High Five for Friday: July 20

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

• On Saturday, you know what I really wanted to do? Hear the ocean and have a vanilla milkshake! (Vanilla is generally not my first choice for anything ever, so I have no idea where this was coming from!) So that’s what I did! I’ve now driven down the shore TWICE!! 🎉🎉

• Sunday was about a thousand degrees—I went for a walk and had to lay down on the floor under the air conditioner afterwards to recover! So it was definitely an ice cream day! We went to Pops’s favorite place (Handel’s), and I got Peppermint Stick for a change. It was SO GOOD. 

• On Wednesday, I don’t know what possessed me to do this, but I called into a radio contest! 😂🤷🏼‍♀️ I knew the answer, and no one else had gotten it right, so I was like, "What the hell!" I didn’t end up getting through but maybe next time! I love this game called “Connect 3” on the classic rock station—they play three songs, and you have to figure out what they have in common. The three songs on Wednesday were “Gypsy,” “Breakfast in America,” and “Stuck in the Middle with You.” Any thoughts?

• How fun is this wallet that I found for $5 at Target?! The iridescent mermaid vibe makes me so happy! 😍😍 And it also has a removable crossbody strap, which I'm super pumped about. I love me a multitasking wallet!

• Lastly, I got a clean bill of health yesterday! I don’t think I’ve talked about this on here before, but two summers ago, I noticed a lump in my breast. Given my anxiety, you can imagine how calmly I handled that! But I went to the doctor, who assumed it was just something normal and benign (thank god one of us is sane) and sent me for more testing. It turned out to just be a normal, benign cyst (WHEW), but I’ve had to go back for regular check-ups ever since. Yesterday, though, they told me that everything looks good, meaning that I don’t need to be monitored as closely! HOORAY! I’m a lucky gal. ❤️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: July 13

Let's see what brought the sparkle this week!

• I had a pretty chill weekend, which was much appreciated after last weekend's One Wedding and An ER Visit! I watched a lot of The West Wing (who am I?), got some dumb but delightfully satisfying tasks done (washing clothes! sorting the mail! reading a library book!), and even napped! The only legitimately exciting thing I did was soaking up some of these views in Reading again!

• On Tuesday, I found the hydrangea of my girly girl dreams! And a million other gorgeous flowers, as I took a different route on my post-therapy flower creep!

• And then I got this in the mail:

It's so PURPLE! Like my aura ideally is!

My friend Kristin made me a BAG! Only the purplest bag in all the land! I'm so excited and touched (and IMPRESSED!) and can't wait to use it!

• I loved this picture that popped up in my IG feed this week. I only need this reminder, oh, daily!

• Lastly, today marks FOUR YEARS of sparkle punching! ✨👊🏻 I can't believe I've kept this space alive for four whole years and made such awesome friends along the way! (So many friends, but a special shout-out to my ever-faithful readers, Mica and Bri!) After four years, this post is still probably the one that I'm most grateful to have hit publish on—and the one I most instantly regretted publishing. (I woke up the next morning like WHAT HAVE I DONE?!) But being open about my mental health struggles has been wildly freeing and changed my life so much for the better. Thanks for going along on this wild ride with me! ❤️❤️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: July 6

Let's see what brought the sparkle this week:

• Well, the weekend got off to an interesting start, as I spent Friday night in the ER! Not for me, though: I was with a friend who thought she had appendicitis. (Don't worry, as soon as she informed me of this, I was like "DO YOU HAVE TENDERNESS OVER MCBURNEY'S POINT?!" #007) Luckily, she did not actually have appendicitis, so we got to chat about ER and Grey's, and I got to rubberneck over all the cool medical stuff! Hooray! 

• The weekend improved on Saturday when one of my oldest friends got married! It was quite the bash! This was only the third friend wedding I’ve been to, and the first LIFELONG friend wedding I’ve been to, so it was really heart-warming to celebrate someone I've grown up with. ❤️

She got married in our grade school church!

• I was really pleased with how my wedding outfit/make-up turned out, if I do say so myself! No part of this outfit was recently purchased (🎉), and I did my make-up in like seven minutes (🎉🎉)! 

