Tried my commute today

So I'm writing this as I make my way home from my trial commute. Google was right, it takes only 15 minutes! It's not so bad, and waking up early today was really nice. I forgot what it felt like after a long time. I didn't feel rushed, tired or frustrated. I want to keep this up!

My commute was pretty close to the station, and while walking back I realized I don't know the area very well. I could've explored the area but it's much too early as some places aren't open... but I definitely will get some time to know the food scene more in the area.

I am back at home now and it's not even 9AM, so this is what working at home would feel like, eh? I realize that I've worked all over the dt area in the last 5 years, so this post is just going to recap my previous jobs so that I can see how much I've grown.

In 2013 I worked for a Japanese company in an administrative role. It was my first full time job on contract outside of school and I got to experience what it was like being an adult for the first time because a lot of the tasks I had to do were things like paying bills, and organizing things. It was also my first time handling correspondence in a corporate setting and so forth. It had great people to work with, great perks (free coffee, tea and lunches???) and I even got to take some Japanese lessons! I moved on because I wanted to try to pursue some other interests as I didn't really know where the position could take me.

I worked at a television station for our university up until sometime in 2014 and it was one of the chillest jobs I ever had, I did captioning and some social media and marketing work, which gave me the chance to try new things and slowly develop an interest in marketing. Being out of school though, I needed a FT gig so I opted to pursue my HR interests in another contract position for an HR company. Since I had experience at the Japanese company doing administrative work, I slipped into the role quite smoothly and learned new software. 

I also couldn't see my next opportunity at the company and so I wanted to try getting a job in marketing or in film. Fast forward a few months later, I worked at my last job doing business development and marketing. It was my first full time job with no contracts, and it has been the longest job I was at for. I'm forever grateful for the opportunities it gave me, I grew my people skills, sales skills and marketing skills. I knew that it would be a long time to see a new opportunity at the company and with all the skills I developed, I knew I was ready to try on something new.

I think this is the first time I'm walking into a job where I don't know too much about the industry. There's a lot of tech speak that I will hopefully get quickly accustomed to, but this job is definitely a step up. I'll be learning not only one new software, but multiple ones and I have opportunities to take courses or sessions to develop professionally! 

So yeah, I think I've grown quite a bit. 

Back to a hobby routine

So today didn't work out quite as planned, haha.

We went to bed late last night so I didn't try my commute today... not on 5 hours of sleep, nope. So I woke up at 8:46am instead to a text I got and needed to respond to about work. I'm glad I woke up a bit early, though, it helped me start my day earlier and get things going.

Today I cleaned the house (bathrooms, cabinet handles, drawers, ledges in the rooms) and vacuumned the hardwood floors a bit too. I also finished my editing work and then picked up some groceries/snacks at Airang, had dinner with my family and even vlogged! I didn't take Tofu out because it got really chilly, we'll have to take him on a day where it's much warmer.

Right now I'm working on my bullet journal as it's almost 10PM. I didn't get a chance to clean my wardrobe, so I'm going to leave that to tomorrow after I come home from my commute. I can also edit my vlog a bit. I'm planning on vlogging for a few days this week and combining it all in one video. Then vlogmas begins!

I guess I could do some editing now though.. hmm...

Oh yeah, why the title...

well I plan on getting back to the routine of pursuing my hobbies again, been neglecting that for a while. Vlogging is quite fun and although there are a lot of clips I don't end up using, it's nice to practice speech (just like a Sim!) and also edit my own videos. I also will blog more frequently both here and on my other blog. I should also play more games, colour... read... yup... lots of fun things to do, just need to convince myself to do these things more often. I will!

Finally went to the gym....

Weekend recap:

Thursday - I attended an appreciation party for one of our partners at work... but I went alone. LOL Oh man, it was quite awkward for me, but there was free food and drinks, and someone who I knew from a previous job talked to me for a bit. I stayed for an hour as I didn't win anything from the raffle, and I think the food was starting to get taken away... so I just left. I've never really been to something like that alone, and I tried to talk to others who were alone but I felt so awkward. I need a mentor for these kinds of things, or at least someone there who I actually know... lol

Friday - We had dinner with my family and played with Tofu for a bit then headed to ATP to see Charlotte's Web. It was a really good performance, very kid-friendly! There was a bit of kid-friendly finger food after the show and some champagne, so we had some.

