Recurring Series

Five for Friday (v. 39)

1) I received my tax return last weekend! Wahoo! I used it to pay off my balance for the cruise I’m taking in May with my mom, as well as putting a huge chunk toward my credit card. It pains me to admit that after a trip to Savannah and St. Augustine, as well as the Christmas holiday, all within a six-month span, my credit card got to a scary balance. Obviously, I still have a ways to go before I’m a solid money manager. But I should have that paid off by March or April, and then I can get back to building my savings up again. Sometimes, I play around with the idea of detailing my spending on my blog – to give me accountability – but I don’t think I honestly want to do that. I just need to be accountable to myself.

2) All that said, I recently looked up my credit score to see if it’s improved since last year – and my score has improved 120 points since January 2014! I guess something I am doing is working (well, I suppose keeping a low credit card balance for a year and beginning payment on my school loans has helped!) Refinancing my car loan has been on my mind for a while now because I know I can get a lower rate, now that I have less debt and a better credit score. What I currently pay monthly is exorbitant for how old the car is. And, while I do plan on trading the car in within the next year or so, I also think I’m a good candidate for refinancing now. Time to make some calls!

3) We have a Trader Joe’s in St. Petersburg now! And I am soooo thrilled. I went there with my mom on Sunday afternoon and picked up a bunch of random stuff. I didn’t really have a list… I just wanted to look around and pick up a few things. And I wound up with a full basket! So far, everything I bought has turned out to be super yummy. On the list: Greek yogurt, tomato basil marinara, cookie butter (of course!), dark chocolate sea salt caramels, beef taquitos, and a ziti freezer meal. It’s all been delicious! I have a feeling that TJ’s will be a regular stop for me during my weekly grocery run.

4) Can I take a minute to toot someone else’s horn for a minute? My good friend Jessica, whom I had the pleasure of meeting last year and who is just as genuine and lovely as she appears to be on her blog, is launching a brand-new course, all about getting gutsy to reach your goals. If you have a big goal that you want to achieve, but you haven’t taken the steps to turn it into reality either out of fear or not knowing where to begin or another reason, this course, 30 Days of Gutsy, is exactly what you’ll need. You’ll receive 30 inspiring, action-based lessons, all designed to help you take the steps you need to achieve that big goal you have. I am ridiculously proud of Jessica for this course (she truly lives up to her “#getgutsy” name!) 30 Days of Gutsy starts on March 1, so you have until tomorrow to register. Yes, it’s a bit last minute but I highly, highly recommend this course. If there’s anyone I want to help me with my goals, it’s Jessica. Go here to register, and then come back at the end of March to tell me how much you loved the course. (Because you’re going to love it!)

5) Happy Friday! My weekend plans border on Boring Adult Behavior, but hey! I think it should be a fun weekend. Tonight, I have book club where we plan to meet up for dinner and then play shuffleboard! Yes, shuffleboard! (Don’t knock it ’til ya try it!) On Saturday, I’ll be parking myself at Starbucks for most of the day to finish up a big freelancing project (and luckily, my working date partner in crime will be there, so we can chit chat, too!) And then Sunday, I’ll get some nephew time, and also a tooon of cleaning time.

What are your weekend plans? Any “must-have” items I need to buy from Trader Joe’s?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 13)

The high of my week was my Galentine’s date with my friend Bri. I wasn’t really upset on Valentine’s Day (I was secretly calling it “Independence Day!” Ha.) But it was still nice to get out of the house and do something fun. And I’m glad we opted for a girl’s night in because I know it was craaaaazy at the restaurants and bars. It was the perfect night, and I am so thankful for my friendship with Bri. She knows how to make a girl feel good!

The low of my week was dealing with some blog domain issues. I think I have it all sorted out (well, fingers crossed!), but I can’t sign into Google Admin to make sure my payment method is set up correctly. Luckily, I was able to bypass Google Admin and find out what I used when renewing my blog domain in the past (good thing I did, because my payment methods were expired!), so I guess I’ll find out if all is well next Tuesday when my domain is set to renew.

I’m currently reading Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris. (I’m stealing Amber’s idea for replacing “favorite post I read” with what I’m reading. I like this option much more!) I’m about 60% of the way through it and it’s good, but very easy to put down. I do like Sedaris’ writing style, though!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Schrodinger’s Mockingbird by Book Riot. The hosts of the Book Riot podcast devoted an entire episode to talking about the news of Harper Lee (author of one of my favorite novels To Kill a Mockingbird) releasing a new book. I really liked hearing the discussions between the hosts. (Though I don’t think I am as giddy about them about the new book. I look forward to reading it, but I don’t think it will be as major an event as they think, nor will I drop everything I’m doing the day it’s released to read it.)

