Flashback

Happy Turkey Day! So I'm back home, in the middle of nowhere...my old room is, well, a mess, and so I've been trying to clean out some things in my room [it's part storage/part hot mess]. I came across a time capsule I made in 5th grade at a friend's birthday party, and I've decided to share with you the letter I wrote to my future [12th grade] self, complete with little kid handwriting (with circles over the i's instead of a dot):

Today is July 15, 19##. Today was Summer's B-day party. My name is Betty XXXX Yee. I'm 11 years old. I was born in RXXXXXXXXX (I still live here right now) on December ##, 19##. My favorite color is green, my favorite animal is a panda, but basically I like all animals. Today is a Tuesday. I graduated 5th grade and I'm going to go in 6th grade. This year school will start on a Tuesday. I love drawing, reading, getting A's on school papers. RXXXXXXXXX is a desert. I have a pet fish. I want a cat or dog but they need a lot of take caring.

[hand drawn picture of 2 mountains, a cloud, and a sun]

I alos like Calvin & Hobbes (Comic Book), Sailor Moon, Mr. Mysterious & Company (book), Travel Far, Pay No Fare (another book), and other stuff. My sisters are EXXXX XXXX Yee (15) and SXXXX XXX Yee (18). SXXXX just graduated this year. EXXXX's going to be a sophomore. My Parents are WXXXX Yee and JXX Yee. I am Chinese. I have black hair and dark brown eyes. My favorte favorite ice cream is Cookies n' Cream. - Write more Later - My 5th grade teacher at VXXXXX was Mrs. Knight. She is retired now. We were her last class. I like getting mail. All the stuff I put in my time capsule is from 4th & 5th grade and from 19## & 19##. Today Mrs. BXXXX gave us the idea for the time capsule at Summer's b-day. Susan CXXXXXX is moving this Thursday or Friday. The maps broshures are from Mrs. BXXXX's. So is the the time capsule box. Also the name thingy card. Today Matt MXXXXX and SXXXX picked me up. They were funny and pretending to be hicks and calling each other Ma and Pa w/ southern accents and were pretending to be my "Ma & Pa" and calling me Betty XXXX. It was funny.

Quotes From Me
"Let There Be Peace."
"Let the World Be a Better Place For All People to Live In."
"Let happiness and <3 be in everyone, not hate and anger." : )
"don't worry, be HAPPY."
"It doesn't matter what you look like, but what's inside."


Favorites
Sailor Moon/TV show
Mighty Max/TV show
Calvin & Hobbes/comic book
Travel Far, Pay No Fare/Book
Mr. Mysterious & Company/Book
Pandas, Brownies, Mail
Good, Trusting Friends
Car trips to places out of town
Archie comic books
nice sisters
Holidays
my birthday
Cookie's n' cream ice cream
reading
drawing

Dislikes
having bad vision
crooked teeth
obnoxious people
Mrs. Nuckles
diet sodas
not getting mail
gross boys having crushes on you
getting a B or C
dumber people getting a better grade than you
fighting
not getting mail or phone calls
fighing and yelling
when SXXXX gets nasty
dumb books
when Mom and Dad yell
people who are racists
trash everywhere
messy houses - like are, but I still love this house
smoke
seeing people smoke
drugs

Haha, that was pretty funny. Man.....that feels like forever and a day ago.

Please Come Back, Mr. Fed-Ex Man!

I am going to preface this post with the statement that I overthink too much.


Today I was really frustrated, over a fairly small reason, but I'll explain my rationale.

I ordered a winter coat [on sale] from an online store because 1) I don't own a winter jacket or even a regular jacket for that matter and 2) I'm planning a trip up north for my birthday next week, and my experience there has been that it gets a tit bit nippley, if you catch my draft.

