School’s back. Unfortunately. By the time you’re reading this, I’ve been back at school for about a week, and despite it being online, nothing changes. I’m always excited for the year to start at first, but really, I’m only looking forward to getting my schedule and seeing who’s in my classes. Then, after syllabus day is over and I have to actually do work, the novelty dies down quite a bit. But those are all future problems. In this post, I’m going to take you along on my last day of summer vacation (though you can’t really call it a vacation when you’re stuck inside). This is what I had for lunch, what I did to pass the time, and how I spent those last few hours before having to say hello to school again.
8:30 AM: Waking Up
Rise and shine! Today is Monday, September 7th, and it’s my last day before school starts. Happy Labor Day as well! I woke up at my usual 8:30 am to the sound of “Worldwide” by Big Time Rush because I am in love with boy bands. I’ve gotten pretty used to waking up at this time, but I’ll have to wake up about 20 minutes earlier for school since our classes start at 8:40 am. It’s not that bad, though, because I used to wake up at around 7 am to catch the bus.
8:35 AM: Morning Routine
After dragging myself out of bed, I got started on my usual morning hygiene. These are the same products from my first day in my life, and there haven’t been any big changes in my morning routine. Products from left to right: Aveeno Clear Complexion Cream Facial Cleanser (not my fave but I mean I hope it does something), Colgate Anticavity Toothpaste (no cavities here), Vanicream Moisturizing Cream, eos Sweet Mint Lip Balm, scrunchies (because I am in fact a vsco girl; bottom one is linked here, top one I made myself), hairbrush. I was thinking of doing a dedicated morning routine post, but my routine is so basic and minimal that it would honestly be quite boring.
9:00 AM: Breakfast
Yum, brekkie. I’ve grown to love breakfast so much during quarantine, but that might also be because I’m eating at an hour of the day when it’s not dark outside and I’m not half asleep. Regardless, breakfast is one of the best meals. Today I had some overnight oats (recipe in my food faves post), which were so good -- fruity banana-y peanut-buttery goodness. I’ve recently started getting back into overnight oats, and they’ve become one of my favorite breakfasts. They’re so quick and easy, and they taste like a dream.
9:15 AM: Work
Yes, that is the 🥵 emoji covering up my photo :') I don’t have too much internship or volunteer work right now because some places are taking a short break until mid-September, but I still have to study for my SAT. I’m taking it in October, so this kind of prep will be in my daily routine for another month (and hopefully never again after that). I’m using Khan Academy to practice, and it’s been really helpful, especially for the reading section because I am absolute garbage at that section.
10:30 AM: Love Island
Hehe. This is a new addition to my daily routine, and it’s probably my favorite part of it (aside from the food, of course). Love Island USA season 2 is currently in progress, and for the next month I will be spending every day catching up on the new episodes. They release new ones every day, and I’m not sure how my grades will feel about that when I have homework to do, but right now, I’m loving it. There’s so much drama that I would never subject myself to, but it’s quite entertaining living vicariously through these twelve singles trying to find love on top of a hotel in Vegas.
11:00 AM: Blogging
After that drama-fest, I tried to be a little more productive. I got to work on this post, writing the narrations/descriptions for all of things I have done so far today. Always fun. We love the blog. Like, comment, subscribe ;)
12:00 PM: Lunch
It’s lunch time, folks! Today we had some wontons as well as everything bagels topped with scrambled egg, chicken, and onion. The wontons were delicious, and the filling was so flavorful. Everything bagels aren’t my bagel of choice (blueberry bagels have my heart), and I’m usually not a fan of them, but using them for bagel sandwiches is actually quite tasty. I think part of the reason why I don’t like everything bagels by themselves is because of those strong, punchy flavors, so when they’re dulled down by the toppings, everything balances out.
1:00 PM: Big Purchases and New Setups
This is the most eventful thing that’s going to happen in this post by far. I’ve been having a few issues with my laptop lately, which is an 8 year old MacBook Pro that my sister used in college. There are little things like poor speaker quality that I can totally deal with, but my parents insisted on buying a new laptop. The plan was to get a new laptop when I go to college in two years, but now apparently it’s their master plan for me to use this new guy for the next six years so I don’t go into college with a brand new device (who knows what could happen in ~college dorms~). I was just going to brush it off and use my old laptop as planned, but Apple was having a sale where you could get $100 off your new laptop and a free pair of AirPods. The frugal person I am, I thought this was a deal that made me feel slightly better about making a huge purchase two years ahead of schedule. Thus, there’s a laptop and a pair of AirPods on the way in the mail.
Now that I’ve made enough big purchases with my dad’s credit card to last a lifetime, my parents made a new addition to their master plan: get me a monitor. They realized that my 13 inch computer screen is itty-bitty, and thus, a monitor was required to save my eyes from the dangers of online school. My dad set up a monitor, so now I’m writing this while staring at a big screen, not a medium-sized one! This is my new setup, and I like how I’m able to sit farther away from the screen. I’m going to have to get used to using a keyboard and mouse, though. I know I was joking around and being all sarcastic, I’m super grateful for all of this new tech and I know it's such a privilege to even have the option of upgrading like this, so a big thank you to my parents for doing all of this for me. Much love always <33. Of course, I'm not trying to brag in any way about this -- it was a part of my day that I thought was interesting, so I included it.
