Birthday gathering & potluck dinner

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The past two nights I spent the back around UCLA, eating at Chili’s and hanging out for a friend’s birthday and then gathering with Orientation staff for a potluck.

This seems to me to be a good time of year to have your birthday – school is just starting up again and everyone is coming back refreshed from break.  They’re just getting back into the groove and haven’t quite accumulated enough work to be too busy for you.  My birthday has always been over winter break, sandwiched between Christmas and New Year’s, which can be nice because I never go to school on my birthday, but it’s also difficult to celebrate sometimes since everyone’s got their own holiday plans.

The potluck was great because, as the host kept marveling, people actually made food!  Now isn’t that nice?  Ah, we are a talented bunch.  It was so nice to see those people again and be reminded of the fantastic summer we shared.  🙂  Originally Panda wasn’t going to come, but with some coaxing/guilt-tripping, he showed up and had a fabulous time too.  With Orientation Counselors, you just can’t go wrong!

On-screen keyboard

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So today I spent an exorbitant amount of time downstairs chatting with my mom and after a happy time I retreated back to my room with a hot cup of water.  Little did I know how much trouble that would cause.  -___-  As you may be able to guess, I consequently spilled said water and created quite the disaster for myself.  Now I am stuck using the on-screen keyboard, which is a painstakingly slow and arduous task.  I spent ages blasting the keys with those keyboard cleaners after letting what I could drip out first.  Then I dug out the one hairdryer that my family has owned and tried to save the keys that weren’t working.  Instead I managed to ruin more keys.  🙁

At first it was just 1 2 3 4 and 7 8 9 0 that weren’t working.  Now q w e r u i o p, the right shift key, and the arrow keys don’t work either.  Strangely, when I use the broken shift key with qwer I get 1234 and for uiop I get 7890.  Hmm.  So after all these desperate attempts, I was, of course, very sad and it just didn’t help when my boyfriend decided he needed to lecture me on being more cautious.  Now here I am, keyboardless and with noone to talk to.  :'(  Sad times.

Back to school… NOT

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Today, all across the nation (and likely, the world), students are returning to the classroom.  And I?  I sent my dad off at the airport with my mom this morning and returned home to scan some documents.  Just another day, just another chore.  Now, for the first time in my life, I’mnot going back to school.  It’s a strange sort of feeling to hear about all those who are going back to the old routine.  After 16 years of that, what else am I to expect?  Classes, breaks, homework, midterms, finals… it was all so familiar and now I’m in a whole new dimension, dealing with job searches, applications, cover letters, interviews, networking…  sigh.  It’s time to move on with my life, whether I’m ready to or not.

My parents and Panda have been on my case to apply for jobs, send out my resume, get something going.  I know they’re right, but at the same time… it’s so hard to find the motivation to because I have such a specific image of what I want!  Anything less is just not good enough and I’m afraid I’m being too picky.  I’m sure there are a lot of options that I can settle for, but that’s the problem: I don’t want to settle.  I want to find a job I’m passionate about, something I’ll look forward to doing every morning.  Something I can do for the couple of years that I’d need to before business school.

Well, I guess I just need to hop on it, do my research and see what’s out there.

Cross Stitch Project

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I have finally managed to finish a cross stitch that I began working on back in high school.  So, 5 or 6 years later, it’s finally completed.


Here’s to good fortune in the New Year.  🙂

Now I just need to find a frame for it so I can preserve it forever.  I opened up the next one to start on, but after looking through it… got a little overwhelmed.  It’s going to take another couple of years before I finish that one, most likely.  Since I’m feeling good about getting this one done, I don’t want to begin another to leave for a few years.  That would downplay the accomplishment of this one, so I think I’ll move on to some other thing before I return to cross-stitching again.  Uh oh, I just noticed a mistake I made that I’m going to need to fix… dang it.

[edit]  Ok, all fixed!

Rose Parade Floats

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This morning I was rudely awoken at 9 with my mother asking me if I was going to go.

“Go where?” I mumbled, squinting through sleepy eyes.
“To see the Rose Parade floats!” my mom exclaimed as if I wasn’t paying attention.  (What she doesn’t know is that her first sentence or two woke me up and I never actually “heard” them.
“Ugggh.” I grunted and closed my eyes, huddling under the blankets more.

With a swift tug, she pulled the blanket off and held out her hand.

“Come on,” she gestured for me to get up.

Sure that I should go, I still hadn’t decided if it was worth the lack of sleep and suffering to get dressed in the cold air.  Soon she got tired of waiting for me and went back downstairs to continue without me.  I eventually resolved to get up and drag myself downstairs, shivering.  We piled into the car and headed off, with my mom happily sharing some of the dark chocolate-covered cherries she’d bought and informing my dad that the way he was driving to get on the highway is not the most efficient way to get there.  Meanwhile, my dad went forth as he pleased, changing the radio station sporadically until he settled on a Spanish channel called QueBuena!  o.O  Of all the stations… he had to choose the one we wouldn’t understand?  Haha, I don’t get it.  But I can see how the other songs are a little grating to the ears if you aren’t used to it.  Along the way, I texted Panda because he lives in that area, so going that way reminded me of him.  🙂

So we got to Pasadena City College, parked the car, and got our tickets before boarding a shuttle to the site.  It was a bit of a gloomy day, but that turned out to be nice since we didn’t have to sweat it out in the sun and the flowers probably withered a little less.  I volunteered to decorate the floats a few years ago, so I kind of already knew how it worked, but it’s always cool to see so many nice flowers.  Strangely, I wasn’t in a picture-taking mood, so I just enjoyed looking at the floats as my dad ran around snapping shots.  About halfway through his camera died, so he moved on to my mom’s, lol.

