Because I've accepted procrastinating as a way of life...

I've recently rediscovered Sea of Shoes. Jane Aldridge is simply amazing. (I know, I'm still working on getting that thesaurus.) I find myself drooling over every shoe and every piece of vintage in her magnificently spacious closet. I'm seriously reconsidering picking up outfit posts again. It's just so much work...

Just in time after midterms, the shipment from Forever 21 came today. Since the factory is based in LA, it takes about a day for orders to get delivered to our dorms. The order included this nail polish:



Above, nail polish in Twilight. Gotta love the color, gotta love the name. I also bought this headband:



Above, the chiffon flower headband. The chiffon-and-lace flower is so dainty and soft. It's just girly enough to dress up casual outfits, yet formal enough to pair with my classic Jessica McClintock mini for my cousin's summer wedding. (Yeah, I think up outfits a lot in advance.) And oh I think I'm in love with this dress:



Above, the babydoll colorblock dress. It's simple, playful, a bit childish, and ultra-flattering. I'm planning on debuting it at Battle Royale, a clubbing event I'm attending this Friday night in honor of H, who is performing with her dance team. I'm really looking forward to it because I haven't properly gone out in so long. Plus, the event is being held at Union Station. I can't wait to see how they set it up.

Finally, I have a random to share. Check out this perfectly-engineered-by-Mother-Nature pear:



So the resolution on my cell phone camera doesn't exactly flatter the color, but this pear is the most deliciously crisp green. And the little leaf on top makes it so cute. It breaks my heart to think that I'll have to eat it soon.

breathe

The first round of midterms is over. I don't want to talk about it.

I do have a side note, though. The stress of midterms has driven me into sheer madness with my shopping. Over the past few days, I've ordered more things online than I can mentally keep track of. Of the things that came yesterday, this is my favorite:


Above, floral print sunglasses from [please don't shoot me] Wet Seal. So I know Wet Seal generally designs cheap whore clothing, but I just couldn't resist these sunglasses. At $5, I would have bought them off a vendor in Mexico (except not right now, given the swine flu pandemic and all).

Taylor Swift graced the cover of the May 2009 issue of Seventeen. P and I still read it despite being 2 years over the target age group. Anyways, I loved the shots of her with this huge flower headband.



You can't really see, but she is wearing the most amazing ring on her right ring finger. It looks like this:



This is Kiel Mead's forget me not ring. I have since decided that I'm in love with bows and am on the lookout for a ring that looks like this one, but costs less than the $200 asking price.

While we're on the subject of Taylor Swift, I wanted to share another one of her songs:



This is "Breathe," and I learned it on guitar a few days ago. It has a grand total of about 5 alternating chords, so it's super easy. It also sounds incroyable, which isn't surprising given that her entire CD is amazing. I really need to invest in a thesaurus and stop overusing "amazing." Sorry.

I'll never be a ballerina

But I can still wear the tutu! I'm currently combing the internet for a bubbly tiered skirt like Carrie Bradshaw's.





However, unlike Carrie, I'm not daring enough to wear white tulle. As I told P, I tend to plant my butt everywhere, and wearing white is just too risky. So I'm thinking pink.

Sundays

A bit of good news: Rendezvous finally got composting bins! For those of you that don't know, LA is really not a green city. On my first day on campus, I spent a few hours walking around campus with a banana peel in my hand looking for a compost bin. To my dismay, I didn't find one. I did, however, find that most people here don't even know what compost is, a fact that disturbs and saddens me. I'm glad UCLA is making efforts to go green - Hedrick's trayless dining, composting dining hall leftovers, Beefless Thursdays, and now, compost bins:



Another bit of good (maybe bad) news: D got bunnies. They're incredibly adorable, but they're also furry poop machines. A good/bad thing about the poop is that they're tiny dry pellets that blend into the carpet. We're still waiting for D to vacuum.



Yesterday, I checked out the Festival of Books on campus with P and H before heading to Westwood for haircuts. I cut my hair a good three inches and got my bangs shortened so they sort of resemble bangs again. The lady cutting my hair told me that she also works in Beverly Hills and that my haircut would cost $85 dollars in Beverly Hills. I'm glad I only pay $20 in Westwood.


