life is crazy!

working life is so regulated. i never feel like i do anything but work sleep work sleep, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's weird to look back and be like, whoa. three weeks just went by and i didn't even feel it. this must be how people get old.

the christmas holidays are upon us and i don't know when i'll have the time to shop, seeing as i have holiday thingz planned for every weekend for the next month and a half or so! i think this weekend is my one spare weekend of mad shopping/crafting/card-making time. it should be fun.

work is busy. i don't feel so much like i'm in training anymore, which is nice. i still have to figure out some subtleties of the workplace though, such as -- is it ever okay to wear totally chipped nail polish to work (esp when you have meetings?). probably not. i should amend that.

in other news, i'm excited to move onto harry potter and the chamber of secrets in a few days. it's such fun to reread the hp books again! i also want to read some other books that i never got to -- i just finished a reread of the hours and it was the loveliest. recommend recommend recommend. i'm trying to get into man walks into a room by nicole krauss (author of the history of love and wife to jonathan safran foer) but i'm having a tough time becoming immersed.

today after work i went to the gym, frosted a bunch of cupcakes and did some watercoloring. katrina kay, there shall be a very belated birthday card in the mail for youuuuu!

wow, that was a disjointed blog post huh.

dressing like a crazy person before bed because i'm not allowed to at work anymore :(

typical:

oh you know, just hanging out in my kitchen after a day of work + gym + dinner, baking cupcakes and watercoloring christmas koalas.

i ruff you!

paydayyyyyy

is always a good day. :)

Holden Caulfield inspired fashion. 

Too good.

comment below if you'd like a christmas card!

just to show you how unaccustomed i am to any sort of exercise:

i was certain that i had some sort of stomachache all morning. i just realized that this unfamiliar feeling is soreness from my gym expedition yesterday. oh, teresa. how silly and unfit you are.


i think i will go again today, provided i find some more food to fill my stomach beforehand! the fun-sized pack of skittles i'm eating right now doesn't count.

baby, it's cold outside

MAD MEN SEASONS ON AMAZON FOR $10/EACH

happyhappyhappyhappy

thank god for cyber monday, too bad my checking account is draining (but at least i got those dvds!!!)

hp book club night :)

100 pages in! 

bed on wheels + hardwood floor = the bane of my existence

seriously. i'm constantly in motion.

oh hai, hp book club of twoooo!!!

My day: 

-byebye to relatives, 

-food and HP book club wif kyle, 

-gym gym gym,

-figuring out my new gps!!!

-meeting with former boss BECAUSE WHY AM I NOT DONE WITH THE WORK FOR THIS SHIT?! fucking campaign = worst decision i ever made, 

-SHLEEEEP.

I am so done with this campaign business it's not even funny. HELLO, PEOPLE. I HAVE A NEW JOB. I HAVED MOVED ON. LEAVE ME IN PEACE.

BLARRGGGH. 

yesterday, i met a police dog reject at the mall.

his name was benny and he had been in training for four years (aka too long) and had just graduated from his training program. despite these four years, he STILL couldn't do basic obedience correctly when his handler tried to show us some tricks. when told to come sit at his handler's side, he would mess up and sit three feet away, then scoot over slowly on his butt once he was scolded. it was the cutest thing EVER. it was also cute/sad that he was stationed at the mall food court.

i want a dumb pup!

also, megamind was fantastic. really. you should watch it.

dear world:

i bought a gym membership! are you proud of me, or what? tomorrow --> my first day at the gym in order to amend these past few days of endless eating. no i do not regret those 40 deep fried shrimp balls. or those hamburgers. or all those eggrolls. or the two costco sized chocolate cakes. or the asian stuffed turkey (don't ask).

ALL SOO GOOOODDDD.

i love being well-fed.

Thanksgiving weekend =

a million family parties, food food food 20 times per day, ridiculous games of charades, nerf guns, terrible regrettable Black Friday shopping adventures, sleep deprivation x every night, movies and giggles, and pictures with Dugg. <3

"No, I can TOTALLY drive all the kids tonight, uncle. I've been driving for... three whole weeks."

Admittedly, not the most comforting thing I've ever said.

current dog breed obsession: the basenji

They look like athletic corgis!

