Pandemic Weeks 103 & 104

2 years friends. I’ve been writing these for 2 years now. We went into lockdown 2 years ago and have since been locked down a few times since. They added social distancing, restrictions on capacity limits, masking and vaccine passports at various times over the last 2 years. Now, they’ve lifted a whole bunch of it finally. Since I last wrote two weeks ago, they’ve now lifted the vaccine passport, so no QR code is needed anymore to be anywhere indoors. From what I’m hearing, masking will soon be lifted too to be optional. I don’t know how comfortable I am to lose mine yet and will likely continue to use it for a while more still personally. 

This week I went to a conference for Color Street after work one day. The sPark of Brilliance tour was finally here after being rescheduled twice. I was really excited for it to be here and knew I had to go – even though it meant I was stepping out of my comfort zone by going somewhere new by myself. When I arrived and got checked in, I was given my welcome gift (which ended up being 2 sheets of strips, a pen and some earrings to match the necklace I earned a few months ago) and was able to get a picture with the founder, Fa Park. He’s the one who created dry lacquer and has a patent on it since 1988. He shared his whole story on how Color Street came to be and all the struggles along the way to get to this point and was super inspiring. I love how he ended it by saying he’s pulling all the other lines out of stores and making lacquer strips only available through Stylists, like me. I wrote a longer bit in my VIP group if you want to hear more of his story. My main goal of going was to network and meet some local Stylists and get connected with some Canadian groups. Don’t get me wrong, I love the lady I joined under and she’s super helpful and answers my questions – but it’s US specific and I do extra searching for the Canadian information. I met a few ladies and they hooked me up with a ton of Canadian groups and chats – so I was successful in my goal of networking.  

I’ve done two manicures since I last wrote here. The first one was When Lightening Strikes, which was a host exclusive that I couldn’t earn because you had to have not hosted a party in the last 6 months to get it. But super sweet, my host who did have a party, shared half of her package with me and I was able to do it as my mani last week. This week, I just put on a green mani for St. Patrick’s day and got creative with it. I hand cut some little hearts and put them together to make a clover. It was slow and tedious, but I think it looks super cute! 

It’s been a bit of a quiet week with Heroclix. The kiddo and I finally played 1 of our 5 sealed games from the last set that arrived a few weeks ago. I’ve just been so drained from work that I didn’t have the energy to play more, but I definitely want to get the rest of the games done over the next week or two before the next set comes in April. I’m super excited for the Disney+ set that’s coming out next. I also did a just because mailing this week. A friend was looking for one of the objects you could only get from playing events and I had extra of them because I played in quite a few of them, so when I saw he was looking for one, I asked his address and just mailed him out the remaker mandarin ring as a gift. 

I’m still feeling so stuck with feeling imposter syndrome over my work. A friend recommended a  book to read on it that helps with insight and ways to help work through it. I found it in digital form from the library and am on the waitlist for a copy to be available. In the meantime though, I’m having a bunch of self realization and real talk with myself and I know that I struggle with being perfect instead human. I know it’s because I feel so paralyzed with perceived confrontation that I try and be perfect to avoid the potential of confrontation by doing anything wrong. I’m looking forward to reading the book when it becomes available to me. It said about a 2 week wait, so hopefully soon!

 I’m feeling SO mentally exhausted. Work has been constantly go, go, go with what feels like more and more added to the plate and then investigating things that don’t look right just takes more time away from getting through the pile. I know once things have answers and I get into a new groove with the regular work that things will hopefully calm down. This means that by the time the weekend rolls around, I’m in need for tons of relaxing and quiet time to recharge. This weekend I managed to get a bunch of it in thankfully. I slept in, hung out in bed in my room and then came down to a quiet living room for the afternoon until the family joined me around dinner time. I definitely need it and feel refreshed and ready for another week. 

Now that COVID doesn’t feel like it’s full blown pandemic anymore, I’m thinking of changing up the titles of these weekly posts. I’m brainstorming ideas of what to do for the titles but I’m coming up blank. If you’re reading this and want to add any suggestions for consideration, feel free to send me a message! I definitely enjoy these weekly/biweekly posts for documenting where I’m at and to have as a memory to look back on when my mind fails to remember. 

Happy daylight savings and more sunshine friends! 

Until next time, xoxo