Merry Christmas! :D

I hope everyone had a great Christmas, because I sure did!

The party was pretty hilarious yesterday, lol. Shena was acting tipsy before she even started drinking, and Kyle and Shelle made me open one of my Christmas presents from them early so that we could use it during the party. Turns out that they got me The Bigger Blacker Box; first three expansion packs, the World Wide Web pack, the Food Pack, the Fantasy Pack, and the Design Pack. I had only asked the Design Pack, because the cards are actually illustrated, so I wasn't expecting to get so many other Cards Against Humanity stuff. 

Then again, Shelle and Kyle really did go all out this year on presents, lol. Inside that present that I opened was a lot of other presents as well. They got me both the first edition of Exploding Kittens (the box meows every time you open it! :D) and the NSFW one as well! I told everyone to get me black socks since it seemed like I kept on losing a sock every time I did the laundry, so they got me 10 pairs of socks, one of which had a yeti pattern on it! :D They got me a cool Funko Pop! shirt of Loki, a Pandora bracelet and charm, and two books as well. Lol, all of that was in one big box! For my other present, they got me the new illustrated version of the first Harry Potter book, which I've been wanting to buy but couldn't since it was soldout on Amazon as soon as it came out. The art is just amazing. I love it!

And I guess David figured I'd need even more socks, because he also gave me a bunch of crazily designed socks for Christmas as well, lol. He also got me some bath bombs and bubble bars from Lush, because he remembered how interested I was in buying some a couple months ago but then totally forgot about. -__-" I got some super soft sweatpants from him, too, which I can't wait to try on after I wash them, since they smell too strong from being inside the same container as the bath bombs, lol.

But yeah, the party was really entertaining since all of the people around our age gathered in Shelle's room and played Cards Against Humanity and Exploding Kittens. Then, because it was becoming late, we went to David's house to give him and his family our presents since Steph and Christian weren't going to be home the next day. Alec, Shena, Phil, and his friend Dean wanted to come along as well, so I felt like it was kind of awkward for them to watch us all open presents for each other. But, we did play a round of Exploding Kittens there afterwards before we had to go home since the parentals wanted to open the presents together.

So we went home around 12:30 where the party was already over and where they were already done cleaning up and opened presents. Lol, Mom was so excited to set up the Keurig we bought her and learn how to use it. She even made a cup of coffee but decided not to drink it since she was already tired. Dad was pretty happy with the security system that we got him as well. 

Then, David came by earlier this morning because I accidentally forgot to bring his presents last night since it was interspersed with Kyle, Shelle, and Brian's presents. Shelle and Kyle had to leave not long afterwards, so we pretty much spent the day chilling. We finished watching Ouran High School Host club (lol, I pretty much persuaded David into watching it since I love it so much), napped, ate, and marathoned the first half of The Seven Deadly Sins. 

All-in-all, it was a good Christmas. :)

Double dates, rock climbing, Star Wars, Christmas parties, and Fancy Schmancies

A lot's been happening in these past few weeks! I feel like I've barely been home since this break started, lol. 

Last week, David and I went on a double date with Shena and Alec where we did a little Christmas shopping at Riverside and ate at a Mexican restaurant nearby. It was pretty fun, since they came over to my house first, and Alec and I started a mini Nerf war for the first few minutes. Then we went to the mall and bought some presents before eating lunch. It was really funny because while we were trying to figure out if one of the waiters was an engineering student we knew, our waiter was a TCO student I knew. XD

Then, on Thursday, David and I went up to Kennesaw to hangout with Shelle and Kyle for the rest of the weekend. We met up with Michelle for lunch at Tin Drum to get her keys, and then went to their apartment and chilled and slept until Kyle came home first, lol. 

The next day was pretty busy since Kyle took the day off. We went rock climbing, which was fun but difficult. We mainly did the auto belays since we didn't have training for any of the other ones. They had a gym upstairs, so we spent some time there working out. The gym mainly had equipment for working on your upper body, which makes sense since we're in a rock climbing facility, but man, I have no upper body strength, lol. Then we got smoothies afterwards.

Because Shelle had a Groupon coupon for this sushi place that was about to expire soon, we ate at Sushi Yu, which was really good. We got fried ice cream for dessert, which was equally delicious because it was green tea and vanilla flavored. 

