On our photobooth story

On my latest obsession

Spicy McBites. We both loved it. We always get the shareable size with honey and honey mustard (it wasn't as good with ranch). As the name says, it's bite-size and it's spicy (Whoo!). Can't believe that I'm obsessed with junk fast food.

Yes, that's right. I am obsessed with holding a book, feeling the papers between fingers, and smelling it. The problem is I own a kindle. Mr. bought me a kindle a year ago. I loved it. I still do. However, since I bought several books last month, I could not stop thinking about holding a book. (Wait for another installment of what I'm reading)

Songza. My brother introduced this playlist. And now, I'm obsessed. It allows you to pick playlist based on the "mood". Oh, this is Sunday afternoon, I'm in the mood for nap song. Oh, this is Monday morning, play me a song for working. I do recommend Songza. I mean, Songza Monster is so cute.

On the house project

We will be renovating our house soon :) I'm super excited and nervous at the same time. I will be likely posting a lot about this.

The one room that I would like try to design is the office. I'm starting to browse home office inspirations. I definitely like lots of lights and somewhat like NY loft design. The thing is that NY loft design is not really clear. I'm not clear myself. But, you know that high ceiling, maybe some bricks with light colors, vintage looking furniture, and pastel colors.

 I do love the sliding door. It has characters.

Source (from top left corner, CW): ©Freshome.com, ©Houzz.com, ©Better Homes and Garden (bhg.com), 

©Houzz.com

I wish to find more! Excited!

on my TG family

Dear TG,

I'm sure this letter will find each one of you well. A lot has happened to us since our high school graduation in 2005.

Honestly, I may not remember much of our times together, but I do have a warm feeling thinking about us altogether. Do you remember our 10-cm-below-the-knee-tablecloth skirt? Someone mentioned to me one time that the skirt was supposedly able to tell a baby bump, just in case on of the girls got knocked up!

I remember our regular hangout time and place at school: during the first 15 min break at the elementary auditorium.

We would always meet up at a mall, wander aimlessly until we're tired, and go take picture at a photobooth.

Do you remember our chemistry class project in 10th grade, where we got together for the first time? I remember being some sort of fairy using that plastic magic wand. What were you at that time? Who was the carbon dioxide? Who was the bajaj driver?

I remember the first time we started our "family lineage." I was very chatty and loud, you said (I was not the only one, clearly) and that's why I got to be the grandmother (grand-mère in French as JQ was obsessed with Princess Diaries, I believe? and hence the nickname mère). It was ironic, becase I'm the youngest in the group. Not only that, I got to have four (yes! Four!) "husbands"; Jerry Yan, Tetsu, Raul Gonzales, and Bae Yong Joon. Do you still remember who were you? whose child? whose grandchild?
This sounds sooo silly today, but hey, aren't we the silly group?

Anybody remember going to Vita's house to surprise her on her birthday? We went to eat Pizza Hut afterwards.

I remember not being to go every time you guys went out of town, Bandung or Puncak. Remember, my overprotective parents? ;p But I did attend that one swimming time at Amanda's usual place. I feel like Amanda was the one who always going somewhere, Mangga Dua, Pasar Baru and always be dressing up so girly. Oh, remember, Amanda's mom and my mom grew up in the same state! Hahaha. Her brother was pretty famous too among us.

Then I remember our TGF book. So sad that a few of the books got lost in circulation :(

Do you remember that A LOT of teachers thought Angie and Vita were twins? That was funny! Is Angie still singing? Other than Angie, who can sing in the group? Definitely not me.

Vita and I would call each other at night. It raised my mom's eyebrows, "Don't you think it's enough time to chat at school? What else could you two possibly talk about?" Oh mom. I mean, we'd discuss schoolwork too, you know with some boy talks in between. I'd share everything with her! I'm glad I got to see her (the only TG I saw) the last time I went home. She must be busy preparing for her wedding!

What can I say about Tiffany. Another TG who can not stop talking. The one person with whom I shared the same class three years straight. I remember working on our biology group presentation. I mean, she put the best freaking animation. Well, I'm sure I helped too. Our powerpoint compared to any groups was a KILLER. It was pretty narcissistic too. Our group pictures were like on every slide! Good job, though! It's impressive.

Remember the conversation about Sunny wanting to be a nun? But then she went to medical school instead, insisting that she still could help others by doing so. What a saint.

Angguni. Remember our live-in? I remember our bathroom, separated from the house itself. Remember that one dog who's about to chase us and you said, calmly, "Don't be afraid. Just walk normally, he can smell your fears you know." Then, we planted corns :)

Talking about live-in. I remember one night the students were about to gather for something (maybe a mass?) and Tiffany brought along her women's napkin and suddenly threw it out into some sort of field. That made JQ upset. JQ insisted she find the darn thing. Haha.

