Emo Week

Or maybe it'll be longer than a week. Who knows.

I'm pretty sure it started last Wednesday, when we learned minor scales in music class. I remember thinking it was just too ironic, and it didn't bode well for my midterm that night (which actually went OK, but not great). And after that, it was just a week of bad grades in homework, essays, and midterms, and messed up labs, drama over next year's housing, and general emo-ness. It wasn't even PMS. And then yesterday, after I got my two worst grades ever (relatively for my midterm and literally for my paper), I skipped dinner and went to sleep at 8pm. Yay for thirteen-hour naps!

There were good parts this week, too, I suppose. It's been sunny the whole week. I went running twice, outside. (The second time I almost pulled a muscle, but still.) There were dumplings today at lunch. I got free Jamba Juice yesterday at Frosh Rally (some kind of mango one, it was really good), and I got a letter from S. Plus last Thursday I went to eat at the Creamery with G and W, and although it was $$, it was really good. (oven-fried chicken? mashed potatoes? steamed vegetables? mint-chocolate-chip shake? All signs of general win, in my book.) I also went home last Saturday, so I ate two lunches. I'm noticing this all revolves around food...

Oh, and I hauled twice this week. The first was the annual Zoya Polish Exchange. The deal is that you could send in six or more unwanted polishes from your stash, along with $3.50 per bottle, and you would receive a new bottle of Zoya nail polish for every bottle you send in. I split a package with K, so that we could get over the six-polish minimum. Turns out we both sent in six. At least we saved on shipping, right? I got these:

Blair

Casey

Lael

Posh (why is this the only one with a cap?)

Richelle

Roxy

K got these six:
Akyra

Charla

Kotori

Mieko

Rea

Suvi

I wish they'd let us exchange for their polish remover, because I desperately want to try it. Plus I'm out of acetone remover.

My second haul is with the Old Navy 30% off sale. I got a black string bikini bottom, because my current swimsuit bottom is kind of huge, even though I can tie the sides. My new one looks exactly like the old one, except hopefully it fits better. Here's a picture:

I suppose it doesn't count as a good thing this week, because I haven't gotten them yet. I just paid for them.

I also watched this week's Glee episode, Bad Reputation. I really liked it for some reason. I don't know if it was the harem pants in Can't Touch This (Brittany in red Hammer pants? hilarz.) or Mr. Schuester's interrogation scene (esp. Kurt and Brittany) or Rachel's Run Joey Run music video, or the last Total Eclipse of the Heart. That last song is my current favorite Glee song, along with Like a Prayer from the Madonna episode, and Gives You Hell (whose clip I found on iTunes for free!) and Hello Goodbye, and possibly Run Joey Run. Can't Touch This is also good, but only with the video. I watched the music videos for Glee songs so many times (esp. Total Eclipse and Like a Prayer). Mum would say that watching too much TV is why my life is deteriorating. She's probably right.

I think this should be the end of this Emo Week, because I have a break in midterm season until next Friday. Plus I got all my bad grades back. No~~just remembered my psych project is coming back soon. Won't be pretty. And my music midterm is coming back next week too. I don't know if I should be worried about it. I finished in the first half hour and I was the first one done. I thought it was easy...

Looking back on this list, I'm not sure why I was so emo this week. I did forget/de-emphasize a lot of the more depressing parts here though. The housing drama and the bad grades were pretty aggravating. Also, I'm not in as emo of a mood now (knock on wood), so I'm remembering the happier parts. You know those questions on psych surveys where they ask, "Do you think you can change your emotions?" I'm pretty sure the answer is no. To some extent, mood isn't even based on what events happen in your life. If you're sad, you think about events differently than if you're happy. Stuff that might not be a big deal when I'm happy may seem extremely annoying or depressing when I'm sad. Even if something happy happens, I would just focus on the bad parts of it (because I can always improve, no matter what the situation is).