Then, we went to go watch Star Wars, which had already sold out by that day. Luckily, Kyle had preordered tickets ahead of time, so we were fine. But man, there were so many people already lined up to get good seats. Unfortunately for us, we got there 30 minutes before the movie started, so there weren't many good spots available; David and I sat in the front area, which wasn't too bad since we sat on the last row. But yeah, the movie was great! I really liked it! There was a lot more humor than I expected, and the fight scenes were awesome!

The next day, I had a weird stomach problem that made me nauseous and need to poop for the longest time, but I recovered by that night when we went to Kyle's dad's Christmas party. Man, there was so much good food there, lol. So much cheese dips and cheese foods, that I was in heaven, lol. :D

The white elephant event was hilarious as well, because almost everyone brought bathroom related items. XD I stole this awesome Minion Fart Blaster that David, Kyle, and I saw at Wal-Mart from someone else who stole it from David, so the Fart Blaster went full circle, lol. And David was a boob who didn't even realize that he picked Shelle and Kyle's gift, so he got perfume and body lotion, the dork. Shelle got this hilarious bathroom book that people write in while they're on the toilet, and Kyle got this huge flask, lol.

The next day, we went to Kyle's mom's Christmas party, which also had a lot of cheese foods to eat among lots of meat, lol. Instead of calling it white elephant, they called it Yankee swap, and it was even more entertaining. I originally got a bag with an electric toilet paper roll, toilet paper, and a tomahawk, but it got stolen, so I ended up with a bag full of plastic animals, lol. David got a mug in the shape of a toilet. XD Kyle stole his mom's lightsaber, and Michelle got some Nerf guns and ammo to go with it. It was pretty funny watching everyone unveil everything while listening to the dogs, who were locked in one of their rooms, continue to whine throughout the night. After the party, we went to Wal-Mart to get some stuff, and Kyle almost got ran over by one of his aunts, whom he didn't recognize, lol. Lmao, Kyle was pretty much traumatized by his family for the rest of the night because of all of the Christmas presents.

We just chilled for the rest of the night since Kyle and Shelle had to go to work the next day. David and I left in the morning when Shelle left, so we got back to David's house around 9:30 and proceeded to nap until 12-ish. XD

Then, that night, my friends and I had our annual Fancy Schmancy get together, and realized that we're about to hit adulthood. Jackie's already graduated and is looking into moving to Atlanta soon, Emily's graduating grad school in May, and Shanice and I are graduating undergrad this spring even though I'll still have a year of grad school left. And Meethu is trying to graduate in another year, lol. So this could very well be our last Fancy Schmancy since more than half of the group will be working next year and will not have long breaks like how we do in school. That, or we could potentially have our next Fancy Schmancy in Atlanta since most of us will be there this summer, lol. But it was good to see everyone, since I rarely get to see anyone lately. Hopefully we'll be able to hangout more this next semester. 

So yeah, it's been pretty eventful since school ended. We're throwing a Christmas party on Thursday since our cousins from California are near this year, Jessica and I are gonna hangout sometime next week, and I will hopefully be visiting Krista before the new year, so I'm still gonna be pretty busy. In between all of that, I'm also still trying to clean my room and get rid of unnecessary stuff that I don't need anymore. -__-"

The semester is finally over! \o/

I don't think I've ever been so happy for classes to end as I was yesterday morning. This semester has been rough. I've written so many papers (pretty much at least one paper a week), had to deal with such a bullshit professor and had to do so much reading for classes that I never caught a break. D:

I guess I should have expected to have a hard course load since I was taking 18 hours, 6 of which were grad classes. :\ Guess what. I have the same exact schedule next semester... -__-"

But yeah, finals week was rough. I had a paper due on Monday, Tuesday, and Saturday along with actual tests on Friday night and Saturday morning. I also pulled an all-nighter studying and writing my last paper for my Saturday morning final. Such a bad life choice. I've realized that I'm too old to be pulling all-nighters anymore. I was in a loopy haze for half of the day after I took naps, lol. Luckily, my art finals were just presentations of our final projects. 

Now, I've been slowly cleaning up my room, which had steadily became filled with junk these past few weeks because of finals, and enjoying the stress-free feelings of euphoria that comes from not having deadlines coming up. XD

I got to see Krista and her bf yesterday, too! I'm pretty sure we haven't seen each other for the past two years since she moved to Columbus, so it was really nice to see her and know that we were still good. We had talked the night before while she was driving down to see her bf, and she explained why she kind of distanced herself lately.

