you'll be given love

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 03:46:17 GMT

i think winter has finally come to chicago. we had the first sticky snow today, albeit a short-lived snowfall. maybe i should buy proper shoes...or at least real socks.

it's also become apparent that if i want to work in a non-profit agency, i better be prepared to work another job...one that pays.

i should stop procrastinating.

Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:37:40 GMT

how i spent my summer vacation:

Mon, 23 Apr 2007 07:25:05 GMT

i'm officially old & uncool.

how unfortunate.

Tue, 10 Apr 2007 00:58:22 GMT

so this is what i don't get:

why is there any need to eat a bucket of fried chicken when you're in the bathroom?

oh, there is none?

yeah, that's what i thought.

however, this is the second time that i've walked into the bathrooms at school and found a bucket of chicken in the stall.

the second time.

at least there wasn't a People magazine on top of it, like last time.

ugh.

Mon, 26 Mar 2007 04:20:35 GMT

wow, i kind of forgot that i still have a livejournal. maybe i'll start using it again.

let's see...what's happened since november?

got accepted to grad school...so woooo! i start IIT in the fall. i need to start looking for a job/apartment--ideally, both.

i was one of the lucky 7.5% of employees who were cut from their positions.

my old manager offered me the position i used to have...and i reluctantly accepted.

i'm a curve-breaker.

my spanish has improved considerably. i have to give an interview to the editor of contratiempo...in spanish. crazy.

i've blown the dust off the 'ol polaroid, and i plan to use it a lot more.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlyouknowitstrieu

apparently, i've started talking in my sleep.

i'm a pro-bowler (on mike's nintendo wii.)

i've added about 8 lbs to my bootay.

things that i have to look forward to:

graduation, david bazan/ben gibbard, cedar point, 3 research conferences (charleston, chicago, canada), bjork (hopefully!), and summer dresses.

i'm pumped.

Sat, 18 Nov 2006 04:53:42 GMT

so i've had this giant weight lifted off my shoulders as of 10:32 pm.

i just submitted my last grad school application. after months of stressing out, it's over. there is absolutely nothing more that i can do except wait. and maybe cross my fingers.

i also found out that there is a very good chance that i'll be presenting my research project at the University of Ottawa this summer. canada might be fun. i hear ottawa is rather quaint. here's to hoping.

i'm so ready to eat a mountain of stuffing.

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 22:54:34 GMT

590 verbal
650 quantitative
for a grand total of 1240.

i'm pleased...but i need to get that verbal score higher.

i won't know my analytical score for another month.

here's to hoping.

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 00:41:18 GMT

so i clearly missed my calling in life.

i took a practice GRE today. isat in front of this computer for over 3 hours, answering a multitude of verbal and quantitative questions, and i wrote 2 essays. my verbal score, of which i normally excel, i only scored a 580. my quantitative score, however, i scored a 640. that gives me a grand total of 1220. i scored an extra 50 points in math. what? i have not had a math class in almost 4 years, but i write papers in every class that i have. i read books, magazines, and newspapers in increase my vocabulary. i make it a point to learn a new word every day, just so that i can someday use it in scrabble, but math is my stronger subject.

maybe i should have picked a career that uses it.

so all in all...

i would love to score a 1220 tomorrow, when my score actually counts.

i'm pretty nervous.

Sun, 13 Aug 2006 09:32:03 GMT

it's 4:30am, and i'm not the least bit tired. i think i had too much coffee today.

i have the whole house to myself...it's kind of eerie. i do this to myself on purpose though. i always think of scary things happening when i'm home alone. for example, i had this nagging feeling that i was being watched when i was taking off my make up, so i was terrified to open my eyes. i also had to shut all of the blinds in the back of the house because it creeps me out that people can see in, but i can't see out. it doesn't help that people are shooting off fireworks.

really? fireworks? the 4th of july is over.

i have a roller skating date in 5 1/2 hours...i'm never going to make it.