Above, my contribution to the Festival of Books. There was a massive mural-type poster that said, "What are you reading?" There were people Sharpie-ing all kinds of books on the poster, so I followed suit. Some examples: Twilight, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and an O-Chem textbook.

I spent a good two hours reading in bed this morning, then felt extremely guilty afterwards because I should be studying for my o-chem midterm. But why should I feel guilty? Sundays should be spent relaxing, doing things that make you happy, rejuvenating after a long week, and preparing for the week ahead. I'm so sick of nonstop work work work. Our lives are constantly on fast forward - always looking to the future, never stopping to enjoy the moment. I'm so ready for summer. (Note to self: never take 18 units worth of math and science classes in one quarter ever again.)

A guitar...

...is not a good thing to have in my room during midterms week, especially since my first test is tomorrow. Sitting down and studying just sounds so unappealing in this brutal heat.


<3

oppressive heat

I would like to start this post by sharing the weather gadget on my Windows sidebar:


It is, indeed, 97 freaking degrees outside, and the NorCal kids down here in SoCal feel an almost certain death by sunshine looming in the distance. I really thought hard about what I could wear today, but came to the conclusion that anything more than a birthday suit pretty much ensures heat stroke.

Scorching weather aside, life has been pretty good awful. I momentarily forgot that I have three midterms this week. This is so reminiscent of Lowell Hell, except I never felt like my skin would melt off of my body in San Francisco. P and I spent the beautiful, sunny weekend studying for various midterms indoors. We did make a trip to Westwood on Sunday morning for the farmers' market, only to discover that the market has been permanently removed. Thank god for Trader Joe's.

So we didn't get anything from the farmers' market, but at least our dining hall has fresh fruits:


Is this sh*t bananas or what? They cannot seriously expect us to eat that.

On a different not, I recently received 16 emails in a row from the amazing D.Ho containing the complete High School Musical 3 soundtrack and Fearless, by Taylor Swift. I also got Taylor Swift's self-titled debut album from E (my go-to girl for all things music) last night. I don't think I've raved about Taylor Swift's wonderfulness yet. Her CDs are on constant repeat on my iTunes:



Seriously, though. Listen to this - "The Best Day":



Doesn't it melt your heart? If not, try this one:



I found it while I was looking for the Taylor Swift above. Feel-good warm fuzzies all around!

And a quick update before I go:


Indeed, the temperature has gone up 2 degrees in the time that it took to type up this post.

Russian Roulette is not the same without a gun.

My math professor seems to agree with Lady GaGa. To date, we've done about a good number of examples in probability, and about a third of them involve revolvers in various games of Russian Roulette. All I've learned is that I should never get trapped in a game in which I need to choose the revolver that has a lower probability of putting a bullet in my head.

Math 3C is a class for Life Science majors. Our textbook likes to teach us through examples with bacteria and other biological systems to keep us interested (and to make us think what we're learning is relevant). My professor, however, likes to compare administering vaccines to shooting a patient with a randomly loaded gun. He explained that many people die from vaccines every year, and you never know if the vaccine you administer is going to kill the patient. Hence, the randomly loaded gun.

There was a couple sitting right in front of me yesterday. As they were more interesting than the lecture, I proceeded to observe them throughout the class. The poor girl was trying her best to get the boy's attention by flipping her hair, nudging him, and resting her hand on his arm, but the boy's interest was held by the game of Russian Roulette being hypothetically demonstrated on the board. The girl did manage to get the boy's attention once - by taking out a pack of Saltine crackers. Apparently, he was hungry.

Side note - To the giggly girls in the front row, stop flirting with our professor. It's not cute.

For C:


It's hard to tell with my ruler in this picture, but this banana is just short of 10 inches.

For H:


I definitely dropped these Ray Bans and scratched up the left frame on my way to wash them in the bathroom... I found them as a stowaway in my dining hall locker. Apparently, they wanted to come home with me.

