Remula Wazokana's Dreamwidth

It's been forever since I've written anything here! @_@ I'm not really in a super long entry-writing mode, so let's do a quick update, lol. XP

• THE BROTHER -- he moved up to Irvine about two weeks ago and started college last Thursday! Gahhh, they grow up so fast!


• UNIVERSAL STUDIOS -- went there for the first time a few weeks ago on the 16th! It was pretty cool -- definitely more my speed, LOL. I think I liked the tour ride the best. It was cool seeing the sets and stuff. I wish we could actually walk around in them and stuff. That would have been awesome. XP


• WORK -- it got super busy again a few weeks ago which is both good and bad, lol. I mean, it's good, but I wish it came at a more consistent pace because it kinda drives me crazy when everything comes at once.


• OFFICE -- We were suppose to move into our new office this month, but it got delayed because the management company didn't even pull the permits until last week. x_x Anyway, we're suppose to be moving in next month, if everything goes as planned.


• SCHOOL -- class is okay. We're only six weeks in though -- still ten to go! Semester system is seriously too slow, lol. Definitely prefer quarter system. XP


• DRAMAS -- I've been watching a couple dramas lately (you know, instead of studying and all, lol). The two I've been following are When Love Walked In (because Zhou Mi and Victoria and Calvin!) and Panda and Hedgehog (because Donghae!). It's driving me crazy that When Love Walked In is complete, but hasn't been fully subbed yet on Viki. I mean, I'm patient, but I guess Panda and Hedgehog makes me way more impatient since those subs are 100% a couple days after the episodes air. Anyway, both dramas are good (from what I've seen), but they are the standard drama stuff. The other drama I've watched (just this past weekend, in fact) is Answer to 1997 / Answer Me 1997 / Reply 1997 (whichever you call it, lol). I marathoned that one and it was AMAZING. I will write up post to recommend that one later when I have time (maybe this weekend). Anyway, you should total watch that. XP

That's about it for now. I think I'm gonna go to sleep now. Until next time! XP

I hope everyone had a good Christmas/holiday break. =) aznearthdragon, the brother, and I spent the four-day weekend (excluding Christmas day) watching Lord of the Rings. It was fun since we haven't really rewatched the movies in a while. Also, the brother has never seen LOTR before! Ridiculous, I know, but when it first came out, he was apparently "too cool" to watch it with us (though he was only 6-8 at the time) and then it was too long for him to sit down and attempt to watch it anytime after that, lol.

Christmas day we spent with family that lives here on my dad's side. The time that wasn't spent eating or fielding questions on job hunting ("Yes, aznearthdragon got a job." / "No, I haven't found one yet." / "Yes, it's hard to find architecture jobs right now.") was spent playing with the kids. They have so much energy, it's ridiculous! (Also, they have so many toys and there are so many cool ones that they take for granted, seriously!)

We played Hide-n-Seek for a good while because they're really into that (even though there aren't many places to hide since they restrict it to just downstairs). It's kinda funny because Conrad (he's four) always wants to hide with me or aznearthdragon, but then when we find a place to hide, he talks and laughs about what a good hiding spot we have! Also, when he thinks of a good place to hide, he goes, "I KNOW WHERE WE SHOULD HIDE!" and says the location while we're standing right next to the person who's counting, LOLOLOL. There was also another time when it was my turn to count and after I said "Ready or not, here I come!" I turn to go down the hallway and he opens the bathroom door (where I suppose he was attempting to hide) and says, "[Remula], I'm right here!" then tells me where he thought everyone else was (he likes to rat out people's hiding spots too, lol).


Now it's time to continue looking/applying for jobs and slowly reading fics from Yuletide (because I am easily distracted by checking to see if there's more fic to read in such-and-such fandom, lol).

Crossposted @ Dreamwidth with comments.

First, she had a job interview in the morning. The brother and I said we would go there with her and wait in the car while she went in, so we did, and then 40 minutes later, she comes back out and tells us they hired her on the spot! \o/ Then later, when we came home, she saw some people posting on FB about the EIT, so she went to check her account and found out that that she passed! *\o/* And finally, we were playing Monopoly earlier and she somehow managed to have more money than the bank, including all the $500s by near the end, and winning the game! I guess when life goes well for her, it goes all out, LOL.

