April 5th, 2023

Work:

I don’t really have much to report about work this week. Things are going. I’m counting down the days until I leave, and I’m struggling to stay productive in an office environment with no windows.

I’m feeling really burnt out honestly, and trying to find my spark again, but it’s just not there. I’m working on projects I don’t really know how to do. I feel in over my head and it’s hard. In my previous role I knew pretty much all the answers and how to fix all the problems and now I can’t answer any questions that come my way and it’s a hard adjustment.

For the ten-thousandth time, I wish I was getting paid to travel the world instead of sitting at a desk all day. 😔

Personal:

Also not much to update here. I attended another musical last week with a co-worker, which was wonderful as always. My last OPAS show of the year – Anastasia. It’s been years since I’ve watched this movie and I had forgotten much of what it was about so it was a great surprise.

I’ve been back at the gym a lot this week and I’m super sore, but I feel really great.

As I mentioned before, my roommate is about to move out in less than 2 weeks and although I have loved having her as a roommate, I’m so ready to set my at-home-gym up again and get back into a routine. I’ll have a space to workout and a space to write and it’ll be so much easier to do what I want to do.

I am proud of myself for keeping up with the blog and continuing to learn new things. I keep saying I’m going to make a youtube video and that hasn’t happened yet, but I have big plans. For now, I’m working on keeping up with the blog, my instagram, and learning how to market on Pintrest. One thing at a time!

This coming weekend we’ll be heading to my best friends house for her gender reveal for baby #2 and I’m so excited for her and her husband. I can’t wait to find out what addition we’ll be adding to our group.

Travel Planning:

As you know, I’m heading to Europe in just a few weeks so I’ve been spending a LOT of my time researching what I can do in all the cities I’m traveling too. I’ve reserved accommodations in many of the cities I’ll be visiting as well to take the stress of finding places last minute.

I do have to share with you all this super cute hostel I found in Amsterdam that I just CANT WAIT to see. It’s an old train that’s now stationary and has been converted into a hostel! I saw it on booking.com weeks ago when I started planning my trip and it was all booked up so I’ve been checking their page periodically hoping someone cancels and today was the day! Although they only have one night available, I’m super excited to stay on board.

Click on the image below to open more pictures.

Since I’ve been a happy customer of booking.com for years and I’m planning most of my accommodations through their site for my upcoming trip, I decided to apply for their affiliate program so that now and in the future, I can include affiliate links in my posts and potentially earn income from visitors who stay at any of my recommended places.

Also travel related – I will be heading to Baltimore, MA in July for a work conference and have invited my best friend from back home and my mom to come stay with me and explore Baltimore so hopefully we’ll be able to make that happen! I try to visit with both of them at least once a year whenever we can make it work.

4/12/2023

Work:

As you can imagine, the closer my trip gets, the harder it is to focus on work. However, I feel this past week was highly productive. I was able to assist a lot of different people with their tasks as well as train some people who will cover for me when I’m out of office.

I scheduled my employee evaluation with my supervisor and he said he’s looking forward to giving me a positive review so that’s good to hear.

As for OTHER work, I’ve been investing time to really learn more about content creation via YouTube, affiliate marketing, utilizing Pinterest and other forms of social media. I am exploring literally every avenue I can think of to become self-employed and self-sufficient.

I want to get away from my dingy office so bad.

Personal:

I did not get a new blog up on Tuesday because I spent HOURS this past weekend recording, re-recording, editing, and eventually giving up on creating my Youtube introductory video. 😂

I did not give up forever, but definitely gave up for the weekend. Since it was so challenging to be confident in the final product, I did a lot of research and have actually learned some video creation tips to get me started and I’m going to try again this coming weekend.

I only have a week and a half until I leave so either way, I’m getting a video up this weekend! (that’s what I’m telling myself).

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Last weekend we were able to celebrate the announcement of my best friends having another baby boy! The gender reveal was very nice, more intimate than the last one, and it felt really special to be a part of it.

My boyfriend and I had a tough conversation last weekend to process some of the things that have been going on in life and I think ultimately, we came out stronger than we were before so I think that’s a positive note.

We only have 2 more weekends until I leave for my trip and I’m starting to get a bit emotional about leaving him for so long.. it’s getting real. I know I’ll be off having fun and it’ll be totally fine, but that doesn’t mean I wont miss him!

Travel:

The most important section of my updates these days… I was able to video call with my friends from Germany that I’ll be meeting up with while I’m overseas and that resulted in a bit of a change in my schedule.

I’m excited to be able to see them, but it did up the timeline a little and now I’m going to have to rush through some cities I thought I’d have more time in, which is kind of upsetting, but also, I’m just super excited to see them again and either way, it’s going to be an epic trip so I keep reminding myself of that.

Watch my upcoming Youtube video (no later than Sunday!) to find out exactly where I’ll be headed!

As always, write you next week!