The slow months

Ugh. January and February: the worst part of the year. And this year, it was even worst due to the political shit show that's been happening as of late. But I got through it. Or I'm getting through it. It's a work in progress. At least now it's March and spring is flirting with us again.

As per usual with this blog, I find myself looking back on several months and realizing, oh, it wasn't as bad as my depression made me think it was.

Here are some highlights from the slowest part of the year.

Doughnut day snow: We started off January with a proper doughnut day snow. We got about 5 inches or so. So, naturally, I made homemade donuts (yum!) and enjoyed a few snowy walks with Tito and Levent. (We like to take Tito to this school yard that is, more or less, enclosed. Watching Tito play in the snow is one of my favorite things about having a dog. He's so cute and excited).

Painting: One of my goals this year is to paint every month. And so far I am on track. (Although I literally waited until the last evening of February to paint. But, oh well, it still counts!) I have a love/hate relationship with painting. I want to be better at it and although the only way to get better is to keep practicing, it's frustrating that I am not already amazing. Lol. Perfectionism is really quite something.

Reading and puzzling: The main thing I've done this month is exactly that - reading and puzzling. I did manage to read all of David Copperfield in February, which was a feat. But I did it! (It was for my cousin book club. We like to read chonks (aka really thick books) in the winter).

Live events: I managed to go to an event once in January and once in February. One of them was even on a school night! As someone who is very settled into my routine, this was a big deal for me. In January, Blake, Brendan, Levent and I went to a Columbus Fury volleyball game. They are a new professional team in Columbus, and the only women's professional sport in the state. They lost, but it was still a fun game and so cool to watch this level of volleyball in person. 

In February, Betha and I went to see & Juliet, a Broadway show that was touring through Columbus. It was such a fun show, despite our seats not being the best. Really, I am extremely lucky that I live only about a mile or so away from the theatre. 

Baking projects: Belief it or not, I haven't been doing a ton of baking so far this year. Eggs are so expensive due to the bird flu breakout and so I am trying to be more mindful of that. Also, I baked 13 different kinds of cookies at Christmas and we literally just finished the last of them at the end of February. But I did manage to do two fairly large baking projects. First was making cardamom morning buns. Another one of my goals for 2025 was to make something with laminated dough. This is maybe the third time I've tried this and it was the best one to date! I did tear the dough a bit when I was rolling it out, but it managed to stay together enough to puff up. I was very proud of them.

My second baking project was making Semlor. I made these Swedish cardamom almond cream buns last year and I think it might be an annual winter event for me now. They are so good. And actually not that hard to make.

Building friendships: Yet another one of my goals for this year is to keep building friendships. This is very hard, but I am very lucky to live near my cousin Betha. I see her about once a month and am so happy for her friendship and support. I also reached out to two mutual acquaintances and had coffee with them. I still have a lot to do on the building real friendships for those, but it's a start at least. Plus, they make me go to some very yummy coffee shops.

Traveling for work: I had to travel to Akron, PA once again for work. This time, I had stuff on two days, not just one day, which is what happened last year. Although this was nice not to have to travel just for one day, it did mean that I had to be there basically all week. The highlight was definitely the teambuilding we did one day in Lancaster. We went to an art institute and did portrait collages, which is very much up my ally. We then went out for lunch a Japanese place and walked around the city a bit.

Canadians come to visit: The Canadian cousins (Mariah, Joey and Alana) came down to visit (although with their parents). We all had a Turkish breakfast together and then later that evening, Levent and I went over to Blake and Brendan's to have supper with the cousins. It's always fun seeing them.

Mom and Dad came to visit!: Like last year, Mom and Dad popped over to Columbus to hang out with us for a weekend. We spend our time eating good food (including ice cream of course), puzzling, going shopping (that was just mom and me of course), and going to the Franklin Park Conservatory. Levent and I had not been there yet (and it was another 2025 goal of mine) and it was so lovely. There was an orchid display as well as a butterfly house.

Levent and I celebrated 12 years together: Our dating anniversary is on Feb 12. So that week we went out for Indian food, which is what we had on our first date. We've only been to two Indian restaurants in the city so far and Awadh was definitely the best one yet.

Oof. That's kind of a lot of things! Literally, I had no idea I did so much in these first two months of the years until I gathered them all up like this. Depression is a funny thing. It makes me feel like I never do anything and thus, I have nothing to talk about. But that's a depression lie. I do stuff! Case in point: this blog! Our daily lives do feel quite small, but there is actually nothing wrong with that. We have a nice little life, even if it does feel pretty hard right now.

Cheers to the slow approach to Spring though. For real. We ready.