Saturday - We went Black Friday shopping on a Saturday haha. Went to Market Mall to grab some pants for myself and some shirts for the boif at GAP. The deals were too good, 50% off everything in store. I had not bought pants since 2003 so it was nice getting new pants/jeans that I can wear whenever. :) Afterwards, we went to Lazy Monkey for some dunch and bubbletea. We hadn't caught up with our friends for a while, so it was nice to catch up and see them. Afterwards we finally went to the gym after weeks of hiatus.

Today we went to the holiday expo market and roamed the vendors for a bit. Got a D.Va pop figure for Christmas! :) Then we went to cross iron to look at acrylic shelves and try to find gift for the holidays. Managed to find the boif's parents a gift and we got some other things too. Oh the deals!! I went into the Guess store and enjoyed the bags I saw, but I don't know if I really need a new bag quite yet... but it was 30% off and I guess if I bought it I could return it if I really didn't need it...

Going to chill out for a bit now and eat some dinner. We were going to take Tofu out today but it's quite dark outside now. I miss the summer days where it wouldn't get dark until about 10pm. We'll take him tomorrow after dinner with the family.

I should also do some bujoing... and maybe finish my nanoblock project. Eep!

Onto new adventures!

One week flew by so quickly. My last day at work was on Friday. Didn't have a lot of goodbyes, but definitely had a lot of hugs. It's because we'll be seeing each other again at the holiday party, so we'll party it up first!

One door closed and one new door has opened and it's time to move on. I loved my job a lot, I grew so much and I learned a copious amount about digital marketing and e-commerce. And I can't forget the business development experience I acquired as well. It was a great entry level role that I got a lot out of and I had a big participation in. But I knew that I needed to grow and expand my knowledge, so I did something about it which lead to my new position.

I start my new job this week, so I'm taking a few days to try out my commute and to work on things I haven't had a chance to do.

Other things I plan to do:
- clean the house (we've been neglecting cleaning lately because we're so busy with projects and work things!)
- figure out my wardrobe for my job and tidy up stuff (I got a lot of new clothes this week, so it might be time to donate/purge some clothes)
- study Japanese (I am a super procrastinator)
- plan my bujo
- meal prep (or at least snack prep?)
- buy groceries
- play Overwatch/games
- have some chill time

This is how it'll hopefully schedule out:

Monday - wake up early, do my routine (going to have makeup and contacts on again for the first time in the work mornings in ages), try out my commute, head back home and then clean and figure out my wardrobe and plan the bujo - I might also try to check out some last minute Black Friday deals too...

Tuesday - try another commute way if the first one didn't work, start snack prepping, buy groceries, study Japanese and play games/chill

Wednesday - repeat chill

Thursday - make sure I have my stuff all ready/charged, outfit good to go, snacks good to go for the work day!

Chillaxing

This weekend was exhausting but fun!

Friday - Went to Stage West with plus ones and co worker and had a nostalgia night watching performances from the 90s. Food was great and holiday-themed! Afterwards, had a chill night with a friend and then went to bed around 3am. Late night!

Saturday - We got up pretty late and played some Life is Strange and did some work. I did some research for my new job for an hour and learned a little bit more. I should take some time after work this week to do some more research again as well. My new job will be fun and have a huge learning curve, so I want to be as ready as possible! We then went to my family's for lunch and played with Tofu, then headed to the bf's work holiday party. There was a fun-money casino and the food was really good, and bottomless soft drinks! :) Got home around 11:30pm, but I was so pooped and ended up napping for two hours, then went to bed.

Today we stayed at home for the entire day, played some Life is Strange and I took another two hour nap. I was so exhausted from our weekend of going out, and now I'm writing this post and about to have dinner. I think we'll try to go to the gym today. Was going to try this new chimney cake coffee house in town, but they close at 6pm... oh well, can always try this week!

I've meal prepped for tomorrow and just need to prep some snacks as well. Planned my outfits for the next few days too, so I'm all set. This week is my last week at my workplace, ahhh! So I definitely enjoyed the lazy Sunday before I have to legit wrap things up and make sure everything is good before I go. Not too many things, just got to send a few emails and finish a few projects and then I'm ready for a mini staycation to prepare for the transition to my new job.

I think I might do a bit of editing today too. It already seems really late because outside it's so dark, but it's only past 7pm!

