Holiday Season in the City

I've been itching to blog but kept putting it off or forgetting to do so. Even though I haven't been this tired like today, I still want to blog...and this is going to be loooong

I'm going to start with Thanksgiving. Actually, when it was getting close to turkey day, I started wondering to myself what I should be thankful for this year. At first thought, I said to myself: "I still haven't found a job, not even a part-time one, and I've been putting off my GRE studying for god knows how long, sitting at home applying to jobs hrs on end with no return calls/emails, pigging out, and watching my parents get older and aching everywhere while I just leech off them, lost connections, dealing w/ a toe infection for a month now, and basically disappointing everyone who had even an inch of expectation out of me. this made me cry on some nights T^T

but I would NEVER EVER say FML to myself. I don't know how ppl can say it so casually as I see them all over FB status updates b/c I value my life. I probably don't take care of my health as I should be, but i'm working on it. I mean, 3 weeks ago, I was waiting until almost 11PM to see my endocrinologist in Rego Park, even tho I had scheduled for 7:30 pm. I could have seen another one who is more on time w/ the appt time, but b/c he's chinese, it's more convenient for my mom to understand, and he is one of the few docs that is chinese and accepts my insurance.

but anyways, I will never say FML b/c one of the biggest reasons why I am here today with  home&food, even tho i have no job for months already, is thru the support of my family and friends. My parents have never pressed me to find a job and my mom doesn't want me to grad school either. However, they do prefer that I find a comfortable office job no matter how little the hourly wage was. I know ppl (esp guys) whose parents are always pressuring them to find a job and make big money b/c they are really counting on their kids to support the household....Although I'm the oldest, I've never felt obligated to take care of the family, but I still feel bad b/c I hate to see my parents go thru so much labor.

The fact is, i have everything to be thankful for b/c w/o what i still have now, my friend would never have recommended to a non-science part-time job at her workplace. Just yesterday, I even got a phone call for an interview from Brookhaven, and that made me so star-strucked that I stood still on the street curb and  didn't realize i could cross the street until i finally saw a white plastic bag being blown in my direction, and dodged it, of course. I am super-elated, but the likelihood of me actually clinching the job is like -100%. And, I had applied for that job like a month ago and when i called back to schedule the interview, the lady said the dept needed further pending and prolly won't start the interview process until AFTER the holidays. By that time, the dept might even decide to remove the position due to lack of funds or found more competitive candidates, and that thought just made my heart sink rock bottom =/

But I'm still SHOPPING! I hate Black Friday week, but I can't resist it either. I was going thru the Amazon lightning deals like every day and checking on black friday websites for good deals and collecting newspaper ads relating to any technology goods. I've been pining for a new camera since the battery of my old Canon PowerShot SD400 had only a few minutes of juice before it needed to recharge for another 2 hrs or so. I thought that cuz my cam was so old, i wouldn't be able to find the same battery again. I was dead WRONG cuz I found out later that canon batteries can be used in multiple models and even in current models. Well I searched amazon and it was selling it for ~$17 while the regular retail price was $60. But i wanted to wait for black friday to get it cheaper, and when the day came, amazon decided to increase it to $28.....=____= wtf...seriously, if i hadn't known the price the day before black friday, i would have been ripped off. but i was able to find another one selling for ~$17 but from an outside seller on amazon and thankfully this seller had like >95% positive ratings and when I finally got it in the mail, the seller refunded me $1.00 after i gave it a 5-star rating ^_^ now this is what i call a good buy lols and of course i bought my elfster friend gifts from amazon, which promoted the price >$25 for the free shipping =D


I was also doing research on cameras, esp digital SLRs b/c my lil sis was planning to take a photography course next semester, and altho the dSLR is not required, she wanted to learn to use one and i didn't mind paying for it. But in the end, my lil sis felt bad having to paying >$500 for a cam that she and I will not use that much.

But i was already doing research on a point-and-shoot camera cuz i knew i wanted one whether or not i got the dSLR or not. I was thinking of switching to SONY and saw that their Cybershot models were the best deals under $150. But I was eyeing the SONY DSC-TX7 b/c it had the Exmor R" CMOS sensor for stunning low-light performance, panorama pic-taking, accepted SD cards which previous sony models do not, high ISO, optical image stabilizer, hand-held twilight mode & 10MP for low-light situations, no lens zooming out, and the sliding cover. I basically wanted a cam that can take good pics w/o flash in low-light situations b/c i hate the way flash white-washes the natural colors and causes ppl to blink. And this camera had the most of the entire package, but the sony retail price was ~$400 and that was not including the memory card or any other accessories. Again, amazon had the cheapest price at $270, but not including the other accessories as well. On black friday, i was able to find the camera from ADORAMA that came w/ a 4gb SD card, carrying case, AND tripod for about 10 bucks cheaper than amazon, and of course, i jumped on it. It came w/ free shipping, but taxes came out to be ~$30.

The few things i didn't like about the cam was that the color was more black than blue (kinda made me wish i had gotten the hot pink instead), it being a touch-screen (still miss the buttons) so that will take some getting used to, and the lens getting covered by my hand-held position since it's situated on the top-left corner.

