Stephany Writes

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday: More Hurricane Musings

1) A slow return to normalcy

Things are slowly returning to a new place of normalcy after the hurricanes. My mom and my brother were without power for multiple days, but it was finally restored on Monday (for my brother) and Tuesday (for my mom). Hooray! We were under a boil water advisory from Thursday-Monday since 30+ water mains broke during the storm. I was oh-so-happy when that advisory was lifted! We have gas at gas stations again (not every gas station, but enough that the situation doesn’t feel as alarming as it did over the weekend). Places are finally reopening after being without power for so many days, although there are still so many restaurants and businesses that can’t open due to flooding, which just hurts my heart so much. Our grocery store situation continues to be dire with lots of empty shells still. Deliveries stopped for a week (or maybe longer… I’m not sure), so it’ll take some time for the shelves to be replenished. It’s a slow but steady process, this return to normalcy, but we’re getting there.

2) CPAP in a hurricane

I’ve been off CPAP for three weeks now, and I’m not feeling good about it. First, I didn’t take my CPAP machine with me when I stayed with my mom after losing power after Helene. I figured I’d only be there maybe two nights and I’d be okay. Unfortunately, it was almost a full week before I was able to go back home. And then I was able to use CPAP for a few nights before we had to evacuate to Ocala for Milton. I brought my machine with me, but when we went to the grocery store on our first day, I forgot to buy distilled water, which I need for the humidifier. (I’ve used my CPAP machine without water in the humidifier a few times, always on accident, and it is not a pleasant sleeping experience!) I probably should have put more effort into finding distilled water in Ocala, but I had other things on my mind. When we got home from Ocala, that’s when I realized my HUGE mistake: Finding distilled water in any store was impossible. They were fresh out of almost all water, and especially distilled for some reason. I’m hoping to find some today – I think Target might finally have it back in stock.

It’s a weird thing, dealing with a major natural disaster right after getting a piece of medical equipment I’m supposed to use nightly. I wasn’t prepared for what I needed to do to make sure I can continue using my CPAP, and it was a very important lesson to learn. I should have lots and lots of distilled water bottles on hand at all times. Distilled water is being added to my hurricane kit, that’s for sure.

3) A reading slump

I’m in a weird reading mood these days. It’s been so weird that I’m not even abiding by my super-strict TBR list right now. That’s when you know things are serious. I am not a mood reader by choice; I love listing out the next 10ish books I’m going to read and sticking like glue to that list. But I’m allowing myself to be a mood reader right now. Mostly, I’m moving between romances, thrillers, and lighthearted fiction. I’m spending a lot of time in front of my bookshelves, looking at the books I own but have not read and letting my mood dictate what comes next.

But even with the books I am sitting down to read, I feel like I’m not giving them a fair shot. For example, yesterday, I abandoned Colton Gentry’s Third Act, which is a book that people are raving about and I was excited to read. But I was just so bored by it. I didn’t love The Husbands, which feels like an unpopular opinion, and I have a review coming up next week for a thriller from an author I usually love and whose book I just despised. And the book I’m reading now (The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, which is the follow-up to The Maid) is feeling like a slog. Mehhhh.

I’m trying to read books that fit my mood, but even still, reading hasn’t been that pure fun escape that it normally is. I feel broken because reading is my favorite hobby, but I know it’s just the season of life and things will improve.

4) Updating the hurricane kit

There was a lot I learned about how to be better prepared for hurricane season from the past few weeks. I have a semblance of a hurricane kit, but not one that is as robust as I need it to be. I have flashlights and portable charges and disposable litter boxes for the times I have to evacuate with the cats. But these back-to-back hurricanes taught me that I need a lot more than that. For example:

  • Battery-operated fans – When the power went out for a week, I was able to stay at my mom’s house but I was really worried about the cats. It was very hot that week and my apartment got as hot as 87 degrees. Whew. I want to purchase a few battery-operated fans that I could set up in my room so the cats would have a cool place to sleep.
  • More portable chargers – I only have one portable charger that works really well (I have this one) but I would like to purchase a few more, probably some solar-powered chargers so I wouldn’t need to find charging stations to keep them juiced up.
  • Lanterns – If I ever do need to stay in my apartment when the power is out, it would probably be a great idea to have a few lanterns on hand so I can see what I’m doing at night.
  • Gas can – I should have an extra gas can on hand that I can fill up before a hurricane to give me extra peace of mind if fuel becomes extremely limited like it did with Milton.

The goal is that I will spend the 2025 hurricane offseason buying all of these supplies and not have to use any of them for years. Right?!