Because I wanted it fairly fast, I requested express shipping. Why, you may ask? Unlike most people, things like pants and jackets do not fit my too petite body, and I need things altered. If I needed to get this said coat altered, I wanted to do it sooner rather than later [besides, express altering also costs more money]. It was supposed to come in today, and so around 1:50 PM, I went to the school mail room. Unfortunately it was closed, but that was ok, I didn't mind waiting...til I saw a Fed-Ex driver. He was holding a package, that I thought might have been mine. But me, being the kind of person that doesn't want to harrass a person if I'm not certain the box was mine/wasn't sure he'd give me the box since I didn't have ID, hesitated to approach him. I saw him walk away, and I started to go after him. I was going to call after him, but he had already gotten to the van and drove away.

I walk back inside (and this entire Fed-Ex Man scene couldn't have been more than 3 minutes) the mailroom receptionist is back. I ask, hoping that that Fed-Ex Man's box wasn't mine....but it was. I go back to the house, and I call Fed-Ex's main national line to see if the driver can come back today, but the Customer Service Rep says he can't because drivers have set schedules. So I call the website to see if I can get a refund on my shipping because I was supposed to get it today, and I technically didn't...I couldn't get a refund. The only thing I can do is wait for the package tomorrow. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except tomorrow is the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm pretty sure we're going to leave early and be gone the rest of the week.

I could have tried to pick up the package myself, but then that defeats the purpose of getting it delivered to me; also I would need to borrow the car, and I don't like taking things without asking. Plus I didn't know when the driver would be back to the main drop-off station, and I didn't want to drive during traffic times.

So if I don't get this jacket til Monday, I'll still have to do express tailoring (which I didn't want to do, because to alter a coat costs more than shipping), PLUS paying the express shipping price.

So, why am I frustrated? Because.....
- I was thisclose to getting my package, and I didn't
- I paid that extra shipping for nothing, really and I couldn't get my money back because they technically (tried to) delievered it.
- If this jacket is too big [which is a 98% chance of it being], I'll need to pay for that too.
- And I need to find not-too expensive plane tickets for next week....fat chance of that.


Ok...that was all. Thanks for reading.

Baby, Buy Buy Buy! Or, Get Your Fash On.

So even though I don't have a job, I still like to browse around/ "window shop" every now and then. Of course I do this only after extensive hours of job hunting.

I don't think I'm particularily stylish, but hopefully I look somewhat pulled together in my day-to-day life. Or at least one day I hope to, haha. I'm not advocating for over-consumption or wasteful spending, so please don't think I am. However, I have compiled a list of a few items that I would love to add to my wardrobe (but can't at the moment due to a lack of funds : P ), so here goes:

BOOTS

I've never owned a pair of boots, and I never thought of owning any til I saw a former RA that I worked with wear some; they were really cute! I first thought I'd like some slouchy brown leather ones, but straight riding boots wouldn't be too bad either. I'd want a pair in a dark brown/cognac color; I think they would look great with either a shirt dress or dark jeans and a light solid color top. The Cynthia Vincent riding boots pictured here unfortunately cost around $400...yikes!


YELLOW FLATS

I really like the color yellow...especially "deeper" yellows like mustard and saffron. These would look great with dark blue, black, or gray pants.

These are from Urban Outfitters; according to the reviews, they are very cute but painful [which I think most flats are...I've only owned 2 pairs of flats that were comfortable the first time wearing them, and they were both the same style, just different colors!]. I like the way UO shoes look, but I usually can't wear them because I'm a size 5, and they only stock size 6+. But this seems to be the case for most shoe stores that I go to. : /


BLACK POINTY-TOED FLATS

I like that these are simple...no crazy embellishments or buckles.

I've been semi-looking for a pair because I feel that they look dressy without the fuss of heels. And these are nice because they don't look too pointy where it's too severe. These Christin Michaels flats can be found on Zappos and they cost around $130 per pair...oyyy!


SHIRT/SWEATER DRESS

Before, the idea that a dress would have sleeves bothered me. But I think the slightly deep v-neck, the 3/4 slighty puffy sleeves, and simple thin knit make it cute. I think it'd look great with a pair of boots (maybe the slouchy ones would be better?) or flats.