One of the few pictures I did take with my camera, of my parents.

One of the few pictures I did take with my camera, of my parents.

We were walking for a good two, two and a half hours before getting back to the car and navigating our way to a dim sum place on Garfield and Valley.  Our family friends also have their office there and we just happened to run into the husband coming back from a lunch break as we left from our own lunch.  We went upstairs, where my parents caught up with him and I wished I could be spending time with Panda.  It was a nice day out with my parents though – we don’t get to go that often and my dad is going back to China in two days.

Reunion

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It’s not very often I get to meet up with my best friends.  In fact, we get around to it about once a year.  Tonight we finally managed to get together for a dinner (and dragged Gimp, Katana’s ex’s best friend, out with us).  Ah good times as we fell back into the old routine: the three deadly Asians threatening the attention-loving ginger.  See, back in high school, Katana, Elle, and I were quite the force to reckoned with.  It’s quite dangerous to spend time with the three of us if you’re a sensitive soul.  So, of course, we abuse those who can take it.  And Gimpy’s a big boy who can take a bit of a beating.


Elle and I shared a meal called the Love Boat.  Lovely, isn’t it?  😉

It was a fabulous time as we stole from each other’s plates, argued about who was going to pay (we volunteered Gimp), and stuffed ourselves full of Japanese food from Kabuki.  The Love Boat that Elle and I shared had an assortment of choices ranging from California rolls to shrimp and vegetable tempura and it came in that HUGE wooden boat pictured above.  I think it’s the best thing I’ve ever ordered.  It was also nice to get out and enjoy the company of old friends since I’ve mostly been staying at home since I finished up at UCLA last month.  Now Katana’s back to Kansas, Elle’s returning to UCLA, and Gimp is off to his job in Texas.  Meanwhile, I’m at home looking for a job and trying to convince my parents that this business venture in Singapore is worth a shot…

Fresh outlook

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Well, with a new year, I thought I’d start something new.  Recently I’ve been inspired by my best friend “Katana” to do more blogging.  Since she moved out to Kansas I haven’t gotten to see her much, so reading her blogs are a great way to stay in touch (and entertained!).  She’s made a career out of life in the blogosphere and while my hopes are not exactly along those lines, I’d also like to write more like she does.  Granted, I still have my personal handwritten journal to take care of (and that I’ve neglected for a long time), but there’s nothing quite like blogging to capture the small things in life.  I find it’s a great place to explore my thoughts in a more immediate way.

Though I kept another LiveJournal a few years back, I think it’s time to use a different domain for this new chapter in my life.  Maybe I can track my progress as a recent graduate, looking for a job and figuring out where to lead my life.  I know where I think my life is going to go is going to change a lot before it settles anywhere and I’m ready to explore what there is out there for me to do.  I can also follow the development of my relationship (the first!) and how my hopes and expectations evolve over time.

Ok, so… where am I in my life?  I just graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology and Economics.  I’m looking for jobs nearby (preferably in Westwood, otherwise in Los Angeles somewhere) in marketing or administrative work.  I want to work for two or three years before going to business school for my MBA.  After that I’d like to get into upper level management, get the experience to see what it takes to run a company before branching off and getting into entrepreneurial work.  The first thing I want to do at that point is start an environmental consulting firm focused on conservation and recycling.  I’ve also toyed with the idea of a vocational school for athletes and a craft/party store complete with classes.  But that will be on the back burner for many more years to come.

Well, at least that was my 10-20 year plan.  More recently I’ve been considering an opportunity to start up a branch of a Singaporean company (Caelan & Sage) here in California with my Singaporean “twin” – let’s call her Marylin.  However, there’s a lot of research, preparation, and information I need to look into before I go forth with this.  It would be lovely to get a head start on my dreams of entrepreneurial success though.  I have high hopes and dreams, though I’m trying to stay grounded and be practical about this.  However, I am fresh out of uni and ready to conquer the world!  Ultimately I just want to learn and grow, then take that to inspire and motivate people, as well as create happy work environments.

As for my personal life, it’s the first time in my life that I am happily seeing someone.  I’ll refer to him as Panda.  He is an amazing person and I’m really lucky to have met him.  I’m still grappling with this concept: someone likes me and is good to me?!  I’ve made some poor decisions in the past, leading to some unfortunate experiences, which makes me appreciate this all the more.  My other best friend, “Elle,” bluntly showed her shock when she heard I’d found someone who treated me well.  She’s happy for me, of course, but she’s seen me go through some less than savory characters and never really get into a relationship.  I’ve also been known to run from any guy who shows interest in me, so she’s glad that I still like this one!

The world has a lot to offer and I have my fair share to contribute.  Onward!

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