Loving… all the time off work I’ve had recently! I had 6 days off work at the end of May/early June and this week, I took Wednesday-Friday off. We already get Wednesday off for Juneteenth and then I was going to take Friday off to travel to Chicago… why not give myself the gift of a five-day weekend? No sense in working on Thursday! I’ll probably log into work today and tomorrow just to clear out emails/Slack messages and handle some of my daily tasks, but otherwise, I’m taking it real easy!
Loathing… scalp psoriasis. I’m sorry to be a broken record, but it’s truly my biggest challenge these days. Today, I finally have a follow-up visit with my dermatologist to figure out next steps. (It was supposed to be on May 1st, but I had to move it and her next availability was 6 weeks out, argh.) I have been taking photos of my scalp on an almost daily basis to show her the cycle (it goes from dormant to dry patches to red patches, over and over again) so I am just crossing my fingers she has a solution for me. I am at the point where I will gladly get injections in my scalp (because yes, that’s an option) to make it all go away. I’m also going to schedule follow-up appointments every 2-3 weeks with her until I go into maintenance because I can’t go this long between appointments anymore! Blergh.
Reading… the same books I was reading on Friday. I have a few hours left in The Rose Code by Kate Quinn and I’m about halfway through Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (it has a very triggering element for me, so it’s not the breezy romance I was expecting). I expect both books to be 4 stars, but we’ll see if that changes!
Watching… Suits, where mainly I drool over Harvey Spector. I’m nearly finished with season one and I have enjoyed every single episode so far. I can’t wait to keep going!
Listening to… no new music right now. Confession: I am two months behind on my goal of listening to one new album every week. Every time I think about starting a new album (I’m thinking my next one will be Billie Eilish’s newest release), I just throw on my TAYLOR playlist and jam out to my favorite songs I know backwards and forwards. I think I just want something familiar and comforting right now, and that’s what my TAYLOR playlist gives me. But I will hopefully get back on track with this goal soon!
Anticipating… my weekend in Chicago with Kim! She has dubbed it Stephany & Kim’s AMEOWZING Popcast Weekend, and I am so excited! Kim gave me a detailed itinerary, which I am much appreciative of because I am a details gal. I fly into Chicago in the morning and fly out on Sunday, so we’ll have most of Friday and all of Saturday together. And, of course, I am super excited to go to the Popcast Live! I get to see my best friends (parasocially, of course) live and in person! I think it will be a raucous evening and I am really looking forward to it. And I am really, really looking forward to seeing Kim’s cats and forcing them to fall in love with me. That’s how it works, right?!
Thinking about… Pride posts. I’m a glutton for punishment so I can’t help but click on the comments of any business that puts up a Pride post. It’s always a cesspool, as one might expect. A lot of American flags with comments like, “This is the only flag I care about!!!!” And a lot of “ew, why do people have to shove this in our faces?” Of course, nobody ever says that when we see a heterosexual marriage proposal or wedding or “gender” reveal. It’s ignorance, I know, but it still makes me really sad knowing there are so many people who hate the queer community. What is it hurting you if we get to love the people we want to love? Ugh.
Buying… Pretty Litter. I’ve used World’s Best cat litter for the entirety I’ve been a cat mom, but after Eloise’s health scare, I realized there’s a lot I don’t know about the girls’… erm… bathroom habits. When I had a dog, it was easy to understand if he was peeing a lot more than usual or had weird poops. It’s a lot harder to know that with cats. Pretty Litter purports to monitor a cat’s health by changing the color of the litter (it starts off white) when they pee. As long as the litter stays yellow or olive green, things are good. But if there’s an issue like a UTI or kidney disease, the litter will change to blue or red or orange. I’m trying it out for now, and we’ll see if I like it enough to keep using it!
Grateful… to have so many wonderful Little Free Libraries around me! Within 10 minutes of where I live, there are at least 15 different spots. On Sunday, I made a list of all the different addresses and went around town dropping books off in different libraries. Some of them were so cute and curated! I know I’m lucky to have so many nearby and I’m glad I was able to leave some good books in these libraries.
What are you currently watching and grateful for?
I am in awe that a product like Pretty Litter exists! What a time to be alive!
Ugh – I’m so sorry you continue to struggle with scalp psoriasis. I sometimes get itchy, flaky patches on my scalp and it’s awful. It’s never been so bad I’ve taken it to the dermatologist though (I am too busy trying to get the stupid rosacea under control), but it is uncomfortable and gross enough that I have so much empathy for you! I hope you and your derm figure things out!
Love that you are taking a five-day weekend. I hope it is relaxing and that your time in Chicago is tons of fun.
Isn’t it amazing that we can now just BUY LITTER that helps us identify if there is an issue? Now, if we can only get those self-cleaning litter boxes to be more reasonably priced, I will be the happiest cat lady, lol.
