September's Little Moments

I think that it's really easy to lose track of a month. It's really easy to feel like a month just flew by, not much happened, you worked and slept and ate, repeat. And that's why I think it's important to go back and remember the little moments, fun times with friends, and things that you may have forgotten about!

September felt like it flew by. But then again, when I was scrolling back through these photos, my adventures from September 1st feel like they were so long ago. How does this happen!?

Let's take a look...

On September 1st, my good friend Alicia and I decided to start our month off with a bang by conquering a 4,000 footer in New Hampshire! It was my first real, big girl hike in New Hampshire and I was pumped! Alicia is the pro-hiker of the two of us, and boy did that show on the way to this summit. I was huffing and puffing and struggling big time. But I made it to the top of Mt. Zealand, crossing parts of the Appalachian Trail, and I was very proud of myself!

I visited Castle Island in Boston, MA for the first time & took a tour of the fort! It was a gorgeous day in early September and I met my friend Mary-Cate and her family friends for a little get together at Castle Island in the shady, grassy picnic areas. Alicia came with me and we ended up taking a tour of the inside of the fort! It was cool to see the real cannons and views from the top of the walls of the fort, as well as to hear our knowledgeable guide giving us all of the Revolutionary War history!

I ended up going home to Connecticut two weekends this month! The first one was filled with events and fun activities. I went to the Hebron Fair with Courtney, Melissa, & Jared! It was so fun, especially since I wasn't able to make it to the Big E this year! I got my fried oreos/Reese's and we escaped from the hoards of teenagers into the beer garden! Teenagers are kind of scary these days, man. Maybe it's only when they move in packs. We forked up the ridiculous money for tickets on the rides and went on the Ferris wheel and this spinning ride that they have at the Big E too that I go on every year! 

That Sunday I had Adriana's 2nd birthday party and the dance studio cookout. The weather was kind of cold/cloudy but I still had fun seeing all of my hometown friends! We drank wine by the fire, talked all things astrology (well, I did...) and toasted vegan marshmallows! 

I went to Salem! The first time I went to Salem was super overwhelming because it was Halloween weekend. But it's spooky even in September! I got my friend a birthday gift from this amazing store called Hauswitch. The gift is a spell (literally a spell, crafted by a coven of witches in Salem!) to clear your home and re-energize it. I love that stuff! We walked around, going into bookstores and apothecaries galore. We stopped by the memorial for those hanged during the Salem Witch Trials and looked up some of the victim's stories. My school is going on a field trip there next month, so I'll be getting even more history on a tour when we go! 

I helped my friend, Alicia, celebrate her 26th birthday! She has had such a tough year - she recently decided to leave her husband and is in the process of getting a divorce. But man, she is one of the strongest ladies I know! She had a gift card to a fancy restaurant in the North End, so SHE took ME out for her birthday hahahah. I got probably the most delicious pesto tortellini I've ever had, and then I treated her to some gelato. The hazlenut flavor was to die for. 

My poor mama got a hip replacement! I went home to Connecticut to help take care of her during a Friday that my dad had to work right after her surgery. It was so nice to be able to come home, hang out with her, and help brighten her day. Especially since she had been soooo nervous about having this surgery. 

This was quite a busy weekend! On Friday night I went to Alaina's house with Shawn and Melissa for her birthday bonfire. Then on Saturday I went with Shawn and Melissa to Lyman Orchards to fully immerse ourselves in fall since this was on the first day of autumn! We got lost in a corn maze, drank cider in the fields, and gorged ourselves on apple crisp!

These crazy friends of mine then convinced me to go to Mohegan Sun to further celebrate Alaina's birthday! Shawn and I ran around town like chickens with our heads cut off trying to find appropriate going out clothes for me since I did NOT bring any! It was stressful but Mohegan was fun! I danced despite my feet literally bleeding in cheap heels and did not have a drop of alcohol because a) I'm poor and b) I was so hungover the previous weekend from going to my coworker's band's show that I was traumatized to drink again. YAY!

This last weekend of the month was another basic fall bitches dream. Alicia and I went to Brooksby Farm in Peabody to get out the city and into an apple orchard. We each picked a peck of apples, got apple cider donuts, apple cider, and different kinds of fudge! I tried some pumpkin fudge and it was actually delicious. 