This is $68 from Urban Outfitters (still a little too pricey for my liking!).


GREY [OR BLACK] BLAZER

This looks a little darker than I'd like it to be. However, if I was getting a tweed blazer, I'd want it to be charcoal grey. But I think I'm looking for a more casual/"regular" blazer that could go with jeans. I never owned a blazer til recently, but I like that it gives more structure and shape to an outfit. If I can find one with a cool lining...that'd be awesome!

This is a J.Crew suit blazer, so it might be a little more formal looking than what I'm going for, but I like the cut of it. This is $170...a liitle out of my price range!!


WINTER COAT

I don't own a winter coat, but I think it would be a good investment to get one, especially since I get cold easily. Over the summer, I was browsing around United Colors of Benetton, and they had this charcoal grey [there we go again with this color] coat; I really liked it, but it was too big, so I didn't get it. I should have though, because I have been looking to get a jacket for a long time. I think I have to settle on the fact that I'll need to tailor it, because it's very rare for me to find things that fit on the first try [such as jackets/coats/pants/shoes...tops are easier to find though].

I don't know if I like the belt on this jacket, but I guess it's good in that it gives the jacket more shape. This J.Crew coat costs around $200-300. It's actually black and not grey. If you go to the site, the photo of the "majestic purple" version of this jacket is very cute.


MISC.
-LEATHER JACKET

I've never owned a leather jacket, and I never really had a desire to, but I like the way this jacket looks [minus the $500 price tag!]. I like the color, but I think if it were a darker brown, it'd be more versatile/wearable.

This jacket is from UO.



-SWEATER

I don't own any sweaters anymore, haha. I've gotten used to the warm weather I guess. Anywho, I like the details on this sweater, such as the deep scoop neck [nice for layering], 3/4 sleeves [so you don't have to push up/roll up the arms], and the contrasing neck/cuff/hem line [brings the sweater together].

This is also from UO, and is $88 [eeek!].



-LIGHT GREY DENIM

I normally don't choose light colored jeans, but one day when I was in UO [sorry, sorry], I saw a pair of silver [essentially light grey] cigarette jeans with contrast black stitching, and I was really drawn to them - I think because of the stitching. Alas they never had my size in stock [although one store I did find one size 25, but they looked weird, so maybe it was meant for me to not have them haha]. These are a different pair; they are $200 jeans from UO.

My sisters don't like 'skinny jeans' but I feel I don't look any better in other styles. I started wearing slimmer cut pants just right before you could find that style in all the stores. Maybe I do look silly, but at least I don't mind!


- WHITE/CREAM COLORED SCARF

I'm looking for a thin knit [the scarf pictured here is silk-cashmere] that will keep my neck warm without itching it...I've had some chunkier knit scarves that I think were wool, and they would itch my neck like crazy! I can't tell if it is warm and soft, but I'm assuming so!

I like the idea of a light-colored scarf because it brightens up a dark outfit [since I don't own that many cream/white things]. This one is about $50 at J.Crew.


So as you can see, I really enjoy things from Urban Outfitters and J.Crew, and I tend to pick out things that are way too expensive. So I'll be on the lookout for less costly versions [or maybe wait til they're on sale? Haha].

These Are a Few of My Favorite Things

I like making random lists, and inspired by Julie Andrew's Maria Von Trapp, I have decided to make a list of a few of my favorite things [excluding people], or at least things I like:

- the smell of rain (in the desert), movie theater popcorn, and cookies baking
- flowers, especially from a farmers' market
- good deals/finding something you've wanted on sale
- when you make it to the bus stop just in time so that you don't have to wait
- museums and libraries
- grilled food, and ice cream (preferably chocolate and mint)
- leisurely browsing through stores
- when you wake up really early and it's still cold outside, but then you hop into a nice, warm shower
- when it's winter time and going around to look at Christmas lights
- finding good bands that people haven't heard of yet
- random (and non-random!) acts of kindness
- laying down in an open space and watching the stars at night


Listen here to The Sound of Music's "A Few of My Favorite Things"