Dear March

Dear March, 

You were kinda wacky, I'm not going to lie. It feels as if this month both dragged on and flew by. I don't know how that is possible but after speaking to others, they said the same thing! 

I started this month off in quarantine.... for my colonoscopy. I will admit, it was nice to not have to do anything but I would rather not have had to do it for the colonoscopy. Normally, these procedures are quick and easy for me but this one, was a little rough. Lets just say, spending a morning in a hospital outpatient area was not the plan. Everything looked as per the doctor and I was happy about it. Skeptical as usual but I was happy. 

I went back to work the first Friday of March and I found out I could move back into my newly painted office. It felt so good to move back there. My temporary office mates were great and the people watching was perfect BUT I missed my quietness and knowing where my things were. Like any other county project, my small office took a month to complete. Every morning, when I got to work,  I would go check on the process they made overnight, it was slow and steady. 

I didn't have much to move back in besides a few files, my pens and pencils, a box of random office decor and my plants. It felt good to be back home. I used to have this sponge painted grey and white wallpaper in my office. I felt as if it had been on the walls for decades. It wasn't ugly, I kinda liked it but there were so many holes in the wall over the years, they stripped the wallpaper, fixed all the holes and painted the walls grey and the trim around the doors and window white. It looked fresh and clean and refreshed. 

There were a few things still missing- trim on the bottom of the wall and the glass for my desk (the original glass survived the whole reno up until the very last day when they went to move my desk back and cracked the back corner and the front corner.) These two things weren't going to impede me from doing my work so I figured they will get done, when they get done. 

Last week, I was at my desk and 4 B&G guys come barreling through the door to inform me they were going to finish my trim. Well making the most comically long winded story short, they did and they were able to move my cabinets into a position that I wanted to. Within 5 minutes of B&G leaving, the glass guy came to remeasure my desk. All in all, I can say with confidence, my office as of Today is finished-fixing wise.

As for decorating my office, that is another story. Weirdly enough, I have been enjoying not having all the flat surfaces in my office, covered with photos and other things. Even having the walls basically bare, has been refreshing. It has been easy for my to dust and clean and I think I am at a new point in my life where, I don't have to have every surface covered with things. 

That brings me to another exciting things, Swedish Death Cleanse. I know what you are thinking- WHAT THE HECK are you talking about. Just hear me out and I think you will agree. My mom started following the Minimal Mom and Minimal Mom lives with minimal things in her home. She talked about this Swedish Death Cleanse and how you have to take care of everything in your house whether it is used or not. That got my mom thinking and me thinking once she told me about it. We started to look around and realized we don't have a use for this or that and somethings we haven't touched in years. This death cleanse allows you to simplify your life and get rid of the the things you don't use (or haven't ever used.) I don't think we have ever really done something this exciting before. You can read about it here. 

We were graced with lots of warm weather in March. I was surprised by it, but I took full advantage of it by taking some lunch time walks. There is just something so fun about getting outside during the day and walking around. I love where my office is because its located a block over from the down town area. I always feel like there is movement happening and I love to see what businesses are starting to open back up. I hope April brings us more days filled with more warm days.

Overall I have been feeling pretty good. I don't know what the blip in the end of february was but I will say, I hope this stays for a while. I like feeling good. 

At the end of the first 8 week semester this year, I decided to put school on the back burner for awhile. This past semester I was struggling and my heart didn't seem to be in it any more. Was I sad not to be learning  through school and have a constant schedule to abide by, yes and no. I wanted more freedom and I was feeling stifled and unmotivated. I am content with my decision and unsure if and when I will go back.

Another thing I decided to do was to step back from Facebook and Instagram. It was getting too much for me.  I felt anxious all the time and I kept comparing myself to what everybody else was doing. I hated how it made me feel and I got to the point where I finally said "STOP!" and I deleted the apps from my phone and computer. It felt so good to be free from all the comparison and anxiety.

March you were a weird month; I hope the April is a smidge nicer to me. 

[[There is nothing wrong with taking a step back and re-evaluating what is and isn't good for you.]]

WGJ vol. 15

Hello! This month I am excited to share this playlist. Some of the artist featured on here, I found through Instagram Reels. Some were found through either Release Radar or Discover Weekly on Spotify, others were old favorites and others were discovered on the radio. 