Wow! When I look at my month like this, taking stock of everything that I actually got to do, it seems like it was quite a month, filled with food, family and friends. 

It's the little moments, man. 

What September Taught Me.

To honor my pull to share and write about my life. I hold myself accountable through blogging/journaling. Even though I love the old-school appeal of a paper journal, typing is just so much easier for me. Even if no one ever reads, I know I'll have the joy and opportunity to look back on it myself one day, and I love that.

That R&R is not something to feel guilty about. I am a busy, busy gal. But every once in awhile, I'll have a completely free weekend, with no traveling back and forth from Connecticut and no major plans. That happened once or twice this month and I tend to feel a smidgen of guilt for doing literally nothing. But, when I fully settle into relaxation, I realize that this is what my body needs after full exertion and stimulation during my work week.

Fall is my nostalgia season. I was talking to Alicia about how there's just something in the air, something about the smell of fall, that takes me back to so many different seasons of my life. I find this so much more powerful now than for any other season. And I think it's both a good and a bad thing, because it's comforting, but it also has me subconsciously my present to my past, and I'm trying to stay more present in general.

It's time to kick it into high gear. I'll admit, I was a little bit lazy in the summer. I quit my second job, wasn't very responsible with money, and let a lot of home projects fall to the wayside. Now, I have to pick up the pace. I'm hopeful about getting a second job as a tutor, I need to clean my entire apartment, and it's time to get serious about applying to grad school. The last few months of the year will be busy indeed.


I cannot believe that tomorrow is the first of October.

September Recap + October Goals!

It seems like September went by with the blink of an eye, which also seems to be the theme of this entire year. I'm going to do a round-up of my September goals, then explain why I'm doing October a little bit differently.

SEPTEMBER GOALS

01) Make & use toothpaste and make-up wipes from natural ingredients. -- nope.

02) Make "nice cream" out of bananas and fun flavors! -- nope.

03) Take some pretty photos for the blog/have new headshots taken for dance. -- nope.

04) Read one book for pleasure and one book for knowledge.
I don't know why I'm having issues reading any books for knowledge! But I'm almost finished with He Will Be My Ruin, and I started Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. Just because it's my own little random tradition to re-read the entire series every couple of years and it really puts me in the fall/winter spirit.

05) Actually start grad school application process (scary!)
I've spoken with two DMT's so far and I think it's officially time to give up the OT path I've plowed for myself the past couple of years. I'm not even going to bring myself to think about how much money I wasted on Anatomy classes... life is moving on. The DMT's I've talked to are so interesting and the programs sound so inspiring. It really is a career where it's all about how you market yourself and what you make of it. I'm getting coffee with another DMT this weekend, so we'll see what advice she can give me for my application process. Which I definitely need to physically start, soon.

06) Meditate at least twice a week.
My meditation practice wasn't formal and it wasn't scheduled. But what I have been doing is making a conscious effort to take deep breaths more consistently throughout the day. I can tell the difference when I've been breathing shallowly for a long time. There are thousands of studies that show how deep breathing can drastically improve your overall health.

07) Save $400 and put it directly into a travel fund.
No. I didn't accomplish this goal at all. But what I did accomplish is downloading the Qapital app, featured in my monthly favorites, which saves all my money for me. This is the kind of savings account that I need. Something visual, and something that gives me the option of actively or passively saving money towards a variety of goals.

08) Try a Bikram Yoga class.
Yes, I did accomplish this, yes it was really really really fucking sweaty. I also forgot a water bottle, so I almost died of dehydration. Would I do it again? Probably, because I love sweating.

I'm not doing goals for October. I just don't feel like it.
Sometimes I think I make this arbitrary list of goals, just to give myself random things to get done. They're all things that I want to do, but it just doesn't feel natural. Maybe it's because they're written down so formally?

I'm working really, really hard towards finding myself as a 23 year old woman in this world. I feel like I've aged 30 years in 2016. I'm frustrated that I've become a person who takes myself and my life so seriously. I am so young! What is wrong with me??

So instead of a random list of goals for October, I have a list of 10 October things. Maybe mantras is a better word. But here they are.

