It’s my birthday today! 😌

I had a lovely dinner yesterday with my parents and they gifted me a little shopping spree after dinner! I got a few sweaters for the upcoming winter season. I wanted today to be a day of relaxing, connecting with family and reflecting on life so far. Thirty one sounds insane to say out-loud. I definitely do not feel “thirty-one”.

The past few weeks I have just been trotting on with work with a few friend meetups in between, my cousin and her family from France also came to visit, which was fun! I went to a few museums (MoMa, Seaport & The American Indian one), the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Time Square, Brooklyn Bridge the regular touristy spots. It was nice to be a tourist in my own city again. I completely forgot about the American Indian museum but that one was a crowd favorite. It felt good to finally host people again after a long time. I got a new bed frame and mattress and everything and set up the small vacant bedroom with everything. The house felt full and active. Halloween I decided on a last minute lets sit together and drink hot chocolate meetup which turned out to be really fun because we all wore costumes that day, I was Cruella de Vil! I also got a lot of trick or treaters way more than I expected! I made little treat bags this year and all of them gone so quickly all of the candy I had was gone by the end of the night.

Now onto my reflections on this past year, it’s definitely a year of a lot of family post-quarantine, I got to connect more this year and it felt really nice to meet with everyone again and catch up. I met up with my Canadian cousins earlier in the year when I went to a wedding and then again here when a few came to visit in the summer from Switzerland, then again in Miami (met my nephew for the first time!) and then my cousin from France came a few few weeks ago. So many of my friends weddings this year as well! So happy for all of them and it gave me possible ideas for my own. I did unfortunately catch COVID-19 on one of the weddings many parties — the one time where im not wearing a mask, I was going for so long without catching it and ended up catching it in September 2022 😬

Got acquired again, this time from a MAMAA (the new “FAANG”). It’s definitely exciting and a little nerve wrecking at the same time with a lot of changes coming in fast. I got to do two events at work to help h.s folk with code which was really cool! I love having an aspect of teaching at work! I also hosted a very last minute in-person “kolam/rangoli” event at work — def not like in previous years but I was happy to do a live event after a long time.

On creative expression, I got back into pour painting and did my first “large piece” which took about 4-5 hours, I was exhausted at the end of it but I love it! I think I’ll stick to smaller canvases moving forward unless I have the time.

I recently also got back to practicing driving! I was so slow trying to finish my 5 hour course because it was online and had the worst system ever! They had sections where you’d complete reading and then had to take a quiz and in between there would be an audio authentication of you saying a phrase and even when it matched up exactly it’d still fail and block you from continuing unless you talked to a customer service rep, I chatted with that rep a minimum of 7 times, it was ridiculous but the agents were extremely kind so kinda weirdly balanced out. I was very happy to just be done with it. I practiced here and there so far whenever I have the time and I feel okay but def. need more practice, the muscle memory def. kicked in.

I am now in my thirties learning more about cars than I ever did in my entire life. I just want one so I can go places without having to take a damn Uber each time. Hoping to be able to get my license by 32! 🤞🏽

Back to today, I had some amazing Vietnamese food for dinner today! I think I’ll do a light workout and watch something on Netflix and turn-in early! So blessed for 31! 🙏🏽

So I decided to go to San Juan, Puerto Rico with my friend as she only had a few days available for PTO in 2022.

This was a completely difference experience in terms of getting a PCR test. Longer lines and a bit more troublesome than for TCI, but we made it there! It was def fun to travel with a friend! We had a rough idea of what we wanted to do each day. The first day we explored the colorful buildings in San Juan, which were breath taking! Visited Barrachina –the birthplace of the Pina Colada! The pina coladas were bomb! Walked around all the stores nearby and took a lot of photos that day. Then we had thee most delicious fish tacos I’ve ever had. Our hotel was conveniently right by the beach so we just hung out by the beach, relaxed and took more pictures.

The next day we came back for some chocolate grilled cheese — a very interesting combo, for some reason I felt like the chocolate flavor was over-empowering than the cheese. We shopped around (for whatever reason I also decided to go buy random stuff from Marshalls & CVS), took pictures, i bought a random $1 guava ice from a nice abuela, made some tik toks on the beach, went to Jardin del Paseo la Princesa ( a very cute park), San Juan Gate, then freshened up and had dinner at Condal right before she left to go home.

