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.

Tonight was our last night spending time with friends before leaving for our Christmas holiday. This is the first year that Chris and I have been together when we’ve been in New York City this far into December, and it’s been really fun seeing the city get decorated for Christmas and the general holiday season. It’s also been fun to spend extra time with friends we normally wouldn’t be able to see and enjoy Christmas with them, as well. We went out for some delicious Yunanese Chinese food in the East Village and went back to their apartment and played games until late. It was a relaxing, enjoyable, and stress-free evening.

When I used to go back home for Christmas, a part of my brain was stressed, thinking about the drama my parents would create around Christmas dinner preparation, who would prepare what, and who would offer to clean the dishes and the table or not. Now, when I think of Christmas, I don’t really think of stress and dread and negativity. I actually think about the stereotypical positive things that we’re “supposed” to think about. In my college’s Facebook group for “complicated family and friends relationships.” I relate less and less to the holiday stress that people express on it, even though I can relate pretty well to the other situations that are shared.

Tasting menus around the world are really getting out of control. For what some people pay for their monthly rent, you could have a 12-16-course tasting menu at a beautiful restaurant like Eleven Madison Park or Per Se. So usually when I hear the term “tasting menu,” I already think it’s going to be in the hundreds-of-dollars range. It was shocking when Chris found Coarse NYC, a small restaurant in the West Village owned and managed by these British guys, which has a tasting menu that is only $69, or $89 if you want to include full wine pairings.

Every dish there was creative and beautifully presented, and the service was genuine, warm, and friendly. The chef came out multiple times to ask us how the dishes and wine were. It actually felt sometimes as though we were in his house eating food he was preparing in his own kitchen given the level of warmth and hospitality.

I’m not saying that $69 isn’t a lot to spend on food; it’s a lot to spend on food, but for the city, a “cheap” price to spend for a tasting menu given how crazy prices get here. I’m actually scared that this place may not last given how rent hikes often happen here and the scary two-year limit for the majority of restaurants in this city, even the spectacular ones.

Tonight was my company’s holiday party here in New York. It was an intimate affair given that our office isn’t huge, and many of our colleagues work remotely to service customers. We rented out the back room of an Italian restaurant in the West Village and had a cocktail-style dinner with plenty of drinks, and the place was decked out quite festively.

As I was standing there with Chris and mingling with my colleagues and all their partners and plus ones, I realized that for the first time since I can’t even remember, I was actually engaging in a company holiday party where I genuinely respect and like the vast majority of everyone there. Sure, there are a few people I don’t particularly like and others who grate on my nerves when I’m around them for longer than 10 minutes, but that just shows I’m human. Every single person standing in this room right now actually means well. I don’t think anyone has some nasty hidden motive. Every person has a sense of integrity. Everyone wants to do what’s best for their role and their colleagues. I’ve never been able to say that before. It was a humbling and happy feeling. And Chris actually wants to be here and meet my colleagues, and they all seem to get along and have things to talk about. Because he’s so protective over me, he never wanted to meet or deal with the last people I worked with. It’s refreshingly not like that anymore.

Tonight, we celebrated our friend’s 33^rd birthday at Jeepney, a modern Filipino fusion restaurant in the city. Although we had both been there for dinner before and the food and drinks were very good, it’s quite expensive for what it is, and with the Kamayan-style traditional meal we had tonight, which is served completely on banana leaves and eaten with your hands, it was even more expensive than what the website said. The video on the website was also misleading because it showed a whole suckling pig, and when we arrived at our table already set up with the food, there was no suckling pig. When I asked the server where the pig was, she said that the pig would have cost extra and was not a part of their restaurant’s kamayan meal (this meal is already $50/person excluding drinks, tax, and tip… so how much would a pig cost as extra?!). If that is the case, then why would they have that on the video on the kamayan page on their restaurant’s website? Isn’t that false advertising? Either way, the food was extremely good, but I just wish that we knew there was no pig beforehand. I felt misled.