When Life Throws You Curveballs

I’ll be honest. I’m not one to complain, but 2020 has NOT been the greatest start for me. When I ended 2019, I ended on a pretty low note. I started off NYE by going to the ATM before heading to work. And right before I pull away, I hear a big crack. I had underestimated how close I was to the barriers around the ATM machine. Now, I’m driving to work with a shaking side mirror that’s making me nauseous while praying it won’t fall off on the highway.

But wait. There’s more. 

I debate whether I should pick up breakfast on the way and decided not to even though I knew I should have because I was thinking I’d be late for work. Did I mention I decided to not bring a lunch either?

I’m pretty sure you can tell where this is going.

Anyway, I get to work and waited until the last possible minute before I went downstairs to grab breakfast. As I made my way downstairs, that lingering thought of, “You should’ve grabbed something on the way in.” popped in my mind. I walk into the cafe and look up only to see a sign that says the cafe is closed on NYE/New Year’s Day.

Oh joy.

I head back upstairs and rummage through my desk drawer to see what I had. Nothing, but half a bag of tortilla chips from my chicken tortilla soup lunch from the day before. “Okay, well, nothing for breakfast so this is my lunch.”

The work hours slowly drift by. I mean, tumbleweeds drifting by in a desert full of cacti would be faster.

By 3:30pm, I get thrown a curve ball. All of the sudden, I’m feeling less than stellar and am almost ready to call it quits. However, my resilient self hangs in there until 6pm because I’m the only one holding down the fort. I get home, take a shower, eat my body weight in food, and made my 30-something self take a nap before the kids (and when I say kids, I mean my bestie’s young adult cousins) come over for NYE festivities.

It’s 10:30pm. 

I get up and make my way into the living room and just sit in silence watching them play video games. Midnight rolls around and we’re going nutso over fireworks for about half an hour (sparklers for me in particular) and then go back to playing Super Mario. We end the first day of 2020 on a high note at 5am.

A few days later, curve ball!

My debit card stops working all of the sudden. Thank God for the credit card sitting in my wallet I’m working to pay off otherwise, I’d have to go back upstairs to my office and count the change to make sure the cashier gets paid for my expensive breakfast: a detox smoothie.

Approximately a week later, another curve ball!

I had stretched a bit while in bed and felt my back and neck go stiff. My range of motion is extremely limited. And it hurts to drive to work, since you know, you always have to look in your blind spot for other drivers. Last Saturday, I spend the entire day in bed unable to move knowing I need to pop my upper spine/back to get some form of movement again.

Nothing happens. 

The next day, I use a massage machine on my upper back and hear a small pop. Ha ha! Progress! And over the course of a few days, I slowly pop my back/spine by way of squeezing my shoulders and sneezing (of all things, this relieved me the most). Needless to say, I have an appointment to see the chiropractor tomorrow.

But wait! If you think that’s all, it’s not. I just got word two nights ago that the home I’m currently renting will be sold within 30-90 days and you know what that means. Now isn’t that just peachy?

Did I mention that I hate packing?

What you didn’t know is that as I’m typing out this story, I’m legit laughing about it. 

I could throw myself into a pit of despair and believe this is how 2020 is going to be.

Or I can do the following:

TAKE A MOMENT & JUST STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING. 

Obviously, me sitting down to write this post is my form of therapy. Going to dinner and venting to your friends/family is also the equivalent. As I’m nearing the end of my post, I’m feeling even more fantastic! Seriously. No sarcasm here.

ALLOW YOURSELF TO FEEL ANY & ALL EMOTIONS.

I was frustrated at myself because everything before the news of my rental home was my fault. And I’m hard on myself because I’m the type who does everything in my power to prevent stressful things (that I know I can control, of course) from happening. When the rental home stuff happened, from sadness, disappointed, upset, stressed, angry, excited, nervous, worried, I really let myself feel absolutely everything.

THROW YOURSELF A PITY PARTY.

And I threw myself a mini pity party. Why? Because looking back, it’s been a long time since I’ve had a “streak” like this and I’m going to wallow in it because I want to.

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE.

By venting to my friends, allowing myself to feel every emotion under the sun, and throwing myself a pity party, I changed my perspective from, “Crap, here comes stress!” to “Okay, I got this. Breathe. You got this, Huong.”

MOVE ON!

I absolutely hate standing in a mess life throws at me. I’m of the personality who likes to allow myself to feel what I feel, then get mad about it (I use anger/frustration as fuel), and bam! I take things head on and after it’s over and done with, I move on and am back to my happy life. To me, this is the best and healthiest way to handle curveballs life throws at me.

If you’ve had a similar start to your year, I hope my story inspires you to keep moving. If not, I hope that if you do have that “streak” sometime later this year that you remember this post.

And if you’re wondering what I did with my car side mirror, I put some duct tape on it and called it a day, ha!

::Outfit details::
Club Monaco ruffle sweater (old, love this cold shoulder sweater) | Skinny jeans | Faux leather jacket | Leather OTK boots (worth every single penny!)