Posts Tagged ‘on my mind’

On My Mind, episode 12: winning

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It’s the first day of my last two weeks on the job and I’m not yet ready for the change, though I’m looking forward to it. I’ve been on a streak of good fortune, which has been nice.

It started when I got an email about potential roommates. I had wanted to split a 3-bedroom to save on costs, but wasn’t sure how to begin. I’d looked at some apartments and that was it. As luck would have it, one of the girls I met at admit weekend reached out to me – she and another girl had secured an apartment and needed a third roommate. The place is in DTLA just like I wanted and it looks fabulous. It’s a quick and easy drive down to campus. The rent cost is less then the $1400 max I was hoping for.

So there I was, with an opportunity in my lap. The other girl happens to live in DC, so we were able to meet up after work last Tuesday to chat and make sure we were a good fit. I’m pleased to say that everything went well and we’re going ahead with getting me added to the lease! How easy was that?

Then last week we had an internal testing event to try out the new app we’ll be rolling out. For our participation, we were entered in a drawing for one of three $150 Amazon gift cards. I was the very last name drawn, how exciting!! What a nice parting gift to get. 🙂

As if that wasn’t all good enough, I noticed a message in my Instagram account. I don’t check often, but it happened to catch my eye. I had won a contest for a free Lilee box, courtesy of Beauty Box 5 and others hosting a Sunset Shop Giveaway. Yippee! I don’t enter contests as much anymore, but I’m glad to see I can still win them from time to time. I’ve found that I usually have a 1-1.5% success rate.

And hey while I’m at it, I’d like to celebrate the fact that I opened a Capital One 360 Savings account and found out they have a pretty awesome interest rate of 0.75% APY. Certainly better than the other accounts I have open elsewhere. My mom says that Discover has a great one too, so when I see a good offer for new accounts, I’ll have to set one up.

Finally, it is the start of the end for me and in a way, that’s worth celebrating. I’ll miss my friends and aspects of working here, but I really look forward to learning new things, meeting people who are as excited about business as I am, and setting my career on the track I’ve wanted for some time now.

On My Mind, episode 10

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Linking up for Thursday Thoughts with Jennifer of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom!

cat sitting on shelf in pantry among various food products

Hehe, how fun it is to find a cat in my pantry.


a. ~I miss having cats around. It was really nice to have Missy and Molly at home and I’ve been thinking about when I could possibly bring Missy out east with me. I’m afraid Molly might flip out if we moved her so it’s probably best for her to stay put. At some point if it seems like I’ll be home constantly, I definitely want to consider moving Missy and even getting her a friend. I’ll have to see how this job pans out – while it looks like I will be working out of the Reston office for the most part, there is still the slight possibility there might be some travel involved. If that’s the case it would be too much trouble to find care for the cat(s) while both Panda and I are gone for work. I also want to wait until we move to the condo so I can minimize the number of moves the cat would make. I’m really looking forward to the day I get my kitty back!

b. ~My visit home was too brief. I felt like I just got back and got some stuff done and it was already time to pack up and head out. I guess that’s how it will be now when I return home to my parents’ place. I arranged to meet with my former coworkers down in El Segundo and got a chance to see how much the company has changed. They’ve hired a ton of new kids (mostly fresh college grads) and seem to be constantly changing the seating arrangements of different departments. Some of the old business focuses have died as new ones picked up and overall they’re expanding quite well. A few people have left and they now have a New York office open as well. Oh, and there are quite a few girls now! Pretty amazing since I’m used to being either the only female or one of just two or three.

c. ~I got a chance to visit a friend in the Little Tokyo area of downtown and had a wonderful time out there. It’s a great place to live if you want easy access to that region, which has a ton of delicious food. We had udon at a place where you can watch the noodles being made and then stopped by a tea room where I got two baggies of tea. I was also introduced to this thing called a cronut, which is a cross between a croissant and a donut. You get the light fluffy layers of a croissant in a donut shape, fried and covered in sugar granules. They offer a couple of different flavors, with the sauce/jelly/custard not just topping the cronut but also piped inside. It’s pretty fabulous and I’m going to have to eat a lot more. I could definitely get used to that sort of living, though I don’t like being so crowded in to one giant building when it comes to my living situation. It is really nice to be able to go to high traffic areas like that and not have to worry about parking though!

chef at japanese restaurant chopping line of udon noodles

Chopping up a line of udon noodles!

bags of loose leaf tea bought from chado tea

Treated myself to two of the loose leaf teas sold at Chado.

collage of cronuts croiisant and donut cross

I got the blueberry flavor. Yuuum!

d. ~I’ve done too much walking in shoes not meant for long distance. I really need to get around to buying a pair of sneakers! Ideally I’d get those Nike FlyKnit ones, but I don’t need something so high performance. What’s most important is a pair of shoes that my feet won’t hurt in. Even though my flats have padding, it’s not enough to keep my feet from throbbing after wandering the streets for miles. I’ll have to go try out these shoes to see if they soles are comfortable enough for walking and walking and walking in. While I’m open to other options, I would really fancy getting a pair of these! Might actually motivate me to go running now and then. 🙂

american eagle skinny jeans in plastic packaginge. ~I bought some American Eagle jeans (and a pair of slacks) at a steal and I’ve been enjoying having more than one pair of skinny jeans. In fact, I’m probably going to be on the lookout for a few more. For the longest time I always got jeans with flair legs because I thought my calves were too big for the skinny jeans. This might have been true in past years, but lately I’ve slimmed down and have normal legs now. So, my newest thing will be skinny jeans! I have a dark blue pair and now this lighter blue pair with ripped knees. I’ll need some more shades of blue in various styles and maybe a black pair as well.

