daydreaming about style.

i spent saturday hanging out + catching up with erin. after getting some thai, which i'd been craving, we went to check out the new legends mall. i'm excited that there are now two bcbg stores so close to me. although our macy's has recently added a large bcbg section, it's just not the same as the actual stores. i enjoy them when i'm in vegas, so it could be dangerous now that they are such a short drive away. i consistently love the dresses and clothes put out by the brand. i also love the meaning behind the name... bon chic bon genre, which translates to good style good attitude. it's pretty true, wouldn't you agree?

so for a while now, i've been wanting to refine my style and cleanse my wardrobe. i'm sure i've mentioned it several times here. but i know i've also mentioned that i have a hard time getting rid of my clothes. i know it sounds silly to be sentimental and nostalgic about an article of clothing, but i am. the best method i've found to help me overcome this is to motivate myself though the reward system. if i get rid of clothes, i get to add new clothes. :]

so i've been daydreaming about new options lately and basically trying to envision the style i'd like to achieve. this weekend, i'm meeting up with my sister in SF, and i'm definitely excited to do some shopping. i'm looking forward to a visit to anthropologie. the one in SF is understandably huge. while i tend to admire most of their clothing options... i look at some of them and think "there's no way i could pull that off!", so actually visiting the store is always fun because i can see what might actually work for me. this shirt is a good example: i'm sort of in love with it, so i might have to try it on and see. hopefully my bank account won't get too upset.

ok. well. i'm going to finish up some more econ homework and head to bed. i have my midterm in public speaking on wednesday, so i need to catch up on the reading too. i have a feeling it's going to put me right to sleep though... it's just not very exciting. oh well. it will be over before i know it. :]

sunk costs.

james is having a good time teasing me about econ. he says i might be enjoying it too much. tonight i told him about the following...

"sunk costs are sunk and should not be considered in decision making."
ok. at first, when my professor said this i started laughing because i hate when people use a word in its definition. but then she told us that once people have a good understanding of sunk costs, it can be really freeing. so i started to pay attention again. :]
she explained that if you wait in line at the store for 10 minutes then a new line opens up and you have the opportunity to move and get checked out immediately, you move. you don't think about how you should stick it out in your original line because you already spent 10 minutes there. the time you spent in line is a sunk cost. it doesn't come into consideration when deciding to switch lines. pretty simple. pretty agreeable.
but when money is involved, it's harder to see it that way. if you pay $100 for a concert ticket that is nonrefundable and nontransferable, but then get terribly sick on the day of the concert, do you go to the concert? well. the $100 is a sunk cost. so you should only consider whether you will get any amount of enjoyment out of the concert or if you will be miserable during the concert and are better off at home. you shouldn't think about the $100 when making your decision. you should probably stay home and get better.
so seriously, how much easier would life be if i had the ability to think that way? i'm going to really try to consider sunk costs in the future.

so yes.
i am a nerd.
and i am enjoying econ.

i have to give my first speech tomorrow for public speaking. we have to talk about a current event and explain our personal connection to it. is it completely ridiculous that i'm going to talk about bark beetles? ha. they are pretty much always in the news because they are killing millions of acres of our forests, so finding an article shouldn't be too hard. and my personal connection? well. i wrote my thesis on the little pests. :]

back to school.

i started summer school again today.
i'm taking two more pharmacy pre-requisites: microeconomics and public speaking. easy peasy. :]
public speaking will hopefully be somewhat fun, and i'm hoping i might learn a couple techniques to help reduce my anxiety and physical signs of nervousness when speaking. i never freak out too badly, but i definitely get nervous before speeches. i got a lot better at it thanks to biochemistry and all the presentations required for thesis, but like i said... i still get nervous. i tend to talk faster and fidget a bit, so getting these habits under control would be good.
econ seems like it will be ok. the main thing that is going to get on my nerves about the course is how simplified everything becomes when economists try to make models. my class will focus on domestic economics, and i'm just not sure how relevant that is considering the amount of world trade that occurs today. we also don't take into account the government's role in the economy, which is obviously a huge factor. still, i'm going to try to take what i can from the course. i've never taken an econ class, so i'm sure there will be something to take away.

i also finally registered for the pcat last friday. so i have about 6 weeks to get myself ready. i have a 2 hour break between my two summer classes, so i'll be spending that time in the library either doing homework or studying for the pcat.

