Weekly Haul (109)

My Christmas presents were mainly books, and I'm not mad about that lol. I can't believe 2018 is almost over! :o

The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui

Speak: The Graphic Novel by Laurie Halse Anderson & Emily Caroll

Emotions Explained with Buff Dudes by Andrew Tsyaston

Blue Exorcist vol. 11 by Kazue Kato

Blue Exorcist vol. 14 by Kazue Kato

Birthdays, Wedding Dress Shopping, Parties, Tattoos, Thanksgiving, Avoiding People and Problems, Dinner Dates, & Infinity Mirrors

Last month was pretty busy. I celebrated birthdays, went to New York with David, helped host Thanksgiving at our house, avoided my problems for most of the month, hungout with lots of friends, and went to Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors exhibit among other things.

November 1st was Archana's birthday, and she started the day off by giving donuts to everyone in our office that we knew. It's Indian custom to celebrate your birthday by giving to others, which is the complete opposite of American customs of receiving gifts for our birthday lol. But we still surprised Archana by having Sonali decorate her cube with a sign, Dom getting her a cupcake and present, and me getting her a bouquet.

Archana wanted to go to Swapna, this Indian restaurant nearby that Shelle said was really good, for lunch, so we went with a couple of coworkers. Shelle was coming back from a physical therapy appointment and ended up stopping by for lunch with us anyway lol. Archana was planning on paying for all of us as Indian custom, but her manager insisted on paying, which made her sad lol.

Since my birthday was that Sunday, everyone decided to celebrate my birthday the next day since it was Friday, so I got a cupcake and present, and my team went out to the Pho place nearby to celebrate Anita and my birthday since her birthday was on Halloween. It was a nice way to end the week.

The next day, some of the bridesmaids and family went wedding dress shopping with Emily. We only went to one store surprisingly before she made her decision. Lol, with the way her mom was acting about the whole day, no one was surprised when she started tearing up after Emily tried on her first dresses. In the end, she decided on the fifth or sixth dress she tried on. Meethu, who was running late, missed the whole thing lol. I called her after she texted that she was close by, and she literally yelled "What?!" after I told her that Emily found her dress. XD

Since we didn't have any other reason to go wedding dress shopping, we went out to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch where they told the waiter that it was my birthday. I got embarrassed as they sang to me lol.

Afterwards, we went to the mall since the Cheesecake Factory was connected to it anyway. Emily's mom wanted a head start on looking at dresses for her for the wedding. However, she kept on getting sidetracked and finding dresses for the bridesmaids instead since most of the dresses were catered towards younger women. But it was reasonable for us to be looking at bridesmaids dresses yet anyway since two of the bridesmaids were pregnant, and only half of us were there to try them on. In the end, it was a lot of wasted time in my opinion.

I originally thought that we'd finish early since Emily only went to one bridal store, but the whole mall trip took longer than expected, so I made it to Alec's housewarming/Thanksgiving party in Macon exactly on time instead of getting there early enough to take a nap like I had hoped. I mean, being sleep deprived that day is partially my fault because I couldn't sleep the night before until 4 AM, which sucked. I ended up napping on David for a bit after we ate and were playing Mario Party on the Nintendo Switch around midnight. But it was good to see everyone since it had been a while since I saw everyone.

The next day was my actual birthday, and I spent it with David and his siblings. We played the new multiplayer version of Stardew Valley and had burger night at his place. The funny thing is that I played Stardew Valley a year or two ago, and David made fun of me for it! But last month, his older sis got into it, who then got him into it, and then he wanted me to play with him as well since they had a new multiplayer option.

In the words of Michael Scott:

Because I didn't change my address after moving to Kennesaw, I was still registered to vote in Warner Robins, so my manager let me work from home on Monday so that I could go vote on Tuesday. As such, I hungout and got smoothies with Jessica for a bit before I worked out with Mikey, who killed me with his workout. I was still sore for four days afterwards. I was still sore in New York lol.

The next day, I worked a half day before going to vote after lunch. Then I drove back to Kennesaw and worked another full day. That night, David drove up because we were leaving for New York the next morning. I already wrote a post about our trip if you want to check it out. It was really fun and pretty. :)

The day we came back from New York was Veteran's day, which was when my siblings and I got our sibling tattoos. We have been talking about getting these tattoos for a few months, but it was put on the backburner for a while since we didn't see each other often enough to remember to plan on the designs and stuff.

We got this triangle tattoo made up of multiple triangles since there's three of us, and triangles are one of the strongest shapes. It wasn't a super complicated reason lol. That and because it was Brian and my first tattoo, so we didn't want anything too complicated.

It's funny because I have always said that I could never get a tattoo because I'm too indecisive to choose a design and would probably end up regretting it. I guess I was able to agree to this tattoo because Shelle had come up with the design, and I ended up liking it lol. Idk, I think I just wanted to see if I could handle the pain as well.