I'm just waiting for some good luck to come to me now. =/ aznearthdragon starts work next Tuesday, but my brother is still on break until after New Years. After that, though, I'm gonna be home all alone. =( I hope I can find a job soon because I'm starting to lose confidence in myself. =/

Crossposted @ Dreamwidth with comments.

1. So I actually got a response back for one of the jobs I applied for on Craigslist. I'm kind of surprised because I've never gotten a response back from a Craigslist ad before, but yeah. I don't even know if I want it because the place is kind of far away, the pay is pretty low, it's a real estate assistant position, and, honestly, I never even expected them to contact me back, LOL. But whatever, I'll respond back to them in the morning and see how it goes from there.



2. Apparently Zaha Hadid is going to build her house in La Jolla. I think a 12,700 square foot house seems just a bit excessive, but she's a starchitect, she has the money to do what she wants. As for the design, I'm not really a fan. From the aerial and kind-of street-view looks okay, but I don't like the first/side rendering at all.



3. My brother has been in the mists of college application essay writing and aznearthdragon and I have been helping him for the last few weeks. He's so needy, I feel like I've written most of his essays for him. x_x

Crossposted @ Dreamwidth with comments.

For all the Americans on my f-list, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving! =) I have basically gotten nothing done school-wise during my break which is super unfortunate because this upcoming week is Dead Week, which, if you're not familiar with the term, refers to the last week of class before finals. For some people that means "dying" from all the studying before finals, but for architecture, it's more of "dying" from pulling all-nighters and and finishing projects for our final reviews which always happen on Dead Week. Anyway, the point is, I have a final review on Friday Wednesday (I FAIL AT READING EMAILS!) as well as two presentations to do for my CRP classes that relate to my term papers in those classes (both of which I haven't actually started writing, lol) and I was suppose to work on all these things this week, yet none of it has been done. x_x And now, I am writing this post in lieu of actually working. *sweatdrop* Anyway, recap of the last few days!

1. THANKSGIVING
   Every Thanksgiving we head up to LA to my grandparents' house and this year wasn't any different. XP We got to LA around 10AM or so and basically stayed there all day and finally left to drive home around 9:45PM. Anyway, Thanksgiving is always crazy because we have such a big family and it's, like, a ton of people all crammed into a small house. I mean, my grandparents' house is bigger now since they moved a few years ago (their old place was SO SMALL! This is definitely an upgrade, lol), but it's still small when you consider the amount of people. This year, there was about 30-ish people there, though there were still a few people missing. Anyway, we didn't start eating turkey until, like, 2:30 or 3-ish because we were waiting for people to come still with food. Before that, though, we had a bunch of pre-food, lol, because my grandparents kept offering us stuff! But yeah, we had lots of food, including four turkeys! We are a giant family of eaters, it's true. XP Besides eating, we (the older kids) mostly just sat around on the couch watching TV and chilling, too lazy to actually play much with the younger kids (especially because two of my older cousins were sick). The little ones were just playing around outside most of the time and then there were a group of uncles playing poker and the everyone else was watching TV also.



2. BLACK FRIDAY
   Yesterday we went shopping at the mall, as we usually do on Black Friday, lol. It was just aznearthdragon, my brother, and me because my parents didn't want to go shopping, lol. We went around forever looking at stuff, but, as usual, didn't really get much. We got a robe for my mom and my brother got a football and I bought a cardigan thing and aznearthdragon got some boots. It's kind of ridiculous because I was totally looking for boots (and a jacket), but she was the one who actually got boots. (I'm just too picky when it comes to shoes! ;_;)



3. SATURDAY
   Today we went to Sears Essentials because my parents wanted to buy some sweats there and they were on sale, lol. Anyway, while we were there, aznearthdragon and I decided to go looking at jeans 'cause we were like, "Oh, probably need to buy some skinny jeans to wear with boots!" So we were looking at the jeans and half the time, we kept pulling out the flare kinda jeans because all our jeans are that style, lol. (Also, we haven't gotten new jeans in, like, five years! SO RIDICULOUS!) But yeah, we were trying on jeans in the fitting room (we usually share when we go shopping together because it's just easier than walking out to show each other how things look, you know?) and we were laughing so much because we had the hardest time putting on and taking off the skinny jeans. Basically we failed at finding some jeans we liked and also we are not fans of skinny jeans, but I guess it's a necessary evil of having boots you want to stick your pants in! Anyway, while we were there, I also went to look at the boots and there were some cute ones and I really wanted them because they were on sale, but they didn't have my size! I'm usually a 7 or a 7.5 and I tried on the size 7 ones, but they were a little too tight, so yeah. ;_;
   
