friday fifteen

Ah…Friday, at long last.

I don’t say that because I live for the weekend or anything of that nature, but because it’s the Friday prior to Thanksgiving week. Thanksgiving week is one of my favorite weeks of the year. The kids are home from school. We spend a great deal of time in the kitchen, and almost every day during the week leading up to and after Thanksgiving is spent with our best friends and family. It’s a slow, simple week spent living in pajamas and filled with quality time with those most important to us.

Okay, and it’s also Favorite Things tomorrow, which means it’s the first formal event of the season (while I love spending as much time as possible wearing comfies, I will forever love to play dress-up…gimme all the Manolos and gowns). There’s nothing quite like getting dressed up and spending the evening sipping cocktails and enjoying the twinkling lights and festive atmosphere.

But, since it’s Friday and I’m feeling like letting go of all my ‘blah’ for the upcoming week, I figured I’d do so right here. The snowbirds are back in town, which means I’m feeling a lot of annoyance and road rage, but I’m also doing my very best to try and focus on the good in life rather than the fucking idiots who drive 10 mph under the speed limit in the left lane so no one can get around them and we all end up late and angry (FYI – I will die on the hill that it’s you people who cause the most road rage incidents because OH MY GOD).

So, today we are going to do something I’d like to call the Friday Fifteen. Fifteen things that are on my mind right now – good, bad, random.

1. Really big eyebrows. Please stop. There are so many caterpillar eyes right now that I’m struggling to make eye contact because of the trainwreck above your eyes (do not get me started on the oversize lashes please). I know eyebrows are a traumatic topic for many of us. We barely survived the over-plucked anorexic eyebrows of the 90s and early 2000s, but there IS a happy medium, and it isn’t the ‘my toddler had a fat sharpie and drew these on my face’ look.
2. People who cannot cook (but think they can). Food should have flavor. It should also have color. It should not be beige. It should not be white. It should not be void of the basics – think salt, pepper, and basic herbs such as basil, sage, thyme, chives, rosemary, parsley. Flavor is your friend. Even the basics can have so much flavor they’re spectacular. But bland, flavorless, colorless food is no one’s friend, and no one likes it.
3. Louboutins are the worst. If you know me at all, you know my weakness is shoes. Specifically, beautiful, classic, high heel, pointed toe pumps. I have a closet full of designer shoes, including a sizable collection of Christian Louboutins…and they’re my least favorite. The heels ALWAYS break and peel. Always. Every. Single. Time. They’re beautiful. They’re comfortable. They make a statement. But I will tell you that I spend so much money at the cobbler having my Louboutin heels – just the actual heel portion of the shoe – repaired that it’s not funny. The best, most durable, most well-made designer shoes? Manolo Blahnik. I have an even larger collection of those – and they are the best. In fact, I’m wearing the very first pair I ever bought more than 20 years ago tomorrow evening with my Favorite Things outfit. But the moral of this story is that if you’re investing in a pair of designer heels, skip the Loubs and go with a Manolo (Jimmy Choo is my second favorite).
4. Snowbirds who cannot drive. Please move. Please.
5. Wanting to be liked by everyone. Ew. Please…no. Just stop worrying about what people think and focus on doing things that make you happy because your own opinion is the one that matters. The only one that matters.
6. The more Christmas décor, the better. A tree in every room. Décor on every surface. Lights everywhere. Christmas music on repeat (honestly, I’m a big fan of instrumentals). I mean, who doesn’t feel joy this time of year?
7. Front porches > back porches. I say this as someone who really, really loves my back porch. We (my husband) designed our pool and pool deck, and we love it so much, but there is nothing like a front porch. It should be a requirement that all homes have a large front porch fit for multiple rocking chairs and memories to be made.
8. Doing what you want versus what you’re ‘supposed’ to do is far superior. Those who do what you’re “supposed” do happen to be the most miserable people I’ve ever met because they are living a life chosen for them by random ‘rules’ and expectations. It’s never the answer.
9. Cold weather > hot weather. This Florida cold front has given me life.
10. Slow vacations > busy all the time vacations. Listen, I enjoy being on the go and doing new things, but vacation is meant to be relaxing, easy, and chill. It’s meant to be a go with the flow type thing. Do not rush me through my coffee and attempt to plan every moment of everyday. Sit. Relax. Breathe. Just…enjoy the quality time with your kids and family and friends.
11. I think people who can’t be alone, can’t stay home, and have to be busy all the time are miserable. I said what I said. If you have to have other people around all the time, be out of your own house, and you cannot enjoy the family you created on vacation and have fun without other people around, I assume it’s because you are unhappy. There is not a thing I like better than spending quality time with the family I created – my husband and our kids. And if it’s time spent in our beautiful home where we’ve made so many beautiful memories and feel so happy, that’s even better. This type of person makes me sad.
12. Mean girls come from mean moms, and not all mean girls grow up. I’ve never encountered a mean girl whose mom wasn’t a raging bitch, so there’s that.
13. Parenting a teenage driver is the most terrifying thing I’ve ever done. I can’t sleep when she’s not home, and she’s not even anywhere I need to worry. She’s going to dinner with her fellow cheerleaders after Friday night games. We say goodbye to her after the game, she gets changed, and she goes to dinner with her friends and/or boyfriend. She’s driving home from those games. She’s running errands. She’s taking her sister to get ice cream after a bad day. We cannot relax – ever – when she’s not home. It’s not her driving we worry about. It’s everyone else. They’re horrible, terrible drivers, and it’s so scary.
14. I don’t get the whole Instagram thing where women are saying things and then saying “if women said what men said” thing. It’s…awful. I’m 41 and never in my life has my father, brother, husband, son, or any man I’ve known said things to me like these women say men say to them. I also don’t have any girlfriends whose husbands speak to them in this manner. So I’m assuming perhaps the women who are in relationships with men who are condescending and indifferent and downright rude should just…choose good men instead of the assholes they’re with? Just saying.
15. I really love our family group chat. I mean our immediate family. Me, my husband, and our kids. The kids keep us laughing on that chat. They’re ruthless…and hilarious. I love it.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving week to be! Don’t forget to appreciate all the good, because there’s so, so much.