Good Stuff
My girlfriend and I had a day date early in the month where we went to a candle shop to make our own candles! What a fun experience. We got to choose the exact scents we wanted and mix them up ourselves to achieve that perfect balance. When it comes to candle making you don’t have to look far for supplies, as most artisan candle makers and large candle brands purchase their candle wax from a UK company called Kerax. I just burned the candle for the first time last week (we were instructed to wait two weeks before using them) and it made my apartment smell amazing!
I’ve been talking about it for a while, and in April, I finally took the plunge and went back to brunette! I am really enjoying the new color and am planning to go even darker brown during my next coloring appointment at the end of June. I didn’t want the change to feel too drastic to start, so we opted for a light auburn-y brown that is very close to my natural color. It’s fun and makes me feel good!
Mom and I had a lovely time last month picking flowers at a u-pick farm. I went to this farm last year with a friend and then told my mom this would be her Mother’s Day present (in 2022). Unfortunately, we never made it to the farm last year because it just got too hot. So she cashed in her present nearly a year later and we had a great time! We picked flowers, my mom got lots of great produce from their stand, and then we went out to lunch.
I’ve talked about how magical the Taylor Swift concert was, and the shine has not worn off. It was one of the most amazing nights of my life and I am so in awe of Taylor as a performer. She’s one of the greats.
This month, I spent a week with my fur-siblings! My mom and stepdad went on a cruise for five days, so I was on doggo duty. Chip and Lucy are my favorite little babies and we had a great time together. And I noticed how much more well-behaved Chip is now that he’s going through training! It’s night and day!
My girlfriend and I had a lovely bookish date for Independent Bookstore Day. We love our local indie, Tombolo Books, so we made sure to get there early to beat the crowd. I got a handful of books, some stickers, and a Indie Bookstore Day t-shirt so I left a very happy camper.
Hard Stuff
- A mole problem – I mentioned on a previous post that I went for my annual skin check in April and had to get two moles biopsied. My dermatologist wasn’t sure if they would come back with anything but they looked a little funky and she wanted to be cautious. Good thing! Both of those moles came back with precancerous markers. So in two weeks, I’ll be back to the dermatologist to get the moles fully removed. It’s not fun, but I am so grateful for a super-cautious dermatologist.
- More anxiety than normal – After feeling like my anxiety disorder was at a super stable place, things seemed to devolve a bit in April. Generally, my anxiety is in a much better spot than it was last year. But a few times a week, usually at night, I get these random bouts of panic and anxiety. I can never predict when they are going to happen, which is frustrating. It doesn’t happen every day, though, so I’m always worried if I bring this up to my psychiatrist, she’s going to tell me I just need to deal with it. We’ve gotten my anxiety to a “good enough” spot, and I should be grateful for that, right? It’s a crazy fear to have, I know, but it’s always there. (Thankfully, my psychiatrist is not a psychopath and told me I don’t have to live like this and is subscribing me an “as needed” medication to try.)
- Social burnout – This was a busy month for me and after a stretch of having big plans almost every single day for over a week, I was feeling irritable and so very tired. So I canceled almost every plan I had one weekend and rested. It was so very needed and I felt so refreshed.
Stuff I Recommend
- Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (movie) – This movie was so good! I thought the role of Margaret was perfectly cast and I just loved all of the different odes to puberty. It’s a very weird time in a girl’s life! I was the girl who developed early (I got my period at 10!) so I didn’t deal with these common worries about getting my first period, but it was fun to reminisce about that time in my life.
- Cat necklace ($15) – I saw this delicate cat necklace on Etsy one day when I was looking at jewelry options and I had to buy it. It is a perfect new necklace for my collection! (I got it in rose gold.)
- Floodlines – I’ve had this podcast saved in my to-be-listened-to list for quite a while, and finally got around to listening to it last month. It goes through what happened in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, especially the way residents of New Orleans were treated after the tragedy and the way government officials responded. It tells a harrowing, difficult story and it’s a must-listen, in my opinion.