Finally, I leave you with:


Above, solid proof that eco-friendly, staple-less staplers are homeworks' best friends. Though it's hard to tell in this picture, the red pen mark says, "nice!"

meaty

I took a break from my homework and played around with my blog settings. I'm liking this new look for Spring. The header picture was taken in the epic gardens of Vaux-le-Vicomte in France. Once again, I'm missing Paris.

I have a half-used Moleskine Volant at home, but I left it somewhere in my room. Missing a place to jot small things/ideas down, I went to CVS the other day and bought a 99-cent pocket notebook. It'll have to do until this gets to me (I ordered it online and it should be in the mail today):

Above, Moleskine Reporter notebook

My family is visiting me on campus tomorrow (my mom is bringing me fruits!) since my brother is on spring break. As much as I like to think that I don't get homesick anymore, I still enjoy small doses of home every once in a while.

Last night, my floor celebrated TJ's 19th birthday at Jose Bernstein, a hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Westwood. We ate meat and it was fabulous! About meat-fasting, it was an interesting experience. I'll probably end up doing it again, but will I eat less meat on a daily basis? I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Happy Birthday, TJ!

It's Easter Sunday and TJ's birthday! I'm not going to church, but I am going to TJ's birthday dinner tonight. I'm not eating meat until dinner, when TJ, R, and I plan to take our first post-Lent bites of meat together.

I'm spending a quiet weekend confined to my dorm room in an effort to catch up in all of my classes. I have to work through more homework than I can list in less than a week. Still, I find time to play truth-or-dare with my floor, go fruit-hunting in Westwood, and blog.

I'm in love with the camera on my cell phone. It takes such high-quality pictures for a tiny phone camera. I'm also in awe of Bluetooth, which allows me to send the pictures from my phone to my camera in less than five seconds. Here are the results of said photodump:


Above, the April picture of my calendar. I love cats. :)


Above, a year and two months later, I'm finally growing the mini bonsai tree that Liz gave me on my birthday last year. The first step is to germinate the seeds by soaking them in water for 24 hours. I'll follow up with more pictures when it gets more interesting.


Above, D visited LA on his spring break last week. Instead of doing homework, we sang and fooled around while A.Lo rocked my guitar. Afterwards, he fell asleep on my bed with ever-napping H. <3


Above, the very definition of Paris. This makes me smile every time I walk by it on my way out of the Trader Joe's in Westwood (which I'm so thankful we have). A few floormates and I ventured to Westwood this morning in search of fruit bargains at the farmer's market, but the market was apparently cancelled because of Easter. I'm not sure Jesus would appreciate markets depriving college students of fresh fruit on his behalf. Anyways, I got my fruit fix at Trader Joe's in the form of strawberries and seedless green grapes.


Above, sunset on a clear day right in front of my dorm. Sometimes, I just can't get over how beautiful LA can be.

"Why yes, I would like to catalyze ATP production, but I'm not an enzyme."

As I said on my twitter, I really need a small notebook to jot down sudden inspirations/ things I need to remember. I've recently been using the memopad on my cellphone, but that's just not as satisfying.

A few things on my mind today:

I'm quite torn between feelings towards my current Statistics professor. I thought my Ukranian Calculus teacher from last quarter was hard to understand, but I would be glad to have her teach me now. What angers me most is that UCLA seems to import a good number of math and science professors from Asian countries. I have nothing against Asian countries, given that they breed math and science geniuses, but I think UCLA needs to ensure that these professors have mastered the English language before allowing them to teach. Students should not have to decode the semi-proficient English of an imported professor in order to learn. My statistics professor can read and write English fairly well, but most of her messages are lost in translation when she speaks. Appearance-wise, she looks like a mean bird, but I have reason to believe that a kind soul is hiding under her stern gaze, old-lady clothing, and sky-high heels. She she does get cool points for featuring this as her screensaver:


Twilight forest, anyone?

