High Five for Friday: December 28

What a whirlwind week! Let’s see what brought the holiday sparkle:

• I was off last Friday and did absolutely nothing for most of the day. WHAT A DELIGHT! But at night, I went into Philly and hung out with Russell. You might recall that he has a Sega, so we played a rousing round of Zombies Ate My Neighbors (!!) before settling on this visit’s weird historical documentary, The Russian Revolution! (Why are we insane?)

• Also on Friday, this book arrived! It’s by Freddie Smith (Sonny on Days) and his fiancee Alyssa!

The intersection of soaps and self-help?! Sign me up! I pre-ordered it back in November and forgot that doing so meant I would get a signed copy! 😍 Also, I’ve chatted with Alyssa a few times via IG messages, and she is the sweetest!

• CHRISTMAS! I was actually feeling super anxious leading up to it (and playing this aggressive Queen song on repeat to psych myself up!), but it turned out great! It was super low key, which is fine by me! 

Requisite post-Mass outfit pic 💯

Pops always gives very practical stocking stuffers, and this year was no exception, as you can see! I also got a few gift cards and a Queen magazine! 💃

• I’ve been off all week and am having a grand old time! Ice skating, Kohl’s, and cookies, oh my! I also started watching The Pacific because, Joe Mazzello (❤️), and he literally cries one minute into his first appearance. Just like Will on Days (who Kristin and I say has “resting cry face”). Why do I always love actors that cry all the time?!

😭😭😭 

Hilariously, Jurassic Park had been on earlier in the day, so Joe was on a real emotional roller coaster!

At least he knows this is his calling card! 😂😂 

• Lastly, an ornament saga. This ornament (a snowshoeing alligator??) makes us go ??? every year.
  

Who is this guy?! Is he from a show? A movie? We can never remember. The only thing we thought we knew was that he came in a Burger King kid’s meal circa 1990. Russell is my toy expert, but even he was stumped (despite the fact that he apparently has a blue one WHAT ARE THE ODDS). So he posted about it on Reddit, and several hours later, we had our answer! (This is why the Internet exists, right?) This guy is apparently from a Roy Rogers kid’s meal and was featured in the show Gator Tales, a cartoon that only aired in the Midwest—hence why none of us could remember it! WHO KNEW? I think my parents were as excited as I was to finally put this mystery to rest, haha!

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: December 21

I don’t know about you, but this week FLEW by for me! Let’s see what brought the sparkle:

• On Saturday, I traded my ice skates for roller skates and went roller skating with Kristin and a few other friends. I used to rollerblade all the time when I was a kid, but now, I can’t fathom the last time that would have happened. 1997? Surprisingly, it wasn’t too hard, just exhausting! Why is it that, as an adult, you’ll be sore for five to seven days after doing any physical activity you did as a kid?! 

Kristin, serving them sweater lewks 😍 

• On Sunday, I saw Bohemian Rhapsody again because I need an intervention! I’m not someone who usually even likes going to the movies, let alone going to see the same movie four times! 🙈 But I’m in love with the music and the cast, so having heart-eyes for two hours never seems like the worst use of my time. Plus, I’m practically celebrating the fact that I could even sit through a movie four times! In August, my anxiety was so bad that I literally went to Maggie’s one day and paced around her room because I couldn’t sit still (but also couldn’t stop crying when I was alone). Not only do I not currently feel like that, but I’ve been feeling almost happy, even! 😂💃
  

• How the heck is Christmas four days away?! I have been so behind with my Christmas shopping this year, but luckily, I went shopping for an hour after work on Wednesday and got gifts for TWO people! Annnd also a gift for myself, the best kind of gift! 😂

• I laughed way too hard at this meme. I am the worst gift-wrapper, so this is basically how I feel during the whole gift-wrap process, haha.

#TOOREAL

• And lastly, this lovely calico is really not into these Christmas decorations! (The captions are really 💯.)

I hope y’all have a wonderful weekend and holiday!! xoxo

High Five for Friday: December 14

Last week was our Disney World trip, so of course that’s what brought the sparkle! 🤩

• On our first day, we did Epcot on three hours sleep (thank you, 6 AM flight!), and we had quite a time, despite the delirium! We did Soarin’ (one of our fave rides at Disneyland) and Spaceship Earth (which was nice and tame 👌🏻) and visited the little country shops! (Japan was, once again, my fave, although I regret not getting Coffee Crisp in Canada when I had the chance! 😭)

• On Saturday, we did the Magic Kingdom and met up with my friend Kristin, who just happened to be there with her fam at the same time! (I think finding out she would be there is what convinced Pops to schedule our trip when he did, haha!) We had DOLE WHIPS (!!) and took a nearly heart-attack-inducing ride on Big Thunder Mountain! (This used to be the only roller coaster I enjoyed, and now, it freaks me out too WAH. I was just repeatedly saying, “OH MY GOD” the whole time!)

