MONDAY

Monday. Nuff said.

TUESDAY

Worked from home. Left the apartment the second I punched out at the end of the day and went for a walk in a nearby preserve. Felt good to just be outside and moving.

WEDNESDAY

Yay! PA straightened out the welbutrin prescription! Thanks, Rita!

Was 80 degrees today so met friend at beach after work. We brought dinner – I had cheese, crackers, and soppressata…and chocolate-covered macaroons for dessert. And a not-great “spiked seltzer.” The flavor was black cherry-rosemary and I’m a sucker for anything rosemary-flavored. I detected not the slightest hint of rosemary. Or alcohol. Fail. But the can was cute.

It was really a lovely evening, just slightly warm. I waded in the water a bit and the water was pleasant. We just sat there and ate our dinner, chatted, and people watched. Lots of photographers. A couple engagement shoots. My friend asked if I missed doing that. I miss getting paid for doing that…but really, I only want to shoot what *I* want to shoot…and no one’s paying me for THAT.

THURSDAY

^ When people tell me I should move to Florida cuz the cost of living is so low.

Very fatigued today, not sure why. Had chicken for breakfast. Peanut butter on toast for lunch. Put a chicken pot pie in the microwave for 7 minutes after work. Lay on the sofa while I waited. Got up two hours later and ate it. Not the most nourishing day but it wasn’t full of sugar. It’s almost 7pm and I got nuthin.

Oh, ha. I got a text at 1pm from my chiropractor’s office asking me to confirm my 2:10 appt today. I responded, I didn’t make an appt for today. Office responded, yes, you called this morning to make an appt for today. UHM. NO? I told her I can’t make another appt til I get insurance clearance for an MRI and I work til 4pm so would never schedule an appt on a weekday at 2:10.

I think he’s flirting with me.

FRIDAY

Exciting news! Julia of When the Girls Rule interviewed me last weekend for her podcast Audio Postcard and it went live today! I ramble on about all things Long Island, but Julia is an excellent interviewer and kept me mostly on-topic. Let me know if you listen, what you think!

SATURDAY

Did the “live virtual” ALS Walk with my friend, in memory of her brother who passed away from ALS almost 10 years ago. While the overall walk was being done virtually, she invited some friends to join her at a large park for a short meetup and walk.

Picked up lunch on the way home and decided to treat myself to an afternoon on the sofa. This turned into a life-changing 24-hour deep dive down the rabbit hole of K-Drama. I’ll talk more about this in “what I’m watching” below. But I binge-watched over half a season of a series from 4pm Saturday til 4:30 am Sunday.

OH. THE. DRAMA.

SUNDAY

Slept from 5-9am, got up and dragged myself back to the sofa to finish the show from the day before…didn’t finish til 3pm. Then, exhausted and emotionally-drained, I got myself to the diner to meet a friend for dinner. And that was pretty much my day. Besides, you know, googling the lead actor (my new boyfriend), looking for pictures and what else I can watch him in because 24 hours was not enough.

WHAT I’M READING

Amazon.com: The Book of Joe: A Novel (9780385338103): Tropper, Jonathan: Books

The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper. My third JT book. And I’ll put it third of the three, but it was still good. This was his second book of six, so sort of early on. And it felt a little different – seemed a little heavier, darker, and masculine. Relatively speaking. I still give it a 4/5 and would recommend if you’ve liked his other books, just be aware the writing style is a little different than his later books.

The basic premise is very similar to This is Where I Leave You (my favorite JT book and second favorite for the year so far): father is hospitalized in a coma, family comes together after a long time apart, main character returns to hometown after writing a scathing novel about the town’s inhabitants, so HE’S not their favorite. Old love – rekindled? You’ll have to read it to find out.

WHAT I’M WATCHING

Chocolate: a K-drama on Netflix. OH. MY. GOD. This was THE BEST THING I HAVE EVER WATCHED. The tragic characters, the long, soulful looks, the drama, the emotion, the lovely, lovely leading man–Yoon Kye-Sang–the near misses, the misunderstandings, OH MY GAWD. I may as well give away my tv cuz nothing else is ever going to be this good…so why even bother?? For those of you in my age group, remember when we all died over The Thorn Birds mini-series?? This is that times a hundred!!!

It was sort of like if a soap opera and a Hallmark movie had a Korean baby with lovely photography, quiet moments, and GAH! I can’t even. Basic Premise – boy and girl meet when they’re 12-ish, she’s hungry (family keeps her dieting so she can be a child actor), his mother owns a small restaurant in a country seaside town, he makes her a wonderful meal, it makes her so happy…he tells her to come back for lunch and he’ll make her chocolates…but her family gets her and then return to their home 6 hours away…so that’s the end of that. BUT. They never forget one another. Family drama, family drama, family drama, many years later he is a neurosurgeon, she is a chef…and now they keep ending up in the same place, same time, but…let the heartache and anguish begin.

But the lead character is the sad sad boy (I’m saying boy, but the character is probably in his 30s in the movie) who lost his mother at an early age and was unloved by his step-family and he’s all stoic and serious and you wait and wait and hope and FINALLY in like episode 12 you see a glimmer of a smile on his face and you REJOICE and weep that someone is finally going to love sad boy and make him happy.

Of course, it takes another 4 episodes to really GET anywhere, but he’s slightly more smiley and relaxed with each episode and …sigh.

16 hour-long episodes, and they’re not like American hour-long episodes that are 46 minutes long, these are 60-70 minutes long with no commercials!

There were some cheesy, dopey parts, but for the most part it was lovely and kept me SOBBING for nearly 24 hours straight (minus my 4-hour nap). My eyes are puffed to slits, my head hurts, I am exhausted…and I can’t wait to watch it all again!!! 5 out of 5.

Ruby Sparks. And if you don’t currently have the emotional fortitude to handle so much drama, I watched this earlier this week and it was pretty adorable. I love both Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan (and Chris Messina in a supporting role). Essentially he makes up a girl and she comes to life. It’s currently a $3.99 rental on Amazon Prime, I didn’t even look to see if it was streaming free anywhere. Another one that I’m like, how has this movie been out for 8 years and none of the streaming companies have ever shown it to me. The streaming services have THE WORST ALGORITHMS.

Okay. My eyes and I need to go lay down. And watch the sad sad boy in our heart.