Tarzan Soundtrack

Recently I was reminded of the Tarzan soundtrack (1999 animated movie version). I haven’t heard the music from that movie in years but I remember I used to love that CD! I would listen to it on repeat. Since I was reminded of the music, I’ve been listening to it again and again and I remember why I loved it. It has great music!

Honestly the music is making me teary eyed. I think it’s a combination of nostalgia and the music is just awesome but I love it!

If you need a change of music for an hour or so, I highly recommend listening to this soundtrack, all of it, even the instrumental songs. It’s awesome!

Anxious

I’ve been feeling anxious recently. Although I try not to talk about political things on my blog, I will mention some things today that are really stressing me out that may or may not have to do with politics.

I have a job as a contractor for a government agency. Since the change of administration a couple of weeks ago, there are certain things that our department can no longer do until it gets approved by a presidential appointee. 

We can barely do any of our tasks we need to right now. The thing is is I have no idea how long it will take to get the approval. Will it take another week, a few weeks, a couple of months? As of right now they are still paying us but how long will that last? If it doesn’t get approved soon, will they put us on unpaid leave until it gets approved or will they just fire us all? These are just a few of the concerns I have going through my head right now. 

I have been working on updating my resume and will start looking for a new job. Unfortunately that’s what the current administration would like us to do, become so worried about the status of our jobs that we start looking for other jobs and quitting on our own. Then they don’t have to fire us like he whowillnotbenamed would love to do to most of the government workers. You may not want to ask me how I feel about this unless you want to hear a few cuss words. 

I know things are a bit different for me as a contractor (as opposed to a regular government worker who I think have it harder) but it does still affect me and the other contractors. I really do not want to lose my job again. (I got laid off a few years ago when our project didn’t get a new grant to fund our work.) But we will see what happens in the next little while. Maybe our work will be approved next week and we’ll be able to work like normal again. We will see.

And I just want to say I don’t write all of this to start an argument about politics. I write this because this is my reality right now and I’m writing it for my own records.

And so my blogpost will have picture in it, here’s a cute picture of my brother’s cat, Ash.

Searching for a Song

I often have songs going through my head. If someone says a particular word and there’s a song I know that has that word, you can bet I’m singing that song in my head (or out loud depending on the situation I am in at the time.) :)

When I am at home I will just randomly start singing or humming songs out loud. I am pretty sure I can be really annoying sometimes. But that’s beside the point. 🤷😂

I tell you all of this to say that the other day I started humming a song where I couldn’t remember any lyrics, but I clearly knew the tune. And I was singing some sounds along with the tune, Eeeee oooo eeee aaaaa eeee aa aa. I only knew a small portion of the song, but I felt like it was a distinct song. 

I hummed the song to Siri and he didn’t know. I sent a voice memo with me humming the tune to some family members and they didn’t know. I tried googling the sounds that I thought might be part of the song and that didn’t help. I tried listening to random old songs that I thought might be it and none of those were right.

I tried for a day or two to figure it out but then gave up. I just decided to accept that I was not going to know what song it was. But then one day my brother, Tim, played a song that he had found and it was the song I had been humming!!!! I was so excited!

Tim said that he remembered an old music video he had watched and what was going on in the music video but did not remember the name of the song from the video. He googled “early viral video of guy lip syncing at his desk”. He found the song by googling that.

I definitely had heard the song before because it sounded familiar but it had probably been years since I’d heard it. I have now listened to the song multiple times and I actually kind of like it! :) It’s called Dragostea Din Tei by O-Zone. O-Zone is a Moldovan band and the song was released in 2003.

After finding out the name of the song I googled to see if there were any movies or tv shows that had the song in it that I might have seen recently. There were a few movies that had the song but none that I had seen. 

I did find another song that had a small portion of the O-Zone song in their song, Live Your Life by T.I. (Ft Rhianna). It was the portion of the song that I had been humming. 

It’s possible I either heard the O-Zone version or the T.I. Version of the song recently and I just didn’t realize it but whichever one it was I’m glad that Tim was able to figure out what song it was! Although I had given up searching for the song, it would have bothered me not knowing. 

And here’s a random picture of me in my narwhal outfit for this blogpost so that it’s not just all words. 😂

Ruby Chocolate

When I went on my trip last year, one of the cities I visited was Antwerp, Belgium. While there I went to Chocolate Nation, a Belgian chocolate museum. I felt like that was a place I must visit while in Antwerp since one of the things Belgium is famous for is their chocolate. :)

I loved visiting the museum!

