A little recap of what my September, October, and November looked like. These were big months for change. The transition from student to full-time worker has been an adjustment and I feel like people don’t talk about it enough. I’ve had spurts of working full-time during summers, but it’s kind of a different feeling when you know there’s no end date in sight. I’ve really had to work on adjusting my schedule to make sure that I make time for the things that are important to me (working out, reading, spending time with Axel and the kitties).
Did
Went to Japan
For my bar trip, Axel and I went to Japan again for two and a half weeks in late August/September. While we had a fantastic time, this is not the best time of year to go to Japan lol. It was so insanely hot and humid that it was hard to do as much as we wanted to do. We went to Kyoto and Tokyo and also spent some time in Izu Prefecture, where neither of us had ever been before. I am planning to write about our travels in more detail soon, now that we’ve been able to go together twice and have established favorite activities and restaurants. We also made a pitstop in Hawaii for one night on the way back, which was lovely but all too short!
Started Working Full Time
The big transition from student to full time member of the workforce happened for me in September. Lots to get used to and figure out- having a long commute (but I became really well-informed on current events from listening to news podcasts every day), finding time to work out consistently (didn’t quite master this), and bringing a homemade lunch daily (my devoted chef Axel took care of this thankfully). None of that really matters now, however, since I have a new job that is fully remote! I didn’t necessarily set out looking for a remote job but I am really happy to have one now. I didn’t realize how much of a time suck it was to not only spend 1-1.5 hours a day driving, but to also have to get fully dressed and ready for an office environment every day. The timing worked out so that I got to take some time off between jobs over the holidays, which gave me the chance to recoup and get into some long-neglected hobbies, like gardening, tackling my mending pile, and reading.
Moved to a New Place
Now that I’ve graduated law school, there was no need for us to remain in our old neighborhood. As much as I loved our beautiful apartment, there was quite literally nothing walkable in the area, it wasn’t very safe or peaceful, and it just wasn’t a place we wanted to live in anymore. We moved to our dream neighborhood of Venice (I may or may not have been significantly influenced by Lana del Rey’s many references to the area) and could not be happier with the new area. While our new home is not quite as aesthetically pleasing as our previous apartment (meaning that I’ll continue posting photos from the old one when I’m discussing home decor), we can walk literally everywhere now, and we haven’t had one night of interrupted sleep since moving here. Every weekend we go out for coffee and just spend hours walking around, people watching, and going to the beach. The lifestyle change has been amazing for us and I could see us staying in Venice forever.
Hosted a Pizza Housewarming
And of course, when we move into a new place we have to have a housewarming! I like to plan to have one about a week after moving in so that we’re forced to finish unpacking and getting art up on the walls and all that. This might have been a little overly ambitious this time, so we did have to shove a bunch of stuff into the second bedroom and keep it off limits from guests lol, but the rest of the house looked presentable enough. We are fortunate enough to have a yard with our new place so we were able to make a longtime wish come true by buying an Ooni pizza oven. Pizza is probably my favorite food and being able to make delicious, blistered pizzas at home is incredible, so of course we had to bust out the pizza oven for our housewarming. Everyone brought different toppings, like caramelized onion, sausage, burrata, and anchovies, amongst other things, and we had a lot of fun experimenting with different combinations.
Went to Puerto Vallarta
For Thanksgiving, Axel and I wanted to go somewhere warm that wasn’t too far or too expensive and we landed on Puerto Vallarta. Neither of us had ever been before, although Axel has been talking about going for years, so we weren’t sure what to expect. Spoiler alert: we had a fantastic time. The weather was perfect, we stayed at a beautiful hotel, everyone was super friendly, we ate delicious food, and now we can’t wait to go back. I want to write a more in-depth post soon on everything we did, where we stayed, and what we ate.
Made
Homemade Pizza Dough
Our previous standby dough when making pizza at home was the Trader Joe’s garlic and herb, which is perfectly serviceable. Once we got our Ooni, however, I wanted to step it up and try making my own sourdough pizza dough. I’ve been following this recipe by Alexandra Stafford and it is really really good. Like there is a very noticeable difference between the homemade dough and the Trader Joe’s dough. I now own her book, Pizza Night, also, which contains a huge variety of pizza and salad recipes and am slowly working through trying all the recipes (at least, all the ones I think I would like).
Bought
A Hot Tub
So my other passion, besides pizza, is soaking in hot water. Axel and I usually try to incorporate some sort of hot tub/hot spring activities into our vacations (easy in Japan, harder in other places!) but when we moved into this house, the opportunity to own a hot tub of our own presented itself. We decided on a used Softub, which are very lightweight (but not inflatable) hot tubs made of a soft outer material. They’re pretty expensive new, but we found one for a great deal on Facebook Marketplace (where else?) and it has been running beautifully so far. We get in it almost every night and it is a fantastic stress reliever/time to connect. We just step outside, listen to some music, look up at the stars and it is just heavenly.
Read
Weyward by Emilia Hart
I wanted to incorporate a little seasonality into my reading, so I picked up this witchy novel. Weyward follows three female members of a family of witches in three different time periods: 2019, 1942, and 1619. I enjoyed the different timelines and time period-specific struggles that each of the women go through. This book was a little dark and dealt with a lot of heavy subjects, but there was a message of endurance and female power. 4/5
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries
I continued the fall theme with this book, which follows an academic who studies faeries and ventures to a far-north land to study the unique magical folk that live there. There’s a romantic plot line involving a co-professor, as well as an element of suspense when some of the folk turn out to be quite nefarious. There were parts I enjoyed and parts that I didn’t. It had a nice cozy vibe and I found parts of the faerie lore very interesting but it was pretty slow-paced and boring at times. I didn’t really get the romance part, which felt very sudden, and the ending wasn’t very satisfying to me. I also agree with other reviews that I read that the prose is rather overwritten at times. I also felt like the author had to keep reminding the reader that the main character was supposed to be this coldly clinical person because she wasn’t acting in accordance with that a lot of the time. 3.5/5
Watched
Sex Lives of College Girls
This show is back for its third season and we’ve been enjoying watching new episodes as they come out weekly on Max. It’s about four girls navigating their way through dating and sex at their small East Coast liberal arts college. As someone who also went to a small East Coast liberal arts college, I find it very funny and relatable.
This is where I’ll leave you. I did not write nearly as much as I wanted to in 2024, which I’ll attribute to a combination of studying for the bar and the associated burnout that comes with that, as well as the aforementioned job with the long commute, but I am hopeful that 2025 will bring more time and energy to devote to my passions.