I’m sorry you’re also dealing with your own skin issues, re: rosacea. It’s awful!
I’m excited for your visit with Kim! I can’t wait to hear about it. My experience is that cats usually know a cat person when they see one, so I’m sure you’ll get some love. And some questions when you get back home and your girls smell Kim’s cats on you.
It’s been a while since I watched Suits, but yes Harvey Spector is a piece of alright.
Eloise did have a LOT of questions for me when I got home, especially after seeing all of my Instagram Stories featuring OTHER cats. Oops!
Chicago! I’m so envious and I hope you have a fabulous time.
Is it just me or is Pride sort of…lackluster this year? I feel like in the past, I haven’t had to do much to find out information about Pride events, but this year I have to seek them out. It makes me sad how backwards we’re going with regard to progress in this area.
I don’t know how people with multiple cats do it. I have one cat and so I can monitor her litter box really well. We talk about her amount of output all the time (Z has had bladder stones before and gets hairballs, so there’s a lot of info we get from her box). If multiple cats are using the same box, how would you even know?! It seems so hard.
I’m sorry you feel like Pride has been lackluster! 🙁 It hasn’t felt that way for me, but maybe that’s just the area I live in.
The real fun will be if the litter DOES turn a troublesome color and then I have to try to figure out who is having the bladder issues. Lol. I’ll let that be a problem for Future Stephany.
I’ve never seen Suits, but you have me intrigued. I sometimes find myself in a cesspool of comments on some post or another, and I always regret it. Today was about Juneteenth, and how it was stupid to free the slaves. How do some people even exist is all I have to say about that. Of course, if we went for hundreds of years where people thought it was OK to own other people, I guess nothing should shock me now.
I’m struggling mightily to get through Hard Times, by Charles Dickens. It may be the most boring book ever, and there is so much Victorian era jargon, half the time I have no idea what they’re talking about. It’s a physical book, and I find that my eyes are skimming over the words but my mind is wandering. I’m trying not to DNF, but I have no idea why I’m working this hard at it, really.
Someone told me a trick to reading really difficult classics is to read the Cliff’s Notes version of the chapter you’re about to read and then read the chapter itself. I did that when reading a Jane Austen novel and it really helped! Sometimes it can be really hard to parse out what they’re saying and get the gist of the chapter. Good luck on your Dickens journey!
Psoriasis sounds absolutely awful and I hope you get it resolved.
I never ever ever read the comment section but I do think that maybe it’s better up here than where you live? Maybe it’s just the bubble I live in but it seems like there are never really any issues – which hasn’t always been the case, I remember from my youth the incredibly terrible slurs, etc., about the queer community in general (this was during the AIDS crisis, so you can just imagine how awful and sad that was, and I was just a kid! I didn’t even understand it all!). Anyway, it does seem to be better and more celebratory up here and these days.
I’m currently reading Sandwich by Catherine Newman and absolutely loving it! Speaking of the queer community! But I love everything she writes.
I typically just listen to one of my many playlists but last night I listened to Gordon by the Barenaked Ladies, which came out when I was in high school. I remembered every lyric. It was such a unique sound back then! I still love it. Hello city…
I live in a very progressive area of Florida – my city holds the largest Pride parade in the Southeastern U.S. even! – and yet, there are always people who want to bring people down. I just need to stop reading the comments because I truly believe that homophobic people are a small minority of our population these days. They just seem to have very loud voices on social media. Of course!
Yay Chicago (and taking the extra day off)! That sounds like such a fun weekend. I always appreciate knowing plans in advance – I am so bad with surprises. I have been all about listening / watching my comfort things lately vs. trying new songs, albums, podcasts, shows, etc. One thing I’ve been doing to try and ease my way out of this is listening to one new song when I get in my car to go somewhere before I go back to my old faithfuls. It’s a baby step, but it’s a step!
Oh, that’s a great idea to listen to one new song! I should commit to that, too. That feels a lot easier than “you must listen to this album three times for it to count toward your challenge.” I make things a lot harder on myself, lol.
Yay for all the time off! That’s a wonderful way to start our AMEOWZING weekend together! Seriously, you coming is the only thing getting me through this hellish (even with a day off mid week lol) work week. I can’t wait! And yes the cats will fall in love with you. Here’s how it’ll go – Apollo and Starbuck will be all friendly and greet you, and wants pets and attention. Khali and Ned will be shy and won’t show up until meal time or if we bribe them with a food tube, but they will show up eventually! And if you leave the guest bedroom door open they will be VERY happy to go through your stuff and parkour in there because that door is usually shut. Ha!
I hope your appt helps today!
And sorry about the triggery part of Just for the Summer. We should talk about it when you’re here, if you want!
That litter is intriguing! I’ve never heard of it.
I am watching Game of Thrones (again) and anticipating you getting here 24 hours from now!
