Happy Saturday! Welcome to another edition of #weekendcoffeeshare, hosted by the lovely Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. Let’s grab a drink and have a chat!

I am feeling absolutely exhausted after this long week.

In last week’s post, I shared that I will feel the effect of the 5-day weekend on Monday. Guess what? I felt it. The after-holiday effect hit me hard. I was tired. I didn’t want to work. My brain was sluggish. I got the works.

It took until Friday when I finally was in the groove but then, here comes weekend again. Then there’s 10 more work-days before the company’s annual year-end shut down. I am hopeful that going back to work in the new year won’t hit me as hard as returning after Thanksgiving.

I think it has something to do with day-length. With Thanksgiving, the days are getting shorter but with the new year, the days are getting longer. I tend to feel more optimistic when the days are longer.

I think some of the things that made this week harder was the double appointments – doctor on Wednesday and orthodontist on Thursday. It was my annual endocrine check-up. My thyroid is still under-active but during the appointment, the conversation somehow shifted to me needing to take more calcium. My calcium was completely normal. So I don’t understand the problem. The doctor also switched me back to the previous dosage on the thyroid medication and told me to follow-up in a year.

That very same day (Wednesday), I dropped my aunt at the airport for her trip to Japan. Her last check-in was on Thursday night in Asakusa, adding 2 Maneki Neko (fortune cats) to my collection – one for health and the other for succeeding in life. I currently have one for wealth. There seems to be only one shop in the whole world that sells this special collection where the cats wear kimono, so it makes so much more special.

I probably also had my final vegetable harvests of 2024 this week. I harvested tatsoi on Thursday and lettuce on Friday. We’ll probably have to get by the rest of the month on either store-bought veggies or the potatoes and kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkins) from summer harvest since the veggies in the garden probably won’t resume growing until Boxing day or the new year.

Still, I found it impressive that I would have harvest in December.

Finally, I’m excited for next week. Tuesday will be the department’s Christmas party and Thursday will be the company’s Christmas party. It’s my favorite work events of the year. It’s going to be fun.

Well, that’s all I’m going to say, thank you for dropping by and I’ll be back next week.