Alright, that’s it from me for today. What’s on your mind these days?

On My Mind, episode 9

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I’ve got so much on my mind it’s a perfect time to link up with Jennifer again for Thursday Thoughts!

Thursday Thoughts

a. ~I’m so happy that I got the job I really wanted! For awhile I was getting all stressed out because every day that passed felt like weeks and it seemed like I’d never reach the point of getting a job offer. It’s funny how time drags on like that when you’re waiting on something that’s important to you. I mean, from the time I applied to the time I got the offer was really only 2 weeks but I seriously felt like 2 months had gone by. Now that I know, I feel like a weight has been lifted. As they say, the worst is not knowing… then you’re stuck in a limbo not sure of what the next step will be or where it will take you. Oh, and I’m really glad I no longer have to remember to use my debit card 5 times a month to avoid a fee on my checking account. I will have direct deposit again, which will waive that requirement! The small joys of employment…

homegrown collective july box coconut theme

I’ll get Homegrown Collective boxes like these now!


b. ~So since I’ve settled the job thing, now I’ve got a ton of things to hone in on. I’m looking to get a car and a new laptop and maybe some clothes. I’ve been meaning to get a pair of sneakers (I can’t even remember the last time I wore sneakers and it’s high time I use them again!) and I promised myself I could get the Homegrown Collective subscription when I landed a job. There are a ton of other subscription boxes I’ve been eyeing and I want to pick up yoga classes again, but I don’t want to go crazy spending money so I will need to phase these items in slowly. There’s so much stuff to purchase in the coming months! Not only all this stuff I’ve put off until I got a job (I figured that would help motivate me), but also the things we’re going to want for our new home. I can’t wait to get some fun home items like a reed diffuser and some more furniture.

c. ~Once again I checked the mail late yesterday and I was so surprised to find another Ipsy bag! I double and triple and quadruple-checked that both were addressed to me and I didn’t see a second charge on my credit card, so it looks like I got lucky this month! I got identical bags so I’m going to put some items up for trade, like the lip balm and nail polish, since I really don’t need two of those. Hopefully I can find the second bag a home as well, since I’m fond of collecting the variety of bags and have no need for a dupe.

inside of kia dealership

Lovely experience at the Kia dealership.


d. ~Panda and I checked out a Kia dealer last weekend and today I headed to a different one just to see if they had better rates or something. They ended up offering me a price that is close to what I’m looking for, so it’s looking very promising. I can’t wait to share the car I end up getting, which will almost definitely be an Optima with the EX premium package. There are so many cool features in it that it really feels like a luxury car. In fact, it can rival the Lexus that my parents have (though that one is nearly 10 years old now so it’s probably a bit outdated by now). Still, for the price point, I’m getting a lot of nice stuff. I have a few more questions I need answered and a bit more negotiating to do, but I love that it ended up being easier than it might have been. The original price they quoted was so far from my desired price that I wasn’t sure I could come to a good compromise. I’ve had my heart set on getting a Kia for a long time now, so I would have been disappointed if it didn’t work out. Fingers crossed there are no unexpected surprises!

e. ~I’m slated to start work next month since I had a vacation planned already, so in the mean time I get to go home for a bit! For some reason I feel like I’ve been out east for a long time when it’s only been a month and a half. I think it might be because this is the first time I came intending to stay long term; every other time was just a 2-3 month visit. When you relocate, it feels different from just staying awhile. I do have training to attend next week for the first two days, but then I’ll be flying back to SoCal for a few precious days at home. I’m looking forward to going back since there’s a lot of loose ends that I didn’t really get to tie up yet. I hope I can get some nice rest in as well. For some reason I’m always tired here even though I’m not really exerting myself. Maybe home will be the recharge I need.

f. ~YAY our second annual summer vacation is coming up in less than two weeks! We’ve had this trip planned for months now and I’m so excited that it’s nearly here. Panda and I agreed that we would alternate choosing destinations each year. Last year was our first major trip and he chose Hawaii; this year I chose the UK (which works out nicely since the Uni of York where I studied abroad is celebrating their 50th anniversary this year). It’ll be so nice to go back and share some of my life out there with him. This vacation had to be later in the year (our Hawaii trip was June/July) due to ticket prices and trying to catch a holiday weekend – in this case, Labor Day. It’s the first time he’s leaving the country, which should be quite the adventure.

g. ~Since I have to use my debit card 5 times a month until I get direct deposit again, I went out to Target for some shopping today. I was hoping to get the fuzzy nail polish that Sally Hansen has, but the sale was gone and I wanted to wait for a deal again. Instead I found some ointment for my burns, which aren’t healing as well as I’d want. I also got some food items that I had coupons for, which I’m pretty excited about. Finally, I purchased office supplies – these clear reusable double-sided sticky pads that you can mount pictures or hold things in place with. When I was visiting Brandy (check her out at MommySplurge) a few days ago, she showed me how she used them to ensure things didn’t roll away when she was trying to take pictures. Brilliant! Now I don’t have to waste tape. 🙂

What’s going on in your life?

