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March has been one of those months filled with many memories that my body (literally) couldn't keep up. Throughout all the chaos and madness, I've learned a lot and created forever memories I'll cherish forever.
Lifestyle: What I've Been Up To
Memorable Dates
My boyfriend and I went on several memorable dates this month. But here are a few memorable dates this month:
Rug Tufting
This activty has been on my bucket list forever since I saw it popping off all over social media. I was surprised at how long it took to do the activity as it took a total of 4+ hours to do a medium-sized rug! We ended up having to miss our dinner reservation (luckily no fees for late cancellation), but it ended up working out as we were able to get my hot pot in 626. I recommend this activity to everyone but would suggest starting small before committing to doing a bigger-sized rug for the first time.
Care Bear Museum/ Flea Market
Another Tiktok recommended date crossed off my bucket list was going to the Care Bear Museum. As fun and cute as it was to walk around seeing the various care bear art, I was sad that the museum itself was quite small! We had paid $15 for parking so I was determined to make it more worth it and it happened that we had passed by a cool (almost intimidatingly cool) flea market as we drove to the Care Bear Museum. We decided to do a little hot girl walk over to the flea market and I had the best time ever. The space was filled with lots of small vendors with really cool pieces. It seemed like a cool group of community gathering together. I was luckily able to pick a piece I liked as well as discover a small coffee cart that served the best ube latter I've ever had.
Concerts
I was lucky enough to go to 2 concerts this month:
IVE
I've (no pun intended) only listened to IVE's popular songs, such as Love Dive, Baddie, and ELEVEN. But, it was enough to sell me on buying concert tickets to listen to these songs as well as see Wonyoung who truly is Korea's it girl right now. I didn't go in with too much expectation, but I ended up having so much fun! The KIA forum made it feel so intimate and it truly felt like the girls were living out their dreams. They were all so cute and talented that I had such a fun time discovering new songs from them as well. Overall, I had a blast on a school night (as I'd like to call it - even though it's been years since I've been out of school) because it had taken place on a Wednesday night.
LANY
LANY has been one of my favorite artists since college and I had to jump to get tickets after my co-worker told me about his concert in LA. I was so scared that I was going to be late and have missed half of his set as we had come around 9 pm but we were lucky enough where he had just come on when we sat down at our seats. It was so emotional and fun to listen to my favorite songs live and it was fun seeing LANY's silly little dance moves. He also did the craziest thing during his set where he ran through the crowds and up to the 200's section while singing. It truly might be one of the wildest things I saw and I was sad he ended up running towards the opposite section of where I was at. Overall, I had a great time and it made me want to go to even more concerts in the future.
Santa Barbara
I got to do my (unintentional) yearly tradition of going to SB! This year, I had planned a trip to show my boyfriend around UCSB since he's never been to SB in general. I invited two of my close friends, Mish & Kelsey to go with me as they also were UCSB alums. The trip was so memorable filled with classic SB activities including Lily's Tacos, The Loop, and Downtown SB. I also found it so fun to go with Mish and Kelsey because we had only become good friends our senior year of college and the moment we were going to hang out together more, COVID hit. Therefore, we never really interacted throughout college so it was interesting to see how different places had such different experiences/ memories for each one of us. Overall, we were reminiscing about the good old days when we didn't have such adult jobs doing such adult things, but we were also talking about how proud we feel for the accomplishments we've made so far.
Lows: Stomach Flu
When I said that my body literally couldn't keep up, I meant it. I had my first ever stomach flu and this was truly unlike anything I've gone through before. I recall Stephanie saying she had her fear of throwing up because of her stomach flu when she was younger. As much as I empathized with her, I didn't understand it because I'd never experienced it. But, let me tell you, this was quite traumatizing. Although I had something other than throwing up, it was all the same traumatizing that I've never experienced. Without getting too graphic, let's just say I was switching from being in bed and on the toilet throughout the whole day and night.
It was also eye-opening because I realized the times I've been sick the past few years was because I had gotten COVID and I realized I haven't gotten sick for anything else in a while. Therefore, it also felt strange to be "sick" from something other than COVID. I am not sure what triggered it, but what I do hope is that I'm done with getting sick for the rest of the year. Moments like these truly make me reflect on how lucky I am to have a healthy and good-functioning body, which is something I should never take for granted.
Lessons: Everyone Moves at a Different Pace
This month, I went to my first-ever engagement party for my friend, Rachel. As cool and exciting as it has been to see her experience with her engagement, it made me reflect on my life. I know that I don't see myself marrying this young or anytime soon, but it did still make me think about whether I was late or if I should start thinking about marriage. I also started to reflect/overthink what stage I would be at if I had still been in a relationship with my ex-boyfriend at college. It's not that I wish I was back with him but it made me think about what stage we would be at? would we also be considering an engagement by now? would I think that I'd be ready for engagement by now if I had been with him for this long? I saw how different maybe my life would be right about now, but it also made me reflect on how much I've grown the past few years post-breakup and how much I enjoy my life right now. I truly believe everyone moves at such different paces and wants different things in life so I'm so happy at the stage of life I'm in right now without comparing to my peers. It did, however, make me feel a bit old as I know this will be the first of many engagement parties to come in the future.
Songs on Repeat:
Top Songs -
Magnetic - ILLITthe boy is mine - Ariana Grande Love On - Selena Gomez My Pick of the Month: At Home Restaurant/ Cafe
I've always enjoyed having fun hosting people, but I think I truly found my newfound love when I did a little at-home restaurant and cafe experience. I've always loved recreating recipes and making food for people. It brings me such joy when I see the other person enjoying the food I made with love. This month, I recreated Pepper lunch at home with a Tiktok recipe (I swear this is the new Google for me as I search up everything on here, please don't ban Tiktok lol). This was delicious and so much to do gave a show by doing the whole cooking with my electric skillet (which has been with me for a long time since my college days).
Jin's cafe was the next of the at-home experience including lots of various snacks I've gathered at home and coffee (actually using my espresso machine, which I truly neglected for a year lol). I've been having so much fun playing around with my espresso machine and making different types of coffee recipes. The coffee captured in this picture is banana milk coffee (banana milk + espresso, that easy!). The coffee and snacks were truly the perfect setup to binge Love is Blind all day long.
This month was truly filled with so much chaos and madness that I do not regret or take it back. I'm honestly both excited and fearful for what's to come in April as my schedule is already packed. But I guess only time will tell for what's to come!
Talk to you next month,
-- Jin