☙ Memory Jar 2024 ❧

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New year get! Here's to a new year and a new memory jar! Please feel free to join me and chat about my memories/goals/etc.

Monday, January 1, 2024

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Happy New Year!!! New year, new jar! This year is the first year that I was honestly thinking of just going to bed, lol. My eyes were closing and I would have turned in but my boyfriend kept me awake. They ended up having a very brief fireworks show on the river just outside our apartment so that was cool to see I guess. I didn't sleep super well last night so it kind of sucks to start off the new year not feeling rested but hopefully I'll be able to sleep better tonight. I'm not doing anything too exciting today, mostly trying to catch up on things and cross off my to-dos before I start back at work tomorrow. I don't feel ready to go back just yet but that's the way of vacations isn't it? At least I'm planning on taking some time off next month so I'll have that to look forward to.

Tuesday, January 2, 2024

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I didn't sleep very well last night either which is a shame since I was hoping to feel rested coming back to work today. I had some weird dreams including dreaming that I was falling asleep. The first day back at work has been busy but not as eventful as I thought it might be. We had 3 back to back interviews for the new hire we were working on, which was a lot, but I didn't have a whole lot of emails that needed actioning so that's a plus. I just finished my lunch break and will be heading back soon though I'd much rather be taking a nap. It's pretty cloudy out today and cold and dreary so perfect napping weather. Yuna has been spending a lot of time laying on my arm as I work today too so it would be lovely to lay down with her. She hasn't been feeling well the past few days though. I'm not really sure what's going no but she hasn't been eating a whole lot which is unusual for her. I've made a vet appointment for tomorrow, I really hope it's nothing big. She's getting on in years so I'm getting more worried about her health these days.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

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I didn't sleep well again last night. I'm not really sure what's going on with that. I also realized the new multivitamin I started this week has not been agreeing with me so that's fun. Today I took my cat Yuna to the bet. She has not been eating much and I've been really worried about her. The vet examined her and thinks she may have something going on with her teeth so now I've got a big bill for a dental cleaning. I had them do some extra bloodwork because she's getting on in years and had pancreatitis last year and I want to make sure everything looks ok on that front. That ended up taking up most of my morning and now I'm feeling pretty tired and unmotivated to work on the other things I need to do for the rest of the day. Not a great start to the year but I'll see what I can get done I guess.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

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I'm still having trouble sleeping, this is getting annoying. I've been taking my meds late though, so that might be part of the problem. Today I made sure to take them early in the day so fingers crossed that I will sleep better tonight. Today was another busy day at work but I am having some trouble with motivation. I started reading this book about becoming a manager for work and I'd rather keep reading it than do the things I should be doing. Yay ADHD and dopamine seeking or lack thereof! I did get good news this morning that my cat's bloodwork came back pretty good so there is that. She'll have her dental appointment next week. I on the other hand had my dental appointment today. I hate going to the dentist but thankfully this office seems pretty good. Everyone was really nice and they apparently even give laughing gas free for anything you need to have done, even a cleaning, to help mitigate dental anxiety. I wasn't sure if I wanted it but I decided to give it a try. I'm not sure how much it helped but overall the appointment went well so I'm happy about that and they didn't try to "upsell" me on anything like deep cleanings or whitenings or more frequent cleanings. I was planning on coming back afterwards and trying to get some more work done since I missed a good portion of the afternoon and I'm super behind but then I got stuck in paralysis mode sooo... I'm back on the computer now though. Time to see if I can work through anything more tonight or just make my life tomorrow even more difficult. Also, on another note I just realized that my current avatar matches the color scheme of my memory jar.

Friday, January 5, 2024

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Today was a kind of eh day. I had a hard time waking up and a hard time getting started on work. Then I ended up with a migraine around lunch time and logged off to take a nap. I was planning on going back to work afterwards but then I ended up sleeping most of the day. I got a package from my bestie for Christmas with lots of fun stuff so that was a nice pick-me-up and then I spent ages trying to find other small gifts to add to what I had already gotten her because I felt bad that she had sent so many amazing things. That sidetracked me from getting back to work like I meant to though. I did finally get back on and get a few things done but not much. I feel like I'm already starting to get behind for next week. I might end up working a bit over the weekend to try to catch up and make up the hours I missed. I probably won't sleep well tonight again after my long nap but we'll see. I'm definitely ready for the weekend...

