In case you are wondering, Taking Stock is a new series I’m trying out. I was blog hopping last week and I saw this post from Celina of Celuna Maria. This is something that originated from Meet Me At Mike’s – which encourages us to slow down and “take stock” of where and how we are right now. I really think this is a great mindfulness exercise, especially now that time and day seems to blur since we are staying in the same place at extended period of time because of the enforced quarantine.
“Taking Stock” is a meme that encourages us to slow down and take stock of where and how are we right now.
Initially, I am targeting for this to be a weekly thing (who am I kidding? LOL). But for now, I will just try to post this as regular as I can manage. I am noticing that this blog is being swallowed up by my book contents, when it’s supposed to be not. So I guess this is me making an extra effort to personalize this space.
A pasta + coffee kind of morning last Friday. I was feeling a bit bitter at how prepping my lunch the day before took a lot of time but the moment I woke up the next day, I was immediately grateful that I prepared a large batch. Slowing down to eat good food, especially during the morning, energizes my soul. Oh, and my Mang-tae (from IOTNBO) also arrived this week! 
My new headphones arrived this week. I am so happy to get these at half the price since I’ve been eyeing this design for quite some time now but was not able to justify the price. I hope this will fuel my audio book obsession these days.
I am currently
reading my eARC of Chloe Gong’s These Violent Delights (which is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliette, set in 1920s Shanghai) and my ebook of R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War for #thepoppywarathon I am participating in this month. I’m at almost the 50% mark of TVD and, surprisingly, just starting to get into it – but it was good, and I’m excited and kind of afraid for where it is going. TPW on the other hand is a re-read. I’m still in the early chapters, and, objectively speaking (even without thinking the historical references and the fact that it was *excellently* written by a BIPOC author), I really can’t see how this is “basic” and “boring”…. so, I don’t know about you, Karen.
writing (trying to write, at least) my review of Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladwell’s This is How You Lose the Time War. I know this book has mixed reviews, specially in Book Twitter, but it still kinda hurts reading about people not liking a book that I absolutely adore. So I am desperately trying to put my thoughts and feelings into words just for me to express how much I loved this book. I already have my Reading Diary post drafted, I just need to post a non-spoiler review to complement it.
listening to Troye Sivan’s Lucky Strike. This is a relatively old song but I can’t get it out of my head lately when it randomly played from my “Vignettes” playlist (a collection of songs I put together that evoke a certain “feel”). I discovered this song last year, and has since played during my to-fro walk for work when I was assigned to California. This is my 2019 summer song, I guess. Fun fact: I didn’t know it was named from a cigarette brand until I watched Mad Men and they did the Lucky Strike pitch (which was awesome).
watching The World of the Married. My sister was raving about this show since forever and this caused quite a stir last time, if I remember correctly. I tried watching a couple of episodes, and while really good, this show is stressing me out. Maybe I’m just not in the right head space right now for something this heavy, so who knows if I’ll continue and finish it. I am hopeless with TV shows this way – my attention span is really short.
drinking my home-made coffee milk. As always.
thinking about how I don’t give myself the luxury of slowing down more often. It gives time for introspection and high-level thinking and I think these are things that I don’t do enough lately.
hoping for more “slow times” (as mentioned above).
wishing for a cup warmer right now. I like to drink hot/warm drinks and I take a long time to consume these things so they always end up getting cold before I finish them.
wearing my satin PJs I recently got from an online shop.
loving my new Marshall bluetooth headphones (pictured above).
wanting to make up my mind whether to buy that tablet + pen combo, so I could 100% transition to digital planning now. *fingers crossed*
needing to regulate my sleep and eating schedule. Everything’s getting kinda muddled lately – and I know it’s bad for my mental health. So I need to fix these.
feeling nervous starting the work week again tomorrow. For context, it’s our busy season currently. Even now, on a weekend, I am automatically inventorying in my head all the things I need to do tomorrow and for the whole week and it is seriously stressing me out.
How about you? How are you doing right now? Till next time. 🙂
Pages and Coffee Cups 
2 responses to “Taking Stock #1: New things and old songs”
Yay! It was nice reading your take on this! I’m also taking note of some of the things you mentioned so that I can check them out haha. And I totally get you– meal prepping sucks ESPECIALLY if it takes a long time, but not cooking the next day and eating delicious food is just A-W-E-S-O-M-E.
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Thanks for the comment, Celina! Let me know if you ever checked them out and you want someone to scream at. 😀
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