Three confessions
1) I’ve been off Instagram for a little over three weeks now, and I don’t miss it at all. I really thought this would be a short break, and I’d go back in a month, feeling refreshed. But I don’t know if I want to. I even have the app on my phone now (so I can post to our podcast Instagram), but I never open it up on my own. I only open it to schedule posts. There’s a freedom in being away, although I do miss watching some of my favorite funny Instagram accounts. Maybe I’ll just bookmark them and check on them once a week?
2) I haven’t started my new PsA medication because it was just filled yesterday. For some reason, the pharmacy couldn’t get a hold of my doctor to clarify a drug interaction (they thought I was still taking meloxicam, which I stopped when I started on prednisone), but luckily, I was able to sort it out myself. But I’m picking up the prescription today!
3) I’m finding my goal of texting two friends every day to be really difficult. There are some friends I text naturally throughout the week, but then there are friends whom I rarely reach out to unless it’s for a specific purpose. I need to be better at just texting them to check in, but it feels forced. I think I just need to get out of my own head.
Three of the lowest-rated books on my Goodreads TBR
1) My Best Friend’s Honeymoon by Meryl Wilsner (3.22 stars) – I’m not sure how this book made it onto my TBR, but this is an astonishingly low Goodreads rating for a romance! Apparently, there are a lot of sexytimes, but not enough emotional resonance. I’m probably going to delete this one.
2) The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality by Amanda Montell (3.43 stars) – I’ve read two of Amanda Montell’s books and liked both of them well enough, but this one is getting resoundingly panned on Goodreads. It’s more memoir than social science, which the title or blurb doesn’t lead me to believe. Hmm.
3) Follow Me by Elizabeth Rose Quinn (3.46 stars) – I added this book to my TBR based on Kim’s recommendation. It’s definitely getting mixed reviews, but I’m going to try it on audio and see how I feel about it.
Three things I’m looking forward to
1) My solo reading retreat – I booked it! I’ll be spending April 16-19 at a sweet Airbnb in North Port, FL (about an hour and a half south of me) and I’m so excited!
2) A weekend trip to Boston with my mom – I went to Boston in 2019 with book club, and I loved the city so much! My mom expressed interest in visiting, so we’re planning a weekend trip in late March. Yay!
3) Resuming game nights with the fam – During football season, we pause our biweekly game nights since we spend the entirety of Sunday at my mom’s house watching the games. But now that football season is over, it’s time for game nights once again! Our first one of the year is next weekend.
Three things I said to my cats this week (presented without comment)
1) “You’re so cute, I want to eat your face off.”
2) “Do you love me as much as I love you?”
3) “Are you hanging out with me? You’re hanging out with your mommy? I love you!”
Three of my most-used apps yesterday
1) Happy Color (duh)
2) Car Jam (this incredibly silly phone game that I’m high-key obsessed with)
3) Overcast (podcasts)
Three snacks I had this week
1) Girl Scout cookies! I have five boxes in my apartment right now (three Thin Mints, two Samoas) and I am one happy girlie.
2) Peanut butter crackers
3) Built Puff protein bars (the mint chip flavor is to die for!)
Three things on my to-do list
1) Cancel my ASPCA donation – This has been on my to-do list for weeks. I have to call to cancel; it’s not something I can do online. Which is very annoying! While I appreciate the work that the ASPCA does, I would like to funnel my donation to a local animal shelter.
2) Deal with Eloise’s tag situation – I got a card in the mail a few months ago saying that Eloise’s tag is expired. It’s not. They just have her tag number inputted wrong in their system (I get these notifications regularly). I just need to send them the proper tag information, but it keeps falling off my to-do list, argh.
3) Buy more Mixtiles – My friend Amber gave me a Mixtiles gift card for my birthday, and I have yet to use it! I keep waiting for the perfect sale.
Three podcast episodes I listened to yesterday
1) American History Tellers
2) Currently Reading
3) The Friendship Paradox (yes, I listen to my own podcast)
Three recent purchases
1) A new lamp – It’s so cute, you guys. I’ll show it to you in this week’s Saturday photo roundup!
2) Kerasal ointment – My heels need some intense TLC. They are so cracked and rough! This ointment is pretty heavy-duty, so I’m hoping slathering it on my heels nightly will help.
3) Birthday cards – I bought a whole bunch of cute birthday cards at Home Goods this weekend. Yay!
Three things I’m doing this weekend
1) Book club – We have book club on Sunday morning. We’re planning on doing brunch and board games at a friend’s house.
2) A writing date – I’m spending one hour of each writing date working on blogging or podcasting stuff, and then the second hour working on my novel idea. It’s been so fun to brainstorm!
3) Napping – What’s a weekend if it doesn’t include a few naps?
What is something you’re looking forward to, a recent snack you’ve had, and something you’re doing this weekend?
Good things come in threes! I can’t explain why I stopped going on Instagram when I retired, but a little voice in my head told me to take the app off my phone and I have not reinstalled it. There is a lot of content that I love on Insta, but I think that having to see all of the forced, er I mean, curated content is what makes me not love it.
My financial independence group (kind of like a book club but for money nerds) normally meets once a month but they’re doing three meetups this month so my social life is off the charts!
Yes, and I am so bad about getting drawn into the “curated” posts, which then means Instagram shows more of them to me! An unending cycle, sigh. It’s been good to be off the app!
Hooray for a social life off the charts (as long as you have the recharging time you need)!
I love these types of posts. So many peeks into your life. No more football! Game night! Listening to podcasts! Dry skin!
I have found that Vanicream helps me so much with my super dry areas, including heels, knees, and elbows. It also doesn’t irritate my eczema the way a lot of lotions and creams do.
