Happy T-gives, guys. Here are the things I'm thankful for:



My parents, who put up with me and my crazy antics but still love me anyway and my womb mate Janelle, who I could never live without



The Cabato kids, because not everyone is lucky enough to have amazing younger cousins like these


My family away from my family, starting with the most amazing Miss Bailey Walker



Old friends like Marge and Shannon, because we may be all growing up and not attached at the hip anymore but we're all growing together



New friends like Sherrie and roomie Adriana who put up with my Boston forays and I love them too

My coworkers, especially these broads, Jojo because she has always looked out for me even since the days at One Fed and Soda because she's an all-around true blue friend



Shabu, which has seen me through all my difficult times



Beer, which has seen me through my more difficult times

I have tons more pictures but unfortunately I have to totally start getting ready for Thanksgiving festivities. Honorable mentions go to sports, music, beer, work, and everyone else that make my world a better place. You guys rule. Thank you :)

Now I have to go check out Adri's cranberry sauce. Pz guys.

Posted via LiveJournAal.app.

I had an entry here. I'll find it I promise.

Current working streak of days in a row: 21
Projected working streak of days in a row: 28-34+

Stress level: 70%/100%

Number of friends put into the "You're Dead To Me" category in the last month for grievous, outstanding incidents: 3




I think I keep busy so I don't have to think about trivial issues pertaining to my social life.
When I have free time, I work out.  I haven't stepped on a scale in months and I have good body image, so I think it's more of an escape mechanism pertaining to getting rid of excess energy.
I would rather have no friends than bad friends.  Or dishonest friends.  Or a combination of both.
Also, I like the money.

This week, I've made my room messier, fixed my iPod, took apart my old phone but need a smaller screwdriver, which I can't find in my room until I clean it.  I'm scheduled 45 hours this week between two jobs over seven days.  One day off in two weeks, but I don't think I'd have it any other way.  It's Friday and feel pretty great.  I'm such a workaholic; I think it's an addiction.

I canceled my NetFlix membership and signed up for a gym instead.  They cost about the same.  I signed up for the gym because I want to run, and I am so out of shape and I need to build muscle.  So even though I set my "I'm going to learn how to run" goal for summer, summer was dismal, and I'm not giving up on it just yet.  Also, it's been about eight years since I completely weekly circuits so I definitely need to reorient myself in how those work.  Just as long as I don't lose my beautiful curves.  We shall see.

I cooked a lot of food.

Saturday I'm going to call Shanny, play a lot of Guild Wars, and finish all my chores.  Hopefully.  The first one is non-negotiable though.

I have a lot of people to see in the upcoming weeks, and no time to do it.  I will plan.

Also, I'm learning how to play Fantasy Football at an unbelievable rate thanks to beasting in my Starbucks people league and getting schooled in my What and Waffles leagues.

I need to change the bonzer flex cable on my new phone.  Turns out a lot of w580i's have the same softkey problem not attributed to treating a phone badly.  While my first w580i has seen bad days, my second one was treated in pristine condition so I was baffled as to why it's all messed up.  I developed a lot of workarounds so I don't need my left flex key, back key, or up key, but it's getting kind of ridiculous now.

Usually, normal people will just be like "eff that ess, this is broken".  But I just start salivating thinking about replacing a bonzer flex cable.

I could probably just BUY another phone, but what's the sense in that?  I have two half-working w580i's, each with salvageable parts for each of them, as well as small screwdrivers, an assortment of plastic pry tools.  I could totally do this.  Daddy always told me that if you want somethiing done right and inexpensively, you do it yourself.  So after I clean up my workspace, while I'm rippin' up some FLACs, I'm totally going to do this.  I think I secretly will myself to create new techie projects for myself.  Unfortunately, they're starting to pile up.  Change the cheap plastic bezel on my laptop, look into larger RAM upgrades.  Fix the headphone jack AGAIN on my iPod and readjust the back metal case so it doesn't keep putting tension on the already-fragile headphone jack connector wires.  Get my iPod shuffle in working order again.

