September Things and Autumn Bucket List (Round 2!) + IT’S MY BIRTHDAY

Hi friends! Today is my birthday!! ? I’m currently in Salem, MA with Chris, my mom, and my stepdad. I’ve never been and am so excited to explore and celebrate. I was originally going to make two posts over the course of these week, but decided to lump them together. For some reason I have so many posts this month already. First up, I’ll talk about my September plans and fall bucket list. Second, I’ll share some lists about me in my 26th year of life. Hope you enjoy and feel free to send some cake to me ?

I wrote a post last year that documented some of my September fun and planned the rest of my autumn bucket list. I always try to think of the many ~fall things~ I love to do, and try to record them here. I think it’d be fun to do the same thing this year! Here’s my intro from last time because all of it is SO TRUE ALWAYS: It’s no secret that September is my favorite month of the year. I love summertime because the weather in New England isn’t terrible and filled with snow, but the heat and humidity are not friends of mine. September means cooler weather, fall activities, and lots of life events I love – my birthday, my anniversary, football starting up again, the Big E (a New England must), other fairs and festivals, pumpkin and/or apple picking, and so many other things.

Plans for September, October, and November

I looked at my bucket list in the post from last year and it looks like I completed almost all of the items on it! This year will be a little different and definitely more ~Maine focused~ since I live here now. There are a lot of similarities across the New England states though, so I still think we’d be able to do similar things this fall. Chris is potentially having surgery later this month, which could impact some things, but we’re not 100% sure yet.

1. Have a never-ending supply of apple cider and try to keep up with pumpkin spice
   I love apple cider and usually try to ALWAYS have a jug in the fridge from September onward. It’s really easy in CT because there are so many orchards around us, but I may have to grab some from Hannaford when I grocery shop. It’ll be a pain to walk it back, but worth it. I don’t get Dunkin Donuts ever up here, but I’ll have to try to get a few pumpkin spice coffees! I also usually buy my own creamer for this season too, so I can have it homemade.
2. Find some berry, apple, and pumpkin picking spots
   Maine is known for its blueberries and the season is coming to an end (I think?). I want to go fruit picking this fall. We don’t usually pick apples, but I’d love to try it if possible. And of course, the annual trip to a pumpkin patch. We could go when we come home in October, but I feel like I’d enjoy trying a new place up here!
3. Hike around Mackworth Island again
   We went to Mackworth Island with my sister for a hike one day and it was a lot of fun. You see the water through the trees the entire way around, plus there are little beaches to relax on before or after your hike. I hope to hang out in the trees when they start to change colors.
4. Find 2-3 hiking spots around Portland we like
   We did a lot of exploring back in Connecticut and hiked throughout the fall and winter. It was a lot of fun to try new mountains and trails across the state. I hope we can do that around the Portland area, depending on Chris’s surgery. It’s just really beautiful up here!
5. Find new crockpot recipes for fall (desserts and soups)
   It’s no secret that I love my crockpot SO much. I use it whenever I can to make incredibly easy dinners I don’t have to work hard on. #lazy I hope to use my crockpot like crazy this fall and winter. We have very little counter space in our new place so I love putting something in there and leaving it. I hope to make my first dessert in the crockpot as well as many more soups and stews!
6. Go to a farmer’s market or some kind of local event
   We’ve been really bad about taking advantage of our city. My plan has worked though – I wanted to spend the summer months on the coastal beachy towns of Maine. I knew that would be the time to explore those spots while the weather was warm; the city will always be here. I hope to spend some time around downtown Portland over these few months before it gets too snowy. There are so many events and farmers markets here that we need to take advantage of.
7. Start and finish a TV show
   I finished my binge of Total Divas and Total Bellas that started back in May/June. I’m all caught up for the new season of Bellas that just started this week. Since then, I’ve also been catching up on Schitt’s Creek (which I abandoned in favor of WWE programming). I hope to start a new show and finish it during these few months because NGL I miss Netflix! My reading has been intense in August/September so watching shows made me feel guilty. No more!
8. Start watching Christmas movies in November
   I’m always disappointed in myself when I don’t give myself enough time to enjoy all the Christmas things I could watch. I tell myself every year I’ll start earlier and it doesn’t happen. I resolve to make this year different! I get so sidetracked with football and wrestling 4 nights a week.

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Now for the birthday things…

Yep, today’s my birthday. I’m 26 and officially an adult. Yes, I’ve always considered this to be The Year where I’m not even close to a kid anymore. I’m over the hump and am nearing my late 20’s. I’m booted off of my parents’ insurance on the 30th and have to pay for my own. It’s a really weird feeling.

