This past year, the weirdest thing has happened. My eyes will begin to itch in the middle of the night. I will rub them and then I wake up like this:
This is not “a good look” as they say unless the look you are going for is the Elephant Man.
This has only happened around 6 times but the intense swelling around my eyes lasts for a few days.
Friends, I think the culprit is red wine.
This is, of course, a terrible development. This doesn’t happen every time I drink wine but it is the one constant when this happens.
I’m getting a full allergy panel next week. Am I going to become one of those women who becomes paranoid about invisible mold spores in the walls and who takes their personal pillows on vacation? Who says middle-age is boring?
What I Read This Week
I’ve become interested in learning about neurofeedback techniques, especially where bad habits are concerned. My bad habits include: Looking at my phone too much, mindlessly eating my children’s Halloween candy, and commenting on my local mom's Facebook group when I really should keep said opinions to myself.
I first learned about neurofeedback techniques from the Dan Harris podcast 10 Percent Happier, specifically this interview with psychiatrist and addiction expert Judson Brewer. Here’s how it works: You work to recognize when your bad habit loops flare and retrain yourself to something else other than The Bad Thing. You are to mindfully lean into the craving; go over it as though it was an attractive pair of clogs you would like to purchase.
Take some deep breaths when the craving hits — this way, you begin to train your brain that when you begin to feel anxiety/exhaustion/ etc., to breathe instead of finding comfort in your phone or eating that entire pizza.
Since I’m now practically a mindfulness guru, I picked up the book Good Habits / Bad Habits by Wendy Wood which goes into this with more detail.
What I Listened To This Week
Bad Batch by Wondery. Wondery is the producer behind the greatest podcast series of all time – Dirty John – and does excellent work. Bad Batch goes deep into the murky world of stem-cell medical treatments. I’m not going to lie – I would love some good ol' back alley stem cells for my swollen eyelids at the moment but I shall have to resist the temptation (*I’m breathing deeply right now and thinking about clogs*).
What I Watched This Week
My favorite – 9-1-1 is back and I’m so happy. A tsunami hits California! Everyone seems to forget the main character murdered his entire family and hundreds of other people when he accidentally set fire to his apartment complex! (The gif above is totally classic 9-1-1 territory.) As the excellent Emily Nussbaum put it this week in the New Yorker: “'9-1-1' is sleekly constructed competency porn, about diverse hotties who fix worst-case scenarios—like a baby in a toilet pipe or a beauty influencer with a 'face maggot'—but who can’t fix their own lives. I guess I could theorize about how the show’s madcap pace mimics our crisis-ridden news cycle, but some days silly just hits the spot.’”
Parenting Gif of the Week
Daylight Savings is Going Well….
In closing….
Subscribe below, forward to a friend, bring joy to those around you. Annemarie may or may not be back next Friday — I legit haven’t seen her in months. Is she okay? Is she alive? What has become of her? I guess we all will find out together through the power of the Internet!