Life Lately – February 2023

Hello from a new year, friends! January dragged on work wise, but it seemed to go quickly outside of that.

1. I am officially in my last semester of class for my doctoral program. We started the program in June of 2021, and it’s crazy how fast time has gone. I’m taking three final classes, then I transition to my dissertation.
2. We enjoyed a nice Christmas season. For the first time in our marriage, we didn’t have to spend a ton of time traveling hither and yon to visit family. We drove up to PA for a few days with my family then came home. Since my in-laws live down the road, it was really nice to spend time with them and then come home to our own house. It’s funny to me that this is how most people spend their holidays, but it’s something we’ve never been able to do.
3. We also wrapped up our bathroom renovations. When we moved in, we noticed that the bathrooms were older and outdated than we thought (we bought the house sight unseen). What we thought would be a quick project was not because every contractor was booked at least 8-12 weeks out. The contractors took two weeks to lay the floor tiles and to redo the showers, and we finished everything else. You can check out my reels on Instagram for some in-progress photos.
4. A few weekends ago, we zipped up to New York for a quick Broadway weekend. Back in the fall, The Phantom of the Opera announced that it was closing after 35 years on Broadway. Phantom is my favorite musical of all time, and I knew that I had to see it on Broadway. We took the train and stayed near Penn Station. We also did touristy things we hadn’t done before and visited the American Museum of Natural History and Top of the Rock.
5. I am wayyyy behind on new flavors. I grabbed these queso Old El Paso fiesta twists more than a few weeks ago. They’re somewhere between a churro and a chicharrone. A tortilla company in El Paso made these fresh, and they were amazing. The Old El Paso ones were a bit meh. But I was super excited to find these hot cocoa Dewey cookies. Dewey Bakery is located in North Carolina, and they make these amazing crispy wafer cookies. Every flavor is great, and the hot cocoa ones were a nice wintry option.

What have y’all been up to?