On actually growing up

The actual real grown-up world turns out to be full of happiness and also sadness. One day, you are incredibly happy,but the next day, you may as well be crying.

At least for me, I will not always get what I want. But again, maybe it's the best for me to get what I need.

But I know, everything will be fine at the end.

On having karma

Alrite! I'm Catholic, but I do believe in karma. At least, I believe the idea that if you do good thing, eventually good thing will happen to you and if you do bad, then bad thing will happen to you. You know, I want to believe that the good will win.

With that being sad, something happened tonight. Fiance and I went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Just a regular boneless wings night. But, I guess we're missing something, because it was packed! It was 6:14 pm when we got there and every table was full. The hostess gave us a pager. It was number 1. She said that it would take 20-25 minutes. So we waited.

About twelve minutes going into the waiting, the pager was vibrating. "Oh wow! That's not too bad" So then, we went to the hostess table and waited for her to come. There, we peeked at the waiting list table and found two names have not been stricken through above us. There was Chuck, next in line to the last one stricken through and there was someone else too. Both had 2 or 3 people in the group. So, I was a bit concerned. But, the lady came and we gave our pager to her (with #1 was clearly marked on it), struck through Chuck, and said, "Alright, Chuck, this way."

I could not stop laughing. And felt bad at the same time. I just could not believe that we got pass her and got a seat. So, right away, I thought, "I'll get the bad karma. I don't know what and when, but it was wrong." I mean, it was funny. I tried to look around to find a man who will fit into the name Chuck, but could not find one. I did not see angry faces. There was this one man who would best fit to "Chuck" image, but he was with 2 other people. I remember clearly when I peeked at the wait list, it was only for 2 people. So then, could not stand the bad feeling, I pretended to go the the bathroom and peeked again at the wait list. The name below Chuck was already crossed too. The group right after us was already seated as well. But our names were still there. God! When I was back at the table, we decided that Chuck may get f*cked because of us.

But, I think we got the bad karma there. Our food order must have lost somewhere, we did not get our food until an hour later. But, we got $5 off because of waiting too long. Not so sure about that ;)

Hugs!

On Chinese (Lunar) New Year

Yesterday was the Chinese New Year. It's the Dragon Year. My year ;)
I did not get to celebrate it with my beloved family and it just did not feel the same. We had no red color decorations hung anywhere in the house or anywhere I went. There was no sweet snacks to make your year full of sweetness nor was there the red envelope with money in it ;)

This year, to make it worse, my mom told us to wear certain color depending on your zodiac year so that this year will be more prosperous yesterday. I got to wear a green color top. It's not Red. It's not Chinese New Year :'(

But, I got to spend an hour skyping with my parents and John got to say 'Gong Xi Fat Cai' to them. It was lovely. It was the most important thing.

Happy Chinese New Year.

On that day

On that day, January 20th, 2012, it was snowing hard in Madison, WI. We were expecting guests to come, from Neenah and from Minneapolis. We were hoping they would arrive safely.

I was already panicking in the morning on the most stupid thing (maybe not), my hairdo. "What to do, what to do. Up? Down? Curly? Straight?"

I panicked. "First time on the road during the snow, driving. Maybe not such a good idea?"

I panicked, again. "Are we going to be late?"

I walked in. I saw my brother. Then I had tears on my eyes. I saw her face. It was my Maid of Honor. She stood there. She surprised me.

Then I knew everything was going to be ok.

My fiance came in with his parents. Looking a bit nervous I believe. But he looked good. He looked ready.

Then we did it in front of the Liberty Bell. Yes! We did it!

Great Dane. I don't deserve to have both as my brother and my love. They are the nicest people

On Vaccinations, TB skin test, and underarm wax.

For the immigration purpose, I had to have a physical examination done, including review of my vaccinations and a TB skin test. I had a pretty solid vaccinations record, clearly my mother was very diligent, but now that I'm on my own, you can tell I'm not as diligent. I missed a tetanus booster so I had to get one. It's not a big deal. Except, I had to also get a flu shot, according to the doctor. Oh! I do not like flu shot. I tried one time, because it was freely given during my internship in New York. It awoke my subconscious mind. I started to try to feel everything in my body. I felt every pain in my back and thought, "why am I sick? what's happening now?" In the following 2 or three days, I worried about every sneeze in the morning, about every sore throat that I had everytime I swallowed food (it's not sore throat). I just do not like flu shots.

My TB skin test result was negative. Do you think I would have known if I have tuberculosis? Two hours before me going to the clinic to get the skin test result, I started looking online at pictures of TB skin test positive. I mean, the skin where they injected the fluid would look like a big circular red mark and I think it's supposed to be itchy. I did not have that, but still, you know, I worried about the "What if.." part. But all and all, it was good to know.