This weekend I’m going to Madison to hang out with Sarah and maybe Anne! That’s definitely something I’m looking forward to. I’m also hosting book club on Sunday night and that will be fun, although I have to get food ready and clean the house beforehand. I had some dried mangoes yesterday. They were delicious!
I’m going to look into Vanicream if the Kerasal doesn’t work. So far, my heels are still just as dry and cracked as before. Blergh.
You have such a fun weekend! I’m glad to hear it!
You can always random-text me if you need to check one off your list. 😉
Also? Flexitol. For your heels. Stinks to high heaven but it works as well as the prescription ($$$) stuff I used to use.
I’m glad you got your meds but how frustrating to have it held up. Although it is good that the pharmacists made sure you weren’t still on meloxicam! But I wish it took less time to resolve issues like that!
I’m looking forward to the weekend! My OG blogger friend Erin flies in tomorrow mid-day so I took the day off! We are going to the Brandi Carlile concert on Saturday night and I can’t wait! Mostly we’ll just be soaking up time together while she’s here. It’s not great “sightseeing” season in Minneapolis, plus we got probably 7-8″ of snow last night? So it’s a sloppy mess out there. We are going to a latino foodhall area on Friday which is something new-to-me that I’ve wanted to check out for awhile. And this is the time to do something like that since our immigrant community is hurting so badly right now!
Meanwhile in Florida, I’m over here with the AC in my car BLASTING because it was in the mid-80s today. I am NOT READY for this kind of weather. Luckily, we’re supposed to get a cool down early next week.
Have a fun time with Erin! I’m glad the Latino foodhall is still running and you can support them right now. <3
I am so impressed with your Instagram-less willpower! I am working on a plan for better boundaries. PS: If you need any Boston recs, let me know!
I don’t know why I suddenly have this willpower, but it’s been very helpful!
Are you near Boston?! I’d love whatever recs you can give me!
I’m not on Instagram and sometimes I wonder if I’m missing something, but I think life is full enough without it. Well done on moving on without it. The reintroduction of game night and Boston and a reading retreat – these all sound so great!
This weekend I’m going to Curly’s playoff game- tomorrow night. I’m so nervous about it. If we lose – season (and her hs career) over. I’m really looking forward to going to ND for Mini’s parents’ weekend on the 27th. Should be so much fun! I made a new batch of my protein balls. That’s my fav snack.
Have a great weekend and try not to eat your cat’s face off. 😉
Oh man, what a big day for Curly! You left me on the edge of my seat. I have found it really hard to watch the Olympics this year because I’m just so anxious for these athletes to do well. Crazy, right? I can’t imagine how their parents feel!
I am doing my best to keep my cats’ faces intact, but they are VERY CUTE and it’s VERY HARD.
This was fun to read! I love little bits of this & that posts. Am I looking forward to anything? I don’t have any plans. Yet, it’s fine – I’m just enjoying life as it comes. Weekend plans? I’m going to stay cozy, drawing and reading. Our weather finally turned cold, and I’m suffering because I got so spoiled by the nice weather we’d been enjoying. Do you like Goodreads or The Story Graph better? I’ve never tried Goodreads, but as you know, I signed up for The Story Graph, and it seems like fun.
It’s hard to compare Goodreads and Storygraph – I like Goodreads for the community aspect, but I love all the fun graphs and ability to give quarter/half stars to the books I read with Storygraph.
Those Samoas are the best. I mean, there are probably better quality cookies in the grocery store, but I love supporting Girl Scouts.
I’m way behind on my podcast listening. I hope you have a lot of fun at game night! I love how close you are with your family.
I have yet to find something that lives up to how good Thin Mints and Samoas are. The Girl Scouts really did something special with their cookies!
I first read your IG comment that it had been three years (?) and I thought, wait, didn’t I see a post from her recently? But yes, three weeks is good! I have all my notifications off and my goal was to get on once a week, post, scroll, and go. However, I end up mostly forgetting, and so I probably get on more like once a month. So ironically, one of my soft goals is to log in once a week, and I have a task set for that. I do like seeing babies and vacations and stuff, but don’t want to be bogged down by ads and useless memes.
For the texting thing, I have the same “rule” but I think that you do have to “get over it” and just do it. It is so nice when I get a text from someone out of the blue telling me that they are thinking of me or sending a photo etc. I love it and so when I am doing it, I think about that.
I think you’re right! I do need to get over it and just do it, when it comes to texting! I also love when I get texts out of the blue.
A SOLO READING RETREAT!!! You just knew I would focus on that one. Ah, I want this! I’m sure it won’t happen for me anytime in the near future- maybe I can find a day and call it a mini-reading retreat. Anyway, I want lots of details about yours so I can live vicariously.
The things I say to my cats are incredibly non-sensical- “Hi there Mr. Foxy-box!!!” “How’s my Minnie Mouse? (to Sylvie)” etc. I seriously have to make sure no one else is around when I talk to them.
So you’re thinking of writing a novel again??? COOL! I’m envious of your weekend- book club and writing date. I WILL be taking some naps of my own, so I don’t have to be envious of that part.
I will for sure give all of the details of my reading retreat! I’m so excited about it!
The things I say to my cats are QUITE ridiculous, as well as the songs I have made up for them. HA.
I totally get the Insta thing! I wasn’t on it while I was on our recent trip and didn’t really miss it at all. I am glad you are feeling that way and you could totally check in on your fave accounts if you want to.
I think you will like the ride that is Follow Me. I wonder what people don’t like about it! I should go look.
Yay for book retreat, Boston, and game nights! I’d really like to see Boston!
I am excited to see your new lamp 🙂
I am looking forward to an afternoon nap today! LOL.
I don’t remember why people didn’t love Follow Me, but I’m looking forward to reading it and hopefully proving the haters wrong.
Boston is such a great city! I’m excited to go back!