This was the outfit I wore to go out with my friends on Sunday and I was so happy with how it looked on me. The pants are new from Depop and I'm excited because I've never had black jeans before. The top is from my sister and I cut the neck hole out and cropped it and I think it's super cute!
These are the last few days of July and I can’t believe we’re heading into August already. My sister’s birthday is this coming Saturday, which kicks off my family’s “birthday season.” She’s going to be 16 years old and I’ve been crying the past few days because she’s so big and she’s really growing up and becoming her own person. I’m so proud of her and I love her so much. I can’t stand to look at any old pictures or videos of her without crying.
Anyway, last week was a good week. Monday we came back from our Lake Tahoe trip and I didn’t really go to work that day, but I did run one work errand that took about an hour and a half. I was so horrifically sunburnt for most of last week, but I’m doing much better now. I’m not in pain anymore so I can wear “hard pants” now, which is exciting. Now my burns are just peeling a lot and can be itchy sometimes, but we’re in the final stretch of the healing process and I’m very grateful for that. One of my best friends is back in town so we went to her house for dinner and swimming the other day and that was really fun. We also took a quick drive into town to get ice cream, soda, and fries late at night before coming back and playing Scrabble. It was super fun.
Saturday morning I volunteered at Food Link, which is a local food pantry, distribution center, resource center, and community garden. They had a volunteer event where you help in the garden and I thought it sounded like fun so I signed up. I’ve been trying to find ways to meet new people and make some friends, plus getting involved in the community is always a good thing. So I showed up at 7am even though I was nervous the night before, while I was getting ready, and during the whole drive there. It turned out I was the only person who showed up, but it worked out great. It was mostly just me and the program coordinator, who I’ll refer to as G. For three hours we pulled weeds in the garden and talked about all kinds of different things. She’s 28 so she’s only a few years older than me and I had such a great time talking with her. I also told her about the blog, so if you’re reading this, HI! We exchanged numbers and we might do pottery together sometime (hopefully!). I also got to take an eggplant home and it has a flower on it so I planted it yesterday and we’ll see what happens! My mom says I hit the jackpot by doing this; I helped out my community, I made a friend, and I got an eggplant. She’s right; it sounds like a win-win-win to me! G told me that they hold these types of volunteer events at least once a month, and I will definitely be making it a regular thing!
Sunday I got a couple of things done like pulling weeds at my own house and running some laundry. My friends wanted to go into town together to run an errand and just hang out. I was hesitant to agree to go because I like to have a slower Sunday, but I told them I’d be there and I’m so glad I did. AP had a return at TJ Maxx so we did that and looked around for a few minutes. Then we walked around Target for a while too. Sonic is just down the street and it’s AP’s favorite place in the whole world, so we stopped there and got some treats. I hadn’t eaten anything from Sonic in years, but it was pretty good and I would be happy to go back. Then we found ourselves at the mall, just walking around relatively aimlessly there too. We do have a tradition when we’re all in town where we go to either Hot Topic or BoxLunch and each get a mystery pin and open them together, so we did that yesterday. The surprise aspect is really fun unless you end up with something that you don’t like and unfortunately that happened to AP. However, it worked out perfectly for me because she got one of the ones that I really liked so she gave it to me. I have a little collection of enamel pins in my car that I added them to.
Here's my little enamel pin collection! The new ones are the ladybug stamp and the Tangled tower cloche. I love them!
I also had a major moment in the bathtub this weekend. I feel like I have these moments a lot and they never lead to much, but I don’t want that to be the case this time. I follow a woman on TikTok (@ellishablake) who talks a lot about premenstrual dysphoric disorder, hormone balance, women’s health, etc. I didn’t realize it until the end, but during the month of July she held a 30 day “Glow Plan” challenge to calm the nervous system and care for the body. I realized that the items to complete each day are pretty closely aligned with the things I wish I was doing in my life. I haven’t been following it exactly, but I’ve been trying to implement some of the things over the last couple of days. For example, I’ve brought gratitude journaling back. In her challenge, she writes down a certain number of things she’s grateful for based on the day of the challenge she’s on (one thing for day 1, two things for day 2, and so on). She has some really good affirmations that I’ve been saying to myself, and some are definitely more comfortable and believable than others. I’ve decided to prioritize movement again because it’s hard to get some momentum, but life is exponentially better once you do. I’ve already started making a shift in the way I’m eating. I want to do even better now by making sure I eat lots of different colored fruits and vegetables throughout the day. She also includes meditation, which I feel a little shaky about, but I’ll work on implementing that as well. For me, I’d rather focus on spending some time outside in the mornings instead. There are just over seven weeks until my 23rd birthday and I would love to use those seven weeks to really focus in and push myself to become the next version of me. I would like to use these weekly life updates as a way to check in on my progress each week leading up to my birthday so stay tuned for that!
I think that’s it for this week, but this coming week is going to be a little busy, so I’ll have lots to tell you next time!
Love always <3
Nicole
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