New Orleans Trip

What spurred on this trip was the fact that I was around $75 away from being a Delta Silver Medallion member, so my coworker told me to do a cheap day trip somewhere before the end of the year.

Since I like traveling with others, I asked my friend and boyfriend if they where down to go to New Orleans since the flights were cheap. They were the ones who actually convinced me to make it a weekend trip instead lol. Jessica ended up not going, so it became a weekend trip with the bae instead, which I definitely didn't mind.

The only downside was that we had early flights around 7am each way, so we woke up early and did our best to make the best of each day.

Friday, December 20th:

• Woke up at 4:30am and headed to the airport
• Landed around 8:30
• Tried and failed to check into our Airbnb since it was the right time yet
• Walked to Cafe du Monde for breakfast
• Tried their beignets and Cafe au Lait (delicious!)
• Explored the shops nearby
• Sampled lots of pralines
• Explored the French Market

• Bought some souvenir long-sleeve shirts for ourselves
• Tried alligator sausage and seafood gumbo that's been featured on the Food Network
• Ate lunch at a Creole restaurant where we tried jumbalaya, etouffee, and shrimp po boys
• Walked around Bourbon Street
• Checked into our Airbnb and rested for a bit
• Ate fried chicken and tried a frozen mixed drink at Willie's for dinner
• Relaxed for the rest of the night

Saturday, December 21th:

• Tried beignets at Cafe Beigent for breakfast the next day, which also had a live band perform
• Walked around and bought pralines and souvenirs for people
• Went back to the Airbnb to nap since it was drizzling a lot
• Napped a lot since we were exhausted from yesterday
• Went to dinner at Trenasse for their happy hour oysters
• Ordered way too much delicious food since we had skipped lunch lol
• Got dessert at Amorino since we passed by it a few times and it always looked tasty

• Packed up

Sunday, December 22nd:

• Woke up around 5am
• Headed to the airport and got assigned Comfort+ seats (I think it's cuz we checked into our flight late the night before)
• Ate breakfast at Pho Dai Loi
• Drove back to David's place
• Started watching The Witcher on Netflix
• Went back home

Overall, an eventful and tiring weekend!

Weekly Haul 120

I backed Obvious State's poetry Kickstarter a couple of months ago and received the first six visually reimagined poetry books by T. S. Eliot, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman, Sara Teasdale and Henry David Thoreau. I also got a calendar and art prints! Everything's so nice!

Books I Want to Read This Month

Some of my coworkers started a book club a few weeks ago to get back into reading. After much debate, we decided to read Harry Potter as our first book, so I've got motivation to read at least one physical book this month!

1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling & Illustrated by Jim Kay
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
3. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
4. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
5. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
6. The Rising of the Shield Hero vol. 1 by Aneko Yusagi
7. The Rising of the Shield Hero vol. 2 by Aneko Yusagi
8. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
9. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
10. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
11. the witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace
12. On Love by Alain de Botton
13. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
14. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune
15. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

November in Retrospect

I read a couple of Chinese novels and Japanese manga this month! I really need to start reading physical books though... But reading is still reading!

I read:

• Full Marks Hidden Marriage: Pick Up a Son, Get a Free Husband by Jiong Jiong You Yao
• Namaikizakari vol. 16 by Miyuki Mitsubachi
• Namaikizakari vol. 17 by Miyuki Mitsubachi
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 1 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 2 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 3 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 4 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 5 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 6 by Fumita Yanagida
• Tomo-chan is a Girl! vol. 7 by Fumita Yanagida
• Lessons on Raising a Partner by Ācí Gūniáng

I watched:

• Xie Wang Zhui Qi (2019)
• 42 (2013)

Harry Potter, VR, Group Costumes, Weddings, Game Night, Dinners, Concerts, Thanksgiving, & Friendsgiving

I've been slacking on updates for the past couple of months. It's mainly because I've been busy, lazy, or procrastinating since I haven't really felt in a blogging mood for a while.

Plus, I was traveling a lot for a while, so I got backlogged on my travel posts. I think that made me more unmotivated to blog since I felt like I needed to get those posts out first. Now idgaf lol. I'll get to them eventually if I even want to do it anymore lol.

Here's a couple snapshots of how October and November has been for me!

OCTOBER:

Kyle, Michelle, Archana, Raj, David, and I got dinner together one Saturday. This was because Archana wanted to introduce us to her boyfriend before we went to go watch Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in concert which had a live orchestra performing. It was awesome! I hadn't watch the movie in years, so I forgot how funny it was! And Raj was really nice and sweet, so I liked him, too, lol.

