summer breeze

Reasons why I have not been blogging lately

1. trying to get through the last couple months of senior year without blowing my head
   
2. have lost all interest in everything on the internet except facebook; yes even lost interest fashion for awhile
3. should have been working on my senior project and getting my life together
4. trying to cram every minute that i did not devote to educational purposes to hanging out with high school friends
5. ran out of witty subjects to blog about

Reasons why I should be blogging again

1. it is summer; NO SCHOOL!!!!
   
2. i am officially done with high school (oh such a scary thought)
   
3. i have three months of nothing to do until college starts (another scary thought)
4. need to get back into the blogging habit

Well it has been a long hiatus since me and Pachia have been on here. Well we had good reasons because we were trying to survive the last couple months of senior year! So many things to do like senior project, senior boards, senior activities, graduation, etc! Well it is all over and I am happy. Summer is finally here. But sadly Sacramento has been a bit windy so it feels no different. So we have finally passed a "rite of passage" in our lives. We graduated!


How do I feel about not being in high school anymore? Great. I thought I would have some life-changing emotions flowing through me during the ceremony but I was just content and mostly bored. Maybe it is because I know I am going to see my good friends over summer (and I have been seeing them a lot lately over the last couple days). Maybe it is because I know it won't come to an end until September when we all "leave". Maybe it is because everything always hits me at the very end and I will be the one bawling my eyes out on the trip to San Diego. But, I do not feel anything yet.

But I have noticed a difference. I have noticed that everything isnt exactly the same. I already accepted the fact that people drift. It has happened to me but I am not the type of person to feel heartbroken about it. But I already see it happening NOW. I am not the type of person to drop a friend over one mistake. That is not how friendships are maintained and I know I do not want to lose a close friend for a mistake that can be forgiven and changed. I just wish others would feel the same "forgive and forget" as I do. But that doesnt mean I am going to blindsight the major issue. I would rather address it then drop the friend and ignore the problem.

Looking back at my four years in high school, I am satisfied. I have done all I could and tried my best and I have gotten the best results. A friend asked me if there was anything I could change about my four years and I realized I do not have anything I would change. Everything happened for a reason. I didn't start off with a great freshman year but I learned from that and I knew that I wanted to have a great high school experience and my goal was set to have fun sophomore year. And fun I did have. I made great friends who I hope to keep. I learned so much in the last four years by my teachers, friends and from myself. I did not have an awesome life changing experience in high school, but I know I can look back happily at those memories and move on forward knowing who I am a little better. I know starting college will be a little scary but I have the experience from high school to know that it is always scary in the beginning but in the end, it is just fine.

For my senior project I wrote and published a book called How to Survive High School: A Senior's Memoirs. You can preview it on the site. It really sums up the little tips I learned over my four years and talks about things that we always talk about our peers with but never really try and extend the information to people who need it. I found a quote that sums up high school.

"Beginnings are scary, endings are usually sad; it's what you do in between that counts the most."

Summer seems very long this year. I have exactly three months because I do not leave until mid-September for UCSD. I am ALREADY BORED because I do not have a job this summer. I need to seriously search for one. I wish it was just as easy as it was last time to get a job.

Summer goals (because we all need some)

1. get a job
2. go skinny dipping at least once
3. go streaking at least once (however not fully naked...)
4. look for perfect jumpsuit and perfect overalls

It is a summer and I do not feel like dressing up every day. I will be living in my boxer shorts or my cutup denim shorts and plain tees. But I really want to find the perfect jumpsuit and overalls. I am not into the harem pants jumpsuits. I know 80's is coming back but I prefer the modified 80's look, not the tacky over the top ones. I wanted the somewhat loose, tailored jumpsuit look or the fitted look.

I have also been wanting overall shorts since like sophomore year when I saw this really cute senior girl wear them with a frilly top. It was inspirational.

Images courtesy of chictopia and forever21. I wish lookbook would let us copy the images. They have some awesome pics of overalls!

---christina

i'm not done yet.

