Oh well, hello there, friends. I know it’s been a little while since my last random stuff list. Or really any blog post at all for that matter. I do apologize.
To be honest, my brain has not exactly been in the blogging game this past summer. I blame my busy work/camping/Netflix-binging schedule and the fact that my apartment was approximately a billion degrees for the better half of the summer. Which is basically the temperature that my brain melts at. And, in case you’re wondering, it’s hard to write blog posts with a melted brain.
But, my apartment is not nearly so blistering at the moment, and my brain appears to be in a solid state. So let’s have at it, shall we?
1. My new semester of teaching started two weeks ago. And, as is the case with all new semesters, I started off the first day vowing that this is totally going to be the semester that I do ALL THE THINGS. Like, this is the semester I’m totally going to the gym everyday and preparing healthy lunches in advance and staying on top of my to-do list like a boss.
So this happened… for exactly one week.
And, then the next thing I know it’s two weeks in and I’ve been to the gym twice and Friday’s lunch consisted of Cheez-its and an apple (it was halfway healthy, okay?) and my to-do list has given birth to tiny post-it notes of to-didn’ts that are sprinkled around my office and home.
I think I may have to start back up with the bullet journal that I half-heartedly started at the beginning of the year but then abandoned somewhere around mid-February. How do you guys keep up with all your to-dos and to-didn’ts?
2. If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you know that I LOVE me some fall. If I could find a country where it’s fall all year round I would totally move there. I mean, why doesn’t that exist? There are countries where it’s always summer and you’re basically always a sweaty, sunburny mess. (I’m looking at you, Thailand.) And there are countries where it’s always cold and wintery. Why can’t there be countries where the leaves are always shades of orange and hot cider is the national beverage and you get to wear cozy turtlenecks all the life-long day? Whhyyy?
We would also have a national dessert. And that national dessert would be donuts. Naturally.
I’m especially excited about cracking out the Crock Pot this year and doing a little slow cooking. Because, yes, I’m eighty years old, why do you ask?
First up is this slow cooker Thai chicken curry. What’s your favorite fall slow cooker recipe?
3. Another reason to be excited that fall is finally (almost) here, there are so many awesome movies coming out right now! I hardly went to the movies at all this summer because I wasn’t having any of it. I mean, superheroes and Marvel comics and a shark-fighting Blake Lively? Errm, no thank you, but nice try.
But now I’m like I CAN’T EVEN MAKE ANY PLANS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I NEED TO SEE ALL THE MOVIES, OKAY.
I saw The Light Between the Oceans yesterday which I knew I was going to love because I loved the book, and it’s about a lighthouse and there really aren’t enough movies about lighthouses. And, also, because it gave me an excuse to eat popcorn for lunch.
Popcorn for lunch!
I’m also super excited about Bridget Jones’ Baby, The Dressmaker and The Girl on the Train. And I watched the preview for The Queen of Katwe yesterday, and it’s possible I cried all the way through it.
4. Okay, I may have to make some room in my busy movie-watching schedule to read some of these new fall books.
Including a new book by Ann Patchett, my favoritest. Yeeeeee!!! (Yes, I just squealed over a new book. I’ve mentioned I’m eighty, right?)
5. I just bought this shirt from Torrid, and it’s pink and ruffled and has kittens and polka dots on it.
Ruffles and kittens and polka-dots, oh my!
But even more impressive than all of that (and that is impressive, right?) is that it fits so well. I always have trouble finding dress shirts that can fit over my big upper arms but then aren’t too boxy around my middle. There have been more than a few times when I’ve found myself flailing around in a dressing room, my upper arms trapped in the vice-like grip of the sleeves which have been transformed into a pair of Chinese handcuffs. I’ve actually thought to myself, “So, this is it. I’m just going to die like this. Trapped in a shirt in a mall dressing room. Great.”
But this shirt not only fits over my big upper arms, but it has a cute gathered waistband that makes it super flattering and not boxy at all. Plus, it’s long which means it covers my super-long torso, and I don’t have to worry about exposing my backside every time I bend over.
Sadly, the polka-dot kitten pattern is almost sold out because OF COURSE IT IS. But there’s this super cute floral one and this heart-print one, and I do believe I’m going to need this hummingbird one.
6. So I’ve had the same boring white dishes for years because they were free and I am cheap. Plus, they “go with everything.” Because, apparently, it’s important that your dishes match your chairs? I dunno.
But I’ve recently decided that life is way too short to eat off of boring dishes. So I am slowly replacing them with new, non-boring, non-white dishes. And how cute are these that I got from World Market yesterday?
So cute and not boring!
I kind of want to go back today and get these plates with dragonflies and frogs on them and these pretty, Chinesey-looking noodle bowls.
7. This article on why women need to stop apologizing for eating is EVERYTHING.
About a year ago, I decided that I was going stop publicly talking about food in the negative, guilt-ridden way that we so commonly hear women talk about food. I hardly ever hear men berate themselves over eating a cookie or going into full-on guilt trip mode for ordering fries instead of a salad, so why should I?
But, the thing is, it’s not so easy to stop that talk. When you’re a lady and you eat out with other ladies, it’s kind of expected that you’re either going to ask someone to share a dessert with you or you’re going to apologize for going ahead and just ordering the damn dessert for yourself.
Whelp, lady-friends, I’m here to say that, no, I will not share a dessert, and, yes, I’m ordering my own, and you should do the same.
Nope. Not sharing.
8. On a related note: how to exercise out of self-love, not due to fat-shaming.
9. Possible TMI alert: after years of hearing the women of the Internet sing its praises, I finally bought a Diva Cup. And now I’m a total convert. I wish I had started using it years ago when I was living overseas. It certainly would have saved me the trouble of having to smuggle a year’s supply of tampons into my luggage every time I moved to a new country.
10. London has replaced all it’s underground ads with pictures of cats and I WILL NEED TO MOVE THERE RIGHT NOW.
And… that’s all folks. What food/movies/books are you excited about this fall? Tell me all about them!
Disclosure: Some of the above links are Amazon affiliate links, which means I can earn a small commission for purchases made at no extra cost to you. Which means I can buy more food/movies/books. Yay!
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