Tuesday randomness

First of all, thank you for such amazing and robust comments on my travel hacking post the other day!! I can see that it’s sort of a “polarizing” topic, with people having quite strong arguments for and against it. I haven’t had a chance to respond to all your comments yet, but I will soon, because they were such insightful comments and I have more things to say!

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Tuesday Misc.

And now, some random tidbits on this Tuesday:

🔷 I just picked up the book The Let Them Theory from the library yesterday. I’m sure you’ve heard of it! Ha. I remember paging through it at a bookstore in Richmond, England back in March and wanting to read it. My limited exposure with Mel Robbins has left me feeling slightly skeptical of her (I’ve listened to 1-2 of her podcast episodes, linked from other people). No offense to her or anything, but her “I got so big, so fast without any real credentials!” thing can’t help but feel a little bit gimmicky to me, but I’m trying to keep an open mind. The little bit I’ve heard about the Let Them theory sounds intriguing and potentially very useful, and I’m always up for a good self-help book… lol.

🔷I bought a dress for the Mexico wedding! I was dreading shopping because there are no formal dress stores really right by my house and I hate the bright fitting room lights and the whole thing sounded eww. But the wedding is in like, 2 weeks, so it was becoming an urgent necessity. We piggybacked a Macy’s trip on to Ethan’s home soccer playoff game on Saturday (his school is just a few minutes from Macy’s), and I prayed and prayed I could please find something suitable in this one single store so I would not have to go searching elsewhere.

It’s maybe slightly more “matronly” than I was going for, but whatever. The price was right, it fits well, it’s quite lightweight compared to many others (packable!), I can wear a regular bra (so nice!), the navy blue feels “autumnal” and Ivan likes it because he a) likes blue, so he’ll be happy to coordinate with blue and b) a grey suit will go nicely with it, which is what he was hoping to wear, I think.

It’s a ‘formal’ wedding so apparently the long gown style is appropriate, or so I’ve been told. We are also in the wedding (as padrinos, or sponsors, of the arras, or gold coins), so I didn’t want to skimp and be underdressed. Here is a little article about the meaning of the arras in a traditional Mexican Catholic wedding. In short, from the article, “In today’s modern world, the symbolism of the wedding coins represents a promise of prosperity in the couple’s marriage, as well as a promise to always protect each other’s wealth.”

We still need to buy the arras to present during the ceremony, oops… working on that….

🔷We started watching Black Rabbit on Netflix this weekend, with Jude Law and Jason Bateman. It’s a mini series, only 8 episodes. It is not particularly uplifting but it’s exciting and thrilling and really makes you see how freaking complicated and intertwined life can be….

Funny story- at Ethan’s soccer game Thursday I was sitting right in front of a few women and their daughters who were chit chatting throughout the whole game. One of those situations where I could hear every word- I mean, I couldn’t help it! I couldn’t not hear. Anyway, at one point they got talking about TV shows and one of them said, “Oh, we just watched such a great series!! Let me think, what was it called….oh, it was soo good…. ” She proceeded to hem and haw, unable to think of the title. Finally I turned around and was like, “Well now I need to know what it is!!” 😅😅 (I was obviously NOT part of the conversation, lol, so I said, “Sorry, didn’t mean to be eavesdropping but I couldn’t help but overhear!” hahaha.) Finally she thought of the name (Black Rabbit!) and was more than happy to share. 😉

🔷 I had an eye exam yesterday at 4 pm. They always ask if I want to pay extra for the retinal scan or if I want to just get my eyes dilated. Well I’m always too cheap for the retinal scan, so I typically begrudgingly just get my eyes dilated, even though I honestly hate it. It makes my eyes feel weird and I can’t stand not being able to see/ read for several hours after. Well, the tech, during my initial exam part, said that the doctor had to pick up his kids from daycare and was going to be in a rush to get out, so he just did the retinal scan (for free!) to speed things up (versus waiting for my eyes to dilate). Score! It was so much nicer! (Now I’m thinking I might just suck it up and pay to get the retinal scan next time… wait a minute, was this part of the master plan? 🤔)

I’m also now trying out some new contacts, as the ones I’ve worn for years have been phased out. He put me in dailies, to try, which are WAY more expensive… hmm. He also sent me with some different monthlies (I had monthlies before). I don’t know. The idea of fresh lenses each day is nice, but as I’ve been using monthlies with zero issue for many, many years, I’m not really sure the cost difference is worth it. To be determined… so far I’m not even sure if like them. These maybe feel a little different in my eye?

On the plus side, my prescription is holding strong at -4.25 for many years now. Apparently at 42 years old my eyes have not yet fallen off the proverbial cliff.

🔷I liked Sarah’s podcast episode about having an “Analog Fall” yesterday! And the related Substack, that inspired the episode.

Some things I personally try to do analog:

• have moved my daily journal practice back to paper! (as of ~July)
• my daily to do list/ planning page (*master to do lists still in Google Tasks, but I’ve been doing a handwritten daily page, which I really like)
• read paper/print books as much as possible (although I bought The Plan before Nova Scotia on Kindle and found there were perks to that, too!)
• I track my workouts (weight/reps) in a notebook, by hand
• my grocery list is always done by hand

🔷I also liked Kendra’s October 20th Lazy Genius episode about How to Make the Rest of 2025 Easier. Something about it just sort of spoke to me and I enjoyed it. Listen for all the details, but the short version list was:

1. Put non-essential projects on pause.
2. Protect your white space.
3. Look for lightness.
4. Be kinder about chores + the ordinary life you live.
5. Notice that good is here right now; mark it somehow!

🔷 NaBloPoMo (National Blog Post Month) is coming up soon! I know people have mixed feelings on this. Posting every day: a) generates a crap ton of posts for people to read –> OVERWHELMING and b) takes a lot of time in an already busy season!

That said, I think I want to do it. Like last year, my goal would be to post daily, BUT, my self-imposed rule is that my posts can not exceed 500 words during this time. (This is HARD for me, so it’s a good exercise, and the short length also naturally limits how much time I’ll spend writing.) I’ll also aim to have my posts be more of a daily journal style- no pressure to have curated, formal posts or “big important topics” necessarily.

🔷 We had an impromptu pizza date out last night with Asher. I had planned on making pasta, but after my eye exam, I was like, meh. I don’t feel like cooking. I glanced at the clock, realized Ivan was on his way home and we’d have just enough time to meet up for pizza and get home before my 7 pm Swim Team board meeting. Asher was able to join us and it was really fun! (Unfortunately Ethan was still at soccer.)

🔷 We’ve been enjoying our spooky decorations. Pics from the weekend:

And Charlie snuggling by the fire, holding my hand. 💗

Happy Tuesday! Fall is in full swing here with some beautiful crisp weather… but thinking so much about Jamaica today!! Yikes…. 😬

Daily Gratitude:

I am grateful for the free retina scan yesterday and not having to get my eyes dilated.