i think my biggest challenge on the pcat will be the chemistry portion. i've never been exceptionally good at chemistry, and it's not something i've really retained over the years... especially organic chem. i think that it's the most important component of the test to pharmacy schools, so i want to make sure i do well on it. i also need to review math. the pcat covers math through calculus, which will probably be the easiest of the math for me since it's the most recent material i've learned. still it was over four years ago. most of the math i haven't looked at since high school, so i need to definitely review and make sure i can do the problems quickly to make the best use of time. i think the biology portion will be fine for me. biology is my favorite of the sciences, and i tend to remember a lot of it. the only challenge will be the anatomy and physiology portion, since i've not taken that course yet in college. i'll need to prepare myself for that. otherwise, i'm not too worried about the verbal, reading comprehension, or writing portions. hopefully i will keep my test anxiety to a minimum and be able to do ok on it when the day arrives. :]

now onto more fun things. :]

i took a photo of the front cover of my art journal...
you can sort of see the strings there on the left side. i'm still searching for the perfect beads to add. and hopefully i'll stumble on some other fun ephemera to add to the cover.

i also finally finished this older layout the other night.

i made it at work a looooong time ago when i still worked at the scrapbook store. it's really a pretty simple layout. i really wanted to use that bag from the gift shop at the zoo... it turned out to take up more room than i anticipated, so i ended up with a rare two page layout. i intended to add some more embellishments or details or something to jazz the layout up a bit more, but i finally decided to just be done with it. it's been sitting unfinished for so long now, waiting for a few more photos and some journaling. i realized after i'd written in the journaling how lame it sounds. ha. that's something i need to get better about, but i always feel kind of funny writing about events. i guess the main problem is that i don't have an audience, so i'm never sure how to structure my writing and it ends up sounding sort of... i don't know... generic? oh well. at least this one is done now. :]

ok. well. i'm going to try to get some reading done for class tomorrow.

goodnight!

finished.

i finished this one up yesterday when i was supposed to be working on my art journal cover. ha. :]


i struggled with the planning stage quite a bit, and it turned out way different from the plan once i started actually cutting and assembling. one of these days i will learn to make myself stop pushing the paper around in an attempt to plan and just cut the paper and go for it. i'm not quite there yet.
i am pretty happy with how it came out though. especially considering my frustrations with not having any new photos and thinking there was no way i would get this photo to actually coordinate with the kit that i had spread all across my studio floor. [yay for having cleaned it and thus having room to spread the contents all over. ha.] i finally decided to keep it simple and go with the yellow, and it took off from there. :]

i also managed to get my art journal cover finished before we met last night to assemble our journals. i'm really happy with how my journal came out. i'm also sort of in love with the whole binding process. i came home wanting to make like a million more little journals.

i forgot to take a photo of mine, but it's not really done anyway. i'm still searching for the perfect beads to add to the binding strings, and i'll probably continue to slowly add to the front and back covers. they are a little simple right now. but looking at it makes me happy, and that's what it's supposed to do, right?

tomorrow i'm hoping to meet some of the biochem friends for breakfast before we head up to tahoe so that mike can see it while he's in town for the weekend. i tried to plan it all at the last minute, so i'm not sure if i'll be eating breakfast just with james or with a group of people. either way, peg's won't disappoint, and it should be a nice day at the lake. :]

hope you all enjoy the weekend!

perfect day for a joke.

why was 6 afraid of 7?
because 7 8 9. :]

how could a number-lover like myself resist telling that joke today?
i hope you all had a good 7-8-9.
i'm heading back to my studio tonight to see if i can work some more magic on that layout. :]

ack.

tonight i saw public enemies with radhika for a tnmn. i had actually wanted to see the taking of pelham 123 because it will be out of the theaters here by the end of the week. but when i arrived at the theater, james and radhika told me it wasn't playing. i don't know... maybe they just didn't want to see it. ha. so we went to dinner, and then radhika and i went to public enemies instead. james decided to go home because it was getting too late and he was already feeling tired.
anyway. back to the movie...
obviously, i knew how it would end since it's based on a true story and all. so i tried to prepare myself for it as best i could. i actually thought i had done a pretty good job. and throughout the movie, i stayed calm and never got too worked up over it. [i tried to just focus on the goodness of johnny depp. ha.]
still. tonight i'm just feeling uneasy. my stomach actually hurts, and i just feel way too anxious. i can't calm myself down, and i definitely can't sleep. i know this is my usual reaction to the d word, and this is why i avoid certain movies.
i just really like happy endings, and you know... this one doesn't really fall into that category. i wanted to like the movie. i was excited about it based on the previews. but i hate this feeling i'm left with now.

so since i'm wide awake, paying for my mistake tonight, i might try to make a layout with the june studio calico kit since the july kit will be here soon. i found a photo that i printed a while back, but i'm not having tons of luck with it so far. hopefully something will work out, and i'll be able to get some sleep tonight.

can't sleep.

i mentioned that i pretty much crashed when i got home from the trip. it really messed with my sleeping habits. for a while it was ok... i was falling sleep around 9 or 9:30 and remaining completely out for at least 12 hours. crazy compared to my usual 6 or so hours of sleep. then eventually, that went away and now i'm back to having trouble going to sleep at a "normal" time and for a "normal" amount of time. it's a little frustrating.

