Hello! How are you?
Since we haven’t spoken since February, let’s catch up a bit shall we?
Life Lately as of July 2021
We got hit by the Big C… we think…?
Let me backtrack.
At the end of February, my family started to feel under the weather. Eddie started getting body aches and had a fever, I started feeling congested with a sore throat, runny nose and eventually a loss of smell and my mom started developing a sore throat and body aches. We each got tested for Covid, both the rapid and PCR test and they all came back negative. After two weeks, Eddie & I started feeling somewhat better. He still didn’t have a lot of energy and I still didn’t have my sense of smell back but for the most part we were in the clear.
My mom, however, had the worst of it. She was pretty much bedridden with severe body aches, headaches and a loss of appetite. Long story short, after another visit to City MD, she was advised to go to the ER due to low oxygen. My heart just about stopped when I heard that. It was my biggest nightmare and something I never want to go through again. She spent the day in the ER where they ran tests and again tested negative for Covid and the only thing they told her was that she had Covid like symptoms and needed to rest.
It took a while for her to get her energy and appetite back and start feeling like herself again. As for me, I am now struggling with parosmia which is when your taste and smell are distorted. Meats smell and taste atrocious to me, I can’t stand the smell of garlic anymore and I’m struggling eating or smelling anything. I think this is a long term effect of Covid, but it’s all so confusing and frustrating.
Honestly, the whole situation was scary, confusing and frustrating. All signs point to Covid, but the tests said otherwise…… But, if you know me, you know my mom is my best friend and just about the most important person to me so it was a stressful month and I’m just grateful that she’s feeling better, that we’re all feeling better and we all made it through that.
All Vaccinated!
We are vaxxed & waxed and hot girl summer can officially commence! TBH, you can probably still find me at home watching a K-Drama in elastic pants, but it’s the thought that counts right? Eddie, my mom and I are all officially vaccinated. Eddie received the Moderna vaccine and my mom and I both received the Pfizer vaccine. Eddie only had side effects with his first shot. My mom had side effects with her second which gave her PTSD from when she was actually sick and weirdly enough I had no side effects other than a sore arm. I just feel very relieved to be vaccinated. It’s like for the first time in more than a year I can take a deep breath.
Eddie actually escorted my mom to both of her vaccine appointments which I thought was really sweet. I’m definitely overly sensitive and sentimental but it makes me really happy and grateful to see the two most important people in my life have such a great relationship.
Second Round Job Interview
I had a second round job interview with a startup in May that did not go as I expected. The initial interview I had was great and I was really excited. It was the first time in a really long time where I allowed myself to be positive and I felt like things were finally coming up in my favor, but the second round was a huge disappointment. I won’t go into too many details, but I got off the video call feeling really put off and put down. I think because I had allowed myself to be hopeful, I felt really foolish and disappointed and because I had shared the news with the people closest to me, I felt like I let them down. But honestly, my family really rallied behind me and it made me really grateful to be surrounded by an amazing support system that picks me up when I’m down.
Reconnected with Religion
Growing up I attended private Catholic schools for all my years of schooling. From daycare to college, all private Catholic schools. So religion is something that has always been a big part of my life. I don’t share much about my faith on social media or on the blog because I think it’s personal and it’s not my place to push my religious beliefs onto you. But, I did want to share that I recently started to reconnect with my faith and start going to church again. I know it probably seems like no big deal but honestly when the pandemic hit last year and everything else that followed, I fell into a really dark place. I stopped praying, I stopped believing and what was once a part of my normal day was no longer even a thought. I felt really lost and alone and so this past Easter, my mom and I decided to attend mass. I actually got quite emotional and teared up at times. Again, everyone is entitled to believe what they believe, but for me, it felt like such a relief to reconnect with my religion and to start praying and believing again.
Social Media Break
As President Roosevelt said, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” Ain’t that the truth. I started falling into this really toxic headspace with social media and I constantly found myself comparing my life and my body to just about everyone. I felt like my life was going nowhere while everyone else was thriving. I felt like everyone was fit while my weight loss slowed down. So I took a step back and I started making a conscious effort to stay in my lane, focus on myself, protect my mental health and protect my peace.
#StopAsianHate
I spoke out on Instagram about the rise in violence against Asian Americans and my experience with racism. It’s been really painful and scary to see. My mom has worked pretty much through the pandemic and has been harassed during her commutes so I’m always worried about her when she leaves the house. I just wanted to raise awareness to my friends, family and those that follow me and also encourage you to speak up. You can see my full post here.
Boba!
The influence of TikTok strikes again. Biao Sugar in Koreantown went viral because of their boba in a devil’s egg packaging. They release a limited amount three times a day, 12:00, 3:00 and 6:00. Honestly, the boba that comes in the egg is okay. I’ve had better, but the packaging is cool!
Redecorating
Just call me little miss HGTV because I’ve become obsessed with redecorating my apartment. I think it’s because we’ve been inside for over a year and everything that ever bothered me about my apartment was staring back at me everyday, but I started to invest in my space and try to spruce it up. I’ve been focusing on one room at time since home items are stupid expensive. My living room is about 80% complete and then I’m going to move onto my bedroom. I’ll be sharing more details in the coming weeks!
Photo Organization
This was absolutely one of those “I’m so bored, let me just do this project I’ve been putting off for forever” projects. I found this photo storage method on Amazon and decided to tackle the many, many, many photos I have at home. I’ll share more details in the coming weeks, but wanted to share some little Linda gems I found lol. This project made me very sentimental!
Garden State Mall
What can I say? I love a mall. We visited Garden State Mall in New Jersey for the first time this year and it absolutely lives up to the hype. Our uber home was filled with shopping bags.
Allergy Season
Admittedly I started drafting this post in May….and now it’s July so this may not seem relevant now, but my allergies this past Spring were so bad! Spring is my favorite season. I love how happy and hopeful everyone is when we have our first signs of warmer and sunnier weather after a long winter. It’s the best, but oh honey, my allergies this year. They haven’t been this bad since I was in college in Virginia. I went through boxes of tissues, I walked around my apartment with my box of tissues and my family kept yelling at me about my trail of tissues. But, still my favorite time of the year lol!
New Things
If you follow me on Instagram, you probably saw that I made two big purchases in May! I’ll share more details in the coming week but this retail therapy was very good for the soul.
That’s all from me today. Thank you for always being patient with me when it comes to creating content. My mental health is in a much better place so I’m excited to get back into content creation and have a ton of ideas I can’t wait to share.
