Christmas Shopping for myself

Yesterday night I was checking thetvaddict.com which is where I found out that Target is having $19 sales on box set dvds! I went and these awesomely priced sets include Friends, The Office, The OC, and more. Darn my memory really does suck. There are also $9 Sex and the City dvds, which is extremely cheap but they'd have to be about $5 per dvd for me to buy them because I don't love the show. Anyway, I ended up buying How I Met Your Mother Season 2 which is the one DVD I've really wanted, and The Office Season 3. Oddly, season 2 of The Office was $30. I don't get why.

So go to Target and buy some dvds! I'm in a shopping mood. But my bank account is lower than $300 which makes me really sad. I remember last year when I was like "I'm never going to have less than $1000 in my account!" Although after UGBA I'm under the impression that any money that isn't earning interest is a loss.

The best time to listen to music is while driving. I want to drive freeway but I'm too scared to. The two skills you need, judging distances and making quick decisions, are the two things that I am most poor at. Also, I really suck at changing lanes.

Things I wanted to do this winter break (that I have not yet):
- Run everyday
- Learn how to knit
- Club stuff
- Figure out classes for the next two years
- Buy awesome Christmas gifts for everyone
- Drive freeway

But that's ok because so far I've had a great break. :) Thanks friends!

Mom (coming out wearing somewhat hideous black and green checkered pants that look a lot like the Souplantation trays): Do I look like a clown?
Me: No. You look ok
Dad (wearing a cardigan thing): How do I look?
Me: You look like you're a grandpa
Dad: Good
Me: Good? Why?
Dad: Because then people won't mistake me for your boyfriend

Trader Joe's math

It apparently takes me two hours to go grocery shopping. Is this normal? I'm certain it's not, because most people don't circle around the store 3x. And when I say three times, I don't mean pass by the aisles once normal speed and twice quickly. I mean stop, stare at the products, pick them up, stare at them in my hand, set them down, stare at them on the shelf, and repeat. I carried around a peppermint cheesecake in my basket for about twenty minutes until I remembered my rule "don't buy delicious things that tempt you." I've decided that I cannot buy anything from the frozen foods section. I will not even venture there next time. This is because the frozen foods aisles are stocked with a shitload of delicious looking cookies and candies, even more delicious looking desserts, frozen foods that I cannot microwave, and microwavables that don't look particularly healthy. That leaves like ... two aisles for me to look at. But those two aisles are so glorious.This is the actual store that I go to. It's not my picture, but I can recognize it, and the tags say Oakland so I know this is it. Just replace that baby in the cart with an image of me.

I got my usuals: fuji apples, banana bonanza bread, and a bag of baby spinach. But today, I branched out. And I am quite happy with what I bought

- Giant tub of "vanana" yogurt. That name is too similar to vajayjay for my taste. I was deciding between vanilla and vanilla/banana and thought I'd just try something random. I want to make my own yogurt parfaits. Delicious! (although I did not buy granola...)
- Blueberries. For my yogurt parfait. It's bizarre because my parents never bought blueberries for the house. I feel like it's such a foreign fruit. As if I had bought dorian.
- Firm tofu. They also have baked tofu! Now I don't have to go to 99ranch. Awesome
- Laughing cow cheese! Both flavors. I already ate a packet. It was heavenly- and to go with my cheese purchase, I bought two types of water crackers and smoked salmon

Oddly, this was not at all the point of my entry. I don't really think you would be interested in hearing about the foods I buy. Although if I do write about my grocery shopping from now on, it would be interesting to look back on when I'm 35. At that age, I'll either have cracked, gained 50 pounds, and began to eat pizzas and hamburgers daily, or I will have cut down my allowable foods so much that I've ended up eating bags of spinach and tofu. For all meals. (It's really sad that I tried to find the most extreme "healthy/disgusting" food that I could think of, and I could only come up with two things that I actually do eat)

The point of this entry: Ageism. Sounds sad. But honestly, old (slow) people should NOT work at a grocery store. Trader Joe's is all nice for employing people who look like they would have no place else to go and nothing else to do. But oh my god, I had the SLOWEST cashier today. He was very easily confused by the bar codes, because if he missed the scanner, he would stop and look all over the packaging and he had this bizarre talent of finding the barcode at the VERY LAST place he looked. The person in front of me had a shopping cart, and he took each item out individually, and placed them on the counter, before scanning them each very ... slowly.

