I used to hate yoga but now I like it

I used to hate yoga but now I like it.

That sentence right there is one that I thought I’d never write. Ever. When I was a Freshman in high school my mom made me take a yoga class with her. She said it would relieve my stresses and anxieties. I rolled my eyes (mostly because the only thing stressing me out was passing my crush in the hallways and not knowing where to make my eyes go), but I went to the class. For her. Not for me. And that is exactly why I think I hated it. I wasn’t doing it for myself. Ok, I also hated it because, for some reason, when I take any type of exercise class with my mom the instructor, without fail, picks on me. One time my mom almost had to leave a Zumba class because she was laughing so hard AT me and my interactions with the teacher. It’s bad.

via

But anyways, I think I didn’t like yoga because the first few times I went I did it for my mom and not for myself. Which makes an unbelievable difference. It’s like when someone tells you to eat brussel sprouts because you have to. They’re gross when forced. But if you’re at a fun restaurant and you try them, you’re happily surprised.
Yoga, to me, is metaphorically the vegetable of workouts. Something you hate when you’re younger but then like when you’re older.

So a few weeks ago, my cousin mentioned that I should join her for a yoga class called “fun flow.” She said the instructor was super nice, people in the class were probably around my level, and the music was fun. She convinced me. And you know what? I liked it. Wait, no, I like-liked it.

Crazy. Wild. Insane, some might say.

I finally understand why people are addicted to it. It’s challenging, but there are moments of serenity and calmness. You learn how to listen to your body and feel your breaths. You meditate, but only as much as you want or need to. It’s hard, but if it’s too hard you can simply make adjustments to make it easier. It’s finding the balance of what your body wants and what it needs, which I guess I was incapable of accomplishing when I was 14.

So yeah, now I like yoga. I’m still not sure I’ll ever do a workout class with my mom again, but I’ll definitely give yoga a new ranking on my fake scale of “likes.”

namaste,
chloe

saturday to saturday: 2

It’s Saturday again! You know what that means!

If you don’t know what that means, then hi, happy Saturday. My name is Chloe Gordon and I write this blog. Every Saturday (for the past two Saturdays) I share the contents of my camera roll. I don’t hide anything from you because I’m a transparent and authentic blogger who wants to make sure to make it as easy as possible for anyone in the entire world to either blackmail me OR find me relatable and friend worthy. Either one suffices. I keep my demographic interesting.

Kidding.

This past week was kind of boring to be honest. I had a dreadful case of cabin fever or Wednesday, which means I didn’t leave the house and it made me feel anxious and overwhelmed with existential thoughts such as “what am I doing with my life,” “what’s the point of anything anyways,” “why are so many college graduates unemployed,” etc. But then, on Thursday I worked out twice and felt amazingly better, and while I still don’t have the answers to those questions, I do feel like I will eventually have my life more together.

But you’re not reading this post because you’re interested in my existential thoughts. You’re here because you want to be nosy and see what I take pictures of. I get it. I know.

You ask and I shall deliver.
Continue scrolling dear, close friend.

This might seem crazy, but I HATE shopping. I don’t have the patience for it, but even if I did I just hate the whole process. But because I love clothes and especially new clothes, my mom makes it easy and shops for me a lot of the time. For example, she sent me a link to these jeans and was like “you’d look so cute in these.” So I trusted her and bought them. I had to send her a picture of me in them. So here’s that picture.

I was going to make a blog post about these brussel sprouts because I anticipated that they would be SUPER good, but they were just average and not worth dedicating a whole post to. Super easy to make so if you’re in a pinch for time I would recommend. Otherwise, pretty average.

This is the previous picture but the “after” version.

The infamous bread picture. Scroll down to the previous post to read the drama and SCANDAL behind this picture.

My dog stopped to pee on a fire hydrant and I giggled to myself that it was so cliche it was worth a picture. Looking back, it’s not that funny.

I’m always in the market for a new podcast because I’m an unemployed millennial and what else would I do with my spare time? ManRepeller shared an article with a list of podcasts and this one obviously caught my eye. I listened to it while I walked my dog and my neighbors probably thought I was psycho because I was laughing out loud throughout the entire walk. It’s about exactly what you’d think it would be about.

On Sunday I went bowling with a group here called Friendship Circle. It’s essentially a program for volunteers and young adults with special needs to bowl together and have a great time. This was our first meeting and I had the best time. Not to mention I get HYPE about bowling.

I took a screen shot of my saved posts on Instagram because, well, look how pretty it is.

My grandpa’s BFF / my new BFF had the most gorgeous peonies at her house this past week. I thought they were out of season, but somehow she had them. They’re real! How crazy!

