The Big Cash

For those of you who do not already know, I will be starting a new job at the local public library. As my school counselor said, this is a perfect job for me, surrounded by books. It also entails a slight pay increase (plus I get paid every two weeks, instead of once a month), even if it's only $70 more a month. But still, as my mom said, I will be making "the big cash". Or as big a cash as an almost eighteen year old can get. So here are my picks for expensive stuff I would like to buy once I have more money, but probably won't.

When I was little, I loved watching the show Inspector Gadget, for one reason, Penny and her control book. That is like the earliest mention of anything like a Blackberry to me, and ever since I have always loved organizers and planners, paper or electronic. I got a Palm Pilot when I was like in the 7th grade, and I was permanently attached to my Sidekick 2 until it broke :[ So when I realized I was going to possibly be able to swing the payments of a Blackberry, plus I found the great deal online (it's only a penny, and you also get a 60 dollar rebate), I seriously considered the Blackberry. In fact, I planned it to be my first purchase once I got my first paycheck from the library. But then I went back and forth because I could not decide if I wanted a Blackberry pearl or an iPod touch or both or neither. And there were definite pros ( I could mapquest myself out of anywhere, surf the web when my brother was playing Star Wars on the computer for the 9th hour in a row, and text again), but there were also definite cons ( I already have a cell phone so this would just be for texting and mobile Internet and let's face it vanity, plus I'd automatically not get $40 a month because it would go towards my Blackberry bill), so I deliberated some more. Unfortunately, what finally swung me towards not buying it is that you have to agree to a two year contract and I calculated the cost of a bill times 24 months and it equaled $960!!! If I saved all of that money I could buy a really crappy car. And that, my friends, puts it all in perspective. Plus it also helps that I am trying to save up for homecoming, and I cannot pay for both right now. $59.99 back once you send in the rebate

This is the other big purchase that I am still kind of considering. This is the iPod touch, basically like the iPhone, except cheaper and without the phone or camera. It plays music, movies, TV shows, and also has Internet capabilities. This has an up over the Blackberry Pearl because while it is initially expensive, I would not have to pay monthly for it. But I just feel slightly guilty because my old iPod isn't exactly broken, just not updated. But if I do ever buy one, it'd probably be closer to around the time of my birthday, probably as a gift to myself :] $299

Everywhere at school I see girls with really cute Coach purses, and the increasingly popular trends is the tote bag kind, which I have no problem getting behind considering the bigger my purse is the happier I am. This one in particular is cute, but considering I have never bought my own Coach purse before, I am kind of shocked to find out they are so expensive! I think it will have to be the Coach outlet for me all the way! :] $268

I saw this ring online a long time ago, and I loved it right away, but never bought it because it was Christmas time and I was attempting to buy Christmas presents. But I love this ring because it's so friggin' bling plus now that I think of it, it kind of reminds me of Heidi Montag's engagement ring, which is so not a bad thing. I think the lure of this ring lies most within the fact that it is expensive enough to know it's not just crystal or cubic zirconium, but still cheap enough for me to afford. $79.97

I really wish I could be the next Imelda Marcos

I am so obsessed with shoes that once I had an Urban Outfitters Gift Card and wanted so many shoes but only could afford one pair for the price of my gift card, so to help me I decided to make a slide show with pictures and prices. Then I ended up picking a book instead that I didn't even finish reading. Go figure. But that is neither here nor there. This post is about my love affair with shoes.

I have these exact flats, except not this color and not satin. So I guess they're not exact :] Oh well. Satin is not practical in Seattle where it rains almost nonstop, imagine the runny, wet mess these shoes would be in. Anyways, I love these flats. You can basically wear them with anything, and the plain (as in not satin or patent) come in like 12 different colors. I have mine in black,brown, red, and burgundy. You can never ever go wrong with a simple ballet flat. That being said, please do not become Amy Winehouse (not like you would or anything), and wear the same satin, pink, now uglified ballet slipper humanly possible every single day. $9.99

I love these shoes for pretty much one reason: they go great with this hoodie at American Eagle (that they no longer have online, I hope it isn't sold out)that I am in LOOOOVVVEEEE with and would like to acquire immediately. And you all know I am all for matchy-matchy ;] $35

We all know I have a deep love for houndstooth. And these shoes? Quite houndstooth-appetite filling. Even if the Velcro would make me feel like I am 5 years old again and playing in the sand box. It is probably a small price to pay. Right? $55

I love these shoes because I can actually remember a time when people actually wore shoes like these (minus the rainbow laces, those are new). And if I ever forget I need only to watch Encino Man or any 80's or 90's era rap video, foreealz. And I guess now they are trying to bring this back. But it so ain't happening. I would never actually wear these, this particular shoe is more for the entertainment value. $59.99

