Hey rockstars,

I’ve been wanting to blog for a while now. I always have these half-formed ideas that hit me while driving, in the shower, or in the middle of a task. I tell myself, “Oh my god, this is it! I’m going to blog about this”—and then I promptly forget it. But right now, the inspiration is hitting, so it’s time for a short Saturday night check-in.

Anyone who has talked to me in the last month knows it’s been a rough few weeks. If January was supposed to be a “new beginning,” then damn, I hope this is all just a “cleansing” to make room for the new. Between work being tough and some of my favorite people leaving my firm, to the smaller stings, like disappointing people I respect, accidentally making an “enemy” because someone is convinced I’m someone I’m not, and accidentally throwing one of my favorite rings down the garbage chute—it’s been a lot. I’m hopeful that February will be better, and I’m praying the first few weeks of 2026 don’t dictate the rest of the year.

Today, I finally slept in, but I woke up to a package: my cowboy hat arrived! Last weekend I went to Nashville, Tennessee (yee-haw!), and I actually loved it. For years I’ve said, “No! Maryland isn’t the South, it’s the Mid-Atlantic!” mostly because I’ve been ignoring that it’s technically below the Mason-Dixon line. I prefer to focus on the fact that it remained in the Union because I don’t want to correlate my favorite state with such a complicated history (I live in denial!!). But now, I’m debating moving to Tennessee full-time—wearing my Stetson, plaid, and boots in relatively warmer weather.

Then reality sinks in and whispers, “Nah, you’re stuck here. Put on your big-girl boots and face the day.”

But today wasn’t so bad. After the hat arrived, I had a surprise visitor: my friend Julia! She stopped by to congratulate me on going back to school part-time (apparently, I didn’t think I was busy enough and decided to squeeze out every remaining second of free time). Afterward, my family and I grabbed pho for lunch and boba for later.

I basically slept through the rest of the afternoon and I’m up now finishing some work. I just hopped off a call with my friend John (Happy Birthday, John!!!) after chatting for an hour about Excel, work, and life.

I’ve said it plenty of times before, and I’ll say it plenty more: I am forever grateful for the amount of familial and platonic love in my life. When I was in a bad mood about work tonight, my sweet mentee told me to watch a nice movie (I’m currently watching Zootopia), eat something sweet (sipping the aforementioned boba), and, most importantly, “stay closer to things that make you feel better.”

I think that’s all we can do. I always give people the advice that when you’re in a tough job, you have to do the things that make you feel like yourself and make you feel human. I tend to skip self-care when I’m stressed, but that’s exactly when I need it most. I can always spare five minutes to meditate, five minutes to draw, or twenty minutes to blog. I can always find time for my family or my roommate.

So, for the rest of this weekend, I’m going to do the things that make me feel better (TBD on whether work is involved! :))

That’s all for tonight! As a preview, I’m working on my “Physics in Real Life” mini-series, inspired by my previous post about my small body trying to warm up the entire universe. If you have any ideas for that, please let me know!

Until next time!

xo

Sandhya

Celebrate my 30th year around the sun with me! Click the follow or subscribe button to stay updated! You can also connect with me on twitter, my coffee and checkins Instagram, my podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or Amazon Music. Have a topic suggestion? Email me at coffeeandcheckins@gmail.com! I’d love to hear from you! 🙂❤