I was solo the next day and a half and got some hotel breakfast (pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage and coffee) while watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians, then went to Fort San Felipe del Morro, there were so many beautiful sights here and so much history involved. I was super engaged. I needed some coffee and some a/c so I went over to Cafe Don Ruiz (the iced coffee here was sooo good!). I also went to Museo de Las Americas which was empty af so empty when I went I got my own personal tour guide for every exhibit in the museum. I learned a ton on PR’s history, politics and peoples. I went back to the beach and got me another pina colada this time in a pineapple it was so refreshing and just chilled out by the beach.

Wanted to relax this evening more than anything, headed back in to pack and to sleep a bit earlier so I could have more time to do stuff in the morning. Used Uber Eats to get more fish tacos!

The next morning I ventured out to get the best iced coffee on or around Ashford Ave. I decided on Barista Squared and I was very happy that I did! Amazing iced coffee! Walked over to where the people were paddle-boating and jumping into the water. City-scape in the back made it look so cool. Went back by the beachfront near my hotel and got some waffles nearby for breakfast before heading back to the airport! I bought some delicious rum cake at the duty-free shop and then came home.

It’s monthsss later and I realized I never posted a part two! So here it is not as fresh in my mind, but I’m going off the memories. The next morning (Friday, December 3, 2021) I woke up as early as I could to pack for the Kitty Katt Catamaran Cruise, I was really hungry but skipped out on eating so I can head down to the spot in the resort we were supposed to all meet at. I was a bit early as usual. I had about 10-15 more minutes and figured I could scarf down something small at a nearby Italian spot (Mario’s) same place I had went the night before. Had some quick coffee and a light breakfast. I headed back to the spot and made sure I was accounted for. There were loads of families, a few couples, and one group of a few girls hanging out. It felt a bit odd being the only single person there but I figured I could just talk to a few folks anyway.

We all got onto the catamaran and were told to be seated. I was right next to these 3 women who were friends so I just started chatting, and they were so friendly! I was going to maybe skip on scuba diving but figured I might as well! Got into my scuba gear s/o to those girls because I had no idea what I was doing at all. The tides were so bad and it was super choppy, unfortunately did not end up underwater for too long. Got out of that and had some sandwiches on the boat. The music was good. Then we finally got to iguana island! The iguanas were so cuteee and photogenic af! The beach here was super fun to just walk around and waddle in.

Once we got out of Iguana Island, it was straight party vibes everyone was dancin and singing on the boat and we were all taking turns going down the waterslide near the end. It was super fun! I was so happy to meet new friends too! I quickly rushed back to my room to get ready for my next adventure — Provo Ponies!

A taxi came to pick everyone up from my resort who was going there. The only people were these 3 Pakistani women ( a mom and her two daughters) and me, they were really friendly too! We then got to the barn, my pony was named Thor. Thor was giving heavy Taurus energy. He only wanted to do things if he felt like it, on his own time and was very motivated by food. He was a bit on the slow side going up to the shore, but was very funny. The tour guides were telling us great personal stories on their time in Provo and Grand Turk. Riding on the pony in the water felt amazing! Got to see the beautiful beach that had almost no one there!

Thor on his way back was so fast af, that my hat fell into the water! A tour guide had to fetch it for me. He was hungry for dinner! It was a lot of fun, took a few pictures & videos and it was back to the resort.

I was gonna nap a little before dinner, but there was this buffet like dinner festival with live performances close by that the girls from the Kitty Katt cruise mentioned so I figured I’d meet them for dinner ( I was dead tired but figured it’d be better than just trying another restaurant) and yes this wayyy better. They had almost every single type of food you could imagine, with a bunch of places you can sit, eat, chat and watch. It was nice getting to know the girls a bit better and my plate was full of the most random foods ever. It was all very good though! The vibes were immaculate as well.

The next morning, I woke up very early to explore the resort some more (its so big!) and get more Mario’s breakfast. Just kept walking around everywhere (the beach, the resort, the gift shops) and taking it all in, got more drinks (Shirley temples & chunky monkeys) and relaxed in a cabana by the water, then met up with the girls for lunch & dessert.

Then we headed out ✌🏽! Went to the airport, I ended up buying more things in the gift shop. Then somehow saw the three women from the Hibachi place back in my hometown airport lol! Then finally arrived home! 🙂 That was about it!

