Showing posts with label Reflections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Reflections. Show all posts
Uh oh.
Six Things I've Committed To For More Than Six Years
Six Destinations On My Bucket List
Six Favorite Experiences Documented On This Blog
Six Things About My Life Right Here, Right Now
Six Things I've Finagled Out Of Blogging
Six Questions I Have For You
I ran off the train home to snap this photo; loving that we're finally getting some light after work now!
It's February! In case you didn't know!
Typically, I'm the one proclaiming time flies; but this go around, I felt that February 1st took its fine time to welcome us all. Last weekend was the first one in awhile that I went into without concrete plans, aaaand of course - I spent it sleeping in, eating way too much, and spending a little too much dinero at Aritzia. When will I learn to just not go in when I see the word SALE in big red letters? I'm a marketer's dream come true.
Eats & Drinks
I shared my experience dining alone at the grand opening of Ippudo, but also just want to reiterate: those pork buns gave me new life. That's all.
Ippudo's Akamaru Modern ramen - so blissfully slurpable
See & Do
We found ourselves down in Palo Alto for a very special brunch: getting to see our friend Kylie's sparkly new accessory for the very first time! In school, Kylie was two grades below us and we've always regarded her as a pseudo younger sibling. Our senior year of college, we spent more nights than not gossiping over at "the sophomores' suite" with cheap wine, so needless to say, it feels surreal that she's going to be MARRIED before the end of the year.
MASSIVE portions to celebrate an engagement!
Read & Watch & Listen
Slow work week advantages: seeing a movie on a Monday night! We went to Molly's Game, which I thought was good but not great (going into it, I had high expectations because well... Aaron Sorkin, and also that stellar cast). To be honest, I thought that there were a few too many storylines, which resulted in an ending that felt forced and rushed. I just read this VICE interview with the real Molly Bloom, and there were several points in it that the movie glossed over, but IMHO would've made for a stronger story if further explored in place of plot-points that were more central to the movie.
Two other fun / interesting posts and articles I read this week:
This cool Harry Potter hole-in-the-wall spot in London. I'll confess to popping over to Google Flights immediately after reading!
A writer's foray into making Peking duck, with plenty of observations and asides on the rise of regional Chinese cuisine. I grew up eating a lot of the foods mentioned in the article, and am now curious to learn more about their backstories.
flying next to the moon on an early flight to Seattle
Weekend Forecast
I'm in Seattle this weekend, logging in quality time with my whole family but mostly with my adorable little five-month-old nephew. He's growing up SO fast and has so much personality right now, I'm head-over-heels.
Catch you on the flip side!
How's your weekend going? Are there any movies that you'd recommend?
There comes a day in every twenty-something lady's life when she has to throw caution to the wind, pretend that her social anxiety isn't an issue, and confidently tell the hostess "table for one."
For me, that day was January 28, 2018.
... What am I even saying? There never has to be that day if you don't want there to be. I never wanted that day, but a craving for ramen has a mind of its own. It was the grand opening of Ippudo Ramen in San Francisco, I had only eaten a bite of a cupcake all day, my friends were "too full," and just like that - I found myself confidently whispering to the hostess: "table for one."
To be honest, it was all a bit anticlimactic from then on out. Not the ramen - the ramen was glorious and the pork buns even more so, but it turns out I didn't discover the Wonder Woman within myself or meet my soul mate or realize that dining alone is a newfound hobby.
Instead, the whole experience was - pleasant. Peaceful. I zoned out for 80% of the time: I didn't people watch, didn't hang on to my phone for dear life (well okay, I did a little), didn't read a book. I literally just zoned out, slowly enjoyed my noodles, and then walked out a (Akamaru) Modern woman. <-- that's an Ippudo pun, you guys.
Like I said, anticlimactic.
But I started this blog to document interesting and notable experiences, and if the "dining alone for the first time" shoe fits, then suffer through my ramblings you must, dear readers!
Perhaps next week I'll go watch a movie by myself. Or take a drawing class, or hike the PCT. And perhaps those adventures will bear more fruit on the self-realization front, but also perhaps you'll be getting another blog post that's like "well I tried that and it was cool, but also my life has not been changed."
Am I making any sense? I don't think so, but let's just pretend we're mind-melding and you kind of get it. To new experiences! However revelatory or not!
No lie, I actually asked someone earlier today if it was Tuesday. This week has been nonstop, so a huge DANKE to concerning levels of caffeine (I've been averaging 5 cups a day for the last 3 days, I don't think my heart rate will be normal ever again). It's kickoff week for my company, and my colleagues from offices across 6 cities all congregated in San Francisco for industry chats, executive presentations, collaboration syncs, and of course - gin & tonics. A true work hard, play hard week: for context, it's been go-go-go from 7:30am to past midnight for three days now.
Eats & Drinks
Like I said: so many G&T's, and non-stop hors d'oeuvres and catered meals and team dinners. Truffle fries and I are going to need a bit of a break now or else I might very well turn into one... that's the delusion talking at this point, by the way. Other highlights:
Naan n Curry's Chicken Tikka Masala roll for a quick take-out dinner scarfed down in front of the TV. Seriously, what could be better than Indian as a much needed de-stressor?
Caramba breakfast burritos: I'm terrible about eating breakfast mostly because I run out of time in the morning, but it's my favorite meal. Recently, I've also made an effort to cut down on "useless" (aka Treat Yoself) spending, but I'll reward myself with a nice little morning goodie every now and then. This week, it was a breakfast burrito at Caramba which is right by my office and also dirt cheap so needless to say, the Treat Yoself spending will be ramping up a whoooole lot more. January Lifestyle, be gone!
