The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap

Time seriously needs to slow down because this is getting ridiculous 🙂 . 2024 is half over and I’m barely used to saying the year correctly. Oh well 🙂 .

After a too wild April, I had a pretty relaxing May, which was much needed to recover from a social April and because June was going to be another (wonderfully) social month. So let’s see what I got up to!

I Explored Upstate NY

I knew I had to be in NY State for a wedding in June, so my Partner and I planned our month around it. We stayed in a random town (Cambridge, NY) for a month and then went to visit some family. The wedding itself was also an interesting experience. My college friend was getting married and I saw a few people that I haven’t seen since college…13 years ago. Where did the time go 🙂 ?

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Anyway, after that social outing was done, I had a lovely time exploring the northeast with family. We had picnics, went to parks, ran all over the place and even spent a day adventuring on a lake in Vermont. I also had a sleepover with a college friend, enjoyed movie nights with family and had a game night with my niblings. It was a wonderful, heartwarming time all around 🙂 .

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I Played Video Games

I’m back on a Sims kick 🙂 . There was a sale on most Sims packs, which is the only time I buy them 😉 . I picked up the Growing Together Expansion Pack for 50% off because I heard it completely changes family gameplay. I generally don’t really do family gameplay because I find the kids in the game boring and annoying, but this pack changed all that…so much so that I think this should be part of the Base Game (just like Seasons, but don’t even get me started on that 🙂 ).

Anyway, the Growing Together pack gives Infants and Toddlers multiple unique traits that provides a surprisingly enjoyable challenge with each new kid and makes them different with their own little personalities, which is great.

I Practiced My Singing

I mentioned on here before that part of my weekly ritual is listening to Spotify’s Discover Weekly personalized playlist every Monday. Well one Monday this month led me down a rabbit hole. An artist I hadn’t heard of named Kristen Cruz was on my list and I loved her voice so much that I looked her up.

It turns out she brought down the house at an audition of America’s Got Talent in 2022:

*Goosebumps.* I loved her rendition of that song and looked up the original…and liked it way less #Oops. So I was then inspired to see if I could sing that song. I love to sing, but haven’t done it in a while since I often live in cities and don’t want to disturb anyone. Well, I tried it and found that I absolutely love singing this song…and I can actually do it 🙂 .

Along the way, I found that Kristen also did a kind of carpool karaoke thing with a vocal coach on YouTube that I hadn’t heard of before but now love, named Cheryl Porter. They also did some vocal exercises that I enjoyed (and as background I really dislike repetitive exercises like this – it’s one of my many flaws 😉 ).

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly Spanish call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here.

1. Godzilla Minus One
2. Bodies, Bodies, Bodies
3. MoviePass, MovieCrash
4. Madame Web
5. The Importance Of Being Earnest (2002)

The rest of the month was filled with all the sleepovers and social outings that I mentioned above. It was definitely a social June 🙂 .

I Read 16 Books

I’m back to reading more and it feels so good 🙂 . I’m looking forward to spending even more time with a long list of new books I have in the coming months when I’m not running around as much.

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Metabolical: The Lure and the Lies of Processed Food, Nutrition, and Modern Medicine by Robert H. Lustig
2. Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa
3. Diablo’s Curse by Gabe Cole Novoa

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here.

I Wrote 4 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
2. My Favorite Travel Tools Of 2024
3. Review: Qantas Domestic Business Class
4. My Search For The Best Affordable Headphones Of 2024

In addition to those posts, I was on the Money Noticias Podcast:

And I was honored to be included in this awesome article by the lovely Bitches Get Riches:

• 5 Rad Queer Money Experts You Should Follow This Pride Month

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I was also asked by multiple people this month if I do financial coaching. I don’t and told them so, but then I started laughing when I thought about how my hypothetical coaching would go: “Buy VTSAX and hold”. The coaching sessions would take 2 seconds and definitely not be worth charging money for 🤣.

And as for random and strange companies that I declined working with this month, here are the highlights:

• A company wanted to send me a subscription box of Japanese snacks. I found this interesting since I’m going there soon, but I’m not down with the subscription box model personally and prefer to use that money to buy non-surprise items that I love
• People from a honeymoon travel writers company reached out, which I found funny since I’m never getting married
• Sunglasses company tried to incentivize me into joining their affiliate program by offering to send me their $300 sunglasses. I don’t know what part of my love of frugality made them think sunglasses with an unnecessary 3x markup was in my realm of interest, but it inspired me to remind myself of the ridiculous reason why this markup is there:

Physical

Sleep

Sleep this month was great for part of the month and sucked for some of the month because I got sick for the first time in I think years. I didn’t enjoy it, but I was grateful that I could just sleep through an entire weekday so I could feel better ASAP instead of trying to struggle through working from home or even worse, be encouraged to go into an office and get everyone else sick in the process (this is what my original jobs would do because they cared about “face time” above all and it’s SO dumb).

