Blogtober...?

I accidentally somehow stumbled on a hashtag called Blogtober which is sort of like Vlogmas, you blog every single day in the month of October. And if you know me, you know I'm one to attempt as many challenges as I find interesting! But of course I hadn't found out about this until now so, we're starting with today!

 

So today I'm gonna do a bit of recap on things going on or has gone on.... 

The thing that depresses me abut living in Florida is that we don't actually get Fall. It's pretty much summer without the rain during "Fall". So I try to surround myself with as much Fall themed places as I can!

We recently moved to a bigger apartment, so that's exciting except the part where we have to unpack and find a place for everything. Things are still scattered around and I need to find them a home. All the Fall foods are out --- the Pumpkin Spice Lattes (I get it in Frapp), the Pumpkin cookies from Panera Bread and their Autumn Squash Soup they also brought in a new flatbread sandwich with turkey, cranberry and spinach and it. is. amazing. Seriously. Paired with the Squash Soup? It's like Fall, literally in your mouth!

We went to the annual Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party in Magic Kingdom and thankfully it didn't start down pouring until we were about to leave. But since it had been raining earlier that afternoon, the floor was too wet to let out the Headless Horseman for fear that the horse may had slipped. Which sucks, cause that's my favorite part of the Boo To You Parade. We still managed to get a lot of candy and I got to take lots of pictures in my costume. Yes! I dressed up this year! As a Scarecrow! I was standing in front during the parade and I love waving to the characters. The Mad Hatter actually came up to me and says, "are you a scarecrow?" and I was like "yes, I am!" and he goes "okay scare me then!" and Alice goes "don't listen to him!" and I go ".... boo!" and he goes "she's not so scary." and I thought it was funny cause that's how part of the parade song goes. I'm always amazed at how the people who play Mad Hatter nail it so well! The day after I found about 7 mosquito bites on my legs and they all ended up scaring. The one on my arm actually turned into a bubble and I've never really had that happen before. My bites usually just turn into pimples almost and just go away. But now they tend to bubble and they scar. So yeah, now I have a scar on my arm and 7 others on my legs. Great. Right? Sigh.

There was an earthquake back home which isn't too uncommon but this was a pretty big one. I think it was a 6.0 and it was 3 miles away from St. Helena. Which if you know anything about NorCal is incredibly close to both Napa and Vallejo. Most of Napa lost their wine and the stores in American Canyon were pretty much trashed as well. My mom said that everything was fine back home, nothing really fell or anything. I'm still scared to see my room when I get home. I bet everything has fallen over and I wouldn't be surprised if there was broken glass or a broken lamp somewhere. Ugh. And parts of downtown Vallejo were damaged as well. This is the first time that we've had an earthquake so close to us. Usually it comes from the San Fran side, not Napa Valley. The whole week they had aftershocks and just the other day I saw there was another earthquake, a 3.0 near Livermore. It's so insane to see all these quakes on my side of the area. Just because in the whole 25+ years we've lived there there hasn't been one so close to home. I'm glad that everyone at home is okay and the girls are okay and Joy is okay.

I honestly don't know what else I'll be blogging about if I'm being completely honest. I sort of just... jumped into this haha! But I will be talking about a ton of Fall stuff and I still have a haul to edit and post as well as another haul to film. 

I'm working on my Halloween Book Challenge, I haven't finished any books yet and I really need to get my ass in gear because I have a looooong list to get through! Other than that, starting a Mythology class tomorrow which I'm really excited about and trying to keep my head above water. I've sort of crawled under a rock recently and I know I should probably crawl out, but I'm just trying to handle everything I can one day at a time.

So what have all of you been up to? Enjoying Fall? Any plans for Halloween?

Living | My Desk Area

Ah, the life of a college student.

I know posts have been seriously lacking on this blog. Homework really does a great job at killing creativity. So as a scapegoat post I shall show you my desk instead!

TA-DA!

It's sorta messy. I was putting together a Love With Food post and on the right is a pile of books to be reviewed. Fun! Fun!

I love my little desk :)

So I cleared off the Love With Food box and put together a fall candy bowl. I divided the candy between my bowl and the candy bowl I'm going to use for trick-or-treaters. I've never lived in a real complex before but I know there's loads of kids around here, do kids usually go trick-or-treating around their complex? I think it would be fun! Am I still young enough to go trick-or-treating myself? That would you know, be fun too. Just sayin.

So I have some Hershey's (love the Special Dark and Mr. Goodbar), some Jolly Rancher Caramel Pops like the one I had in my What I Ate Today vlog I posted yesterday and an M&M mix of plain, peanut and peanut butter. M&M is one of those things I'm constantly craving! 