Lilith Fair 2010

I just found out about Lilith Fair, happening this July. I'm suuuper excited because it's actually coming to my neighboring town! I don't even have to travel up to the nearest big city (not that I don't love visiting it). And that's not all! A Fine Frenzy is one of the artists playing at my venue! Aaaugh I cannot stop using exclamation points! It is just too exciting!!

Actually, when I went to the website and clicked on the "Artists" tab, I pretty much freaked out because almost all of my favorite female artists were there. (Lilith Fair is just for female singers/female-led bands). Here are the Lilith Fair bands and singers I know and love (or at least like):

Brandi Carlile
Cat Power
Chantal Kreviazuk
Colbie Caillat
Ingrid Michaelson
Kelly Clarkson
Martina McBride (Christmas music, anyone?)
Miranda Lambert
Norah Jones
Queen Latifah
Rihanna
Sara Bareilles
Sarah McLachlan
Selena Gomez
Sheryl Crow
Tegan and Sara
A Fine Frenzy
Anya Marina (who I saw as the opener for an Eric Hutchinson concert)
Butterfly Boucher (Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!)
Chairlift
Erin McCarley
Kate Nash
Ke$ha
Meaghan Smith
Missy Higgins
Zee Avi

OK, I lied, I also included some singers I didn't know well in that list. But still! How can you go wrong with a list like that?

Then I realized that different singers were performing at different venues. But the artists at my venue are not bad at all. I'm especially looking forward to Colbie Caillat and A Fine Frenzy. Squeee!!

And you know what the best part is? The ticket is only $34 after convenience charges, if I buy four tickets at a time. And I'm pretty sure we have four people going. Maybe even eight.

1.5 hours of sleep yesterday!

--from 7:30am to 9:00am
--caffeine does work

Don't tell Mum.

New Favorite Musical Artist: A Fine Frenzy

A Fine Frenzy is my new music obsession, especially her song "Blow Away." A few weeks back it was "What I Wouldn't Do" and "Almost Lover," both still very very good songs. I usually get tired of song obsessions too quickly for my liking, but I still love these.





Here are some of my favorite pictures of Alison Sudol, the lead singer of A Fine Frenzy:
The picture from her debut album, One Cell in the Sea

I love her dress and her boots here. And everything about this picture, actually.

Berkeley!

Yesterday I woke up at 6am to catch a 7:30 train to the Pre-Pharmacy Symposium at Berkeley, which was kind of enlightening but not as much as I'd hoped. I still don't get what pharmacists do, besides the guy behind the counter at Walgreens. Apparently they counsel patients about how their drugs could interact with each other or adjusting dosages or things like that. Stuff that my doctor does. I don't get it.

The symposium ended at 5, so I called up A and D for dinner and general socializing. I visited A at her dorm (which looks totally like in her pictures! wow I'm such a stalker), and then we went to D's room across the street. Both of them lived on a really tall floor, in a seven- or eight-story building (!). And then and then and then you know the pink Alena Skirt I was stalking? I had gone to Anthro on Thursday to get it, but there wasn't one in my size! (So I got a pair of black Hue tights. But I digress.) However, Berkeley has an Anthro, and we called them up, and they DO have a size 6 Alena skirt! We put a hold on it, and A and D are getting it for me today! Eeeee I'm so excited...I have such great friends :)

Afterward, we went to eat dinner at this little alleyway lined with restaurants. We each ordered a different type of dish, and then we tried each others'. I now know what GOOD he fun (chow fun?) with broccoli tastes like. It's actually kind of sweet. And then we went to Yogurtland, although it was cold and freezing outside. It's basically like L'Amour, but cheaper (30 cents per ounce rather than 47), and with mochi toppings. :9 When we went back to D's room, she showed me her MUA product-planning lists, which are even more OCD than mine. I was very impressed and am considering upping the OCD on my own lists >:)

When it came time to go home, I waited at the bus stop for a bit, but when the bus failed to show, I just walked to the BART station (and I think the bus arrived right after I left). I missed the outgoing BART by about a minute - I was on the ground level and I heard it leave below my feet. Thankfully, I had built some slack in my transportation schedule, because I didn't know that you could transfer directly across a platform instead of waiting 20 minutes for the transfer train to show. Turns out, it was probably good that I took the later BART, because I got to the Caltrain station at the right time. It was freezing and I had not brought a jacket (silly me). There was this very gregarious and slightly crazy guy on the platform, and he started talking to people out of boredom (the train was rather late), including me. He asked about the IHUM reader I was holding (btw - I finished all my IHUM reading on the trains!), and I was trying to make polite conversation while being slightly freaked out, cold, and a little sleepy. He turned out to be harmless (I think), just really bored.