also a little frustrating is the fact that i've been wanting to scrap during these late nights, but i'm feeling a little lost for a starting point without being able to print my photos. i went to costco today, but i had james along so i didn't want to take the time to print photos. maybe i'll do that this weekend, since i don't have any big plans. james will be at the lake with his friends for the next three days, so i'm pretty much on my own.

last weekend, james and i went up to tahoe for dinner.it was a really pretty evening, and i enjoyed watching the sunset as we drove around the lake before heading home. i definitely wish i'd taken more photos, but sunsets never look as stunning in photos as they do in real life. plus, sometimes it's better to just absorb the moment and forget about the camera.
aside from the scenery, the highlight of the night was the french onion soup that i ordered. it was some of the best i've ever had. so yummy. :]
we finished off the night by seeing the proposal. i had seen it with mike and deepa in hawaii after we dropped james at the airport because i didn't think james would have any interest in seeing it. but on our way back from the lake, he asked if i wanted to go. there is one scene in the movie where i laughed so incredibly hard the first time around, so i decided it was worth $8 [yay for student discounts!] to see that part again. ha. and i'm happy to report that it was just as funny the second time around. :] all in all, it's a cute movie. that particular scene has become what i think about if i'm having a bad day because it makes me smile. the rest of the movie is ok. it's sort of gets a little too typical towards the end, but that's probably to be expected from a romantic comedy.

i guess that's about all i have for now. i hope that everyone has a fabulous holiday weekend!

more hawaii.

another goal of mine for our time in hawaii was to hike to manoa falls. i told james about it, and he agreed that it would be fun. after talking with mike's uncle about it, we decided that it was a must do event. it's a pretty easy hike, but so beautiful. here are some photos:






we also hiked up diamond head, which is a big crater that served as a look out during the second world war. i thought i might pass out with all the stairs we had to climb... a set of 77 followed by a set of 99 then two sets of spiral stairs and various other sets of stairs to get to the top after the hike up the mountain. it was a mistake not to bring water with me since we were doing it in the heat of the day. lesson learned. i just can't imagine doing it with all the gear the soldiers must have carried. here are some photos from the top:[this was taken as soon as we got to the top. i was drained... apparently too exhausted to smile.]


and here are some photos of the route:




we wanted to make it out to pearl harbor and visit the uss arizona. unfortunately, we didn't have a chance to do this before james left, but deepa, mike, and i went bright and early on our last day. they showed a little film about the day before the ferry ride out to the memorial. definitely eye opening. here are a few photos from the memorial:



we hit up ala moana shopping center [more than once.], which mike told us is the biggest outdoor mall in the world. it quickly became my most favorite mall. it reminded me of horton plaza in san diego, but it's better. they honestly have everything you could want. i had to get a photo of this sign...
:] i was excited to find a dress i've been wanting in there. deepa and i also had fun in the le sportsac store at ala moana. they had so many really adorable exclusive designs, and i couldn't resist. i limited myself to two, but i actually wish i would have bought a few more. my bank account is probably happy that i didn't though. ha.

we also walked around waikiki at night a few times, where they have some great shopping as well.
i was trying to learn about my new camera at this point. i had basically just taken it out of the box, and i tried to become friends with it during the trip, but i'm not sure i succeeded. i like this shot though. it's james, deepa, selena, and mike.i also made sure to get a photo of this statue of duke kahanamoku after mike told us about it. i thought it was really cool how there were leis on all of the statues along the beach. mike said that it's always like that. how fun.

oh and i found the cutest bead shop. mike let deepa and i spend lot of time in there on the last day while he went to get a hair cut in preparation to go meet up with selena in nyc. deepa ended up making two bracelets with the help of the sales girl while i wandered around picking out some beads to bring home. they have some really fun classes too... i was really wishing we were staying longer so that i could take some of them. deepa said that she may have found herself a hobby. she's been looking for a hobby for a while now. :] 

selena's parents own a jewelry store, which we also stopped by one day with selena. her mom let deepa and i each pick a necklace to being home, which was so sweet. it's one of the best momentos from our trip.

the other store where we got into some trouble was the volcom store out by north shore. they had special shirts that you could only buy in that one shop featuring the famous rainbow bridge, which is like right outside the store... we all got the shirts, and intended to get a photo in them before we left, but i don't know what happened to that plan. we'll have to get one here i guess.

i took these last two photos from mike's balcony. what a view. we kept telling him how lucky he is to wake up and see that each day, and he told us that he hardly notices anymore! goodness.
[this one is a good look at diamond head.]
[this one shows the city pretty well.]

i guess that's about it. deepa and i are going to trade photos one of these days, so i might post a few more eventually. i know she got some group shots that i don't have. i'm really on the hunt for red ink now, so that i can print some of these. i might actually just go to costco. :]