Checking in

Why hello there! I wanted to check in with you guys since it’s been, oh, almost a YEAR since my last post. Whoops!

2024 has been bananas. Let’s see… there’s been pneumonia (that I still have… 9 months later), several solo trips, a wedding and three funerals, a DBT intensive outpatient group (to learn more of these alleged “coping skills” therapists speak of 😅)…. Yes, my head is spinning too.

There was also another big change that I absolutely hate. (If you follow me on IG, you already know).

(TW: pet loss)

We lost our sweet Pudge in May. In the span of two days. Truly one of the most jarring, heartbreaking experiences of my life. Somehow, she had contracted meningitis—I didn’t even know that could happen to cats! One day, she was completely fine, and the next…. At least my dad and I were able to be there with her at the vet hospital when she passed. She was very out of it, but I hope she knew we were there.

Pudge had a hard little life. She was born with only three paws, had multiple owners, did at least one stint at the SPCA, and was an older lady when she came to live with us. And yet she was the sweetest, most pleasant little being. I take solace in the fact that she seemed very happy in her “retirement home” here, where she was absolutely adored 24/7 365. But the loss… oh lord. How do people deal with pet loss? Especially when it happens so suddenly? I’m “used to” this new normal now, I guess, but I also can’t move her little bed away from my work desk. I miss her all the time. My heart so longs for her sweet companionship and unconditional love… and the naps with a side of biscuits. I miss being her mom—that really sums it up, I guess. She was my baby. Thank goodness I started out cat-sitting her, because that gave us extra time together before she “moved in” here.

soulmates

So, yeah. 2024 has been a wild ride. I don’t know how consistently I’ll be blogging, but I do miss the H54F posts and just chatting about fun things with you guys (and avoiding all this painful stuff 🙃)! So I hope I can get my act together to blog more than once every 9 months! 😂

How have you been? Let me know in the comments! (Also, if you have any tips for dealing with pet grief… 🙏🙏)

xoxoxo

High Five for Friday: December 15

Hi friends! Where on earth has the time gone?! Just wanted to pop in and say merry Christmas and happy holidays before that gets away from me too! I’ve missed you! ❤️ I hope to blog consistently again at some point… but all I want to do right now is watch Hallmark movies and nap with this gal! (She is becoming more and more of a lap cat, and I can’t even. 🥹🥹)

How have you all been? Are you living in a winter wonderland? That’s my favorite part of working from home at Christmas. As long as my desk is festive, I’m a happy camper! 😁

I’ve also been cycling through my holiday shirts since November 1. If you only wear them in December, that is just not enough time! 😁

Callie Danielle’s sugar cookie tee! (Which sadly appears to be sold out, but comes in sweatshirt form!) Callie has the cutest seasonal items!

Once again, I’ve been a bit more active on IG over the past few months, so you might already know that things have been kind of wild. Like, I definitely did not have “seeing my fave baseball player from the second row” or “meeting my General Hospital idol” on my 2023 bingo card! 😮🫨

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I also took a reiki course and a candle-making class annnd relived my childhood with Mario RPG! (Mallow hitting bad guys with the cymbals will never not crack me up.) Truly, I contain multitudes. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

What has put the sparkle into your holiday season and/or fall?

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

What I did on my summer vacation

Hi friends! Wow, it has been a while! I didn’t mean to take a summer vacation from blogging, but alas. I hope you all have been doing well! 😁

I’m good, there’s just been some… stuff happening in my orbit. I don’t mean to sound like a vague Facebook status circa 2009—this “stuff” is not happening to me directly, so it’s just not my story to tell. But it did contribute to the need to take a break from… anything I could take a break from over the summer, haha. I don’t know what sort of schedule my blogging is going to have in the immediate future, but I do hope to be a bit less erratic with posting in the fall!

All of that notwithstanding… there were definitely some sparkly, wonderful, expansive moments over the summer. Not to mention that I am just SO HAPPY that I’m not where I was in September 2022 (recovering from covid and the nightmarish anxiety portal it opened). To be feeling pretty consistently fine-to-good, even in the face of overwhelm, is a huge relief and a testament to med adjustments + continued therapy. 🙌

Despite my absence from this space, I did post a bit more than usual over on my Instagram, about such summer happenings as:

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• A magical solo trip to NYC for a taping of the Almost 30 podcast!

• A visit to the botanical garden with Kristin’s sister!

• One year with Pudge!!

