I might need a new pencil sharpener. I bought some nice new Prismacolor pencils last week, but my current pencil sharpener doesn't get them as sharp as I want them. I might go looking for one later in the week.

Anyway, last week was my first full week of classes, and it was super busy. So far I haven't had too much trouble keeping on top of my assignments while still balancing a bit of a social life at the same time, though.

My roommate went home for Labor Day weekend (and still isn't back yet; I'm starting to get just a little worried about her), but one of the girls on my floor (who is also an art major and in one of my AFO classes) invited me to go thrift store hunting with her and her ex-boyfriend on Saturday, and I ended up spending most of Saturday and Sunday hanging out with them.

I found three good pairs of jeans that I originally planned to wear in the woodshop this week, but I like them all so much that I really don't want to risk ruining any of them. In the end I narrowed it down to the one pair that I liked the least as my woodshop jeans for tomorrow, and when I go home for the weekend to trade out some of my summer clothes for more fall clothes, I'll bring some of the jeans that I don't like as much and save the newer ones.

The jeans I plan on wearing tomorrow night are a pair of medium blue SO brand (I think it's a Kohl's brand) bootcut jeans. They were about three inches too long so I cut them off for convenience, though I'm kind of regretting it because I don't like ragged hemlines and I won't be able to hem them for a while. I really hope I didn't ruin them by cutting them like that. :\ I bought them at the first thrift store we went to for about $2.08.

The second and third pair of jeans I bought were significantly more expensive because they came from a store owned by Goodwill; one was $10 and the other was $5. They're both dark wash jeans, one is another pair of bootcut jeans by Delia's, and the other is a pair of high-waisted straight leg jeans by Sarah Jessica Parker's Bitten brand. Both of them are also too long and to be honest, I think the Delia's jeans are an extra long size because I had to roll them up twice to keep them from dragging on the floor, but because I was already regretting the alterations I'd made to the first pair, I didn't bother cutting them off to be the right length. I wore the high-waisted ones to my drawing class today, and I must say that although I'm really not used to wearing high-waisted or straight-legged jeans, I think they're very flattering on me and I'm glad that I picked them up. I wonder if they'll look good with some of the older tops that I have that aren't quite long enough to cover my stomach when I'm wearing low-rise jeans. I might have to wear some of my older tops more often if they do, haha.

After we were finished looking for good deals in Carytown on Saturday, we went to Ben & Jerry's and although I really wanted ice cream after walking in the heat all day, I was also thirsty so I ordered a mango teazer instead, which was something like a slush with tea in it.

We all got together on Sunday again and went to the anime club, which was significantly smaller this week than the first club meeting. To be honest, I was a little relieved for that. The first meeting was so crowded, and I was very uncomfortable with all of the people making comments and other sounds at all of the lame and obvious fan service in the first series they showed. If the second and third series hadn't been awesome, I probably wouldn't have returned this Sunday.

After the club, we went to Lowe's to pick up our next set of supplies for space research. My friend's ex was a great help; I basically showed him our list and he picked out almost everything we needed without question. He also carried the big pieces of wood (4x4' pieces of 1/4" thick wood) all the way to our classroom for us because we couldn't fit them in the car. Luckily the building was only about maybe a block away.

We then went to try some bubble tea at a little cafe on Cary Street because when we were driving around town the day before we saw some places advertising it and we all decided that we should try some. It was pretty good, and very different from what I'd imagined. I guess I probably would've figured it out if I'd looked it up before, though. It was a nice surprise, in any case. XD

After the bubble tea, it was getting to be time for dinner, so we went to Kobe (a Japanese restaurant) on 13th Street for sushi, and it was great, as always. :3 I felt kind of bad that my floormate treated us, but since she called it an early birthday present for me, I'm planning to return the favor for her when it gets closer to her birthday, which is later in the month.

Yesterday I actually worked my butt off trying to finish my space research project, which is due tomorrow night. Luckily I got most of it done and today I finished up everything that I wanted to add, though I'm still not completely happy with it. I'm just not very passionate about the theme of the assignment, and I'm not very interested in working with cardboard, so no matter how hard I worked on it, it'd be pretty hard for me to be completely happy with it. I do feel a sense of accomplishment from completing it, though.

Anyway, I need to go read some more Tulip Fever for my literature class now, so I'll write again whenever I have the time. :3

Labels: afo, anime club, art, bubble tea, class, friends, labor day, shopping, space research, sushi, thrift stores, weekend

He's gone.

I thought I would cry, but I didn't. I had even planned not to wear any eye makeup because I was worried that I would end up crying and rubbing it off before the day was over, but as it turned out I didn't need to worry after all. It was a good idea anyway because I was tired when I got home and needed to rest a bit before I was ready to do anything else.

After I dropped him off at the airport, I did some comfort shopping. I used my new GPS to navigate around Greensboro, which made things easier for me, even though I always miss that exit turn from Battleground onto Wendover, lulz. It was a pretty good trip. I bought a $90 Kathy Van Zeeland bag for only $40, and I bought a cute chemise with matching boyshorts and a shower wrap at Kohl's.

I really need to stop spending my money, though. I paid my college bill yesterday and it was almost $7,000. It ate a huge chunk out of my savings account. :\

I started playing Granado Espada yesterday after I finally came up with a good family name for my characters, but unfortunately it's kind of boring, as far as gameplay goes. The characters and environment are beautiful and I really do love the game for the character designs, but the whole system of leveling and hunting monsters is very frustrating. I don't mind killing lots of monsters to level up, but the maps are so filled with monsters that go aggro on your characters and then respawn almost immediately after you kill them, which isn't very convenient if you're traveling or even if you just want to pick up the occasional item drops. I might give it a few more days to get better, but if it doesn't, I'll probably go back to RO2. It's probably a good thing that I haven't gotten too attached to it, though. I'm going to be too busy for MMOs after I move, anyway.

Labels: boredom, boyfriend, granado espada, mmorpg, shopping

Finally updated my website with my most recent drawings/CafePress designs. :3

Other than that, not many interesting things have happened to me since I last wrote. I had a couple of doctor's appointments this week; I had my depo shot on Monday, and my dermatologist prescribed a new topical gel for my acne today. Hopefully my skin will clear up before I go to VCU.

I have about only two weeks left to spend with my boyfriend before he moves back home. I'm thinking about taking him out of town with me next week so that we can eat at the Olive Garden and so that I can finish shopping for my dorm supplies. I've ordered my bed and bath linens online, but there are a few odds and ends that I still need, like a basket to store and carry my shower supplies and a toothbrush case. I might also buy a few new cosmetic bags to store my toothpaste and other essentials in, but I'm not sure because I already have a number of cosmetic bags.

Friday I have a hair appointment, and to be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do with it. I kind of like the way my hairdresser has been cutting it, but I'm also thinking about cutting it a little shorter in the back. :\ I guess I'll look online a bit before my appointment and see if I can find a better style.

Labels: boyfriend, hair, shopping, website

I've had a rough week. Monday evening my mom and I went shopping, and I discovered that I'm too small to fit a size 2 or 4 in ladies' jeans, and an extra small in an Old Navy skirt is actually a little loose on my hips. That's pretty pathetic, considering I'm not that small. I'm short and petite, but I'm not nearly as tiny as some of the girls that I used to wait on at work. I think I'm starting to see why sizes like XXS and 00 actually exist.

I did find a cute pair of metallic pink flip-flops though, and my mom offered to buy me one of two pairs of shoes that I've been admiring online for a little while. It's either this one or this one. I can't decide which one I really want, though. I might have her buy me one of them and then buy the other pair myself.

Tuesday I started calling about the apartments that I wanted to look at, but only two of my original five choices actually had an available apartment, and one of those two didn't even set up an appointment with me because the apartments were going so fast and it was too far in advance for him to set up an appointment with me. I'm planning to call back about that one (and a few others) tomorrow and see if it's still available.

Two of the four appointments I managed to set up are for two-bedroom apartments. One of those two is almost surely out of my budget and it's fully furnished, but the other one sounds like a better value. One of the appointments is for one of the one-bedroom apartments from my original list, and it's actually the apartment that VCU's off-campus housing representative recommended to me as the best of my original choices, but it wasn't my favorite of the original choices. The other appointment is for a couple of different places, but judging by some of their online listings, I don't know if I'm going to want them or not. They seem kind of dumpy and they don't offer all of the features that I want, but I don't think it'll hurt to just look at them.

I might even end up in a dorm, if I'm not satisfied with any of the apartments I see. I applied for on-campus housing after talking to the housing representatives at VCU about my problems. They said that there was a lot of space left in one of the dorms on the MCV campus, which is about two miles away from my classes, and there's a free shuttle bus that runs between the two campuses. They also said that it would be a good idea to go ahead and sign up because it would be a good backup plan for me.

Living in a dorm might be a better option than an apartment, actually. At this point I think the cost of a dorm with a meal plan would be almost the same as the average costs of living in an apartment and buying groceries every week, and I wouldn't have to worry as much about going out of my budget because I wouldn't be buying groceries regularly. It would be a relatively safe environment for me, and living in a dorm might also make it easier for me to make friends. My boyfriend wouldn't be able to move with me, but I think that there'd be less financial stress on him if I lived in a dorm, too.

I guess I won't know what will happen with my living situation until after I look at the apartments, but I'm glad that I at least have a backup plan if I'm not happy with any of the apartments.

Labels: apartments, dorm, shoes, shopping, vcu

My mom's taking me shopping this evening and I'm going to finally get to try on those hot pink skinny jeans that have been haunting me~ X3 I just hope they look good on me, though.

In other news, I did finally manage to find something to do on Saturday. Her name is Hikari, and she's one of my latest CafePress designs:



Click here to check out her CafePress shop!

I think this will mark the beginning of a new series of CafePress designs. Normally I would start with Rose, but since Hikari's design from my first series was the worst one of the bunch, I wanted to make up for that by making a prettier design of her. Hikari is supposed to be the "pretty" character, so it isn't acceptable for her to be the least attractive design.

I think Jade might be the next character in the series. I've been meaning to draw her in a lingerie-inspired angelic costume for a while now. Of course, Em would naturally be Jade's demonic counterpart. :3

I'm kind of worried about being able to keep the series cohesive, though. I'm planning on giving them all similar backgrounds, but sometimes I have trouble drawing things at the same size or keeping my style similar enough from drawing to drawing. I guess I will have to try to keep the same brush and canvas sizes and keep my proportions consistent to the other characters.

Labels: art, cafepress, characters, hikari, shopping

I wasn't able to register for Monday's orientation after all. Friday morning I woke up early to call about the apartments and start making the appointments to look at them on Tuesday, but I first went to VCU's website to see if my response had been processed yet. It had been, but unfortunately the only orientation date left to me was the July 7th orientation. At least I didn't have to go through the trouble of making the appointments in the first place and then having to cancel on them, but I hope that there will still be a decent selection of apartments for me to choose from by the time I get up there.

I also still haven't received my information packet yet. To say the least, I'm not surprised, but I'm very disappointed that my prediction, which was not meant to be a serious one, that my information packet wouldn't arrive before Monday came true.

To be honest though, I'm a little relieved that I wasn't able to go to Monday's orientation because this way I will have a little more time to mentally prepare myself to deal with everything. I will also have a little more time to actually receive and read my information packet and also an orientation packet, which is supposed to include all of the details about my orientation. I'm still feeling anxious about everything though, and I'm getting worried that I won't feel better until after I actually start my classes.

In other news, I've been kind of bored today, since there isn't really anything left that I can do about my orientation right now. There are a lot of other things that I could and probably should be doing, but I just don't feel like it. I don't want to be bored, but I just don't know what I really want to do right now, and it's really bothering me. I think that it might have to do with my anxiety, but I don't know how to get rid of it.

I know it's terrible, but I really want to go shopping again, and I don't know if I can wait for my mom to get home on Monday or Tuesday, but I don't want to go by myself or with my boyfriend because either way I won't get the opinions I want on the things that I want to look at, and now that I'm unemployed, I really can't afford the extra gas, either.

Labels: anxiety, boredom, orientation, shopping, vcu

It looks like Blogger has updated their interface a bit since I last posted. :O

Yesterday I went on a shopping trip with my mom and my aunt Andrea to Greensboro, which is a city about an hour away that has better shopping options than our dinky little town. Unfortunately, what was supposed to be my shopping trip kind of turned into their shopping trip, and I didn't get to look at a lot of the things that I wanted to. I guess some of the important things were covered, but there was a lot more that I wanted to do that I wasn't able to do.

I really missed the shopping trips that my mom and I had when I was younger; she would always help me pick things out and tell me when a color or style didn't look good on me. I never really appreciated that help when I was younger, but I haven't really had that kind of a shopping trip with my mom since I started working a few years ago, and I really missed the input and company I had when I used to go shopping with her. This trip didn't really cut it as well as I'd have liked it to because for the most part I was looking on my own or waiting for them to finish helping each other pick out clothing for themselves so that I could get my mom's opinion on some of the things that I wanted to look at in the other stores. She said that she'd take me shopping again though because I didn't get to look at everything that I wanted to.

It was a fun day considering the circumstances, though. I did actually find a pair of cute brown shoes, which is very difficult because I'm picky about shoes and I have a hard time finding any shoes that are both small and wide enough for my feet. I also bought a cute pink The Sak clutch that was originally priced at $69 for less than $25 at Marshalls. It looks like this. I also got some new clothes, mostly for when I (hopefully) go to VCU in the fall.

I'm probably set for school clothing, but I still want at least one of the fancier party tops or dresses from one of the junior stores in the mall because someday, at least once in my life, I want to go out dancing, and I want to have something cute to wear for that. I don't want something so sexy that my boobs will pop out of it, but I'm interested in the brightly colored flowing tops that have shoulder cutouts and other interesting details. I feel more comfortable in tops that have a more modest neckline, but I wouldn't really mind a low-cut top if it either has a built-in bra or isn't too low for me to wear a bra under it. Maybe those are the kinds of things I will look at the next time I go shopping. I also still want to try to find a few more pairs of shoes if I can.

I'm going to work some more on my Gaia profile now, so I'll write more later. :3

Labels: clothing, shoes, shopping

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