I had a dream that I was on Project Write-way (that's RIGHT, the English nerd's equivalent of Project Runway). One of the other contestants was Artemis Fowl, no joke. He was the show's "young prodigy" and he was just as much of a brat in my dream as he was in the books. He kept kicking the back of my chair while I was trying to write.

the most perfectest watch i've ever seen:

From Uniform Wares. Maybe someday, when I inexplicably have a great deal of disposable income. 

so beautiful. i could listen to this for yearsss.

I suspect that most books that try to make history "funny" fail at doing so and, in the process, neglect real insight and present a narrative that is much less in-depth than it could have been. People need to either a) get a better sense of humor, or b) write history in a way that is engaging without relying on gimmicks or bad jokes. 

Disappointing :(. I probably won't be finishing this one. On to reading the entirety of Self Help by Lorrie Moore (which will undoubtedly be pure genius). Lord knows I need a book bearing that title, mehe. 

if wes anderson directed spiderman:

this cracks me up more than it probably should.

genius.

another embarrassing thing to reveal to you, my readers in the blogosphere:

GUESS WHAT I'M LISTENING TO WHILE I CLEAN BEFORE GUESTS ARRIVEEEE...

HAPPY THANKSGIVING WORLD

Today I'm dressed like an 80s housewife, which is appropriate for a day of cooking, eating and cleaning. This year, I am thankful for employment, for friends near and far, for Kyle, for the Daily Puppy, for Netflix instant streaming, for my driver's license, for little brothers, for Abe Books (free shipping on used books!), and for cold weather (finally!). 

There are probably a million other things, but now I must scurry to church! Have a wonderful day, everyone. 

Cool movie, available on Netflix instant streaming if you're interested.

You know what ELSE is now available on Netflix instant stream?!!! NONE OTHER THAN THE HUMAN CENTIPEDE.

I hope I never get curious enough to click on that. Urgh.

FAR EAST MOVEMENT

yes, i have the whole album. yes, i love it.

$1.50 at Target during 90% Halloween costume sales

SO WORTH IT.

A great article HERE written by a journalist who went undercover at a religious gay-to-straight conversion camp. SOO APPALLING.

hello, renaissance.

 These photos by Christian Tagliavini are spectacular.

a quote worthy of thanksgiving

"And finally, I believe in my whole race. Yellow, white, black, red, brown. In the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being. I believe that we have come this far by the skin of our teeth. That we always make it just by the skin of our teeth, but that we will always make it. Survive. Endure. I believe that this hairless embryo with the aching, oversize brain case and the opposable thumb, this animal barely up from the apes will endure. Will endure longer than his home planet -- will spread out to the stars and beyond, carrying with him his honesty and his insatiable curiosity, his unlimited courage and his noble essential decency.


This I believe with all my heart."

Robert A. Heinlein

to shop or not to shop on black friday?

i still have yet to decideeee. maybe i'll just wake up super early (or STAY UP) and take advantage of online deals. that way, i can shop in my pajamas with a mug of hot chocolate at my side. the amazon kindle (second gen) is going to be on sale for $89 and i'm debating whether that's low enough/worth it? we shall see. if i could get the bulk of my christmas shopping done in the wee hours this friday, i'd be pretty grateful.

ps: i'm not paying rent at home so i've decided to earn my keep in pricey presents. whose parents are going on a cruise this february?! mineeee. yay.

pps: it's sobering to realize that 1/3 of one's paycheck is automatically subtracted for tax reasons. i think. i haven't gotten my first paycheck yet (i believe that's next weeeeek!) but i am sure it will be far lower than i thought. oh well!

Maybe THIS will give me the motivation I need to start going to the gym. It only comes out to about $12.50 a month, so not bad for gym membership! Thank goodness for Costco, amiright?

A fascinating article on the recent proliferation of "priv-lit" and how it's marketed to women through novels that extol the importance of "finding oneself" through means that are only possible for a specific subset of "wealthy, whiny, white" individuals.

I found that a lot of this held true for me, especially when considering how as a culture (especially within a female realm) it seems so important now to "find oneself" when the entire notion of that is a little bit self-entitled and irresponsible.

I would never...

... but that is just adorable.