Also, I had my first experience with underarm waxing last night. If anybody would like to know why I would try one, is of course related to my wedding day. If I shave in the morning, my armpits will be fine throughout the day, BUT, it will start poking out by evening. I do not want to see myself scratching my armpits while eating my steak (for example). Besides, if I need to shave on the Friday before the big day, I can't shave on the big day, because the growth is just too little, and instead my armpits will be in darker color (the hair is just about to poke out). I was a bit terrified about the pain and if I was going to bleed (Ha!) But, it was good. I would actually recommend it, although I know it means that for some of you who feel the need to shave regularly, you have you let it grow for at least three weeks.

It has been a long Wednesday, but thankfully Revenge was on last night.

Hugs.

On starting to eat healthier

In the middle of planning a wedding, one of every bride's main goal is related to her weight. It's either to lose a few pounds, maintain the weight, or to add a few pounds (I would really like to meet one who actually is planning to do the last case). For me, I would like to maintain my weight, make chubby cheeks thinner (I think that this is an Asian thing. Eating more -> chubbier cheeks), and tone my derriere and arms. I have been diligently going to the gym for the last two weeks (don't judge me!) and try to eat more vegetables and fruits.

However, the more I try to eat properly, I eat junk foods more. The peak was this Saturday. John went to his office to work on his qualifying exam, and I left at the house with Lucky. I cleaned up the house, did some errands to the post office to send out the first half of Save-The-Date cards, went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries, and eventually just watched TV. While doing so, I started eating clementines (I luuurve them!) a lot of them, which I thought was a good and healthy habit. I then started cooking dinner, with intention to wow my future husband and make him happy after a long day working. Well, while waiting for my chili to cook, I inhaled   chips and salsa. This salsa is a Christmas present from John's dad. I continually, without any hesitation, enjoyed that chip and salsa, until I needed to actually stir the food.

Oh, you would think that's the only thing happened. No. I had a sudden very bad stomachache. Very bad. It hurt. a. lot. Probably the last time, a stomach pain was more than what I had last Saturday was when I had my typhoid fever in high school. I think it hurt from my stomach trying to digest everything. But then, I didn't stop there. When John's home, we ate the chili that I made. I mean, it was delicious, but I did not enjoy them. The next thing I did was laying down on the couch in fetal position. It hurt too much, could not even concentrate on watching the new TV drama, The Firm. I tried to just let it be, but eventually I gave up (well, it was like 5 TUMS in between) and I force myself to throw up. Multiple time. This may sound disgusting, but I could taste the chips and salsa (Euw!), not even the chili taste! Eventually, I just tried to sleep on the bed and my stomach kept growling (It was not gassy though, I did not put beans on my chili) and just uncomfortable.

When I woke up this morning, everything's back to  normal. I felt good and was ready to start the day! Anyway, if I can take a lesson form this; Eat less junk food! and please, go to the gym again already (I may count cooking, doing laundry, talking to Rebecca, washing dishes, playing with Lucky on the frozen lake as going to the gym).

The chili I made, according to "It's Chili by George" recipe, without the beans and with the jambalaya rice mix (yes, we mixed them together)

On using Photoshop

Lately, I am obsessed with doing actions to my photos using photoshop. This whole thing start when I followed J* photography and fell in love with her pictures. They feel modern, light, white, pure, natural, crispy, french friesy, waffley. I don't get to have those in the pictures that I take, because I'm not a photographer to begin with. When I shoot, I don't pay attention to the focal length, or to the ISO. I am even impressed that I was able to mention those words.

But, that's when photoshop actions come in handy. I have Kubota tools V1, V2, and V3, as well as several free photoshop actions from devianart (thanks to those people!) Anyway, I'm not yet 100% know what I'm doing or which combination of actions gives me what (again, not an art major). But I'm having fun playing with it and being surprised at every result.

Below are two of my favourites (well, two that actually have OK results):

John at "Kota Tua" (Old City) in Jakarta. They put "No picture" sign after we snapped this picture.

One of the pictures that we took by ourselves. It turned ok, I think.

This is kind of giving me a confident, if somehow I'm not satisfied with my wedding pictures (it's not my photographer, it's me), I can always try (keyword: try) to feed my own ego.

Later.

On the beginning

The beginning itself may be a bit late. It's only 5 months left to be a mrs and most of the wedding planning has been going on nicely, got all the vendors down (well, except for my stupid hair do and make-up artist). Basically, not a bridezilla (Hm. What is the opposite of bridezilla? Maybe lollibride?).

But I think this is going to be a good way of me writing on a new chapter in my life and while this particular life of mine has not yet accomplished many things :p
I have been a blog writer as far as I can remember. In high school, using that stupid friendster page (It got many followers, though) and during undergraduate, which actually were working. I tried again writing during the graduate time, did not work out at all. So, I think this is going to be the right time again and with high hopes that this will last a loooooong time.

Hugs and Kisses