High Five for Friday: November 10

Let's see what put the sparkle into this week!

• I was away at a much-needed healing retreat last Thursday through Sunday. I feel like it cracked open some things that need attention in therapy, which is especially good considering how “stuck” I’ve been feeling.

• I'm documenting my outfits again on Instagram this month! Because I was off on Monday, I enlisted Pops to be my photographer, and we found this pretty tree! Having a real live photographer (versus a timer and tripod) really helps! 😂

Day 6: I’m off today, so I enlisted Pops to be my outfit photographer 👍😂 #poorpops . . . #ootd #outfitoftheday #whatiwore #phlbloggers #lularoe #victoriassecret #sanuk

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Nov 6, 2017 at 1:52pm PST

• I also wanted to see some cat friends on my day off (ok and every day), so I made Pops detour to Petsmart on our way to the Giant. Look at this precious Calico angel! 

😩😩😩 

• The fall leaves are just ridiculous right now. I'm perpetually the heart-eyes emoji while driving to work or yoga these days. 

• Grey's 300th (!!) episode aired last night, and I LOVED IT SO MUCH. (No surprise there, as it was really a giant love letter to the early days of the show, and seasons 1-5 are my fave.) Poor Pops was lost in all the throwbacks ("Wait, I thought Izzie was dead!" "Whaaat? No!"), while I was all like, "OMG this is totally the song that plays when Mer has to rip Cristina out of her wedding dress!" #sendhelp Oh, and I legit teared up at Jackson's speech at the end, no shame. I only started watching this show in 2014, but my love affair is clearly still going strong!

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

November 2017 goals

Since I'm not going to be home the first two weekends in November, and then it's basically the holidays, I'm only setting two goals this month: 

1. Figure out Christmas cards: I know hardly anyone sends Christmas cards these days, but I love them, and it just doesn't feel like Christmas without them! (PS: BLOGGER FRIENDS, let me know if you want to exchange cards!!) I usually try to write them out over Thanksgiving weekend, to really get myself into the holiday spirit--hence the need figure out the card sitch before December

2. Stick to my budget: I did SO WELL in October with not blowing my extra money or putting a ton of charges on my credit card. I really amazed myself! 😂 I have my 11/1-15 budget set up and know what my financial limits are for the next 15 days. I also started writing out known expenses for 11/16-30, so that I know what the consequences will be if I don't stick to my budget right now... and to also see that there is light at the end of the tunnel (since I don't have yoga TT in the second half of November, which cuts down on some of my expenses)!

Let's see how my October goals went:

1. Get 8 hours sleep: I didn't do too bad! I pretty consistently got 7+ hours sleep, and even got 8 hours NINE times!! (And not only on the weekends!) 🎉😮

2. Try envelope system and stick with the amounts I budget: As I said above, CHECK! I did go my own way with the envelope system, though, opting instead for colored paper clips for each category of cash in my wallet. 

3. Just show up: I totally forgot this was a goal! But I was somewhat social, and I kept going to yoga TT (without always have perfectionism-fueled meltdowns!), so that counts for something, right?

It wasn't too hard to get out of hiding this month, as I had yoga TT twice and also met up with several friends (Timmi! Deena! Paulina!).

Last month's Healing with the Angels oracle card was "Signs." Picking just one card for the whole month really helped me to focus on it and in fact see some signs! Such as suddenly having "Free Bird" stuck in my head when it was particularly relevant to a therapy session, and getting tingly when talking about certain next steps with my other therapist. We've also been discussing things like intuition, energy, and signs from the universe in yoga teacher training, so it's all coming together! Oh, and the number 13 has been showing up a lot lately too--it was the lane I went through at the tolls last Sunday, I saw it in someone's tattoo, and XIII is my tarot soul card. 

This month's card, Freedom, is absurdly perfect for where I'm at. I often feel trapped--it's really a huge source of anxiety for me and has been coming up a lot lately. So the fact that the Freedom card said this seemed like a SIGN (see what I did there?):

UGH crushed it 💪

Linking up with Nicole at Writes Like a Girl!

High Five for Friday: November 3

Let's see what put the sparkle into this week:

• Timmi and I had a wild Friday night of Moana, puppy snuggles, and tarot card readings on the one day she was in PA before heading back to Chicago! We learned that my soul card is Death because of course it is. (But singing "What can I say execpt we're dead soon" from Moana was very cathartic.)

I also got the Hermit, which really feels like it should be my soul card, tbh. 😂

#squadgoals

Although it's obviously a bit hilarious to have Death as your soul card (rather than just a card plucked at random during a reading), I'm ok with it. For starters, it's number 13. And I do have a strange relationship with death, which has pushed me to start this blog, get help, etc. By virtue of my past suicidality, Death has had a significant, but these days positive, impact on my life. So I can see why we might be connected, Mr. Death Card and I.

• I had some fall fun this week! First with a pretty orange tree during our yoga TT lunch break and then with a red tree that happened to be right across the street from my therapist. 😍

• I got to sleep in a yurt at yoga TT on Saturday night! It was so cute and cozy! If only I'd had a ton of stuff from Sky Mall, I could have been doing some Tom Haverford-level glamping!