LOL, should say grateful for you arriving here 24 hours from now.
All of your cat advice was spot on! Apollo was definitely the friendliest of the bunch and I’m still determined for Khali to love me. She reminds me a lot of Lila.
The scalp psoriasis sounds horrible. I really hope your doctor had a great solution for you. I know things like injections can be so scary but you are at the point I got to when I agreed to start infusions – you are desperate for relief even if the treatment needed sounds scary/painful.
I am so excited to hear all about your time in Chicago. It’s extra great to have a local showing you around!! I almost bought tickets to the live stream but then questioned when I would actually watch it so I decided not to. But I probably should have. But I could just pay full price after the fact – so let me know if i should after you go to the show!
Phil and I are watching “welcome to Wrexham” which is about Ryan Reynold and another TV writer I don’t know buying a football club in Wales. The episodes are 30 minutes so perfect for us. On my own, I’m watching the latest season of Top Chef. I thought of you before the final episodes are taking place on a cruise ship! And I grateful that I can get an injection tomorrow into my impacted joint area but am equal parts nervous because they need to inject the tendon rather the joint which is something I’ve never had and I was told it is trickier to inject a tendon…
I really enjoyed the live show so the livestream may be worth it, depending on the price. I can’t remember what the full price is, though. I really wish you could have come with us to the Chicago show, but I understand why you couldn’t. Maybe in 2026!
That’s funny that part of Top Chef is happening on a cruise ship! I would imagine working on a cruise ship is difficult as a chef. So much food to make!
Thanks for the update, Stephany! Your kitties are just like… Just give them to ME!!
Five day weekend sounds amazing- have a great time. Would want to hear/see pictures for sure.
Watching: watched “Breaking Surface” a Norwegian movie about divers and things going wrong and then all is well at the end. Who would ever, ever choose to dive in mirky, dark, cold Norwegian waters? Not me. I would not dive in ANY water. Anyway the movie was good but some scenes gave me anxiety.
Grateful for… My blender? Today I blended blueberries that were about to expire, strawberries (same), half a banana, some spinach (lol) and water. It was… palatable.
Oof, diving in cold, murky water sounds like my worst nightmare. Happy for the people who want to do that sort of thing, but it is NOT for me!
LOL, “palatable” is how I would describe most smoothies so I understand. 😉
Oh wow you are going to Chicago!!! Ha, I’m totally stealing the word “ameowzing.” I can’t wait to hear all about it.
Florida is probably not the best place to be, Pride-wise. Although it could definitely be worse!
I hope you have an amazing weekend!
The Tampa Bay area is a pretty progressive area with lots of fun Pride stuff happening (actually, I just learned that the St. Pete Pride Parade is the largest in the southeast!), so at least it’s not happening as badly in my area. But Florida overall as a whole, yes. Ugh. Homophobic people are such a small subset of the overall population these days but they just HAVE to get their voices heard, don’t they?! Blah.
Pride posts make me happy. Keep them coming. I think it’s wonderful to see them pop up all over. Let’s knock down the haters.
I am so excited that you’re going to spend a weekend with Kim (say hi!!). I hope you guys have the best time.
Yes, the only way to make the haters go away is to keep shoving our rainbow flags in their faces I guess! Make them as uncomfortable as possible, lol.
I always wonder why people need to spew hate and bigotry on the internet (or anywhere, really). Why??? It’s so hurtful.
I guess your post made me grateful that I live in a world full of people who are different from me and that is okay and actually makes things better.
I used to watch Suits with my husband- such a great show, though I never made it through because I got busy and my Husband kept watching without me…. We’re currently watching Glee with the kids, which is a lot of fun, but also some of it feels dated already.
Have a great time in Chicago! I haven’t been there in 10 years, but my Husband took the kids last year and they had such a great time.
Wouldn’t it be so lovely if we could all just celebrate our differences instead of spewing hate? If only!
Ooh, I think I only watched the first season of Glee but yeah, it probably feels very dated by now! I just looked up when it premiered – 2009. That’s crazy to think that was 15 years ago now! WHAT.
So many little free libraries near you? That is so amazing. I have two in my vicinity. One at church – but not to much new additions of fiction. The other is an old phone both the next town over. I have found English thrillers there and lots oc classics. I have dropped of things in both but admittedly take more.
I had no idea there is cat littler this fancy out. Crazy.
I’ll admit that it’s rare for me to find something to take in a LFL – I’ve either already read it or it’s something I’m not interested in reading, lol. And there are always TONS of kids books, which is fun for the kiddos but not for me, lol.
I feel like Pride was toned down, too. Maybe it’s a WI thing? Sigh. Love your posts so keep em coming. 🙂 So glad you had your time off and trips to Chicago! Time with friends is the best, and FUN time with friends is even better. <3