1) Reading retreat
A few weeks ago, I called my leasing office to see what could be done about my peeling tub. The peeling started a while ago and is getting noticeably worse, and I do not want to be charged for it when I move out. They told me that they can bring someone in to refinish it, but that I’ll need to be out the apartment for one day due to all the fumes. Which means my cats need to be out of the apartment, too. I thought about holing up in a room in my mom’s house, but then I had a better idea: A reading retreat! I have had this idea in my head for so long to spend a long weekend by myself in an Airbnb with a stack of books and snacks and the challenge to read as much as possible.
My tub refinishing is happening on April 10th, which is a Thursday, so I booked a cute little house about 30 minutes from me from Wednesday – Saturday. I’ll work a full day on Wednesday and head over to the house in the late afternoon. I’ll have 2.5 days to myself (I’ve already asked for the days off work!) to read, read, read. My goal is to read for 24 hours in total, which is an aggressive goal but I like having something tangible like this to strive for. I’m already thinking about the books I want to bring and the snacks to buy. And the best part is, I’ll have my girls with me to keep me company! That’s a win/win.
2) Rookie mistake
There I was at 9 a.m. on Sunday morning, armed with my reusable bags and Reddit research of how Aldi works and my quarter to get my shopping cart. I slipped the quarter into my purse the night before, knowing I’d probably forget it if I didn’t do it right then and there. I drive to my nearest Aldi, which isn’t far but isn’t as close as Publix (10 minutes opposed to 5 minutes). And then I’m ready. I reach into my purse to make sure I have the quarter in hand, prepared to not look like a newbie. Except the quarter is not where I put it. The quarter is gone. It just disappeared from my purse! I searched everywhere in my purse, but I am quarter-less. And while I probably could have waited outside of Aldi for some kind soul to take pity on me, I have social anxiety and that’s not the way I operate. So instead I sadly pulled out of the parking lot and drove to Publix for my weekly grocery shopping. Hopefully I have better luck this weekend.
3) One week from tomorrow
Next Saturday is the big day! My mom and I will be doing the Fight for Air Stair Climb, and I am so very nervous about it. I was trying to train for it by using the stair stepper at the gym, but y’all, the stair stepper is no joke. The most steps I did at once was 300 and it felt like agony, which makes me really excited about climbing another 600! At this point, I am going to trust that I have the fitness level to complete it (I climb three flights of stairs with groceries weighing me down on a weekly basis, so I can handle this, right?!).
I am pleased to announce that I surpassed my fundraiser goal threefold (a massive thank you to everyone who donated – thank-you cards are in the mail!). If you wanted to donate but haven’t yet, can I ask you to donate to my mom’s fundraiser? She’s trying to raise $100 as well!
4) Dinner fail
I had my first dinner fail in a while! I couldn’t see how I could fail at a recipe that called for adding a whole head of garlic to the pot, but apparently, I made a very bland chicken dish from those instructions. I don’t know if it was just the recipe that failed me or if I missed some crucial step that would have taken things up a notch, but the meal was not nearly as flavorful as I expected. I ate my portion for dinner but threw the rest away. Win some, lose some.
(What I didn’t fail at this week was my beloved Italian chicken, in which I dump a whole bottle of Italian dressing into a bag, add some chicken, and let it marinate for a few hours before throwing it in the oven to bake. Yummmm!)
5) Weekend plans
I have a great weekend planned! Tonight will be a low-key one at home. Tomorrow, I have writing with Mikaela in the morning and then I’m going to my mom’s so we can celebrate Lucy’s birthday (she’s turning four, omg). The dogs are going to their favorite place for a bath and then afterwards, we’re going to our favorite ice cream shop that specifically makes ice cream for dogs. Yay! And on Sunday, I will go to a yoga class and then in the late afternoon, I’m finally giving my mom her birthday present (from last July, ha): We’re going to a paint-your-pet event at our local Painting with a Twist! She’s going to paint Lucy and I’m going to paint Eloise. (Which means I will need to go back to paint Lila!)
What was your last dinner fail? What are your weekend plans?
I donated to your mom’s fundraiser! And- you can do it. For long distance running, you never run the race distance before the race (like if you’re doing a marathon, you don’t actually run 26.2 miles in training.) You just get yourself in the best shape possible, and have faith that your physical AND MENTAL strength will carry you through. I’ll pass on words of wisdom from a running podcast I just listened to- go into this knowing that it will be hard, but it won’t be anything you can’t handle. I’m excited for you!
Omg your reading retreat- I’m so, so envious. i’m trying to figure out how I can do some version of that in my own life. It sounds amazing, and I want to hear every detail!!! I also can’t wait to see the painting of Eloise- if I tried to do that, it would, um, NOT end up looking like a cat. But let’s assume you have better art skills than I do.