On My Mind, episode 8

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Thursday Thoughts

Been awhile since I last linked up with Jennifer of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, so let’s do this!

brand new condos with now selling sign

Our future home?


a. ~A lot has been on my mind lately, mostly related to where I want my life to go in the next couple of years. Panda and I have been house hunting (more like condo hunting) and we found a place that is basically our dream home. We love the layout, it’s brand new (not even built yet), it’s super spacious, it’s a nice neighborhood, and it’s on the higher end of our budget but totally manageable once I get a job. The one thing I don’t love is the location in relation to where I might work. It’s looking like I will have a 40-60 minute commute each way, based on the jobs I’ve been applying for. Am I willing to make that commute every day? I was hoping for something less stressful, but we’ll see! If I love the job and my home, a commute isn’t so bad.

b. ~I’m still grappling with the idea of my new life “out east.” I’ve had to resist looking at some very appealing job opportunities in the SF and LA regions, where a lot of cool start-ups are. I really want to find a company culture that I would fall in love with, where they take care of their employees and offer great growth potential. Oh, and I’d really like a job that involves around 25% travel. I don’t need all the crazy cool perks of some companies I’ve seen, like free massages or no dress code or no set hours, but I do want a somewhat laidback vibe. I don’t mind business casual dress or having to show up at a certain time each morning so long as the people are chill and there is room for a ton of learning and evolution of my role. So many companies on the west coast offer that and it’s a little harder to find here, but I have some promising leads.

small round glass table with blue star pattern designc. ~The other day I was at Target exchanging a tripod when I happened upon a super cute table. When I checked, it was on clearance for 50% off, which is not ideal, but still a steal! I mean, with something this adorable I just had to snatch it up. Initially it looked like the perfect little thing to put out on the porch, but now that I’ve field tested it in my room I can’t bear to put it outside. We’ll see where it fits in when we move to our future home! I may not be as good as Jennifer when it comes to Target clearance shopping, but I’m learning from her!

d. ~I started looking at laptops today, since that will be my reward for landing a job (in addition to getting a car for myself!). My absolute no-compromise criterion is that it is QUIET. Like, tablet quiet (aka silent). I determined that that basically means I need a solid state drive (SSD), so that’s what I’ve been focusing on. My tier 2 criteria include having a touchscreen, backlit keyboard, 3 USB ports, and 2-in-1 media reader or better. An added bonus would be a button that can turn the display off so I don’t have to wait for it to go idle on its own. Oh, and I was hoping for an ASUS but the only one fitting my specifications is $2250 with a student discount! DANG! Depending on how happy I am with the job I land, I might spring for that just because it really satisfies my needs, whereas all other options are missing this or that.

e. ~Is it just me or do you marvel at how freakin’ perfect Kate Middleton always looks? I mean, she just gave birth and she’s coming out looking like any other day? She’s so composed and elegant and graceful and personable all in one. I doubt we’ll ever see her trip or yell or mess up at all. It’s amazing because I think of how I’d be and well, quite frankly I’d never be accepted into royalty! They’d cringe at the casual wear I go out in, how I don’t wear makeup or do my hair, and all my other imperfections. I am perfectly happy being out of the limelight and I don’t understand how famous people manage; then again, I guess many of them don’t, what with those in rehab and lashing out and whatnot. You won’t be seeing that from the Cambridge royalty though! Always so poised it baffles me.

f. ~I started watching Once Upon A Time as my first deviation from my “normal” shows (crime dramas) and it is tangling up my mind quite well. The relationships are suuuper complex – [possible SPOILER ALERT] I mean, your step-great-grandmother is also your adoptive mother and step-great-great-grandmother was once in love with your grandfather (on the other side of the family) and a bunch of them are trying to kill each other? It’s all sorts of weirdness that I can barely keep up with. No wonder I stick to shows where each episode brings on one less-complicated mini-drama generally not related to previous ones.

country junction soy candle in macintosh from gettysburgg. ~Tonight I finally decided to break in my super cool soy candle from Gettysburg and I love it! This is my first time with a soy candle and I’m pretty sure I’m a convert now. I’ll have to test out other brands, but it burns sooo clean!! I usually have a little reaction to a candle burning due to my over-sensitivity to particles in the air, but I couldn’t even tell this one was burning. This particular candle is also super cool because of the little mug it comes in. I can’t wait to find a way to use it once my candle is all burned up.

That’s it from me for now! What are your thoughts on this fine Thursday?

On My Mind, episode 7

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Thursday Thoughts

It’s Thursday Thoughts time with Jennifer!

eight bottles of nail polishes lined up in a row

These are the ones I chose to send in.


