Or at least I’m trying to.

As the beginning of this year is unusual for me with all these things happening at work and with friends, I decided to use a 2020 caption on photos that I post on social media

Yes I am that dorky and wait until you hear it the frigging thing.

525,600 minutes.

This not original concept is from the musical Rent, which basically counts all the minutes in a year. It also, I believe, pertains to a measure of a year of love and all things good.

I am going above and beyond my 2018 mantra of “More people, less food.” And start posting about the things that make this year full. Of memories. Of friends. Of people around me, good and bad. Of the things I am grateful for. And not just the food I am grareful for.

While romantic love is a ways away for me, I am well aware that in all other kinds, I am overflowing. My family, friends, people I’ve met, passion for things that work, fervor for things that don’t, are all factors to a year full of love that I hope will make me much more cognizant of how lucky I really am.

Gagging yet?

Honestly, I am a little bit. Who knows how long this resolve will last, but I am writing it down as a reminder to be kinder to the universe that has been kind to me.

Because i can get whiny sometimes and I know when the activity in my life dies down and I find time to process all that has gone down, I will be extra in my head about it. And that’s fine, but also I want to make sure I remember all the things that make this year what it is.

What are you doing for yourself this year?

Last weekend’s quiet in after a few weeks of ups and downs. I am grateful that I got to reset and have the first weekend of a new year, new decade with this view.

I am grateful for friends who I got to go with. And I am grateful for the opportunity to meet new ones.

There is a lot to be grateful for here. Sometimes I just have to remind myself of that.

What are you grateful for this week?

I have always said it, to people that think I have my ship together, I am a mess. I am. I function, and I have been called highly functioning by professionals I’ve spoken to, but when it comes to my personal life, I AM A MESS.

So when I heard this song at a friend’s SDE, I instantly connected to it. For me, it’s all about admitting you’re a mess and now taking their mess and making it yours.

My understanding is that it’s all about accepting each other’s imperfections, and loving each other for it. And I guess, that’s what I hope for in the every day. My family already knows how much of a ship I am, and the friends that have stayed and are putting up with my melodrama and mood swings are there for keeps. (Well, if they haven’t left yet, they have really tough skins)

So I guess for anyone who’s feeling a mess, and just wants someone to help hold their mess in with them, listen to this song today.

Bring me to your house

Tell me sorry for the mess

Hey, I don’t mind

You’re talking in your sleep

Out of time

Well, you still make sense to me

Your mess is mine

Belief systems are hard. They’re so fragile, that a tiny crack can break the whole foundation, because they’re built on emotions, (I believe faith is an emotion), and when those emotions are hurt, it’s so easy to just give up on the whole thing.

I mean, I was raised Catholic and I still go to mass because of my parents (I KNOW I’M 33, it’s the price of rent), but my belief system, is mostly that people are good because they want to be good, and religion can go awry really quickly, especially when money is involved.

But I’m not here to talk about religion, because the universe knows that my faith is shaky at best, but like anyone raised Catholic, when things get difficult and you’re trying to find something to look positively on, you either turn away from the practice entirely, or sink your teeth really into it.

I believe in time, the ability of friends to be around, and choosing the energy you want to be around. While I can also be a person who would hover incredibly around loved ones, I know they have limits and I, for the most part, would like to respect that as I would like my limits to be respected.

Like recently, I would rather listen and sit, rather than go around and dissect everything in conversation. There is a soothing quality to being alone together, where you don’t have to even contribute to a conversation, but just be in one space. If there are people who want to talk, I’m happy to listen, but I don’t think I’m in the right head space to be able to really want to get into things much. I would rather just lean into friends’ shoulders, get real hugs, or squeeze their hands really tightly.

What can I say, I’m a creature borne out of old 90s movies where you lie on a hammock looking up at the stars and just being.

I guess I believe in finding the right people to be with when you’re in pain, or extra happy, or angry. It’s all about absorption either way. You either share that energy, try and take that pain or anger, or soothe their happy and calm them down before they do something too extreme.

I believe in the balance of a give and take, but also to not expect that others can give what you can just because you have the energy to do so, the world is not fair, and the pain isn’t equal. I believe in patience and taking deep breaths before you want to yell, because what you’re feeling in the moment will pass. You will regret saying what you want in the heat of the emotion, and can negatively impact relationships you’ve made so much progress on.

I guess I’m not making much sense, as I said, I’m in a much more listening mood than a talking one, and that includes writing. I think I just want to yell at random things, but I’m trying to get out of overthinking, and bottling up my emotions.

I believe that there will be better days ahead. That’s what I believe in.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping. These days, I can’t sleep for more than 2 hours straight. My head is overfilled and at the same time feels like it’s been drained of any sense whatsoever.

I have been dealing with this with song, songs too old to even make sense, and some that have already been through this with me. Early 2000 hits that somehow, are hitting the nail on the head too much sometimes, from Keane, to John Mayer, to Urbandub’s angstiest hits.

