Frivolous Things

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Things I Love Lately: Surviving Summer Edition

Welcome to another blog post where I jabber on about something completely inconsequential while trying desperately to pretend Everything Is Okay. 

(I clicked on an article this morning about how scientists have detected a continent-destroying “heartbeat” beneath Ethiopia because things really do feel increasingly apocalyptic and I like to know all the ways the universe is trying to purge itself of humanity. TL;DR: this new threat shouldn’t emerge for another million or so years.) 

Drastic tone shift! 

It’s summer! And super hot! I haven’t worn pants or styled my hair in days! Every time I step outside my skin turns into a puddle! 

Here’s how I am surviving:

Iced Chai: Thanks to Trader Joe’s, I have traded in my morning cuppa Earl Grey for a tall glass of iced chai. I pour in about a quarter cup of the spiced chai black tea concentrate, add enough water to fill the glass half way, add ice, then fill the rest of the way with skim milk. I also add a little topper of half-and-half, as a treat.

Pool Time: I realize that we are super lucky to have our own pool, but I think I would be dragging myself and my child to any pool possible. It’s not like I enjoy wearing a swimming suit, or even being in the water. But it feels less gross to be a sweaty mess at the pool than anywhere else, and I like feeling like it’s acceptable to lie around in nearly no clothing, and I like the ability to pop into the water when I feel like I’m about to sublimate. We’ve pulled out the pool toys (and I got an electric air pump so no one has to hyperventilate whilst filling up a flamingo or anything; the air pump is magical), we’ve set up the outdoor furniture, we’ve been really making use of the pool and I am very grateful. By the way, these are my favorite pool floaties because your body remains partially submerged while you drift around in the currents made by a cannonballing child.

Pants Free Living: I am living in these jersey dresses from Boden, and occasionally this similar dress I got last summer from Amazon. They all feel like I’m wearing pajamas AND they have pockets. I am also a huge fan of these shorts and tank top from Quince. Okay, while I was searching for the link to the Boden dress, I came across this one and bought it immediately. (If you want 20% off your Boden order, you can use this link.)

Supportive Sandals: I ordered a third pair of these orthotic flip flops because I love them so much. I wear one pair inside the house to stave off plantar fasciitis and now I have a pair of black ones and a pair of navy ones to wear anytime I leave the house. They are so comfortable.

The Perfect Sunscreen: Now that we have sunshine I am even more diligent about slathering my face with sunscreen every time I pop outside. I am in love with this Neutrogena sunscreen serum and have been using it for a few years now. It’s hydrating, it’s super lightweight, it absorbs completely (rather than sitting on my skin like some sunscreen), and it has some component that gives my skin this lovely glowy sheen, which is so different from most sunscreens, which leave me with a chalky pallor. It’s also compatible with my super-sensitive prone-to-breakouts face and does not bother my skin in the least. It’s become one of my favorite skincare products and the instant I get close to running out I order a backup.  

Wet Hair, Don’t Care: I am surviving summer with cold showers and without my hair dryer. Shampoo, leave-in conditioner (I’m currently using this one), throw the whole mane up in a claw clip. Does it look cute? Not really, no. Do I care? Not enough to endure hair drying. 

Cool Sleeping: I persist in being a terrible sleeper; last night, I went to bed at ten, then proceeded to wake up at 12:20, 1:30, and 3:00 and then couldn’t get back to sleep until after 4:00. I feel like I am doing All The Things (except taking a sleep aid, I guess) and I am so constantly tired I want to cry. My husband has tried everything in his power to help me sleep better, and one of those things was buying this ridiculously expensive cooling comforter. It is worth every penny. Now, I am never too hot because of the comforter (only because of my internal wackjob thermometer). Every time I slip beneath the sheets (which are also stupid expensive; we’ve got a spendy cooling duvet cover too) I feel cool and comfortable no matter how hot it is outside.

Bug Shield: The worst thing about being outside is mosquitos, and our mosquito repellent device continues to do an amazing job of keeping the nasty critters away. 

