High Five for Friday: September 28

Happy Friday! Let’s see what brought the sparkle this week:

• On Friday night, I stopped by the mall near work to look for a dress and/or shoes for an upcoming wedding. Naturally, I came home with a blouse and two pairs of shorts! I’d only been looking for shorts all summer. 🙄 At least they were $9 total, holla! On my drive home, I had a grand ol’ time belting out Dua Lipa’s “Blow Your Mind” — it was legitimately cathartic to be so sassy! 💃

• On Saturday, I got a long overdue haircut! I’ve been getting Deva Cuts for a few years now, and they work really well for my super thick, wavy hair. I love how it turned out! The stylist also gave me some ideas for idiot-proof wedding hair styles, which I definitely need. If you have any suggestions, let ya girl know!

• Afterwards, I hung out with one of my grad school friends who I feel like I’ve known for ten lifetimes. Our friendship has evolved in such wild ways since he showed up in Postmodernism class in 2010! Anyway, he was very supportive and helpful when I was a mess last month, so I wanted to treat him to “Thanks for listening to my bullshit” ice cream. 😂 After that, we partied like it was 1993 and played some awesome Sega Genesis games!

I still can’t get past the Cave of Wonders 😭

• After skipping my usual yoga class two Sundays ago because I was coughing uncontrollably, I went back this week and was shocked by how tight my muscles were! I mean, I’m not a flexible person (like at all), but yikes, I didn’t realize what a difference just missing a week would make! I was also happy to be back because I love this class—it’s Trauma-Sensitive, which is my fave type (no touching ftw!), and it’s so gentle that I can do a lot of it with my eyes closed, which helps me to kind of forget about the outside world and tune into myself.

• Lastly, I’m still powering through the original WilSon storyline on Days, and this moment made me giggle:

I was like, Why the heck does Will have this random Band-Aid on his stomach? Oh that’s right, he was just shot like five minutes ago. The medical care in Salem is clearly top-notch. 😂 God love ya soaps, never change.  ❤️

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: September 21

I think I’m finally on the mend, so let’s see what put the sparkle into this week!

• I still wasn’t feeling great on Sunday, but after spending the morning watching old Days (a great series of scenes in which people are trying to steal evidence and naturally end up hiding in closets and the like), I managed to be productive! I went to Target and bought only what I came for (😱), I got my poor, filthy car washed, and I sorted through like two months of mail! Even though I was just doing dumb errands, the act of being productive and sort of “adulting” definitely helped me to feel better, at least anxiety-wise!

Seeing The Baby-sitters Club books at Target made me so happy! Yay that another generation will get to befriend these girls like I did!

• In case you were worried, I’m still having random encounters with soap actors on IG! 😂 On Tuesday, I woke up to see that Lilly Melgar (aka Sonny’s first wife Lily on GH) had followed me! She also liked a bunch of my pics, so we’re clearly BFFs now. I think she’s the first soap related person who’s followed me, so I’m moving on up! C’mon Freddie Smith and Chandler Massey! 🤞🏻🤞🏻 (Perhaps flowers and Elton John are not relevant to their interests? haha)

• I’m also still having close encounters of the cat kind! On Tuesday night, I got a phone call from Pops when he pulled up at home: “There’s a white cat loafing around out here for you!” 

Oh, Snowball. (Which is not her actual name of course.) We think she lives with Cinnamon and Brindle Pinky, but she’s been turning up in our driveway lately, for some reason. This was my first interaction with her, and she did eventually come over and rub on me for like .5 seconds before I somehow spooked her and sent her running. 😭

• Darren Criss won an Emmy! I couldn’t actually watch more than one episode of the Gianni Versace mini-series because it freaked me out too much, but he was so good in the pilot. Did I ever mention that I went to a concert of his back in 2013 and it was hilariously terrifying? Yeah, I was supposed to meet my roommate there, but coming late meant that I had to shove my way through a crowd of furious teens! They would literally block my way and yell at me! Like, I get that it’s annoying to have someone show up late and try to get near the stage, but I was at work! I’m sorry, kids! I just kept apologizing profusely the whole time and then finally found Deena, thank god! 

🙌🏻🙌🏻 

• Lastly, this song has been in heavy rotation since last week because I apparently want it to be freshman year of college again! (And I didn’t even love this song back then! 😂) It’s just hitting me in the feels right now.

Oh, and I shared what I bought in August on Monday—lots of stuff from Target! Hope you have a great weekend! xo

August 2018 Budget

Well, I went a little nuts in my birthday month! 😬 It was also an emotional rollercoaster of a month, and I was not as disciplined with the retail therapy as I have been in months past whoops.