Mon, 29 May 2006 03:11:29 GMT

1 more year until i graduate.
8 more months until my last grad school app needs to be in.
6 more months until i can say i've been with mike for 3 years.
3 more months until school starts again.
3 more weeks until i go to new york.
2 more days until i go to cedar point.

that's my upcoming year. that's probably when i'll update next.
i'm slacking.

Mon, 06 Mar 2006 17:46:07 GMT

who steals a 1989 chevy astro van with 2 broken door handles?
the back seats are taken out, there is a hole in the gas tank, and it has over 150,000 miles on it.
my dad's baby is no longer.

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 04:33:21 GMT

it's weird how certain smells can completely take you back to a certain time in your life that you thought you wanted to forget. for me, that smell was new car air freshener. y'know...the one that's shaped like a tree?

i was at work on friday, and i picked up this guy's check...and the smell of new car air freshener was all over it. i looked into his car, and sure enough...those little trees were in his rearview.

i thought i wanted to forget all of that, but after smelling that familiar scent, it made me feel pretty nostalgic--in a good way.

but end emo rant now.

the past few days, i've been stricken with the worst case of stomach flu/food poisoning in my whole life.

on friday, i tasted my dinner twice...and it wasn't pretty the second time around. i couldn't sleep at all that night..i couldn't get comfortable and i kept having these bouts of sweating and shivering. i was useless all day on saturday. i couldn't even get out of bed. i couldn't force myself to eat anything...and that is quite a feat for me. mike brought me some orange juice, nyquil, and some silly presents to make me feel better...and i think they helped. today i'm not quite as useless....i can at least walk around, which is a good thing. one more dose of nyquil and a good night's sleep will hopefully make me completely better by tomorrow. i hope.

annoyed

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 07:12:07 GMT

this is the time of year that always has me wondering what i accomplished in the past 12 months.
and looking back, i think that i'm pretty satisfied with how things have come about.

-i finished my first full research project this semester. (by the way, we found that those who met their romantic partner while intoxicated rated their personal and emotional satisfaction as well as the overall communication in their relationship as significantly lower than those who had not been intoxicated.)
-i went on 2 mini vacations this past summer (new york city and cedar point).
-i threw my first dinner party--and it was quite a success.
-i almost burned my house down--but i was unsuccessful, thankfully.
-i beat tetris on nintendo...that took me almost a whole year to do.
-i got a second tattoo.
-marriage & family therapy became a very serious contender in my "what i want to do in life" contest.

despite the few things that made my year pretty good, there is always room for improvement, and i hope that this coming year will showcase that point. graduating, for example, would make for an excellent year.

as a side note...tonight i learned some new things about my friends, both new and old. some good..but mostly bad things.

most of it involves value indecision...or moral indecision.
teetering values is something that i have very little patience for, and it's one of my greatest pet peeves.
i've known so many people who have been on the proverbial fence, if you will.
vegetarian or not--smoker or not--christian or not--drinker or not. will you just pick one and stick with it already?
it's irritating to hear people profess one thing but then the next week turn around and do the other.

granted, i know i can be difficult. anyone who knows me knows my views on drinking...and how i hate it.
so of course, it's easier to just not tell me that you've been drinking...than to tell me.
but i won't crucifiy you. i'm past that. people are free to make their own decisions...but at least own up to them.
don't hide your decision, like you're ashamed.
but if you are ashamed, maybe you should examine that a little deeper.

it's not just one occassion. looking back, i've known countless people who have professed a certain belief or value until they are blue in the face, but the next week, they are doing the exact opposite of what they believed. it makes me stop and wonder what event triggered them to go against everything they believed in. what changed since last week? last month? last year?

no more fence-sitters.

