Freeform Friday

• Old Dog, New Tricks – I just learned after 8 years of being a dog mom that Ziggy loves *raw* broccoli and cauliflower. How weird is that? I’ve known for quite a while that she had an affinity for carrots, but I thought it was just because they’re sweet. This is a whole new world as far as cheap treats go. I wish she could teach me how to appreciate raw veggies as much as she does…

• Real Food, Fewer Farts – On the subject of Ziggy, let’s talk about dog food. I used to buy the cheapest shit that still looked decent at the grocery store (Beneful Weight Control) because a) I made the decision back when I was super broke and b) it’s a huge bag that I would only have to haul up to my apartment every once in a while. Surprise! Neither of those are good reasons for buying a crap dog food. She constantly had gas–it was lethal, y’all. So after consulting with a lady at the pet food store, I decided to give this bougie dog food a try. I can’t even explain the immediately different I saw. Even though her old food was “weight control” and this one is not, she immediately trimmed down because she gets fuller faster eating real food (again, I shouldn’t have been surprised…). Her fur was SO much silkier, honestly after a week, and her energy levels are higher than ever. That little old lady ran six miles with me the other day. This is not sponsored, but KASIKS, if you want to send me dog food, I will GLADLY accept. 

• Whole30 Round V – Perhaps watching that powerful transformation made me take a second look at what I was fueling my own body with–I’m on day 23 of my fifth Whole30 rn. For as much as I talk trash about my will power, I kiiind of feel like Wonderwoman. Up until 23 days ago, I was feeling very out of control when it came to sweets and unnecessary carbs. No matter how many times I promised myself I was going to clean up my eating, I would go on autopilot and grab an extra cookie, donut, glass of champagne, you-name-it whenever it presented itself. Turns out my distracted brain doesn’t know how to pass up a sugar high, especially at the office (I’m oddly less likely to indulge at home…). I felt like trash, both because my stomach was constantly in pain and because when I looked in the mirror I didn’t like what I was seeing. I want to talk about how the past four weeks of going out to bars and happy hours without drinking has affected me, but that’s a post all on its own. Just know that I haven’t had processed sugar in over three weeks and I feel like a saint because of it. Bless up.

• Sh-Sh-Shaking I’m Shaking – Guys, this Florida-native was not prepared for her first “big” earthquake. A couple months ago around 3am Ziggy pawed at me to let her under the covers and within seconds my entire apartment started vibrating. I panicked and while nothing fell and it really wasn’t all that dramatic, my heart rate didn’t go back down for an hour. Zig promptly crawled back out once the shaking stopped and sat at attention on the side of the bed with her own little body shaking until I fell back asleep. Then a few weeks ago ANOTHER one woke me up. This one was much less intense and didn’t last as long, but damn. Time to stock up on my emergency readiness kits. 

• 101 in 1001 – I’ve seen these numbers strung together on the internet for years, but I never actually looked into it until a few weeks ago. Turns out it’s a realistic bucket list type deal with 101 actionable items to complete in 1001 days–about two and a half years so you have a couple seasons to get all your PTO in, etc. Obviously, I immediately started making my list. It’s not officially official yet, but I did get it written down and I am planning to share *most of* it with you very soon. Y’all know I love lists, adventures, and challenging myself, so this is right up my alley. 

• Social Media BS  – WHAT IS HAPPENING. Snapchat making light of domestic violence, Facebook giving all our information over to the world’s most terrifying trolls, Instagram letting horrible racist gifs slip past the radar?! All this in addition to my already skeptical attitude about logging in simply because of all the fakeness, inescapable, mind-numbing, self-sabotaging comparison, the divisive political status updates (no joke, my friend count goes down every day as I delete people who make me want to rip my hair out of my head)–I’m almost tempted to go analog. I used to enjoy looking at photos and posting my own, but now it’s such a process. I want to edit them first, then find the right hashtags, then write a cute, quippy caption, by the time I actually post a damn photo, I’m exhausted. It’s definitely made me post less (the algorithm making me feel like no one cares doesn’t help), but I will say that I’ve really enjoyed story-telling through IG stories. I’ve been trying to be a little less filtered on there–letting y’all hear me singing karaoke at the top of my lungs or hollering at my homies while they bowl. I really enjoy editing videos too, so it’s time to conquer my fears. Next goal is to get comfortable talking straight to the camera, so watch out for this vlogger in the making (ha!).  

• 1 Second Every Day — Speaking of videos, I downloaded this app that strings together 1-second video clips for you. My plan is to get a clip every day for a year. If nothing else, it’ll remind me to find something good or at least something to reflect on every day. Count me in for anything to encourage mindfulness and find something positive about even the most dreary days (and let me tell you, it’s been raining constantly for the past few weeks and it is NOT helping my moodiness). Plus, the interface is fire. Highly recommend. 

• Paddington Bear – I did find one positive (besides the obvious: avoiding wildfires, curing our never-ending drought, not doing my hair) about this miserable weather: THIS COAT. How flippin’ cute is it? I’ve worn it basically every single day, including in the snow here. The pockets are hand-warmers and there’s a waterproof media pocket inside. *mind blown* The last time I was this excited about a coat was probably back in this post. 

• Books Are Sexy – I’ve been a reading machine lately. If you guys don’t already have library cards, get on it. You don’t even have to go to the library to check out ebooks and audiobooks on your phone (or Kindle–I use Kindle for my phone because I have a ginormous iPhone Plus). Follow me on Goodreads to see everything I’ve been reading, but I just finished “Hillbilly Elegy,” and I absolutely loved it. Not because J.D. Vance is a brilliant writer, but because his insight into “hillbilly” culture is eye opening. It was honestly a little painful to read at times because a lot of it just felt so true, applicable, upsetting, therapeutic? I think it sheds light on some of the behaviors that Californians in my little bubble have no idea where to begin to understand (sometimes I feel like an outsider around these parts, tbh). I love that the author knows both sides of the spectrum and eloquently explains it. Anyway, if you read it, let’s talk about it. On the other hand, I recently read “The Sea of Tranquility” and hated it. It had awesome reviews, which is why I picked it to begin with, but after finishing it and having SO many questions/objections/WTFs, I found this glorious, scathing review and felt more validated than I have in a VERY long time. 
• Museum of Ice Cream – I finally got my hands on MOIC tickets and I took gazillions of photos (that’s where that photo up there is from). I’m not really sure what to do with them all, so I expect I’ll be writing a post about it soon. But if you get a chance, GO! It is a museum entirely dedicated to ice cream + lots of other treats that I can’t eat right (see Whole30 bullet), but the photo ops were worth the temptation. I learned tons of tid-bits about the history of ice cream while I was there too. 

That’s what I’ve been up to lately. So many thoughts, so little time. I imagine my lack of posting on this here blog has much to do with the same qualms I have about posting to the ‘gram of late, so I’m going to try to get over it. Time to just do it, even if it is just a jumble of bullet points, because I spend enough time overthinking my words in my day job, and hey, this here blog started out as a stream of consciousness anyway. Remember back when I used to write entire posts about my drunk alter ego? Ah, the good old days. 

PS: Need new music? Here’s my 2018 playlist so far. Follow along as I update all year. 

HAPPY FRIDAY!