1. “Introvert” t-shirt (Target): $15

2. “Love you to the moon and back” tank top (Target): $15

3. Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG (The Ordinary): $7

4. Azelaic Acid Suspension 10% (The Ordinary): $8

5. Glycolic 7% Toning Solution (The Ordinary): $9

6. Natural Moisturizing Factors + HA (The Ordinary): $6

7. Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1% (The Ordinary): $6

Not pictured:

1. A New Day Heartly sandal (Target): $20 on sale for $14

2. High-Waist Moto Leggings (Target, sold out): $15 on sale for $7

TOTAL: $87

In comparison to the months where I spent hundreds of dollars shopping, $87 ain’t bad. And I LOVE the Target shirts and have already worn them several times! I usually try to wait for sales there, but the “Introvert” shirt just spoke to my soul, and I’m really feeling a space/lunar vibe these days (plus purple—how could I resist?). I also really appreciate that the text “Love you to the moon and back” is really small (it’s not my favorite saying)… although that has caused several people to go “Wait, what does your shirt say?” and make more of an effort to read it! Kind of opposite of the effect I’m going for haha!

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It’s a shame that the moto leggings from Target are sold out because they are super soft! I legit tried them on last September and had self-control for 11 months! 😂

The sandals were an unexpected purchase back when Karuna and I raided Target’s shoe section! They’re… okay. I wanted a flat black sandal, so they definitely fulfill that need, but they’re not the most comfortable, and they’re a little big—I probably should have gone a half size down. (My feet are super narrow, so I’m only a 7 in theory haha.)

Lastly, I had been wanting to try The Ordinary for awhile, and I feel like the last time I looked them up, they would have been shipped from another country. But now that they’re on Beautylish, they’re so easy to buy! The products I picked were all geared to my skin concerns: redness, enlarged pores, uneven skin tone, and dark under-eye circles. I don’t know that I’ve noticed much in the way of changes, but I have sensitive skin, and no product has irritated it or made anything worse, so that’s a win! And none of the products has an annoying smell, which I deeply appreciate!

What did you buy last month?

High Five for Friday: September 14

Well, this was an interesting week! I got sick on Sunday, didn’t leave the house for a few days, and now am in the sounding-like-death-and-coughing-up-a-lung stage of my cold. EVERYTHING IS GREAT. Seriously, though, here’s what brought the sparkle:

• On Wednesday morning, Pops and I bought tickets to see Elton John… that night! He really puts on a great show. (I mean, he’s 71 and played for 2.5 hours straight! I can’t even get off my couch half the time!) So many of his songs are woven into my life in heartwarming ways. “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” was one of my first favorite songs when I discovered the classic rock station in seventh grade. I’m pretty sure “Tiny Dancer” was played at our junior prom (and I think I even danced with my date to it!). My bffl and I love “Benny and the Jets.” “Your Song” was played at that retreat I went to in January. “Philadelphia Freedom” played on the news the morning after that epic Flyers-Pens five overtime game in 2000. “Take Me to the Pilot” is a more recent jam that I love, and I was super pumped that he did it. GAH sorry to babble, but it was just a great great time. ❤️

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I was so pumped when I taped “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” off the radio in seventh grade that I definitely made my mom listen to it while we wrapped Christmas gifts that year. Merry Christmas 1999! 😂 #WhyAmILikeThis #stepintochristmas . . #eltonjohn #eltonjohnconcert #concert #music #someonesavedmylifetonight

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Sep 13, 2018 at 5:41pm PDT

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Pops and I got tickets to the Elton John concert at, oh, 9:30 this morning. And a million things went wrong in trying to get there on time (which we did, miraculously!), but the shriek I let out when he started “Take Me to the Pilot” reminded me how happy I was to be there. 😁💃🎉 . . #eltonjohn #eltonjohnconcert #TakeMeToThePilot ✈️ #concert #spontaneous #joy

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Sep 12, 2018 at 10:04pm PDT

#mood ✨🌈🦄

• Guys, a new soap opera has captured my heart! (gasp!) A few weeks ago, my friend showed me this ridiculous wedding episode of Days of Our Lives in which some chick’s fake teeth get knocked out in a melee and land in the bride’s bouquet. (Seriously. God, I love soaps.). But the other big thing happening in this episode, two dudes in tuxes crying the whole time, eventually stole my attention. (The one guy had just gotten his memory back, of course, hence the waterworks.) We quickly learned that they are Will and Sonny, a Days supercouple (!!). I’ve been catching up on their original falling in love story, and my heart can’t take it. They have such great chemistry, Chandler Massey is an amazing crier, and he and Freddie Smith are both v cute. To quote Cynthia Rose in Pitch Perfect: I’M ALL IN, BITCHES.

hilar but also #tooreal

• Back to classic rock... this has been the song of the week. I love Led Zeppelin and somehow had never heard “Bron-Yr-Aur” until this week. (What a fail!) It’s such a cute, jaunty acoustic instrumental!

