Radio and MP3s

When I was a freshman in high school I joined the tennis team. The courts we practiced at were a 5-10 minute drive away from the school, so everyday our coaches would load us into the vans and drive us there. I remember the drives in particular, because when our practices ended it would be the heart of commute hour and getting back on the freeway was not pretty. Second, the head coach apparently loved classical music, so day after day, after those long grueling practices, he'd find his favorite classical music station and just let it play. As a young 14-15 year old who was listening to only pop and rock music, classical music was agony. I didn't mind instrumental music at the time, but classical music was an entirely different class on its own and I cringed; gripping my racket tightly until we arrived back at campus. (You have to understand that the ipod had only been recently introduced in the past year or two, so a majority of people still used CD players which were a bit cumbersome to carry around.)
I still recall my teenage opinions on classical music. "Why would you listen to something so boring? So dull?! *insert teenage sound* UGH!! It's more distracting than it is soothing!"  "I don't care what studies have shown, dad! I cannot study for a test with that playing! Turn it off! *gives dad a glare* "  Alas, my appreciation for music was crude and under developed, though I concur to this day that heavy metal is and always is a pain to hear. That's a different story though.

Jump to college; I'm commuting to campus desperately trying to remember the developmental stages of a child for my exam later that morning. I continue to flip stations because I am sick of hearing Bruno Mar's "Grenade", and I personally cannot stand Adele's voice or listen to Katy Perry's "Fireworks" one more time without wanting to scream my head off. I flip to the country station saved, but the song is too distracting...what's left?! I finally settle on a station I found the previous day. A classical music station. My mind begins to relax and I feel my muscles loosening up. I'm alert as I drive, but can focus on reciting the developmental stages without feeling too distracted either. "Thank goodness there is classical music!!"
Despite still enjoying pop music, the radio stations I preferred seem to repeat the same songs over and over. It was either that or I disliked like the artist. It agitated me and that led to my trial period with country music which I concluded was tolerable to an extent. Truly though, classical music saved me during those years of commuting. Being overly stressed with exams, presentations and projects, I couldn't spare a moment of distraction and music was always the most subtle form of distraction. Classical music, became the exception as it soothed my stressed mind and enabled me to focus on my studies. My anxieties were kept at bay as long as I had classical music.

Present time. I've taken a growing interest in oldies (Frank Sinatra, Elvis, Beatles, etc) and jazz. When it's just me in the car, I immediately flip to the jazz station and leave it there. My mom and sister are still quite surprised that I like jazz. However, there are days when I'm at home and I open my itunes radio and choose classical music over every other genre. And while I'm listening to the music, I end up smiling as I reminiscent about my teenage years and the agony classical music used to bring me. What would the teenage, moody high school me say about my taste in music? Would she be horrified? Disgusted? Whatever her question, I like to think that I'd respond by saying "Just to spite you." The truth is simple though. I'm growing older and hopefully maturing *laughs*, I have an appreciation for things I could not when I was younger because of my experiences since. I would tell my younger self "to appreciate the days you have now, but do not scoff at the world because you're young and inexperienced. You may like something and hate another thing today, but in a year or two it might be the opposite."

I seldom take my own advice.

In perhaps everyone's case, we all rarely take our own advice. For one reason or another it just happens to be so, until we have another person direct that advice back at us. Usually when I give people advice, it's because I've learned from my own experiences or have seen too much from an outsider's perspective. But there are days where my advice isn't advice. For me, it is a form of comfort and support I have given myself to pull through the more mentally and emotionally exhausting days. Basically a reminder to breathe and to take it one day at a time :)
Everyone has different circumstances, but certainly everyone deals with tough love right? Whether it be with family, friends, or lovers...the one coinciding point is that some days you just don't know how to deal with them. It's so hard to hold back from saying something crude, or from doing something hurtful, but somehow you manage to right? Tough love. We overcome that feeling and move on. But for the days that you just want to break down right there and then or explode, here's a little something I wrote out for myself that I hope will help others also fight on.

"In life, everything is about balance. And trying to achieve that balance is living through both the bad and good. Building up character, becoming wiser, maturing emotionally and mentally is a life long process. You learn to laugh during the happy times, endure the sad times and speak up when pain only hurts the process. You discover not everything in life is a given and you fight with all you got to prove you deserve it. While the things you take for granted, you discover you must cherish and be grateful for constantly because it can disappear in an instant.
People will tear you down and people will lift you up. And you will constantly do the same in return; whether it be intentionally or not. All I can say is, if you're aware of this, try to be the better person. Be the one who can love and endure. Be the person who can give a helping hand when needed. Be the person who knows when to say "No. This is wrong." and refuses to aid someone because it enables them rather than grow. Life will be horrible in return more than often, so balance it out and be the better person for others and more importantly--yourself."