I'm probably going to attempt to build a computer within the next few months.  Maybe for my 24th birthday.  Just thinking about my 24th birthday makes me feel old, but at the same time, it makes me excited because for the first time in years I'll have a computer that doesn't just have an integrated video card.  And Guild Wars 2 is coming out in a few months.  Just sayin'.

Summer went by too fast.  There are a lot of people I wanted to see but never could, and I feel bad about that.  But there are a lot of people I was able to see, like my cousins from Vancouver and my other cousin from Texas.  You can't please everybody, but you can do the best you can.  I went to Maine with my family and got to see the parents sea kayak.  They seem to be doing alright.  My sister Janelle is now a New York City public school teacher.  I am so proud of her.  Whereas last summer I didn't see my family at all, this summer has been very family-centric.  I sorta missed hanging with the kids I normally see when I head over to NYC or NJ, but I really owed it to the fam this summer.

Fall's hit Boston, even though it really isn't fall yet.  Totally feels like it, though.  Sweater weather has descended upon us.  I've kept myself busy taking classes.  I now have two paid jobs -- I'm still working at Starbucks, but now, I'm also working at a bank.  The customers are more challenging and the transactions require more thought and careful procedure.  I love it already and it's a good way to destress from three days of 5:45 opens.  Also, it's amazing what a pair of heels/cute sweater/wearing one's hair down can do for one just feeling good about themselves.  It's fantastic.  Also, my train back from my job orientation in Worcester almost hit another one on Monday, which was much less fantastic.  Common sense says two trains going in different directions shouldn't be riding on the same track, but since when did the MBTA represent common sense?  I don't know.  I'm just lucky to be alive.

As for my social life, uhh.  It's pretty decent.  I find myself in a streak of independence.  I rarely ever get into those weird lonely ruts I used to get into about ten months ago.  My, "oh they're too busy to hang and keep blowing me off? Well then, fuck em, I'll catch up with them later" mentality holds up quite nicely.  There are those friends who bring the party, and there are friends who you know (you KNOW) they'll be at your wedding and have kids who have playdates with your kids.  I'm glad that there are people I could consider for that latter category.  It's cool.  I have too many projects to care about a love life anyway; as you can tell by my complete apathy to my last (locked) entry.  (By the way, that went absolutely nowhere, and I'm okay with it.)  I have books to read, beers to drink, people to see.  I feel bad because I don't spend any time at home, but in my history of life in Boston I rarely ever spent any time at home.  I wonder when that will change.

I hit Power User at a certain special tracker now and now I get an invite a month, none of which I will ever give to anyone because I can't trust anyone to keep a 1.05 ratio or better.  On principle, mine never fell below 1.25, and it's frustrating since your bonus invites are accrued based on your invitee traffic.  I don't trust anyone anymore because this site is very special to me now and the last thing I need is accidentally inviting some d-bag who gets me banned or something.  Everyone I invited so far is doing okay, though.  Just not exceptionally well.  And I wish I looked into the invitation giving script when I doled out invites.

Haha, okay, so I guess I hit all the talking points in my mini-placeholder entry, and then some.  Time to head off to the bank mayhaps?  Soon.  I'm sure all this relevant information of mundane things that are important to me will be some sort of caustic dinner table discussion for my internet stalker.  Hi internet stalker!  I hope this enough fodder for you.

Key talking points for an upcoming entry:

- I have a new part-time job
- Life isn't so bad
- Summer was tremendously busy, and also too short
- Friends, and their relevance to me
- I almost was in a train collision on Monday, goddammit

Estimated time for completion of entry: 1-3 days

- 15 albums meme

Estimated time for completion of entry: 1-30 days

I'm alive, guys.

Hi LiveJournal.  I've missed you.  I've been busy and incredibly neglectful of a lot of things including this corner of the internet as well as aspects of my social life that aren't hit-and-run dinners or drinks, and cleaning.  Still like you better than Facebook, though.

Also, my life is incredibly dull as of late.

