Manila, 5 January—Happy New Year, friends! One could truly get used to extended holidays like that one, no? If you’re like me and you hauled yourself right back to work after New Year’s, then you must have also enjoyed the ‘semi-quiet time’ of the not-quite-there-yet workplace.
I loved the luxury of having two non-frantic workdays; it was an opportunity to transition my body and brain slowly from vacation mode to work mode. I was grateful for the opportunity to catch up with work, set-up my new calendars, archive what needed to be archived, etc. With most people still out of the office until the 6th, there were minimal additional emails and tasks, and no meetings just yet. I spent the past couple of days filing 2019 paper work, finishing documentation for an end-of-year activity, and filling out my calendar (already!) with some upcoming January activities.
It’s also a good space to look back on how we spent the holidays, as well as the media we consumed over that absolutely long weekend. Some highlights:
Took our parents out to Clark and spent the day posing with giant animatronic dinosaurs. (Don’t ask.)
Caught up with some Star Wars things—watched The Last Jedi and Rogue One
Speaking of Star Wars things—also managed to binge the very binge-able “The Mandalorian” over the holidays. What a treat! Baby Yoda! Cara Dune! My heart.
Also watched a couple of Filipino movies. Our house has voted: Hello Love Goodbye > Never Not Love You.
Got Jia Tolentino’s Trick Mirror for my birthday (thanks love!) and I’m currently savoring it. When I grow up I want to make a book just like this.
Five words: Competitive Tetris on Nintendo Switch.
Also: Eons late to this, but Descendants of the Sun is on Netflix and we’re bingeing the hell out of this adorable Korean drama. I’m a convert.
Also, some reads around the internet:
The Strangeness of Grief (via The New Yorker) - This was surprisingly brutal. Grief and cats. You have been warned.
Deconstructing Disney: The Princess Problem of Frozen 2 (via Longreads) - Oh yes. Yes to all of it. Elsa is such a queer character; why can’t Disney just go ahead and own it? Cowards.
This is the first wrap-up of the year, which comes out Sundays, schedule permitting. Help me build this thing by feeding me things on Twitter: @thegshift. Cheers to a great 2020!
xo,
K.