What I’m Into: August 2018

Main Events:

I believe in celebrating your whole birthday month. This year I lived that out to the point that my parents said “Okay, your birthday is over until next year!” First they took me to Flight, my favorite restaurant, for my official birthday dinner. On the actual day, my co-workers spoiled me with a fully decorated cubicle and a homemade strawberry cake, and Taylor took me to Slider Inn for a Jameson slushie. Then he threw me a birthday party the following weekend. I felt extremely celebrated!

The party was a combo birthday/housewarming, and a bunch of neighbors came over whom we had met at National Night Out early in the month. They were all friends with the elderly lady who used to live in Taylor’s house, and wanted to see the renovations. I love the community feel of his neighborhood.

 

Reading:

I LOVED This Is Me by Kate Pearson Chrissy Metz. She’s so engaging, honest, and wise that it’s probably a good read even if you’re not into the greatest show of the 20teens This Is Us. I also devoured Why Have Kids?, an overview of systemic problems with modern motherhood. It offers no really actionable solutions and I don’t know how my mom friends would like it, but as an outsider, I found it fascinating.

On the fiction side, I read a couple of stories from Ghosts of the Shadow Market, but will try to hold off on the rest until the whole book is out. The Fates Divide was a satisfying sequel to Carve the Mark, and I can get behind a duology instead of a long series! I liked the premise of Swear on This Life – childhood sweethearts reconnect after one writes a book about their story – but something about it felt very writing-class-ish and I couldn’t fully engage. (Once I think “Well, I could do this,” it’s usually over for me.)

I highlighted many passages in Jamie Wright’s excellent The Very Worst Missionary, including the following, which sums up my apprehensions about my own past, present, and future writing:

I think anyone who has experienced a major personal or theological shift can understand exactly why book writing freaks me the f— out. It’s because our beliefs tend to change over time, so much that in many ways I’m not even the same person I was when I first fell in love with Jesus. I mean, if I met 1998 Christian me, with her gold-cross necklace and her mom bob and her cheap, cheesy platitudes today? I’d probably give her the finger. That’s the inherent problem with writing a book centered on life and faith. It’s that, in the end, my own perception of God is subjective and insufficient and ever changing. I’m still in the middle of this process and I will undoubtedly continue to change, but this book won’t be changing with me. In ten years this is all just gonna be a big fat public record of how dumb I was when I wrote it, so I might as well just get the apologies out of the way right now.

 

Listening:

Ryan O’Neal aka Sleeping at Last released his Enneagram Six song this month. The song, the podcast episode about it, and Elicia Edijanto’s art all got me emotional.

 

Watching:

I’m still trucking through season 1 of The Bold Type. It’s so much fun and has inspired me to be more focused at work and in general. I love the strength of the girls’ friendship and the timely themes; Sutton is my favorite; I want to work for Jacqueline.

Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before lived up to my high expectations. The books by Jenny Han have a special warmth about them, and it all translated to the movie. Perfect casting, perfect sets, best entry yet in the new era of romcoms!

If you’ve been around a while, you know I purposely keep my entertainment pretty light. Violence, crime, and people generally being terrible to each other are not my jam, which has left me out of a lot of cultural touchstones this decade (including the Bachelor franchise, which I put in the latter category). Meanwhile, like most people, Taylor was a huge Breaking Bad fan and now watches Better Call Saul. He thought I’d like the legal angle, so I watched one episode and thought it was pretty good, and now we have appointment viewing together. We’ll see if he’s willing to watch some This Is Us with me next month. ;)

 

Tech:

Two great app discoveries this month – Libib, which indexes your home library by scanning the barcodes on your books, and PlantSnap, the “Shazam for plants” I’ve been looking for (so far its guesses have been a little off, but that might be user error).

For spiritual development, I tried both the Daily Office app and the Our Bible app, but neither was exactly what I was looking for. Does anyone know of something that has the daily office with readings included?

 

Travel:

We went to Miami for a long weekend! Taylor had never been, and I hadn’t visited since last June, which is a while for me. We stayed on the north end of Miami Beach and went all in on an oceanfront balcony room, where we watched many sunrises and moonrises:

watched the Braves beat the Marlins (the reason we chose that weekend for the trip):

hung out with my grandparents:

went to Wynwood:

enjoyed local food and drinks (though we struggled to find good restaurants in that area, need to research better next time):

toured the Everglades at Shark Valley Road (I want to check out the other visitor centers too):

and generally soaked up the city, with a side trip to my fave, Hollywood Beach.

 

At Home:

I had fun filling Taylor’s front porch with new plants this month. Due to the lateness in the summer (not much available) and my inexperience with the light situation on the porch, it was a little challenging. I stuck to a white and purple/blue color palette and almost all perennials. Unfortunately, about half of them are looking rough already. We’ll see what survives. Gardening in a new space is by nature a crapshoot.

At my house, my mom surprised me with a huge new plant by the front door, and new mulch for my garden beds! She mulched over a failed grass experiment I had going and it looks much better now. I seriously had been despairing over the state of my own patio area the night before. Also, I don’t remember planting any caladiums, but two little ones have popped up outside my gate and it makes me happy to see them.

