Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 22)

The high of my week was dinner with my girlfriends on Monday night. It was so nice to get together with them and chat about how we all were doing following the storm. They kept me sane during the hurricane and I don’t know what I would have done without them!

The low of my week was feeling uninspired. It’s been a weird week for me emotionally. Maybe I’m still recovering from the emotional turmoil the hurricane put me through (which makes me feel like a whiny baby when I see what Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria have done to Puerto Rico). But I haven’t felt like working out, and even going to spin class feels like a chore. I haven’t felt like cooking or eating healthy. I haven’t felt like being around people. I’m just this gray ball of gloom right now. I’m trying to give myself grace and just let myself be gloomy and moody, but I’m really hoping I snap out of this funk soon.

I’m currently reading Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan. This is the September pick for my work book club and it’s been a book that I’ve been wanting to read for a while, but I don’t think I would have gotten around to it anytime soon, if not for book club. I’m only about 50 pages in so far, but I’m enjoying it!

A blog post I loved was this post by Girl’s Gone Child. The post was everything to me. It was about raising feminist children and being a feminist and fighting for what you believe in and rape culture and speaking your truth even when it hurts. Please go read it.

Guilt will not absolve us of our crimes, of course. We must work together to change the narrative. We must fight against our own implicit bias. We must recognize our shadows and face them head on. We must be willing to break our children of their innocence so that across town, children in REAL DANGER can be safe.

We must be willing to call ourselves out…

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Episode 0: Genesis by Good Christian Fun. This is a brand-new podcast hosted by Kevin T. Porter, he of Gilmore Guys fame, and I think it’s exactly what I need. This podcast explores Christian pop culture, something I am super familiar with. As most people know, I grew up in the church and Christian pop culture was all the rage in the 90s/early 2000s. In my house, we solely listened to Christian radio (even knowing the lyrics to a Britney Spears song was blasphemy) and a good chunk of the books I read (especially in my late teens and early twenties) were Christian based. So, I think I will find a lot to relate to in this podcast and I can’t wait to fully dive into the episodes!

The best money I spent this week was on the new iPhone 8! I probably wouldn’t have bothered getting a new phone just yet (I have the 6S), but my current phone doesn’t last more than 3-4 hours before the battery dies. My plan was just to get a new battery for the phone since it works fine otherwise, but I realized that I also need a phone with more space (my phone only has 16gb and let me tell you, that is not enough space, even for someone who doesn’t use a ton of apps!). So I bit the bullet and got the iPhone 8 with 64gb and it should be delivered sometime next month. My plan is to keep that phone until it dies a tragic death – hopefully, four or five years from now, ha.

My plans this weekend include a writing date with my friend, M., and my nephew’s birthday party on Sunday afternoon. He turns NINE on Monday, which is crazy to me. How did he get so old? Other than that, the weekend should be fairly low-key for me, which is exactly what I need. Hoping it’s a rejuvenating one for everyone!

What was the high of your week? What are you currently reading?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in July

Loving… that I was able to renew my lease at my apartment and my rent is only increasing by $25 a month! Hooray! I definitely have no plans to move apartments for a good while—I’d like to stay here for another few years and perhaps look for a place to buy after that. (Though I’m not sure how I’d ever come up with the money for a down payment, so who knows if that will ever be a reality for me!) But I am happy with where I live and happy the rent didn’t increase astronomically. And I know my brother will be super excited when I tell him he doesn’t have to help me move this year!

Loathing… how old Dutch has been acting lately. Everything just seems harder for him now and it breaks my heart. Thankfully, he’s on medication to help with his arthritis pain and nighttime restlessness and that really seems to be helping him settle down and sleep through the night. (I’ve only had one late night with him since he started the meds and that was because we were at my mom’s for the night and I think he was just disoriented.) One of his newest mannerisms that he’s been doing for the last few months is just sitting in my room and staring at the wall (usually shaking). He bumps into walls and such. He’s just old and there’s not much I can do about that because he’s healthy in every other respect. He has the energy to go on walks (not long walks, mind you) and he eats and drinks normally and he’ll play with me from time to time. This is just the time in a dog’s life that’s the hardest, to see them slowing down and aging. All I can do is keep loving him and making sure these last few years of his life are comfortable and happy. And, not to toot my own horn or anything, but I think I’m doing that very well.

