♥ ─── hurricane sandy ──── ♥

we survived hurricane sandy~!

~day one after the hurricane~

Hai-hai, my sweet honeysuckles~! So, as you may now know, Hurricane Sandy hit the east coast pretty hard. In fact, I have no power and Internet, so I'm not sure when this will upload. I am currently writing this on my iPhone. My extended family and my family had to sleepover and share food and candles. I feel very sorry for those of us who do not have a generator in their house. Thankfully, we had one so we had power for a couple hours each day. But the good news is that we survived. I hope everyone else is okay. Some of my friends live near the shore, so their houses are probably flooded. Many of them had to evacuate their homes. Miki, I hope you and your family are okay. Miku, did anything happen to Nebraska? Like a tornado or anything? Hawaii was hit by a tsunami >O< Anyways, I have so much homework piled now because of the hurricane. And all of my tests are rescheduled to be taken right when I get back to school, so that sucks like shit. = - = Oh, one thing that happened was that the night of the hurricane, my cousin and his family came over to my house and left their dog in the basement. We had underestimated the hurricane and thought that it wouldn't be anything serious. But we were wrong, and the power and Internet went out. Which meant that my cousin and his family couldn't get back into the house, and so the dog was stuck in the basement without food and water for the night Q-Q poor doggy. But the morning after at eight in the morning, we broke into the house through the back door and freed the doggy and all was right in the world. The poor doggy was crying, literally. Tears were coming out of his eyes. You really can't hate a crying dog >O< Anyways, I hope everyone is alive and well~!!

~day two after the hurricane~

cute doggy *O*

On another note, I'm just gonna ramble. Miku, I shall be sending your present some time next week, so your birthday present may come a little late. >O< sorry~ This hurricane is messing up my entire schedule. I shall be sending something super duper cute and something super duper tech-y that you can probably guess. I hope you like lime green and black and gray~!! >~< Miki, I have to ask you to give me something but I shall ask for it later :3 It's not anything big. In fact, it is something quite small. eheh~! BY THE BY~!!!! Christmas is coming up AND I AM SUPER DUPER EXCITED. I want to ask everyone to write a post on their Christmas wish list, so I know what to get you guys ^O^ It doesn't have to be anything substantial. It can even just be a ramble about Christmas present. I shall be writing one as well~! *O* I love Christmas~! It's the most beautiful and wonderful time of the year. Although, Thanksgiving is pretty cool too....mostly because its my birthday though ^^; But Black Friday comes after Thanksgiving which is always fun. I'll have to write another post about Thanksgiving one of these days. Put that on my list of things to write about. heehee~! Anyways, I have to finish studying and homework, so I shall talk to you all later *O* Stay safe and well~!

☆ ─── insecurities ──── ☆

Hai-hai, my lovely strawberry macaroons~!! So today, Mika went to the mall with her sister to meet Miki *^O^* I haven't seen Miki in a while, so today was lots of fun (O u O)~ and as Miki and I were talking, the sensitive subject of my skin was brought up. Don't worry, Miki, I'm not mad or anything like that. What you said made me realize something really strange. I wear a lot of makeup when I have to go somewhere. As soon as my foot steps out of the house, you can bet yourself that I will be wearing makeup. And it is because I am very insecure about my face. I don't feel beautiful with my acne covering my face and the millions of scars that mar my skin. I know it seems so trivial, but I have such low self confidence and esteem that I feel like when people look at me without my makeup, they are thinking about how ugly I look. Even all of my photos on this blog are edited so that my skin looks better, or my cheeks look thinner. It's all because I am so insecure. I feel fat and ugly and even though I know I'm not the only one with acne and that I'm not obese or anything, I still don't feel beautiful. I want to be skinny and I want to have perfect skin but those are things that I can't have just because I want them. I maintain my skin so well by washing it and moisturizing it and taking my makeup off at night, and yet my skin still breaks out EVERYWHERE and when I try to diet and exercise, I fail because I have so many health issues. Hypoglycemia, flat feet, protein deficiency, iron deficiency, vitamin C deficiency, the list goes on. And those aren't my only insecurities. I feel like my voice is annoying, my actions are annoying, the way I speak is annoying, and it's hard to get along with a person like me. At school, I feel like I need to put up a fake persona for people to like me. It's hard going to school without makeup because I don't have time to put it on in the morning. All of my friends have such perfect skin, and then there's me with my gross, pimple-covered face. But I don't want to be fake with you guys. I want you to see me. Me meaning no makeup, no editing. So here are my unedited photos. Please keep in mind, that I am wearing makeup in most of these unedited photos. >O< I will one day post a picture of my no makeup face, but right now I'm too scared to do so. I mean, Miki has already seen me at home without any makeup, but putting such pictures on the internet is a little scary for me. Please understand and be patient with me *O*