I’ve felt lame on the blog for a little while now and am super tapped. (Agree very much with Andi here.) I love writing posts, reading posts, reading books, and interacting with my peeps online. Lately I just haven’t had much time or energy or inspiration to write my favorite post: discussions. I decided do some ~personal stuff~ here on the blog today, as if I were more of a lifestyle blogger instead of book blogger. I know that I (like the rest of you) love creeping on the personal lives’ of bloggers beyond reading. I try to do posts like this sometimes because I think I was a lifestyle blogger in a past life. (To be honest, I’ve been thinking that this blog may get a facelift at some point to be more like that.) SO! Without further ado, here are some tag-like prompts (some from other favorite blogs) to share a little more about ME.

Random Lists for my 26th Year

26 Things I Can’t Live Without

I saw this post on Steph’s blog the other day and thought it would be a fun addition to this post. It’s surprisingly hard to come up with 26 of these! I’m trying to capture my current life, so there are some things on here that are “new” things I can’t live without (like my bike – I hadn’t used one in years until we moved to Portland).

1. Coffee
2. Books
3. Computer/internet
4. Apple products: phone, watch, iPad
5. Stuffed animals
6. Flip flops
7. Dresses
8. Sweatpants/leggings
9. Slow cooker
10. Pizza
11. Friends
12. Football
13. Streaming-related things (Fire TV Stick, Hulu, Netflix)
14. Weekends
15. Lazy nights
16. Podcasts
17. My bike
18. Air conditioning
19. Shady trees
20. Mexican food, margaritas
21. Sheet pan dinners
22. WWE Network subscription
23. Colored pens
24. Garlic herb pub cheese with pretzel thins
25. Lose It app
26. Facebook clothing shopping (LLR, boutiques, H&L)

26 Favorite Movies & Shows

This is pretty self-explanatory. I mixed in the movies with the shows here; there’s not REALLY a rank order but I guess there kind of is one? My all-time favorites are definitely closer to the top and the more general catch-all categories are toward the bottom.

1. Friends
2. Arrested Development
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
4. Parks & Recreation
5. What About Bob?
6. Good Burger
7. Stranger Than Fiction
8. Greek
9. Wet Hot American Summer
10. Superbad
11. Workaholics
12. Broad City
13. Modern Family
14. Community
15. Desperate Housewives
16. WWE (RAW, SD, other shows)
17. Brothers & Sisters
18. Armageddon
19. The Hangover
20. Stepbrothers
21. The Point
22. Once Upon a Forest
23. Marvel movies
24. Star Wars movies
25. Disney movies
26. I Love You Man

26 Favorite Foods, Drinks, and Meals

Again, this one is also self-explanatory! I love food so much. I love trying new foods and will eat just about anything. I’m a huge proponent of trying anything you can before you decide if you like it or not.

1. Coffee with french vanilla creamer
2. Pizza
3. Chris’s mom’s egg rolls
4. Mexican food combination plate
5. Margaritas
6. Crab rangoon
7. Lobster roll
8. Dr. Pepper
9. Vanilla Coke
10. Chips and salsa
11. Buffalo Wing Combos
12. Muddy Buddy Chex Mix
13. Burgers with ranch dressing and BBQ sauce
14. Blueberry soda
15. Po’boy sandwiches
16. Korean BBQ
17. Sausage and peppers/onions
18. Sushi
19. Pad thai
20. S’mores (flavors, ice cream, the real thing)
21. Salad
22. Barbecue chicken and buffalo chicken (pizza, sandwiches, etc.)
23. Noodles
24. Dim sum / dumplings
25. Smoothies and milkshakes
26. Papaya sald

26 Things I’m Currently Grateful for

There are so many things making me happy right now. Most of these are related to the last year (or few months) of my life, but there are quite a few about upcoming things I’m happy about.

1. Chris
2. Close friends
3. Family
4. Living away from CT for a while
5. Bikes
6. Books
7. Disposable income for trips
8. Current diet success
9. Football season starting
10. Adventuring and exploring Maine
11. Libraries
12. Chris’s parents house and pool
13. Fair season
14. Rose Foods (Jewish deli)
15. Sheet pan meals
16. Cooler weather
17. Leggings
18. Apple Watch when I’m too lazy to pull my phone out
19. My little pink backpack
20. Floral dresses
21. My hometown
22. Ice cream
23. Pumpkin things on the horizon
24. Christmas (hehe)
25. Fifth anniversary on the 16th
26. My job that lets me work in Maine

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