Honestly, I'm pretty excited to fill this bowl up with mint chocolates and winter candy. Mmm!! I love seasonal candy.

NaNoWriMo is coming up really really quick so I'm sure I'll be snacking on these and putting together my novel. I'm thinking of finishing the one I started last year for NaNoWriMo. I only got 4k words into it. I thought I had put down more.... I know I outlined it and had it all worked out. I guess I just didn't write any of it. I can totally do that now.

Are any of you going to participate in NaNoWriMo this year?

Growing up | Not at all what you expected

This is a lifestyle blog right? So let's talk about life.

I had it complicated growing up, it's hard to talk about without giving away basic details because I don't know how far I'm able to share without regretting it or feeling guilty of saying too much but it's only because at some point someone from my real life or from my family may stumble on this post and there are just some things that family don't need to know.

Let's just keep it as growing up was complicated. And I was a very damaged and depressed girl who wanted nothing more than to kill the pain by any means and it was addicting even if the crash result was so much worse than how I felt prior to seeking out my next high. Whatever it was. Don't assume it was always drugs! Though I guess anything could be considered a "drug".

At sixteen the plan was very very simple: kill myself at eighteen. So my abusive boyfriend? Didn't matter, I wasn't going to be here much longer. He'll deal. That was the solid plan. I decided to end my life way before it was even going to start. 

Then something happened --- the guy I'd joke about suicide with and spent all year crushing on? Well he kinda sorta liked me back. He was swept me away in cloud I never knew existed and made me feel all these things, changed all these things and made me rethink my fool-proof plan. He's now my husband and sometimes I still blame him for ruining my plan. Jokingly. The guy saved my life after all! He doesn't appreciate my suicide jokes anymore though, damn on that.

So for the last ten years, I've basically been winging it. I had no plans to go to college or get a degree or a career or anything so when I did turn eighteen, I was kind of at a loss. My academics were shot to crap from not caring for so many years and I was pretty much starting over. And regretting never listening in class. Ten years later, I'm still in college trying to figure it out. But I guess it's better than giving up or you know, being dead.

There's so much I want to do in life --- I want to travel, I want to find cute cafes and drink coffee while being surrounded by morning dew in beautiful cities even though let's be real, I can't wake up that early. I want to explore a Farmers Market in every state. I want to get together with a friend and discuss our latest trip oversea. I want to talk about Verona, Italy after actually going there. I want to taste Macarons in Paris. I want to try Maple Syrup in Canada. I want to take an epic journey into a healthier lifestyle. I want to inspire people. I want learn how to sew. I want to land a job that will provide me with my very own cubical so I can snap a picture, send it to my brother saying "you're right, I do belong in a cube". I want to bake again. I want to make enough money that I won't pull my hair out every month. I want to find a way to beat OCD. 

But growing up? It's never what you expect. There are bills (and OMG there's so many of them! I never realized how many until I moved into MY OWN place!), there are jobs that don't pay enough, there is a lot more struggling to be done, there is time that end up wasted, there are coupons to be clipped, there are nights that pass with no sleep, and did I mention there are bills? So. Many. Bills. Having no career and no degree is hard, very hard. But I'm determined to make it work.

Now if I can just keep being determined...

Florida's epic mosquitoes

Being Filipino I've endured a lot of mosquito bites in my life time and all they would ever do is bump up, itch and go away. Sometimes the actual bite would puss a little bit but nothing too epic. My brother on the other hand, his bites turn into thin bubbles that eventually pop. So imagine going to the Philippines (which is like mosquito freakin world) and seeing all these thin skin bubbles all over his arm just waiting to pop. It's probably the weirdest reaction I've seen.

The last time I was in Florida I never had not one mosquito bite the whole eight months I was here on my first internship. But then I didn't get migraines from the storms either. Maybe it's just my new work location, though it's not exactly near water I can't explain why there are dozens of mosquitoes out in just that area. It's a parking lot for goodness sakes! So far I've been bit four times. One on my ankle, one on my leg, one on my shoulder (which I felt) and one on my finger. The first three ended up swelling and bruising, leaving a scar which is weird. The last one was probably the worst...

So I thought I had successfully avoided the mosquitoes but as soon as I got on the bus, I felt that familiar throbbing sting. On my finger. Of all places it could had bit me, it just had to be my finger. Right on the knuckle too. Faaaantastic!

So I went home, applied some anti itch cream and iced it hoping it would help. I did manage to get my engagement ring off but not my wedding band. At that point, my finger had swelled.

