It’s late on Friday night, I just finished cooking for the next few days, doing all the dishes, and cleaning my perpetually-dirty kitchen counters, and I’m tired. I’m super busy this weekend and my last post was pretty serious so I figure I’ll just make a quick list of all the good things that happened this week since I don’t really have the time or energy for more. I’m actively trying to be more mindful and thankful for small things, so I might make this a recurring feature. But for this week:
I bought three different travel backpacks on Amazon and another at REI in preparation for my upcoming trip (more on that soon!), where I’m going to try not overpacking for the first time in my life. This is in the hopes/goal of starting a life of minimalist travel where I can pack lightly and fit everything into a large backpack that’s still carry-on size. Anyway, I finally returned the ones I’m not keeping (thank goodness backpacks aren’t heavy because I have to carry things to work to return them. The large box was just really awkward to carry), so getting that money back on my credit card is going to be awesome.

In keeping with my burgeoning #crazyplantlady status, I somehow went to the grocery store last weekend for more scotch tape and ended up coming back home with both scotch tape and a new plant child. Oops. But look at how pretty my new plant is!
I alluded to this in my last post, but I’m a chorus nerd and sing in a group that has rehearsal once a week, except for this week and next because of our upcoming concert. Monday’s rehearsal with the orchestra for the first time was a disaster. I thought Tuesday’s normal, just the chorus rehearsal was going to go horribly and we’d get yelled at for people not knowing their music (I’m not going to go into how much that bugs me…). But our director is maybe more gracious than we deserve sometimes and we had a productive rehearsal with a good, comprehensive look at the places we need to work on. So things went better than I thought and I’m cautiously optimistic for next week’s rehearsals.
It’s been a spendy week between my plant child and last night, when I went out with a friend for the first time in ages. Unfortunately the DC Happy Hours website lied to me and the happy hour specials at the place I’d chosen were not at all as cheap as I thought they’d be (and I broke my resolution to only get one drink), but that’s still fine (except that what’s not fine is a happy hour “special” of $1 off normal drink prices. I pay so much to live in this city, can’t you give me my $5 drinks?? Now I know for next time to look elsewhere for those). I hadn’t seen this friend in a while so it was really nice to sit there and chat with her for a few hours, plus I can most definitely afford a night out here and there and it’s not like this happens often lately. Bonus: ways I can tell I’m still a super-broke college student at heart despite my advanced age of a quarter-century? Happy hour margaritas + free chips and salsa at cheap Tex-Mex places is still totally my scene. No shame. The advanced age just means I was smart enough to eat a bit of dinner at home beforehand so I didn’t succumb to the siren call of tacos, too.

Not only did I somehow avoid getting stormed on today, I also saw a rainbow. That’s definitely a good way to make a Metro ride better.
I just used up a massive 32-oz bag of kale before it went bad! Granted I’ve eaten the same kale and black bean tacos and kale/strawberry/onion/walnut/avocado salad for the last week and a half, but that’s just the price you pay for making your own food and using it up instead of throwing it away. I’m really trying to cut down on my food waste because I loathe throwing food away. The massive bag was cheaper than the much smaller bag, so ALL THE KALE it was since I’ve been burned many times by spinach and other greens just disintegrating on me even two days later. Related: I’ve now massaged kale because that’s apparently a thing you do when you use it in salad. #themoreyouknow
I’ll be super busy all weekend and am headed into a very busy week right before a weeklong international trip (!) so I’m off to bed for some much-needed sleep before I have to wake up super early tomorrow. I hope everyone has a good weekend!