Send off BBQ…Good luck Em-chan!
18 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Seventy-seven/Seventy-eight:
One of my friends that I met back in middle school had been with me from 8th grade till the end of my 10th grade year. She had to move since her mom and her new step-dad needed to move closer to work. I had heard about her going to a Send off BBQ when I realized that the BBQ was for her. I really hadn’t talked with Em-chan in two years, so I felt like a really bad friend. I asked if I could go to her BBQ since it sounded like it was mainly family. She invited me and I marked the date on my calendar. I was going to make sure that I could make it.
My friend had been considering joining the Marines for a while I guess, so even though it shocked many people that she told when she was going into boot camp it wasn’t really a surprise for her family. She’s a black belt in Karate, not very tall, and very protective. When I arrived at her house, she screamed “Toko-chan!” and gave me a big hug. I spent almost the whole day with her and another friend that had came as well.
Em-chan’s present. 
I miss her already
The day before I went to the drugstore to get her a present. Even though she said NO GIFTS, I thought it would be nice to get her something since I hadn’t seen her in so long. I picked out a blue bag since blue was her favorite color in middle school. I found some Twix, her favorite candy bar. I found some bright colored paper, plain envelopes and a latex-free pencil. I remembered that she was allergic to latex since when she did dissections she had to wear purple latex-free gloves in Biology. And finally, I had this little panda (her favorite animal) that I had been meaning to give her, but never found a right time. Wrapping up all the items in the bag, she was really happy to see all the little gifts.
I also had some fun playing with her cousin who was five along with her half sister who the last time I saw her she was just a baby. Em-chan and I reconnected and I was sad to go, but I felt bad since my dad was waiting to take me home. He didn’t want to drive all the way home and then back to her house to pick me up and take me back. She lives pretty far, which explains why I really didn’t visit I guess. She’ll be shipping off to boot camp towards the end of this month, so I hope she’ll be able to pass all the hard Marine tests.
St. Patty’s Day Party
16 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Seventy-five/Seventy-six:
Ginger ale, shamrock cookies, a green cupcake and a handful of golden chocolate coins
My mom had some time before work for us to go out to breakfast, so we decided to try out this little IHOP by the mall. The location was pretty quiet, so we didn’t have to wait too long for a table. I ordered a giant hot chocolate and some pancakes with bananas in the batter topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Very delicious. My mom had this giant omelet that I told her to divide in half which was a smart move. She brought the other half home and my sister gobbled it up. My mom also was able to take me to the craft store since for my Spring Equinox event I wanted to hand out marigold seeds to the students that were on campus that day. A member of Student Activities said tiny pull-string craft bags would be perfect to put some seeds in. We found a pretty green bag set and bought that.
At the St. Patty’s Day Party we decided to have just sweets which was pretty disgusting in my opinion. Even as a choco-holic I can get sick of chocolate. At our V-Day Party we had provided little sandwich rolls which at least balanced out the table of sweets. Not this time, we had Ginger Ale, a cauldron of golden chocolate coins, cookies, and a bunch of cupcakes. I was very proud of myself since I only ate a handful of coins and one cupcake, oh an some shamrock cookies. I did drink a lot of Ginger Ale which I realized after that wasn’t diet. Whoops.
The layout was good, but since we were having some trouble with the live calendar presentation again, not many people showed up to the event. Plus it was a Friday, so there isn’t really much classes on the campus either. I did have fun dressing up. I wore tights with four leaf clovers, a “Kiss Me I’m Irish” shirt, and a cute skirt. My boyfriend was sleeping since he works late shifts, so he didn’t make it but I told him he’ll just have to make it up to me on our next date night.
So Many Recipes to Choose From…
14 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Seventy-three/Seventy-four:
While designing the Meet and Greet flyer I decided to make the pop (or soda if you prefer) and sandwich have faces. I know it might sound weird to some people with their food staring at them, but I guess it makes them have a playful quality. Anyways, I used a bottle and sandwich reference to get the main outline into an Illustrator project. Then I customized the bottles and sandwich to have some faces and they looked really cute. I printed out the first version, noticing that the colors of the bottles were way too dark. Since the flyer is going to be in black-and-white, I need to lighten up the bottles. Simple fix, and the final design looked great. I told my boyfriend the bottles looked like us, since there was a boy and girl faced bottle.
So I’m scanning the recipes for the bentos since the books were due back soon at the library, when I realize that the scanner is running low on battery juice. I’m trying to use this portable scanner since the big one is broken and temperamental. I resorted to having to use my camera phone to take pictures of the recipes. I had to take multiple shots since sometimes the flash would distort the picture or blur out the directions. I still have selected a bunch of recipes and need to find a way to organize them. J-kun says that he wants a bento soon, so I told him I’ll try to make one before our Spring Break which is at the end of next month.
A Sleepy Date
12 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Seventy-one/Seventy-two:
My sister and I finished another anime, The Wallflower. I’m still reading the manga since the story continues on, but I’m always sad when an anime ends. The opening was really good but my sister would always want to skip it to get straight to the story. Good thing I can watch it on YouTube.
Today was date night, so I chose for us to go walk through the mall. It’s really funny since I’m not much of a mall person. I think through high school I went to the mall three maybe four times with a girlfriend. Well, scratch that. We did go to the mall twice to find a dress for Junior Prom, along with the night we walked in the mall with our dresses on, so I probably had been to the mall more than four times.