Now I realize that all the previous shoes were flats and/or sneakers. But you have to realize that I go to school five days a week where we cannot wear shoes with a heel higher than two inches, plus who would want to when there are at least nine staircases, most likely more? So that is why I spend most of my time in shoes that are flat. However, I still harbor a fetish for heels, and this can easily be remedied with boots, which tend to keep my feet warm, and also have a heel (usually stacked so I can actually walk as oppose to a ridiculously skinny heel). These boots are delicious, I love the color and the fact that they would look great with your dark skinny jeans tucked into them. I also love the price. $49.99

Breast Cancer Awareness

I know it's not yet October, but October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and I think it is important because this probably hits so many women. In fact, it is the second highest killer among females. Not to scare you with statistics but I'm just saying it's prevalent. And I always feel that the easiest way (for me at least) to help with a cause is to shop :] Of course. I figured if I showed you some options now, you could buy them in order to be ready for October! Above, a beautiful cross necklace, $14.95

Now I know, I know, many people will never forgive me for putting up anything even closely related to Uggs. But if you are going to wear anything even closely related to them, they should help someone else, right? Plus, where I live it is cold and slightly behind the times fashion-wise and thus perfectly acceptable to wear something slightly hideous. $39.95

This ring? Too cute! They're basically like jewels for your hand. It is so bright and when someone asks you why you are wearing a bright pink ring you can proudly tell them you are supporting those with breast cancer. $12.95


Trust me, I am all for a cause! BUT, that being said, the only situation I could not forgive buying anything , cause or not, would be if you bought these hideous clogs. Did I mention hideous? There would be no excuse to buy these, just buy something else from the above or pretty much anything else at the breast cancer awareness website. Not these. I'm not going to even provide the link! ;]

Laptop Bags

May I first just say that there is a serious market out there for some pretty ugly bags. It is almost as if a requirement for laptop bags is "must be almost unbearable to look at". (And yes, I know I do not even own a laptop yet. But I hope to do so sometime within the year, i.e by graduation. I won't be able to write hideously long term papers in college without one).

Mmkay, here ya go, exhibit A. I mean, who the eff would buy this? And this was one of the better ones on this site. It looks like something you would hang in your closet to organize shoes or jewelry, I mean come on. $38

The only thing that the previous bag had going for it was the price, at least it was cheap. This bag is marginally better looking, and I like the heart, but for the price I'd rather just buy a twenty dollar messenger bad and decorate it myself. And I'd still have money left over. $120

These are called laptop sleeves. They are not necessarily entire bags, but rather smallish envelope type deals that merely encase your laptop without providing any extra compartments for your other crap (notice my increasingly stupendous grammar in that last sentence? :]). I of course would choose pink. $29.99

Out of all the bags I saw, this one was the best. It is stylish, pink, and does not look like it's sole purpose is to carry a laptop. And, as is usually the case, I am drawn to the most expensive one in the lot. What else is new? $149.99



Whilst searching for laptop bags, I happened upon a site that sells iPod sleeves. And I loved it for two reasons. a) They sell this houndstooth one, among other cute sleeves. b) They call the new iPod nano (the one from the commercials with different colors) the "fatty". Which is funny, because I call it that too. They even have sleeves for the new iPod line (the iPod nano "fatty", the iPod classic, and the iPod touch) which is good because then I can get it for the iPod touch (which I hope to get for my birthday either as a gift or by my own means). $19.90

And so I have some to a consensus on laptop bags in general: a) They are generally quite fugly and/or b) way too expensive (oftentimes a good chunk of what you paid for the actual laptop); therefore, c) they are worthless and probably are not a necessity when purchasing your own laptop. Just use an old tote bag or backpack for crying out loud.

Glorified by Gloria

This isn't fashion related at all. And yet, the story of this brave and amazing eleven year old girl has touched my heart more than I ever could imagine.