   After that, we went to the Costco on Morena Blvd. because aznearthdragon wanted to go to that one since it's the only Costco in SD that has gelato! We got a little lost on the way, but we eventually made it and we all got gelato and it is so awesome! Other Costcos need to get on that! (Especially the one near my house, lol.) Anyway, shopped around at Costco as usual and my dad bought me a watch to replace my old one. ♥
   
   
   My new watch!
   It is really nice and I like it, but the only thing I don't like is the clasp part. =/ It's the kind where you push it on the sides to open the clasp and the clasp is the bendy one that bend over (I am so bad at explaining any I can't remember what they're called at the moment, lol) and I really wish it was like my old watch, where the clasp just clipped around a bar and was really simple. Oh well, other than that, it is awesome. XP
   
   Earlier I was procrastinating some more and looking at boots and I ended up buying those boots I saw at Sears online because there was free shipping. XP Also, there was apparently a $5 discount or something because it was cheaper than buying it at the store. XD
   
   
   Boots (well, only one is pictured, but whatever) I bought! XD
   Apparently the heels on the boots are only two inches (sadness!) but they're really cute and comfortable, so whatever, lol. Yay for shoes! XD

Anyway, besides that, I had a minor freakout earlier today because everyone I was trying to get a ride back to SLO from either left today or they weren't in SD anymore and were leaving from somewhere else! ;_; And I was like, "CRAP CRAP CRAP, AMTRAK WILL SUCK BECAUSE EXPENSIVE AND GOOD TIMES WILL BE SOLD OUT!" but eventually I got a ride from someone, so it's all good. =) It'll be kinda crapped in the car because they already had four other people, but I can deal with that when the alternative is an extra three hours and five times as expensive. XP

Lastly, before I go off to semi-pack and sleep, my professor (studio) sent out an email with the presentation times and OMG, I'm on Friday at 4PM and I'm kinda happy (because at least I'm not on Wednesday -- thank you, roommate for signing me up on Friday) but kinda sad too (because I didn't want to be near the end). At the same time, I'm hoping that because I'm kinda later, less professors will show up? (Hopefully? Maybe?) Because I seriously have done zero work on my thesis this past week and I feel like I will have nothing since the weeks before that I was just doing reseach! Also, I looked at the list and I'm kinda going after people who will probably have a lot more than me! ;_;

This upcoming week will be so busy as I try to get some actual work done on thesis stuff as well as figuring out what I will do for my CRP classes. =( I think I'm gonna try to get CRP presentations figured out tomorrow and Monday and get them out of the way and presented on Tuesday so I can focus on thesis stuff the rest of the week. (Hopefully this plan works out!) I foresee not much sleep happening this week. =(((((

Also, I am such a liar about posting recs, but this week was just a blur (even though I did end up reading a couple of fics while I procrastinated, lol), but obviously this week is way too busy for me to even think about posting recs (let alone reading fics), so probably won't be posting recs until Finals Week. I only have one final and it's not until Thursday, so obviously I will have a lot of down time after this upcoming Friday. XP And then after my final, it will be winter break and then I will read all the fics and probably post a bunch of recs, haha. XP

Okay, sleep time!

1. We finished doing presentations this morning in studio. I feel like I didn't really talk that long, but I tried to talk pretty slow so it could seem like I said more than I did, HAHAH. Anyway, the feedback that I got was along the lines of I need to choose between the presence of structure or the absence of structure for my thesis project, lol. I'm pretty sure I'm leaning more towards the presence of structure because I like it more when the structure is expressed clearly. I mean, having big cantilevers and stuff that looks gravity-defying is all well and good, but I dunno.. I kind of feel like I don't want to head in that direction. Some people also said that the projects I showed all have one big/grand gesture and maybe I can play off that in my design. We'll see, lol.



