I really enjoy traveling solo. You get to experience things in ways that nobody else would. It makes you more open to what will happen. And funny enough, it makes you more likely to find travel buddies to spend your time with. When you travel with someone (or a group), it’s too easy to stay within the safe confines of those social interactions. While you may speak to strangers in passing, you rarely strike up an in-depth conversation the way you could if you were alone. It’s like bringing a bubble with you when you travel, always keeping things at arms-length. Whenever I travel alone, however, the barriers break down far easier and I find myself suddenly having dinner with three guys I met the day before, or being followed around a castle by a couple of locals, or on a moped with some random stranger. It makes things infinitely more fun when I can explore a city with my new travel buddies, whether it’s just for a few hours or for a few days. It’s a great way to enjoy a new city.
Posts Tagged ‘pictures’
365great Day 326: travel buddies
Photo A Day Challenge January 2014
I liked capturing bits and pieces of a #moment for this theme! It was pretty easy to find things to share and I didn’t feel limited to taking similar types of shots. As for February, I’ve chosen to do #detail since I tend to notice a lot of random things, which most people probably don’t.
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- A silly moment observing an awkward pose, hehe. {Amaro filter} 1.1.14
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- Ah, when the delicious scent wafts up. {Hudson filter} 1.2.14
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- The moment you make a new friend and take an awful selfie. 😛 {Sierra filter} 1.3.14
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- Glancing up to notice the intricacies over our dim sum meal. {#nofilter} 1.4.14
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- Caught her stealing water. {Sutro filter} #catsofinstagram 1.5.14
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- Taking off and actually going back over LAX, that’s a first! {Amaro filter} 1.6.14
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- When you’ve been pranked. {Sierra filter} 1.7.14
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- Getting help from my sick sous chef. {Earlybird filter} #BAChef 1.8.14
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- Cover me softly. {Mayfair filter} #clouds 1.9.14
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- As I get ready to dig in. {X-Pro II filter} 1.10.14
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- Seagulls chillin’ on ice. {Hefe filter} 1.11.14
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- Playing shadow puppets. {X-Pro II filter} 1.12.14
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- Taking a moment to rest my eyes. {Inkwell filter} 1.13.14
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- Resigning myself to more pills. {Nashville filter} 1.14.14
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- In the thick of it. {#nofilter} #fog 1.15.14
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- Waiting for the big panda to get home. {Nashville filter} 1.16.14
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- When the food arrives and you happily dig in. {X-Pro II filter} 1.17.14
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- Yes I’ll take a free facial and samples. #origins {Nashville filter} 1.18.14
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- When you start wondering if you’re seeing things due to exhaustion. {Sutro filter} 1.19.14
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- The new office has an unbeatable view. {Sutro filter} 1.20.14
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- Ready for the snowstorm like a local! #stormjanus {#nofilter} 1.21.14
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- Morning steam fog over the lake. {#nofilter} 1.22.14
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- Prepping the new office for our move! {Sierra filter} 1.23.14
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- Upon discovering a strange rash. {Lo-Fi filter} 1.24.14
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- 7:18, waking to the most brilliant flash of colors. {#nofilter} 1.25.14
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- Eggbeater handles, so appropriate for the egg theme. {Amaro filter} 1.26.14
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- Lunch in the new board room. {Hefe filter} 1.27.14
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- Discovering my hair was crispy from being wet in the cold. {#nofilter} 1.28.14
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- Battle of the birds of a flock… {Valencia filter with linear tilt shift} 1.29.14
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- The moment I realized my new commute is gonna suck. Ouch. {Hefe filter} 1.30.14
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- Admiring my appetizer. {Hefe filter} 1.31.14
365great Day 325: 0% financing
I’m a fan of getting financing if there’s no interest. Lately I’ve been taking advantage of these sorts of deals a lot, from my laptop to our blinds to the washer dryer set. For anyone who can manage their money well, why not? It frees up my money to do other things in the mean time and I can feel more secure in case some emergency comes up. In fact, the only time I’d be willing to pay interest is on a home mortgage; every other financing option I’ve taken advantage of is only worth it if they’re promoting a period of no interest. When I was getting my car, that was my one non-negotiable when it came time to hash out the details. It’s insane to me some of the interest rates out there – you often end up paying off more in interest than the item itself ever cost! Why in the world pay double or more for something? It’s almost never worth it, so I stick to paying in full if there’s no 0% interest option. Financing is only great if it doesn’t cost me more! 😛
Julep February 2014: The Dramatic Collection review
I didn’t see the emails to choose February’s box until the day after selection closed. Luckily, my default profile of Boho Glam was offering items that I liked enough that I was cool with not being able to choose alternatives. That was also the time I found out from Brandy at MommySplurge that Julep retired their skip any month option and now only allow you to accrue one skip every six months. I’m sooo glad I got in *just* in time to get grandmothered in so I can still skip every month if I want. Whew!
Julep is just under $20 per box and comes with 2 nail polish colors and a beauty product, 3 nail polish colors, or 2 beauty products (depending on your style profile choice). They offer plenty of upgrade and add-on options too. Boxes are sent monthly unless you choose to skip (skips are earned every six months for subscribers Dec 18th, 2013 and later). You also have the option of gifting your box to a friend. They offer a referral program that earns you points towards free boxes.