Gloria Strauss was - is the daughter of the Boys' Basketball coach at my high school, and he taught Spanish as well. I never got the chance to personally meet him, but from what I hear he sounds like an amazing, funny, and smart guy, as I am sure the rest of his family is as well. He is married and has seven kids - Alissa, 13, Gloria, 11, Maria, 9, Joseph, 7, Anthony, 5, Samuel, 3, and Vincent, 10 months. Four years ago, the family found out that Gloria had a serious form of cancer called neuroblastoma. For four years, they struggled with this disease, trying a stem cell implant, chemotherapy, and various other experimental drugs. when this did not work, the Strauss' turned to the only option they had left, their Catholic faith. Faith and the Strauss family go hand and hand and you do not have one without the other. So instead of putting Gloria through the pain of more treatment they opted instead to put it into God's hands. For all that they had gone through, Gloria surpassed her expectations of living on prayer and courage. Since finding out about the plight of this young girl, our entire school prayed thousands of times a day for her and her family and her healing , and we held many fundraisers hoping to help with medical costs. The only thing they could do was pray for a miracle, and pray they ( and we) did. I don't care if you are Catholic/Christian/Muslim/Buddhist/Atheist/Agnostic/practicing/non-practicing, but the faith and determination and trust that this girl had astounded me every day. She taught us all how to live and how to love, and above all she was so selfless. Even when, for the last month of her life when she was in the hospital (after she suffered a heart attack and seizures at her home and spent several weeks in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator), she constantly prayed for others who were sick and put the needs of others before her own. this kind of love and generosity puts into perspective for me what it means to be a good person. On the night of Thursday the 20th of September (Doug Strauss' birthday) I prayed that I would learn to slow down and stop stressing about college deadlines and all my schoolwork, when Gloria Strauss was so selfless and praying for others instead of worrying. And on the morning of September 21st, Gloria Strauss passed away at about 7:00 in the morning. When they told us at school, people (including myself) openly cried and it was a sad and exhausting day. Ironically, in most of my classes we did nothing but the day felt three times as long as we all cried and mourned an grieved. Cynics will say that all our praying was for nothing and that Gloria did not receive her miracle. But she did. She now has received a completely healed body, and there is no doubt in my mind she is in Heaven with God, having a dance party and leading everyone in karaoke. Gloria would not want us to be sad, but rejoice that she is Home with her Father. This special girl has taught me so much in the three years that I have known about her, and it warms me to know that she is the reason our school community came even closer together in support of each other.

* You can read more about Gloria here.*

Ally Hates... The Odyssey

I am sorry, but that is one of the most boring books I have ever read. For one thing, I do not understand how "college level English class" translates into "let's read books that are not written in normal English and/or thousands of years ago so they are completely difficult to understand". I mean really. Sorry, but luckily I'm done with the book so I can now move on :] End of rant.

P.S- This is the original post. Today, two girls got asked out to homecoming and I was slightly jealous so I was going to make myself feel better by posting about Homecoming dresses, but after a long search I had virtually nothing and all the dresses I found online were either too skimpy or way too fugly. So I guess I will have to keep looking.

Ally Hearts...Something for a Good Cause

I apologize for the lack of posts the last couple of days. I am mildly sick (sore throat, runny nose, slight earache) and this has left me being medicated most of the time and therefore pretty lethargic. So again, my apologies.

I never ever need an excuse to go shopping. However, when one is given to me then I have no problem taking it. And this, my friends, is a really good cause. I actaully heard about it from bunnyshop, and I'm just sort of reiterating it here so there is more of an awareness.

At the store R.E.load (a recent discovery for me), they are experiencing a medical emergency. And I know all about the crisis that come with medical emergencies, the basketball coach at our school has a daughter with stage four neuroblastoma (a form of cancer), and we are all desperatley praying for her. So, back to R.E.load, a member of their company has has some health problems and are raising money for his medical bills. You can read more about the situation here.

So, in short, to help them out you can purchase anything from their site for forty dollars or more (and shipping is only 50 cents), and there is a great selection to chose from, and then you get this pretty awesome tote.

Cute huh?! $40

The Death Chair

A few months ago I was sitting in my desk chair, and noticed it was a little wobbly. Fast foward a month from then: My brother was giving me a hug while I was sitting on this chair, and since he put all his weight on me, we began to fall over! Fear not, the fan sitting next to us broke our fall :/ We still pretty much crashed into the wall. When I got up to inspect the damage, I realized we had bent a whole leg up. We kind of bent it back, but the chair has never been the same, and you can't like totally fix it. So you'd think with all safety issues concerning this chair, my dad would have bought me a new one, but has he? You would be right if you guessed the answer was no! Above: Jules Swivel Chair from IKEA, $49.99 (Buy if you dare!) :]

Ideally, I would like this chair. I actually first saw a chair like this in my Peace and Justice Club advisor/teacher's classroom, and knew I'd like to have a leopard print chair too. What is not to love? It has armrests, which is a severe improvement over my last chair which has none, and this is a plus because I am the queen of lazy. Secondly, it is leopard print!!! It would be like the focal point of my room, the fact that nothing in my room currently goes with this notwithstanding. The only downer? It is obviously slightly more than my current chair... $199

A cute alternative for less of a price? This will do, also from IKEA. I mean, it may look a little Martha Stewart-y, but it is still cute and would go with my decor a little better. And it has armrests for my lazy butt. Plus a cushioned seat, which would also help my posterior, as my current seat has no padding at all. $89.99

Ok First of All...