Reading… Evicted by Matthew Desmond. It’s a book about poverty and the housing crisis, and just how hard it is for people who live at or below the poverty line to find affordable housing. This is a subject that has particular personal resonance with me because I grew up poor (not poverty poor, but poor nonetheless) and I grew up well familiar with what an eviction notice means. I’ve heard rave reviews of this book and even just 100 pages in, I can see why. Desmond writes in such an engaging way and I got sucked into this book immediately.

Watching… Big Brother! It’s my favorite summertime show. Big Brother is a huge time commitment because it’s on three times a week, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. (I’d watch it seven days a week!) This season is really good and I’m really enjoying all of the houseguests and all of the accompanying drama.

Anticipating… my upcoming social media and blogging break. Honestly, up until last weekend, I wasn’t even planning on taking a break, but something flipped in me and I realized how much I’m desiring to get away. Even so, I keep going back and forth on whether or not I want to really take a break because I do really enjoy social media and writing for this blog. But it’s also good for me to just get away and stop checking Twitter every time I’m in line at the grocery store or scrolling through Instagram when I’m laying in bed at night. And it’s good for my blog overall to step back and reevaluate what I’m writing about and how I’m conveying my message. It’s good for me, even if I do start craving the blog and my social media feeds about halfway through the month.

Thinking about… using my upcoming blogging break to do some sort of NaNoWriMo exercise. I’m way behind on my novel and I just can’t find the time to write aside from the two hours I spend with my writing partner each week. Scratch that. I’m not making the time. I’m only writing around 1,000-2,000 words a week and I’m over 10,000 words behind where I should be at this point in the year. So maybe August will be a good time to charge myself with writing around 1,500 words a day. I’m still rolling the idea around in my head, so we’ll see what happens!

Needing… to start making plans for my 30th birthday party. I have a friend who is helping me and we just keep pinning ideas to our secret board on Pinterest, but we need to sit down to discuss who I’ll be inviting, what kinds of decorations and games to play, what to serve for food and drinks, etc. I’ve never actually planned a party like this, so I have no idea what to do, but luckily, my friend is more than adept at this kind of stuff hence why I recruited her. (And also, she won’t let me call the whole thing off just because I’m feeling insecure that nobody will actually come to my party, ha!)

What are you currently loving, loathing, and reading?

Categories: Recurring Series

Friday Questions (v. 2)

Happy Friday, friends! I took today off so I could take my mom for a routine medical procedure—fingers crossed everything turns out A-OK for her! I’m hoping to get some freelance work done while she’s busy with that and the rest of my weekend should be a good one: dinner with Mom, a haircut, and game night with the fam. Woohoo!

Today, I wanted to continue the “Friday Questions” series that I started last month, using questions posed to the guests on Real Talk Radio. Let’s dive in!

1) Do you have any specific regrets that you live with and, if so, what have you found to be the best way to handle regret?

Oh, hell yes. I really wish I was one of those people who didn’t have regrets, but I’m not. I have them, I try to make peace with them, but it’s hard. I regret living in a dorm instead of an apartment during my first year of college because I think I would have had a more positive experience. I regret some of the financial mistakes I’ve made and waiting so long to start a 401k. I regret letting a boyfriend walk all over me and take advantage of me. I don’t think I have any regrets that are massive—just little things that make me wonder if I’d approached the situation differently, what would my life be like now?

But the way I handle these regrets is to realize that everything that happens is meant to happen, and I was meant to go through these situations so I could be the woman I am today. Take the boyfriend as an example. Having that experience and realizing how quickly I can change my tune to please other people has helped me to be more assertive in my dating life and set expectations early on.

I think it’s human nature to have regrets. The important thing is to recognize them for what they are and to learn from them.

2) What are you most excited about right now?