Saturday, January 6, 2024

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Today was an ok day. It was a bit of a slow morning. For lunch we went to this vegan juicery place. After that we got coffee, finally picked up my prescription, went to the hardware store, and got some groceries. The grocery store actually had a mini weeping willow plant so of course I had to get it. I hope it will do okay under my not so green thumb... After that I mostly tried to catch up on some stuff around the apartment, washing sheets and remaking the bed, putting away laundry, washing dishes, etc. Not super fun but it felt nice to tackle some stuff. In the evening we finally finished this documentary we'd been watching though it was inconclusive so that kind of sucked. After that I read for a bit and then headed to bed.

Sunday, January 7, 2024

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Today has been absolute shit. I woke up around 8am and immediately started feeling anxious/overwhelmed about a bunch of stuff. I decided to tackle the notifications on my phone and found out that apparently my friend group has migrated from Messenger over to Whatsapp which I don't use much and have been chatting there for almost a month and nobody seemed to care that I wasn't around. It made me feel shitty and forgotten about. Then, this girl I thought was going to end up being a good friend sent me a "breakup" message about how we had conflicting values because I asked her to let me know 30 minutes in advance if she was going to cancel on me. So that added to the shittiness. I ended up crying most of the morning. We went out to lunch and they apparently don't serve the salad I really liked anymore and then I wanted to get coffee at my favorite place but then they were closed. We went to another place but parking was a nightmare and the wait was long and the bathrooms were out of order so more bullshit. When we got home I was feeling super crap and just wanted to lay in my bed and calm down but instead my boyfriend decided he was going to lay across the bottom of the bed with the cat and I got super pissed off for yet another thing going wrong. Then he put one of my shirts in the dryer that wasn't supposed to go in so that's probably all shrunk as well. It's really a shit day and frankly I can't wait for it to be over. I was supposed to work a bit this weekend to try to make up the time I didn't work while I was sick on Friday but I seriously just cannot today so I guess future me is in for shit again tomorrow. Fun times.

Monday, January 8, 2024

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Today had a rough start. I woke up feeling teary and sad again and overwhelmed by getting through the work day. I let my boss know and we had a call and we had a nice chat and she helped encourage me and set my priorities which really helped me recenter myself. In the afternoon I found out that the senior managers finished their interviews for my direct report and agreed to send the offer to the one I preferred. He gave his verbal agreement and we'll be sending him over the offer letter soon so I'm very excited for that. This will be the first time I'll be having my own direct report who is not an intern. I'm both excited and nervous. I have a lot of work ahead of me to prepare them an agenda for their first week. We have an in-person staff retreat that week and the individual said they would be able to come so I'll actually get to meet him in person so that will be really cool. The rest of the day went okay. I finished the romance book I was reading and started a new one. Last year I read 85 books, I wonder how many I'll end up reading this year...

I'm glad things are looking better for you! Your boss sounds awesome!
Hope your new hire surpasses your expectations! * u*

Thanks Kent! My boss really is awesome. I hope I'll be even half the boss she is to my new hire.

Tuesday, January 9, 2024

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This morning I woke up to snow. It's the first snow we've had here and the first snow I've seen since the blizzard last Christmas at my mom's house when I went back to visit. Despite the cold and wind I went to the local coffee shop to work for part of the day. I was planning on staying longer but then I ended up having a last minute meeting which drained most of my battery and I ended up having to leave earlier than planned because I didn't bring my charger. Back at home I finished most of the day on the couch. I managed to get quite a bit of work done. After work I went to go have my 6 month car checkup. The service team couldn't believe I only had 780 some miles on my car. I really don't drive a whole lot working from home. After the service was complete, I went to Target for some groceries and then picked up some dinner from Panda Express. Back at home I ate dinner and then read until late. I really wanted to know what was going to happen in my audiobook but I'll definitely regret it in the morning.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

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Today was an okay day I guess. I slept kind of crappy again. I've been having more night sweats lately so that sucks. Work was okay, I have a lot to do though. I got distracted for about an hour and then had to make up that time in the evening. I ended up going way over just making up an hour though. I ended up working about 2 hours past my usual quitting time. My new employee signed their offer letter and they'll be starting in about 2 weeks. I'm really excited. It'll be really nice to have some help because I've got way too much on my plate for just one person. My boss says we just need to limp along for another 2 weeks until we can get the help. That's not entirely true though because I still need to do a lot of work to prep for them and the training they'll need. It'll be worth it though.