OCTOBER THINGS

01) Actively stop myself anytime I'm afraid to do something. Take a deep breath. Do it anyways.
02) Be happy, loud, and free.
03) Change up my appearance in some dramatic way. Just because I'm young and I can get away with it still.
04) Stop taking myself and my life so seriously.
05) Be okay with where I'm at, compared with everyone else. aka, stop comparing myself to everyone else.
06) Continue my wonderful, life-changing health journey. Bring even more naturalness into my life (beauty, skincare, etc.)
07) Enjoy every single second of Halloween-themed everything. Decorate a pumpkin, make ghosts out of tissue paper, make spooky dance playlists, DIY a dope costume. Feel like a kid again!
08) Laugh my way through a corn maze or a pumpkin patch.
09) Stay organized - but find spontaneity again in my life.
10) Say "yes" to all fun things. Yes yes yes.

What are you working towards, not just this month... but in your life?
Because life is too short to only put the serious stuff on the to-do list... and when you think about it, what's really more important than your happiness in your life?

Not much, man. 

HAPPY OCTOBER. 

September Favorites!

September was a quick month, but it was honestly filled with so many new and fun things. I think monthly favorites are definitely going to be more productive than the Friday favorites. It allows me to take a pause and reflect on an entire month's worth of discoveries!

Very fun for me, hopefully fun for you too.

I've been watching TV big-time this month. I'm not one to Netflix binge (besides Stranger Things!), instead I really love just putting on a TV show while I'm doing some busy work, or ending a long day with an hour of a guilty pleasure show.

01) The L Word is an extreme guilty pleasure show. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but it's so dramatic, outlandish, and vulgar that I can't tear my eyes away. I can't believe it was ever on Showtime!

02) Big Brother season finale was last Wednesday! I was a teensy bit disappointed by the winner, but it was well deserved. I don't know how they find the personalities for this show. It's just fantastic. Such good TV. Once it was over I was even tempted to watch every episode of every past season. They're all on CBS!

03) Shameless. I just started watching Shameless this week, but it's addictive. It's gritty, raw, and uncensored. Now if only I can convince my bf to stop watching episodes without me.

04) I do not have the funds to continue getting my nails done, but it's soooooo nice. The picture above is Angora Cardi by Essie and I have a color almost identical to that on my nails right now. So autumn.

05) Fat Mascara is a beauty podcast with hotshot editors for major magazines. But when they talk, they sound like my slightly older, slightly hungover friends from college. They're super cool, very down to earth. It's like a guilty pleasure podcast, best enjoyed with a swipe of mauve lip balm and a long car ride after a stressful day.

06) Now that I've witnessed the first frost of the year on my car windshield at 5am, the time to let my hair air dry in the morning is OVER. I've actually really been enjoying blow drying my hair straight for the first time in like, three years. The Kenra Platinum Blow Dry Mist makes my hair super silky and soft, and I think it's a really good heat protectant. My hair feels way less damaged than usual when I use hot tools on it.

07) I have been meaning to set up separate savings accounts for separate goals for a very very long time now. The Qapital app makes it crazy easy, and it's also just a super cute app! I love it. In 5 days I already have $5 saved up for my Yoga teacher training. It may not seem like a lot, but all that spare change adds up and I haven't even noticed it coming out of my checking account.

08) September was National Yoga Month and I took full advantage. I went to Yoga in the park twice, and two free yoga classes (one being Bikram, which seriously kicked my ass). I love Yoga so much. It's something that I seriously want to incorporate into my life on the daily somehow.

09) Out with the sugar! In my attempt to live a healthier, and processed sugar free life, I've been on the hunt for snacks low in sugar. Rice cakes are the best. I picked some caramel corn ones to stay in the fall spirit and all. But I also love chocolate ones with the thinnestttt layer of peanut butter on top. Yum yum.

SOME OTHER AWESOME STUFF. 

+ This Mossimo Yoga cardigan is life. It is the coziest thing to transition t-shirts and tank tops into fall. I have it in heather gray, but want it in all the colors!

+ The Relax & Unwind Spotify playlist has been the soundtrack to almost every one of my near-sunset drives. Close to perfection.

+ I organized a binder with a tab for every one of the dance classes I'm teaching this year (7!!!) and it's glorious. It's an organizers dream.

+ I've been on the hunt to interview more DMT's (Dance/Movement Therapists). I spoke with one over the phone and met with one in person. The more I search, the more it seems like this might be the path I end up choosing. Stay tuned...

Wow, that was long. 

Cheers to a quick, but full September. 

Raise a glass to an equally fulfilling October! 

What were some of your favorite things from September?