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 03:32:27 GMT

where am i at now?

school is almost done. 2 more weeks and i'm done. sure, i'll be stressed out and crabby...but once it is all done, i'll be floating.

the saddest thing i have to report is that my little jellybean baby is being replaced. in fact, it is replaced with an old-lady beige saturn. it's a saturn with 4 doors and a concealed trunk. i'm saddened by this profusely. i never thought that i would get so attached to my little purple baby, but alas, you never really know what you have until it's gone. cleaning it out was probably the worst. i went through all of the memories (stolen napkin dispenser from celebration station, big purple ball from a 3am escapade at meijer, a thrifted letterman's jacket that i never wore, heart window clings, 5 hello kitties, numerous notes that mikey left for me at night when i was sleeping, a stockpile of cds, 3 pairs of shoes, a giant horn, an umbrella built for a 3 year old, and much much more) that were attached to the car, and it was pretty depressing.

i tried to decorate the old lady car with my glittery heart ornament hanging from the rearview mirror and some hello kitties...but it's really not the same. it doesn't have the same effect in this car as it did in my jelly bean.

what else?

i watched a ton of episodes of The Wonder Years, and i remembered how wonderful that show was. i think wayne is my boyfriend.

i started looking at grad schools. scary.

it's 12 degrees outside right now. there is a thin layer of snow covering my lawn. i had to break out the knee socks.

my turtle babies are huge. they're about the size of my palm now...and they might be a little bit overweight. i still love them.

Wed, 26 Oct 2005 14:31:01 GMT

so let's see...

i've had this horrible death cough for about 2 weeks now. it's getting old. prior to seeing the doctor on monday, i hadn't slept in days because i was too busy coughing up miscellaneous body parts all night.

i went to a wedding last friday and watched many of my coworkers get trashed. it was quite a sight.

i have to decide whether i want to take Drugs & Behavior (psy 428) or Spanish Composition (Span 261) this spring. it would make more sense to take spanish comp because it's required to get my minor, but psy 428 sounds really, really interesting. what do i do?

i'm going to be alice in wonderland for halloween. i need a wig.

Fri, 23 Sep 2005 00:39:54 GMT

as of late, i think that i have not been able to adequately pick up on signs, omens, warnings, whathaveyou. i'm normally pretty perceptive, but i think that i will blame the weather.

yesterday, sarah and i were sitting at schoops, and talking about how much we absolutely hate the eagles. we got to talking about how among all of our friends, the postal service is pretty much the only band that we all can agree on. it could be worse, i think...and somehow the conversation turned to aimee, and how she has this horrible love for alice in chains. yeah. i know. she's a strange girl.

we both started reminiscing about the crazy adventures that the three of us have done together. i decided that we should go visit her. right now.

so we started to drive to renssalaer without knowing how to get there. i thought that you could take route 30 all the way there, but i wasn't sure. we got to merrillville, when my "check engine" light turned on. that's normally not a very promising sign, but i decided to ignore it. i should have taken that as a sign to NOT go. but oh, well.

we drove down 30 until we were almost in valpo when we decided to call dave. he told us that we actually had to take 65 down there. we had to back track about 30 minutes to get to 65, and then we were finally off. the drive down there is really dull, and it smelled a lot like horses (which isn't a very pleasant smell.) we passed the XXX adult superstore and the bible college (within 2 miles of each other), and about an hour later, we found ourselves in renssalaer.

so st. joseph's is a really tiny college that is not very well lit, nor are there clear signs directing which way to go. also, it is in hilljack country, so stopping for directions was out of the question. after driving around for quite some time, we finally find it, and i park in the first available spot. we call aimee, and she's super surprised, and there is a ton of hugging. blah blah blah.

a few hours later (maybe around 12am or so), sarah and i decide to go home so aim could finish her paper and study for a test. we go back to my car only to find that i left my dome light on. well, shit.

i started my car, and my "charge battery" light came on. after a few minutes, it turned off, so i figured i would be okay. and i was, thankfully.

of course, since sarah and i have no sense of direction, we get lost on the way back to the expressway. it was getting late, and nothing was open, so we couldn't ask for directions. we found some trashy drunk guy walking in the middle of the road, and he pointed us in the right direction (surprisingly).

finally, i'm driving sarah home, and all of the streets are completely empty. i wasn't going fast, but apparently, i was going fast enough for a cop to make a u turn, get on my ass, and a few mintues later, pull me over. he told me i was going 41 in a 25 (ooooohhh). i only got a warning ticket, but i had to listen to this cop tell me that i'm going to hurt someone if i drive that fast. (are you joking?)

anyway, it's really hot in my house, and i think i'd rather be elsewhere. night.

Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:23:19 GMT

so minus the bear was really awesome. they played almost everything i wanted to hear and more.
even though no one really wanted to dance with me, i still had a great time.

oh, and i hate anyone who wears birkenstocks.
especially when they throw them in the air--
and hit me in the head. it really was a devil sandal, though.
after it hit me in the head, it hit sarah in the boob, bounced off, and hit the guy in front of me.
devil.shoe.

but then again..if i wore birkenstocks...i'd probably throw them at people, too.
y'know...since they're ugly.

thunderbirds was also very awesome. they didn't play any of their old songs, which was a little disappointing...but what can you do?

i went out with a bunch of people from work on saturday night, and i realized how uncouth some of the bank ladies are. i saw so much cleavage that night...it was a little disturbing--mainly because it was saggy cleavage. oh, dear. in addition, i saw some of our customers there, and one of them (who is married with a baby) tried to hit on me. i don't think he recognized me. so to sum it all up: i hate the indiana bar scene.

Sun, 11 Sep 2005 16:07:22 GMT

so just to keep everything updated.
i'm a fucking super villain now. scar and everything.

i was cleaning out my turtle babies' tank, and i bent down to plug their filter in.
of course, since i'm an ass, i knocked my head into the corner of this china cabinet thing.
i continued organizing their tank when this huge drop of blood fell into their water.
i immediately touched my head, and i felt this huge gash in my eyebrow.
my glasses got super bloody, and it wouldn't stop bleeding for awhile.

well, anyway...
i'm going to have this nasty scar in my eyebrow for the rest of my life now.
i'm ready for my fucking close up.

Sun, 28 Aug 2005 22:42:52 GMT

and just like that, summer is over. school starts tomorrow at 8am, and i'm not looking forward to it, but let's look at it this way: winter break is only 4 months away. a meager 1/3 of a year.

last night, mike, jono, and i drove down to urbana to see headphones. i never realized how absolutely boring illinois can be. we took I-57 all the way down, and i think i saw 4 cars the entire time. we actually saw a hawk in the grass between the highway. i told them that if we saw a tumble weed blow across the street that i am turning around and driving home. a tumble weed could only mean that i am driving in the wrong direction.

well, we got there in a little bit over 2 hours (after getting a bit mixed up while driving around on the campus), and i must say the student union needs to be a little better lit. we were looking for 1401 w. green street, and we kept driving up and down, and the numbers were just not visible at all. finally, we asked the car next to us to point us in the right direction, and of course, we had passed that building about 4 times. i lose.

anyway, the show was nice. headphones played a rather short set, but i still enjoyed it.

the drive home was longer than the drive down there. i was really tired, and i was swerving a bit...but i guess it didn't really matter since i was the only car on the highway.

i'm pretty much wasting my last day of summer. maybe i'll go to bed.

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 21:17:38 GMT

when you are used to seeing someone in a specific context and you see them in a different context, it's hard to match the name to the face. for example, this girl who i pretty much only know as "larry's girlfriend" and who i solely see in school said hi to me at target today. i stopped, and i must have had the most puzzled look on my face because she said..."i'm larry's girlfriend...?" i still look puzzled. i thought maybe she had me confused with my sister, which happens quite a bit, so i asked if she meant my chi. she was getting impatient, and said, "well...not unless you guys are twins or something. larry. larry day. his girlfriend?" the name just did not mean anything to me at that moment. i couldn't figure out who she was. finally, she said, "larry! he was in one of your classes!" and finally, it all made sense.

well, anyway. i felt like a jerk. and i still do.