2. We also talked about our field trip in studio today! We basically narrowed it down to either:
   
   
   • New York
   • Chicago
   • Vancouver/Seattle/Portland
   • New Orleans
   
   After that we were in groups doing some research about prices and things to do and stuff like that so we could figure out overall cost and we're going to vote on it on Monday. I haven't looked at all the spreadsheets yet that each group did, but I was in the NY group so right now, I'm more inclined to go to NY, lol. But yeah, all of the places sound pretty good, so I would be fine with wherever we're going regardless. The only thing I kind of don't like is the Vancouver/Seattle/Portland trip we would be spending time on the on the train traveling between them all three places, lol. But yeah, I'm a little sad that we're not going out of the country, but I guess that was to be expected because it'd probably be twice as expensive. (Right now all four options are about $800-ish.)



3. Just a short little rant thing about Project Runway since I just watched this week's episode... WTF IS GRETCHEN DOING IN THE TOP?! Like, seriously, what did Gretchen do to get the judges to like her so damn much?! Because those dresses were horrible! The high fashion one, OMFG, WTF WERE THOSE FEATHERS?! When Michael Kors said he liked the feathering, I got so annoyed because I thought the feathering was the absolute WORST part! It looked like some bird molted on the dress!~ And also, her ready to wear look was so old! And then when Grethen was all like OMG HOT about her second dress and then she said, "Holla!" I just about DIED from secondhand embarrassment! THAT WAS HORRIBLE AND AWKWARD AND JUST NO, DON'T TALK LIKE THAT! She can't pull off saying that!
   
   But yeah, OMG Mondo!~ ♥♥♥ He is just so adorable and I love him and I love that he won, even though I kinda liked Andy's looks better, lol. XP And gosh, the Valerie VS Ivy thing! I love some of Valerie's earlier stuff and I pretty much think Ivy is a bitch, but I have to say that I was a little upset that Ivy got kicked off 'cause I didn't think she deserved it. Valerie's stuff this week was horrible and if we're just judging from this week, she deserved to go. (Well, okay, Gretchen actually deserves to go the most because her dresses = EWW, but for some reason she wasn't on the bottom!)



4. Lastly, OMG my brother made a FB account today! That is so weird and awkward because he doesn't really have anything and now he has FB! Not that I have anything incriminating on my FB, but just seeing him there is weird, haha. Also, I'm not used to interacting with him online in such a public forum -- like, my only online interaction with him is through IM and you know, when I'm IMing aznearthdragon or my brother, I'm always typing super ridiculous because we're family and we understand our shared weirdness, lol, but I saw someone write on his wall and him respond and it was just weird. Like, I've never seen him type that way or interact with his friends before! I will pretty much be shocked about this for a long while before it processes in my mind, lol.

I'm so tired from this long day...

Today I went to the Wild Animal Park (still refusing to call it Safari Park!) with aznearthdragon and my brother. We were pretty much there most of the day and it was SUPER HOT! And there's not nearly enough shade there! Also, I think I got, like, a bazillion shades darker and a little burnt, even though I put on sunscreen. =/ Anyway, it was pretty fun since we haven't been there in a long time, but it is so much smaller than the zoo. Well, okay, it's got more acres on the zoo, but there are obviously less animals to see. Plus, the animals have huge enclosures since it's pretty much like a reserve and there's lots of places that aren't open to the public, so it's pretty hard to see a lot of stuff (especially since all the animals are lounging in the shade. XP I think it would have been more fun if we had more money to spend on all the tours they have, lol. We just went on the Journey to Africa tour since that's pretty much the cheapest and we had a Buy One Get One Free coupon. XP (We actually went on that tour twice, lol.) But yeah, as much as I want to go on some of the other tours, I can't justify spending so much extra on it when we're already paying the entrance fee. XP (But dude, that Ride on the Wild Side tour thing sounds kind of awesome -- too bad it's $70/person!) Anyway, I'm too lazy to post pictures with this post, so I'll just direct you to my album here if you're so inclined to look at some pictures...

Anyway, my cousins from LA are possibly doing a daytrip down here tomorrow so aznearthdragon and I will probably hang out with them if they do come. I kind of wanted to just relax and lounge around at home tomorrow since I'm tired from today, but yeah. It'll be fun to hang out with them if they come, so we'll see....