The high of my week was having a fun afternoon with my mom on Sunday. We went out for lunch and then popped into Homegoods and Target for a little bit of shopping. It was a really nice time!

The low of my week was having anxiety episodes. I started my new regimen of 30mg of Lexapro over the weekend, but of course, it’s going to take some time for my body to adjust. My mind, meanwhile, wants things to be okay right now, and since I’m not, my anxiety has been thrown into hyperdrive. I’ve also started taking melatonin again at night because I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping and tossing and turning when I do fall asleep. This has helped a lot! I’m trying to be patient with myself and knowing I have a psychiatrist who is dedicated to helping me feel better has helped a lot while I struggle through anxious days and nights.

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list this week was hanging my wall clock! I received this beautiful wall clock for Christmas and it has been sitting in its packaging since then, eeks. It was one of those tasks that I thought was going to be really complicated and the clock was going to be really hard to hang, but it took me less than 10 minutes! And now I have a beautiful clock in my apartment. (Unfortunately, I just realized it’s about 4 minutes slow, which is going to aggravate me, so my new nagging task is to take the clock off the wall to fix the time.)

I’m currently reading only one book right now, which is The Fine Print by Lauren Asher. It’s a contemporary romance that Meredith of Currently Reading raved about, and since she is very picky about her romances, I knew I had to pick it up. I’m not very far into the novel, so I can’t give an opinion just yet. In other reading news, I was struggling through The Idea of You by Robinne Lee. This book has gotten phenomenal reviews from so many friends, but I was so stressed out about the romance! (It’s about a 39-year-old woman who starts dating a 20-year-old member of a boy band.) I was reading maybe 20 pages a day of the book but was never excited to pick it up, so I finally decided to abandon it yesterday. I feel very relieved, which is a good sign!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Sasheer Was Scared to Leave Nicole Stranded in the Middle of the Ocean on Best Friends with Nicole Byer and Sasheer Zamata. In this episode, Nicole and Sasheer recap their trip to the Bahamas and I need them to write a script based on their vacation because this is the movie we need in the world. It started with an Airbnb house from hell and ended with Nicole’s jet ski running out of gas while they were in the middle of the ocean. And that’s only part of their insane adventure! They still have 3.5 days to recap for us! Please do yourself a favor and listen to this crazy story (and then listen to part 2 when it drops next week). It’s hilarious and awful and amazing!

The best money I spent this week was $6 on three salad plates. I like using smaller plates for snacks and the like, but for way too long, I have only had ONE salad plate. One! I don’t know if I only bought one to begin with, or if I bought two and misplaced the other one. But it was a real annoyance because if I used the plate earlier in the day, I would have to wash it to use it later on. I finally decided to just buy more plates. They are these cheap, white salad plates from Target, nothing fancy, and I was just so delighted by myself when I bought them.

My plans this weekend include nothing much! My Friday night and Saturday are free (I may wind up doing a karaoke room with some friends, but I’m still debating if I want to do that, ha). Sunday, I have a writing date with Mikaela in the morning and playoff football in the late afternoon. So sad that there are only 3 football games left this season! Wah.

What are your weekend plans?

The high of my week was having a four-day weekend! I scheduled Friday off to give myself a long(er) weekend, which was much-needed because I spent last week in tons of meetings and I was worn out by the end of it. I didn’t do much this weekend; it was just nice to be able to relax, sleep in, and get some stuff done.

The low of my week was completely flubbing dinner one day this week. I tried to make this BBQ chicken recipe from Budget Bytes, but the chicken I used was way too large and took forever to cook through. I was cooking the chicken on medium-high heat and I finally bumped up the heat to high, which caused my entire kitchen to get smoky. I had to turn on the vents and open my patio door to air things out. When my chicken was finally cooked through, I realized I had messed up the seasonings and the chicken was way too salty as a result. Live and learn, I guess!

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list this week was cleaning out the litter boxes. Did you know that you’re supposed to clean out the litter boxes weekly if you have multiple cats? That’s not happening around here. I scoop the litter regularly and add fresh litter when needed, but doing a full cleaning (dumping out old litter, wiping down the box with soap and water, and adding new litter) does not happen as frequently as it should. But I did it this week and I’m going to try to get into a habit of doing it monthly.

I’m currently reading The Last House on the Street by Diane Chamberlain (audio; our January book club book, which I am enjoying), Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson (print; it’s okay, nothing too exciting), and Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian (e-book; enjoyable so far).

A podcast episode I enjoyed was my own! The Friendship Paradox kicked off its third season this week with a long (for us) episode on dating. We try to keep our episodes under 50 minutes, but this one is over an hour because we were chatty-chatty! This episode would have been even longer, too, because we were still working through our outline when we realized we had already been recording for an hour. We had to cut out some questions to make sure we didn’t make a 2-hour episode, ha.

