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I can't believe time flies by so quickly but I'm so excited to share how my September went!
Lifestyle: Back to Back Festivities
Hawaii
This month started with finishing my Hawaii trip to Big Island and Kauai. Even though traveling can be tough, especially with a group of people, I always look back and remember all the amazing memories that were formed. I'm missing all the poke I ate in Hawaii now looking back and I can't wait to revisit Hawaii sometime in the future.
Annual Besties Trip
I can't believe time goes by so fast because it was already time for Stephanie and I to do our annual besties trip. This year, we decided to make a full circle moment and go back to Santa Barbara together, where our friendship started. It was so fun to listen to our favorite SoundCloud mixes on our way to Santa Barbara! I also enjoyed doing all the classic SB activities and eating all the classic SB food that we missed. My favorite core memory of this trip has to be our hours-long walk around the UCSB campus where we yapped about all our memories in each place. It was so fun listening to some forgotten memories or adding on to certain parts of a foggy memory. Though we are such different people from when we met and left here, I'm so grateful for our strong friendship that has made it past post-grad.
It was also so much fun because Stephanie was able to do some LA activities with me including doing yoga, game night with my friends, and playing pickleball for the first time ever. I can't wait for us to reunite once again hopefully soon. This trip was once again one for the books and I can't wait to see where we end up next year!
Concerts
I went back to my concert era this month and saw 3 different artists: Gracie Abrams, wavetoearth, and beabadoobee. Two out of the 3 artists played at the Greek Theatre and I realized how much I hate the drive over since there's always so much traffic but I always find it somewhat worth it because the view is always so great and the artists are always so amazing. This was the case with Gracie Abrams and beabadoobee as they were both such great concerts to see at the Greek Theatre. Wavetoearth played at the Wiltern and it was my first time being in the GA standing area! Although I struggled to sometimes see over so many heads of people, the view was still amazing and their vocals were great. Concerts can be exhausting but I always find myself buying more concert tickets because experiencing your favorite songs live is just such a fun experience that I love to relive!
Birthday Weekend
This month was my boyfriend's birthday weekend and I had so much planned for us. It started off with the wavetoearth concert at the Wiltern! My boyfriend used to send me song recs all the time when we first started dating and Peach Eyes by wavetoearth was one of the first songs that he recommended. Therefore, it was such a special experience to listen to this song together!
Next, it moved on to a "surprise" picnic potluck with all his friends by the park. Although the surprise element was ruined a little by my slipup, he still did not anticipate all the people that ended up coming so I would say it was a win on my end. I was so happy to see all his friends that made it to celebrate with him and I hope that I got to make him feel extra special that day. Earlier that morning, I also surprised him with Beabadoobee concert tickets for that night at the Greek Theatre because Beabadoobee was one of his top artists on Spotify from last year. I've had a few songs that I loved from Beabadoobee as well such as Glue Song and Coffee so it was so much fun listening to it live!
Then, it followed with my first time meeting his mom and it was over a nice lunch. I loved that his mom had asked to get lunch together as a celebration of his birthday. Although I was quite nervous leading up to this interaction, she made it super comfortable once we met. The restaurant she selected was also super delicious and I'm so glad to have met her!
Believe it or not, the birthday celebration did not end there as I had prepared a lunch course for him on his actual birthday on Monday. I curated the menu based on his favorite food and created a cute menu on Canva that I ended up printing out. He was able to enjoy his wings & celery as starters, truffle mushroom pasta as a main, and affogato as dessert. We also ended the night with more food by getting Boiling Point (free pot & drink on birthday) and watching a movie. Overall, this weekend was quite a packed one and I felt like my head was all over the place trying to execute everything but in the end, I had so much fun and it makes me happy that he got to feel extra special.
Work
This month, our work had our annual celebration for its founding day and it was so much fun to get away from our desks in the office and come together to do some silly activities. Our activity for this year was to safely protect an egg from cracking when it fell from a few steps of stairs with only random things on the table (paper, popsicle sticks, yarn, etc.). In the end, most of the team's eggs survived but our team won the best team name (which I contributed to) and won a gift basket!
Lows: Sick
I ended up getting sick at the worst time, though I don't think there's ever a good time to be sick. It was right before our SB Besties Trip and I was nervous that I wouldn't feel better before then. I also wanted to make sure I tested for Covid before Stephanie arrived in LA and luckily it came out negative for her stay here. It also ended up working out because I ended up using a sick day and resting for the whole day while Stephanie worked at my apartment so I could feel better for our trip. Though I wasn't back to 100% right off the start of our trip, I'm so happy I was able to pull through and make the most of my time there. I had so much fun on our trip but times like this make me realize how much I need to take care of my body and how important health is!
Songs on Repeat:
Soundcloud mixes -
My Pick of the Month: Pickleball
This month has been nonstop pickleball and it's so much fun. I'm so happy that so many of my friends have been getting into it because that means there's always someone who's down to play. I've also been playing a lot of one on one pickleball with my boyfriend and it's been such a fun shared hobby. It's so much fun seeing how much I'm improving with each game. I'm so excited to play more pickleball next month!
I feel like this month was as chaotic as it could get with so many activities planned and my body shutting down in the middle of it. However, there's nothing I would've done differently and I'm so happy for all the memories that were formed. I'm also grateful that I could to make my way back to Santa Barbara with Stephanie and I can't wait to see when we reunite next. I'm hoping next month is not as chaotic but just as much fun!
Talk to you next month,
-- Jin
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