A little quarantine quiz with Pops

Andrea over at Living on Cloud Nine posted this little quiz recently, sharing her husband’s answers about her. Since I’m quarantined with Pops, I decided to ask him the questions! Here’s what he had to say about me:

What is something I say a lot?

-“Little beeebeeee” (little baby)

LOL this is true, it’s what I say about babies and/or cats in this ridiculous baby voice. The Taco Squad on IG, with their adorable baby + 4 cats, are often to blame.

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Happy Monday everyone! ⚡️💖☀️ #BigBrotherThor #LifeWithEllie

A post shared by Dexter, Thor, Simba, Burrito. (@theofficialtacosquad) on Apr 20, 2020 at 7:10am PDT

How tall am I?

-5’3”

HEY I’M 5’4”!

What do I do when I’m not with you?

-“Play on your phone.”

Me: “Um, I do that with you too!” 😂

What is my Favorite Movie?

-“Where the Boys Are right now….” (LOL) “Oh, The Outsiders!”
Okay, more accurate. I don’t know that I could readily give a favorite movie, though.

If I could go anywhere, where would I go?

-“Disneyland or Chicago. The Beach.”

Fair enough. I wouldn’t say no to any of those places.

-How do I annoy you?

“By dragging your feet about doing the dishes, the wash, come on, we’ve got to do this now!”

I am reeeeally bad about this, especially with the dishes. 😬

What is my favorite TV show?

-“Mom—in quarantine especially.”

Okay, not that Mom isn’t great, but it has also been on all the time lately, including when I usually break for lunch.

Who is my celebrity crush? 
-“Anderson Cooper? I don’t know!”

HAHAHAHAHA I do heart Anderson Cooper.

But I wouldn’t say he’s my celeb crush. Luckily, Pops did remember this guy after some prompting:

You get a phone call that I am in trouble, who am I with? 

-“Your mother.”
😂😂😂

What do I hate?

-“Food textures.”

TRUTH. I am v picky.

What is something I LOVE to eat? 

-“Potato chips, donuts, cupcakes.”

Not so much cupcakes anymore, but potato chips and Entemann’s glazed popems have been my quarantine go-tos. #juicecleanse

What is my Favorite Drink? 

-“Shirley Temple.”

ACCURATE.

What gets my temper going the most?

-“When you’re too tired and you’re forced to do something.”

ALSO ACCURATE. I become a big whiny baby (the opposite of an adorable “little beeebeee”).

What’s my shoe size?

-“7.”

Yep.

Three Words to Describe Me?

-“Funny/good sense of humor, gentle, smart.”

Awww. 😭💖

Well, that was a fun way to pass the time on a wild night in quarantine!

High Five for Friday: April 24

How the heck is it Friday already? I swear, one day just bleeds into another anymore. 🤪 Anyway, let’s see what brought the sparkle:

• Look at this adorable card from Kristin’s mom! She is such a sweet angel. (Kristin loved Peanuts, and this is from her personal collection. ♥️) When I realized that Sue would be going back home (leaving PA) once Kristin passed, I was devastated. Like, duh, obviously she’d be leaving—but after months of us spending our Sundays together, she had become such a fixture in my life. At least we still text daily! 😊

• Behold, possibly the most gorgeous flower I’ve ever seen! I practically fell into someone’s yard trying to take a picture of it! 😬😂 Flower-creeping is going well, but I have not had great luck making cat friends. I’ve seen two or three on my walks lately (I say “or three” because it’s either one cat or two very similar-looking cats + one orangey), and they just yawn at my “psst psst”-ing and remain indifferent loaves from a distance. WAH.

THE AUDACITY.

• I started doing an awesome yoga class series with one of my YTT friends this week! It moves through the chakras and includes writing about trauma, which is so cool. Also, the classes are on Sunday, which is perfect for me! Pre-coronavirus, I used to religiously go to a trauma-sensitive yoga class on Sunday (and then go visit Kristin, hence the aforementioned Sundays spent with her mom), and I missed it a lot.
  

• One of my walking jams lately has been “Under Pressure.” Obviously, it’s fantastic, but it builds so well that it gets me walking faster without me even noticing. Plus, it’s one of those songs that I’ve heard a million times, but only really listened to during my Queen deep-dive last year. Brian May’s gorgeous guitar tone! That iconic bass line! The piercing piano! Roger Taylor’s driving drum beat! AND! It has even more energy (but sadly no Bowie and no Freddie falsetto) when they would do it live. I love this performance from SNL, one of their last performances in the US. 😢

• Let’s end things with a few funnies:

HASHTAG TOO REAL.

I hadn’t heard this song in years, and it began playing in my head as soon as I read this. 😂

Hope you’re hanging in there in this crazy time. Thank you for taking the time to stop by and read and comment! Have a great weekend! xo

Instagram vs. Reality

Are you stressed by how productive and together other people seem during the pandemic? I know I am. I’m not writing a novel or cleaning our house top-to-bottom right now—I’m playing video games and watching marathons of Million Dollar Listing LA!

