Coconut’s 12th birthday was this Friday (he’s a tween!), and the event prompted the trippiest time jump: this week, a year ago, quarantine began.

In a few days, we went from going to the office to WFH, huddled closely to six feet apart, maskless to vying for n95s. And beyond just COVID, 2020 was transformative in its own right: we had a nationwide racial reckoning that prompted long-overdue conversations; a new president was elected (along with the first female VP); and wildfires raged on the West Coast and abroad. There were some highs and many low lows.

But through it all, I’ve been repeatedly reminded of how adaptable and resilient we are. The past year has been one of change—on a collective scale, but also in my personal and professional life—and I’ve leaned into it when I could. For that, I’m proud.

I wanna shine a spotlight on the recent birthday boy, who consistently makes me smile and feel grateful, even in what was objectively a very difficult year. Look at this lil’ king! 👑

I took Friday off to celebrate, and we began the morning with a long walk along the Esplanade. Afterwards, as Coconut was napping, I went grocery shopping, made pasta, and baked a small batch of vanilla cupcakes.

We went on another long walk in the afternoon, and at night I boiled him some chicken as a birthday treat. Overall, I think he had a great day. (I sure did!) 🐶

In general, this three-day weekend was super restorative. I wasn’t necessarily feeling “burnt out,” but it was still nice to slow down. Yesterday’s activities, for example, included much-needed apartment cleaning, laundry, and meal prepping. Hours were shamelessly devoted to watching Sex and the City, which my friend recommended after starting a few weeks ago (so far I’m loving it!). And I even began reading a new book!

I also used the extra time to hunker down on Vietnamese. One of my New Year’s goals was to increase my fluency in the language, and a couple months ago, I’d finally found the perfect tutor on italki. She was super sweet, spoke with a Southern Vietnamese accent (like my mom’s side), and had a lot of teaching experience. However, after our initial lesson, I failed to schedule more—part of it was due to my new job ramping up, but in all honesty, it was primarily just laziness.

Recently though, I’ve gotten back into the swing of things! I scheduled 3 more lessons with my tutor (I’m leaning towards a weekly cadence), and I started doing Vietnamese Duolingo every day. It’s gone a lot better than in the past—when I tried the app a few years ago, I remember being so bad that the Duolingo owl would cry (yes, it’s possible, if you lose enough hearts in a single exercise). But it hasn’t happened yet, and I’ve got an 8 day streak going!

In future posts, I’ll write more about my Vietnamese progress and some of the other hobbies I’ve picked up during quarantine (spoiler alert: lots o’ reading, Youtube, and TV…), but for now I’ll wrap it up by saying: the past year’s been rough, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel! And I’m grateful for all the people (and pets!) who have made it more joyful despite the hardships.

One last photo of my favorite tween, who always keeps things silly: