What I’m Into: July 2019

I have now been married for one month and have completed the last full month of my 30s. Whew!

Reading

One & Only by Viv Daniels (4 stars) – I wanted something romancey to read on my honeymoon, and this exceeded expectations (unsurprising since Viv Daniels is really Diana Peterfreund). Scientist heroine Tess is tired of living a life of lies as the secret daughter of a prominent businessman. When she transfers to an elite college in her hometown, she discovers her half-sister is dating the guy she had a passionate fling with years ago. Then everything starts to hit the fan. I liked this enough that I immediately purchased the sequel.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (5 stars) – I can’t believe I never read this in school, but it should be required reading for all Americans. It’s compelling, heartbreaking, inspiring, and way way too relevant for a memoir written in 1845.

The Most Beautiful Thing I’ve Seen: Opening Your Eyes to Wonder by Lisa Gungor (4.5 stars) – A wonderful, personal memoir from singer-songwriter Lisa Gungor. I appreciated her honesty and related to a lot.

Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane (4 stars) – A semi-reclusive gardener, May, uses a month’s leave from work to attempt to rekindle some old friendships. This was a sad but charming story, and I loved all the plant talk (and illustrations).

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren (3.5 stars) – A hate-to-love romance about a woman who ends up going on her twin sister’s honeymoon with the best man. The Torres family as a whole are the best thing about the book.

Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy (3.5 stars) – This take on Marilla Cuthbert’s youth started a little slow and sad for me, but took satisfying turns I wasn’t expecting. Worth reading for L.M. Montgomery fans.

Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel (3.5 stars) – I did not love this final book of the Themis Files as much as the others, but it was an interesting conclusion.

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith (3 stars) – The friendship among three high school seniors is tested when Alice buys Teddy a lottery ticket for his eighteenth birthday – and he wins.

The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships by Suzanne Stabile (3 stars) – This was fine, but didn’t hold my interest as well as other Enneagram books I’ve read.

Listening

I forgot to mention in June’s post that one of Johnnyswim’s new tracks brought me back to myself recently. I’m still listening to it a lot.

The Cut on Tuesdays podcast had some good episodes this month. Most motivating: July 16, How to Stay Sane While Saving the Country with Brittany Packnett. Most jaw-dropping: July 2, Make a Wish. My best new subscription is Redesigning Life with Sabrina Soto, which I heard about on the Young House Love podcast.

Watching

I finished Dead to Me (great ending – Season 2 will be nuts!!) and am still working on the Veronica Mars revival. I’m trying to finish up before someone fully spoils me, but would rather savor these long-awaited episodes over a period of time.

Taylor and I went to see Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I think I appreciate it more upon reflection, but overall, Tarantino just isn’t my thing.

Travel

We went to Sandals in St. Lucia for our honeymoon! It was the closest to the equator I’ve ever been.

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Our goal was total R&R, but I did go on the morning snorkel boat twice, and was thrilled to see multiple fish I’d never seen before. I also paddle boarded right off the beach one afternoon.

We watched the women’s World Cup match against England in the British pub with a few other Americans.

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And of course, we befriended a stray cat living at the resort.

Around Town

We saw Hamilton at the Orpheum! Since I’ve seen it in New York and Chicago, and we’ve, you know, spent a lot of money recently, I was going to pass. But Taylor decided we’d regret it if we didn’t go. It was our first big date night as a married couple – we had a nice dinner at Spindini beforehand.

I made it to the Shell twice before the summer season ended, to see John Paul White (half of The Civil Wars) and Devon Gilfillian (whom I had never heard of before but liked A LOT).

At Home

I made a decision to fully occupy my home during my single years, not “leaving space” for a theoretical other person. While I stand by that decision, combining the households of long-single 30somethings into a small 2/1 house with only two closets is not a fun time. It’s not getting stuff out of my condo that paralyzes me – it’s wondering where it can go, when our living space is already at capacity. And that’s with selling a whole lot of things and planning to rent a storage unit. Taylor is great at these problems, so after weeks of going over to my place and getting too anxious to accomplish anything, I have handed him the reins. In the next month before my tenants move in, I have to get completely out, have the carpets cleaned and a general cleaning done, and make some cosmetic repairs that I never figured out how to do while I lived there. Hey, there’s the anxiety again. Deep breaths.

Aside from all that stress, life at the new house is happy and harmonious. I love living with Taylor and he cooks me breakfast every day (something I always wanted, as I love real breakfast but have never had the discipline to make time for it during the week). We walk around the yard in the evenings to see how the plants are doing. I repotted the lemon tree from our wedding and set it up on the back patio – a lemon is already growing! I also repotted my fiddle leaf fig in a white pot and am loving the effect.

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Food

After getting the new Smitten Kitchen cookbook for our wedding, I read it cover to cover and now want to make all the things. I tried the farro with tomatoes this week, and have some wild rice ready to attempt the broccoli and rice fritters.

When I bought the wedding wine at Trader Joe’s (highly recommended), I also picked up some “Honeymoon” Chardonnay for us to drink when we came home from St. Lucia. It was delicious.

Beauty

This month I renewed my vows with two of my makeup go-tos: NYX HD Eyeshadow Base and Maybelline The Falsies Push-Up Angel mascara. I couldn’t find the NYX at several stores and was afraid it was discontinued, but thankfully, CVS still has it. All it took for me to fall back in love with The Falsies was to open a fresh tube. I’ve tried a lot of mascaras and for me, nothing else comes close.

I got a gel manicure for the wedding. Rather than give in to an endless cycle of gel manicures as I was then tempted to do, I bought a bottle of Sally Hansen Miracle Gel topcoat. It made some low quality polish last 8 days, so I think it’s legit.

For the wedding, my makeup artist used Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Patina. I loved it so much that I decided to splurge on my own. Unsurprisingly, it does not stay all day (or even a few hours) on me. But I still enjoy and feel special wearing it.

Wellness

Taylor and I joined a new-ish gym near our house. I was content enough at Planet Fitness, but I still can’t believe I get to exercise somewhere this nice. They have lots of free classes, too, though most of them are during the day. They also have a pool!

Random Happiness

I’m excited to get involved in my new neighborhood, so we joined the neighborhood association and went to the monthly happy hour. I won a vintage neighborhood pride T-shirt in a raffle!

At work, after resisting it for years, I got a second monitor. I think everyone is correct that I can never go back.

Your Monthly Rufus

I was worried about how the move would affect Rufus, but he is LOVING life at the new house. Taylor works partially from home, so Rufus is alone less and enjoys chiming in on Taylor’s business calls. He also had some quality time with my dad when my parents were over to watch the World Cup final.