Three confessions

1) I’m currently in the process of reorganizing my organizational system. This means I opened up every bin and box and cube and container in my home, took everything out, and made piles all around my apartment with my various categories. There was an “office” category with Post-It notes, tiny staplers, extra pens, etc. There was a “tech” category with extra smart plugs, multiple tech cleaning kits, random tools, etc. There was a “coloring” category with extra coloring books and way too many markers than I feel comfortable talking about. There was a bundle of different types of tape, a group of assorted batteries, and a handful of Command strips/hooks. There is even a basket that I’m calling “extra organizing supplies” because that’s how Type A I am. My problem is that I’m… too organized? Like I forget which box I’ve put XYZ item if it doesn’t have a very specific place. I have tons of tape because I kept forgetting which bin had the tape! So, what I’m doing is reorganizing everything and then, I’m going to make a spreadsheet of where everything lives, so I can find it easily. (I am such a goddamn nerd it hurts.)

2) I’ve started a new routine of going grocery shopping twice a week. I used to do it once a week, usually on Sundays, and would make a meal plan for the whole week, but I always found it hard to visualize what sorts of foods I would be in the mood for on the weekend. Now, I go on Sundays and only have to think about breakfast/lunch through Wednesday and dinner on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. (Wednesday is a standing trivia night at a local sports bar!) Then, I go again on Thursday mornings (which I try to combine with other errands) and only have to think about Thursday – Sunday afternoon. There is just something about only thinking about a few days of meals at a time that calms me.

3) We have valet trash at my apartment, which means that we just have to put a designated trash can outside our door on the specified days (Sunday-Thursday), and someone will pick it up between 7pm – 10 pm. It’s a great system, but what’s not so great is Rocky. Rocky is a raccoon who really loves our valet trash program because he gets a delicious meal five nights a week! He’s gotten into my trash more than once, and I even caught him in the act one night, and we locked eyes before he ran away. Anyway, I invested in some rodent-repellent trash bags, and we’ll see if they work. So far, so good.

Three books I’m never going to read

1) A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – At over 800 pages and commonly referred to as “trauma porn,” I can safely move through the rest of my life without picking up this book.

2) When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – Another book I’m never going to read simply because it will make me too emotional. I could barely handle Two Kisses for Maddie!

3) War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy – Why would I read a book that’s 1,200+ pages long? No. NO. No, no, no.

Three cute habits my cats have developed

1) Cat medication – No, my cats don’t take medication, but they seem to think they do. Every morning when I open up my pillbox and dump the pills on the counter, it never fails: Lila comes into the kitchen, meowing at me. Then she runs over to the table where they typically get their treats. Eloise soon joins her and they stare at me expectantly like, “It’s time for our medication, too!” Their medication being, of course, a handful of Temptations. I need to break them of this habit, but it’s so goddamn cute.

2) Mom reading = cat petting time – Whenever I’m in my reading chair in the office reading or I plop down on the couch with a book, Lila will immediately stop everything she is doing to prance over to me. She’ll meow sweetly at me and poke me gently with her paw to say, “I’m ready for pets!” Except she doesn’t want me to actually pet her. She wants me to put my hand down so she can bump her forehead against my hand and rub her face all over it. I’m not allowed to give her any attention. I’m just a vessel for her petting needs.

3) Sunshine pancake – It’s so nice to be in an apartment with so much natural light, but nobody enjoys that more than my cats. When I open the blinds every morning, a few minutes later, I can usually find them splayed out in a spot of sunshine, snoozing away. And with Eloise, she magically turns into a pancake during her sunshine snoozes! She stretches out so much that she looks two-dimensional. I call this her pancake pose. Sunshine just makes her body stretch and stretch and stretch until she turns into a pancake!

Three apps I recently downloaded

1) Decibel Meter – I downloaded this so I could record Chip and Lucy during some of their louder barking moments. They both hit over 100 decibels at one point (separately!), which is equivalent to chainsaws, loud concerts, and motorcycles.

2) Yarn Fever – Another silly iPhone game that sucked me in. There’s no skill to this game. You’re just unwinding a puzzle filled with yarn, and it is extremely soothing.

3) Shazam – I needed to find out the artist playing in Starbucks this weekend, so I had to redownload Shazam to do so. (For the record, it was Kina Grannis singing a gorgeous rendition of Can’t Help Falling in Love.)

Three things I’m doing this weekend

1) Book club – We’re getting our May book club in just under the wire! We chose an escape room for this month, and I am very grateful for go-getter friends who will do the majority of the work while I pretend like I know what I’m doing. We’ll do dinner beforehand where we’ll talk about the book (How to Read a Book by Monica Wood, which was my suggestion!).