Mom: You know, if you don't call me, then I don't remember you.
Me: I've been really busy!  I worked 40 hours this week!  What do you mean you don't remember me?  What about the horrid pain I caused you when I tore through your birth canal?
Mom: Well, I have a big vagina.
Me: ...I'm going to hang up now, Mom.

In other news, this has been the worst "try to have some me-time" house-arrest vacation ever.  On top of all that, I've been sleeping like shit lately, too.  It's probably a weird imbalance due to 8-hour midshifting and then going to a 5-hour class right after that.

Starting next Monday, I'm going to go on a vacation, but the catch is, I'm not going to go anywhere.  Trust me, this is necessary.

My life has been a whirlwind shitfest for the last few weeks on so many levels.  It's been fun and has had it's ups and downs.  There's been nothing wrong with me, but there has been everything wrong with, how should I say this, the way I've been "conducting my business".  It's always been my policy to keep up with my friends who are important to me, no matter how inconvenient it is to see them.  This is important to me because certain people are like family to me, and friendship on every level is something that requires maintaining.  But lately, it seems as I'm juggling too many balls, or have too many people that I need to be there for, and that something is bound to drop and break.  That something is me.

My school term ended in mid-May, and I had barely two weeks "off" before my rigorous 10 hour per week Anatomy class started.  On top of that, in the time I was supposed to be working long days and stockpiling money with my open availability, I haven't been working a lot because of many commitments.  My sister graduated with a Masters in Social Studies Education and since I missed her Rutgers graduation, I made every effort to come to her middle of the week graduation, even though it meant an 11-hour work week.  Then there was the anime convention, which is the only thing I really did for myself, but really, it was the only weekend I've hung out with Marge in ages.  Because of our schedules and lifestyles, we see each other less than ever, which is terribly ironic since we work together.  It's really awful since his friendship is important, and is a huge pillar/equalizer/stabilizer in my life.  And seeing him at work, where we put our game-faces on, just isn't the same.  All the while, even though everyone knew I was away, I was getting a slough of texts wondering where I am and when I could make plans with them.  Too much micromanaging in my head got stressful.

Then the following week was Memorial Day week, which meant a cut in hours anyway, so a 19-hour work week.  So basically, I've accrued 30 hours for the paycheck I'm getting this Friday, all which is going towards my rent and utilities.  That's really nothing at all since my tips have been going to feed me and they've been so little lately, and without that extra income I'm making only $10 an hour.  I'm trying very hard to not ask my mother for my income tax refund which she set aside so graciously especially since she's been so nice in giving me money when I'm not asking for it.  It isn't fair to her, and it isn't like me to ask for that kind of help without feeling terribly guilty inside.

My mental health has been subpar to my standards recently.  I'm still more than stable as a person, but my weird work schedule and all this planning has led me to really almost snap under the pressure.  My life has always been high-pressure and I operate best under some level of stress, but what's been going on has been really ridiculous.  I have to deal with my problems and a lot of friends have been coming to me for advice or help or assistance of some sort lately, and I can't help but feel empathy towards them.  My house has been a revolving door of visitors.  I love company, and I love people, which is why I consciously moved into a house with five other roommates.  Still, I've had so many overnight guests in the past month that I cannot even count them.  And since I was raised to be a good host, and feel guilty that I'm never home because my balancing act never jives with people's schedules, I offer my food (which, since funded by few-and-far-between tips, is also few-and-far between) or other things like making time to entertain.  It's hard though, when you're pressed for money, and more importantly, time.  And it leads me to be a bad roommate.  My room is a hot mess and I have dishes to do.  Every time I come home there's another mean note for the house saying that dishes need to be done.  I can't help but feel that it's my responsibility.  On my days off, I've done dishes and the dishes of my roommates and the dishes of my guests and all the guests that come through, and all the pots and pans.  I catch up with friends I "neglect" throughout the week but feel as though people slip through the cracks.  Like, I haven't seen Wiebke in weeks, or Lauren Roy who needs the support system now that she's coming through the home stretch of her pregnancy.  Whitney works one fucking block away from where I live and I can't even find the time to see her.  I'm stable and I'm a pillar, yeah, but I'm wavering.  I don't expect people to help me, but no one offers it to me.  I offer if people don't ask, out of courtsey, but no one ever offers it even though I need it, even though they know me and see me every day stressed here or there.  So now I feel like I'm neglecting the most important people in my life who I want to be there for but no one will step up and offer to do anything for me.  Where are those people?  Where do I find them?  Why can't someone come to my house and help me with my dishes once in a while?  (Okay, so maybe that last example is way out there.)  And I know those dishes I feel guilty about aren't mine -- since I stockpile my dirty dishes in my room until I clean them myself to remind me to clean my room.  On every level, I feel abandoned in one way or another.  And I just feel like my contributions are not enough, whether it's the dishes or the cleaning or being home to hang out with my roommates who constantly adjust their schedules for me so I can catch a late movie with them or go to a social event where I can relax with them.  It's as if I'm being stretched too thin.

