As I start this blog post I have two promises for you.
- There will be mention of or links to the Nordstrom sale. Cross my heart.
- No Olympic or Simone Biles talk outside of that I FULLY support that she is prioritizing her mental health.
Social media trends and news cycles can be overwhelming at times and I think we’ve all seen our fair share of Nordstrom sale talk and posts about the Olympics over the last week.
What I do have for you today is a general overview/update/life post in a “currently” format. The last time I wrote one of these was in August 2020!
CURRENTLY READING
I’m currently reading That Summer by Jennifer Weiner. I’m about 50% through the book and wondering where we are heading. I can’t say it’s my favorite Jennifer Weiner book so far but I’ll report back after I finish it. I did just finish Elin Hilderbrand’s Golden Girl and really enjoyed it!
CURRENTLY IN THE MARKET FOR
A new therapist. I have seen the same therapist on and off for 10 years and took a break in February that ended up being permanent. I adore her, am forever grateful for all the guidance she’s offered me and would recommend her to anyone. After a six-month therapy hiatus, I’d like to get back to seeing someone once a month or so but finding someone whose style and personality that you mesh with can be daunting!
CURRENTLY DRINKING
On my desk right now is a can of Waterloo blueberry sparkling water and my Takeya straw bottle filled with ice water.
CURRENTLY CRAVING
Tomatoes. Just give me all of the summer tomatoes.
CURRENTLY WATCHING
Manifest and I’m so hooked! I also just got a subscription to Disney+ for Finn and that’s been fun to explore. One thing I DO NOT recommend is the movie Blood Red Sky on Netflix. Had to leave the room at times and fast-forward through parts of it. Nope, nope.
CURRENTLY ANTICIPATING
Kicking off our fall 2021 teacher training at Vidya Hot Yoga, and getting my fall teaching schedule ramped up here in Charlotte. After 9 years of teaching yoga and 12 years of teaching group fitness, I hit the wall last fall when we were about 6 months into the pandemic. I was feeling pretty burnt out and I cut my teaching schedule back to three classes a week.
This summer I have been slowly adding classes back and subbing as much as I can. I hope that I can add a couple of more for fall. It’s been so nice to be back in the studio and back to teaching again. I feel inspired and re-energized to teach!
CURRENTLY WISHING FOR
My sense of taste and smell to ever be right again after having COVID last November. It came back but not fully. I used to have a super sensitive sense of smell and now it’s like everything is muted. This is an extreme example but I can hardly smell dog poop when I’m scooping it up in the back yard. Some foods still taste/smell weird like coffee (smells like burning rubber but tastes okay), eggs, peanut butter (this makes me SO SAD) and dairy like cottage cheese, yogurt and ice cream (whyyyyy). There are a lot of fruits like bananas, apples and strawberries where I feel like all I can smell is super ripeness (even if it’s not overly ripe) of the fruit and it’s off-putting. I’ve all but lost my sweet tooth and crave salty way more than I ever have in my life.
In addition to food there are also things like soap, deodorant, laundry detergent, essential oil, toothpaste, etc that don’t smell the same.
This was an interesting article in the New York Times about long-term bizarre food smells. And these food diaries on Eater from people who lost taste/smell in COVID are interesting too. Everyone keeps telling me to give it up to a full year but at this stage in the game, I’m not holding out hope that it will ever be the same. I’m very grateful that I had an extremely mild case of COVID. I know if could be much worse than this but as foodie the long-term taste and smell issues are frustrating and disheartening. I am trying my hardest to continue eating the things that don’t taste right and to imagine they taste the way I remember. We shall see.
On a related note, Finn had a COVID antibody test recently and that came back positive so I am thankful he has some protection with all of the Delta variant craziness going on and him being too little to be vaccinated.
CURRENTLY LISTENING TO
When it comes to audiobooks, I am listening to Brene Brown read the 10th anniversary edition of her book The Gifts of Imperfection. I first read this book back in 2012 and I’m getting even more from it the second time around.
As far as music is concerned, I made a summer playlist for you on Spotify that features three hours of songs that have been on repeat for me lately.
CURRENTLY INDULGING IN
I am fully addicted to the New York Times Spelling Bee and I look forward to playing it every single day. It’s in the NYT Crossword App. You get 7 letters and have to make as many words as possible using the center letter. I have only reached the Genius level a handful of times. I seriously think it helps me decompress my brain and it’s helping me learn new words I always go and check the previous day’s words and oftentimes google the meaning of some of them!
CURRENTLY FEELING BLESSED BY
My sweet Finn. He’s so full of love, laughter and personality. I feel blessed to be his mom every single day. On Sunday morning he walked into the kitchen while I was making coffee and said, “Mommy, you look adorable.” Later that day, we were sitting in the den together when I got home from teaching yoga. He brought me my slippers, took off my flip flops, slid the slippers on my feel like a shoe salesman and said, “Does that feel nice Mommy?” He went on to get his music box out and serenaded me with Jingle Bells, Mary Had A Little Lamb and Old McDonald before going in the kitchen and getting the waffle iron out of the cabinet and telling me he wanted breakfast for dinner.