2) Podcasting day – Bri and I are really getting ahead of our podcasting game this year! We’ll record two episodes on Saturday afternoon, and that’ll have us set with epsiodes through July!

3) Tampa Bay Weens meet-up – My mom and I haven’t been back to this dachshund meetup since our first time way back in September, and we’re excited to go back and hang out with some little sausages for an hour on Sunday morning. Lucy gets really shy around other dogs (even though she’s a spitfire at home!), so my mom wants to give her more opportunities for socialization and hope she comes out of her shell a bit. (Chip, on the other hand, will make friends with any dogs he sees!)

Three things I Googled this week

1) “wyeth watts narrator” – I had to look up the narrator for a romance book I just listened to because he just did not have a very sexy voice. The images that pulled up were not what I was expecting!

2)  “do dogs have a swimming reflex” – Something that delights my mom and me to no end is that when we hold Chip or Lucy above water when we’re in the pool with them, they immediately start kicking their legs as if they’re doing the doggy paddle in the air. Apparently, it’s a very common dog reflex!

3) “how could someone young and athletic die from pneumonia and sepsis” – y’all, I’m really freaked out by the death of Kyle Busch. Not because I’m a NASCAR fan or even followed his career, but he was only 41!!! Our bodies are so damn fragile.

Three recent purchases

1) BuggyBands – It’s that time of the year. The no-see-ums are out in full force already, and I’m sure the mosquitoes aren’t far behind. I hate bug spray and have had good luck with these BuggyBands!

2) Battery storage case – My mom has one of these, and it’s so cute! I need one as well.

3) A small organizer tray – I bought this for my end table so I could better organize things like my remote, coasters, and other odds and ends. It fits perfectly!

Three upcoming podcast episodes

1) All About ASMR – I am really looking forward to doing research for this episode and introducing Bri to the wide world of ASMR. She’s familiar with the concept, but not to the level that I am. I’m even planning a “Bri tries ASMR” to see if any ASMR triggers give her the same tingles they give me!

2) An interview with Sean – We’re working our way through our Enneagram interview series, and our next guest will be Sean, Bri’s husband. He’s an Enneagram 7, so we’re going to interview him and make him talk about FEEEEELINGS.

3) Our 100th episode SPECTACULAR – We’ve almost hit our 100th episode, ahhh! Right now, I’m not sure what we have planned, but I thought it could be fun to do some Q&As. Here’s the form if you want to ask any questions about our podcast, our friendship, our book club… anything. And if you have specific questions for Bri or me, we’d love to hear those, too!

Three questions we got wrong at trivia this week

1) Within two years, when did the Phoenix Cardinals change their name to the Arizona Cardinals? (We guessed 1988, although I wanted to guess 1994 in honor of when my brother started watching football. The year? 1994.)

2) In the book Gulliver’s Travels, what are little people called? (My mom and I have never read this book, so we were lost.)

3) In order, name the colors of the flag of Ireland. (Ughhh, we should have gotten this one right! We said green, white, and yellow, and it should have been green, white, and orange. We were debating between yellow and orange.)

Three things I’m looking forward to

1) Book club weekend – We booked a sweet Airbnb in Orlando for two nights, and we will each have our own room. Yesss! (I always hate sleeping with other people because I’m self-conscious about my snoring.) The Airbnb has a pool and lots of great lounging spots. It’s going to be a great weekend!

2) Planning our New England road trip – Trip planning is one of my most favorite things. I’m so excited to plan this road trip with my mom!

3) Celebrating my mom’s birthday – I’ve already given my mom a few options for her birthday in early July, so it’s up to her what we choose to do! It’ll be a fun time, no matter what. <3

What’s a book you’re never going to read? What’s something you’re looking forward to?

Anatomy of an Alibi by Ashley Elston (★★★★☆)

Audiobook • Spotify • Thriller • 2026

Short synopsis: When a troubled woman impersonates a wealthy socialite for one night so they can each uncover the dangerous secrets surrounding the socialite’s husband, the plan spirals into chaos after he’s found murdered and only one of them has an alibi.

I had such a good time with this thriller! Aubrey and Camille were fantastic main characters, and I loved their strange partnership. Thrillers don’t always give you characters you genuinely want to root for, but I was fully invested in both of them. The story had lots of great twists, and I never felt completely sure who to trust or whether I was dealing with an unreliable narrator. (The author played with the “unreliable narrator” trope in such an interesting way!) The novel dealt with some heavy themes, including domestic abuse, grief, and corruption, in the midst of trying to find out who murdered Camille’s husband, and it did it all without slowing down the story. The ending was a standout for me, tying back to the core of the story in such a unique, fascinating way. I loved it!

