I’m not sure if this is just me or if 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 pace of events that I seem to have forgotten how to handle. They were great months, but I spent more time living than sharing, which was very necessary.
Over the past 14 years of having this blog, I have done a variety of posting frequencies. When I started, I shared everything that came to mind, even multiple times a day if I felt compelled. It was exciting to have a place to record what I was going through, what I was eating (I was neck-deep in diet culture), and any other random reflections.
Nowadays, with a new social platform every year and the ability to share thoughts online with little effort, there’s a lot of noise to break through. “Content creation” has become a profession for many and there is some pressure to ensure that content is curated and of high quality. This is not a criticism as I also make a portion of my income from this job. But it’s exhausting when you’re competing for work based on your aesthetic or the quality of your photographs. I miss the days when I would share a blurry but heavily filtered photo of my cup of coffee and not care if anyone liked it. I’m going to work to find a middle ground.
In that spirit, here’s a sample of what I was 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 that goes nowhere. I started writing about that experience and I get emotional every time. I hope to share 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 I was 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 column Your fat friendand 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 photo of me with Aubrey! He didn’t expect to meet her, so he was excited. It was also just because of the nicest person who befriended me in line, then she sat next to me, then she introduced herself to Aubrey and waved at me. When the movie was over, he made sure I took a photo with Aubrey. The kindness of people was a recurring theme over the past two months and I will always be 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) murderer.
I entered the second month being 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 really won’t buy anything new until I can clean the 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 or 5 years and it’s so fun to see how everything comes together to raise a lot of money.
This dress It was very 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’re all fine!
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 made a fuss, even though I was way above them, there is literally no space between the rows. I even got some compliments on the glow on my face!
Next up 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 completely unprepared for the bugs and they ate me alive. Next time, I’ll get wet with harsh chemicals.
There will be no more trips on my agenda for the foreseeable future, so now is the time to find my way back to the daily rhythm. I’ve been working hard on some things that I’m not really ready to share, which I know is annoying. But I hope one day I can!!
Book recommendations
I’ve been reading quite a bit lately and I wanted to mention some current and upcoming books that I’ve read or that are by people I know and want to be successful with.
Fiction 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 directionless, 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-turned-doctor. . Thanks to Atria for sending me an advance reading copy.
Non-fiction:
I hope you’ve had a great summer so far!