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Where do I even start with my trip to Turks and Caicos?! It was most definitely one of my most favorite things I did this year. Theee most dreamiest vacation ever. I actually booked it and had so much stuff to do I did not over plan anything, but I did watch a lot of Youtube videos leading up to the trip. This was my first solo vacation. I definitely needed one after being cooped up in the house during the pandemic.

I was in Providenciales (Provo) the whole time and it literally felt like heaven on earth. I only really knew about TCI this year when my co-worker mentioned it! I booked a trip at a family friendly resort (Sandals). I was not really expecting anything but I loved the fact the country was deemed safe and that Sandals had 21 restaurants within the resort. I really just wanted to see the marvelous beaches with clear blue water and white sand and relax.

The plane ride there was alright (not too many nerves) which was good, the airport when I landed was a bit crowded I waited about an hour and 40 minutes to see an agent. I knew there would be a taxi once I got out from my resort (all inclusive including transport to and from the resort) but took a minute to find I just asked around and realized the resort taxi was where people were queued up.

I got in the taxi and there was about a 15-20 minute drive to the resort. On the way I saw all the local shops and during this time the kids were getting out of school and we had a few minutes of traffic. I got to the resort, the resort was huge and was beautifully decorated with palm trees everywhere, the landscaping was amazing, I was in awe. Upon getting to the village I was staying at (yes village there was 4 villages within the resort itself!) they greeted me by taking my luggage (they brought it up to my room for me) while they handed me a hot warm towel, sanitizer and a drink! I was very pleased. I got my room cards from the main lobby desk and a host showed me around the village and also showed me to my room. I was finally there!

It felt surreal. The room was bigger than my whole living room, there was a day bed, desks, tv, a bunch of dressers (that I never used btw), a huge canopy bed with the ceiling fans above, beautiful lamps and the best part was the private balcony overlooking the tall and majestic palm trees with Grace Bay Beach in the background. I felt like I was dreaming, like deadass.

I wanted to just take it all in. Just breathing in and out. I wanted slow my pace. Intake the beauty surrounding me. The crisp clear blue waters of Grace Bay just sparkling in the sun made me want to run to the beach that second. I wanted to understand the landscape of the resort so the first day I was just walking around, looking at the map, understanding which activities were going on, when restaurants opened etc. I got Dino’s Pizza (as a snack) the first day, it was actually closed but they had some pies left over lucky for me. It was super delicious! Later on for dinner I went to the Bombay Club which is the first sit down place I went to which was located right next to Dino’s. I was curious on how they’d make Indian food and just how it all worked (as we don’t have to pay). They gave small sized portions of a lot of different foods (which is great, so you can try a lot of stuff but not be wasteful). I especially loved the shrimp they gave. They also had dessert which was amazing. Only thing was none of it was spicy and the mango lassi had a cherry in it? Which was odd, but it was alright regardless. I figured I should try actual Caribbean food next time or at least something else lol can’t always have South Asian food.

For day two, I got some iced coffee at a Parisian Cafe and cruised around the beach, a random dude on the beach came over and asked if I wanted to parasail, I was def down and booked some parasailing for the afternoon. The beach itself was so goddamn beautiful. I quickly got a PCR test for going back to the US and then went over to The Jerk Shack for some jerk chicken, the jerk chicken was very good! While I finished up eating I saw a guy on the beach in the near distance selling iced cold coconuts, I basically ran over and as he was up ahead and got my hand on a cold one. It was sooo good in the blazing hot sun. Then I went back to the resort to relax for a bit and got ready for parasailing!

I don’t know why but I was not as scared as I thought I’d be? I’m usually afraid of heights. I got to the place where the boat was for parasailing on the beach like a two minute walk from my village. There was a group of us on the boat, everyone was friendly. I got to see an older married couple go up first. They looked so happy and I was excited myself. When it came time for me to go, I did have a slight worry about my phone so I handed it to the guy on the boat he mentioned he can take a video for me. Then there I was in the sky, up above hundreds of feet over the water. It was breath taking. The surrealism hit again, it was just me the clouds and the big blue. It looked so fake lol, I felt like this was a simulation for real for real. The big puffy clouds, the blue skies, in my head I felt like I was in a VR game. It was crazy then I got back down to the boat.