This Story May Save Your Life by Tiffany Crum (★★★★☆)

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Thriller • 2026

Short synopsis: When a beloved podcast host discovers his co-host and her husband missing alongside a cryptic memoir draft, he must unravel their hidden secrets while evading suspicion himself before their real-life survival story turns deadly.

I had such a weird reading experience with this book because I genuinely couldn’t decide if it was genius or completely ridiculous. (I’m leaning towards genius.) I found myself staring into space after finishing it, trying to process what I’d read. The writing really stood out to me, especially how distinct Joy’s memoir excerpts felt from the rest of the book. The excerpts were noticeably less polished and a little more pedestrian, which was likely an intentional contrast that worked really well for me. I also loved Benny and Joy as main characters; Benny, in particular, was lovable and easy to root for, while Joy balanced him out perfectly. Joy’s severe narcolepsy added another layer that made the story feel unique, and I thought the author did a great job exploring how deeply a condition like that can shape someone’s life. While the podcast angle is starting to feel a bit overdone in thrillers, this one managed to feel fresh enough to stand out, and the ending totally caught me off guard! Overall, it felt like something new for the genre, and I think this is a book I can safely recommend to thriller lovers.

The Pumpkin Spice Cafe by Laurie Gilmore (★★☆☆☆ 1/2)

Print • Owned (from a friend) • Contemporary Romance • 2023

Short synopsis: After inheriting the beloved Pumpkin Spice Café in the cozy small town of Dream Harbor, optimistic city girl Jeanie clashes with grumpy local farmer Logan—only to find unexpected sparks brewing between them.

This book felt like it was written by AI. There was just something… disingenuous about it? None of the characters felt real, and neither did the town of Dream Harbor. (Please tell me how a cafe and a bakery can be sustainable in a small town.) It all felt a little too cutesy and unrealistic. And maybe that was the point? Maybe Laurie Gilmore just wanted to create a town that would never exist in the real world, and that’s okay. It just didn’t work for me. I wanted more realness from the characters, and I really wanted to feel the spark between Jeanie and Logan, but the whole book left me feeling deflated. Somehow, I have more books in this series on my bookshelf (gifted to me), so I’ll probably try to read another one to see if the writing improves. But this book has a 3.36 rating on Goodreads, and I can definitely understand why.

What are you reading?

May 16, 2026 – My first self-given injection! (I only had to give myself one; the multiple syringes and vials pictured were for artistic reasons.) It wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was more nervous about the physical act of sticking a needle into my skin, but once I did, it didn’t hurt, and I felt A-OK. Woo! Another milestone in this PsA treatment journey.

May 17, 2026 – This is Eloise’s newest sleeping spot. If she’s not near me, I can usually find it tucked up in this little alcove in my room on top of this covered cat bed. I’m going to put an upholstered bench in this space very soon, and I have a feeling Eloise is going to be all about it!

May 18, 2026 – Back-to-back Ellie photos! The only thing that can make her leave her little alcove is a fresh-from-the-dryer quilt. I always let the girls know when the quilt has been washed because they love nothing more than snuggling in the warm blanket. I can’t blame them!

May 19, 2026 – My Oura ring arrived! Right now, I’m experimenting wearing it on my left index finger. (Also in this photo, I can really see how puffy my sausage finger is, and this is actually a big improvement. It’s my ring finger with that nice lil bump between the knuckle and the middle joint.)

May 20, 2026 – Trivia night! My brother has started coming with us to trivia, and that’s been such a fun time. On Wednesday, we ordered the fried cheesecake, which was out of this world.

May 21, 2026 – This sweet girl. She was acting a little weird with me on Thursday, but gradually came back to her usual affectionate self. I’m in the process of reorganizing my organizational system (lol) so there are piles of things everywhere in the apartment, and I think it’s making her a little nervous.

May 22, 2026 – I gave a presentation on the Ennegram at work! I had so much fun putting together the deck and thinking about how to make this useful in a corporate work context. I wasn’t sure how it would be received because some people have negative opinions about personality frameworks, but everyone seemed to enjoy it!

I told you guys I would be back for some insights into my week of time logging (stats here). And I have some things to say! So, today’s Five for Friday post will be all about those insights.

1) I have a very full life

There is a lot going on in my life! I have a ton of hobbies (blogging, podcasting, writing fiction, reading, coloring, etc.) to keep me busy. I’m never bored, I’m creatively inspired on a daily basis, and my biggest problem is trying to fit all of my hobbies into one day. And what a gift that is! This is a life I’ve very intentionally built because when you’re single and childless, you don’t have other things to take up space. There is a lot of white space in my life, and I have filled it up beautifully.

