fortune

hi again!

so i quit my job at the translation company and i went back to iowa to help my parents pack up our old house. it was hot as the dickens. i wore the same clothes every day and enjoyed the air conditioning while looking through childhood memories.

now i am back in hawaii, spending time with friends, the sun, and the ocean.

and in two weeks I will be living in Aurora, Illinois. and two weeks after that i will start grad school.

here is a funny picture of me sneezing in iowa:

also, in the past year and a half in hawaii i have lost 30 lbs. bodies are weird!

in photos

oh, and here's the past few months in photos:

 haleiwa eats for trav's birthday

 zombie attack

 massage school graduation

 our second valentine's day (he loves me)

 kelli left for fashion school, but not until we all sang karaoke

 my mom came and we hike to makapu'u lighthouse

 and we had a room with a pretty city view

and we went to a skate demo to see super cool pro skate boarders

and so on, and on

since january i've probably worked more hours that i've worked in my life to this point. i am so glad our office gets along so well, or all those 50-60 hour weeks would have been miserable.

now it's may.
in the past months i've listened to some new music. bought some new clothes, gave away some old clothes. spent time with my friends. said goodbye to friends. i've eaten out several times a week and have managed to never get enough sleep. i've played zombies with children and read books with my mother. i've spent rainy days in bed and some sunny days at the beach. and i've been making plans

and now i have one more month of work at the translation company.

and then i'll return to iowa to help my parents pack up our house. my dad got a new job and my mom is retiring, and they are moving. and i got into a graduate program in illinois.

and travis and i are moving there this august.

in the next months i expect to do lots of packing. i hope to spend lots of time with my friends and at the  beach. i want to eat lots of food that i won't be able to eat in illinois. i want to stock up on hello panda, pocky sticks, sour hula keiki, arare, li hing mui, and hi-chew. i'm really excited to spend a good chunk of time back in iowa. i'll be sad to say goodbye to the house we built when i was eight, but my parents already have plans to build a new one. they are moving on and so am i.

i look forward to being able to take road trips to see my friends. i look forward to seasons, to good ole midwestern food and milk and grocery prices.

i'll be seeing you soon, chicago!

h o p e

i'm such a bum at this. i didn't used to be - at least for awhile.
oh well.

i'm not particularly concerned about my aptitude for blogging or any of the implications.

Although I said I didn't want a full-time job, I somehow managed to get a 9-6 salaried, full-benefited position with a translation company. Jose always sends me e-roses, and I have a lawyer-friend lady in Argentina. I work in an office full of fun girls and we drink lots of tea and eat lots of chocolate.

I don't think me and the office life have a life-long relationship, but ish okay for now. Good professional experience and all that.

For the new year I have decided to take my shiny new moleskin (tank you braddah sean) (ting shen, can you believe i've used all the pages in the one you gave me?) and using it as a daily inspir-journal (still working on the name).

I picked a word to represent my year. A word to drive me and inspire my actions (Thanks for inspiring this action, K.Chun)

hope.

Simple, overrated, underrated, and intricate.

Hope embodies happy feelings, the anticipation of good things, the best of the gospel (gospel means "good news." read: hope embodies the best of good news. i like that.), and zest for life.

Hope is active.

Hope is not hesitant uncertainty. Hope is looking forward and acting expectantly.

Hope is me not being idle, taking some risks, looking forward to the results, and (hopefully) having a great year.

six things

Well, after graduating college, spending a third of my savings on rent while I tried to find a job, finding a part-time job at an intermediate school, not working all summer, going to Canada, going to Iowa (with Trav!), coming home and still not finding a full-time job and returning to the intermediate school, getting accepted into a grad program and deciding not to go, I have come to a few conclusions:

1. I don't really want a full-time job right now. I just want to save money. This can be done in other ways besides stressing myself out over a job I can't find.

2. Having free time is really nice. Getting bored is a sign of my laziness, and I should cherish this time to do what I please.

3. I don't want to go to grad school.

4. I want to go to Korea.

5. I want to go to culinary art school, specifically, this one.

6. I am interested in a lot of things, but not particularly passionate about much besides my family, Travis, purikura, Korean drama, and Harry Potter. Surprisingly (or not surprisingly, depending on who you are), I love baking. I am passionate about baking. For days I have been reading a recipe book Trav bought me just for fun whenever I have a free minute. I dream about cake pops and chocolate pumpkin bars and the perfect ganache. Baking has always been my release. It relieves my stress, provides an outlet for my creativity, allows me to give to others, and it is delicious and makes me feel very satisfied and happy. I want to be a baker.

fall = new beginnings

Dear Blog,

I don't really have anything to say right now, other than I fully intend on writing more regularly soon.

I've taken a break from many things I used to do (and sometimes enjoy doing) that became "supposed" to do things. Like exercising. And writing. And keeping in touch with my friends.

For some reason those things became wearisome and not as much fun as they should be.

So, after about a nine or ten month hiatus, I have decided to jump back in.

For this week, I exercised by jumping up and down in my room to music for a few minutes, and doing some sit-ups.

I talked on the phone with Collette, Nicole, my parents, and I text messaged a couple others.

And I wrote this blog post.

I'm going to take my time jumping back into these things, and try to relish the time spent doing them.

See you soon. (I think.)