February’s Boho Glam Dramatic Collection box
The info card promoted their eyeliner and liner brush, which was an add-on choice.
On the back of the info card is a look at the four shades of eye sheen.
My Boho glam profile matched me with Cameron in Stardust finish (love) and Rooney (meh).
The shade of eye sheen I got was pale nude shimmer. Probably a good match for me if I actually use eyeshadow.
As a special gift from Jane the CEO, we got this bonus shade, Love. Perfect for Valentine’s!
I’m glad I got this box because I really like the special edition Love that I don’t think you can get any other way and I’m a fan of the Stardust finish I got. The brown color is ok and I haven’t decided if I want to keep it or put it up for trade. It might be good to have a neutral like that around. As for the eye sheen, I think they’re pretty cool but I’m not an eyeshadow person so it’s definitely going up for trade. Overall the box was decent and I’m glad I locked in the Love shade.
Join as a Julep Maven to get polishes and/or beauty products sent to you monthly! Use code FREEBOX or FREEMAVEN to get the first box free (you pay shipping).
[This post contains affiliate links. Signing up through them helps support my subscription and I’d be ever so grateful. 🙂 All opinions are my own and I received no compensation for this review. I just purchased this box and wanted to share what I got!]
365great Day 324: massages
I’ve all but forgotten the days when I used to be so ticklish that I couldn’t get a massage without stifling laughter the entire time. Thankfully, I got past that phase and am no longer so sensitive to touch. These days I enjoy massages so much I’d get one every day if I could. I especially want some extra ones now since my muscles are sore from doing power yoga earlier in the week. Nothing feels better than getting some tightness kneaded out of my body. I love relaxing to a massage and I always fall asleep during them, so I end up getting a nice nap out of it too. After this long night of trying to order blinds, I sure need another massage even though I just got one last night. It’d be great if I could get my next one this week! I need it.
Haggling at Home Depot
Omg what a night. Panda and I were going to move some boxes, but we ended up spending over six hours at Home Depot haggling over blinds. At first we got help selecting options by a rep of one of the brands of blinds, which probably took an hour. Then we sat down with a store sales associate to work out a price quote and discovered that what we were told didn’t cost extra actually did. PLUS for awhile the type of wood we wanted wasn’t even showing up in the system and we had to figure out why the pricing wasn’t matching up. Ugh. Sooo we reworked everything and then haggled for a better deal because of the misinformation and trouble that we went through, but the assistant manager didn’t even seem to care and took no responsibility for our experience.
They could totally tell Panda’s an engineer when he brought in this diagram.
Granted, it wasn’t Home Depot’s fault, but I do consider it their problem. After all they’re the ones selling us the blinds and the manager didn’t even apologize that it was such a hassle. Whether or not it’s their fault, they should take some responsibility for the experience we had. We weren’t being offered anything that a normal customer coming in with a completely smooth transaction would have gotten. What sort of goodwill is that, after hours upon hours of time spent for wasted effort due to a breakdown in communication? After much back and forth, we finally got offered something beyond the discounts already in place and I struggled to decide if I wanted to take the deal. If I was going to go for blinds of that quality level, I wasn’t going to get a better deal than what was on the table. However, did I want to do business with these people after it was so much trouble??
Panda was pretty keen on getting them because of the pricing and time we’d already invested in the process. We discussed for a long time and I finally decided I was ok with it if we didn’t buy anything else there (we were going to get a washer dryer set, overhead lighting, and many other random things there too). This sort of transaction left a bad taste in my mouth, but it is so steeply discounted compared to anything else we’d be able to find that I didn’t want to just walk away. Once we finally decided to go for it, we started the tedious process of finishing the quote and applying for a Home Depot card. Panda’s application was denied due to some confusion with our current address and verifying his identity, so I opened one up. There were many hiccups with my application and it took nearly an hour on the phone to get it all sorted out.
So finally, we wrapped up at 10 as they were closing… after arriving around 3:30 that afternoon. I don’t even know how our day got away like that. I mean, I thought I disliked shopping before, but now I pretty much hate it. So much trouble!! But at least we walked away with a good deal.
365great Day 323: vessel sinks
I’m a huge fan of sinks that sit atop the counter. I think it’s a really cool design and it happens to be easier to use too. I definitely don’t splash nearly as much when I use them and I don’t have to bend down super low. It’s a lot more comfortable and they look so good, so what’s not to like? For some reason they feel more professional and luxurious to me too, whether they actually are or not. Maybe that’s because I’ve almost always seen them at places that are well-designed, like hotels, spas, and other facilities meant to be a tranquil environment. At some point in the future, I’m totally getting them for my home so I can smile each time I use the sink. It’s a little thing that makes me feel great.
