Bye, Chou-chou!

Today, Chou2 was taken back by his previous owner .. it's so weird. The father of that family was SO stubborn. I don't think I have ever met another person more stubborn than him. He was so adamant about taking him home - turns out he already planned it so that the family would come here on the day that they're going back to Oregon (they stayed in the area with another fam). Turns out he already knew he was going to take him back, but nothing was said to us until this morning when he arrived. The rest of his family + his sister already told him NO, but he insisted that he would take care of Chou2. They kept telling him how much happier he was here because we play with him and give him veggies (his fave!) and all that. When he used to stay at their house, he stayed in the sun/snow all day long with no one to talk to him or play with him. But this man still insisted. And when the kids (15 and 9?) suggested a vote, he said "I will make the decision." UGH, please. His wife asked him "Is this the best for Chou-chou or for YOU?" Which is so true. He didn't want to take my new leash for Chou2. He said that his old leash was perfect. Except that it really isn't - the string is worn down and it's one of those that retracts, but it's so old that it doesn't do that anymore ... Awk. And then when he put him in the cage in the car - I noticed the leash was still on. I told him it would get tangled, and he told me to leave it alone. When I checked, SURE ENOUGH, it was already wrapped all around him. Who does that? UGH. I'm not the best dog owner in the world, nor am I an expert, but really? I hope Chou2 is taken care of. The guy says he'll build him a "house," AKA put up a plastic sheet so he doesn't get rained on outside ... /: Anyways. I just wish for the best for Chou2. If it doesn't work out, I'm sure we'll get a call from his wife since no one else wants him there. And if it does, then cool.

I'm really mostly upset by the way he spoke to us and his family. He was so selfish and stubborn about everything! I was really ready to just shout at him that I had to go out of the room to calm down :\ I wish he had handled it better. And knowing that his kids and wife did not approve, he was just thinking about himself .. ugh. So yes. Weird start to the first day of this new year ..

Bye Chou-chou! We never really hit it off, you and I, but you're gone today and it feels weird. I guess I will miss you a bit. I hope your new owners take care of you as they promised they would. See you later!

ETA @ 11 PM - So this really bugged me so much that I got a headache and it got progressively worse until I came home from picking up my brother at the airport. I don't mind that Chou2 is with them - my mom explained that he actually does like Chou2 and said that when he came home before, he would greet Chou2 before the others. That's great that he wanted him back - I guess what happened is that he really didn't WANT to give Chou2 to us in the first place and as soon as he knew that we were okay with letting him go, he started plotting to take him back =___= Really annoying. Anyways. Headache is over, I don't feel like talking about this anymore ): I hope he is happy there .. We all miss him already!

And I also remembered - when we were putting Chou2's leash on his collar, he was confused. He asked, "Why is the tag on his front, not his back?" UHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GRAVITY?!?! DUH. He put Chou2 in a harness all the time because he was afraid of getting bitten. SO SAD ): You're not supposed to leave the harness on =________=;; But yeah, that's why he was confused about the collar tags ...

This year ...

A quick recap of the big things that happened this year!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER!

January: In which I decided to start the photo-a-day challenge! I'm really glad I did, since I was able to chronicle everything that happened this year! In January, I got to meet Justin loads and we celebrated our second anniversary (:

February: omgah Pullip pictures! I was trying to show them off since many of you didn't know that I even had them! Haha! That didn't last longer than this month, unfortunately. A new community market opened up by my house and now I always have a place to buy macarons!

March: I went to Honolulu for my spring break along with my family! Best vacation in a long time! I also started to make tiny star bracelets for the dolls! I also received my second Blythe at the end of this month! I had one before (CCC) but we didn't bond. I thought it was time to try again, and I'm so glad I did! 

April: More Blythe goodness! Spent more days hanging out in the backyard and on the elliptical! Went to my brother's second gamelan concert & got in touch with my native side :P

May: My birthmonth! Mom and Dad bought me the most beautiful diamond cross necklace for my birthday - something I've wanted for a while now! Also caught photos of crescent-shaped shadows from the solar eclipse! Our friend also left her dog with us because she had to move!

June: I started my internship at Merck this month, woo!! It was a wonderful experience - I would love to go back next year! Summer pretty much consisted of that. But in the meantime, my mom got Justin a job in the same building in which she works, so he got to spend A LOT of time with us! 

July: Fireworks were watched with my uncle's family. We did lots of family things this year, which is nice! Got my first big package from Lati as well - I had a lot of trouble carrying the box upstairs :P For EVC, we also started our summer sessions at houses with pools! Also indulged in tooooo many cupcakes!

August: Best part of this month = Disneyland trip!! We got to spend 3 magical days there, and it was amazing! The park really just gets better as I grow older (; Also attended a wedding - Stanley and Lia had their ceremony at GKI and then we had lunch at Maggiano's. 

September: An old friend of mine came back to the states to visit! I also went to the Philippines with Justin - our first trip together! It was a really short trip, but it was really fun! Those of you who know me in real life know I LOVE learning about different cultures! 

