9 Things Making My Life Better Last Quarter (Jan. – Mar. 2025)
We’re already well into Q2, so I can say with the certainty of retrospect and the vividness of recency that everything on this list helped me get through Offspring’s first few months at daycare and my own first semester teaching a new-to-me-course. I’m hoping several will continue to help through my first spring-summer teaching appointment in the next months (and also hoping, as you’ll see, that some will be necessary less frequently going forward).
Ksunun double-head LED desk lamp
I bought an adjustable, dual-armed desk lamp to light up both my monitors, and I wonder why I didn’t get one sooner. It really helps me write or grade or email at my computer, no matter what the sky outside is doing. The focussed brightness is so much more helpful than the overhead light in my home office. As a side benefit, it also lights my face better in video calls.
After discovering my love for short-sleeved knit polos LINK JULY SEPT 2024, I also discovered the need for a professional layer to go over them that was machine-washable. Normally, I’d choose a light cardigan, but I feel like sweater-on-sweater isn’t a great look. I had a frustrating search through various stores–long story short, blazers designed for men don’t fit my hips, and blazers designed for women just don’t fit–until I found this lightweight unisex model from Uniqlo. The fit isn’t perfect, but it’s as good as I can hope for outside of made-to-measure, and though the material feels tech-fabric-sporty against to my skin, it looks decently formal.
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett (SFF novel, 2024)
The world-building in this mystery starring a Holmesian-genius and stalwart-Watson duo is top-notch: an empire underpinned by bio-modification technology, an annual season of eldritch kaiju that must be withstood. The mystery, which starts with an engineer murdered from the inside by a plant, leads the reader through logical twists and turns. But the real heart of this book is its detectives: eccentric, secretive, and almost amoral Ana and our less worldly narrator Din, bio-enhanced to have perfect memory.
Octopath Traveller II by Square Enix (video game, 2023)
This is an homage to old-school JRPG with very pretty pixel art. Just like the first Octopath Traveller, you play a team of eight protagonists with eight different stories that you can complete in any order (but, realistically, that just means that you choose the order in which you play every protagonist’s chapter one, then every protagonist’s chapter two, etc., since you’ll be under-leveled for later chapters until you complete earlier ones). I liked this sequel better than the original, on account of some quality-of-life changes, better stories, and a distinct lack of ridiculously hard-hitting “real” final bosses that you can fight only after a long gauntlet of battles without a save point.
gym rat swag
Yes, I am cheating by listing these three things under one category. In my defense, you are super judging me for how bro-y they are.
gym rat swag A: men’s gym shorts
Why did it take me this long to figure out that gym shorts marketed to men have pockets? And, like, are long enough that I don’t worry about mooning people when I bend over.
I got a couple pairs each of lined and unlined ready shorts from Abercrombie, because of course I did. (And I mean, look, I needed new shorts that fit and didn’t have ancient, crunchy elastic, but nice new gym clothes are a great motivator for actually getting to the gym.)
gym rat swag B: lifting gloves
After I struggled with downward dog for years, my yoga instructor’s guidance confirmed for me that my major problem was as I suspected: my palms get too sweaty and slide on the mat. So I bought grippy fingerless fitness gloves. I’m not sure I’m that much better at yoga, but I am training harder in the weight room. It’s a little placebo and a lot “now the barbell/dumbbell isn’t slowly slipping out of my fingers.”
gym rat swag C: Brüst protein coffee
I told you that you were judging me. Protein + caffeine combines two of the things I often need on a busy morning. Because I wanted to know this when I was trying to figure out whether to buy it, I’m going to tell you that the dark roast (which is the one I bought) tastes OK, kind of like iced coffee with milk and sort of weirdly like the melty stuff left at the bottom of a Tim’s ice capp? It’s not great coffee, but it’s perfectly adequate to keep me awake and, like, not ravenously hungry before I have time to eat lunch.
cold medicine
Basically, our whole little family was sick non-stop for about a month (see above re: Offspring and daycare–little kids are germ-breeding grounds). Cold medicine isn’t an exciting or new thing, but it was invaluable in keeping me functional.
OXO Compact Cold Brew Coffee Maker
Looking over this list, I’m a little concerned that so many items involve something that helps me feel less bad so I can work when maybe, in a perfect world, I could just rest? Oh well, here’s another one. To be fair, I do actually like cold brew coffee for itself, not only because it contains caffeine. Since the last convenient coffee thing I used is out of production (sob!), I asked Husband for this as an anniversary gift. Grinding beans and cleaning out the grounds is always going to be a pain in the butt for me, but at least this contraption is easier to set up, fill, and wipe out than the other options I have.
culling my closet
I think I finally have to admit to myself that I enjoy clothes, like, as a hobby? More on that in a different entry. But, anyway, I finally persuaded myself that it was OK to recycle or donate all the clothes I was hanging onto for no reason: stuff that didn’t fit post-pregnancy, garments I wore only with great hesitation, worn-out sports gear. It feels a lot better to have so much more room in my drawers and closet.
I grow my garden from seed every year. Previously, I had a complicated system of setting up the drink cart as a moveable garden station and keeping various blinds open to try to get enough sunlight for the seedlings to grow. This is still theoretically possible but made far less feasible by the addition to our household of a tiny curious person who can walk around and grab things and throw them on the floor. A grow lamp is more expensive but much simpler, and, goshdarnit, the seedlings are bigger and healthier too.