November was busy! It flew by so fast!
It was my birthday on a random Thursday. We had already made plans to go visit the parents that weekend, so mom made a huge spread the whole time we were there. I was stuffed 24/7, as I would like for my birthday lol.
The next week, I had Veteran's Day off and took Friday off for the Ellijay cabin trip with Alec and his friends. You can read more about my exciting trip here. TL;DR version: Went hiking, went to a circus for the first time, started dating Alec, stayed up til 2AM every morning talking with Alec, and went ziplining. It was an eventful trip lol.
Alec, Carina, and I made plans to have Friendsgiving at Alec's house a couple of months ago on November 20th, but we changed it to just hanging out because we didn't have time to cook and stuff. We decided to go to Marietta Square since they have a farmer's market in the morning, so we spent a lot of time walking around and trying a lot of food until we stopped by their food court for lunch.
Because we just got together, not many people knew that we were dating yet, so I wanted to play a little prank and see how long it would take Carina to figure it out lol. So we agreed to be pretty casual with little hints throughout the day to see if she would notice.
However, I gave up trying to be discreet around the time we were chilling at the fountain benches and put my leg on top of Alec's leg lol. It wasn't until lunch when I said, "It's really hard to keep a secret" that I really gave up trying to hide it lol. So Carina finally asked if we're together, and I wanted to know what gave it away. Apparently, she got the clue when Alec paid for the both of our snacks at the candy store earlier! We weren't even trying to give hints at that time! Anyway, it was a pretty fun prank.
Since we were going to John and Kelly's bridal banquet the next day, I brought all of my stuff over and spent the weekend at Alec's house. I also had that Monday off, and he was working remotely on Monday, so I just stayed over until then. After we hungout with Carina, we drove back to his place and started watching Squid Games, since he hasn't seen it yet. Then, we had a late dinner and talked a lot about each other and our relationship.
I think because I was only with one person before who also hadn't had a long relationship either, we didn't know what all to expect in a relationship or how to communicate about, so we just bumbled along and took it day by day. It's not until I had some type of experience and ended that relationship that I realized what I did and didn't want in my future partners. So talking with Alec, who also had previous relationships and insights on why they failed, was incredibly easy.
We were able to talk about so many important insights about ourselves, our problems, and our vulnerabilities. I didn't think it would be so easy to talk about these topics and connect so soon after we got together. But I think it's also because we've been friends for so long that we've already built a foundation of trust, so it was easy to understand where he was coming from and also to believe everything he said.
Plus, he likes to cook and is a great cook. What more can you ask for lol.
Needless to say, we decided to be official boyfriend and girlfriend before I drove back home that Monday night lol. I'm still surprised at how fast our relationship progressed lol. But everything feels natural and organic, and I don't feel pressured or anything. If anything, I definitely feel a lot happier these days :)
Our new intern was supposed to start working that Monday I had off. However, my manager found out that Friday before that her background check wasn't finished, so we had to postpone her start date to December 1st.
We felt bad, so I stuck with my original plan to take her out to lunch on that Tuesday so that I could show her around the building and stuff. I also invited Archana so that she could meet another coworker. We found out that she lived 15 minutes away from the office, so she ended up giving us a tour of the town lol. Still, she's a fun girl. I think she'd get along well with the team.
I had the rest of the week off for Thanksgiving. My parents and bro drove up the next day, so we drove out to meet them at a Chinese buffet place for lunch before going grocery shopping. We had a big menu planned for Thanksgiving lol.
Shelle, Brian, and I went out on Friday morning for Black Friday shopping. Brian wanted to get a long jacket, and I wanted to get a long jacket for mom for Christmas and a cardigan for Alec for Christmas. Not long after we got to the mall, and felt how hot it was in every store and saw the long lines, I realized that I would rather online shop lol. I was ready to go home not long after the first store lol.
We left to pick up some pho for lunch and chilled at home for the rest of the day.
On Thanksgiving, my dad woke up with his right foot hurting, and it hurt the whole time they stayed up here with us. Instead of leaving on Saturday as planned, they left Friday night after dinner, so that Brian could drive dad to the hospital early the next morning.
After dinner when our parents left with Brian, Kyle wanted to go out shopping. He was actually at work the whole day, so he wanted to check out the mall and Best Buy to see if there was anything he wanted, since he had so much credit with them.
It wasn't until we got to Best Buy that Shelle reminded me that we had an online Seventeen concert that started 15 minutes ago, so we booked it home while watching the concert on my phone in the car lol. Then, we ran into technical difficulties trying to cast the concert on our tv at home before we finally solved the problem and watched the last two hours in our theater room!
Alec was free for the rest of the weekend, so he came over on Saturday. I wanted to take him to the trail nearby, but we ended up cuddling on the couch as Shelle and I gave him Korean Kulture lessons aka made him watch all of our favorite Kpop performances from Kingdom: Legendary War lol.
We also watched Haikyuu season 3 after Shelle and Kyle came back from our neighbor/friend's Wingsgiving. Alec had already rewatched the whole show four times, but he was still hyped watching the match lol.
The next day, we went out to watch Eternals before Alec and I went on a spontaneous walk around the neighborhood that was way too hot when you're wearing thick, all black clothes lol. He stayed for a little longer and napped before driving home.
It really sucks that we live 1.5 hours away from each other, or else we could see each other during weekdays. Oh well, we call almost every night, so that's a lot already lol.
But yeah, November was a very busy month. Saw lots of people and went out a lot for an introvert lol.