The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap

by A Purple Life, posted in Blogging, Early Retirement, Early Retirement Updates, Film, Fitness, Food, Hobbies, Keto, Musings, Travel
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Well, somehow I’m in Year 2 of retirement. That’s fucking weird 🙂 . In the same vein, 2022 is almost here. Basically time is a strange beast that I don’t understand. I’ve been busy here retelling the story of my career and writing up my normal annual posts, so we’re only getting into what I did in November now. Sorry for the delay 🙂 . Let’s see what I got up to:

We Lived In Santa Fe, NM!

For the month of November, we lived in Santa Fe, NM 🙂 . I’m going to write a Slow Travel Review and possibly a separate post about Santa Fe’s food at some point. The way we chose this city in the first place is that my partner suggested this town and I..was hesitant to agree 🙂 . In fact, I was a little scared to come to be honest.

I assumed Santa Fe would be a desert because it’s in the Southwest and deserts freak me out. However, my assumptions were wrong. Santa Fe was gorgeous, filled with trees and even snow capped mountains on the edge of town. It was not the scary desert I had imagined 🙂 .

The city is also not completely flat like I’d assumed (which I discovered quickly while running – how does running emphasize any slight incline SO much??). It’s very sunny like I thought, but not that warm in the fall because it sits at 7200 ft above sea level (another thing I didn’t know…).

Anyway, the point is, I once again was surprised with how much I enjoyed living in a random city we basically picked by throwing a dart at a map. At this point, I might just have to accept that I can be happy regardless of the city I’m living in….as long as there’s sunshine 🙂 .

I Completed NaNoWriMo!

For the second year in a row and the third time ever in my life – I completed National Novel Writing Month! It was definitely easier than last year where I took on this challenge while helping care for my baby cousin in Connecticut and going through the longest Presidential Election…ever 🙂 .

Instead, we had an intentionally down month where I tried to not have too many social outings planned so I could just write every day – and that worked! I even had at least an hour a day on my calendar blocked just to write, so I at least had to attempt it during that time. Between having the time and blocking the time, I did it and I didn’t even die doing it 🙂 . We’ll see if this can be an annual tradition.

Also, in case you want to join me on this challenge next year and be buddies, here’s my NaNoWriMo profile.

I Booked 2022 International Travel

My Mom and I found an Airbnb that her majesty (that’s my Mom 😉 ) approved of, so we booked it for the spring. We’re going to Merida, Mexico! This is the first time I’ll be in the Yucatan Peninsula outside of the very touristy Cancun, and I’m very excited! And then I quickly became scared:

So I guess I’m going to have a wild month! Hopefully my Spanish will improve greatly and I won’t embarrass myself too much. For background, I’ve never taken a Spanish class before, just French and Italian for a decade combined. Anyway, while I was booking everything, I realized that I’ve changed a bit from my frugal ways:

And in case any of y’all want to meet up, here’s where I’ll be next year – anything that’s not booked is pending:

  • January: NY State (BOOKED)
  • February: Phuket, Thailand with a layover in the Singapore Airport (BOOKED)
  • March: CT, NYC (BOOKED)
  • April: Merida, Mexico (BOOKED)
  • May: Merida, Mexico (BOOKED)
  • June: Phoenix, AX and Seattle, WA (BOOKED)
  • July: Seattle, WA
  • August: New Hampshire
  • September: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • October: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  • November: Buenos Aires, Argentina
  • December: CT, NY

I Tried To Get Digital Vaccine Confirmation…And Failed

Siiiigh. So after our flight to Thailand being changed approximately seventeen thousands times, we were on a flight that added a stop and made up for going the wrong way across the world 🙂 . We went from being on a flight from NYC to Singapore to Phuket, to a flight from NYC to Germany to Singapore (for 28 hour layover and we can’t leave the airport) to Phuket. So….less than ideal!

We found a way to not go the wrong way around the world: A Vaccinated Travel Lane Flight. So we jumped on that and after my Mom spent several hours waiting on the phone with Singapore Airlines, we were on the new flight. But then I dug into the specifics 🙂 . The Singapore Air website makes it seem like you need to have digital proof of your vaccination through one specific app. I naively thought that would be no big deal…

‘Twas a big deal. Apparently my home state of Georgia’s Governor, somehow banned digital versions of vaccination cards sooo how the fuck am I supposed to get these apps to travel internationally?!? I requested my immunization records from the state of Georgia, which they said would take 21+ business days to get to me, only to discover that it’s a piece of paper – not a digital record with a QR code like I needed. So then I called Walgreens where I got my shot and they said they don’t have digital records. Their social media team also said as much online:

So I was going down a spiral of trying to figure this out and basically concluded that if they didn’t accept my proof of vaccination, that I should prepare myself to be change to the around the world flight in the airport check out line (of course I’m not being dramatic…) I tried calling Singapore, tweeting at them and chatting with them online all to no avail (they did tweet back, but just with a link to what’s on their website, which I had obviously already read).