1:30 PM: (Last Minute) Back To School Prep
I already took y’all through all the things I did to prepare for the new school year, but there are a couple more little things I have to get done before tomorrow. I had a general idea of which notebooks I was going to use for each class, but I just got everything straight so if I needed to take any notes tomorrow, I would have a notebook handy. I didn’t want to put any labels on any of the notebooks until my teachers told us what supplies we needed for their class on the first day. Did I match my notebooks with my binders? You bet. Now I’m all ready, supplies-wise, for school to start.
3:00 PM: Working Out
Pre-workout banana toast with peanut butter :P
Time to stop potatoing in front of my desk and start moving. I did my standard YouTube video workout routine, which consists of an arm workout by MadFit, leg workout by MadFit, and ab workout -- today’s was from Lilly Sabri. It didn’t take too long, but I really felt the burn. YouTube workouts got me through this quarantine not totally out of shape, so hats off to all of those creators.
4:00 PM: Documentaries and Fresh off the Boat
Since today was Labor Day, my parents both had the day off work. After my workout, I watched some TV with them in the living room. We watched part of a documentary called Dirty Money on Netflix (v interesting!) and an episode of Fresh off the Boat (channeling that stereotypical Asian family energy with that show, but it was so funny). I really enjoyed this because I don’t usually watch TV with my parents (I hide out in the basement while they watch Asian dramas in the living room) and it was nice to spend time with them before I got all busy again.
6:30 PM: Dinner
Time for dinner :) On the menu today was corn on the cob; miso soup with cabbage, pork meatballs, and seaweed; mushrooms stuffed with pork, beans, and bell peppers; spare ribs; and mashed potatoes topped with tomatoes, onions, and bell peppers. First of all, shout out to miso soup because it’s one of my favorite soups and it never disappoints. I loved everything in this meal, and I think all of the food was absolutely delicious. These spare ribs were air fried, so they were really flavorful and also really crispy on the outside. And we can’t forget the potatoes because come on, who doesn’t love potatoes.
7:00 PM: Walk
After dinner, I went on a walk around the neighborhood with my parents. The sun was just starting to set, so the sky was really pretty. Hopefully I’ll still have time during the year to go on walks with them, but we’ll see if junior year has anything to say about that.
8:00 PM: I Love You So Mochi
A monumental moment: my first time reading on my monitor. Today’s read was I Love You So Mochi by Sarah Kuhn, which is an absolute dream of a book. It made me laugh; it made me cry; it made me swoon; and it made me want to go to Japan and eat mochi. It has Asian American representation, family drama, fretting about your future, exploring Japan, eating really good food, and meeting the sweetest, most thoughtful guy I’ve ever found in a contemporary romance. I have so much love for this book. It’s featured in my fall favorites for this year (coming in a couple months -- check out my summer faves for more recs).
9:00 PM: Ukulele
I was feeling a bit inspired tonight, so I decided to play my ukulele. I also wanted to get away from the screens for the rest of the night because my eyes are glued to them constantly during the day. I wrote a lil song about envy/love, and I don’t know how I feel about this song. I’ve definitely done better, but I’ve also done worse. The premise is that the girl your ex left you for took the last bagel at the bakery -- you’re envious of her because everyone loves her, but you’re mad at her and your ex for getting together (and because she took the bagel you wanted). This thing came together as it went on, but I got the bagel idea from a random song idea generator, except that it was supposed to be how you got the last bagel. I thought having someone else take the last bagel would be interesting to write about, so, uh, here it is. I know the ukulele is off and the keys are weird, but I have terrible pitch, so that’s my excuse. This is one of the first originals that I’ve shown to the public, so I hope my debut is ~sensational~. I’m joking, but I hope you like the song.
9:30 PM: Night Routine
After my music session, I got ready for bed. Again, these are the same products as in my first day in my life -- from left to right: Aveeno Clear Complexion Cream Facial Cleanser, Oral B electric toothbrush from Costco, Colgate Anticavity Toothpaste, Vanicream Moisturizing Cream, contacts because I'm blind, eos Sweet Mint Lip Balm, hairbrush. It’s very basic, but it gets the job done.
10:00 PM: Podcasts
After getting un-ready, I wanted to continue the trend of screen-free time. I put on an episode of Pretty Basic (my favorite podcast), and chilled out for a bit. This episode was on Internet beef, and as always, I was very entertained. Alisha and Remi do a great job with their podcast, and it’s been one of my favorite things during quarantine.
Late: Hitting the Hay
It was late and I needed to wake up early for school tomorrow, so I turned out the lights and let the snooze fest begin. It’s absolutely wild that I’ll be a junior this year, which means that in only two years, I’ll be moving into college and semi-adulting for the first time ever. Scary. I don’t know if this is surprising, but this is the first year that I’m not excited for school to start. I love being able to dictate how I spend my time, which I definitely had a lot of these past six months. I feel like I really got the hang of my quarantine routine and I’ve found so many ways to keep myself productive, so going back to school is a bit of a rain on my parade. Maybe it’s because I’m not going to be able to see my friends again and meet new people in person, but the start of the school year is bittersweet for sure. Okay, enough with the sappy stuff. I’m tired, so goodnight, and good luck on your first days of school, everyone! Hope you enjoyed reading!
留言