Halloween Antics and More...

I know. It's been forever. I apologize for my empty promises of keeping this thing up to date. I did my best, and my best was awful. Anyway, here's an update on a super fun weekend.

I pretty much love all holidays but Halloween is definitely a favorite of mine. I know and respect that many Christians choose not to celebrate it for its origins but for me, all I care about is that it's a day where you dress up, eat candy, carve pumpkins, and watch scary movies. It's like non Christians celebrating Christmas--it's kind of become a different holiday altogether and you can make the holiday whatever you want it to be. And so, I've had an awesome weekend celebrating October 31st!

First: costume. I considered going out and buying a costume but honestly, I find creative homemade costumes to be the best. I think one reason why I like Halloween so much is because as a kid, I often had the attitude that I wouldn't put too much work into my costume but then lo and behold, my mom would actually get really creative and excited about making my costume. So, she helped generate a lot of excitement for costuming. After some consideration, I decided to be Tomas, from The Orphanage. I don't have a pic of myself as Tomas (soon to be rectified, just wait) but here's the kid below.

Side note: If you haven't heard of it, The Orphanage, (and you like scary movies) then you have to go watch this movie. It's not a cheap thrills kind of film (nothing Guillermo del Toro does ever is) but I love this tragic story. I won't give it all away, but basically Tomas is this little boy who was born deformed and his loving mother makes him this face bag so the other kids can tolerate his presence. Needless to say, the face bag didn't help much. Now, that's just one dimension to the story. I'll let you watch the movie to get the rest. And no, k$, you would never be able to watch this :).

[EDIT] Okay, this is the only Tomas picture I currently have... unfortunately it's not scary Tomas, it's gangster Tomas, but at least you can see my homemade mask!

Second: Halloween party. We threw one, it was a blast, and to protect the anonymity of everyone who attended, I'm not posting pictures (also because I have none) but I WILL show off my awesome festive chip dip--pretty awesome right?! Spider web: sour cream. Spiders: black olives. Thanks to A & E for the tips! 

Third: Pumpkin carving!!!! Growing up with Chinese parents, we never carved pumpkins. Ironically, in undergrad, it was a Chinese friend who got us all to first carve them. I remembered liking it so much that this year, I carved two and almost broke two carving knives doing it. The first: Grim Reaper, second: deranged jack o lantern! Carving pumpkins makes me want to carve other squash, like butternut and acorn--there are some serious works of art out there!

Aaand, lastly, not Halloween related at all, I saw Beauty and the Beast on "broadway." I'm not sure the venue of Assembly Hall here really counts as Broadway, but it was sweet and cute.... which is my nice way of saying I was totally underwhelmed and kind of wanted my money back. We ended up paying about $60 for the ticket and I remember paying half of that for a show in Houston that was loads better. Still, it was enjoyable but it makes me more excited to live in a bigger city again where I'll have a lot more options for checking out new shows, concerts, etc.

That last note brings me to my real life update. I am graduating in 40 days. 40 DAYS. Not only can I barely believe that I'm finally at this stage of my life, but I feel so blessed at the way things have turned out for me. My last post was when I was starting my internship and now? I got the job offer, took the offer, and now spend my (loads!) of free time thinking about where I want to live and how I want to decorate my future apartment. I know this free time won't last forever which is why I'm treasuring it but it's still pretty surreal.

Oh, one more funny thing. I've had the pleasure of living in apartments that all have pretty good maintenance, but at my current place, I have a special place in my heart for our maintenance guys who added these lovely decals to their ride:

 

Meet their golf cart, the "Fast y Furioso!" They could definitely give Vin Diesel a run for his money!

Houston, here I am.

HI! It's been YEARS since I've had a blog. The last time I had a blog, it wasn't called a blog, it was called xanga otherwise simply known as online journaling and I still had people telling me how unsafe it was. Now, it seems like a lot of people have blogs and some of them become really famous. Here's hoping I'm not one of them because my main purpose of doing this is to keep in touch with my besties in life. There may be some deeper reflection, but mostly, I just want to share the fun stuff I've done and how things are going in my life of excess. 

SO. I am in Houston, TX and I LOVE IT. It's probably pretty nauseating to most people how much I'm loving my life right now so I don't think I should go into detail. So I'll just say this: I'm about to finish the third week of my internship and almost every day I have literally left work with a smile on my face. I know. It's ridiculous. I know/expect things will get harder but so far, so good and I'm super thankful that I have such supportive people around me at work.

Now onto the (more) FUN stuff.

This past weekend was phenomenal because every day I did something super fun. Since Jwow (my roomie who will assuredly be a main character in these summer chapters) and I only have 12 weeks to explore Houston, we're trying to make the most of our weekends. This past weekend was the first one where I think we actually accomplished that.

First: Houston's Natural Science Museum, fully explored with my French roommate. Here are the highlights:

SATURDAY:

You don't scare me lion! (although the torn off zebra leg at his feet should have made me more wary... oh wait, he's dead.)

AMAZING JEWELRY COLLECTION. This was one of my favorites (and the picture also turned out the best). Literally, some of the shininess from the diamonds made for bad photography. I never really thought I was a big sapphire girl but right now all I can think is YES.

Now, a lot of people think my favorite color is red. Those who know me best know those others are wrong. What's my favorite color? BLOOD/DARK red. Example: The giant dark red rock in this necklace. If a man proposed to me with a giant rock this color...

Don't ask me why Confucius was hanging out in the park outside the museum. Don't ask me what I'm doing either.

A great day wouldn't be complete without a great meal. And this was a great meal! Only... I think I realized I don't really like paella. This wasn't bad paella at all, it was actually really good, which is why I've decided that I just don't appreciate the dish. 

SUNDAY:

Sunday was an extra special treat because a very good friend of my mine, Miss Shell, visited San Antonio for a smart person/doctor research conference. Alamo central being only three hours away from Houston, I zipped on over for a day of fun with her.

Riverwalk! Only... somehow we turned up on the townie side of the walk, and by townie, I mean homeless/sketchy people side.

First real barbecue in Tejas. Not bad but not great. I like my ribs a little more tender. Don't get me wrong, these were good, but I like the meat to literally be falling off the bone at the slightest tug. So if you ever hear me tell you I love more than those kind of ribs, just know that that's A LOT. 

Are we in America? Nope. This is Texas baby.

Damn straight!

Dead, stuffed lion #2. Weird growly facial expression #2.

Okay so, it took Miss Shell and me awhile to understand what the Alamo was really about. Needless to say, we really didn't have enough of the gumption these men had since we sought A/C pretty quickly once we started getting hot. As I told the Miss, if someone made it a mission to battle the sun, I would have stayed out and dealt with it. However, she was as intolerant of the heat as I was (which I really didn't think was possible) so I was not-so-secretly overjoyed. Later this turned out to be a good choice as I felt really sick that night...heat exhaustion? Probably.

Did I mention I met with my old pal Oprah too? Yeah, we just chatted on her former set. We were reminiscing over the good times, when we were both skinnier. ;)

All in all, it's been a fantastic three weeks. When I think about my life just a little over a year ago, it makes me so thankful that my daddy in the sky was watching over me this whole time. I feel so utterly blessed to be where I am today. PEACE.