5) A new Gladys

Today is car shopping day. I’m trying to muster some enthusiasm for it because hey! At least I can put money down on this new vehicle thanks to the insurance payout. But mostly, I wish I didn’t have to deal with the headache that is buying a new car. I am leaning heavily towards getting another Kia Soul because I loved that car so, so much. But I want to do my due diligence so I’m going to test drive a few other cars: Toyota Rav-4, Toyota Corolla Cross, Mazda CX-5, and Hyundai Tucson. Those cars are higher in price than a Soul by a few thousand dollars, and I am 90% sure I’ll just wind up at the Kia dealership to buy another Soul, but we’ll see. One of these other cars might surprise me!

What was your last five-star read?

Categories: Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 107)

1) Anxiety, my best friend

It felt really cathartic to write my post about my most recent anxiety attack. I’m glad I was able to give people a look into what it’s like to have one of these spirals because the more we know about how mental illness affects other people, the more empathetic we become. Plus, there are a few of you who also deal with these spirals and while I don’t wish this on anyone, I’m glad to know I’m not alone. Maybe I can carry that knowledge with me the next time it happens.

I stopped going to therapy earlier this year (or maybe it was the end of last year) because I felt like I had gotten my shit together and I was feeling pretty good about things. However, I’ve been having these anxiety attacks more frequently (this was my second in two months, which is not the norm for me). Someone commented on my blog that I may find it helpful to seek out exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy because it sounds like I may have OCD. (I really wish this person had left their name, but they commented with my name and email address so I had to trash the comment.) While I’m not sure if my mental illness would classify as OCD, I am willing to try anything so I started looking for therapists that specialize in OCD and ERP therapy. The first therapist I emailed wasn’t taking patients, so I’m hoping to spend some time this weekend looking up therapists and sending inquiry emails. Fingers crossed!

2) A scalp psoraisis update

I don’t think I ever updated you guys on how things are going with my scalp psoriasis after I got my steroid injections. I got the injections in mid-June and I could almost immediately notice a difference in my symptoms. The itchiness and pain abated rather quickly and I also noticed less dry skin, although the dry skin never totally went away. I had a follow-up appointment this week with my dermatologist where we discussed the dry skin and decided to do another round of injections on the right side of my scalp since it was feeling a tiny bit more itchy recently. (I have plaques on both sides of my head, right above my ear, but the left side was a bit calmer on the itchiness front.) Those injections are painful, but they work and I’ll take a few seconds of pain over hours and hours of itchiness.

The dry skin and plaques are still bothersome, though, so I’m going to try a new prescription-strength shampoo and also use my liquid treatment (I use calcipotriene) every day. I also have a handful of other treatments that have been prescribed to me that my derm said I can use on an as-needed basis, so I’ll probably try to use those a few times a week to see if all of this together helps with the dry skin.

All in all, I am so glad I went with the steroid injections. My scalp psoriasis was such a big part of my life and now I rarely think about it!

3) A CPAP update

Let’s continue the good news train. Things have really improved in CPAP land. In my CPAP post from last week, I talked about how I was struggling with the mask. It was irritating my nose a lot and it was just very uncomfortable to sleep with. What a difference a week (+ a moisturizer) makes! My sleep clinic shipped me a new mask to try, but I’m still waiting for it to be delivered (bah!). While I’m waiting on that, I’ve slowly become used to my nasal mask. While it bothers me sometimes as I’m trying to get to sleep, it isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. And the moisturizer I talked about on Friday’s post has been a gamechanger. Right before I put on my mask every night, I put a tiny bit of the moisturizer right under my nose and around my cheeks. After the first night, I woke up to no dry skin. Ever since, the dry skin on my septum has cleared up and I am feeling so much better.

Plus, my blood oxygen levels are continuing to improve. On Wednesday night, I even hit 100% at one point during the night! I haven’t seen those numbers above 95% since I started tracking my blood oxygen levels, so that’s exciting. (The average is still around 95% but even that’s better than the 91-92% average I was seeing.)

4) An ode to my HIIT trainer

One of the things I know about myself: I am not going to push myself hard in workouts. I am always going to take the easy way out and do the bare minimum to get the workout done so I can say I did it. Thankfully, my HIIT trainer seems to understand that about me, which is why he takes it upon himself to push me way beyond where I think my limits are. For example, if he sees me doing a workout with easy weights, he’ll kindly take them off my hands to give me much heavier weights. (Like when I was doing deadlifts with a 10-lb kettlebell and he replaced it with a 25-lb kettlebell.) Or when he sees me doing a wall sit and makes that motion with his hand, as if to say, “You can sit much lower than that.”

When I started taking his HIIT classes, he gave me all sorts of modifications and didn’t care if I chose a lower weight. But now that I’ve been going to his class for five months, he knows I can do more and he pushes me to do it. And I really, really appreciate that! It makes me feel powerful when he hands me a heavier weight and strong when he makes me do workouts the way he asks the “elites” to do it. It shows me how far I’ve come since I started these classes and that I am way more capable than I believe I am. While I hope that one day, I can find that extra gear to push myself when I feel like quitting, I am glad I found this trainer who has no problem helping me do that.