Luckily, before I had a full-on breakdown, my partner stepped in. He found a tiny part of their hidden FAQs that said, Transit passengers (which we are because we’re not going into Singapore, just the airport) can just bring paper or digital vaccination records in English. No QR code or fancy app needed.

Because I don’t trust anyone, I quickly screenshotted the parts of their website that said that and built up an argument in my head in case they give me any shit about it 🙂 . Anyway, partner to the rescue! Ugh, there’s never a dull moment over here 🙂 .

I Made A Dental Appointment In Mexico

I got a recommendation for an expat dentist in Merida from an expat that lives there, and I went to their Facebook page to book an appointment, which was a first for me. After some assistance from Google Translate, I was able to book a cleaning on Facebook Messenger.

I also emailed my last dentist to send me my x-rays so I can share them with this new dentist in Mexico! It was a surprisingly easy process and I’m very excited to see how it goes. It looks like without insurance, a cleaning in Merida is $250 to $600 pesos aka $12-30 USD. WHAT?!? I actually expected it to be way more, so we’ll see when I get there, but regardless, that estimate is amazing 🙂 .

Also just a fun trick I found: Since pesos to USD is about 20:1, I have just been moving the decimal to the left once and dividing by 2 to quickly get an idea of how much USD a peso amount is. Math magic!

I Caught Up On TV Shows

Retirement has had a lot less TV watching than I originally anticipated. The shows I wanted to watch keep piling up, so I made an effort to decrease that list this month and enjoyed:

  • Brooklyn 99 (The Final Season)

  • What We Do In The Shadows (Seasons 2 and 3)
  • Only Murders In The Building (Season 1) – My review here

I continue to be impressed with the amazing art that people continue to create in television and film. It gives me hope for the future 🙂 .

I Went To Austin for Thanksgiving

I attended my first Thanksgiving with others in years! When we visited Austin in September, my stepbrother mentioned that he was thinking of having a vaxxed only family Thanksgiving at his place and we decided to change our plans and come! So we went back this month and saw family I haven’t seen in 15 years…and then they cancelled a few days before 🙂 .

We still went and saved Thanksgiving! But seriously, even though it wasn’t what we expected given the cancellations, we had a lovely low-key Thanksgiving. It was also great to go back to Austin since we enjoyed our time there so much in September. It was a delicious time 🙂 .

I Read 6 Non-Fiction Books

This month I read:

  1. Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber
  2. Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty
  3. Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter
  4. How to Decide: Simple Tools for Making Better Choices by Annie Duke
  5. When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel H. Pink
  6. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
  7. The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood

My self-imposed 52 non-fiction books in the 52 weeks of 2021 challenge was going well! And spoiler alert: I hit my goal in December 🙂 . I’ll talk about it in that monthly recap of how all that felt, and I’m planning a whole post about this goal and how I accomplished it. If you’re curious about what I’m reading and my ratings of these books, I have a Goodreads account you can check out here.

I wrote 5 posts

In case you missed it, I published the below posts in November:

  1. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
  2. $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 1 “Is This Adulting?”
  3. $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 2 “Avoiding My Problems With Exercise & Consumerism”
  4. $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 3 “Discovering FIRE…And Ignoring It”
  5. $5K to Retirement In 9 Years: Year 4 “Catching A Unicorn”

In addition to all that, I was featured in an MSN article “Want to Retire Early? Learn from 30-Year-Olds Who’ve Done It” and I was on the Mile High FI Podcast while I visited Austin:

In addition, I recorded 2 other podcasts this month and will let y’all know when those come out.

I was also turned down from being in a Forbes article that someone suggested me for because I still refuse to give the media my human name – oh well. The downsides of anonymity!

I was asked to speak at a virtual summit in the spring and it’s the first time I’ve accepted a speaking gig! I decided to accept this invite because the summit is free for all and online.

A production company apparently noticed the film reviews on my Instagram and offered to send me a screener of a new movie they made so I could review it on my platform and gave the option that I could interview the director – COOL!!! I turned it down because I don’t want to be pressured into writing a review for a film when I don’t know if it meets my criteria of being awesome or unique, but it was shocking what can come from a love of film and random, mini-reviews that aren’t even on my main platform.

