January Goals

These are the things I set out to do at the beginning of the month and how it went:

• Narrow down the potential paint colors for the wall that is going to be our new accent wall (aka the wall that was never an accent wall before but has the worst damage out of all the walls left behind by the last occupants). Narrow down to no more than four colors and obtain paint samples to do patch testing. --> Narrowed down the paint colors but did not obtain the paint samples. In fairness, I had set aside time one weekend in January to visit the paint store and get the samples, but two days before paint-store-visiting-day was the day when another car went and drove into my car so....... those plans were understandably delayed.
  
• Keep the plants alive. --> They seem like they are still alive, mostly thanks to the fact that C has appointed himself Home Gardener between the two of us and has taken charge of all watering and plant-care duties.
  
• Finish fixing the AC insulation on the roof --> DONE
  
• Fix the AC insulation in the utility closet --> DONE
  
• Read a non-work-related book --> DONE (in fact, I finished TWO!)
  
• Exercise most days --> DONE
  
• Set up a reading plan for work-related reading --> I set a plan up and then proceeded to ignore it completely. Ah, well. The best intentions...

I tried a habit tracker for January too. I learned that I have gotten pretty good at exercising > 4 days / week and much more consistent (though not perfect) with flossing. I have also been absolutely garbage at stretching (the month started out well, but once C went off on his week-long work trip I just.... stopped and haven't gotten back into the habit) and even worse with doing work-related reading in the evenings. I guess 2 of 4 isn't bad for the first month of the year.

 February Goals: 

• Do at least as well with habit tracking as in the month prior, if not better. 
  
• Plan a vacation
  
• Submit the big project proposal due mid-month
  
• Actually obtain those paint samples 
• extra ambitious goal: get sample patches actually painted on the wall once the paint samples are obtained.
  
• Wrap up all active car-repair issues 
• Read a non-work related book
• Keep flossing 
• Back up files and photos 
• Make progress on advanced planning documents.
• Pick a faucet model to replace the half-broken bathroom faucet that the last people who lived in our home left behind.
  

We'll see how it goes. 

Books Finished in January 2023

•  Making a Scene - Constance Wu (started in 2022)
• Crying in H Mart - Michelle Zauner
  

Weekend Recap

Friday

• C arrived back home! (after being out of town all week for work) The energy at home went from still and quiet to barely restrained chaos more or less immediately, but at least now we are back to what has become our computer and video game under couch blanket time in the evenings -- no need to play video game OSTs from youtube to set up the same background music now that we're both back to sitting in the living room with the Nintendo Switch.
  

Saturday

• Slept in (consistently one of the best weekend activities that there could possibly be. 
• Had a late breakfast of coffee and specialty breads that C brought back from his trip. 
• A quick Trader Joes trip for a few groceries -- specifically some fresh produce to get us through the coming week and to stock up on frozen tteok bokki. 
• Attended a friend's baby shower: a lovely event for some lovely people. Was also nice to use the occasion as an excuse to catch up with a former classmate. 
• We made all our standard weekend phone calls to the parents today to say hi and check in. 
• Started some pea soup in the slow cooker upon arriving home to eat later during the week and had hot pot for dinner (this remains one of the best ways to use up aging vegetables)
• Started putting together a list of books to read for fun -- should be good
  

Sunday 

• More sleeping in. 
• Brunch complete with fresh coffee and pea soup made the night before
• Took care of the standard weekend house chores
• Finished a book
• Going to try and take a crack at first steps in restoring some cast-iron pans before dinner.
  

 

Taking my car to the body shop tomorrow morning because someone rear-ended me while I was stopped for a traffic light the other day and this was the earliest opening that they had available. I've already filed general claims/reports with both insurance companies, so I guess tomorrow the real fun of learning just how annoying this whole process is going to be can begin. At least I was not the other drive, though. I imagine it is exponentially more annoying to be the driver at fault and also to have solidly driven straight into the back of another car while driving your brand new just-washed 2023 Lexus SUV so fresh off the lot it still has cardboard plates -- sucks to be them.  

 

Ambience

C has been playing Persona 5 Royal as the evening wind-down of choice lately. Now that we have a proper couch to sit on, I've taken to sitting on the couch and computer-ing around the same time.

Turns out we've gotten so used to the video game music that we each, independently, have started using the game's OST on youtube as general computer-ing background music.

Weekend Recap

This weekend was lunar new year! Most of my family was off celebrating in another city (as per usual), so there was no big getting together or exchanging of envelopes etc. We did manage to eat fish and noodles and dumplings (in the form of leftover hot pot), though! And we made calls to all the parents/grandparents at some point over the weekend.

We learned from my father-in-law that we are not supposed to sweep the house (unless you sweep "in" to the house) or take out the trash on new year's day. We asked about vacuuming, which according to him is totally fine to do as long as you don't empty the vacuum cleaner and then take out the trash. We were also not supposed to use any sharp objects (knives/scissors) for somewhat unclear reasons, and in this we did not fully succeed (i.e. we forgot and C used a knife to chop some sauce veggies, I used a knife to open a fish package, and then I made a batch of scones and used a butter knife to cut butter and portion the scones) -- oops.  

