Day 304: happy Halloween!

Was debating on which picture of Matty I should use for my Halloween post... I mean, he had some great ones with his full costume on (he was a dinosaur), complete with his dinosaur poses. And then it got even more awesome when he had to put his bomber jacket on since it was too cold to go outside without it. Thus making him an aviator dinosaur (or lizard. he did look like a lizard. haha). But this one was just too funny.

Halloween is totally about counting your candy without your pants on... ;)

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Day 303: slight improvement

Was forced to go to the doctor (I hate the doctor) and get out of my sweats. Have gotten slightly better though the meds make me feel gross. :(


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Day 302: sick

Missed out on the Halloween fun at work because I got sick. :( woooooo tv and being cooped up indoors. My only consolation was that I was with my family so I had company and caretakers. :)





God, I look disgusting! :(

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Day 301: cuteness personified

Briefly met a little girl named Rory today and was completely won over by her smile and cheery demeanor. There aren't a lot of little girls in my family, what with AJ, Ethan, Tristan, Leo, Daji, Matty, Kinji, and Kian. Just Gabi, who is growing so quickly (and is eerily very similar to her Auntie Joyce from the younger years...reading books in the corner at parties, spacing out in front of the tv, moving at ridiculously slow paces and annoying her mother in the process)... so it was such a delight to hang with a cute little baby, bundled up in pink and just cooing like I'm the most interesting strange lady in the world. :)

Such a bright spot to my day with all that's going on right now...


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Day 300: work work work

Finished all the Saudi files I had on file as well as all the other ones I had due from now until the 8th of November...




The sad part? I'm nowhere near close to clearing out the fortress that's been building on my desk...:(
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Day 299: work = insanity

I've been covering two desks at work for about two months already and on a normal day, my desk looks like:




Someday, they will hire someone and I can have some semblance of sanity at work again. Sigh

P.S. Yes, the jonas bros poster from my mom is still hanging there. :)

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Day 298: laziness is a disease

...thus my quick snap of the flowers I have on my shelf...



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Day 297: hair experimentation with stad

She's going to look soooo good at the wedding... Wish I'd taken a better picture...sigh. I'm such the slacker now.




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Day 296: love and bubbles

Jen and Sean finally got married!

It was a beautiful day, from the weather, to the ceremony, to the flowers to the bride and groom. It was chaotic, to say the least, but filled with absolute joy...

Here's the awesome thing about this picture:

There's bubbles flying everywhere (and if you were there, you'd have seen that this was no small feat. It was not just a couple of people blowing furiously to make bubbles. There was a huge crowd!). So there we were, standing among dozens of people just standing around blowing bubbles and cheering and laughing and talking. The wedding party was running around, bridesmaids shivering, and groomsmen trying to keep the girls warm while posing for pictures and being there to support the happy couple. Sean and Jen's parents were still busy greeting guests. The photographer was snapping photos furiously and the videographer was just trying to capture it all. All really cool things...

But the really awesome part? Amidst all this, Jen and Sean are just gazing at each other. And that brief moment between them was all that seemed to really matter. I feel a little glad/heartwarmed/embarrassed at having caught what felt like such a private moment for just the two of them... but happy for them nonetheless.

Love love love.



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Day 295: never say never...

Last day of Jeff's block leave before Afghanistan... :(

Today I think of the surprises life throws at you when you're not looking.

In case you're just joining me here on Day 295, I will let you in on a well-known secret around here (much like the contradiction that I find I am): I started this blog because of heartbreak. I had started the year off just wanting to heal and I thought the best way to do so was to keep busy and remind myself to find the beauty in every single day of the year. It was a single task with lofty goals and it helped to pass each day without making me feel overwhelmed by the loneliness I had felt…

When I think of how the year had started, I never imagined I would be where I am now. I thought that while it would be nice, I would never be as happy as I had been. I thought I would never find the courage to be fearless again. I thought I would never find someone who could understand and care for me as I was and who I would care for in return. I never thought I would find someone worth all the trouble…

But here I am. And there he is. And here we are. Never what I thought, everything I want, more than I could have hoped.

It’s terrifying and wonderful and difficult and amazing all at the same time…:)

Here's hoping this next year apart will go the same way as the past 294 days of this year...quickly!

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Day 294: the dangers of cooking for boyfriend...

I never seem to take pictures of the food I make. Usually because I'm starving by the time I finish so it's scarfed down before I get the chance.

Made chicken parmesan for Jeff and I must have done a good job because he ate to the point where he could not move. He just kind of lay there for a long while before he got up to leave. Ahahah success!!!