Continuing the trend of new avenues I didn’t expect this blog to open up, a travel company reached out asking to send me a free product in exchange for an Insta post and story. Once again, I’m not going to do that because I don’t post about something unless I love it (and I wouldn’t know I love it before trying it so that’s a no go). Once again though, it was cool to be asked! Especially for things that align with my interests and are outside the realm of finance 🙂 .

On a positive note, a local theater in Santa Fe that’s owned by George R. R. Martin, used one of my photos (with credit) on their Instagram feed! This was the first time that’s happened and I feel honored and feel like a part of the Santa Fe and film lovers community 🙂 .

In a similar vein, a delicious NYC ice cream shop used my photos with credit on their Instagram page. Am I a good photographer now?! I can’t believe this happened for the first time – twice – in one month 🙂 !

I Hung Out With People!

I met up with readers in Santa Fe and in Austin. Also in addition to a week for Thanksgiving surrounded by people, I kept up my three virtual weekly calls I’ve mentioned in previous posts. We also had a friend (who used to work with my Mom) visit us in Santa Fe. It was a lovely time 🙂 . Otherwise I laid low after our wild people and road trip filled October and it felt so good to my introvert brain 🙂 .

Physical

Sleep

Outside of this anomaly, sleep was great:

And even on that fateful night when my brain decided to plot against me, it only made me go to sleep 30 minutes or an hour later, which I made up the next morning by sleeping in AND having a nap in the afternoon 🙂 .

Naps have been particularly important because I got up early or stayed up late to see a few astronomical events. I felt so happy that I didn’t have a job to wake up to in the morning and instead could marvel at the beauty of our world and then pass the fuck out for as long as I feel like it 😉 .

Food

This was my first week experimenting with sticking to keto for a majority of the time we’re in a new location. I stayed on keto for three out of the four weeks we were in Santa Fe and then went hog wild trying all the carby things that last week. Though it was surprisingly easy to find keto options in Santa Fe when I was still on that train.

A new thing I tried was continuing to count calories even when I was off keto. I usually just put all my data nerdery aside and did whatever the fuck I want, but I was curious to see if keeping track would annoy me 🙂 or change my behavior.

Surprisingly I was not annoyed and it did change my behavior. I always forget how calorific carby dishes can be, so seeing that and how much I’d eaten in a day, did limit my snack intake and (hopefully) not cause me to gain weight since that has been a bit of a yo-yo battle this year.

Going forward, I’m going to try to maintain my weight while off keto and continue cutting while on it. This plan seemed to work since I lost another inch around my waste while also trying some fantastic breweries 🙂 . I also got into keto baking this month. I tried baking mug cake, bread and an egg loaf and they were all delicious. I also got into smoothies for a hot second – who knew peanut butter and berries were delicious together?!

Exercise

I’m still running 3x a week! The Just Run app took away my running breaks so I started running 20 minutes and increased to 30 minutes without stopping to complete their Couch to 5K program! Now I need to see if I want to step it up to 10K…TBD lol.

Surprisingly, after being staunchly anti-running, I look forward to my runs now. Not all of them are easy, but I’m always happy I did it and it’s been a fun activity to do with my partner as well (even though he’s way faster than me and I am unfortunately very competitive 😉 ). I’ve even gotten my Mom into it:

I also started using Strava app to keep track of my pace, and discovered they have “segments” which are basically different trails and running locations that other people have done in the area, which has been great to have since we move around so much! I also found a few things on the running subreddit helpful: how to dress during a run and songs based on your pace.

Overall though, it seems like this is a new habit! I’m curious to see how it goes when we head to the great white north and it’s bloody freezing and snowing, but that’s an adventure for another time 🙂 .

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Santa Fe, NM

  • Santa Fe was founded in 1610 as the capital of Nuevo México, after it replaced the capital San Juan de los Caballeros, which makes it the oldest state capital in the United States!
  • With an elevation of 7,199 feet (2,194 m), Santa Fe is also the state capital with the highest elevation.
  • Santa Fe is considered one of the world’s great art cities because of its many art galleries and is recognized by UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network (which I’d never heard of until this month…)
  • In 2012, the city was listed among the 10 best places to retire in the U.S. by CBS MoneyWatch and U.S. News & World Report (I can definitely see that 😉 ).
  • While living here, I kept seeing signs in breweries about limiting a customer to 3 or 4 beers, which I’d never seen before. So I looked into it and learned that it’s just something done in New Mexico as a result of concerns around drunk driving. Very interesting.
  • Some fun people who are from Santa Fe include George R. R. Martin (which makes sense given my exploration of his local theater and bookstore), fashion designer Tom Ford and artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
  • I learned about Ristra, which are those hanging arrangements of drying chile pepper pods that I’ve only seen in movies. In addition to this practical use, the ristra is a decorative trademark of New Mexico and southern Arizona.