Although I haven’t been wildly productive, I have mostly been fine, emotionally. (I could certainly be worse!) And that’s probably how it seems when I post on Instagram, because the majority of my posts have been of the flowers and cats that I see on my occasional walks. But I had a cry-your-eyes-out anxiety attack a few weekends ago, and I obviously didn’t post pictures of that. I imagine other people are in the same boat—feeling a lot at times and not documenting that “messiness” on social media.

Inspired by that, and by Samantha Ravndahl’s IG vs Reality video, I thought now might be a good time to share the true stories behind a few of my pretty Instagram pictures. I think we could all use the reminder that nothing is as perfect as it seems on social media, especially right now. YOU’RE DOING AMAZING, SWEETIE! ♥️

This picture from my trip to Sedona last year is absolutely gorgeous. And it was taken three days after one of my best friends died, so… yeah. Also, don’t be fooled by my meditative posture—I’m actually not a huge fan of meditating. It is so so hard for me to just sit still and tune into myself. I assume I’ll get there someday, as I didn’t like yoga in the beginning either. Anyway, for this picture, I literally handed my camera off to a friend, sat down, and was like, “Ooh, hey, it looks like I actually meditate!” 😂

I love this picture, and it’s literally a selfie that I took in the kitchen before running out the door on Thanksgiving 2018. 🤷🏼‍♀️ In person, I was meh on my hair and haaated how clumpy my mascara looked… annnd then this pic turned out to be my favorite picture ever. Go figure.

See those pretty flowers? Yeah, they also attract bugs… and I’m terrified of bugs and legitimately flinch whenever I hear buzzing. So I was basically jumping out of my skin every five seconds while trying to capture this picture. 🙃

This is a pic from my friend Sara’s wedding. Three days before, I got super triggered by something unexpected and could barely function. I couldn’t eat or sleep, and I ended up leaving work early three days in a row because I was only capable of pacing around and crying. The (delicious) dinner at Sara’s wedding was the first meal I’d eaten in three days. In retrospect, I do look kind of sad and exhausted here, and well, that’s why.

So that’s it for my story time. I really do try to be honest in my IG captions if the pic is pretty but not reflective of reality, but sometimes, the situation is just too much for me to delve into at that moment. (…Or it’s too dumb, in the case of the bugs. 😂)

Hope you all are faring well and not judging yourself too much for however you’re coping in this unprecedented time. 💕💕

High Five for Friday: April 17

Let’s see what brought the sparkle!

• How are you all doing this week? For me, this week was much less of an emotional rollercoaster than last week, HALLELUJAH! I managed to get out for a walk almost every day, and I found some lovely tulips to creep on! 😍

• I’ve also been playing a lot of Harvest Moon: Animal Parade for Wii. (I ADORED Harvest Moon for SNES growing up, anyone else?) It’s such a lovely game, and I get to act out my wildest fantasies, like being outside and petting cats! 😂

• If you celebrate, did you have a nice (albeit bizarre) Easter? To me, it did not feel like Easter at all, aside from us watching a local Mass on TV. This year is probably the first time we haven’t gone to my grade school’s church for Easter Mass EVER. 😱

Easter 2020 😂😫

• On Wednesday, I got to do a lovely virtual meditation led by one of my fellow YTT gals, Tara. Tara is a true gem and was a great support for me on the Sedona trip. I really struggle with meditation most of the time, but Tara has the most calming voice, and it was a very soothing experience!
  
  

• Lastly, shout-out to my fellow English majors and our girl Charlotte Perkins Gilman! Girlfriend was really on to something in 1892! 😂

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: April 10

Another week in social isolation down! 💪 Let’s see what brought the sparkle:

• Pops and I have begun making the most of our quarantine by watching ‘60s movies that I’ve never seen. 🤷🏼‍♀️ First up was Where the Boys Are, a cute, college-gals-on-spring-break romp. We followed that up with camp classic Valley of the Dolls, which I kind of loved? I mean, with the iconic ‘60s fashions, soapy drama, and literal wig-snatching, what’s not to love?

• Timmi’s birthday was on Saturday, and because she is the most creative person ever, she had a social distancing scavenger hunt! 😂 She posted a bunch of prompts, and we all had to find things in our homes that fulfilled them. My favorite prompt was “Weirdest thing in your junk drawer.” Here’s my contribution… take your pick between VHS tapes, an antique candy dish, and a doily!

• Speaking of Timmi, we managed to get together on FaceTime for a little yoga on Sunday night! I was really anxious on Sunday afternoon and almost canceled on her, but I’m so glad that I didn’t. I think yoga + human connection definitely helped my mental state. 👍

• I’ve been finding a lot of comfort in my fave YouTubers these days, probably because their videos help me to feel less alone in these isolating times. I especially enjoyed this video from Samantha Ravndahl talking about things she’s learned in therapy, because therapy, obviously, but also because she’s so chill and not preachy. (My favorite line was, “I’m not a therapist. F*cking clearly.” Which is how I feel whenever I try to give advice. 😂)

• Lastly, please enjoy this delightful behind-the-scenes footage from Pitch Perfect:

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Following Rebels trend, and posting old rehearsal footage. The role of Benji is performed spontaneously by Binky (Ben was at a fitting) ✨

A post shared by Skylar Astin (@skylarastin) on Apr 9, 2020 at 8:44am PDT

Hope you have a great weekend! xo