🎶It’s a nice day for a white wedding🎶 ☺️A little wedding guest #ootd! . . . #outfitoftheday #whatiwore #phlbloggers #targetstyle #target #rebeccaminkoff #nordstromrack #francescas

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Jun 30, 2018 at 1:11pm PDT

• On that topic, I didn’t do a budget post for June because I didn’t buy anything! (🎉🎉🎉) Ok, that’s not entirely true—I did buy a pair of heels for the wedding, BUT my old foot injury started bothering me, so I ending up wearing bejeweled flat sandals I already had and returned the heels. 

• How did you spend the Fourth? I followed up my very patriotic Memorial Day viewing of World War II in Colour with Drunk History and The West Wing. (I have no idea where this sudden interest in The West Wing is coming from, but I'm going with it.) I went to our neighborhood bike parade (too cute) and then spent the rest of the day at a party with some of my dad's friends, who conveniently sent us home with a million desserts!

• Lastly, can you believe it: I had yet another lowkey celeb interaction on social media that made my life! (THREE WEEKS IN A ROW!) This time, a local DJ liked one of my fb posts! He used to be on the classic rock station, and I've been listening to it since seventh grade, so all of those guys have a special place in my heart. Apparently, he knows one of my fb friends, and I commented on a post about him, gushing (naturally), and he liked it! WHO WILL I BEFRIEND NEXT WEEK?! STAY TUNED...

Hope you have a great weekend! Blogger friends, I’m sorry I'm so behind on reading your posts ack! xoxo

July 2018 goals?

This goals post is not a goals post—it's an "I need a break from goals" post.

I'm doing so many things to try to "get better," but my mood and emotions have been all over the place for the past month+, and I'm worn out. What if I just AM? Can I just BE for a month?

That's not to say that I'm going to stop therapy or anything radical like that. I love therapy! But I have three therapists at the moment, and three doctors that I’m working with, plus yoga and dance, and I just don't feel like I can handle anything else on top of all that right now. So, a little break.

In other news, I did get my hormones tested (one of last month's goals), and they are all out of whack, so maybe that explains some of what I'm feeling! #blessed

Linking up with Nicole at Feel Good, Dress Better!

Oh, PS—the inspirational quote at the beginning of this post is brought to you by ‘90s General Hospital (naturally). 😂💯❤️

High Five for Friday: June 29

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

• On Sunday, I had an unexpected reunion with my friend Kristin! The search for shoes for a wedding (that’s, oh, tomorrow nbd) led me to the Nordstrom Rack near her house, so she came and helped me look at 14690 pairs of shoes! I tend to do a lot of things by myself, so I forget that it's pretty nice to do stuff with friends.

• Kristin also gifted me this cool moon book!

It has tarot spreads and everything, if I ever get my act together enough to do a whole spread! Hilariously, we both immediately griped over the fact that the font size is like -10! My old lady eyes can’t handle this!  

• Before Kristin got there, I stopped for a donut! I didn't know there was a donut place in that shopping center, so that was a nice surprise!

• Tuesday marked the end of the meditation class that I inadvertently joined back in May! I didn't expect to go to that first class, let alone every single class after that! Or to actually practice meditating on my own! Being still and quiet usually feels very unsafe for me, but having this group to practice with every week helped to normalize it and make it seem less scary. Now I’m willing to do it by myself! For up to twenty minutes! WHO AM I ?! 😮

• Lastly, in this week's installment of Becoming Instagram BFFs with the Cast of General Hospital, Emme Rylan (Lulu) posted the picture below of her daughter's birthday party, and I asked if those decorations would be approp for an upcoming 32 year old's birthday party (wink wink but actually...). AND SHE LIKED MY COMMENT! 💃💃💃

Did I have a 7 foot unicorn backdrop?! Ummm YASSSSSSSS! #happybirthdaydakota

A post shared by Emme Rylan (@emmerylan) on Jun 26, 2018 at 3:24pm PDT

Hope you have a great weekend! xo