Life Lately: 2021 recap

(Thu Jan 20 2022)

Happy 2022!! 🥳 Looking back, so many things happened in 2021 (and I am still trying an attempt to blog about them all), so here’s a mini recap for me to remember this past year.

March 06 2021. HBD Gwe 🎈. First travel since pandemic going to Tagaytay, in one of our dream destinations, Escala. Did not disappoint. Also I am now 25 years old whaaaaaat? 👵🏼

March 07 2021. We are now furparents 🐶! AJ got a little bored with staying inside the house all the time (meanwhile me I loved it) that he decided it's time we take care of a puppy. Now we have Chicken 🐓, a red toy poodle puppy who eats his poop and sleeps with his belly up.

March 15 2021. AJ's first day as Infrastructure Engineer at Xendit 💻. I applied first but was not hired. When our colleague working there asked AJ to apply too, I told him to do his best because we like the company, and so he did! A week later and we were in La Union for a workation 🌊, one of the best weeks of the year!

June 22 2021. First upload in Tiktok 📚. After months of lurking in the #booktok community of Tiktok, finally decided to upload my own content (probably out of FOMO/inggit). I was not expecting the amount of welcome I received. Indeed the best community out there. Plus I now read around 10 books a month! 🫨

July 11 2021. HBD AJ 🎈. It was a luxury staycation in Shangri-La BGC 🏨, primarily because I wanted to go to Fully Booked (we don’t have a branch in Pampanga). Slowly getting used to stress free luxury travel, send help.

September 23 and Oct 21 2021. Vaccine days in BGC 💉AKA hello Fully Booked again 📚! Side note: why was it so hard to get vaccinated when you don't know anyone in government???

September 25 2021. HAU Webinar Guest Speaker 📢. This is my third time as a speaker for the topic “Introduction to HTML5 and CSS3” to HAU students. And it still gives me anxiety to speak in front of a crowd but will always consider these as a win! 🎉

Oct 29 2021. Last day as Lead Software Engineer at Owens Asia 👋🏻. I got tired of the micromanagement and the (subtle-but-still-there) misogyny 🙈. No backup plans. It was AJ who insisted I resign and was more than happy to let me afford unemployment. What a privilege!! Update: Still no plans to find new work but I am starting to code again with my personal small projects.

November 03 2021. Third Anniversary 💛. The day we discovered we don’t need to drive far to have fun. My long term vacation started right. 💛

November 27 2021. We got engaged 💍! What I thought was date night in Souq was actually an overnight stay in Tropical Stay.

December 12 2021. QiWellness Living with friends 💆🏻‍♀️. The most relaxing travel I ever had. 5 star service and location and view and company.

December 29 2021. Umbrella Rocks and Masamirey Cove 🏖. A little bit disappointed and a little bit not used to long drives any more (at the very end of Pangasinan). But still enjoyed ofc! Ended the year with a bang and probably our last travel for a while due to recent covid spread and I am running out of my backup money hihi 💸.

And here I thought 2021 wasn't a productive year? This. This is why I like lists. 💛