I usually invite her to hangout with my group of high school friends whenever we have free time, and she usually turned down the offer, and she said it was because she kind of felt uncomfortable with everyone else since she felt like she didn't belong with the group, since she went to a different high school than us and was in a different economic class than the rest of us and some other stuff. I did not know that she felt that way, so it was nice to talk it out and realize that even though we've barely talked to each other in the past two years, we still get each other and are each others' best friends. 

I've long realized that I am terrible at maintaining long-distance relationships, friendships especially, so I hardly talk to my close friends that don't go to school with me. But I feel like a lot my best friendships are the ones that I don't see often, because even though we don't see or talk to each other every day, when we do get together, it feels like we've just seen each other the other day. It's not awkward; it's familiar and fun. 

However, I won't lie, because there are times when I doubt our friendships, because we haven't hung out in a while. But I don't really dwell on it, because I'm always proven that I had nothing to worry about the next time I see them. :P

Weekly Haul (86)

Like I've been doing lately, I realized that I haven't done a Weekly Haul in quite a while. A year. It's been over a year. D: This was mainly because my camera broke, then my phone started acting up, and then I became so busy that I didn't have time to read let alone buy books besides the occasional one or two whenever I went to the bookstore.

I've decided to make two hauls. For this haul, I'm going to talk about the books that I've bought in the last year since those have accumulated. I've recently bought a lot of books because of Black Friday, so I'm going to do another haul for that later this month.

Now onto some books that still have yet to read! -__-" (If you can't tell, I'm trying to get back to the reading mood.)

Received earlier this year:

Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid

The Diviners by Libba Bray (signed)

Liar of Dreams by Libba Bray (ARC)

Guardians of the Dead by Karen Healey

Hello, Goodbye, & Everything in Between ARC by Jennifer E. Smith

Novl Tote Bag

Music CD and letter by Libba Bray

In August, I won the NOVL's monthly subscription box, NOVLbox, that was curated by Libba Bray, so I got a lot of cool stuff in the box like a signed copy of The Diviners, the ARC of Liar of Dreams, a copy of Guardians of the Dead, a shirt (not pictured because it's in the wash), some nail polish (not pictured because I can't find it), and Swedish Fish (not pictured cuz I ate it, lol). There were a couple of other things as well, but I couldn't find them.

Bought earlier this year:

Orchards by Holly Thompson

Forsaken by Lisa M. Stasse

The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken

Never Fade by Alexandra Bracken

Rot & Ruin by Johnathan Maberry

Code by Kathy Reichs

The Young Elites by Marie Lu

UnSouled by Neal Shusterman

Vortex by S.J. Kincaid

For the Win by Cory Doctorow (signed)

Homeland by Cory Doctorow

UnDivided by Neal Shusterman

Everbound by Brodi Ashton

Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff

Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld

Talon by Julie Kagawa

The Witch Hunter by Virginia Boecker (ARC)

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Not pictured (because my boyfriend has it):

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Cover Lover 43

I recently realized that I haven't done a Cover Lover post since last year! D: It's crazy how busy this year was and how much I've been forgetting to include in my blogs. I've for sure stopped blogging as much this year, which makes me sad. :( I'll try to do better next year.

Books I Want to Read This Month

Winter Break officially starts next week, once I finish my Saturday morning final! That means that I will have plenty of time to relax and read something! :D

1. Homeland by Cory Doctorow
2. Never Fade by Alexandria Bracken
3. Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi
4. Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga
5. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
6. Confessions of a Murder Suspect by James Patterson & Maxine Paetro
7. Awkward by Svetlana Chmakova
8. Perfect Scoundrels by Ally Carter
9. The Geography of Me and You by Jennifer E. Smith
10. Insignia by S.J. Kincaid
11. The Girl of Fire and Thornes by Rae Carson
12. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson
13. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
14. Nevermore by James Patterson
15. Divergent by Veronica Roth

November in Retrospect

This month was pretty busy. So many amazing movies came out this month, but I still haven't had a chance to watch any! :( Also, movie theaters, why you so expensive?! However, I did watch some amazing stuff. XD

I watched:

• Kuroko no Basuke Season 3 (2015)
• Jessica Jones (2015)