This was one of those weeks where it simultaneously felt hellishly long and also whipped by in a flash. I am super excited for this weekend. I get to spend the whole weekend at home and I am so pumped for it (honestly I thought the family was supposed to come home on Thursday and that I would be writing this from my couch not theirs, but c’est la vie). I am so excited to have three whole uninterrupted days at home before my next and hopefully last pet sitting job. I cannot wait. My own bed, my own TV, my own pet, knowing where everything is, no nosy neighbors (I have neighbors, we just leave each other alone). I am so excited.
Social Media Favorite: Mary Orton @maryorton on Instagram
Mary has been my social media favorite before, and not long ago either. And I am both apalled and unsurprised by this fact. Can I afford anything she is selling me? Absolutely not. Every time I click on one of her links the TikTok audio “Oh, we’re in a different tax bracket” plays in my head. However, she is also the funniest influencer I have ever had the pleasure of engaging with. She did a Reels ad this week for a blue-light blocking moisturizer or something, there were multiple scenes, there was a script, the entire family was involved, and then, what truly sent it into the stratosphere, was she had that Patsy Cline song “…Crazy” that’s been trending lately, come in at just the end, with just that bit at the beginning, you know “Crahzyy…”. Where Mary has been acting like a crazy lady this whole reel and then the scene cuts and it ends with that, just the one word. I have never experienced such joy from an ad. Truly an incredible experience. We are watching a master at work, and it is a joy.
Movie/TV Favorite: Prodigal Son
I had started watching this once before, when it was new, and I remember liking it, but falling off it for some reason. Maybe because I can no longer stick to shows that come out week-by-week? But it is on Netflix Canada now and it is super twisty and dark and I’m really liking it. It follows a criminal profiler who gets fired from the FBI and starts working with the NYPD, so far so copaganda, I know, but the twist is that he is the son of one of the city’s most prolific serial killers, The Surgeon, and the cases he is working on all lead back to Dad. The more he interacts with his dad the more of the memories he buried of that time when his Dad was active start to resurface, and currently he seems to be starting to lose it a bit.
Podcast Favorite: Dark History: Is College Even Worth It? The Dark History of Student Loans
Canada isn’t quite as bad as the USA for student loans, but as someone who started with 46k and is now at 38k in student debt, I can definitely relate to the situation in America. I think especially since they are still on a repayment pause and ours ended in October 2020 (aka we got like a six month break to their two year break). This really digs in to the history of paying for post-secondary education from how individual institutions started loans to the government getting involved and the institutions using that as an excuse to hike the prices of everything from tuition to food and the change of university from somewhere people who wanted to be a teacher or a doctor went to a place to have fun as a young adult. It was really interesting.
Random Favorite 1: The Pilates Class
I just signed up for it this week, if you are familiar with Monday Swim or the former A Bikini a Day girls, Tash and Devin, then you will have heard of this. It’s a joint business venture between Tash and her friend Jacqui Kingswell, the instructor. I was definitely influenced to try this, but when I started doing classes spin and pilates were the ones that I truly enjoyed, I can’t get a Peloton or any other of those kinds of bikes shipped here, so I thought I would give this virtual pilates studio a try. So far I love it, and it’s not terrible, I did the annual membership, and if I only do 2 classes a week for the year, it will be a little over a dollar a class, so worth it, even with the exchange rate. So far I am really liking the classes, definitely feeling them in my abs, and am in love with Jacqui’s adorable Australian accent.
They have a one week free trial, and it’s currently the summer challenge, if fitness challenges are something that motivate you.
Random Favorite 2: Going to Coffee Shops
If you know me this is of absolutely no surprise to you, if my personality were to be drawn out as a map, there would be a section on it for coffee shops. But since the pandemic and lockdowns and moving to a super tiny town during a lockdown, it took me a while to find my coffee shop of choice. I also don’t hate that as I used to spend wayyy too much money on coffee shops, sometimes multiple coffees out a day. Now I really only go once a week, I’ve been doing it a little bit more frequently the past three weeks because the house I’m pet sitting at is one block down and one block over closer than my apartment and because the dog gets up so early that I am up with time to kill before work starts. So I walk the dog, put him back in, and then walk myself to the coffee shop (I don’t trust him enough to leave him tied up outside, especially not when he’s not my dog), and it’s been lovely. More expensive of course, but I love it. It makes me want to do a Tinx Rich Mom Walk to the coffee shop every morning but that’s something the debt free version of me can do, not current me.
On that note, it’s post office and coffee shop day, so if you need me that’s where I’ll be!
Laura
Thoughtful Millennial 