Category: Life & Family

Here’s to 36!

35 started out rough, but has become one of my favorite ages. I expect 36 to be one for the record books as well. Personally & professionally. The world is still going to shit, so there will always be that yawning pit of blackness in my stomach. But I want to focus on what I can control.

I hope there is a return to precedented times, that my mellow is not harshed, and that I keep learning, growing, and reaching all year long. I look forward to stepping out of my comfort zone, settling into this life Shane and I are building, and creating relationships that last with people I enjoy.

So here’s to 36! I hope you come along on my journey this year. It’s going to be fun.

-Sarah

My Birthday Bucket List

I’ve never had one of these before, but y’all know how much I love lists that I may or may not follow through with. Shane made a few contributions to this, as well, without me telling him I was doing it.

So here goes 10 things I want to do this month.

Weekend trip to Jacksonville
- We’ve visited the Ikea on a day trip, and went to see the Trans-siberian Orchestra there last December, but we haven’t gotten to explore.
Sushi dinner
- Any excuse for sushi, honestly.
Dinner at Truffle Fries.
- Also known as Circa 1875, but Truffle Fries really captures why I love that place so much.
High tea!
- So fancy, and in an old pharmacy so Shane will be right at home.
Mani/pedi
- Not something I do often, not even every year, but it’s so nice when I do.
Go to the movies.
- We were given a giftcard to the movies for Christmas that is burning a hole in my pocket.
The Traditional Birthday Target Trip
- Every word capitalized because that’s how important it is. I haven’t been super impressed with the Targets around here, but I live in hope, lol.
Get a tattoo consult.
- I’ve never gotten a tattoo, but I always knew I’d get one eventually. 2023 is the year.
Dinner at Wild Wings
- Somehow, the Wild Wings near us has become our default celebration dinner spot. I don’t question it.
Start a new journal.
- I’m about 15ish pages from the end of my current journal, so I’m just going to start a brand new one on my birthday.

I’m genuinely curious as to how many of these are accomplished this month. I’m aiming for all 10, honestly. Make it my first list with a 100% completion rate.

The Jacksonville trip is planned, as is the Target trip, and I’ve picked out my next journal. That’s 3 right there. Maybe I’ll look for a sushi place in Jax.

Welcome to my Birthday Month

That’s right, my birthday month. Over the years, I’ve scaled back my birthday celebrations, but 2023 is getting a full month of shenanigans. In the last 4ish years, I’ve gone through some of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through. Somehow, I came out the other end happier and healthier than I ever have been. I think that deserves a month of celebrating.

I have always loved my birthday and will probably always love my birthday, but some years are more celebratory than others. This year’s feels like a huge win, and I plan on reveling in it.

Let’s be honest, though. I wasn’t a crazy kid even when I was a kid, so shenanigans will 100% be at the old lady level of shenaniganry.

I’m excited about spending this month celebrating everything I’ve overcome and have become in the past few years. I know the world is still very much shit, but I’m still here.

Adulthood & Washing Machines

Our washing machine failed in a spectacular way last week. It just straight up stopped working in the middle of a load. In the machine’s defense, it had been acting squirrelly for a while before that, but I kept using it.

Before you ask, I do 98% of the laundry in our home, and Shane takes care of the dishes and cleans the kitchen most of the time. I’ve been told that’s not a fair trade-off, but I can’t overstate how much I hate doing dishes. I would do so much laundry to never have to wash a dish again. But back to the story.

So, during a rinse cycle, the washer just gives up the ghost. It tells me that it can’t balance the load and can’t go on. The clothes are sudsy and sopping wet. I take a break from reality and leave them in there thinking they’d at least drain a little before I put them in the dryer. I already know I have to rewash them, but I’m not putting that gross mess into my car. At this point, the washing machine completely powers down and refuses to turn on. Even after unplugging it and plugging it back in, which is the #1 way to fix all electrical problems.

