I don't know about the rest of y'all but to me this bag looks like a pair of testicles and the only person I know that would pay $2,250 (or even $1,800) for a pair of big black hard leather testicles is...um...nobody.

These photos are from last Satuday (tea with Christy and April!). I haven't really done any self-portraits since then since I've decided to forgo heels, makeup, hair product and heat styling (that includes blow drying) Monday through Friday of this week. I look like crap but I'm pretty sure my hair, eyes and feet are thanking me right now.

Oh and I realized a couple of days ago that I backwards-park pretty good for someone who is as crappy a driver as me.

And who the hell created the spellcheck for Firefox because it keeps telling me that "realized" is not a word but that "realised" is which is really, really annoying because my knee-jerk reaction to seeing "realize" underlined in red is "OMG I'm retarded I don't even know how to spell 'realized'". Bleh.

Okay I'm going to stop now and just give you the last picture.

And what was VV doing while I was reveling in my (well, my dad's) hoard of professional colored pencils?

Using La Mer on his butt.

Seriously. One year I got my mom a jar of La Mer for her birthday. I showed it to VV online. He looked at it and said "That? I think I used that on my butt as a kid."

"What?" I said, aghast "But it's so expensive!"

"My mom had tons of that stuff lying around!"

And that, my friends, is what happens when your mom works in the cosmetics department of Neiman Marcus and not for a daycare. And that, my friends, is why VV is in possesion of a $135 moisturizer while I use a $15 bottle of Olay.

VV, however, was not happy when he discovered that the bottle his mom had given him was not a squeeze bottle, so he traded moisturizers with me (hehe) so now I'm the one with the ridiculously overpriced face lotion.

It's a shame we can't make the same kind of trades with his Burberry coat and designer ties. Oh well. Beggars and choosers.

Pencil skirt Proenza Schouler for Target GO International
My best GO International purchase ever! I've worn this skirt to death. It fits like a glove, has the right amount of stretch, and it's fully lined. Of course, the lining has an annoying tendency to poke out every now and then, but such is life. I realize the skirt is completely wrinkled but keep in mind this was at the end of the workday.

Ivory cardigan Brass Plum Nordstrom
I have a few other cardigans from Nordstrom's junior line, but none of them gets nearly as much wear as this one does. Ivory is just ridiculously versatile. This is my go-to for office-ifying any non-work-appropriate tops and dresses...like this bustier. Or this red backless dress I have that I love but almost never get to wear so I wore it to work. Heh.

Overcoat American Rag from Macys
I'm always amazed when I find outerwear that fits so I snatched this one up the instant I tried it on. So worth it. It's gotten a jillion wears since I bought it in...late 2006? It's great default outerwear since it's black, long-ish, and just roomy enough to fit over blazers and sweaters.

Also pictured:
Ted Baker bustier
Gorjana gold necklace
Nine West pointed slingbacks

Aren't the bags under my eyes something else? I was so tempted to photoshop them out but...I didn't. Obviously.

On an unrelated note, I was browsing through my archives circa 2001-2002 (first year of college) and I had written something about being warned up to 70% by some of my dormmates. I totally forgot about AIM warning and how we used it to amuse ourselves back in college. There are a lot of things that I'm forgetting about HS and college which makes me sad because I'm sure that means I'm getting old.

Labels: basics

I was visiting a boyfriend up north some years ago and we were walking around Pier 39. I bought giant long stemmed strawberries (they are SO GOOD there) and chocolate sauce for dipping and he went into a nearby (very crowded) ice cream shop to get a cup of ice cream for us to share.

When he got back I asked him "How much was it?"

"I don't know." he said, looking at me wide eyed.

"You don't know?" I replied, puzzled "How much did you pay for it?"

"It was free." he said.

"How did you get it for free?" I asked.

"It was just there on the counter and no one told me how much it was."

"So you just took it?" I peered into the ice cream shop. It was utter madness in there, the counter was swarming with people. I guessed our ice cream had somehow gotten lost in the shuffle. In the end I managed to convince him to go back and pay for it, but I was slightly put off by the whole situation. I know some people think that if a service worker messes up, too bad for them, but I just can't do that without feeling horrendously guilty. But...that's just me.

Last night VV and I did our weekly grocery shopping. When he got into the car he put a package of swiss cheese on my lap. "They didn't charge us for this."

"How do you know?" I asked.

"It was wedged in the child seat." he said "Check the receipt." I dug the receipt out of my back pocket and squinted at the long list of groceries we had just purchased. VV had already started to drive back towards the entrance of the grocery store.