On the bright side, my Life Sciences 2 TA, Aditi, is a Godsend. Only the best TA ingores the "suggested adgenda" of holding a class debate on animal testing, and reviews every single lecture we've had to date instead. Only the best TA describes enzyme catalysis of ATP production as "fucking intense." Only the best TA does all of this in 50 minutes and dismisses the class that was supposed to last 3 hours. Thanks, Aditi.

Blair

P and I have been feeling quite sick of our music libraries lately. I'm rather angry at UCLA for not allowing us to download music on campus. It's not like prohibiting illegal downloads keeps us from downloading music. Ironically, it pretty much ensures that illegally downloading music/movies is the first thing we do when we leave campus with our laptops.

I have tons of homework to finish because I'm a psychobiology major and South Campus sucks. C, I'm not saying that North Campus is better, but it definitely is easier and (maybe) a happier place to be. Just compare my workload to D's. Oh wait, she doesn't have a workload to compare.

Tonight, after nearly drowning P and me in her perfume man stench, D went out to party a friend. I'd say they're clubbing, but who would want to go clubbing with her? And I have to emphasize a friend because she only has one. Yes, A (the hockey player down the hall), I can indeed be a bitch. What can I say? She brings out the bitch Blair in me.

I leave you with some findings from American Eagle Outfitters:


oversized shirt (dress)


strappy stitch sandals


pretty pointelle knee socks

And just like that, I've fallen in love with American Eagle again.

It's about time.

"I'm not a huge Rob Pattinson fan. Girls aren't really in love with Rob; they're in love with Edward." - Miley Cyrus

That's right. She finally said something right.

"Sale" may be my favorite word in the English language.

This past weekend was so amazing. Saturday, my floor went to Six Flags Magic Mountain for bonding and other thrills. All I have to say is that riding Tatsu at night pretty much completes my life. That night, I slept 11 hours and it was heavenly.

Yesterday, P and I bussed to Santa Monica to promenade down Third Street in search of new wardrobes. I'm happy to report that the trip was a success. Though my bank account took quite a few blows for my success, I like to think I found some good deals thanks to various sales.



Above, Old Navy flip-flops in magenta. I think I chose this color because a) it makes me happy, and b) my nails happened to be painted the exact same color. Can I just say that these $2 flip-flops are the most magical shower shoes in the world? I had been wearing the marc by Marc Jacobs flip-flops before and they just aren't the same.



Above, Forever 21 floral woven tunic, perfect for spring in sunny LA. I'll admit that it's a bit see-through, but it'll work with proper layering.



Above, Gap ruffle striped cardigan that I bought two sizes too big so I can wear it as a dress.



Above, Minnetonka 3-layer fringe boot, purchased at the Kitson outlet. I've finally decided that my brown fringed boots need replacing.



Above, epic find of the day. UGG Australia's Suburb boot, 66% off at the Kitson outlet.

Meet Gimbal

After watching High School Musical 3 with P yet again, I decided to add that The Perfect Man sings and dances with you atop a piano. :)

Today was my day of hell. Every Friday this quarter, I start class at 9am and end at 3pm without breaks. I finished early today, which worked out well because I then had time to find my Math TA in his office in some obscure corner of the Mathematical Sciences Building. It's a good thing that building is home to engineering classes because only engineers can find their way around that place. I had to call A.Lo to get un-lost after cornering myself in a stairway. On the bright side, I was the only one in my TA's office, so he helped me work through the rest of my homework.

I rewarded myself for surviving Week 1 by going shopping online. I bought these boots to spice up my spring/summer wardrobe:



Above, Steve Madden's Gimbal, in cognac leather. I'm normally opposed to heeled boots, but cowboy boots are definitely an exception. Oh, how Steve Madden warms my heart.

The Perfect Man

If I haven't gushed to you about it already, P got me the best birthday gift in the history of birthday gifts. She ordered both High School Musical 3 and Twilight on DVD. <3

Monday night, we watched HSM 3 and fell in even more in love with Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens. That level of perfection should not be allowed. I mean, who can say no to a boy who serenades you, then dances you on a rooftop in the rain? Last night, we watched Twilight. I can't decide whether Edward or Carlisle Cullen is more perfect. All I know is that there were quite a few moments last night when P and I both stopped breathing due to overwhelming amounts of "dazzling."

