#5things – This is Another Story

5 Thoughts on Valentine’s Day

Published on February 15, 2023February 14, 2023 by Yinglan12 Comments

Here are my 5 thoughts about Valentine’s Day:

1. Though Valentine’s Day was yesterday, it felt like the commercial world has been celebrating the holiday from the day after we rang in the New Year. I remember walking into my local Walmart just mere days into the new year and seeing red and pink stuff filling the shelves. I don’t remember it being as early the previous years.

2. Valentine’s Day is such an overrated holiday. Why should there be a day when lovers show love for each other? If two people love each other, wouldn’t they show their love every day as opposed to showing extra love or just love that one day a year?

3. I think Valentine’s Day exists in the commercial world to help keep the employed busy like farmers in South America get to sell their roses in the middle of our winter and candy makers can have that one day a year of booming business.

Aside from me, my mom, and cousins, everyone else in the family work in a cookie factory. If you live in the U.S., you might have eaten those cookies. They are super sweet with lots of colors and are sold in most grocery stores. They start making those cookies some time at the end of last year and make those cookies according to holidays. Without Valentine’s Day, I would say their jobs would’ve been less busy.

4. Valentine’s Day feels like it’s the day when reds and pinks take center stage. My co-worker decked out in pink yesterday – pink sweatshirt, pink nails, and pink key chain. Unfortunately, I like neither of those colors, when does grays and blacks get a turn?

5. The only thing I look forward about Valentine’s Day is the pink pancake breakfast at work. It’s not the food I really care about. It’s the co-workers-sitting-together-having-conversation part. I don’t know about you but after 3 years of working from home and only head into the office once a week, I can’t help but feel lonely at times despite not living alone. There’s really no conversing with mom as all she does is shushes me. So getting to talk to anyone outside of the home brightens my spirit.

5 Things I Love/Hate About Winter

Published on February 8, 2023February 7, 2023 by Yinglan16 Comments

Before I moved to Utah, someone told me, “You will be wearing your winter coat for 9 months of the year.” I would now tell that someone, “No, I don’t wear my winter coat 9 months out of the year, I wear it for 6 months (October to April), 7 max.”

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5 Things Tuesday – 5 Ways to beat Pandemic Blues

Published on October 12, 2021 by Yinglan2 Comments

This week, Tanya at Salted Caramel has challenged everyone to list 5 ways to beat pandemic blues.

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5 Things Tuesday – 5 Feelings and Emotions Experienced During the Pandemic

Published on October 6, 2021October 6, 2021 by Yinglan2 Comments

This week, Tanya at Salted Caramel has challenged to list 5 Feeling and Emotions we were experiencing during the Pandemic, which, unfortunately, is still happening.

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5 Things Tuesday – 5 things I love about Autumn

Published on September 9, 2021September 9, 2021 by Yinglan9 Comments

I know it’s Thursday and tomorrow is Friday but I’m doing it anyway. Anyway, this week on 5 Things Tuesday, Tanya at Salted Caramel asked everyone to name 5 things they love about Autumn.

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5 Things Tuesday – 5 Ways to Enjoy Apples

Published on September 1, 2021August 31, 2021 by Yinglan8 Comments

Haven’t do one of these in a while, this week, it is 5 ways to enjoy apples. Here are my top 5:

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5 Things I Miss About Commuting to Work

Published on December 24, 2020December 23, 2020 by Yinglan9 Comments

I love driving especially after I got my new car in 2018. In 2017, that wasn’t the case. I hated my commute back then, hated the fact that I had to everyday sit through miles and miles of crawling traffic listening to the same song playing on the radio, hated the fact that I couldn’t pick my own hours so I didn’t have to endure peak-hour traffic, hated my job period.

That was 2017. I got my current job in 2018 and no longer need to drive to work. I could take public transit for free. It’s why it took me over 2 years to get 10,000 miles on my brand new car.

Now is 2020 and my commute changed again. I no longer need to be in the office 5 days a week. I am now only required to go in one day a week aka Wednesday and because of the pandemic situation, I needed to switch back to driving, which I actually love because it allows me to get out of the house and away from mom.

Instead of 5 things I miss about driving to work, here are 5 things I miss about commuting to work:

I get to turn up the volume and sing along to my heart’s desire. As I’m driving at 70 mile/hour or 80 mile/hour, no one can see me or hear how badly I’m singing.
One thing I miss about taking the bus or the train is the time to get some reading done. I can usually get through around 20 or 30 pages of a good novel during the 45 minutes commute.
Another thing I miss about both driving and taking the public transit is spending time alone with my thoughts. If you haven’t read my past posts, having my mom living under my roof is no cake-walk. She’s controlling and intrudes just about every aspect of my life. It’s not easy to get alone time and when life gives you alone time, you’ll take it and squeeze it ’til the last drop.
I miss talking to myself. I know that sounds weird but that’s how I brainstorm, how I come up with ideas for stories, ideas to save money, to pay back my mom, etc.
I work in Downtown Salt Lake and there are always something going on, sites to see in the ever-changing environment, and the only way to see them is by driving to work. Now that I’m only in the office a day a week, it often leaves me in awe just to see how fast the downtown constructions are going and it makes me feel like I’m missing some of the daily actions.

My 5 Guilty Pleasure Foods

Published on December 17, 2020December 15, 2020 by Yinglan5 Comments

I am fairly new to the “Guilty Pleasure” food world since I had just got out of a life-long relationship with diets. For a long while, I didn’t allow myself to be indulged in aesthetically pleasing foods. Instead, I obsessed over nutrition label and would stay away with any foods that either had chemical preservatives, ridiculous amount of sugar, or had an insane amount of “empty” calories where the more I consume, the hungrier I’d get.

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5 Foods I Enjoy Because They Are Good For Me

Published on December 11, 2020December 10, 2020 by Yinglan3 Comments

If 2020 has gifted me anything good, it would be the abundance of time spent at home and the lack of opportunity to eat out. This really allowed me to explore the diverse world of food over the world-wide-web. I have fallen in love with so many different dishes and foods I had never thought I would like.

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