THE GANG’S ALL HERE! 

My FAVORITE ride of the whole trip was Aladdin’s Magic Carpets! You just “fly” on your magic carpet at a reasonable speed, and you can control if/when it goes up and down. PERF. This is how psyched I was on our first magic carpet ride:

A whole new wooooorld! 

I also loved the teacups (although maybe not as much as Pops... 😂), and my beloved Jungle Cruise was the “Jingle Cruise” for the holidays! (A slow moving ride full of corny jokes?! Yes please!) 

• On Sunday, it RAINED until like 3 PM (😮), so we hung out in our hotel room and chilled for awhile. I actually very much appreciated the chance to rest after such an exhausting few days! Plus, Father of the Bride (I and II!) happened to be on TV, so I was happy as a clam!

• Once the rain stopped, we went back to Epcot because that was the park open the latest that day. This time around, we did the new Frozen ride, which was cute, and Soarin’ again, and got a giant pretzel in Germany! #yolo

• Let’s end the post with this guy that Pops bought me in Japan! HOW. STINKIN’. CUTE. I think it’s a bear dressed up like a calico cat with another lil cat friend?!? 😍😭😍 How could I resist?!
  

Hope you have a great weekend! xo

High Five for Friday: November 30

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

• Let’s just start out with this gif. Timmi found it this week, and it never fails to crack me up:

#bigmood

• So last weekend, I saw Bohemian Rhapsody again… twice actually. Whoops. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a movie three times in the theater before! One viewing was with Pops, and the other was to combat anxiety. I was feeling super anxious on Sunday for no apparent reason (possibly “rebound anxiety” from lowering one of my medications WHAT FRESH HELL IS THIS), so spending two hours with heart-eyes didn’t seem like the worst idea. And, in fact, it was not. 10/10 would recommend this coping skill. 😂

BUT ACTUALLY.

•  Thanks to Bohemian Rhapsody introducing me to Ben Hardy, I decided to check out a few clips of him on EastEnders. Silly me, I didn’t think I would get sucked in, but it is a soap opera after all! His character’s sister was murdered, his gf is an alcoholic, their families seem to hate each other, so naturally, I’m just over here like GIVE ME MORE. 😍

• My friend Russell (Inspector Gadget) has a band and was saying over the weekend that I should take up an instrument and join them. I would really like to play the drums, but they already have a drummer/we don’t have drums at home, so my options (i.e. instruments we already have around the house) were limited to guitar, bass, and keyboard. Obviously, with my love of John Deacon at a fever pitch, I picked the bass. (Plus, being a female bass player seems totally bad-ass, no?) So Pops tried showing me a few things this week, and I can now very slowly almost play the first 8 notes to “Another One Bites the Dust”!! What a virtuoso! 😂

• Lastly, Pops and I are going to Disney World next weekend! What the what? He literally booked this on Tuesday, haha! We’ve been to Disneyland a bunch of times, but I’ve only been to World once and Pops has never been. I’m super pumped for Epcot! 
  

This also means no H54F next week (☹️), so I’ll catch y’all in two weeks!

PS BLOGGER FRIENDS: Let me know if you want to exchange Christmas cards this year! 😘

Have a great weekend! xo

November 2018 Budget

I thought I bought more things this month, but these are the only receipts I could find, so YAY, I guess! Also, let it be known that I bought NOTHING on Black Friday, WOO HOO! I’m such a sucker for sales, so this was a big win! Even better: I didn’t even WANT to shop! Do you guys ever feel super grabby at times and apt to buy everything in sight, and then super meh about shopping? Because that definitely happens to me and did this month. I bought two of the things below within days of each other… along with a few decorative things and self-helpy-type books. And then nothing. OKAY. *shrug*

So what did I buy this month?

1. DevaCurl One Condition (CVS, but found online at Ulta): $22

2. Dr. Scholl’s Original Collection Lane Gore Leather Bootie (Marshall’s, but could only find online at Amazon): on sale for $29

3. Kate Somerville Goat Milk De-Puffing Eye Balm (Sephora): $38

TOTAL: $89

I needed some shorter black boots after finally bidding my six-year-old pair adieu last year. These ones by Dr. Scholl’s may look dressy, but they’re pretty darn comfortable, and that’s really all I ever want in an article of clothing.

I’m especially lazy when it comes to eye creams for some reason, so when I saw one in a tube form, my internal lightbulb went on. I’ve already used it way more than a traditional eye cream because it’s so easy to just swipe on and be done with it. Is it working? Eh, who knows, but at least I’m actually using it! #knowthyself

And the DevaCurl is just a boring ol’ replacement. I swear by it for my super thick, coarse hair!

What did you buy in November?