5) Weekend plans

I have another pretty low-key weekend ahead of me! I’m not complaining. Low-key weekends are really nice. Today, I have nothing on the agenda so the plan is to eat pizza and watch a couple episodes of Suits. Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela, some errands to run, and then another night to myself. And Sunday is a gym workout with my mom and then football!

What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 68)

The high of my week was having dinner with my former boss! We had such a great time catching up and talking about her new role. She talked about the imposter syndrome she faced for a little while, which was startling for me to hear. She seems so confident! And she is, but I suppose we all struggle with these feelings of inadequacy from time to time. It’s a good reminder that none of us really had it altogether, even when it seems like we do.

The low of my week was another anxiety spiral about my mom. Sigh. Why do I do this to myself? It feels terrible and makes me imagine a worst-case scenario THAT IS NOT HAPPENING. And she has been fine 100% of the time! But when I can’t get ahold of her, my mind always goes to a dark, dark place.

I’m currently reading Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan and I am loving it. All I want to do is sit down and read it! I also just started Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto on audio.

A Reel I enjoyed was this sweet dachshund “making coffee.” If you are not following this doggo, please do yourself a favor and give him a follow. His videos are delightful. He does very emotional “music videos” to Taylor Swift songs, which make me laugh hysterically. I am always so damn impressed with these animal content creators. How are they so creative?!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Smutty Romance and the Christian Reader on Faith Adjacent. I have been waiting for this episode. When I was a Christian, reading non-Christian romance always felt like this huge, terrible sin—people having sex before marriage? Blasphemy! I don’t consider it a sin anymore, but it took a long time for me to come to terms with that (and purity culture as a whole). I really enjoyed this episode!

The best money I spent this week was $13 on a moisturizer specifically designed for CPAP users. I mentioned the skin irritation I’ve been dealing with in my post on Monday and I am willing to try everything under the sun to help my poor dry skin. I’ve been slathering Vaseline on the troublesome areas before I put on my mask at night, which does help a little but I still have this terrible cracked spot on my septum that’s driving me crazy. And I’m starting to see some irritation on my face around where the headgear straps sit. Fun times! I’m hoping this moisturizer provides some relief, but I probably fell for some silly marketing ploy. Oh, well!

My plans this weekend include not much! Tonight, I am going out to dinner with my mom and stepdad. Saturday, my only plan is my writing date with Mikaela. And Sunday, it’s a gym date with Mom and football time with the fam! Sunday is also my brother’s birthday so we’ll be celebrating that as well. Yay!

What was the highlight of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 67)

The high of my week was receiving my APAP machine! It arrived yesterday in a great traveling case so I never have to leave home without it. I am writing this post on Thursday evening and tonight will be my first time using it. I will be sure to have a post up in a few weeks about how things are going! For now, I am just glad it is here and this long, four-and-a-half-month-long process to get it is over.

The low of my week was spending a few nights away from my girls. I dog-sat for Chip and Lucy from Friday night – Tuesday morning, which means I had to leave the cats for four straight nights. (When I dog-sit, I stay at my mom’s house because it’s easier. I come home every day to check on the girls.) They were very unhappy with me, even greeting me with, “Look who it is! Mommy Never-Home,” one morning, which was very hurtful.

I’m currently reading The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, which I am loving so far. I’m only about 50 pages in, but it’s not a long book (under 300 pages) and my goal is to finish it before August is over.

A blog post I enjoyed was You Can Do It! by Kyria. I thought this was such a motivating message for all of us. No, many of us do not have any desire to quit our jobs and road-bike around the world. But I think there are other dreams we have that we just have to be willing to put in the work to do.

To do new things, it takes work. You have to get out of your comfort zone and cede some control to other people, the unknown and life in general. I literally do not know what’s around the next corner most of the time, and this is hard. I am a type A planner, but in this case, I am often going day by day, because (a) you will just disappoint yourself if you have too high of expectations or you try to control every moment and (b) it’s actually part of the fun. 

A podcast episode I enjoyed was The Journey of Currently Reading on, you guessed it, Currently Reading. They just celebrated 300 “big show” episodes and as someone who has been listening to them from the beginning, it was fun to learn more about how they feel about their podcasting journey. It was a great episode!

The best money I spent this week was on Dayquil when I wasn’t feeling great. I don’t know if my virus was just mild overall or if the Dayquil really did the trick, but I was barely sick with this virus! This was my first time taking Dayquil for a long time because I once broke out in hives when I took Nyquil and I’ve been scared to use either medicine ever since. But no weird reactions this time around!

