Hey, hey! It’s Friday and I am soooo looking forward to a really calm, relaxed weekend. It’s been a very busy April and I need this little break in the busyness.

Today, I’m continuing the Friday Questions series with a few more questions I pulled from the Community Questions portion of the Real Talk Radio podcast.

1) What’s working really well in your life right now, something that feels easy, vibrant, and flowing?

I don’t know if this is going to sound like a silly answer, but being a cat mom. I love being a cat mom. I love these girls of mine so, so much. They are the sweetest, silliest, snuggliest, most fun girls and they make me so happy. I love coming home to them every day because I usually find them sleeping on the couch, and they will get up and greet me. I love how Eloise sleeps next to me at night, and how Lila wakes me up multiple times by batting at my face. Everything about taking care of them makes me feel so good.

2) If you were given an unlimited amount of money to fix any problem in the world, what would you choose?

Homelessness and poverty. Reading Evicted by Matthew Desmond last year was really powerful for me, and I encourage everyone to read that book to really understand what it means to live in poverty and how the system consistently works against poor people, especially poor people of color. We should all have a safe place to live and a warm bed to sleep in. We should all have food on our table and to be able to care for our children. If I could funnel all of the money in the world to setting up organizations and systems that could help solve the crisis of homelessness and poverty, could you imagine how that would change our world? Man.

3) What’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever received?

When I was a freshman in college, I came home for the summer to find out my mom had gotten me a new bed. I was completely surprised because while I had complained about my bed to her (I was sleeping on a twin bed that I had had since I was tiny), I didn’t know she was looking into getting me something new. We were struggling financially then, so I didn’t expect to get a new bed unless I paid for it myself. The bed was a hand-me-down from a family member, and it was the sweetest surprise! I remember opening the door to my bedroom and my mouth dropping open in shock to see this beautiful full-size bed in place of my tiny twin. It was the best gift (especially considering my mom was still sleeping on a crummy daybed at that point, and she had every right to keep this new bed for herself). My mom’s the best, what can I say?

4) What’s one habit that you’ve been successful at adopting over the past few years that you’re proud of?

A recent habit I’ve acquired is taking vitamins, which doesn’t sound like a huge deal, but I’m always proud of doing something consistently. I’m vitamin D and iron deficient, so those are vitamins I need to be taking on a regular basis and I’m happy to report that I do now.

The problem with taking vitamins for me is that I can’t take them first thing in the morning. Taking vitamins on an empty stomach makes me nauseated. So, I needed to take them after breakfast, which I usually eat at work and that means I needed to bring my pills with me to work… and then remember to take them home on the weekends. Y’all, this is apparently way too complicated for me. Then, Lisa suggested taking them at night. Genius! What a simple hack. I can’t believe I didn’t think of it myself.

Now, I take my vitamins with my dinner and rarely miss a day! I also keep my vitamins in one of those day-of-the-week pill containers that sits on my kitchen island so it’s always in my eyesight.

5) If you could have a hot fling with one fictional character, who would it be?

Oh goodness. Give me Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls. But I’d prefer the sweet Jess from A Year in the Life, not the angsty one from the series.

Who would YOU have a hot fling with?

Happy Friday! I have a busy but fun weekend ahead of me and hope to take advantage of the gorgeous weather we’ve been having in Florida. A friend invited a bunch of us over to her new house for a pool day and I’ll be doing game night with the fam on Saturday night. I can’t wait!

I have some more questions to answer from the “Community Questions” portion of the Real Talk Radio podcast. It’s been so much fun answering these! Let’s get into it:

1) What’s one change you made in your life that was really tough for you at the time but totally worth it in the end?

It was really hard to leave my previous job, even though I was supremely unhappy there. But it was comfortable and easy and I loved my coworkers, and it was really hard to leave that. I don’t even think I told my boss I was leaving. I just told her I needed to talk to her and then started crying, and she guessed it. Ha. Super professional of me.

The first few weeks months of my new job were terrifying. My social anxiety was at its peak since I was in an entirely different environment. I went from a 10-person company to a 50-person company! It was so scary to even go into the break room. And I was doing completely different work, from marketing to copywriting, so I always felt on edge.

Ultimately, though, it was the best decision I could have made because I’m five-and-a-half years into my current job and I still love it just as much as I did when I started. I don’t suffer from Sunday Scaries as I did at my old job, and I get to do work that is more suited to my skills and personality.

2) What helps you to stick with a long-term project or goal you’re working on?

I can’t focus on the long-term aspect of the goal, I have to break it into week-by-week stages. I think about what I need to do this week to get me closer to my overall goal. For my novel, it’s writing and editing one chapter a week. For my goal of working out 150 times this year, I plan out the three days I want to work out during the week (and consider if there are one or two other days I can add in to build a buffer). Breaking down a big goal into the tiniest chunks gives me the forward progress I need.

3) What’s something that a lot of people seem to do that you don’t do on purpose?