Thank you so much for donating, Jenny! We really appreciate it! <3
I love that mantra: This will be hard, but I can handle it. That is something I will take with me next Saturday!
Thankfully, they build the outline of the pet for you, and I just have to paint in the details. I just hope I get all of her markings right!
A paint-your-pet event?!? Oh wow, Stephany, I cannot WAIT for photos of this experience!
My family and I did a ton of stairs recently and I thought about you and Birchie with every panting step I took! Stairs are no joke!
Your reading retreat sounds amazing. What a great way to make lemonade out of the pesky lemons of your peeling shower! Please keep us posted about the books you take and the snacks you choose.
Okay, I am only now realizing that “paint your pet” means that you will be creating a portrait of your pet? I was thinking that you and your mom would be painting ON your pets. I think I have been watching too many Instagram videos.
I’m now just trying to imagine how much Eloise would despise me if I tried to paint on her! HA! It’s not going to be THAT kind of painting, although I can see the confusion. I’m just painting a portrait of her, haha.
I will definitely write a whole blog post about my reading retreat!
I’m still laughing about Suzanne’s initial reaction to a “Paint Your Pet” night! It is a bit confusing, but I’m glad your pets will emerge unscathed with beautiful portraits.
24 hours of reading in a space you don’t own (and therefore need to “tend”) sounds amazing. Enjoy it.
I’m laughing, too! I’m imagining a class full of hissing cats and barking dogs. What a wild time that would be!
And yes, I feel like if I did this at home, I’d come up with all these other things I could be doing. But if I’m in a house I don’t own… all I need to do is feed myself and read and make sure the cats are good!
Your reading retreat sounds amazing!! I’d love to do that at some point when I can more easily get away from the kids without feeling guilty! I can’t wait to hear what you read!
I’m chuckling at Suzanne’s misunderstanding of the paint your pet event! Lol. I can’t wait to see the finished product!!
That is a bummer about the quarter situation at Aldi. Both of our cars have quarters in the cup holders because Phil often finds that people leave their quarter in the cart. So he collects them and leaves them in the car. That way if we do go to Aldi, we always have quarters for the cart!
So smart to always keep quarters in the car! I was thinking of doing the same – just keeping a stack of them in my car so I’m never SOL! And then I came home on Saturday to find that Sarah Jedd sent me this really cute Aldi keychain where I can stuff quarters into the pocket and always have them on hand! It was such a sweet gift.
A couple of weeks ago, we had planned on butternut squash soup for dinner, but the squashes were soft and squishy and we had to have breakfast for dinner. It was annoying because it threw off our meal plan for the week (we didn’t have leftovers for the next night) and it was a waste of money. Oh, well. When you rely on produce, sometimes it doesn’t work out.
We’ve had some classic Midwestern spring storms, so our yard looks like a tornado hit it. I think yardwork is my big weekend plan. Blech. Not fun.
Ugh, so you definitely feel me on the dinner fail. I was going to eat the leftovers for dinner the next day so I had to quickly revise my meal plan. Whomp.
Yardwork! No fun at all. 🙁
Tub refinishing? I didn’t know that could be done.
I’ve done the same thing at Aldi. Showed up without a quarter, shopped with a hand basket. Didn’t buy much. I think it’s short-sighted on their part to not just let you have a cart.
Weekend plans? Moving pond pebbles from car trunk to side of hill. Working on the landscape in other words.
In hindsight, I could have just gone into the store and shopped for a few things so at least I could get a feel for the place. Ah, well. I remembered it today!
I don’t know the difference between Aldi and Publix, or even what they are. We don’t have them here. Superstore, which is where I get all my groceries, takes a loonie ($1 coin) or a special token to get the carts, and I think every store should have this. The grocery cart problem would be SOLVED if every store just fitted their carts to be coin operated, because no one would ever abandon a cart when there is a dollar involved.
The reading retreat sounds so fun and I cannot wait to hear what you read!
I haven’t had a dinner fail in years, I know this sounds like a flex, but the truth is that I don’t really try a whole lot of new recipes, or if I do, I just doctor them up to my own specifications anyway. The last big fail was when I was working for YMC and I made a cauliflower-based dessert, and WHOEVER WOULD PREDICT, it was bad. Like, my friends that I had over to taste test were like, sorry Nicole, no can do.
I think it’s a great hack to force people to spend a quarter to get a cart, but I just hate how anxious it makes me feel that I’m not going to have a quarter at any specific time. I guess it’s just because I’m not in the habit of it.
I usually stick to my tried-and-true recipes because then I know I can’t fail at it, but I tried to branch out and look where it got me!