WGJ Vol. 15

Memory I Don't Mess With-Lee Brice
Burn 'Em All- Kameron Marlowe
Me On- Jordan Fletcher
Apex-Ky Rodgers
When We Fall Apart-Ryan Stevenson
Somebody Does- Tigirlily
Heat Waves- Glass Animals
One Step Ahead- Restless Road
Passenger Seat- Matt Martin
She Happened- Will Finley
Make A Little Life- The Tuten Brothers
Heart To Steal Tonight- Jon Wolfe
The Deployment Song- Emay Holmes
If I'd Known- Andy Brown
Growing Up- Thomas Rhett
Cost- The Spill Canvas, Nathan Hussey
Scared Of A Little Love- Zach Bridges
Chicago- McKenna Breinholt
Dance (Acoustic)- Tim Halpin
Boys Like Us- After Midtown
Gave You My Heart-Chris August
Long Haul- Ian Munsick
Breaking Up Was Easy In The 90s- Sam Hunt
New Normal- Cooper Alan
Starlit Afternoon- Craig Strickland
Come Back To Me- Plain White T's
Catching Sunlight- O.A.R.

Listen Here.

Quarantine: 1 year in

Its been one year. Three Hundred Sixty Five Days. Five Hundred Twenty Five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes.

One year that some of us have been working from home. One year that we haven't been able to hug our loved ones. One year that some kids have not had in person instruction. One year that some business' closed thinking they were going to reopen but never did. 

We have been through a multitude of changes, emotions and thoughts over this past year. We have implemented new ways of living and communicating and working. Life as we knew if changed this past year. We have made it through this year- maybe not in ways we thought but we made it. We have lost loved ones in the process and that weighs heavily on those families and others. Losing a loved one is already terrible but adding the restrictions of quarantine, it makes it even more worse. My heart hurts for all those who lost someone during the past year and couldn't be with them.

Among the already hard to process year, there were other things happening that made it even harder. Acts of racism, weather emergencies and a hotly contested election were all mixed into the mess. Watching the news became overwhelming. The mayhem of 2020 didn't stop when the clock hit midnight on December 31, 2020 and we all rang in 2021. January was even more of a mess and to be honest, it made me really sad to see the United States to be falling apart, a little more each month. 

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I use my daily planner as a journal. I went back to March 2020 to read what I was feeling and during that time. I am so glad that I kept a pretty good account of what I was feeling during this uncertain time. 

These are some of the words that kept re-occurring from the first 40 days in quarantine:

"hopeless" "anxious" "distracted" "stressful" "confused" "messy" "emotional" "weird mood" "worried" "lonely" "drained" 

From what I have read and what I have heard from friends, they all had the same feelings. I didn't feel so alone. During the first 40 days, I was a mess and terrified and still working in office. We had a schedule that had only half of the office working at a time. We did that for a month and then we went back to normal- all hands on deck right after Mothers Day.  Looking back, I was so thankful for normalcy of working in an office during those early months. Was it weird? absolutely. Was it scary? yes. Did I worry I was going to get sick or worse, get my parents sick? YES! I ended up being a contact of a contact a few times.

The state continued to work at home throughout most of the year and some days, I was mad that I couldn't work at home. After speaking to multiple different people and having them say how jealous they were that I was actually in the office, I felt better about working in office all the time.

It seemed as we headed into May, I was feeling better about this new normal we were in. I was regularly taking walks around the neighborhood and I started to walk in Ocean Gate. I felt comfortable enough being around others outside and most importantly, my heart wasn't racing ALL the time; just some of the time. 

Early on, I tried to read more books since I had the time. It just wasn't working.  I couldn't concentrate and nothing seemed interesting to me. I started binge watching different things- Survivor, Greek- and watching movies. I felt like a bum, but I was trying to give myself grace. By August the book bug

From June to September, I had 11 paddle board sessions on the creek with Adrienne. I enjoyed that so much and to tell you the truth, it seemed like things were normal, if only for those couple of hours on the water. I was so excited about paddle boarding, I bought my own paddle board during Body Glove's black Friday sale. 

I hoped and prayed that by the fall things would get back to normal but they didn't. As we approached the winter, things didn't look better. In the summer and fall, outdoor eating was allowed but I did not feel comfortable yet to try that. 

Previous posts on COVID:

On COVID-19

The New Normal

Thoughts on Quarantine and COVID

Favorite Masks

Friday Favorites March 20, 2020

Friday Favorites March 27, 2020

Friday Favorites April 3, 2020

a well timed break

Happy Friday!

This week has been a pretty good week. I have been feeling good and been pretty busy at work but something I feel is wrong...not really wrong but something was odd. I had this nagging feeling all week and I couldn't put my finger on it. 

I felt all week, my urge to write wasn't there. I wanted to write about my thoughts and feelings coming up on one year in quarantine and I couldn't get the words out of my head. I tried for days and I continued to try all this week. Writing the post about my car's birthday was supposed to be funny and in the end I don't think it ended up being funny. Something was wrong. 

Was I putting too much pressure on myself to write and to be a blogger  when in reality I just like to write? I get caught up with the perfection game and I don't want to disappoint myself. Seeing how others are able to write these long and really engaging posts makes me jealous in a sense. I want to be able to do that too. I love writing so much but putting out content this month has been a struggle. 