2) I have a lot of free time

Last week, I averaged 9.4 hours of free time, Monday-Thursday. That’s a lot of time to myself! But it’s fragmented, too. There’s a little bit in the morning, but I also have to fit in my morning routine, making breakfast, etc. There’s some time throughout the workday when I take breaks, but I tend to use it for chores or tending to the cats. The bulk of my free time happens in the evening, but that’s also when my energy is the lowest. All I want to do is zone out and watch TV or scroll through my phone. What I should do is end the workday with a nice walk outside, which would probably help boost my energy, but instead, I usually flop on the couch and waste time on my phone.

It feels like I have all this free time to spend time investing in my hobbies, but my mental capacity is so low by that point that it’s hard to summon the energy to do anything that requires creative or social output. I don’t necessarily want to spend more time in front of a computer after spending all day in front of one, so blogging falls off the priority list.

3) Life upkeep takes up more time than I realized

I spent almost 12 hours just on life upkeep—chores, life admin, errands, driving, etc. That’s an average of two hours every day! No wonder I feel too exhausted at the end of the day to do much more than talk to my mom on the phone or watch TV/color. There is so much life upkeep that happens, especially as a single person who has to do it all on her own. I need to remember that when I feel bad about not spending more time commenting on blogs or working on my novel or marketing my podcast.

4) I can’t do every hobby every day

I need to pick and choose which hobbies I engage in on a daily basis. I cannot have a day where I spend an hour reading, an hour reading and commenting on blogs, an hour working on a blog post, and an hour doing things like working on my novel or watching TV while coloring. In my ideal world, I could spend time on each of these hobbies every day, but I honestly don’t have the energy to do so. Reading and commenting on blogs is a leisure activity, yes, but there’s output involved in terms of leaving thoughtful comments and engaging with the blogging community. Writing blog posts is also a leisure activity, but it’s a creative endeavor that sometimes requires a lot of output from me, especially because I care so deeply about writing well and getting my point across clearly.

The one hobby I want to do every day, no matter what, is reading. This is a much easier hobby for me to fit into my day because it’s something that doesn’t require a ton of mental energy. I can flop down on the couch at the end of the workday and read to my heart’s content. From there, it’s all about picking and choosing which hobbies receive my limited energy reserves that day. I try to publish a blog post every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, so I prioritize writing those posts on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. That means I’ll probably comment on fewer blogs or watch less TV on those days.

What this exercise has taught me is the difference between input and output hobbies. Input hobbies like reading, watching TV, or coloring don’t require anything from me. They are about consuming or absorbing what’s in front of me. Output hobbies like blogging, commenting on blogs, and working on the podcast require me to be more active, usually in a creative way. It takes a lot more energy to work on output hobbies, as one might expect! What I’m going to do with this information has yet to be figured out, but just understanding the concept of input/output hobbies has been helpful.

5) Less optimizing, more grace

At the end of the day, what this time logging practice taught me is that a lot is going on in my life. No wonder I feel like I don’t have enough time to do everything I want to do! Sometimes I think because I don’t have a busy household to manage, kids to chauffeur around, or a hectic career with lots of work travel commitments, I should have the time. After all, those of you with kids and work travel and busy households seem to be a lot more on top of blogging and chores than I am.

And yet.

I know we all have our different priorities. I know I have limited energy reserves. I know I’m also dealing with a chronic autoimmune condition that isn’t fully under control yet. I know I’m an introvert who needs a ton of alone time and has never been the kind of person who thrives on having a busy schedule. Sometimes, I want to take a nap in the middle of a Saturday afternoon rather than working on podcast marketing. Sometimes, I want to finish that adorable romance on a Thursday evening rather than commenting on blog posts. And sometimes, I want to sit in front of the TV and color for an hour because I need to zone out.

And that is absolutely fine because I’m not interested in optimizing my life so it’s the most productive it can be. Would I like to make some changes? Absolutely. But now I can see that I have a lot of things that are competing for my time, and it’s okay that I can’t get it all done. I’m doing the best I can—and I’d imagine the same can be said for you!

What’s a hobby you wish you could devote more time to?

I spent last week time logging! I’ve done this in the past (2022, 2023, and 2024). I skipped last year, but I was influenced by SHU and Kae to try my hand at it again this year.

In the past, I’ve used a spreadsheet with each day broken into 15-minute increments, which is exceedingly tedious, and tallying everything up at the end of the week takes a while. This time around, I used the Toggl app to keep track, and it went so much better. While it was still a bit tedious to start and stop a timer when I did any activity (or try to remember how long I spent on a specific activity if I forgot to start a timer), it was really nice that the app does all the math for you! I still wanted to break things down by day so I could look at trends, but it was a lot easier to just pull the time from my Toggl app.

As always, time logging can be a bit difficult because it’s not often that we’re only doing one thing. For example, when I’m eating dinner, I’m usually also watching TV and coloring. When I’m on the phone with my mom, I might also be working. When I’m working through my morning routine, I’m also doing chores like tidying and emptying the dishwasher. I went with the primary activity in those instances.