The best money I spent was $5 for Taco Tuesday! Two gals at work decided to throw a fun “Taco Tuesday” party for everyone at work. All we had to do was contribute $5 for the ingredients, and the husband of one of the gals (who is a chef!) made a delicious spread for us. (Best part was having leftovers on Wednesday! Oh yeah!)

My plans this weekend include going to the zoo, working on a freelancing assignment, and decluttering my screened-in patio. It should be a rather low-key weekend, but I am super excited to visit the zoo. I haven’t been since I was a kid and Saturday looks like it will be a gorgeous day (sunny! high of 72! sorry to brag!), so my mom and I will hopefully have a fun time exploring.

What was the highlight of your week? Any fun weekend plans?

Categories: Recurring Series

Top Moments of My (Valentine’s) Weekend

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine’s Day weekend. I had a pretty great one myself! It was low-key, allowing me to get some freelancing and reading done, but also filled with friend and family time. Let’s discuss some of my top moments!

1. Treating myself to a haircut! I didn’t do anything crazy with my hair this time. I’m hoping it will be long enough at my next appointment to chop it all off, but we’ll see. My hair grows at a glacial pace, so it might not be until the end of this year before I can do so. (I’m growing it out to donate again… it needs to be at least 8 inches in a ponytail to donate and right now, it’s about 7 inches, but I’d like it to be at least 10 inches so it’s not too short when I chop it off.) My stylist also curled the ends, and it looked so cute and voluminous. I can never get my hair to look like this on my own, so a picture had to be taken! But of course!

2. A Starbucks date. After my hair appointment on Friday afternoon, I met a friend at Starbucks to work. I had some freelancing work to get through, and she had grading and lesson plans (she teaches at our local college) to do, so it was perfect! We used to meet up every Friday night to work on our fiction novels, but we had to stop when her teaching schedule became too much. So now we meet up, but work on our respective projects! It’s the best arrangement, and I got a ton of work done Friday night.

3. A “Galentine’s” date. My friend Bri invited me over to her place on Saturday night for dinner, dessert, and a movie. I am so glad she invited me over because I really didn’t want to spend Valentine’s Day alone. I needed this! We made DIY pizza, watched Clueless, made an incredible dessert, and then gave ourselves manicures. It was such a girly night, and it was exactly what I needed. I love this girl to bits and pieces, and we are “two cookies cut from the same dough,” as she likes to say.

4. Sleeping in on Sunday. Life with a dog means sleeping in is very rarely an option. Dutch usually wakes me up around 7-7:30 on the weekends needing to go out, but we slept in until 10:30 on Sunday! My mom took Dutch on a long walk (3.5 miles!) on Saturday night, which I think completely tuckered the old man out. It was so nice to sleep in!

5. Friday Night Lights! I’m almost finished with the first season, but it’s taken me forever! On Friday night (ha), I got through a few episodes, after not watching it at all for many months, and I fell back in love with the characters and the town and the whole show. It’s so wonderful. Coach Taylor is just my absolute favorite.

6. Dinner with the family. We have family in town from Georgia so we got the whole gang together for dinner, which was super fun. There were 17 of us, I think, at dinner. We went to a little pizza place in St. Petersburg, and it was so, so nice. Especially to see my grandma. Recently, we found out her cancer has returned and it’s devastating and heart-breaking, but she’s ready to fight once more (this will be her fourth bout with it). She’s the strongest woman I know, and we’re all ready to fight right along with her.

What were the top moments of your weekend?

Categories: Recurring Series

TGIF (v. 12)

The high of my week was going out with a bunch of coworkers after work for trivia. There are so many bars in South Tampa that host fun trivia nights, and we finally corralled a group together to go. It was super fun, even though we didn’t win. We started off strong but completely lost it in the second half. I’m just happy I was able to provide my team with the answer to one question – ha!

The low of my week was feeling very uninspired about blogging. I honestly couldn’t think of anything I wanted to write about for this week, so I just decided to give my brain a break from blogging. The good news about giving my brain a break (and I do this often; if I can’t think of something to blog about, I take a break) is that I always come back re-inspired and full of new ideas of things to blog about. Yay!