So the kicker was the fact I have to house another guest this weekend.  This guest I've been looking forward to forever, one of my best friends in the entire world, Krisa.  I barely saw Krisa when she was living in Boston because she and I were so busy.  Krisa was one of the only people who took care of me when I had no place to concretely live two summers ago (Kyle being the other one).  She took me in, no questions asked, and fed me, and made sure I had a place to go until my lease started.  Now she's inviting me to be her date to this wedding, which I'm completely psyched about.  The problem is, she'd be the ninth person staying at my house simultaneously.  NINTH.  For a six person apartment.  This is nobody's fault, but at the same time, it's become my problem; some of my roommates are already overwhelmed by the extras going on... things like toilet paper, paper towels, utilities, space, keysharing... that stuff adds up.  I already picked up extra hours (Read: I'm flirting with overtime, and that's not good... I have to do some minute watching and number crunching so I don't get my boss in trouble) so I don't fall behind on rent and utilities, but I feel as though I'm digging myself a hole, especially since all this "planning" is catching up to me.  I'm going to New York the weekend of the 19th, I'm going to see another concert in Boston on the 18th, etc.  I feel guilty for doing things for myself... and I shouldn't.  And now my alternate plan, the only one I can possibly think of doing... is to house Krisa and myself somewhere else, like a hotel or something, for the weekend.  I'd feel uncomfortable doing that to my roommates, even though I'm legit paying rent there, because they are legit paying rent there too and they deserve their space.

Really, it's nobody's fault.  Not even mine.  But for one week I just need to be left alone, and I need people to understand that.  I think people are inherently needy, some more than others, and right now, I'm needy for Juju-time.  So from Monday the 8th to the Monday after that, I'll be falling off the face of the planet.  No social networking save maybe this blog, since there was a point in time pre-Facebook and pre-Twitter where this was my only "social networking".  No texts, no phone calls, no plans.  I'll go to work and school still, but I really need to catch up on the stuff I have to do since I have made no concrete plans for next week.  Yes, that means no MSTRKRFT.  Yes, that means no drinking at bars.  But this is something I need to do.  I have a room that needs decorating and books that need reading and textbooks that need studying and boxes that (STILL) need unpacking and laundry that needs to get done and a bike that needs to be fixed and places that need to be seen and movies that need to be watched.  And I would like to do it peacefully, and alone.

Last night I went to Castle Island in the dead of the night as a ploy by one Cambodia-bound Miss Soda Mao. +1 pensive, recollection of memories to file away for making decisions later. It was lovely. I can't wait to get air in the tires of my bike so I can go back there soon.

My list of things to do now that it's summertime (outside of the normal work/school grind):

• Read a book a week.
• Write a lot in my blog. It's theraputic, you know.
• Up the ante and see two shows a month for each month of the summertime.
• Finish decorating my room.
• Make five mixtapes.
• Korean dramas. Korean dramas. Korean dramas.
• Date again! Last few months have been busy, but maybe this time around I should date with the prospect of some sort of stable committment. None of this in-between shit. This time, for serious.
• Go to the beach.
• Ride my bike to the beach.
• Ride my bike.
• Run. A lot! Even though I suck at it.
• Go see movies during the daytime with a big bucket of popcorn.
• Stop picking up other people's messes.
• Eat everywhere in Inman Square.