Just For You beignets. A truly special moment this week was when we hit up our neighborhood family-owned breakfast diner. Not only were we able to take advantage of the perfectly sunny morning by claiming a prime table outside, but also the restaurant insisted on giving us an order of free beignets just because. These are the best beignets in the world and I'd pay like $20 for them, so again... such a generous treat! Love my neighborhood.
See & Do
I spent Saturday at the Women’s March with a couple of my best girls, and what. a. time. to. be. ALIVE! The sheer energy, the unshakeable solidarity, the grit and passion and strength so incredibly palpable that the air was buzzing: wow. That's it. Just wow.
This kickoff! Broken record reporting to duty here, but I haven't been this exhausted in possibly ever but also it's been such a wonderful week getting to catch up with my brilliant, hilarious, FUN colleagues who I just can't get enough of.
A second silver lining to the early wake-up calls has been all the gorgeous sunrises! I'd be such a great morning person if I could only untrain my arm to reach for the snooze button instinctively for like 12 alarms in a row. I mean, think of all the Instagrams!
Read & Watch & Listen
I had a funny “living in 2018” moment this week when Hulu was down for a hot second and ended up locking us out of the account... which just happens to belong to my ex roommate's best friend. Three years we've been able to sneakily watch episodes this way, but apparently... no more. This brings me right back to a night right after college graduation when I sat around with a circle of friends trying to determine who has access to what subscription services. I have my best friend's mom's Netflix credentials, she used my sister's Hulu account and my Amazon Prime, I use my friend's dad's HBO Go and a friend's ex's friend's this, that, or the other. Such is the 2018 life, I guess!
Weekend Forecast
All this girl really wants is a spot of real sleep, but perhaps if I'm feeling ambitious we'll throw some brunch and hangin' out too. I'm also 100% certain my roommates have made weekend plans for me without my entirely knowing - my unread texts are at like 89 now, so this'll be a fun surprise!
Did you make it out to the Women's March? What was the highlight of your week?
Roll call!
Are all of my bright-eyed, bushy-tailed IT'S A FRESH START, LET'S GOOO-getters present?
...And what about the rest of you, are you all back in Ugh, The Real World yet - anyone else yell at their alarm clocks and forget to re-charge their commute cards and overall regress to their December 19th selves?
Because hi, the latter... that was 100% me, one day post-carboloading, lounging in sweats, watching Ghostbusters and eating cake on NYE bc it's a new year baby!! Also, I'd like to point out our festive "2018" cake decorations, held up nicely by "25" candles that are slightly janky from already being used not once, but twice before.
I'm not making any sense here, but give me a break: I've been absent for awhile and am quite rusty at this. I do hope to be here more often in 2018 though, and thought I'd make an appearance today just to get this show back on the bumpy, bumpy road.
The tail end of 2017 felt so much like constantly playing catch up that I don’t think I ever fully grasped the idea that 2018 was imminent until it was, you know, here. But yesterday, as I was lounging in my best friend’s parents’ home, helping myself to freshly grated gouda and bubbly red champagne, I felt the thrill of a new start for the first time in a long time. I found myself finally getting excited for all that this year may be bring, rather than remaining in my default state of slight anxiety and general cynicism. So. Hopefully that’s the sign of a good year ahead of us!
Or, it could’ve just been that I had a sip too much of bubbly. Who’s to say.
- Just start writing and documenting again.
- Be on low-pressure mode as I figure out what it is exactly I (and you) want this space to be.
- Refresh the fixins a tad. Nothing major but my Bloglovin description still says that I'm a junior in college and uh, I wish, but sadly sadly sadly that is not the case anymore.
- Perhaps finish recapping some trips, as those are the memories I predict 80 year old me would most like to hate-read.
If you're still reading: HI, YOU ROCK. I've missed you. Could you drop a note & let me know what you're up to? If you're still blogging, gimme your linky link, because I need me some new reading material!
I come before you today, exactly one week into being a TWENTY-FOUR year old, bearing all sorts of wisdom that I've gathered over the years such as, if you are to ever come into possession of a rainbow cake with sprinkles, dare not take a single bite until you've photographed it from every last angle. And then once that's been satisfactorily accomplished, stuff your face until your stomach hurts.
See, I'm great at this adulthood thing.
As you might have guessed from all the crickets you're hearing in this little corner of the Internet, I'm still going through a bit of a blogging/digital documentation rut, but it still felt super weird not to mark this milestone with any sort of a post (...narcissist, much?) and so I thought I'd pop in and just start typing and see where that gets me.
Thinking back, 23 was a year of settling in. More than anything, it was digging deep and losing the novelty, it was feeling not so much like the new girl in a post-grad world. There's not quite as much of that wide-eyed am I doing this right?!ness of it all; instead, I carry on in most aspects of my life very matter-of-factly, feeling like I've got a bit of a handle on things.
My twenty-third was quite the tumultuous year for the country and the world, and it had me questioning how I go forward as a citizen and as a human being. Not the loveliest circumstances, but it offered me the opportunity to take a step back and re-evaluate my own practices and values and ask myself: so what's next? What can I do for the country / world, and how can I do that? It's an important conversation for a 23-year-old to have with herself, I think.
So when I reflect upon 23, I think those are the two main themes: settling in, and constantly questioning all that I thought I knew. Hopefully, in my twenty-fourth year, these themes will evolve into seeking contentment but not complacency, and using this confusing political and social climate to continue educating myself and formulating my beliefs.
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