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?
Driving anxiety is rough. I used to have it after I got rear-ended. My car was barely damaged – the collision was several cars back and then each car got pushed into the next and so on. A friend of mine was in a horrible accident recently that totaled her car. She was not at fault either and they were ok thank God. I won’t tell you what happened so as not to add to your anxiety but it has given me second hand anxiety, especially since she had her 2 kids in the car! I am more cautious as a result of this anxiety. But I get really freaked out when traffic suddenly comes to a halt and it doesn’t appear the people behind us are slowing down!
I hope you feel ok after your vaccines! The boys and I got the flu shot this week and had no issues but I never do! And I’ve never had a single side effect from a covid vaccine. I’d actually welcome some side effects so I knew my body was reacting! But would obviously not want to feel awful! I think I can get bivalent in November. I just got a booster in August and then they announced this new booster!
Let’s see, best money spent was probably on dinner w/ my book club and then taking my colleague out for lunch for her birthday yesterday. My group of 3 used to go out for each person’s birthday but then weren’t able to for 1.5 years during the pandemic. So we are very happy to be back to celebrating birthdays! We always get dessert to make the meal extra special.
Oh gosh, the fear of being rear-ended is SO REAL! I am so glad I have collision assist with my car now. It is really amazing the safety features new cars have! I am hoping I can get past my driving anxiety – it has gotten better over the past few days. Maybe talking about it here and seeing many other people tell me they also struggle from time to time has helped lessen the anxiety’s impact on me. (I keep learning this lesson that voicing my anxiety truly lessens its impact.)
I didn’t have any vaccine side effects – yay! Just a sore arm. I took 3 doses of Tylenol as a preventive measure. Is that why I felt okay? Who knows! But I’m just glad I wasn’t knocked down for the day.
Hooray for celebrating birthdays again! I love how your best money spent is ALWAYS some sort of experience. You truly are a Quality Time gal!
Eeek, good luck with your shots! I think I’m going to go in to get my flu shot tomorrow. I had my fourth Covid shot in August, just before going to Mexico, so no bivalent for me.
Your bathroom looks great! It’s the little touches that make all the difference. I love a good bath sheet. So luxurious!
In terms of driving, GPS has helped a lot with my anxiousness about driving in new places BUT night driving is a whole different story. I had LASIK in 2000 and it’s been great, but I’ve always had “halos” when it comes to the night driving. It’s so much worse now, and I find I get very nervous driving with the “halos,” I will do anything to avoid driving at night. Happily, both my kids drive now, so that changes things immensely.
Night driving is so nerve-wracking! I just don’t like it and I try everything I can to avoid it… which isn’t great for my social life, haha. That’s funny to me, though, that your kids driving gives you LESS anxiety. I always figure it would make me MORE anxious, lol. But maybe they’ve been driving long enough that it doesn’t bother you!
I don’t usually get driving anxiety, but I’m visiting a friend out of town who lives in a city and I had sort of forgotten how stressful city driving is! I got in after dark and suddenly felt VERY OLD when I realized I was having a hard time seeing at night. Ugh. I hope that this is a blip for you and you’ll go back to your carefree driving ways.
I had my bivalent shot a few weeks ago and felt yucky for about a day, but it was better than any of the previous shots. I had my flu shot a week ago and I didn’t have any side effects at all. Hopefully you’ll be one of the lucky ones who doesn’t have any side effects!
Thank you, friend. I hope it becomes a blip, too. It has gotten better lately, so maybe talking about it here and hearing the helpful comments from everyone has eased the anxiety’s impact.
I was one of the lucky ones that didn’t have any side effects from the booster or the flu shot. Just a sore arm! I feel really grateful for that!
