Hibernation

Hibernation

This past week has been so pleasant.

The days are dark sooner. I spend more time in my apartment. So deeply cozy—this apartment has been one of the most comfortable places I’ve ever lived in.

I feel like I’m sliding into hibernation. I know I can’t stay in this lazy mode indefinitely but for now it feels incredible.

My life is on autopilot. For so long I’ve struggled against this. I always felt like I had to keep moving. Always changing, improving, evolving… But I don’t care as much anymore. It’s too cold, too dark, too comfortable in my apartment.

I’m still doing things that improve me as a person. Taking improv classes. Studying jazz piano. That feels good enough for now. I can always jump back on the horse later (probably. I’ll check in again on this in a few weeks/months).

In any case, life feels good.

For posterity here’s what hibernation mode looks like lately:

  • Get out of the house. Maybe go exercise, see some friends, get fresh air, run an errand. Try to soak up as much sunlight as possible.

  • Come back home

  • Lay on the sofa doing any of the following

    • Play overwatch

    • Watch TV on my great home theater setup (bought a Xgimi Elfin projector and I really love it)

      • So much great TV to watch lately. Been into Abbott Elementary, Spy x Family, What We Do in the Shadows, Family Guy (guilty pleasure)…

    • Watch IG Reels or Youtube Shorts. The fact that they’re not as addicting as Tiktok are a feature

That’s about it. Feels good. The act of exercising and spending the next few hours at home has been particularly delightful.

Week in Review

A hodgepodge of random events this week. A marked difference between my life a couple months ago and now is that I seem to have more going on these days.

As someone who lives alone I’ve had my fair share of lonely weekends. With Veteran’s day off I was slightly worried I’d run out of things to do but that hasn’t been the case.

Here are highlights from the week

  • Got my haircut at Hair La Pell (my new go to place that William recommended). Voted! Afterwards I had the best pork buns I’ve ever tasted at Mei La Wah. If I could only eat at one pork bun place for the rest of my life it’d be here. Their pineapple pork bun in particular was so so delicious. Crunchy, sweet crust juxtaposed against the tender, fatty, savory, goopy innards. WOW! One small note is the filling is pretty fatty so I wouldn’t get too many at once.

  • Tried Burek for the first time at Djerdan Burek. A savory pastry made of phyllo with ground beef, onion filling. Flavors you can’t go wrong with. I enjoyed it but I wish it was served with maybe sour cream? Too big for a snack but too small for a meal. Glad I’m taking advantage of the diversity in Astoria

spiral burek with Turkish coffee

  • Met up with Millie and her friends at the Union Square Farmer’s Market. Bought a gnarly looking heirloom tomato that I look forward to making into a sandwich. This all happened on a beautiful 70 degree weather sunlit day. A uncharacteristically Spring day in the middle of Autumn. Met up with Chris afterwards and got udon at Tsurutontan.

  • Met up with choir mates at an Irish bar in Times Square to hear Scott perform. My drinking tolerance is so fickle. I can pound back a significant amount of Soju but a glass of wine at this bar knocked me out

  • Caught up with Tim. Got bbq at John Brown BBQ (burnt ends here are sooo good). Watched a musical improv show at Magnet. It was a little unsettling to watch my instructor perform in the show. Especially since I sat so close to the stage. At first I felt like I had to actively show I was laughing to make sure he felt supported but I settled in after a while and my reactions felt natural.

    • Tim and I had a conversation about maintaining our dreams. He wants to be a writer. I want (or wanted) to be a musician or actor. In that conversation I said that dreams without action were a moot point. You had to earn the right to talk about dreams by putting in the work first. I said I’d rather be someone who let go of their dream and stopped talking about it than someone who talked about their dreams but never acted upon it. Ideally I’d be someone who both talked about my dreams and put effort into them.

  • Met up with Ming and her friend Tiffany earlier today at Queens Bake House. I don’t know Ming that well. We met at a mutual friend’s dinner about a month ago and she reached out to that same group to see if we’d want to meet up. It was good catching up. A pleasant way to spend the afternoon. I can’t put my finger on why but it feels easier to meet neighborhood friends in Queens vs neighborhoods I’ve lived in in the past. In the past year I’ve met more people living in my neighborhood than in past years combined. People here seem more willing to reach out, organize things too. Maybe Queens has more of a community? Astoria definitely feels more livable/homey compared to certain Manhattan neighborhoods.

  • I’ve bought some cocotte dishes recently and have started cooking. I made this eggs in cocotte recipe and am currently making garlic confit. First time trying confit so I am excited. The garlic smell permeates through my apartment as I write this.

It’s been a pleasant week overall. I’ve stuck to my goal of seeing at least one person socially every day and that felt great. I maintain the thought that I have to get better at planning. It was a nice weekend but things came about too randomly. I want to be more opinionated about how I spend my time instead of going wherever the wind might take me.

In broader news the world around me took a big tumble. Layoffs in tech abound. FTX and crypto seems to have exploded. I’m sure these events will trigger events that will end up affecting me one way or another. Can’t read the waves as of now but things are not looking great.

My company may do layoffs next years. I’ve been asking friends what they might do in the chance of a layoff. Everyone seems relatively chill about it. I hope that continues to be the case.