The Rest Of January (Including CNY)

Our family had a number of things going on during the month of January. I already posted that it was Doug's birthday and my parents' 55th wedding anniversary. Briana also started back to school for winter quarter and has come home to visit twice since returning back (once for MLK weekend and once for CNY). It was also Mei's 10 year gotcha day anniversary.

 Now let me preface, despite having a number of happy moments in January, it was a ROUGH month for me. Between the political environment which has me crazy mad and frazzled, I have also been struggling health-wise with a couple of new and exciting health issues that have now entered my life. I have already made a trip to urgent care and the emergency room. Nothing I have is terminal, it just adds to the many chronic issues that I already deal with. And even though Briana comes home on the weekend once in a while, I miss her like crazy when she is it at school.

I'm trying to keep my chin up, but it is difficult. I do know things could be so much worse and I do count my blessings, but I can't keep comparing the severity or lack of severity (depends on how you look at it) of my problems against other people. It is hard living in my body sometimes and I am trying to remind myself that it is ok feel sad about it.

Now on to recapping the good stuff.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, we brought Briana's things back to school and dropped off her car in early January. We brought her back home to spend a couple more nights at home. Then Sunday morning arrived and we took her to brunch at OK Cafe before dropping her off at school...

 

I ordered the fried chicken and it was seriously some of the best fried chicken I have ever had in my life. 5 stars!

Then that evening, I sent Briana a picture of what she was missing at home...

You can see I had undecorated my tree but hadn't put it away yet.

 

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Briana really wanted to come home to celebrate Doug's birthday, but she couldn't because of the snow. It was ok though, Doug and I celebrated his birthday quietly - just the two of us...

 

I decorated the kitchen...

 

I made him birthday cookies so we wouldn't have a big cake sitting around the house...

 I gave him gifts - I got him Legos and an album for his record player and Briana drew him a Looney Toons picture...

Then Doug and I went out for a delicious dinner...

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A few days later, Briana came home for MLK weekend and to join in the celebration dinner for my parents' 55th wedding anniversary. My family and my sister's family took my parents to a fancy steakhouse and the food was so good...

I'm so happy we were able to celebrate my parents' accomplishment properly this anniversary. Their 50th celebration dinner ended up never happening. Around their 50th anniversary, my mom got sick unfortunately. So, we simply decided to push a celebration dinner off for a few weeks until she felt better, but we had no way of knowing that the pandemic was lurking around the corner. 

 

While Bri was home MLK weekend, she had to go to Blick Art Supply to get some much needed art supplies for school...

 

Doug decided to drive Bri to and from school MLK weekend because the weather was looking wonky again (possible snow). He took B to lunch before taking her back to school (and she got back right before it started snowing at school)...

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Then it was Mei's 10 year gotcha anniversary on the 24th. I don't know what we would do without this furry bundle of love...

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In January, I also had a lovely dinner with my besties one evening...

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And then Briana came home for CNY (and I decorated the house)...

Before Bri came home, she stopped at the nearby shopping area and saw this...

SCAD also posted this on FB...

Here are my decorations...

 

My newest CNY addition...

And we went out to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant (which happened on Feb 1st, but I'm still including it here!)...

 

So that was January. I'm very grateful for the times I felt well enough to participate in "life stuff."

It is now February and this month is filled to the rim with all sorts of doctors appointments for me. 

Please say a prayer for me or send me some good karma because I am so worn out. I want to feel better and get my life back. I also have to figure out how to navigate living in this new authoritarian landscape that I did not ask (or vote) for. It's definitely a learning curve.

 

 Thanks for reading. I'll be back soon.