I have to admit that I really did not like posting a pre-typed post that I copied and pasted from Myspace at like 10:30 last night. I like it way better when I put some thought into my post, however lately I have had some time constraints on my posts lately. However, the only lesson I've learned is that I just need to start blogging more in my off time to put into my reservoir. OK so, onto today's post...

I really really hope someone remembers who Captain Planet is. In case you don't Captain Planet is a superhero of old who was a cartoon when I was really young and I used to watch. Essentially, it was him and five other kids who all had a power (water, fire, etc.) controlled by their respective rings and when they put them together, something magical happened (I don't remember what, but I remember them doing it a lot). Anyways, what is the point of this? Well, today at my school it was Superhero Day (as part of spirit week), and this one guy in our class was Captain Planet. Which got me thinking.... eco-friendly clothing and accessories!

I love this dress. Why? Well, for obvious reasons, like the color and the pattern, but also because of this... "What to do with the overabundance of 1980’s polyester dresses? Chop them up and make sundresses out of them. Our designer, Debbie, removes ruffles, shoulder pads, tapered pointed sleeves, and gaudy cloth flowers from out-of-date dresses and creates new in-with-the-times frocks." This is the description at the website. How cool is it that they make these cute dresses out of 80s dresses! Very, that's how. I mean, the 80s really could have done without all those shoulder pads, and now we have this cute little number. $68

Well, now this dress just cracks me up. At first glance it looks so cute and pretty (which it is). But guess what it's made out of? Mumus! Muahaha, I guess that's a good thing because mumus are not exactly the epitome of fashion. I also love this dress because the website says this dress is so perfect for a picnic they can barely stand it. I concur. $140

These pants are really sexy. Period. I mean one of the many reasons (you'll hear them at the end of this post) I normally don't get eco-friendly clothes into my wardrobe is that I equate them with like ugly clothes or like burlap sacks or something. But these are anything but burlap sacks. Plus they look great with anything and could easily wear them from work to out at night. Versatility is sooo important. $78

The reason I love this shirt so much is that it looks like anything I could pull out of my closet. It's definitely a basic, and basics are great because you can wear these with anything. For instance, you could wear this shirt with the above pants and a blazer and super high heels. Suweet! $68

These little babies are super cute. Revert back to earlier blogs and recall that I am a sucker for bling. Bling also delves into the realm of shiny, which these certainly are. They are made from recycling billboards, of all things. Anyways, it's a great conversation starter piece. $16

So lastly, there are a few reasons I don not tend to buy "organic: a) Like I said before, I tend to think that organic = ugly and b) It is usually really super expensive. But you know, these aren't too bad, and you are doing something good for the environment.

Fast Fun Facts that make me want to Projectile Vomit. Good night.

Many people are unaware of the most disgusting things that affects our every day life. You'd never realize how much you interact with gross things on a day to day basis. Some may affect your daily routine, while others are just fun to read! It's quite funny how these things don't bother us until we know the truth behind them. Everything changes once you are aware of something. Ah, ignorance is bliss. This article may not be appropriate for young children, read with caution.

1. Ever have a craving for a peanut butter sandwich? That thick, yummy, and creamy goodness. In one pound of peanut butter, it typically can contain up to 150 bug fragments and 5 rodent hairs.
2. House flies go to the bathroom roughly every 4.5 minutes. Think about that next time you see one fly on your delicious dinner.
3. Step outside and smell the roses. On a daily average you will inhale 1 liter of others anal gasses.
4. In the mood for fast food? An average person will consume 12 pubic hairs in their fast food annually. Gross!
5. It's summer time, and that means the pools are open! If you swim one hour in a public pool you will intake 1/12 liters of urine.
6. Creepy crawling cockroaches. As if they aren't disgusting looking enough. These insects carry over 40 different pathogens which risk being transferred to humans. Included is pneumonia, plague, hepatitis, and typhoid fever just to name a few.
7. Need to use the bathroom? When a person pees, a small deposit of urine enters the mouth through the saliva glands.
8. Need that morning jump? Next time you go out to the coffee shop think about this, diarrhea induced E.Coli was found on 10% of coffee mugs in the U.S.
9. Enjoy a nice cup of yogurt? You might want to double check the ingredients again. Some yogurts and jelly sweets contain beef or pork gelatin.
10. Think you've got it bad when you vomit? The longest recorded projectile vomiting is 27 feet. I wonder what he ate.
11. We all like a man who gives a nice firm hand shake. However, you might want to think twice before returning the firm grip. Annually you will shake hands with 6 men who have recently masturbated and did not wash their hands.
12. Through contact with door knobs, counter tops, and other daily objects your hand will come in contact with 15 penises a day.
13. When we sleep we are the most relaxed and at peace. Who would've thought that while you are snoozing you were inhaling bugs! In a years time, most humans will consume 14 insects while in their sleep.
14. Having work done to your house? Research has shown that in a lifetime you will have had 22 workmen examine the dirty contents of your linen basket.
15. Here comes the bride. Next time you're planning to attend a wedding reception you might want to bring a hanker chief. You have a 1/100 chance of taking home a cold sore from one of the guests. Cold sores are a form of oral herpes!