So, I spent part of my Monday off (for President’s Day) in a laundromat. Which wasn’t a completely awful way to spend a few hours. That place was hopping – every bench and chair full (so I hung out in my car periodically), kids along for the ride with their moms, babies babbling, and what appeared to be a gang of single guys who hit up the laundromat every week. There was even a puppy someone brought in, and I got to play peekaboo with a baby.

I forgot how expensive laundromats are, though. It was $40 and some change for 4 loads of washing & 3 dryer cycles. And I didn’t even dry them completely, just enough to not be soaked in my car on the way home. I can’t imagine how much people have to pay a year when they don’t have a washing machine. I bet it’s enough to keep them from being able to buy one.

Anyway, the moral is to call the repairman before everything goes sideways. I’m currently waiting for a call back to schedule the appointment.

Adulthood isn’t as fun as I thought it would be.

A Few Camping Shots

Today’s post was supposed to be a photodump of camping pictures from my actual camera. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time to go through those. Instead, here are some completely unedited shots from my husband’s phone (a Samsung Fold). Yes, he’s a better photographer than I am. No, I don’t want to talk about it.

I’m Still Alive!

No lie, I didn’t feel like a human until early last week and didn’t stop coughing uncontrollably until a few days ago. That’s a month. And I whined like a child for 87% of it.

Since I did ~0 housework while sick & Shane couldn’t do a whole lot more than he already does normally (+ he took on my normal cat duties, which will always come first), I’ve been trying to get things done that fell off the radar.

I wanted to have the apartment completely “reset” for the new year, but instead, I did like 8 loads of laundry last weekend because only the essentials had been getting done. I swear I didn’t know we had so many sets of sheets. Also, where did all the throw blankets come from? And why did I use all of them while I was sick? I should have stuck to a couple instead of using ALL of them.

Anyway, happy 2023! I’ll be back to blogging regularly once I fold all those blankets.

-S

I am so sick, y’all

I guess it’s something going around, and it is miserable. I’m coughing, I feel feverish without a fever, my ear feels full/painful, a really terrible runny nose for the first few days, I’m so exhausted even with a full night’s sleep, etc etc etc. Now, my asthma is acting up and making the cough so much worse. It’s hard to catch my breath sometimes. I can barely function when I’m not at work – all my energy goes towards that.

It’s been 11ish days, and I’ve seen some tweets/reddit posts saying it can last for 3 plus weeks. I have a feeling I’ll be spending the first little piece of 2023 recovering from whatever this is.

I’m crawling in a hole and will not come out until summer.

Buh bye.

A Little November Recap

November was a very busy month, and December isn’t looking much slower.

Shane and I went to Atlanta to see Monet Immersive and had a great time. We discovered that Atlanta has several Super H Marts, and a bunch of other fun farmer’s markets that we got to check out. A few days later I headed back to ATL for a couple of days for work reasons. I ended up getting stuck there for an extra night because I would have driven directly into Tropical Storm Nicole and while my car is getting a bit old, I didn’t want to wreck. During my time there, I missed our 16th dating anniversary, but since we don’t celebrate much, it wasn’t terrible.

That same week Shane’s grandma died, which was expected but still very sad, so we packed up and headed to her funeral that weekend. It was nice to see his family, but the circumstances were unfortunate. I did learn that she really liked true crime tv shows, so now I wish we had watched those together.

Shane had a birthday on the 15th but his best birthday present didn’t come until that Friday – his best friend Matthew flew in from Portland for Friendsgiving. When we started our drive upstate, we swung by the airport and picked him up. I made the sacrifice of sitting in the back of the truck so they could have quality time. Friendsgiving was fantastic. There was a BBQ Around the World theme and we took banchan (naturally) and bulgogi. Everything was so delicious and it was so so good to see our friends. The majority of the group has known each other since college, but the additions this year were awesome people, and I hope we made them feel welcome and part of the crew. There was Matthew in from Portland, a couple in from NYC (Queens, to be exact), and one from San Francisco/the Bay Area. More locally, we came up from Savannah, and our other friend drove up from Columbia, so a lot of people made a lot of effort to be there and it was worth it (for me anyway). We dropped Matthew off at his brother’s place, then scooted on home. On Wednesday, we met up with them again to get Matthew, and I took him to the airport on Thanksgiving.