"No...it's not on here...I don't think."

VV parked the car, picked the plastic package up off my lap, and walked back in to pay for the cheese.

Photo above has nothing to do with this post. It's just some pretty shadows I saw in the parking lot after work one night.

Weekend was eventful without being overwhelming. Pictures to be posted here and to my flickr (there I go pimping out the flickr again even though I haven't updated in days) shortly. Maybe.

I'm madd tired. Haven't been sleeping too well for I have turned into a booger factory. And booger factories aren't supposed to sleep. Or so I've heard.

Ummm this blog post isn't going too well so I'm going to wrap this up soon. But first...

Seen in a store window today: A sign that said

wtf.

And this is for those of you who are sick of the garage. On Friday I took things outside of the garage. I'm so adventurous.

:D :D

You can look @ all of my old archives now. They're really embarassing. You should read them!

I kind of like the formatting that I used in this image...may use it again if I can't think of something better. As usual, click to enlarge!

Black Wrap Dress Guess?
This dress was an awesome deal. I think it was like $20 or something. It's easy to wear, fairly flattering, and hits right above the knee which is generally where I like my work dresses to hit. Plus, it's ridiculously comfortable. The only thing that bugged me about this dress were the flutter sleeves, but that was easily remedied by stitching the corners together to make little keyhole things on my shoulders. Took maybe five minutes tops.

Expandable Bangles Alex & Ani via Ravinstyle.com and Hautelook.com
I have trouble finding bracelets that won't fall off of my wrists. Bracelets that stretch and bracelets with closures are usually okay, but I was dying to find some bangles. Enter the Alex & Ani expandable bracelets. I bought a set of gold colored ones on Ravinstyle as soon as I discovered that they existed. A huge set of them showed up in a sample sale online shortly afterward (much to my dismay, seeing that I had just paid regular price for my first set) so I bought a large set of gold and silver bangles. I do not regret either purchase because I wear these suckers to death. They stay on my wrists like magic. I'm thinking of buying more...!

Pointed Slingbacks Nine West
Got these for $50 at a Nine West outlet store (I think they were buy one get one 1/2 off) on a whim since they fit and they were comfortable enough. I guess I felt like my feet could use a break from my super high heels seeing that these were less than 3.5". Little did I know they'd become a staple in my work wardrobe. They're great with trousers and my favorite pencil skirt :)

Also worn (but not visible in photo)
DL by Dirty Librarian Chains multichain necklace
NY&Co tank

Labels: basics

We did it low-key but classy (relatively speaking) for Lina's 26th birthday celebration...quite a contrast to last year's Tokyo Delve + Jell-O shot madness (where, if you recall the story, I consumed about half of a huge bottle of wine on my own and climbed on top of Lina and tried to take her contacts out for her when she started to fall asleep at Leanne's)

I'd been here once before...loved the food, loved the ambiance. Discovered that the food wasn't as good as I had remembered and I suspect it may have been because I was drinking quite a bit the last time I'd gone. The food was still pretty good, though. VV and I shared two entrees of wagyu beef with roasted potatoes and broccoli and black cod over wasabi mashed potatoes.

OH and I got to meet the dude Lina is dating for the first time ever. She's nicknamed him Big White Dude (BWD) since he's a big white dude [insert Captain Obvious salute here]. On the way home VV was like "You didn't tell me he was that huge!" and I was like "Dude this was my first time meeting him!" and he continued on with "He's like HUGE! Like linebacker huge!" Like Mr. Incredible huge?

Anyway I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. Oh yeah, what went on Saturday night. The waitress hit on BWD and the everyone at that end of the table talked smack about her (which I was completely oblivious to since I was at the other end of the table) we ate dessert and loitered in the dining area until past 11 because we're bitches like that. We went to the outdoor bar afterward and took lots of photos and made lots of noise and basically annoyed the hell out of all the other bar patrons who probably thought they were a lot more classy/mature than we are.

Annnnd that's it dude.

Back to the self-portraits because I know you love them. Still need to post more about Saturday but that may have to wait until tonight after work.

I'm pretty sure I have the stumpiest legs in the world. Thank goodness you can't really see them in these photos. My photographer is awesome.

8th grade trip to Washington DC (March 1997...holy crap I'm getting old)

Little did we know that not quite 12 years later we'd be inaugurating our first non-white president. I'm so amazingly grateful that I was able to witness this event (on TV, unlike Xin who is currently in the midst of the craziness of DC that lucky bitch!) and am so proud to have been able to do my small part by voting...for the first time! It's things like this that give me hope that this country is making progress towards being a better nation. Here's hoping!

