Shattered...

I went bowling again this past Saturday, just Dan and I. I think we bowled a total of 12 games in 3 hours. Maybe more, maybe less. We lost track. I'm proud to say that I am much more confident about my bowling form! It feels so much more natural now than it did last weekend. What can I say? Dan is a good teacher :) 

Anyhoo...

I bought a bottle of OPI Black Shatter about a month ago and finally had the chance to use it this past weekend! Please excuse the black spots on my skin. I'm not very good at doing my nails. And to top it off, I'm a lefty and I always have trouble painting my nails with my right hand. Also, my fingers look all claw-like. Roar. But fingers aside, I like the way the OPI Shatter gives an edgy feel to my nails. I wanted the shatter look to be obvious so I put on two coats of white nail polish underneath the black shatter. 

I used Essie's Picket Fence for my two first coats. I like the way this white color came out. It wasn't too white, but it was white enough that the color wasn't translucent when I put it on. Results: I like! I'm going to use some other colors for the bottom two coats next time.

It rained today! Looks like my plea for rain in my last post worked, muahah. Finally, some relief from the recent scorcher. I just hope it will stay this way for the rest of the week...

The sun is hot in the sky, just like a giant spotlight.

This heat wave is serious business. I got this picture off the Weather Channel website. Isn't it CRAZY? The U.S. looks like it's on fire! The entire country is going through a ridiculous heat wave. We're all suffering together. Sigh. I have never wished for cooling rain so much than right now. Rain, rain, please come this way! 

After writing up my entry yesterday (I'm trying really hard to be diligent about updating this blog! I want to be able to look back one day and remember exactly what I did because I wrote (read: typed) it all down), I showered, washed my face and slathered on this deep pore cleansing masque by Kiehl's. I love Kiehl's products. They are the bomb diggity. One of my favorite products by Kiehl's is their eye makeup remover lotion. With a name like "Supremely Gentle Eye Makeup Remover", it definitely lives up to its name. But anyway, back to the clay masque. It is a grayish color and has a cool feel when you put it on your face. I usually leave it on for 15-20 minutes, though I've left it on longer because I lost track of time. There's a slight tingling sensation; that's how I know it's working! After 15 minutes, I wash it off and then follow my regular nighttime skincare routine. I always feel so clean and refreshed after doing this masque. If you're looking to purchase a clay masque, I'd recommend this one. It's on the expensive side ($25), but I think it's a good investment because it'll last you a while and it helps to purify your skin and minimize your pores (with regular use; 1-2 times a week). 

If you notice, the pictures in this post are a bit nicer than the ones in my previous ones ;) I am trying to utilize my DSLR instead of relying on my phone all the time. It's been nearly two years since I purchased my Nikon for my semester in China. When I first bought it, I took my camera with me everywhere. It was my baby. I was in love. You would literally have to pry it out of my hands. I was obsessed with taking pictures.

Now... not so much. After I came back from China, I started up my 365 self portrait project so that I could learn more about photography. But, that was also my last semester of college so I got really caught up in enjoying senior year. I've become very lazy about bringing my camera with me everywhere. It's heavy yo. I've even gotten lazy about just taking pictures. I'm the worst. BUT! I'm trying to take more pictures, whether it be with my DSLR or my point-and-shoot or even my phone. Phone pictures are better than no pictures. If you look through my iPhoto, you can see how the number of pictures has dropped in the recent years. It makes me sad to see that.

Here's a picture of today's lunch: plain yogurt, Special K: Vanilla Almond, strawberries and bananas. Yum! Much better than what I had yesterday. I love mixing yogurt and cereal together. I picked up the habit in college from Dan. The first time I saw him do it, I thought it was kind of weird, but I quickly changed my mind after I had a spoonful of his cereal and yogurt.

It's almost the weekend! I'm going bowling again this weekend with Dan, hahaha. I just can't get enough. My legs are going to be getting another workout. I want to perfect my form and work on my aiming. That is my goal for this weekend. That, and studying for my midterm on Monday... eep.

Heat wave!

The weather has been disgustingly hot and humid this week and it's only going to get hotter from here. Tomorrow is supposed to be 94 degrees and Friday is supposed to reach 100 degrees! Isn't that ridiculous? I'm personally not a fan of hot weather so being in this kind of weather is miserable for me. I would take being cold over being hot any day. I can't wait for this heat wave to be over. 

Because of this nasty weather, I always feel sticky and sweaty. And I hate it. My face always feels oily and it drives me nuts. I think it's contributing to the pimples I've been getting this week. Actually, they're more like blemishes because of my bad habits (I won't go into it; don't want to gross anyone out). I have one on my nose and another on my chin. And of course, they're both smack dab in the middle of my face. It makes me feel hideous. Oh yeah, and get this, I have a pimple on my left eyelid. I don't know how it got there, but it's there and it hurts. Blergh. Even though it's not very noticeable, in my mind, the blemishes are HUGE. I'm not used to getting breakouts so when I actually do break out, it's a big deal to me. 

The other contributing factor to my breakouts is probably the unhealthy things I've been consuming lately. I need better eating habits. Last weekend's seafood fest at Jordan's Lobster Dock probably did not help (so much fried food and butter!). This is what I get for loving food. In the words of my mother, my internal body temperature is too hot from all the oily foods, so my body is retaliating by way of acne.

As a result, I've been trying to eat healthier and lighter. I try. But I don't always succeed. I backtracked today and had halal for lunch. And maybe a bottle of Coke. Yeah, not great. I need to try harder. To make up for the unhealthy lunch, I made myself a cucumber salad for dinner. Yeah, I know it doesn't really cancel out the crap I ate for lunch, but just let me think it does. It'll make me feel a little bit better about myself :p

The salad was very simple and light. Kirby cucumbers, garlic, rice vinegar, sugar and toasted sesame seeds. I didn't follow a recipe; just eyeballed the amounts and threw it all together. It tasted all right, but it could use some tweaking. And after my kind of healthy dinner, I munched on some strawberries while watching reruns of 30 Rock on Netflix and doing my homework.

