Monthly Archives: October 2008

Yada yada yada

Posted by Leaf on October 31, 2008 None comments

It’s inexplicable to myself why I keep acquiring makeup. I don’t wear it but maybe two or three times a week. I just love looking at the stuff. And the colors. And playing with it, sometimes to excess. It’s my latest indulgence (obsession) I guess. Last week I sat in front of the mirror and applied four different eyeshadows and three eyeliners to my eyes before I decided I was done. Moderation is for wussies.

I stayed up til 3AM on the phone with my sister looking at Sephora.com last night. We are bad influences on each other. Luckily, I left my credit card at work (stupid) so I didn’t end up actually getting anything (smart!).

It is Friday and Halloween right? Why did no one get in the spirit today at work?! I’m the only one who’s wearing a tail and horns and some overly done Halloween-style makeup. What’s wrong with you people!?

On the coworker wedding planning front:
Who cares about party favors? I don’t think anyone cares about mementos of your wedding except for maybe your closest friends and family. If you have over 200 guests, most of them won’t care. I told her to skip that and watch her budget. We’ll see though. This girl is out of control! On the otherhand, my other coworker thinks they’re important and I’m being a tightwad. She said she wonders what mine would end up looking like. I told her the reception will be held at McD’s. Dollar menu-only! And if you insist on having wedding favors, maybe upgrade to Happy Meals. Gawd I rock at wedding planning!

Ok this blog entry officially sucks because it is all over the place. Perhaps I drank too much coffee this morning. I’m so hungry.

The new colleague

Posted by Leaf on October 29, 2008 2 comments

A few weeks ago, our office hired a new intern about my age and she sits in the office next door, uhh mostly planning her wedding. (Ha! We actually do do work. Sometimes.) Anyway, I’m her unofficial consultant on all things wedding these days. Who made me the expert?!

“Do you like this invitation or this one or this one or this one?”
“What font should I use for the address label? Calligraphy? Or this or this or this?”
“Which flower should I go with?”
“How do you like this sari or this one or this one or this?”
This Friday after work, we’re planning to go shop for tuxedos and tulle.
The event is going to be a pretty ornate Indian/Western wedding. Right now, her budget is $45k and I say “right now” because who knows if she can manage it what with all the things she wants to have. I don’t understand how people can spend so much moolah on a party but that discussion would be another blog entry.
So far it’s been a fun distraction but also overwhelming with all the choices and decisions. Lucky for her, I’m around to tell her to go with the pink one. You can’t go wrong with pink.

I needed this. Needed.

Posted by Leaf on October 27, 2008 2 comments

I did it again. I got face cream so I could get the box of free schtuff. I fall for it every time. This time though, these are actually things I need. What a concept. Since winter is coming, I thought I’d try this other Lancome night cream. And the box of samples have a few perfumes and creams instead of just makeup.
Nothing frivolous whatsoever.

Also, has anyone heard of La Mer face products? I met some lady who told me that’s all she uses. My only hesitation is it’s ridiculously expensive. 2 oz. jar, $230!! That stuff had better make me look like I’m playing hooky from school Mon-Fri! But here’s my thought on products. They’re like technology goods/services. If you were always on dialup, you didn’t know what you were missing and you could live through life, content as a bee, using your rrrreeeee-ding-ing-oingoingoing. Once you upgrade to DSL or Cable or T3 or whatever fancy getup, forget it. You’d rather off yourself then go back to dialup. Likewise, for someone who has never had a cell phone, woop-dee-doo, never had one, don’t need it. For the rest of the population, having no cell phone is like losing one of your senses. Now to tie this back to beauty products. Once upon a time, I used Oil of Olay. The cheap line. Then I graduated to their fancy line, “Total Effects.” I still use it. But now, I’ve been primarily slathering on Philosophy which I think works like a charm. I don’t see myself going back to Olay. And now that I’ve heard about this La Mer thing, oh boy oh boy. Time to save up for my next face product test. I hope I hate it!

Movies

Posted by Leaf on October 25, 2008 3 comments

The Professional: A bit violent, but it doesn’t detract from the story which is touching. ~~Gary Oldman~~ Jean Reno is an assassin and he takes in a girl (young Natalie Portman – who’s already playing that quirky oddball girl-next-door even at 13) whose family was killed by a drug gang. He ends up taking care of her and teaching her how to do what he does. The ending has a nice “cherry on top” feel to it.

The Golden Compass: I want my 2 hours back.

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo: I laughed so hard at some parts, my stomach hurt. There are a few gross and crude scenes but, what’d you expect from Harold & Kumar? If you liked the first, you’ll like this.

The Shopping Vortex

Posted by Leaf on October 24, 2008 3 comments

I’m onto them, the sneaky marketers! Lately, I’ve been receiving random, no-reason, (not the store’s anniversary, not a holiday), $10 gift coupons from stores. They don’t have minimum purchase requirements or it’s minimal ($25). Thus far, I’ve received one from DSW and Sephora. MY TWO WEAKNESSES (after Trader Joe’s, but TJ’s never prints coupons, the marketing geniuses.)!! Unfortunately, I lost my DSW coupon and had to go thru a 6-step get-over-it process.