Another thing I changed is that I removed working and sleeping hours entirely. For me, I’m more interested in how much free time I really have. How much time do I spend on chores in a given week vs blogging vs podcast duties? I am not someone who struggles with work/life balance, and I tend to get 7ish hours of sleep a night, so I’m not too concerned with how I’m spending that time.

So, with all of those disclaimers, let’s get into how I spent my free time last week!

Social (22% – 17 hours, 38 minutes)

Social events took up the majority of my week, and that’s because I had a much busier week than usual! I had dinner and a book event with Lynn on Wednesday, dinner and a show with friends on Friday, a long afternoon spent with my mom on Saturday, and a writing date on Sunday (which is half-social, half-novel writing). Typically, I’d probably have maybe 1-2 social events in a week.

In 2022 and 2023, my social time was much lower (by more than half!), but we were also not fully out of pandemic life, so that makes sense. In 2024, my social hours looked similar to this year, so I guess I chose another socially heavy week to document!

Cooking/Eating (10% – 7 hours, 47 minutes)

Who knew I spent so much time cooking and eating? Or maybe just under 8 hours isn’t a lot, especially for those with children, ha. This is on par with 2022 and 2023 numbers, although 2025 was a lot lower.

The days I spent the most time cooking/eating were Monday and Thursday, and that’s because I actually cooked a meal for dinner. My lowest was Friday because I had to scarf down lunch between meetings, and then my dinner was tied into social time.

Chores (9% – 6 hours, 49 minutes)

I combined cleaning tasks as well as regular tidying and organizational tasks into one big chores category. I also built my new 16-cube shelf this week, and counted that towards chores. Four out of the seven days, I spent over an hour doing chores (my highest-spend day was Tuesday at 1 hour, 44 minutes). Friday and Saturday were the days I spent the least time on chores, likely because I was much more social on those days.

This time is way, way, way above what I logged in previous years. Did I even clean my apartment then?!

Phone (8% – 6 hours, 35 minutes)

You know, I’m pretty pleased with this number! This is less than an hour a day on my phone, and that time is way down from the previous years (in 2023 and 2024, it was over 10 hours!). Phone time mainly comprises playing games (I’m a sucker for the NYT games and Happy Color), scrolling Instagram (I have a 30-minute time limit, and don’t go on the app every day), and sometimes online shopping. Granted, my screen time is much higher than this because I use my phone while watching TV or in short increments as I switch between tasks at work, which I didn’t factor in. But all in all, I’m happy my overall time spent solely on my phone has decreased dramatically.

Naps (6% – 4 hours, 56 minutes)

This is another category where my time spent went way down! I took three naps this week – one on Monday when I was feeling crummy and just needed to get away from my desk for a bit, one on Friday, and one on Sunday. The Sunday nap was the longest of them all (just over two hours), but the other naps were shorter than 90 minutes. This may seem like long naps to some of you, but trust me that this is a massive improvement. I used to have to set an alarm to make sure I didn’t nap for 4+ hours (and I can see from my time log that my weekend naps in previous years were 4 hours or longer). Now I am usually good after an hour or so, and don’t even need to set an alarm to wake up!

Reading (6% – 4 hours, 26 minutes)

I didn’t spend a ton of time reading this week, probably because my week was so busy and so was my weekend. It amounts to just over 30 minutes of reading time each day, which is usually how long I try to read every weekday, with longer reading bursts on the weekend (although I read less this weekend than usual). My biggest reading days were Monday and Tuesday (1 hour and 1 hour, 4 minutes respectively), and my lowest was Saturday (22 minutes). Audiobook listening time isn’t added to this total since I listen while doing other things.

This reading percentage follows a trend in my other time tracking logs—every year, my reading time lessens. In 2022, I spent 9.5 hours reading. In 2023, it was down by two hours to 7.5 hours of reading. And in 2024, it was down another two hours to 5.5 hours of reading. I mean, at least I only went down by an hour this year, but damn. Every year, I seem to finish fewer and fewer books, and I can see right here why that may be.

Morning Routine (5% – 3 hours, 35 minutes)

My morning routine this week was a little messed up, as I skipped it completely on two days (Monday and Saturday). Oops! And then two of the other days, my morning routine was over an hour long because I did the whole shebang—shower, morning routine, drying hair, styling hair, doing make-up, etc. My morning routine also includes things like making the bed, starting a load of laundry, emptying the dishwasher, taking my meds, etc., so some of this falls into chores/life admin, but it’s all grouped as one event.

