The simplest way to track expenses, spending, and fun money
With all the journals, calendars, and planners out there, we really have no excuse for poor organization. All it takes is a little willpower to write things down, which has always been my favorite and most effective organization tip. WRITE. IT. DOWN.
I like to keep all my note-taking practices in one place: the Notes app on my iPhone. Most ideas and reminders come while scrolling on my phone, so it feels the most natural to open the Notes app to jot things down.
I write first drafts of work emails in the app; grocery lists; to-do lists. I even…
Stop kidding yourself—you’ll never go on that double date
How do you know therapy’s working? It costs an arm and a leg, takes up an hour of your day, and has you pouring your heart out to a complete stranger. Of course, you want it to work—otherwise, what a waste of time and money. What a letdown.
I knew I made the right decision to start teletherapy five minutes into our first session. My therapist, we’ll call her Kelly, asked me to expand on my inner circle of family and…the dreaded word…friends.
“Um, honestly,” I said timidly, “I don’t have many friends. I don’t want friends. Is that weird?”
…
Why I’m no longer taking advice from pretty profiles
This one time, in therapy, I discovered that the root of my impending doom stems from one single cause: the ferocity of misinformation on social media. The mental task of sorting through profiles, exploring all angles of an argument, forming an opinion only to learn that it’s somehow “wrong…”
It drove me to extreme isolation. No joke, I searched Zillow for remote cabins near the Canadian border to find a way out of society. The endless stream of misinformation and opposing viewpoints sounded like a fire alarm in my head. For the first time in my life, I understood why…
From one empath to another: stay in your emotional lane
How many times must we hear “you’re not alone” before we actually believe it? I never took those redundant words to heart until I listened to this one Kristen Bell interview on the Fat Mascara podcast.
Ep. 259 titled, “How To Find Your Happy-ish Place.” A must-listen for highly sensitive and empathetic individuals (and Kristen Bell fans). You may know her from Veronica Mars, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and the voice of Anna in Frozen.
Common characteristics of an empath
But what exactly constitutes a highly-sensitive or empathetic person? You may fall into the category if the following apply to your everyday behavior:
- You keep a…
How to have the pandemic money talk
Before coronavirus—or as I like to say, B.C., I had no issue dropping $100 on a fancy brunch or date night, even a trip to Sephora for makeup that’s now collecting dust. My slutty-ass wallet opened wide for everything and everyone: clothes, skincare, food, Amazon, Apple, Urban Outfitters…
Coronavirus changed the way we all spend on ourselves. But what about our friends, family, and dates? Even with bars and restaurants opening back up, it seems safer and more pragmatic to stay home and save. Ah, yes, the key ingredients to romance: frugality and the couch.
All kidding aside, you absolutely…
It knows precisely what you need when you need it the most
Who the hell is God or Jesus or whoever the fuck to tell me when I can have sex, drink alcohol (let alone coffee or tea), tattoo my body, or hurt the next person I see at the gym without a mask on? Apparently, “thou shall not kill” is one of the Ten Commandments.
Never have I ever considered myself a religious person or felt connected to any one religion in particular. Can you tell?
Spirituality, on the other hand, speaks to me on multiple levels. I appreciate a New Moon every now and then. The same goes for a…
Here’s to a less reactionary and newsworthy New Year
In the name of New Year’s resolutions, I’m calling for a more “keep it sacred, keep it to yourself” attitude on social media in 2021. We overanalyzed and overexerted the previous year with opinions on all matters of quarantine life: masks, vaccines, lockdowns, politics—even pop culture news.
These opinions drew lines in the sand between Democrat vs. Republican, pro-vaccine vs. anti-vaccine, defund the police vs. back the blue. We will never run out of opinions and challenging conversations in the years to come but can we please handle them in a less reactionary manner moving forward?
I support whatever the…
Single or taken, special occasions have a knack for loneliness
For the first time in a long time, I spent New Year’s Eve alone. I never thought this would happen as a married person. You think, “I have a partner for life; we’re going to be together on special occasions and make all the best memories.”
Newsflash: life happens. Shit happens sounds more like it. In my case, my husband found himself in the middle of a work crisis just as he was about to clock out. Something about a busted pipe and gallons of water in the facility.
A text comes in: “Well, I’m going to be VERY late…
8 lessons from the Switch game that apply to everyday life
When it comes to buzzy pop culture trends, I’m that skeptical bitch who refuses to jump on the bandwagon until enough time has passed to prove it legitimate. I started Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad way too late in the same, somewhere around Season 3 or 4.
The same goes for Animal Crossing, which reached peak popularity levels in March—the time of its release and the start of COVID lockdowns. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. …
Ranking all the Christmas traditions from your childhood
Happy December 2nd! Wow, that sounds way less celebratory than December 1st but it took me longer than expected to compile this list of American Christmas celebrations. Sorry, international readers, most of these apply to North Americans.
Let’s just jump right into this because it’s going to be a long one—13 Christmas traditions, to be exact, ranked from worst to best.
#13. Door-to-door caroling
Ummmm I can think of nothing worse than a group of strangers knocking on your door with some bullshit song about Jesus on Christmas. Can you tell I’m an atheist? Door-to-door carolers are the Jehovah’s Witness of the holiday…
