Reading

Im now reading The Origin by Dan Brown. Im just transfixed on how the new adventure of Robert Langdon (a genius I will always be rooting for) unfolds with every paragraph.

Dan Brown just talks to you in this book. I just cant wait for the mysteries to be unveiled. ♡♡♡

Waking up 330 am

It is one great cheat in life. I'm enjoying waking up earlier than other people and it's so fulfilling that I've accomplished all the household tasks before 10am. A bonus is that I usually go to the gym for my 7am morning class.

In mid-mornings it is all about errands in the grocery/ calls in the 9 to 5 offices. It is amazing to wake up early.

Hope I can keep up with this lifestyle despite my duties. I hope ill do more in my life!!

Xoxo
Gwen.

Away is where I belong. IRELAND IS NOW MY HOME.

nw notting hill. making me cry now...

update... update

My friend Jill came from the states with her beau Mike. Jill for a little background is a cardiac nurse practitioner from America and Mike manages their family-owned rehab business. both hailing from California, they have this grit and self-confidence that most fil-ams have.

Together with my Dublin friends Jo and Ling, we had a yummy dinner in Skinflint. It is a pizza place in Temple bar which is very handy because jill and mike's hotel is in the area. Aside from naming their pizza's with girly names, Skinflint's crust is thin and crispy. their flavor is not complex and they got this spicy honey that's a perfect dupe for hot sauce.

as usual, I have a little mishap. I accidentally placed a spoon of the spicy honey in my hyper sour lemonade thinking it will just sweeten it a bit. thankfully, jo stopped me from adding another scoop of the honey. and another thing to thank for is my lemonade was unaffected with the spicy honey. it remained awfully sour haha.

we had a nice time pub crawling immediately after our nice dinner. I had Balmer's apple cider (my usual) before dinner, another apple cider of different brand in a pub next to the Christ Church, and finally, a strawberry cider which has a very hot pink hue. too bad I forgot the brand of the cider but it is just so yummy and juicy. I hate bitter beers so I'm happy with my lowkey choices... weakling girly choices haha. some bars here in Ireland don't serve cocktails so beer it was all for me all throughout. I'm just sadly calculating all the calories I took because, after our mini crawl, we ended in McDonald's. I had some cheese and herbs balls and a chocolate donut to close the night. Intense carbo loading huhu.

I am still mourning over my calorie/sugar intake yesterday. My consolation is that I had a lot of fun memories with my homies! nice to see Jill and mike again. and it is nice to talk about careers when tipsy (hi ling and jo!!!)

it is noel's bar exam today. it is handy that I had a chance to ease my nerves with alcohol and friends yesterday. I am too proud of my husband. <3  my best husband ever.


ps: well... yep. wives can drink too..... in eradicating the idea of wives being a stay at home, knitting bonnets, and cooking dinners. there's more to life than vacuuming LOL.

obsessed with happiness

facebook, Instagram, snapchat and other social media are all somewhat portraying the "happy" part of our lives. we scrutinize our best glorious shots, tweak and edit it then weigh its likeability from minutes of reflection after we finally click the post button. it is nice to spread positivity.  however, there are some cons in our addiction to social media. Humanity is now happiness obsessed. Strong words but social media deceives us that happiness is the default mode of being alive.

I post sparsely nowadays because I feel that having the secret private happiness soothes the soul. it is by being there, at that moment and not struggling to document it makes me more present. it is as if I'm maxing out my time and life. the experience becomes very organic when I'm not asking for likes and kind comments. I guess adulthood prodded me to the conclusion that living should not be centralized in other people's approval.

it is scary to be sad. it is highly traumatizing to be depressed. but life is a rollercoaster and it is supposed to happen. it is just nice to be more focused on the people who will pick you up in these moments rather than the virtual likers and commenters who don't even give a damn when something bad happens. well, I believe each one of us is struggling. life is not a paradise and my faith says after all of these will be peace if we just do life correctly (I'm Catholic and I believe in Him and in Jesus). it's Sunday and I'm free to be preachy :)

I'm 30 and statistically, I got about 50 years or less to live. I hope I can accomplish more good things in my existence than getting 100 likes for a picture. I pray that in my remaining time, I get to be with people who will make me live more. happy, sad, or neutral, it is great to be always purposely focused on the people/things that matter. o well, there, there, it is human to be sad. life will soothe us back to happiness and time will always be an ally in the end because change.... is and will always be CONSTANT.

adding up with our obsession to be "happy" is our obsession to be "liked". on a personal note I can say I am never a likable person and never was. it is a constant struggle that I'm dealing with all the time. life taught me that faking it will just lead me to personal unhappiness (will discuss this soon haha). I am me and I love who I am. staying true means the people who like me authentically loves me and my ways. well, if you don't like my personality, as long as I don't hurt you or cause you any pain, let it go and just live your life. however, this doesn't mean I don't have room for improvement despite my i-don't-give-f*ck attitude is a very much conscious and self-aware Gwen. it is once an insecurity that I am not well loved by a lot of people but, I learned to make it as my strength. I deviated my focus on cherishing the people who tried to know me fully and liked who i really am. therefore, I got few real likers in real life haha. few they may be, I vow to protect and back each one of these weird precious creatures with my life. few... but quality ;)

Conclusion haha: oh life! adulthood is really hard and this generation gave way to technological advancements that weaken our souls a bit. however, I know that humanity adjusts and adapts. we got this...