After work I made a Blue Apron box recipe which was really yummy and then I was ready to turn in early. I got in bed at 9pm to read for a bit and then my boyfriend got home from the dinner he went to. He did some work in my room until I kicked him out to go to sleep, lol. I'm really hoping I sleep a bit better tonight.

Thursday, January 11, 2024

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Today I had to take Yuna to the vet for her dental visit. I hate so much when I have to take and leave her at the vet because the apartment always feels super empty without her even though she doesn't take up that much room or make that much noise. They called me in the late morning to say that they would have to take out some teeth. I thought it was only going to be like 3-4 teeth but when I went to pick her up I found out that they had taken 8! That's a lot of teeth... I felt so bad for her but I was happy to have her home.

In the evening we went to this candlelight concert. It was a string quartet playing scores by Hans Zimmer. It was pretty cool! My favorites were of course Time from Inception and the Cornfield Chase from Interstellar. I've never seen Dunkirk but the song they played from that was also super interesting.

Friday, January 12, 2024

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Today was so/so. We were supposed to have a shortened work day because of it being a holiday weekend but I had a hard time focusing and worked in sort spurts and didn't really feel like I got a lot done. In between I cleaned the entire apartment because my boyfriend's family is arriving for a visit tonight and I was afraid that his Asian mom would judge me if things weren't up to snuff, lol. It was a lot though and I was pretty tired after everything. He wanted me to stay up for their arrival but their flight kept getting delayed so finally I just went to bed.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

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It was kind of weird waking up this morning to guests being here that I hadn't welcomed in the night before. It didn't take long for my boyfriend's mom to start asking when we were going to buy a house and when we are going to have a baby. I don't understand why she asks me these things instead of asking him. It was very uncomfortable. We all got ready to leave in the morning for a weekend in Dallas. The drive down felt longer than I was anticipating. It might be because I couldn't really understand anything being said with my boyfriend's mom only speaking Mandarin. After a while I got tired of it and put in my headphones to listen to more of my latest audiobook. On the last leg of the trip we stopped at Buccee's which was fun. I haven't been there in ages. We stocked up on all our favorite snacks.

Once we arrived in Dallas, we went to the hotel to check in and rest for a little bit and then headed out for the Asian district. I was super excited to find that they have a Kinokuniya!!! I took a browse around but it wasn't really up to par with the other stores I've been to and wayyy overcrowded. Still, I ended up getting a couple of books and a small Totoro washcloth.

After that we went to dinner. It was Sichuan style cuisine. We got spicy chicken and garlic eggplant and egg drop soup and a few other things that I didn't eat. It wasn't as good as some of the other places I've been but I did really like the eggplant. After diner we went to Daiso. I was sooo excited to find that they had a ton of Jinbeisan stuff! He's one of my favorite San-X characters. I bought pretty much everything I could find plus a bunch of stickers and a little tent for Yuna, lol! We also browsed around Tesco. It was interesting but I didn't get anything there. Finally we headed back to the hotel to turn in for the night.

Sunday, January 14, 2024

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I had a really hard time waking up this morning. Finally we went down to breakfast. We didn't have any plans for the day so we discussed different things to do. In the end we went to the aquarium first. It was soooo cold outside OMG. The aquarium was really cool though, they had tons of exotic birds and other small animals. The actual fish part was eh but I really enjoyed it. Afterwards we got BBQ for lunch. It was ok but not really my thing. After that, we debated what to do and ended up going to this art museum. Usually I really like art museums but I was so tired and the cold was really draining my energy so I ended up just finding a quiet corner to sit down while the others browsed the exhibits. On the way back to the hotel we grabbed cookies from this place called Society Cookie. They were really yummy! I ate half of mine and then lay down for a nap. Afterwards it seemed like no one really wanted to get dinner but I hadn't eaten as much BBQ as everyone else so my boyfriend took me out and we got salads and fresh squeezed juice which was yummy and then turned in for the night.

