If We Were Having Coffee... (An Update on Life Lately)

I'm not one of those bloggers who's going to tart off by apologizing for not posting lately because let's be real: You haven't noticed. None of us is so obsessed with another person's blog (I hope) that we take serious note when they fall off the grid for a couple of weeks.

That said, I miss this blog. I haven't written much at all this month, out of sheer overwhelmedness & a busy schedule. Inf act, this is the longest I've gone in three years without writing in this spacer - & it doesn't feel good. I've been having a really fun, jam-packed summer, & there's so much I ant to say, to write about; I just haven't had time, & I hate that. It's like all these great blog posts are bubbling up inside me with no outlet...

I thought I'd just pop in, then, for a quick look as some of what's been going on lately. What if we were having coffee (if I had the time for it)? Here's what I'd update you on.



If we were having coffee, I'd be drinking an iced coffee with one pump of simple syrup & a liiiittle bit of soy milk. The owners of the cat cafe in my neighborhood call this the Snow Leopard, which I like. [insert ig-cat meow here]

That reminds me, I want to see The Lion King! Have you seen it yet? I haven't been to a single movie in 2019. I did, however, finally watch Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them: The Crimes of Grindelwald as I cleaned my apartment on Friday night. It wasn't nearly as terrible as the first Fantastic Beasts film, but it was also nowhere near as good as the Harry Potter movies.

Oh, I finished my reread of the Harry Potter series! It was truly such a joy, & I need to undertake a series reread every couple of years instead of, like, once a decade. I now also want to visit Harry Potter World at Universal Studios more than ever. I went for my birthday few years ago (did I really never blog about this?!), but they've added so many new features that I need to get back ASAP.

Alas, that's not on the travel docket this year - though a few other places are. I'm going to Milwaukee this weekend for a friend's wedding, & it'll be my first time in Wisconsin. You know I love exploring the Midwest! In August, we're headed to Delaware for our friends' wedding - another new-to-me state - then we're heading north to explore Boston, Portsmouth, & Portland, which I can't wait to show Mike. We don't have any international travel coming up, but honestly? I really love & value domestic travel in a way that probably deserves its own blog post soon.

I feel like everything deserves its own blog post. This summer has been really fun! We've been to a couple of festivals, like Burning River Fest, Taste of Tremont, & the CLE Tall Ships Festival; I attended some interesting events for Engage! Cleveland's Young Professionals Week; I  went to my aunts' wedding, which took place on their 32nd anniversary; I have new insights about my continued Harness Cycle riding & my thoughts on health, wellness, body positivity, & more...

But I haven't had time to write because I've been, well, writing. I continue to write monthly dining reviews for Cleveland Magazine, which is, to be honest, one of the joys of my life right now. It's incredibly fun & rewarding, but it also requires a lot of time & effort - from planning to interviewing to dining to writing - so it cuts into some of my other writing time. It's worth it, though, for those bylines & all that delicious food & so many fun adventures throughout the city.

In short, I have a lot to say, & no time in which to say it. I'm keeping a running list of blog ideas in an app on my phone, & I hope that when things slow down a bit, I'll load up the blog with all kinds of good content from the summer... plus a few things I never got to in the spring... OK, wait, will life ever slow down?

What have you been up to this summer? Wherever you are & whatever you're drinking this summer - from iced coffee to summer shandy to frosé to OMG, please drink more water, go hydrate yourselves, it's hot - I hope you're enjoying your summer, too, & that we can catch up on this blog or off sometime soon. Until then, cheers!