If your body's natural defenses failed, the bacteria in your gut would consume you within 48 hours, literally eating you from the inside out.

A woman who had recently visited South America, where she had safaried in local rainforest, began to experience severe pains in her left ear, accompanied by headaches, dizziness and constant rustling sounds, at first put down to tinnitis. It became so serious that exploratory surgery was required, which revealed that a spider which had become trapped in her ear. Eventually it had eaten through her eardrum and was living within the aural cavity. The rustling sounds were from the spider crawling around inside her skull. An egg sac was also removed...

# Over your lifetime you will produce enough spit to fill a swimming pool.

# When Eskimo babies have colds, their mothers suck the snot out of their noses.

# You don’t sweat evenly under each arm. Right-handed people sweat more under their left arm and it’s the right arm that gets sweatier for left-handed people

You swallow about one quart of snot every day.

Most people fart 14 times a day.

# About 10 billion tiny scales of skin rub off your body everyday. In a lifetime, you could fill eight five-pound flour bags with dead skin.

# Feet sweat because there are about 250,000 pores on their soles that squirt a quarter cup of liquid each day.

A fast-food customer in the United Kingdom got a stomach-turning surprise when she found a caterpillar crawling around on her chicken sandwich.

Back in the states, a family was chowing down on a bucket of chicken parts when one of the daughters asked, “Mommy, what’s that crawling out of your mouth?” Answer: a maggot! After checking out their corpse cuisine, the family discovered maggots crawling all over it.

Apple Ginseng Smells like Poo

Firstly, may I just say I meant to post a blog yesterday with a small picture/tribute to 9/11, then like a complete dodohead I forgot. Typical. Sorry:[

Ok, so in case the title confuses you, I was in the shower thinking about what I was going to post (yes I think about just about everything in the shower)(sorry if this is tmi) and I went to put conditioner in my hair (of which I use a lot) and found that we had a new one called Apple Ginseng, which was probably from the dollar section at Target, and found it smelled, as the title says, like poo. So, hair products.

I generally am not very picky about shampoo/conditioner. I just use whatever is in the shower. A staple in our house has been Pert Plus, at least for my dad. I think he likes it because it's like one-stop-shopping, you know shampoo and conditioner in one. I personally like the fastness better, but can't use it because with my unruly curls I have to have to have to use a separate conditioner (and use a lot) and even let it sit in my hair for a few minutes. So my mom and I currently use Garnier Fructis. $3.99

The shampoo I currently want is one like the one above. It is a " DeGunkify Tingly Deep Cleaning Shampoo", which I clearly need, as you'll see from the next product. The only problem with Herbal Essences shampoo/conditioner is that it doesn't seem to detangle enough, as I stated that I need above. But I'll be on the hunt... $3.99



I am obsessed with hairspray, and those of you who know me know this is true. Half my hairstyling is slicking back most of my hair. I believes this dates back to my pre-5th grade days, when my hair was so frizzy that it'd just frizz out of any hairstyle and sometimes I'd resort to a headband and ponytail (at the same time!) to tame my wild mane. I even had the triangle cut circa the 2nd grade! Eww! So yes, rather than frizz out, I'd rather slick down. I saw this hairspray in a magazine, and I love it, for a very funny reason: its smell. It smells good, almost like a perfume, not icky alchohol or something. $5.99



This stuff is great. I put in a quarter-sized dollop of it in wet hair and when I let my hair air dry overnight you can tell the difference when I put it in and when I don't. My only gripe is the price, a dinky bottle costs $8.99



For the parts of my hair that aren't slicked down with hairspray, I still try to tame them. My general fix is mousse. I used to use this Dove kind, but then they changed stuff and I couldn't find it at Target or Walmart, so I got this stuff instead, Seriously Twisted Curl Boosting Mousse. $3.99

Haha, notice how all my products are pretty cheap? There are two reasons: a) I'm poor. Duh. b) I tend to experiment a lot and switch around my hair products/regiment, so they need to be kinda indispensable. And cheap. For instance, if I travel (and like I can't take mousse) I need to be able to get it anywhere. By the by, once, I didn't take mousse during our annual Christmas CA sojourn, and at first I tried to function without it, but by the end of day 2 I was like, "Dad, I need mousse NOW!" So we stopped at Pavillion's. Muahaha.