C insists that more important than avoiding the use of sharp things is that we weren't supposed to do any work, but I also worked on some emails and documents for work this evening after dinner. Alas, such is life in the age of remote access. 

 At least we didn't sweep the floors! 

Non-culinary highlights of the weekend included a lot of sleeping in and going on a few walks in the neighborhood. 

A bunch of things have been happening lately, but none that really merit descriptions specifically here. 

True Home Cooking

Costco green chile and cheese tamales topped with Trader Joe's Tteok Bok Ki (cook w/ added dashi, fresh green onion, and a soft-boiled egg) plus a little extra cheese mixed in. 

Makes an excellent dinner in < 15 minutes. 

You heard it hear first. :]

How It Went

 Revisiting the things I'd wanted to accomplish over this long weekend: 

• Sort out licensing and certification maintenance requirements -- partial credit (looked up when everything needs to be renewed by; set up email queries for access to some things I need access to in order to re-certify. 
• seal the last of the bathroom tile --> DONE! 
• catch up on textbook reading -------- read a nonzero amount of textbooks but did not actually "catch up" to anything. 
• sketch out a drafting plan for the week ahead -- this had been somewhat done on Friday before I left work. 
• at least one baking / cooking project. Maybe something I can bring to work to share if it's something I don't get around to until later in the weekend. 
• baked short ribs and marinated/glazed pork (both ribs and pork butt were on sale at the market) 
• cooked a big batch of fresh noodles -- enough to feed us both dinner on Saturday + 3 packed lunches for me to eat over the week + an extra one-person meal's worth of leftovers. 
• grocery shopping at the specialty market --> DONE! 

Perpetual weekend goals -- (AKA The things I would have done anyway but I keep them on my to-do lists to bolster my sense of accomplishment) 

• plan and pack lunches --> DONE
• 2 loads of laundry --> DONE
• exercise -- DONE 
• clean retainers -- DONE 
• charge smartwatch -- DONE
• call parents -- DONE 

Stretch goals -- 

• re-grout the crack in the bathroom countertop -- didn't happen, but incredibly non-urgent. 
• narrow down accent wall paint colors to 4-5 -- 30+ paint chips narrowed down to 3 finalist colors. 6 different types of light. Lots of staring at the wall from up close and across the room. Nice to be able to finally move on to the stage where we can paint some sample patches on the wall to decide what we ultimately like best. 

Surprise accomplishments: 

• Sealed the tile around the tub x2 (This was a 99% C effort, with me around on standby to fetch things and generally plan.) 
• replaced the ripped piping insulation in the appliance closet 
• purchased and prepped baby shower gift for a friend 

I've been reading Crying at H Mart on and off over the weekend. The Internet kept saying it was such a good read. I am...... not that impressed so far? Admittedly, I'm less than halfway through, so maybe it gets really good in the later chapters. Will keep reading and let you know. 

My Dwindling Attention Span

 I am becoming increasingly convinced that the various tiktok equivalents are rotting my brain. 

That's it. That's the entire thought. 

I definitely do not have the will power to replace the bad habit with one that is truly productive, but hoping that I can at least gradually reallocate more of the time otherwise frittered away on short videos to being frittered away on reading mediocre memoires and trash fiction. 

*youtube shorts, instagram reels, etc. -- also tiktok at one point a while back, but once tiktok started requiring an actual account in order to casually view videos I promptly uninstalled the app because I have reached the point in life where the mere thought is being forced to create yet another login that I will absolutely definitely forget almost immediately is enough to eschew even the most addicting of technologies. 

Goals for the Long Weekend

• Sort out licensing and certification maintenance requirements 
• seal the last of the bathroom tile
• catch up on textbook reading
• sketch out a drafting plan for the week ahead
• at least one baking / cooking project. Maybe something I can bring to work to share if it's something I don't get around to until later in the weekend. 
• grocery shopping at the specialty market 

Perpetual weekend goals -- 

• plan and pack lunches
• 2 loads of laundry
• exercise
• clean retainers
• charge smartwatch
• call parents

Stretch goals -- 

• regrout the crack in the bathroom countertop
• narrow down accent wall paint colors to 4-5

It's barely the end of Tuesday, and I am already with all eyes on the weekend. At least, all things considered, my schedule these days is pretty comfortable. 