I don’t watch a lot of TV. I watch an episode (or two, if it’s a sitcom like Friends) a few times a week, which is why it takes me forever to watch one season of a show. It took me nearly five years to watch the entire Gilmore Girls series, an entire month to watch thirteen episodes of Grace & Frankie.

It’s really funny, though, because a few years ago when I had cable, my DVR was full of shows to watch. I had at least a few shows recording every day. And now that I don’t have cable and only rely on Netflix, I find myself less inclined to turn on the TV.

4) What advice would you give yourself five years ago?

I would have told myself that I needed to stand up for myself in my relationship. He was the first guy I ever loved and I thought we were meant to be, but he also wasn’t very kind to me. He moved the relationship much faster than I was comfortable with, but I figured *I* was the problem. I was new at this relationship thing, so maybe it was me that needed to change. I was also terrified of losing him if I spoke up. Oh, darling little Steph. I want to give her the biggest hug and tell her she’s deserving of so much more. And that, “more,” may not look like another relationship but of standing on my own two feet and being my full independent self.

5) How do you typically spend your evenings?

Typically, I come home, play with my cats for a little while, take a bubble bath, make dinner, watch something on Netflix while eating dinner, and then do my nighttime routine while listening to a podcast. (My nighttime routine involves washing the dishes, tidying my apartment, cleaning out the litter boxes, brushing my teeth, washing my face, and preparing my lunch for the next day.) It’s a simple evening routine, and I love it. 🙂

Tell me: what’s something a lot of people do that you don’t do on purpose?

Was this week super long for anyone else? Whew. I am just happy we made it to Friday, but it was a rough week for me. My mental health hasn’t been the greatest lately and Valentine’s Day is always a tough holiday for me (even though I wish it wasn’t), so I’m just happy I made it through and now I can focus on the weekend. It will be a good weekend, I hope, with the right amount of downtime and social time. I think part of my mental health struggles has been spending a little too much time alone, so I think this weekend should rejuvenate me.

Today, I’m continuing my Friday Questions series with five more questions from the Real Talk Radio podcast. Enjoy!

1) Tell us some of the best advice that you’ve ever received.

“What is meant for me is already mine.” I saw this quote on an Instagram post a few years ago and it has stuck with me ever since. It reminds me that I won’t miss the things that are meant for me. I can’t pass them by. The soulmate I ache for, the book I want to publish, the travels I want to do… they will all be mine if they are meant to be mine. For someone who has an anxiety disorder and loves to worry about every little thing, this quote gives me so much peace. We are all on the path we are meant to be on, even when it looks vastly different than what we thought it would look like.

2) If you could only watch one TV show for the rest of your life, what show would it be?

This one’s easy – FRIENDS! I have been rewatching the show recently (I never watched it straight through) and each episode makes me laugh and takes me out of my life for a bit. It’s a comfort watch, a show I turn to when I need to just forget everything for a while.

3) Of everything you’ve spent money on in the past few months, what’s the one purchase that’s made you the happiest?

This one is hard because I find it enormously difficult to buy things. A little bit of guilt or fear always accompanies my spending. I would like to say that the purchase that has made me the happiest is my flight to Ireland but I was actually really apprehensive to buy the tickets and I’m still very nervous about it. They’re good nerves but I wouldn’t exactly say I’m happy, at least not yet. Maybe when the trip starts to feel more real and we have more things booked. (And my credit card doesn’t look as scary as it does now, heh.)

But I think the purchase(s) that made me happiest (and yes, cheating a bit here) were my Secret Santa gifts. I ended up drawing the name of my girl, B, same as last year, so I had to really get creative with my gifts and find stuff that was different than my usual picks for her but that she would still love. And every time I found something for her, I felt so happy thinking about her reaction.

4) What’s something that only those in your close inner circle know about you?

I am pretty transparent on my blog and on social media, especially about my struggles, so I wasn’t sure exactly how to answer this question. I don’t keep too much to myself, but there are also a lot of things in my life that I’m not comfortable talking about online. For example, while I’m happy to talk about my dating life in broad terms, I don’t get into the nitty-gritty of it. I won’t talk about the dates I’m going on or the people I’m meeting because that feels a little too personal. I will vent about problems at work or issues with my family to my friends, but I keep both of those off my blog because it’s not the right place for it. So, while I try to be as transparent as possible online, I am not here to tell anyone else’s stories or air any dirty laundry.

5) What’s something you’re not doing or haven’t done yet because you’re afraid?

There is this cool literary group in my city that I’ve been dying to join, but my fear has prevented me from doing anything about it. My fear is two-fold: the fear of not being good enough and the fear of joining a new social group. They also run a silent reading event once a month and I desperately wanted to attend it this month. For weeks, I had saved the date in my calendar but when the day arrived, I chickened out. I’d love to join this group and get more involved in the literary scene in my city but damn if my fear hasn’t stopped me from doing anything more than glancing at their website and Facebook page every few weeks and wishing I had the guts to join.

What TV show would you pick as the only one you could watch for the rest of your life?