Food

My food this month was great. I ate keto for 93% of the month and took 2 days off keto for that wedding I mentioned. Overall this plan of taking a few days off here and there while being keto and calorie counting most of the time is going really well. I feel fantastic and I’ve lost 23 lbs so far this year without being hungry. I’m finally getting rid of my pandemic pounds for good.

Exercise

My exercise this week was awesome! Despite me being sick for a week and it raining for another week, I got in 12 runs for an average of 3 runs a week, my ideal goal!

I also did yoga at least after my runs if not also before, and did a lot of other random exercise, such as swimming and being a passenger on a jet ski, which was a surprising ab workout. I also danced my ass off at a wedding – so much so that I was sore for two days afterwards. Oops! Welcome to my mid-30s I guess.

Mental

Learning

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

Northeast, USA

• I went on a jet ski in Vermont and learned that they have a requirement that people who drive a jet ski either be over 50 years old or pass a boat safety course. Fascinating! When I rented a jet ski in Florida, they didn’t even ask if I could swim.

Fauna

This month I met an adorable Common Garter Snake that I named Salvador 😉 . I also learned a sad fact about why so many Ash Trees in the northeast are dead – Emerald Ash Borer beetles are killing them and at least a million ash trees are dead as a result.

On a happier note, I saw a few Dragonflies which are always cool to watch and it reminded me of how the Ornithopters in Dune were designed after them and their unique wing movement:

I also saw a lot of my favorite summer phenomenon: Fireflies! I wasn’t sure where in the US they actually appear and at what time, but I found this helpful image online:

Birds

This month was pretty bird-filled, which I love 🙂 . I learned that Turkey Vultures, which I often see in the Northeast US, can smell dead animals from over a mile away – WOAH. Apparently that’s unique in the bird world and turkey vultures have the largest smelling system of any bird.

In addition to Turkey Vultures, this month I saw these birds:

Guineafowl, Red-Winged Blackbird, Black Vulture, Red-Tailed Hawk, Broad-Winged Hawk, Red-Bellied Woodpecker, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Eastern Bluebird, Tufted Titmouse, Chipping Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Eastern Phoebe, Northern Cardinal, American Robin, Gray Catbird, Red-Eyed Vireo, Canada Goose, American Redstart, Black-Capped Chickadee, House Wren, Great Crested Flycatcher, Downy Woodpecker, Common Yellowthroat, Ovenbird, Swamp Sparrow, Blue Jay, Carolina Wren, American Crow, Veery

Creativity

My creativity was good this month. I think all this rest I’m trying to catch up on is paying off. However, I have been struggling to stick to my strict posting schedule that has me completing a post the Saturday before it’s due. I suspect this is because I keep accidentally writing longer and longer posts, but it’s something to keep an eye on.

I guess technically my Editor (aka my Mom), doesn’t usually need two whole days to send me edits, but thinking about not having that wiggle room given our busy (retired 😉 ) lives makes me a bit anxious. Anyway, that’s just something to think about and make a plan for before my travel speeds up again in the fall.

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Emotional

My emotions this month were really good! And that’s despite having much more social time than I’m used to and that I could maintain longterm for my introvert self. But spending so much time around people I love definitely warmed my heart and lifted my spirits even higher than my normal high emotional baseline in retirement.

Money

The stock market continues to be on a tear and as a result, I hit another all-time net worth high of $815,001.64 for a gain of $92,135 in 2024. Wowza.

I continue to do nothing and my net worth just keeps growing. Retirement is going even better than I forecast financially and with my 5th year of retirement about to begin, my concerns about sequence of returns risk are approaching 0. This whole retiring at 30 thing might just work out 😉 .

• I QUIT! I’m Retiring At 30.

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in June! It’s been a great month surrounded with friends and family, but I’m quite ready to recharge my introvert batteries with two months in Montréal, Canada🇨🇦. Until next time!

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

Weekly (2020)

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 (2021)

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
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?