~I finally, finally mailed off the nail polish I was trading in for the Zoya Earth Day Exchange. I know, I’m over a month late, but hey they didn’t say I had to mail them in by a certain date! I kept putting it off because I didn’t like the hassle of trying to mail in nail polish, but then as it turns out all I needed to do was wrap them tight and take them in to the post office. I guess when you know there are a ton of regulations around something, sometimes you make it seems worse than it is, you know? At first I had put them all into a USPS Small Flat Rate box, but then I found out you can’t mail them Priority, so I had to repackage into another box, but that one weighed over a pound and anything over 13 oz is supposed to be mailed Priority. This was quite the dilemma for me, but as soon as I took it to the post office, they gave it a proper stamp or something and it was all fine.

~After getting my May Ipsy bag and having some items I wanted to trade, I decided to also gather all the other things I have that I won’t really use. I put up a trade list on Makeup Talk and wow, it’s been great! I loving swapping/trading and I’ve already arranged 5. It feels great to get products I actually want and will use and send off things to someone else who will appreciate the products more than I would. There are a lot of things I’d like to try that I haven’t because online shipping always costs too much, so this is a way to save on the overall cost and try those products. So much fun! In fact, I put up my For Sale or Trade list on this site too, just in case you’re interested.

makeup talk trade of products from ipsy bags

My very first trade was of items from Ipsy bags – I sent a lipstick and perfume and got a lip gloss, spray mist, and nail polish plus samples.

makeup talk bb cream and massage oil trade

The second trade where I sent massage oil and socks and got BB cream and samples.

makeup talk trade with various hair care, skincare, and facial care products

The third trade with my sent items on the left and received items on the right.

~I have this tendency to want to know everything and not miss out, so when it came to Ramblings of a Suburban Mom, I decided to start from the beginning and get all caught up on her blog. There were 149 pages of posts to go through when I started about a week ago and I finally made it through them all. I admit, I mostly skimmed, but it was cool to see how her the blog has changed. Perhaps I should do that for my own blog sometime. I used to write a lot more and have less pictures, but now I make to try to include a picture with every post. There was also a period where I cycled through a text, photo, and video post to mix things up. Nowadays I have too much to write about to include as many video posts. How has your blog changed over the months and years?

sitting looking down at cat sleeping on my chest~I cannot get enough of my cat Missy! I just love how she responds to my touch – when I pet her while she’s sleeping, her tail will twitch, her arms will stretch out, paws will spread out, and I swear she’s smiling a little bit. 🙂 She’s such a happy cat and she’s happy to sleep on me/next to me/near me, which is exactly what I want. She also lets me rub and scratch and pet her any way I want. What an easygoing nature! Lately she’s been learning to tug at my heartstrings to get her way though, the sly fox. She’ll meow and meow in this sad little “feed me” voice until I give her the tasty (and more expensive) treats. She gets up on the island in the kitchen and then reaches out her paw to “grab” me. Those adorable little eyes look into mine and I give in almost every time. She’s too cute!!

~What do you do to keep hair off the carpet? Between my cousin and I, I’ve found we shed a ton of hair and it’s so annoying to find strands EVERYWHERE. Vacuuming doesn’t get it all out and I don’t have time to go around picking them up all the time. Sometimes in bed I’ll stretch out and get a strand in between my toes and for some reason that feeling really grosses me out! It’s funny how hair can be so wonderful and beautiful when it’s on your head, but the moment it falls out it’s icky. If you shed a lot of hair too, what do you do about it??

~I’ve been in a funk lately, bumming around. :-/ It’s been hard to get motivated to do anything and it makes me feel like a bad person. I see all these super high-achieving people around me and I wonder if there’s something wrong with me because I don’t care to be overworked like them. I used to be super ambitious and also want a fantastic career, but now I’m more inwardly focused and establishing a good family life has become my priority. Unfortunately, that side of things means spending money rather than making it and well, you still gotta make a living, right?

So what are your thoughts on this very fine Thursday?

On My Mind, episode 6

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Linking up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for “Thursday Thoughts” aka On My Mind.

a~ I can’t believe this is my 6th one already! Where did the time go? I’ve been bumming around lately because I’m hoping my first choice in future employment pans out and I’m not that motivated to apply for other jobs just yet, plus I haven’t watched my shows since early February so I’m catching up now that all the seasons seem to be ending. I’m slowly transitioning back to working more and resting less.

b~ On the box front, I have a lot going on! I got into the Influenster Spring Voxbox (yay!) and hopefully I qualify for the summer one as well. I sprang for the May Ipsy bag and while I liked the overall value and items in the bag, I’m looking to trade two items. I’m going to cancel the subscription and wait for June spoilers before deciding if I want to get it again. I got that free Bulu box that I mentioned and I’ve suspended my subscription for now. I liked the box but I didn’t love it, so I’m reluctant to spend money on it when they’re more on the healthy scale than I’m interested in. I also received my first Conscious Box and it was packed full of goodness! Gonna take me some time to get through everything. And finally, I got Panda to get me a Treatsie box subscription because I’m a sucker for treats. Call it a very early birthday present.

c~ Every now and then I get my contacts out of place in my eye and it hurts for a bit, but then I get it back in place. Awhile back, my contact kept creating discomfort in my eye so I took it out and put it back in after washing it down with solution. Still, it didn’t feel right and the next time I took it out I discovered this:

torn/ripped contact lens

Torn contact lens. Ouch!