I need a puppy purely so it can "eat" this holiday dinner next to me during Thanksgiving or Christmas. TOO CUTE.

another day, another work appropriate outfit

I'm going to start running out of these soon. Also, WHY IS WAKING UP IN THE MORNING SO PAINFUL STILL?! 

 BACKSTREET BOYS ON TOUR.
I'M SO EXIOU;ALKJW;TE ICANTEVENTYPE.
THEY'RE COMINGTO SAN JOSE IN JULY. HOLYCRAP.

LOVE THAT DRESS.

I am so excited to watch a royal wedding on television! How silly, right? I bet it's going to be so excessive and fancy. 

Who needs to start exercising?

I needs to start exercising! I feel like I'm getting so... flabby from inactivity and stress eating, yuck.

Kyle, my brother and I spent too much time last night looking up Arnold Schwarzenegger commercials from Japan. Here, for your viewing pleasure, we bring you Arnold's complete Japanese commercial filmography. ENJOY. IT'S BRILLIANT.

I'm dead tired.

Sleep come easy, please. I am so exhausted (for some reason) and don't want to talk to anyone, which is a career necessity for me. I need to be chatty and chirpy at work tomorrow morn!

happy holidays!

We so Asian. 

thunder and lightning and rain clouds, oh my!

It's storming like CRAZY outside (which obviously ruined my ice skating plans, boo), and Kyle has fallen asleep in our guest bedroom with Dugg. My parents are off at a gio (death day gathering sort of thing) and I don't know what to do with myself! HI GUYS. 

YESYESYES

"He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."

“Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it.”

- Maurice Sendak

OKAY, DIRECTOR OF TWILIGHT. STOP RUINING LIVES.

Okay, so Stephenie Meyer is clearly at the root of this whole Twilight scourge and the mutilation of the entire vampire genre. HOWEVER, the director of Twilight has seemingly gone out and destroyed my absolute favorite fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood by turning into a tale about...

I don't even know. Just watch it. I think it's about a girl in a red cape and two dudes who are probably from shows on The WB, if that's still a thing. I'm heartbroken. How about a good film adaptation of Little Red Riding Hood that's NOT aimed at dumb teenage girls in love with supernaturally broody boys, eh?

angsty song of my youth, i love you tonight!

I started to get embarrassed by this, and then I realized how many times I've posted Bright Eyes songs on here before (more than once). IT'S NOTHING TO BE EMBARRASSED ABOUT, OK? So what if I could listen to Conor Oberst forever?

sometimes i like to pretend that my hair is still short

HALLO!

TGIF: just came home from a rainy cold Warriors game in which we lost :(, but it was still fun to bond with my brother and scream and marvel at how many Filipino fans the Warriors have! 

I've been feeling very "adult" this week and I feel like I've made some important milestones, such as handing out my business for realzy for the first time instead of the usual, "LOOK MOM, I HAVE A BUSINESS CARD. HERE, TAKE FIVE!"

Work is enjoyable and rewarding so far, which gives me cautious hope that perhaps adult working life is not so bad after all! However, it is quite a shock to look at one's work calendar and realize that school breaks exist no more. HELLO, nine days of holiday per year. 

Things of Note and My Weekend Plans

-Harry Potter premieres tonight, but I will regrettably not be in line as I have work EARLY tomorrow and must therefore go to bed immediately after I publish this blog post. Nonetheless, HP, I <3 YOU. As part of our "Stay close even while geographically distant!" plan, Kyle and I are going to start a book club of 2 and revisit the entire HP series after Thanksgiving break (as we both need to go dig up our books). I'm looking forward to it!

-I go to a Warriors vs. Knicks game tomorrow night with my little brother! This is very exciting because a) I never attend sporting events, b) I've been so busy lately that I hardly talk to my brother except for a few words at dinner, and c) we have our outfits planned! I mean, they just consist of t-shirts and jeans, but still... bonding time, bonding time!

-My weekend plans with Kyle so far consist of eating many desserts, ice skating, going to the art museum and watching Love Actually on a rainy day. All of this is enough to keep me happy forever. 

