A Life Report (2025 Q1)

Ever since my first “real” post-college job, I’ve discovered that I *love* reporting. Heck, I work in monitoring and evaluation, so of course I love reporting. I love capturing progress, telling a story, and highlighting things in a fun way. So, why not apply all those fun skills to my life and my blog? Here we go.

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Preamble

This … ahem … reporting period, started with a bang. On New Years Eve, the three of us – Rrita, Ermir and baby Sweeta – were sick with a nasty flu and fever that decided to kick in late at night, as they usually do. By 9pm, we had finished dinner and presents, were tucked in bed because we were exhausted, ready to sleep it away. What followed was the longest night of our lives: we were up every 30 minutes until the morning, tending to each of us on rotation as we ached and vomited our hearts out. By around 4am, sleepless, I entered into a state of probably delirium, that went something like this:

4am Rrita: “There’s no chance in hell I can manage a full time non-remote job as a parent. I simply cannot, I’m exhausted. One sick day like this and I can’t recover for a whole week! I’m going to write my new job and tell them I quit and beg my old job to take me back.”

4am Ermir: “I don’t think we should make any decisions at 4am.”

Yeah, duh!

So yes, I entered the new year sick – but also with a new job, which I ended up not quitting at 4am on New Years. Nice segue. I’m back at my old job in development, after dabbing my feet in transfer pricing for almost a year. This is also the first time in almost two years (and the first time as a full-time mom) that I am back full time to a fully non-remote setting. It takes quite some logistical arrangements but thank God for my village and my Sweeta’s kindergarten.

Travels

This reporting period, Sweeta, my parents and I went to Dubai. This was my first time in the Middle East, and I had really been wanting to go to Dubai for some time now. I really loved it.

The city was amazing, walking by the Marina, having a coffee during the day, or a drink in the evening; the Palm Jumeirah was incredible; the people were friendly; everyone spoke English, and the weather was great too! It was very tourist friendly – and kid friendly. I loved it.

I would love to go back there someday soon, and even vacation for longer at one of the beach resorts. For some reason, especially Palm Jumeirah and the Atlantis Hotel reminded me a lot of America – except it’s even closer to Kosovo, geographically. I really enjoyed Dubai.

Books

I read a total of nine books this quarter – sounds like a lot even to me! Some of these were started in 2024 and I got to mark them as “read” this year. Here’s what I read and what I thought about them:

We judge books by their cover in this household!

FICTION CATEGORY – I love fiction okay. Petition to make fiction the new non-fiction. I’m gonna try to read way more fiction this year. Screw non-fiction (see below). Here’s what I read this quarter with a mini description.
- Agnes Grey – Anne Bronte
  - Moody, slow, rainy English 1800s country-side manor house vibes. We love.
- The Third Love – Hiromi Kawakami
  - Hell to the no. Real couple drama (good) turns into the whole book being set in dream world in Edo period Japan and earlier (nope nope nope).
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath – NEW FAVE ALERT!
  - Loved, cried, understood. How does Sylvia Plath know to write these things? Almost like she lived through them. Heartbreaking.
- First Lie Wins – Ashley Elston
  - So called “limonade” material for sure. i guess this is what a “spy novel” looks like, and I wasn’t as impressed tb.
- The Days of Abandonment – Elena Ferrange
  - Very good for sure – but I just can’t get over the mechanical english translation. I can’t enjoy translated books, why am I so in my head about these things?

NON FICTION CATEGORY – Turns out, I don’t really care for non fiction much tbh … but sometimes I get so enticed by the title! They always disappoint and drag on though. Except for last year’s Far From the Tree – loved that one! Here’s the unremarkable list of what I read.
- Ultra-Processed People – Chris van Tulleken
- How to Break Up with Your Phone – Catherine Price … lol yes. And I am working on it!
- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed – Jon Ronson
- A Different Kind of Perfect – Cindy Dowling

Resolutions

Resolution #1: Shopping will not fill the void, and nobody needs more than 25 new clothing items a year (max).

Q1 Progress: I’m doing quite well here. In Q1, I only bought two new items of clothing, including a set of underwear (lol) and a new turtleneck sweater.

Resolution #2: Cook most foods at home, with love and intention. Let food be thy medicine.

Q1 Progress: I’m not doing well here. I eat more at home, and I’m bringing my own food to work most of the time. But I’m still not happy with how often we eat out or order in and I would like to keep improving the quality of our meals at home more too.

Resolution #3: Allow space to slow down and be bored.

Q1 Progress: I still feel rushed, and I still struggle with “relaxing”. What I’ve done now, is I’ve downloaded an app that puts some severe restrictions on my most addictive apps on my phone. My screentime is not bad, but I want it even lower. Ideally, I would love to quit social media again, but dang it, I love to post and overshare. So, let’s see what the rest of the year has in store.