This is going to be a short post. But

I really wanted to/planned to write a much longer post, but sadly, the onslaught of homework has begun and a student's work is never done. I almost ditched posting all together today, but after serious reflection I decided I love you guys (the readers) and blogging too much to quit just yet. So feel loved!I actually have to go read some of The Odyssey, about the last thing I want to do quite honestly (except maybe go in for major surgery or something), but it has to be done. Because I do not want a repeat of Sunday (i.e, I kept meaning to read the Odyssey during the other two or three nights I had to read it but after I was done with homework and went to go read it I kept falling asleep) and therefore spent most of Sunday trying to read almost all the 225 pages I had to read. Case in point, in conjunction with reading How to be your own Best Friend (for psychology class) I've realized that feeling did not make me feel good, and therefore I have the choice to change it :] Aww, psychology and self-help books, how I love thee ;] So before I go read and consequently crash in bed, I have two things to say:

• How awful was Britney at the MTV VMA's? Very, that's how! In fact, the show in general? Kinda stinky all around. The only part I even liked was Sarah Silverman.


• Mmkay, so at a recent sojourn to Sam's Club. I happened upon a glorious thing: a two-pack of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, for $3.12. Yes, you read that right, and yes I was shocked too. I mean, you usually pay twice that for one. Not to mention it was like my two fave flavors, Chocolate Fudge Brownie (yum!!!) and Creme Brulee (oddly enough, a fave dessert of mine by itself as well). So sorry, but I'm excited. Even the cashier was like,"Isn't that great!" And then she added, "This coming from a fat girl". Oh well :/ Anyways, I could do with some Ben and Jerry's right now!

(like my two-pack, except imagine the World's Best Vanilla is Creme Brulee) :]

Because I didn't have anything else planned

By the by, as the title implies, I had nothing planned to post today, so I decided to do a survey, because at least then you get to know more about me. Plus they're fun, short, and I tend to be pretty sarcastic in a funny way. Just one more note, some of you may be noticing that my posts all say like September 3rd or 4th, and here is why: In all my wiseness and proficiency, I do not have time every single day to do a post. So what I have taken to doing is whenever I have free time I do several posts at once and then just save them, like I'm canning peaches for winter or something. But when I post them the day they're so supposed to come out, they say the day I wrote them, not the day I post them. So as luck would have it, most of my last free moments was on Monday so I wrote quite a few them.

1. What bill do you hate paying the most?

All of them??? Not like I have a million to pay or anything but still!

2. Where was the last place you had a romantic dinner?

Errm, I'd have to say never :/

3. Do you regret losing your virginity to who you lost it to?

I am still proudly holding my V card.NO DING DING TILL THE WEDDING RING.

(I actually did not come up with this answer, someone else did. But I couldn't have said it better myself!)

4. If you could go back and change one thing what would it be?

Freaking out about moving to Washington. It hasn't been that bad. Also eating so much because now I am the size of a small whale. And not being more outgoing.

5. Name of your first grade teacher?

Miss Cogan

6. What do you really want to be doing right now?

Sudoku

7. What did you want to be when you were growing up?

A teacher

8. What college do u attend?

I would like to attend USF, LMU, USD, Colombia, or Stanford.

9. Why did you choose the shirt that you have on right now?

Because it went with my shoes.

10. What are your thoughts on gas prices?

Way too expensive.

11. If you could move anywhere where would it be?

Somewhere far far away.

I2. First thought when the alarm went off this morning?

Fuuuuuucccccckkkkkkkkk

13. Last thought before going to sleep last night?

Gloria

14. Favorite Underwear?

Comfortable ones...?

16. What errand/chore do you despise?

I don't care honestly. I don't like doing any chores, but I do them anyways.

17. If you didn't have to work, would you volunteer?

Hate to say it, but honestly, I like getting paid.

18. Get up early or sleep in?

I like the feeling of sleeping in, but then I feel like I wasted the day when I get up at like noon

19. What is your favorite cartoon character?

Ariel and Jasmine

20. Favorite thing to do at night with a girl/guy?

Laugh, but that's pretty much with anyone

21. Have you found real love yet?

Not even close.