- Love Is Blind – Do I really recommend this show? Probably not. But it’s such a guilty pleasure of mine. It’s a ridiculous concept, but I can’t stop watching it! Come for the trashy reality TV, stay for the Brett and Tiffany love story that is so sweet and the true epitome of Black excellence. <3
Bookish Stuff
- # of books/pages read: 9 books (3,013 pages)
- Favorite book of the month: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai
- Least favorite book of the month: To Sir, With Love by Lauren Layne
- Underrated gem of the month: The Saturday Evening Girls Club by Jane Healy
- Books I abandoned
- The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
- Miss Me With That: Hot Takes, Helpful Tidbits, and a Few Hard Truths by Rachel Lindsay
- Format breakdown: print books (4), e-books (3), and audiobooks (2)
- Genre breakdown: Romance (3), historical fiction (2), fiction (1), thriller (1), nonfiction (1), and YA (1)
Goal Stuff
- Go for a walk every day (15/30) – I’m actually kind of shocked that I went for 15 walks last month. I definitely thought the number was going to be lower. It was just one of those months when I was so busy with other things and going for a daily walk fell by the wayside.
- Drink a bottle of water every day (9/30) – Pitiful.
- Complete 100 Peloton workouts (26/100) – Yikes, I only did 3 Peloton workouts in April! This puts me behind my goal by 7 workouts. Hopefully, my goal of working out every day in May will get me back on track!
- Watch 6 movies and 6 standup specials – I watched TWO movies in April so now I’m ahead of my goal, woop! I saw Stepbrothers during a private movie event with some friends and then AYTGIMM with my mom, as mentioned above.
Floodlines! It was so good. It was on all the Best Of lists in 2020, but I thought it would be so depressing (and it kind of was), but it was just so well done that I couldn’t stop listening once I started. Have you listened to Vann Newkirk’s newest podcast, Holy Week: The Story of a Revolution Undone? It’s about the week following the assassination of MLK and how it changed the trajectory of the civil rights movement. I haven’t listened, but I hear Newkirk talking about it on Longform, so I might add it to my list.
Making your own candle sounds like such a great idea for a date! Yay for it smelling good, too!
Floodlines was just so good. And I haven’t listened to Holy Week. Adding that to my to-be-listened list! Thanks for the rec!
You had so many fun highlights this month. I loved following along for all of them!
Ooo! What scents did you choose for your candle? That sounds like such a fun thing to do. I wonder how I would handle it – some days I am really sensitive to smells!
I love the new hair color on you!
I am so glad you got those moles checked out and are taking care of you! <3 And that you took a weekend to yourself when you needed it as well!
My candle has mint leaf, rose petals, and lavender. The candle shop definitely had a lot of competing smells that could give some people a headache, that’s for sure!
Love your hair! I adore making candles– such a fun activity and so rewarding for months after. I CANNOT DRINK WATER EITHER. WHYYYYYYYY?
Why is drinking water so hard for us and soooo easy for others?! Makes me crazy!
Aside from the moles and the anxiety, this sounds like a GREAT month. I can’t wait to see Are You There God — I just read it to my daughter and I am excited to take her.
Your hair is AWESOME. I notice your photo every time I visit your blog and thing what a great cut and color it is! It will be fun to see it darker!
The candle making date sounds really cute, and I am envious — I am really sensitive to smells, so I could never do something like that. (My daughter attended a candle-making birthday a couple of years ago and just walking her into the space gave me a headache!)
I can’t wait to hear what you think of Are You There, God?. It made me feel so many emotions! I’m sure it will bring up a lot of good discussion points with your daughter, too!
Yes, that candle shop would have been a nightmare for someone with smell sensitivity! I was okay while we were in the shop but I feel for people who cannot handle it. Making candles is so fun!
I’ve been wondering about Are You There God? I loved that book so much (still do) and I almost never like movie adaptations of books. The exceptions are the newest Emma and Sense and Sensibility. Oh wait, and the 2019 Little Women. Other than that, I am almost always disappointed. But I am very intrigued so maybe I WILL. (Then again, maybe I won’t) (lololol Judy Blume fans will get that reference).
Omg on the moles BUT I’m so glad they are being removed. These things are so scary but manageable at this stage. Also, I’m sorry about the anxiety.
I really like that hair colour and cut! Looks great AND a flower farm, that is a DREAM.