Tue, 23 Aug 2005 04:24:45 GMT

i had a pretty nice weekend. the weather was beautiful, and i was kept pretty busy.

friday i took my sister to the airport at 4:30am. after getting stuck in a little bit of traffic on the way home, i fell asleep for a few hours, and then i had to go to work. we had a s'more cookout and gave myself a bit of a belly ache. and i dug it.

saturday, i met pixy in chicago. we did a lot of shopping...and i did a LOT of walking. but i had a really fun time. i had a 25% off coupon at h&m, so i went there and found very little. i bought 3 black shirts, and then we went on our merry way. we had lunch at cosi, where they had some motown going for a little while, and i had the best sandwich in life. pixy brought me a black & white cookie from new york, and we shared it for dessert. she also brought me some cherry jam from the farmer's market, and it was delectable. when i was in ny, i wanted to bring jam home for my sister, but when we went got back to the area, it was closing down for the week. it was pretty sad. but anyway, after lunch at cosi, i had to run back to my car to put more money into the machine, and then we were off to nordstrom so pixy could buy the mother of all bras. after hanging around the westfield shopping centre awhile, we went to the other h&m to see if i could exchange my shirt. (i wanted a larger size, but they didn't have it at state street...so i figured since we were only a few blocks away from the one on michigan avenue, i'll see if they have my size there.) they didn't, so i guess i'll hooch it out a little bit. we parted ways after that, and i had a pretty long walk back to my car. i was going to take the el, but it was so nice outside. on top of that, i think that is the most exercise i've gotten in quite some time.

driving home was pretty nice. i had the windows down, and the sun was just setting so everything had that really wonderful orange glow. if gas weren't so expensive, i think i'd drive to chicago everyday just to see that orange glow on the buildings.

i spent the remainder of the evening with sarah & summer. we tried very hard to get rid of a pizza guy who kept asking us questions, and we were scaring ourselves into thinking that the noises in the house were ghosts...which i'm sure they were.

school starts in a week, and i'm not looking forward to it. my classes are going to be less than extraordinary. i'm not sure what i was thinking when i signed up for classes, but i scheduled an 8am class. why?

so i've been trying to think up things to do in order to fill up my last week of summer. today, i had to give suburban books all of my money, go to work, and then i got all dressed hoping that it would give me the desire to go out and do something, but by the time i finished getting ready, i was too tired to really do anything. i went to karaoke night at some crappy bar, and i called it an early night. i must say, the local bar scene is terrible. but what was i expecting?

tomorrow, i have to work at 7:45am, and after that i think i want to go thrifting. i haven't been thrifting in a while. and i mean thrifting. that includes driving out to the heights, merrillville, gary, and if i'm feeling really ambitious, i'll go to portage. but who knows how well i'll feel tomorrow after i get out of work. i also want to buy the new minus the bear album, which is fantastic. in order to buy it, however, i'll have to find a store that carries it--other than borders, that is. i'm not really in the mood to pay $20 for a cd. but it's so so good....so we'll see what happens.

later in the evening, sarah and i are supposed to do something. maybe we'll eat a huge dessert at leona's.

i had a really bizarre dream about ben gibbard the other night. in the dream, he and i ran away together, and he sang to me the whole time. then, he was supposed to play at mike's friend's girlfriend's (yeah, i know) birthday party at some park, but he decided to skip it so we could skip the country. it was really strange, and it was one of the dreams that you think are absolutely real until about 5 minutes after waking up. i don't think i'm allowed to listen to death cab before i go to bed anymore. (by the way, the new death cab cd is great. very mellow. good sleeping music--until you dream about ben gibbard and just feel embarressed to listen to it.)

i really do think that sometimes i'm a 13 year old girl.

Mon, 15 Aug 2005 01:31:01 GMT

so let's see where things are at now...

i went to cedar point, and i had a grand time. we shoved seven people into a hotel room, and ate sno-cones the size of my head. we rode every roller coaster (except the dragster, which was down for maintenance, and when it was functioning again, it started to rain. next time, next time). i forgot how much i absolutely love roller coasters until i went to cedar point. both days we were there, it was sweltering. standing in line for the rides was almost unbearable. we also had to take lightning fast showers when we got back to the hotel since there was only one bathroom. i was tempted to make the boys shower at the pool.

what else?

i almost set my house on fire yesterday. no, really. i almost did.

