Up Past Bedtime

Here's another post of ramblings and thoughts in no coherent form at all, just wanted to write with no rhyme or reason. I hope you all are well and staying safe. K, here we go: We're moving this week and we're so excited to have a yard oh snap!

Having hobbies during adulthood is important, I think. Especially during our no end in sight COVID time we're still in. My current hobby is coming up with interior design projects while trying not to spend any money. That can be hard though, especially right now. The world needs more people to repurpose and upcycle furniture, but too much of it is upholstery that can be tricky to properly clean or sanitize, and sometimes it can be just downright ugly (in my opinion, anyways). But planning projects with what we already have and finding new uses for them has been fun!

When we move, I am totally going to create some scrapbooks from my memory box after all of the rooms are set up and decorated. I think I am going to create a scrapbook of all of my cards. Does anyone else save all of the cards they receive? I am not a "stuff" person whatsoever, but for some reason, I can't seem to let any of my cards go. I love reading the notes that people write in them.

I can't wait for Belmont to see our new apartment, he is going to love the views there compared to where we are at now. We have been living on a main road for the past year and though it's a great apartment, the road noise can prove to be a bit much, especially with the windows open. Belmont hates when the windows are open (I mean to be fair, he also hates it when he hears someone talking right outside on the stoop, even with the windows closed). I can't necessarily blame him. When I am feeling overwhelmed, anxious or stressed, the road noise has a way of becoming ever more apparent, and it feels like I'm being closed in on and can't escape. None the less, I am so excited for Belmont to have a quieter, greener street to look out at and enjoy!

Silk almond milk is too sweet for my liking. A lot of food is too sweet for my liking.

A lot of food is just way too much flavor for my liking, that's more accurate. I don't care for sugar or sweeteners in my coffee, I don't like a lot of salad dressing on my salads, I don't like a lot of sauce on my foods...I just don't need a lot. Is anyone else like this? No salt, no pepper, no mayo. So many people I know find this bizarre. I almost always am asked, "You sure?" when I decline mayo on my sandwiches. To clarify, this by no means implies that I like to eat healthy all time. Crushing an entire box of wheat thins is a piece of cake (mmm omg cheesecake, too omg. But plain cheesecake, nothing fancy). Or a bowl of cereal (with not a lot of milk). My point is, why can't the food be the food instead of swimming in something else?

Speaking of swimming, I miss swimming daily in the summertime, ugh. Growing up with so many pools was such a privilege. My parents, my neighbor, and my grandfather all had a pool while I was growing up, and now I think I realize how key they were to me being able to really enjoy the summer growing up. I've always been someone who feels like a day is wasted if it's spent completely indoors. You've gotta get outside and get your bare feet in the grass and connect with the Earth, you know?! And on super hot days - especially in the pavement dominated city - it can just be way too hot to be anywhere outdoors without a pool or access to clean water to swim in, which lately has just been bumming me out. Thankfully, there's always Walden Pond.

I started reading Harry Potter after seeing the first movie again recently at an outdoor, socially distanced viewing. Now I know why people love Dumbledore so much. The books are so much better than the movies! I have only ever seen all the movies once (except the first one) and have never read the books. Just started the Chamber of Secrets, and it's just been so, so fun. Where have I been all of my life with not reading these? I sat at Walden yesterday reading the rest of the first book, and it was simply perfect having the pond with the sun reflecting off of the water in my peripheral vision.

Going back to the topic interior design, I haaate the new trend with pale pinks and mauve. It's going to look like the late 80's/ early 90's all over again. You know how many times we have all said, "Oh god what were we thinking??" This trend is THAT reaction, but in real time. Stop yourselves while you still can. This swatch:

Is basically these colors:

I mean if you love the color pink, then have at it.

We're watching New Girl and it's hilarious. I love it. I love Jess and Nick, and their first kiss is hands down the greatest TV first kiss I've ever seen. If I had to rate my favorite show couples, they'd probably go: Leslie and Ben > Jess and Nick > Pam and Jim > Rachel and Ross Why are Pam and Jim so far down, you might ask? Pam gets just...blah later on in the seasons, don't you think? Sorry if you disagree. Leslie and Ben are first because they're everything and I love Parks and Rec. Ross and Rachel are last because Ross was always WAY too good for Rachel, even if he did whine a lot.

