Day 60

I normally don't post about the same thing twice in a row, but... these are crazy times we're living in.

Soooo... quarantine, huh?

I always thought it would be awesome to spend MORE time in my apt -- I have a great view of the city, every TV channel and streaming service you can imagine, comfy pillows and good snacks.

Um, I was wrong.

Turns out, MORE time in my apt during a pandemic means more time to wait. And worry. And work. All. The. Time.

You too?

Oh, and all this time inside has given me a solid phobia of leaving my apt for any reason at all. That includes getting groceries (so I ate all the expired soup in my pantry) and throwing away the garbage (so my apt resembled a classic episode of Hoarders).

After 30 days in my Fortress of Solitude in Hoboken, I hit the road.

Now, let me preface this by saying, I realize I am lucky that I could do this.  For starters, I still have a job, and it is flexible so that I can do it from anywhere.  And I have a car, so by driving, I could avoid contact with basically everyone and make my own personal Cannonball Run down 95 to my parents' house in Florida.

In total, I spent about 30 days there too, and it was such a welcome change of scenery.  I felt better, mostly because I worried less.  Plus, no more expired groceries for me! My mom's a great cook and she made more meals than I've had in a year.

Fast forward to today, I'm 60 days into quarantine, and I just got back to Hoboken. In total, I logged:

• 4 travel days (2 days each way)
• 32 total hours of driving
• 2,140 miles round-trip
• 455 songs
• 4 stops for gas
• 4 times I cursed every self-serve state (reason 534 why NJ is the best)
• 0 bathroom breaks (I have a bladder of steel)
• 0 snack breaks (I brought all my own food & drinks)
• 15 Cracker Barrels passed
• 2 nights in hotel rooms that I scoured like a forensic detective
• 3 states requiring people from NJ to quarantine for 14-days (thanks, DE, MD & FL)
• 1 close call with a Georgia State Trooper (he got the guy behind me)
• 1 billion dead lovebugs on my windshield

The whole drive was pretty surreal.  I left on Easter weekend and came back on Mother's Day weekend -- both holidays -- and nobody was on the road.  Just me and the truckers.

I know that's good, because it means people are staying home, but it still freaked me out.

Anyway, I couldn't help but take some pics along the way -- so come on a virtual road trip with me...

I travel light, right?

Drink? Check. Snacks? Check. Tunes? Check. Gas? Check.
Gloves & mask? Check...

This is the New Jersey Turnpike at 11AM on a Saturday.

And this is the toll plaza -- not a single car.

This was Delaware's welcome sign.

Nobody's on the road, so nobody's at the gas station either.
It's barbaric to pump your own gas, but here I am. At least the gas was cheap...

This is 95 in North Carolina -- about 6PM on a Saturday.

After 8 hours of not peeing, I made a beeline for my bathroom. 
The swans were a nice touch.

Not sure if you can read this, but it basically says that they were
only offering DoubleTree's famous cookie on request. A sad but necessary step.

A good place to rest your head, and the mid-point in my trip.

You know you're in South Carolina when you see this.

Georgia, on 95 at 4PM on Easter Sunday.

When I got to FL, there was a mandatory checkpoint at the first rest stop on 95.
Anyone from NY/NJ/CT was asked to fill out paperwork and
quarantine for 14 days.  And they weren't fooling around.
Failure to fill out the paperwork was a 2nd degree misdemeanor,
and failure to quarantine could be punished by 60 days in jail and a $500 fine!
I have no idea how they'd know, but I wasn't taking any chances. 

Home sweet home.

This became my new office.

And this little guy became my co-worker.

This was our sassy office manager who tweeted whenever I was on a call.

Eventually, I headed home.
Again, this is Saturday at about noon on 95 in Florida.

And here was my souvenir, a billion dead love bugs smashed on my car.
In other news, they don't come off, no matter how fast your wipers go. 

So, that's the trip. Amidst all the scary stuff going on right now, this was a bright spot for me.  And it was nice to spend some bonus time with my fam, which we'd never be able to do for a month under normal circumstances. Since we're not going back to the office until July, I'll probably do it again.

I hope you all are able to get a change of scenery too to clear your mind.

