I spent the first half of my vacation in great company and I ended it with an empty wallet. I am at work today (Wednesday), but I have the rest of the weekend off again. Hence, two halves to the vacation. Breakdown:

Friday - Quick Lansing - Tequila Rain w/ the Asian Co.
Saturday - Dim Sum, Somerset Mall, Mongolian BBQ, Caribou Coffee
Sunday - Home time, IKEA, Grand Rapids
Monday - GR, Dinner @ Golden Wok in Lansing with Lexi & Q house
Tuesday - Shopping in Lansing, GH
Thursday I made an appointment to look at my new apartment! Woot! I measured the rooms and made sure I was set for IKEA shopping on Sunday.

Friday After work, D and I packed it up and headed east. We stopped by his rents to work some water heater un-magic so that we could stay there later. Then it was off to Farmington Hills where we caught up with Stephanie, Anita, Josh, Christine, Ed, and Jake. The night was spent warding off the uglies at Tequila Rain in Novi. I don't mind this club, but that night, the strangest crowd was out! No exaggeration, not that I do anyway . It was fun regardless. We ended the evening festivities with a run to Taco Bell where they were serving a new special menu item: meatless tacos.






Saturday We woke up hangover-free and ventured off to get some Dim Sum. All I have for you is "Yum Yum". They need a good dim sum place in GR. My shopping had been subdued... UNTIL we decided to make a populated trip to Somerset Mall. (I had some coupons to burn up at Express. Honest.) We parted ways with the group and I headed home to see my mommy. At 7PM, it was reunion time. Karen picked me and D up and we headed to the Mongolian BBQ in Royal Oak where a dozen of us spent the evening catching up on the past year. The bonus round champs were Karen, Paris, Ryan, D, and myself. Yes... we made THREE, count them-- one, two, THREE-- trips to the grill. My suggestion: red meat with peanut sauce, teriakyi, chili garlic, peanuts, curry, chili pepper, and pepper! MmmMmmMmm. Naturally, we walked to Caribou to do some more catching up stuff. Oh the good ol' days.


Sunday After spending some quality time with my mother, the infamous spenders made their next destination: IKEA. I managed to walk away with over $700 worth of new apartment stuff. YAY! It was a long day of what I like to call: shop-loitering. The amazing part was getting all the boxes into D's car. It was reminisent of my trip with the wifey when we managed so stuff everything into my 2-door Accord. I think we were there from noon to 5:30PM. I plan on making another trip after the move to tie up loose ends... Well, finally we got back to GR safely. However, my wonderfully smart self left all my keys at my mom's. Luckily I got in with spares and Karen was able to pick up my keys! We immediately started packing up my stuff at the Union. It was an exhausting task. The discouraging thing was that every time I filled a box, it looked as if nothing was leaving the room.


Monday Merry Christmas!!! We spent most of the day packing more stuff while "The Santa Clause" was on Disney. Dorks. Many boxes were filled. I have a lot of stuff. I can't wait to start this new part of life. I want many visitors. So VISIT! That evening, we repacked our duffle bags and went back to Lansing to have dinner with Lexi & Q @ Golden Wok since it was the only place open. Rice, spicy salty squid, lo mein, and sweet & sour fish... MmmMmmMmm. Talk about gaining around the holiday. They bought me the most gigantic George Foreman grill! All the movies playing in the theaters were early so after dinner, we went our separate ways.




Tuesday Day after Xmas Shopping. That is all I needed to say. I spent another $700+ on clothing and a new Sprint Katana! Pink. Word. Shopping went from noonish to 7/8PM. (Ironic how I am with someone as careful, yet addicted, to shopping as I am.) We are expecting that all that shopping fall out of our system by Chicago so that we can avoid the magnificent mile.


Ever since Germany, my $$ has been burning a hole through my wallet. Actually, my card is taking a bigger hit. At least it's my money and not any future bad credit!!

Categorized: Events, Friends, Family

Looks like I will be spening NYE in Chi-town after all. Chicago Scene's New Year's Eve Gala @ The Drake Hotel to be exact. No pressure anymore to make it the "best NYE ever!" Really. No pressure.


We're going there on Saturday so I can meet up with friends! For awhile, I thought we were just going to end up chilling in since NO ONE had plans set up. Well, who here thinks either D or Thao are going to stay in during one of the biggest parties of the year? Didn't think so. Hopefully the Chicago boys will be around. I believe Sunday is for finding the misfits from post-MSU before we all head to the party.

