A Touch of Teal | Washington, DC Lifestyle Blogger

5.4.21

On My Nightstand: April 2021

I read a lot in April—mostly because I found an amazing new-to-me author and crushed three of her books: Renee Carlino. If you love Taylor Jenkins Reid, Christina Lauren, or any other author who writes smart, engaging chick lit, I can’t recommend her books enough. I’m excited to read more of her titles as we move through the year! I have a feeling my reader in May will be a bit slower as my travel schedule picks up this month, but I am on track to meet my goal of reading 75 books this year and hoping I get there!

As is custom on these posts, I wanted to call out that I’m part of a program where Random House will send me some of their new titles each month. I’m under no obligation to post about any titles I receive, so I really can tell you my own opinion (good or bad!) about them. I’ve starred the books Random House sent me for free below. I’m so lucky to be sent books and that’s not lost on me.

Without further ado—here’s a recap of the eight books I read last month:

personal notes

5.3.21

Life Lately

Hello—long time, no talk! I have been really, really busy at work—and probably will be for the rest of the year!—but am still trying to make time to write some blogposts when I can. I thought it would be fun to do a life lately post since these are always fun to write and a good way to give y’all a rundown of a lot of different parts of my life.

First, let me say that I am living for the warmer temperates we have been having the last month or so. It’s seriously made my outlook on life so much brighter—especially after this winter when the colder temps really put a damper on my social life. In the DC area, we’ll still get a colder day here and there, but I am hoping that now we are into May, it’s sunny and 70+ from here on out–a girl can hope, right? We are expecting the Brood X cicadas to join us any day now, but I am hoping their visit is quick. I remember the last time they came, I was in the 7th grade and let me jus tell you, 13 year old boys a cicadas do not mix. It feels more Biblical this time around, as we’re in the midst of a plague with the locust emerging.

Anyway—here’s a little look at my life lately! I’ve also been making some changes around my apartment as I got my balcony all set up for summer and bought a new mattress—so look forward to some more apartment content as soon as I can shoot some photos for those posts.

I GOT THE VACCINE! /

You guys—shot girl summer is happening! I got the vaccine!

Ironically enough, back in mid-March, I was texting with my friend Molly and told her I was going to start looking for a way to get the vaccine. While we were texting, I got an email from Arlington County saying it was my turn to register for a vaccine slot. I was able to get one on a Friday afternoon and it was a very exciting day. I went to a community center here in Arlington for my first dose and it was such an organized process—very similar to a Chick Fit A drive-thru. They clapped for you once you got your shot and it was such an emotional experience. With my first dose, I didn’t really have any side effects; I had a sore arm for like 24 hours and that was about it.

Several weeks later when I was eligible for my second dose, I was able to register at a different community center in Arlington. Having heard that the side effects for dose two were worse, I was a little nervous about everything going in. Luckily, I was able to schedule my appointment for a Saturday—we’ve just had so much going on at work, while my team would be so supportive of a sick day, it just stressed me out too much! I started hydrating really well with water and gatorade about an hour before my shot and then kept it up after, and I think that really helped. I was very fatigued and slept like 12 hours straight. But when I woke up, I felt fine and never had any other symptoms. The anticipation was definitely worse than the actual event! (I got the Pfizer vaccine and never had Covid to my knowledge.)

As soon as you can get the vaccine, I encourage you to do so!

On My Nightstand: March 2021

Hi there! Long time, no talk—I’ve been behind on posting here as I’ve had a lot going on at work. All good things happening, but has been keeping me very busy. March was a whirlwind for a lot of reasons, and I didn’t have as much time to read as I normally do, so I only made my way through four books. The ones I did read, on the whole, were great, so I wanted to make sure I was able to get an On My Nightstand post up for them. (A spoiler alert is that this month, I’ve gotten back into the swing of reading and will have more great reads to share in a few weeks when I round up my reads for April!)

One quick reminder—I used to use Amazon links in these on my nightstand posts, but going forward, I’ll be linking out to Bookshop. Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. If you want to find a specific local bookstore to support, find them on the Bookshop map and they’ll receive the full profit off your order. Otherwise, your order will contribute to an earnings pool that will be evenly distributed among independent bookstores (even those that don’t use Bookshop). Their prices are honestly very comparable to Amazon, which is great—and makes it a no-brainer. I became an affiliate on Bookshop, meaning if you purchase a book using one of my links below, I’ll receive a 10% commission—but don’t worry, Bookshop still gives a matching 10% to independent bookstores.