One of the things they had on the tour were chocolate tasting stations. They had the stations set up from the lightest chocolate to the darkest chocolate. There were some chocolates that I had never heard of before. ;) There were two in particular that I really loved and I might have gone back for seconds with both of them, Ruby and Gold chocolate. 

What it says on the Ruby sign in the picture above is:

The recently discovered ruby chocolate is a naturally pink chocolate with intense fruitiness and fresh, acidic notes.

I don’t have a good picture of the Gold chocolate sign but that one says:

Intense yet well balanced caramel chocolate, with rich notes of toffee, butter, cream and a surprising dash of salt.

I tell you all of this to say that I may or may not have asked for some Ruby or Gold chocolate bars for Christmas. And I received a 5 lbs bag of Ruby chocolate and I was really excited!

This is what the ruby callets look like. Honestly I really like just eating a handful of them at a time, but I decided it would also be good to try baking with them. 

The first thing I baked with them were brownies. They were decent but I accidentally overcooked them and the Ruby chocolate flavor didn’t stand out to me. They were definitely still edible though. 

The second item I baked were Ruby Chocolate Crinkle Cookies. These were delicious!

The recipe called for melting some ruby chocolate and mixing it in the dough. They don’t look like they should (according to the pictures where I got the recipe) but they sure did taste good. :)

I also want to try making Ruby chocolate chip cookies but that will have to wait for another day. :)

Zoo Lights 2024

In December one of my friends and I went to the Zoo Lights in Washington D.C. It cost a little bit to visit ($6), but it was worth it because the lights were fun and I didn’t mind supporting the zoo!

Usually to get to the zoo via metro, I would get on the train closest to my house, ride it to downtown D.C. and transfer once to the Red Line. But the Saturday that we went to the zoo, they were doing track work. I had to transfer to different train lines four times. 

Thankfully, the trains were pretty efficient that day and I didn’t have to wait too long for any of the trains, but it was still quite the experience. I rode on a metro line I had never been on before. 😂

Heather and I met up outside the metro near the zoo and walked to the Zoo Lights.

It was a bit cold that evening but not too bad. It was fun to see the Zoo Lights and I’m glad that we went!

Enjoy the pictures!

Thanks for inviting me to go to the Zoo Lights Heather! It was a fun evening. 

Kdrama Wrapped 2024

 It’s that time of year again to look back at my top Kdramas I watched this year!

My top Kdramas of the year:

1. Twinkling Watermelon

2. Brewing Love

3. The Midnight Studio

4. My Sweet Mobster

My top songs from Kdramas this year:

1. Our Night is More Beautiful Than Your Day by NewJeans (from My Demon)

2. True by Yoari (from My Demon)

3. Count on Me by Ningning (from The Midnight Studio)

4. I Wonder Why by Elaine (from The Midnight Studio)

5. Shining (from Twinkling Watermelon)

Total Kdramas watched this year:

16

Here’s a link to my Kdrama wrapped from last year. 

Happy New Year!!! 

My Tooth

Two weeks ago, I had one of my back teeth pulled. It was no fun, but it needed to be done. 

A couple of months ago, I noticed a weird bump on my gums under a particular tooth. I had no pain, but the bump was weird enough that I made an appointment to visit the dentist about it. 

The dentist said I had an infection in the tooth that I had a root canal on last year. Then she recommended I visit the endodontist to see what they say about it. The endodontist said I could get another root canal on that tooth, but more than likely the infection would keep on coming back. So she recommended I get my tooth pulled and an implant put in. 

So my dentist recommended an oral surgeon and I had my tooth pulled two weeks ago. I must admit I was pretty nervous about my tooth being pulled, but I survived. The process of getting the tooth pulled and an implant put in is a long process. 

Right now, I have a gap in my back teeth (with socket preservation graft in the gums where they took out the tooth). In a few months I'll go back to the oral surgeon and they'll make sure my gums are healing properly and measure for the implant. Then I'll go back a few months after that and have the implant put in. Then a little while after that I'll need a crown over the implant. 

It's an expensive and long process, but I think it'll be worth it in the end. At least I hope so.  

This is what my face looked like the day I got my tooth pulled. It stayed puffy for a few days.