But for now, sleep.

My room lives in a bizarre state of entropy. No matter how many times a week I clean it, the next day it looks disorderly, even though sometimes it just seems that way.  No matter what, it's chaos.

Today my room got an interesting temporary addition -- Charlie the kitten.  On a day when I have tons of sheets to wash for my roommate Adri's friend who is coming to visit this week, and my first day of summer term as well, I got this squawking meowing bundle of joy to take care of for the next few hours.

Charlie's about three weeks old, and was found abandoned by my roommate Kelia's friend in a junkyard in Salem.  Horrified, the friend called around and was only able to find a home for one.  So even though my other roommate Jason is mildly allergic and we all have varied schedules, we decided to take Charlie in as our house cat.  It was that option, or let it die in the cold junkyard, and none of us would have that.

Charlie's an interesting cat.  Abandoned early in life, he can't eat, survive, or even poop on his own.  It would be much different if Charlie had the feline social skillset that mother cats teach their litter.  Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of knowing what Charlie wants at a given time.  We can just try our genuine best and hope it eventually works out.  We all run on different schedules and struggle to feed it, although we end up managing.  Still, none of us are "cat people" and have never dealt with a cat this tiny before.  I sometimes worry about Charlie, wondering if we're giving him a viable kitty foundation of some sort for him to not have any issues in the future.  It's terrifying to think about.

Today, when I walked inside, Charlie started meowing uncontrollably.  I tried to give him his bottle but he denied it.  I figured he was terrified, and I was equally as scared to have anything to do with him.  Kittens are such fragile things, unfortunately.  I set him back in his box to stop him from crying, headed to my room, and shut the door, only to hear him crying from the living room.  He was running furiously around his spacious box, but still, it just wasn't enough for him.  I took Charlie to my room to give him some more wiggle space on my bed, but he just wouldn't calm down.  Eventually, I figured out that I had to get him to poop.  It was a pretty disgusting job, but after that, he calmed down quite a bit.  Charlie's now napping in his little makeshift playpen which is my queen-sized bed, walled off by pillows and blankets that he's still too tiny to crawl over.  Big sigh of relief.

Kittens, like many things in life, require ridiculous amounts of attention and workarounds to be okay.  He's a big responsibility but hopefully our awfully busy schedules won't deteriorate his quality of life.  We're not gonna give up on him, since we rescued him on the verge of death.  Kitties are awfully deserving of first chances, don't you think?

If you're ever in the neighborhood, you should come visit Charlie.  Kitties, like humans, definitely need all the love they can get.  And sometimes to get a little love, you need to give a little love.

Paying it forward never felt so good.

When I was a kid, growing up in central Jersey, our family had a big backyard.  We had a cool stone garden and a hill, and a modest but functional deck for barbeques.  My parents were highly anti-cable so I spent a lot of my days browning in the sun no matter how much SPF I put on (which was hilarious because tanning in Asian culture is apparently a no-no).  My summer habits forced me to get bitten a lot by mosquitoes or stung by wasps.  In general though, I was fascinated by insects.  I used to chart ant paths and poke sticks down there in the hopes that I could see the insides of the hills, although I never was successful.  And the occasional ladybug was always a treat to run into, as well.

The one insect that fascinated me the most, however, was the firefly.  On cool July and August nights you could see these creatures come out and blink beautifully around each other in the darkest corners of the yard.  I really liked fireflies and so just like other kids, I would want to keep one for my own.  One night, I scoped out the biggest clean, empty mayonnaise jar and I could find, put some blades of grass in it, and caught the brightest firefly I could find in the nearby vicinity.  I wrapped the top in saran wrap with miniscule breathing holes poked at the top.  I thought I gave it everything it needed, but the next day, it's glower was continuously lit, faintly, and it eventually died.  I never put a firefly in a jar again.  As much as I wanted to, I just could never give it what it needed or wanted.  It was best out in the wilderness, doing what little lightning bugs do, and being pretty.