Indoor Fun: We’ve been enjoying the outdoors, but when it’s just too hot Carla and I have been retreating to the cool of the house to play board games. Since it’s just the two of us – or three when my husband is home – we stick with games that are fun with two players, like SkipBo or Clue or Exploding Kittens. I’ve heard good things about Monopoly Deal so I may have to add that to our collection. 

What are your summer must-haves? 

Lenny has discovered the joy of Being on the Counter and takes any opportunity to find out what’s happening up there.

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Fold Your Own Way

The longer you live with someone, the more you discover about how little you know them. At least, this is true for me, when it comes to my husband. I have known this man since 2001, for over half my life, and have lived with him since 2003. And yet I have only recently discovered some things about him that baffle me completely. (Does anyone else recall the time when I learned he does not consider soup to be a meal???) 

While I am the primary laundry-doer in our household, I don’t fold everything that I wash. This is not out of laziness, Internet. Well. Not solely out of laziness. My husband is not only the Better Folder of the two of us, he has folding preferences. I am sure I’ve mentioned before that he prefers to fold his own T-shirts. For that I am eternally grateful, because I am horrible at folding, especially when it comes to things that can’t be lined up edge to edge, like a towel or a blanket or a dishrag or another piece of fabric with straight and symmetrical edges. It’s not like I haven’t tried. I have. And yet, despite sometimes extreme effort, my attempts at folding T-shirts result in such lopsidedness and extreme variances in size of end product that frankly boggle the mind. My husband, possibly due to years in his youth spent working in clothing retail, possibly due to being a normal person and not folding challenged like his wife, can fold his T-shirts with seemingly no effort and end up with a stack of perfectly identical little rectangles. This is all to say: my husband prefers to fold his own T-shirts.

Okay, fine. But I can at least fold his pants, right? I fold my own jeans and leggings (the extent of my pants collection) and they make nice tidy stacks. I fold them once lengthwise, meeting one corner of the waist band to the other, so they look like a one-legged pant, and then fold them shortwise (what is the opposite of lengthwise? widthwise? I am explaining this very poorly), bringing the hem up to meet the waistband, and then fold them one last time so that the waist band touches the folded portion of the knee area. (This reminds me of that old elementary school exercise where one person has to explain step by step how to make a peanut butter sandwich and the other person has to follow each step literally, as if they have never experienced either peanut butter or jars or sandwiches before. You know: the explainer says, “Put the peanut butter on the bread” and the sandwich maker picks up the jar and puts it on the bag of bread.) What I am trying to say is that I make three folds and the jeans end up in a small square. 

Fold 1.
Fold 2.
Fold 3. I don’t know why the pocket does this but I hate it thanks.

This is how I have folded everyone’s pants since time immemorial, including my husband’s jeans and work pants. Then some years ago I found out that that my husband preferred me to simply fold the pants in half, lengthwise, and leave them at that. Okay, weird, I thought, but whatever. Saves me two folds per pants pair, clearly a significant amount of time in the grand scheme of life. But as the years passed, I wondered why he was so adamant about the single fold. Because, in fact, when he puts his jeans/work pants away in our closet, he stacks them in neat little squares just like I stack my jeans. 

It took a long time for this mild curiosity to develop into an actual question, which was, “If the end result is the same, why don’t I just fold your jeans for you?” To which he reluctantly told me that when I fold his jeans, he refolds them, and he feels bad about that, so he wants to relieve me of the initial fold. To which my response was, “WHY.” Which is when he admitted to me that when I fold his jeans/pants, I fold them backwards.

My jeans, folded my way. Still with the pocket issue.
I STILL REFUSE TO IRON.
My husband’s jeans, folded the opposite way.

This is a very, very long story to say that a) apparently people can fold jeans/pants differently, who knew, and b) apparently that can be bothersome to some people, and c) my husband and I are pants-folding opposites and I only just found out. (How do YOU fold your pants?)

