A good friend of mine recently got engaged, and he came over tonight for dinner as we discussed how the proposal happened, what the plans were for their wedding, and everything related. Stereotypically, when we think of engagements, we think of them as exciting events, times when the couple is extremely happy and jumping out of their skin delirious about their future together. But with this situation, my friend was happy, but not extremely excited; it seems like the right thing to do for him, and he’s moving forward with it. He cares about this person, but he’s not head over heels in love with her. It just makes sense.

I’d be so devastated if I ever found out Chris felt that way about me when we proposed. But I guess that’s why secrets exist; you can’t always share everything.

Maybe it’s just the romantic in me. Yes, people get married out of necessity all the time. It’s not always love that brings people together. It’s money, politics, legal crap, immigration — you name it. But I think everyone kind of deserves the excitement and chaos that comes with a happy engagement. It’s hard to replicate that excitement in any other situation in my head.

Even though I had come back to the office on Friday, only four people showed up given that it was the day after the major “bomb cyclone” that hit the entire Northeast. It was quiet, and I was actually able to get a lot of catch up work done. Today, everything was buzzing as it always was. It was as though nothing had changed since I left.

It always seems a little hard to come back to the everyday life that you lead when you were away in a place so foreign and different where you actually felt like your mind expanded. How do you then properly convey what you learned? Does anyone actually really care to hear it? Well, why would people care that much that I suddenly have this obsession and deep love for elephants just because I saw them up close and fed them and saw them travel in herds, playing and bathing and taking care of their young?

Here in New York, the “concrete” jungle that we love so much, we’re so far removed from the elephants and the rhinos of Africa. We live in our own bubble, ignorant of the daily struggles that others go through simply trying to live, and also risking their lives to ensure that future generations know the beauty and intelligence of these creatures. Suddenly today, standing at my standing desk and working at my laptop with a large monitor attached, my work suddenly felt so meaningless. It wasn’t that I didn’t like my job or the people; it’s quite the opposite of that. It just felt like in comparison to the conservation work that people were doing in South Africa and all over the African continent, my work seemed so trivial.

Since we got back from South Africa, Chris has already backed up all our travel photos from this trip, so when we are in our living room, we’ll have our photos play on our Chrome cast as our TV “background.” Many clear, vivid shots of the rhino we saw during our safari appeared, and every time it shows up, I admire what a pretty and cute creature it is.. and get angry about how the Chinese and Vietnamese people are poaching these innocent animals and randomly believing that their horns will be a cure-all medicine for cancers.

But while I was thinking this, I was also flipping through my trusted Cantonese cookbook today, especially given we are homebound due to the 9-degree temps we’re experiencing today, and I found an herbal tonic recipe for persistent coughs and mucus. It contains figs, apple, and “almonds” (the almonds are actually apricot kernels, hulled and unhulled). I looked it up on the web to discover that many people who had tried everything from cough syrups to lozenges to even prescription cough medications had no luck suppressing their coughs until they made this drink for themselves.

Maybe not all Chinese medicine is a fluke. Maybe I should even try making this.

When it gets far below freezing in Manhattan, the city becomes a bit of a ghost town. We peered out our window this morning on a day where the high was supposed to be 11 degrees Fahrenheit, and there wasn’t a sound. We didn’t see anyone walking on the streets at all. And when we finally hauled ourselves out of the apartment to have an early dinner and get outside, even if just for a few hours, we found that the popular Thai restaurant walking distance from our apartment, which usually has an hour-long-plus wait no matter what time of the day you decide to show up, had multiple tables and bar seats open. That was NOT normal.

These are the times when you just want to hibernate and not go outside. But actually, for popular places that usually have a wait, if you really want to go, these are really the times to go and not have to deal with the senseless waits of regular days.

I’ve been living in Manhattan for 5.5 years now, but I still haven’t forgotten the difference in the plowed streets of this borough vs. the lack of plowed streets in Queens when I lived there my first four years in New York City. Some days, it felt like we had to dig our way out of the subway stations and on side walks and streets, and it seemed like the neglected land of the entire city. The streets were always quickly plowed on the Upper East Side as well as where we currently live now. From our street to the subway to get to work today, it was perfectly cleared out for me this morning. All the sidewalks were salted, and the snow was cleared away to walk on the streets.

I wonder what it looked like on my old street in Elmhurst this morning.

It was a snow day today, with winds howling and snow falling endlessly until about 5pm. We both worked from the apartment and took turns having our own space to do our work calls. I was determined to leave the apartment to get some fresh produce. We actually have a pretty well stocked freezer, but I was really eager to get fresh milk, juice, fruit, and vegetables. Frozen produce can only satiate you so much.

Chris was insistent that we not cook anything and get prepared food, so since I was going a few blocks to go to Whole Foods, he suggested I get prepared food from there. I haven’t gotten hot prepared food from Whole Foods since 2008, literally — that’s over nine years ago. I forgot how expensive it all was — $9.99/pound. The food seemed generic and uninspiring, so I decided to give the Indian food a shot — channa masala (chickpea curry), “tandoori” chicken thighs, vegetable “biryani,” and some Sriracha and honey brussel sprouts. The channa masala didn’t taste like curry. The tandoori chicken tasted more Chinese than it did Indian. The vegetable “biryani” was definitely just yellow rice, likely colored by turmeric, with vegetables tossed in. The brussel sprouts tasted like what they should have tasted like, but I would have preferred it if I just roasted my own because these tasted almost boiled… which is by far the absolute worst way to prepare brussel sprouts, and the main reason so many people think they hate brussel sprouts.

I’m never getting prepared food from Whole Foods again. I’m even boycotting their salad bar.

After enjoying 70-87-degree F weather for the last two weeks, we’ve come back to New York today with weather news of a “bomb cyclone” coming to the entire Northeast. I never even knew such a term existed until I read news reports about the winds and snow we’d expect over the next 24 hours. What joy.

The greatest thing about going to the Southern Hemisphere the last six Christmases is having a temporary break from the miserable snowy winters of New York City. Although I willingly live here and truly do love New York, I will never quite embrace the winters here. I dislike the threat of cancelled and delayed flights. I hate the low temperatures and the wind chill. I really cannot stand walking so slowly and carefully to avoid slipping on black ice on the ground; it’s a health hazard. I’ve had colleagues at previous companies break multiple bones from a simple slip. And as I’m getting older, I’m more and more careful about how I walk during these icy periods and never, ever run. Snow is the worst.