Oh Tupac, if only you could see us now.

@ the Yamashiro outdoor bar which has nothing to do w/ this post

On Saturday we went back to Nishi after going to lunch to use the bathroom and whatever and we were standing around when my uncle walked up to me and said "Wanna see my rack?" I looked at him completely befuddled. He then proceeded to talk about how he set up the network for the temple. What a relief.

On Sunday I ran into my mom at church and she told me "You left your pot in the bathroom". I was going to bring it but I forgot." I just stared at her for a second thinking "WTF" until it finally dawned on me that she was talking about eyeshadow.

Sometimes I wish my parents were fobs because that is total mymomisafob.com material.

On Saturday morning VV and I got up "early" (as in earlier than usual for a Saturday meaning before 10am) to drive out to LA to check out a handmade dresser that my mom's cousin had donated to JANM. I don't know if it'll ever be displayed since it's so big and I think space is kind of at a premium there.

I'm not feeling so great today. I wonder if I'm coming down with something.

Wish it was just a little clearer tonight...that photo would have come out better. Clouds make the picture look more unfocused that it really was *sigh*

800ISO, 30 second exposure, 10.5mm fisheye, lots brightness/contrast adjustments in Photoshop.

Cher, get in here.

What's up, Daddy?

What the hell is that?

A dress.

Says who?

Calvin Klein.

Love the cinematic reference. Photo taken from New High (M)art.

Real update coming soon. Promise.

Mitsuwa in Little Tokyo is closing.

Leanne, Denise and I ventured over to the market this afternoon with the intention of finding some sushi for lunch. When we entered we were confronted with a barren produce section and aisle after aisle of half-empty shelves.

"What's going on?" we all wondered aloud. "I'm freaking out! I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack!" said Leanne who was a few steps ahead of me, leading the way to the refrigerated cases of sushi and bento boxes. While I was checking out, I asked the cashier what was happening to the store and she informed me that they were closing on the 25th of the month which just about broke my little Japanese-American heart. We sadly wandered over to the seating area in front of Sakura and had a forlorn little last lunch in the market that had become a ritual Sunday destination for us over the years.

Before any of us could drive, we'd get rides or walk over to Yaohan/Mitsuwa on Sundays after Sunday school while our parents were in various organization meetings. I'd ask my mom for money and she'd give me $5, which was generally enough for a small bento or a takeout combo from Sakura. As we grew older we started driving ourselves and each other over on most weekends. We'd get lunch and I'd stock up on things to take back to my apartment. Things like large bottles of peach water, Jones soda and strawberry chocolate. Sure there was a Mitsuwa fairly close to campus, but the selection was never as good as it was in LA. After starting to work full time and giving up coffee, I used my Sunday lunch trips as an opportunity to stock up on genmaicha for the office and pick up the occasional bottle of sake.

It was pretty clear that Mitsuwa (formerly Yaohan, remember that?) was dying a slow, painful death though. It started with the closing off of its second floor, which was nothing short of a tragedy to us as young girls since that's where they had their little stationary section. Next were the increasing number of vacancies in the rest of the plaza which served as an ominous reminder that shopping center as a whole was not doing well. The transformation of the bakery from a manned station to open shelving with baked goods (and no more delicious, overstuffed sandwiches!) was another bad sign...and now this. *sigh* You will be sorely missed, Mitsuwa Marketplace.

On a lighter note, it's Lina's birthday today! Happy 26th my dear! Will post photos later. For now, I'll leave you with this self-portrait of me with end-of-the-night hair and makeup. The bags under my eyes are scary and my eyeshadow and liner are all over the place, but I love my hair in all of its tangled, wavy glory. It was even better this morning after sleeping on it. I was actually considering not washing my hair but thought better of it and washed the awesomeness away.

Anyway, when I take photos like this I usually end up with a billion shots with various configurations/poses/compositions/etc and usually only a couple of those end up on my Flickr and the rest languish in my Photos directory on my computer. Now I have a new outlet for my photos (yay!) in which I post-process freely! I try to keep my Flickr photos as un-post-processed as possible (there are a few that are, but they make up a very small percentage of my photostream) but on my blog I get to do whatever I want. Because it's my blog. And I make the rules. YAY POST-PROCESSING.

Actually, that first photo isn't post-processed (aside from text/resizing, obviously) BUT THESE NEXT TWO ARE!