Sooo post-xmas shopping is going to look preetttyyy unlikely and the magnificent mile??? I am going to avoid it like the plague, i.e. I will force D to navigate me through the city with a blindfold. Maybe even shove cotton balls up my nose so that I don't smell the clothes.

Sigh. I love the city. Speaking of... measured my apartment last night and the view of GR is awesome. GR isn't Chicago, BUT it IS a city. Can't wait to get everything moved in and set up. Boss says that if I buy a case for the guys, they'd move me. So how bout it? *flutters eyelashes*

Categorized: Events

So who IS this guy, "quarter-life crisis" and why does he relentlessly keep bothering me? Wikipedia lists these points of diagnosis.

Characteristics of this crisis are:

• feeling "not good enough" because one can't find a job that is at his/her academic/intellectual level [[feeling "not good enough" because you don't remember a damn thing you learned in school]]
• frustration with relationships, the working world, and finding a suitable job or career
• confusion of identity
• insecurity regarding the near future
• insecurity regarding present accomplishments
• re-evaluation of close interpersonal relationships
• disappointment with one's job
• nostalgia for university or college life
• tendency to hold stronger opinions [[No kidding. Uhh actually, I think I was always like that.]]
• boredom with social interactions [[ditto.]]
• financially-rooted stress [[More like I spend too much of what I make!]]
• loneliness
• desire to have children

Supposedly, this "quarter-life crisis" guy likes to fuk with people ages 21-29. It occurs when a young educated professional enters the "real world". Looks like he claimed me as a victim. Asshole. It's relatively nice that the boyfriend and older friends can relate. My enginerdy peers who walked with me while pomp and circumstance was playing definitely understand. Especially when they tell me that they get tired by 10PM now and that Fridays are becoming increasingly long and difficult. (Don't worry, I will take a NAP before I strap on the stilletos this Friday.)

The big work thing is this, listen carefully. They don't give you a syllabus of what you have to do to get a good performance rating like they do in school. Professors TELL you what they want and how to do it. Bosses say, "do it" and the how is entirely obscure. Of course, an unnamed professor maybe by the ID of "Jack" was different... he more or less said, "do it or fail." Glad I went to school here cause co-op helped fizzle this stuff out earlier. Then there is office politics and trying to relate to people working on their undergrad when you're passed it. The class partier starts thinking, "geez, is ALL you're doing... partying? Don't you... TALK? RELATE?"

FYI... I'm starting to pack for my big move, which will probably thrust me into quarter-life crisis full speed since I will live alone. I will miss the legendary parties and being recognized as a pudding wrestler, but alas, I must depart. Hopefully, our landlords get screwed with some party-crazy hosts. "May 603 Never Die." ...I will have many get-togethers, at least until school starts to suck again.

Side note: Victoria's Secret needs to take back my credit card.
Another side note: Shopping therapy is no means of fooling this quarter-life crisis character, but I think that it is still the right therapy for me. That, and heart-to-hearts with the wifey and butthead. Cheesecake and chocolate helps too.

Reads: Quarter life crisis by unknown.

I leave this with the encouraging words of Donny's father. "No money. No honey."

Categorized: Thoughts

Sorry... you can't please everyone and I am tired of people who act disappointed in themselves when they expect to try to make everyone happy. People will dislike some of the things, if not all, that you do. Some people will judge you. Some people will take advantage of you. Instead of looking at the situation with more objectivity, however, some people try to make everyone happy by not doing or saying anything. People-pleasers are nothing more than cowards, imho.

They don't seem to realize the obvious: if one person wants one thing and the other person wants another thing... A + B is not A nor B. It can't be the same. Stop trying to "keep the peace" and accept you need to stop being a coward and make a choice. Sitting in the grey area, the middle, on the fence, helps nobody. If you want to "keep the peace", do something worthwhile with yourself and freakin' stand for something.

