cvs

we went shopping again.

there are plenty of blogs that talk about the many sales that goes on in stores like walgreens, rite aid, cvs, target, etc.. but cvs really IS a great store to buy items. who came up with the idea of extracare bucks? brilliant. on 7/5, we bought a half gallon of OJ, two bottles of dawn dish soap, 2 rolls of tape, cvs ----- liners, and 2 sticks of deodorant. total came out to be $12.95, with all the items having some sort of sale (boooo retail price). after coupons and $7 ECBs, we paid $3.88 (tax included) and earned back $7.50 ECBs. hehehehehe...

i think being clumsy has its benefits. you learn to avoid buying [unnecessary] expensive items.

cellphones: i don't really care what type of phone i have as long as it's able to receive and make calls. big? small? orange? white? ain't no matter.. i'd PREFER certain aspects but don't mind what i get. after all those time i've dropped, stepped/sat on, and/or spilled liquid on my phone, i'm surprised it still works! hm.. maybe that's why it freezes so much.

laptops: i've been using this laptop for 4+ years. it's relatively small/light, nothing fancy but it works efficiently, and some of the money spent went to charity (and it was already on sale!). i am illiterate with purchasing computers, so i was happy with anything that wouldn't break my back if i brought it to class. needless to say, this laptop started dying (it's all my fault) after a year or 2. there was a huge crack on the back of the screen, but i continued to use it until one day, the monitor didn't work.. don't ask me how that happened (idk) but i refused to get a new laptop. what's the point? everything else was still working. instead, the handy dandy andy craftily removed the screen and connected it to an external monitor and now my laptop is a desktop. it looks pretty ghetto with wires sticking out from the top, but i'm satisfied. =)

massage wands: many people know i have a bad back. last december, my mom bought me a pretty pricey massage wand. i never remembered to use it until one day, about 6 months later, my mom scolded me for not putting it to use. to make her happy, i pulled it out and started connecting the pieces. i thought i knew what i was doing because my mom has another one at home, which i've used before.. but i guess not. even before it's initial use, i broke off the essential vibrating piece. opps.. sorry mom! guess i'll resort back to using my miniature medicine ball for back rubs! heh heh..

there are more examples, but i think i'll stop here so people will still allow me use their stuff... if not, to even touch them.

spendings

and so my joy of making lists continues..

songs that i've been enjoying (this is for you, lulu!):
_lucky by jason mraz and colbie caillat
_spanish romance (thank you, tim!)
_river flows in you
_ saltwater room by owl city (i blame annie, who would blame jerry, therefore i blame jerry)
_desert song by hillsong united

not so recently, jared and i have been learning how to be real frugal shoppers. using and stacking coupons, taking advantage of rewards and deals, learning where to find these money savers, etc.. it has been fun to come out of a store with a longggg receipt, where more than half of the print is about deductions from sales and coupons. it feels like a real accomplishment!

or at least it did until i began thinking, "do i REALLY need these items?" well, i mean, i WILL use them if they are purchased.. but but.. they are on sale! okay fine. i don't need them.. or at least not right now. so i've come to the conclusion that the best way to savie money is to just not spend! buy the bare necessities (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXwEBp3cKfM). that doesn't mean i'm going to give up looking for good/cheap deals, but i'll try to stop buying excessively. that extra bottle of shampoo and conditioner can wait.

if the milk carton says SELL BY a certain day that has already passed, how long will it still be considered "drinkable?"

LA was even more awesome!

going to UCLA was probably one of my best mini vacations since high school. i cannot tell you how many times minnie and i died. here are some highlights:

1) every single person minnie introduced me to thought i was younger than her, unless they knew me before..
for example..
P: are you a 1st year?
me: uh.. no.
P: 2nd year?
me: no.
P: 3rd?
me: nope.
P: visiting?
me: yup!
P: coming here next year?
me: errr.. no.. *SIGH*

2) but only three people actually mistook me for minnie.
K: [walks to seat in front of me, starts talking to me about some hw assignment, and sits down] D: um.. [taps K] do you know that's not minnie?
K: oh.. OH!

3) UCLA has large variety good food. they probably have the best dining hall i've ever been to. i mean, what other DH serves mousse, brownie goop or poop?, korean BBQ, udon, and sushi?

4) but don't worry! for all the food we consumed, we tried to make up for it with exercise! yay for running, tennis, and swimming! okay, maybe that wasn't enough for all the food we ate.. and dang, those old men are fast in the water.

5) spring sing is ucla's annual talent show. it's basically a concert featuring students. they were all so very talented and hilarious.. JULIE ANDREWS AND MELISSA JOAN HART were there too!

6) getting to see friends was super awesome too. =) thanks to the twins for their swipes!

7) the getty museum was fun! BB. BIG and BEAUTIFUL. i want to go again because we were barely there for two hours. opps!

