February.

Who would have thought it’ll be such a wild ride?

Not me. Not I.

But it is.

It’s not even about work. Fuck work.

Just. Fuck. Work.

That’s so draining.

I want to retire.

Happy New Year! Officially 2021 to the Chinese people.

I didn’t do much this year with quarantine and all. I stayed home like the good person that we all should be and cooked me a simple New Year’s Eve dinner and called it a day.

Made some White Cut Chicken, some glass noodle soup with tofu skin, XO sauce shrimp, and roasted pork belly. Simple. Easy.

It was good and a good way to celebrate the New Year by my lonesome.

I took the New Year’s Day off for a mental health day. I was tired and burned out from work and we just got back a month ago at that time. Fuck. Work.

I don’t know.

Life. There’s a lot of not knowing.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before but I started to look for a new dog a few weeks ago. I sent in a few applications but didn’t really hear back. I heard back from one shelter way out in Apple Valley and they suggest I find something closer.

I asked my ex-neighbor if she’d be a reference for me and she said yes, so she knew I’m looking for a dog and on President’s Day, she texted me asking if I found a dog yet.

There were a few Frenchies that were dropped off at the shelter there and wanted to know if I wanted one. As much as I love Frenchies and think they are cute, they aren’t for me.

I need a more active dog. I need a dog that can breathe, especially if we go hiking. Not something that’ll poop out on me walking around the block. Maybe when I’m older, I’ll get one.

Plus, they are so small and so popular, I can’t tie them outside while I go shopping.

But I got a new dog. There’s been a dog that I saw on the Rescue’s IG and was curious about it and thought it was a good time to ask about it.

Everyone, meet Galette:

Galette is a tiny little thing compared to Pickles. She’s 22lbs even though they listed her as 30. I’m assuming that’ll she’ll be up to 30lbs max. Pickles was 50. That’s a big difference.

She’s a year-old Shepherd/Cattle Dog Mix. Galette is no Pickles, but that doesn’t make her any less loveable.

Since the two weeks I’ve had her, I’m still trying to learn her language and her quirks. Galette’s very affectionate and a big licker. She doesn’t like to be alone and loves to just chill. Sometimes I’ll just chill in the bedroom by herself.

Unlike Pickles who’s always attached to the hip or for the most part keeps in the same room as I am. Galette loves to sleep under the blanket or on top of me. I remember when Pickles was younger and would chill with me on the couch. As he got older, he didn’t do that anymore. I would have to force him.

Galette loves chewing on things, especially the tissue paper that I have laying around. She’s gone through one stick of chap stick already and ate a $5 bill.

The most important thing is how she’s around Relish. At first Relish was afraid, didn’t like to be around Galette. Relish would zoom right into her hiding spot in the closet, but as the days progressed, she’d become brave enough to venture out and observe things.

Relish and Galette are “interested” in each other, acknowledging each other, but aren’t BFFs. I don’t know if they’ll ever be, but it doesn’t seem like Galette’s predator instinct is kicking in and wanting to eat Relish, which is a relief to me.

Relish protects herself by hissing and swiping at Galette.

I’m so relieved that I don’t have to worry about that.

Galette doesn’t like to be alone. Doesn’t like to be locked in her crate while I leave the apartment to run errands and what not. She will need to learn, because a puppy alone in the house, that’s destruction. I learned from Pickles. Crate will be the way.

This is the way.

Galette doesn’t like National Blvd. She doesn’t like the busy streets or cars or traffic. I don’t know what her story is before the shelter, but I’m curious. She was a stray, but now she’s found a home.

In many ways, she’s testing my patience with her constant affection and chewing, but I’m sure once I learn her language and we all settle into a routine, things will be grand.

Galette’s very smart. She’s picked up on my sit command, but I’m still trying to learn her tells and needs, especially when she needs to go to pee. She’s peed in the apartment so many times already, on my floor mats. Sigh. It seems Galette’s been pad trained. I need to get better at training her.

Work from home has its perks. I’m able to spend more time with Galette and teach and train her. Going back to the office will be so different once we have the option to go back to the office. I’ll most likely continue to work from home, going into the office 2-3 days a week, if that.

We shall see.

Stonks!

Stocks.

I’m being proactive and taking on investing more in the market. Most of this all started with the Meme Stocks of GME and AMC among others during a short squeeze.

I’m sure if you Google Meme Stocks or GameStonk you’ll get articles upon articles of what is happening.

I’m all wrapped up in it. I have money invested and am #diamondhands on my holdings.

I’m not lying when I say I want to retire. I don’t want to work anymore.

So far, I’m down. Of course, I’m down. Again, money doesn’t come easy to me. I need to work and earn it, not win it.

With everything that happened in this investment wild ride, I moved all of my holdings out of Robinhood and moved to my Vanguard account. Fuck Robinhood.

There’s just a lot of shady shit that happened, like the restricting of buying of these meme stocks but allowing us to sell it. I don’t trust them, so I moved and not a customer anymore.

Vanguard allowed me to buy the meme stocks without any restrictions.

I hope that I’ll make some profits, but if not, at least I was a part of this history.

Let’s see if we go to the moon.

#diamondhands