Story #235: Career Choice

Hey y'all, sorry for not blogging for a while. I was completely swamped by school work and though I have gone out galivanting, I felt like I don't have much to talk about. It's one of those writer's block, you know?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about what I want to do as a career. I am interested in many things but I am limited in many skills needed as well. I really really love to be a writer and just write stories. It doesn't even matter what kind of stories I write, as long as I can get through the writer's block and self-doubt, I can write and write and write. There were times when ideas and witty words would come to me and I would sit and type for hours and late into the night.

When I was teaching middle school kids, I had like 50 story ideas that popped into my head one day while supervising them during their exam. I thought about writing a story for my students...a story they would love to read. That was when I started writing vigorously for a month. Then, I stopped. Just like many other stories I have written, I stopped half way through because I stopped believing in what I wrote and my inspirations went away.

I really want to study creative writing and learn more about writing a good story. I want to impact others with my writing because I believe in good literature and good words that change people's lives. But...yes, there's the big BUT. But what if I really am not a writer material? What if I can't support my family if my husband for some wild reasons loses his job? What if people don't like my stories? What if I go and study for 2 years in grad school as a creative writer and found that I am only wasting my time and money?

There are some questions I often ask myself. Some of them I've had answers for but for some questions, I am still searching for the answers.

--Do I have to go to grad school to be a writer?
--Will I even have time to write after I have kids?
--Can I be a part-time writer?
--How can I be successful?
--In the end, does it matter what I do as long as I achieve the goals in my life?

I am applying to the MA TESOL program in BYU next Fall. For a while I was really sure that was what I want to do. I think I am pretty good at teaching English to speakers of other languages and I have quite a lot of experience doing that. However, I won't be learning about literature anymore. That was my life for the whole 3 and a half year in Hawaii and it's going to be just that? Call me crazy but I miss writing a research paper and "dissecting" the literature. I miss knowing what "deconstruction" theory is and read 10 to 15 novels every semesters. My friends told me TESOL is going to be great. I really hope so. I really hope I will like it.

and in the end...I still love being an English major.

Sorry this post is kinda depressing. On a happier note, I am going traveling soon and we'll be back with lots of pictures and tales to tell :) I'll be modeling for a photographer too *wink*

Happy second week of November!

Story # 234: Happy Halloween!!

Have you ever heard of the song called, "Halloween" by Aqua? I know that they were famous for the "Barbie Girl," and "Doctor Jones" songs, but their "Halloween" song is really great, definitely perfect for Halloween. In fact, I think that was the first Halloween song I heard. Look at the lyrics, it's pretty funky :)

My Halloween started on Thursday because some kids at the day care center at the college came in to our sewing class in their cute costumes and sang to us! Aww...how sweet. All of us forgot to bring candies so they left empty-handed. I know, I feel bad too.

Halloween is so fun this year. This is the first time I actually went and got a costume and dress up for the celebration. I love love love Halloween. It's like a major costume party in the whole nation. The night before Halloween, we went over to our friends' house and had a little Halloween party there. We dressed up for the fun of it and carved the pumpkins. It was my first time carving a pumpkin and I was really excited about it. I did mine slightly less scary because there are way too many scary-looking ones out there. My jack-o-lantern is a cute one, with anime characters' eyes. :)

Nikki and her horrible self.

Decorations at the Halloween store

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Carving pumpkins :)

This one is mine! Aww...so cute!

Mr.L's pumpkin

I really like this one. June's.

The inside of the pumpkin is too gross!! I felt like I am squishing brains!!

Oh, Mr.L's hair is blue!

On Halloween day I was so super excited because I know there would be trick-or-treaters coming to our house. I just couldn't wait to see those kids with their cute costumes. Ok, this is out of topic, but I had to go back to the college to take a test because that's what I do, I always wait til the last minute to take the tests. But studying for and taking an exam on Halloween??? So lame!!! Anyways, back to Halloween. So we bought SO MUCH candies for the trick-or-treaters cause we were expecting maybe 8 to 10 groups of kids showing up at our doorstep. However, since we're living on a street where there aren't so many younger kids, we only had 2 groups of kids coming. Bleh... Now we have so much candy bars left.