d~ It has been many long months since I heard from BzzAgent and I was pretty sad they weren’t including me in campaigns even though my BzzScore is pretty high. Then FINALLY I got an email from them and I am IN for the Dr. Scholl’s massaging gel insoles! Pretty excited about that since I’ve always wanted to try them but kind of never got around to figuring out which one I should get. I’m going to put them to the test on my next vacation, where I expect a whole lot of walking. My feet always hurt after standing all day and a massaging gel sounds amazing.

small brown stone owl sculpture and owl face watch

Some of the owl things I’ve gotten.


e~ Is it just me or are owls cute on/as almost any product? I mean, I love them as jewelry and decorations and sculptures and designs and even oil warmers. Something about their round, pudgy bodies and those giant eyes melt my heart. If I could find an owl bag, owl blanket, or gosh even an owl metronome, I’d probably get it. I was pretty tempted to get a felt iPad case made to look like an owl, but I don’t use cases for my iPad so I resisted. I’m that much more likely to get something if there’s an owl involved! I feel similarly about pandas and cats.

f~ I’ve made it a habit of keeping a lot of my skincare and beauty products upside-down lately. Everything from toners to shampoo to nail polish. A lot of these products tend to settle and I don’t like having to shake them up each time, so by keeping them on their heads, I don’t usually have to shake them. And for very thick things like lotion, I don’t have to struggle (as much) to get it to come out. I wonder if they have some sort of adjustable rack that I can use for this purpose?

g~ I’m obsessed with marinated mushrooms!! It was about 10 years ago that Costco stopped carrying the ones they had in their stores and I’ve been checking the pickled goods aisle ever since. In the years since, I managed to find them in the salad bar at Ralph’s a couple times, but it is very expensive to buy them by the salad bar’s weight pricing! Then I happened upon a new brand at Costco out east when I was visiting Panda a few months ago and I was joyous. I took home two jars that day and devoured them. We got some more jars and I happy ate them until I had to come back to SoCal. Unfortunately my local Costco does not carry it. I then had Panda bring me more when he came to visit. A few weeks ago he reported that there were only two more boxes of it left in the store, so I had him help me buy an entire box (8 jars). Gotta stock up in case Costco stops selling them! Yes, I am that in love with these suckers.

h~ When I got a bar of Mrs. Meyers soap in my Yuzen box many months ago, I was pretty excited to try this brand I’d been curious about. Once I started using the soap I found that the smell was too clean for my taste. I was sad and put it aside while trying to figure out what to do with it. Then I had to do some cleaning and I decided to use that soap since it was handy and seemed to cut through grease really well. I’m glad I did! For some reason, using it to clean with is perfectly fine, but using it to wash myself with feels weird. Maybe it’s a psychological thing? I associate that refreshing smell with cleaning but what I use on my body I want to feel more like I’m beautifying. Totally random, but just goes to show that you may not like something for certain reasons at first, but those very reasons can make it great for something else.

What are your random thoughts these days?

On My Mind, episode 5

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Ok, so I’m a day late, but I’m still linking up with Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for “Thursday Thoughts” aka On My Mind. 😛

a~ Sometimes all this stuff happens that I want to talk about but then it gets to be too much so I hold it off. So here’s a little bit of catching up!

susiecakes cupcakes in chocolate and red velvet b~ I finally tried Susiecakes back when Panda was here in LA and I really enjoyed the way they swirl their frosting! Georgetown Cupcake has their “signature swirl” and so does Susiecakes. From what I can tell, the frosting actually goes into the center of the cupcake too, for an ultimate “oozing” experience. Quite good! I wish the cupcakes were a bit bigger though, but I guess it’s better for me that they’re not.

c~ For awhile, Missy (my cat) wouldn’t go outside and spent the day napping on my bed or otherwise lazing around. To me, this was normal cat behavior, but to my mom, it was a signal of distress. She kept asking me if something was wrong with Missy and eventually it seemed like there might be. I started to become convinced that she was depressed because she doesn’t have another cat to play with. We do have another cat, Molly, but she’s old and grumpy and abuses poor Missy. I even seriously contemplated getting another cat for Missy to befriend! But hey, she seems to have recovered and enjoys a good run outside again. Third cat idea? Tabled.

the panda loves mystery box sent outd~ I got my first order for a mystery box and sent it out to a girl in Vegas. I had fun putting it together and trying to guess what she might like, but it’s hard to please people! I recently got her feedback saying she didn’t quite feel like it was the value she paid for, which made me a bit sad, but I really did try my best and I had outlined all the items she could expect. So now instead of mystery boxes I’m thinking of transitioning to grab bags so it’s even more clear what they’ll get.

cat laying in box on top of tissue paper and beauty products

Missy immediately thought: “Bed!”

e~ I’ve read up on some photo boxes used to take product photos and I found my own sort of solution. I “hacked” a photo box using a cardboard box from Costco and a solid colored piece of plastic. I’ve experimented with other things too, like tissue paper, but Missy seemed to think it was for her to play in! Check out one of the product photos I did for the Tatcha samples I got (review to come). I think it’s pretty good, though I wish the background didn’t have the blue since it doesn’t always look good. Still, not bad for a cheap version!