• 12 page term paper on economic espionage

• Common App for Stanford
• finish reading FAUST!
• and do long form...
• SCHOLARSHIPSSSSS!!!!!

i thought winter break was going to feel good. but i dont think it's really going to feel any different, besides the fact that i'll be getting a lot more sleep than i've usually been getting for the past week.. doing i dont even know what-- nothing :|

i bombed my ap stats test today. however i did write a somewhat decent bill for our mock senate in government. and hamlet was good, yet at the same time i'm not sure i did so well on the hamlet test or the ap essay (which i don't think i'm EVER going to get over a 7 on). yearbook is as dramatic as it always has been.. blah, blah, i have two spreads to finish by the end of break. my mouse is acting reeeaallly irritating, but it must be because my computer just recovered from a deadly virus. not even the party-potlucks have felt nice today. the only thing that i actually did enjoy this week was watching Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in english, which was awesome (although i probably would've never grasped it as deeply as i do now if my teacher didn't go over with us--and just because of that, even though it was good, it still makes me feel bad). Tom Stoppard is a geniuuuus (though)!

but aside from all that, i still have my senior project to do. which i guess isn't so bad... i'm just not feeling up to going to businesses and asking them for donations so i can put on my food sale. maybe i was just setting a goal to high for myself! 1) learning how to cook gourmet food 2) making a cookbook 3) putting on a food sale to benefit the hungry! everyone's just taking it easy, nobody really committed themselves to doing a lot, and now i wish i never had either. But i know i can't back down. besides, i have been thinking a lot about what i want to sell at the food sale.



my mom just bought new white plates and bowls, so i'm super excited; i want to take more pictures!!! i'm also going to the bakery with josie and her sister on monday, instead of the embassy, so i'm excited for that too :)

i'm running low on moneyyyyy because i've spent it all on gifts. i've already spent over $100. i bought tommy a cute pea-coat/coat, which, i'm glad, he loves; i bought josie these cute little sock/boots and a scarf from ae for secret santa; and i bought my mom and my sister and my lil brother gifts too, which all totaled up to over $80. today i also went to oldnavy and target and spent a bit more on my lil brother and my sister, which is fine, but i still have my dad and my brother and cousin and my other sister! and i only have so much more money in the bank. i also havent bought quite a few other people gifts either :| and bdays are coming up too :0 soo, i think i need to find a job. but everyone knows how that is these days...

HOLY CRAPP!!OPIU$)%&@)#% my mouse is retardeddddd. i'mmmmmm done. its friday. i want to watch a good movie :)

PACHIA!

dont sweat it.

It is November 1 and you know that means PANIC MOOOODE (whiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrllll the sirens) because 29 days before the deadline of UC/csu APPS!!! But don't sweat it, we can make it.

So my Halloween turned out to be a LOT more fun that I thought it was going to be. So I had to work on Halloween night (sad sad) so I made no plans with friends to spend Halloween and everyone was kind of off doing their own thing. The night before, my friend and I realized we wanted to dress up for school. So we spent half the night researching on what we could be with the clothes we already had. She lost inspiration but I found some. I decided to be a modern day SNOW WHITE. I got some great inspiration from a site that I cannot remember and it is on my sister's browser but I made an outfit somewhat like this.

I wore a yellow skirt I had (same shade as one above), a blue top (same shade as above) with this peter pan collar, a red sash (made with this long red thin scarf i had) around my waist, red tights (because it was cold!) and a red headband. Surprisingly, a lot of people got it. Too bad I do not have a picture of it (Chrissa took some for yearbook though) but this one random girl even came up to me and was like "Miss? (...why do i feel old when she called me that..) Are you Snow White?" and I replied "yes!". Nice moment. Sadly Halloween was a little desolate this year. It was raining and cold. I took my little sister trick or treating for an hour before I went to work at 8pm. We didn't get as much candy and skipped around a lot, but she was satisfied enough. Then I went to work and me and Hanh were very bored since it wasn't busy at all. But luckily our lovely friends came to visit us because they also had nothing to do. So I said, HEY IT IS OUR LAST HALLOWEEN TOGETHER, we HAVE TO TAKE A PICTURE!! And we did, and they should all thank me for this lovely memory even though I look like CRAP in my work clothes and our Red Berry hats always make us look stupid.

The Red Berry circle of Frozen Yogurt Love.



I love silly pictures the best.

We closed early around 10 pm and decided a spontaneous trip to In & Out because of course the coolest kids always go to In&Out. We squished in a booth and ate our animal fries and burgers and enjoyed our youth. And afterwards, Michelle, Lissah, and I danced around to Matt blasting Jonas Brothers' Burning Up while Desiree recorded us. Then Kingston and Michelle started dancing in front of all the cars in the drive thru line and then I realized it was time to go hommmmme so we stop acting like obnoxious teenagers. But it was a lot of fun. Simple joys like that should never be taken for granted.

For my senior paper (on my senior project) I have decided to do a paper that is opposite of my project (theme revolves around happy, stress-free week). It questions why does the current youth stress so much (I think the youth is starting to stress more and more and at a younger age) and does it result it more aggression and violence in society? I checked out a couple teen stress and angst books and also a self-help book called Don't Sweat the Small Stuff for Teens. I do not really believe in self-help books because I think people who write them are pompous asses who have more effed lives than normal people but don't even realize it but this one is okay.