Las Vegas (Day One).•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨

Nihao Everyone~! So I'm pretty sure you all know that I went to Las Vegas this month and it was really beautiful (^O^) I took over 600 pictures in three days so right now my iPhone is lacking space (x_x) I saved the pictures on my computer just yesterday so now I have to delete some pictures on my phone to get back some space xP Anyways I went Tuesday night...well technically 2a.m. in the morning on Wednesday, I left my house and went to the airport to take the flight at 5a.m. :') We took a detour to North Carolina cause apparently it was cheaper from there to Las Vegas (>_<) Then we finally got there like around 10a.m. and went out after eating something at the restaurant in the hotel :3

Isn't the sunrise so pretty? (^-^)/

Btw that's my plane too :3

There's the hotel I stayed at~ Vdara :)

Finally at the hotel (^O^)v

My little cousin posing for her picture xD

Here's more of my little cousin posing and making random faces xD

 So here's day one's trip which I personally felt lasted a long time, since we were out walking and stuff for many hours...Yeah I normally don't stay out that long, or maybe it was just because I was away from home (aka. my bed) for so long that it felt weird o(>w<)o Ah back to the topic, we basically started out walking the streets and went to the malls to look at souvenirs and stuff xD The ceiling was really pretty though \(>O<) Yeah my phone doesn't have the best quality, but it you actually walked under it, it looked so real o(^3^)o Miki kind of got confused when she walked out of the mall and it was so bright outside lol xP

 

I found my dream college Mika xP jk jk~

Mika I found a match to your other charm~!
I wanted to buy it for you...but I didn't,
cause it might be too heavy on your phone :(

(Q_Q) I wanted to get this for us too,
but I already got something else...
plus my mom gave it the thumbs down :(

Next we went to M&M World, yes a lot of chocolate and merchandises so I just kept taking pictures xD Then we went to Coca-Cola World which was like right next door :3 Yeah it's not really that fun unless you brought a whole ton of money to buy stuff with, or else you'll just be browsing and taking pictures of everything that catches your eyes...like me :') I knew I was going to want to buy a lot of stuff, so I supressed my urge and kept telling myself "Do you really need that?" I really don't know exactly what I did that day...or the other days, my only reminder is the many pictures that I took to tell me what I actually did xP ...elsewise it's probably forgotten already o(>_<)o

Some pictures at night :)

...to be continued...

(e v e) Pickl-O's

--Now introducing new Pickl-O's

It's an artificially flavored pickle shaped O in a delicious bread bowl.

And there's more! It even makes your milk taste like pickles!

(Now, for a limited time only, you can receive a pickle shaped accessory/toy when you buy a box that has the Pickl-O's mascot, "Bill" Pickle the duck, on the inside of the box!)

Only for $4.99 at your nearest grocery store.

Note: The pickle shaped accessories/toys are not sold separately--

So, you remember that one hand game High-Low-Piccolo? Well, that's where I got the idea of this from

e v e

Don't worry, it's a silly little idea that randomly sprung into my mind and I decided to share it with you lovely people

Anyway, now that I have your attention, I have a few things to tell you guys

On Thursday the Falls City Tigers Varsity Football team played their first play-off game since 2007! Bad news, we lost the game

At the end of the 4th quarter we were tied with the Boystown Cowboys 22-22, and so we went into overtime, where each team has 4 tries to make a touchdown from the 10 yard line. Sadly, they made the touchdown first.

We may have lost, but all of the Tigers fans game our boys a standing ovation for the best season we've had in a LONG time.

All in all, it was a good game (even if the other team were complete bastards, like when our best player got hurt, we were all quiet like we should have been, but the other team was all like "Get up, boy, stop being a pussy, we have a game to play."

So... yeah e n e

Well, that's all I can say for now since my laptop is about to die

Talk to lovely dears later!

◇ ─── cosmic latte is my new best friend ──── ◇

Hai-hai, my yummy chocolate pies~!

