week in my life as a Google software engineer in NYC | work-life balance & burnout

Work outfit. Got my work bag from Teddy Blake. So I got into the office a little bit late today and I had to snag one of those phone booths to take my meeting and right before I was able to make it to my desk, I decided to drop by the tea space. I don't know what the formal name of this space is, but I pass by it so often and there's just so many options for tea. I think I had a mini decision crisis deciding which one to pick, but I ended up choosing a chocolate flavored tea. You can absolutely tell that I've never done this before because I had no idea how much tea I should have gotten and also how exactly I was supposed to close this out, but I got my little spoonful and headed over to the water machine. Note to script grading Sarah, this is called a water boiler. And once I got my cup of tea, I headed over to my desk and got started with my day. The tea was actually really good. It was a little bit nutty and tasted like chocolate, which was what it was called, but I liked it quite a bit. I will say it didn't replace my need for a coffee that morning because I was kind of exhausted. I got into the office late because I was up late the previous night working on a video, but before the coffee I still wanted to get a little bit of work done, so I was plopped down for a little bit of time. So the weather in New York's been getting pretty nice, and that makes me want to dress up a little bit more for work. I always have a little bit of a walk getting off the train and heading to work, but because it's slightly nicer, I am starting to enjoy it a little bit more. So work's been kind of busy, but I recently made the realization that when things are stressful and busy and chaotic in my life, I tend to put everything on the back burner, including dressing up cute and looking presentable and just making myself feel normal. And so I've been making a pretty active effort with putting on nicer outfits and doing my hair and makeup a little bit more, but I feel like thriving in corporate life really does require you to be mindful of keeping yourself and your identity and your sanity in check. I'm curious if anyone else ever feels this way, but sometimes I do feel like I have a hard time self-expressing and being a real person at work. It is lunchtime. We're going to make this today. The sheet pan hummus topped cumin chicken. So I've really been enjoying cooking lately with these Home Chef kits because of how convenient and reliable they are. Right now, I'm on a weekly subscription where they deliver fresh ingredients and super easy to follow recipes to my doorsteps. I have it all in this super cute binder like, okay, chef. But fun fact, they are also ranked first in several things like convenience, value, tastiness, and quality based on a third-party survey of people who use leading meal kits. Since their recipes are carb and calorie conscious, it's been super helpful with making healthy, balanced, and delicious meals. I get to choose from a rotating menu of over 20 new meals each week, and I have the option of choosing quick meals like oven-ready, 15-minute meals, and fast and fresh options. But overall, it's given me meals with minimal prep and cleanup and saved me on so much time. I also get the option of customizing ingredients, and I find that this is just generally way more affordable and healthier than takeout. If you want to try OwnKit and get a really good discount, which is 50% off, you can click the link in my description and also use my code, SarahPan50, to get 50% off and free shipping on your first Home Chef box. So I'm going to be a little brutally honest with you guys about where I am in life right now. Between my podcast and my YouTube channel and my work, it's been really hard to find myself again, and I've put a lot of things that I care about on the back burner, including my pottery journey, my fitness, my family life, and my friendships. It's been very hard to keep my work-life balance in check and also my personal sanity, and that's something that I'm working very hard on. However, I did snag a Saturday after the work week to rent a car with James, and we drove all the way up to the Noguchi Museum that's on display. Because all my brainpower recently has been going into moving and furnishing and just getting settled, I felt like this was a good opportunity to get some inspiration. I'm a big fan of the Noguchi lamps. If you saw my last loft living video, we did hang up a really cute dupe, but it was really nice to see the Noguchi lamps in person and also just to see all the variety. Noguchi was actually an artist and a sculptor, and so a lot of his pieces were on display, and it gave me a little bit more inspiration for my own ceramics whenever I have the time to dive back into that. But yeah, that was a really nice sweet break in the middle of the month where I felt like I could actually plug off for a moment. I just finished work, and I got a package delivery. I ordered this the other day from Best Buy, and it is a camcorder. I don't usually splurge on camera gear as much, but I really wanted to get a camcorder before my trip to Asia because I'm going to Asia very, very soon, and I wanted to document the experience with something that is not my GoPro or just my regular DSLR. I don't know how interesting this is going to be for you guys, but I'm just going to see how it is. And I did get this one open box because this type of tech can be kind of expensive, so I didn't want to spend too much money, and I also had some credits to use up from Best Buy. But I think this looks pretty good. It's also super lightweight. I don't know how much you guys are into tech gear or camera gear, but I'm really excited to use this in Asia. I also wanted to make sure I had something that was high quality, so I got a 4K Panasonic VX870. It's a little bit of an older model, but I saw some comparisons of it, and this was the only one that had an open box option. Let's see if we can turn this on. No card. Got my SD card, and it's not really focusing. Oh, there we go. Oh my god. This focus is not great. I think I'm packing so much tech for Asia because I'm also bringing my Surface Pro, which I got recently. And this has been actually so convenient. I've been using this everywhere that I don't need to bring my full work MacBook, because this is like a third of the size, and it is so lightweight. And then I can also detach this keyboard. It comes with the little pen as well, and this has been just life-changing. I also recommend this. This is not sponsored. None of this is sponsored, but I feel like I'm trying to up my gear in this season of my life, especially because I do tend to use my work laptop for a lot of things, and I want to kind of stray away from that. Also invest in good equipment and gear and tech for myself. So I think I'm going to bring my Surface Pro as well, and that's it. But anyways, that was just a very quick unboxing and going through everything that I recently got.