Tore up the house looking for it
Blamed the world
Beat myself up for losing it
Talked to anyone who was willing to listen
Finally came to terms with having lost it
Vowed to not shop there for a while until I’m over the mourning of having lost it.

It’s good though, I have one fewer pairs of shoes I probably didn’t need taking up space which I do need. *Waah!!* <– crying on the inside!

I’m moving on though. Sephora. It’s an unlosable $10 coupon because it’s online (T8PHKB9E by October 31st, 2008!). Only I’m not sure what to get because there are so many things I want! Right now, I’m thinking NARS blush or Stila Smudge Pots or some sort of eyebrow palette or what the heck, all three! I’ve been sucked in.

First Frost

Posted by Leaf on October 23, 2008 None comments

It was 30some degrees this morning. All of our potted plants have come inside for the fall/winter – including the cymbidium. So the story about the cymbidium is that two winter’s ago, while my parents were out of town for a week or so, I left the heat off in the house. The house reached about 40 degrees F. That year, the cymbidium bloomed for the first time since it was purchased. The plant needed to be chilled in order to induce blooms. Last year, we decided to leave the plant outside a little longer to get that needed chill so it’d flower again.
Result:

Plant frosted
Leaves browned
Fell out
Bald plant

Don’t worry, it survived. This winter, I’m going to try to chill it to get it to flower again. Brrr for me for a couple of weeks this coming winter.

Just stick to the egg rolls

Posted by Leaf on October 21, 2008 2 comments

This past weekend, I attended an Asian wedding tea ceremony. I was sorta there just to give my sister a lift but I thought I’d stick around to watch it all take place. It was fun, traditional and all. Afterwards we ate. Ok, that’s not entirely true. I started early on the food during the ceremony because my cereal can tide me over only an hour or so. And was I hungry! Then when everyone descended on the food, well, what can I say, I went for round 2! While eating, I remarked to an Asian friend of the couple about politics, saying “it’s not like you’re voting for McCain or anything!” HA! Haaa? She smiled politely and I realized there’s a possible possibility that potentially she’s a Republican. Hey, I’m cool with that. Just rock the vote right? So I shut up and ate. Then 5 minutes later, I decided to redeem myself and I told her, my best friend is an Asian woman who is a McCain supporter and I still like her and she’s still my bestfriend. And then – and then I shut up. Because seriously, these egg rolls are so delicious aren’t they?!!? She was cool though, a saint. She just asked “You’re the younger sister aren’t you?” Heee! Did you try the egg rolls? Boy they’re good! Did I mention I had a pint glass of coffee before coming over here and it makes me run my mouth filterless? So, I’m just gonna go get myself another one of those delicious egg rolls.

Perky

Posted by Leaf on October 19, 2008 5 comments

See that “about me” section where I state that I need at least 7 hours of beauty sleep? This weekend, since Friday AM to Sunday AM, I’ve probably gotten around 7 hours total. Maybe some people can get by with less sleep than that, but I am incoherent and my brain is not quite here. Look, right now, at 7:34 AM I’m blogging about not having slept all night long, when I ought to be sleeping. Which probably explains the bad blog post. Or maybe this is my typical posting. So it’s because my sis & bil are visiting from out of town and we hung out with our cousins to play cards til the wee hours. Saying stupid stuff and taking photos of each other playing cards and falling asleep on the chair and watching Starcraft tournaments?? (I don’t know. I had nothing to do with that!) And when everyone gets so intolerably sleepy what do we do? Make a gigantic pot of coffee and down cup after cup. And now I’m wired and tired and writing. I’d like to blame them as bad influences that we all stay up late whenever they visit, but the truth is sleep is for pansies and I am not a pansy. I’ll be one tomorrow though.

Romantic Comedies

Posted by Leaf on October 15, 2008 3 comments

Sex and the City For some reason, I was never a huge “satsy” fan. Maybe the fact that I didn’t have cable had something to do with it. Maybe. But even when it was syndicated and on local channels, I still didn’t hunker down to catch up all that I’d missed. After seeing the movie, that may change. In fact, I watched the movie twice this past weekend. Laughed the first time, cried the second. I was rooting for all of them to figure out what seemed so obvious to me. (Aren’t all romance movies like that?) Go see it! Even if you didn’t watch the show. This may be the best movie I’ve seen in 2008.

Love Actually This movie came out a few years ago but I didn’t get to see it until recently. There are several romantic plot lines occurring simultaneously amongst the characters similar to The Last Kiss. This movie is warmer than that one though and like all requisite romantic comedies, you can’t help but cheer for them to just get together already!! And the best part? Emma Thompson and Mr. Darcy!

Forgetting Sarah Marshall Probably the goofiest of the three. I have the ending credits song stuck in my head right now, 3 days and counting. It’s Sinead O’Connor’s Nothing Compares 2 U sung in Hawaiian. Better than the original. The main character is shown eating cereal out of a large metal bowl several times throughout the movie. Just the sort of thing I dream of doing every day.

leafing through

a life