on putting my face on

I was inspired by Tiffany's blog posts in Will Work For Makeup. And it just so happened that I actually spent the time today to put on make-up and thought I'd mimic her blog and show you my Face-Of-The-Day. Now I am not nearly as talented as she is with make-up application. Plus I don't own nice make-up/a lot of it but this is my attempt :-)

Face

Cover Girl- Liquid Powder in buff beige

Clinique- Blush Wear Cream Stick in rosy blush

Eyes

Origins- Underwear For Lids

Almay- Intense I-Color in black pearl

Maybelline- Define-A-Lash in very black

Maybelline- Twilight Rays shadow pallet

So thanks again to Tiffany for inspiring this post, who knows, maybe I'll even end up doing another one at some point. In other news, my mom and sister are currently on their way to San Diego right now. They should be here shortly and then we're off to Ikea for some wonderful shopping. Similar to my love of Michaels, as mentioned before, I also love Ikea. Basically I want to have a house/condo/apartment that is ours so I can actually do some real decorating. It's so hard to decorate a place that you're renting. Hopefully this will change soon. We're going to dinner in Hillcrest tonight, Birch Aquarium and wetsuit shopping tomorrow, then it's off to Littleton for a much needed change in scenery. I'll try to post pictures/stories soon.

on crafts to cleaning

I have had an interesting few days lately. I've gone from one extreme to the other in terms of my mood in just a matter of the weekend. Isn't it funny how things can change so quickly, just like the weather in good old Littleton. (You might not understand that metaphor if you're not from the 303, but believe me, the weather is bipolar sometimes.) Most importantly though it's made me realize a few things about my life, things that I take for granted and should really cherish more.

1. Feeling in a crafty mood the other day, I decided to make a trip to Michael's. I miss making things from scratch, adding your own touch to something fun and the feeling you get when you see something you've made as compared to something you bought. While I have no real "handy-man" skills I'd like to think that I'm capable of putting in the effort to make something or even creative enough to make something pretty. So I wandered around trying to limit the things that I bought because really, I could buy everything in that store. I saw the new floral-stems out for spring and knew instantly I wanted to make something with them. Even though it's been warm here for a while now, seeing those flowers made it really seem like spring. The lack of seasons is part of why I love Southern California but it makes the transition from winter to spring much less noticeable. So I decided to make a center piece for our table that would bring the feeling of spring into our apartment. I didn't realize how good it would make me feel to have this new creation. I think its pretty cute if I do say so myself and it was cheap which is a plus.

Flower pot= $1.29

Spring floral-stems= 2/$3

Ribbon= $1

Floral tape= $2.29

Easter Grass= $1

Bic pens= Free

Total= less than $10

It's sorta hard to tell but the stems of the flowers have pens on them. Yes I know, they're just like the ones that you see at doctor's offices but I like them. Plus it makes our new center piece functional as well as visually-appealing. I used pens we had around our apartment already so this addition didn't make the project any more expensive. And another plus is that I have more of everything to either make more or to buy different flowers for the summer/fall/whenever I want to change the decor. I also found a set of two 16x20in. canvases on sale while at Michael's. I've been saying that I wanted to paint a canvas for a long time now I just never wanted to spend the money to do it. So when I saw the sale I had to buy them. I have not bought any paint as of right now because I'm still trying to decide what I want them to look like but I will have more details about this project to come.

2. This weekend has made me realize a lot about my relationship with Jeff, all of it good. In the past I've found myself comparing our relationship to others around us. And I've been guilty in the past of stirring up a fight based on some sort of jealousy I had towards the others. I've been known to say "why can't you be more like insert name here and do the things he does?" or "I wish our relationship was more like so and so's." But something about this weekend made me realize that I was acting so childish when I would start those fights and get upset about those things. Because the truth is, no two relationships will ever be the same and it's honestly stupid for me to want my relationship to be another's. I'm with Jeff for a reason and it's him and his traits that make me happy, not someone else's. We fit each other like a glove and I should never want him to act differently than himself, just as he never wants me to be anyone but myself. No matter what he might do or what he might say, we're in this for the long haul and I take comfort in the security of our relationship. I can act stupid and throw a fit about something I shouldn't but I know he will always be by my side. I cherish the fact that we can fight but that in the end we will be together.

