Week in Review: Week 255
How is it only the second week of January?? I feel like it’s been 2021 forever. And I STILL can’t get the hang of writing 2021 on things, ugh.
MONDAY
Don’t you just love spam comments?
“What a data of un-ambiguity and preserveness of valuable familiarity regarding unexpected feelings. Blinny Marlo Bandler”
Oh Blinny Marlo Bandler, if only you’d commented in the form of a haiku, I might have approved it.
In more positive news, I jumped 16 rope jumps today. No, that does not break my record of 17, BUT – this was actual JUMPING, not skipping. My friend and I were discussing the pros and cons of jumping vs. skipping rope yesterday.
I feel that while jumping is more taxing on my body (the landing concussion), it’s easier to get both feet over the rope at the same time, vs skipping where first Foot One goes over, and then Foot Two. It’s like two opportunities to fail every time the rope goes round. If that makes sense. But I definitely need a sports bra for this.
I also shared with her my feeling that SKIPPING might be the ideal form of movement. Walking gets so boring for me. The scenery out here, which is not that entertaining in the first place, goes by so slowly, and it takes FOREVER to get from Point A to Point B. Running/Jogging, well, I don’t fancy a heart attack, so…those are definitely out for now.
But SKIPPING. I was imagining some natural buoyancy and covering ground quickly without all the pounding on my feet, knees, hips, etc. So I jumped out of the car in the parking lot we were sitting in to try, because I could just feel in my bones that I could skip.
SPOILER ALERT: I can’t skip.
Ha. What? I felt like Jin in that video (yes, them again) where Jimin does that very graceful “stepping on the imaginary box” movement and then Jin (who is lovely, but no Park Jimin re dancing) tries. And fails. Hilariously.
Wait. I will now spend 17 minutes looking for that clip, go off on three different tangents, wind up on J Crew dot com where I will check to see if the fuchsia cashmere sweater is back in stock in my size, be annoyed by the cat who insists on sitting TOO CLOSE TO ME on the desk til I realize she’s probably out of food, get up to feed her, notice I left the mayo out when I made lunch and oh yeah let me make some more ice cubes, remember I never posted today’s TikTok, and only be reminded of THIS when I sit back down at the computer to upload to TikTok. Which is how pretty much every minute of every day goes.
Stick-to-it-iveness: not my strong suit.
But here ^. And so you know, Jimin goes third and is all in black with a little cream beanie, who does it Really Well. Jin is in the navy (?) cardigan with red stripes at the cuffs? And he does it…not quite so well. Ha ha. Anyway. Jin’s Imaginary Box Stepping is My Skipping. PS, the video is less than two minutes. If you want, you can jump to 0:22 to see Jimin do it gracefully (make sure you watch it in slow motion – it’s like wait what how) Jin’s is at 0:45. He kills me.
Is it Tuesday yet?
TUESDAY
Work at work day. Nothing special.
Is it Wednesday yet?
WEDNESDAY
Every spare minute today since like 6am was spent responding to likes and comments on yesterday’s TikTok post that for some reason went berserk. I won’t say “viral,” cuz what does that even mean? But for ME, who’s been averaging like 100 views on posts, and like 3-4 likes and comments…to all of a sudden get almost 3,400 views, almost 1,400 likes, and over 200 comments was like WHOA, WHAAAT?!?
It’s like winning Queen for a Day. And you know I try to respond to every single comment, so…it was fun but time-consuming. Wheee!
Which leads me to ask you guys a big favor. I’ve been working towards making FashionSchlub income-producing so someday I can retire and not live in a cardboard box. So I’m really trying to grow this blog (and my Instagram! And my TikTok!). So I ask you, anything you can share of mine – blog, social platforms, it would be So Appreciated. You can just say like, “look at this dummy, she can’t even jump rope” or something, ha ha. Thank you!
THURSDAY
Big News. I’m obsessed with some new music THAT IS NOT KOREAN ha ha.
So I’ve just discovered this band? Musical duo? called Duomo. They are “two good men writing music together, 5775 miles apart.” I’ve been listening to this one album called Berlin:Redux which is them doing covers of popular songs, but all in strings and it’s jubilant and rejoiceful (is that a word? now it’s a word) and uplifting (are those three words all saying the same thing? I’m trying to be emphatic).
