Q1 Wrap Up
TBH, Q1 sort of rocked me.
I was going to start by saying that Q1 did not go as planned, but then I wonder what exactly I had planned?
I don’t expect much of anything out of the first quarter, probably because I’m busy hunkering down and surviving seasonal depression. I envision us all moving slowly, puttering around and low on ambition. If anything, I expect Q1 to be a brick laying season. If I’m hoping for change, then I start the foundational work early in the year. It’s the thankless work, quiet and without fanfare. That’s what I expected this quarter.
I surely didn’t expect things to start actually happening.
As I’ve talked about AD NAUSEUM, I got a new job that I wasn’t really looking for and that consumed my quarter. A surprise call and interviewing in January. Resigning in February. Starting on the first Monday in March and being the new girl thereafter. I wasn’t planning that, but I was nurturing fantasies of leaving my old job for a really long time. I had “new role” on my new year’s resolutions list for the last few years but nothing right had materialized. I’d sort of given that up going into 2026, deciding instead to just settle in to the comfortable, albeit boring job that I had. And like clockwork, as soon as I stopped caring so much - bam! - she falls from the sky. Doesn’t that just beautifully adhere to the “when you stop looking, it will come” philosophy?
I’m delighted! I couldn’t have planned it and isn’t that wonderful? Life can be feel so routine and yet, surprise!
I wonder what’s in store for the rest of the year. Does it calm down from here, given that I’ve started with such a bang. Do I settle in, find my new bearings, and let a new routine take over? Or are there more surprises out there? We shall see!
In the meantime, let’s get into the Q1 wrap-up.
Birthday Cards + Some New Tunes
I have two goals this year: send birthday cards to people I love and listen to a new-to-me album, start to finish, every week. So far, I’m on track with both. Such is the nature of setting extremely low-barometer goals for oneself and also making them fun.
And for the record, I encourage this. Goal chasing can get a good boost from momentum, and setting low stakes goals that are so achievable are presenting the best sort of momentum. I am a woman who does what she says she will do! What else can I tell myself I will do?
On the birthday card front, I sent out 5 cards this quarter. I remembered my niece’s 20th birthday, my grandmother, my step-MIL, and my two best girlfriends from high school. Writing “to THEE birthday girl” on the addressee line of an envelope is particularly joyful.
As far as albums of the week, I have listened to some bangers and also to some duds. This is to be expected of course! Somethings hit and others don’t and it’s all so very subjective, isn’t it? Here is the complete line-up.
Olivia Dean - The Art of Loving
Kacey Musgraves - Deeper Well
Lana Del Rey - Norman Fucking Rockwell
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco
The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes
Ariana Grande - Sweetener
N'SYNC - Debut
The Weeknd - Hurry Up Tomorrow
Hilary Duff - luck...or something.
Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear.
Harry Styles - Kiss All The Time…Disco, Occasionally.
This exercise has reignited my obsessions with Kacey Musgraves and Lana. How could I forget how much I enjoy both of these women? Ariana took me back to a very specific time (remember the Pete phase?!) I am so very tempted to put Thank U, Next on the immediate list. I felt like I had to give Hilary a good listen in order to be pop culturally aware. Some lyrics made my eyeballs pop open with surprise (and cringe!) and alas, I think it’s pretty forgettable. But kudos to her for knowing that now is her opportunity to cash in!
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Personal Wins
Every month, I keep a short list of achievements, although I have to warn you, they are often arbitrary. If you cannot tell from my annual goals, I am generous and lenient with myself. Things like going on a camping trip or learning how to diamond paint have landed on this list before and not ironically.
This quarter, I did a round of Whole30 and it felt good, if not totally boring. I find black coffee too depressing to stick with, but I did it for a month and yeah, I felt different. Here’s my takeaway though: the cream in my coffee is worth the consequences (for me! You do you, boo).
Ying and yang baby.
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Consumables
Books
I have been deep into the Tudor court this season. I started the year with The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory. A real historical bodice ripper that offers some focus on Anne Boleyn’s lesser known sister, Mary. It’s fiction, but I enjoy it every time. Generously humanizes a girl that history remembers as a “great whore.”
I picked up Wolf Hall by Hilary Mandel in mid February and entered into a delicious obsession, the kind that kept me up late for a week because I could not tear my eyes away from the book. Another fiction, but this time from the viewpoint of Thomas Cromwell, Master Secretary to Henry VIII and the lawyer who brokered much laws that made Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn happen.
Once I finished Wolf Hall, I immediately ordered the follow up, Bring Up the Bodies, which takes us through the interrogations and trials of Anne and her supposed menagerie of lovers, including her own brother.
There is a third book, this time about the fall of Cromwell, but I’ve fallen so hard for him as a character, I’m not sure I want to read about his own beheading. Time will tell!
Podcasts
I’m pretty allegiant to my usual rotation, but found two of them getting stale with content that feels repetitive, so necessity drove me to discover a couple new obsessions.
Retail Therapy // I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I’m charmed by this podcast that is largely just banter between two primary guys and a third voice that occasionally chimes in. Lots of elevated lifestyle content, with some bits of pop culture, and bougie food and drink talk. I like it!
Not Just the Tudors // I mean, I hardly need explain myself, but this smart podcast delves into themes that are not just the Tudors, but mostly about or adjacent to the Tudors. Right up my alley (and maybe yours?!)
TV
Like everyone else, I watched Love Story. I had to watch it like it’s pure fiction because I think it gets a little tricky to consume if start considering the ethics of capitalizing on something so terrible and real. The early episodes were my favorite. I loved the will they, won’t they vibes, but as we got closer to the end, it was hard to watch knowing how things would wrap up. I still haven’t wanted the final episode and I’m not sure I will.
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Addendums
Very sadly, my dog Jack passed away in March. I am at peace with it. He was old - I found him on a craigslist ad in 2010 and even then he wasn’t a puppy - so he was at least 16. It was time and he wasn’t his usual perky self anymore. He was with me my entire adult life though and the first couple of days, I found myself looking at his bed expecting him to be lying there. I sure loved this little guy.
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Two outfits I wore on repeat. One was my work from home outfit and the other was my in-office outfit. And when I say “on repeat” I mean it. I have multiple pairs of the wfh pants and I’m wearing different colors of the same shirt in both get-ups, which I also have multiples of. Made getting ready in the morning extremely easy. When you find something that works, work it.
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Two random things I loved: this powder-blue gel polish with chrome powder. And making a Crumbl pit-stop every time we’re in my hometown.
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I built a desk by myself in preparation to work from home more fully. Took me the entire GD night but I did it!
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I tried to appreciate the beauty of winter. I mean, it really is stunning!
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Q1 Bestsellers
Do we all love a uniform? My top-selling link of the quarter was these high-waisted wide-leg Old Navy jeans, which is definitely part of my uniform. We also loved this Coconut Coffee body scrub from the grocery store. Lots of us are born to dilly-dally it seems. You guys! This bandana print satin mini skirt! We looooooved. And then this made me cackle - we’re snackers, okay! This and this won the boards over on amazon. Last one, for the readers.