Tiara always had the latest cellphone. Remember, she had that one Nokia phone with a shape of a leaf? Haha. Pretty sweet. Even look at her glasses. It's blue! I'm sure she's the only one who can pull it off with her cuteness. And this year, she's getting married too. Sad I can't come (yes, I'm sure I'm invited).

When we got separated into science, social science, and linguistic, it was pretty hard. We didn't share the same stories anymore. But we took Chinese. I think it was 8 of us. I don't remember who took it, but it was hard. I did homework last minute. Every single time. For me, it was just a time to get together again. I took Fashion Design too. It's horrible, I just did not want to spend time cutting magazines for inspirations. By that time, I should have known being creative is not in my vein, but I loved me some physics or maths (though the math teacher was beyond ridiculous). Anyway, art is subjective :p

I liked the time when we're just copying down notes from the blackboard. We'd pretend (or maybe not) we couldn't see from the back so that we would sit with one of us seated in the front that week. To chat of course. Regulated seating sucked.

Almost everyday, my goal was just to make Sunny or Clara laughed. I felt really good if those two laughed when I started telling jokes or just being funny. (This confirms the fact in previous post that I should be a comedian) Anyway though, Clara would laugh at anything and wouldn't stop laughing. I had to re-think, "Was it really that funny?" and Sunny sometimes got irritated by me.

I'm sure we all remember Tiffany and her highschool sweetheart. If teachers knew about your love life, then it's a BIG deal. Congratulations on your upcoming wedding with him :)

I remember that story when Tiffany and Clara were on a bus, met by an exhibitionist. Ugh! It's a very different story, but it's still funny!

JQ, we took Japanese together. Well, you did. By the end of this post, I feel that I was practically fooling around in high school. I mean, yeah I had the lesson, but we would just play with Agatha's little brother. I don't remember any Japanese, except for Hajimemashite or Doumo Arigatou. Didn't we have that one Japanese class drama performance? Since I was so behind (well, I started attending in the middle of the session), I did not have any parts. Lame.

JQ, we also took batik together. We went beyond creative with our prints and tie-dyes. Now, I love this extra-curricular of mine! Go batik!

Oh! Remember I cried in 10th grade because my bean sprout did not sprout? HAHAHA. I felt like I put so much time into it and I did not want to disappoint my dad who helped or failed on the first high school biology project. I also cried when I got 1.0/10.0 for accounting class? It wasn't fair. The girls from St. Mary middle school had accounting class before! I'm sure I missed a lot of stories among us, between you and me or between you and another TG. But, if you read this, please write one or two kind memories that you remember. Anything with TG is a good story! :)

The Gillass Family

Front row (L-R): Tiara Kartika (Tolly), Anastasia Adeline (Mere), Maria Angela (cuteh/cutie), Wuri (Orrie), Sunny Orlena (does she have a nickname???)
Middle Row (L-R): Maria Jaclyn (JQ), Veronica Amanda (Mandako), Yoselda Malona (Yos), Vita Aprilia (Shippou)
End Row (L-R): Giasinta Angguni (Gone), Clara Vania (Chubby), Benedicta Tiffany (Popoy)

Love,
Mere

On something new

The wait is over, we got Samsung S3 in white (Mr. got one in pebble blue). Blackberry is out of the picture. It's pretty neat when you actually have a working (smart) phone. 

Yes. He is an amazing brother. He got us the new iPad. Oh! We had our names engraved too :)

Let's not hope these gadgets will make us a robot. Mr.'s still gonna be a cute one, though. ;p

On finding a fragrance for the big day

I read the article somewhere about wearing a different fragrance on your wedding day. That way, if you happen to smell the fragrance that you wore, it would definitely take you back to the memory.* I remember really liking the idea without realizing that it could be difficult to do.

I searched high and low for it, but I want it to be a classic piece for sure. My casual go-to perfume is Stella by Stella McCartney. I so love this perfume. It's not too flowery and not too strong (my nose is not going to cooperate with a strong smelling perfume). Stella perfume has a freshness hint and I like the sexy-overnight smell even more. I won't go as far as describing it  since I'm not writing a perfume review. But it's hard to find something else that I strongly like.