He says I'll make him super gross fat. Hahaha




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Day 293: because we ate the adobo too quickly..

All I had time/energy to take a picture of was the jalapeño cheese snacks that I bought from trader joe's...




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Day 292: a random picture for a random night

Oscar the Grouch's picture right behind a dumpster. Nice. He doesn't at all describe the night Jeff and I had. Just a random picture to match the mood of the evening...

Jeff and I celebrated our two month anniversary last night (I know! It's only been two months! We say all the time that it feels longer than that, probably because I made him wait to date me for an obscene amount of time! But that's neither here nor there in this story. lol)

Aaaanyway. We decided to go to The Park on 10th Avenue for dinner because the place looked nice and the food sounded good. So we got dressed up and went to dinner. The Park was pretty cool looking on the inside, and the food was decent enough, but our waiter was lame and took too long and when I finally said something about it at the end of the night when he made us wait thirty minutes after having given us the dessert menu, he apologized and cut our bill in half. (That's probably the nicest thing anyone in the food industry has ever done after I've complained about crappy service, so he ended up getting a tip anyway) After finally paying and leaving, we started our (what ultimately ended up being a very long) walk home, we both went in search of dessert in the form of hot fudge sundaes. We must have passed three or so diners without any of them having hot fudge before we finally ended up at McDonalds on Waverly and Boradway where some random ass dude was trying to plug his 20 inch old ass fat tv into an outlet on the counters where customers can charge their phones or their laptops because he wanted to watch something. They told him he couldn't put it on the counter so he set it on the stool only to be disappointed at the fact that there was no cable offered at McDonalds. THEN we tried taking the train back but missed the last one, took random just-the-two-of-us pictures before giving up on the train and going back up to take a cab home where we gave directions to a British couple trying to make their way back to 103rd street only to realize a minute later that I gave them the wrong directions and had Jeff chase after them to give them the right ones (we had a nice ten minute conversation) and THEN we went to get some cash at the nearby gas station (which I think is the one in Zoolander where all his model friends die in the gas fire/explosion) so we can afford to catch a cab except we couldn't seem to get one when a limo pulls up and says, "trying to catch a cab? take a limo!" and so we did. Take a limo back for ten bucks. Which I later figured may not have been a good idea on account of the fact that we were riding in a limo into my ghetto neighborhood and stopping in front of the shady deli where all the crackpots hang out. Nice. Oh well.

See? Told you it was random. :)

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Day 291: let's hear it for new york (new york, new york, new york...)

Went to Red Lobster for dinner and rather than posting a picture of the Ultimate Feast aftermath, I have opted for a snapshot of when I decided to make like tourists and take a few city pictures... It was a clear night and you could see straight down 42nd street to see the Chrysler Building in the distance...Gotta love city lights...


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Day 290: lazy Sunday

View from my bed...at two in the afternoon...:)




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Day 289: matty rules the house

My godson Matty had a fever and spent the night with mom and dad at his beck and call...

Here he is just watching whatever he wants on tv...





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Day 288: laziness=dots

Yup. Dots. In my room. Because I'm lazy. Lol



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Day 287: end of an era...again...

Luca's moving to Vancouver, which means I lose my karaoke partner again. :(

While this means goodbye to semi-regular karaoke sessions and the ability to go at a moment's notice, I have been assured we are, after all, lifetime kinds of friends so it's not like it's goodbye. More like, see ya in a bit...





We'll always have our Britney/Madonna song...:)

Day 286: drinks at the boat

Jeff and I met up with his friend Kyle at a bar called The Boat where I spent most of my time enthralled by the bartender... She poured drinks sooo well. I hope if I ever make it as a bartender, I'm just as good. Didn't get any pictures of her or her awesome black eye, but the lights at the bar were cool!




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Day 285: "the apocalicks!!"

That's what I said when DJ said the sky scared her.

I think it looks pretty. :)


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Day 284: Green light means go

Was walking to the Jay Street-Borough Hall station after it poured and saw allll green lights down the street...which isn't too visible here since it's just a camera phone and I was afraid of getting hit by cars for standing in the middle of the street...




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Day 283: so this is what failure feels like....

I woke up the morning of day 284 and realized in horror that I did not take one single picture for Day 283. :( what an epic failure. It's the first time I didn't pull through all year. :( poopoo for me. :(

Buuuuut on the bright side:
1) I was having so much fun that I kind of just forgot and if that was my reason, I can hardly feel terrible about getting caught up with living life.
2) it took me 283 days to mess up just the once so I'm at least not as big of a flake as I once thought. Lol
3) it's not the end of the world. "Marilla, isn't it nice to think that tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it yet?" -Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

Now on to Day 284. :)


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Day 282: "Spartaaaans! What is your profession??"