I guess these are the only people they can hire, because young people are going to college, or they're too poor to afford housing in Berkeley on cashier wages. Actually, that's a lie. There are quite a few young workers going around stocking shelves. Let THEM do the cashier! Sigh.

I am supposed to go swimming in a few minutes but I ate a lot and I just might barf. I need to stop eating. Indefinitely. HA! Just ... kidding.

I am kind of confused about what day it is

Yesterday felt like it was three days but it was really ONE. This is going to be a very xanga-ish entry where I talk about my day, and the entry is only interesting to the people who are mentioned in it.

I woke up at 4:10 in the morning because Connie was supposed to pick me up to go to Ontario Mills for Black Friday shopping. It turned out she had changed the time to 6:00 and the text didn't reach me. I woke up naturally at 3:45, and I was like "I wonder what time it is. It can't possibly be anywhere close to 4:00 because it looks like it's midnight" but I forced myself to look at the time and I was very unpleasantly surprised. Instead of going back to sleep, for some reason I found it necessary to turn on the computer and check all my usual websites. Which was really unnecessary because no one really blogs on Thanksgiving night. Besides me. Then Connie came and we drove off.

We shopped until 1 I think. Halfway through, my legs were in extreme pain and I kind of wanted to die. All those hours of shopping for ... a pair of Nine West heels for $21.53. Yes, Black Friday is WELL worth it. -__- I really hope it gets ingrained into my head NEVER to go black friday shopping again. All the good stores have extremely long lines that wrap around the store, and all the stores with fewer people don't have any good deals. Plus, since we went to an outlet, everything is basically the same price anyway. Also, when I get accidentally pushed by someone, usually I figure that it was an accident but on black Friday shopping day, I instinctively respond with "fucking pushy shopper bitch!" In my head of course. I think I'll try doing all my Christmas shopping on College Ave, where the feeling is much different from a mall atmosphere.

Black Friday shopping is probably the only time I ever think guys are smarter than girls. The boys went to Frys and made a little game plan of what to buy and who would get the thing. They actually do end up saving a lot of money, and the things they buy are well worth it. Girls end up going to some mall where they have to circle around a parking lot for hours and THEN walk for hours and hours. At least I know I worked off my Thanksgiving dinner.

We had Jamba Juice, which I kind of did not want to have because I wanted to eat at home, but I did anyway. From now on, I have to start getting the smaller size, not the original because even though it's just Jamba Juice, which is fairly healthy, I still think I'm eating too much. Smaller portions! I have an index card somewhere in my dorm where I wrote a bunch of diet rules, one of which was "Eat like a French person."

I went home and slept for an hour then woke up and went to Best Buy and Circuit City with my brother. Biggest effing waste of time EVER. I wanted to buy How I Met Your Mother season 1 ($12.98 at Circuit City!) and Friday Night Lights but they weren't there. ARGH! WHO is buying How I Met Your Mother dvds?! No one watches that show. If you do, come be my friend.

Then I called a bunch of people to go to Souplantation. I thought I would just ask Danny to give me a ride and then I remembered he can't drive at night because his headlights are broken. So I called Owen. Then Eric called and I was like "ERIC! Can you take me because I assume that if Owen gives me a ride, I'm going to arrive twenty minutes late" and he was like sure. Right after I hung up, Owen calls and is like "hey I'm near your house" and he was EARLY. Bizarre twist of events.

Mmm Souplantation. I managed to not get chili. I got a lot of salad, mac & cheese, biscuit (soooo good which means soooo buttery), cornbread, blueberry muffin, and apple cobbler with frozen yogurt. I regret ... the blueberry muffin. It looks like that's so little food, especially compared with what I used to eat, but I think now, a typical dinner would have just consisted of the salad. I'm not paying $8 for a salad though.