We did an Avengers VR thing with a bunch of Kyle and Michelle's friends. We got to put on these backpacks and helmets and helped fight against robots during Infinity War. It was pretty fun, and I want to go back since they have a scary VR scenario, too!

Michelle and I made canh chua, which is Vietnamese sweet and sour soup, for the first time. Mom's version was never spicy because she was worried my bro wouldn't be able to handle it, so it was our first time having a spicy version, and I was in love lol.

Then, for work, our team and some other people on our floor got together to do a giant team costume since we had a costume contest. We were all just a bunch of puns like identity theft, jack in the box, and formal apologies lol. We made this sign so people could try to figure us out.

NOVEMBER: 

Emily and Sean got married! It was a really pretty wedding; there was a waterfall for their backdrop! Pretty cold though, since it was outside lol. No matter, we had a lot of fun since we had rented out an Airbnb for the weekend and basically had a reunion with all of the boyfriends around lol.

This is a pic of Emily looking for Sean so she can surprise him with a first look! :D He cried when he saw her lol.

I got sick the next week, but that didn't stop David and me from going to Gibbs Gardens for the Japanese Maple Colorfest to see all of the pretty maple trees in fall. I've been wanting to go for a while as my birthday present lol. I doped up on medicine and almost coughed out a lung on the way there, but it was all good when we walked around the gardens.

Later that night, we went over to Archana's apartment for game night with a bunch of coworkers since we decided last minute to have a game night since it was Labor Day weekend lol. It was so fun and funny since almost everyone brought alcohol and snacks, so we were lit all night. There were a lot of memorable quotes like "loving can hurt" from when Archana serenaded us with her ukulele and "okay boomer" lol.

The next Friday, Jack and I took Ebony out for dinner and dessert since she was having a rough week with her husband. We ate dinner at Hello Chicken since they both haven't been there before, and then got dessert at the matcha cafe across the street. We tried the raindrop cake that went viral on the internet last year. It was pretty light, which was needed since we were still stuffed from dinner.

Last Monday, I went to Jay Park's Sexy 4eva concert with Kyle, Michelle, Sam, and her sis, Dominique. I wasn't super excited about his concert at first since I haven't listened to him for a while, but I started getting hyped after catching up with his music on Spotify. He's such a good performer with really smooth dance moves, which should have been expected since he started off as a bboy I think. Even his backup dancers were hot lol.

I also really liked one of his opening acts, Ted Park, who was really hyped and authentically himself even on stage.

Last Wednesday, we celebrated Thanksgiving at work with our yearly potluck. I ate so much food. It was great lol. Then, because it was happy hour at Starbucks a few hours later, we also went and got coffee to help fight the food coma from lunch. It was great!

This past Saturday, we had Friendsgiving at Alec's house, so I basically stuffed myself again. I definitely gained weight this past week lol. I also brought back a bunch of leftovers along with other food mom gave us, so we didn't need to food prep this week. -__-"

For actually Thanksgiving in the next few days, we're going down to visit the parentals and having seafood, I think. Then we're heading down to Florida for a cruise. So yeah, busy month!

Weekly Haul (119)

Meant to post this last month, but here we are lol. Also got the new Harry Potter book as a birthday present from the sis and bro-in-law!

Mouse Books quarterly segment

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling & Illustrated by Jim Kay

Sorry for the bad quality pics. I just haven't been taking them so well lately lol.

Books I Want to Read This Month

I didn't manage to read anything on this list last month, and now I'm in the middle of an uber long Chinese web series that's taken over my life since last week. Let's hope that I can find the will to pick up a physical book this month!

1. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
2. The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
3. Captive Prince by C.S. Pacat
4. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? vol. 12 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
5. Hitorijime My Hero vol. 1 by Memeco Arii
6. Hitorijime My Hero vol. 2 by Memeco Arii
7. I Hear the Sunspot: Limit vol. 1 by Yuki Fumino
8. The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui
9. The Anatomy of Being by Shinji Moon
10. Love Looks Pretty on You by Lang Leav
11. the witch doesn't burn in this one by Amanda Lovelace
12. On Love by Alain de Botton
13. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
14. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune
15. Bloody Jack by L.A. Meyer

October in Retrospect

I only read one book last month, but I watched a lot of great dramas as well! :D

I read:

• Online Game: Willingly Captured by Bei Qing & Northwards

I watched:

• The Untamed (2019)
• Arsenal Military Academy (2019)
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? II (2019)
• The Age of Shadows (2016)
• What's Wrong With Secretary Kim (2018)