"When you get home, she'll start to cry.

When she says 'I'm sorry' say 'So am I'

And look into those eyes so deep in love,

And drink it up.

'Cause that's the good stuff."

~Kenny Chesney- The Good Stuff

♥ ♥ ♥

3. After a pair of my sandals accidently got broken last week I've been meaning to get a new pair to replace them. I have a weird obsession with sandals and really, shoes in general because I believe certain outfits/occasions need specific shoes. As soon as my old pair broke the thought "what shoes will I wear in this situation now" popped into my head so it was just a matter of time before I bought new ones. And I did, just yesterday. Now I should add a disclaimer at this point because what I've been saying makes it seem like I spend way too much money on a pair of shoes I'll wear only a couple of times... my new shoes are from Target, as were the pair that got broken. I am in no way a girl that rushes to the Steve Madden store to spend $80 on a pair of summer shoes when I have other sandals at home. I buy new things but always try to spend as little money as possible. With this said, I love my new purchase.

I must say, the pedicure I gave myself the other day looks wonderful with my new shoes ;-)

These sandals are different from anything else that I own which is part of the reason I knew I needed them. I wasn't simply buying another pair of black flip-flops that were identical to ones I already owned. I think they make a wonderful addition to my wardrobe.

4. I spent today doing laundry, cleaning our apartment, and studying. Sounds like a horrible day right? But I've actually enjoyed every moment of today. Sometimes I get in the mood to play house-wife for the day and there's something about cleaning a messy apartment that is extremely rewarding. When the bedroom is cluttered with dirty laundry and a few hours later everything is folded and hung up the room seems brighter. I even treated myself to washing the sheets on our bed which is something we don't do every week. But I must say that I love crawling into bed on fresh sheets. I think I like cleaning because it has an obvious ending. You can see the stains on the counter from pasta sauce and coffee disappear, you can see the faucets become shiny again. Basically, today has been a great day and I plan to finish it off by making a delicious dinner of tortallini for Jeff when he comes home from golf.

on being able to relax

Spring break could not have come sooner. I thought this semester was going to be my easiest one yet but I still find myself stressing out.

Stressing out about MCAT studying.

Stressing out about committee.

Stressing out about lab reports.

Stressing out about interviews.

Stressing out about exams.

Stressing out about presentations.

I guess what gets me the most is that I anticipated it being different. I anticipated having more down time and more time to relax. But that's exactly the reason I'm glad its spring break... finally. While I wish that I had the life where I could go on vacation and sit on the beach for the whole break, I'm most excited to have some time to relax. Its been so nice and so needed to be able to do absolutely today. I spent the day in sweats, watching Say Yes To The Dress and Keeping Up With The Kardashians while painting my nails and eating left-over pizza from dinner. (Yes I'm guilty of enjoying these shows.) And the best part of today is that I don't feel bad about any of it.

I don't have the creeping voice in my head saying I need to get things done. It's not telling me that there's laundry to do or that we don't have anything for dinner or that I need to be productive. While the rest of my break is going to be spent studying for my MCAT and spending time with my family, I have taken full advantage of a day for myself. Maybe I'll decide to shower and get dressed at some point but if I don't, there's always tomorrow. Maybe I'll manage to find something to make for dinner but if I don't, I'll eat a bowl of cereal. Maybe I can find something to be productive doing or maybe I'll read some of the book I'm in the middle of. Maybe, maybe not. And I'm completely okay with that.

+On a side note, I am very excited for my mom and sister to come to SD for a few days. It will be really great to have them in town. And I am also very excited to go home for a few days. I miss my house in Littleton and my family and plan to mix in a few fun excursions amidst my studying.

on my caffein addiction

So I've been trying to cut back on the amount of caffein and more specifically coffee that I have lately because I think it's starting to have negative effects on me. For a long time, back when I didn't drink coffee as often, I always had to eat something with it. It's almost as if it would be too acidic on my stomach and too strong. I'd end up with a stomach ache and feeling really jittery. Neither of those things happen to me anymore which was my first sign that I was becoming too used to it.