The first song I heard and that made me fall in love (falling in love is my new favorite hobby) is Wildest Dreams. Apparently, this song is on the soundtrack of the new Netflix show “Bridgerton,” which I have not watched, but now I’m inspired to listen to that whole soundtrack.
I love how music is like that – how liking just one new thing, can lead you to liking so many more new things. I kinda wish it was like that with people (or do I?).
FRIDAY
Work from home. Struggling with seeing the computer.
Oh, I never told you guys about my opthamalogist appointment last week (remember the time I adulted all day?). So, I went because about a year-and-a-half ago I’d gone to a(nother) opthamalogist (I am way too challenged by spelling that word correctly) when the Sterling Optical eye doctor suggested it because I was complaining about my vision when driving at night. He (Opthamalogist #1) told me I had cataracts would need surgery.
Okay, thanks, see ya later, bye.
You know me and THE DOCTOR. And the sub-unit: Doing What the Doctor Says. So I ignored. But a year-a-half later I can no longer ignore that my night vision seems worse, driving at night is anxiety-producing (at best), and now my daytime vision is like looking through Vaseline. I struggle to read things on my phone and small print. And I’m no stranger to “blurry” vision. That’s been my vision my whole life. This is different.
So, back I went, this time to Opthamalogist #2 (that’s another story but let’s just skip it) who concurred that yes, I do have cataracts but she said my vision was just not that bad even with them and maybe the “vaseline” vision is a result of dry eyes, so here, try these eye drops for 4-6 months then come back.
Sigh. I was Mentally Prepared to Just Do The Surgery! And now I’m being told to wait. I GET IT, let’s make sure I require surgery before doing it, I can appreciate that. BUT. My vision only continues to get worse, let’s just do the freaking surgery so I can move on already.
I’m a week into the eye drops (twice a day, with warm compresses on my eyes for a few minutes afterward) and they are more of a hindrance than anything. Now I’m putting a lubricant into my vaseline eyes. You do the math. For about the next hour I can’t really focus my vision on anything.
This morning I spent way too much time trying to tolerate looking at the computer by turning my head to the side, squinting, and trying to see the screen out of the side of my right eye. Anything else made like…I don’t even know how to explain it. You know how when you look at a brightly lit scene then you close your eyes and you sort of see the outline of the scene on the inside of your eyelids? That’s how I was seeing. With my eyes open.
Ugh. I have an appointment to see her again in MAY. But I think I’m going to give it one more week then call and ask if we can’t just proceed with doing the surgery cuz…this is not helping. And the vaseline vision is affecting my life. I definitely try to avoid driving at night when possible, and forget about driving at night in the rain. And how am I supposed to read the teeny tiny captioning on BTS videos on my phone? Come on! These are essential skills!
On a two-part brighter note: 1) It’s Friday! 2) It’s Friday of a Three-Day Weekend!!!
SATURDAY
I had the best of intentions. Piles to clear, grocery shopping to be done, pictures to take, blog posts to write. And while I did get a couple things done, mostly I was held hostage by this beautiful, emotional drama, “I Told Sunset About You.”
It WRECKED me. The performances were so good, the lead actors were darling and had such good chemistry, the cinematography was beautiful, the architecture, the furniture, the colors (!), the story was heart-wrenching. Five straight hours of longing (OH, THE LONGING!), love, confusion, pain, angst, reconciliation…and it was all so innocent and felt so real – like…the feelings were mine.
If you liked Call Me By Your Name…I highly recommend this. I think it’s better.
Now I’m watching a documentary about the making of it…I’m not ready yet to let it out of my mind…and I’m sure I’ll be watching the whole series again in the future.
SUNDAY
You know how when you have a dream and it seems so real that it pulls up very real emotions – whether it’s fear or anxiety or frustration (can you tell I don’t have very many “good” dreams?)…and the next day or even longer than that, the emotions are still with you, because while the events that elicited them weren’t real, the emotions are? That’s how I’m still feeling today after watching that series last night.
At the end of it I learned there’s a second season coming out in March. I don’t know whether to be excited or disappointed. Follow-ups so rarely live up to the originals. But I know I won’t be able to resist.
I might be an emotion addict. Is that a thing? Not a “drama queen.” I know I’ve said before that my line in the sand for books/shows/movies between what I like and don’t like is: did it make me laugh or cry. And I mean gut-wrenching, can’t breathe for sobbing crying, not a spilled tear or two.