When I got off the Caltrain, I realized that I had parked my bike on the far side of the tracks. Note to self: when parking your bike at a train station, go across the tracks to park it so that you don't have to cross back later to get it. It's less scary going to the other side of the tracks in the morning than it is late at night.

All in all, quite a fun day. Back-heavy, but still fun.

Here Comes the Sun

Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right

Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter
Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Little darling, the smiles returning to the faces
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been here
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun
and I say it's all right

Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...
Sun, sun, sun, here it comes...

Little darling, I feel that ice is slowly melting
Little darling, it seems like years since it's been clear
Here comes the sun, here comes the sun,
and I say it's all right
It's all right

I don't know whether I'm looking forward to this quarter. I'm taking the maximum number of units allowed, but they're all fun classes - to me, anyways. Intro to Psych (my first psych class! so excited. I hope it doesn't deter me from the field), o-chem (they say this course is easier and more interesting than last quarter, which was already pretty interesting to me), chem lab (my first chem lab! my first lab in general, actually!), music theory (super easy now but should get a lot more interesting later on, according to the syllabus), and Chinese medicine (just because it sounds cool). I also have IHUM, but, you know, I can't help that. At least mine's more interesting than the other IHUMs. At least in the beginning. It's an archaeology IHUM, and we talk about local history - my favorite kind of history, which is my favorite area of the humanities.

This blog post has wayyy too much cheery in it. To balance it out, it was raining today and I was wearing my Target Frye knockoffs to walk to classes, from classes, to the bookstore, back to my dorm, and to the post office and back. (My wayfarers were just delivered this afternoon but I can't get them yet...grrr.) Anyways, I love my Target boots but they're slightly too big and my foot slips around in them. All that walking rubbed a blister in each of my pinky toes :( I'm going to get insoles tomorrow; hopefully that will help. Plus I wore my hair in a ponytail today and when I tilt my head forward to write or read or whatever, my bangs fall forward into my eyes. As a result, a horizontal strip of scalp appears between my bangs and the rest of my pulled-back hair. I don't know how to get rid of that effect :( Plus I haven't been exercising at all since I got back from LA. I really want to work on my abs region but I'm not sure how.

Anthropologie

I've never really paid much attention to Anthropologie, partly because its clothes are quite often not my style. Plus they are waaay pricey. However! However. Some of them are to die for. Observe:

Drifting By Dress. $168 by Burlapp. Item #033035. It's the one Anthroholic was so crazy about, but I was too wide/short for it, so it made me look dumpy. :'( If it was the same dress but built for my size, I would love it so so much.
(front)

(back)

Chantico Tank. $88 by Bailey 44. Item #013148. I haven't seen this one in person though.
(front)

(back)

Or in white:

Alena Skirt. $88 by Odille. Item #18112011. I have another Odille skirt, and judging by these two skirts, I declare Odille the best Anthro skirt brand. Ever.

I found the medium pink one (above) in at the Anthro in the Americana in Glendale. It's actually more blush/nude. I tried it on (size 6), and I thought it fit okay, maybe a little long (I usually cross out any skirt/dress longer than knee-length, because they make me look even shorter and stumpier than usual). I didn't think it was that great. I took some pictures for future reference. When I was looking through my LA pictures today, however, I can't believe I ever felt that way. It actually looks so much better in the pictures. Check it out:
not tucked in

tucked in

AAAAAAHHHHH I love it. Except it's $88 TT__TT. I guess that makes me feel better about not getting it back then.