That's one thing I really miss about living in the suburbs, and how those little purely innocent lessons of life and death and possession kind of gloss past you until you grow up and you're like, "shit, I'm an adult now".  When did that happen?  When were we suddenly responsible for the lives and happinesses of other people rather than glowing insects and tumbling in the grass and swimming in the pool until Mom yelled for you to come in?

I don't know.  But what I do know is no firely can be contained to a jar, just as no adult should dare to contain another adult from living the life that they want to lead, good or bad.

So, onward forth.  Tonight will be spent in great company with good friends, drinking my André that I chilled in the freezer long enough to turn into a slushie, babysitting a two week old kitten, and living the life that youth dream of living.  I sure hope you readers have the same opportunity to do so in your own little way, too.

I haven't updated in a while, and even longer so in a public fashion, so as LJ was pestering me to renew my paid account, I, through the course of the week finished this incredibly interesting, thought-provoking picture meme.  More on that later.

Life's pretty swell.  Living in Somerville.  Roommates are great, although they killed all my beer when I was away. :(  They cook a lot and share, so I guess that makes up for the beer thing.  My room is in constant states of array and disarray.  Location is very cute.  I love it.

Went to Anime Boston.  I'm pretty amazed I forgot to put my annual rollcall post up.  Oh well.  I was happy since I saw a bunch of people from Jersey.

So this meme... the point of it was to find a picture of myself to describe the caption. Took me a while, but I finished it, and gained some good insight in the process. If comments were applicable, I put it in the alt text of the picture.  (Next up, 15 album memes.  Give me a good month or two for that one.)


( Insightful photo meme. )

This goes for about a half a dozen of you out there right now:

...if you fuck with me or the people I love, you lose me as a friend forever.

No exceptions.

These last few days have been taxing.  I took off on Thursday and used it to sleep and get some work done.  When I finished said homework, it was 3 AM and I was deathly afraid that if I fell asleep I wouldn't wake up in time for work, so I just stayed up until I had to leave for work.  Unfortunately, my Friday was work until 9:30, class from 10-12, then work again until 7:30.  I managed to squeeze lunch and Mass before my second shift, but since I had a Sugar-Free Red Bull for breakfast as well as copious amounts of espresso shots, I couldn't nap.  And my second shift was ridiculously taxing.  I didn't sleep well Friday night either, and I went to work on Saturday morning from 7:30 to mid-afternoon.  Chilled at Marge's store for a while and did homework, and Kyle randomly showed up and hung out for a while.  Plans were up in the air for Saturday, with a cocktail party in East Boston at a coworker's, a SFIV get-together at my friend Soda's house in Dorchester that kept getting canceled and then uncanceled repeatedly, and a bunch of text messages from friends who wanted me to do things that I couldn't respond to because my phone was on it's way out.  I was totally ready to just go with Marge and Alex to Newton and hang, chill, and play video games, but Soda's party decided to be back ON so we headed out to Ashmont to her friend's house.  We ended up having a really great time!

I unofficially got my Starbucks transfer as well for next week.  Bye bye One Financial!  You will be missed. <3

Ash Wednesday is this Wednesday.  Traditionally, I pick something to give up for Lent and stick to it.  Every other year, I give up meat with the exception of fish.  It's really hard, since I LOVE meat a lot, which is why I do it only once every other year.  I'm thinking about doing meat again, or maybe alcohol, or both.  Hrm... We shall see by Wednesday!

I think if I can keep managing my time well, I'll start volunteering for Lent.