I seriously have enough eyeshadow to last me a lifetime. I actually haven't bought very much shadow in the last few months because for the most part, I'm happy with what I've got. But...freaking MAC and their limited-edition collections. I always get suckered in by those.

Some (3 year old?) kid in Starbucks: Whipped cream! Can you get whipped cream?
Some mom in Starbucks: No, they don't have whipped cream. Mabye they would have had whipped cream if you'd finished your lunch. Funny how that works, huh?

HAHAHAHHHA

Oh yeah and VV pointed out the Tazo "African Red Bush" tea while he was in line to order and I showed him this photo (sorry it won't show up for those of you who aren't my flickr friends) on my Blackberry to let him know that he wasn't original and he pouted.

Felt sort of at a loss when it came to trying to collage photos in an aesthetically pleasing way. Then again I was full of wine...again. Oh well. Made this image bigger than the last one (click it to see it at its full size)

Single-button blazer Armani Exchange
I got this blazer a couple years ago maybe and have been wearing it to death ever since. It's nicely structured, has stretch, has a snap closure (I like snaps) and it fits like a dream. Totally worth the money I spent getting a good tailor to take up the sleeves. The cost of the blazer plus tailoring probably put this thing at around $150, but I've worn it about a billion times so $150/a billion = less than 1 cent per wear, which is awesome!

Mini-Doctor Bag Malababa via shopbop.com
Very basic, very soft, and the only label on this sucker is on the inside, which I love. It's roomy enough to fit the stuff I need (phone, wallet, keys, point and shoot, dslr, at least 2 extra lenses (yes I need those), random junk) but small enough not to make me look silly. I've used this bag consistently since I bought it and if I only take one purse when I'm traveling, this is usually it.

Also pictured:
Forever21 dress/tunic
Merona (?) tights
Brass Plum Nordstrom pendant necklace
Urban Outfitters hinge bracelet
Oh Deer! "Audrey" peep-toe pumps

Labels: basics

Late lunch at Nordstrom Bistro this afternoon. Took a few photos while my coworkers went to get coffee.

Now this is the project I was thinking of doing, although I must say that it didn't come out as cool as I had envisioned it. Maybe because I was full of wine. Yeah, that's it.

I intend for this to be a series of photos/collages that document things in my closet that I can't seem to live without for some reason or another. There is no real greater purpose other than to give myself some sort of goal when taking photos. That is all.

Now, to continue on.

Denim trousers Banana Republic
I totally remember when I bought these. I'd stayed home from work because I'd gotten a really nasty fever after getting my tetanus shot but was feeling better later in the evening so I went to the mall to kill some time and left with these. I wear them all the freaking time now. Best impulse purchase ever.

Slouchy bag H&M
This was part of a birthday gift from some friends that I received just last October. I'd normally say it's a bit soon to declare something a "basic" but it's gotten so much use since I got it that I think I can make an exception. It fits my DSLR and a decent selection of lenses pretty nicely (which was actually one of their goals when they picked it out for me haha) and it goes with just about everything. Thanks guys <3

Also pictured:
Lu Lu Lamé cropped sweater
Libertine for Target silk camisole
Brass Plum Nordstrom pendant necklace

edit: removed the image border because I think it looks better w/o it, but it's still clickable!

Labels: basics

What is that? Why yes, I did get a fisheye lens!

"Impractical!" you declare.

"Well yes, it is a little impractical." I concede "BUT! It makes me happy even though I'm not quite sure what to do with it yet so in my eyes it was still totally worth the money!"

In other news, my allergies can suck it. I wake up every morning (and sometimes in the middle of the night) with either a completely dry mouth or a big drool puddle because I can't breathe through my nose. Suckage.

I sound a little crazy in this post. I'm am allergized and stressed out, which seems to not be a good combination for me.

Is there a limit to the amount of boogers my face can produce? Because based on these past few weeks, I'm leaning towards "no".

I only bring this up because today during a meeting VV's dad said something like "definitize" and VV was all like "Definitize WTH that's not even a word" and after failing to stifle my laugh (probably unsuccessfully) tried to disguise it as a cough. Hell, it's making me giggle a little bit as I type this. I don't know why I find it so funny.

Am wondering why I don't have any dark gray cardigans.

Pictures coming later (maybe).

It was a looong long workday today. And it isn't even over. Ugh. Plus I think I'm going to blow my nose off any minute now. Stupid Santa Ana winds. On the bright side, the weather in Orange County is freakishly warm for it being wintertime, warm even for California.

Of course, I'm stuck in this over air-conditioned office so I don't even get to enjoy it. So much for being positive.