The rest of the afternoon around 4-5pm I was just in the water, or relaxing on the beach doing some introspection and still in awe of how clear the water was here and watched the beautiful sunset.

I made some reservations at Kimonos (Hibachi spot) for dinner. I met some lovely folk who were at the same table as me, they were super friendly and I loved chatting with them. Some of them even came from the same airport as me, and I realized we were going to be on the same flight back which was really cool. After this I went to a show (full of singing, dancing and even a fire breathing guy) by the Italian Village and then got some amazing dessert at Marios that was recommended to me.

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My parents are awesome and got me the Oculus Quest 2! So far I’m just taken away with how much VR has improved over the years. It actually felt so comfortable and I was very happy just viewing and observing being in a whole new 3D space (especially the home spaces FB created, my favorite was the one in Japan with the koi fish pond!). I liked the controllers and user interface. It took some time adjusting to moving around with the controllers but I got the hang of it.

The first game I played was Kizuna AI Touch the Beat! It was so much fun, first all I did was listen to the music and play around, getting all excited for light sticks, pixel hearts floating about and beautiful sparkles coming out of my light stick! I then went through the tutorial and played both of the free versions of the game, it reminded me of tap tap but VR version. I enjoyed it a lot, looking forward to playing more, it actually made me sweat!

Today I went onto experience Social VR by attending the Billie Eilish concert inside Oculus Venues which was one of the weirdest experiences because I realized that had social anxiety in the VR world as well. There was so many people around just casually conversing with each other, groups of friends or maybe strangers just talking in circles – and I could hear them! It felt like eavesdropping but these were technically “public virtual spaces”. It was cool and a bit anxiety-inducing at the same time. I don’t know how I feel about conversing personal details with my friends in these worlds. It was super interesting and I have a lot of blended and scattered thoughts about it, I guess because you can hear my actual voice and that might raise some safety issues. I am excited to dive deeper into the Oculus just I’m not able to be in the metaverse for more than 45-60 mins each day.

I’m 30! That sounds so surreal to me! I started off my first day of my thirties getting ready to go to my birthday party, I wore a navy blue sequin two piece set. It started to hail, rain, there was heavy winds and I saw a rainbow all the way to the bowling alley. That’s right, went bowling for my 30th because why not? I had catered food and all of my friends! I was so happy re-connecting with a lot of them, it was a good day! I tried a green tea shot for the first time, but it knocked me the eff out, so quick! I also watched 13 Going on 30 the next day! 🙂 One of my favorite movies of all time, along with She’s All That! OMG Freddie Prinze Jr is so hot lol! I also cut my birthday cake with my parents and got dressed up! 💕 It was good birthday weekend!

It’s 2pm, I just put an advil. I have been sick for the past two days and I have no idea why exactly. Fortunately for me my nausea and cramps went away yesterday but the headache remained, feeling a bit better now after putting the advil. I’m watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire on HBO Max. We already had our first trick or treater at 1pm! They definitely started earlier this year. I fetched out my monster mask but figured I’d keep my Flash cape here as well just incase I don’t feel too good for the mask. I was going to go to Sleepy Hallows yesterday with my friends but felt way too unwell to go. We ended up just getting starbucks and a pepto bismol on the way home.

A few days I ago I finally went to my contacts fitting and got my contacts for the first time ever in my life. It felt odd since it was a new prescription, it was clear and slightly blurry at the same time it’s weird. Dimensions of things were off based on which angle I looked at them. I know thats normal when you get a new prescription but I’m not sure if switching from glasses to contacts with different prescriptions was good. It might be what caused my headaches.

Last week I went to the Verge Party! It was fun meeting new people and seeing the panels and product launches. My favorite parts of the two day party was the character design class with somehoodlum and the panel on the metaverse with metakovan.

I also took my parents to see The Lion King on Broadway, it was nice to see them finally being able to go somewhere in the city after a long time. The play in itself was breathtaking.

In September we went on a mini vacation upstate to the Finger Lakes, it really helped me a lot being outside with family and just taking in Lake Seneca. Something about being near big bodies of water always calms me down and is super soothing for the soul.

I also went back to the office about 3 times so far, it’s definitely a different feeling from working from home. It’s definitely nice to meet new coworkers and gives a change in the workweek.

Going to watch Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix now! 🔮

🍔Gardein chick’n sliders: OMG, these dairy-free vegan sliders are perfect for parties (where there will be vegans/vegetarians!) it’s also great as a backup frozen food, if you feel hungry but not that hungry.

