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Masterpiece
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Much like a lot of others, the last two years or so feel like a wash. Besides the obvious with the raging pandemic adapting and claiming lives daily, as well as the world adapting (whether they want to abide by it or not) to what is now the New Normal, it's been a time where I sincerely believe and hope that people are learning, growing, living and loving. Whether you took on a new hobby (I truly expect that at least 60% of the home cooks are now experts in baking with the shortage of yeast that started at the beginning of the lockdown...otherwise, WHAT WAS THE REASON?!), came to the awareness that work can really be as flexible as it has been (isn't it wonderful to be able to work from home...for those of you that have the capabilities where home life situation allows for you to do so, I hope the advantages were in your favor), got addicted to TikTok (not me, never catch me slipping when I have too many social media addictions keeping me up at night as it is to get swept into TikTok challenges), this period of "trying times" hopefully changed you. I wanted to pick up on this blog as a sort of diary; if I am being honest, my memory is complete shit at this point. Not sure if it's an underlying side effect of contracting COVID or just what comes with age, but if I don't document it with a picture or a video, chances are the moments are gone to *maybe* resurface as a daydream-esque snapshot somewhere down the line. Plus, I like writing. So for all intents and purposes, this post will serve as a checklist for this upcoming year of what I want to accomplish, as well as to reminisce on my latest life milestones.
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| I'm sure this was outside a CVS or a Uniqlo? I just know there were a lot of boarded stores. This was a few months after a cop killed another black man and the world seemed to stop and stand behind BLM protests. |
1. Go--Dashi Run Run Run, hoe: I think I got my license during my last year in college, so it's been less than five years or so where someone gave me the authority to operate heavy machinery. Yikes. In all seriousness, I haven't been branching out as much as I have been wanting to. And I think that had to do with the degree in which I thought I wanted to branch out. It's been a lot if "Oooh, we should go there"or "Oh, that'd be nice to visit" and just plain ol' "One day, definitely" musings. I haven't been a complete homebody these past two years, but I also wasn't proactive as well (and given the situation, state mandates and wellness of others, who could be?). The few times I did go out, it was definitely in the state, tried to keep local, and the biggest gathering pre-restrictions being lifted was a party of six. I don't know why I am trying to justify this, so I digress. I did a solo trip to San Francisco. Not the smartest and fiscally responsible thing to do, but when California had lifted it's restrictions the first time around, I booked a ticket, put in some days off with work and left for a few days to the Bay. I'll provide proof just in case my phone finally gives in and dies. I didn't expect to go and come back a changed woman or have a life changing moment. This was no Eat, Pray, Love type deal (don't come for me, I never read the book and watched the movie like once...with no absolute recollection of what happened, only a vague idea of what went on). I just remember checking into my hotel room, the front desk person asking if I was here on a vacation and I responded, "No, just had a mental breakdown at work and needed to get away" to his
understandably shocked face. I hope you're doing okay whoever you were (pretty sure he expected to find my dead body that night). But the reasons I did this solo trip was twofold: to prove that I could actually do this by myself and not be holed up in a room because of social anxiety and work was stressing my the hell out so a break came at a good time. I will admit it was an expensive break but no use regretting it now.
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Chinatown |
I went to a museum, got some *culture* in, did a lot of wandering and just didn't think. I couldn't help but be a little alert, especially when my drive from the airport to the hotel almost ended up being the end of mini vacation (somebody had managed to skid on the freeway and face us head on) and my Uber driver almost warned me about staying out too late (I hope you don't get held up again lol...what a guy). I didn't even have a plan of action; a good friend of mine was a great co-pilot and drafted up a list of things to do/see, but of course, they were all closed due to COVID (I'll come back for you Ice Cream museum!). But overall, a good time. I just know that now, I have been adding to my Airbnb wish lists and it's growing! For sure these travels don't have to span a week or even more than a night (day trips FTW) and certainly aren't aimed to break the bank, but I have a license, a car and insurance. I need to use it lest I wake up and find myself old and unable to shuttle myself around.
2. Do Stuff--As you can tell as this list is progressing, these goals are pretty vague and open-ended. I live to work and work to live but come the new year I am going to do more with my free time. Recently I quit my old gig and got a new one. The pay is less but as a whole, it's less stressful than my previous job. That was one of my accomplishments I think from a previous year or two. But yes, I finally did it. But I can now more easily sleep at night and feel like my work days end when I clock out. Before it'd feel like a never ending saga; work related thoughts would follow me when I was out with friends, or at the bottom of a bottle of wine, or in my dreams when I did manage to sleep. My thoughts are all over the place, sorry. I am going in between writing and watching YouTube. So, I will be trying to make the most out of my time off when I have it. Whether it be visiting friends or having self-care days, I vow to do more than lay in bed watching "King of the Hill" until Monday rolls around. The past few weekends I have been doing just that and I want to carry it into next year. I had day dedicated to myself where I grabbed some coffee and early lunch, did some retail therapy under the guise of buying Christmas gifts (...for myself) and I bought some books at a cool used bookstore that I've always passed by but never dared to go in. Last weekend I had brunch with some friends, did some wandering around town and just sat there and shot the shit. And another weekend I went with another friend to see BTS in concert. Now I know I have posted at least one thing before on here, but in case you didn't know, this is blogged by an ARMY. The boys came to me like a cool summer breeze---nah lol. They had a concert over a course of four days in Inglewood and we managed to get tickets. Truth be told, I was a bit ticked considering I had really great seats at the Map of the Soul tour before it got cancelled, but the fact that I even got to see them again after two years, and after the disaster of securing two tickets in the first place, was a feat worth celebrating. And on top of that they brought out Megan THEE MUTHAFUCKIN Stallion?! Two concerts for the price of one. And goddamn they looked so good. They sounded so good. I was riding home on a high.
Obviously I have more pictures and videos of this glorious night but since this is getting posted to the Internet and other people are in those pictures, I am going to withhold those for the sake of privacy. This list is turning into a brag of all I did so I am going to wrap it up quickly.
3. Get in Shape--I'm shaped like a 90s fridge. I want to be shaped like a 50s fridge, the red one with the curved corners.
4. Figure out Investing--I don't know what I am doing, I just know that I am putting $5 into an investment account and occasionally I pick the stocks, but for the most part I am letting the app do it.
5. Typing--In my spare time during boredom that can't be cured by Netflix, Hulu or Youtube, I'll hop onto
Monkey Type and practice my typing. I don't know why, but I want to be good at typing where I'm not looking down every other letter (those damn O and P keys are always tripping me up) and not relying on the key pad (and a lot of these newer laptops within my budget don't have the regular ten-key, just the numbers on teh top of teh keyboard).
It's sudden but I will call this a night. I hope to continue with posts regularly (yeah, refer to a previous post where I promised to keep up with this).
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