Written by Andrelyn Izquierdo.
A page torn from my personal diary and random journaling that's been found, restored, or remembered.
Image by 51581 from Pixabay.
Food Adventures
Having been through so much and using comparison healthily to gauge my progressions towards personal and professional achievements, I’ve realized that I still keep discovering even more each day towards additional firsts that have seemed impossible. Tackling the unreachable has been my go-to for amusement and motivation. But with each mission, there are so many baby steps to hurdle over that it is still time consuming. Six years ago, I wasn’t sure how long I would make it while fighting this rape war that I’ve been buried under throughout my entire life. In 2018, I took the time to mourn everything that I wanted to do, my dreams, my desires, my fantasies, my bucket list, and most importantly family. I’ve been spending so many years trying to connect to my family while picking up more family as I go along my life journey in everything that I do. I was a workaholic trying to survive working 2-4 jobs for so long. When 2015 came, I knew that I had to make a different change in my life, a huge change. When I lost her, I gained back a passion that I wasn’t able to get into by prioritizing it and working much harder. I started working only 1-2 jobs instead of 4 while I could focus on my hobbies to express my life creatively since many people could not handle what has been happening to me. Like an inchworm, I put myself out there more on the internet while still having to deal with many guys and what was being unveiled to me even more in front of my eyes. While unable to connect each dot, I was understanding more what I would be up against sooner than later than I thought. More change occurred in my life when I dared to go to a city that I’ve been wanting to see and discover since moving to Washington State and visiting the Pike’s Place Market. While commuting to Seattle and gaining more independence, I started working more on my bucket list. Since I couldn’t travel too much to see family and often had to choose family or myself, I did my own version of traveling - through food, local businesses, and events. I stopped clubbing frequently like I did when I was younger, but have missed it. Too much danger, made me back into a corner or stay reserved at a table instead of dancing all night long like I wanted to. More baby steps were made to get there while making more female friends that I could trust, which isn’t my strongest asset throughout my life. I used my morning to my advantage after strengthening partnerships with colleagues and building trust within the company working my tush off nonstop. My boss gave me more leeway with time so that I could arrive at work at later hours and explore the city some more. Each week, I tried at least one new restaurant after getting out of more debt. My student loans were finally paid for since attending FIU and getting my loans after I married when I moved to Washington State. It took me about 11 years to pay everything off, but I did it slowly and steadily. There’s more variety up North in terms of culture and food. I tried pirozhkis from Russia, pierogi from Germany, more noodle dishes from Vietnam and Japan, and much more. While going home from work while the daylight was still out, I got to eat as much Greek salad as possible trying to find more places I could go to get more Greek food. There was also my favorite Thai shrimp spring roll with spicy peanut sauce from Uwajimaya whenever I had to take the last train or get to the Starbucks across from the train station for my favorite banana bread slice and coffee to stay awake. I started trending the double hand of caffeine in the morning while at work, so I also had to take in another caffeine drink before heading home so I could try to do more for our new puppies. At Umajimaya, I visited the stores at the back of the mini mall. It’s where I bought my tiny writing book and in the grocery would look for unique candies from Japan and Korean red bean dumplings. Yum! When I was able to bring some socks and I think some clothes to James Street where all of the homeless people were in front of the courthouse, I finally tried some delicious Chinese fried rice that I had to try a few bites on the train. While homeless I got to do this again last year while working at the Washington State Fair. There I got to try a new favorite, finally that I had been waiting for so many years since my Canadian friends from League of Legends told me about it, a version of poutine.
Through all of the obstacles, it didn’t stop there. I just kept venturing further to continue fulfilling my goal of trying new things in a feasible and more attainable way for me. Since commuting decreased and car issues tremendously increased, I stuck to staying closer to the house and within Puyallup. I’ve tried more restaurants nearby and saw new products from businesses that I could find keepsakes since I lost almost all of mine from storage and from living in my vehicle. Here and there, I get a little bit back in another way to fill in the gaps of my life history.
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Hope this list is useful in your pen adventures.
Happy Writing!
This article is written by:
Andrelyn Izquierdo
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