Nights through the Window

I have this odd thing where I love the night air; especially in the Autumn and Winter. There's a slight smokey quality to it that just soothes me. It's a calming sensation for me, just like hearing the water lap at the piers down in San Francisco. I've always loved that smell as far as I can remember and so even on cold nights I'll leave my window open slightly just to get a whiff of that night air. Of course I could go outside, but that's where a bit of laziness kicks in. Anyhow, this love for the night air isn't going to go anywhere for a long while, but when bugs start trying to find a way into my room, it's time to shut the window.

Carmel

Spring Break happened to be about a month ago and I realized I never put up pictures of my family's day trip to Carmel. It's a small town not too far from Monterey, which I really recommend going to if you love the cold ocean beach side setting and you love small downtown shopping areas. It's probably one of my favorite downtown shopping areas to visit because there's plenty of hidden places with gorgeous layouts and beautiful scenery. They're all about advertising local businesses too.

Belated Spring post - Essie Shine of the Times

My motivation to update this blog went dramatically down with all the work I have to do in my research class. I finally get a breather after a month and realized how many times I painted my nails and took pictures, but never bothered to put the pictures up! (whoops...) So I decided to pick my favorite one and post it up since I'm not wearing any today. Got to let those nails breathe once in awhile right?

Base coat - Sally Hansen Hard as Nails
One coat of Arezia (purple) with Essie Shine of the Time layered over it
Top coat - Seche Vite 

I really love the Arezia polish, which was a gift from my sister from her trip to Hong Kong last summer. It's such a delicate shade of purple that's perfect for Spring. And plus...it's a one coater! So of course it's my instant go to polish for Spring :)

Once I added the Essie Shine of the Times though...WOW!! I think I fell in love with this combination at first sight. Too bad my camera fails at capturing it's beauty.
I was also really surprised that by the end of the fifth day, I barely had any chips considering how many times I washed dishes that week. (I have a bad habit of never using gloves.) It made me feel guilty for taking it off the next day *laughs*

I tried my best to capture the flakie color combination. Isn't it pretty?

Sea Dust

I went to the Roseville Galleria a few weeks back with a friend and explored out of curiosity. It's a really nice  Westfield mall and sooo much easier to navigate compared to the San Francisco one for a first time experience! That being said, we discovered there were more shops on the outside and I went in to check out a Urban Outfitters that I saw. I love their accessories and bags, but they're always outside of my price range!! But on the nice side they were having a deal on their nail polishes. 2 for $8. And there were two particular shades that caught my eye so I snatched them up without giving it a second thought. The one I'm showing is Sea Dust. It's a pretty sea green glitter polish that I haven't seen before and my friend agreed it was unique. I read some reviews on it after I got back and discovered it was sheer, so I went ahead and layered it over a different polish with the same color tones.

It's soo pretty! But I think this polish is more suited for summer. This was two layers of Urban Outfitters (Sea Dust) over one layer of FingerPaints(Tiffany Imposter) 

An upclose shot of what the polish looks like in the bottle. I really love these square bottles, they feel quite sturdy compared to the China Glaze bottles.

Belated Valentine's

I had so many exams the past week that I never got around to posting my Valentine's Day nails. Studying for three exams back to back really kill's one motivation to do anything days after though...

I decided to simple and do a light pink with some heart glitter for an accent. It was surprisingly time consuming and frustrating, but I don't really want to talk about that.

The polishes I used for my nails. The Color Club pink nail polish was really sheer. What you see on my nails is four coats and I could still see my nail line. Drying time was nice though. After that I actually applied the Seche Vite top coat before doing the accent.
The other nail polish I used is called Island Girl (Big Wave). Island Girl polishes can only be found in Hawaii or the ABC store in Las Vegas which is where I got this polish from last summer.

It's pretty isn't it? Too bad, it's a pain to apply. You have to fish around for those heart pieces one by one literally. *sigh* However the polish itself gave my nails a very interesting appearance. I don't know how to even describe it, but I like it so much that I applied it to all my nails.