I will add to the chorus of HATING to drive at night. I find it so hard to gauge distance between vehicles and oncoming headlights are so distracting and then it’s hard to see the lines. I try hard to avoid doing any high-speed driving (highway) at night for sure. I’ve been involved in a few accidents over the years (only at fault once and it was a minor fender bender…but still) and always had anxiety for a while. Rain is what makes me most nervous. I find snow/ice naturally causes people to drive more carefully, but people don’t seem to take the same care when it’s raining and hydroplaning freaks me out.
I LOVE the shower curtain – and the dark rod and that you moved it slightly higher up the tub surround. it looks SO great. I usually like light colours in bathrooms, but I need a new curtain as well and I’m thinking I might look for something dark, now. It looks fabulous. What great stylistic decisions! Gold star.
I had COVID a few weeks ago, so no shot for me right now. My first shot was awful; I felt like death. But my booster I was fine; my husband had the exact opposite reaction (nothing the first sho; felt like death for a few days after his booster).
While I’m not glad we all suffer from the same kind of nighttime driving anxiety, knowing I’m not alone has made me feel a lot better! I also don’t like driving in the rain. People in Florida drive like idiots in the rain and it makes me crazy.
Having the shower curtain further up on the surround has made such a big difference! There’s just something about it that makes my bathroom feel a little more luxurious!
Oooh I hope your Covid booster went smoothly and you didn’t have too many side effects!
Your description of driving anxiety sounds awful, but it also sounds familiar. Sometimes when I’m driving, I get what must be a mild panic attack where I feel dizzy or like I can’t breathe. It’s gotten better over the years, but sometimes it comes at me out of nowhere — although usually when I’m going over a bridge or an overpass. It’s very unnerving! I hope you find a source of this anxiety and that you are able to find some strategies for minimizing it.
Very happy to report that I didn’t experience any awful symptoms from the booster + flu shot. Just a sore arm. I am very grateful about that!
Thanks so much for the kind words – I think talking about this anxiety has been really helpful because it has seemed to get better over the last few days. I hope it continues to improve!
I love the bathroom refresh!
I am sorry about the driving anxiety! I hope you can get a session with your therapist to help!
Your excursions sound so fun! And the cruise is almost here! Yay!
Hmm, best thing I spent money on last week… probably letting our nephews each pick something out at Walgreen’s!
What a fun gift for your nephews! I always loved when a grandparent or aunt/uncle would let me pick out something fun!
Oh, I love the bath room refresh – in fact, you’ve inspired me to think about our own bathroom refresh (as I know that I have to replace our bath mats soon and it’s the perfect opportunity to overhaul a little more than that). I love the new shower curtain (although I also liked your old one – probably because I love everything teal :)).
I am so sorry about the driving anxiety. One thing that I (second-hand) hate the most about anxiety is that it can randomly latch on to things. It’s the same for Jon… things are fine and then all of a sudden, he’ll have anxiety about something that he never even worried about before. I do hope that it’ll subside for you, because driving anxiety is no fun.
I hope you feel fine after getting your vaccines… I got my flu shot yesterday (and didn’t have any side effects expect for a bit of a sore arm). I also wanted to get my booster, but now I have to wait until January due to my recent Covid-infection.
I also love teal, and that curtain served me well for so many years! It’s fun to have something new to stare at, though.
I love the way you explained Jon’s anxiety. That’s the way it feels for me, too! Sometimes it’s just something random that I’ve never worried about before, but my mind can’t stop the spiraling. So weird!
I think your bathroom refresh looks like YOU. The older stuff was fine – and probably very functional – but it now seems like a very Stephany space. 🙂 (I, on the other hand, would be running screaming from pink, and from a curtain with a darker background! Thank goodness we do not have to share a bathroom, LOL.)
Like nearly everyone else, I get anxious driving at night, too. It’s gotten to the point where I try very, very hard not to drive at night. You are NOT alone. (I get anxious about the most *random* things, too… and then perseverate, and perseverate, and perseverate… it’s the thing I hate most about it. :P)
So glad you came through the shots with flying colors! Woo hoo!