hezatown

In the sweet north country

2025-03-01 permalink

Boy oh boy did I have an amazing weekend last week. And I am now 30 years old :D So far the 30s club is treating me very well.

So last weekend. It was my birthday weekend, so one of my closest friends told me to pick whatever I wanted to do. I immediately knew exactly what I wanted: Bike the Marvin Braude bike trail. I did this my first ever time visiting LA several years ago, which was a spellbinding experience, but I hadn’t done it once since.

So we biked from Will Roger’s state beach all the way through Venice where the trail ended, and then all the way back just in time to catch a mesmerizing sunset.

God, California’s coastline T__T <3

The very next day, me and some friends got take-out from Leo’s Superfood Cafe and had a picnic by the Hollywood reservoir. There’s a nice little nature area right by where Lake Hollywood dr, Tahoe dr, and Montlake dr intersect. It was so nice and good and green and lush T__T Sweet by Lana del Rey was playing in my head the whole time.

My friend Carolyn looks so Hollywood fabulous here.

Now let me tell you about how I treated myself on my actual birthday. I woke up around nine. I was tired so I lingered in bed doing nothing for probably hours. At some point I got up to have a glass of water. I decided I would not push myself to do ANYTHING all day. I felt that I wanted to brush my teeth. I did because I wanted to. If I had not felt like it, I would not have pushed myself to do it. I ended up taking a several hour nap around noon. I dreamt of mushrooms in a golden light.

I set a timer for 30 minutes with the intention of doing nothing. I sat outside in the sun for a little bit, until I started feeling too hot. Usually when I do the timer thing, I resist the urge to check how much time’s left. But since I wasn’t pushing anything, I let myself peak as much as I wanted.

I read Water Moon until I didn’t feel like it anymore. So I did a little bit of some kind of yoga/strength training. I’ve been enjoying working on my upper body strength and my core lately. I only ever do exercises I enjoy. I’ve picked up a few I really like over the years. Then I took a long nice shower, and then read some more Water Moon.

I later went to Trader Joe’s with a good friend who then cooked me a delicious dinner. I made him play Go Fish with me, according to the rules the kids at my elementary school used. It was surprisingly fun and we ended up playing multiple rounds. I also made him watch one of my favorite childhood tv shows with me, W.i.t.c.h. All the episodes are available on youtube :D

No pushing, no nothing. Just deep, sacred rest.

This rabbit spirit watches over my hallway/living room ~

So what, his name was Peter the Great? The kings and queens will have to wait

2025-03-05 permalink

Message I got from my friend after the previous post:

Hahaha, I appreciate all of you who read and send me encouraging messages so much <3

So, new adventures in Hezatown. I got to go to Santa Barbara Botanic Garden! They exclusively have plants that are native to California, and do lots of important preservation work. I HIGHLY recommend paying the garden a visit.

What did I notice?

A chilly air, and a rain falling on my hair

Little birds, hurrying from bush to bush

Orange flowers painting the most exquisite of pictures, a picture from an ancient past I dream of everyday

What did I hear?

The ancient murmur of the redwoods

The rain chattering against the ground

The wind chimes welcoming me among the shrubs

What did I admire?

The effort to preserve all that is beautiful and special

The dance of the native plants and the bees

What astonished me?

The overwhelming urge to bow and thank the redwoods as I bid them my farewell

And I got my very own native plant to have at home!

For this week’s solo adventure, I paid a visit to the Los Angeles Balloon Museum’s exhibit Let’s fly LA. Which might sound weird but it was actually one of the coolest things I have ever seen. The exhibit was highly interactive and quite the experience.

There was an enormous ball pit! So fun!

And then a light show in the ball pit O__o

This butterfly was super trippy. You could lie under it and just stare at the light patterns for as long as you wanted.

And uh, that’s me with balloons flying all around me.

I’m so so glad I decided to go by myself. I had all the time in the world to just sit and stare and touch and feel and experience for as long as I wanted, not having to consider whether anyone in my party wanted to leave.

I was almost a little sad when it was over. I lied on my couch and looked at the pictures I took and remembered.

Good and broken

2025-03-19 permalink

Helloooo. It’s been a while, again -.-’ I have spent the past week in the San Francisco Bay Area, visiting friends and family! Gosh it’s so freeing to be somewhere that’s walkable and where you can easily get around with public transit, unlike LA and Honolulu ^^; I love it here so much and nature is so beautiful but gosh why does it have to be so COLD? T_T I’ve been wearing a winter coat every single day I’ve been here.

I went to Muir Woods for the first time today and omg I loved it so much! I’ve always loved redwood trees and the ones there are EPIC. My uncle and I kind of wandered into the park aimlessly and ended up on an absolutely beautiful hiking trail. I think it was called the Redwood Canopy trail or something like that. It connected to lots of different trails and we just kind of went where we felt like in the moment. Including one trail called something like Panoramic trail and it was soooo beautiful. My uncle also got me a little bowl thingy carved out of redwood and ah I love it so much T__T <3 Definitely one of my most prized possessions. Redwood trees are something that means so much to me. They represent something like strength, happiness, nostalgia, adventure, and wonder all at the same time. I will show pictures some other time^^

What else? Before going on this trip, I started going to a local park in LA, just to hang out. I bring a picnic blanket and just do the same things I would’ve done if I was in my house. Journal, reply to texts, sip on water, what have you. I enjoy the sounds of birds chirping, the warm pattern the sun creates over the grass, clovers, the picnic blanket, and the pages of my book. The jingle of dog collars, the sound of children’s footsteps as they run and play. My fingertips slowly getting colder as afternoon begins to turn into evening.