Pandemic 2020

It's been a long hiatus and there are so many things to post about, but I will tackle one topic at a time so it doesn't sound cluttered. The pandemic kind of helped me develop a decluttering habit. HaHa!

Around mid-March, it was announced that we should shelter-in-place. That announcement happened during the end of the second Plannercon day. We never had the chance to experience the third day because everything was shutdown. My husband and I drove home the next day.

For several months, I have stayed at home reading and watching news about the ongoing pandemic. I have gone out only for medical/dental/vision purposes. They're essential. Of course, I wear a mask every time.

Currently, we have a death count of around 210,000, plus or minus. It is horrible. I knew a couple of friends who passed away because of the Corona Virus and there are still a few battling it in the hospital as I write this blog. It is definitely not something to trifle with.

For months, everything in my planner/calendar/journal got cancelled. My used-to-be-colorful pages became blank. Motivation/inspiration disappeared and depression/anxiety took over. My meetups with friends can no longer happen because of safety protocols. It is better to be safe than be in the hospital alone and can't breathe. My lifeline with my tribe is broken at the moment and it adds up to the depression and anxiety that attack everyday.

Fortunately, virtual meetings and classes became popular because of the pandemic.

Well, they were around before that, but they became practically useful for everybody: school, work, introverts, and ME. HaHa! Seriously though, medical video visits are the bomb. It's easier, it's more comfortable, and I don't need to wear pants. Oops! HaHa! Okay, that's a joke. I wear pants during virtual meetings. You'll never know when an accidental scene might come up. Eew!

Also, it's very convenient to use online grocery delivery or online food to-go delivery. I basically don't get out of the house much. I think my cats are starting to get bored with me. HaHa! Well, not really. They love me more for being around because I feed them all the time. I'm actually following their alarm clock for feeding time. Sheesh! Their company does me good.

My Physician reconnected me with my Therapist and I had the advice I needed in order to cope up during this time. I enrolled in Wild University, which I will blog about in detail separately. I also have online workshops that I need to finish. Those are helping me during this pandemic, and I am happy to write that my planners are again busy colorful, full of hope for the future.

Life still goes on. It doesn't stop even if there's a pandemic. We should've learned something from the past. And yes, we should learn something from what's happening right now. Emotions happen. It's normal. We are humans with multiple emotions, and during this time they're very active. They go in different directions. I can be the only one who can control my emotions, nobody else.

Moving on safely.

Bay Area Planners Meetup

Venue: Coro Coffee
Date: February 16, 2020
Time: 1:00 pm

CoRo Coffee - CoRo means Coffee Room.
It was a nice Sunday afternoon to be out and hang out with other planner-minded beautiful individuals. I RSVP'd to the event weeks ago, and I prepped myself for my Uber ride. (The venue was in downtown Berkeley, and knowing how parking is in that area, I wouldn't even imagine driving.) I hauled up my walker and planner bag with me and rode all the way down to 5th street.

When I got inside CoRo Coffee, it was all packed. Luckily, I found the organizers of the event and sat with them. It's always good to arrive early in a planner meetup. The chairs run out if one arrives late. I guess it's good to have my walker since it has a chair on its own. Anyway, I placed my stuff by the table and walked to the counter to order. I was happy to find out that they serve poached eggs without toast. They just added a few more greens. That was my lunch with a cup of nicely made cappuccino.

Poached Eggs with Salad

Cappuccino
And the planning started... We brought out all our planning tools: pens, stickers, washi tapes, etc. We decorated, we arranged and rearranged schedules in our calendars. We checked what's happening with everybody else's planners. We compared tools. We ogled, viewed, and drooled with some of the wonderful planners and accessories old and new. Yes, we go ga-ga over notebooks and colored inks.

It was two hours of hardcore planning. Err... more like talking and sharing notes. HaHa! Surprisingly, there was this raffle that the organizers do every meetup, and this time I won! OMG. It was awesome!

Me with my winning swag.

Winning swag bag contents.
We even recruited someone from the coffee shop patrons. He randomly asked what our group was about. We told him about planners and stuff for it, and he pulled out his bullet journal. Wow! So, he added his BuJo in our planner stack, and he even joined our group photo at the end of the event. Amazing!

Planner Stack!

My finished week spread.
I love planner meetups! I'm looking forward to the next one.

Snail Mail Is Still Alive

Obviously, snail mail is still part of our every day lives. Legal papers, business communications, and bills are still getting received through the post office. Old school it may sound, but it works, and it works well for a lot of people and businesses.

There are a few (maybe more than a few) of people who still use snail-mailing as a form of friendship. Penfriendship. In fact, there are different groups that are established for that matter. Penpaling is alive and that means the use of cursive. It may not be used by everybody, but handwritten letters are considered a form of art. It's a talent!

I'm in several penpaling groups on Facebook, and I even manage two of them. The first one is called the Letter Writers Alliance Society (LWAS). It is a gathering of all lifetime members of the Letter Writers Alliance (LWA). LWA has stopped their lifetime membership to new applicants. The existing 15k members are the ones invited to join the Facebook LWAS group. The only requirement to join the group is a photo of the member ID card showing their member ID number, or digital receipt for paying the lifetime membership. There are currently over 130 members actively penpaling right now. We want more LWA members to join.

The second Facebook group I manage is called Snail Mail: All wRite Together (SMART). It is for domestic and international snail mailers without any other membership requirements needed. We only request that your Facebook profile bears your actual photo. We don't want scammers or con-artists joining in.