The best money I spent this week was $16 on new bowls and a placemat for the girls! I needed to order more litter and wanted to hit that “free shipping” threshold on Chewy, so I decided it was time to replace their food supplies. I know I will be much more excited about these supplies than the girls.

My plans this weekend include nothing too exciting! It’s another weekend of the NFL playoffs so I will be spending the majority of my weekend at my mom’s to watch the games (and rooting against Buffalo, muahaha). I also plan on watching Glass Onion tonight and I have a writing date with Mikaela planned for Saturday morning.

What was the high of your week?

The high of my week was our belated November book club meeting. I got to pick the restaurant, so I chose my favorite local pizza place, and we had a fabulous time chit-chatting, talking about the book (The People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry – one other person didn’t care for it, so at least I wasn’t in the total minority!), and going over some changes we want to make to our book club meetings in 2023. I also got showered with gifts, which was super fun!

The low of my week was the news that Stephen “tWitch” Boss died by suicide this week. I have never been more shocked, more saddened, more distraught over a celebrity dying. I’ve never cried when a celebrity died, but I have shed many tears this week over him. It just doesn’t feel real. It feels like I’m living in this alternate reality. He was such a light, such a joy, such a hopeful, positive person. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that he is truly gone from this world. My heart breaks for his wife who lost the love of her life and his three children who lost their father just days before Christmas. My heart breaks for tWitch and the immense pain he must have been in to see no other way out. We truly never know what other people are going through. I hope he’s at peace now.

An Internet find/blog post I loved was this really powerful video from B Mo the Prince. I cried for 5 straight minutes after I watched it.

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list this week was cleaning out my robot vacuum. I usually dump out the dustbin after each vacuuming job, but I’m really bad about taking out the rollers and cleaning them out. So bad that when I removed all the hair from one of my rollers, I could have easily made a toupee for my stepdad. Eeks! There’s no way my vacuum was cleaning effectively! (In fact, I know it wasn’t because my dirt event count for my last cleaning job was 6 and today, it was 181. LOLZ.)

I’m currently reading Three Nights with a Scoundrel by Tessa Dare (historical romance, nearly finished!), The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin (contemporary fiction, the light-hearted book that I need right now), and The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson (audiobook).

A podcast episode I enjoyed was True Crime: The Phantom of Heilbronn on Stuff You Should Know. You guysssss. This episode was amazing. I literally gasped when everything was revealed. It was so unexpected! I need everyone to listen to this episode. I’m not even going to tell you a single thing about it. I just want you to listen to it and report back what you thought.

The best money I spent this week was $5 on a peppermint mocha that I drank while strolling around Target on Tuesday. Such a simple joy!

My plans this weekend include lots of fun Christmassy stuff! Tonight, I’m going to Bri’s to record a few podcast episodes. Tomorrow, I have a writing date with Mikaela, pictures with Santa Paws with the dogs, and the annual visit to Robert’s Christmas Wonderland (a wonderful little Christmassy shop!) with my mom. Sunday is football and we’re going to do our annual Christmas cookie decorating night! A fun, full, happy weekend, and my heart needs it.

What’s the best money you spent this week?

The high of my week was starting a daily walking exercise with my mom. It’s been so fun! Every day, we’re aiming to go for a 15-20 minute walk. No matter what, we have to get this walk done! We do a daily text check-in to keep each other honest. At first, I was planning on combining these daily walks with some Peloton workouts, but then I decided I wanted to keep things as easy as possible for me. That’s how to build a habit, after all. You have to start with the simplest daily step and for me, it’s taking a single loop around my apartment complex once a day. Eventually, I’ll add time to these daily walks and also add in a Peloton strength or spin workout a few times a week, but for now, this is what feels good and feels easy enough to accomplish daily.

The low of my week was FINDING MY PRESCRIPTION SUNGLASSES AFTER I HAD ORDERED NEW ONES. Didn’t everyone tell me this would happen? And it did. My old sunglasses had been hiding on this little ledge that I didn’t know existed behind my gearshift. For a few weeks, I had been hearing this weird knocking sound whenever I made a turn; it just sounded like something was loose and banging from one side of the car to the other when I turned (but I could tell it was in this spot behind the gearshift since that’s where the noise was coming from). I couldn’t figure out what was causing this noise! Was it due to the loose cards I had sitting in the space behind my gear shift? Maybe. I removed the cards… but the noise persisted. Maybe there was something loose in my car door that was causing the noise… but there was nothing there. One day, unable to figure out WHERE this sound was coming from, I stuck my hand behind the little space behind the gearshift, and lo and behold, there was this little ledge I had never known about. On the ledge were my sunglasses. I wasn’t even happy about finding them because my new sunglasses have been ordered and were shipped a few days ago. I was mostly just annoyed at myself. Argh!

One nagging task I crossed off my to-do list this week was nothing. Eeks! I didn’t really get a ton accomplished this week, aside from starting NaBloPoMo! So let’s set some to-dos for this upcoming week: I need to do laundry, clean my bathroom, rehang my world map, and run the Roomba.