I am taking this as a sign to refocus and take a break. My word of the year- focus- I had truly no idea how this was going to come into play but I think I am starting to see. Maybe I need to take a step back and think about what is important and what I want to spend my time doing. 

My mom has always told me that God will throw you small pebbles to direct your attention to what is wrong. If you ignore the small pebbles, he will start to throw bigger and bigger pebbles to see if you will pay attention to those. If you ignore the bigger pebbles, he will eventually start to throw boulders to get your attention. Now, I think I am still in the small pebbles stage and I feel like a break might be good for myself. 

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SO  the point of my rambles is to let you know that, I am taking a break to refocus and to see what happens. This past year has taught me so much and taking breaks when you need to, is so important. 

This is just a see you later, not a goodbye. 

[[the world has slowed so you can rediscover yourself]]

Where Were You? March 17, 2018

 First, Happy St. Patrick's Day! 🍀 I am not only celebrating St. Patrick's Day today but I am also celebrating Eleanor's Birthday! Eleanor who?! Eleanor the Encore aka my car. Eleanor is turning 3 today and I am so happy to celebrate my car's birthday because I bought Eleanor, all by myself and got exactly what I wanted. 

In January 2018, I was driving Lux the Elentra. I was coming up on it being 5 years old and I was itching for a change. I started to to think about what kind of car I wanted to purchase next. I decided a small SUV would be fun to have. Before Lux, I had a Nissan Cube named Chloe. I loved the room in that car and I missed it. My mind was now set on a small SUV.  I looked online at different ones and I remembered seeing a commercial where there were women about my age hopping into this cute and stylish SUV. It was exactly what I was looking for. It just so happened to be Buick. 

Buick's had the reputation of being an old lady car- big old boats driving down the street. Buick resigned their cars to be more stylish and more appealing to my generation. I did my research and found that, that little SUV in the commercial was really affordable and in my price range. I talked with my parents about this car and what their thoughts were on it.  I told them that I wanted to do this on my own. 

Armed with a pink notebook filled with questions and a pink pen, I made an appointment with Buick to see the Encore and to get more information I was ready. 

Now I know there always be a stigma around buying cars and how women always needed men to be with them to when buying a car to make sure women don't get taken advantaged of and end up spending more then they wanted. This always infuriated me- why do we need to rely on men to help us negotiate? Are we, as women, not capable to handle negotiations? Well, I wanted to do this on my own. 

I will let you in on a secret- I was so NERVOUS! I knew I was prepared but it was still super nerve wracking. 

On March 3, 2018, I went to Buick for the first time. They had me on the board for the day and my car representative came over and introduced himself as Tom and we went to his desk to talk first. I told him exactly what I was looking for and before I know it we were outside looking at it. I wanted a black exterior, black interior automatic with no moon/sunroof Buick Encore. Tom listened to exactly what I wanted and found it for me. 

We test drove it; I was so nervous to drive this car. It had only THREE miles on it. As we pulled onto Route 37, I eased into driving it. Now at this point, I haven't driven anything bigger than my sedan so this was a bit of a change and I loved it! 

After the test drive, we went back to his desk and talked money. I was trading in Lux and putting money down and I said to him, what is your best price, with my most serious face I could muster up. He came back after about 15 minutes with a price and I was shocked... in a good way. I liked the price but I knew I had to keep my cool. 

I was sold on buying the Buick Encore but I wanted to think about it. I gathered all the information Tom gave me and told him I would call him in a few days. 

I went home and told my parents all about what went on and showed them the numbers. I decided to sleep on it for the weekend. On Monday, I was still thinking about this little SUV. I decided to go back and see the car again. My parents met me at the dealership and the three of us looked over and spoke with Tom about the price and the car. I think, they even let us take it for a test drive by ourselves.

I was still head over heels about this SUV and now I wanted to get it. BUT I would have to wait almost 10 days before it became mine. Sometime between Monday and Friday, I came down with a terrible head cold. I couldn't get off the couch. I called Tom, sniffling between sentences, to tell him I want the car and can he hold it until next week. I was more than willing to give him my credit card over the phone to put a deposit on it.

He said that would not be necessary and they would hold it for me. I was so EXCITED. I immediately starting to think of names for my new car (because you know #priorities). I made my list and I gathered everything I need to get ready for Saturday to go pick up my new car. 

My parents accompanied me to the dealership and I was so excited to get my new car. On the way to the dealership, I explained to my current car Lux, that he was going to a great new family and I appreciate all the love he had given me the past 5 years. Lux was very sad to leave me. I was sad to leave Lux truth be told. 