How to get the Lily Allen album on one's iPod:

1. Download a clean copy from a magical place
2. Import it into iTunes
3. Forget to sync iPod
4. Leave iPod cord at work
5. Go, "derp" listen to it on iTunes
      a.) smack head on keyboard
6. Fall asleep
7. Have a crappy day at work, crave listening to it
8. Get iPod cord/brick at work
9. Go to school computer lab
10. Attempt to find a direct download version of the album for temporary satisfaction
      a.) Find dozens of RapidShare dead ends
      b.) Accidentally open a porn site for all but two seconds
      c.) Put your hand monitor to block the inappropriate ad, Alt+F5
      d.) Find a good link on page 7 of the search results for the 15th query you try
11. Realize it's in a .rar file
12. Miserably fail at installing WinRar on a protected hard drive
      a.) Ignore strong desires to smack head on a school keyboard
13. Leave your flash drive at home
14. Plug in your iPod, enable disk use
15. Install WinRar.exe on iPod
     a.) Fight the urge to install Guild Wars on iPod
16. Decompress file
17. Import to iTunes and sync to iPod
18. ????
19. Profit!

OM NOM NOM NOM I COULD NOT STOP EATING BASMATI RICE.

No really, I couldn't. I went out to dinner with Lauren Roy last night at my favorite North Indian place in Boston, India Quality in Kenmore Square, not even three hours before, and I already downed my leftovers. Even as a medium-rare steak kind of girl, my real love is vegetarian South Indian food, but it's absolutely amazing that Boston has zero exclusively-vegetarian South Indian restaurants that are worth noting. I would love to take Lauren to one, especially since she's a veggie, but alas, the only South Indian food that has rocked my world to the core has been in New Jersey. Oh well.

Well Monday was President's Day, culminating a fabulously nonexistent three-day weekend for me, since I worked on Valentine's Day as well. I really do like Valentine's Day, and those last few entries are far from "unrequited love" posts, and I am all well and good. Heartbroken? Yeah. Over... not a guy, I guess. No, I didn't have a real Valentine, unless you count Kyle, but really, she just wanted a good excuse to sing Usher's "Love in This Club" and attempt to mount me on the karaoke room couch. Still, going out to Karaoke with her, Marge, Sherrie, and Tristan for Valentine's Day was probably the most fun V-Day I ever had. Kyle brought embarrassing Hello Kitty balloons to Boston which are still in the back room of my workplace since I didn't feel like towing them around downtown for dinner. We ended up meeting up with Marge, and then eventually Sherrie and Tristan. There was alcohol to be had, and somehow I ended up belligerently charging into Marge's house and giving his household a bucket I found on the side of the road in Newton as a present. Oh well. You can't win 'em all.

Outside of that though, things are pretty normal. I'm starting to really value my privacy and personal space. Last semester I was crashing everywhere but my house, now I get kind of "eh" when I'm not in my own bed at night. I've stayed close to those who I value in my life, and have pretty much said "fuck it" to people who treat me like crap otherwise. I don't care, since I can't please everybody.

Work has been both a blessing and a curse for me lately. I don't really dread going to work since I've split my time between three stores, which frees up hours for the co-workers at my overstaffed store and helps fill gaps where no one has availability at other understaffed stores. Hell, being a reputably good worker with a weird availability has gotten me MORE hours than I would've ever secured by just working at my own store! There has been talk of me going somewhere else permanently, but there's a lot of red tape behind it so I'm not holding my breath (an "I'll believe it when I see it" sort of thing). I've gotten closer with some of my co-workers at another store that I did a lot of my training in, so it's nice to have people around who are chill.

I have this little red book that runs my life. Usually, when I get a calendar planner thingy I don't use it more than three weeks without losing it, but this one can take the wear and tear (it's a Moleskine) and the layout is pretty good. Between the 14 credits I'm taking and the 28-35 hours I get at work at all the stores I'm working at and the friendships I have to keep up with because I value them, I can't honestly remember anything I have to do, even tomorrow!