So in the recent weeks at school, I have been piled with tests and quizzes and projects and lab reports and whatever shit they need to verify my intelligence. So I have only had 12 hours of sleep in the past week and a half because I've been trying to cram and study and get all my work done. And because of this, I have been getting sick more easily because my body is stressed. My back hurts like nobody's business and my head has been getting frequent migraines and its just terrible. On top of that, my mother bought me a new mouth wash that supposedly whitens teeth. So on Tuesday..morning/night? at 3:00 AM (because I was up until 2:30 finishing a lab report that took 8.5 hours to write) I tried it....and my the inside of my mouth was chemically burned badly. I had an allergic reaction and my cheeks and tongue swelled 3x in size and the skin that covers my cheeks and gums peeled off. This sounds super gross, sorry. >O< But it hurt so much. I was in so much pain. My mouth is still sore and is still under the process of healing. And on top of that, I've been having stomach ulcer-like symptoms frequently. Yea~ But during those sleepless nights, my best friend was coffee and energy drinks. Which brings me to my next point. Did you know that the universe has a color? And that color has officially been named "Cosmic Latte." HOW AMAZING IS THAT?! I LOVE THE NAME~ It's really hard to see the color in the picture I posted, but go on Google and search Cosmic Latte and you'll see the color better. It's a light beige-y color, kind of off-white, and it's the color of the foam on a latte :3

♪ ─── long time no see pt.3 ─── ♪

PART THREE~! *^O^*

So.....remember how Mika wanted to be a doctor?

Well, she is one step closer to becoming one.

Yes, friends. I got an internship under a professor at a lab that does research on embryonic stem cells and cardiomyopathy.

I am super excited and am over the moon about this opportunity.

I feel super lucky to have even been considered for this internship especially since college students apply to be the professor's intern and get rejected.

Anyways, I am proud of myself for even being considered.

In actuality, I haven't exactly "gotten" the internship yet.

It's still under process because he wants to review letters of recommendation from my teachers.

But I'm really praying and hoping that I get the internship. 

And that concludes this long three-part post that I attempted to condense.

♪ ─── long time no see pt.2 ─── ♪

PART TWO~!! HERE WE GO~!
So, remember how I said that my dad had offered to get me a smartphone if I did well on my SATs? Well, we all know that I bombed my SATs (not really, but in my opinion I did). But my dad, the kind soul that he is, got me a smartphone anyways. Yes, friends. I now have joined the iPhone family~! YAY! I got a white iPhone 4S and I absolutely adore it. I would've gotten the iPhone 5 but it was a little big for my liking, and...it was 100 dollars more expensive, and since I didn't do that well on my SATs, I didn't feel like I deserved something so expensive. Not that the iPhone 4S wasn't expensive, but it was 100 dollars cheaper, so I decided to go with it. But either way, I feel really blessed.

♪ ─── long time no see pt.1 ─── ♪

Hai-hai, my wonderful golden leaves~! I have so much to say and so much to tell you guys. I haven't posted in so long that everything has just kind of built up and up. But I have now found some free time to write~! YAY! So Since this post will probably end up taking up like...300 miles of space on this blog, I'm going to break it down into parts. So...PART ONE, leggo~!
SAT scores came out on October 25th, and if you looked at my Goals for Junior Year section, you already know that I did not achieve said goal. I had set my goal score to be at least a 2200 or above, but I fell short by 50 points and got a 2150. WHICH IS NOT A BAD SCORE BY ALL MEANS, just to clarify. I mean, most people would be over the moon if they got a 2150 and I acknowledge that I could've done worse and that a 2150 is a sufficient score. But you guys know that I worked so hard and studied really hard over the summer and during the first few months of school up until the SAT. But then I got sick on the testing day and I couldn't concentrate whatsoever. So, a 2150 is good especially since I was sick. But a 2150 is not the score I wanted and its definitely too low of a score for me, personally, to be satisfied with. Just so I don't offend anyone, as I stated above, a 2150 is not a terrible score at all. But everyone has a different standard to what they hold themselves by. For me, that standard is really high because I expect a lot from myself, as do my family. For me to get into my dream college, I really needed a high score, and a 2150 just doesn't cut that requirement. Also, it's just the fact that I know I could have done better and that I probably could've achieved my goal had I pushed myself more and maybe studied more and it's upsetting to me. But don't fret. I did cry a little, yes, because I was so afraid that I was going to fall short and not be able to get into my dream college. But I contacted the college, and they told me that they do superscore the SAT which makes me EXTREMELY happy. It means that I get another chance to improve myself and get my ideal score. Superscoring is when they take all the SATs that you took and look at only your best math, reading, and writing scores. So since my composite score for math and reading aren't all that terrible (770 and 720, respectively), I am going to retake the SAT in December and aim to get a 760-800 on the writing section which will bring my score up to  a 2250-2290 which is PERFECT. So pray for me to do my best~! >O<

In Memory Of.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨

Towards the beginning of this week a tragic incident had occurred...on Tuesday night a boy named Akshay, a junior in my high school, had died due to brain damage :( Although I did not know him, I heard people talk about it I found out what had happened :( I also knew people who were friends with him and it made me feel extremely bad seeing them tear up Dx The following day on Wednesday people wore yellow, which was his favorite color, to commemorate Akshay (Miki didn't find out until Wednesday morning so she didn't wear yellow that day sorry TT___TT) I'm sorry to share such a story on this blog but I thought that maybe this was something I could do in memory of Akshay (Rest in Peace) :'( 

