Monthly Recap | November 2019

We are firmly in December (eeks!) and I’m just now getting around to posting my November recap! I was hoping to get this ready before I left on my cruise, but I ran out of time. Here it is!

READING

I finished 9 books in November so I’m sitting pretty at 119 books for the year. It’s doubtful I’ll read more than I did last year (134 books), I’ll get close to that number! And I’m happy about that. Anything over 100 is ridiculous anyway, lol. Here are my top three from the month:

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi, which will most likely be my favorite book of the year. Incredible. Everyone needs to read it.
• The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare, a really fun historical romance that I couldn’t find any faults with. Romance fans, get your hands on Tessa Dare’s novels!
• The Flatshare by Beth O’Leary, which was a really cute and fun book that had surprising emotional depth. Loved every minute I spent with this novel!

WATCHING

My TV watching was way down this month. I just felt less inclined to turn on Netflix for some reason. I think it had something to do with NaNoWriMo – I didn’t want to get sucked into a show. (You’d think this would mean I read less, too, but that wasn’t the case.) Anyway, I did start season five of Schitt’s Creek and I’m about halfway through it. Aside from watching an episode a week of The Office to keep up with the Office Ladies podcast, that’s all I watched this month!

LISTENING TO

• Slow Burn, season three – Slow Burn is back! I really enjoyed the first two seasons of the show, exploring Watergate and then the Clinton impeachment. I was curious what the next season would be – and it was something I could have never expected! This season, it’s exploring the murders of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. Both rappers died in the mid-90s, a time when I was most definitely not listening to their music. (On account of being very young and very Christian.) So, there’s a lot I don’t know about their lives and deaths and the story is MUCH more interesting than I imagined.
• What a Day – I like to listen to a short news podcast first thing every morning. Previously, I was listening to Trevor Noah’s Daily Show podcast and really enjoying it, but since it’s a TV show in podcast form, there’s a little bit of a disconnect + there are MANY weeks with no episodes. What a Day is put out by Crooked Media and I’ve been listening to it for a few weeks now. I like it, but don’t love it. I feel like the two hosts aren’t super compatible together and there’s an awkwardness to their exchanges. Maybe just some growing pains, but if there is a must-listen daily news podcast that any of you recommend, I’m all ears. (Ha, pun intended.)

BUYING

• Asics GEL-Nimbus 21 ($107) – I can’t remember the last time I bought new running shoes, but it’s been a few years at least. I really need to set a yearly reminder to replace my shoes! I finally had enough and went to Dick’s Sporting Goods one evening to try on a bunch of shoes and really loved the way these Asics felt. I need to buy inserts because they do make my arches cramp after walking in them for too long, but other than that, they’re just what I wanted!
• Heating pad ($25) – I can’t tell you how many aches and pains I get where I think, “I could really use a heating pad right now.” This month, I’ve been struggling with some neck pain from the way I sleep and when even a massage didn’t ease the ache, I finally broke down and bought a heating pad from Target. Welcome to your thirties, Steph, where buying a heating pad is worthy of talking about on your blog. (Honestly, I’ve become so boring. You should see my Christmas list this year. Full of boring adult things like a cooking pot and dust buster.)
• Mice in sweaters ($3) – I couldn’t resist these tiny little mice dressed up in their fanciest Christmas sweaters. The girls love them (literally, as I’m writing this bullet point, Ellie is batting one all around the room).

THE GOOD

• Running of the Wieners 2019 – Chip participated in his second annual Running of the Wieners race! This race is exactly what it sounds like: a whole bunch of dachshunds racing against each other. It’s the cutest thing! Last year, Chip ran vertically across the field rather than horizontally so we were hoping for a much better performance this year. And he did so well! He ran straight to my mom who was waiting at the finish line, but got distracted at the last second by a toy another dog parent had. He ended up coming in second in his heat, but I was so damn proud of him!
• My first hibachi experience – Can you believe I’ve never had hibachi? I’m a picky eater and just assumed I wouldn’t like it, but I was way, way, way wrong! We went for hibachi for November’s book club (if someone in book club has a birthday that month, they get to pick where we eat/what we do!) and it was really fun and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal. I can’t wait to go back!
• Winning NaNoWriMo 2019! – Yay, I did it! I wrote 50,000 words in my novel in 27 days and I am so proud of myself for getting it done. It is not easy to sit down and force yourself to write every day, especially if you’re not in the habit of it (I definitely wasn’t), but there’s something about NaNoWriMo that puts a fire in me to get shit done. Next up: finishing my novel!
• A lovely Thanksgiving – We had a small Thanksgiving dinner this year with just my mom, me, and my brother and his family. It was really nice! We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and so many desserts. And, of course, a delicious chocolate cake for my birthday!

THE BAD

• Not exercising – I logged barely any workouts in November, which I’m blaming on NaNoWriMo. The evenings were reserved for writing and most days, I wasn’t getting into bed at a decent hour so I never really wanted to wake up at 5AM to work out. I think I logged 7-8 workouts, which put me way behind on my “150 workouts” goal. (A goal I won’t be marking complete, seeing as I can’t exercise right now! Argh.)
• A sore neck – I mentioned this above, but I dealt with this really annoying neck issue for about two weeks in November. I think it was due to my sleeping position, but isn’t it weird how you can sleep one way for months and months and months (years, even!) and all of a sudden, your body is like, “NOPE!” That’s how it felt. Suddenly, the only way I could sleep without my neck hurting was to sleep with one flat pillow. (And as someone who loves sleeping with MANY pillows, this felt very weird to me.) I tried everything to ease the discomfort: icing it, using a heating pad, getting a massage… nothing helped! And then the pain just disappeared. So weird!
• Loneliness – I tried not to make too many plans in November because of my writing goal, but it led to many days of loneliness. I don’t get lonely that often, but this month was proof that I need to make plans at least a few nights out of the week to keep my spirits up.

Tell me something good that happened in your life in November!