I crave Feeling all the Feels. I was thinking about this while driving earlier today and it’s a much bigger subject than just tv shows and books. I need to think more about it.
I did get out this morning for a much-needed change of scenery. A friend and I went into the city for a walk in Central Park. There are people there but the park is large with many paths, it’s easy to keep your distance from possibly-covid-wielding strangers. We climbed rocks (why is climbing a recurring thing lately?), she saw an owl, we had food truck goodies…and sat on benches in the sun on a cool day. It felt so good.
A good wrap-up to the week. And tomorrow is a holiday from work, so there’s that. And Inauguration Wednesday.
Stay safe everyone xoxo
joan
The invisible box thing looks really hard. The guy in the long black coat was good too. It looks like wearing coats is their style thing? They usually seem to be really well dressed.
Congrats on your TikTok! I’m breaking my “no TikTok” rule to see yours. Do you see any type of metrics that tell you anything about where all the views are coming from?
bettyewp
Re invisible box: RIGHT? I can barely step onto an ACTUAL box!
I’ll have to look back to see who was wearing the long black coat. I wouldn’t say that’s their thing, but they have amazing stylists who manage to get them dressed somewhat thematically for filming and appearances without necessarily looking matchy-matchy. I would love to find more information about their stylists and read about their design process.
Yeah, after my 3400-view tiktok day I proceeded to have a couple days with like 7 views, ha ha. Tiktok keeping me humble 🙂
But now I’m over 1,000 on yesterday’s post and still going. I can’t come up with any rhyme or reason why one post gets thousands and another gets 7. There are analytics but they don’t show where people came from or what they were searching on to find you. I’ve been reading about how the algorithm works but the information is pretty broad and not that useful.
I do think it has the most SENSITIVE and adaptive (if that’s the right word) algorithm of all the social media platforms. I only have to like/engage with a few posts of the same topic and BAM my entire feed is flooded with that thing, to the exclusion of almost everything else.
And I’m slow so I don’t even notice it right away. But eventually, I’m like, oh. All the posts that come up for me are blue dogs in tutus on the beach (not a real example). So then I’ll search a couple different hashtags (eg, #photography #plusssize #bodyneutrality #bts) just to bring back some diversity. And in a day I’m back in a more normal world. But eventually I’ll end up with those blue tutu dogs again cuz they get all my likes 🙂
I could talk about social media all the livelong day but I need to go get some breakfast.
Happy Monday!
joan
The algorithms on some of these sites are somewhat frustrating for me (as a consumer of content, not a creator). As you say, sometimes I look at something on Pinterest and then I get a ton of THAT. I wish there could be different ways of looking — one that says “I’m just looking, don’t show me more” and another that says “show me more.” (Control freak).
bettyewp
Yeah, it IS annoying that THEY decide what I want to see (within the realm of what I say I like to see) rather than letting ME decide.
Oh well.
jodie filogomo
I totally call that viral on TikTok Bettye. How exciting. I haven’t been on in forever, but I went on to follow you and like your posts.
It’s like Rob’s video on YouTube that’s gone a little crazy….makes you want to do more.
OXOX
Jodie
http://www.jtouchofstyle.com
bettyewp
Yes, it’s very…self-rewarding? (Is that the right term? I feel like I’m forgetting what words/terms are appropriate for specific occasions. AND I think I’m making up terms or the use of them and thinking they’re real/correct. Ha ha.) But yeah, I’m like I. WILL. NOT. MISS. A. DAY. ON. TIK. TOK. cuz the validation is real.
I’m still getting the lay of the land, I haven’t done anything fancy yet. Just adding a “sound” (aka music) is challenging right now. But I’m making a list (OH THE LISTS) of ideas of OTHER (besides ootd) posts so I can set some time aside to figure out how the heck to do them! The young people (ha ha I love saying that) pick this stuff up immediately, but me?? Not so much.
Anyway, welcome to Tik Tok (alternate reality/time suck), Jodie!
Pam
My daughter can’t skip. She had some developmental delays and while most were overcome skipping was and is still beyond her. Fortunately it’s not a required life skill. She also doesn’t have the reflex that makes you put your hands out to catch yourself when you fall face down. It led to lots of scraped chins and noses and freaked out teachers when she was a kid
bettyewp
Ooh. “She also doesn’t have the reflex that makes you put your hands out to catch yourself when you fall face down.” Oh gosh!
“Fortunately it’s not a required life skill.” Agreed.
xoxo