tatcha samples including deluxe sizes

corner of graze box with logof~ I have been sooo looking forward to my Graze boxes and even got a sneak peek when I went to check on the status. They ask you to rate the items in the box after they send it, so you can actually know what’s coming ahead of time if you’re curious. So far I’ve received two boxes and there have been some items I really enjoyed (and wished they had larger portions of) and some that I probably won’t want for awhile. Their rating system makes it really easy to get the ones you like and ensure you don’t get the ones you disliked. Reviews to come.

g~ So as you can tell from my Aveeno review, my Influnster VoxBox arrived! I really hope I continue to get more VoxBoxes since this has been fun and I enjoy using my new night cream. We were told we get in on the summer VoxBox automatically if we were one of the first 100 to finish the Aveeno brand challenge, which I’m pretty sure I did. We’ll see though!

h~ I got suckered in to signing up for Bulu box because of a free box offer, but I think I’m going to cancel before they charge me. After looking around at previous boxes, it appears that they’re too health-focused for my taste. I’ll still try that first box and see though – maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised!

pretty desk organizer for pens and paperclips/push pins at targeti~ I saw this super cute desk organizer at Target and I totally wanted it! I shouldn’t be splurging now though, so I will patiently wait for it to go on clearance before snagging one if I can. I find that when I have cool storage units like this, I’m much more likely to stay organized(ish). When I settle into my own home, I’m totally going to get things like this so I can stay motivated to keep things neater. I mean, when something’s fun, you tend to do it more! And how fun is a pretty little box like this? It’s just asking for me to put my pens and paperclips and push pins and rubber bands in there!

julep products including lotion, hand scrub, oxygen nail treatment, cuticle serum, and nail polish remover padsj~ In some more up-to-date news, I started day 1 of my 2-week testing for Pink Panel and just as I predicted, we got Julep products! Pretty psyched about that since I’ve been curious about their brand ever since I found out about their Julep Maven subscription service. I get to test out their glycolic hand scrub, oxygen nail treatment, and cuticle serum. The lotion and nail polish removers came to supplement the whole hand care experience so the entire testing period, I’m using all Julep products for my hands. I don’t know what to expect from the oxygen treatment and cuticle serum, but I already love how the scrub feels, smells, and works. It’s something I would definitely buy!

bottle of dried zoya nail polish held upside down

I held it upside down so you can see how solid it is.

k~ My Zoya nail polishes arrived today, though one got backordered and is on its way. One of the bottles was all dried out though! Whaaat? I was sorely disappointed and contact their customer service, so I expect a satisfactory resolution soon. This would involve more than just replacing the one I got, but we’ll see if they’re the “go above and beyond” types. [Update: they got back to me and they’re rushing a replacement. Meh. Maybe I expect too much of customer service.]

l~ On a similar note, the most recent Blissmo box contained a repeat item that was the bulk of the value of the box. Also not so happy about that, so I emailed their customer service. I do not enjoy paying twice for the same product when I’m paying to learn about new ones. As I mentioned to them, the least I would expect is another product from that company’s line, but a completely identical product is no bueno for a subscription box.

On My Mind, episode 4

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
5

Ready for another round of On My Mind? Here goes!

~Ha! I was just thinking about how my blog posts used to be so much more insightful/thoughtful/interesting when I started to get the inspiration bug again and went crazy preparing some draft posts. Tons of goodness to come!

~Sooo I had said I didn’t want to buy any more nail polish until I used up one bottle. Just one! Which shouldn’t be that hard since I rarely buy nail polish anyway, but then I came across a BOGO deal and I couldn’t resist! BAH. I bought it and then promptly spilled one all over my carpet (which took out about a third of that bottle). Karma for going against my word? 🙁 I did manage to mostly get it out (and better than I had hoped at least!).

collage of sally hansen insta-dri nail colors in clearly quick, pronto purple, lively lilac, and blue-away~That nail polish I got? Sally Hansen’s Insta-Dri. I’d never tried it before, but that coupon for buy one, get one meant each bottle was $2. While I may not want to pay $4 for some nail polish, $2 was a deal I couldn’t resist. I know, I’m terrible. But you know what? I discovered an AMAZING brush! Like seriously, why don’t all (or at least more) nail polishes have brushes like this? It applies so well, I just love it. Plus, I really love that these nail polishes dry so quickly, since clumsy old me would usually mess up at least three nails before they managed to dry.

~And if you keep up with the blog, you will see that I’ve decided to exchange some of my old nail polishes for some Zoya ones! At least I’m not accumulating more, right? That’s ok, right?!

~My family went out and got a bunch of Garnier Fructis Hydra Recharge shampoos because of the current deal for them! Only $0.86 in CA if you bring your own reusable bag. Less in other states since our tax is a high 9%, ugh.

collage of broken galileo thermometer

I cleaned the bulbs and put them in a vase.

~About two weeks ago, Missy (one of my cats) broke my Galileo thermometer when she knocked it over – RIP 🙁 – and I learned that the oil they use in it smells naaasty. It smelled like a gas station exploded on my carpet. I guess that’s the only material the bulbs will float in correctly. I cleaned and scrubbed and patted for an hour and the smell didn’t dissipate, so I had to move to another room to sleep. Took about a week of leaving the window open and spraying odor remover on it daily before I could move back. My carpet is forever scarred though – for some reason, it grew a bump that won’t go away.

long raised bump in carpet

It used to be a lot worse but it has since shrunk.

