Hello everyone! Would you like to grab a coffee and have a chat with me?

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I hope so!

This month I am going to pick a Mexican cafe de olla, which is coffee but also has canela (cinnamon) in it and it’s amazing. My dad’s aunt, who we stay with part of our trips, makes the most amazing cafe de olla so that’s the specific one I’m dreaming of!

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If we were having coffee, I’d tell you all about my recent trip to Mexico! Part one of my trip will be up on Wednesday, and the part two will be next week Wednesday. I think that should be all I need to recap my trip although I’m thinking of doing follow up posts to do more like “tips for visiting [place I’ve been to]” posts if there’s something particularly interesting someone wants to see! So if there is, let me know when those posts come out!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m looking forward to the final semester in my grad school journey! I’m also kind of feeling a tiny bit stressed as I am expecting it to be kind of tough! I have a post that will go up about my spring semester next Sunday. (Okay, I am done promoting future posts! I think…)

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I have had such an influx of gift cards lately and I always forget to use them! How are you supposed to remember to use all your gift cards??

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you how I survived the polar vortex of 2019 in the midwest. Basically double layers of clothing, multiple blankets, lots of tea, and working from home. It was too cold to leave! I will say that although I have tried to make it sound upbeat it did make life quite difficult for the midwest. I mean, our home was fine but I know of a few people (including my sister and one of my coworkers) had their pipes freeze and burst or a few lost power so their homes weren’t able to heat up and lost the heat it did have quickly. It was really frustrating for a lot of people I think to feel so at mercy to the weather. Especially for those of us who did work from home since for most of the week we were trapped at home.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m trying to decide what kind of Christmas tree I want for next Christmas. Why am I thinking about this in February you ask? Well I finally took the tree down as I was gone for two weeks in the middle of the month and since another section of bulbs went out and it was starting to look discolored then it was time to throw it out. Such a shame but there was no point in keeping a tree that doesn’t work or look nice! We still have an older green tree that is not pre-lit and each branch has to be hooked on individually so that will work if we don’t get a new one. I kind of want a skinny green one with flocked tips but I also don’t really want to spend money on another tree if we have one. Plus since I want to move to Texas it doesn’t seem to make sense to get one only to have to move it down too. Might as well make it work with what we have!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m really missing ballet. You might remember that I was working from home a lot this last week because of the snow/polar vortex and so I looked to YouTube to find videos for background noise. I stumbled on ballet rehearsals from the Royal Ballet and it was just so beautiful to watch! I also watched a lot of Kathryn Morgan (a professional ballet dancer with tons of YouTube videos about ballet) so I’ve learned a lot of things that I wish I could practice properly. I can’t wait to dance again!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that it was so nice to see all my coworkers again! Absence really does make the heart grow fonder I think. And actually I haven’t seen all of them yet as the weather stopped a lot of them from being able to make it out to the office, even on Friday when the temperature started to rise again (it still snowed a bit but the ground was so cold it froze fairly quickly). Still, it was nice to catch up, hear their dating stories, and know what their updates are so far.

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m excited for my mom to come home! She’s coming home on Saturday, as she stayed in Mexico longer than I did. I do miss her quite a bit so I can’t wait to see her! I think she’s probably ready to come home as well. Oh, here’s a story for you about that. So at work we get email updates about travel notices, since so many people travel for work. One was about an earthquake in southern Mexico and almost immediately after it came out I had multiple coworkers ask me about my mom. She was in central Mexico, north of Mexico City, so she didn’t feel a thing thankfully. It was so sweet that my coworkers worry about her too though!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I really am so thankful that I’ve been prioritizing saving money for travel lately. I went to Mexico without a care in the world of how much I spent, how much the tickets were, entry fees to places, etc. Well, I mean, I didn’t go crazy either. I picked the tourist (economy) seats on the plane, we went to a lot of markets that are naturally cheaper, and I don’t buy souvenirs anymore but still. Plus since I don’t have to pay for a hotel that really helps keep expenses down. But it’s so worth it to travel instead of buying just another shirt or something. Now that I’m trying to plan a few more trips, pay down student loans, and save for a down payment for a home in the future, well, I’m going to have to get a little more strict with myself. Still, it’ll be worth it, I know!

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’m so excited to hear how your January went and your plans for February! Anyone doing anything fun this month??

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I hope you enjoyed catching up with me again this month! I love writing these posts, I really do. They’re just so real and easy to write because of that. Not that I generally censor what I say at all, but these are just less edited I suppose! Know what I mean?

Thanks for reading!

Pamela

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