24 Comments
Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

Would love the discussion of getting back into hobbies. I'm always fascinated by how people spend their free time and I can feel the world opening up as my daughter finishes 1st grade. But I'm so entrenched in our routine/boring and old that I cant' quite get to the place where I find/sign up for/attend a . . .. something. I like all of your stuff and even the topics that are heavier never feel too heavy.

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Thank you! I will put that out there before too long.

I don't know how old you are but I found that milestone birthdays (40 for me) were a good time to pull the trigger on some things I always wanted to do/get back into which includes guitar and learning Spanish (I took Latin in HS and Italian in college...both fun but not very applicable today.) I def don't have time to work on these every day diligently but at least a few times a week I touch the ol' axe.

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

Yes, me too! I was coming here to make this same comment. My youngest is in 5th grade, and your time is coming so soon!

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

“deluxe car wash version of toiletries.” this is what I come for, lady 💞 ps thank you for sharing all this! Great to see a parent juggling work (while bringing carafes of coffee into bed, yes please). ✍️🫶🏽⛵️

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

This was such a joy to read! I’m nosy so I LOVE peeks into other people’s lives and who better to creep on than THE witch? Also, kudos to you for doing OrangeTheory post-peel. My face feels like it’ll fall off and OrangeTheory is no joke (went once and never again… pretty sure I slid off the treadmill).

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my deal with myself is that I don't run--too many tiny dumb injuries to be worth it. I still get into the orange/red if I walk on an incline but mentally I can handle that more than running!

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

Fellow power walker, I see you 👀

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the few, the proud, the strong-assed

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

I also enjoy watching stand up specials when I'm exercising! The people at the Y probably think I'm crazy for laughing so much. The only problem is there aren't enough on Netflix (the only app that works at my gym) and I have no time for the edgelord ones, ugh.

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I have been watching the Jacqueline Novak one and I like HER a lot but I don't want to think about penises that much while I exercise.

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

FAIR 🍆

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You are a kind and inclusive person!

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aw <3

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Mar 6Liked by Claire Zulkey

:) Josie and the Pussycats was one of those movies that greatly influenced my teen years and I didn't realize it until I re-watched it as an adult.

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It’s so underrated.

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Omg. It’s TERRIBLE. I am one of those ppl who hyper-tastes bitter things like grapefruit and 90% dark chocolate and it would not leave my taste buds…

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Honestly? I love seeing how people do life. I think it’s a service to all of us—especially parents!

I also have two boys, also love JLD (I loved her podcast!), and can attest to the anti-nail-biting polish for my oldest kid. It works.

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OMG once I got like a whiff of the nailpolish in my mouth and it was HORRID! I couldn't get it out. And I don't even bite my nails. The reviews for the polish are really funny on Amazon b/c the AI bots say "People complain about the taste" b/c the bots don't understand the bad taste is the POINT

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Mar 5Liked by Claire Zulkey

I am impressed by all you are doing! I sometimes try to plan out an editorial calendar but then usually can’t stick to it and just go with what I most want to write or seems most pressing. I think the more winging it approach works well sometimes.

Also now I’m wondering if I should be doing orange theory. Do you generally like it?

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same. editorial planning is a bit like meal planning. What if I don't WANT to eat chili on Thursday etc.

I DO like OT! I had been thinking I wanted to switch up my exercise routine b/c of the ol' looming menopause when I ended up chatting with a mom at kids' baseball and it turned out she was a coach there so of course she was an evangelist for it so she got me in the door. I like the 3x a month plan--it's pretty attainable and I tend to go to the 8:30 AM Sunday classes which isn't so early I don't have time to rot in bed and drink coffee, not so late that the day feels gone when it's over. I like that nothing is so hard that you can't get through it for 8-15 minutes or so. You can toil at your own pace more or less. I don't feel like people are watching *me*--in fact most people in the class seem like they're my age or older. I know some people get REALLY into it and do all the challenges and get gear etc. I don't, but I am very happy that I dipped into it.

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Mar 6Liked by Claire Zulkey

Ooh, this is all good to know. I have a friend who does it and was thinking about it and then abruptly forgot about it but am now curious!

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For Chicago-based readers, will you share where you had the peel done and if you were happy with the results/thought it was worth the money? Finding legit dermatologists and aestheticians who are actually highly trained and skilled is so rough!

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Mar 5·edited Mar 5Author

yes! I go to SARA aesthetics in Morton Grove. I have known Dr. Dickie as a school mom friend first before I let /asked her start doing stuff to my face (I have had her do fillers around my nose/mouth as well). Knowing her as a person made me trust her more (I know she still looks like her mother, for instance.) She also does volunteer work in other countries on like children with cleft palates etc and she painlessly removed a longstanding cyst my son had on the side of his head which was a big deal since he was a real needlephobe for a long time.

I think the first time I got the laser done about 2 years ago I saw the most significant results--I didn't realize how many brown spots and whatnot I had. It also tightens the pores which I didn't think was possible. It looked like I had just had a photo filter applied to my entire face.

Second time the results were more subtle since I didn't have 42 years' worth of stuff to burn off; I may wait longer to do it again next time

https://sara.surgery/

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Ahh thank you so much!! Looking into her practice now!

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