What a perfect weekend

 Things I've been fantasizing about making recently (hopefully soon, when I finally set aside the time...): 

• a matcha crepe cake (have never before attempted; somewhat convinced that the cream layers in between the crepes would be harder than the crepes themselves... 
• and if not a in cake form, then crepes in general (gotta test out the brand new crepe maker that I brought back from the family's Christmas 2022 white elephant gift exchange!) 
• Ensaymada rolls -- feeling rather proficient at the general brioche roll technique lately having mastered cinnamon rolls and more recently having 80-90% successfully improvised pumpkin cinnamon spice rolls in order to use up some leftover pumpkin puree. Since ensaymada is just a delicious variant of brioche (WITH CHEESE!), even if this fails I bet it would be an edible failure. 
• On the theme of ensaymada rolls -- could hybridize them further....... ube-ensaymada rolls? matcha ensaymada rolls? black sesame ensaymada rolls? Not sure how the latter two would go with the cheese component, BUT HOW WILL WE EVER LEARN IF THERE IS NO TRY?
• Cookies; specifics not yet determined (probably should wait until more of the post-holiday store-bought cookie stash has been consumed before following up on this one)  
• Black sesame cookies 
• Slow sugar cookies 
• ^ saw both briefly in passing on the internet without much info on recipe, specifics, etc. BUT no reason for that to stop me. 
• spicy soup (maybe hot pot on Monday?) 
• mochi, either plain or maybe with ?peanut butter filling. I don't really want to commit to peanuts, but peanut butter seems like it could work -- wouldn't even need to add any sugar.

And some stuff I had been thinking about making that I actually made this weekend: 

• guacamole
• Sushi bowls (after picking up some seaweed salad from Costco for no other reason than It Was On Sale) 

But, even though the weekend has been without baking adventures, we've still been pretty productive -- 

• trips to Costco, Trader Joe's, and the local regular supermarket (!) -- safe to say the kitchen and pantry are much better stocked now than they had been at end of last Friday. Unexpected score of the trip: green chile and cheese tamales were being sold at half price (though they didn't label it as a markdown -- they just posted a regular looking price tag that was half the price of the meat ones)! Too bad that it's a seasonal thing they only sell around Christmastime because it's really one of the best flavors. 
• Finished fixing/replacing/taping/securing the insulation for the A/C piping up on the roof. A months-long item on the to-do list crossed off AT LONG LAST!!!!!!! 
• Re-caulked the tub after having removed all the disgusting moldy caulk left behind by the people who lived here before us. 
• C made Ragu -- a double win for the space it freed up in the freezer (so many different cuts of meat are apparently needed) and for the meals and meals worth of ragu we now have in the fridge and freezer for future days. 
• Visited my parents with an additional side quest trip to visit my grandmother. 
• Filed some receipts and tried an really good new place for Indian food. 
• Now back home on the couch while I send emails and C plays video games. 
• Hoping to finish watching through Gosford Park tonight. 

Overheard

"Can we change this recruitment goal to 62? Sixty-one is desperate, but 62 is scholarly. I don't know how to prove that, but it's true." 

New Year, New Blog

So it's been a few years... I often think that if I had a higher tolerance for the sight of my own handwriting (and if the idea of sitting down and writing sentences by hand in a journal didn't feel so reflexively revolting after many years of in-class essays and other schoolwork that more or less required the same general mechanics) I'd be an avid old-fashioned notebook-type journaler. 

But alas, I type much more quickly and more *legibly* than I could ever hope to write by hand. I also tend to compose things far less linearly than might work well for paper-format thought dumping. So here we are.

So much has happened since the last time I committed anything to blog form -- I finished medical school, spent an internship year out in the middle of nowhere while C worked as a post-doc a couple time zones away, at long long last I moved back home(-ish) to finish the rest of residency which started out with C at that point initially working in another city far away (but at least in the same time zone for a stretch) and quickly (too quickly?) turned into C moving in right as the world-wide quarantine started clamping down. 

Looking back on things at this point, a lot of residency is already starting to feel... hazy. I had started a post here or there during residency but ultimately never posted any of them. Some might say that rather than staying trapped behind a camera lens or a blog post interface I was too busy experiencing things in the moment during those years, but the relentless documentarian in me knows that that's not true. No. What happened was four years of soul-sucking exhaustion, and I didn't have it in me to write let alone reflect during most of that time.

But I miss it -- the journaling. And as much as my imperfect posts from years past showcase how much of an imperfect person I was when I wrote them, even the ones documenting relatively mundane things feel valuable. They remind me of how things were, who I was, what it all felt like before the dampening effects of time started to settle in. 

The past year alone has been so full of so many things for which I wish I'd had the shit-togetherness to commit thoughts into text form about at the time: 

• Getting oriented in lab and making new work friends
  
• Graduating residency / starting fellowship
  
• Finding our new place and moving out of our little moldy shoebox (the shoebox was good to us, but they were about to raise our rent  anyway, and the additional space was sorely needed).
  
• Taking and passing the board exam 
• Being able to spend holidays with family again

So with residency behind me and a substantial decompression period, why not see how long it sticks this time around? We spent the new year sleeping in, having hot pot for lunch, and taking care of small chores at home. Aside from taking out the trash, I don't think either of us even left the unit throughout the entire 12/31-1/1 weekend. The perfect weekend -- or one version of it, anyway. 

Interested to see what 2023 will bring us.