December Favorites 2013
I nearly forgot to get this together before the month was over! Oh boy, it’s already time to think about Jan favs and I’m still putting together the Dec ones…
1. home ownership – As of Dec 13th, 2013, we officially became homeowners. The keys were handed to us and since then we’ve been slowly planning the move. Meanwhile, all our neighbors are in and everyone is wondering when we’ll finally get into this condo they keep hearing about. 😛
2. VitaBath lotion – I got this in my Influenster Rose VoxBox in the fall and boy do I love it! I’ve been using it frequently after showers and I absolutely adore the lightly sweet scent that is also cooling and fresh. Even with frequent usage, I’ve barely used up a quarter of it and it’s wonderful how long it’s lasting me.
3. Julep – I finally caved and got Julep when they came out with a mystery box I couldn’t resist. I was totally impressed by it and will definitely get more, plus I’ve subscribed as a Maven to get some new nail polish colors every now and then. I actually really like the beauty products that Julep makes and will use my subscription as a way to explore them.
4. Wrapp deals – When I first found these shoes, I took that picture to remember to look for something similar. Then I got a great Wrapp gift card deal for something like $12 at Charlotte Russe (which cost me and Panda nothing to send to each other) so I ended up getting that exact style of shoe for a fantastic price. I only take advantage of the free offers in the app, which saves me a good amount.
5. sweaters – Well, my first proper winter in over a decade prompted me to go out and buy some sweaters to wear. I was also goaded on by Autumnfall, who laughed when I showed her what I considered to be a sweater, all proud that I finally bought one. I’ve since gotten ones that even she can’t dismiss as not “real” sweaters. 😛
6. reading – For that period when my life was a hot mess of confusion, I escaped into reading again. My childhood was filled with books and it was nice to get back into it. I hadn’t read fiction in many years, whenever that 4th Harry Potter book came out. I was surprised that I blew through the 50 Shades series the way I did (I thought I’d long since lost patience for fiction since it’s not a business book that I can learn a ton from).
7. wireless mouse – The touchpad on my new laptop gets wonky at times (kind of often). Thankfully, a wireless mouse makes it easy to move the mouse around and strains my fingers, hands, and wrists less. I’m rather particular about the feel of the mouse and I’m glad I found this one for my personal use. I even have a blog post drafted for my pickiness when it comes to this and what I look for in the perfect mouse.
8. red lips – I went through a few weeks when I experimented with bright red lips. It was fun, bold, and playful. I even tried making lip prints like this one on Panda’s cheek. Prior to getting that red lip crayon in my November Ipsy bag, I probably only used red lipstick twice before. Now I’m much more comfortable with something attention-grabbing like that, but usually only at night, special events, and the weekends. Still not a normal thing for me.
9. cat time – Going home for the holidays and spending time with Missy again was amazing. I can’t wait to settle enough to bring her over here. Having a cat around calms me and gives me something relaxing to do whenever I’m home. There shall be no ennui when I can cuddle with my kitty or play around with her. I absolutely love waking up to a cat on my chest or next to my legs, though I may never want to get up for work (or anything else) again.
10. snow – This was before the intense polar vortex/arctic chill madness. It was exciting to get snow again and get to sit by the window and watch it fall down. I’d be happy to get stranded indoors for a few days from a snowstorm so long as I have heat and food. 🙂
Oops, I left out a picture from frolicking at the beach, but I had a whole blog post on that so you can check them out. Returning to Los Angeles was wonderful and a much-need reprieve from everything else. What did you find to be your favorites in December?
365great Day 322: sushi
Sushi comes in so many cool shapes, colors, and combinations of flavors. I used to always get a classic California roll, which is tame enough for anyone. Lately I’ve started to explore more and had my first ones with raw fish (usually salmon). I still prefer pieces with cooked seafood like tempura shrimp or crab meat, but I’m willing to try a bit of raw meat too. I’m particularly fond of the softness of the rice contrasted against the chewiness of the seaweed with the added crunch of cucumber. Avocado adds delicious flavor and the meat offers a bit more heftiness to the meal. The bite-size pieces are perfect for chowing down and the visual presentation is always something to appreciate. Not only does sushi taste good, it looks good too! They have some really cool designs out there that make eating this dish entertaining. It’s great when your food offers more than just something to fill your belly.
365great Day 321: strength
I love feeling strong (and being strong). It’s rewarding when I can surprise people with how strong I am and what I’m capable of. Growing up, I was pretty good at picking up athletic skills. I sprinted well, climbed most things, and learned to swim with little effort. I remember back in 8th or 9th grade when I could do the flexed arm hang for ages. One of my favorite parts of track practice was when we did weights. Cardio has never been my thing. As a voracious reader, I learned to carry 30+ books to the car on a weekly basis. As a good Chinese kid, I always helped my mom carry most of the groceries in the house. My personal challenge was to do it all in one trip, which usually meant a good 5 bags per hand. When I went back to China for a year in 3rd grade, I was able to outrun even the 6th graders. In more recent years I just like the confidence I get when I can do something that people doubt my body is capable of, like carrying my 6-foot something friend pictured here. I’d rather be able to do that than run a marathon, personally. I think it also gives me more confidence to travel alone, since people never think I can hit/punch/kick as hard as I can, so I can surprise them if I needed to defend myself. One thing I love about yoga is that it builds my strength. My favorite pose? Plank! And overall I think your body just feels better when you’re strong, which is a great way to live.
