In celebration of my birthday—and, honestly, a bit out of necessity—I decided to extend Independence Day weekend by taking Monday through Wednesday off work. That’s right! I experienced six whole days free of deadlines, coding, meetings, and emails.

IT WAS PURE BLISS.

During that time, I….

1. Got a haircut! I think the barber took 10 or so inches off? It was shorter than I expected but no complaints here—I’m really digging this length! My favorite look is actually when my hair’s wet, because it looks a bit boyish.
   
   
2. Caught up with family and friends (honestly, I’m always down for hours-long catchup sessions with my college roommates!).
3. Cooked some delicious food! The first thing I made was Alison Roman’s recipe for braised chicken with coconut and lime. I love how much the red onions add to the dish’s aesthetic.
   
   I also found some canned sweet corn in my cupboard, so I decided to make a (Vietnamese?) scallion topping to eat it with. My mom used to make this a lot during corn season (but on the cob)!
   
   Lastly, I made some linguini alfredo with….cauliflower. An unorthodox spin on the dish for sure, but let me explain: last week, I’d ordered 4 pounds of cauliflower on Instacart for a recipe but—to my horror—instead received four TWO-AND-A-HALF POUND bunches. Yup, I’ve got literally 10 pounds of cauliflower to finish, so prepare for a lot more “cauliflower-infused” dishes in the coming weeks!
   
4. Studied tons of physics. I recently finished a chapter that briefly touched on black holes and….god, they’re downright terrifying.
5. Started writing on this blog again (duh!).
6. Watched a handful of movies—my boyfriend and I are one movie away from finishing our 2018-2020 Oscars watch list! Coconut loves movie night too because it’s basically a 2 hour snuggle.
   
7. Developed a deep sense of wanderlust. I went down the rabbithole of travel vlogs on Youtube, and wow, all I can say is….I REALLY MISS FRANCE. I’ve recently become obsessed with Damon Dominique’s content; he’s an American living in Paris on a talent visa, and his videos (mainly vlogs!) are super fun to watch.
8. Got these two new snake plants as ~natural~ dehumidifiers for my bedroom. #BasementLife
   
   On that note, though, look at how much water my actual dehumidifier collects in less than a day. Isn’t that wild!? This whole bucket….FILLED.
   

This vacation was, without a doubt, the most fun I’d had all year, which unfortunately made coming back to work yesterday unbelievably difficult. Nevertheless, I’m super glad I took this time off; it was so rejuvenating. ✨