Hey guys (and the mostly female audience of this blog lol)! I’ve been MIA for the past few months because I haven’t really had the time to write anything that I felt was meaningful and relevant. I went and lived my life offline, with little updates on both my Instagram and Facebook (my private Twitter is an entirely different story because I needed an outlet where I could rant about life’s minor inconveniences). Recently, my Instagram has been filled with food posts because I ate out so much the past week.

What’s happened since my last post?

The last one was June 13 – and it’s been two months since then. It’s weird because it feels like a lifetime ago if I’m being honest.

• C & I celebrated 9 [official] years together. We literally just went out for dinner, because despite of tediously trying to fix my work schedule so I can take that day off (or even just half the day!), there was something I needed to attend to for work. I once promised myself that I would never prioritize any job over the relationships I treasure, and I had a good cry about it afterward because I had C wait for me from noon up to when I was finally free to leave. It felt like another bout of missing my mom’s last few birthdays because of a job I no longer even have now (also, one of the reasons I transferred to my second job).
• I got regularized at my current job. There’s usually a six-month probationary period before you can become a regular employee, although I’ve never really experienced having to wait that amount of time to sign the papers for regularization. I may hate all the jobs I’ve had at different points in time (because really, no job is perfect), but I rarely let the quality of my work slide.
• And I guess that’s why I got nominated to take on more tasks. Ha!
• The project I’m working on is unofficially LIVE, and so we’ve entered the warranty period. I’m already slated to take on another project that’s also going to be built from the ground up. It’s a challenging new endeavor since I do get a feeling of satisfaction at building something. Now if I can make it so much better that I don’t have to do it after office hours… (especially when I’m on vacation leave – but that’s another story for another time).
• Finalized my travel plans for the rest of the year, which brings us to…

Travel plans for the rest of the year..

• I’m heading to Bali with my best friend for a week. Of course, you’ll hear about it because I usually just write about my travels and rarely about my boring 8-5. Weirdly, it’s going to be our first out of the country trip together even if we’ve traveled locally before. Hopefully, my future posts will not be filled with friend fights and such. Haha!
• C and I are heading back to Japan during autumn, mostly for the food but partly for the weather and the foliage. We rate our couple trips, and ever since we went to Japan, it has consistently ranked as number one. We’ll be getting a JR Pass to ride the Shinkansen, so that’s something we’re excited about.
• I might be going on a solo trip which I haven’t done since last year. But I haven’t booked tickets yet, and I have an important life event coming up that I’m saving up for. Let’s see if I win the lottery and magically solve all my financial dilemmas. Haha!

Other goals (that I hopefully end up doing)…

• I’m currently on a shopping ban. I went from a pretty chill job in a global company (little fish in a big pond) to a high-stress, client-facing, project lead role at a local startup. My manager just resigned and his tasks have been divided up between me and another consultant (temporarily for now). I’ve done twice the amount of work in the span of less than six months than I did in the almost two years I spent in my previous one. It was such a jarring difference that I needed to go back to being used to the constant anxiety with regards to failure. Our office building is right in front of a high-end mall complex (Greenbelt), and I find myself engaging in some serious retail therapy whenever I needed an instant high. I came to a point where I had so many unused clothes (with tags still on them), my sister got to use (and keep) my brand new clothes and I never even noticed. So I made myself go on a 3-month shopping ban (after I needlessly bought two pairs of shoes that were on sale).
• Lose weight. This is forever a goal because I don’t seem to be losing weight no matter what I do. I’m medicated for PCOS, and I know that because of my hormones, my body retains sugar so much longer (or something – I can’t remember how my doctor explained it to me). I’ve been regularly walking my dog though and doing cardio at home. The only thing is because of the rain, I can’t really carve out time to go to the gym because the traffic is crazy. It takes me 2-3 hours one way just to go to work/get home, and by the time I’m home, I would either be tired from the commute or have more work to accomplish. Ugh. I’m scheduling an update for 3 months to see where I’m at with this goal. Hold me accountable!

I guess that’s it. It’s Leo season and my birthday’s coming up. Any other Leos in here? 🙂