My Month In Film | January 2019

Here we are back on our regular scheduled programming for my Month in Film posts! January felt like the longest month ever, as it usually does. It’s always such a weird month because, on the one hand, the start of the start of the new year always invigorates me and gets my creative juices flowing again. However, on the other hand, January can also be a pretty dreary time of year because the holidays are over, and the novelty of winter can begin to drag and wear on you. Despite the fact that I am excited that January is over, the overall slower pace of last month did give me a lot more time to recharge and to thing of content ideas and just generally make me feel more introspective and creative. Before we know it, spring will be here so I’m trying to make the most of all of the wintery things I won’t be able to do later on this year.

Currently Listening To | Winter 2019

I have to admit, for the past few months I have been in a funk with music. I have, since early childhood, always loved listening to music, largely thanks to both of my parents incredible taste in music. While I love a wide array of genres, I have a tendency to discover new music to listen to, listen to it to absolute death, and then get sick of it. I’ve also found myself listening to podcasts more and more during my commute than music, which has made . Right before Christmas though I took a long walk and put on my Tastebreakers playlist on Spotify, which is essentially a playlist that Spotify makes at the end of the year compiling any music from artists or genres that you usually don’t listen to, and it was honestly one of the best playlists I’ve listened to recently. It also made me realize how much I missed discovering new music and seeking out new music to listen to. So in an effort to do so, I have posted my favorite songs as of late below! Hope you all enjoy!

My Month in Film | November & December 2018

I’m back with another catch up film post! As I mentioned in my last film post, I fell a tad behind during the last quarter of the year with my month in film posts, but after this post I will officially be caught up and the month-to-month posts will resume starting with my January month in film which I will have for you all in about a week’s time! November and December were probably the busiest months of my year, as work is always especially busy during that period. Despite the busyness, however, I was able to really hone in my ability to feel recharged on my days off, which is a huge feat for me considering I spent the majority of 2018 feeling burnt out and depleted. I largely credit this to taking long walks, generally being more active, and spending less time in front of screens (although this is still definitely a work in progress). As you will probably notice, most of these photos are direct results from those long walks.

My Month in Film | September & October 2018

First off, I apologize for this post being so delayed. I was so on track with my months in film so it’s a tad disappointing that I have fallen behind, but as of now I think I’m back on track and by February we should be back with our regularly scheduled programming for these posts. The reason why this post is so delayed is two-fold: part of this tardiness is down to the fact that during the last few months there hasn’t been much to document because I’ve been so busy with work and just trying to switch off when I do have time off, the other part of this is down to my camera having an odd issue with the lens cover on my Olympus Mju-ii, which makes me not want to carry it around with me all the time like I used to, and therefore have had less opportunities to take random shots in my day-to-day life. With all that said, September and October were two somewhat difficult months, but Brad and I made some nice weekend getaways which really helped to properly switch off and recharge.

Favorite Moments of 2018

I’ve never been hugely into New Year’s as a holiday. To me, there’s just too much hype around the whole thing and if you tell this early bird that you need to stay up past midnight in order to celebrate, then you can count me out. That being said, I do always find this time of year to be reflective, as so many of us do, and to really take stock on everything that has happened in the past twelve months. I’ve especially felt the need to be reflective this year because 2018 was probably one of the busiest and most eventful years of my life, and I’m especially lucky that all that eventfulness was generally very positive.

Spending Time With Friends

After graduating college I was really nervous about the prospect of making new friends, mainly because making friends in school is so damn easy. I’ve also been incredibly lucky to have a lot of enduring friendships from my days at school, but I wasn’t as sure if I would be able to make friends in the same way as I got further into adulthood, boy was I wrong. I am so grateful that I have made quite a few very strong friendships in the last year and that I’ve been able to surround myself with a group of girls that I cannot only commiserate with, but also celebrate all of the highs that this year has brought. Female friendship is one of those elements of my life that has always been a pretty strong balancing force, but as I become more and more comfortable with adulthood and understanding what it means to have work-life balance (if that even can truly exist), it is something that has become even more important. I know that the friendships I have made in the last year are truly life-long friendships and I cannot wait to make even more memories with these gals next year.

A Weekend Away in Tahoe

In March, Brad and I took a little weekend trip to Tahoe to go skiing and generally just get away from the craziness of work and San Francisco. Although the trip did not get off to the best start, in that, the night we drove up we ended up having to drive back to SF because the blizzard had caused the roads to close, we then thought about cancelling all together, and then woke up the next morning and made it our mission to somehow make our way up there, which ended up meaning driving up a different route and then driving around almost the entirety of Lake Tahoe to get to our Airbnb. While it sounds like a complete disaster on paper, we ended up having the best time and even though we ended up only getting one day of skiing in, that car trip circumventing Lake Tahoe is an adventure I know I will always remember.

Moving In With My Favorite Person

In July, Brad and I signed a lease for our very first apartment together, and it is without a doubt, the best memory I have of this last year. I cannot put into words how lucky I am to be living with the love of my life in my favorite city on Earth (my hometown, no less), and to have the opportunity to create a life and a home together. While parts of the move were stressful, as most moves usually are, we really took our time putting our place together, which made the whole process a lot smoother. We are so happy with our apartment and I can’t wait to share more interior-related content now that it is pretty much finished!

Family Time in Monterey

In October, a bunch of my family headed down the coast for a long weekend in Monterey and it was one of the best weekends of the year. The trip could not have come at a better time, being right before the craziness of the holiday season kicked in, and it came after far too many months of not taking any real time off. To say I was burnt out going into this trip would be an understatement. We spent the weekend taking walks on the beach, eating amazing meals, finishing two one thousand piece puzzles, and properly switching off. We used to take these trips down to Monterey when I was younger and stopped for awhile, but I’m hoping after this last year, the tradition will be here to stay.

Taking Care of Myself

After a rather rough 2017 that was full of some serious growing pains, I committed to really taking care of myself in 2018. I’m certainly nowhere near perfect at taking care of myself but I have improved leaps and bounds compared to where I was last year. One of the best things I did for myself this past year was going to see a therapist regularly, and it’s something I wholeheartedly recommend everyone doing. I have struggled with anxiety and depression ever since I was a young teenager, and while I’ve been able to cope pretty well on my own, therapy has really helped me develop healthier coping strategies and improve my self-talk. Besides therapy, I’ve also pushed myself through some pretty bad days by being kinder to myself and learning how to spend time alone more consciously and productively.