Happy Monday, friends! Last week was a really busy week at work, and this one is gearing up to be even busier—and truthfully, it’s kind of nice to have something to stress about that’s not Coronavirus-related. This will be my seventh full week working from home, which feels like it has gone by both in the blink of an eye and so quickly. I expect I will be working from home for the foreseeable future, and feel like I’ve created a pretty good routine for myself that helps to differentiate the workday and my relaxing evenings. One thing I have been thinking a lot during the quarantine, though, is moving to a bigger apartment when my lease is up at the end of September. While I love my Dupont Apartment, spending all this time at home has made me really miss having a table to eat meals on and a few more places to work besides my couch or temporary desk. I also have been craving some outdoor space, and it’d be nice to have a small balcony to enjoy a cocktail on! My lease still isn’t up for a while, so I’ve got time to make a decision, but it’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about.

Because I’ve been so busy at work, this past week wasn’t as hard as some, but I am really craving a return to some sort of normalcy. I had a dream last week I went to the nail salon and it was seriously one of the best dreams I’d had in a while—hah! I totally understand why it is important for us to shelter in place right now, but still doesn’t make it any easier. For now, I’ll continue to look forward to my daily walks to break up the day and grabbing takeout from some of my favorite DC spots a few nights a week. I hope you guys are hanging in there and have a good one! x

01. TIKTOK TIME

I downloaded TikTok before the quarantine, but didn’t go on there regularly until our new reality settled in. While I don’t think I’ll be a TikTok creator anytime soon, I absolutely love going on the app to watch videos because I always die laughing at least once during my “TikTok time.” It’s an extremely addicting app, so I usually treat myself to it just a couple of times a week, otherwise I’d spend hours on there a day, hah! But I so appreciate TikTok when I do treat myself to the app—it is a true distraction from the world right now, and for that I am so grateful!

I wanted to share some of my favorite videos from TikTok I’ve found over the last week in case they bring you as much laughter they did me:

• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdsv6r/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdVUPf/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdtHF7/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdqUKT/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdaMgT/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdGsj2/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdayHx/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdCrN1/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vd93YK/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdHdQP/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdXWFj/
• https://vm.tiktok.com/vdpP4E/

If you have any favorite TikToks, please send them my way!

02. ORDERING TAKEOUT FROM MEXICUE

To breakup the week, I ordered tacos, guac, and margs from Mexicue here in DC last Wednesday. (They’ve also got locations in NYC!) I scheduled my order for pickup at 7:30pm so I could grab it at the end of my daily walk and it worked out perfectly. I used my friend’s promo code (CHLOE) for a free round of classic lime margaritas and they were delicious! It was a really nice treat-myself meal that was a bright spot of my week. The guac I ordered had charred jalapeños, which really added another level of flavor to it, and then I ordered the Nashville hot chicken, pulled pork, and smoky chicken tacos—the latter of which was my favorite. If you prefer, Mexicue is also doing delivery, but I’ve been trying to pick up my food from the restaurant when possible and just putting the money I would have spent on delivery to their tip. Another great thing about Mexicue is they have several party packs—some are built for two people and some are built for larger groups—but it’s a great way to get everything you need for a Mexican fiesta. They also have taco lunchboxes that come with two tacos and a side of chips and salsa, so that’s an economical option for one! I’ll definitely be back again soon.

03. BETHENNY GETTING MARRIED

In college, my sorority sisters and I watched a lot of Bravo TV the year we lived in the sorority house. One of my favorites was always Bethenny Getting Married, and the follow up, Bethenny Ever After. A few weeks ago, I bought Bethenny Getting Married on Amazon and binge watched it this weekend. I’ve always loved Bethenny and her go-getter, no-nonsense attitude, and while things didn’t work out between her and Jason, it was fun to go back and revisit this show. I hadn’t seen it in years and forgot a lot of plot points. I think I’ll be spending the $15 to be able to stream Bethenny Ever After sooner rather than later—a great entertainment option for the quarantine!

04. BOOK CLUB ON HULU

On Friday night, I was looking for a good romantic comedy and decided to watch Book Club on Hulu. If you haven’t seen it, it’s a cute, mindless movie with a bunch of well-known actors and actresses. The plot is also really fun—four 60-something women have been in a book club together for 20+ years and take turns picking the book of the month. To some protesting, one of the women picks 50 Shades of Grey and each woman in the club begin to take a harder look at their romantic lives as a result. If you’re looking for a cute RomCom, I’d recommend!

05. SHOOTING MY ROUGH DAY WINE CAMPAIGN

If you follow me on Instagram, you know one of my purchases in the quarantine so far has been a tripod for my phone that also came with a remote control so you can take pictures of yourself. I have been loving the tripod for FaceTime/Zoom calls with friends because it holds your phone for you so you don’t have to, and I know a lot of people also love phone tripods for watching exercise classes. This weekend, the tripod really came in handy as I was shooting a campaign for my Instagram.

Rough Day Wine reached out and asked if we could collaborate to get the word out about their wine and a fun contest they are running during the quarantine. I always like to spend the time to create great content for brand partnerships and so I wanted to use this opportunity to challenge myself and test out shooting pictures of myself solo. In pre-coronavirus times, I’d either hire a photographer to take photos for me or ask my sister or Monica for a favor. That’s obviously not possible during shelter-in-place, so it was time to learn some new skills and test out my new tripod/remote control. After testing a few different angles, I realized that taping my phone to the window in my apartment and shuffling my furniture around was the best way to get the shot I wanted, which you can see above! I am still not a natural with hiding the remote control, but found sitting down and clicking it from my lap was the easiest. In addition to being a really fun (and relevant for the quarantine!) campaign, figuring out how to do a photoshoot by myself at home was a fun challenge that kept me occupied for a few hours.

You can see the full final results over on my Instagram—both in my feed and on my stories!

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I’d love to know what distractions you’re loving—drop me a comment below so we can all enjoy!