The Four day New Year’s weekend

Happy Weekend Coffee Share and Happy New Year! It’s been an eventful three weeks: I was sick throughout Christmas weekend (tested negative for COVID), my husband was sick as well (tested negative for COVID), BIL #2 was sick through Christmas to after New Year’s (he had COVID), and two of my coworkers had COVID and were out for 10 days. We were so so so short-staffed at my office over the last two weeks.

Christmas started a little rough (it could have been worse — I could have had COVID!), but it got better towards New Year’s Eve. I received a text message from my university friends from the Bay Area that they were in LA that weekend. Originally I had no New Year’s plans and serendipitously with my university friends in town, I ended up going on an excursion every day bringing my kid along for the ride. She seemed to enjoy going out and about. We went to this popular pastry place called Republique — I’ve been meaning to go there for ages. We bought PLENTY of pastries because when’s the next time we’ll go?

From the top (left to right): honey cake, taro coconut bundt cake. Bottom (left to right): earl grey cake with a blueberry center, dulce de leche turnover. Not pictured: two other pastries — the banana cream pie and hazelnut roll cake.

We went to The Grove, explored West LA, and to this Hindu temple in Malibu. I had no idea there was a Hindu temple out there! And we went out for dinner every evening. It was a very touristy LA (minus the Hindu temple) New Year’s weekend. It was a nice ending to a pretty challenging 2021. Those four days that past weekend were almost escapist. Not once throughout that weekend did my husband and I dished out our grievances on what made living with his brothers so frustrating (and them expressing what made living with us frustrating). Believe me, there were plenty of things that happened over the last three weeks from the empty $150 Japanese whisky to BIL #2 throwing a tantrum on the way to my parents’ house for Christmas Eve dinner for not driving back home to get his phone. Side note about the $150 whisky: we had that bottle for about two years. We drink it on very rare occasions because it’s so expensive. There was no opportunity to air it out and it was more than okay. It was just nice to be out and about.

I had no idea this stunning Hindu temple was out in Malibu!

Project (Re)invigorate

Since my word for this year is (re)invigorate, how do I go about it? I don’t want it too complicated. At first, I thought of creating a different focus for each month like travel (err…traveling planning) should be in February, gardening should be in March, arts and crafts should be in April, and friendship should be November — something like that. But I thought that’s too complicated. I was trying it in the style of The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin where Rubin had different themes for each month around happiness. The thing is, I don’t want to define my entire month based on that one theme. Maybe a simpler exercise is to reflect on all the things that have (re)invigorated me this past week. Of course, there will be repeats but it is important to track the recurring activities. So…

What has (re)invigorated me this past week?

1. A good book
2. Dining out and exploring new restaurants: The idea of going out to dine exhausts me. But when I get there, I don’t feel exhausted anymore.
3. Skincare: Over the past year I have neglected my skin regimen. I mean my skin isn’t terrible, but I know I love researching and shopping different skincare products, if my budget permits.
4. Exercise
5. Speaking my mind even if I know I may be walking into something ugly.
6. Making waffles because I get to spread some nutella and top it with fruit.

#thechangingseasons