-I go to my first client meeting tomorrow! It's so exciting to be thrown into the workplace and see all the facets of how a PR firm works. It's extremely overwhelming/challenging because there are so many things to learn and so many tasks and accounts to juggle, but the whole endeavor makes me feel very adult and like I have a real grown-up job. Also, I have business cards!

-FM 96.5 now plays exclusively Christmas music, hell yeah. 

-I had a massive fail with red velvet cupcakes the other night in which I accidentally used a whole packet of baking powder and everything tasted like metal and I had to scrap all my cupcake batter. I plan to try again soon though, perhaps next week once the shame has faded.

-I have a tinsel headband and I wear it everyday and dance around my room to "All I Want for Christmas Is You" (the Mariah Carey version, of course). I highly recommend that you all do this. The headbands can be found at the Target Dollar Spot for (you guessed it!) $1. 

- I need to sleep. NOW. <3 

I know dream posts suck, but...

I had the craziest dream last night in which I had a haunted locket that kept inflicting mysterious welts on me and no one believed me except for my mom, who happened to be Jada Pinkett Smith and finally the locket tried to throw me out of the second story window of my house and I was like "NO WAY HAUNTED NECKLACE OF DOOM," and tore it off my neck and threw it out the window.

The end.

getting somewhat accustomed to dressing business-y

not so accustomed to waking up at 6 a.m. yet (as;fjwlkfjalsk;fjsdk;jw) but i'm sure that in a couple weeks i'll adjust... 

in case you're wondering, this is gonna start being my daily schedule: 

6 a.m. - wake up, eat a piece of fruit, treadmill 

6:45 a.m. - start working from home 

7:45 a.m. - shower, dress

8:30-9 a.m. - get to work

9 - 5 or 6 or 7?!! - work work work work work

and then dinner, vidchat with kyle, read/watch television, WHATEVS, and finally, sleep at 10 p.m. 

adult life is so... scheduled. 

training oneself to sleep at 10 p.m. is no easy task

i predict that it will take at LEAST 2-3 weeks of exhaustion during the workday to get my sleeping schedule on track. until then, i shall read until i get sleepy. tonight's book: the hours. anyone who feels like they would enjoy a tribute to virginia woolf should read it. it's beautiful.

exciting things:

-CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!
-the cuteness/excitement of my new employment :)
-kyle coming up on saturday! ice skating + desserts + other seasonal things
-getting back into the magic of Glee
-being able to drive! finalement! (let's not mention the little mishap with the one way street today... :/ that was no good, no good at all)
-etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

f21 releases a disney inspired line

SO CUTE. i can't wait to see the clothes.

catching up on glee so i can fit in at work :)

the perfect excuse to veg out in bed and watch high school singing!

back from my first day at work!

i like work a lot. it's going to be pretty intensive (definitely NOT a 9-5 job), but i love my work environment and my coworkers are all super nice and the accounts that i'm working on seem really interesting and diverse. the fact that i'm on such a day-to-day schedule and the fact that i work in a pretty much all female office (or at least in all female teams) makes it feel a LOT like high school. not in a bad way.

SO EXCITED FOR MY FIRST DAY OF WORK

I can't wait to have business cards and client meetings and other adult things on my plate :).

coffee and cigarettes
as simple as it gets
of all the things i think i'll miss
there's staying up with you
coffee and cigarettes

HEY GUYS

Give me your feel-good Christmas mix recommendations please! I'm ready to start listening to Christmas music 24/7.

tea, festive garments, eggnog cookies and a "when harry met sally" movie date with kyle. RECLUSIVE SATURDAY NIGHTS, FTW.

what i'm watching right now:

dress-up saturday

are lace cardigans (on sale for $4 at target!) and side ponytails tacky or what? and isn't dugg the sexiest bitch you've ever seen? SO FESTIVE. we share wardrobes.

"I am not sure I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited."

-Jorge Luis Borges

conversations that only occur when your mother is a 2nd grade teacher:

"Good morning, Mom. Wait... what? NO MOM, I'M NOT CHECKING YOUR HEAD FOR LICE. GET OUT OF MY BED. ARGH. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"

So, there's a lice infestation in my mother's classroom. Fingers crossed that it doesn't spread to my home.

poor dino...

fiskar's cuts+more multi-scissors

AMAZING. I NEED IT. 