I am using it as a somewhat Bible for my daily stresses and I have been preaching random quotes from it to my friends when we stress out but they just yell at me to shut up. See what I mean teen stress = ANGST AND VIOLENCE!!

So here are a couple tips for stress:

1. Don't THROW UP ON FRIENDS - You wouldn't throw up on friends when you are sick (because that is sick) so don't get mad at them when you are having a mood swing because mood swings are temporary but your actions and words from those swings are permanent.
2. Convince yourself that one teen makes a difference - I STRONGLY believe in this one and I always try to encourage people about this philosophy. "You make a difference every time you're thoughtful, helpful, cooperative, generous, compasionate, or kind. "
3. Avoid the words " I know " when someone is talking - I do this all the time when I am talking to my mom and she gets really mad so I should this. "When you automatically respond to someone by saying 'I know' what you're really saing is, 'I'm not listening to you'.".
4. Get out of the EMERGENCY LANE! - I have a lot friends who do this and it rubs off of me too. So we just all panic and run around like chickens with our heads cut off over little things. "In a nutshell, living life in the emergency lane measn you treat virtually everying as an emergency! Every decision seems critical, every mistake is looked at as monumental...You're usually in a hurry, anxious to get somewhere other than where you are...when everything is a really big deal to you, it's almost impossible to have any fun!"
5. DROP THE DRAMA - The biggest lesson a teenage can overcome, dropping the drama, especially if it is yours. I am the type to get over things in like a day, but a lot of people I know can moan about things for weeks. GET OVER IT!!! "And while it can be realy tempting to blow these types of things out of proportion, it's ultimately better for your SANITY, your friendships, and your happiness to learn to let them go."
   

This book solves all the stresses I am going through (except family... I haven't read that far into the book).

I hoped I'ved helped your life a little if you actually READ those tips. :] I hope I can keep these things in mind as I go on with my life.

---ck.

cheeeer up.

the economy is so bad, yet Americans are still going about their business, as if nothing is wrong. i guess i am guilty of that too, except i have this constant voice in the back of my head that keeps me a little worried everytime i purchase something totally unnecessary. i'm pretty sure the country's not gonna go broke dead, like back in the depression days, if our economy crisis gets out of hands-- but still, i am worried. i guess sometimes i worry a little too much though. i think its unhealthy.

school is so not as stressing as i invisioned it to be. however, it is still stressing! i'm not pulling my hair out of my brains yet, but i think i'm managing fine, seeing as how i still have the ability to procrastinate and get away with it. well, i can't say that yet, because i havent really gotten any grades back yet-- except my psychology test, which i got a D on. but the majority of class got D's... so i guess i'm on the right track. you can't blame me though! i've got 5 AP classes! and i really didnt think that was really that impressive or shocking, until i started telling people, and everyone gave me the impression of it being impressive and shocking! yay. i for once dont feel stupid. whooooooo. i'm still worried though. worried, worried, worrrrrieddd!

pheeeewwwwwwwwwww. so i guess i'm going to start typing slower now. i've really been rushing with everything these past few weeks! would anyone like a chihuahua by the way? we have accumulated too many dogs over the past few years, and we really no longer have time to take care of them anymore :( so if anyone's interested in adult chihuahua's, i have a few. REALLY!! i'm just looking for good homes for them! HELP ME OUT! there's no charge. and i'm getting desperate, because REALLYYY, i don't have time to take care of them anymore, and they need to get to good homes. i'd appreciate it, if you know anyone who's interested in chihuahuas, and you pass this information to them :) they're so incredibly sweet and cute.

i don't want to make this blog a reaaalllyy long one, but i havent blogged in so long, and i have so much to update on! well, let's just keep this short. i got my camera in! it's amazing, and i love it-- i've been taking pictures of everything! my birthday was freaking amaaazing. i've discovered a crazy love for baking. my senior project's gonna be on cooking (that's not official yet though).

today i went to the flea market. and there really wasn't anything that great. i got this cute indian bracelet/ring (or so my mom says-- that it's indian) and some yellow nail polish! then i came home to work on my yearbook "about me" and now after this i'm probably going to cook dinner and study for french...

ahh, i feel so sad thinking now, about how summer's over. i saw some of my co-workers at the flea market today, and i saw my kids at the Hmong Family Healthy Day picnic yesterday. i miss being a kid. this is gonna be my last year and the world is so crazy these days. ahhhh. that just means that we gotta cherish every moment, and savor all the good times. i mean look at my grandparents and my parents! they were in the middle of a war, and look at how far they've come. yes, you just gotta cherish every moment. and cheer up :)

salut, salut!
PACHIA