I’m not sure if this is just me or maybe it’s a post-COVID or aging world, but I need more time than in the past to recover from a whirlwind of events. June and July passed with a rhythm of events that he seems to have forgotten how to manage. They were wonderful months, but I spent more time living than sharing, which was very necessary.
Over the past 14 years of running this blog, I have done a variety of posting frequencies. When I started, I would share everything that came to mind, even several times a day if I felt compelled. It was exciting to have a place to record what I was going through, what I ate (I was up to my neck in diet culture), and any other random musings.
Today, with a new social platform every year and the ability to share thoughts online with little effort, there is a lot of noise to be made. “Content creation” has become a profession for many and there is some pressure to ensure that content is curated and of high quality. It’s not a criticism, as I, too, make a portion of my income from this job. But it’s exhausting when you’re competing for a job based on your aesthetics or the quality of your photos. I miss the days when I would share a blurry but heavily filtered photo of my coffee cup and not care if someone liked it. I will work to find a middle ground.
In that spirit, here’s a sample of what I’ve been up to in June and July:
In June I went to New York City to take classes at Peloton Studios. Several weeks later, I’m still excited for many reasons, most of which have nothing to do with riding a bike to nowhere. I started writing about that experience and I get emotional every time. I look forward to sharing more with you soon. In the meantime, I wrote the much less emotional 411 on how to book a Peloton New York class which you can find here.
Also, while in New York, I was able to attend a Tribeca Film Festival screening of Movie Your Fat Frienda documentary that presents Aubrey Gordon (of many bookshis The Your Fat Friend Columnand the masterpiece of a podcast that is maintenance phase.) Again, there are so many things to say about that movie. Until I can get them out, here’s a picture of me with Aubrey! I didn’t expect to meet her, so I was excited. It was also just because of the nicest person who befriended me in line, then she sat next to me, then introduced herself to Aubrey and waved. When the movie was over, she made sure I got my picture taken with Aubrey. The friendliness of the people has been a recurring theme for the past two months and I am forever indebted to Shannon from Vancouver.
Also in June, a friend of mine held her annual Murder Mystery party, which gave me a reason to wear one of my favorite sequin dresses, an old Eloquii x Jason Wu collaboration dress that I previously wore for New Year’s Eve. Turns out I was the (fake) killer.
I entered my second month completely overwhelmed by my closet, which meant piles of clothes on the floor like this. I really need to get a handle on it – I won’t really buy anything new until I can clean house.
In July came Misters for MS, which raises funds for the National MS Society. I’ve been on the event planning committee for 4-5 years now and it’s so much fun to see it all come together to raise a lot of money.
This dress It was a lot of fun to use.
This is my favorite strapless bra – I wore it one-shoulder with this dress and strapless with the black dress below.
I also had a pinched nerve in my back that left me pretty frozen for two and a half weeks, which was super fun. But now we are all good!
The next one was BEYONCE! It was a phenomenal show and her voice is out of this world. Again, in another example of wonderful people, I had to walk through an entire row of people to get to my seat and no one raised a fuss, even though I was way above them, literally no space between the rows. I even got some compliments on my glowing face!
The next step was a trip to visit Steve’s parents at the Jersey shore. We hadn’t seen them since Christmas so it was good to be there. My mother-in-law came with this hat for the beach, but I was totally unprepared for the bugs and they ate me alive. Next time, I’ll douse myself with strong chemicals.
There will be no more travel on my schedule for the foreseeable future, so now is the time to find my way back to the rhythm of everyday life. I’ve been working hard on some stuff that I’m not really ready to share, which I know is annoying. But hopefully one day I can!!
book recommendations
I’ve been reading quite a bit lately and wanted to mention some current and upcoming books that I’ve read or that are by people I know who want to be successful.
Fictional Favorites:
- Happy place by Emily Henry
- The escape By Jennifer Weiner. I devoured this next book by my favorite author. It features a charming but slightly aimless plus-size main character who (like me) went to fat camp as a kid. She leads a multi-day bike trip where she encounters a steamy one-night stand she had years ago, before rekindling her childhood romance at fat camp with her boyfriend now her doctor. . Thanks to Atria for sending me an advance reading copy.
Non-fiction:
I hope you’ve had a great summer so far!