for alison's birthday, i decided that i would bake her brownies. i bought a fancy shmancy tray and pink saran wrap to present them on. well, i preheated the oven, and i started to mix the brownies. a few minutes later, i start to smell smoke, and i turn around to see smoke pouring out of my oven. i open the oven door, and there is a huge fire inside of it. i closed the door quickly and turned off the oven. i was hoping it would go out by itself, so i waited a few minutes. after about 7 minutes, i decided that it may not go out anytime soon. i had to call 911 because we are fire extinguisher-less. the flames started to get really big, and they started to come out of the top and the sides of the stove. so by now, i'm panicking like crazy and waiting for the fire department to come. when they finally arrive, the flames have settled, but my house is still filled with black smoke. (it took them a really long time to arrive--they blamed traffic.)

thankfully, we are an asian household and have a second oven in my garage. i baked the brownies, decorated them with powdered sugar, and arranged them in a pyramid on the platter. i made alison a few cds, and then mike and i were off to alison's to eat cake. she had a sweet room...and a salty room, and i mingled around in both. the best part was the 2 liter of piña jarritos. yum.

on a different note,
school starts in 2 weeks, and i hear i'll have to spend another 200 dollars for just my spanish text book. i'll kill someone.

Thu, 04 Aug 2005 13:26:14 GMT

holy crap. i saw the house go up into the sky.

yesterday, i finally did it. i beat tetris and saw the house go up like rocket. ever since i found out that happens, i've been trying very diligently to make it happen. yesterday, after many foiled attempts, i finally saw it. 146,000 points. i was really excited. that's been my life mission. how depressing.

on tuesday night, i worked the munster night out against crime. it was community event number 3, and i think it should have been worth 2 community events instead of just one. it was 3 hours of pure torture. i had to run bozo buckets for 3 straight hours with a bunch of snot-nose, bratty kids. i did not think that it would be so painful. i pretty much had to endure 3 hours of squats in 95 degree heat. i had to bend down for every bucket for every kid. my legs are so sore, and i really just want to chop them off right now. i can't even walk correctly. so moral of the story: never work with children.

Sun, 24 Jul 2005 21:36:39 GMT

this summer is almost over. classes start in about a month, and i am really not ready to go back. a month sounds like a long time from now, but between all of my awesome sitting down and doing nothing, it's going to pass quite quickly.

anyway.

i've had a really nice couple of weeks. i went to a birthday party for a coworker, which was a little wilder than expected. april's grad/going away party was also really fun. she decorated a bunch of mannequin heads to put on the tables as centerpieces, and they looked fabulous. i missed intonation because i was broke/lazy. i popped a tire on the way to thunderbirds. i visited angelina and saw her new apartment yesterday. we went to lula cafe, and i had some of the best pasta i've ever had in my life. while driving home, i was on my cell phone, and a chicago cop shook his finger at me and motioned for me to hang up my phone. i suppose that is better than getting a ticket. i'm missing lollapalooza right now because i do not have money (but i'm not very heartbroken because it's 105 degrees outside right now).

moving forward.

my parents are leaving for california on august 1st. during that time, i may host another dinner party or maybe a potluck. the day that my parents come home, i am leaving for cedar point. i'm going to ride every roller coaster and hopefully make myself sick. it will be delightful. when i return, i will have only two more weeks before i go back to the 'ol schoolhouse. things are going to get a little crazy.

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 03:39:41 GMT

so now that i'm back home...
i think i'd like to jump right back on a plane headed for new york.
i had so much fun (maybe too much fun), and that means that i am not in "work mode."
boo.

my last days in new york consisted of a nerf & cupcake party in brooklyn to celebrate pixy's birthday. there was pizza and cupcakes and some crazy indian fudgy/almond things and nerf balls. and chalk. and squirt guns. in addition, i saw times square, little italy, chinatown, soho (noho & nolita--silly names, really), and everything in between. pixy took me to the prada store, and wow...never have i seen such pretentious employees in my entire life. but i suppose that pretension is standard among someone who would work in such a high end store. the tags did not even have prices on them. there was a huge half pipe inside the store. silicone seats. mirrors. it was intense.

pictures of everything to come soon. hopefully.