Then we drove off to Frances L's. It was super windy, and as we were sitting in the parking lot we were like AHHH TYPHOON! I went in Eric's car and we drove to pick up Henry and Jackie, which resulted in our arriving 20 minutes later than everyone else who left the same time we did. I kind of figured they would just sit in their cars outside Frances', which they did. HAHA

I heart Frances L's house. We get to do a lot of the things there that I love to do with TMV, which includes eating, talking, playing video games, and watching trashy tv. We played on her Wii, and it was some sort of game with a lot of mini-games. Then we decided to turn it off and watch tv. BEST SHOWS EVER. It's very surprising how Eric, Frances L, and I all have oddly a lot of a knowledge about trashy mtv shows. We watched Gay, Straight or Taken first and I got it right for BOTH episodes. I think it's a mix of my fabulous gaydar plus I've watched so much reality tv that I can pick up on the little clues that writers set up to reveal a character. Then we watched Tila Tequila HAHA. So much good conversation results from these two shows

Frances L (to Eric): Did you know who she was before the show?
Eric: *pause*
Me: You mean, did he watch Tila Tequila in a porno?

Show: *man goes on a date with a girl doing some sort of martial arts and he punches really horribly*
Everyone: OMGGG GAY! SO GAY!

Frances L: Is Tila even her first name?
Everyone: Hmm ... I don't know
Owen: I think her real name is Tila Nguyen
Me: WHAT?! You guys NEVER know any celebrity's name but you know that her name is Tila Nguyen?!

*commercial for The OC comes on*
Frances L: Do you guys like Mischa Barton or Rachel Bilson more?
Eric: I don't even know which one is which
Frances L: Mischa Barton is blonde and Rachel Bilson is---
Me: WHAT!? You don't know which one is which?!
Eric: Just tell me who Rachel Wilson is!
Me and Frances L: BILSON.

Frances L: Do you think Blake Lively is pretty? She's the one in ... Traveling Pants
Me: There's no way they will know what you're talking about.
Eric: Yeah. What Traveling Pants movie?
Frances L: The girl in that movie, Accepted
Eric: OHHH HER! Yeah she's pretty hot

That's as far as my memory reaches but I know my throat was getting hoarse from yelling and laughing while playing Wii and watching awesome tv. We watched Man Vs. Wild too. Apparently it is a show that appeals to all. People then kept falling asleep and at some point, Eric and I were both sleeping while Henry and Frances played Wii tennis. Every time I sleep in Frances' couch, I have to cover my entire body with her pillows so my body heat is contained. I wonder how crazy I look - a little mound of pillows. I woke up at 3 and we decided to leave. The entire night, I kept thinking it was already 2am but I would look over and it'd be like 9.

It is also INSANELY cold here. I really don't get it - I think it's much colder than Berkeley is. The car ride was a little painful because we were all freezing.

Now it's 12:20. I woke up at 10 - too late to go running :( Oh well. I want to call people to make plans but no one would be available right now. TMV should be early risers. Then we can eat Ihop together at 8am in the morning.

Black Friday Shopping

I'm going black friday shopping in less than six hours. The boys are going to Staples (actually I think they're already there) but as I was lying on the couch, I decided I should just sleep and shop full out, rather than pulling an all-nighter, as fun as it was last year. And by fun, I mean completely debilitating. I fell asleep during the first fifteen minutes of Grey's but when I woke up I was like "...eh..." whereas if it had been something like Friday Night Lights I probably would have freaked out. Grey's Anatomy was ... not very interesting. And I wish it had been more Thanksgiving themed. It was a lot of drama and attempted heartpulling, but all I could think about was how people watching it on Thanksgiving probably were not in the mood for an episode with that kind of tone. Also, ending scene BARF BARF BARF. How can they show something like that when they know everyone JUST finished eating a giant dinner?

I'm in the mood right now where I'm like "YES I'm totally going to buy out the entire mall." I'll get there and the first store I enter will probably be like "AGH so many people eff this there's nothing here" and I'll go home with a pity purchase. I'm looking at stuff online though, and omg why can't I be rich now? :( I want a job. So I can feel less sad about my dwindling bank account.
I don't think I really need any sporty glasses but I like this style a lot more than those giant bug-eyed shaped ones that are sold. It looks so awesome. If only I had the athletic body to go with it...