Anyways, over spring break, my male friend asked me why all girls seem to be in love with Twilight. I explained to him that heterosexual females tend to fall in love with Edward because he is the perfect man. He then asked me to define "perfect man." I've since been compiling a mental list of qualities that should be found in the perfect man, who, in my case, would be a cross between Troy and Edward (If I had it my way, 80% Edward and 20% Troy).

The Perfect Man...
- serenades you on your balcony
- brings late night picnics of pizza and chocolate-covered strawberries
- dances you on a rooftop (rain is optional)
- drives 1,053 miles in a rundown truck to see you
- appears in a tree while dressed in a tux
- frequently dazzles you
- composes music inspired by his love
- looks delicious in classic Ray Ban Wayfarers and tousled hair
- saves you from other vampires who want you dead
- gives you piggyback rides to various romantic locations
- sparkles in the sun (meadow is optional)
- sneaks into your room at night to watch you sleep
- leaves love notes that feature lines like "Look after my heart - I've left it with you."

...The list will probably grow later. I can't ignore my math homework any longer.

word vomit

I have a few things to say. It's probably going to pour out like word vomit, but I'll try to organize. Let's start from the beginning, shall we?


Last Saturday, I went to the Gilroy premium outlets with S and family. My favorite store there has got to be the American Apparel outlet. The things there aren't cheap, but they sell at significantly cheaper prices than the regular retail stores. American Apparel has grown on me ever since I took the LA cluster last fall and found that American Apparel is the only company that really takes care of its workers in the garment industry of LA.



Above, American Apparel Mélange Jersey Pocket Skirt in Heather Grey, purchased for $20 at the outlet.



Above, American Apparel Fine Jersey Double-Brested Cardigan in Lapis, purchased for $28 at the outlet. Don't you just love the brilliant blue?


Sunday, my thoughts revolved around Paris on my trip back to LA. As I was sitting at Gate A1, I listened to Air France's stream of announcements in fluent French on repeat. I then turned around and saw this beauty behind me:



This picture was taken through the airport window (I apologize for the dots). Just seeing the word "France" brought me back to last summer in Paris and I was happy that Virgin America's happy little terminal was right next to Air France's. I also happened to be reading Paris Hangover, which is about a New York fashionista who decides (on a whim) to pack up her life and move to Paris to pursue her dreams in fashion and find a French Prince Charmant.


Monday signaled the beginning of a new quarter. I like to think I got lucky with my teachers this quarter. Case(s) in point:

Weisbart (Math): Donald Duck is getting dressed in the morning. He has 5 shirts, 4 hats, and 3 watches. How many ways can he get dressed? By the way, did anyone notice that Donald Duck is missing something... like pants? Donald Duck is a little pervert.

Ioudina (Stats): There's a statistic that 25% of Americans suffer from a mental disorder. You and three other friends are all Americans, and they're all fine. So, you're the retard?

Hardinger (Chem): Emergencies come up, I understand. For example, maybe your cat eats your car keys on exam day. You either have a really small set of keys or a really big cat. Or maybe a really big cat tiger eats your cat that ate your car keys.

Phelan (Life Science): I like my students to get to know me so you guys will work a little bit harder for me and a little bit less for your other professors. Yeah, I don't give a shit about your other professors. You can tell them I said that.


Tuesday was an uneventful, but relatively good day. Let's leave it at that.


Today, I found my way to Boelter 9413 for my second Stats discussion. My TA, Miles, might be the cutest TA I've ever met. On our first day, he brought coffee for us so we'd stay awake through discussion. Yesterday, he sent us an adorably nerdy video of how to get to the Boelter room. Without it, I probably would have gotten lost, given up, and gone back to the dorm to nap. Instead, I followed to video to the top of Boelter hall and found an amazing view of South Campus.





Above, the UCLA Court of Sciences like you've never seen it before. Who knew South Campus could compare to North Campus in the aesthetics department?