My State shirt! Courtesy of boyfriend:




...Watched my first Michigan State (or rather, football) game in entirety. And when I say I watched it, I mean I actually watched in entirety and paid attention and I didn't even bet any money on it or anything! :)

It was a great game and State kicked the shiz out of Michigan. :)

The best part was how we were surrounded by all these Michigan fans who were loud and obnoxious...until it was clear that State was going to win. :)

Football is kinda fun.




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Day 281: total slacker

Thursday night dancing to Indian beats mean that the only picture I took for the day was in the wee hours when me, the Pooj, and Olga went to the diner and I had some very delicious banana bread pudding. Sooooo good.




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Day 280: driving home in the sunshine

The sun finally came out! Brandon put the sun roof back so we could feel some sun on our drive home...

I'd love to wax poetic on how good this picture of my reflection came out, but honestly, I'm just surprised it came out on the first try! Yay!




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Day 279: Hula hooping time!

I think I'm getting happy fat. You know, where you're in a relationship and you're so happy that there isn't much emotional stress to keep your appetite in check.... It hasn't spiraled out of control yet, but I've gained about four or five pounds. :( I'm still at a 23-25 lb deficit, buuut I'd rather my original 28-30lb weight loss. Sounds nicer.

Enter hula hoop! Weighted hula hoop, actually! At 4lbs, ten minutes with this bad boy a day is said to equal the calorie expenditure of running an 8 minute mile, and we all know how utterly lazy I am about running or anything that looks like exercise... So! Hula hoop it is!

Let the fun and soreness begin!





Isn't it cool/amazing/talented of me to be able to take pictures and hula hoop at the same time??? :)

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Day 278: David the Gnome finds a purpose....

Got a gnome candle holder as a bridal shower and as I try not to start fires unless absolutely necessary, found something else to use him for...




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Day 277: best smile award

Went to Kum Gang San with Luca for what seems like the last time (if not forever, then at least for a while)... Always a good time catching up! We found this sign rather amusing when we were on the way out...



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Day 276: let's go ride bikes!

This is what happen when you have 6 people and only four bikes. You have to take turns. :)



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Day 275: father-son playtime!

Sooo cute, they were playing cars together...




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Day 274: home like a loser...

Well... Supposed loser. At least that's how I feel sometimes when I'm home on a Friday... But whatever, I like the downtime.

Because I didn't go anywhere, I had to look around for something to take a picture of...





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Day 273: Happily Ever After....

So I don't know how to rotate pictures on this thing... Poops. Whoever is reading this can just tilt their head to the side because I will probably not go back and fix this later. Haha

My dad bought me this book several years ago during my first and only full summer off from college spent in Vegas… We used to spend hours and hours just chilling at the Barnes and Noble and this one was sitting in the bargain bin. As a young and innocent (!!! I know! We are a dying breed!) nineteen year old girl who had never really had a boyfriend and was such a hopeless romantic, I had been intrigued from the get-go and four dollars seemed like a small price to pay for life lessons on getting my very own Happily Ever After… So my dad plunked down the money and I finished the book in about an hour (speed reader. It’s a blessing AND a curse, considering I finish books so quickly and then am sorry I didn’t slow down to enjoy it more).

Anyway. I kept that book with me after all these years. Granted, I had left it in Vegas and only reclaimed it last Christmas after I went home to pack up my parents’ house since they were selling it and moving to Korea (my parents The Adventurers!). It’s been sitting in my apartment ever since, ready to entertain me on a whim. I picked it up again last night and reread my favorite section: The Princess and The Pea. Posted here in case anyone felt like reading a bedtime story:

**************start excerpt*****************


The Princess and the Pea: Royal Pain Snags Prince By Showing True Self
There's a prince who wants to get married. He dates every princess on the planet, but no one meets his precise (if somewhat wacky) standards of "real" princessness. Back home, depressed, moping about the castle on a rainy night, he hears a knock on the door. Standing in the rain, dripping wet head to toe, is a young woman who claims to be a princess.

The king and queen take her in for the night. The queen decides to test the self-proclaimed princess to see if she is the real deal. She puts a pea under the mattress in the guest room, piling twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty eiderdown comforters on top of those.