Astronomy

Sunsets were absolutely gorgeous in Santa Fe. We had a mostly western facing house so they became a lovely thing to watch every evening. I’m not sure if the amount of colors in the sunset was a result of the elevation or what, but the flat land of New Mexico definitely helped since you can see this light show from anywhere.

Overall, Santa Fe was a wonderful place for astronomy exploration. I often watched Jupiter and Saturn float across the sky and learned new constellations: Equuleus, Aquila, Scutum, Vulpeca, Cygnus, and Leo!

There was also a Meteor Shower that I got up at 5am to watch and it was lovely 🙂 .

I also got to see the longest Lunar Eclipse in 500 years! I stayed up until 3am to watch this one and was so excited that I did. If you don’t know what a lunar eclipse looks like, check out this gorgeous art:

Or if video livestreams are more your thing, here it is in all its glory:

Flora

Since New Mexico basically looks like a far away planet, I was curious about the new plants I was seeing. Here are the new ones I learned:

  • Rose-gold pussy willow: This is a species of willow that’s native to Korea, Japan and China
  • Whipple cholla: This is a shrub species in the cacti family that was native to the US
  • Sweet grass: A grass native to the southwestern US!
  • Autumn sage: And finally, a perennial plant that is native to only a small strip within the Southwestern US. So local!

Birds

I had a fun bird moment this month:

Outside of realizing I’m apparently a huge nerd, I saw these local beauties in Santa Fe:

Western Bluebird, Williamson’s Sapsucker, Curve-billed Thrasher, Sage Thrasher, Spotted Towhee, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Cassin’s Vireo, Northern Flicker, House Finch, American Crow, Tufted Titmouse, Mountain Chickadee, Black-throated Sparrow, Hermit Thrush, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Bewick’s Wren, Black-billed Magpie, Pinyon Jay, Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay, Townsend’s Soltaire, Great-tailed Grackle, Pygmy Nuthatch, Juniper Titmouse, Brown Creeper, White-crowned Sparrow, and White Winged Doves

Random Shit

  • My favorite new show, Ted Lasso, taught me the phrase: “Semantic satiation,” which is when a word becomes a sound and that happened to me a few times this month 🙂
  • I learned that you can put bananas with avocados in a bag to ripen the avocados quickly. It works because apparently the plant hormone ethylene (which is in fruits like apples and bananas), triggers the ripening process. When both are in a brown paper bag together, that helps to trap the ethylene gasses produced by these fruits, which can cause the fruits to ripen faster together
  • My partner told me that the Chevron logo shape is called a Chevron and used in UX design to show rank – I’ll never unsee it 🙂
  • At 32 years old I learned what the laundry symbols on clothes mean. How did I get this far in life, doing my own laundry since I was a kid, without knowing these you ask? Because I only buy clothes that can be washed and dried intentionally…until now I guess. I noticed that my new running clothes shrank a little in the wash, looked at instructions, and learned that I was not supposed to put them in a dryer, which is fine since they dry super fast, but now I know!
  • After watching the hilarious bad movies Deep Blue Sea 2 and 3, my friend and I learned that some sharks can have up to 300 babies at once – WHAT?!
  • When you watch a talking head YouTube video and the audio sounds like it’s not coming out of their mouth or it’s not the same volume or tone as the rest of the audio, that’s “ADR”, which stands for “Automated Dialogue Replacement”. It’s a funny title actually since there is nothing really “automated” about it.
  • To end this section, check out this crazy Iceberg shit:

Creativity

Similar to last year, I was worried about my creativity waning during and after attempting NaNoWriMo, but was happy that I made it through mostly unscathed 😉 . My ability to write did start to flag during the last bit of the month, but I expected that since it had happened the year before and I wrote like a fiend during the first few weeks, so it all worked out 🙂 .

Music, as always, helped my creativity to flow, and I discovered this banger of my song by two of my favorite artists on Spotify’s Release Radar:

Also, feel free to listen to this if you’re in surround sound or with headphones because it’s wonderfully freaky:

Emotional

This month my emotions were on point! I was steady, calm and had no depressive episodes this month, which was awesome since they’re usually a monthly phenomenon at least (maybe running is even better magic than I thought 😉 …). I still had some anxiety around people per usual (it’s still a pandemic y’all…), but I’m getting better with it.