You can see the swelling starting to happen. The bump doubled in size, making it difficult to get the ring off. No amount of icing seemed to ease it down either. So I took some Claritin since I don't have Benadryl and went to sleep.

I ended up having to go home from work because my finger swelled a pretty significant amount. The whole finger. I couldn't bend it or stretch it as you can see in the picture. It caused a few panic attacks that day. It was swelling so badly that it felt like the ring was squeezing my finger. It was awful.

You're probably wondering why didn't you just go to the hospital? I recently found out that the insurance I had in California doesn't extend out to Florida, so I literally have no health coverage here. Moving to a different state is always so weird, different rules and regulations and all that.

Its gone down since then, today seems much better. The actual bite spot is showing so that means it's healing but I still can't get my ring off and it's still a bit uncomfortable as I'm typing or when I wash my hair. Hopefully within the next two days I'll be able to slip the ring off.

Have you ever had a similar reaction to mosquito bites? What are your at home remedies?

Hello, July!

I can't believe it's already July! Where has the year gone? Oh right, to working haha! This "internship" is really sucking my free time from me. Ah well, what can you do right? You gotta do what you gotta do to get where you need to go!

Sorry, I had to :P

July is going to be a super busy month for me; car shopping (which hubby did all on his own yesterday annnd came home with no car. He's awful at making decisions, poor thing) on a deadline, packing, moving, working more ridiculous hours and trying to find time to sleep. The last few months have been crazy, I've seen hubby maybe a total of an hour and a half everyday. Half an hour awake lol. And the one day a week we do have off together is usually spent running errands, ah. At least by the end of this month the crazyness of that can stop. But it's getting through this month that's going to be hard part!

I started this blog to be more open about my life and yet I still feel myself holding myself back, censoring myself and I don't get why. I want to share the things I'm going through and experiencing, but I'm having the hardest time doing it. It'll get easier with time, right? Right.

So this month I hope to...

• Get done with packing up clothes and things that don't need to be used now by July 19th
• Put at least $200 in the "just in case" fund
• Find a car by July 12th; obtain a car by July 19th
• Read at least 2-3 books (I miss reading so much)
• Get videos up on the YouTube channel(s)
• Create a resume
• Settle school loan situation
• Be ready to move before the moving day
• Try Dunkin Donuts summer flavors!

I know some of this won't work out the way I want and I really hope I can shape up enough this month to push through the tired-ness and just get everything done. I'll be glad in August if I do! The thing that's really frustrating me are these nonstop storms. Like everyday the last few weeks it's been raining/storming. This passed week we've seen the sun in small bursts and the rest of the day is either downpours or little trickles of rain all day. It's just weird.

So here's to July and hopefully a month of productivity!

It's a little depressing that my list doesn't consist of anything having to do with celebrating summer. Ah, maybe next year.

Happy 4th of July!

 

Happy Fourth of July!!!

I hope it's spent with family, good food and good times!

 

My brother is going to be making a feast back home in California while I'm here in Florida about to go to work where I'll have Lunchables for lunch and I won't even be off in time to see fireworks *sigh*. The downside to working in a theme park --- you never get in on the fun! I'm just hoping it doesn't rain today like it has been storming all week.

Oh well, there's always next year!

Plans for the weekend!

Considering it's Sunday, I guess the weekend is pretty much technically over... but no matter! Let's pretend Monday counts too. Or not. Whatever.

We're moving in a few days and like any pro procrastinator (I put the pro in procrastinator, harharhar!) I haven't gotten ANY packing done yet. I haven't even sorted anything yet. I've basically just screwed myself. I did make lists in November on what to pack and what to get done... now to just DO that stuff, right? So here's another list, of things I may or may not get done :P

1. Clear off desk in bedroom to the best of my ability
2. Sort though the clothes in MY bedroom bed to be packed or donated
3. Set up blog posts for various blogs
4. Pack bedsheets
5. Pack M's hoodie
6. Wash travel pj's and Tangled fleece blanket (to be packed)
7. Wash M's clothes (some to be packed)
8. Sort bookshelf and pull aside books to sell/donate
9. Back up files
10. Read Uses for Boys
11. Read The Splinders (& Lucid if can)

I didn't get anything done yesterday that I was suppose to because I was being lazy since it was a gloomy cold day (way to go for excuses!) so now I get to do everything today and tomorrow. Although tomorrow after M come back from work I'll have to go do the donating and searching for last minute travel items thing.

.... so I should probably stop yapping (is it still yapping if I'm writing?) and go get some of this stuff done! 

Happy Sunday everyone!