A blog post I really enjoyed was My Career Mindset That’s Changed Everything by Caroline. I’m not sure when the shift occurred, but I’ve learned to stop defining who I am with what I do. I have a job, and having a good job that fulfills me is important. But I also have a life, and that life is so much bigger than my career.

“I’ll let you in on a little secret. There’s no way to know what job or career will fit with our life circumstances five, ten, twenty years down the road. As much as we’d like to think we have control of what happens to us in this life, we don’t. So just let it go.”

A podcast I am enjoying is Dear Sugar. I haven’t listened to the latest episode yet, but I’ve listened to the first two and I thoroughly enjoyed them. It’s so fun getting to hear Cheryl Strayed talk! I am such a huge fan of hers, and I remember thinking to myself after I read her book Tiny Beautiful Things and after I fell into the world of podcasts about how neat it would be for Cheryl to resurrect her advice column via podcast! She’s in my brain! This podcast is filled with wisdom and insight and plain old good fun. Wholly recommend!

The best money I spent was $9 for lunch at Mellow Mushroom (pizza establishment) on Wednesday. Wednesday morning, I was talking to the girls I sit nearby at work and we all admitted we didn’t bring anything for lunch, so a plan was hatched to go out together and we opted for the always delicious Mellow Mushroom. Good decision by us!

My plans this weekend include getting my hair cut this afternoon (probably opting for something like this… I desperately want a long bob, but I’m trying to grow my hair out again to donate it, so no bob for me just yet!) and meeting a friend at Starbucks to work on a freelance project. Saturday includes a workout, freelance writing, and heading into Tampa for a “Galentine’s” date with my friend Bri. And Sunday should be very low-key: cleaning, grocery shopping, meal prepping, and relaxing!

What was the highlight of your week?

Categories: Recurring Series

Currently…

Feeling… a little anxious about running. It hasn’t been the best running week for me, which makes me feel really nervous about my race at the end of March. I know, I know. I have plenty of time, but I’m really not in 5k shape just yet. And I just want every week to be a roses & butterflies running week! Why can’t it be that way? Meh.

Reading… Yes Please by Amy Poehler. I’m only about 25% in, but I love it so far. I have such a crazy girl crush on Amy, and I think it will only expand the more I read her book.

Writing… for a really fun freelance project. I can’t say much about it, but it’s been a really interesting process so far and a good way to stretch my writing muscles in a totally different way.

Listening to… Taylor Swift’s 1989 and nope, I am not sorry about it. I even bought the album on iTunes, something I have never done, because she took all her music off Spotify, so I had to. Well played, Swifty.

Watching… Parenthood, currently. Last night was the series finale, but I’m still about four episodes behind. I’m not ready for this TV show to end! Why does it have to end? It makes no sense. I’m super bummed. What other show is going to make me sob hard with each episode?

Excited about… taking my seventh cruise in May! Yep – that’s right. My mom and I have booked another cruise. After our first cruise in May of 2011, we promised one another we would try our hardest to take one cruise a year and we have done that! This will mark five years in a row of us taking a cruise in May. This year, we’re taking a 7-day cruise out of Miami. It travels to Half Moon Cay (Carnival’s private island in the Bahamas), St. Thomas, Puerto Rico, and Grand Turk. For the past two years, we’ve taken short 5-day cruises, so I am stoked for a longer cruise. Only 106 days and counting!

Playing… Trivia Crack. It’s an obsession. And I’m not especially good at it. So it makes me feel like a moron sometimes. But it’s fun! And educational! And I’m learning so much useless trivia!

Buying… new pants because nothing is fitting me anymore! In the best way – I’ve lost 10 lbs since December and it must all be in my waist and hips because my pants are not fitting me right anymore. I splurged on a pair of exercise capris (I tend to budget shop for those, but slapped down $50 on a pair of Nike running capris), as well as a pair of Old Navy skinny jeans. (I was able to go two sizes down in those! Wahoo!)

Thinking about… bangs. I have a hair appointment coming up in the next few weeks and I was scrolling through Pinterest last night and found this cut. I want it and I know I shouldn’t get it because BANGS AND ME ARE NOT A GOOD FIT. But it’s cute! And fun! And someone talk me out of this!

Loving… the #brosbeingbasic Instagram account, researching excursions for my upcoming cruise, when Dutch snuggles against me so perfectly while I’m writing, dark chocolate covered pomegranates, and girl talk.

What are you currently reading, excited about, and loving?