In the morning, when asked how she slept, the princess complains about a lump in her bed that kept her up all night, bruising her black-and-blue. (She doesn't, oddly enough, complain about being forced to sleep high atop a weaving tower of bedding.)

Oh, she's so sensitive as to feel a pea beneath all those mattresses! She must be a real princess! (The prince decides.) At last! And when they least expected! The Prince marries her and they live happily, if oversensitively, ever after.

------------------------------------------

The Princess and the Pea: Savvy Dater Reading

Okay, this is a ridiculous story. You don't show up, uninvited and dripping wet, at someone's castle, demanding accomodations. It's not only rude, but it also suggests a myriad of personal problems. Why are you wandering around in the rain alone in the middle of the night? Did your parents/boyfriend/cellmates kick you out? Di dyou forget to take your medicine, an omission that sent you running headlong into the rain in a psychotic fit? Are you a clever thief who relies on inclement weather and your own waifish charm as tools of entry? What dysfunction do you have?

Not only that, if the castle owners overlook the obvious warning signs and offer you respite for the night, don't spend the breakfast hour complaining about your bedroom. If you're begging for bedding, you can't expect the Ritz. Especially when you arrive without a gift for your hosts. This princess had deplorable manners.

That's my opinion, but obviously not the prince's. He had his own ideas about what makes a person a princess-- hypersensitivity to barely discernable objects, for example, rather than a sunny disposition or appropriate gratitude.

The princess showed up at the castle and claimed royal birth, despite looking like a runaway. She didn't have snapshots of her moat and drawbridge or a glittery crown on her head. But she had the confidence to know that her inner nobility would shine through, even without proof of pedigree.

The princess did not try to modify her behavior-- pretending to be easy going and pleasant, for example-- in her efforts to charm the prince. She knew that the right man would love her as she was. He would see her fussiness as a sign of fineness, her querulousness as fit for a queen.

------------------------

The Princess and the Pea: Relationship Rules in Brief

** Don't censor your behavior to "land" a man. What if you get him? You're looking at a life of biting your tongue and stifling your laugh--for someone you may not even like.

** Know your inner, important qualities radiate from you, even if a flash flood has flattened your hair and liquefied your mascara, leaving streaks on your cheeks like an extra from Braveheart.

** Don't take one man't rejection as a reflection of your worth. Different traits attract different people.

** Know what you want in a person and wait for someone who has those internal qualities.

---------------------------------

Fairy Tale Formula Rule 2:

Whoever you are, you are someone's ideal. Hold out for the person who sees you as his.

****************end excerpt*****************

Consisting of ten summaries of fairy tales and the lessons we can learn from it, it was a cute and interesting book. The lessons in it were common sense, probably, but it spelled everything out for you… This one was my favorite because while the story is not really the one I like best, the lesson is something I can relate to. I have always seen myself as someone with peculiarities: I’m low maintenance yet high maintenance; I’m social but awkward and shy; Simple yet complicated; I’m easy going yet uptight; I’m generous yet stingy; the contradictions could go on and on…. Basically, I am a whole mix of random, quirky, unpredictable things which I think would make it hard for a person to date me in the long term… This part of the book always used to remind me from time to time that I didn’t need to change for anyone. While I believe that people do change every day, I never believed that anyone should actively change who they are for someone else in a relationship. Change happens naturally, and only if you want it for yourself…

Anyway. Even though the book told me to at nineteen, I think I had to learn the lesson through experience anyway. I haven’t had all too many relationships, but the ones I had taught me a lot of lessons. Well, I am always learning (as I tried my hand at going on a few first dates). This was probably the most important one… to hold out for the person who sees you for you; who accepts you and loves you as you are. I’ve had guys like me before…until they realize I’m more complicated than they expected… once I finally fully figured that out, this lesson finally took root in me. You can’t love a person fully if you love blindly…(The phrase “Clear eyes, full hearts: Can’t lose” comes to mind. Gotta love Friday Night Lights, so inspiring! Haha)

It took me several years to figure some of this stuff out… I’ve always jumped into things without fear, filled with hope, and blindly trusted that I would land on my feet and be fine. I used to miss that part of me. As I grew older, I took more risks and learned more fear. I worried that it would take hold of me… But I’m finding that fear just made me more cautious and slowed me down… and I must say that this time around, I’m glad I took my time… :)

At some point, I thought I stopped believing in “happily ever after” with anyone but myself… Perhaps it’s supposed to be like that. Once you realize you can envision living by yourself happily, it’s when you find someone to hold your hand along the way…

….and there is my random rambling for probably the month…. :)

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