• Getting a ball at a minor league baseball game! (😂🤷🏼‍♀️)

How have you guys been? I have missed you, friends, and I’m really sorry that I just disappeared. I know that I’ve felt alarmed when people I follow vanish. For some reason, I feel like I need to write, like, an obsessively-edited manifesto if I’m going to blog? I think that’s why short-form content, like reels and photo dumps on IG, became an appealing (and playful!) alternative over the summer. It would probably help to approach blogging with a similar sense of play and not feel like my options are: 1.) write a novella or 2.) not blog at all. Love me some black and white thinking! 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

ANYWAY, what’s put the sparkle in your summer? Fill me in! ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: June 16

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by—I’m so glad you’re here! 😁

Time is just flying by! Where did the last few weeks even go? Maybe I’ll be able to figure that out as I remember what brought the sparkle…. 🤔

• Timmi was here for a hot minute (literally—I saw her for 20 minutes before therapy 😂)! Though she was really in town to meet her new baby niece, she finally got to meet my baby as well! Pudge was in her glory! 🥲🫶

Pudge also got a gift: this darling caticorn, complete with bite marks from Timmi’s curious golden retriever! 😂

• The Dodgers were in town this past weekend, and that is a national holiday for Pops, haha. I went with him to the Saturday game. Whew, A Big Outing can really overwhelm me anymore, but I do love taking pictures at games. They didn’t turn out amazing or anything, but looking through my camera almost feels like looking through binoculars—you see little things you would otherwise miss. And I’m delighted when I can capture those tiny moments!

Like James Outman celebrating his double:

And CT going rogue after his own hit. I find it very endearing that he never seems to know what this season’s celebration is and just does a bunch of things. 😂🤷🏼‍♀️

AJR also played a mini-concert after the game, and while I do like some of their songs, I didn’t last long. I definitely get the tired version of “hangry” (tangry??) these days. When I’m done, I’m DONE and 1000% ready to go home. It must be a side effect of spending so much time at home over the past few covid years. I used to jam so many activities into a day (not to mention, go to NHL and MLB games all the time!), and now, my introvert self just cannot handle it, and I start wilting. It’s like gloom stealing my maximum hearts! #iykyk

• Switching gears entirely, how darling is this shirt from Old Navy? Make my daisy! Love a flower, love a pun! Two great things that go great together! 😁

(also, further evidence that I live at Target 🙈)

• In that same shopping trip, I also got this candle from Homesense. I just really liked the tarot-card-esque design and the crystals! I’ve never had a candle with crystals in it before!  ✨

• Lastly, this has been me since Saturday:

What put the sparkle in your week(s)?  ✨

Happy Friday! xoxo

Linking up with Andrea and Erika over at Friday Favorites!

High Five for Friday: June 2

Hi friends! Thanks for stopping by—I’m so glad you’re here! 😁

Well, this week was a total blur! Like most weeks with holidays, I guess. Once you start the work week on Tuesday, good luck knowing what day it is!

Here are a few sparkly snapshots from the week!

(FYI: I make a small commission for purchases or clicks made through links in this post.)

• Memorial Day Treat Yo Self! Especially necessary when you end up spending most of the afternoon cleaning out your room and adjunct closet! (We have a spare bedroom, and the closet in there is just like The Land that Time Forgot, yeesh.)

• I did in fact chill and “face mask it up” at other points over the long weekend, though! I’m kind of impressed with the Eight Saints “Zen out of Ten” mask I got as part of last week’s “care package”—I could tolerate it for almost 5 minutes (my skin is often iffy with microdermabrasion), and my face felt suuuper soft afterwards!

• I also got some calming, spa-like vibes on Sunday when I happened to be the only one who signed up for yoga. The class is supposed to be yin, but the teacher sensed that I needed more in the restorative realm (smart woman!!), so we had this slow, restorative yoga class by candlelight. It was so lovely and exactly what I needed! 💖

• Then I went to Target for dryer sheets (and obviously 80 more things), and I ran into some friends! 

• Lastly, from the files of “No one loves a pet more than the parent who was wary of getting it”…

Just sending me cute pictures of Pudge all the time nbd. Also, when Pops came home on Tuesday morning, he was immediately cooing over Pudge, while I got the ol’ “Oh yeah, hi, how are you?” 😂🤦🏼‍♀️

What put the sparkle in your week? ✨ 

Happy Friday! xoxo