Reflections from No Stress Coffee (and also from my office)

hello!

I am in a good mood. Just drank two small cups of coffee from No Stress Coffee and I am indeed feeling no stress.

Not that much has changed since last week. These days feel like I’m ambling along the pathway of life.

cute lil guy chillin amidst the bustling crowd

I’ve been reading this book (How to Stop Time by Matt Haig*) where the main character says something like “there are months, years, decades where it feels like nothing happens and days when everything can change.”

Definitely feels like the former these days.

Lately I’m just trying to get out of the house more. My apartment has become a very comforting refuge amongst the suddenly cold, rainy weather. Such deep coziness laying in bed on a cold morning.

I’m content overall. Though I miss my family a lot these days, I’m happy enough with my social life and every weekend I manage to find a good amount to do.

But if I had to pinpoint a source of discontent—I lack a conquest. I might be one of those people that can never really settle down. If I don’t have enough on my plate it feels too quiet. When I’m done with relaxing like this I want to find more schemes to get involved with.

In any case, I have about ten days of PTO and I’ll be in Europe during that time. Will have time to reflect and plan out what I want next.

*Speaking of Matt Haig, I also read The Midnight Library and it was a great read. A sentimental book about being able to relive your life before you officially die to handle all the regrets you ever encountered. Real page turner.

Week in Review

  • Saw a show at Smalls Jazz with my jazz piano class. As previously mentioned, most of my class is significantly older than me so it was interesting hanging out with an older crowd. Made small talk with them before the show but most of them quickly dispersed before we could talk much after the show.

    • The show itself was great but I was glad it was ending by the hour mark.

  • Went to a Moth show! I’d been listening to this storytelling podcast for months and wanted to see a live show for a while. The setup here—people are given a theme (the theme was grown up for the show I watched) and they throw their names in a hat. Ten storytellers are chosen randomly from that hat and tell their stories centered around that theme. At the end of each story, three judges give a score from 1-10 and the winner is crowned at the end.

    • Enjoyed it overall. Some stories were pretentious and self absorbed. Others were slow and poorly paced. A few were laugh out loud funny, personal, relatable and enjoyable. In any case it was interesting to see so many different flavors of humans go on stage to tell their stories.

    • Given the set up it almost felt like church. Very community-focused show that fostered a sense of kinship/community

  • Went to Malala with Aastha. Decently tasty dry pot right in Astoria! A little too salty at times though. We went to a bakery afterwards and I was surprised to see so many people lounging around at 9PM on a Sunday. Astoria feels more communal than other neighborhoods I’ve encountered so far.

  • Went out drinking with Simon, Brian and Anthony. Started off at Taiwanese Pork Chop House in Chinatown. Incredible value. Delicious rice, pickled veggies, pork chop dinner for around $8. We went to get soju after but I petered off towards the end of the night. Can’t drink like I could in the summer for some reason. May be more that I don’t want to drink now that it’s colder and darker.

    • This season came in out of nowhere. Just last week it felt so much warmer, brighter… Gotta get ready for a long dark winter.

chinatown was so beautiful that day

  • Went to Jeremy’s house party where I saw a bunch of other improv friends. I’m glad we’re still hanging out post improv. Drank nearly a bottle of soju. It was crowded and hot inside.

    • Had some more grounded conversations towards the end of the party. Seems like the I gravitate towards similar topics with people these days—dating and loneliness. Dating makes sense given I’m 27 but I wonder if other people also gravitate towards these topics. I wonder what people in relationships my age talk about if not dating. Most of my friends in NY aren’t in long, dedicated relationships so I wouldn’t know.

  • Besides that I’ve continued to climb. It’s fun. I’m still on V0, V1 but I’m starting to venture into V2.

  • Got Dim Sum with Will at DD Soup Dumpling. Dim sum was decent. Turns out they give you a free XLB if you leave a five star review which is why the reviews were overwhelmingly five stars…