Happy Sunday, friends! Today's blog post is the first Life Lately recap of the year. On the last Sunday of every month, I try to publish a recap highlighting the month and more. I started this series back in 2017, and it's one of the longest-lasting series on my blog to date.

My husband and I kicked off the new year with my family on the island of Kauai. We flew out on New Year's Eve during one of the worst rainstorms I've seen in a while. The rain was so heavy that our flight got delayed for nearly two hours before leaving. Thankfully, the rain cleared up for us to leave, and we made it home just before the rain came pouring down again. We didn't get to burn too many fireworks because of the rain, but we did brave the rain to light our Japanese fireworks at midnight to ward off any bad spirits.

The rest of our time at home was mostly a blur. It was the first time we saw my family since our trip during Memorial Day weekend last year. We did manage to get last-minute tickets to the Kauai Safaris Rum Tour. It was a two-hour tour on the grounds of the Kilohana Plantation with two stops to taste Kauai's very own Koloa Rum. I highly recommend this tour if you're ever on Kauai.

One week after returning from Kauai, I tested positive for COVID, which was scary and shameful, but I also felt relieved.

I felt relieved that I caught it when I did and not any earlier and I felt relieved that I was vaccinated and boosted. But I also felt ashamed. When I saw the test results in my email, I thought, how stupid am I to catch COVID three years into the pandemic? I mean, I did everything right; I got vaccinated and boosted. I worked from home and kept my bubble fairly small. There were times when I didn't wear my mask outdoors or with other vaccinated people, and I never got infected. But I have no idea where I caught COVID.

We've heard so many heartbreaking and breakthrough stories about COVID over the last three years, but we rarely hear about the people in the middle who test positive but don't get hospitalized. In my head, I was going to make it, or I wasn't because that's what I was conditioned to believe. So I did something that felt taboo, and I shared my diagnosis on Instagram to help me shake off my feelings of fear and shame.

And it worked! I received so many messages to get well soon, but I also received messages of your personal stories of fear and shame after testing positive for COVID, and I knew I did something right. Vulnerability is my superpower, and I pride myself on my ability to connect with people. Your reaction to my being open and honest about this part of my life, including my health anxiety, confirmed that I'm on the right path.

Today, I've fully recovered from COVID, and I'm looking forward to moving on from this weird turn of events.

ON THE BLOG AND ELSEWHERE

On the blog this month, I published my end-of-year recap, 2022 word of the year, a Disneyland travel guide, and I refreshed my tips on how to plan a pandemic wedding for all the newly engaged couples out there. I also tried to pick up my Weekend Reading / Monday Musings series again, but it wasn't working out. I felt too pressured to keep up with quantity vs. quality, and it was hurting my productivity, so I decided to do away with it. I'll stick with my monthly updates instead. 

On a different note, I don't think I ever formally announced that I started a shared Disney Instagram profile on my blog. Now you can follow my and my husband's Disney adventures at @disneywithdaorozcos. It started just for fun, and now we've built up quite the community there. If you're a huge Disney fan, give us a follow! We talk about everything from Disney, Marvel, and Disneyland deals and discounts from Get Away Today, my preferred Disney travel agency.

CURRENTLY READING

I also started reading again this month. So far, I've read "Rebel Rose" by Emma Theriault and "You Had Me at Hola" by Alexis Daria. I was excited about "Rebel Rose" because it's a reimagined story of "Beauty and the Beast," my favorite Disney Princess movie (the 1991 film). Unfortunately, it turned out to be more historical fiction than a romance novel, which is not my jam.

I was also excited for "You Had Me at Hola." I had it on my TBR (to be read) list since it launched but was skeptical of buying it because I'm notorious for buying books because I think I'll like it, but then I end up ditching them. Thankfully, my public library had a copy of "You Had Me at Hola" that I could borrow, and you guys, this book had everything a good romance novel should have. It had a strong female lead and an emotional male lead. Both leads had supportive confidantes that checked and cheered them on. It was also equal parts sexy, heartbreaking, and wonderful. I cried while reading it — multiple times! I loved this book. I'm about to start the second book in the series, "A lot Like Adiós." 

I also started a couple of other books, but I marked them as DNF (did not finish) because I had trouble resonating with them. They are "Just Haven't Met You Yet" by Sophie Cousens, "LA Weather" by Maria Amparo Escandon, "Beach Read" by Emily Henry, and "Tweet Cute" by Emma Lord.

Right now, I'm reading "Bringing Up Bébé" by Pamela Druckerman, which came highly recommended by Jess Keys from The Golden Girl. She wrote an excellent blog post about this book and how it changed her mind about starting a family. After reading Jess's blog post, I wrote a blog post about where I was at with starting a family because I felt seen by her post. Shortly after, I put this book on hold at my library, and it finally came in.

CURRENTLY WATCHING

This month, I started watching "Agents of SHIELD," "Jane the Virgin," and "Grand Crew" on NBC. "Agents of SHIELD" is my favorite Marvel TV show — it's full of action, undercover detective work, espionage, and more. I also started re-watching "Jane the Virgin" after I read "You Had Me at Hola" because I'm digging the telenovela theme right now.

Next month, I'm looking forward to celebrating the Lunar New Year and Valentine's Day with my husband. I'm also excited to organize my blog and social media efforts to stay on track to reach my goals.

Phew! Now that's how to kick off a monthly recap series. I hope you enjoyed this month's recap, and I look forward to catching you up next month. Take care!