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?

The high of my week was taking a mental health day on Wednesday. It’s so nice to have unlimited PTO and to be able to take days off during the week for no reason at all! This was a wonderful day to myself where I spent the morning in bed, went to lunch with my mom, and got a facial. It was so nice not to have to worry about emails and Slack messages and work drama on a Wednesday! A secondary high of the week was a nice little cold front blowing in. We’ve had 50-degree days the last two days and it was nice to turn off my air conditioner and wear cozy clothes for the first time in months! This cold weather won’t last too long (we’re back to highs in the 80s by the weekend), but it’s been a nice reprieve from the heat.

The low of my week was late bedtimes. Why can’t I seem to get myself together to go to bed at a decent hour? I used to be so strict about my bedtime and wore my early bedtime badge with honor. And now… I’m regularly turning out the light around 11:30 or later. It’s a problem. What’s the solution? I’m not sure. I just need to implement a better nightly schedule so that I’m not going to bed so late and can feel more rested every day.

An Internet find that really impacted me was this anti-abortion ad from Rep. Eric Swalwell. This is the future that awaits us if we let Republicans control Congress.

One nagging task I crossed off my to-do list this week was mopping my floors! I am so lazy about mopping my floors. Thanks to my robot vacuum, I’m at least getting all the dust and cat hair vacuumed up on a weekly basis but my floors need a good scrubbing way more often than I do it. At this point, my goal is to mop them monthly, though I should be doing it biweekly at the very least. But hey, I got it done!

A podcast episode I enjoyed was Doppelgangers from Stuff You Should Know. I have one of those faces where I am constantly being asked if I am so-and-so or if I went to so-and-so high school. Nope, I just have one of those faces, I’ll usually reply. I need to find all of these women who look like me so we can form some sort of coalition, right? Anyway, this episode was interesting to me as someone who has dozens of Doppelgangers floating around in the world.

The best money I spent this week was $4 on a bag of Tootsie Rolls. This will be the only bag of Tootsie Rolls that I buy for myself for a long, long time because I am OUT OF CONTROL. I don’t even want to tell you how many I have eaten since I bought the bag on Monday, and I haven’t been keeping track so I can’t tell you. I am going to enjoy this bag of Tootsie Rolls and then move on with my life. Tootsie Rolls are going on the list of things I cannot have in my house regularly.

This weekend, I am having dinner with my mom and stepdad tonight, having a writing date with Mikaela and Eleni on Saturday afternoon, recording podcast episodes with Bri on Saturday evening, and enjoying football with the fam on Sunday. I may even make my famous oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on Sunday during football. I think I can be talked into that! (Okay, now I realize this is nearly identical to last weekend. Ah, well. I’m a creature of habit these days!)

What was the high of your week?