I've also been hooked on a TVB drama called No Regrets and my parents love this show as well.

So I decided to buy some blank DVDs as well during black friday (3 packs of 50 for $7 each) since they like watching the shows on TV than on a PC. I feel like such a thoughtful daughter lols, but then i regretted it cuz i didn't know burning dvds could take so long >_> I've been burning dvds thru days and nites since it also slows down my PC. And my mom heard about another TVB show (Gun Metal Grey = 刑警) that she wants to watch, and I knew where that was heading t_t ..aiGOO

From the past when i went out shopping on Black Friday, i never bought anything that was on sale, so I decided to do all my black friday shopping online. Meanwhile, my lil sis went out early to staples and got a SeaGate 1TB external hard drive for ~$45 and a wireless mouse. But i pray this hard drive not fail on us like the last one which lost all of my lil sis's old pics =[

I also FINALLY got myself some CIRCLE/INFINITY/LOOP SCARVES that i've been wanting since i first saw the kdrama "You're Beautiful". I was going thru yesAsia.com b/c i thought asian countries had more of the style i wanted. But i did more research, and i fell in LOVE with the ones in EXPRESS. I love the COLORssss. On black friday weekend, i made a trek to get it in artillery, indigo, and cameo cuz my lil sis was impressed too. They're weight-less, shimmery, and can be worn as a snood as well. me likey <3

indigo

cameo

artillery

OK, i am done shopping...for now.

My lil bro returned back from Bing for the thanksgiving break and he came back looking like this:

He got his friends to dye his hair which was a nice color, but he totally needed a hair cut. But it didn't seem much of a difference after he got his trimming imo. He doesn't say it, but he wants to look fobbish.

I also spent thanksgiving w/ my Queens friends =D...but whyyy am I the sole brooklynite? It was my first time drinking sake and straight-up vodka that nite as well.

the feast

i wanted to play w/ Jason's camera

i didn't know about burton&wendy until this pic;
this made me aweee for wendy

It was another fun nite with the francis lewis gang on Lily's 22nd bday. It was such a heart-warming moment to see Lily open her gifts and showering her with our camera flashes. But i was the dumb idiot who had forgotten to open the new SD card and put it in my new cam that i was testing out. Thankfully, it had about 45 mb of internal memory, which allowed me take ~40 pics which was impressive. I sure liked the Chartier white wine and my iced coffee. Later I joined them for my first clubbing experience at The Delancey. The rooftop is def. over-hyped, but it's prolly better in the summer to appreciate the chilliness. I didn't get any drinks and wasn't going to get a guy to get me one either, but i knew they were crazy expensive and added too much ice when i was dying for a hot cup of mojo aka coffee. The dance floor was 1 flight down, but i just couldn't dance to their music selection (i wanted lady gaga <3) and we were dancing practically on a bar aisle so u could hardly move w/o having to make space again for a passing person. Meanwhile, Lily was having her moment and she had good dance moves. After awhile, i decided enuff was enuff and left. It was so kind of Diana and her bf, Trang(?) to drive me home. I felt bad, since they were driving me home before annie and they had to extend the car reservation time which meant more $$$. But i'm glad i got introduced to diana's bf beforehand, otherwise he prolly wouldn't have been so submitting to diana's request. I can tell he's diana's keeper, i hope =D

my pineapple frid rice, which was spicy

I really like the picture quality, but i don't know where the white spots came from when i was at The Delancey.

I want to end on a positive note. I read in the AMNY the funniest tidbit in awhile:

This made me LOL so hard. Either she doesn't have enuff supportive friends or her friend knows more about Mike than she does lmao

 And the city is just gorgeous during the holiday season. Kaplan was offering a free event on a Personal Statement Workshop at 7pm on 56th st betw. 6th & 7th ave. Since I didn't have an unlimited, and I got off work at 4:30, i decided to walk there despite the chilly winds. I was completely drawn to the LIGHTs and i wished i had bought my new cam with me to take pics of the city. This was one pic that i took near rockefellar center. I finally bought myself a cup of Tim Horton's coffee from 34th st, and that's overhyped as well. No matter where i go, i can't find another place that can beat the coffee taste at my neighborhood deli and at half the price too!

arts & craft sunday

sometimes i feel like i'm spiraling my life to out of control...like i'm losing the grasp of reality so when my lil sis was working on a project for her speech class, i decided to help her b/c it looked like a fun project.

So my lil sis had to do a demonstration project and she wanted to show to make paper mache. She made a turkey since it's almost thanksgiving and to show that she can make more than a turkey, she also made a terrier dog. It was fun watching her make them and fun helping out too.

Plastering the balloon.

letting it dry

after paper macheing it w/ white paper, it was ready to paint!

added the tail and crown and voila!

now is the dog's turn

a terrier-minus-the-cute-whiskers

We had excess paint in left over, and we decided to paint something for fun ^-^

My lil sis painted our Monkey King statue.

I painted an autumn tree since we mostly had mostly fall colors.