CURRENTLY PONDERING
My career and what direction I would like to focus on growing it.
CURRENTLY LOOKING FORWARD TO
Seeing my mom, dad and Mema. We don’t have a date set for a trip to Florida but I’m hoping to make it happen sooner rather than later.
QUESTIONS FOR YOU!
What are you currently in the market for?
What are you currently craving?
What are you watching?
What are you looking forward to?
Anyone else experiencing long-term taste/smell issues post-COVID?
Obviously not the same as COVID but I had a TBI with two skull fractures five years ago and my taste was all out of whack for about nine months. Some of the same things you mentioned. Coffee was disgusting when I used to love black coffee and peanut butter was just meh. It did eventually go back to normal though. Hoping the same for you!
I lost my sense of taste and smell for about a week in late February 2020, presumably from COVID (although I wasn’t tested – this was before loss of taste/smell was known to be a symptom, and my doctor told me that because I hadn’t traveled to China, it wasn’t COVID). It was devastating but mine came back fully, quickly. Wishing yours comes back fully as well!
Hi Jen! I loved this post – really fun to hear updates like this 🙂 If you’re willing I’d really love it if you wrote a post sharing more of what you’re thinking about your career. I’m in a similar space of uncertainty and would really love to hear your thought process!
Can’t recommend Dr. Tina Peck in Charlotte enough!
Love that you do the NYT Spelling Bee! I do it too. I had never been into it before (more a crossword girl myself), but it became a fun thing my husband and I did everyday during the pandemic while stuck at home together and it’s still going strong. We have a mini competition to see who can get to genius first and after we either get there or we give up we compare words (it’s amazing how often we come up with different words). I actually just learned that there is a secret easter egg level called “Queen Bee” when you get ALL the words for a particular day. We made it our mission to get there and I can proudly say it’s happened once (and never again since!).
I had covid in December and still haven’t fully gotten my sense of smell back. I am guessing my taste isn’t all the way back bc taste and smell go hand in hand, but don’t notice that as much. Funny thing is, my kids are to the age where their underarms stink and I can’t smell them anymore! Lol. I have to rely on my husband to tell me if they bathed good enough. It is frustrating though! I used to have such a keen sense of smell.
Hey Jen,
I had Covid, too and also lost my sense of taste and smell completely for a few (very, very hard days!!!). It came back after a while, but I don’t think it’s 100% back to normal. In the mornings smells are not as clear and sharp as they used to be. I’ve been struggling with fatigue though and as a 23 yo that sucks 😉 Wishing you all the best 🙂
Loved this post, and honestly…thank you for the no Nordstrom/Simone Biles talk. It was refreshing to just get caught up on what’s going on in your life! Hoping your taste and smell recover ASAP!! And Finn with the slippers…such a precious moment!
Thank you for not talking about the Nordstrom sale. I am so tired of seeing those posts, but I am not a shopper. Seeing so much focus on them just makes me feel a little icky if that makes sense? Like I know spending money is important for the economy/our economic recovery but it’s just a little over-the-top around Nordstrom sales.
Thank you from refraining from the Nordstrom sales talk. It’s too much “everywhere else.”
I am so sorry to hear your taste/smell has been affected all this time! I’m sending good vibes out that they return to normalcy soon.
I also appreciate your comments about finding a new therapist! It can be tough to find a good fit, especially after you’ve built such a long and trusting relationship with your previous therapist, but there is something to be said for establishing a relationship with someone new. Also sending you good vibes on that front!
I had COVID about a month ago and my smell/taste has not come back, I’d say we’re at 60-70% but that’s being sort of generous. Obviously this isn’t nearly as long-term as what you’re experiencing but I am worried. I feel like fattier foods are especially affected, I often have nuts or nut butters as snacks and now only really enjoy them if they’re extra salty. I love coffee and it sadly just tastes like dirty water these days. Hoping yours comes back soon! I’ve heard to drink water but isn’t that the solution for everything, ha!
I also love the Spelling Bee! I’m a crossword puzzle girl (literally have a book of the NYT puzzles that I just keep on my coffee table to do while I watch TV) so the Spelling Bee is a little bit different for my brain. I just do the free version so I don’t always get the panagram, but I feel so accomplished when I do!
I have not had COVID but I know a few people who got it and said that their taste/smell has not been right since. I hope it eventually comes back completely, that must be so frustrating!
Jen, if you haven’t been vaccinated, you may want to consider doing so, as it’s helped others with other long COVID-19 symptoms have some of those (finally) resolve. Just a random thought.
Finn is a treasure.