First Snow / Energy

First Snow

Writing from the Paris Baguette in LIC. After a few hours of playing Spelunky 2 with Harry I felt like I had to get out of the house. This is the first time I’m chilling at a cafe after work hours. I am the only customer here (besides a homeless man who left earlier).

I’ve been pretty out of it all day. Woke up pretty late. Felt very unfocused during work.

I had a great night last night. Met up with Will, Aastha and Millie at Katsu Hama. Walked through miserable, cold rain to get to the restaurant. Ordered a hearty, delicious bowl of katsu curry and had a pretty fun conversation with everyone.

I’ve known Will for years, Millie for almost a year and Aastha for a few months. This was the first time just the four of us had hung out together. But it felt pretty natural.

After dinner we walked over to the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. Saw the new storefront displays, watched some people ice skating, and took multiple photos together (Millie scolded me many times for messing up my poses). We ended up at the Apple Store near Central Park (open 24 hours!) and messed around for a bit before trudging home. Last night happened to be the first snow of the winter which was pretty cool.

Juxtaposing that with today—cold/groggy in the morning, slightly lonely, with a pile of undone tasks ahead of me—I think I was just out of it.

Oh well.

Energy

Besides today, I felt pretty energetic this past week.

I think it’s a combination of

  • intermittent fasting

    • Eating from 12-8. I’ve fasted/dieted before and it reminds me of how much I usually ingest when I’m not being mindful. Crazy how that can be the norm.

    • I feel pretty good about this diet and can stick with it for an extended period.

  • drinking coffee later in the day (around 11 or 12)

    • May be complete placebo effect/psuedoscience but I saw an IG reel of a neurologist explaining that delaying caffeine intake allows your sleep hormone receptors to bind with the sleep hormones completely so the caffeine gives you straight energy

    • ^^ pretty sure I butchered the explanation but I definitely felt more energetic

  • sleeping with nasal strips

    • makes me feel a little old having to use them but they feel like a godsend. I can actually breathe out of my nostrils and it feels like night and day

    • I’ve been sleeping better and waking up less often.

Other schedule changes:

  • I got into a good cadence of practicing piano in the mornings and writing music in the evenings when I got home (10-11:30 PM and sleeping around 1).

I’m still fine tuning my schedule but it feels good overall.

Going forward I’ll probably start going to the office Mondays (to avoid feeling home alone after a packed weekend).

Also would like to carve out more dedicated time to exercise. I’m still going at least twice a week and doing my trainer-prescribed workout routine but I’ve been slipping a bit on other days.

Between planning my birthday, planning my team switch, and coordinating things to do, I felt pretty busy this week.

Some notable events

  • Went to trivia for the first time with Kelvin, Will and Kinjal! Not usually a fan of trivia but this one felt pretty fun. We placed 7th out of 9 teams but I was pleasantly surprised by how much we knew. Kelvin had most of the sports knowledge, Kinjal had some reality TV knowledge, Will seemed to have a random assortment of facts in his brain (several Slumdog Millionaire like moments where he answered questions no one expected him to answer) and I had some music/TV knowledge.

  • Went to the Asian ERG holiday event at Baodega. The food was ok. Met a few new people and hung out with some of my new teammates (as well as my old teammates)

  • Got dinner with Will, Kelvin, Nainaka, and Kaagni at Piggyback. Delicious food. Honey butter chicken was a standout. I think we also ordered lamb which was super tender and well seasoned.

  • Went to a Burlesque show at The Slipper Room. Imagine a strip club where the strippers also put on a talent show. Pay $25 to get in and you can stay for as many shows as you like. The performances were creative and the performers were extremely talented.

    • One woman in the show was the US Pole Dancing champion and she had amazing moves.

    • Another woman was a performance artist who incorporated interesting props into her act. A nuanced performance full of emotion and symbolism.

    • There was a dude doing yo yo tricks. Literally just on stage performing yo yo tricks wearing a very deep V neck. He didn’t get that many tips lol

At this point in the night (2AM) I was pretty out of it. The performance artist was on stage with this umbrella veil doing an emotional dance. Felt pretty trippy

  • Watched the Nutcracker! There’s a scene where some children are fighting mice. Beautiful dreamlike sequence. The second act was too long for me. I need more of a narrative. Can’t handle just pure dancing without a story.

  • Met up with Tiffany (new friend of a friend I made recently). Got coffee, walked from Astoria to LIC and got lunch at Murray’s Cheese Bar.