Bacon now his own blog over at http://baconthedoggers.com. I didn’t want to bombard this blog with dog posts (though there will be some occasionally) so I gave Bacon his own space. There you’ll find random photos of his adventures, fashion and occasional reviews of the doggy world.
Having a new puppy in my life while planning a wedding and working full-time is slightly insane, but I wouldn’t give it up for the world. Here are some random snapshots from his first week so far!
He’s already visibly grown and is getting used to us as his humans:
I love dogs and I really missed having one around. Teddy was our first family dog, but ultimately, he belonged to my sister. He is also slightly too big for an apartment.
So meet Bacon, Nash and I’s new friend. He is a purebred miniature schnauzer who is currently a mini Pacman.
Sorry the blog has been a bit slow! Having a new puppy is almost like having a baby, a bit of a life change. I love Bacon so much already.
You can follow his adventures at instagram.com/baconthedoggers.
Last month, I tried rock climbing for the first time and I enjoyed it. I had a two-week unlimited pass and went as much as I could with my schedule. I realized that it was a great physical workout and it released a lot of built-up anxious energy whenever I went.In the few weeks I’ve been doing it, I already improve a lot since the first time and am tackling a lot of Level 8 courses at Basecamp. I love that there are levels so that there is always a goal to beat next time.
The trial two weeks ended but I decided to continue, so I bought a 10-pass as well as my own equipment to keep myself motivated. I couldn’t resist getting everything in pink.
I went to MEC for all my gear. I spent over an hour and a half trying different things on. When I picked out my shoes, I tried all sorts: cheapest, most expensive, laces, velctro etc. I tried each of them on their test climbing wall to see how it felt on my toes. My feet tend to be kind of fat so my toe comfort is important. However, most shoes are built to be compact, so they will feel squished no matter what. I settled on a pair of moderately priced Five Ten Rogue’s because they felt the best. 
I also tried on a bunch of harnesses and settled on the Petzl Selena Harness in XS. While I was at the gym, I found I took forever to put harnesses on because they were generally too big, but this one is specifically for females and had a super small size that was comfortable. Plus, it is pink!
I bought a normal chalk ball, which was recommended for normal hand sweat. I think there was a different one for those that sweat a lot. 
And a cute bag to match my harness!
Now that my sister’s wedding is wrapped up, I’m finally getting mine rolling. It’s only 6 months away and I finally designed Save the Dates thanks to the help of Paperless Post.
They had a library of professionally designed digital cards. I didn’t want to waste paper on sending people paper cards when most people have e-mails and older family members I’ve already verbally told the date.
I ended up choosing a design like this and a fun photo from my sister’s wedding where we caught both the bouquet and the garter. There was a lot of customization options including envelopes, photo filters, fonts and more.
Digital save the dates are also a great way to ask for more information and we’ll be combining this with Postable to build an address book. Paperless Post has this function too, but I enjoyed the layout and functionality of the Postable one a bit better.
I’m so excited to have finally made these and now the countdown clock begins.
On Friday, I took the Introductory Climbing Lesson at Basecamp. The package came with 2 weeks of unlimited climbing and I already went back on Thanksgiving Monday.
I don’t do a lot of exercises or physical activity, but I surprisingly enjoyed it. It was challenging, and I definitely felt a bit of pain the next day. However, I’m already excited to go back!
It’s fun, and goals seem measurable. I felt like I lost a lot of anxious energy in the process and felt certain rushes that were a bit addictive. I was frightened to jump off an auto-belay (still am a bit) but the rush of falling on it is alluring.
I’m going to keep going when I can within the two weeks, but I can totally see myself continuing and buying my own gear. Maybe eventually I can lead climb and do real mountains!
I don’t know if it’s like the drastically changing season here or something, but I’m feeling a bit down, like I need to hibernate for a while. Maybe I exhausted a lot of energy lately and it’s catching up to me.
Life’s not always peachy and I’m feeling a bit anxious about many things but I’m also excited (but starting to stress about all the things I need to do) about my future wedding. There are many days where I feel the genuine peaks of happiness but then an occasional wave of depression hits and I feel exhausted.
Whatever it is, this autumn anxiety is real and I want to acknowledge it. I know I have been a bit absent from this blog after I broke my streak, but I think those breaks were needed. I don’t necessarily owe anyone an explanation why I haven’t been blogging that much, but I want to continue to acknowledge my mental illness if it makes someone out there feel less alone. 7 years ago, I made a conscious effort to deal with GAD unmedicated and I don’t regret it but some days are hard.
I’ve been away from the blog for a bit because my sister just got married this weekend. Even though it wasn’t my own, there was still a lot of running around getting everything organized for her big day.
Nash and I caught garter and the bridal bouquet, so I guess we really are next.
Now that my sister is married, we can focus on planning our own. I’m so excited. I felt like I learned a lot from the weekend on all the things that still need to be done.
I can’t believe we’re all grown up now and I’m super excited for my little sister.
When I was in Shediac (the lobster capital of the world), I visited the Giant Lobster.
For some reason, there was this random man eating horse carrots in front of the lobster.
My friends and I ran to the lobster when a group of kids got off so we could snap some photos.
Of course, I wanted to get one by myself too!
In January 2015, I started a blogging goal to post every day. I posted over 840 days in a row, but this week, I broke the streak. It was partially not by choice as internet on my East Coast vacation was sparse. It mostly required walking to a neighbourhood pizza place and looking like a weirdo on my computer at the beach if I was that desperate to post. It was hard at first, but I decided to break the streak.
What I discovered was a new calm. I didn’t feel the stress of needing to find content to post. I enjoyed every minute offline with friends in the beautiful scenery and taking small road trips. I have plenty of stuff to share and have a backlog of real posts (and not quick cop-out posts).
I know I previously didn’t want to break the streak, but I think quality is greater than quantity. I’ll still post as often as I have content, but getting rid of the need to fill every day with a post will be better for my mental sanity.
I’m currently sitting at the airport, but get ready for bunch of adventure posts in the next few days!
Tiana Feng 