October: More awesome Blythe occurrences including the awesome bento hat made by Maggi! Spent a lot of my free time playing Pokemon Black and White 2! Oops!

November: We suddenly have a fourth dog .. Loki's original owner moved away and could not take him with her. We only went up to SF to meet him, but her roommate ended up dumping him on us! ): Poor guy! I also finally got my kigurumi after wanting one for more than 2.5 years! Along with that, I started to shop like CRAZY this month LOL.

December: In which I went even more retail crazy and scooped up lots of Disney stuff + work my kigurumi a lot more. Also got a sewing machine for Christmas, which is a great explanation for the mess on my desk right now! Great news - I finished my 366 photos project!! :D 

All in all, a really hard year filled with lots of trials .. But I have loads more to be thankful for. I feel like I get closer to my family as time goes by, which is unique in our modern culture! I absolutely love my dogs & doll hobby and can't imagine life without them. I'm so thankful that I also met so many wonderful people this year through church events, this doll hobby, and through classes! I hope anyone reading this will have a wonderful new year as well! 

Sewing Progress!

One more post for tonight (: Mom and Dad got me a gorgeous computerized Brother sewing machine for Christmas, so naturally I've been working on sewing! I started with Blythe rather than Lati Yellow because of the size factor. My hands cramped up so easily at the beginning!

This one was my second attempt - I made it specifically for Scylla, who's supposed to be my sea monster (will be transformed later on by the fabulous Obvious Zebra once she's clear ^^). I think I'm gonna try to keep doing the cool patterns on the hem of these dresses since IDK when else I'm going to use them?? Makes it a bit different, too, even though you don't see it right away. The small details are fun sometimes!

 

An attempt with buttons:

And here are all my girls wearing their new Auryealis couture ^__^

They always stay right next to me on my desk and keep me company while I'm studying. I'm going to have to find another place to store all my sewing materials, fabric, and the machine when school starts. Right now, my desk is covered in fabric scraps, thread, etc. x__x; 

Global Winter Wonderland!

Went to Global Winter Wonderland with my parents last night. It was freezing, but with groupon, we got tickets for $9 each :D Sadly, my brother's in St. Louis right now so he couldn't make it T__T;; Maybe next weekend. It was pretty cool to see all the pretty lanterns!

The weird thing about the event was that it had so much Chinese themes to it O_O Some of the lanterns hung on trees were the traditional red Chinese lanterns (these were over dinosaurs, mind you!) and gourds ... GOURDS?!?! And the main headliner was the Peking Opera featuring the story of the Monkey King. Hehe. 

But look at these cute panda lanterns :DD Of course I took pics with them being named Amanda and all .. Sadly I didn't like any of the pictures that had ME in them LOOOOOL.

The one thing I told myself I had to get was a funnel cake *pictured above. It was yummy for the first 3-4 bites, then it got really gross really quickly x__x;; lol. They also had lots of food from around the world in the food court, including Greek food and Indian, mmmm ((: I got chicken masala garlic fries. YUMMM! Anyways! It was a pretty cool Christmas-y park (: I'd love to go again next year if they change up their lanterns again!

Holiday Busy-ness!

As always, I'm busy during the holidays with offline stuff ^__^; It's funny because lots of the time I'm just sitting in the family room being bored .. And yet I just don't feel like going up to my laptop hah. So I'm always completely out of the loop of everyone's lives around this time! Oops!

This time of year has been hard for me for the past 4 years, starting with problems with old church friends and all this not knowing the meaning of my life anymore. You see, I'm a very passionate person. When something makes sense to me, I will stick with it/to it with all my heart. But at the same time, my passions can be fleeting! I have gone through so many different musical instruments because I just *stopped liking piano* or *suddenly had the urge to learn guitar* lol.

I always look back at my past during this time of the year, and for the past few years, I have felt like I really don't deserve to be happy, even at Christmas. There is one big incident and many smaller ones linked to it that I really regret. And I never talk about it anymore because my brother blames me and makes me feel worse when I talk to him about it, my parents don't know enough about it, and my boyfriend is not the best because he was friends with this person that I had a problem with. I almost broke up with him over it because when we were fighting, he stuck with his friend and completely ignored my calls and texts. Worst thing he ever did lol =_= Anyways. Holiday season is always a struggle for me, which is why I suddenly become a bit absent |:

I'm glad to be home and not have anything to do, but when I'm not in school, I just feel like the days are so wasted - I'm not learning anything, not really doing anything, just eating and sleeping, etc :P I can't wait til January rolls around!

That time of the year when ..

I start getting busy in life off the computer and I have no idea what all my online friends are up to x_x! I find that when my parents are off work for long vacations (anything over 2 days constitutes as long for them lol), they end up doing crazy projects around the house. For example, over the summer, we re-did almost our whole backyard/garden area. And that was a LOT of hard work x_x I should post a picture of my backyard sometime, it's crazyyy. This week, we repainted the kitchen, did some touch ups here and there, cleaned our fume hood x_x Oh, did I mention I adopted another dog last weekend? :P It's been crazy!