• Since this week is National Suicide Prevention Week, I feel like I need to say something on that topic... although it’s really something that I talk about and think about all the time. I mean, I struggled with suicidal thoughts for years. The first one I can remember happened in September of my freshman year of high school. I was going to my first-choice school, with a lot of good friends, but the emotions and anxiety that this life change brought on completely overwhelmed me. (9/11 had just happened too, and for a such a sensitive kid, that couldn’t have helped.) All I wanted was for the feelings to go away; I couldn’t live with them. Enter suicide. Once that option presented itself and brought relief instead of fear, it was an open escape hatch for the next 12 years… until I accidentally told a friend about these thoughts in a very triggered moment. Today, after five years of therapy, and inpatient, and healing retreats, I can honestly say that suicide no longer has the same allure. Yeah, I still get triggered (… a lot) and struggle with a great many things, but I’m still here and have other ways to cope. It IS possible to disentangle yourself from suicide. ❤️❤️

• And if that doesn’t bolster your spirits, this inspirational message surely will! 😂

I’m glad that everyone else is is equally passionate about the correct spelling of the album haha!

Have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: September 7

My oh my, what a whirlwind week! I think Timmi and I lived ten lives in four days! 😂 Here’s what brought the sparkle:

• On Saturday, I was introduced to the Irish sport of camogie, the real reason Timmi was home (to play in a camogie tournament). Like the good Irish lass I am, I had no idea what was going on at any point. You can catch the ball, and throw it and hit it, and run with it, and balance it on your stick, and score goals, but also field goals too? 🤷🏼‍♀️ All I know is that Timmi played, and then we ended up in an accidental rave afterparty, and I found myself dancing to “Barbie Girl” with a lot of drunk girls. (I was completely sober and couldn’t understand how other people were resisting the siren song of terrible 90s jams!) It was WAY out of my comfort zone and also a blast. 

• On Sunday, I took Timmi to my fave yoga class, and then we went to a BBQ with her extended family... and I beat them all at Apples to Apples! Whoops. 😬

• On Monday, I continued to be Timmi’s adopted sister, and we continued our trend of accidentally going to cultural events by attending the German festival in the Northeast with her fam. 

We followed that up with a game of Cards Against Humanity that I did not win, so I’m allowed to come to future family events lol.

• Then on Tuesday, Timmi’s last day in PA, we basically lost our minds and crammed ALL THE THINGS into one day! We started out with ice skating, then I had therapy, then we had a delicious ice cream sandwich break (if you’re in Philly, Zsa's is amazing), then we went to Play It Again Sports so Timmi could get elbow pads (she started playing ice hockey this week) and I ended up getting hockey skates (#yolo), then we popped into another cool crystal shop and I went to therapy appt #2, and we finished up the day by finding some steals at Old Navy before crashing at her place with Whole Foods’ chicken clusters (also delish) and House Hunters International. I have the energy level (and temperament) of a 90 year old woman, so I’m amazed I survived! But it was such a fun day, and I was basically like, TIMMI, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE! 😩

hijinks

 “Well, I guess this is happening.” 

• I'll finish with this IG post (sorry for reposting some of the pics above), since it really conveys my feelings on the week, and I'm about to crash because, like I said, I'm a 90 year old woman! 👵🏻

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WHAT. A. WEEK. We legitimately did all the things! @a_canny_lass is such a light in my life and has been for the past 17 (!!) years. This girl is always able to pull me out of my anxiety bubble and make the scary seem safe. When I’m alone, I struggle a lot with just leaving the house, but with Timmi, I saw my first camogie match, took up ice skating again (yes, I now own hockey skates 👌🏻), got some awesome crystals and an aura reading, saw beautiful flowers, befriended bereft puppers, and was actually living my best life, because it was light and fun, full of joy and connection. 💖 Good-byes are hard for me. They often feel like a death. So naturally, a death-related Grey’s quote has been floating around in my head today. #WhyAmILikeThis 🤷🏼‍♀️ (Just be glad it’s not a soap quote!): “You changed my life. You made it better, you made it brighter, full of joy.” Because that really encapsulates the last week for me. I 💖 you, 👻. #friends #anxiety #friendtherapyisthebest

A post shared by Jess (@jessie_face4) on Sep 5, 2018 at 4:18pm PDT

Hope you have a great weekend! xo