I've found time to keep up with some hobbies but not others. I'm spending money on NetFlix even though I haven't watched it lately, but I tend to watch a few nights worth of movies one or two nights a month that make it totally worth it. I was considering axing it for an MMO subscription or something similar, but honestly, I don't have the time for it. At least with NetFlix I can get all the bang for my buck I want in two nights (a pretty good Watch Instantly selection for the same price as a movie ticket and popcorn in Boston). That, and I sill have GW:EN. I tend to open the Guild Wars client, type my password in, and as I'm about to hit the "Log In" button, I Alt+Tab away to do something else (usually study online material or powerpoint slides or something), and I never actually end up playing. Lately, the only video game that's piqued my interest has been Big Bang Mini DS, a weird stylus shooter (think the physics of Boom Boom Rocket meets Space Invaders). I play it on the subway since the stages are usually about a minute and a half long. I'm not great at it, though... but it's a good time killer. I'm still longing for a game to capture my interest as much as The World Ends with You did, though. One lonely Sunday I went from failing miserably to Rhythm Tengoku Gold to getting Perfect gold frames on every stage except both the stupid ping pongs and three remixes. I was like, "Where is the rest of the game?" Yeech.

So for a good story, I've started reading again. I was at the Harvard Coop bookstore the other day and I picked up Being Catholic Now, a collection of interviews and viewpoints on the Catholic religion. It's far from your typical religion book though. Rather than be pro-institution or terminology-laden, Kerry Kennedy (yes, of those Kennedys) unabashedly includes all viewpoints: a gay libertarian struggling to find himself in a Church that called him a sinner, someone who believes in the institution as-is very strongly, atheists who turned away, converts to and away from the faith, women angry about their exclusion in the hierarchy, and the list goes on. I'm about a third of the way through and I struggle to put it down to get actual work done; it's an outstanding book and no wonder it was a New York Times bestseller.

Also, my music tastes have been schizophrenic lately. I find myself listening to lo-fi indie and hip hop equally. I rushed to my computer yesterday to acquire Talib Kweli but instead got Lily Allen's newest (which, if you were wondering, is solid, feel-good-with-underlying-vitriol Britpop at its finest). My 30gb iPod is completely sorted and although I wiped a lot of music it's being replaced at a rapid rate.

Well, time to study. Almost done studying. Then hopefully a good night's sleep.

Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays to celebrate regardless of its actual meaning.

With that said, there's one thing I regret about this year, and it's my inability as of late to tell people how I really feel about them.

So.

I love you all! Thanks for being there for me. Enjoy your day, whatever you guys decide to do.

I'm heartbroken.

So I've been rather busy lately. I'm taking two lab sciences, two other classes, and working a lot, so my days have been long and relatively boring, either being work/school/study/pass out at 10 PM or school/work/study/pass out at 10 PM. I haven't had a computer for a few weeks since my charger permanently shorted out, and the new charger just came in on Saturday, which is both a blessing and a curse. These last few weeks have been probably the most productive weeks in a long time. I got a lot of laundry done at Marge's house in Newton, haven't been falling behind in school (...what, I'm staying AHEAD?) and successfully fended off sickness. I've also been drinking and going out a lot less, which has been pretty nifty. I've been okay with it. I've had some bumps along Friend Road, with some people completely disrespecting me as a person and others at least apologizing for it. Such is life.

One of the first things I did on my computer when I got it back was spend almost an entire day pruning, organizing and re-sorting my mp3 collection. I had a lot of duplicates that got lost in the shuffle, as well as a lot of albums taking up space. No offense to fans of these groups, but Bloc Party, Yo La Tengo, and Ian Van Dahl weren't really being played in the years they'd been in my music collection, and 1.25 GB of gabba was a bit too excessive and headache-inducing. After a full day of downloading desired albums and ridding myself of unnecessary stuff, I got my collection from 27 GB to about 24 GB with only about an hour of sorting left to do. My 30 GB Ipod, if it could talk, would have probably thanked me.

( cut for wall-o'-text, click for music rantings and what I've been up to )

I most definitely could write more but most of you guys are probably asleep now. If you got to this point, congratulations! I can't believe I got to this point either. One other cool notable thing to mention is that I was able to get all my pictures of stuff that has been going on from November to January plus the DeVotchKa concert on Facebook, which could probably describe what I've been up to in less words, so here they are:

November - Jackson Sixto's baptism, baby pictures, "Thanksgiving", Black Friday shopping
December - Christmas, New York City
January - My birthday, New York City again
Clare and the Reasons, DeVotchKa, Webster Hall, 1/24 - amazing