 

Wearing:

In summer I live in multiple pairs of cheap, unsupportive flat sandals. They all kill my feet now, thanks to what I’m pretty sure is plantar fasciitis (#ThisIs39). So I’m trying to downsize to a few pairs of quality sandals. On the boardwalk at Hollywood, I impulse-splurged on some Olukai flip-flops. They’re not work-appropriate, but they cradle my feet and support my high arches. I am now eyeing their other styles (I need silver sandals – taking recs!).

 

Beauty:

August skincare update: I used up the vitamin C serum I was applying at night and switched to Paula’s Choice Calm Redness Relief Repairing Serum. Apparently it takes a month or so to kick in, so I’ll report back. After reading some reviews, I also picked up the Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid, which I’m now alternating with the Clear Extra Strength Daily Skin Clearing Treatment for day.

Q3 update: The overall condition of my skin has improved a lot (I’d even call it glowy on a good day), and is less oily than it was in January. But despite everything, I’m still breaking out. My chin area is never clear, and hotspots pop up in other places too. It’s frustrating and embarrassing. I feel like I’ve tried everything and am slowly coming to the conclusion that whatever’s left is hormonal and there’s nothing more I can do. The only upside to an adolescent complexion is looking young. A 20something woman I met at a party flipped out when she found out I’m 39, and demanded a list of everything I’m using on my face. (God bless her!!)

Alanna gave me some Glamglow Mud Mask! After one use I’m not sure how much it did, but it smells like Thin Mints and feels very refreshing.

My birthday freebie from Ulta was a mini IT Cosmetics Superhero Mascara, which turned out to be fantastic – better than Benefit They’re Real, which I tried earlier this year. I’ve also been using the Revolution Reloaded Division Palette almost exclusively. I thinned out my palette collection this month, but this one isn’t going anywhere!

As much as I switch up my skincare, I’ve stuck to the same hairstyling products for years. But this month I tried a few lighter-hold gels for a more low-maintenance look. I’ve gone through almost a whole bottle of L’oreal Ever Curl Sculpt & Hold Cream Gel. I also liked Garnier Curl Sculpt Conditioning Cream, which I used on vacation. But neither of them were quite holy grail status, so I think I’m going back to my old routine for now. As with clothes, the exact thing I want doesn’t seem to exist in the marketplace.

 

Random Happiness:

Taylor has a lot of random small appliances from his last job, and has been unpacking them at the new house. The best one is this movie-style popcorn maker. We inaugurated it at my birthday party and have been using it a lot. He also gave me a Bluetooth water bottle that connects to health apps and flashes a light to remind you to drink. I’m still figuring out that part, but at the very least, it’s my favorite color and has a great ergonomic design.

My other birthday present from Taylor was this framed photo he took of me on a mountain in Georgia. The weekend before, we got to talking about One Word and he asked me again about my word for this year. Turns out he was making sure he had it right. He wrote Fearless on the wrapping paper and says it’s also written on the back of the print. I have never felt so seen by a man, and that was the best gift of all. ♥

I also finally got my notary stamp and have begun notarizing documents! #official

 

Wellness:

I’ve started kicking off my weekdays with Yoga with Adriene. Making this a practice also gets me up and moving in a timely manner, instead of lying there on my phone for another half hour, which was a problem in itself (it’s not healthy to be riled up before you even get out of bed). I rarely have more than 20 minutes, so I start with the shorter videos on the current month’s playlist and go from there. It’s not impressive, but it makes me feel good and that’s something. Plus, Rufus loves it.

 

Your Monthly Rufus:

Rufus paid his first visits to Taylor’s house. His uncertain adjustment period is shorter each time, and now he’s usually frolicking within a few minutes. Soon we’ll see how he does on the porch! Other highlights of his month include lounging cutely in his favorite bed, and facing off with another neighborhood cat.

 

On the Blog:

I wrote about missing back-to-school and learning to say no. (In response to the first post, Debra gave me a three-subject notebook and some new pens. ♥)

 

Good Reads:

♥ A brief history of Memphis’s Tennessee Oilers: Jay Busbee at Yahoo Sports: The City That Hated Its NFL Team

♥ Jody Casella: I Wrote a Book about Elvis Once

♥ Monica Hesse in the WaPo: Cynthia Nixon asked to turn down the AC. It isn’t silly. It’s symbolic.

♥ Bailey Steger: Happy Couples Don’t Give 110%

♥ Beth Watkins at The Salt Collective: For My Immigrant Husband & Refugee Friends, the Damage is Already Done

♥ Emma Pattee at The Billfold: The Cost of Canceling Our Wedding (note: not a sad story; they still got married)

A few for my fellow HGTV fans:

♥ Kate Wagner at Citylab: Death to the Open Floor Plan

♥ Kelle Hampton: Bliss Tour: Northern Michigan Tiny Cottage and Gardens

♥ Hooked on Houses: Bella Swan’s House is for Sale in Oregon