I went to Waffle House this past week which, if you know me, is a huge deal. I should be sponsored by them by now, but it’s fine, I’ll continue to eat their greasy fresh goodness. If you’re curious, I can’t eat eggs so I order the hash brown bowl with cheese, sausage, tomatoes, and mushrooms. Next time I’m definitely adding jalepenos.

And that’s all. I hope you enjoyed.
Thanks for reading / viewing.
chloe

insta-toast

Something interesting happened on my instagram account this past week.
Well, it was interesting to me at least. 

Here’s the story.
Get this: it was a normal morning. I had walked my dog, and, as always, strutted my stuff on the elliptical machine. I continued to make my usual morning smoothie and toast. After I drank my smoothie, I started buttering my toast.
But this, this buttering of the toast, is where things start to get interesting. 

“This is inspirational and beautiful.” I said to myself. 

“No it’s not, it’s your endorphins talking.” I retorted back. 

Drama heightens. 

Butter melts. 

Inspiration flickers off of said butter. 

Before you click out of this post because you think I’m actually psychotic, no, I didn’t actually have this internal monologue. I mean kinda sorta, but not this dramatic.
Have you ever heard of a joke?
No?
Well, allow me to explain. It’s something that makes a story more vividly interesting. It allows the reader to feel engrossed in the plot. Ok? We’re on the same page now? Great! 

Moving on. 

I decided that my toast was, in fact, gorgeous and I felt the need to share it on my Instagram account. Something about the way it looked was perfect, in my opinion. Part of me felt weird about posting it, but the other half couldn’t have cared less. I mean if someone thinks it’s a weird thing to post then they can unfollow me as easily as they followed. Right? Right. But you know what? Somehow, some way, this picture of toast has almost 200+ likes. How? Honestly, I have no idea. But it does, and the numbers don’t lie. I’m slightly embarrassed by it because a picture of my face got less likes than a picture of toast, but you win some you lose some.  Not that likes matter, because according to some sources, likes are leaving the app any day now.

Actually, I think I might know why it got so many likes, comparatively.
Instagram is monotonous. And boring. And uninspiring. And while this picture of toast might not be that inspiring, it is different than everything else that’s posted on people’s feeds. So I think that’s why it gained likes and comments. Not because it’s that great of a photo, but because it’s unique. And people inherently like unique things. 

So go post some weird sh*t on your Instagram. If it doesn’t get likes, stay cool because it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Unless you’re like the president of the United States…. hah, wait no, it still doesn’t matter apparently. Boom roasted. 

Moral of the story? Do what you want.

Thanks for reading,
chloe 

virtual weight off my shoulders

Read receipts. To be, or not to be? THAT, my friends, is the question.

It’s something I’ve been battling with these past few days. Sure, to you it might seem trivial, unimportant, or a total waste of energy, but to me it’s a grueling mental debate that I’ve been having with myself for approximately the past 39 hours. So what else does one do with this information? They blog about it. Why? Because it will allow me to put my thoughts and feelings out there, and like, three of you, will enjoy reading about what goes on inside my beautiful mess of a brain. So, to the three of you, you’re welcome. To the others of you, just keep scrolling down or go read your other favorite blog (if there’s even such a thing). Kidding.
Kind of.

Anyways, I digress.

I’ve had my read receipts on my text messages for the past year and a half. I thought it was nice to let my friends know when I had seen their texts, and it just felt, honestly, powerful. It made me feel like I didn’t care if someone knew I had read their message and didn’t respond. It made me feel like people knew that I hadn’t read their message, but I would respond once I saw it. I don’t know, something about it made me feel some type of way. But a good some type of way.

But a few days ago, it hit me. When I have my read receipts on, it makes me feel like I have to respond. It made me feel rude if I opened a text, the person on the other side knew it, and I didn’t respond. I hated feeling this sense of a responsibility to respond. It started to make me feel some type of way. But a bad some type of way. Honestly, texting became a chore. And a game. A chore of a game.

So since I was feeling overwhelmed with this conundrum, I decided to turn my receipts off. And you know what? I feel better about it. I feel liberated. I feel like I can end a conversation without feeling like a jerk. I feel like I don’t have to rush to respond to a message after I read it. I felt like a virtual weight was released from my real life shoulders. Dramatic? Maybe, but you don’t make the rules around here.

So, what’s the lesson from this post? Is there one? Maybe a small one. We can either choose to feel defeated by our digital devices or should I say deVICES (heh) or we can tackle them head on and remind ourselves that we control them, they don’t control us. Again, yes, I realize this is dramatic, ok?