Podcast (4% – 3 hours, 32 minutes)

I don’t spend 3.5 hours every week on podcast stuff, but this was a recording week, so it was busier than usual. This time comprises building out an outline, filling out two outlines for episodes, and the act of recording the episodes themselves. We recorded two episodes this week, which took just under two hours. Some weeks, I might spend maybe 15-20 minutes at most to create Instagram graphics. There is more I should be doing for the podcast on the weeks we’re not recording, but there are only so many hours in the day.

Mom FaceTime (4% – 3 hours, 29 minutes)

Honestly, this is probably a lot higher, but sometimes I chat with my mom while I’m working or doing other tasks, so I didn’t include those phone calls in my time log. This number is down from 2022 and 2023, but much higher than 2024. Our highest FaceTime day was Wednesday (58 minutes), and we did have a goose egg on Saturday (but that’s just because I spent five hours hanging out with her that day, ha).

TV/Coloring (4% – 3 hours, 4 minutes)

This is a new category for my time log, and it’s not a pretty one. What I do is I sit down with lunch or dinner and put on a TV show. When I’m done eating, I transition to coloring, and sometimes I will continue watching shows because I just don’t want to stop coloring. Is it a bad habit? I don’t know. It’s soothing and a little creative and fun. But it definitely cuts into the time I could be spending doing other things. My highest-spent days were Tuesday and Sunday, where I spent almost an hour coloring while watching TV.

Blogging (3% – 2 hours, 38 minutes)

This comprises four posts I wrote start-to-finish: my Wednesday post on my beige flags, my Friday TGIF post, my One Photo a Day post on Saturday, and then my Monday reading post. That averages out to spending around 40 minutes per blog post, although the photo post definitely takes less time to write. That post only took me 15 minutes, so when we take it out of the equation, it’s around 48 minutes per post. Almost an hour to write a blog post! And those were pretty easy blog posts that didn’t require a ton of editing, inserting extra photos, etc.

Reading Blogs (3% – 2 hours, 33 minutes)

I am perpetually behind on my blog reading, and that’s because I just do not devote the amount of time necessary to keep up with my feed. There were two days when I spent less than 15 minutes reading blogs, and then one day when I spent nearly an hour, and I didn’t seem to make a dent in the number of unread posts. I’m just going to be forever behind on commenting, and I hope that’s okay.

Evening Routine (3% – 2 hours, 22 minutes)

When I do my full evening routine, it can take 20-30 minutes, depending on how tired I am. But I don’t always do my full evening routine. I try to do some of it (the most important pieces like brushing my teeth and tidying up my home), but I’ll usually skip most of the skincare routine and some of the more life admin tasks like filling in my One Line a Day journal and checking on my daily goals.

Novel (3% – 2 hours, 16 minutes)

I am slowly plugging away at my novel. During my writing date, I spent 1 hour, 22 minutes writing, and then spent about an hour the rest of the week working on my story. It’s not a lot, but on a busy week where I had lots of podcast work to do, I’m happy with that!

Errands (3% – 1 hour, 58 minutes)

Some of this was grocery shopping, some of this was dealing with stupid adulting tasks like Amazon returns, and some of this was driving around to and from said errands. This total is lower than how much time I spent running errands in 2022 and 2023, but much higher than in 2024. Likely, there are just some weeks where I spend more time running errands than other weeks. (Captain Obvious over here.)

Driving (2% – 1 hour, 56 minutes)

I did a lot more driving than this, but a lot of times, I categorized that as “social” (for example, driving to an event) or errands, if I was driving to the grocery store or something like that. But some of this drive time didn’t have a specific category, so I threw it in its own category. I could probably combine this with errands if I wanted to be more pedantic about it.

Medical (2% – 1 hour, 35 minutes)

Oh man. I didn’t even have a medical category in 2022 or 2023, but it showed up on my 2024 time log thanks to annoying sciatica pain. And now it’s just a normal part of my week. I had to get bloodwork done, had to give myself my first injection (!), and spent far too much time asking ChatGPT why I’m suddenly so hot all the time and what I can do to help with relentless heartburn. Having a chronic inflammatory condition is fun!

Getting Ready (2% – 1 hours, 23 minutes)

How does getting ready differ from my morning routine? Sometimes, it does happen in the morning (like it did on Saturday), but more often than not, this is when I’m getting ready for some sort of social time. I spent a few minutes primping before meeting up with Lynn on Wednesday, and a much longer time getting ready for my dinner-and-a-show date on Friday. That one took over an hour.

Life Admin (1% – 1 hour, 5 minutes)

I was really curious about my life admin category, and I really thought I spent more time on it any given week! This category includes setting up my weekly budget, reviewing my goals, setting up the new weekly spread in my planner, etc. So I guess all of this doesn’t take as much time as I thought!

This post is getting long enough, so I’ll save all of my insights for another post. For now, I have a good idea of how I’m spending my free time and can now look to how to better optimize it for my life.

