After Tropical Storm Ophelia whipped through the East Coast last weekend, it’s been one soupy mess outside here in New Jersey. But the temperature has dropped, to my surprise enjoyment. (I’m a true summer fan at heart.) I’ve gotten away with having my air conditioning units off and with wearing my favorite clothing combination: shorts and a sweatshirt. In a true effort to lean into fall, I even lit a fall-scented candle and pulled out my sweatshirt. Creature comforts, at their finest.

Has anyone else been inundated with way too much stuff to do recently? I make a plan, have a to-do list, and then bam – something else demands my attention and I’m able to accomplish a tenth of what I originally set out to do. It’s immensely frustrating, because like a million other people, I used to measure my worth by the amount of stuff I got done in a day. People would really ask me where I found the time and the energy and usually, it came easy to me. But it doesn’t, anymore. This life – and this chronic illness, post-cancer diagnosis identity – require me to reframe the question of what is it, really, that’s necessary to complete during a day.

There are some weeks that I struggle to offer you what I think are novel suggestions, and then there are others that seem rife with crowd-pleasers. It would be easy for me to stick to my standard role call of favorites, but I don’t want this to be just a list of predictable items that would make Miranda Priestly mutter “florals for spring? Groundbreaking.” The following suggestions are for sure rooted in things I love and have recommended before: vegetarian food, a musical, and engaging with other humans on a personal level. But it’s my hope that this week’s suggestions will translate into your life easily.

This is Christina’s Corner: the What A Week edition. Life has thrown a lot of us some curveballs recently, and I’m not here to excuse it, though I am here to blame mercury in retrograde. (Whether you believe it or not, it’s great to have a scapegoat that doesn’t actually hurt anyone.) I believe that when you are experiencing Just One Of Those Weeks, it’s time to pull out all the stops to care for yourself.

I spent the past several days out of office on a getaway to a coastal town. Salt air, a dog-friendly airbnb, and a no-rush approach to soaking in the things the town has to offer made it a perfect mid-August trip. I have been guilty of wondering if I could move here, a place I’ve been before on vacation; I need to remind myself that my problems would still exist, even if the locations were different. On a different note, I’m a strong fan of the staycation or being a tourist in your own town. You can spend a lifetime in some spots without ever seeing all it has to offer, or without taking advantage of local “best of” lists. Whether you are going around the corner or around the world, here are a few suggestions on how to make your vacation spot feel like home and how to bring that sense of your getaway back with you.