To be completely honest, what’s exciting me the most right now is knowing I’ll be able to pay my credit card off very soon (mid-August at the latest). I am thankful that I picked up a freelance assignment that is going to provide me with enough income to pay it off, and then I can get back to funneling money into my emergency fund. This isn’t the sexiest answer, I know, but it’s the truthful one. The thing is, I had this darn credit card paid off earlier this year, but then my trip to Puerto Rico happened and some unexpected bills popped up and I wasn’t freelancing and and and and and. It is what it is, but I would really like to stop funneling all my freelance income to my credit card. I’d really like to use it to fund my emergency savings and pay off my lowest student loan debt. I just have to get smarter about how I spend my money (and probably finally invest in the You Need a Budget system because apparently I really do).

3) Which one or two books have had the biggest impact on you?

The book that I always recommend to people because of the way it affected me is A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. It’s a heartbreaking book, but also one filled with so much hope and truth about the human spirit. It’s also so eye-opening to realize how difficult it is to be a woman living in an oppressed country like Afghanistan.

For nonfiction, I always recommend The Willpower Instinct by Kelly McGonigal. This book blew me away, giving me so much insight into the brain and the way we react to willpower. Also, McGonigal has such a fun writing style and her writing is super accessible.

I’d also add This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, which is a recent read that quickly made its way to the top of my “must reads” list. I am recommending it to everyone. And, of course, how can I not include the Harry Potter series? That series will always be one that impacted me so deeply on such a grand scale.

(Okay, that’s three books + one series. I’m a bookworm, what can I say? I can’t choose just one or two books!)

4) How do you think about the idea of work/life balance?

I am very fortunate to work at a job that doesn’t require overtime or working on the weekends. I’m not expected to monitor my email 24/7 or be available at all times. I can leave my work at work. There are times when I have worked on the weekends to meet a deadline, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve had to do that in my four years in my current position.

The times when work/life balance becomes tricky is when I feel like I spend all of my weekends in freelance writing mode. There’s no time for my hobbies, like writing for this blog, fiction writing, reading, spending time with friends and family, etc. I love the freelance writing I get to do, but I also have to be careful not to take on too much, because I don’t want my entire life to revolve around work.

I honestly do not believe that work/life balance is a myth. I think it’s wholly achievable. Of course, I say this as a single person who doesn’t work in an intense field. But still, I think it’s achievable and it’s about setting boundaries and priorities.

5) How do you manage multiple passions/projects?

Currently, I could break my passions into three categories: reading, my blog, and my novel. Reading is typically my top priority because it’s my #1 self-care habit and my favorite way to relax. I try to write two posts a week for my blog and I’ve only missed that goal three times (one being when I was away on vacation) this year, so that’s definitely my second priority. This means writing my novel is last on my priority list (when, really, it should probably be first).

So, how do I manage my three passions? It’s more difficult on some weeks than others. I’ve built my life around these passions, allowing for plenty of free time to read and write (which, in essence, means a lot of alone time, ha). I just try to juggle as best as I can. I have a word count goal I try to reach every week for my novel, a weekly post goal for my blog, and an annual book count goal for reading. These goals keep me motivated and give me something to strive for. I work hard to meet them. And I give myself grace when I don’t because, at the end of the day, my life won’t fall apart if I miss a blog post or only write half of the words I wanted to write.

What are you most excited about right now?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in June

Loving… my new tattoo (pictured above). I love it so much! It honestly feels like it was always meant to be there. It already feels like a part of me. I’ve had this particular tattoo idea pinned to my Pinterest board for at least three years, and I’m so grateful for my friend M. who basically just said, “We’re making this happen finally!” as we’ve been talking about getting book tattoos for a really long time. And maybe, just maybe, I’ve been thinking about what tattoo I’m getting next (uh-oh).

Loathing… oppressive humidity. I know that I live in Florida and it’s what I have to deal with, but it is rough. We’re usually sitting pretty in the low-to-mid 90s around here, but the humidity is usually above 60% (often higher), so it always feels much, much hotter than that. All I can say is that I am grateful for AC in my apartment and in my car. I couldn’t survive this time of year without it!

