I am stressed and anxious. I’m stranxious.

As I’m sure you know, Parker and I watch a lot of baseball, as documented in my last post. The broadcasts are always on FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally Sports), an entity we hate with our entire hearts and souls. We loath FDSN for a lot of reasons, most of which aren’t worth discussing, but one in particular is that the same commercials are played over and over and over on the streaming service.

We latch on to these (awful) commercials for dear life, and have begun to recite them each and everyday in our home. You want us to sing you the Rally House theme song? You got it. Need to know how to prevent wildfires? We can pretend to be Smokey the Bear and tell you all about that. But our favorite (least favorite?) as of late has been the Crest-Reality-Check-Up commercials. If you don’t know it, I’ll be so kind and link one here.

Because we are weird, we have started walking around our 800 square foot apartment singing, “Cat Reality Check Up!” to our fur-daughters, Ingrid and GoGo. It has also served as a reminder to check-in on your friends and family to see how they’re doing, and if they’re meeting their personal and professional goals.

All this to say: I’m having a stressful, anxiety-ridden time right now and wanted to do a Cat Reality Check Up in the form of a blog post.

Our lease is almost up, and we need to make the decision of whether we should renew our small, expensive space here or move (we hate moving) to a bigger, still expensive place. As freelancers, getting approved for an apartment on contract and freelance work alone is, to put it mildly, a real pain. But it’s not for a lack of trying. Recently, nothing has been for a lack of trying. Trying to find a new home. Trying to find a new job. Trying to exercise my creativity. And trying to calm the-f down are all things I’m currently trying to do.

Here are things that are hurting and helping:

TV Check-Up: Parker and I have mostly been watching the baseball, because of course. We’re doing a Yahoo Fantasy team with Mom, Dad, and Drew this year and it’s made us have a vested interest in all the teams and players, so we’re pretty consumed by that (I am losing so bad). We also are on Season 4 of The OC, which I’ve already seen, but Parker hasn’t. I think we might go to Dawson’s Creek next, to cover all of our teen drama bases. Everyone wants us to watch The Pitt, or Severance, and we might, but we’re also stubborn and don’t like being told what to do.

We also just watched Season 3 of The White Lotus as it was airing, and it was a wild ride. I forgot how much fun it is to wait for a new episode of a show to come out each week. The world should go back to that.

Music Check-Up: I’m really excited because Samia is releasing a new album this Friday, and so is Jensen McRae. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Gracie Abrams (basically for the past year nonstop) because my sweet cousin Charley bought me the Record Store Day exclusive vinyl of The Secret of Us.

Writing Check-Up: I’m writing my book, which has two titles that I’m stuck between. It might be a love story or an anti-love story. I’m waiting to see where it takes me.

Reading Check-Up: I just finished How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang. It was pretty good, but I don’t know that I was thrilled with the ending. I think I might hate a long epilogue. You know, where the story wraps up but the writer wants to prove to you that their characters really work together so they give you a little update and it’s like, so much information in one chapter? That’s how this one ended. Sometimes books can just end where they end, I think. I like to know things end up happily ever after, but I also don’t know that I need the cheesy fireworks, ya know?

Emily Henry’s new book is out this week, and I am so very excited for it. I will report back with my thoughts.

Exercise Check-Up: I’ve been doing a lot of pilates, as recommended by my brother, Noah. We really love these YouTube videos — I’ve actually done them on repeat for the past five weeks. I can tell they’re helping a lot with my strength. I also love a walk. I received a walking pad for Christmas, and it is the greatest gift when you need to exercise but don’t want to leave the comfort of your home.

Hobby Check-Up: I’m still on my crochet kick, and I recently finished my first granny square blanket. I love it so much. Now, I’m making everyone I know a blanket (just kidding, but not really). I also love making the little stuffy plushy guys. I made Noah a koala for his birthday, as well as tiny versions of his cats with catnip inside. S’cute.

Unhealthy Obsessions Check-Up: Since I’m waiting on various communications that will likely only be delivered via email, I am checking my email constantly. An unhealthy amount, one may say. I grab my phone and it’s the first app I open, it’s the last thing I look at before I go to bed. It’s bad. I don’t have my email notifications turned on (or Instagram…or Facebook) because I have a problem with patience and just do better when I check things for myself when I feel like it. Plus, I don’t get a lot of notifications for things anyway. But I think I need to create a rule for myself, like only checking my email once an hour or something.

Fantasy Baseball Check-Up: My fantasy baseball team is doing so bad, you guys. I have great players, like Juan Soto and Bobby Witt Jr. (my love) and excellent pitchers and as a team they are collectively bad! Just performing terribly. Parker is kicking my ass at this fictional game and it is making me sad! I can be a highly competitive person when I feel like it and this is one of those times. It’s making me nutty.

And finally, Cat Reality Check-Up: My sweet kit cats are truly getting me through the anxious times this Spring has in store for me. Sweet Ingrid Marie loves to snuggle and protectively (and possessively) place her paws on me when she can tell I am feeling down. Perfect GoGo Louise has the biggest eyes you’ve ever seen and is such a lover. Together, they are menaces and evoke so much terrible on our home and each other. But I love them so. And I am very thankful for their company.

That’s all for today, folks. My life is currently messy and stressful and untraditional and uncertain and wonderful and lovely and amazing. But isn’t everyone’s? Let me know how your week is going through a CRC (Crest-Reality-Check-Up/Cat-Reality-Check-Up). What commercials do you hate (there’s a subreddit apparently filled with haters, particularly of Crest!)? Are you feeling the stress of Spring?

XO,

EmJPE