Three Things Thursday (v. 14)

It’s been a long time since I did a Three Things Thursday post – ten categories, three things each. Let’s do it!

Three confessions

1) I’m on day 500-something of DuoLingo, and the only reason I’ve gotten there is because of streak freezes. Essentially, you can earn a streak freeze as a bonus after finishing a lesson (not every time, but you usually have at least one in your back pocket to use when needed). If you forget to do a lesson, the streak freeze will “save” your streak so you don’t have to go back to zero. (You can also do a special lesson to save your streak if you forget to do a lesson and you don’t have any streak freezes. Ask me how I know!) Anyway, I didn’t think it was abnormal to use those streak freezes until Meredith on Currently Reading talked about how she’s never used one (and she’s been doing Duo for a really long time). Y’all – those streak freezes are getting used by me, and used a lot. At least once a week. Oops?

2) I’ve had THREE salads this week! I had one for dinner on Monday, and then I’ve had one for lunch the past two days. My lunch salad needs some work to make it more exciting (right now, it’s just romaine lettuce, cucumber, kalamata olives, feta cheese, bacon pieces, and Greek vinaigrette; I’m all ears for additions, especially of the protein variety).

3) I’ve been in a weird reading mood lately. Not necessarily a reading slump because I’m still reading, but more that I have to be very careful about the books I pick up. I just abandoned a historical fiction novel because the subject matter was too dark, and then passed on a bunch of thrillers that were on my TBR because I just didn’t feel up to reading about scary (ish) things. Instead, I’m listening to a really silly romance on audio and reading a heartwarming novel in print. I am really not sure what I’ll be in the mood to read once I finish with these books!

Three books I just added to my Goodreads TBR

1) The Third Gilmore Girl by Kelly Bishop – Everyone is raving about this memoir, and I finally added it to my TBR last week.

2) Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind by Nate Bargatze – I heard about this memoir from the Book Riot podcast, and I couldn’t add it to my TBR fast enough. A memoir from one of my favorite comedians? Yes, please! I will definitely listen to this one on audio.

3) The Bell in the Fog by Lev A.C. Rosen – I added this mystery to my TBR after reading the first book in the series (which I reviewed on Tuesday!).

Three popular movies I haven’t seen

1) Dirty Dancing – I mean, duh. I’m hoping to watch it next Friday when I don’t have any plans!

2) Jurassic Park – I never saw this when it came out in the 90s, and definitely haven’t seen all of the iterations that came out afterward. Oops.

3) Frozen – Here’s something funny: When Bri and I met a decade ago, we made plans to get together and watch Frozen because she was astonished that I had never seen it. Unfortunately, Redbox didn’t have Frozen available at that time, so we ended up doing something else. And I have still not seen Frozen!

Three of my most-used apps yesterday

1) Happy Color (1 hr, 28 min) – I have a problem.

2) Overcast (1 hr, 9 min) – It feels like this should be higher, hmm.

3) Four Plus (1 hr, 3 min) – Another iPhone game. I need an intervention.

Three things I’m doing this weekend

1) Book club – Our May book club is earlier this month due to a lot of tricky scheduling. We’re going to paint pottery and go out for dinner, so it should be a fun evening!

2) A boat day – One of my friends just bought a boat, and we are going to take it out on the water and enjoy the sunshine and ocean air! I am so looking forward to some fun in the sun!

3) A drag show – One of my friends reached out to our group to see if anyone was interested in seeing Alyssa Edwards on tour, and while I do not watch Rupaul’s Drag Race and have no idea who she is, I was all about a fun night out with a friend!

Three things that made me happy this week

1) Lots of time with mom – We saw each other on Monday night since we had plans to meet up with Amber to discuss our London trip, and then we had a spontaneous dinner on Tuesday night. And we saw each other last night for our Wednesday evening HIIT class!

2) Booking a July vacation – I really wanted to do something with my mom on her birthday in July, since it’s a milestone birthday for her. So we booked a hotel in Orlando for a few days. We’re going to Gaylord Palms (a water park) for a day, and then the hotel we booked has a sweet pool with bar service, so we’re going to relax and enjoy ourselves!

3) Eloise’s little meows when she wakes up from a nap – Eloise loves sleeping on the top of this cart that I have right in front of my window (I added a blanket to make it cozier for her). It’s situated right next to my desk, so I can reach out and pet her whenever I want! Every now and then, her head will jerk up and she’ll meow at me very loudly. Sometimes it happens when I make a noise that disturbs her beauty rest, and sometimes it’s just out of the blue, as if she woke up from a weird dream and wants to tell me all about it. It’s the cutest thing!

Three little things I’m looking forward to when I move to a new apartment

1) A quieter washer/dryer – My washer/dryer is a menace. The washer is really small and will start shaking and making lots of noises if it’s even a little bit full. The dryer is so damn loud that I can’t have it on if I have a busy meeting day, which is quite annoying. Plus, at the end of each cycle, it makes this really loud buzzing noise that makes me jump every single time. I just want a normal washer/dryer that does its business quietly in the background.

2) Not climbing three flights of stairs – Gosh, I really hate living on the third floor. I’d love for my next apartment to be a ground-floor apartment. I am so tired of climbing stairs!

3) More natural light – I wish my apartment had more natural light. All I have is a big window in my living room and while it gives me some natural light, a lot of it is blocked by trees. And in my bedroom, there’s only a small window, but it looks out onto my patio, so there’s very little natural light coming through the blinds. I love having the windows open for natural light, and I really hope my next apartment has more options for that.

Three upcoming podcast episodes

1) Interviewing our friend Lynn about her experience losing her home in Hurricane Helene – This was such a tough episode for our dear friend. She has dealt with one of the worst things someone can go through, and 8 months later, she, her husband, and their dog are still not back in their home. We talked about her experience and how her personality played a part in how she’s coping.

2) Our pets’ personalities – We’ll follow up that difficult episode with a very silly one. Bri and I talked about our pets and their personalities, including typing their enneagram, Myers-Briggs, love language, and Hogwarts House. This was a ridiculous episode but so much fun!

3) Our bucket lists – We haven’t recorded this episode yet (and it’s not coming out until July – we are way ahead of schedule!), but we’re going to talk about bucket lists as a whole and some of the items we’d like to do before we die.

Three recent purchases

1) Some skincare replacements (Sephora) – Nothing exciting here, just Paula’s Choice BHA exfoliant and The Ordinary’s niacinamide serum.

2) New clothes (Old Navy) – For $60, I got two pairs of workout shorts, one workout shirt, two tank tops, and a pair of jean shorts. All things I had to buy to replace clothes that have gotten too big on me, so this is a great problem to have!

3) These cat postcards (Etsy) – I have been inspired by the Cool Bloggers postcard game, so I finally bought myself some to send out. Be on the lookout for them, especially those of you who have been amazing at sending me postcards already!

Three recent searches

1) “cotswolds” – We’re thinking of doing a day trip here when we’re in London but I don’t actually know anything about the Cotswolds.

2) “that’s crazy dude nyt” – YES SOMETIMES I CHEAT AT THE NYT MINI CROSSWORD. Sue me.

3) “tiger challenge amazing race 1” – I had to see if there was any chatter online about this INSANE challenge during the first season of The Amazing Race where the contestants had to walk through a tiger den. !!!! I would have been flipping out!

What’s something that made you happy this week?