Anyways, I’m curious, do you have your read receipts on or off and why?

thanks for reading!
chloe

gift guide 2019

This year has flown by. It’s insane. I think, of all the years I’ve been alive, this is the year that has consisted of the most change. For better or worse, everything has changed. If you asked me a year ago where I’d be I would have stared at you like you were the devil. It was a question that freaked me out. I had no idea where I’d be or what I’d be doing or who I’d still be in touch with. In the past year I’ve graduated college, began and ended friendships and relationships, moved to Alabama to live with my grandfather, started, ended, and searched for jobs. I’ve cried, I’ve laughed, and I’ve cried while laughing. It’s been a lot, but mostly in the best way possible. Not to get cheesy or dramatic but I think the holidays are so special because it’s the time of year where we reflect upon the past and make goals for the future. It’s kind of like a reset and a revamp if you will. Plus, it’s nice to be surrounded by family and friends.
I really love the holiday season if you can’t tell.

That being said, the holidays can be stressful when it comes to gifts. I know we all like to believe that the holidays aren’t just about giving and receiving gifts, but we all know deep down that they are a big part of it. It’s how we show our appreciation and thanks to those that we love. And, I don’t know about you, but I love to give people the most perfect present ever. I’ve compiled a set of gifts that I think would be perfect to give any woman in your life. Whether it be for your mom, sister, cousin, aunt, grandma, etc. There’s a range of prices and reasons in this guide, but I hope that they can at least inspire a gift for someone that you love + maybe make it a little easier on you as well.

Happy shopping!
chloe

book review: daisy jones & the six

Here we are with another book review. It’s a good one. A really, really good one. But before I get started, I want to share a fun story. During my second semester of senior year in college I interned at an advertising agency in Denver. There were six interns in the program and we formed our own little “mini agency” of sorts. We had our roles, I was the copywriter, but there was also an account manager, an art director, analytics director, new business/pr, and a UX/UI gal. We made a solid team. On the first day of the internship, we were assigned desks and I happened to be placed next to the analytics intern who also went to the same college. We had never met, but we instantly hit it off. Throughout the day, we ended up sharing our schedules for the semester and realized that we had the same Monday night class: event planning. The first day of our internship fell on the first Monday of classes so we had class together later that night.

We both had other friends in the class so we didn’t sit next to each other, but during the class the teacher assigned random groups of 2-3 people that we’d be partnered with for the entire semester. If you’re thinking that we were partnered together, then hey! you’re right! Good guess! Ever since that first Monday of meeting each other, we spent a majority of our days together, we were instant friends, and we always joke (slash seriously say) that we were meant to be friends. Something in the universe knew that we needed each other in our lives. So, Natalie, if you’re reading this, I’m thankful for you ;)

By now, if you’re not Natalie, you’re probably wondering why I’m sharing this story. Well, you’re in luck because I’m about to tell you. Natalie and I decided that since we’re living in different states now (sad, very sad) we should start our own little mini book club made up of only us. We decided that we’d read a book a month and then have FT fates to discuss them. I was in charge of picking the first book which was A LOT of pressure, but, after an hour and a half in the book store, it turned out to be ok and we both finished the book within a week and a half. A good read. A great read, really.

I picked Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid because I had a very long conversation with a woman in the airport about it a few weeks back. She convinced me that it was a good one, and I trusted her, luckily.
It’s a book about a band from the late 70s. It’s all about sex, drugs, and rock and roll. But, despite that, it’s not cliche. It’s written in the style of an interview which I didn’t realize until I started reading it (obviously) but I fell in love with this style. It’s almost like reading the juiciest Rolling Stone article out there.

While this book is fictional, I constantly had to remind myself that these people and this story isn’t real. It’s that realistic which is kind of disappointing because I want to hear the songs that they describe. I don’t want to give too many details away but if you liked Once Upon A Time in Hollywood and if you like music and if you like the 70s vibe, you’ll dig this book. It’s dramatic, but not overly so if that makes sense. Also, the ending was pretty cute which makes a difference in my humble opinion. If the ending sucks I just leave the book with a sour taste in my mouth, and I hate it.

My favorite quote in the book goes like this, “And that terrified the hell out of me. I didn’t want to push him in. I would never push him in but…. it scared me that the only thing between this moment of calm and the biggest tragedy of my life was me choosing not to do it. This really tripped me out that everyone’s life was that precarious. That there wasn’t some all-knowing mechanism in place that stopped things that shouldn’t happen from happening. That’s something had always scared me. And that’s how it felt being around Daisy Jones.”

My Rating: 4.5/5 stars
.5 off of a 5 because while I' loved it a lot, it’s not THE BEST BOOK I’ve ever read. They can’t all be 5’s, unfortunately.

Natalie’s Rating: 5/5 stars
I’d rate it a 5/5 bc it gives an inside perspective to what rock n roll bands were made of back n the day. And it’s also a love story between two people that you don’t want to be together but you also want them to be together.

If you’ve read the book, let me know your thoughts in the comments or DM me on Instagram! Let’s chat about it.

Thanks for reading!
chloe