It's adorable picturing Fred Toucher loving New Girl now, especially since so many scenes have a lot of feelings.

I need new running shoes, but I'm scared to commit to a purchase.

I get buyer's remorse over almost everything, even food. Some food I don't need to buy but I will eat it later, but yeah. I am in a phase where I just hate spending money. I don't think I'll ever get out of that phase, really.

Money is a crazy thing, right? It's not even backed by anything anymore, it's just "legal tender". I hate that the word "tender" is in there, because money isn't sympathetic. Homophones.

I've been meditating a lot lately, and it has been helping me with stress management. It's also helped me appreciate even more just how interconnected everything on this planet is. Humans need to do a better job at giving and taking instead of just taking. We need to also stop producing so. Much. Waste. Plastic waste, in particular. Biodegradable materials need to become mainstream so their prices can come down. Or maybe there should be a ban on the types of materials that are put into product production. I don't know, but something needs to happen large scale, and fast.

During COVID, one of my favorite fun things to do now is create YouTube playlists of 90's and 00's pop and alternative rock music videos, drink wine, and dance to said playlists. Granted this has only happened twice or three times because I can't drink. I just can't. I accidentally had too much last time (3 glasses of wine, I think?) and got the spins. The spins are seriously just the worst. It's nuts how I'll force myself to sit up, look at a distant object on the shelf across the room, and TELL myself that it's not slowly turning counter clockwise. And when I blink, it's back upright again and the process starts all over. So annoying.

How did we drink so much in our early 20's and feel okay the next day? Even after one glass of alcohol now, I get a hangover headache that sneaks up midday the next day. Not only does it linger, it intensifies. Ugh, just why? How?

How did we stay up so late, too? My bedtime now is 11, 11:30 the latest (sometimes 2 am if I am reading or watching Try Guys).

Oh snap if you haven't watched Try Guys on YouTube, they're amazing and I love them. I just watched the episode where they all either get high or drunk and paint along with a Bob Ross Joy of Painting episode, it's perfect. Just what COVID calls for.

I love cookie dough ice cream and I wish I had some right now.

Remember the early crazy pop culture stages of COVID? For me it was something like, - Animal Crossing. 24/7 Animal Crossing. Then one day, it all just stopped.

- Reading

- Tiger King - Acceptance of needing to stay inside and get creative with it to prevent getting bored (Tim and I made sock puppets one day).

- Crossword Puzzles

- More reading

Day trips during COVID are proving to be interesting during this vacation week. I took a couple random drives but stayed along the Pike because their rest stops are the only public places I know of with accessible bathrooms right now. I found a few really gorgeous spots near Sturbridge and Worcester though. Getting out of the city and into nature always feels great, but I don't know if I could ever not live near a lot of great small restaurants. Speaking of, Pho N' Rice in Somerville will always be one of my favorites. Literally everything from there is fantastic.

During a New Girl episode tonight, Winston mentioned his eyes were red and itchy after getting off their red eye flight and said, "oooh I see what they did there". I really always thought it was called the "Red Eye" because you can see the red lights on the plane at night. The more you know.

Speaking of, I still get a lot of song lyrics wrong. Sometimes intentionally while knowing they're wrong, though. Like, I think "There's nothing that a hundred men on Mars could ever do" sounds a lot better in the song Africa. The rest of the lyrics in that song structurally don't make any sense, so is it really that strange?

On a more serious note, some people's reactions against the Black Lives Matter movement have really been getting to me. If some people truly think All Lives Matter, why do they get so upset about Black Lives Matter? Why do they not get as equally outraged about Breonna Taylor's murders or Jacob Blake's shooters not being brought to proper justice for their actions, but will quickly post about a child whose murderer was immediately brought to justice? I truly don't understand.

With that said, I don't think that people are ever going to learn and grow from one another if every conversation is, "Well THIS!" "No, THIS!!" "NO, THIS AND THIS IS WHY!!!!" I'm learning too, and trying to veer away from that dialogue pattern. I think we all need to start listening more and if we don't understand why someone has an opinion about something, asking why it's their opinion is equally - if not more - important.

Black Lives Matter.

Your vote matters.

Be safe, be kind, be well, and get outside while we still have long hours of sunlight!