22. When did you first start feeling old?

Not yet

23. Favorite 80's movie?

I dunno which movies are from which era...but if they're in that area, Crybaby, Hairspray, Ferris' Bueller's day off

24. Your favorite lunch meat?

Roast beef

25. What do you get every time you go into Costco?

Lots of things

26. Beach or lake?

Beach hands down, Lakes are too grody for words. And the floor feels weird and slimy.

27. Do you think marriage is an outdated ritual?

No?

28. Do you own property?

Oh yes, I have my own island :/

29. Favorite guilty pleasure?

celeb gossip, the song Invisible, food, I have many in fact

30. Favorite movie you wouldn't want anyone to find out about?

its not my favorite..but....Spice World and The BabySitter's Club

31. What's your drink?

Coke

32. Cowboys or Indians?

You know I wouldn't doubt I have some Indian in me, way down the line on my mom's side (or even close on the line), so I guess I'd pick them. But I like the way cowboys dress better ;]

33. Cops or Robbers?

good guys.

34. Who from high school would you like to run in to?

Still in it

35. What radio station is your car radio tuned to right now?

KIIS 106.1

37. 'The Cosby Show' or 'The Simpsons'?

The Simpsons

38. Worst relationship mistake that you wish you could take back?

Never had one

39. Do you like the person who sits directly across from you at work?

No one "sits across" from me at work

40. What famous person would you like to have dinner with?dead or alive?

dead...Lucille Ball alive...Zac Efron, except I'd prob faint within minutes of meeting him.

41. Indoors or Outdoors?

Indoors

42. Have you ever crashed your vehicle?

No

43. Have you ever had to use a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?

No, and not for an unintended purpose either

44. Last book you read?

Son of Witch

45. Do you have a teddy bear?

Naw mang

46. Strangest place you have ever brushed your teeth?

It's always the bathroom

47. Somewhere in California you've never been and would like to go?

San Fransisco

48. Do you go to church?

yessir

49. At this point in your life would you rather start a new career or a new relationship?

Either

50. How old are you?17

Because I have an effing Migraine

I decided to talk about two shows I now really love: The Hills and Life of Ryan.

You'd think, given my aspiring journalism back round, that I'd have watched The Hills from Day one, but such is not the case. When it first came out I was like, "Meh, I never watched Laguna Beach, why should I watch this, blah blah blah". But then the new season started and I figured it'd be good time to figure out what all the fuss was about. I love this show. I am the first to admit that I can be a very envious person, and let me tell you you, I am envious of these girls. I want the internship at Teen Vogue. I want all the guys fawning over me. I want to go to Les Deux every other night. I want a Blackberry and an expensive car and trips to Pinkberry and a pretty room mate and really pearly white teeth and a size 2 frame and expensive clothes and my own line of clothing. I want a lot obviously. But when I watch this show I see the girls and I live vicariously through them, biding my time until I can be them. And by the by, how great is the soundtrack to this show? Very. $22.99 and $27.99

Coincidentally, right after The Hills is Life of Ryan, a new show that just started. First, may I just say that I don't understand how Ryan Sheckler, a 17 year old pro-skater and first class hottie, cannot get a girlfriend. I would be beating down his door, right after Zac Efron's. I mean, I wouldn't even care that he's gone for months at a time, hellllloooooo, I'd be like, "That's right foo my boyfriend is in Belize, where is yours?". Haha sike. But seriously he is so cute and this show is pretty darn good. His parents are going through a divorce and in it he describes himself as needing to be his younger brothers' father figure, especially for his 8 year old brother. And I can understand that because half the time I feel like Andrew's third parent. I cannot tell you how many time I have heard, "Daddy. I mean Mommy. I mean Ally!". Too many :]

Alright ya'll. A couple things, then I'm outie.

• 
  
  A little FYI: A good tip to help cure a headache/migraine is to eat a cupcake from your local grocery store so fulla sugar you don't know what to do with it. Try it sometime :]


• 
  
  Secondly, I am becoming aware of a few more readers here and there, so I am sending out a plea to all you regular readers: Please feel free to send me reader mail, or get other people you know to send me reader mail. Reader mail is generally just a note asking me to answer a question you may have (about pretty much anything; fashion, TV shows, pop culture, celebs, etc.) or a tip you may want me to share or a topic you'd like me to expand on. Reader mail generally breaks up the occasional monotony of a blog and allows you guys to participate in the blog process. So if you feel so inclined, shoot me an email at parfaitdawner@hotmail.com and I'll do my best to respond to whatever question/comment/suggestion you may have. Thanks!!!