Then I started getting headaches from not having coffee. I'd sleep in and know that I didn't need the coffee to wake me up. But I'd always end up with a headache. I knew they weren't just normal headaches either because I'd make myself drink more water thinking "oh maybe I'm just dehydrated" and I even resorted to taking a couple Tylenol (something I normally don't do) but the headaches would not go away. The only thing that would make these headaches go away was to either take a nap or drink coffee. I honestly felt like a crack addict some days. I was getting the headaches because my body was so used to the caffein and wasn't getting it anymore. And that's when I decided to stop drinking it as much.

But here's the biggest problem I have with my new change; I love coffee. For me, drinking coffee in the mornings is always more because I enjoy drinking it than because I needed it to wake myself up. I love making it myself instead of buying it from Starbucks because it's much more custom that way. I love the taste and the warmth and the smell. I love the idea of waking up every morning, sitting at the table, drinking coffee and eating a bowl of cereal. I love it because it's sort of like my little routine, my little daily tradition. And I think all of these reasons contribute to the fact that my body was becoming addicted to it. I wasn't just drinking it when I needed it to get through the morning but rather I was drinking it because I wanted to.

I told myself that I was only going to drink coffee on days I woke up to an alarm. Simple enough I think. On the days that I don't use my alarm it means I'm waking up when my body is ready to be awake and has gotten enough energy for the day. Now, just to clarify, I'm not going to set an alarm at 10:00 am just to say "I used my alarm today." This way the only effect I'll feel from the lack of daily caffein is tiredness and that is much more normal and healthy then my body being addicted.

I believe humans get a lot done, not because we're smart, but because we have thumbs so we can make coffee.

~Flash Rosenberg

on a somewhat normal day

I haven't been writing as much in the last few days as I was previously and as I want to be. Partly because nothing's been going on that deserves writing about. No one wants to hear about going to the same-old classes, reading an article on cystic kidney disease for my presentation, eating dinner and spending the rest of the night watching reruns of Family Guy episodes on Cartoon Network till bed. But also partly because my mind's been somewhere else lately. Well I guess more specifically my mind's been nowhere. I haven't really been motivated for deep thinking and reflecting and learning the last couple days and its shown in my lack of blogging and studying unfortunately. But with all that said....

1. I think I might be too much of a perfectionist because it absolutely kills me when something goes wrong. Even things that aren't a big deal. I've been known to rewrite a to-do list simply because it's not evenly spaced on my sticky note. It's even worse when it comes to things related to school and labs. Last night was a downer in terms of experiments in biochem lab going wrong. Not only did our plates grow bio-films (for those of you non-science people out there, bio-films= definite bad news) but then our DNA experiment didn't work either. And to top it all off, the DNA didn't work because of a stupid calculation error. We got a major stink-eye from our professor for messing up I might add. Yes I know, being a perfectionist isn't the worst characteristic a person can have but by-golly sometimes I wish I didn't care so much.

2. Politics and me have never mixed and for most of my life it will probably stay that way. I've always avoided heated "political discussions" which is just code for arguing with someone because they don't think like you while trying to convert them to the "better side" (whichever side that might be). But this whole heath care bill and more specifically people's reactions to it has really made me not happy. While I admit that I don't know every single detail about every single aspect of this bill, I've looked into it enough to get the gist of it and it shocks me how some people can be against allowing people health care. Seriously people, you want to tell others they don't deserve health care because of money/health problems/our current economy? I don't want to get into the meat and potatoes of the issue right now because that's not who I am but, like I've heard many times in the news lately from the bill's supporters, "Health care is a right, not a privilege." Everyone is human and deserves care when they are sick regardless of what that does to our economy/taxes/etc.

3. In studying for my MCAT, I have completed my Exam Krackers Biology and Physics books as of now. That's 2 out of the 4. I am currently in the midst of reading through the Organic Chemistry book and *knock on wood* plan to have it finished by tomorrow night. My side/secret goal is to have it done today but I'll set the goal for tomorrow so that I don't let myself down if it's not done tonight and so I can feel good about myself if it is done tonight. Aren't I good at making myself seem successful in my own eyes? But really, I'm feeling okay-ish as of right now in terms of studying. I plan to spend my entire spring break devoted to this and I really feel like that's going to make me feel significantly better. It is officially 31 days from today until the big day. I know I'll be ready when the day comes, just not sooo sure of it right now....

4. I found this quote the other day and feel like I can really relate to its message. It makes me realize why I work as hard as I do for my dreams.

Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.

If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.

- Herman Cain