Monday, January 15, 2024

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This morning we woke up to snow. I wasn't expecting that because it wasn't in the forecast so that kind of put a damper on everything else for the day. We ended up voting to just leave early instead of doing anything more in Dallas because we were worried that the weather might make it a difficult drive home. I started getting overstimulated in the car almost immediately. We were back to the loud Mandarin and I was not doing well. I put my headphones back in to listen to more of my audiobook. We made another quick stop at Buccee's and McDonalds for lunch and finally made it home around 4pm. I was very happy to be back but still struggling with being overstimulated. I wanted to use my desk but my boyfriend and his brother were playing video games so I opted to take a shower instead and then my boyfriend's mom ended up getting in the other shower and the water turned icy. I was not happy. After such a long cold weekend I just wanted to freaking shower in peace but no. And then I couldn't even lay in bed and warm up afterwards because Yuna had drooled on the blankets following her surgery and I had to put them in the wash. It was not a good evening. I ended up spending most of it behind closed doors until it was time to go to bed.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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Ooof, I feel off the horse on keeping this updated. Since I last wrote my new employee has started so it's been interesting training him and trying to build a connection. Last week I was in Washington DC for work. It was really great to see all my coworkers and catch up with them. Apparently one of the people on my team is going to be having a baby soon! I haven't seen his wife to know so it was big news and I think it brought up big feels for a lot of people on the team. Since getting home, the weather has been much nicer. We had an ice storm the day I left for the airport but now we're in the 60s which is much improved in my opinion. I've been going for daily walks and have cooked a home made dinner each night since getting back. That's pretty good for me lately, and I feel proud of this progress but also a bit apprehensive, wondering how long I might be able to keep this up.

Today I received my fancy new keyboard. Instagram has been bombarding me with ASMR of "creamy" sounding keyboards and I decided to finally take the plunge. I'm really happy with it so far. The keyboard is solidly built and the sound is so soothing. Not like the super loud clacky clack of most mechanical keyboards. You can customize this one too if I ever want to change out the key cap colors or whatnot. Because the keyboard is white, and because my other mouse/keyboard is a combined set with one shared dongle, I decided to also get a new mouse. That's also really nice. It's a silent click mouse and the scroll wheel allows you to scroll both gradually and at super speed which is great. It has two programmable buttons on the side, too, that you can use to go back or undo, etc. I'm very happy with them both though they cost a pretty penny and I probably shouldn't be spending so much money on stuff like this. Still, it's a really nice office upgrade, especially since I work from home and am on the computer pretty much all day.

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

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I can't believe it's the end of January already... Last night I didn't sleep well. I woke up around 3 am and couldn't get back to sleep. The day went okay. I got some work done in the morning but in the afternoon I ended up feeling dizzy and had to lay down for the rest of the day. I got back out of bed around 4 pm and dragged myself outside for a walk. I scootered over to my favorite park and walked to the end and back, stopping in the middle to read some of "Braiding Sweetgrass". My friend and I are going to do a mini two-person book club type thing and read it together and compare notes.

Once I got home I made dinner. It was some Blue Apron recipe with potatoes and peppers and chorizo baked in the oven with figs and parsley and some kind of sauce. It was pretty yummy. After that I was hoping to play some more Hogwarts Legacy but my boyfriend ended up play more of his Spiderman game so I watched that for a while and then headed to bed.

Thursday, February 1, 2024

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Wow it's hard to believe it's February already... Today was an okay day I guess though work was a bit frustrating. Part of our system went down and there was some drama about whether or not we should send an email about it which was frustrating but I guess overall the day wasn't too bad. I had therapy after work and then my boyfriend got home surprisingly early so we were able to go out for a walk together before dinner. That was really nice since typically I don't get to see him much during the weekdays. We had Tropical Smoothie Cafe for dinner and then sat down and watched "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent". I had been wanting to see it since the memes were all over the place but we only just got to it. The movie was ridiculous but fun. It was also really nice to get to just sit down and have an evening together. After the movie, my boyfriend played some more Spiderman and I read a bit more of "Braiding Sweetgrass" and then headed to bed early.

Friday, February 2, 2024

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I woke up last night in the middle of the night with a migraine. My neck is really hurting me again so I think the nerve block is completely worn off now. It sucks because I won't be getting the new nerve block until next Friday so this upcoming week is going to hurt for sure. I got up on time this morning and was ready for work relatively close to starting time. I attended a webinar this morning about email deliverability which was pretty interesting. I walked on my walking pad the whole time, so that was about 50 minutes of walking, which was good exercise.

The rest of the day was kind of eh. I chased some people up for email stuff and had a bit of a shock when one of my marketing emails failed to send. I did get it figured out though and worked on some mindless tasks until I had my meeting with my remote work advisor person for the remote program I signed up for when moving to Oklahoma. It was pretty good. I walked to the nearby coffee shop to meet with them and she treated me to a coffee so that was nice. I headed back home and ended up working later than I intended to because I got caught up in some stuff. I was supposed to have a call with a friend but I forgot about it with working late so that was my bad.