Which face shape are you? HAHA

Oh wow. I just wasted a lot of time. Whoops.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Boo post office

I went to mail something today and as I neared the blue box, I wondered if postage was still 39 cents. I bought my own pack of stamps last year when I mailed a birthday card to Regina. I tried to choose the prettiest design, which was actually a bunch of thanksgiving-ish crops. Not pretty at all. I've used very few stamps since then, because there aren't many occasions to mail something and generally, I'm either too busy to write a full letter or I'm about to go home anyway.

Well, good thing I checked, because postage IS up. 41 cents to mail a little envelope. Honestly, 41 cents is not very much in the big scheme of things. If I bought something and realized that I was overcharged by 41 cents, I wouldn't care. But when you have to actually stick a stamp onto an envelope, I'm like oh my gosh, what could this 41 cents be used for? 41 cents is like ... half of a Clif bar on sale. It's like ... one fuji apple at Trader Joe's, not organic. If I'm already paying 41 cents just to mail something, part of me just wants to make it a full out package, to make it seem like I'm getting my money's worth. I'm not sure if that's logical, since I bet packages have higher shipping costs too. Well, it makes sense in my book.

I went grocery shopping today. Exciting! I've realized over the past few shopping trips that there are VERY few foods that you can buy that require no cooking at all. Well, very few foods that I would eat. Which automatically excludes snacks, candies, canned goods, microwaveables, drinks, desserts... Basically I can buy fruit, baked bean curd, bags of spinach, yogurt, and bread. I did buy a package of salmon today. Sashimi. Is it sushi sashimi? Or is sashimi automatically salmon? I'll call it raw salmon. I just hope I don't get food poisoning. I'm the type to buy something and leave it in the fridge for a rather long time before eating it. Considering everything in Berkeley molds like CRAZY if you leave it out, this is not a good trait to have. Tiffany, who I consider the person who knows everything about food, said it would last maybe 1-2 days. So I guess I have my lunch set out for me tomorrow.

Agh! This was supposed to be my first day of massive dieting before Thanksgiving but it turned out be a day where I ate two dinners, one of which was outside Asian (and thus, oily) food. Delicious, and I really don't feel terrible, but I don't have that sense of "I'm extremely hungry but I will go to bed with a flat and slightly empty stomach" feeling that I so enjoy. Once again, I'm convinced that someone out there enjoys messing with me. Every time I'm about to go home, I plan to exercise and diet like crazy the week before. And I'm fairly certain that every time, a bunch of things happen that prevent me from either swimming or exercising altogether. Also, I end up eating a lot more than usual. Bitchass universe.

Things I failed to do today:
Study economics
Complete Haas essay #2
Swim
Not eat

Another reason to stress out in a social setting

I heart Trader Joe's. I don't think I need to list the reasons seeing as how most of the people who read this blog probably love Trader Joe's even more than I do. I went today, and while I really do like the friendly atmosphere of the place, sometimes it comes back in a negative way. Sometimes I just want to go shopping with my iPod and listen to my newly downloaded music. I feel like you can't really do that at Trader Joe's though - I feel even more antisocial and yuppie-ish than I would elsewhere (although I would have absolutely no problem being a yuppie). Also, as I'm standing in line, I end up frantically thinking about how I'm going to talk to the guy ringing me up. At other grocery stores, you don't expect people to make conversation with you. More accurately, you expect everyone to leave you alone. At Trader Joe's though, as the number of people in front of me dwindle, I'm thinking "oh no! I'm getting closer! And he already talked to that woman about that. I can't say that. And that woman already asked him how he's doing today. It'll just repetitive for me to ask him again." Also, I have to make sure I take out my earbuds so I look equally friendly. Only then am I ready to commence this social interaction of buying my freaking groceries.

Then, even the people who go to Trader Joe's kind of stresses me out. They all look so nice, and maybe it's because I'm in the Trader Joe's at Berkeley, or maybe environmental consciousness is really taking off, but seriously, EVERYONE in line had those reusable plastic bags that Trader Joe's sells. Not only that, but everyone in front of me would pack their own bags, while the guy was ringing them up. I, on the other hand, just kind of stood there and he had to get more large paper bags, as though I was the one person using paper bags this entire day. At the time, I felt rude and lazy because I didn't pack my own bag but ... I'm a freaking shopper. I'm not supposed to bag my own bag! I'm supposed to be handing over money and all I have to give is a "thank you have a nice day," not a conversation with some guy as if we were old friends meeting up again. Sigh.