Lately in the past two month OB has had some tragic incidents where three students/former students of our high school had died (this and the Pathmark shooting) Even in such a peaceful town something like this happened and Miki is greatly saddened by it...I know this is mean to say, but I'm glad it wasn't someone close to me that had an accident...Life really is precious and I hope that those living this moment will continue treasuring their lives, and thank you all for being here with me :)

Weekly Update.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨

Hai Hai~! So it's definitely been a while, but a lot has happened and tennis has been taking up a lot of my time o(>_<)o This is going to be a long post cause it's summarizing the whole week...good luck reading it all sorry xP So first off on Monday we had no school, but we did have a tennis match that day which obviously did not end well at all. Our team did not have actual practice for weeks already, just circuits (conditioning) inside the school due to the bad weather lately :( The other days were all matches...

Oh and good news to all~ Miki finally won her first game for tennis against another team, and our JV team won the match that day too \(^O^)/ I was playing the 'Third Singles' too, since the other team didn't have enough people for the regular 'five doubles match for JV Tennis, cause three of their girls were absent :/ so we played three singles and two doubles instead :3 Oh, but three of our girls got stolen by our varsity team too, because one of their girl is injured and another two got suspended...Yeah they didn't notify their coach on a day they had a match so the whole team had to forfeit that day (>_<) That aside, another one of our JV girl was sick for the whole week, so our top four JV girls were gone and left us that day \(TT___TT) ...Still we won so yay~! My scores for my two sets were 6-4 and 6-0 (>v<)/ Miki is very happy! Not too bad for my first win right? x3 

Our whole team didn't win that many matches this season, but at least we didn't lose all of them... Sadly the last day of tennis on Friday was a poop...I lost poorly partially due to the stupid wind and it was freezing too~! I hit the ball forward and instead the wind blew it behind me Dx My partner was also someone who I could not work with...so it wasn't a good combination at all :/ I have no clue what the coach was thinking, just because we won one set together, doesn't mean a miracle will happen again Dx

I'm not trying to talk bad about her, but I asked my some of my other friends on the team who played with her, and we all agreed on the same thing. (-___-") It's not like she's a bad player or anything, I mean we are no pro. tennis team, but we just don't have that chemistry as partners you know? And she loses so many point just with her serves...I remember once she lost a whole game to my friend just with her double faults...think she did at least seven failing serves in a row (x_x) The problem's isn't even the fact that she can't serve, it's that she tries to hit those serves that the opponent can't return, but you practice that during practice not during a stupid game augh~!

...Our team technically won that day, but not really...We won two games and lost two...and for the fifth game one of our girls got injured and had to leave...another girl substituted her and we won that game, however, because it wasn't the same girl it was considered a forfeit so yeah... (=_=) Anyways after my game was finished I sat with the rest of my team and watched, but it was at least an hour or longer wait...I was wrapped in my friend's track hoodie, my legs and arms were all in there as you can see from the pictures below...Miki became a public attraction (>3<)/ 

Now backtracking a little, Tuesday was senior night and we had a little get-together :D We made posters for them too and got them stuff from H-Mart haha xP Well not everyone on the team helped to make the posters, actually half of them didn't even show up after school the week before (=_=)/ but too bad cause only those who came to help out had their names on the poster x3 Everyone did help decorate the room on Tuesday though :) For the 'Pep Rally' we're dancing to 'Oppa Gangnam Style' so our theme for tennis this year is 'OB Tennis Style' as you can see from the main poster :3 I had to help with the words on the main poster so there wasn't much time for me to draw anything else :/ Oh but I did help with Laura's poster and drew a Mashimaro for her, we got her Mashimaro earbuds too xD As For Kendra we just added another little something for her Piggy collection o(^O^)o Look at the poster Vivian made! It has Hello Kitty and Taeyang's logo~! Ahhh~ Can't wait for the concert xD

The rest of the week was just filled with many tests, quizzes, and projects...on Friday I thought I was going to collapse cause the night before I only had about two hours of sleep...Once I got home at like 6p.m. on Thursday I started doing homework, ate dinner, took a shower, and back to homework Dx ...Stayed up the almost the whole night to finish all my homework :'( The following morning on Friday I skipped both breakfast and lunch to study for my Physics quiz...it was worth a hundred points so basically a test (TT___TT) Then it was time for the tennis match and Miki only ate a small bag of chips before it (-___-) I pigged out the moment I got home xP Next week on Tuesday night I will be flying to Las Vegas with part of my family...time to finish all the project and research paper this weekend :') And that's about it for this week's ups and downs x3