I insisted on a “real” Thanksgiving dinner, so we made some stuffed chicken breasts, devilled eggs, brussel sprouts (for Shane), carrots (for me), and mashed potatoes and gravy. It was super tasty. I think my goal of celebrating all the holidays was definitely met for the Thanksgiving portion.

We spent the rest of the month cleaning, organizing the garage, and decorating for Christmas. His mom and aunt rolled on November 30th (yesterday), since Shane has some days off.

It was an exhausting month, but full of so much happiness and good times. November 2022 was a solidly good month.

-S

Christmas!

I had every intention of writing a Top Ten Tuesday post for today, but I decorated instead. Oops.

We have not truly decorated for Christmas since 2019. We’ve made feeble attempts, but neither of us has been in the Christmas spirit the last few years. As part of my “celebrate all the holidays” push, I decided that we would decorate even if the vibes are off. Luckily for me, the vibes are 100% perfect. Shane is just here for the ride.

I decided to not buy any decorations, and then promptly bought new stockings, so 99% of our ornaments are the ones my grandparents gave me every year growing up. I’m going to try to grow our collection slowly, maybe buy a few on clearance.

Anyway, no one cares about my rambling, here are some pictures. Heavy on the cats, as always.

Bear is absolutely head over heels in love with both the tree and the light up penguin. Klaus tries to eat both the tree and the ornaments.

The mini tree is in the bedroom and the box with candles is in my office.

See you Thursday!

-S

My December Bucket List

Welcome to the least ambitious December Bucket List of 2022. In my defense, I live in Savannah so that removes anything snow or cold weather related, and I don’t have kids so kid-related activities are also out. That leaves a tiny little pool of December/Christmas activities to choose from.

Finish decorating for Christmas! We didn’t really decorate last Christmas…or the Christmas before that and it’s time for a Christmas tree in this apartment. Hopefully the cats won’t try to climb the thing. They are 100% going to try to climb it.
1. Honestly, this one will definitely be done before December 1st, but I’m counting it anyway.
Watch some amount of Christmas Movies. I said something like 20 (started at 45, which is insane) in my Hallmark Christmas Movies post, so that number works. But honestly, 5 will be fine too. Not fussed.
Go see Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s The Ghosts of Christmas Eve. They’re playing in a bunch of cities within a few hours around us, so that’s definitely on the list.
Make Shane’s coworkers lil not-actually-Christmas-related treat bags. I love baking and December is the best baking month, but I definitely don’t want to eat all, or most, of the cookies, so treat bags it is!
Wrap and send presents with enough time for said presents to get to their destinations before Christmas day. This will be a minor miracle if it happens.
Cook Christmas Brunch/Dinner. It’ll almost certainly be an early dinner in order to work around Shane’s work schedule, but maybe I’ll do a little Egg Benedict for breakfast as well. That was the traditional Christmas breakfast when I was a kid.
Do some Christmas Light viewing – I need to find out if there are any neighborhoods known for their lights or a organization that does a light show in December. I love looking at Christmas lights.
Decorate a gingerbread house, as is traditional. I’m going to try not to cry this year.
Listen to a Christmas audiobook or 2. I think I should probably take a break from podcasts for a month and listen to a few books.
Deep clean the apartment for the new year. Besides not crying over the gingerbread house, this is going to be the toughest one by far.

That’s it, that’s my list of things to get done in December. Nothing too ambitious, except the deep cleaning, and mostly just things that will make me happy. Christmas has been hard for a few years, but 2022 is going to turn it all around. Hopefully. No pressure.

See you Tuesday.

Sarah