New Year, New Me + Update Jan 2-8 , 2023

 Hello everyone,

A few weeks ago I had a sadness. I lost my Bebe. She was one of my guinea pigs I adopted from a friend at work. I am sad but doing ok.

I have a lot of goals I am working on this year. This post is kind of an update of what I have been up to and what I hope to accomplish this year!

Hashbrown is doing well despite Bebe passing. She is being happy and healthy. I am glad she is doing well. Bebe's passing was sudden and a shock because she was doing so well and was so happy. I am getting her cremated. Hashbrown and Bebe didn't get along so they were neighbours in different cages.

I think I am done with guinea pigs after Hashbrown. It is upsetting when your fave animals, guinea pigs, have such fragile lifespans. Other animals that are pets have lots of issues, but I would argue that cats would be more stable than a guinea pig that has so many different things can go wrong. Guinea pigs do not live long. I was blessed that Pineapple lived so long.

So this year I have a bunch of goals. One of them is to read a a lot of books. I have pledged a low number on Goodreads. 30, just like last year. Last year was the first year I didn't pledge 50 as most times i pledge 50 I only read 28 books. Last year I read at least 70 books doing it this week! I'd love to read at least 80 let alone 100 books this year!

Another thing I want to do not just this year but all the years in future is to be better with money and budget more. The rent and housing crisis rages on and I don't want to have to move back to the sticks with my mom where there are very few jobs. I love my apartment and I'm going to get serious this year!

This year I'm also going to try and do more walking and eating more healthy. The ways I'm going to eat more healthy is to eat more produce esp. veggies and cook more meals. I do like making foods for myself! Veggie prep is so relaxing for me! Yesterday I made soup with some of the veggies from the cheap produce thing they hold 1-2 times a month, leftover turkey, some leftover cans of peas and carrots and some different spices I use in things. I don't have a huge spice library but I do use sweet chili powder and garlic salt and garlic powder in things in small quantities as well as salt and pepper. I need to remember to buy onion powder from Dollarama because it goes good in my stirfry dishes. I used a rutabaga turnip, sweet potatoes and yellow potatoes as some of the fresh produce in my soup. I also had chicken broth I bought on sale but I accidentally didn't realize you weren't supposed to chill it before using it so I also put in cream of chicken soup to add some flavour to the broth.

I'm hoping to do more exercise than just walking, mainly stuff at home. My doctor told me a couple of years ago lunges and squats were good for strengthening my knees esp. my left one that gets stiff on me.

I didn't write it down formally but I want to commit to this blog more and one of the things I want to cover more on this blog, starting this year, is my experience as being an autistic woman. My experience is not every autistic person's experience but we don't always get to hear from autistic women, who sadly are underdiagnosed due to masking out autism. I guess I could be masking but I used to be more high needs in general when I was pre uni and coming to the city helped find myself integrate myself more into society. I know a lot of autistic people don't like using labels such as high functioning and high support needs as our needs can be different from day to day or hour to hour. I do struggle with various things but I am more independent in some ways than people assume autistic people are.

I'll try to write here more. Hoping to get the poetry written.

Happy New Year!

curlyalicia