"Sooner the better" is not a true statment.

Also, dilated pupils are no fun. I don't know who's idea it was to make an appointment first thing in the morning for her annual eye exam but she--(oh right....that'll be me)....I totally failed. I figured it would just be an in and out type deal. I thought, "yeah, the sooner I get this done, the better." FYI, I tend to mentally block all doctor visit and I seem to have the gift of selective memory when it comes to indescribable pain. Let me explain before you hit your head with the palm of your hand and say "doh!" You see, this is what happened on Saturday when I looked at my box of daily contacts and saw that I was down to my last three pairs: I quickly called my eye doctor and asked her to order me two more boxes of my daily use contact lenses.
 She said ok, she'll call when they come. We hung up and I continued watching "Nodame Cantabile" when suddenly, I get a phone call from an unidentifiable phone number. Curious, I answer and low and behold, it's my beloved doctor, calling me to tell me that she can't reorder my lenses until I get my annual exam. Eagerly, I asked to schedule my appointment first thing on Monday (ah, it's all coming back to me now...). The appointment itself was pleasant until the very last part. She applied eye drops, we talked about my work, speaking Japanese, visiting Japan and just as I was wondering when this conversation was going to transition to my dilated eyes, she turned off the lights and walked out. The rest was a blur. All I remember are bright lights and a pair of awesome temporary eye protective gear that resembled those ultra nerdy cheap 3D glasses. I was told to wear them whenever I was outside until the end of the day....yeah, I wasn't having it so I tired to avoid them by just wearing them in the car. There's a lesson here, kids--listen to your doctor. Wear the damn nerd shades. They--gasp!--work.

The good news in all of this is that my sensitivity to light wore off and I got my eye sight back to normal (I forgot to mention earlier that I was far sighted for hours--it was the weirdest feeling. Now I know how old people feel...just kidding!) And next year, I'm definitely going to try harder to remember this experience and 1. have someone drive me there and 2. make my appointment later in the day...

7 more days till Brent comes back...yay!!!!!! I am beyond extremely excited.

They look cool from here (mainly because I know how to rock just about anything...a thank you :)

Front of the shades. I know right? Pretty epic.

Back of the shade. Extend-able arms included.

I have a dream...

...I want to travel, badly. Like, I'm having dreams about it. Literally. I want to go all over the world and discover cultures old and new. I think I can make it work if I figure out a way to do it as a job that  I like. So in other words, I'd ultimately love to make a career out of traveling around the world. Where is all of this coming from? Well, to be honest, my friend, Ashley recently applied to be a Paradise Hunter (vote for her--you've got until November 12th to do so) and while I'm very happy and proud of her for applying I'm extremely jealous of the thought of having a 52-week paid vacation, visiting 12 different places around the world. Did I mention the salary is $60,000 plus a $150,000 bonus at the end (it goes towards property in a location of your choice or towards a year's worth of vacation rentals anywhere you chose. Personally, I'd take the property, but I'd have to read all of the fine print first)? Yep, I'm definitely jealous of whomever wins the host position but then again, maybe not. If it were up to me, I'd do things a little different. In fact, I still want to come up with a plan on how to get paid to travel around the world (without contacting The Travel Channel first. Obviously, those guys get bombarded daily with show pitches and industry people who "know people").  Besides, the type of travel I'd like to do differs from what the "Paradise Hunter" show wants.

  I mean, of course I'm going to find a way to get my way with this traveling career deal (duh, I think I'm cool now that I met Tim Gunn--oh yeah, remind me to tell you more about that later), but I need to think of the best way to do it. I mean, do I want to host a show? Write a book? Ride a boat? Join the circus? Teach a class---about what, I'm not sure? I mean there are so many options, it's mind boggling. And then comes the undeniable fact that, I'm sort of a big baby and I know I'm going to want Brent or my momma to come with me (you think I'm joking). Brent would be great to take with me because, hey, I get to watch him squirm over trying new things and I'd want my momma with me because she's my shopping buddy and Brent would just get tired of it after about two hours (my mom and I are troopers).

  Anyway, I've been putting a lot of thought in to that idea and I think I'm awesome. I mean, my idea is awesome, but I'm pretty awesome too so I can't take back that statement, sorry. That is also neither here nor there or anywhere. What am I even talking about? Is this what you guys put up with when I talk? A lot of babbling? (don't answer that if your name is Brent or Chihiro or any of my family members or friends who read this). That's my cue to leave and go to sleep now so.....good night.

That's Ashley in the front.

Hard core proof that I met Tim Gunn...Ha!

Down side of traveling with Harada. He's a scaredy cat. That makes two of us.

Down side of making me a TV host--I make weird faces. And I eat really fast.