Anyways, my boyfriend had decided to take a quick nap after the ambassador meeting, because I had a Student Activities meeting after along with some quick errands to run. I finished my errands early, so I went to the back room where we had had the meeting to find him laying across a tiny couch with a pillow over his head. He had left the lights on since Tim was working on some homework in the room. I decided to let him sleep, making sure to keep an eye on the time so he didn’t sleep the whole date. Tim was making a lot of noise whispering and finally left which left me alone with J-kun in the meeting room.
He wasn’t snoring which made me happy. He hadn’t really gotten any sleep so I kept adding time to my timer on my phone. I almost didn’t want to wake up. Playing with my phone, he dropped his pillow and let out a moan. I handed him the pillow, while he went back to sleep. A few minutes later he moved the pillow looking confused. He asked the time and was shocked I let him sleep so long. He was happy I let him sleep, but he said he felt pretty bad since we only have one day a week to spend with each other.
We left the library with Amanda smiling since J-kun’s eyes still looked a little sleepy. When we got to the mall we walked all over not really browsing at many shops. J-kun did take me into two candy shops which was hard since I really love candy. Luckily we made it out without me trying to buy some. It was still raining when we left the mall, and this time when J-kun said to jump I did not jump into the puddle as I did earlier that day. 
The Beginning of a Sim Relationship
10 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Sixty-nine/Seventy:
So I got a text message from my boyfriend saying that he made a Sim on Facebook. I was really surprised since he israrely on Facebook. I told him that the game tends to eat up a bunch of time, especially if you are like me and keep the game open in a separate tab as you do your work on another tab. A Sim has only 15 energy, which sucks since I blow through that energy in about 5 minutes. Of course, he wanted our Sims to be dating so we’ve been trying to advance the relationship on the Sims.
Our Sims are currently at “Inseparable” while I wait for him to accept the “Totally Inseparable” relationship status. Apparently we unlock new interactions, but we usually just watch TV or cuddle on the couch. My house is much bigger than his, but we have a competition which I’m sure he’ll win. He wants to get his house value to 300K, and my house is currently at that level. The Sims start at a house level of about 26K, so he has a way to go. However, he uses his energy wisely so he can make the most money.
My boyfriend is pretty competitive and hates losing, so I’m sure he’ll win quicker than I expect. I’m eating the Strawberry Pocky J-kun bought me when we went to Uwajimaya. I feel like a girl out of an anime playing a dating game while giggling at funny text messages her boyfriend sends her. ♥
Bento Research and an Ambassador Shield
08 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
Day Sixty-seven/Sixty-eight:
So my first week as a Student Ambassador at the school, and I decide to give myself a project. I choose to try to recreate the Student Ambassador logo which is a golden shield with “Student Ambassadors” written on top, and work on making a Meet and Greet flyer. Our Meet and Greets is where new students are invited to ask questions about their classes and have some food before their class. The night we usually hold it is during a busy class night. The Meet and Greet isn’t until another two months but I start right away and make a design.
The shield was a little difficult since I had to outline the picture in Illustrator and make sure the design looked okay before I went and started coloring the picture in. Everyone on the ambassador team was pretty psyched. They couldn’t wait to see what the final design would look like. In about a few days I finally finished the design today and was really happy with the final outcome.
So my boyfriend decided that one of our dates would be to have a picnic. Not just an ordinary picnic, but a bento picnic. I’ve never made a bento before, but I wanted to give it my best attempt to make something for him. Also, my boyfriend is a quarter Korean, so I’m really nervous of making something that he’ll like. I checked out a couple bento recipe books and have been reading them on the bus. One guy from a neighboring college looked down and was wondering what I was reading. I described the idea and he said it sounded delicious. I have a lot of recipes to scan, so many recipes I need to try.
Hanging at Uwajimaya
06 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in New Year's (2012) Project Tags: bento box, erasers, girlfriend, pocky, ramune, uwajimaya
Day Sixty-five/Sixty-six:
J-kun's bento box with an adorable monkey as the design and some rice molds. His favorite was the bear mold. ♥
The next time we hung out was a week after our first date. J-kun had never been inside an Uwajimaya, so I told him we had to go to one this time. Uwajimaya is this Asian grocery store/gift shop that has a bunch of cultures represented by international foods and drinks and items. We wandered around the store looking at the candy and packaged foods. I tried to read some of the Japanese packages, although I was having a tricky time with some of the Chinese characters. We eventually came to the section where they sold plastic bento boxes, which consisted of small, medium and large size bentos. J-kun couldn’t decide which one he liked best, but he insisted he buy the box. After looking at about four or five boxes, he settled on a tan oval plastic bento box with a monkey design on it. This box had 2 layers and was pretty cute. He also bought me a Ramune (carbonated drink), some strawberry Pocky, and these adorable Japanese dessert erasers. He’s very sweet.
After he drove me home he told me he’d text me when he got home which led to us video chatting till past midnight. A friend of mine wanted to know if we had gone on another date, but I told her J-kun said we were just hanging out. Another friend told me that she thought we were a couple already since we had been talking every day even though our schedules don’t allow us to see each other every day. I asked him and he said that we could become a couple (which really made me happy). I updated my friends telling them I finally got a boyfriend and they congratulated me, even though the majority of my old high school friends didn’t know him (since they don’t go to the same college as me).
