, Mom and I can take at least that trip to New Orleans we were planning.

2) Hug my friends. It’s still so strange not to greet my friends with a hug when I see them or give them a friendly touch when we’re talking about something hard.

3) Go on a date. I haven’t figured out the whole “dating during a pandemic” business so I’ve been staying off the apps right now. I suppose it’s possible—lots of video calls and meeting in parks—but what if they want to meet at a restaurant? Or another busy place? It just feels like a fraught situation.

Three books I just added to my Goodreads TBR:

1) Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin – Lisa just read this book and gave it 4.5 stars, and since I trust her opinion on books, it went on my TBR list!

2) The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris – This book doesn’t even have a publishing date yet (sometime in 2021) but the premise sounded fascinating and I knew I needed to add it to my TBR.

3) One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston – Red, White & Royal Blue by McQuiston was one of my favorite novels of 2019 and I am so excited for her new novel. (This is another one that’s not coming out until 2021, though!)

Three of my most-used iPhone apps this week:

1) Overcast, for podcast listening (3 hours, 45 minutes)

2) Candy Crush (3 hours, 9 minutes)

3) Instagram (2 hours, 12 minutes)

Three TV shows on my to-be-watched list:

1) Jane the Virgin – This will be my next watch once I finish The Golden Girls. It’s beyond time that I watch this show because I think I will adore it!

2) Superstore – A friend told me that this is on Hulu and that it’s the perfect comedy to watch when your brain is fried.

3) The Crown – I’ve had this Netflix series on my to-be-watch list for a long time! Maybe I’ll sit down with this one after Jane the Virgin, which, at the rate I finish TV series, will be in 2025.

Three podcasts on my to-be-listened list:

1) The Bible Binge, which is a podcast that recaps the Bible in a pop culture-y way

2) 1619, a short audio series that tells the story of slavery’s beginnings in America

3) Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata, which just sounds like a super fun podcast from two extremely funny ladies

Three things on my to-do list next week:

1) Build my new TV stand and dresser

2) Get unpacked and settle into my new place

3) Get a massage (my reward for all my hard work with the move!)

What’s something that made you happy this week? What’s a TV show on your to-be-watched list?

Quick note: I’ll be away from my blog for some time while I get settled into my new place. I’ll be back on the 21st with updates on my new space!

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 36)

The high of my week was a socially distanced gathering with my friends in the park. There were four of us and we brought our own blankets and food to enjoy. The weather wasn’t too miserable since we met around 6:45 in the evening and were under a big shady tree. It was so nice to have a nice evening chit-chatting with my friends and catching up on everyone’s lives. (Of course, we spent most of the time talking about COVID, but it’s the thing permeating so much of our lives!) I definitely need more of that in my life!

The low of my week was reading the news about another Black man being shot by police. I am so angry and I feel so helpless. But until justice is served to these police officers who murder Black people, we are only going to keep hearing these stories and keep feeling angry and helpless. (And don’t even get me started on the 17-year-old white man who was walking around with a goddamn machine gun around the police and nothing happened to him—he was instead allowed to fire his gun into a crowd of protesters, allegedly killing two and seriously injuring another. WTF.) Here are ways to help and demand justice.

An Internet find I’d like to share is this heartwarming, funny video of a zookeeper trying to rake up leaves while her panda charges keep causing destruction. I’ve watched it multiple times this week, whenever I need a pick-me-up. Baby pandas are like toddlers!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was “It’s Joe Time” by Pod Save America. All four hosts joined to break down the Democratic National Convention and reflect on the speeches. I didn’t watch the DNC (it started at 9pm for us on the East Coast and that is way too late for this grandma) but I really want to go back and watch all the speeches, especially from the Obamas, Kamala, Dr. Biden, and Joe Biden. This was a good crash course on the event and made me feel hopeful for November. (I have to have hope. It’s the only way I’m going to survive these next few months.

The best money I spent was $400 on a new dining room table! This was an expense, for sure, but it’s one I’ve known I needed to make for my new place. My current apartment doesn’t have any sort of dining area and I am soooo excited to finally have one again! It’s been far too long without a dining room table. It won’t be delivered until early October (late September if I’m lucky) but I’ve gone this long without a table—what’s a few more weeks?

My plans this weekend include not too much! I have my usual Saturday morning writing date planned and have tentative plans with a friend for a socially distanced reading date. We haven’t had a reading date since January, so we are much overdue! And hopefully, I can fit in some pool time!

What was the high of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 61)

1) I am so thrilled that Biden picked Kamala Harris to be his VP. While I desperately wanted Elizabeth Warren as VP, Harris was a close second. She’s not as progressive as I’d like, but she’s still more progressive than Biden, and together, they are the most progressive Democratic ticket ever and that’s really exciting. Also, a friendly reminder to anyone who is not excited about voting for Biden/Harris: You’re not just voting for president. You’re voting for the Supreme Court, for federal judges, for immigration reform and climate change initiatives and STOPPING THE SPREAD OF COVID. Not voting or voting third-party is not an option this year. The future of our country is at stake.

2) I applied to be a poll worker! There is going to be a shortage of poll workers in the presidential election due to the pandemic and since I am young, healthy, and not high-risk, it makes sense for me to become one. I have a training on Saturday to learn all the ins and outs of being a poll worker and I’m on a standby list for a small, local election in my county on Tuesday. It’s exciting to be able to get involved this way!

3) I’ve already decided that I’m not going to make the goal I set this month to work out 25 times. I really want to be the person who loves working out and would do it every day if I could, but I’m not. I’m trying to accept that about me! For me, logging three workouts a week is ENOUGH. Especially right now, when the only workouts I can do are long walks and at-home workouts in a tiny apartment. My yearly goal of working out 150 times in a year boils down to three workouts a week, but once you get behind with that goal, things quickly spiral out of control. (Hence challenging myself to complete 25 workouts in August, rather than the 12 I need to log in a normal month.) I’m still going to keep track of my workouts, just to see how close I come to hitting that magical 150 number this year. Last year, I made it to 121 workouts so I’d like to make it to at least 130, if not more!

4) I’ve already started packing for my move, so I have boxes stacked up around my apartment, and, let me tell you, Eloise is in heaven. She loves jumping into open boxes whenever she can. I have a stack of three boxes next to my TV stand, and she found a way to jump onto the top of the stack and open the box to sit inside. I put a roll of packing paper on top of the box to keep her from crawling inside… only to find that she had shoved it to the ground so she could get inside. SIGH. What a sneaky girl!

5) I have a four-day weekend ahead of me, yay! I am nearing my work anniversary, which is when I enter the “use or lose” phase of PTO hours. I’ve only taken a day and a half of PTO over the last five months (!!) and have stockpiled a whole bunch of PTO. Luckily, I can carry over a week of PTO (which I’m using in September for my move) but had some extra time to use up, so I decided to give myself a long, four-day weekend. It’s going to be so nice! (Just thinking about not logging into work until WEDNESDAY turns my eyes into hearts.) I don’t really have anything planned for these four days off (aside from my training class + potentially working the polls on Tuesday) so I hope to do some pre-move organizing, swimming, napping, and, of course, reading.

Categories: 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!