Down side of traveling with my momma--she's also an iPaparazzi. We would never get things done. Except when we shop. Or open up a bottle of wine :)

Down side of traveling with Brent--he always craves pho. No matter when or where. But I'd travel with him any day :)

It's been a while

Sorry for the prolonged break. It's jut that when I get an overload of computers at work.....or obsessed with catching up on "One Piece," I tend to forget about other important things in life like updating you on my life. Meanwhile,

got a pedi at Salon Cherie in Waikiki,

and saw someone else get her nails beyond done

..it was a kimono inspired print.

went to the grand opening of the Greenroom (an art gallery) in Waikiki,

saw Pikachu dancing and hustling in Waikiki,

saw an awesome Engrish shirt that said "What is wrong with me? What do I think I think?"

Ate at Inaba on S. King St. with my momma and Salena,

went to Seychelle's bf, KeAloha aka K-Luv's debut CD release party at Maifest in Downtown,

watched him perform and got up in his face worst than the closest cameraman (hey, don't mess with an ipaparazzi, I insist on capturing moments, ok).

Also saw...Cirque du Soleil in Allegria at the Blaisdell!!!

I was also creeping on Harada as he was sleeping (becuase he looked soooo cute),

hung out with CJ, P-chan's doggie,

went to a potluck party at my aunty P-chan's house,

I learned that Brent was teaching a workshop at Caster Studio in Shanghai,

geeked out at a crackseed store by Ward (sorry, I totally forgot to check out the name of that place),

slept over Jace's house and carpooled to the UH homecoming game (American football),

got to see a few old teammates...

and danced as an alumni...yeah, I was sore for a few days after that.

view of the game from the dug out.

and went out after the game (I was a party animal) with Jace and her friend Lacie,

only to go trick-or-treating the next day with my momma (pirate) and Salena (Belle from Beauty and the Beast) at Kahala Mall.

 Dragged Sey and Zack along with me to the grand opening of 24 Karats Surf because they were shooting it for the news,

and saw my momma there (because she did the PR for it),

cute interior at 24 Karats Surf

Took a bunch of pictures of the product and interior (hey if you want a successful store, you've gotta invite me, I take tons of pictures AND blog about it--it's also in the rule book somewhere, promise),

I was diggin' the 1970's beach boy look and the awesome Engrish ("and there we find the sea of our dreams")

Oh and just in case you were wondering, I was a Hogwarts student for Halloween. My wand was a chopstick. My entire outfit was from American Apparel.

Oh, and the other night, I went to 12th Avenue Grill in Kaimuki for the first time

and ate the world's best beignets ever. Ever.

Oh, and I baked delicious dark chocolate chip and walnut pumpkin cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and golden sprinkles (you're allowed to drool). I think I'm a cupcake genius. I also figured out how to take awesome photos with my iphone. Watch out world, ipaparazzi 4 is a scary, scary thing.

 

 

And now you're all caught up on the basics of my life....Oh and Brent's not back yet. He's in China for a few more weeks so boo.... :(

It felt like I was going to die

I'm not being melodramatic here...well, not as much as I could be considering what had happened to me last week Monday. It happened after my workout at the gym--I started to itch. A lot. How would I describe it? It was as though I rolled around in tall grass crawling with red ants and mosquitoes. I'm. Not. Lying. It was horrid and I thought that I was going to die. After a while, I was able to calm down. I figured it was from the communal workout mat that I used. It must have been infested with...*shiver* bed bugs. It went away when I showered but as I got ready for bed, it steadily crept up on me. Soon I was stretching harder than a flea-ridden dog. That bad. Promise.

I'd like to say that was the end of my itching episode but instead, it got impossibly worse. The next morning, I woke up scratching. To make a tortuously long story short, my legs, arms, back of hands and feet looked swollen because try were so red and puffy. Seychelle helped me buy cortisone, an anti-itch cream but the relief was really really really short...like 2 minutes short. So I resorted to using blocks of ice. I manage to get a doctor's appointment in and can you believe it?--by the time I got to my appointment, the bumps were almost all gone and I noticed that I was scratching too much. I took pictures of my legs at their worse with the intention of grossing you, my readers out but they helped me show my doctor how bad they were moments before I walked in to see her. Se diagnosed me with hives, saying that had they been bug bites, they would have still been there. She asked me a billion questions about what I ate, what my allergies were, any changes in my diet or routine....she finally gave up an made me get a blood test and told me to go home and take some Benadryl. I still don't know what that was all about but after taking the medication and continuing to ice my legs that day, I saved a life...my own. Like I said, I'm not being melodramatic here, I'm just saying...I coulda died. Seriously.

Oh you thought that I was joking when I said  that I took gross-out pictures...this wasn't even the worse of it...feel lucky.

...bleh.