Hershey's, Resse's, Kit Kat, Milky Way... I LOVE CANDIES.

Oh...like my trick-or-treat basket?

Trick-or-treaters!! G.I Joe, Ninjas, and a tiny unicorn baby.

Ahh...cross-dresser!! I mean the one in pink hair.

LOL...For a second I really thought he was a girl!

I went trick-or-treating myself because I just couldn't stand waiting at home. I went down this street where my bishop lives and saw so many kids running around in their costumes and carrying sacks of candies! I went trick-or-treating to three houses and was done with it. It's way too tiring to go from door-to-door and getting the rewards (candies) I didn't really want. I guess that's why Halloween is such a big thing for kids. My Halloween ended with me eating pizza and watching Transformers with Mr.L on the DVD.

Assalamualaikum?! Notice his blue teeth? Haha..

My fake lashes and purple contacts.

Next year, we'll move somewhere where there are a lot of kids.

Oh, before I go, let me share with you some chinese vampire clips. They are pretty funny to watch. I totally love the chinese zombie/vampires when I was little even though I was so scared everytime I watched movies about them and they still scare me until today. If you are interested, you should go on google about find out about the chinese ghost day. It's like Halloween, only there's no dress-up party and candies but a ton of money (fake money for ghosts) and incense burning.

Story #233: Weekend Fun

I had a fun weekend this week. It is a much needed weekend because I had been under a lot of stress from this ONE homework that I just can't bear to sit down and do. This tedious work of evaluating a website had me not sleeping well for like 4 days when I realized I spaced it and was a week late from the due date. Sigh...it is still not done yet (it's more than a week late now) because I just can't sit down in front of the computer and go through 5 websites and evaluate them. I don't know what is wrong with me but this seems like something that my unconscious self refuse to do (I can spend hours sewing but I can't spend 30 minutes writing about websites).

Anyways, I just spent my Friday watching Taiwanese drama after my class was cancelled. Then, on Saturday, Mr.L took me on a date to St. George. Actually, I made him take me to the What Women Want expo. I heard from my mother-in-law that there were a lot of free giveaways and free spa coupons and stuff. So I went there fully expecting to get EVERYTHING for free (for I thought it was like those job fair thingy that you can get like free notebooks and pens and magnets and other thingamabobs.) Turns out that it's one of those things that you have to buy something in order to get something cooler for free. How lame! Anyways, I did get a REALLY cool thing there! I am all over it and it serves as a reminder that I HAVE to go to Paris one of these days. There were so many other cute ones there I had the hardest time choosing which one I truly one. But how can I resist Paris, right?

I also got a thing for my face. It's a Blackhead remover tool. OMG...It totally does not work!!! The first thing I got home was to try it on my nose but it didn't do jack. Wasted my 20 bucks. I should have known. I should have given up on hopes that there are painless ways to remove the stubborn blackheads from the nose. Argh...

After the expo, we went to the Ancestor's Square to get some good restaurant food. I chose Benja Thai and Sushi because they sound so much better than Pizza Express (Mr.L wanted to go there). I love love love Tom Yum Goong. It's the best Thai soup ever. I am no Thai food connoisseur but I think the Tom Yum Goong in Benja was really good. Of course, the authentic ones that I tasted in Bangkok was better. But Benja did a good job too.

After the delightful meal, we wandered into the cute little store called "Life is Good." I love it so much. I love how the shop was actually a house and it feels so warm inside against the freezing wind outside. I really love the PJ pants they have. So girly. I might shop there for PJ pants next time. I just love finding cute stores with lots of "treasures" in them.

On Sunday, we had a really nice family dinner. We haven't have it for a couple of months now so it was really nice to be able to see the little cousins again. This time, we played Twister and grandpa was the ultimate winner because he could stretch so much even at the age of 60 something. I guess being a vegan does have something to do with health. LOL.

My weekend ended really nicely and I am now back to hating Monday and my stressful website evaluating homework.

