My time home has been, by and large, extremely chill.

In a lot of ways, that’s been nice. The lack of distraction has been ideal for my summer class, working, and catching up on books (…okay, let’s be real, I’ve only finished one while I’ve been here, but I’ve started a couple more!). It’s given me time to plan out fun activities: for my stay in New York, for when I’m back in Boston, even for my mom’s visit in October. And I started re-exploring some old interests, like the culinary world—I’ve got quite the backlog of NYT Cooking videos to watch on Youtube!

I’ve also been running a lot. As of last Thursday, I’d run 13 5Ks in 14 days, which marks the first time I’d ever run for seven days straight. (And don’t worry, I’ve taken several rest days since then.) It’s begun to hit me—like, really hit me—that I 👏 am 👏 a 👏 RUNNER 👏! I’d written about feeling that way towards the end of marathon training, but even then, a small part of me still felt like running needed to be tied to a goal, like maintaining fitness or completing a race. Now, though, it feels very second nature.

And I think because of that, I’m actually open to running with people now! I haven’t in the past because I’d always felt too self-conscious, mainly fearing that I’d slow folks down. Now that it feels less tied to achievement, though, I don’t feel weird about not being “the best” in front of others. This actually makes me even more excited to go back to Boston, which has a ton of running clubs!

Aaaaand speaking of Boston, I do miss it, a lot. I miss the constant buzz of downtown, my friends, my apartment’s proximity to water, going to the office, my balcony…but I also know I’m gonna miss my family once I leave, so I’m trying to keep the ~Northeast longing~ to a minimum.

And there’ve definitely been several highlights during my time here, too! A couple weekends ago, some friends and I went to Topgolf, which most of us were hilariously bad at (despite the golf tutorial I made us watch beforehand). Mad respect for all the golfers out there—my longest drive was 72 yards, which is literal hundreds below the professional range. 😅

And last week, a friend and I went to our first Candlelight concert! I’d seen advertisements for the Candlelight concert series before, and while they do make it look cooler than it is—for one, the candles aren’t real lol—it was still fun! It’s basically non-classical music played on a string quartet that’s surrounded by “candles,” and the one we went to was Adele-themed.

Honestly, I was unimpressed with the acoustics of the venue (a generic event space that’s probably mostly rented for conferences and school dances—read: definitely not built for live music), and the quartet should’ve been mic’d. But I did appreciate the casual vibe of the concert (except for when people would clap in the middle of songs. Just….no. Am I a curmudgeon!?), the length, and the music itself, especially when the quartet played “Skyfall.” It was actually a pretty neat experience, which we followed by getting In-N-Out and watching Brooklyn 99.

Lastly, my childhood best friend was home for the week to dogsit, so we had an extended sleepover from Friday through Sunday. I really enjoyed that—we hadn’t spent that much time together in years, so it was neat to hang out without feeling like we had to cram a bunch of activity in. The weekend included several nostalgic food stops (Corner Bakery, anyone?), various board games, and many episodes of Love Island, which is simultaneously addictive and boring (the contestants can’t leave the villa, so they just sit around talking…HOW ARE THERE 50 EPISODES PER SEASON).

After leaving my friend’s place, I also went antiquing with my mom! I’ve become more interested in interior design since discovering the Youtube channel of Paige Wassel, a cool prop stylist whose videos are primarily commentary on interior design trends. My main takeaway from her content has been that you can rarely go wrong with unique, vintage pieces, so I kept an eye out for art that ~spoke to me~. While we left empty-handed, it was still fun to look at so many remnants of the past.

Also, the award for Creepiest Antique goes to…..

That pretty much brings me to the present! My time in Irving is coming to a close, as I’m hopping on a plane to NYC on Monday. This week has mainly involved working, hanging out with my mom, and doing my grad class (which has another project and mid-term due soon…*sigh*). I’d love to be in “vacation mode” for as much of next week as possible, so I’m trying to get as much done as I can before I leave. I seriously cannot wait for this break though!

Anyways, I’ll end this post with a photo dump of random snapshots that I didn’t include earlier: a coconut in front of Coconut (can you tell I think I’m hilarious?), the most delicious green tea ice cream, me debating a return to my Hat Phase (update: it ain’t happening), a relaxing afternoon of reading People We Meet On Vacation, Coconut looking so smol, and a piece of watermelon that was vaguely reminiscent of a slice of cake.

Until next time! 👋