High Five for Friday: April 13

Whoa, what a week! Complete with three therapy sessions in three days! (A sign you’re doing super well! 🙌🏻) I'm feeling better now, though, so let's see what brought the sparkle:

• Yo girl is a yoga teacher training graduate! I still can barely believe it. This thing that I decided to do somewhat on a whim has impacted my life so profoundly. I really needed this community over the past eight months.

The graduation ceremony on Sunday was so cute! Unicorn straws and flowers! Dancing! I was in heaven! 

You could invite guests to the ceremony, but since I was staying over (and the studio isn't exactly close to my house), I decided not to. But one of the YTT girls apparently mentioned this to her girlfriend, and her girlfriend declared herself my person for the day and made me a sign and gift! And I had never even met her before! I was seriously blown away by her kindness. It made the day even sweeter! ❤️

• On Saturday, I happened to be driving back from Target as the sun was settling, and it was just mind-blowingly gorgeous. I couldn't resist--I had to pull over and take some pictures. (This week’s post really captures life with me in a nutshell--stopping to photo document everything and playing the same song 70 times in a row. But we’ll get to that....) Just hanging out in this random park watching the sunset was glorious.

• I'm starting to find flowers on my post-therapy walk, hooray! I especially loved these tulips that were sitting outside the door to a church.

• Our Weird Ass Song of the Week is Ron Swanson and Tammy II's song: "Dancing on the Ceiling." It's sooo bad and so mood-brightening on repeat 70 times in a row, I swear. 😂

The video doesn't disappoint either!

• Lastly, I’m just gonna leave this here (even though Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez is missing 😩).

I loved The Sandlot so much when I was a kid. It was the rare movie that could trump my Babysitters' Club movies when I stayed at my mom's! But 25 YEARS?!? My god.

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: April 6

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

• V for Villanova, V for victory! As you may recall from 2016, I went to grad school at Villanova, so I'm very proud that they won the NCAA Championship this week! Also, I've been in the Connelly Center (where they kept showing the student celebrations on TV during the game), so I felt v cool. (Annd now I really want the M&M cookies I used to get from there on Chicken Finger Monday!) 

• Friday night was another night of wild dancing! And afterwards, I got to dance with the facilitator's adorable three year old daughter! She ran right up to me to dance, and my heart basically melted. It was interesting to see how easy it was to be nice to this little girl when I have no patience for my inner child!

• I think I've talked about this before, but I love the movie She's Out of My League. It's so stupid but makes me laugh so much. It’s one of those movies that I’ll totally forget about but then get a craving to watch, and last Saturday was one of those days. And it was On Demand! When does that ever happen?!
  

• On Saturday, Pops was out all day, so I was living it up! Ulta, Target, taxes, and She's Out of My League--woo! I had also given a friend the advice of taking a walk as a way to calm down and help manage big emotions... and as is the case with most advice, I soon realized that I needed to take my own advice! So I went for a walk at magic hour! It was really more of a "stop and take pictures" than a walk, but what else is new?

• I hope y’all had a wonderful Easter (or Sunday, if Easter’s not your thing)! Because I dressed up for Mass, obviously OOTD pics needed to happen! I enlisted Pops to be my photographer, but when you have a dad behind the camera, instead of a tripod, you get teased and end up with pictures like this:
  

Honestly, this might be my favorite picture of me ever. It so perfectly captures the zaniness that I'm usually trying to keep under wraps! 😂

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

March 2018 Budget

I actually didn't buy much in March, hooray! I didn't really feel the urge to shop to make myself feel better, which is a wonderful change. (Especially because I'm off that medication that has the convenient side effect of curbing my shopping impulse for me!) The fact that March just flew by and left no time for shopping probably helped too.

ANYWAY, here's what I got:

1. Aurora Bar Ring (GLDN): $46
2. Beaded Amethyst Choker (Francesca's): $18
3. Deva Curl Light Defining Gel (Sephora): $23

TOTAL: $87

The Aurora Bar ring is my Rebirthday ring! I totally fell in love with the style a few months ago after seeing it in an Instagram ad. It's just so dainty and perfect! 

Fun fact: I have this awesome amethyst heart necklace that I love, but I can't wear it all the time, like, say, during yoga because it smacks me in the face. Good times! So I immediately loved the dainty, choker-like nature of this amethyst necklace. Plus purple. 🙌🏻💜

And the Deva Curl gel was just a boring repurchase. Yawn. 😴

Did you buy anything fun this month?

High Five for Friday: March 30

Happy Friday! Let's see what brought the sparkle:

• YOU GUYS, I taught my yoga class last weekend, and it went SO UNBELIEVABLY WELL!!!! I felt like this confident and composed side of me just took over and kept my anxiety at bay. It was wild! My class focused on self-care and self-love, with a special emphasis on those dark and twisty parts of ourselves that are hard to love. Since the class came so soon after my Rebirthday, I brought in party hats for everyone (I wore my flower crown!) and talked about how inpatient was the first time I admitted to myself and others how much I was struggling—and how accepting those dark parts of myself helped me to stay alive and grow. And tying in with the love theme, I had everyone read a line from my girl Elizabeth Barrett Browning's gorgeous "Sonnet 43"—or "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." (She and Robert are my Victorian OTP for sure.) The class itself was gentle, incorporated free dance, and emphasized everything as optional because those are the classes that I respond to the best. To be able to foster that experience for people I adore was pure magic. ❤️

When English majors teach yoga classes, they start with a read-along of a Victorian sonnet. 🙌🏻😂 I taught my first yoga class last week, and it was truly magical. I think Elizabeth Barrett Browning (and maybe Robert too!) would approve. ❤️#VictorianSuperCouple . . . #yoga #victorianpoetry #personalgrowth #overcominganxiety

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Mar 29, 2018 at 7:45am PDT

• Then on Sunday, when one of our other lovely ladies taught her class, it was snowing, "Into the Mystic" was playing, and I just felt like, Is this real life?! We were basically doing yoga inside a snow globe! We graduate next weekend (!!), and as much as I still struggle with the yoga of it all, I so appreciate having had this outlet to safely feel and connect.

• Interestingly, I've noticed that when I'm staying over at YTT, I usually want to watch Haven, this weird Sci-Fi show that my bffl and I started watching because one of the actors used to be in a Canadian hockey soap opera that we loved (#trueconfessions). I wonder if I'm drawn to it at YTT because that experience is helping me to thaw emotionally. Let me explain: Nathan, one of the main characters in Haven, is "troubled" and can't feel anything—EXCEPT for the touch of his cop partner, Audrey (naturally). This just gives me all the feels because I'm not a very touchy/huggy person, but other touchy/huggy people can bring it out in me, which makes me wonder if my own ability to be affectionate is starting to thaw a little bit. 😘 ANYWAY, Nathan happily realizing that he can feel Audrey's touch always makes me smile because I’ve had that startling feeling of connection before. (Also, my bffl and I exchanged a lot of freaking-out texts when we first saw this scene lol.)

• This week's Weird Ass Song of the Week is "We've Got Tonight" by Bob Seger. I don't even know why I looked it up recently, but I saw on Wiki that Liev Schreiber apparently karaokes it in an episode of Ray Donovan (which I don't watch nbd), and I was like, "Ross the Boss singing 'We've Got Tonight'?! Oh, I am down for that!" And since watching that scene, the song has pretty much been on repeat. 

• And lastly, one of my awesome friends alerted me to my future mode of transportation: CAT-DRAWN CHARIOT. You must be a goddess if you can get cats to cooperate enough to pull your chariot!

 Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: March 23

Wow, what a week! Let's see what brought the sparkle:

• I am so unbelievably touched by all the sweet texts, comments, Facebook likes, etc. in my response to my Fifth Rebirthday post. I know that I have a tendency to hide, and your lovely messages reminded me that it is safe to come out because I am surrounded by wonderfully supportive people in my life. 💖💖

• I bought myself a Rebirthday present (that's allowed, right?): this dainty little ring from GLDN. Isn't it beautiful?! One of the therapists on the January retreat had suggested that I get a transitional object to remind me that I'm really a strong and capable adult and not a scared nine-year-old kid anymore, so I went with this. (Also, rings are my fave. See below.) Because deciding to go inpatient feels like the most adult thing I've ever done, the ring has that date engraved on it: 3.20.13.

•  Friday was another night of dancing and embracing my tendency to dance like drunk April Kepner while completely sober! (Just call me Dr. Party!) Bonus that it was also my dear friend Maggie's 30th birthday, so we got to celebrate her beautiful self in addition to dancing the night away! (She asked me how I celebrated my 30th, and I was like, "Oh, I split town!" 😂😂)

• Pops had been insisting that we take a Sunday morning trip into Philly for months now, and the jig was up this past Sunday. I'm not exactly sure what the purpose of this trip was, but once we ended up in South Philly, I made him stop at Occasionette because "If I have to go on this tour, can't I at least get a souvenir?!" Occasionette is the cutest little gift shop down the street from my old apartment, and I never go there now because the thought of parking in South Philly is a real NOPE situation. So I made Pops do it--perfect solution! The shop was even cuter than I remembered! I was also sure to stop by Wake Up Yoga, which is where my yoga journey began back in July 2013! And for something exciting to Pops, we walked around checking out all the mid-century flourishes that are still in East Passyunk.

A morning in South Philly (featuring adorable wrapping paper from @occasionette !) 😍💖 #oldstompinggrounds

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Mar 18, 2018 at 1:13pm PDT

• Pops told me that I could pick out a little gift at Occasionette, and I couldn't decide between a ring and a ring bowl, so he let me get both! The bowl is so pretty! They had a bunch of different marbled colors, but obviously, I had to go with purple. And the ring! I'm a sucker for a geometric ring (or any ring really).

Hope you have a great weekend! xo