~Panda (the boyfriend) was in town earlier in the month and we got a pretty cool room at the Hilton Garden Inn LAX! I loooved the rocker, which was so smooth and made me feel lighter. Reminded me of the zero gravity chairs they have a Brookstone. The bathroom was rather sweet too, with a jacuzzi/hot tub (what’s the difference?) on one side and an electronically-controlled shower on the other. I got to set the shower water to exactly the temperature I wanted!

panoramic shot of large bathroom in a hilton garden inn lax room

Here I am demonstrating the rocking chair…

awesome smooth leather rocking chair from Mary Qin on Vimeo.

~I had told my cousin about the 1 Second Everyday app, which she was interested in. I’ve been having a blast with it! I was sad, however, that I had redeemed an iTunes gift card for $50 and wasn’t able to split it into two $25 gift codes so she too could get some apps without paying. Then a few days later it dawned on me: gifting an app! I hadn’t thought of it because I never used it (and really wasn’t sure it was even a feature), but I checked and it’s so easy to do it! But by the time I told her, she had already bought the app. Womp, womp… next time!!

~I’ve been doing pretty well with the giveaways I’ve entered and won a couple more, yippee! You’ll see pictures of them after I get them. One in particular I wanted to point out – I actually won another 3-month Conscious Box subscription and this time I got to share an additional one with a friend! I mean, what is more thrilling than winning for you AND a friend of your choice? I picked a super awesome, super supportive friend and she was totally excited. Coincidentally, her birthday was right around then too! Happy birthday!

~I’m so glad I went through that long, long DMV line to get a new picture taken because I am SO much happier with my new picture! The original picture was from when I was in high school and it looks like I have a fake orange tan when in reality I just swam outdoors a lot for our high school team.

driver's license pictures side by side comparison

The old picture looks a lot more orange in person.

~I’m STILL waiting to get my first Goodie box and Graze box. Waaah! I’ve held myself back from buying snacks because they were supposed to replace my snack food shopping and THEY’RE STILL NOT HERE… -___- I, being hugely reliant on snacking to survive/thrive, feel so forlorn… BUT I should be getting my Goodie box today*! *fingers crossed* My Graze box was prepared on the 11th and if I don’t get it by tomorrow I’m going to contact customer service. Yes, you can call me Cookie Monster.

~And finally, I was SO off-the-walls (maybe too) happy to get an email from the Pink Panel letting me know I’m in their nail care testing group. I had just signed up and filled out the survey for the latest testing group and it was awesome to get that invitation!! I can’t wait – I remember seeing Julep in the survey URL so I’m pretty sure we get to test some Julep products. I’ve yet to try anything from them, but I’d totally love to. I’m turning into a nail polish/hand care fiend. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that we get a $75 Amazon gift card (code, probably) for participating. I’m getting my cats a fun feeding maze I learned about from an article on Squidoo with those funds!

*Yay the Goodie box arrived! Time to rip through it. 🙂

On My Mind, episode 3

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
8

(Linking up with Jennifer of Ramblings of a Suburban Mom for Thursday Thoughts again!)

I was just thinking that perhaps On My Mind/In My Life would be slightly more appropriate for these posts, but that title’s too long, eh? You get the point, right?

gogobot cartoon bear with sunglasses

Gogobot bear!

~Some totally awesome things have happened lately!! For one, I was happily surprised to find that I became a Gogobot Pro 2013! I only joined the site in late February so I certainly didn’t expect that so soon. Granted, I did spend a ton of time ramping* up my reviews past 100 so I could get that free swag I shared previously. As a Gogobot Pro, I get even more awesome stuff, which is on its way, yay! Can’t wait to show you what else I get AND to plan a trip to take advantage of it all. 🙂

~Sometimes you get what you want just by holding out hope and having some luck. That’s what happened with a recent eBay auction, where I bid around $2.50 and the ultimate winner of the auction bid around $7.50. I was not willing to pay that much, but I held out hope that I’d eventually get the product at the price point I wanted. AND THEN I got a second chance offer! If you’re not familiar with eBay, sellers can choose to give a “second chance offer” to any of the bidders who didn’t win the auction. As long as they have more product (or the auction winner doesn’t pay up), they can extend that offer to you if they feel your highest bid price is acceptable. I got a pretty great deal.

glass jar with fold over elastic band hair ties

source: lilblueboo

~Wondering what I got for that eBay auction? Well, it’s some foldover elastic – which may mean nothing to you – and it’s what you use to make those hair ties you probably know as Twistbands. I was certainly not about to pay $2 for ONE hair tie, but I do want to try them to see if they’re more effective. Once I figured out the “technical” term for them, it was pretty easy to find on eBay. My long, desperate searches in the aisles of Joann’s, Michael’s, and Walmart are thankfully over. I’m excited to make my own!

graze box congratulations welcome screen

The coveted welcome screen.

~As of last night I FINALLYYYY got a working code for Graze! Thanks to a lovely reader posting on Jennifer’s Ramblings of a Suburban Mom Facebook page, I have signed up for my weekly snacks. The default is every other week, but with just four snacks per shipment, that’s not enough for my snacking habits so I increased the frequency.