Be well and keep washing those hands!

Packing Light

So I turned 46 yesterday...

Yeah, I'm going to need that Benjamin Button secret, because I'm reallllly not ok with being closer to 50 than I am to 40.

Barf.

Anyway, I'm in total denial that I'm middle-aged. So one of my best friends and I hopped on a jet plane to Nashville.  I'd never been before, but Tennessee sounded like a fun place to kick up our heels!

In my travels and in my life, I like to pack light.  I think small amounts of baggage are key to navigating any place, situation or relationship. Enough to be prepared, not so much that it weighs you down.

When I pack for a trip, I follow 4 rules:

RULE 1: PICK A COLOR

I always choose a main color -- usually either black or navy -- for all my clothes
and use that as the anchor for everything else I pack so I can mix and match. 
For Nash, in honor of Johnny Cash, I chose black.

RULE 2: ONLY BRING WHAT YOU'LL WEAR

As you see above, I lay out all my clothes so I don't bring more than I can wear.
For this long weekend getaway, I had 2 outfits per day, 1 pair of pjs,
2 pairs of shoes, sneakers, a few accessories and a jacket.
And everything fit in my favorite suitcase of all time from Away.

RULE 3: NEVER CHECK BAGS

I don't think I've checked a bag in 20 years. 
It's risky, a waste of time, and now with all these fees, a waste of money too!
That's another benefit to packing light, if you can't carry it, it can't come.

RULE 4: REPACK AS YOU GO

We woke up about 15 minutes before I took this pic. 
We're not scrambling around a messy room right here because I repack as I go. 
I unpack everything when I arrive and hang all my outfits together in the closet,
then as I wear them, they go right back back in my bag. 
My best friend does that too (nevermind all her clothes fit in a lunchbox).

So, there you have it.  My "wisdom" as I enter a new year: Make big memories and travel light.

Oh, and don't buy a cowboy hat in Nashville, no matter how tempting it may be...

2 old friends. 2 big hats. 1 late night, 0 filters.

Have any packing (or aging) tips? Drop them in the comments below!

City of Angels

My first post of 2019 is all about work, which, let's be honest, is basically my life.

Cue the violins...

I mean, it's rough kicking off the year in sunny Los Angeles at an empowering event for female social media influencers.

Right?  No?

Ha, ok, anyway, we haven't been in LA for a couple of years, so it was cool to be back on the west coast. And what better place to talk about health & wellness than a city founded on yoga, green juice, and eternal youth?

Check it out:

Not mad about leaving this wintry Newark day behind!

Pretty sure those are the Rockies, but I couldn't really hear the captain.

Hello, LA!

The first thing I saw when I arrived for setup were these buckets of
beautiful roses. In my next life, I'm def going to be a florist.

600 tote bags were stuffed with goodies and stacked.

And upstairs on the roof, I saw somebody brought their
tiny dog to an active construction site.  Smart.

Outside in the alley, a guy was painting our mural.

Eventually our guests started to arrive to take
a private exercise class with the Tone It Up girls.

I'm pretty sure the recommended post-workout drink is rosé.

Here are our Voices of the Year winners, including Olympic Gymnast,
 Aly Raisman (top left), and our very own Jenni (bottom right), who was
diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma last year and is now cancer-free!

Street art spotted from the window of my Uber after Day One.

Day Two ready to begin....
(or at least what it would have looked like
if they weren't still hanging our logo when our guests arrived).

Samantha! Alyssa Milano was gracious and personable, talking about how a
friendship with Ryan White led her to become an activist at age 15.

Jameela Jamil, from The Good Place, flipped off advertisers
& influencers who make women feel bad about their bodies.

Model Jaime King spoke openly about her infertility issues.

That's celeb trainer & CoverGirl spokeswoman, Massy Arias.

And this lady in the glasses is Dr Minkin, a hilarious OBGYN from Yale,
who told us the morning after pill was invented in her dept.

Our lunch came from a lovely local place called Lemonade.

We also had a barista making pretty coffee drinks.
That's my friend, Deb's, latte.

The freight elevator was turned into the De-Stress Express
with loads of new Vaseline products & a cool sequin wall.

