Employee Appreciation Week 2022

Quick Life Update: I moved out of my West Hollywood apartment! There are so many different little neighborhoods in LA and while WeHo is a safe and beautiful area, it was not the place for me. It took almost 30 minutes just to get to any freeway and 45+ minutes to get to the beach. I was also sick of sharing a bathroom with my messy roommate. My friend from college, Jordan, was looking to move and after touring many gross apartments over the summer, we finally found a 2 bed/2 bath in Palms. It’s super close to the freeway and 20 minutes to the beach. Once our place is all decorated, I’ll do an apartment tour post!

Last year, my office introduced “Employee Appreciation Week” and closed our office the week leading up to Labor Day, so all employees got a whole week of paid time off. I think it was to help with the stress of the pandemic and burnout, and last year I used some of the time to take a road trip to the Washington and Oregon coast. This year, my company decided to bring Employee Appreciation back again and has announced that it will become an annual event. This time, I spent most of the week just hanging out at home and preparing to run the Rock n Roll Half Marathon.

MONDAY 8/29
I started the week by getting up early and going for a run. Then, my mom and I went to Amazon Fresh and Costco to run some errands before heading over to one of our favorite Asian spots, Xi’an Noodles, which recently opened a new location in downtown Bellevue. We ordered our usual, spicy tingly beef hand-ripped noodles for me, and spicy cumin lamb hand-ripped noodles for her, and then brought our food to Bellevue Downtown Park because we thought there would be live music. It turned out the music was on Tuesdays, but we still decided to stay and eat our noodles by the fountain and people-watch.

In the afternoon, I went to do a quick photoshoot with my friend Kerstin (check out the photos in this blog post). After, we went to the new Crumbl Cookies . I got the cookie butter one, and it was really good but kind of pricey and the employees were definitely still figuring out operations and how to fill orders.

TUESDAY 8/30
Again, I started the day with a run. The weather was nice, but we didn’t really have anything to do, so my mom and I spent the day at home binge-watching season 2 of Indian Matchmaking on Netflix and Only Murders In the Building season 2 on Hulu.

WEDNESDAY 8/31
After sleeping on a twin-size bed since I moved into the Chapman dorms in 2015, I have finally decided to upgrade to a full-size bed for my new apartment. My mom and I went to Ikea to get some inspiration and ended up getting the Stjarnbracka warm comforter (orange level) and the Ofelia Voss duvet cover. After, we grabbed a hotdog at Costco and browsed through HomeGoods, and Bed Bath & Beyond. Later that night, we went to pick up my sister Sarah from SeaTac who I hadn’t seen since January!

THURSDAY 9/01
I went for a run and then for lunch, my mom, sister, and I went to Hakka House to pick up dim sum to bring to my grandparents’ house. We ordered a ton of food and everything was pretty good, so we will be going back! After, we went to Costco again since Sarah doesn’t have a Costco card and hadn’t been in a while and because we needed to get some food for Labor Day.

FRIDAY 9/02
I got up late and went for my last run before my race. In the afternoon, we went to the Health & Fitness Expo at the Hyatt in downtown Bellevue to pick up my bib and shirt for my half marathon on Sunday. Since we were at Bellevue Square, Sarah and I got boba at Happy Lemon and decided against getting a bubble waffle in favor of getting mochi donuts at Mochinut at Crossroads #treatyourself. For dinner, I made pasta and broccoli for the family, and we spent the night watching Dated & Related on Netflix which was not about relatives dating each other, but instead sibling pairs wingman-ing and wingwoman-ing each other. It was pretty silly but entertaining.

SATURDAY 9/03
It was rainy and cold in the morning, but it didn’t matter because I didn’t have to run. I spent the day editing photos and watched Thirteen Lives on Prime Video, which was the rescue story about the Thai soccer team that got trapped in a flooded cave in 2018. It was very intense, but I would recommend it! For dinner, I had leftover pasta. To motivate myself for the run the next day, I also watched Skid Row Marathon on Freevee which is free but with ads. It was a documentary about how Craig Mitchell, a Los Angeles criminal court judge, started a marathon running club for members of the Midnight Mission on Skid Row. I tried to go to sleep early but was very unsuccessful.

SUNDAY 9/04
I woke up at 5 am for my first half marathon! My family drove me to the starting line at Bellevue Downtown Park and then I was off on a 13.1-mile run. It was the perfect temperature and I wasn’t feeling too tired until mile 10. The last 5k was pretty tough and my legs hurt, and the finish line was uphill, but I did it! I ran very slowly and finished in 2 hours and 34 minutes, which is 11:49 pace and about what I had expected. We went to grab breakfast at Lil Jon for some big dishes, and then I lounged around and watched more of Dated & Related for the rest of the day. For dinner, we picked up Thai food at Coconut Thai in Issaquah and brought it to my grandma’s house.

MONDAY 9/05
We had a Labor Day boat day! My friend Kyra met us at our house and then we got on the boat and cruised to UW to pick up Sarah’s friends from college. We ate our packed lunch of cheese, crackers, salami, homemade hummus, and veggies. Then we inflated our swan and donut floaties and people swam. After we dropped Sarah’s friends back off at UW, we hung out in Lake Union while Sarah drafted her fantasy football team, then we boated to Renton to have dinner at Ivar’s and Kidd Valley at Coulon Park in Renton. A perfect wrap to a chill Employee Appreciation Week at home!