Dear July

July always reminds me of Sailboats.

WOAH! You were quite the wrecking ball. I don't know if I've had a month quite like you. I don't know if you should take it as a compliment or something shameful. You were A LOT. A Lot of good, A Lot of weird, A Lot of emotions. 

Lets jump in shall we?

You started off strong with Vacation! It was so much fun and the memories made will be in my mind for a long time. North Carolina is absolutely gorgeous and there was so much I wanted to do but couldn't fit it in. I am excited to go back to see more of what North Carolina has to offer.

Right after the great vacation memories, someone decided that it was finally time, after 2 years, for C0VID to visit me and my family and boy what a visit it was! It made itself at home for what I felt like an extended vacation that it was not welcome on. I felt terrible I gave it to my parents but in the end, we all ended up well. We are all fully recovered and very happy to be close to one another again.

After C0VID, I had to play catch up at work. That was probably the hardest part for me because I am still playing catch up. I feel like I have a never ending to-do list that just keeps multiplying like bunnies. I am the type of person who has a to do list, I like to accomplish it the same day I write it and a lot of things have been pushed to another day and I feel like I won't be able to get to that item.  I know I will be able to get all the work done at some point but its a bit frustrating.

I was also playing catch-up with my blog this month too. I felt I went into July with some posts scheduled and I was set and I was able to get the North Carolina Recaps out soon after my trip and I had these grandiose ideas to keep up with my blog and to get ahead of the game, so to speak BUT here we are, my Recaps are not published yet and I am working my way to getting back on track. #RealLife

Kyle and I went on a fun adventure this month besides our vacation. Our adventure was to Ikea in Elizabeth.  Kyle was looking for the skinny Billy bookcase which has been elusive since out last trip to Ikea in March. Elizabeth said it had one Skinny Billy Bookcase BUT Brooklyn had fourteen. We knew it was a gamble to try Elizabeth, even if we get there around opening BUT we tried. We knew exactly where to go and find this elusive Billy Bookcase BUT we were too late... it was already sold. Kyle looks at me and said "Brooklyn?" I said "why not!" We were able to get from Elizabeth to Brooklyn in 30 minutes, on a Sunday, in July. It was like the stars aligned for us and the traffic was minimum. It was amazing! Ikea in Brooklyn is also in an industrial area on the water. We knew what we wanted and we went right there and fourteen of them were there, waiting for us to take them to their forever homes. We scooped up three and then found the inserts for the Klaax storage cubes and we were on line to check out in no time. 

Kyle asked what we wanted to do now, since we are in Brooklyn. Pizza was the first thing on our minds. Kyle did a quick google search and we found a highly rated pizza bar close to where we were. We were able to find street parking in front of the beautiful brownstones and a block later, we were standing in front of Via Roma Pizza Bar, a tiny store front pizzeria. We walked in and found that bar was a loose term.  It was a teeny tiny pizza shop with a patio area out back. We ordered a Margarita pizza and grabbed a drink from the cooler- They had this fun bottled sodas, I chose a Shirley Temple. It felt so fancy but also so simple. It was perfect. We made our way back out to the patio and waited for our pizza. 15 minutes later, Kyle comes back with a huge pizza and it looked SO good! We dug right into it and I can say I totally get why people say Brooklyn pizza is sooo good! It has to be that water they use. 

On our way home, we were traveling back into Staten Island and I said to him "can we make a stop?" He looked a bit confused why I wanted to stop in Staten Island and when I told him "for the best cupcakes ever" He chuckled and said sure. I was so excited to get those cupcakes and again, it has to be the water they use to make them. 

This month I really jumped head first into my training for the Lacey 5K. I really love the program Couch to 5K but it was really hard for me to start this program. Feeling like a beginner at anything always feels so scary to anyone and for me, it was a mental hurdle for me to get over and once I did it felt good to be back out there.  I found my rhythm with the sessions and listening to longer podcasts really seemed to help take my mind of the fact that I was running. LOL I ended the month being able to run for 20 continuous minutes and that was HUGE for me. I was so proud and so excited I was able to do that! 

One great thing that has happened this month is that I have become more comfortable in my skin. Over the years, I didn't wear shorts because I didn't like how I looked in them or I didn't wear this  because I didn't like that. If you are a woman, you totally get what I mean. Yet this summer, I wore the shorts, I wore things that in previous summers, I might not have reached for. It was/is a pretty freeing feeling. I love seeing on social media the body positivity posts; no one is perfect and we are all beautiful in our own ways. 

Along the lines of being more comfortable in my skin, I would like to say that I am at more ease with life, most of the time. I think life has handed me many curve balls and I like to think I have handled them with grace and gotten through them pretty well but sometimes I feel like I am trying to round up 12 squirrels who all drank double XL espressos. I guess its all part of the balance with life. 

Lastly, I have finally gotten back on to my stand up paddleboard and its safe to say that after our paddleboard adventure in North Carolina, I was excited to get back on mine. Adrienne hosted a sunset SUP Yoga two weeks ago and it was such a perfect night. The water was like glass, there was little humidity and it seemed to me that we had the whole creek/lagoon to ourselves. WELL, we shared it with some very peaceful ducks and a family of swans. I am so excited to paddle more next month. I love seeing my car sprinkled with sand.

UPDATES:

License Plate Game: 1 new one- HAWAII. This was a funny story.... Kyle and I found this one in North Carolina. We were driving back to Asheville and I said to him "I think that's a Hawaii License Plate. Well he stepped on the gas and we tried to catch up to this car to verify and in doing so, we realized we followed him off an exit we were not intending to go. I got the biggest fit of giggles because of that. Oh the things you will do for a game.

Exercise: The only type of exercise I did this month was walking, jogging and yoga. I didn't climb at all- I bet my membership misses me! I shared last month that I decided to give up my gym membership for the summer and I am so happy I did that. I have been really enjoying finding ways to exercise that are outdoors. 

My 2022 Goals:

I moved 12 out of 30 days this month (Move at least 3 times a week) 
I spent 15ish hours outside (Spend 1000 hours outside this year)
I tried to show kindness all month (being the best version of myself) and it really boosted my mood those days when I was kind.
I was NOT creative at all this month. I am still struggling with this. (Be more Creative)

Did you miss any of my posts this month? Find them all below:

friYAY Favorites: 1 2 3 4 | WGJ Travels: Vacation Mode What I Packed Vs. What I Used Seasoned Traveler Tips and Tricks | Random #6 | Happy 4th of July | 2022 Word of the Year Update | 
Mid-Year Goal Review | C0VID | 1/2 Birthday | SUP Dude! | Mid-month Rambles | WGJ vol. 31 |
Diary #31

Whew! What a month! Keeping up with last month, I shared what emoji July was based on what the first 12 emojis were in my phone of January 1 which was 😍 and I am pretty sure that was pretty spot on. August's emoji is 🥺 and I am scared/curious to see how that translates into my life. Well August, please be nice to me.

[[Every Summer, like the roses, childhood returns- Marty Rubin]]

PS. Saying yes to adventures was another big thing for me this month. On our trip, we did a few things that were not planned ahead of time and we found them and just went for them and they turned out to be so much fun! Same with our Ikea Adventure, why not go on another adventure to find something. Isn't the best stories always about unexpected things? Saying yes helped me this month and brought a lot of joy to my life.