(By the way, I have since been folding his jeans/pants the opposite way – although I still only make the single lengthwise fold – and it is surprisingly difficult to do! My brain has A Certain Way it believes folding should be done, and that is not it.) (It’s a feeling similar to folding your hands together differently than you normally do: if the left thumb normally sits on top of the right thumb, when you try to fold them so the right thumb is on top instead, it’s doable, but it’s weird.)

I have since kept my eyes open for other weird differences in our everyday trivialities and have come up with two others. 

One has to do with filing. Picture a filing cabinet, with folders of paperwork for things you keep track of over time – utility bills, insurance statements, tax returns, etc. I think we can all agree that it makes sense to file these sorts of things chronologically, right? And yet, to my SHOCK, there are (at least?) two ways to do this. 

When you open one of the folders, what is on top: the most recent bill/statement, or the oldest? Well, I do it one way and my husband does it the other way (the WRONG way) and that is absolutely insane to me. To make matters worse, at one point in our relationship, we maintained separate files, so some of the files use my system and some use my husband’s. I would almost rather transition ALL our files to his (wrong) system than to have two completely opposite filing methods in the same cabinet. MADNESS.

The other way we are opposites is in how we get out of the shower. Yes, I am really writing about this. Day-to-day minutiae is my favorite topic (next to food) and if you are new here, boy are you getting slapped right in the face with household nitty-gritty.

Our shower has a sliding glass door with two panels. You slide one panel over the other – so they overlap – to expose the opening to the shower. My husband slides both panels toward the front/faucet end of the shower to exit; I slide both panels to the back, wall end. I wonder if this has to do with our individual towel placement: my towel hangs just outside the faucet end of the shower; my husband’s is on the wall on the other end of the shower. Would we exit the shower differently if we hung our towels differently? Are there simply Front of Shower Exiters and Rear of Shower Exiters, just like some people are optimists and others are pessimists?

These are some of the very silly, inconsequential differences between us that are as charming (to me, at least) as they are perplexing. All of us are weird in our own weird ways. And I’m delighted to still be learning new things about this man I’ve loved for nearly a quarter century.

There are lots of other ways that he and I are Very Different. Some of them I know and accept: for instance, he is a Laundry Basket guy, and I am a Pile Clothing Into My Arms And Drip Socks All Over The Floor gal. But maybe (probably?) there are things I am yet unaware of. I hope we have time to discover all of them.

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Six for Sunday

Have you been affected by the hurricane? I hope you and your loved ones are safe and sound. 

It’s a dreary, wet day and I think my family and I might curl up in front of some Stranger Things this afternoon instead of doing anything productive. Before we do that, here are some random bullets.