Remember that rooftop with the dog?
It was transformed into this outdoor oasis for Bolthouse Farms.

When it was all over, my team snapped a quick pic.
Thanks to this filter, we don't look nearly as tired as we were!

Then we washed down a health event with a whole lot of meat.
Some of my friends got the Tomahawk Steak, which was served
on a gigantic bone, but I went with the Big Ass Burger,
which was honestly one of the best I ever had.

This is the view from my window seat.
Not pictured here is me, dreaming of my bed. 
Zzzzzz.

#TeamJen

So, it turns out this here blog turned EIGHT last month, and I didn't post about it.

Sure, I thought about it.  But that doesn't count.

I didn't make the time to mark the occasion because work's been super hectic, and I've been traveling a ton, and the dog ate my homework, and blah, blah, blah.

Since I was in LA for my birthday, I discovered that Snapchat filters can make anyone look cuter and younger than they actually are (see: Bambi).  I went viral on Twitter.  I also went to FL (twice), plus Chicago, and Austin for the first time, which was pretty cool.  I'd been to Dallas and Houston and San Antonio before but never Austin.

It's like the Brooklyn of Texas.

I could almost see myself living there.  I mean, I enjoy their BBQ brisket, and their state pride, and their tall, handsome men who still hold doors and say "bless you" when you sneeze.  I can even handle the accent (sort of).  But they can keep their goofy hats.

Anyway, I'm not sure why, but I've been feeling pretty introspective lately.  Taking stock of where I'm at and what I'm missing.  So before I take a look back at the past year, I'm going to make a commitment -- in public -- so I can't take it back.

From now on, first and foremost, I'm going to be #TeamJen.

For most of my life, I've put off things I wanted to do for myself.  Okaaaay, I can already hear you laughing.

I'm the world's most comfortable martyr.

Yes.  I treat myself all the time.  And have a $1,000 handbag, an apt overlooking the NYC skyline, and a shiny black BMW to prove it.  #SorryNotSorry.  I work HARD for the money!

But there's a difference between being comfortable and being content.  I always let life and work get in the way of things that might actually make me happy. And hellooooo, what the heck am I waiting for?  Till I feel like my old self?  Truth is, I may never be that girl again.

And I'm 43 for eff's sake -- ticktock, ticktock!

So, over the next few months, I'm going to try and work a little less and live a little more.  We'll see where that leads... but I hope you'll come along for the ride.

Now, as I've done in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015, let's take a look back at the last year...

Total Posts I've Written (including this one):
286

Average Number of Posts I Write Per Month:
0.9 (down from 1.2 last year -- UGH... I suck)

Average Number of Unique Visitors Per Month:
402 (up from 355 last year)

Average Pageviews Per Month:
2,705 (up from 2,213 last year)

Most Traffic Comes From:
Tie between Google Search and Pinterest

Most-Read Blog Posts Ever (in order of popularity):
It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Pinterest (December 2012)
20 Apps I Adore (January 2012)
Pepe Le Pew (June 2011)
Comfort Food in a Storm (October 2012)
Miss Jennifer Goes to Washington (August 2012)
Let Them Eat Jelly Beans (February 2011)
How the Hell is John Stamos 50? (August 2013)
Facelift (July 2010)
The Great Pop Tart Pop Off (October 2010)
Leftovers (November 2012)

Most-Read Blog Posts This Year:
The Loveseat Potato Fries Up Fall TV, 2015 Style
Farewell, Crawleys
Tales From Uber

Posts Nobody Gave a Crap About:
Dear Stores That Close on Thanksgiving
Put Me In, Coach

Most Comments:
Which Christmas Cookie Are You?

Most Popular Poll:
Grease Is the Word (this year)
Please Fix Voting (It Is Broken) (all-time)

Most Frequently-Used Tag for the Posts I Write:
Pop Culture

Most Popular Search by Visitors:
Dating


Next on deck will be the Loveseat Potato's annual review of Fall TV shows (maybe this year she'll actually choose some winners!), and a post on my all-time favorite bands.

In the meantime, snack on this -- it's my favorite commercial right now.

Thanks (as always) for reading!


tags: commercials, holidays, travel, writing