Reading… When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon. The writing feels a little juvenile if I’m being honest, but it’s a good palate cleanser after finishing The Nightingale, which just broke my heart in two. I love a good YA love story, and this one has such a unique premise (involving arranged marriage!) and a delightfully fun cover that I couldn’t help but give it a try!

Watching… the last half of season seven of Gilmore Girls. Woohoo – I’m almost done! I’m super excited to finish the series, so I can finally watch the revival episodes. (And, um, actually move on to other shows I’ve never seen, like Mad Men, Friday Night Lights, and The West Wing.)

Anticipating… an upcoming four-day weekend. My company was generous enough to give us July 3rd and July 4th off for the holiday and it’s basically all I can think about. I don’t have any plans for the holiday, so I’m going to treat it like a little staycation. Four days of no alarms, naps, time by the pool, some Netflix binges, and plenty of reading? Sounds A-OK to me!

Thinking about… Dutch’s upcoming comprehensive exam and dental cleaning. I’ve basically got an entire page full of notes about his recent health issues (ah, the joys of a senior dog!) I want to talk to the vet about Dutch’s dementia symptoms. I also want to find out if the vet can give me any insight into Dutch’s vision because he seems to be bumping into things more than usual. I also believe he’s developed hip dysplasia, due to the way he walks in the morning and his “bunny hops” in the grass during his walks. Ah, buddy. He’s hanging in there for such an old man, and is still a happy little doggo, but getting old is a painful process.

Needing… a break from the news. I’ve stopped checking Twitter as much as usual because I follow too many people who tweet about politics. Which is good when I want to be informed, not so good when I just want to go to Twitter for some funny tweets. I’ve felt a little overwhelmed by the news, so every now and then, I need a break and I’ve been taking time away. I’m still listening to political podcasts, so I’m keeping informed, just not on a daily basis right now.

What are you currently anticipating and loving?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 21)

The high of my week was taking my older nephew to a Rays game. Over the past few months, my nephew has morphed into a Serious Baseball Fan. He knows stats and players and could tell me all of the injured Rays players and how they got their injuries. So it was especially delightful to take him to a Rays game with my mom to experience baseball through his eyes. The Rays lost and my nephew was definitely bummed, but he had a blast!

The low of my week was coming home from that Rays game to a poopsplosion from Dutch and no electricity. My nephew wanted to stay for the entire game, so I didn’t get home until after 11 and all I wanted to do was wash my face and go right to bed. Unfortunately, life had other plans. First, I came home to a little “poopsplosion” from Dutch, which was all over my kitchen floor, and then after dealing with that, I realized that my electricity was off (it was still on in my bedroom and bathroom, but the living room and kitchen were power-less). Thankfully, I was able to charge my phone and call my electric company to report the outage (I wasn’t the only one affected), and then I proceeded to sleep not a wink that night, mostly because I didn’t have AC and I need an ice-cold home to sleep. While I was able to use my ceiling fan for some of the night, I woke up around 4am to discover the ceiling fan was off and I had lost total power. Fun! The electricity finally came back on a little after 8am, whew.

I’m currently reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. My work book club picked this for June after a coworker raved about it. Likewise, just about every person in my other book club has read this book and raved about it, so I think I’m settling in for a fantastic read!

A Internet find I loved this dating profile from 1865. Somehow, I need to adapt this for my own dating profiles.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Are Election Laws Designed to Suppress Voters? by Stuff You Should Know. This was the kind of episode that had me saying out loud “oh my god” as I listened to it and I really liked how amped up Josh and Chuck got about it. I would encourage anyone to give it a listen to become informed about all the ways we have tried – and are still trying – to suppress peoples’ right to vote.

The best money I spent this week was $10 on Starbucks breakfast on Tuesday morning. Starbucks breakfast is always a “treat yoself” sort of thing for me. On Tuesday morning, after barely sleeping all night, I knew I need to treat myself and so I did. No regrets!

My plans this weekend include some workouts, including a spin class on Saturday morning. Potentially finally getting my book tattoo on Saturday, game night with my family on Saturday night, a writing date on Sunday morning, and a fun DIY class on Sunday afternoon with some friends. Whew! Let’s hope I emerge from this weekend with my sanity intact!

What was the best thing that happened to you this week?