A late Sunday letter #01
second year of covid, tacos, and sex scenes in movies
This is the first New Year’s Day we have celebrated without my Mom. She is away doing some holiday traveling and enjoying herself I presume ( I love that for her!) On New Year, I think we did good; my older sister made rice, the usual chicken, and her own weird twist to cabbage sauce.
As we grow older, festive holidays become different, there’s less fanfare and more quietness to it - which I love, by the way.
So, the New Year is no different for me. I have no unrealistic or out-of-pocket goals or resolutions for 2022. This year, I just want to live fully, make more money, and have fun experiences.
2021 was a mid year for me, but most of the stuff I was worried about getting by the beginning of the year, I got them.
I finally graduated from school
Aced my final year research project
Switched jobs
More than the big stuff, I also made a couple of small wins I am proud of, and other stuff that didn’t go as expected too.
Writing ✍🏽✍🏽
I think I started this year by saying that I wanted to write more, especially for me. I have been caught up on writing for work, and I didn’t have time to do some personal writing. At some point, I even fell out from writing this newsletter because I had a lot going on.
Yes, I still want to write more this year and I hope I do. I already have a bunch of topics written down, let’s see how it goes.
Books 📖📚
I also wanted to read more but I didn’t really get to it until the end of the year. However, I love that I rekindled my love for reading and I am reading books I actually enjoy. I also do not want to set any yearly reading goal, too much pressure - I just want to read as many books as I can and daydream about the characters.
My favorite book at the moment is Manchester Happened.
Tacos 🌮🌮
I had tacos for the first time in 2021. 10/10 recommend. It was the best thing I have tasted, it can be a messy snack like burgers but I love the crispness and the bits of chicken in it. The only thing weird about it was that our tacos came with jollof rice and beans, apparently, it is a combo they serve.
Food-wise, I explored and ate a lot of food, and even put on a little weight. I had pasta Alfredo too and hated it. It didn’t even help that they were mushrooms in it.
In other news, I learned to cook new stuff as well and tried out recipes without any hand-holding.
I also got tipsy on mocktails and ate a whole lot of KFC and fried plantains.
Fitness 🧘🏽♀️🚲
I tried to get into a fitness routine, simple stuff like evening walks and morning stretches. I kept to it for a while, then stopped. Then, during the latter part of the year, I tried yoga, and man, it was hard. It wasn’t as relaxing as I thought. Instead, I sweated and had to stretch my body into awkward positions. Anyway, I love doing it and would continue at it.
I also loved was that I learned to ride a bike in 2021. It took a patient teacher and getting over my fear of falling off the bicycle. I want to get better at it though, and if I eventually move cities, I am hoping to get into learning tennis and volleyball, so I can have more outdoor activities to do.
Naps 😴
I tried to do ALOT this year and more than anything, I learned the importance of rest. I got sick a few times, enough for me to question why my body always fails me. This year, I want to do better with rest, sleep better, eat healthy meals, and boy, have afternoons naps.
During the holidays, for the most part, I had a couple of good naps and always felt better after each one. Naps are underrated. And with this never-ending pandemic, we should have more naps.
Movies 📽🎥
When nothing else worked last year, movies worked. I watched a whole lot of movies, from the bad to the great ones. I got into Marvel movies late this year and saw all versions of Spider-Man so I could watch No Way Home. I was so excited to watch it at the cinema, that I squealed with delight for half of the movie.
I really got the Timothee Chalamet fever and was on a mission to watch all his movies, so far, I have seen a good amount of his movies.
Another movie I got obsessed with, is Insecure. I love how well written it was, the character development, and how the sex scenes were portrayed in the movies. It was raw and showed sex in a great light, it showed black people enjoying sex, unapologetically craving it, or communicating to get better sex. I was shocked with every sex scene, each one was better than the last!
Covid 😷
It is so wild that we are entering the third year of Covid-19 and there’s no end to it yet. I got fully vaccinated in 2021 and have been trying to stay safe while we wait this out.
I hope this year is kind to you and everyone. Thanks for reading 💖