Naturally, I want something totally different for the wedding day. Not totally change the personality, but don't smell the same. I went to several places, Dior, Lancome, Burberry, Chanel etc, but could not find any. Thankfully I did not give up. The actual problem is that I was indecisive, I needed that affirmation that whatever it is, it is indeed a nice-smelling perfume. That affirmation would later come from my mother. We went shopping together and visited Chanel. I did not like No. 5. I'm still not sure why it's one of the best selling perfume. I don't like perfume that smells like perfume (i.e. Chanel No. 5 or J'adore Dior). I liked Chanel Allure. But the problem was (this will sound ridiculous) the bottle was not pretty looking (Does this mean I judge a book by it's cover??). Before we moved on, we sprayed Coco Chanel Mademoiselle. 

It's so classic without being over the top. 

It screams elegance without being boring. 

It's sweet without being cutsie. 

It has a character without being an attention whore. 

Ok, I should stop there.  But, hopefully the message is clear; all of the above represents my personalities I feel like a million dollar wearing it without actually having a million dollar. 

   

Now the main message is to tell my friends (esp. Rebecca G. if she ever reads this) and my family or even any brides to be to take the time and find that one perfume that will make you remember that fine wedding day of yours.* It's really worth the effort.

* This is assuming that you do want to remember that day. For myself, as long as there is no 20/20 type of drama, it's good. Those dramas can range from: 'The story of wedding day goes dark as the maid of honor kidnaps the bride as she can not longer hold her feeling of love for the groom' to 'Sad tragedy in weddingville: the parents of the bride reveals that she was adopted and that her real parents are also the groom's parents' )

Hopefully is going to rain soon here in Mad-is-on.

On being a mrs

On what I'm reading

This particular edition is more on what I've read

    

       

Essentially, I kept putting of writing thoughts about these books. I bought 2 out 6 books (Cutting for Stone and The Power of Habit) and I borrowed the rest from the library.

a.       Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn

This is a story about a missing wife and who’s to blame. The book is un-put-down-able for me I finished reading it in a day. The first was really good and I felt like I could relate to the characters. The second part was pretty good too. It starts to reveal who did what and how. The third part, not so much. I did not like it or the ending. But, I know how hard it is to end a book that is brilliant. Overall, I like Gillian Flynn’s ideas and writing in Gone Girl and look forward to her other books (previously published).

b.      The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg

This is a brilliant book. It’s very well written. Coming from an engineering background, I like the research that he’s done prior to writing the book. I itch every time someone states a “fact” with no base in science world (Here, I am trying to dodge bullet when someone asks “What about religion?” IMO, religion is based on personal faith. It’s a cheap shot for someone to judge/accuse/etc someone else based on his/her religion OR VICE VERSA). But, I took a detour. Anyway, I think it’s really useful to know the basic knowledge of habit and look at a lot of examples in different type of environments (personal, business, etc). I like his writing style of repetition. He repeated the important points throughout the chapter/book so that the readers will understand/sink-in those messages. I recommend reading The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg for everybody (those who actually want to modify habits or not). I have always been interested in this field (social-psychology -behavioral-ish field).*

c.       The Tiger’s Wife – Tea Obreht

Honestly, I don’t want to spend a lot of times to review this book. I have only one good thought for it; I actually like the story of between his grandfather and the deathless man as well as between his grandfather and the tiger’s wife. These stories are good and I wish it’s just more about him. I had to read fast (the opposite of ‘take my time and enjoy the words’). It was painful for me. But, I don’t want to be saying bad stuffs too much. After all, the book has claimed major success. Tea Obreht won several awards for her work.

d.      Ali in Wonderland (and Other Tall Tales) – Ali Wentworth

I picked up this book after I read ‘Is Everyone Hanging out Without Me?’ (Thoughts below). The funny thing was that I did not know who Ali Wentworth was. It is an easy reading. The book kept me entertained for the entire time. One particular thing that this book gave me was more knowledge. See, I grew up knowing nothing about ‘In Living Color’ or ‘WASP’ or ‘George Stephanopoulos’ (I’m going to play my ‘being an immigrant’ card as many times as possible). But, this book ignited my curiosity and made me google here and there (I can hear someone gasp reading the word 'google') to quench it and thus added more to my (trivial) knowledge. I just don’t know a good time to tap that information yet.

e.      Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and Other Concerns) – Mindy Kaling

I was skeptical. I like The Office, but Mindy character always appears soooo short. I thought to myself, “Why do you want to read about someone who is not really doing much?” But I did anyway and I’m super glad. After reading the book, I know that she’s smart and she’s funny. I’m sure she’ll appreciate those two compliments. I admire her growing up and I like her determination. I think this is a must-read book. I remember laughing in a bus shelter, outside our apartment, on the bus, in the car, etc. Yes, because I brought my kindle and read the book everywhere. Now, I can’t wait to watch her new show next fall, The Mindy Project. Also, what am I doing in the engineering field instead of comedy??*