I also need to wash some dishes... and do a bunch of house chores. Hmm. Let's see what I can get done. :)

Low-key weekend

Trying to chill/relax as much as possible this weekend because later this week I will have a bunch of weeknight activities and some activities on the weekend. So busy!!

Friday - We went to Boogies Burgers for the first time. It was sooo good! We tried the milkshakes and also got the chicken burger with the pineapple slices and the veggie burger with black beans. We also got some spicy fries. Everything was really tasty and we also played some Street Fighter on the old school arcade games. Only 25 cents to play! We also finished Stranger things and watched Riverdale. Ahhh cliff hangers!!!

Saturday - We went to the airport to see the bf's parents and also went grocery shopping. I forgot to buy a thermos for future soup eating... I also picked up a few more items online from the Sephora VIB sale.

Sunday - I went to the European Film Festival with my friend and we also went shopping. My friend got a little black dress and some makeup from Sephora and I also got a pink cardigan from Simons and stocked up on some toiletries. Was a good shopping trip. I wanted to shop more in Sephora but there wasn't really anything I needed... but I would like to get some foundations I've been eyeing but they don't have the particular one I'm looking for... :( My shade is quite universal and so it's out of stock everywhere... After I got home though I asked another friend about the Tangle Teezer and now I'm wondering if I should get that too... or maybe just get the other foundation I've been eyeing... it's also not a bad idea to stock up on the basics like eyeliner and what not... but I don't even use Sephora eyeliner as much as I used to anymore...

I'm going to build a nanoblock soon and then do some bujo. I should also write a blog post soon and post it... been procrastinating quite a bit!

Chillest Weekend, and the Countdown Begins!

It's Sunday! So I am not late with my weekly weekend post. Wahoo!

Friday - It snowed like crazy the last few days and so we went to have dinner with my family, played with Tofu and then went to get a bunch of groceries. Now we're set to hibernate for a while. We watched Stranger Things, Riverdale and a bunch of other stuff. I did a sleeping mask and I hadn't done one in a while, but at this time of the year the dryness sucks the moisturize right out of me. I researched some face masks I could get and then found out that Origins has a 20% off sale on their site... but I might just wait until the VIB sale at Sephora that is coming up in a few weeks.

Saturday - We filmed for the bf's project for a bit and I was his makeup artist and cinematographer. It was fun! Afterwards, we went to go pick up a boardgame to use for the project from a friend, then took some time to check out the E-mart supermarket that we've been hearing about. We bought some tofu, kimchi, some green tea cookies (we were hungry for a snack) and some soba noodles. Now we have lots of groceries! We found out that they also have an in-house bakery for rice cakes and also a cafe!! Sooo cool. I want to try their food the next time we're there. Afterwards, we went to Market Mall to exchange my boots that I got for my birthday, but they didn't have the colour/size available. :( So the nice associate said she would place the order online for me. Which was awesome, because I found out it shipped today! Yay, so I will have boots that fit me. These boots have great leg room for big calves like mine, but the foot is bigger too... so I had to get a size 6 instead of the 7 that I had originally. After, we got pretzels from Mr. Pretzel. Oh man, they were SOOOOO good!! Instant goodness and free samples too... I got Neopolitano which had parmesean cheese and italian spices and then the bf got a pretzel with Nutella drizzle. I loved the texture of the bread. The price was so reasonable too. You get a huge pretzel for only $3.75! We stayed up watching Stranger Things after and had wraps for dinner.

Sunday - Daylight savings time! It always feels weird on the first day we turn the clocks back an hour. I'm excited to wake up with no more darkness! Today we're also taking it easy as the bf needs to work on some stuff, but I'm cleaning and meal prepping and getting ready for the work week. I want to go for a walk or to a bakeshop or something later today, though! Will also try to draft up some more blog posts and get back to the mindset of building my blog again. It's very easy to lose momentum when your day-to-day is so busy! It's hard to focus on other things.

And I haven't written about this yet, but I'm starting a new job soon! The application and interview process was really smooth. I had a phone interview with the recruiter a few days after sending in my application and then met with the recruiter a few days later. My meeting was not as formal as other interviews, which made it really easy to be myself in front of the recruiter. Then a few days later I had the interview with the founder of the company and now I have a new job! I gave my notice about a week ago and just told my team the other day that I was leaving the company. I cried as I'll really miss my team and working there, but it's time to move onto my next career opportunity and I am super excited!