My November 2023 Personal Journal – a month of football, feasting, and friends.

November 1st, 2023

Work:

Work has been good, but VERY busy. My Hullabaloo-U course is taking a lot more of my time than I thought it would based off my recruiters speech. The presentations take awhile, I have to meet 1 on 1 with each student in the class, I have a weekly meeting with my Peer Mentor (student class leader) and grading their weekly assignments + other work is time consuming! I’m enjoying it, but I don’t think I’ll do it again in the Spring because it’s just too much. I have a lot of projects in my queue right now and I really need to focus on those.

I’m also going out of town again next week to the SWACUHO-U conference, where I’m also presenting and creating that presentation is taking a lot of my time. I was invited to attend late and it’s felt kind of rushed ever since, but I’m excited for the opportunity to serve as a mentor to a group of new professionals. This will also be my first presentation at a professional conference so that’s really great for me professionally. I need to work on my public speaking skills and I’m happy to practice at this conference since it’s so small.

Personal:

Relationship:

Jay and I are doing well. We’ve both been really busy lately though so we’re coming home and just vegging out lately. We did make a plan to do some home improvements, which is nice. We went out and bought a fan for our living room this past weekend and I’m hoping to install it this coming weekend or the next.

We also discussed what we want to do in the backyard to create a patio type space so we can actually utilize our backyard space. We went to Lowe’s and price checked everything we think we’ll need and will probably take on the project ourselves.

We also winterized the house since it’s starting to get cold! We got a random snap of cold weather this past weekend. It dropped from 85 on Sunday to 48 on Monday and it was AWFUL.

The Dogs:

We took the dogs to a friends house this past weekend for the first time ever and it actually went really well! We were both really nervous since the friend we were visiting has small children and a VERY old dog so bringing puppy energy into the mix made us nervous but Boone was great. Both Bentley and Boone were really excited at first and running around, sniffing everything, but they didn’t jump on anyone or break anything so that was nice. We hung out there for a few hours and the boys also did great in the car together so I feel like that’s a big win.

Unfortunately they haven’t been on one walk this whole month because I was out of town for some time and it’s been really rainy and wet for a few weeks so we’ve definitely been slacking there. Hopefully we’ll do better next month.

Book Club/Reading:

I did a really great job getting through all the books I had last month and I’m making my way through the last one for book club this month. I’m working on writing my October Book(s) of the Month blog post here soon to tell you all about them. Once I’m done with this next book, I’ve told myself I have to start working on my school work since I haven’t even opened my textbook in over 2 months.

Business Analysis Certification Progress:

As mentioned above, I’ve made literally NO progress for months, so I’m putting it in my weekly blog to start holding myself accountable for improvements.

Travel:

This weekend we’re heading to Friendsgiving to celebrate with Jay’s friend group and I’m pretty excited about it. I LOVE Thanksgiving, it’s actually my favorite holiday.

Next week I’ll be driving up to Norman, OK for the SWACUHO-U conference and I’ll be back home on Thursday.

November 9th, 2023 <– Not a Wednesday.

Work:

Work is maintaining it’s business that I’ve been having the last couple weeks. I’ve still got quite a few projects in the queue, but I’m working on them.

Hullabaloo U should be slowing down the next couple weeks as I’ve almost completed all my 1:1 meetings with my students and we really only have 3 classes left because we have Thanksgiving break coming up and we don’t go into December.

I just got back from SWACUHO-U last night and I really enjoyed it! My cohort was really great. They were engaged, had great advice to give each other, paid attention, and overall really learned from their experience. They wrote me a cute little thank you card on the way out and I loved it. I didn’t receive much feedback on my presentation, but the feedback I did get was overall good. I felt confident, I felt good up there and I had no problem talking for the whole hour and 20 minutes (surprise!).

Hopefully things will slow down for me a bit in the next couple weeks as I don’t have any conferences coming up, presentations to prepare for, and my last couple Hullabaloo U classes are more “funsy”.

Personal:

Unfortunately, I think I may be getting sick, so that’s a bummer. My throat has hurt for a couple days and I have some body aches so I’m going to take tomorrow off and just dive into a long weekend to get some rest, fuel up on electrolytes and vitamins, and hope I don’t really get sick.

I am emotionally feeling good about accomplishing a personal and professional goal of presenting. I’ve had practice public speaking on my to-do list for a long time because I’m not entirely comfortable doing it, but I feel good now that I have and it’s a great accomplishment.

I’ve got a lot of blog ideas floating around right now so hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to spend time writing and get them out of my head and onto my blog! Posts coming soon: October book(s) of the month, My hike up Guadalupe Peak, and Is the Texas State Parks Pass worth it. Among a whole list of others, but I feel like if I tell you them, I’ll HAVE to write them so let’s start with 3 for accountability purposes 😛

My personal goal for the weekend is to hang my new living room fan. Fingers crossed it’s not too hard. I put the two in the bedrooms and one went up super easy, the other one stressed me out to the point of tears and I had to call someone in to do it for me.

Travel:

As I mentioned above, I just got back from Norman, OK last night and I don’t have any plans to travel anytime soon. I’m hoping to have a nice relaxing weekend at home this weekend.

The weekend after this one we have a wedding to go to and the following weekend we’ll have Thanksgiving with Jay’s family.

November 15th 2023

Work:

Work has been a lot lately emotionally. There’s a lot going on that’s just wearing on me and I am counting down the days until thanksgiving break. On a positive note, we had our Thanksgiving Departmental Meeting yesterday and I look forward to that every year because I love the departmental meetings but also FOOD.