8) minnie's room is known as the community room. basically anyone can go in at any time to do essentially whatever they wanted. and yes, they could borrow/take whatever they wanted. i'm not typing this to show her off, but i just want to share how i felt. ASTONISHED. i mean, many people, including myself, have a hard time giving up things that we "have." but here the room was.. full of "valuable" things.. and she didn't seem to mind what happened to them. actually i did notice that some items were missing. i'd ask minnie about it and she'd be like, "yeah it's probably being used by someone" [shrugs]. WOW.

9) this leads to me say that i've really enjoyed seeing minnie's college family. it's nice to see who God had blessed her with and to finally put a face to the great people i hear about. it's comforting to know that minnie is in a strong but challenging community. you're such an awesome provider, God!

there were a bunch of other little things that could be counted as highlights of the trip.. i'll quickly type the rest to finish up this post. 10) minnie and i discovered the funniest laugh, EVER. 11) scrapbooking awesomeness. 12) also discovered the funniest japanese video (type in japanese marshmallow on youtube) 13) mariage d'amour! 14) the weather was great!

i had a wonderful time. now i'm back in boston, with 1 night shift done and two more to go. yay?

NY and CA were awesome!

1) my dad gave a brochure to cindy titled "simple ways to save water at home"
2) mom gave cindy a bottle of lotion. it's suppose to be used on people with cellulite..
3) <3 late night chats with mom and the boys.
4) <3 hanging out with my 3rd sister =)

N64

3 days till i go to CA!
93 days till cindy comes to boston!
139 days until we go to hawaii!

jared, tim ho, marc and i recently completed the Mario N64 challenge of getting all 120 stars. we recorded our progress and tim ho added the finishing touches. jared also posted it on his blog with calvin, but i wanted a "copy" to add to my blog! the document can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/mo3/tripledeke3/timho/120stars.html it will make a lot more sense if you've played the game before.. but either way, please enjoy!

CA visits Boston!

minnie, shelley, and cynthia arrive today!
9 days till i go to CA!
99 days till cindy comes to boston!
145 days until we go to hawaii!

yay for countdowns!

i'm really excited to hang out with the CA peeps (especially cynthia who i haven't seen since HIGH SCHOOL). i'm looking forward to their visit so much that i'm gonna post our schedule. okay, so we don't have much planned but i'm using this blog to record all our happenings!

The highlights so far..

TUES: Minnie arrived at 5:45am. We picked her up at the airport and then I headed to work, which turned out to be a good day (maybe cause no one peed on me)! We went to pick up Cynthia and Anthony right after and had dinner at Panera (where else!?). Then we wandered Fenway Park and saw BU before picking up Shelley in Providence. We all passed out around 2am. My apartment was quite cozy having 4 additional people.. I feel bad for Anthony who curled up in my papasan, only to have several hilarious (but probably not to him) incidents throughout the night and a sore back in the morning. =/

WED: Dunkin donuts for breakfast. Cynthia and Anthony amazed at $20 lottery tickets. Sent them off to Sam Adams brewery. Lunch with Minnie, walked down Boylston for a swim suit. Met up with the 3 at Boston Commons and found that we had a new friend (she was on the brewery tour too but was a lone tourist). Walked the freedom trail (took forever!). Dinner at the Oyster House. Came back to the apt to watch the Office episodes. Awesome.

THURS: I woke up and Shelley has left to NY. Minnie and I went to the dining hall to stock up! You know it! Then went to Andy's to bake bake bake. Took a LOT longer than we thought it would.. until dinner time. Restaurant week at Summer Shack.. not bad not bad. Then back to Andy's to watch Naruto and then passed out.

FRI: Woke up late! AH! Minnie and I went to the Museum of Science. I definitely want to go back there again!! But don't watch the 3D bug show. It's awful. The story is terrible.. it made a little girl cry! Anyway, stayed there till dinner and met up with Cynthia and Anthony at Legals Seafood. Not bad I guess.. Went back to the apt to chill. Good talks with the girls!

SAT: Breakfast at BK. Shopped at Wrentham. Sent Shelley to the airport. Unity Dinner! Nerts at JFei's!

SUN: Minnie said bye bye.. =(

You can see as the days pass, my blurb for each one gets shorter and shorter. Oh well.. I still had a great time! I can't wait for another visit (already)!

trying to post more

along with lists, i REALLY like countdowns.

