The Lighthearted Wanderer

So yeah...I'm getting more and more behind on the posts...but I WILL get to all of them in some way, shape, or form!! And now, traditions:  My family is super close, especially at Christmastime. The extended family always comes over to our house for Christmas Eve meal and we open presents!  The Christmas decorations are always pretty much the same, but I love them. It is a pain to put them up and take them down (especially during the years I was away at school and just came home right before the holidays), and I know that my parents put up with it because they know it makes me so happy every year.    Can you blame me? My birthday is  the day after Christmas, you know.  Yup, that's right! My birthday is the day after Christmas (Boxing Day), and every year (except last year when I was in Japan) I've been able to spend my birthday at home with my family with Christmas decorations in the background. I think that makes my birthday ...

I'm pretty tired today so I'm going to put off Rosalilium's #bedm topic of "Favourite Traditions" until tomorrow morning. Instead I'll just post these quotes I got from some older friends last night at a fun little housewarming gathering. A couple drinks and competitive spirits made for a very interesting night of games and sort-of deep conversations. Since I'm turning 25 at the end of this year, it's been tugging at my brain a bit so I've been asking older and wiser buddies for any advice and here's what they came up with: What are some of the things you learned after turning 25?  "That you should pay attention to the people you care about and don't give a shit about what other people think." (Very emphatic delivery as you can see.) "I can't make everyone happy so I only make happy the people I care about." (We are in a generation of people pleasers and conflict-avoiders.) "I notice that my metab...

A friend is like... ...a really yummy slice of cake. ...sliding down a snowy mountain. ...the glee in finding a really great outfit. ...the person who can finish your sentences without saying a word. ...your partner-in-crime. ...a hand-holder and hug-giver, back-patter and all-around expert love-sharer. ...a source of inspiration. ...the family you weren't born with, but found along the way.

Sadly, I don't walk to work or school anymore, and I get to endure the 40-1hr commute to work each school day in the morning. I used to think that driving to work would be so much cooler because at least one would be able to see something (besides the man-made lake next to my apartment complex in Japan), but in reality, it doesn't make much of a difference. If you're rushing around, you don't really have time to stop randomly for breakfast or coffee or whatever... I do really enjoy listening to the radio in the mornings though. My guilty pleasure would definitely be 102.7 KIIS FM in the mornings with Ryan Seacrest. In about the same time as a prime time TV show, I get to hear celebrity news, interviews, the traffic, music, and weird commercials. It's rather comforting to have a routine with the morning radio show, and I've definitely learned to appreciate all the "talk" parts of talk radio. Maybe someday I'll be more daring and on my way home I...

What is your ideal way to pamper yourself and relax? Since I've pretty much avoided the M-F 9-5 plus overtime life (so far), I like to think that I'm not terribly ground up and stressed out by week's end. I know way more people with way more demanding work places than mine, so I'm not complaining.  I do like to treat myself after particularly busy times, like a few weeks ago when I was covering for the main teacher on a Friday. By then end of the day, I just thought... I need a treat . Food, drinks, fun, a nap...anything really. My most favorite way to treat myself after a busy week is actually to go out with my girl friends and just hang--basically do something completely un related to small children. Whether I feel successful or not so successful, the last thing I want to do is go home to a regular evening at home. Last week, however, was a super crazy whirlwind of preparations for the 1st grade Culture Fair, and unfortunately by the time Friday rol...

"Life's a Lesson: What is the single most important lesson you have ever had?" I'm not very good at choosing one thing when it comes to a question like this. I'm sure that if I pick one, I'll feel really good about it at the time, but by the next day I'll be all..."wait, this is what I should have talked about instead! -_-" Which is too bad...because I really want to pick one and be really thought-provoking...but instead, here are a couple mantras all kind of tied together that I like to remember when life's getting a little sticky or when I'm feeling a little down. 1. My real life isn't going to begin sometime in the future, my real life is right now . - When I was younger, I read so many stories about teens and young adults having amazing adventures in all my favorite books, and I thought, "When I'm in high school, that will happen to me." And a lot of stuff did, but I thought there was more. Then later, ...

I love food. I love baking, and I love the idea of cooking but I'm not so good at it. Here are a few posts about my baking adventures...feel free to comment or message me if you'd like any recipes! Another Morning Off  - Chocolate chip strawberry waffles Winter Treats  - Chocolate chip butterscotch walnut cookies, Garlicy-parmesan stuffed mushrooms, & Pineapple-raisin bread pudding Hodgepodge  - Yellow cupcake w/ cinnamon cream cheese frosting, 3 layer yellow cake with brownie filling Making It Work  - Microwave mac and cheese in a country where cheese is rare! Cooking in Japan  - Microwave brownies in Japan! Making Macarons (Round 1)  - My first okay attempt at macarons I also absolutely love going out to eat at some nice restaurants. I haven't done it nearly enough in LA, but on the East Coast I've definitely been to a couple really nice places. My absolute favorite in Boston (so far)... Neptune Oyster! For the seafood lover, no doubt...

First late post! :hides in shame: I fell asleep before 11pm last night and woke up a few hours later in a complete daze! All I was able to do was take out my contacts before falling asleep again...oh well... A long time ago, I watched a cheesy school video of how to conserve resources. To this day, I remember the cartoon of a boy leaving the sink on while brushing his teeth, and the nearby lake being drained and drowning the fishy. (I can't believe I found it! Turns out it's a Sesame Street segment.) ...There's something to be said about public service announcements being able to impact the actions of their viewers many many years (decades actually!) after being watched.  Following this theme, the things I do that are green-oriented are just small things.  1) Turning off the tap while brushing my teeth.  2) Turning off the lights when they aren't necessary. 3) Throwing out trash in the trash bin. (Littering does  bother me...how difficult is it...

"Are you a collector? Maybe a bit of a hoarder? Tell us about something you like to collect. Or if you favour minimalism, perhaps tell us why?" I never liked the idea of labeling my shopoholic preferences as being a "collector" of that certain thing. When I was younger, it was Beanie Babies...yes, I had a lot of them, but did I really collect them? Not really, I thought, because I never aspired to have all the Beanie Babies, just the cute ones! Then when I got a little older, I did some travelling with my family. We visited a lot of places in California and on the Eastern seaboard, going up and down the coast from New York to Orlando twice or three times. And I started noticing that I had accumulated a lot of snowglobes that were really similar in style, so I made a conscious effort to buy snow globes of that type. Unfortunately, they all evaporated sometime during college when I wasn't living at home, and my parents packed them away or threw...

"Tell us about your favorite book. Or maybe give us a top 5 of the books that changed your life." (via thegreatgrowingup.com) I can't say if this is true for other only children, but for me, the world of books was my escape, my brothers and sisters and travel companions. The characters in books taught me lessons about life that I missed out on by not having anyone older to ask or younger to be an example for. Saturdays were spent in bookstores as opposed to toy stores. I loved Crown Books because their prices were cheaper and Borders always put the annoying giant price sticker that covered some of the back cover summary. But now that both Crown Books and Borders have closed their doors, I am simply sad at the reality that print reading and spending endless Saturdays in bookstores isn't as common for children nowadays as it was for me. When I got to high school, I enjoyed reading the more literary classics for English class, but was introduced to analyzing tho...