Oh, that’s interesting! I haven’t read the book in YEARS so I really didn’t have much to compare it to. As a movie, it was wonderful. But I’m generally not too critical about book-to-movie adaptations. It may feel different for you!
Can I just say how much I love reading ‘my girlfriend’. I’m just so happy for you. Not that you needed a girlfriend – you are perfectly wonderful on your own. But I know you yearned for companionship and I am so very happy you found someone great – that is a book lover!! And I am starting Happy Place. I have loved Henry’s other books so expect to enjoy this one. I just finished Romantic Comedy and I loved it!!
Your haircut/color is amazing!! You look sooo good with brown hair!
Good for you for dealing with moles. Phil mentioned some discoloration on his nose during his annual physical with his PCP. They biopsied it (even though his PCP wasn’t too concerned about it) and it was cancerous. So he had it removed in March. They took about a square centimeter! It took 3 cuts to get all of it (they keep cutting until they encounter non-cancerous cells). I have never seen it because he has to keep it covered with a bandage but he showed me a picture from the surgery that the doctor uploaded to mychart after his follow up last week and I could not believe how much they took! You’d need a strong stomach to see this picture. It didn’t bother me because medical stuff doesn’t phase me. But dang. It was nuts. So now I need to make a derm appt. Phil said he hopes to never go through this again. It was so very painful.
I know exactly what you mean, Lisa! <3 I was very happy on my own but also really happy to have a companion after so many years alone. It's been fun!
It's really crazy how fast skin cancer can pop up, and the good news is that it can easily be taken care of. I wish my moles were in an easier location – being on my back means they're hard to care for when I have stitches and such. Last time, I had to have my mom come over every other day to switch out the bandage!
First of all, I love your hair! You must have an amazing stylist because the color is perfect.
So much fun stuff this month- I love the candle making and u-pick flowers! I wonder if we have one of those around here? I’ve done u-pick strawberries but flowers would be fun.
Ha- I almost abandoned Ten Thousand Doors but saw it through to the end- what an odd book, though. I Have Some Questions For You sounds great, and I’m going to put a library hold on it.
Do you think the anxiety and social burnout could be related? Maybe it would be easier to manage the anxiety if you weren’t stretched so think? I have no idea if that even makes sense, timing-wise, but just thought I’d throw it out there.
One last thing- I love the cat necklace!
My stylist IS amazing! I love how she kept it pretty subtle, but I’m ready to go a bit bolder next time!
You brought up a really great point: I do think my anxiety and social burnout could be related. I definitely don’t do well when I don’t have enough downtime and time to myself, and that probably doesn’t help with my anxiety disorder!
I loooove making candles but never trust myself to choose good scents, so I get super indecisive, haha. ANd I LOVE your new hair!
It was so nerve-wracking picking out scents for my candle! Not the greatest activity for indecisive people, haha.
Thank you!
Ohmygosh, so much good stuff here! The candle making sounds like a ton of fun, and your HAIR. It’s awesome. I’d noticed the change on IG, of course but so, so glad you went with and – even more important – liked it. 🙂 Good things, for sure.
Not the anxiety, though. I am happy to hear that your psychiatrist is on top of things, and hope that the as needed meds help somewhat. And, good on you for getting the moles taken care of. Not easy – but so necessary.
(And of course, I was so happy to see that you and your girlfriend are spending quality time together. Like Lisa, I know you are more than fine on your own – but it’s wonderful to see you engaging in a relationship you both want and value. :>)
The candle experience was so much fun! I can’t wait to go back and try a different scent. I was really hoping to do a coffee-scented candle, but they were all out of that scent. Wah! And I’d love to do a Christmassy scent for the holiday season.
That’s so sweet of you to say, re: my girlfriend. I really appreciate it!
Oh, a candle workshop. That sounds like fun! Yay for a fun date with your gf! 🙂
I want to seek out some workshops for this summer. I do need to get out of the house (and maybe make a local friend).
I love your new hair color. I think I encouraged you somewhere to go brunette again. I think it looks so good on you!
Local friends are so crucial! I hope you can find some workshops to do that could lend to new friends!