2 more days until minnie, shelley, and cynthia comes to boston!
11 days till i go to CA!
101 days till cindy comes to boston!
147 days until we go to hawaii!

wow, i'm looking forward to many things.. God-willing!

today was uh.. interesting. i walk out of my apartment and there on the intersection of brookline & fenway was a mini flood (the water main was broken). the water was coming up to the fireman's hips! so instead of the 6 minute walk to work, i went ALL the way around emmanuel. it took me 12 minutes! =P i'm spoiled. but seriously, i should have just swam to work.

a baby also peed all over me today. i should have seen it coming. his diaper wasn't on all the way. he was exposed to cold air and i had just wiped his wee wee (stimulation). *sigh* i felt so gross. good thing it didn't get above my elbows or i don't know how i would have survived the rest of work knowing i couldn't wash off the urine until i got home. hm.. maybe it was bound to happen? they do say you're not really a pediatric/infant nurse until you've been peed/pooped/barfed on..

more conversations

my mom is such a liar and so chinese. but i still love her. =)

minnie (on the phone): denice, if a box of cupcake mix was expired a year ago should i still use it?
me: does it say sell by or use by?
minnie: it says use by..
me: naahh don't use it
mom: but it's good! it still looks good!
me: YEAH but it was expired a YEAR ago. hm.. smell it. how does it smell?
mom: it smells GREAT. it smells really good!
minnie: denice! mom didn't even open the bag!
me: LIAR!
minnie: denice! mom just opened the bag and stuck the flour in her mouth!
mom: see! it's so yummy

jetblue.. once so pure, so gentle, so kind.. what happened? it started about a year ago when i was told i would receive 2 vouchers for 1) my flight was delayed for 1+ hour/s and 2) they misplaced my luggage. i thought cool, money off my flights! i got both voucher #s and codes, but little did i know that neither of them would work! *sigh* i called the jetblue peeps and they told me that one was invalid and the other one was already expired. wait.. what? invalid? but my flight was over an hour late! apparently they didn't actually count my late flight. oh.. those flight attendants.. so deceivingly nice! and for my expired voucher.. the rule is after a year, the voucher is expired. however it had only been 2 months! whoever the lady was that put in my information, "accidentally" pressed the wrong year and they had "no way to change it." UH HUH.

and so my story continues to yesterday. i got another voucher (why do i always get fooled) because my last flight had to make an additional landing in denver. i thought, this voucher HAS to be legit because i received it as an e-mail with all the legit looking stuff. so the past few months i've been trying to book several different flights with it, only to give up and change my plans. then yesterday came along and i was so determined to use this voucher because i had 4 flights to book. so everything is going well. i found the first flight that i wanted and i was able to apply the voucher and everything.. then RIGHT when i press submit, the website says there's some internal error! please try again. oh nuh UH. i try it several more times and they all say the same thing and then i wonder.. if i take the voucher off, will it go through? i can just use the voucher on the next flight.. and GUESS WHAT! it worked! the payment was processed in like 2 seconds! oohh gggrrrrrrr... that jetblue. so i call the jetblue peeps again and ask them specifically about this voucher. she said it was valid, didn't know why it wasn't working but would happily book my flight over the phone. ah HA! trying to trick me again.. because not only is there a $15 fee for booking a flight over the phone, she tried to get me to pay for the expensive flights when i told her to give me the cheapest (okay yes, i was going along with her games but rejected her at the end)!

you know there's something about not wanting to get in trouble that drives people to do things. maybe it's just me but right when my phone call ended with the jetblue lady, i tried the voucher one more time. it worked. they must have known that i was getting angry and was going to search through southwest!!

hm.. now that i look back at what i just wrote, i have no idea why i decided to tell you about my experiences with jetblue. but i do want to let you know that i love ice cream bars. they are so yummy. i wish i could have one now if i wasn't sick..

the other day my mom told me that my 11 year old sister made her a glass of hot water and tucked her into bed. hehe so cute.

what should i blog about?

okay okay, i'll post!

how do you keep yourself awake? this is a very relevant question, as for the next 5 days i'm becoming nocturnal.

1) caffeine nap. when i first heard of this method, i thought it didn't make sense. caffeine wakes you up, so why would you nap? but apparently it works. you take in caffeine and before it kicks in, you power nap! two different methods, together as one awesome solution.

2) hair contraption. male or female, if you have hair long enough to reach a car window, you'll be sure to stay awake. just open the window, stick some hair out and close the window on it. that way if you nod off, the pain from your hair being pulled from your scalp will wake you up! unless.. you have no pain receptors, then you'll just end up with a bald spot. oh yeah, and you might get into an accident.

3) combined sleep. if you know you have to stay awake on a certain day, rack up the hours of sleep beforehand. i heard it works, even when you don't want it to. =/

4) constant hyrdation. i like to drink a lot of water while i'm on a night shift. something about water keeps your body running because dehydration slows down your systems (it's 2am right now, i don't feel like explaining) but i guess that applies to most liquids (minus milk and a few others). then again, i guess it could also be from the fact that it makes me pee a lot, and i'm pretty sure you have to be awake for that.. hm..

does anyone else have any suggestions? i would love to read/hear them! anything to help me stay awake during these graveyard shifts! (i'm so not a night person..)