Why snail mail? It's digital detox. Honestly, I often get tired of the online news and social media. It's great to slow down, think, and write everything on paper or in a notebook. Writing mistakes is a good thing. We erase it or scratch it off, and write again. Slowing down makes us notice a whole lot of other things. I guess, it's ironic that I'm blogging about this, but it is how we share it to a lot of people.

Since I love stickers so much, it's also an excuse for me to use them all and buy more. HAHA! I'm so bad, but it's so good. I get to decorate the envelopes I send out, or even the stationery pads can be fancy, too. I discovered that there's this writing club near where I live. I plan to join them this month! It's great to meet others who enjoy the same things I do.

Even my cat loves mail! So, who are you writing today?

WWE Roadshow to Wrestlemania

NPR - Not Planner Related

Date nights are important, and the kind that my husband and I do, sometimes fall on the awesome side. HEHE. I'm referring to the one we did last February 8th at the Oakland Arena. It was an untelevised WWE Roadshow to Wrestlemania event. We are both WWE fans. Wrestling fans to be exact (since we also enjoy other wrestling shows not just WWE). The best way to do it is to be a VIP ticket holder.

Me with my husband.
The VIP ticket holders were ushered inside the arena first, prior to the opening of all the gates for public entrance. It was a small group of around 25-30 people who received lanyards with an attached black marker (for autographs), a bag of goodies, and no-line shopping for souvenir merchandise. The big bonus was the photo-opportunity with some of the wrestling superstars.

Southern Belle, Lacey Evans. She didn't like my piercings. Girl, all my jewelries are real diamonds. HAHA!

Tag Team Champions, New Day - Kofi Kingston and Big E. They are so funny!
VIPs got to walk out of the ramp as well. We even got our photos taken ringside. Awesome!

It was so fun! But that was just the appetizer of the event. The best part was all the matches we saw live from the second row, ringside. It was not like on television. Seeing it in person was amazing, especially wnen you hear the crowd cheer and chant. It gave me that adrenaline rush of laughter. I wish to watch more events like it.

Daniel Bryan

Bray Wyatt

Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe

It's a tag team match!

Drew McIntyre and Kevin Owens

Seth Rollins and Drew McIntyre

The Miz and John Morrison

The Tag Team Champions, New Day - Kofi Kingston and Big E - are going to defend their championship titles/belts.

Raw Women's Champion, Becky Lynch

Roman Reigns

No holds barred match between King Corbin and Roman Reigns.
At the very end, after drooling all over those chiseled bodies (HAHA!), we got to bring home our souvenir chairs. They're very comfy!

It was not my first wrestling event, and it won't be the last. I'm hoping to see Wrestlemania someday. Yeah!

Galentine's Day

In the planner world, we always love to celebrate in order to have a meetup. Oftentimes, there's no celebration, but we still have meetups. HAHA! The month of February is all about Valentine's Day, so it's a great excuse to have a gathering of all the planner ladies. Well, not all really. So... Last February 1st, I attended a Galentine's Day planner meetup, and it was awesome!

Each of us prepared a gift for everybody. I can't even explain how cute everything is. I should post a photo instead. Candies, stickers, washi tapes, so cute!

Gift swags
These ladies are so crafty and creative! It's always great to be surrounded by talented people. It's inspiring!

There were so much food and drinks. It was a party! There was pizza shaped as a heart from Mountain Mike's. Pepperoni and cheese! There were scrumptious cupcakes, caramel popcorns, senorita bread, chocolate covered strawberries, and my very own contribution of garlic parmesan chicken wings. (I restarted my keto diet, so I couldn't eat the starchy choices.) I was stuffed!

We also had a make-and-take contest. A trinket tray! Our organizers brought out the ingredients on making a trinket tray out of card stock. There were glue, glitter, stickers, rainbow paper, etc. Everybody got busy being creative.

All the make-and-take participants' finished work.
I honestly didn't know what to make. I observed everybody and I want to make something different. So, I didn't use the same stuff. I found furry wires instead. Here is my finished work:

I often think of my cats, so I made a cat-themed trinket tray.
Surprisingly enough, I actually won the first prize. Yay! Several of the attendees voted for my trinket tray using their gems.

My kitty-basin trinket tray with the prize bag.
It was so exciting and fun! I so love to attend all the planner meetups if I could. If only I could program my legs/feet to cooperate all the time. HEHE! Well, until the next event then.

Cheers!

Sparkle and Plan

After a while of being absent, I finally attended a Sparkle and Plan planner meetup last January 25th. This time, the venue was in Sacramento, CA. The previous ones I attended were in Dixon, CA.

It was so fun seeing old and new friends in the planner world. Attendees introduced themselves and shared what planner they are using. (Nobody's using just one planner, of course. We are that hardcore. LOL.) I also learned how each and everyone uses their pages and how they decorate them, too. The stickers! Such a heavenly sight.

There was a destash table - everybody's junk is somebody else's treasure. And there's also a sales table - some attendees have their very own small sticker business that we support. It's all about stickers sometimes. I know for sure, I'd buy some if I can. I will always support any planner business when I'm able. I want the planner world to stay up all the time.

We proceeded to plan in our own planners while others socialized. We shared planner stories, tips and tricks on how we utilize everything in our planners.

View from my left.

View from my mid-right. No full right view. Oops.
Surely, I was able to schedule my upcoming events in my planner. This year, I'm using a Hobonichi Cousin 2020 and an Archer & Olive / Amy Tangerine planner. There are times I do outgrow my fondness for planners, especially the 18-month-long dated ones. Maybe, it's that want to purchase a new notebook. Yeah, blame it on the new stuff. HAHA!

We all had an awesome dinner from the Old Spaghetti Factory provided by our dear organizer, Louise. I'm already looking forward to the February meetup!