DC / New Schedule

Catching up from last week. Here’s the draft I had from last week that I never posted.

DC

I was in DC this past weekend helping Harry pack. Every time I’m in that city I marvel at how nice it feels. So pleasant walking down these wide streets where the buildings and trees look so beautiful.

My only wish with this city is that there were more Asian people. If there were more Asian people and I had more close friends living there I’d move to DC in a heartbeat.

As we walked the streets of DC Harry randomly started singing Empire State of Mind replacing New York with DC

“DC, concrete jungle where dreams are made up there’s nothing you can’t do!”

Made me think it’s been a while since I saw NY with that kind of wonder. The magic is a little lost but I suppose that’s natural.

Nevertheless I feel I’ve built a comfortable life here with good friends and good hobbies. It’s not a sense of exhilaration but a sense of contentment. I don’t want to give up on exhilaration but I am grateful that I have at least achieved contentment.

My schedule

I was talking to Ryan (my trainer) about my struggles eating healthy consistently and he dropped a simple epiphany on me:

Plan it out

I am not the best planner. When my friends ask/talk about their five year plans I am simultaneously impressed and bewildered.

But with WFH I’ve gone a little off the deep end. There’s no routine. Every day is left to whim—what I’ll eat, where I’ll go, who I’ll see. No wonder these past few months have felt like a roller coaster. High highs and low lows.

Anyways per Ryan’s advice I’ve started solidifying my routine. General guidelines I set for myself

  • Aim to see/socialize with another person every day

  • Exercise at least 4x a week

  • Plan out my meals ahead of time (roughly where and what I’ll eat)

  • Aim for one Big Event a week. A unique, memorable thing

  • Co worked with Aastha and Millie at Coffee Ave. First time working with two friends at a cafe. Although Millie and Aastha don’t know each other that well I think they got closer towards the end. We made plans to walk Manhattan from top to the bottom tip. A worthy endeavor.

  • Found a great new cafe to work out of: Elevenses. A hobbit themed cafe with in house pastry, good coffee, reliable wifi, plenty of outlets and a bathroom. Music’s not too loud so I can take meetings there too.

  • Took the train over to DC. Hit up the usual spots and explored some new ones

    • Tatte. Delicious flatbread once again. The very first bakery Harry and I stumbled into when we went to DC together about a year ago.

    • Le Diplomate — French restaurant with delicious food and a nice atmosphere. The bread, mushroom tart and shrimp salad stood out.

goodbye flatbread from Tatte, you will be missed

mushroom tart @ Le Diplomate

A beautiful plate of food at Unido cafe. This spinach sauce was something else. I wish I could cook like ethis. I probably could if I figured out how they made that sauce…

  • We ended up in a pawn shop in District Heights, Maryland to sell off some of Harry’s stuff. We drove the U Haul to Old Lucas Seafood and Crab afterwards (I wanted some famous Maryland crabs). We were pleasantly surprised the owners were Korean. They must have felt kinship because they gave us double the amount of crabs we ordered (12 crabs total!). We ate out of the U Haul in the parking lot. We didn’t have a way to crack the crabs so after some brainstorming Harry put the crabs in a plastic bag and let the weight of the metal dolly + gravity crack them open. Unorthodox but a beautiful way to eat them. I was very impressed.