{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings

November 2022:

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Highs of the Month:

• My best friend Ciera visiting me for the first time in over four years. It was her first time meeting my boyfriend Ryan and meeting my cat Delilah! She also helped me set up and decorate my Christmas tree during her visit, which was very fun.
• My parents both visiting for Thanksgiving, and both of them finally getting to spend some quality time with Ryan.
• Signing a contract for an upcoming sponsored blog collaboration that I'm very excited about, and signing a contract at my radio day job for my biggest and coolest radio commercial endorsement deal yet, which I'm also very excited about! 

Lows of the Month:

• Having a bad head cold for a lot of the month, and symptoms reaching their peak right when my best friend Ciera visited. I felt awful for most of the weekend while she was here and had to nap for a lot of the day that Saturday.
• Having one of the toughest workdays of my career on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Not only was I doing the morning show solo that day and overwhelmed with commercials to do before the Thanksgiving long weekend, but there ended up being horrible local news that I had to cover by myself on the morning show. Late Tuesday night, there was a heartbreaking mass shooting at a local Walmart. Just a really tough workday, and not the best way to start Thanksgiving weekend.
• Getting fined for image copyright violation for a meme from Pinterest that I shared on my blog in an old post from college back in 2013 (!!). Also, a big reminder to me that I need to go through old blog posts from the first couple years of blogging soon to make sure I didn't share any other images that could come back to bite me soon for posting on my blog back in the day.

November Weekend Recaps:

• 4th-6th - I spent time with Ryan on Friday evening since I'd be out of town on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday morning, I headed down to my favorite little town of Edenton, NC for a fun travel blogging collaboration with The Carolina Experience! My friend Emily got to come with me and it was such a nice girls' weekend. You can read about the beautiful historic inn that we stayed at here and see my Edenton Travel Guide here! On Sunday, I stopped to visit my aunt and uncle that live in Edenton before heading back to Virginia Beach.
• 11th-13th - My best friend Ciera visited from Texas! Unfortunately, I had a horrible head cold for the whole weekend which put a big damper on my energy levels. But we did manage to visit the Norfolk Botanical Garden and Virginia Beach Oceanfront, eat out at some fun restaurants, and Ciera got to help me set up my Christmas tree!
• 18th-20th - I went to a workout class on Friday evening to start the weekend. Ryan and I had a very chill but great day together on Saturday. We had a breakfast date at a new-to-us restaurant to start the day, and then went shopping for stocking stuffers for my parents for Christmas, and a new fake Christmas tree for Ryan. We then set up his tree and decorated his apartment. We skipped lunch for decorating, but then went to dinner at Mexican restaurant. On Sunday I went to church, and then went to a Junior League meeting. (I always get excited when JL offers weekend meetings some months- often times Sunday afternoons are easier for me to attend than weekday meetings.)
• 25th-27th - Thanksgiving weekend was pretty mellow after a busy start to the week. My parents were still here on Friday, they didn't head back to Maine until late afternoon. My aunt and uncle from NC came up to have lunch with us on Friday before my parents had to get ready to leave for the airport. I also got my Covid booster shot on Friday, and I was kind of out of commission for most of Saturday due to side effects. Ryan came over to hang out and watch some shows with me Friday and Saturday nights. On Sunday, I was feeling a bit better post-vaccine, so I went to church and then to my friend Amanda's house to meet her brand-new baby! He's only a couple weeks old and it was so great to meet him.

November Purchases:

• This preppy tartan blouse had popped up in so many sponsored ads and other bloggers' holiday shopping guides for me over the past month, and I finally caved and ordered it on Thanksgiving! I'm looking forward to wearing it for work in December and some holiday festivities. 
• I ordered a new replacement pair of my favorite slippers! My last pair was a couple years old and I had worn them to the ground. 
• I am obsessed with these cardigans and wear them year-round (although especially often in the spring and summer). I was able to score one on sale for under $20 on Thanksgiving so it was a must buy! 
• My biggest Black Friday purchase of the year that I'm so excited still is a gorgeous new winter coat! I fell in love with this coat a couple months ago but could only justify getting it if it went on sale at the holidays. I was able to get it for 50% off on Black Friday, and I had a gift card that covered a lot of the cost. My mom chipped in and covered the rest of it for one of my Christmas gifts. I was hoping to wear it for an outdoor work event this weekend, but the weather forecast looks too warm! I'll have to save it for later in December. 
• My best bargain purchase of the month was this set of velvet hair bows! The red and dark green ones I know I'll be wearing a lot in December. They all arrived a bit wrinkled, but I used my steamer on them and now they look great! 
• I finally picked out an agenda to use in 2023... and I'm going old school and with the same type of agenda that I used in college! I think 2016 was the last year I had one of these. 
• It's been a while since I had a very formal dress in my closet. I'm hoping to have some fun and formal plans for NYE 2023, and a Cyber Monday markdown for this beautiful formal dress got me! It's so beautiful in person (although it does run small, I went up a size!). 

November Blog Posts: 

• HOTEL GUIDE: The Captain's Quarters & Granville Queen Inns in Historic Edenton, NC.
  
• Fall 2022 Work Outfits.
  
• TRAVEL GUIDE: Charming and Historic Edenton, NC.
  

     God Bless,

      xoxo Annaliese