What do you think would be your highest category (minus work/sleep) if you logged your time?

Kin by Tayari Jones (★★★★☆)

May 9, 2026 – Lucy is an all-time pro snuggler. She has no respect for personal space, but who needs that when you can have her sweet little body all tucked up next to you?!

May 10, 2026 – Mother’s Day! We had a lovely day. We did brunch and then painted pottery. It was a joy to spoil my mom!

May 11, 2026 – Lila seems to be having an existential crisis here, but I think she’s just worried she’s not getting any more treats until tomorrow.

May 12, 2026 – Whenever Eloise loafs like this, I exclaim, “Where did your legs go?! Are they gone?! Don’t worry – I will carry you wherever you need to go, even the litter box!” I think it’s hilarious, but I don’t think Eloise does.

May 13, 2026 – Book signing #2 this year! Meeting Caro Claire Burke was a delight!

May 14, 2026 – I bought this gorgeous 16-cube shelf for my dining area. I felt like this area needed a little something extra, and there’s nothing I love more than shelving that I can use as part-organizational strategy and part-decor. I’m allowing myself time to fill in each cube slowly, so there will likely be empty cubes for a while!

May 15, 2026 – What a lovely night out! We went to dinner and then saw the musical Six, which was incredible. (But I think watching Bri sing and dance to every song was more delightful than the musical itself, ha!) Afterward, we got ice cream.

What was the last theatre performance you went to?

The low of my week was dealing with some back-and-forth issues between my pharmacy and my rheumatologist’s office. The not-so-fun news about my psoriatic arthritis treatment is that my rheumatologist wants me to start injections. Basically, while my current medication (methotrexate) has improved my symptoms, I’m still on a moderate steroid dose. If I miss even one day of the steroid, my symptoms return. So that’s a clue that my lower inflammation numbers are closely tied to the steroid.

This means it’s time for the next phase of figuring out my PsA treatment! I’ll still be on methotrexate, but at 25mg, and they recommend injections over pills at that dose because some people’s bodies don’t absorb the medication well (it would be TEN pills!). I am very nervous about giving myself an injection once a week, but I’d rather go with the option that’ll help me know sooner whether the dose is working.

Anyway, getting these damn syringes has been such a cluster. I was supposed to start the injections last week, but the syringe order was sitting in pharmacy purgatory for days and days. The actual medication was filled pretty quickly, so when I went to the pharmacy to pick that up, I asked about the syringes, and they said they were waiting on my rheum to confirm that a different size syringe was ok to use. So then I called my rheum, and they said they didn’t have any record of the pharmacy calling them! Argh. The rheum’s office said they would call the pharmacy, but I never heard back from them. Then, the next day, I looked at my pharmacy app, and my syringe order was gone. What the what?! So, I called the pharmacy, and the pharmacist told me that she had gone ahead and ordered a different type of syringe that didn’t need to be approved by insurance and would be the same price. (She made this change right before she left for the day, and was planning on updating the script in the portal in the morning, but I got the jump on her.) I’ll finally have the syringes today so I can give myself my first injection. Yay?

Phew. I guess I need to get ready for all of this pharmacy runaround to happen as I try different treatment methods for PsA.

I’m currently reading two books! I am thoroughly enjoying We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian, a queer historical romance that is so damn cute it hurts. And I just started James by Percival Everett. Only 40 pages in, but I’m enjoying it so far!

A Reel that made me smile was this cat video that I could watch over and over again. (Yes, I’m back on Instagram. But only for the cat and dachshund videos.)

A show I watched this week was Friends! I am zooming through my rewatch of season 6, and it’s filling me with a lot of nostalgia and happiness.

The best money I spent this week was on an Oura ring! It was on my May goals list to buy an Oura ring, and it happened yesterday. I can’t wait for it to arrive! It’s a little scary to spend so much money on a tiny piece of technology, but I’m really hoping it will provide some great insight into my health.

My plans this weekend include many fun things! Tonight, I am meeting up with some friends to see the musical, Six. (And I just listened to Noble Blood’s episodes about Henry VIII’s wives, so I am prepared). We’re also trying a new restaurant for dinner, so it should be a fun night! Tomorrow, I am podcasting with Bri and have no other plans on the docket. And Sunday, I will run some errands and also have a writing date with Mikaela. At our writing date last weekend, I wrote the first chapter of my novel, which was such a blast! I hope I can keep the momentum going!

What was the high of your week? Have you ever been to a book signing?

We all have our beige flags. They are not toxic traits like red flags, nor are they all that positive like green flags. They are the quirks of our personality that is probably a little annoying to other people, but not enough to be troublesome. Here are some of my beige flags:

1) I can’t fall asleep unless I’m listening to an ASMR video on YouTube.