Your reading retreat sounds amazing! What a good idea – that could be a thing, you know? You may be starting a trend here! I wish you all the best with your stair climb! Good for you for doing it! I know it would be way beyond my abilities at the moment, so I admire you for doing it. Is it OK to take breaks as you’re climbing? Can you go at your own pace? I hope that it’s a good experience!
I hope the reading retreat goes well! I know other people who do it so that’s where the idea came from.
Yes, we can go at our own pace for the stair climb and I think there are places where you can get off-path and take a break. We will need that for sure!
That reading retreat sounds like the most fun. I want to do that. I guess I could always drive to my parents country home with a stack of books.
Here in Germany they have little tokens in size of the quarter that you can use. They often hand them out at the cash register if you ask. Sometimes you can keep them. I have a few of those floating around in various pockets and we also try to have in the car. Maybe ask if that is available for future mishaps?
We went to see friends last night and today I want to blog and read. But I need to do taxes later I fear.
I could have asked or just waited for someone to come out with a cart, but ooh, that makes me so anxious to think about, lol. I think just keeping a handful of quarters on hand will help!
Ugh, I hope the taxes weren’t too painful!
I have so much reading to get caught up on!! That retreat sounds wonderful! And wow, your stair climb good for you! I don’t think I could ever do that. I can dance and teach dance fitness but I have zero endurance for anything running/climbing. Maybe it’s psychological but I just feel like passing out after only a few minutes.
We attended my girlfriend’s 60th birthday party last night. There are a few of us hitting that milestone this year – we’re certainly not the 60 year olds that we remember of our parents’ generation. At least in spirit – although I’d say my girlfriend group are pretty well preserved LOL.
I am very nervous about the stair climb, but hoping it’s not as terrible as I’m imagining it will be. And I think there will be a lot of encouragement and positivity to help us get through it!
I heard a stat that now the actors on Friends are older than the women on Golden Girls were… it’s wild to think that they were only in their 50s/60s when they felt SO much older. 60s is not how it used to be!
So many things! I clicked over and see that your mom hit her goal! YAY! I was thinking of you today and that challenge. How many flights are you going to climb? Some people are climbing 50, which made me think of the 32 story hotel I used to work in, and WOW I would not want to climb all of those stairs. We had people that came DOWN those flights the day of the 1989 earthquake, because the elevators were out, but I don’t think anyone went UP them. Well, probably some people did, but I remember people camping in the lobby and in banquet rooms.
Anyway, I cook a lot and like to try new recipes, so there are MANY recipe fails. I’m not sure what my most recent one was. I clicked over to the recipe you tried, and it looked like it would be good, so it must have been a sadness when it didn’t turn out.
Your pet painting (HA! Suzanne!) sounds like fun, I hope you have a great time!
And your reading retreat is a genius idea. I remember many years ago that there was construction in our neighborhood that required our power to be off all day, but it was planned and we knew about it. It was during the summer, hot, and I had a big computer for work, not a laptop. So I took the day off, and my daughter and I went to a local spa. For the price of a massage, you can stay there all day. So we worked out, we swam in the pool, we sat in the hot tub, we had our massages, we had lunch, it was lovely. Surreal too, I remember early in the day hearing that Farrah Fawcett had died, and when we came out of our massages, Michael Jackson had died. A memorable day for us.
The climb we’re doing has 42 floors! I think it’s a little less than what Birchie had to do and I’m very grateful for that, ha.
That spa day sounds divine! If I didn’t have to worry about the cats, I’d probably just hang out at a coffee shop/with my mom or something like that. I also remember that day very clearly! I was working at a daycare. Earlier in the day, we had heard about Farrah Fawcett’s death and someone came in near closing to pick up their kid and was like, “Did you hear who died?” and we were all, “Yeah, Farrah Fawcett.” And that’s how we learned about Michael Jackson! Wild!
The retreat sounds AMAZING! I am excited to hear about it and what you read. And excited to hear about the climb!
Did you make it to Aldi yet? Sometimes there are “cat angels” that leave a cart out so you don’t need your quarter. 🙂
Yes, I did! It was an interesting experience, ha. I figured I could wait around for a cart angel but I felt self-conscious about it!
A reading retreat! What better way to spend your time while they refinish your tub! Win-win!
And I am commenting late and the climb already happened, but let me say again: YOU DID THAT!! I am so damn proud of you!
What San said. You and your mom ROCKED the stair climb!
Also? Aldi just makes me anxious in general. Not knowing what they will have? Things out all willy-nilly? I know it’s inexpensive, but for me, it’s a longer drive and that + the anxiety = I will support the local place across the street. I’m proud of you for going back – I would have bailed forever with one “failed” attempt. 🙂