Long time, no blog. I have this unfortunate tendency to let my regular posting schedule fall by the wayside once spring comes around and I realize how many other things I’ve been neglecting–like going outside, for example. But since I’ve missed blogging and the way in which it helps me sort through my thoughts, I figured I’d post a quick update in a familiar medium just to let anyone reading this know what I’ve been up to during the months where I’ve been (mostly) radio silent.
Loving
It would be way too easy to say ‘summer’ and leave it at that. But I’m going to get more specific and say that I’m loving a return to go for walks, throw your windows open, highs in the mid-eighties summer weather, which is the kind of weather I live for. The heat wave we spent the first half of July baking beneath, which pushed temperatures over 100 degrees and made being outside actively unsafe in addition to downright unpleasant finally broke a couple weeks ago, and I could not be more grateful.
I’m also loving the wetlands preservation space in the picture to the right that’s only ten minutes from my apartment, and is a beautiful place to walk on warm summer nights.
I’ve been reading a ton lately, and I’ve already finished eight books in July so far. Some favorites include BETTER THAN BEFORE by Gretchen Rubin, whose nonfiction about happiness and habit-forming I always devour, and OBSIDIO by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, the last book in the Illuminae series, which I’d somehow failed to finish for over a year. I binge-read the last 350 pages in less than two hours a week ago, and I’m still thinking about them.
I’ve also been devouring a bunch of sweet, relationship-based contemporary YA–one of my favorite types of summer reading–including CHANGES IN LATITUDE by Jen Malone, PRIDE by Ibi Zoboi, and RELATIVE STRANGERS by Paula Garner.
Not a lot, truth be told. I’ve been really craving new music, and really struggling with where and how to fit finding and listening to new music into my schedule. I can’t listen to new stuff and write anymore–not if I want to be productive, anyway–and I’ve been gravitating more and more toward listening to podcasts on my commute and on my walks, because it feels like less work than checking CDs out from the library and cluttering up my car with them.
I am tossing around the idea of paying for Spotify premium, since any new music I do end up listening to is inevitably on Spotify, but I haven’t quite convinced myself to bite the bullet yet. Stay tuned . . .
That said, the podcasts I’ve been listening to most frequently are Gretchen Rubin’s “Happier” podcast–told you I’m obsessed–the “Dear Sugar” advice column podcast, and my constant favorite “PubCrawl,” which is full of publishing advice and bookish talk.
Working On
I’m also in the process of making new straps for this dress I got from a friend, which has been An Endeavor. I am so NOT a seamstress, but even I’ve more or less managed to follow these step by step instructions successfully with some occasional assistance from my husband. I still need to finish attaching them to the dress on the left, which has been much slower going than I anticipated, but I’m pretty pleased so far with how they look.
A lot of my brain space these last couple of weeks has been devoting to the new job I was offered at the beginning of the month–yay!–and to the adult stuff I’m having to deal with as a result. (Boo.) Not long after I got married, I started itching to make the switch from one full-time job to a couple of regular part-time gigs, partly to increase my income and save on health insurance costs, and partly to begin the process of switching careers.
My new gig as a part-time admin and technical editor for an engineering consulting firm in my area feels like an excellent fit for my personal and professional needs at this point, but it’s also a nerve-wrackingly big change. I’m trading the familiar environment of my current job for the foreign environment and workplace culture of a brand new job, and that change has forced me to make a bunch of other changes as a result. I do think those changes will be good for me in the long run, and I’m hoping this job will be too, but so much change at once is still as anxiety-inducing as it is exciting. At least as far as I’m concerned.
My husband and I are taking a trip to Portland, Oregon very soon, and I cannot freaking wait. Aside from a few weekend trips to Minneapolis, Lake Geneva for a wedding–which is where the picture on the right was taken–and to the Chicago-area to visit my family, we haven’t done any serious traveling since our honeymoon last September. I’m super excited to go sight-see and wander and explore someplace new, and to add a new state (and a new part of the country) to my list.
I’m also very much looking forward to the wedding of one of my oldest friends, which will be happening on the heels of our trip to Oregon. I haven’t seen her and another close mutual friend since last fall at OUR wedding, and I can’t freaking wait for that either.
Because times of transition are stressful for me, I’ve been wishing for time to pass a lot more than I’d like. It’s not that I want to skip over our trip, or these final weeks at my current job, or any of the other moments filling my hours, but I do want to get back to a place of stability, where I know my routine and I know what I’m doing and I’m not spending so much time and energy trying to keep a whole bunch of brand new balls in the air.
At the same time, these are all changes I’ve chosen, they’re not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, and they’re almost entirely for my benefit. I knew some of them would be uncomfortable and I knew I’d be anxious, yet I can’t help but feel I need to be embracing that discomfort and anxiety instead of trying to will it away. I don’t want the kind of life where I stay trapped in my comfort zone because I’m too afraid to embrace new experiences or try new things. I want to appreciate the next couple of weeks and enjoy them as best I can without wishing them away.
And what I’m wishing for now that I’ll be able to stay committed to doing that, even if it’s challenging. 🙂
What have you been up to lately? Leave me a link to your own currently post or a response in the comments below.
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