{Monthly} Midweek Ramblings: January 2025

 January 2025:

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Highs of the Month:

• Having several dinner fun dinner plans with friends to kick off 2025! Between our wedding, honeymoon and the holidays all falling in the last two months of 2024, it had been a few months since I'd regularly had the time to dine with friends. Luckily that all changed for January! Ryan and I enjoyed two different dinners out with various friends, and additionally I enjoyed a ladies' dinner out with a couple girlfriends during Virginia Beach Restaurant Week. We also hosted our friends Alton and Carly for dinner at home in our apartment this month. I look forward to hopefully many more hosting opportunities throughout this year.

• My recent blog reader survey! It had been four years since I'd done one of these, and it was definitely overdue. Getting feedback from so many of you who took the time to share your thoughts on my online content was so helpful! I shared a bit on Instagram Stories earlier this month that I recently had the realization that losing my radio job last year made me more disconnected in my online life than I had been aware of. I feel like aside from some of my Wedding Wednesday posts, I wasn't putting out my best content online over the past year, and had lost a little bit of my posting niches and creativity if that makes sense. The reader survey results were just what I needed to feel motivated again with online content, and truly provided such good insights. Thanks again to everyone who took it! (And good to know most of you still really enjoy Monthly Midweek Ramblings posts. 😊)

• Starting my name change process to official become Mrs. M! Anyone who has changed their name after getting married knows that this is a tedious process, but I feel like if there's any time of the year that's good to start that...it's January! When it's cold and boring and not much going on, why not take the time to start on all of this? I was able to visit Social Security and the DMV in January, as well as mail out my passport for a name change. I still have so many places to update my name with, but I'm glad those big things are done.

Lows of the Month:

• To be honest, January was the roughest month that I've had on a personal level in a long time. A lot of factors contributed to this, but the biggest one was that there were multiple disappointments on my job search front. With the wedding being over now and most of my focus in my free time going to job searching and figuring out what my next career path will be, it was almost like I re-grieved losing my radio career again this past month. And there were also some potential job opportunities that I found out wouldn't be panning out for me in January. Fortunately I do feel a renewed sense of hope with my job search going into February, but I'd be lying if I didn't tell you that January was tough!

• This was the coldest January that I can remember out of the four winters that I've spent in Virginia Beach! While we often do get a few frigid days each winter at the beach, it's rare to have consecutively freezing cold weeks. That's unfortunately what happened this year! The majority of January until the very last few days was bitterly cold. I swear that I truly don't know how I grew up in Maine with how much the cold weather affects me negatively as an adult. 

• Having to cancel a bucket list trip unexpectedly. I was supposed to be flying to Los Angeles (for the first time!) on January 8th... which is also the day that the Los Angeles fires started intensifying and mass evacuations began. I am so thankful that I wasn't already there when this happened, and also thankful that no money was lost in cancelling this trip. I was refunded for the hotel and took a flight credit for my cancelled air travel. It is devastating how much destruction the fires caused, and I know I have so much to be grateful for to still have a safe and in tact home! But it's still not fun to have travel cancelled. With the stress and disappointment of job searching this month, I was especially looking forward to this trip as a pick-me-up. It was a bummer that it couldn't happen right now.

• I try to limit monthly highs and lows to three items each month, but I have to add a fourth for January. TikTok briefly going away and all of the drama surrounding the TikTok ban was such a low for me this month! It truly gave me so much anxiety and made me so sad that an app that changed so many people's lives for the better could be going away forever (and the future is still uncertain now). I was a bit late to the party with getting into TikTok, but over the past year especially I've really fallen in love with it. I really hope the US government can figure out something to keep it around longterm! 

January Weekend Recaps:

• 3rd-5th - I worked the whole weekend during the daytime hours, but we did have some fun evening plans over the weekend which made it a little better. Our neighbor friends invited us to their apartment for a board game night on Friday, and on Saturday we had a double date at a new-to-us restaurant with another couple!

• 10th-12th - I was supposed to be in Los Angeles, but that trip got canceled at the last minute due to the wildfires. 😞 Because I was supposed to be out of town I was off the whole weekend. The weather wasn't great in Virginia Beach so I didn't do a ton, but I did meet my friend Megan for coffee on that Friday afternoon, and I also got a lot of random tasks and projects done at home! Ryan and I also went to church on Sunday and enjoyed quality time at home together, which is always good. 

• 17th - 19th - I worked the majority of the weekend once again, but we did have fun hosting friends for dinner on Friday night! We barely got to do any hosting last year with the craziness of it being our wedding year and my job change, so it was nice to get back to that. I was off work on Sunday. We met Ryan's parents for Mexican food for lunch, and then I spent most of the afternoon deep cleaning and re-organizing our pantry, which it desperately needed. 

• 24th - 26th - I worked Friday, but was off Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I started the day at a workout class, and then Ryan and I ran errands and then worked on some home decor projects, Another couple we are friends with hosted us for dinner at their house Saturday night! On Sunday we watched church from home, and then I signed up for a ladies' golf clinic in the afternoon with a girlfriend. 

January Purchases:

• I did barely any personal shopping in January, which was so needed for my bank account post-wedding and holidays. The only few items I purchased I used an Amazon gift card for. First up, I finally got a proper pair of golf pants! My friend Amanda recommended this pair to me. Not only are they affordable, but they're incredibly comfortable to wear! I think they'd also be cute pants to wear for a long day of travel, you'd look put together while still being comfy. 

• I've been in desperate need of new sports bras for quite awhile. In 2025 I knew I needed to make a resolution to ditch some of my ancient ones and order new ones. Sports bras are something that I don't think is very fun to spend money on, but clearly was needed for me. I got this set of three for under $30 and I've been so pleased with wearing them for my fitness classes so far. 

• I also purchased a black printed pair of my favorite lightweight workout shorts. I have the hot pink version of these and I lived in them last summer. I wore them for fitness classes, lounging at home and to the beach over my bathing suits! It's nice to have another pair that's darker toned. 

January Wishlist:

• While it wasn't the most exciting month for my purchases, it was a very fun month for wishlist finds! First up: I shared this on Instagram Stories, but I became obsessed with the most fun and beautiful decorative pillow that I found. I thought about this for weeks before deciding if I should splurge on it or not. (It was a lot of money for just a pillow case, not even the whole pillow! Ultimately I decided to go with a cheaper Amazon pillow, but I am still dreaming of this one. 

• We don't have any springtime warm weather trips this year so I can't justify getting this right now, but how darling is this bikini set! I love the retro vibes. Such a good price, too. 

• I own so many winter coats already (way too many for one person, honestly), but if I needed another I'd get this gorgeous long coat! It's under $100 and comes in so many nice color options. 

• The most elegant and ladylike pair of dress shorts that I think I've ever seen! How lovely are these? 

• I am really hoping to host a ladies' Masters golf viewing party in April for some local friends who also enjoy golf, and I'm already pondering what I'll wear. This green embroidered top (paired with white denim) would scream Masters watch party to me! 

January Blog Posts:

• Wedding Wednesday: Transcendent Stays Beach House for Wedding Weekend

• 2025 Blog Reader Survey

     God Bless,

  

     xoxo Annaliese  

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Midweek Ramblings, My life