Oh my god, as I was looking for Trader Joe's pictures to post here, I found a mockup of a proposed Trader Joe's on University and MLK. Honestly, I would seriously consider living in this apartment if it did come into fruition. Riding the bus down College Ave really makes you appreciate this area. I think every time I go down College Ave, I'm convinced that I'm going to end up living in Berkeley in the future.
Delicious foods: Trader Joe's Zucchini Date Bread - it makes me want to bake with Connie again. It has cinnamon in it. Delicious cinnamon
Awesome songs: The Perishers - My Own; The Sounds - Tony the Beat; La Rocca - This Life

10 more days until I go home for Thanksgiving. My period cravings have died down, meaning it's time for me to crack down. Shit, I have a flabby stomach again. Good thing for me, I bought a bag of spinach. Spinach, say hello to dinner.

Thank god I don't have a credit card

So I was browsing blogspots today and one of them linked to the greatest site ever. Honestly, the best way to get me to buy something is to put the original price, the reduced price, and a % you save. I just want to buy EVERYTHING. Because it just seems like everything here is on sale! This makes me really want a very high-paying job so I can just charge it like it's nothing. I'm seriously considering becoming an investment banker now. Usually, I think people hear about how investment bankers have no lives and just work insane hours and think it's the worst thing ever. When I first heard that, instead of thinking "thank god I'm not headed in that direction" I actually thought "hey that sounds like it'd fit me." If I'm happiest when I'm busy, isn't it only logical that I will be happiest working overtime? I think so.

All I need is money, good music, possibly a dog, an apartment with a loft, time to watch tv, and a thin body (and at some point, a relationship).

Anyway, I want everything. Seriously. To my unknowledgable fashion eye, most of these things all look the same to me. All that my brain can process is "wow that looks nice" and "wow that is a very well known brand" and "wow give me give me." Let's say I had $1000...

1. Sunglasses

I could probably find a pair of sunglasses that I would love even more, but from this site's selection, this is what I'd get. I look ridiculous in those giant bug-eyed ones and I like fairly dark tinted lenses. I don't understand why people wear sunglasses that are practically clear. It boggles me. These are basically the narrowest pair that I saw and I think it would fit my face ok. I really like sporty looking sunglasses though - the kind of that I see athletes wear around campus. But wearing them would make me an athletes poser.

*also, I wrote in the html that makes this text float to the right MYSELF. my god, computer science turned out to be the most useful class I've taken yet*

2. Jeans

I just grabbed a picture. I can't see for shit from these little thumbnails, and even if the jeans were blown up to the size of my monitor, I still wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I just want more jeans. Any jeans, as long as they look good and make my legs look thin.


3. Dress
Do I need a black dress? I don't think so. But I want one. I probably have no occasion to wear it too, and even if I had to go to a funeral, I don't think this would be appropriate. I don't own any pretty black heels, so this means I'd have to buy a new pair of shoes too...


4. Jackets
Oh my gosh. I'd buy every jacket and every sweater they have on this site. I love winter clothes. I'm such a norcal girl. I hate wearing tshirts and tanks and camis. I do like wearing shorts though. But I'd rather wear jeans. I hate flip flops. I love sneakers. I'd probably love boots too, if I didn't think they were such a hassle to put on. In SF, I could go shopping in a suit and no one would think anything of it. In socal, I'd feel like a crazy workaholic who didn't have time to go home and change if I did that.

5. Sweaters
I don't know why I like this so much. I'm not British. I don't have the thin upper arms to pull this off. I also don't need it in cashmere. Just print it up on a cotton sweater and I'd totally buy it for $20. I don't care.


The only thing I don't want is just about everything from the shirts and blouses section. Do I just have absolutely no fashion sense or are those all older lady clothing? I can't imagine wearing these things to the office, because I'd probably be wearing a suit. At the same time, I can't imagine wearing these out to shopping or something. I can imagine other people doing so, but I would feel so frumpy and lumpy in them. I don't think my body parts fit these types of clothing very well.

Wow. That was a really good way to use up an hour of my life.