~If you’ve never won anything, let me just say that you just gotta try a lot and set your heart to doing everything you can to win. So many people complain that they never win… and you know what? They never even enter. Beyond that, you can still win at times if you don’t give up and stay positive! Check out the time I won a $150 UCLA rug because I tried really hard.

~So for the past two or three weeks, I’ve been having this strange thing happen to me; whenever I eat small bits of food, inevitably one piece will get stuck in this extra space in my throat. I swallow and swallow to no effect, but a rush of water usually flushes it out. Is this normal?? Shouldn’t my throat be one straight tube? Maybe these pieces are somewhere in middle ground between “throat” and “windpipe” territory. :-/

~Last week it was reeeeeally windy! I seriously thought that a palm tree might come crashing down into the house. Thank goodness they’re sturdier than the more “branchy” trees. I believe these are the Santa Ana winds, which I first learned about when I arrived to SoCal 10 years and read a passage in English class, telling me that these winds cause scenes in which “Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks.” Talk about mildly traumatizing. I didn’t get it then and I still don’t get it now, but it sure did stick with me all these years.

hotel maya guestroom restroom

With a toilet paper holder between the toilet and sink, how am I to reach back there??

~And finally, a pet peeve of mine: why do so many places put the toilet paper holder in an inconvenient location? I don’t want to have to do some sort of contortionist act just to reach it. I know that due to the design of the space, sometimes that’s all that works, but you’d think they might take that into consideration when drawing up the blueprints. I guess I could retrain myself to get the toilet paper first, but old habits die hard.

*as a side note, I realized the way I work is in “binges” – more on that in a later post

On My Mind, episode 2

laelene Posted in on my mind,Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
2

(In case On My Mind is not self-explanatory enough and you want to learn more, check out my post explaining what inspired it.)

screenshot of giveaway tools final result: mary q. won 3-month conscious box subscription from just another new blog~I won!!! I’ve been trying to win a bunch of things, but in particular is a 3-month subscription to Conscious Box, which tons of bloggers have been giving away. AND I ACTUALLY WON! I was just going through checking up on the giveaways that had expired to see if they announced winners and what did I find? My name! That is probably the most exciting thing in the world.

~Last week I went to the DMV because I wanted to renew my license and update the photo. Why can’t I just send in a picture like I can with a passport? I’m assuming it has to do with that special shade of blue they use for the background, which then begs the question… why that color??

~I tried to book an online appointment for the DMV but the earliest appointment was two weeks away! If I didn’t need to drive in the mean, I totally would have gone that route to save the time at the DMV. Unfortunately I didn’t have that luxury this time, so I was stuck standing in line. It took nearly 3 hours (and there were only like 15-20 people in line in front of me!). Luckily, I was smart and got a book to read before going. I was the only one.

~My mom and I went to Best Buy because she had some reward money she had to spend – all told, we spent $0.30 on a bunch of random pens for her and a cool whiteboard/blackboard for me! We didn’t know what else to buy with her $20 credit. And it took us over an hour to figure it out, lol. Granted, much of that hour was spent waiting for an associate to help me locate the board at another store. The one they had was missing the crayon box and what’s a board if you can’t write on it?

5 sets of pens from best buy

Ignore the cat paw. 😉

crayola dry erase board dual-sided black and white with set of dry erase crayons and wiping cloth

Comes with dry erase crayons!

~I’ve been reading a bunch of books like Buyology & The Zappos Experience – great source of learning and very useful lessons for my future business attempts. I’m trying to apply everything I learned to the Kickstarter I’m developing. I sure hope it’s successful!

~So when I went to get some of those books I’ve been reading, I discovered the cool new library self-checkout! My fancy little library has this system where you put the stack of books (up to like 7 or 8 at a time) on the counter and it can check them all out for you. No more scanning one by one! Nifty. I should also note they have a conveyor belt thing behind the wall when you return a book, complete with video so you can watch your book get dropped off into some bin at the end.

~Remember that Influenster campaign I mentioned last time? Well, yay I got in! Turns out it’s for an Aveeno product, which they’ll be sending to me shortly. 🙂

~This week I got to hang out at the Hotel Maya in Long Beach. It’s right on the water and I really enjoyed working in the cabanas and other similar areas. It’s great to have a fabulous view, a slight breeze, the warmth of the sun, and the option of shade all at once. If it weren’t for my reflective laptop screen, it’d be perfect for working all day.

outdoor couches at hotel maya in long beach

I spent most of the days here.

view of waterfront from hotel maya in long beach

~Since I was at the waterfront, I spent a lot of time (sea) bird watching. Totally fun! There are the ones that bob around on the water and dive down for fish, disappearing for minutes at times. Then there are the fliers that dive down to the water from high above, making a nice splash. There are the little ones that flit about quickly and the larger ones that almost seem like they’re gliding in the air. In the morning, they were most active and by noon, many of them had settled in for a nap. By the afternoon, they started waking up again and as the sun set, I lost track of them.

~I also caught a glimpse of a seal! Actually, I think a pair of them. So cool!!! Next time I need to find a beach that they hang out at. I’d love to seal watch.

(Here you can hear how excited I am to see them, even though I didn’t get to see much.)

seals at Long Beach from Mary Qin on Vimeo.
 

 

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