NEVER SAY NEVER

need it need it need it

All from ASOS

Oh hello, Internet, what have we here? 

ARE YOU JEALOUS, INTERNET? ARE YOU JEALOUS YET? BECAUSE YOU SHOULD BE.

Stopped by a quaint little bakery on the way home from work today because I've been watching Cake Boss obsessively with Kyle over the past week and I could go no longer without some delicious baked goods. Went to Dick's Bakery based off of some very positive reviews on Yelp and am super pleased with my choice! Everything was delicious, and the burnt almond cake totally does live up to the hype. It's heavenly. 

Ohgah. 

More Cake Boss, now! 

inspired by the video below

schoolboy chic.

I don't watch Glee (or any TV that isn't available on instant streaming for Netflix) anymore, but...

YES, PLEASE. I secretly love Teenage Dream and sing along every time it's on the radio.

PS- Those uniforms are amazing. I want one. I'd wear that blazer every day.

"Let me live, love and say it well in good sentences." - Sylvia Plath

just came back from an allergy skin test

and now my whole back is covered in bumps and redness. see those papers? EVERYTHING HIGHLIGHTED = I AM ALLERGIC TO. incredible! 

also, i have a tinsel headband that my mom gave me. :) 

Misty Pokemon Costume

And no, there's no real reason why I'm doing this. 

a movie about a racist dog

"White Dog," now on instant streaming for Netflix!

a future halloween costume idea

Calvin and Hobbes 4 lyf. 

i like it.

"Oh the Glory of it All" by Sean Wilsey looks interesting and might be the next memoir that I pick up. It's been favorably compared to "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" by Dave Eggers, so it will probably be worthwhile. Besides, I have a soft spot for books about children growing up in absurdly wealthy families. Maybe it's just a bi-product of going to private schools and being around absurdly wealthy people and yet coming from a middle class family. 

good things happening in this photo:

1. the existence of my big ben moon beam clock, a gift from kyle. it's cute and perfect and is such a friendly-looking alarm to wake up to!

2. an apple a day keeps the doctor away. 

3. intellectual stimulation in the form of a book about the french revolution. 

4. a turban you cannot see. 

no one in my family believes me when i say that turbans are the current headwear trend

i'm not sure either, but this one's knitted and comfy, so i can't resist at least wearing it around the house until i gain the confidence to go outdoors. 

I need me some earmuffs in this weather

Love the tousled hair + earmuffs + perfectttt toggle coat shown here. That's what I want to look like through cold weather, yum.

PS- Is anyone else listening to Christmas music already?

in other poetry news:

im thinking of writing poems dedicated to my faves people again! no deadlines, just know that you might have a poem written about you soon :).

a poem, written dans le train

The Sick

On a cliff he waits, black hair and blacker eyes

a ravenous bird, hollow to the bones.

The girl finds him, stumbles across his watchful gaze

on the way to school, pleated skirts, pink mouth.

She moves him to a hole in the knotted wood

of the tree that leans over the edge of the cliff, defiant.

Youth is a ribbon in the hair, dirt beneath the nails,

a girl who buries porcelain dolls and sends letters down streams.

In the evening, she will find him waiting with a sharpened mouth,

his coat gleaming, his eyes round and hard like pebbles in water.

She wraps him in her scarf, too young still

to understand the nature of his animal sickness, the twisting of it.

The darkness comes sooner this time of year

and the girl hurries  toward home, her feet falling like stones on the path.

The bird lies at her chest, sick and beating the tip

of his beak against her, bleeding the one that he would love 

if his breast was not hollow, if his eyes were not stone. 

----

I am writing poetry again, which is fun! I miss writing so so much; being back in Davis and running into millions of fellow writers only made me remember it. I was sifting through a lot of old (and very bad) poems whilst on the train and there are a few that I'd like to rework. Right now, I'm contemplating this intriguing fragment, found in a mishmash of poetic musings from three years ago: "You left your legs in my bed." 

WHAT TO WRITE. 

"Packing" for my train ride home/displeased with having to leave le garcon/not quite prepared to face the mounds of database consolidation that await me. 

HOWEVER, on a brighter note -- I am quite excited about starting my new job! Monday, eeeee!