If Mindy ever reads this, I’d like to say: Mindy, you’re a smart, funny, and minority woman. Triple threat!**

f.        Cutting for Stone – Abraham Verghese

I really thought I had written about this book in my blog. Yes or No? (Note to self: check your entries again). If yes, I still feel the same, ditto to whatever I wrote. If not, this is a perfect book to end this post. He’s able to fuse two of his identities (being a professor in medical field at Stanford and growing up in Ethiopia) and produce a good writing. I love the stories, I love the characters. I feel them. I fall in love with Ethiopia. I want to be a surgeon*. I cried for the last 20% of the book. I highly recommend this book and I can’t wait for his next book. Oh! I really have a lot of respects for him.

*I love how by the end of the posts, I have thought about 3 different careers that I’d like to pursue.

** No, I’m not being racists, I’m a minority myself. I’m just being trying to be funny.

On getting through the heat wave

Last week was painful. You would think growing up in a place close to the equator (air pollution should be added in the equation as well), I would manage not to complain during the heat wave in Madison, WI (read here). Well, I did not complain (too much), but I was close to pull out my hair. Our AC was (is) not working. We were forced to use the old-fashioned fan. Thankfully, we were working during the day (in a waste-of-energy-by-cranking-up-the-AC- type of environment), so the only problem was between 6pm - 7am.

We also tried the cheap solution, such as putting a frozen water (in a container) in front of the fan, but it did not work. It felt OK at night where we're sleeping as the fan was blowing exactly in the direction when we're sleeping. But, the main victim was not us (nor our dying brown grass), but it was Lucky, the dog. She's not so lucky after all. Can you imagine wearing a jacket (analogy for her fur) and not being able to cool off for a week?? I mean, the house was about at least 86 degree day and night. Poor girl.

That's why we decided on Thursday (second to lat of the heat wave week, smart owners) that we should get her a kiddie pool (Menards for $16). We filled it up, we took her in, and voila! we got a smile from her. She did not like to sit down though. I think she does not know what to do. It's not a real pool where it's deeper and she can actually swim in it. She does not like to sit or lay down either (you know, she can submerse her body then). I was sad looking at her not enjoying the true purpose of the kiddie pool. Eventually, she found something that kept her busy.

The bottom of the kiddie pool is a pattern of seahorse, octopus, and treasure chest. In bright colors. What would you think they are if you're a dog? That's right.
Daddy and mommy got me a bunch of TOYS! 
Let me grab one of these (as she tried to grab them with front paws)
Why can't I grab it? 
So then she tried again.
and again.
and again.
Basically, she kept making that scratching (whatever it is) movement everywhere.
Thankfully no holes (yet). But, she looked so cute and she seemed to enjoy herself. That made us a proud parents owners. I think it's over now. I think the weather is going back to be normal. But we still need some rain!

Stay hydrated.

How do you get this damn thing? (You can see the dying brown grass at the back)

On getting ready for pregnancy

Nope, we are not trying yet.

Mr. and I have not thought too much about it, although he's wondering why I have been looking up day cares around Madison area. I know, we still have a lot going on (i.e. house renovation soon, Mr. to finish his part-time PhD, me getting a job), but I like the idea of getting ready even before trying. I want to know what  to change or what to do to.

I checked out this website http://www.webmd.com/infertility-and-reproduction/features/protect-your-pregnancy-before-you-conceive and I break it down here:
a. Smoking - I don't smoke (check) But I do need to stop that a-glass-of wine-a-day thing.
b. Folic Acid - This is the part where I'm not sure what my daily intake is to begin with. But I remember that I bought one daily women's multivitamin. So, this entry is a reminder that I need to take this multivitamin that contains 400 mcg of folic acid from now :)
c. The two-week rule related to caffeine intake. I'm going to stop drinking soda. Before I got to the US, it's very rarely of me to drink pops. Caffeine intake from coffee? I'm trying to cut back, but I can't promise to stop drinking it, so I'll use the two week rule here.
d. Seafood - Geez. I love me some fish. But I know that the mercury is no good. I'll stop too (by this time, I can only imagine that soft shell crab taste in my mouth). Another thing that it mentions is fume from chemical (cleaning products). This is tricky. I'm the one usually cleaning up the house, so it's not really realistic to ask Mr., is it?
e. Pre-exam check - I am one of those women (if any) who actually have not checked anything related to my womanhood (I did check for STD and stuff, though). Should do it soon?

Now I think this is a weird post. But, good to know.