What Bwog got up to the past month.

Bwog consumed media:

• Watched Twin Peaks, Fleabag, and Abbott Elementary. 
• Read 150 pages of American Psycho in a day and regretted it all.
• Rewatched all of Gravity Falls and reentered my Doctor Who era.
• Read a lot of books and watched movies.
• Watched lots of movies with my brother.
• Played the charming little video game CrossCode for like 70 hours instead of doing actual work.
• Watched all of White Lotus, going slowly episode by episode, discussing after each. 
  • Was a good way to experience that show.
• Religiously checked the avalanche forecast.
• Read books for fun!
• Binge watched the second season of Singles Inferno.
• Watched the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel and fell in love with every member of the cast.
• Decided I want to get more into podcasts.
• Watched three seasons of Game of Thrones. 
• Saw Beetlejuice before it closed!
• Watched Interview with the Vampire (AMC, 2022) with my parents and I wasn’t even the one to suggest it.
• Saw a taping of Late Night with Seth Meyers! He answered audience questions and was generally so lovely. 
• Watched a lot of divisive movies. Had strong opinions.

Bwog reconnected with pets:

• Held my dogs hostage in my room because I love them too much to set them free. 
• Took my dogs to an indoor dog pool which they LOVED but then my dog both pooped and threw up.
• Cuddled many guinea pigs.
• Spent time with my cat <3.
• Hung out with my goat.
• Bothered my dog. 

Bwog traveled:

• Went on a road trip along the coast of California with my boyfriend! 
  • Very romantic, very amazing.
• Experienced lots of snow in Utah. 
  • Built a snowman, hiked to a frozen waterfall, went skiing, had a snowball fight.
• Went to San Diego for a few days.
  • Nice change of scenery.
• Hiked around Death Valley with my family.
• Walked inside the Hoover Dam. 
  • Refrained from kicking the earthquake sensor.
• Went on a family vacation… bonded over how insane my family is over pina coladas with my brother.
• Camped in the snow because it’s simply my favorite thing.
• Went skiing for the first time! Miraculously did not fall off the mountain!
• My brother went to Japan! 
  • …But I stayed at home.
• Drove to the desert for fieldwork.
• Spent an absurd amount of time in the mountains.

Bwog grinded, with varying success:

• Watched AP Computer Science course videos to prepare myself for Intro to Java. 
• Had to help take everything out of the garage and wait for it to dry off and then put it all back in after the garage got flooded with rainwater. 
  • Yay, California!
• Wrote! Poetry! Music! Was creative!
• Flirted with professional rejection.
• Got into grad school <3 !!!!
• Voted in a special election!!!! 
  • Felt nice to vote in person for the first time. 
• Internship applications.
  • Ick.
• Absolutely bombed one interview, and was generally rejected from multiple jobs. 
  • But, I also got a soft offer from one company. You win some, you lose some.
• Decided I would take up crocheting as a hobby. 
  • Crocheted 3 rows of a bag and that was it. 
• Wrote a full chapter of my thesis and memorized the Chicago Manual of Style (Notes and Bibliography).
• Did some art projects.

Bwog was social:

• Hung out with many old friends.
• Hung out with my sister, and actually got a lot closer to her.
• Hung out with my dog.
• Had an NYE sleepover with my friends in which my dad bought us wine and made a fancy little ice bucket display for us?
• Gossiped with my 50-year-old neighbors. 
• Caught up with friends from back home.
• Spent countless hours with my little cousins and then forced everyone to listen to me talk about them.
• Saw friends from high school and had a blast.
• Went to an NYE party with high school friends and it turned out to be a room full of other high school alums. 
  • Was jarring.
• Reconnected with friends from elementary school!
• Saw my dad for the first time since he left lmao.
• Had a delightful NYE party with friends I have known practically since the dawn of time.
• Babysat a one-year-old named Ned.
• Hung out with my ex a lot lol.
• Saw a good friend at the Santa Monica Pier.
• Almost met Jimmy Kimmel purely by chance (did not know he filmed in LA).

Bwog got lost in the monotony of life, dissociating to the hours passing by and losing themself to the evermoving ticking of the clock—losing moments we will never get back in exchange for stagnancy:

• Lived the same day for two weeks: sleep in, wake up, walk and pet cats, practice violin, watch tv, write, make dinner, watch tv, go to bed. 
  • Miss that.
• Did not play piano, not even once.
• Accomplished little to nothing.
• Went home! 
  • Was there the whole break.
• Slept.
• Generally was trapped, bored, and tired in the gloomy winter midwest.

Bwog ate:

• Baked a lot of bread in my bread machine.
• Turned five pounds of almonds sitting in the freezer into an exorbitant amount of almond cookies.
• Rediscovered the wondrous snack that is Albanese gummy bears.
• Made many microwave mug cakes.

Bwog enjoyed life in small ways:

• Swam in a hot tub several times.
• Bought a hat solely because my friends said it reminded them of the Charles Dickens Oliver Twist quote “Please sir, can I have some bread?” 
• Had a religious experience eating Park Slope food.
• Got my southern groove back.
• Was totally bemused and shocked by the unprecedented amount of rain in my Los Angeles suburb.
• Found out I’m actually taller than I thought (HUGE win).
• Tried to make peace with the uncertainty of the future.
• Somehow avoided the flooding in California.
• Quarantined in a sick apartment of a friend. 
• Enjoyed not having to wear shower shoes.

Bwog had some struggles:

• Went through a breakup!! Fun times?
• Dropped my brother off for school at my old high school and felt weird about it each time.
• Yearned for snow. 
  • Did not get any snow. 
• Was ghosted by my academic advisor when asking about study abroad opportunities that close and fill up very soon.
• Was emotionally drained.
• Bought clothes I do not need.
• Cried.
• Dogsat for a puppy that was taking a nap on top of me (maybe a bad decision) and then peed all over me.
• Got a speeding ticket from an Australian sheriff in the middle of Nevada.
• Lived with no power for 24 hours as rooms in my house slowly flooded
• Got Covid.
• Was told by my old history teacher that I “made mistakes with people in high school” but he didn’t elaborate.
• Had many allergic reactions to my dog and to nuts.
• Suffered.
  • Could not tell if it was because I was home and it was triggering memories or other factors.
• Was affected by the Great Southwest Meltdown of 2022.
• Made jokes about crying.
• Made a mess.
• Got wisdom teeth removed and freaked out about it more than was necessary. 

Bwog changed:

• Leaned back into high school habits and went to the gym almost every day.
• Got another ear piercing.
• Shopped a lot.
• Made an executive decision that I am okay.
• Wanted to change my career path. 
• Did a lot of self-reflection.
• Was told by the parent of someone I went to high school with that I’m “a lot prettier now.”
• Made the resolution that I am absolutely going to a New Year’s Eve Party next year.
• Healed.

Wienerbruck and Ötscher mountain at snow by Karl Ludwig Prinz via Artvee