I am so sick of people who let-- yes let as in lay down and let em rape ya way-- things happen because then there will be "peace". Well look around you. Is there really peace when you don't stand for anything. Is there really peace when you allow people to steal your shit/dignity, take advantage of you, or lie to you? You wouldn't give your purse or your new PS3 to some stranger who wants to take it from you. You wouldn't say, sure, I have my life's savings here or I waited in line for 3 hours to get this, but to "keep the peace", I'll hand it to you. No conflict in sight = peace of mind, right? WRONG, Stupids. What was that cliche line again? Stand for nothing, fall for everything? Well if you, yourself, can't stand for your dignity, self-respect, or morale, then stop wondering why the hell shit "happens to you" and look at the common denominator. Shit "happens to" YOU, YOU lose you dignity, You allow people to take advantage of you, YOU allow people to steal your stuff, others lose respect for YOU. And if you're poor at math, look up denominator and find the thing most common in those situations.

If you prefer to roll over and get screwed, that's your own fault. If you want to make everyone happy by not standing for a decision so that you don't have to choose sides, then so be it. But don't be surprised when people who WILL stand for something throw it in your face and all you can say is "I just want to keep the peace. I want everyone to be happy". Well saying it isn't worth the gum stuck to the bottom of my heel, now is it?

Categorized: Grr, Thoughts

Warning: This isn't for believers. The old saying is true: people change. And because of this old concept, truth rather... all bets are off. Is what affects us most when people change or when we change ourselves and nothing seems to be changing the same way with us? Maybe it's that combination of both that makes the things that use to seem so simple... so incredibly complicated.

Knowing that everyone changes... why is it so hard to accept when they do? I guess in my case, I never wanted to believe that a person close to me would change... for the worse. What do you do when you have to stop looking up to your hero? Do you start finding inner strength? After all, it was there not because of them, but because it was just hard to find until you idolized them. What do you do when you have to stop looking up to your hero? Were they your hero because they were who you wanted to be? In a sense, yes. In other ways, no.

I guess part of growing up is realizing creating who you are. It's easier when you have someone to admire. Someone who exudes the beauty and grace you could only hope to one day exude. I've been thinking so much about why people have to change and why it is not always for the best. Why can't we learn from the mistakes of others and why can't we recognize when our actions have consequences that could strongly affect those closest to us? I am obviously full of questions... the kind of questions that just are not worth asking. Sometimes.

But if you can't depend on someone being there for you when they used to be there in a way that only that person could be for you... what next? A little lost here. Every time I try to find some resolution, something happens and my faith remains unrestored. I feel like I became the woman that I am today because of this person, but now this person is doing exactly the opposite of what I was taught. Will I one day follow the path of this person? Maybe that is where I am willing to admit my fear is housed. I am scared that because I grew up with this person's wisdom in my mind, I will one day forget what I learned and what I now teach other people to be someone I don't want to be. I am afraid that because my hero is changing into someone I feel is weak and hypocritical, that I could be that person. I want to keep my strength, but the changes that this person has made, inherently affects me. They always have.

It's hard to really place defined understanding to the situation. The closest thing I may equate this to is a child who discovers that the Santa Clause in the mall is just an old un-supernatural man with a pillow-stuffed stomach in a bright red suit. I never believed in Santa, mainly because Santa's handwriting miraculously resembled my mother's. Maybe there is something with more intensity that I feel would relate. Where are the religious freaks out there? Come on, raise your hands. Let's just say that you molded your motives, values, and morals to some holy book which you regard as the bible of bibles. Then one day people discovered tiny 1pt. font printed on one of the pages saying that everything in the book is preached and that the people who wrote the book don't even live that way. They kill their neighbors, they lie to their lovers, and they fornicate like porn stars. (Maybe that's in your holy book, but let's assume that it is not.) In some resort, this is how I have been feeling.

Can you trust the words you applied to your life when it's own source of existing doesn't seem to trust it enough for their own life application? When does preaching become worthy of performance? My conclusion, and maybe one day I will abide by this conclusion myself, is that yes my preacher doesn't follow what was once taught to me, but that does not give me reason to forget what I learned. People aren't perfect and I make my own mistakes. Similarly, I love this person and this person is allowed to make mistakes. It IS harder to do what we say we will do. What I learned will stay with me and hopefully I can help someone else with my lessons.

In the meantime, this is hard.

Categories: Thoughts, Family

This is where he was over the weekend...


And this is what I saw...


Grrr to prorated vacation days! However, catching up with friends made staying in extra nice.

Michigan: +5 for good friends, +0 for weather, +0 for Sunday night television re-runs.
Vietnam: +10 for weather.
Vietnam is in the lead.

Categories: Trips, Weather, Friends