Last year I tried a 52 project documenting my Sunday mornings for 52 weeks. Technically I made it to 40~ weeks, but things actually started falling apart at 30~ weeks. At the end of 2015, I was hoping that I’d be able to make a roundup of 52/52 weeks, taking you through my year, week by week. That didn’t happen, but I did manage to make a highlights of 2015 post.

However, I’ve not given up on attempting 52 projects altogether! It’s a new year, which means new beginnings, so this year I’m going to give it another go. To make this more achievable, I’ve decided to succumb to the tantalizing format of listicles. Inspired by Jaye Rockett, I’ll be posting a Happy List every week. She consistently shares ten things, but I’ll aim for at least three, and if there’s more, #blessed.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my 12 Days of “Blogmas” in which I posted every day for the 12 Days of Christmas (since I wasn’t able to make it for the days leading up to Christmas, which is when most people do v/blogmas)! I am currently in Austin, Texas for the second day of my winter externship at the Austin Fire Department working in IT, so I won’t be posting as frequently these next two weeks. An “externship” is a joint program between Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges, in which experiential opportunities (basically short-term internships) are offered by alumni and parents of alumni. I’ll be hosted by and working alongside Bryn Mawr College alum Elizabeth for two weeks, familiarizing myself with their Business Intelligence system. This is my first ever off-campus job/internship and I’m kind of nervous, so wish me luck! I will return every Monday for the rest of the year with my Happy List, but I wanted to end blogmas with this, so here it is on Tuesday this week.

1. I’m not particularly conscious of skincare (much to my mother’s chagrin; she has great skin) and usually only notice really obvious things like huge zits, but California is seriously doing some damage. I’m shriveling up but running out of moisturizer, so I asked my mom to get me some on her next shopping run, and she came back with two massage bars from Lush (Yes Yes Yes and Wiccy Magic Muscles). This is a milestone that marks my first Lush product and I think I’m addicted. I’ve refrained from buying Lush products for this long because I view them as luxury items and can get alternatives that fulfill my practical needs at a cheaper price, and anyways, they’re more popular for their bath products and I do not have access to a bath as a student living in a college dorm. In terms of habits, restriction definitely works for me better than moderation, but it’s too late now. Don’t give me nice things o.o
2. Reliving my childhood at Shin-Sen-Gumi Hakata Ramen-Gardena. I even checked in on Facebook. When I was a kid, we’d always claim the tatami room (which, when I visited this time around, was sad to find has since been remodeled into a normal room with tables and chairs), and my brothers and I would get the kid’s meal, which includes ramen, a rice ball, gyoza, Yakult, and an orange. My parents love coming here because you can “refill” your ramen noodles for only ~$2 (if I remember correctly, and the first bowl is ~$6/7)! One adult bowl is more than enough for me, but I still like having the option to refill my noodles.
3. 4:00 dinner buffet at the Bellagio. We had intended to go for lunch, but there was a ton of traffic (as you would expect from Vegas during New Years weekend) and then we waited an hour in line, and before we knew it, it was 4:00 and they were serving dinner. The dessert bar was everything *praise emoji*: peppermint chocolate macarons, peppermint chocolate cookies, peppermint chocolate mousse, gingerbread mousse, and soooooo much more.
4. A friend recommended me to visit the Miracle Mile Shops while in Vegas. I’m not much of a shopper, but I decided to check it out anyway. We walked maybe 100m in and then my mom got stuck at Pandora, during which my dad and I bought delicious Nestle cookies from right next door, walked a little further down for Jamba Juice, and each finished our smoothies before my mom finally finished with that shop, but my favourite purchase has got to be these suuuper soft Tara M. knee-high socks from The Walking Company (buy 1 get 1 50% off).
5. Kicked off my New Years morning offline with The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer. It was nice to spend my morning offline, and it set a good tone for the rest of the day. (The Harries twins had quite the inspirational morning.) I ended up finishing the book, so that’s 1/24 of my 2016 Goodreads Reading Challenge, and now I’m onto Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. Speaking of Goodreads, I also friended Carly of The College Prepster on Goodreads (since I noticed that she has a ton of Goodreads friends) after having joined her Goodreads book club, and she accepted! *fangirl* Probably (more like definitely) doesn’t mean much, but she’s one of my lifestyle blogging (well, not idol but…) models (yeah that’s a better word I think), so please allow me this moment. Follow me on Goodreads and introduce yourself!
6. In my Hello 2016! post, I shared that 2015 didn’t end quite so well and that I haven’t been feeling like my best self, but by the end of writing that post, I was already feeling much better. This is why I blog; it’s my catharsis. It takes me awhile to collect my thoughts, and my blog gives me space to muse, reason things out, talk sense into myself. Now that I’m feeling better, I’m reading back that post, and I feel like I was being so melodramatic… Nevertheless, your response has been so supportive, and I’m so thankful to have you here with me. Love you!