Personal:

I still feel like I’m on 100 with my schedule lately, but I did take the weekend to do nothing at home and relax. It wasn’t enough to say the least.

I attempted to put up my living room ceiling fan and found out there’s no support beam in the ceiling of my living room to screw the fan into soooo now I have to get up in the attic and see what I can do… lots of Youtube videos will need to be watched for me to figure out what’s next. Right now, the fan is just in about 50 pieces all over my living room. *sigh*

My throat is still hurting, but I’m still not getting sick, so I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but I hope it goes away soon.

In addition to my throat hurting, I’ve been dealing with some pretty intense neck/upper back pain so I went to a chiropractor this week to try to get it sorted out. I had 1 appointment with electrotherapy and an adjustment, and I go back tomorrow so I’m hoping it gets resolved. Unfortunately, I’m not working out while I’m trying to heal because I’m afraid of making it worse. Although the chiropractor will probably be able to fix it, it costs a lot of money sooo there’s a little added stress there.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of money lately because it’s that time of the year and everything is on sale so I purchased couch covers that I’ve been wanting for a LONG time, re-upped my protein and supplements, and bought some gifts for Jay. Soo I’m broke for the rest of the month.

Travel:

This weekend Jay and I will be attending a friend’s wedding in the Houston area and next week we’ll be traveling to his mom’s for Thanksgiving and Friday I’ll be having thanksgiving with my bestie and her family for the 4th? 5th? year now. I can’t wait to see their newest addition to the family.

November 29th 2023

Well, I missed the last week entirely and had no idea. That pretty much wraps up my mental state.

Work:

Work has been a roller coaster for me lately. I’m worn out, but I think a lot of people in higher education feel that way around the end of the semester.

On a positive note, today is my last Hullabaloo U course for the semester so I’ll be done preparing lessons, meeting with my peer mentor, teaching, and grading papers. Although I loved the experience, I don’t think it’s something I can take on again unless I’ve got nothing else on my plate. It’s a much higher time commitment than I was told it would be.

Additionally, I’ve loved serving as the University Staff Council Parliamentarian for the last couple years, but that position will come to an end in May and free up some of my schedule as well.

I’m not planning on attending any conferences for the rest of the semester, so that’s a slow down for a bit.

Now I’m just really focused on my work and my projects so that I can catch up and stay in good graces with my team. I’ve still got that one lingering project with the Pay Bill process that’s been going on for like a year now that is a FOREVER stressor for me, but I have another meeting with my supervisor next week to figure out our next steps and try to keep moving forward. I’m entirely mentally checked out of this project because it’s caused me so much stress, however, I’m also incredibly motivated to work on it so I can get it done as soon as possible.

Other than that, things are going well at work.

Personal:

Personally, I’m so glad we had thanksgiving last week and a few days off work because I desperately needed some time off to relax and rest. I knew if I was to keep going at the pace I was going for the next couple weeks, I would have gotten sick so I needed to prioritize my health.

🦃 For thanksgiving Jay and I went over to his moms house and had a nice, cozy, and delicious visit and I really enjoyed our time there. Unfortunately, the lions lost our thanksgiving game, but we’re still doing well and I’m proud of the team.

🚗 Unfortunately, the drive to and from Jay’s mom’s house wasn’t too great as Boone apparently couldn’t handle it and not only pooped in the car twice, but also vomited and not on the doggie plastic layer I have in the back. The vomit is still in my car and I’m still stressed about it. Thankfully at this point it no longer smells, but I’ve eventually go to do something about it.

My “do something” was to buy a spot cleaner/shampooer during the black Friday sales and it came in today so we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed it’ll clean the car seats and our couch.

💰 Recently I’ve spent quite a bit of money, as I’m sure lots of others have as well. I purchased all my besties Christmas gifts, I purchased all my bf’s Christmas gifts, and I bought new couch covers ($110) and the shampooer ($150), renewed my Texas State Parks pass ($70) and everything else that’s been going on.

This coming weekend I’ll be heading to First Friday in downtown Bryan with my besties and I can’t wait to see them. We haven’t seen each other in over a month and it may be the longest time we’ve ever gone in the last 4 years without seeing each other. That makes me really sad, but also I know that’s on me because I’ve been staying so busy I’ve had no time for maintaining that relationship. I want to do better.

💑🏽 Jay and I are having a date night tonight, which I’m so excited about. Again, my life has been crazy busy and I haven’t been able to give as much as I usually do to our relationship so I’m dedicated to having fun tonight, enjoying each other’s company, and re-connecting.

✍🏽 One thing I HAVE been succeeding at lately is coming up with content ideas for my blog, but now I have to find the time to make it happen! I can’t wait to get some of these pieces written and shared with you all.

📚 I’m still reading The Seven 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle… and honestly, I can’t wait for it to be over. I didn’t finish it in time for book club, which made me feel a little bad because that’s part of the agreement. They’ll buy us the book if we promise to come to book club. However, I’ve never missed one in the past so I had to give myself some grace. The book is a bit confusing and hard to follow for me and I’m just kind of over the suspense. Also, I’m committed to finishing it sooooo hopefully I’ll only struggle through it a few more weeks.

Travel:

Right now I’m focusing on travel content creation and staying my booty at home until I reset my balance. I need to relax. I need to slow down. I need to take care of my body.

However, I would love to get out and go camping again sometime soon, that’s a mix of both travel and slowing down for me. I’ll keep you posted.

That’s all for November!