Cheers~~

Story #232: Exploring the Wild

Everyday I drive to and from Dixie College. It takes me 30 minutes each way at the speed of 65 to 70 mph. I was always sleepy when I drive early in the morning and at about 3pm (my usual nap time when I am not in school). So, in order to keep myself from sleeping on the wheel, I listened to Sunny 106.1 Jon Smith show, and admired the beautiful surrounding the whole way to my destination.

Indeed, St. George area is blessed with beautiful gigantic mountains and red rocks. It's amazing to see the layers of rocks that formed the majestic mountains and canyons. Everyday when I drive past the Silver Reef sign, I would be imagining what a silver reef look like. When I drove past the arch in the rock, I would be wishing to go there, instead of the school. There's so much to explore and I owe it to myself to see as much as I can this beautiful area which is my home now. A few weeks ago, due to my photography class assignment, I was able to have Mr. L drive me to those places so I could take some AWESOME pictures. I had to use my film SLR camera because my class is a film photography class, not a digital photography class. But I did take some pictures with my point-and-shoot.

A creek in Silver Reef

So this is Children forest.


A path that takes us to the Children's forest.




This leave would soon be brown. The last of summer was when we went here.


This is so amazing! A kiln!!! It's like an igloo in the desert. Mr. L used to camp out here with his friends.


Inside the kiln


A dragonfly. It reminds me of childhood.


Bushes with red branches and roots.






Red Cliffs Park.


The holes in the rock is so yucky to look at for some reason. They reminded me of sores and boils on human flesh.


They are caused by the wind




The arch that I drive by every day.


Quail Lake is located at the exact opposite of the arch on the other side of the freeway.




This used to be at the bottom of the lake and covered with water. Now it's dried up and it's evident to see that trees do grow under the lake.

Story #231: Make Over

I have decided to give myself a makeover. I am parting my hair in the middle and giving my nails some "bling". I am still getting used to how my hair looks now, but I am beginning to like it more and more. My inspiration comes from a ton of models and celebrities. I just wish my bangs get long faster so it wouldn't be such a pain to part them in the middle.

The nail polish is by Hard Candy, a high-end cosmetic brand that recently came to Wal-Mart. Thus, making it affordable at $5 a piece. I painted the first layer with a clear nail polish with lots of silver shimmering stuff in it, then I used the light plum shimmer, called "Date Night" for the second layer. Then, I sealed them in with my favorite L'oreal top coat. My nails are totally sparkling now!

Story #230:Up North

Last weekend we went up north to Salt Lake City for Mr.L's missionary reunion and the General Conference for the church. We were really excited about this trip as this was the first reunion Mr.L would be attending post-mission. I was really excited because I would be seeing old friends and missionaries that used to serve in my home branch. If you don't already know, Mr.L was called to serve his mission in Singapore/Malaysia in 2005.

I was also super excited to attend the General Conference at the conference center. The ticket was hard to come by since they were free and it seemed like EVERYBODY wanted to go, so we were pretty lucky we got some for us. We went to the Saturday morning session and it was a really sweet experience for me to be able to be in the same room (though a huge room) as all the apostles and prophets of God. I got a lot out of this General Conference's talks. It was super cold that morning and I was amazed to see so many people coming to hear the servants of the Lord speak. The conference center was full and there were about 20,000 people there.

Apart from that, we were able to go to Provo and meet up with some of my old classmates that I haven't seen for a while. We got to have lunch with them and caught up on what we were up to with our lives. Good friendships are so precious and I am lucky I have many good friends who I still get to talk to once in a while despite the distance.

Seriously, I can't wait to move up north next year. I am so excited about it. I only wish that they have Zion's National Park up there. That's my favorite thing about St. George.

Lovely St. George

Story #229: Haciendoelindo

Found a really cute site today. Thought I'd share with you guys. It's super cute...even though I can't read what it says. Just click here.

Story # 228: iblogger :)

I just found a way to blog from my iPhone!! Yay! Now I can blog even when I am in the bath tub or on the toilet (not that I really have that much to talk about though). I am just glad that blogging becomes so easy.

I was just staring at this out of boredom when I suddenly thought about looking up blogger app on iTunes store.






The app even let's me take instant picture and upload it to the blog post immediately. Fun!!