Now to go face reality..::sigh::

Halloween Weekend 2010

So it's been a few days after Halloween and thought I shouldn't put off this post any longer even tho I'm in a really bad mood, but hopefully this is going to help me out a little...

On Halloween eve, I went out with 2 of my high school buddies for lunch in the St. Mark's area. They were looking for a halloween costume and knew I was looking for a wig and so they dragged me there too. and thank god they did b/c i never noticed that the stores sold a LOT of WIGS! and i saw the nice purple color i wanted too. i had to go thru a few stores before finding the right one at the right price...now i regret buying the light purple one i got earlier.....=T

Bibimbap & trying out my wig =P

Hirai Mong

One of my friends bought a dark brown bob wig too, I don't know why since she wanted to be a leopard, but it looked so cute on her. I absolutely LOVE my wig b/c of the color and the shinyness~~~
Then we quickly jumped into Hirai Mong cuz they were still having a lunch special and I'm glad we did. This place was pretty quiet since there was only like 3 other customers there, but very welcoming and our korean waitress was dressed so cute in her cat ears and face makeup. She even made us look at her tail that was hardly noticeable. I can't say much about the food taste, but it was cheap and I liked the atmosphere more and we could have stayed longer just to talk there if my friends weren't so angsty to find their costume gear. And there was a line to almost every store we went to, which I didn't see just a day or 2 ago...crazy~~

The next day of course was Halloween! I didn't even have a plan yet when I woke up that morning, but I knew I was going to the parade with or w/o someone. I used up half the afternoon making my mask, belt buckle accessories, and weapon. Getting into my wig was the hardest since I didn't have one of those hair cap. My lil sis tried to French braid my hair, but my hair was sooo fine that it came out loose...I don't know how girls have the braid so tight. So we ended up using almost 15 pins to tie up the loose hair and get the darn wig on. All I remember now is getting so excited and juiced up as I stepped outside my house in my costume.

I met up with my high school friend, Jenny, at 5:30pm and walked down along Broadway so that her young nephew could go Trick-or-Treating. They were actually almost at it for 3 hrs and had to empty out her nephew's pumpkin bucket 3 times lols Luckily, I had bought some candy for her nephew, b/c he was so scared of me, esp my weapon.

opening my hershey bag

Hit Girl & Little Red Ridding Hood

Her nephew's mom came to pick him up later and we met up w/ another friend and stopped by a Dunkin Donuts for some quick snacks while we waited for more ppl to join us. The Dunkin Donuts guy was so nice to our group. We bought 6 munchkins for $2.00, but when we came to pay, he gave us like 10 more pieces for FREE! He said it was a halloween special on him lols and then he asked me if my wig was real. My friends think that we only got those extras for free b/c of my costume LMAO.

Then we headed over to a cheap Viet place near Canal St for dinner. It felt so weird walking into a chinatown restaurant dressed up like i was since no body else was like that except for maybe some animal ears. But I got over the awkwardness quickly since I was cold & voracious. I got me some pho and I learned that this dish is not pronounced w/ a long "o" sound but almost as if you're saying "fa" or the beginning sound of f***...go figures

It was almost 8pm and we decided we to make our way to the parade. We walked up along 6th ave, but even before we reached Spring St., there was already a big crowd just getting INTO the parade. The line wouldn't move at times, but it was crowded enuff that I liked the shared body heat and wind blockage. Ppl jumped fences, and even opened them up too when they a chance to move out of the crowd. It wasn't chaotic, but crowded. Ppl were all looking at other ppl's costumes. When we finally got to the official start of the parade, the crowd became very thin and there was a lot of open space, and then I got cold...brrrrr So we moved to the music even if it made us look silly hahas My lil sis was making video clips while I took pics...but sadly, the battery was already dying after taking the 3rd pic and that made me realize that it was time to get a new cam =( maybe this past summer's china trip got it worked overload...sorry camera T_T

Here is the video of the night...it's very fidgety so you mite get a slight headache but my lil sis did her best

my lil sis was a pirate w/ the patch and using my chick as a bird on her shoulder;
it almost looks like i'm slicing her face lol

my almost hand made bloody blade

the wolf and red girl were already a couple, but Jenny wanted to take a pic w/ a nice looking wolf

The parade was also cut shorter @ 19th st rather than 23rd st. If it wasn't b/c of the crowd at the starting line or the chilliness, I would have walked it again. All in all, it was a really fun night. The most common question i got was: Is that a wig or real hair? lols I don't know why, but it looks obviously a wig to me, but to other ppl, very real maybe? I even heard someone shout out:"Yeah, VIOLET girl!" and some ppl, even the cops, would act scared when they saw my bloody blade lols I was so happy to see all the great costumes and the many ppl who came out to see it on the sidelines or from their apartment windows. My only regret was my camera ::sniff sniff::

After working so hard on my Hit Girl costume, I thought I was going crazy, but I thought to myself that it was worth it since I'm most prolly not gonna do something like this ever ever again. But that night, I couldn't sleep....cuz all I could think about was what to be next year and get it better planned...

Looking forward to Harry Potter 7 movie and Thanksgiving~~~