  • Tropical Weather < Fall Weather: The hurricane has furnished my part of the country with days of rain and humidity. While I’m a huge fan of (occasional) gloomy, rainy fall days, I am not enjoying the sticky damp. I’m assuming this is how it feels to live inside a rain forest, based purely on visiting Rain Forest exhibits at the zoo. No thank you. Humidity and I do not get along. I have not bothered to dry or style my hair in a week. I tame the mass of wavy frizz with water, then wrangle it into a ponytail or bun and hope for the best. I use Aveda Smooth Infusion cream on my hair every time I wash it, and it smells good, but who honestly knows if it helps keep the frizz down. I mean, I for one am not willing to face the humidity without it, but there might be a better option out there?
  • Fall Colors: Despite the faux-Florida weather we’ve been having, the leaves are beginning to change. I especially love the trees that are steadily green except for a patch or two of vibrant yellow or orange – like there are a few flamboyant trendsetters who cannot wait a second longer to don their autumn regalia. Because the weather has been so temperate, flowers continue to bloom. In fact, a few of my neighbors’ hydrangeas seem to be flourishing. I love seeing bright pink flowers against a backdrop of red and orange foliage. It’s weird but beautiful.
  • Spoons Update: Surely you have been waiting on tenterhooks for me to follow up on the spoons situation. Here it is: Filled with confidence from your comments, I approached my husband with the bold suggestion that we replace our flatware. He was all for it. (Aside from the spoons issue, he hates our knives.) So we started researching replacement sets and immediately hit two walls. First, we agreed that we would want to touch and hold any flatware before we buy it, and second, my goodness, flatware sets are PRICEY.  Because we continue to have New House expenses, I am reluctant to drop $600 on a set of flatware we love. So what I did was buy a $10 set of six spoons from Target, on a whim. They are perfect. Now we have plenty of spoons, and a source of inexpensive spoons should any of them disappear. My husband likes them so much we added a set of Target knives to the mix as well. 
  • Dwarf Spruces: Well, I guess I am really in Mundane Updates mode! If you’ll recall, the last time I talked to you about my dwarf spruces, one had died. My only recourse was to find a replacement, but all the replacement spruces were… what is a tactful way to say this… more robust than my surviving spruce. I found it surprisingly difficult to ascertain this at the garden center, and only discovered it once I returned home, spruce in tow. Fortunately, the good people at the garden center took pity on me and allowed me to exchange my new spruce for a smaller one. They are still unbalanced, size wise, but less so. So far, the new guy seems to be staying alive. 
  • Ghost Update: As long as I’m updating you on things, I might as well give you the status of the ghost situation. I went back to the garden center where I’d seen the ghosts of my heart; they were both gone. Sigh. I had some found time one morning last week (I took my kid to the dentist, ran into a friend who was taking her kid to the same dentist, and said friend took both kids to school, freeing up a glorious half hour of driving time for me.), so I made a little tour of Michael’s, Target, and the dollar store to see what kinds of ghosts I could rustle up. The first thing I have to tell you is that all the stores are already selling Christmas décor, which I understand from a retail perspective but which is BONKERS to me from an it-is-not-yet-October perspective. The second thing I have to tell you is that the fall décor was limited, due to making room for Christmas stuff. Fortunately, Michael’s and Target had a decent selection of Halloween stuff, and I walked away from Michael’s with two ghosts. Target had quite a few ghosty options, and I came home with a stand-up ghost (or I could hang it somewhere; it has a little twine loop at the top), and with several pictures of outdoor ghost options for my husband to consider. Target also had some tiny orange battery operated twinkle lights that I can add to my dwarf spruces on the porch. As you can see, my found half-hour was well-spent and my purchases are quite satisfying. 
I do realize that I was originally on the hunt for OUTDOOR ghosties, and these are all ghosts of the indoor variety. OH WELL.
  • Fall Décor: While I feel pretty set, now, on Halloween décor, I do wish I had more in the way of generic fall decorations. (Apparently I have been making this same wish since at least 2016.) I would love to be able to have something to bridge the gap between Halloween and Thanksgiving. Not that I have any super specific ideas about what I’m looking for. Maybe some pumpkin throw pillows? Oooh, these autumn trees are so pretty! But… I have a pair of white light-up trees, on a recommendation from Swistle, and I like them; but now I’m wondering if I need two separate sets of light-up trees. Jenny’s post about 100 pumpkins has me convinced that I could probably make do with real pumpkins and squash as my sole decorations. I really wanted to find some white craft pumpkins that Carla and I could decorate a la the dipping technique we have used before. But I could not find what I was picturing ANYWHERE. (The pumpkins at Michael’s were cream, not white.) Even Amazon has low white-craft-pumpkin supply, and I am reluctant to buy anything from Temu. This grouping of seven pumpkins has promise… but do I really want to spend $18 on seven pumpkins? I like these pumpkins, too, but again… a bit pricey, no? I am still on the fence, pumpkin-wuse. Crate and Barrel does have quite a collection of white ceramic turkeys – which I resisted mightily a few weeks ago (say it with me, friends: I will not spend $60 on a white ceramic turkey.) – but perhaps I will have to revisit them. 
Yes, I see the white pumpkins… but I don’t like these pumpkins as much as I love the turkeys. But would I prefer one giant turkey or a flock of tiny turkeys to use at each place setting? I am not buying a turkey.

What’s new with you this weekend? How do you keep your hair frizz-free? What kind of fall décor do you have in your house?