Around this time, I also start feeling like I can't do anything. Yay for SAD! I'm feeling overwhelmed already with having to meet up with old friends, making Christmas presents, cleaning the house/my room, etc.! The most productive thing I did all weekend was make iced sugar cookies. I mean, they don't look amazing, but at least I've got a recipe down for both cookie and icing. If only I could find my Christmas cookie cutters .. I have ALL the other 60+ cutters - just not my Christmas ones! They must be in their own box somewhere else!

typing away in class ..

I had a crazy mail day Friday of last week, and I'm guessing I'm getting more stuff in the mail todayyyy! Scylla - my new factory Blythe pictured above - was among the new arrivals. She's going to be my sea monster (I mean, her name probably gives it away lol).

I started to sew more this past month after Justin started going out more and more. I feel like it's really different between us now, and my sadness has made me lazy to do things online. He joined a club and the dance crew within that club, plus he has his senior project to work on. He doesn't need to study - he's just one of those smart people =__=; So he goes out 4 times a week and sometimes he leaves at 6PM and doesn't come back at 2AM. So I've been lonely. My closest friends live 40+ minutes away from me so I can't really just hang out with them. That's what sucks about being a commuter student, I guess? Anyways, this should explain my absence from Flickr.

Oh yeah - I started that paragraph saying I started to sew lol. I finally figured out my sewing machine for good. So hopefully after I draft a few patterns, I'll get something going. I can't afford Blythe fashion. I won't buy something more than $15 for myself .. why would I buy a dress that can fit in the palm of my hand for more? ^___^;; So I'll be making attempts at making doll clothes myself. Will also start working on Christmas gifts. I'm thinking about making some hand/pocket warmers? (: Now I just need to find cherry pits!

More arrivals!

All these photos are up on Flickr, but I wanted to have them all together here as well xD As you can see, I got my Wizard of Oz order from Lati finally! Well, I really can't complain. They came earlier than I had expected! I went to pick them up from the post office on Tuesday morning and had to bear with leaving them in the trunk for 10 hours before getting to play with them because of my classes xD

I'm really happy with this release! All the girls I've seen on Flickr are really beautiful as well! I haven't examined their bodies closely, but no complaints so far :D I got a gray skin tinman Lea and with Lami! I couldn't resist those elf ears!

I think I've got their names as well. My Lami is named Circe. I love that name and I've seen it a couple times when looking for good witch names :P And my Lea is named Aspen for the tree that has heart-shaped leaves. I was trying to find a metal-related name for her, but then thought about the tinman's character. Although he didn't have a heart by the time he reconstructed his body from metals, he was still always the most compassionate and considerate of the group. So I started looking for heart-related names and found Aspen :D It works perfectly because the tinman was also a woodsman! I'm soooo cleverrr hahah! 

I laugh it off, but it really hurts inside.

The other day, I told Justin I wanted to die. He didn't really respond, so I guess he didn't really understand what I meant. Maybe it was my fault trying to unload my feelings on a boy :P

I really do feel like such a failure, though. I'm in the biology program at my school, and although it shouldn't be this hard, I'm struggling in every class. I love biology - I LOVE learning all the different parts that make the world work. I love being able to explain phenomena around me. But apparently, I'm not good at showcasing this knowledge on tests /: I've been planning on applying for the Biotechnology minor (I've actually been telling people I'm minoring in biotech already ..). One of the requirements was an internship, and I NAILED that part. Last summer, I was at Genentech working in the clean rooms in large scale production. This summer, I landed an internship at Merck working with antibodies and their effects on CHO cells. I feel like I have more lab experience than most of my peers ..

The only problem is I don't have the grades. I need a 2.0 average in the required Biotechnology classes (12 out of the many options - I had to take almost all of them for my Biology degree anyways). I got a D in ochem. The WORST grade I have ever gotten, and in such a critical class, too! I also have some C-s and currently, my GPA is just under a 2.0 in those classes /: So, even though I already did what people consider the hard part - the internship - I still may not be able to get the minor because of my grades.

I have never felt so unhappy in my life as I did these past three years. Although that's how long I've known Justin, I would be lying if I said things were just amazing in my life. He's a great aspect of my life, but even he isn't enough to deter my negative feelings. I just have been going downhill and getting worse in everything - school, taming my emotions, keeping friends, controlling my weight, etc. I just wish that there was an easy remedy for this negativity, but I'm always finding myself in a rut every now and then! I don't really know what I'm doing wrong .. I don't feel like I've been doing anything differently, although my environment has changed (I was at my "prime" in high school where I served on the ministry teams). I just wish I could be happy again ):

Sorry for the negative post, everyone. I just had to let it out /:

Halloween

I never get into the whole Halloween season until like .. the week of ._.; I guess I'm just weird like that haha. There's going to be a fall festival at my church this Wednesday, and I was really planning on going until I learned that my dad will be out of town this week. Which means it'll just be me, mom, and the three dogs =__= I think if we left the dogs at home alone, they'd be really stressed out with all the trick-or-treaters coming around. So sadly, I can't go )':

But! Justin and I are gonna have a movie night with - what else - The Nightmare Before Christmas :D And now I have these guys to watch it with:

Too bad I don't have a Sally!