(Playing with the Camera+ app on my phone)

Now I'm off to wash my face and do a cleansing mask. Go away blemishes! You're ruining my week :(

Monday Night Adventures

My Monday nights are usually pretty boring, but I decided to shake things up this week. Tonight, I went out with two girlfriends from high school for some much needed girl time. It's been so long since the three of us have been in the same room. I think the last time we were all together was last October.. so long ago! We caught up on each other's lives over delicious Korean food. We sat in the restaurant for over two hours, eating, talking, giggling and being silly. It was really nice; it brought me back to our high school days when all we worried about were things like college applications, SATs and boys. Life seemed so much simpler back then.

While we still talk about boys.. ahem I mean, men; our conversations are now about our jobs (or lack thereof), plans for the future and thoughts of who is going to get married first out of the three of us. I think our friendship is so interesting; the three of us are very different from each in almost all respects (personalities, temperaments, types of guys we like, taste in clothing, views on life, etc). We lead very different lives and from the outside, it doesn't seem like the three of us would be friends, but we've known each other since middle school and have been friends for almost 10 years (Oh wow, I didn't realize it's been THAT long. Dang). And when we come together, we always have a wonderful time.

There's usually one more person to round out our group, but she couldn't make it tonight. Next time! Hopefully, there will be more of these girl dates in the near future <3

Reviving the ol' blog

It's been quite a while since I've written anything on this blog. The last post was back in September of last year and so much has changed since then. For one, I'll be attending Columbia Teacher's College in the fall! I am getting my masters in gifted education. What the what. Another thing, I'll still be working part time at the Anderson School for the upcoming school year. They loved me so much that they invited me back. So, I'll be really busy in the fall with grad school and work. 

As for my summer, it's not as busy, but busy enough. I'm taking two math courses at Queens College to complete my NYS teacher certification requirements (NYS requires teachers to have undergrad courses in all liberal arts subjects. And of course, the only one I was missing was math). The classes are pretty easy and it makes me feel super smart. I thought I was bad at math, but a lot of the people in my College Algebra for Precalc class are even worse than me. Evidence of the waning education system. The second class I'm taking is called Mathematics for Elementary School Teachers and it will be quite useful for when I start teaching. The best part is, along with a midterm and final, we have to create three math lesson plans; it'll be great practice for the future! 

Aside from classes, I've been busy with homework and swimming. I've gotten really lazy about exercising so I'm trying to get into the habit for swimming at least three times a week. That and trying to eat better. So far, I've been going back and forth. I need to be more adamant and strict with myself if I really want to lose weight and see some results. The weekends are the worst because I always end up eating the worst foods and indulging myself. All the work from the week just goes down the drain! Ugh. Terrible. I can't help it though; I love food. And since I'm such a foodie (or at least, I like to think I am), I always want to try new foods.. sigh. I wish I was one of those people who have ridiculously fast metabolisms and can eat whatever they want, but still be skinny. 

My bad weekend eating habits started early this week, on Thursday. I met up with Susan on Thursday for dinner in the West Village. We went to Westville for dinner and feasted on this delicious smoky mac and cheese with bacon appetizer. It was really friggin' good. After dinner, we walked around until we stumbled upon this gelato shop called L'Arte Del Gelato. It was a cute little place with a wide variety of flavors. The one that really caught my attention was the "olio de olivia" or olive oil. The flavor was really nice and light. I ordered the olive oil gelato and coffee gelato on a sugar cone. Yummmay. 

On Friday, my parents, Dan and I went to Le Gigot in the West Village to celebrate my mom's birthday. The restaurant was small and charming; it made me feel like I was sitting in a bistro in France. The food was decent, but not amazing. I really liked the faucet in their bathroom. So much that I took a picture of it. Yeah, I'm weird. But whatever, I thought it was really cool. Overall, it was a nice night.

Saturday, I woke up early to go bowling with Dan, Cindy and Jeddy. Dan's trying to make a bowler out of me and I got a lesson on the basics of bowling while wearing my new bowling shoes! It was a bit frustrating at first because I was the noob among them and I felt kind of embarrassed for sucking, but I got over it and concentrated on the pointers that Dan was giving me. I got better as the morning wore on and I can't wait to go bowling again. I feel more confident about my form and now I have to work on my aim. I definitely got a workout from yesterday's 3 hour bowling session. I woke up this morning with really sore legs. My right leg is especially sore; I've been limping around my house all day. 

After bowling, we went to lunch at BCD and then went our separate ways. Dan and I went back to Brooklyn and for dinner, we went to Jordan's Lobster Dock with his parents. Oh my gosh, we ate so much. So. Much. Some things we ordered: New England clam chowder, lobster, calamari, corn on the cob, coconut shrimp, raw clams, steamers, french fries. It was all very good. The clam chowder was the best I've had in a while. And the lobster, OMG, the lobster was damn good. I've been afraid to eat lobster recently because I've been having allergic reactions after eating it, but I think it's because the lobsters used by Chinese restaurants and sold by Chinese supermarkets are not as fresh as the ones in American restaurants and supermarkets. Last night's lobster just proved that suspicion true. The lobster from Jordan's did not give me an allergic reaction whatsoever. The meat was plump, firm and delicious. I haven't had lobster that good in a really long time.

And now I'm finishing up my weekend with the Women's World Cup Final (streaming from Dan's TV to my computer!) and a few slices of dragon fruit.

It's been a good weekend :)