• Tuesday was such an annoying day. It's my new work-from-home day, but our Wi-Fi randomly went down in the morning, and I couldn't fix it on my own, and Verizon said they'd have to send someone out to fix it the next day. GRRR. So I decided that I would go to therapy and then just go into the office in the afternoon. Well, I'm on my way to work when Pops (who had been out in the morning) calls and says that he basically jiggled some wires and fixed the whole thing. GRRRRRR. By the time I got home, I was like, "SORRY KIDS, I'M BUSTING INTO THE HALLOWEEN CANDY!" Thank god it was Halloween--I needed some Reese's and Snickers in my life!

When your day is a disaster, but then you remember that it’s acceptable to eat candy for every meal today. 👌👻#sorrykids #HappyHalloween

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Oct 31, 2017 at 3:35pm PDT

• Ok, so the Dodgers lost. And I'm actually sad that baseball is over, so I've def lost it. But let's look at something positive. In 2016, I went to my first Cubs game, and we all know how they fared that season.

Then this year, I went to my first Dodgers game, and they made it to the World Series.

So basically, I'm magic. That's my takeaway here. 💁🏼✨

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: October 27

Let's see what put the sparkle into this week!

• As I turned onto our street on Sunday night, I spotted a pair of white paws disappearing into our neighbor's bushes!! I immediately parked and ran to investigate! Unfortunately, though, it was Cinny aka Tina, who never wants anything to do with me. Womp. Carry on, wayward cat. :( But I did get to see her speed-waddle away, which is always adorable.

• Then on Tuesday, I caught this gal sauntering through our yard!! Brindle Pinky aka Rosalita is also scared of me, so I didn't even bother to get out of my car and smother her with affection, but regardless, it's always fun to see a cat!

Oh hi Brindle Pinky! 👋😍🏃🏼‍♀️#justpassingthrough #nekoatsumehtown #catsthatarentmine #pleaseloveme

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Oct 24, 2017 at 1:26pm PDT

• If I miraculously manage to get out the door before 10 AM, I love listening to "Connect 3" on the classic rock station, where they play three songs and you have to figure out what they have in common. I'm always really proud of myself when I get it right, but I was ESPECIALLY proud on Monday because no one got it right, including the girl whose answer they accepted! (It's like they just admitted defeat, haha.) The three songs were "Sister Christian," "Roxanne," and "I Shot the Sheriff," and the theme was law enforcement. (Do you know why??)

• Despite my love of classic rock, I've never liked "Free Bird." But I heard it on the radio last Friday morning and really enjoyed it. And then it was stuck in my head for the next two days. My therapist and I had just been talking about how I tend to hold myself hostage, so the line "Won't you fly high, free bird?" really stuck out to me in a poignant way. (I might have teared up while listening to it on my drive to Reading Saturday! #halp) It was also fitting because I drew "Signs" as my Angel card for October, and the little blurb about that card specifically mentions hearing particular songs!

•  Lastly, Pops and I have Dodgers fever! Well, mainly Pops--he is all about that SoCal life. And he genuinely likes baseball, whereas it's too much of a snooze for me until the playoffs. But I actually know the Dodgers' entire lineup! 😮 Of course, that lineup includes longtime Phillie Chase Utley, who I like a lot more on a different team, strangely enough. (I'm never one to like "star" players.) The fact that he used "Silver Fox" as his nickname for MLB Players' Weekend (when we happened to be in CA and went to a Dodgers game) was 💯. Also 💯 is Kiké Hernandez's banana hoodie (oh and his ridonkulous 7 RBI game against Chicago!).

I love that there's hardly any comment on his get-up, haha. It's just nbd. 

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

October 2017 Budget

Hey, where's the collage picture of all the things I bought this month?

Oh, that's right--I didn't buy anything that would count against my shopping budget! WHAT THE WHAT.

I was able to let my financial situation dictate my shopping, rather than letting my shopping dictate my financial situation.

(Full disclosure: I also started taking a medication that helps with impulse control again, but I don't think that's the only reason why I was able to rein in my spending.) 

I think committing to a budget and getting real about how much I can actually afford to spend right now made a big difference. The shopping budget of $170 that I set back in 2014 really is not feasible now that I have a car, yoga teacher training, a higher healthcare premium, a more expensive therapist, etc. Right now, I'm lucky to have $100 left over from a paycheck after bills, and that $100 needs to cover food/eating out and anything else that I didn't preemptively budget for. Not a lot of room for shopping.

This month, I took that "extra" money out in cash for a change, and being able to see just how little I had to work with made me less inclined to spend it immediately. 

So I basically used the principles of YNAB (give every dollar a job), but on paper and in cash, which seems to hold me accountable more than using the YNAB app and debit/credit cards. 

But it was also important that I allowed myself to have a little extra money, rather than overextending myself financially (as I usually do), because it’s unrealistic to think that unforeseen expenses won’t crop up over the course of the two weeks before I get paid again. I often think that it's ok to spend beyond my means when that money is going toward something "positive," like an extra therapy session, but I'm starting to see how I use that as an excuse to be irresponsible. "I have no money anyway, so what the hell? What's a few more things from Target?" I usually feel like I have no option but to start charging things or tapping into money I haven't even been paid yet, but there is another option: I can avoid setting myself up for failure by starting each month in the black and keeping in mind that that little bit of money needs to last for two weeks. 

Well, that’s what’s been helping me! What helps you guys?