Hello Life? It's Me.: November 2020 Monthly Check-In: What Happened? What's New? Anything Good?

Hello, everyone; this my second to last monthly check in blog post. I cannot believe I've been doing these posts since March of this year. These posts are a way of expressing how I've been doing during the pandemic. It has been physically and mentally a lot for me in this challenging year. But we've made it through and I do have a lot to look forward to for this last month of the year. Anyways, I'm going to share what November was like for me.

At the beginning of the month was the election and I was a bit anxious with who was going to win. I had such fearful things to come about within that week. But by the end of the week, I took a deep breath knowing I had nothing to worry about with this election. We had a movie night (watched Knives Out) and it ended up being good (love those murder mystery whodunit movies sometimes). That same night, I had a terrible headache and I found a DIY headache relief using essential oils (the only one I didn't have was rosemary but the main DIY was rosemary, lavender, eucalyptus, and peppermint; it helped tons) plus we had a mouse come into our house (that week in it's own hindsight felt "exhausting").

Had a couple life appointments (eye doctors'- got new lenses for my glasses + had a doctor's appointment too); decorated my room earlier than normal for Christmas (with this year, I think we all need some joy and happiness in our lives); wrote some more of "Chosen" for November too. Also a favorite band of mine (not as much as I love Fall Out Boy), All Time Low, did a virtual concert series called Basement Noise (in relation to song off of their new album Wake Up Sunshine) and Zack Merrick (one of the band members curated the setlist that November the 13th and it was great! It is worth the $15 and it made me excited for live music in 2021) Celebrated another trip around the sun (turned 28 on 11/17) and had a nice day of it. Recieved some lovely gifts (purple yoga pants- yes you read that right, Folklore by Taylor Swift, Love Goes by Sam Smith, Channel Kindness Lady Gaga book, a new purple water bottle with reminders when to refill on it, & a Dunkin Donuts e-gift card, a new Nightmare Before Christmas themed Advent calendar- plus a lovely card themed the same too).

A week before we went to my grandparents for Thanksgiving, I was having some hestitation because of the family drama still lingering in my mind. I watched a great podcast episode via Kalyn Nicholson called "How to not deal with negative energy" and it was needed that week I actually went up for Thanksgiving. This trip to my grandparents was nice, and enjoyed seeing them as I always do. Thanksgiving was nice, and we celebrated my sister's birthday the same day as Thanksgiving (two celebrations in one! Whoo!).

I wanted to mention one thing before I leave you with quotes; I did a charity via Facebook for my birthday that many people aren't familiar with. It's called To Write Love on Her Arms and they are a non-profit dedicated to helping those that are struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. I wanted to do this as someone who tried to attempt suicide back in 2016 when I was reeling from a breakup. And I wanted to do this for others that are struggling amid the pandemic being at home more. Because there are a lot people out there that may need that extra assistance with how this year has been as a whole. And to know that they aren't alone; I've got your back if you got mine. I was reaching for a total of $200 but I didn't reach to my goal of that. I was thankful to do something good for my 28th trip around the sun. And for this year in general, we all needed to be taking care of ourselves and making sure we nurtured ourselves in the best ways possible.

As I promised, here are some quotes to inspire you: