Updates and Ramblings

September 9, 2019

I haven’t blogged in a few weeks because well, life. I’ve been busy focusing other things like my gym/weight/diet goals for the past few weeks to try and get rid of my fat girl summer weight. I’ve been more in tune and strict with what I fuel my body with and sadly, that’s the part that makes all the difference. Diet is 70%, gym is only 30% is totally true. It doesn’t matter how hard I go in the gym if my nutrition isn’t on point.

The past few weeks, my days off have been set aside for spending time with friends and family. I celebrated a friend’s birthday last weekend I was off and attended Dragcon this weekend which ’ll cover in another post later this week when I get a chance.

I’m looking forward to going on vacation with my husband soon since I haven’t gotten to spend much time with him this summer, being on such opposite schedules. We haven’t had a night out or anything in a while. We’ve just been homebodies in the rare and very little time we have together lately. This year we’ll be celebrating 5 years of marriage. It’s funny because we honeymooned on a cruise and now we’ll be on another one this anniversary. That honeymoon cruise was the re-birth of my Disney trips too. Before that, the last time I was in Disney was back when I was 13. Who knew that 13 years later I would step back in this magical place and fall in love with it all due to signing up for a day trip excursion from our cruiseline. After that, the rest was history as I began Disney hopping all over the world! I’ve been to Disney World now 6 times, Disneyland California 3 times, Disneyland Shanghai, and Disneyland Tokyo since then (I’m not counting the 4 Disney World trips in my childhood because I was an ungrateful child who didn’t remember or appreciate anything then). Disneyland Hong Kong is last on my list and I’m hoping to conquer that the next time I make the pilgrimage to Vietnam with my mom in the next few years.

I slowed down a little bit on adventuring for content for the gram since I still have to catch up with my backlog, and because well, summer’s coming to an end. I start heading back into hibernation mode for the winter. A follower did suggest a tour of my closet for a post so maybe I’ll do that when things slow down even further. I would love to share how I went about planning it and putting it together. It’s really not as hard or expensive as people think. And it really makes all the difference, having a nice personal space to get ready for the day with everything within reach and at a quick glance instead of having to shuffle though a ton of drawers. I’m just lazy about it because it would require an overhaul of my closet to make it look more presentable for photos. But it would make for a nice post since I always get DMs regarding my closet.

The rest of fall, I’m looking forward to hopefully a fall/Halloweeny themed shoot, a birthday themed shoot and some more fashion shoots with my favorites as well as new photographers I’ve met recently. I’ll probably also start using the extra time to finally catch up on all my favorite shows. I’m looking forward to the new Maleficent movie as well. I also can’t wait to host another Thanksgiving with my friends and family as this is always a lot of fun for me. I love getting together with them at my house for a good time and good food. I love cooking in general but I really do enjoy cooking for my loved ones. I'm not really looking forward to NYCC as much but I am looking forward to it as an excuse to kick off my birthday early with my family with some great food. You see the pattern with myself and food, lol. I'll use any excuse to eat, clearly. But in the meantime, I'm staying disciplined for the next month. Suffer now, enjoy later for birthday month!

Goals for September

Get back to a balance of both cardio and lifting. I overdid it with too much cardio this summer trying to beat my coworker at step challenges and lost my definition because of it.
Get back to consistently eating clean and minimal cheat days/meals so I can feel better about indulging for birthday month celebrations/pharmacy week/cruise vacation (aka week long buffet on a boat).
Figure out NYCC lineup/costumes to bring and what days to go.
Plan outfits for Disney cruise and pack. Can you believe it’s in 7 weeks! It’s going so slow but so fast at the same time. I want it to be here and I don’t want it to be here. I don’t want birthday month to go back that fast.
Do I want anything for my birthday? Friends and family have asked for gift wish lists. But I can’t for the life of me come up with anything. This always happens. I end up finding stuff after the occasion/holiday passes. Or I’m too impatient to wait and just buy it myself.

Rest of year goals

Work on a training schedule for February’s 5k/10k/Half Marathon back to back races challenge.
Start working on and finish my CEs.
Look up photography videos and learn already.
Work with more creatives before the end of the year!
Clean out more of my closet and get rid of even more clothes/shoes I don’t wear anymore and minimize as much clutter as possible.

When It Rains, It Pours

November 11, 2018

It’s been over a week since I’ve been back, so a lot of posts are long overdue. I’m so backlogged it’s overwhelming. But I think the next month or so should be much calmer for me in terms of events and outings now that it’s cold, so I should be able to catch up. I always say this but it’s always been so true in my life: when it rains, it pours. Sometimes I’ll be bored and have nothing to blog about and sometimes I’ll be so overwhelmed with things that I don’t even have time or know where to begin.

There’s so much. I have to write about OMG Dessert Goals, my birthday, my trip to Disney and other various pop-ups that are long overdue. I still have topics that you guys have asked me to touch upon that I just haven’t had time to sit down and write.

I have some things to attend to this month as well so I do want to play catch up as fast as I can before I end up diving into that. My sister scored a Tiffany’s Blue Box Cafe reservation for me as part of my birthday gift and I’m excited to attend that this coming weekend. I also have Anime NYC on the agenda that day too, to report upon. As well as any other gram tour stops that weekend we’ll stumble upon. And then the week after is Thanksgiving! Currently I have plans to watch the parade and then race back home to attend my in-laws dinner that evening. This entire month’s theme has been early morning appointments. Despite being up for the gym almost every morning, I am still not a morning person so all these events are going to have me dying and looking like a zombie. Thank god for makeup.

And for the holidays, I actually have no gym goals except to hopefully maintain my weight until I start training for the Princess Half marathon. I slowed down for a bit for now because it’s getting a little too cold for me to run outside and I get bored really easily running on the treadmill so I don’t want to start until a little closer to the race. I also need to figure out what to do about the pain I get in my right leg every time I run past an hour. I don’t want to overexert myself before the event and jeopardize not being able to participate. Hopefully I can find time to get it checked out during the holiday season. But anyways, I’m going to allow myself to eat what I want again in moderation. Diet season for me is over, I’m still working out, but I’m not going to be as strict as I was when I was trying to lose. Right now I’m comfortable at my 105-110 rubberbanding so hopefully I can maintain that for the season until summer is here again. Besides, I get cold rather easily (I’m actually always cold) so I need some fat on me to keep me warm for the winter, right?

Anyways, until I can organize all these posts, here are some preview pics of what you have to look forward to and topics I’m going to write about. I also updated my photo galleries in the meantime with my Disney session and my recent fall fashion shoots in Central Park and Avalon Park.

OMG Dessert Goals - is it worth it? Will I attend again?
Birthday dinner at Tao Downtown - how being 30 feels
Disney Birthday vacation - using a travel agent vs self-planning, Halloween in Orlando vs Cali (who wins?), Disney perks of staying on property, best photo spots, affordability of a Disney vacation and park tips.
Wedding Anniversary - 4 years married, 16 years together (although really 17)
Pop-ups: Fairy Island NYC, Opal Orchard, Brandless, Mickey’s True Original
Tiffany Blue Box Cafe
Anime NYC
Thanksgiving Day Parade/Thanksgiving holiday/Black Friday

Mine

August 3, 2018

I am obsessed with this song right now. I love cute love songs that remind me of the boy. I had Lauv on repeat for the past 3 months and this is another cute find for me. I'm listening to Bazzi's music on repeat and it's reminiscent of the mellowness of the Weeknd's style and sound. I love everything by the Weeknd.

Currently with his new job, I only see the boy once every two weeks since we only share one day off in common together. All other times, we just see each other in passing but don't get to actually spend much time with each other so I'm looking forward to those days in August for us to have off together, Lantern Fest in September and of course, my Disney birthday/anniversary! It's a big year. I'm going to be turning 30 - which I've come to accept, and it's also our 4 year wedding anniversary. This October will also mark our 18 year dating anniversary. Yes, we're high school sweethearts!

I did recently spent time with my husband a few days before leaving Chicago though. We went out to see the sunflower fields out east on Long Island since they started blooming and they were so beautiful. I need to appreciate my own island more. It's full of beauty but I keep running away to NYC anyway. The sunflowers are currently the size of your face and I love it. I want to visit again in a few weeks to see how much bigger they get before summer's over.

Speaking of summer, it's going way too fast! It's already August. The summer is flying by and the year's halfway over. I'm saddened and excited. I don't want this beautiful season to be over but I can't wait for the upcoming activities I have planned soon.

I have two pop-ups lined up for August, the Colorfactory in a few weeks and Candytopia at the end of the month. I don't want to hype either up too much and be disappointed but I'm excited to attend and check them out, if not at least use the days for more gram tours and continue eating my way through NYC. Actually, funny enough I haven't been there in 3 weeks. Meanwhile before I was going nearly every week and sometimes twice a week. But that will all change soon again, hahaha. There's a lot of city activities for the fall.

I officially bought tickets to Lantern Fest on Sept 8. Currently he's only off for that day but hopefully he can get the whole weekend off. It would be really nice to just spend a relaxing weekend together in the Poconos. Fingers crossed!

I'm excited to return to DragCon for its second year in New York. Originally I was going to attend on Saturday but I think I'm going to go on Friday instead. I can't wait for new makeup and glitter overload.

NYCC, I actually am not crazy excited for but I'm still looking forward to attending since it's my only cosplay con this year. It's funny how I went from attending just NYCC, to attending several in a year, and then back to just NYCC again. I also haven't worked on putting any new cosplays together all year. I haven't had the time for it, nor the desire. But I always have a good time at NYCC so it should't be too bad regardless. Last year I got to meet the Weeknd when he announced his appearance literally days before the con so that was pretty dope! I'm probably going to wear old favorites like Harley, Juliet Starling, Alice, Little Sister, or Sailor Moon. I also forgot that my sister got me a ticket to see Bruno Mars in concert the Thursday NYCC begins! This, I'm pretty excited for.

The week after, I'll be attending GenBeauty as well. I went last year on a spontaneous whim and enjoyed it a lot! It was a really nice experience trying new makeup without having to buy anything and scoring so many cool free samples to take home to discover new gems.

And then in a few weeks after that, I'll be jet setting off to the crème de la crème of the fall adventures. I finally committed and booked my Disney birthday celebration before I left for Chicago. I bit the bullet and booked my stay at the Contemporary. It's going to run me a pretty penny but in the end, my friends and family are right. I always go cheap to save money when I go to Disney. It's my birthday, I should YOLO and go all out for once and really enjoy it. It's a special occasion and I really should do it at least once. I'm excited to share this experience with the boy. I'm basically counting down the days to this trip.