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My Daily Burn

Be proud of me. In 10 days, I managed to lose 2kg...which is about 5 lbs. Wowed? I know. Who woulda thunk? It was with the help of my new app called Daily Burn. I punch in what I eat every meal and keep track of my caloric intake. It even keeps a breakdown of what I ate (carbs, proteins, etc.) and it'll let me know how many calories I'm allotted before I go past it. As a result, I've been eating less and feeling healthier. I even set myself on a special bikini body workout plan albeit, I'm a week behind. Today was arms and abs and let me just say owwwww! I lifted weights today (I know!) and now my arms feel like lead. I'm not entirely sure I like this whole weights thing but I definitely feel the right muscles working. I think I'll add to the workout routine once I'm adjusted to this one.

I plan to lose another 4 kg (...you do the math), by next month but more importantly, I demand that my arms, abs and assets get whipped back into the award-winning shape that it was. So far, so great! Now let's see how long this gung-ho self pep-talk will last....yeah!

Eating healthy with a tofu sampler @ Gazen.

My favoritest brunch buffet ever. I mean, I can hear the angels harmonizing just looking that the sign, can't you? It's so great, it deserves an -est. I need to harp on this place for a sec (speaking of which, they had a harp and a flute player there too). You had better believe that chubbins came out and disregarded my daily burn diet plan for this buffet. So worth it.

The dessert table. It goes for miles!

 

The main buffet...I feel compelled to go just looking at this picture. I forgot to take a picture of the omlette making line and the ice cream sundae section because at that point, I was too excited and couldn't wait to eat anymore. Sorry boo, you'll have to go see it for yourself.

Ahhh yum!!! I will see you in my dreams, Orchids brunch buffet...

In my own defense, I did go to The Loving Hut, an entirely vegan and organic restaurant on King St. for dinner today with my momma. It was pretty good, actually. And I felt like I made up for my gluttonous irresponsibility yesterday...sorta. Still gonna dream about the buffet though.

I'll leave you with my lame joke of the week: if these are Forelle pears, are the rest fake? Ah thank you, thank you!

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A day spent with the 6 and under crowd

Yep, you read that correctly. I'm pretty popular with the 6 and under crowd. I'm expecting a nickelodeon award soon for coolest old person of 2010. I'm also up against Justin Bieber and the Fresh Beat Band but I think I've got a pretty good chance at winning.

See, today I went to my second 3rd birthday party with Miss Vicki, everyone's favorite preschooler teacher. After getting to spend some

Vicki @ Cafe Laufer

quality time with the bestie and her entire class of 3 year-olds (bouncy house included), I hung out with my sister for the rest of the day. Like not just go home and watch tv and sleep like I was sorely tempted to do. Salena got in to the car as I picked her up from my mom and told me that she'd like to do something fun..."like go play games." By "fun," she meant Fun Factory and I did not feel like doing that so I suggested a Halloween costume hunt with her after letting her know that Fun Factory is closed today (hey, don't judge me for my little lie. It was for the greater good, trust).
Anyway, she didn't object too much and had her heart set on being Sleeping Beauty so off we went to the Disney store, only to find out that everyone else had the same idea as we did. After she tried on a few princess shoes (that lit up!) and I had convinced her that sleeping beauty was a bad idea since she'd get hot with the long sleeves, she decided on being Belle from Beauty and the Beast. As we stood in an abnormally long line of parents and kids clutching various costumes and accessories, I looked again and the $50 dress we were about to waste my money on. "Hey Salena? I bet I can make this for you," I said with sudden Sascha-like gung-ho-ness (oh groan, you say?). Well she jumped on the idea of doing a project together so we ended up buying her $16 shoes and $10 crown (to go with her dress, duh) and we walked out with a renewed pep in our step. I mean, why go the simple route and just buy the damn dress when clearly, there are much more complicated ways to go about arranging a Halloween costume for a 6 year old...sigh
....Long story short, a cheaper $30 Target-version of the dress + $17 of material later (I know, I lost on this one but it sounded like a great idea at the time), we were at home dissecting the cheap, itch-inducing dress. I mean, the end result what nothing short of fantastically brilliant, but, it was a lot of work. Oh well, I did get a "I had fun today, Sascha," so it was worth it.

The $50 Disney Store version.

The back.

The $150 Disney Store Belle dress I was determined to out shine.

The end result of a Salena-Sascha collaboration.

The back. I wish I took a picture of the "before" dress to show you the difference. We took off the sleeves, the ugly skirt and pink flowers and then added those gold flower that we made on our own, a big bow in the back, a pink sash like the one from Disney store, none itchy sleeves and the fabulous glittery tulle skirt. Good job us!

The real Mickey Mouse Club.

A quick stop at cafe Laufer for some Italian cream sodas (and *ahem* a cream puff) with Vicki before hanging out with mini me.

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