My head is kind of hurting now so I guess I'll have to figure out something for dinner and try to relax for the rest of the night.

Saturday, February 3, 2024

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Last night I got woken up in the middle of the night by an earthquake. It was super weird, I woke up feeling the bed shake but then it was gone and I was wondering if I imagined the whole thing. I googled but didn't find any info about an earthquake near me so I went back to bed but I searched again when I woke up later and found that there had been a 5.1 magnitude quake nearby. Crazy!

The rest of the day was okay. My boyfriend ended working most of the day so I went out to get groceries and run errands and then came home and did some meal prep and cleaned the apartment and all the not so fun things but felt really accomplished for what I got done.

Sunday, February 4, 2024

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This morning I went to get a facial which was nice. I got a peel and my face feels so smooth now! Afterwards we stopped at Target to get a few things and then had lunch at Panda Express which was yum. It was rainy and ick again today so we headed home after that and I took a bath and did a scrub and slathered myself with lotion which was nice and then got dressed in my comfy clothes and spent most of the day on the couch playing Hogwarts Legacy. It was a really nice relaxing day in.

Monday, February 5, 2024

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I really haven't been sleeping well at all and last night was no different. I was not in a great mood today, probably PMS. I have been keeping up my walking and cooking though so there is that. Otherwise I guess nothing incredibly noteworthy to mention for today.

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

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Another night of no sleep. My mom took my grandma to the ER last night for prolonged mental confusion. I woke up at 3 am to some sort of distressing messages from her and couldn't sleep well after that. The day progressed downhill from there. My cat threw up and had diarrhea in the morning. It has been going on for a while sort of on and off and the vet told me that I should take her to urgent care so I ended up spending about half of the day there trying to figure that out. At one point I heard them putting down the pet of an elderly lady which was very stressful. Also stressful was the dentist calling me to say that my insurance would not cover my visit and they wanted like $400. And then the vet wanted $400 after doing a whole slew of tests and still not figuring out what was wrong with her. Then I spilled water inside my purse and almost broke my new AirPods which would have been another massive money sink. Fun times. So yeah, the day didn't really improve at all from there. I'm so over this week already.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

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Today was an okay day I guess. Lots of work to do and I had a doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Otherwise nothing really noteworthy I guess.

Thursday, February 8, 2024

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Last night I took a sleeping pill I was prescribed and the thing turned out to be like a horse tranquilizer. I had such a hard time trying to wake up in the morning and the rest of the day went downhill from there. After a long meeting I ended up with a migraine and took some painkillers but they made me super sleepy and dizzy and I ended up having to lay down and missed another two hours of work. This week has been crazy at eating up my work hours. After my nap I got back online and worked until late in the evening to try to make up the time. I'll be leaving on vacation next week and I still have so much to catch up on. Tomorrow's going to be another shortened day because I have another doctor's appointment in the afternoon. Hopefully I can get everything done that I need to in order to feel confident about stepping away for a week.

Friday, February 9, 2024

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Today was an okay day I guess. I only had to work a halfish day. In the afternoon I went to go get a new nerve block for my migraine treatment. It hurts sooo much. I was literally crying and dizzy from the pain but it does provide relief for about 2 months so there is that. I came home and got comfy on the couch and ended up spending pretty much all afternoon and evening finishing "Salt to the Sea" in one day. It was a good book. I had no idea about the part of history in World War II so it was also educational. After that I headed to bed.

Saturday, February 10, 2024

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Last night I finally slept pretty well. I went to the mall to return a pair of pants that didn't work out and wandered around for a while. I got in a lot of steps for my walking challenge at work so that was good. I also stopped at Target to get some groceries and then came home to get ready for a work dinner thing with my boyfriend. I was kind of dreading it but it went pretty well. I sat next to a cardiology nurse practitioner and her policeman husband. The food was not quite as good as I was hoping it would be but it was a pretty good time.

Sunday, February 11, 2024

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Last night I took another sleeping pill to try it on a day when I didn't have to wake up to an alarm but I still had the same problem. I couldn't really wake up in the morning even though I was ready to be awake so I ended up going back to sleep and got up a bit late. I putzed around at home getting some stuff done for the apartment and then sat down to watch a movie. I ended up deciding on "Phantom Thread" which had a very interesting ending. In the evening we put on the Superbowl though I didn't really watch much of it. I had a call with a friend to discuss a book that we are reading together. It was so nice to hear from her! I'm hoping we'll be able to work out a time to visit each other soon because I miss her a lot.