February 23rd, 2025

Now that it is past both dates, I can wish a Happy New Year and a Happy Chinese New Year! It is the year of the horse, which is the year I was born in - I'm very curious to see if this year will pan out my way more than usual, as well as see if there are ways I can better harness positive energy and take care of myself better. This month has been incredibly exhausting both in work and in personal, and I'm ready for a fresh start.

a real photo of me

Mom went into the hospital last week. She has a congenital heart disease, so she's a bit more fragile than most - so, when I heard she went to the ER, I was naturally worried. She went in at 1:30am that morning and was there for about 12 hours to be monitored and taken through various stress tests, and the doctors believed her to be fine and sent her home. She went back again that evening complaining of the same symptoms (high blood pressure, feeling nausesous, and heart racing), but she was sent home shortly after. As much as I hate to downplay her symptoms, I think it's stress related. My parents have not been in a good place...ever, in their lives (particularly financially), and so they are getting near retirement age and still having to scramble for money. They likely won't be able to retire. Plus, my mom is pretty much the only person taking care of my disabled brother (dad doesn't help at all), so that likely is also very stressful. I need to sit down with her soon and go through my brother's paperwork so I can take over easily when needed. They also don't have a will which...stresses me out.

On a lighther note, Joel and I started looking at wedding venues this past weekend. We checked out an art museum on Saturday and a vineyard on Sunday. The art museum was so cool - it's smaller and has so much personality, but it is very expensive for what you get. It's also downtown, so there is an issue of parking and not having a lot of privacy. The vineyard was gorgeous and in the middle of nowhere, but it's a bit far (over an hour drive for most of our guests, and some 2 hours), and it felt more like a conventional wedding space, which I'm not super crazy about. We've got more places to look at coming up, and our wedding won't be until fall of next year, so I'm not too concerned (yet).

Hope you all have a wonderful week!