🐊Crocs: Okay, okay, okay I thought these looked horrible and then I saw Nicki Minaj rockin’ the pink ones and figured to give these a try and I love them now and now my whole family has crocs.

💡Otrio: I first saw this strategy based game back at Dev bootcamp, and thought it’d be the perfect game to get to beat boredom and boy was I right! I played this game with almost all of my friends and family that visited this year and this was their favorite game out of all of the games we played. It’s definitely the most fun with 4 people playing.

👩🏻‍💻theannalytical: Coding drag queen we all need for the best brief computer science tiktoks! No but forreal this is the content I always wanted and finally have. Explaining CS concepts in an easy and fun way and with makeup palettes?! YES. LORD. THANK YOU. The example of an eyeshadow palette where each shadow is like an element will forever be in my brain and is probably thee best way to simply explain it. You get one palette and each has a set number of elements that is ordered!

😌Brass Oil diffuser: I got this as a gift and honestly one of the best gifts, I’ve gotten this year! It makes me feel so relaxed when it’s on and has a lovely aroma (the lavender and orange oils are my favorites).

Hello World! It’s certainly has been awhile. Over 6 months, I’ve wanted to write here for some time, but was overwhelmingly emotional and wanted to write when I was a bit more relaxed.

A lot happened in February to the end of April all very fast and all too emotional, relationships and friendships which made me swirl and twirl in a bunch of different emotions. I even dyed and got blonde highlights for the first time ever, on a whim. 🤷🏽‍♀️

Other than me being in a spiral of emotions, I did finally get to purchase some decor and essential furniture for my family home, it was definitely slightly overwhelming trying to find pieces that everyone would like. My parents definitely like more traditional/glam type of decor where I’m more drawn towards modern/boho/glam. I was happy to decorate and furnish my bedroom completely to my style with more modern/glam furniture with boho decor and then help with the living room with some modern/glam pieces. But we still cannot for the life of us figure out which coffee table to go with and it’s been 6+ months of living here.

The main problem is we want something so specific I can’t find it (unless it’s overpriced or the delivery price is insane). Trying to look for a modern/glam/traditional style coffee table that would allow at least some level of storage space or place to store magazines/albums and then also look nice but also preferably rectangular that is also preferably large (50 inches would be ideal). Why is this so hard to find? A lot of coffee tables do not have storage and if they do its so bulky and farmhouse style or has that thing where a desk pops up. Everything is also too mid-century modern or has those nesting tables. I’ve been trying to find at least one decently priced table and each time I’m unable to find it. Hopefully soon *sigh*.

Looking at times where I was most happy in past 6 months a lot was from hanging out with my friends and family after everyone got vaccinated. Played lot of otrio, cornhole and jenga!💗 Also got to finally see two of my close friends newborns! 🥺

Planting flowers was also great, just seeing all my flowers blooming in the sun and through the rain! 🌸

Summer’s here and we have summer Fridays at work and we get off earlier now which was great! There’s a lot of nice things they included this year for team building and community! I attended two workshops already for cooking (learned to make garlic noodles and tacos) and an art class (painting) as well! There was also this great company they used to send out snacks! (SnackMagic )

Well that’s all I go for now. Bye!

Yay we made it to 2021! 💫Started the new year wishing family and friends and watched the ball drop with some slightly off timing as I just used Pluto TV to stream. 😂I also had a whole spreadsheet on some habits I’d like to cultivate for this year, mainly health-wise.

I didn’t do much on this new years day. I got excited to make some baked tandoori chicken and made it for lunch while listening to some old Sway podcast episodes with my favorite Kara Swisher. Went back and forth to my homes for cleaning and then my dad helped me hang a bookcase to the wall in my room, exciting I know. I did get a good list of the habits I want to cultivate today. One of those being saying affirmations in the morning, which I had never done before, definitely lifted my mood.

Looking back at 2020, it was definitely a sad year with the pandemic, the deaths, being indoors, not being able to see friends and family, not being able to travel or work at the office or even just go to the movies. Some of the things that I did realize was a lot of things are the way they are because of the way I thought. It was a good year of learning from tech to politics. Constantly grew, learned, challenged my own thoughts and was curious.

Here’s to a new year fo some mo growth!