Music also continues to help regulate my mood and something funny has been happening – if the playlist gets to a song that I use while running, while I’m at home, I start mock running to the beat. It’s ridiculous. It’s Pavlovian now I guess 🙂 .

Money

Ah money – my relationship with it is so odd 🙂 . After obsessing over it by necessity for the first half of my career, and out of choice the second half while I was on the path to FI…I really don’t care anymore 🙂 . And similar to when I achieved DGAF status at work, it’s only helped me – AKA life is ridiculous and counterintuitive. Despite not thinking about money anymore, here’s where I stand retirement-wise:

I also achieved a milestone I did not expect to see this decade:

As always, I’m going to do an annual recap of my income and spending for the year so stay tuned for that if you want all the details 🙂 .

Conclusion

And that was November! It was a wonderful month filled with sunshine, running and writing. I hope I can replicate that kind of chill vibe again sometime soon 🙂 .

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly

  1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
  2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
  3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
  4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
  5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
  6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
  7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
  8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
  9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
  10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
  11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
  12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly

  1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
  2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
  3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
  4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
  5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
  6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
  7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
  8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
  9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
  10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap

How was your month?

12 thoughts on “The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap”

  1. HI- are you still planning to go to Thailand, now that they have reintroduced mandatory 7 day quarantine? My boyfriend and I have a trip booked there for January and we are going to cancel if it doesn’t get rolled back 🙁

    Reply

    1. Hi – we are. The quarantine is for everywhere but Phuket, which is where we are going. However even if they add quarantine there it’s not like I have anything else to do in retirement 😉 . Happy to sit at my personal pool for 1-2 weeks since that’s what I was planning to do anyway.

      For your trip though I hope they roll the rules back so y’all can go!

      Reply

  2. I can’t speak for Youtube, but in the film industry, ADR usually stands for additional/automated dialogue replacement. Before a few decades ago, most lines in films were recorded later in studio due to sound mixing technology being quite poor on location. I presume the automated part just refers to the idea that cutting-edge (for the time) machinery was involved in the process.

    Reply

  3. You also read Debt: The First 5000 Years in November?! So did I-learned a ton, too! Great minds think alike… 🙂

    Congrats on hitting $750K! And on completing NaNoWriMo again! And on becoming a social media influencer! 🙂

    Looks like life in Purple-land is always interesting!

    Reply

    1. Yes indeed! I feel like I heard about it from someone – maybe we were similarly influenced 😉 . And thank you!

      Reply

  4. The situation in Singapore seems to be falling apart quickly as they react to even the most minor uptick in CV in dramatic fashion. I would not be keen on the Singapore transit option as I believe they move you to a transit area isolated from the rest of the terminal so it’s not the normal Singapore transit experience. Not sure if you purchased your ticket or used a Star Alliance award, but have you thought of going NYC – FRA on Lufthansa then direct from FRA to HKT on Thai Airways? Thai only fly Wed, Fri, Sunday but to me it would be worth rejigging the schedule to avoid that Singapore connection. I also think if you go via Doha or Helsinki you can fly direct to Phuket.

    Reply

  5. Hey Purple – love your posts as usual!

    What you said here is super inspiring for me: “I once again was surprised with how much I enjoyed living in a random city we basically picked by throwing a dart at a map.”

    Because being able to travel at random places and fully enjoy the local experience to be able to go anywhere you want, whenever you want = definition of freedom for me.

    Also low-key super jealous of your travel itinerary! I just went to Tulum, Mexico for 9 days and it was a blast even though I got food poisoning. The sunshine, in contrast to the dark NYC days, is super refreshing and being able to go to Thailand / Mexico during winter months is just such a great way to break out of the routine. Hopefully one day I can travel long-term like you because I loved Mexico and don’t mind just staying at the beach for another month and doing nothing.

    Reply

    1. Thank you Angie! And yeah that was a lovely surprise of retirement. I’m sorry you got food poisoning and hope you’re feeling better. I’ve never been to Tulum and am excited to visit. Good luck with your plans!

      Reply

  6. Thanks for posting and love reading everything you write. Also, that was the first time I heard you talk on a podcast, and your radio voice is the most incredible ever!!! I know you grew up in Georgia but didn’t pick up any southern drawl at all when you talked.

    So I have a question – if your FIRE goal was originally $500K, if you met your twin who was about as frugal as you are, but was single and not partnered up, what FIRE goal would you recommend to her?

    Reply

    1. Oh wow – thank you so much!!! As for your question, I really don’t know unfortunately. I like to base my projected retirement budget on facts so I would see what it cost to live as a single person for a year in the area I wanted to live and then aim for something around that number.

      Reply

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