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 best money I spent this week was getting Rex groomed. He looks like an enormous stuffed toy. It won’t last long as he rolls in the snow about 10000000 times a day, but I am enjoying it while it lasts.
Today we are decorating gingerbread and tomorrow is our annual Christmas Vacation viewing, so I’m a happy elf.
I did my annual Christmas Vacation viewing this past weekend, too! I love that movie so much.
Awww, Rex! I love that he loves the snow so much. A good thing for a Calgary doggo!
Hmmmm…the best money I spent was shipping out all the presents I bought that need to go somewhere else! It was so nice to print off the shipping label and just drop them off at the post office and never have to think about it again! Now I can really enjoy the holiday without stressing about buying or shipping presents!
Yay for getting the shipping done! That can be one of the most stressful parts of the Christmas holiday for sure.
The best money we spent last week was tips for staff at the resort! Since it was all inclusive we didn’t have to pay for anything so it was a ‘low spend’ week for us but we used up all of the cash we brought to tip waiters, bartenders, etc.
I had to look up who Stephen Boss was. How horribly sad. I don’t watch much Ellen so am not very familiar with him. But what a horrible loss for his family and friends – and so close to Christmas, too. Gah. Depression is so horrible.
It kinda bugs me that Twitch is being connected with Ellen so much. I have been following his career since he auditioned for So You Think You Can Dance, like, 12 years ago. He was forever my favorite dancer to come out of that show and he seemed to have such a fairytale life: a beautiful wife, a great career doing what he loved, beautiful kids, etc. It’s just a reminder that we never know what people are going through, even when they seem so positive and upbeat.
I am glad you were not alone in your dislike! Did the other person have similar reasons?
I didn’t know tWtich but know a lot of people who just loved him and my heart hurts for all of them, him, and his family. You’re right that we never know what people are going through. I am seeing lots of people remind each other to check in on the “friend who has it all together” after this, and I hope that sentiment doesn’t lose momentum. Everyone’s mental health is important, and not everyone seems like they are struggling when they are.
The best money I spent last week was on THREE VEGAN CAKES NOM NOM NOM GET IN MAH BELLY
Yes! We both had similar reasons for not enjoying the book, although she also just doesn’t like the best-friend-to-lover trope and that part didn’t bother me. I love a good best-friend-to-lover story!
tWitch’s death has really shaken me up. I’ve been having a lot of high-anxiety days lately, and I think his death might have really triggered my fear of bad things happening. I just can’t imagine the pain his wife is going through, and it also just makes me so, so sad that he was struggling so much.
OK, this is a few weeks late, but the best thing I spent money on this week is a new pair of jeans that my sister-in-law recommended! Fingers crossed that they pan out because I HATE all my jeans.
I was so, so saddened about tWitch’s death too. It completely took me by surprise, because as you said, he seemed like such a joyful, positive person… so hard to imagine how much pain he must have been in on the inside 🙁
The best money I spent on was a Boston Red Sox Sherpa Zipper Hoodie. I know! 🙂
I didn’t know of tWitch, sadly, before his death. But it was so clear from the response – and from your testimony here – that he was someone who touched many lives, and was beloved by even more. I hope you are starting to find some light in the darkness, and that your spirals have diminished, my friend. <3
(It was also lovely to read this – laaaate… – and see that you had some fun planned, too. <3