I can’t exactly call myself angsty, or pensive, or anything like that. I think, I will let other, more eloquent people put it better, and say unsteady.

So maybe I’ve been listening to X Ambassador’s Unsteady too much, and it doesn’t really say much, but it feels like the right fit.

Hold on

Hold on to me,

Cause I’m a little unsteady

A little unsteady

I really am trying to be better at getting out of my head about my life right now, but I find myself just singing out loud.

I am unsteady and it’s a bitch to admit it right now when you’re trying to reset into a new year, facing these things positively, and bringing that energy into yourself, but maybe it’s not so bad admitting wobbly knees and shaking hands. Until I find myself in better footing myself, I will be unsteady.

It’s Christmas day now, and some of us are still sleepy, some of us are hungover, some of us have gone back to the realities of adulthood. I am lying down and can’t turn my mind off, even if I only got 4 hours of sleep.

Last night, we could hardly fit in the living room and again, we got super noisy during the raffle. There are more and more gifts to be gotten and given as new families join in, and the kids who now have jobs are continuing the tradition of giving out their own gifts.

As usual we ate too much all day. I didn’t feel hunger the whole time I’ve been here. If love could be measured by the feeling of fullness, no one can accuse us of not loving one another.

Right now, kare kare and grilled lamb are being prepared for a lunch that’s 2 hours after the belated breakfast because people finished drinking at 4 am.

You should’ve been here Nanay, only banana wasn’t here, all your grandkids were here to celebrate, the first time we’ve been this complete in a while.

I wish you would have been here. It’s not the same, and I miss leaning on you or asking how pretty you feel today.

I know you’re good up there, and we’re good here too, but it’s just different.

So Merry Christmas Nay, and I hope you’ve got good stories up there, I’ll ask for all of them when we see each other again.

After a bad start, I found a bright spot to a difficult day. Wading in the middle of bad vibes and guilt trips has had me feeling itchy due to stress induced allergies, and I have been chasing a high that is still eluding me.

But today I am grateful. After receiving a note of thanks that felt really sincere, all the other bs that came with it was much less a weight on my shoulders.

It really does change a mood, reading good things. I should remind myself more often of the good people out there and to surround myself with them not just personally but anywhere I need to be, in as much as I can influence it.

So what are you grateful for today?

While it is not my first time in Hanoi, I found what I think is the best view to be had in my last visit. On a rooftop bar, with not so nice staff but the best view in the city, a quiet refuge from the business below.

I must come back to it, but for now, I’ll keep thinking of the serenity of the moment, sitting down, enjoying the lit up lake.

What’s your favorite view in a city you’ve been to?

I cannot stress enough how much real hugs, the one that take your breath away, help me on so many levels.

In as much as I identify with being introverted, and introverted being not one to be the first to introduce myself, or share stories off the bat, and like crowds a whole lot, I do enjoy being with the people I love.

And a lot of that, I realized again last night, is getting these not fake hugs that encircle and make me feel safe. The ones that hold on even after the cursory 2 seconds.

I got a lot of these last night, and as I am not one for fake closeness, I breathed it in. I found myself again thankful for finding the people in my life that have stayed.

I am not known for my warmth, or niceness. My reputation at work or at home is one of being businesslike, even strict. I give people short leases because I normally have a short temper. Maybe that’s why when I get genuine, uncomplicated affection, I am extra emotional about it.

And boy have I been extra emotional lately. I should not have tried to watch Coco by myself for the first time. My voice still cracks every so often when I think about my grief.

Hugs help, and it doesn’t hurt that my friends have their comforting signature scents, ones that even when I smell it on other people, make me smile randomly because of the accompanying reassuring feelings that come with the smell.

If you are a friend and I am freaking you out right now because I can identify you by smell, tough. The creepy way I take down reminders of you is part of this package.

When was the last time you had a real hug? Who was it from?

For the people that have been broken, torn, bruised and are still out there, I applaud you.

I’ve been extra weepy these days, and I don’t know if it’s being sick, or all these decade wrap ups I’ve been reading. Really makes you think, 2010-2020, what have I done, who have I hurt, who has hurt me? What pain is there in store?

But as always, I digress.

For those who still wants the pain that love can bring, I think you should listen to Elton John’s “I Want Love” today. Besides the fact that the video has Robert Downey in what I think is his extra handsome phase (And that perfectly fitting gray shirt and black slacks don’t hurt either), the lyrics are heart stoppingly apt:

I can’t love, shot full of holes
Don’t feel nothing, I just feel cold
Don’t feel nothing, just old scars
Toughening up around my heart

But I want love, just a different kind
I want love, won’t break me down
Won’t brick me up, won’t fence me in
I want a love, that don’t mean a thing
That’s the love I want, I want love  

So for all of us that are dead in places and are working with scar tissue that still believe in the concept of vulnerability and giving the best parts of yourself to people, I admire those who just keep going.

I still have hope for me.