SVong-Along

The Pacific North West. Home to bearded hipsters, beer, and a new Ghibli advertising campaign that boasts Portland (PDX) as: only "slightly exaggerated." I flew to PDX because I got a one way flight for $15  to visit my cousin Charlie who I hadn't seen in years, and convinced my other cousin Millie (May) to come up so it was a mini-family reunion. On Saturday the 19th, May and I met up in the airport at the visitor information center, where they showed the "slightly exaggerated" tourism clip and gave out free Ghibli-esque postcards and posters. I then got my rental from Avis Preferred (perk of the Chase Sapphire Reserve "CSR"), and we went to get lunch. First stop: Pok Pok This Southeast Asian Institution is very hyped on yelp with over 2000 reviews, and it wasn't mindblowing but it was pretty tasty! May ordered an Angkor Beer (go Cambodia!) while I tried a tiny shot of pineapple rice whiskey, which in turn made me glow like a tom

New year, and I walk into my same office and realize that my spa-ffice did not spark joy.  Being inspired by "Tidying up with Marie Kondo" and generally being a subscriber of the KonMari method since 2016, I decided to take action and declutter my workspace to decrease stress, improve productivity, and keep me at peace. Here is a simple 5-step process on how to KonMari/Spark Joy in your office.  1. Greet your Office/ envision a happy space (pretending like calm peaceful music is playing)  What I was attempting to go for  2. Confront your mess  The classic KonMari tidying hierarchy is:  clothing,  books,  paper,  misc.,  sentimental items.  In an office, particularly a lawyer's office, my main problem was categories 2-4, books, paper, and misc. I had random clutter of books, paper, and supplies that were not bringing me joy:  I had way too much stuff strewn around, and it was causing me to be disorganized and not at my fu

In one word: inspiring. After leaving the Governor's Office in August 2018, I became a Deputy Attorney General (DAG) working for the CA Department of Justice/Office of the Attorney General (AG). The AG himself is the state's Chief Law Officer, and Xavier Becerra won the most recent election this past November. This is the 3rd time I've seen Xavier give a speech in person.  This morning, he had an inauguration (partially to celebrate the fact that he won in an election, despite people telling him that he was lucky he got appointed). It was in Sacramento and open to DOJ employees. Below is the inauguration program. my favorite part is the "not printed at public expense"  First, the choir: The Sacramento Metropolitan Gospel Choir sang "Oh Happy Day, " and it was an uplifting and spiritual start to the ceremony. The singers started clapping halfway and many of the attendees clapped along. Becerra did mention that he would've liked them