#@$@#$!

Okay. I'm over it.

More mediocre pictures YAY.

ps. I totally lied. I'm still cranky. Somebody send me a cupcake.

Bad photo session today. This is absolutely not the photo project I had in mind, either. I really need to find someplace else to take pictures. We shall see.

More sad photos tomorrow. Sad because sadly enough, I think these were the better of the few I have ready for posting :(

In other news, I tried on skinny jeans/pants for the first time ever today. Most of them horrified me (as expected) but there was one pair that looked kind of alright.

Okay I tried to do some face-obscuring self-portraits yesterday night but it was going so miserably that I gave up and decided to do light-painting instead. Light-painting can be really awesome or really gimmicky. Of course I did the gimmicky one. And I didn't even do it right. As you can see.

My allergies have taken over my whole face and I'm so miserable that my thin facade of articulateness articulance articulation articulateness that I try to maintain has basically gone to shit and I'm just vomiting words (and HTML tags!) all over my blog. I'm also totally wonky-eyed right now since one eye is more allergized than the other. No self-portraits today.

So ever since I tried to pull apart one of VV's arm hairs that had a split end (tried and SUCCEEDED despite his efforts to not let me (party pooper) because he claimed it "hurt" (wtf)) he started to bring me all of the split hairs that fall out of his beard (we're a very happy, functional couple. do not judge us) so I could split them (it's FUN) and tonight he found this mutant hair which definitely warranted some picture taking (his idea).

I thought it looked like a green onion, except not green. Maybe it's just me. Okay I'm tired and allergy meds are kicking in. I think it's time for bed.

(05:56:58 PM) me: my eye is dying
(05:57:21 PM) me: i think it's gooing to fall out soon
(05:57:27 PM) me: and then ill have no depth perception
(05:57:49 PM) vv: i eats your eye!
(05:57:58 PM) me: :(

So a lot of my photos ended up kind of looking like shit last night. I would have taken more photos in an attempt to get some less shit-tastic shots but my camera battery died on me. And no I'm not throwing up gang signs at the wall in the photo above. I'm trying to make my shadow look as cool as possible for the camera. Actually that makes me sound even dumber. Nevermind. Yes I am throwing up gang signs at the wall in the photo above.

So I dressed all warm and comfortable since VV said he wanted to see a movie that night. I'm a super fidgety movie-watcher and I can't sit still in those stupid chairs for two hours (MY FEET DON'T TOUCH THE FLOOR AND IT'S UNCOMFORTABLE OKAY) so I like to dress as comfortably as possible (no pencil skirts fo sho) if I know I'm going to be sitting in a movie theater.

We ended up not going to the movies. Instead we went out to dinner which is okay because food is more awesome than movies anyway. Except movies don't make me fat. And the movie would have cost less than dinner (VV has tons of gift certificates). And we had food at home that we need to eat before it goes bad but we didn't get to eat it last night because we went out to dinner...

Oh and yesterday I was thinking that since I had brushed my hair every day since January 1 that maybe I should resolve to brush my hair every day but I didn't brush it today so there goes that.

ps. I lied about the photo overload. It's only 3. Which I actually kind of knew when I titled the post so I don't really know why I did that.

Bad photos because I was a bit inebriated. Whoops?

Detail of the hoodie and my necklaces was captured quite awesomely if I do say so myself. I love that multi-chain necklace (I'm actually wearing two necklaces but you can't see the other one too well). I fell in love with Dirty Librarian Chains the instant I saw them. They reminded me of what Bing Bang was when I first discovered them. In any case, I was thrilled to a jillion pieces when they did a less expensive line for Urban Outfitters (DL by Dirty Librarian Chains) and ordered a necklace online (couldn't find it in store?).

The other necklace I'm wearing is the black bird necklace seen in this photo which at $8 is possibly the best jewelry purchase I've ever made.

This last photo turned out a bit overexposed but looked nice in black and white. Or at least I thought it did. Not sure what I was doing with my left hand. I suspect I was trying to pull my hair out of the necklace clasp (ouch).

This is just in case anyone cares what I ate tonight! Which is probably nobody!

More trashy heels! These are much easier to walk in, though, and I have actually worn them outside the house. They aren't quite as high as the last pair I posted (only 4.5" heh) and the (mirrored!) heel is slightly chunkier.

In other news, my remote for my DSLR came in yesterday! I lost the first one I bought before I even got a chance to really use it and after searching for it for nearly two months gave up and bought another one. Self-portraits will resume shortly :)