I’ve become addicted to ASMR to help me fall asleep at night. My favorite videos are “role plays” where a creator pretends she’s working at the front desk of a hotel, in a grocery store line, or checking out books at a library. They are so soothing with the quiet voices, clicky-clacky keyboards, and crinkly sounds of bags and books being handled. I don’t have to even look at the videos; I just turn them on, place the phone on my bed, and snuggle in to listen and fall asleep.

Oh! One of my new favorite ASMR accounts is a woman who paints these gorgeous scenes on canvas. Her melodic voice and the brush strokes and all the little sounds happening as she mixes colors… heaven. She’s one of those accounts where I have a dozen videos where I’ve only watched 5-10 minutes because I fall asleep so quickly.

2) I take forever to respond to text messages.

Please don’t count on me to respond to text messages in a timely manner. I’m the friend who barely interacts on a group message because I’ll pick up my phone, see 100 texts in a group chat (half of those being reactions), and quickly scroll through to get that red notification off my app. And for 1:1 convos, I will often see the message, need a minute to think of my response, and then realize it’s been hours and my friend is still waiting on me. I will respond, but I am terrible at keeping a swift convo going through text.

3) I *have* to drink Gatorade with my pills in the morning.

Water is so gross to me in the morning. There’s something about all those nighttime germs running around inside my mouth, and even after brushing my teeth, I just cannot handle water until mid-day. For years, I’ve been taking my morning pills with purple Gatorade, which I know isn’t a great alternative (hello, sugar and acidity!), but I like to tell myself it’s better than taking my pills with soda.

However, I’ve been dealing with some hardcore heartburn lately, and I think it’s going to be time to train myself to take my pills with water. Maybe I could switch to taking them at night?! IDK.

4) I like to say things like “Don’t mind if I doo-zers!” when I find a parking space up front.

I’d kill it as a middle-aged dad. Sometimes I think those Progressive, “don’t end up like your parents” commercials were made for me.

5) I am overly affectionate with the animals around me.

The first time I saw a Reel from the most affectionate vet in the world, I felt seen. This is me around any animals I see. I want to devour them with my love. I tell them immediately that they are my very best friend and that I love them so, so much. I am awkward around children, but put a dog or a cat or, hell, a gerbil in front of me, and I become an entirely different person. I can chat with a dog so much more easily than a human, I’ll tell you that.

What are some of your beige flags?

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino (★★★★☆)

Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Thriller • 2025

Short synopsis: After losing 11 bidding wars, Margo becomes dangerously obsessed with securing her dream home before it hits the market—crossing boundaries that threaten to unravel her job, her marriage, and her life.

Unhinged is the only way to describe this book. I devoured it in a single day during my reading retreat. I have never gone through the house-buying process (nor ever wanted to own a home in the obsessive way Margo does), but I’m going to assume some people may find Margo relatable (at least in the beginning), especially those trying to buy a house in a competitive market. However, as the book progresses, Margo becomes increasingly unhinged, unlikable, and almost impossible to root for. And yet, there’s something compelling about the extreme lengths she’ll go to get her dream home. This book was full of twists and turns I didn’t see coming, so if you’re looking for a “WTF did I just read?” experience, this is the book for you!

Animal Magnetism by Jill Shalvis (★★★★☆)

E-Book • Libby • Contemporary Romance • 2011

Short synopsis: Lilah Young never expected a passing-through pilot like Brady Miller to upend her carefully guarded instincts, but their undeniable pull challenges both her roots and his resistance to staying.

This was a reread for me (I first read it in 2016), and revisiting a 2011 romance in 2026 is… interesting. And while it may not be fair to judge this book through a modern lens, some of Brady’s behavior is a bit misogynistic, and Lilah could be a bit of a pushover at times. That said, this book is a super quick, uncomplicated read (I finished it in about 24 hours post–reading retreat), and while it lacks the emotional depth you see in a lot of contemporary romances today, it’s still an easy story that delivers a good time.

The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vols 1 and 2 by Beth Brower (★★★★☆)

Audiobook • Hoopla • Historical Fiction • 2020

Short synopsis: In 1883 London, Emma M. Lion chronicles her life at Lapis Lazuli House alongside her eccentric cousin, formidable aunt, and a cast of delightfully odd neighbors.
Everyone on Goodreads seems to be reading this series, so I finally had to give it a try, and I was not disappointed. The first two books in the series are written as novellas (under 150 pages), and the audio for both is under 8 hours. Since I listened to them back-to-back, I thought I would review them as one unit. These novellas are incredibly fun, with a lovable heroine in Emma. I want to be her friend! I’m so glad I have six more books in this series to read and that the author is planning on writing more. I want to stay in Emma’s charming world forever and ever.

What are you reading?