Turns out I handled the pain just fine. My body just almost went into shock afterwards, so I almost passed out, which was just lovely lol. Apparently my adrenaline was really high in anticipation of the tattoo, and since he finished really quickly in 15 minutes, the sudden drop in adrenaline made me lightheaded, sweat profusely, and see black spots like when I almost passed out from donating blood too quickly a few months ago. Luckily, I recognized those signs and sat down immediately after I realized that I was close to passing out. Smalls, our tattoo artist, gave me some candy and juice, and I felt fine after that.

So yeah, not sure if I want another tattoo or not lol.

Kyle, Shelle, and I hosted Thanksgiving at our house the Sunday before actual Thanksgiving for Kyle's side of the family. It was fun even though we spent all of Saturday cooking and preparing and cleaning. Then we got asked to host Christmas as well, which kind of sucks because I don't like hosting parties; I hate the cleanup afterwards.

I took the whole week of Thanksgiving off for vacation, so I spent the next day recovering from the party lol. I ended up getting super addicted to this Chinese drama called Love O2O, WHICH BASICALLY TOOK OVER MY WHOLE LIFE FOR THREE DAYS BECAUSE IT WAS SO CUTE AND GOOD LOL.

Then we went down to visit the parents for a few days for Thanksgiving. Mom cooked a feast as per usual, which was great. It was half American food and half Vietnamese food and everything that I wanted lol. We had some family over, and Brian also invited two of his friends. David already had plans with his family in Montezuma, so he didn't come.

We were also kind of still not talking to each other since our New York trip, so it was fine. I was

That night, we took our mom to the Riverside Mall since she wanted to go Black Friday shopping. We were in the upstairs, home furnishing section paying for our purchases when I saw someone I have been avoiding for the past few years because he's pushy and plays the "woe is me" card and tried to hit on me even after I told him that David and I were seeing each other.

Basically, I recognized him from behind while I was picking up the giant box full of pillows we just bought, froze, and immediately signaled to Shelle that we needed to go the other way. I quickly turned around and walked the long way to the escalator with my mom calling my nickname out in confusion. Then she called me by my full name, so I yelled out, "Don't call my name!" while Shelle was behind us laughing her ass out. It was a stressful five minutes lol. Luckily, we didn't run into him after all of that.

Since Shelle had some coupons for Victoria Secret, we went there next. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone and their mom also went there, so we spent 45 minutes in a line that snaked around half of the whole store.

Then we went home because we were hungry and hadn't had dinner yet lol.

The next day, we were cleaning out our rooms, because like I mentioned in my last Book Unhaul post, our mom told us that she was going to start throwing our stuff away if we don't do it soon so that we'll have less things to move when they move out next year.

We went home not long after since we made plans to get dinner with some of Shelles friends the next night. Joan has talked about Bonchon, which is a Korean fried chicken restaurant, for so long that we decided to eat dinner there with some friends. It was good, but I would have liked it if there was more sauce overall since some parts of the chicken weren't fully coated. Then again, I love having my chicken drowning in sauce lol.

Later that week, Shelle stayed late at work, therefore I stayed late at work, and then we got invited to dinner with some of her coworkers. This is because Melanie, her coworker and friend I met a couple of times, just got broken up and because there was a Christmas Tree lighting event nearby. We ate at this fancy restaurant called Paces and Vinings, which wasn't bad. I wasn't too hungry, so I got a small plate and a drink since everyone was drinking lol.

I also met Shelle's other coworker, Amanda, who is hilarious. She knows that she's a bitch and she owns it. She's fiercely protective of her friends and gives a lot of tough love and blunt advice. Lol, she reminds me of one of my own coworkers named Laura who is pretty similar.

The next night, my intern friends and I went to the High Museum to see Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors exhibit. We bought our tickets in September and have been excitedly waiting for it ever since. It was definitely worth the wait; everything was so cool and awesome. The only downside was the every installation had a 20-30 second limit inside each room, since the lines were so long. That meant that we barely had any time to look around and take good pics. Luckily, you could go to the installations multiple times, so we went back to the first two installations again to retake pictures.

The last installation was super fun because we were all given a sticker sheet and were allowed to put them anywhere inside the room, so we could stay in there as long as we want. It was really cool seeing how everyone used their stickers, trailing after each other and making them hang off of each other.

Whew! This post was a lot longer than I expected! November was a busy month!

Book Unhaul 17

When we went home for Thanksgiving, our mom said that she was going to start throwing out our stuff over the next couple of months, so we had better clean out our rooms soon if we wanted to keep anything from home. She had already thrown some stuff away from Shelle's closet, so we spent the last day at home frantically cleaning out our rooms lol.

I still have a lot of stuff in my room, so I definitely need to go back home and pack up more stuff, but I looked through my bookshelves again and found more books to sell or donate. Most of these books I haven't read yet, but I've read most of the ARCs.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Allegiant by Veronica Roth

Hourglass by Myra McEntire

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan

Follow the Blue by Brigid Lowry

Just One Wish by Janette Rallison

Girl Parts ARC by John M. Cusick

Trinkets ARC by Kirsten Smith

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

Your Lie in April vol.1 by Naoshi Arakawa

Books I Want to Read This Month

I managed to read two books off of this list last month. Let's see if I can do that again this month, since I took a week off for Christmas and New Years.

1. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? vol. 10 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
2. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon? vol. 11 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
3. Seraph of the End vol. 1 by Takaya Kagami & Yamato Yamamoto
4. Dengeki Daisy vol. 1 by Kyousuke Motomi
5. Kenka Bancho Otome vol. 1 by Chie Shimada
6. In Real Life by Cory Doctorow & Jen Wang
7. The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur
8. Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari
9. The Bingo Theory by Mimi Ikonn
10. On Love by Alain de Botton
11. The Witch Doesn't Burn in This One by Amanada Lovelace
12. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
13. The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic
14. The Consumption of Magic by T.J. Klune
15. Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan

November in Retrospect

I managed to read and reread a couple of books this month as well as become addicted to another Chinese drama lol. I basically didn't have a life for three days. XD

I read:

• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 7 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
• Kimiko and the Accidental Proposal by Forthright.
• A Sloth's Guide to Mindfulness by Ton Mak
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 8 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda
• Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? vol. 9 by Fujino Omori & Suzuhito Yasuda

I watched:

• Oceans 8 (2018)
• Skyscraper (2018)
• Love O2O (Drama 2016)
• Love O2O (Movie 2016)
• High Speed!: Free! Starting Days (2015)
• Free! Take Your Marks (2017)

Weekly Haul (108)

I absolutely loved The Tempest's cover, so I had to buy while I was in New York. I was so close to buying a bunch of books just for their covers while there lol.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare

New York Trip with the Bae

While initially drafting this post, I wanted to quickly jot down all of the events we experienced  in New York when I came back so I wouldn't forget everything. Looking at the post again, I decided to keep the bullet format to keep the post shorter since they don't need that much explanation.

Overall, this trip was a whirlwind. It started out stressful, was chill and peaceful in the middle, and then was stressful towards the end again lol.

THURSDAY

• Did not take into account 6AM traffic so we were late to airport
• Made it to our gate 5 minutes before boarding
• David put in the wrong hotel in the GPS, so we were walking to the wrong place
• Didn't look at my gift certificate and ordered way too much food at Kailash Parbat because we hadn't eaten since 6AM, and the menu was slightly confusing (the food was good, so not many regrets lol)
• Gift certificate didn't even work because we didn't order off of the regular menu :(
• Explored the New York Public Library and Bryant Park
• Checked into our hotel room (check-in was at 4PM even though we landed at 11AM)
• Took a (well deserved) nap
• Ate our leftovers and walked around Times Square
• Took some pics and watched a street performance where this guy jumped over a kid and then jumped over 5 adults and ended up hugging the last guy in line lol

FRIDAY

• The places we had gift certificates to weren't open until noon, so we got brunch at this Korean food court I found the last time I was in New York with my family
• Walked to Chelsea Market
• Tried goat milk ice cream with tahini toppings (so good!)
• Bought a book
• Walked The High Line and took lots of pics
• Walked to Keki Modern Cakes and bought one of their famous bouncy cheesecake (had to wait 10 minutes for one since they ran out; the place smelled so good!)
• Ate it back at the hotel and napped afterwards (amazingly delicious)
• Got soaked walking through the rain to the ramen shop we passed on the way back from Keki in Korea Town
• Spent the rest of the night reading my book because we were so wet from the rain and didn't want to explore anymore

SATURDAY

• Took the subway to Lavain Bakery for their famous cookies
• There was already a line outside, and we hadn't had breakfast yet, so we ate at the pizza place around the corner (it was so good!)
• Took the cookies to Central Park to eat and people watch
• Explored the park and took lots of pictures
• Took the subway to Chinatown for lunch
• Walked around and decided to eat at a place with tasty looking pictures at the front and because we overheard a group of millennials say that the place was great
• Stuffed ourselves with delicious authentic food (you know it's authentic when they play the authentic Chinese music lol)
• Walked around and got street food (those little waffle bubbles from childhood!)
• Got ice cream at The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, which is where Amanda took Shelle and me a few years ago (matcha oreo flavor is a great combination)
• Went back to the hotel to rest
• Walked to Abiko Curry for dinner (delicious but my curry noodles were so hot that I basically burned my tongue eating it lol)

SUNDAY

• Took an extra 20 minutes finding the right train and bus to the airport
• Arrived when we were supposed to start boarding our plane
• Made it 10 minutes before take off (I was so stressed the whole time lol)
• Went to get lunch at Pho Dai Loi after we landed
• GPS wasn't working for a bit when we left, so I got mad
• Finally arrived at home and rested until Shelle and Kyle came back home
• Chilled for the rest of the day since I didn't have work the next day since it was Veteran's Day

I hope you like this new format! I might use it in the future (if I remember lol).

Book Unhaul (16)

Some more books I'm planning on selling back to Second and Charles. I just keep on forgetting to bring them every time I go there lol.

Stormdancer by Jay Kristoff

Kinslayer by Jay Kristoff

Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty vol. 1 by Megumi Morino

Wake Up, Sleeping Beauty vol. 2 by Megumi Morino