My plans this weekend include a podcast recording date with Bri tonight, a writing date on Saturday morning, game night on Saturday evening, and then the rest of the weekend is entirely plan-less! I’m off work today and don’t go back until Wednesday, so I’m going to have myself a nice little staycation.

What was the highlight of your week? What are your weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently in August

Loving… the reinvigorated Democratic party. Like many people, I was happy when Biden stepped aside and Kamala stepped up. I was even more excited when Kamala chose Tim Walz as her running mate because every thing I read about him just makes me love him more. It’s been amazing to see the groundswell of support for Kamala and Tim and how this has reinvigorated the presidential race and politics as a whole. Things feel hopeful again! I’m going to believe this means good things for November.

Loathing… summer colds. I can’t remember the last time I had a cold (sometime last year, I’m guessing), but I woke up from a nap on Saturday with a sore throat and now I’m downing Dayquil like it’s my job. Thankfully, it hasn’t been too bad. The sore throat went away within a day and now I’m mostly dealing with nasal congestion and an overall blah feeling. I took a Covid test on Monday, which was negative (I’ll re-test today to make doubly sure). I think it’s just one of those run-of-the-mill viruses.

Reading… The Rachel Incident by Caroline O’Donoghue, which I just started yesterday so I don’t have much to say about it yet. On audio, I’m almost done with His & Hers by Alice Feeny, which has been a wild ride so far. It’s making me feel a bit icky but I also need to know what happens, so I keep listening.

Watching… Master Chef. I just started season 13, which means I only have one more season until I’m all caught up on past seasons. Maybe I’ll go back to Hell’s Kitchen next? That show is a little more stressful, though. Master Chef feels like the nice version of Gordon Ramsey. Of course, what I’m not watching is Suits, which I told myself I needed to watch this month for my TV watching goal. I don’t know why I’m not watching it! I loved the first season and I love drooling over Harvey and Rachel (aka, Meghan Markle) respectively. But there’s just something easy about reality TV. I don’t have to give it too much attention and the stakes feel lower.

Listening to… mostly podcasts and my current audiobook. I am still behind on my goal to listen to one new album every month. I listened to Billie Eilish’s newest release last month and I have Gracie Abram’s The Secret of Us queued up to listen to soon. Any other albums I should listen to?

Anticipating… football season. We’re a little over a week away from the kickoff to the NFL season and I couldn’t be more excited! My family has completed our draft, I’m reading everything I can about my beloved Miami Dolphins prep for the upcoming season, and I have been so pleased to see that our coach is back to being a national treasure. I spend every Sunday at my mom’s house with my brother and nephews, watching the games, and I can’t wait to get back to it!

Thinking about… moving. I am still waiting to hear from my apartment complex if my rent will be increasing this year. (My lease is up November 1st but I have to give a 60-day notice, which will be September 1st.) If my rent does not increase, my plan is to stay put for another year and then live out the next 14 months as if my rent has increased by $400. This way, I can know if moving to a new apartment with more expensive rent is doable for me and it will allow me to save a lot of money in that year (for moving costs, movers, new things for my new apartment, etc.) If my rent does increase, then I will probably move this year. If I’m going to pay more in rent, I’d rather be in an apartment that better meets my needs.

Buying… so many clear bins. I have been feeling very disorganized lately when it comes to my bathroom and I decided to invest in a handful of clear bins (these kind) to get everything in its rightful place. On the left side are bins for first aid, medicine/psoriasis creams, and extra small supplies. In the center are bins for hair stuff (like clips/headbands/etc), all of my hair color supplies, and miscellaneous items. And on the right side are all of my tampons, separated by type (light/regular/super). Is it weird to do an organizing project like this if I’m potentially moving in a few months? Yes. But I can’t be stopped when I get an organizing idea in my head.

(Eventually I will replace the Brightroom labels with custom labels.)

Grateful… that I am finally getting an APAP machine. Yesterday, I had an appointment with a sleep clinic to go over all the ins and outs of using these machines. It was a very useful appointment where they showed me the machine I’ll be getting (ResMed AirSense 11) and how to use it and take care of it. There will be a lot more cleaning in my future as some of the parts need a weekly soak/rinse and I need to keep jugs of distilled water on hand to fill up the humidifier on a daily basis. Eeks! The clinician on the phone also let me know that when the results came in from my previous sleep study (the one done in April), I experienced 47.4 apneas every hour. (An apnea is when you stop breathing while sleeping, and you have to have stopped breathing for 10 seconds or more for it to register as an apnea.) I knew my sleep was bad, as I was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea, but that just meant I stopped breathing at least 30 times a night. To know I was over that threshold by so much is very scary! And now my chronic exhaustion makes even more sense. My poor brain. It’s not going to know what to do with all this extra oxygen it’s going to get at night!

What are you currently anticipating and watching?