I’m currently reading The Smart One by Jennifer Close and The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. The Smart One has been an interesting read; it’s very character-driven, and the characters are wholly unlikable, but I’m enjoying it so far. Katherine Center is a hit-or-miss author for me, but her newest release is working really well for me right now.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Hallmark Movies Explained on The Popcast. You guyssss. This episode had me dying, mostly at all the super ridiculous plotlines of Hallmark movies (both real and imagined). It is their best work so far.

The best money I spent this week was on booking our last cruise excursion. I’ve been holding off on booking our Jamaica excursion (river tubing). I always like booking through the cruise ship when I can, but the excursion I wanted to do was fully booked by the time we got around the booking our excursions. Ugh! I was able to find the same excursion through other excursion agencies, but kept forgetting to actually book it. On Thursday, I finally decided to book the damn excursion finally and decided to check Royal Caribbean’s website first to see if a few spots had opened up—and they had! Woohoo! I was able to book our excursion through the cruise line, and I’m really excited about it. We’re going to have so much fun. We leave 3 weeks from today!

This weekend, I had a lovely hair appointment on Friday afternoon where I got my highlights touched up and a cute haircut (see above; I joined the curtain bangs trend!). In the evening, I went over to Bri’s to record our last episode of season 2! Woohoo! On Saturday, I attended a celebration of life event for my aunt’s mother who passed away, had a writing date with Mikaela and Eleni, and then spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of Love Is Blind (#guiltypleasure). And today, the plan is to watch football with the fam and make my oh-so-famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. (Here’s the recipe I use!)

What was a bright spot of your weekend?

The high of my week was doing my lil bathroom refresh! After many months of acquiring new items for my bathroom, I finally had everything ready to go. I changed out the shower curtain (and the liner, which was very, very gross) and got a new shower curtain rod. I added new pink towels (and they’re the luxurious bath sheets, which are so much bigger than a regular towel and make me feel like a goddess when I’m all wrapped up). I replaced the rugs. It’s a whole bunch of little things, but it makes the bathroom feel different and new.

The low of my week was driving anxiety. I have never really had anxiety about driving. I am a confident driver and have been that way since I started driving at 15. I live in a place where I have to drive everywhere, no matter where I need to go. Lately, though, I’ve been having a lot of anxiety while driving, especially when driving at night. My specific fear is that I will cause a terrible accident (or worse, harm a pedestrian). In my two decades of driving, I have never caused an accident. (#knockonwood) I’d like to think I’m a safe driver, so I really don’t know where this anxiety is coming from. It’s gotten so bad lately that I may schedule an emergency therapy appointment so we can work through this together, and I can hopefully start feeling less anxious about driving.

An Internet find that I loved was this silly Reel that I have shared with way too many people. 🙂

One nagging task I marked off my to-do list this week was mailing off my ballot! It’s been sitting on my kitchen table for way too long, so I finally filled it out and dropped it off yesterday at a dropbox (which was actually at my home library, how convenient!). So glad to have that done, although I have very little faith that Florida will do the right thing and kick DeSantis and Rubio out of office, ugh.

I’m currently reading Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay by Phoebe Robinson and To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn (the fifth Bridgerton book—Eloise’s story!). I am not too far into either of them (about 100 pages), but I’m enjoying both right now.

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Young Black Voters in Atlanta on The Wilderness. I have really enjoyed this season of The Wilderness, which is a Crooked Media podcast that takes a series of focus groups that happen all across the US and tries to figure out what people are looking for in their politicians and how Democrats can better meet the needs of its people. I like this podcast because they speak to a lot of people who are apathetic about politics and voting in general. I have found it fascinating because I am locked in my liberal white bubble where we all hate Trump and Republicans as a whole, but that’s not the case for everyone (obviously, considering how popular he still is, but these aren’t your typical MAGA Republicans who love Trump; they are just looking for someone to shake up the status quo, and Trump certainly does that). Anyway, this episode was particularly enlightening.

The best money I spent this week was on my cruise excursions! We’ll be on a ship in just 30 days! Eeks. We finally decided to book all of our shore excursions (we’re stopping in the Bahamas, Haiti, and Jamaica) and it all feels so real now. We’re going to do a helium balloon ride in the Bahamas, a paint-and-sip excursion in Haiti, and river tubing in Jamaica. I can’t wait!

My plans this weekend include hopefully not feeling too crummy, as I’m getting both my flu shot and my bivalent Covid booster this afternoon. Last time, I started taking Tylenol right after getting my booster and I didn’t have any side effects. I don’t know if that’s why I felt okay, but I’m going to try it again and see what happens. If all goes well, I’ll spend Saturday afternoon with Mikaela and Eleni and enjoy football with the fam on Sunday. If all does not go well, I will be spending the weekend on the couch, watching lots of TV.

What was the best thing you spent money on this week?