After a few hours of waiting and signing lots of documents, the keys were finally mine! I had one last thing to do before leaving the dealership- ringing the bell. That signifies someone just purchased a new car. I did this with Lux and I couldn't wait to do it again. 

We walked out to the parking lot and there she was- all shiny and new and all mine. Tom helped me set up OnStar and went over some controls. I was so happy this was all mine. It smelled new and still only had the miles I put on it (which at this point I think was 11 miles). Paperwork in hand, keys in hand, I was ready to take my Buick home. 

I talked to my new car all the way home, telling her how excited I was to have her and what fun adventures we were going to have. Once we got home, she seemed excited to meet my parents cars and get settled in. I still didn't have a name just yet. I wanted to sleep on it and I knew it would come to me. 

I woke up the next morning, thrilled to look outside to see my new SUV sitting in the drive way. I decided on her name, Eleanor. 

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It has been fun driving Eleanor around for 3 years now. We have gone to lots of places, parked in a lot of different parking lots and experienced a whole range of emotions together. She did great in her first real winter (this year!) and loves playing in the snow. Her favorite places to drive are across any bridge, back roads with farm animals and to Target. We have had our fair share of snacks and meals together and she might or might not have hit a few curbs or (gently) backed into things.  

Happy Birthday Eleanor! Here's to another year of personal concerts, adventures and road snacks. I promise to always park you next to your favorite cars and give you the gas you love. 

This was one of my favorite decisions I made in the past few years. While Eleanor might be small she is mighty. 

Buying a car by yourself, as a woman, sounds so intimidating but I am here to tell you, its not. If you do your research, know exactly what you want, know your price you are willing to pay AND remember you are strong and tough, you will be able to buy a car on your own and really anything else. 

Have you bought a car on your own and got exactly what you wanted?

[[Life is a highway...]]

Diary #15

Happy Monday! How was your weekend? I spent mine at home and it felt really relaxing and really productive. I was able to accomplish everything I wanted to. The weather was nice and sunny all weekend; I took advantage of the sunshine to go for a walk around the neighborhood. 

I love capturing moments in time that I find interesting, these diary posts make me smile so much because I feel like I am able to share the really neat things I stumble upon. This month was no different. I feel like I saw many random things. Take a look below!

snowy tree

crooked pier

drink holder?

red sunrise

selfie

storage

snowy

good bye old air conditioner

STANLEY!! 

celebrate

sunset

BTS: zoom courtroom

proud

vintage

not a painting

hospital

sunrise

perfect timing

webs

found

rooster?

Do you take photos of things that make you smile? 

[[Photography is the art of observation. It has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them. Elliot Erwritt]]

Funny Friday

Hello! Hi! Hiya!

Its Friday! Wahoo! 

First, I am linking up with Andrea and Erika today for Friday Favorites.

Second, this week flew by for me. I was able to start the week out in my office. [[ It has been getting painting and fixed up for just about the whole month of February and last Friday I moved back in]] It felt so good being in my own office again and knowing (somewhat) where my things are and having quietness. It was perfect. 

Tuesday's weather made me yearn for summer. On my way home, the temperature was reading 64 degrees and I had my window open. It was absolutely amazing. Wednesday's weather was nice and sunny too. Yesterday was my favorite. I had my office windows wide open and I even took a lunch time walk. It felt soo good to get outside for 25 minutes to just breathe. 

I accidentally caused a traffic jam too. I just wanted to take a photo of the fire house around the corner from my office- It just looked perfect and I had an urge to take a photo of it. Well one thing led to another and here I was standing on the sidewalk, with a big white truck blocking traffic so I could get a shot of fire house. I took the shot and waved at the nice man turning into the firehouse parking lot and scurried off. I was mildly embarrassed and mostly amused by my antics. If you are wondering what the shot I got was...

I have been feeling  consistently good which has been nice. I think my problem was two fold. One, my vitamins I was taking. Something was not helping and I think it was making things worse. SO I decided to stop all my vitamins and slowly add them back one by one. I think the one giving me the most trouble was vitamin C and Two. I think I need  to get between  7.5 hours and 9 hours of sleep a night to feel my best. I am totally okay with that. My Fitbit flex has been helping keep track of that for me.

Did you watch the Harry and Megan interview with Oprah? I didn't but Monday morning I watched some clips and read the highlights about it. I felt so bad for Megan- who has the right to be so mean to another human? I used to be #teamKate for so long but I think I am #teamMegan from here on out. 

Third, last month, this post was a big hit, so I am back again with some more memes I found over the past month. Now some of these were from Valentines Day and the freak snow storms in Texas, but they were just too good not to share. 

Which one(s) is/are your favorite(s)?

Did you miss my posts this week: International Women's Day and Gator Update #3

[[Laughter is the best medicine]]