B is for Best Buys #AMonthofFaves #PandemicAlphabet

I’m still participating in A Month of Faves. It’s still being hosted by Tanya and Kim at Girlxoxo with prompts up on Kim’s Instagram.

⭐ DEC 7 – Favorite Products/Small Shops⁠
(Favorite small business, mug, bookmark, bookish clothing, blanket, anything you purchased in 2020 that you love)⁠

Work from Home

Okay, basically everything I bought that I love this year was to improve my work from home situation.

Everything in that picture that I bought this year so I can comfortably (mostly) work from home:

• desk (Ikea)
• chair (Office Depot)
• foot rest (Amazon)
• headphone holder (Amazon)
• desktop computer (Lenovo all-in-one via Nestegg)
• privacy screen to help cut that blue light glare (Amazon)
• monitor stand (Amazon)

(I also bought the frame in the top corner for my daughter’s self-portrait! Not a WFH purchase, but I just remembered the frame is recent and it makes me happy.)

Regular readers know that I share a one-bedroom apartment with my daughter. Because she was taking acting and needed the living room, I would sometimes have to go on meetings in my room. At some point, I realized that trying to balance my laptop on a pillow while I was sitting on my bed was a horrible and uncomfortable idea. Also, sitting on my bed wasn’t that great either. So I bought a back pillow and a bed tray. GAME CHANGERS.

Other Winning Purchases

• I bought face shields for our flight back from the east coast, and that helped a lot (A LOT) with my peace of my mind. Shout-out to my friend Leah (who rides the subway in NY) for hipping me to these.
• Pool equipment! As soon as our pool opened back up, I ordered water weights and a water belt so I could try to replicate the workouts I was doing at the Y in the Before. (I MISS THE Y AND ITS INDOOR HEATED POOL SO MUCH.) (Did I mention it’s indoors and heated? HEATED.)
• I also bought an Xbox 360 that I was too busy to play, even though one of the games I bought is perfect for working out at home. I just hate working out at home by myself, so. I just take a lot of walks. And use the pool when it’s not too cold. (It’s currently too cold.) But it was fun to play a couple of games with my friend for that one month or so using Xbox Live.

Non-Pandemic Related Purchases

• I upgraded my Fitbit to a waterproof one so I could use it in the pool.
• I bought an organizer for my mail because the basket situation was untenable. This way, I can separate out my daughter’s mail, keep the coupons and stuff in their own slot, and am less likely to let the mail pile up the way it was before. For example, my personal mail slot is currently full so I am going to go ahead and take care of that in the next few days.
• My daughter’s friend is staying with us at least through the new year, which means I finally broke down and bought a shower caddy. It was way past time for one of those. WAY.

Oh right, and because the IBS program from Healthy Audio (affiliate link, please use my link if you decide to buy!) worked so well, I also bought the stress and anxiety programs because my headaches are still a disaster. I finished the stress one, which was interesting because I have been more easily able to identify/feel stress in different parts of my body, so I’m like, “Oh! I’m stressed!” I am still unclear if this is a good or a bad thing, tbh.

The anxiety one is still in progress but I just did a symptom check in and most of my symptoms have improved by a lot. (The stress one, surprisingly, did not come with a symptom rater.) (Also, the symptom rating has been super important during the anxiety one because I was thinking that it wasn’t working and I should just give it up and then it was time to check my symptoms and they had actually improved so I knew it was working.) (Also, and this is probably a different post, but I am just starting to accept that I am actually an anxious person so this helped a lot with me getting closer to fully accepting it.) (I am the only person surprised that I am an anxious person.) (It has been a journey.) (Like I said: different post.)

I do believe that is it! I mean, obviously, I bought more stuff but these are the things that best fit the prompt even if only maybe one or two came from small businesses.

I’m also counting this for the Pandemic Alphabet since so many of these purchases were because of the pandemic or, in the case of Healthy Audio, heavily influenced by the circumstances.