Make-up I like

When I was younger, my Aunt Elissa would take me on make-up shopping trips at least once every few months. And you can only imagine that I liked those days better than say, my vacation to Hawaii. Honestly. I mean, I don't remember when I was even allowed to start wearing make-up, but I know I've had a love affair with it ever since. Here are a few products I like...

Finding the right eyeshadow can be confusing, and more importantly, time consuming because they all look the same and yet different. My own personal favorite would have to be any of the ones by Urban Decay, mostly because they have like a million colors. I had Hot Pants before, which looks so so bright, but really isn't. It's actually very complimentary. I have Sin (the color)now, and I like it even better. It's described as a light shimmering champagne, and I'd say that's about right. It pretty much goes with everything. $16

I am obsessed with mascara. Obsessed. Mostly because my eyelashes are these short little stubs and I'm always looking for the Holy Grail of mascaras. I wish I had my brother's lashes, they are looonnnggg and full, and a complete waste for a boy if you ask me. As of right now, I have 5 mascaras on rotation that I use on weekdays. My favorite out of the bunch would probably have to be the MAC Longlash one. It really lives up to it's name. But even then, it can tend to be clumy. But the mascara I have that does not clump doesn't fulfill my fullness or length needs, and so on. So, does anyone have any mascara suggestions? I'd love to hear them. $11

It took me awhile to find a foundation I truly liked. I think I've found it in MAC's Studio Tech foundation/powder. The big thing with me is that I HAVE to have full coverage. When you are a seventeen year old girl who likes to indulge in fried food too much :/ and has inherited the acne genes already, then I can't have anything less. And MAC has the best coverage I've seen so far. Plus it's in a compact with a mirror and really portable for touch-ups. I just sweep that stuff on with a sponge or brush and I'm already halfway done with make-up. $25

Even though I really like make-up, and I enjoy experimenting, I rarely have time every day to do so. I mean the above products are pretty much it when it comes to makeup on a school day, especially when I only have five minutes to apply and get in the car before my mom is yelling at me to get going :] It's probably my fault, but I'm sorry, I couldn't possibly get up any earlier just to add in more make-up time, so for now this will have to do. As it is, I only use lip gloss when I remember. However, when I remember I like using Juicytubes in Miracle, it's a marvelous pink shade and when the lip gloss has faded the sparkles are still left. $17.50

Mmkay, so I know these products are mostly department store brands, but trust me I am so the queen of drugstore make-up too! Maybe one of these days I will post about my drugstore make-up as well.

I haven't decided whethor I like this store or not

Just for the record, I for one have never even been to an American Apparel store. the reason this store/website/phenom even gets its own post is that at nearly every blog I have read they have mentioned American Apparel once or twice. So I figured, why not give it a whirl?

Alright, so I got my first detention ever at John F. Kennedy High School on my first day of senior year. All I have to say about that is I'm hoping it's not a bad omen for things to come. The reason I got the detention was for my "low cut" shirt. And by low cut, they mean it's lower than an inch below the COLLAR BONE. Take a moment right now and feel where your collarbone is. Now put two fingers below it. Where your bottom finger is, that is where my shirt is supposed to be! Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I got away with "low cut" shirts last year (in that they weren't by my collarbone but I wasn't classified as indecent exposure) because I was spoiled and none of my teachers cared. But this year my first period teacher will get ya as soon as look at ya (which is actually very odd because she is a generally sweet person). By the by, it is probably my fault because on the first day I kept smiling at her (I smiled so much in religion last year that my teacher nicknamed me "Smiley") , and every time she looked at me she probably noticed my out of dress code shirt. So now I am hard pressed to find any shirts that meet my school's requirements. If they do happen to miraculously meet the height requirement, they often inadvertently have too large a graphic on them (the rule is, if you can't put your hand over it, it's too big). So my nice parents took me shopping to find and buy some shirts that fit both these needs, and somehow I managed. My point therefore leads to the fact that the shirt above is perfect school-wise, it has no graphics, it's past the collar bone, and bonus, it comes in 20 different colors. $15

I'm really into leggings. What I'm not so into is why people decide to wear them as pants, like the actual bottom half of their outfit, instead of pants. It was easy to jump onto the legging trend, but I cannot bring myself to wear leggings as the only thing separating the free world from my bottom (besides underwear of course). However, should I ever jump on this bandwagon, I wouldn't mind wearing these for a start. Like I said before, I am a sucker for small details, and those buttons on the side are adorable. These leggings come in more than just this vivid green, actually, even more neutral colors like black, I just happened to pick one of the brighter colors for the full effect :] $28

I am also a sucker for cardigans, and I'm always on the prowl for new ones. This obviously nowhere near meets the collar bone restriction obviously, but then again I would never ever wear this without a shirt underneath, unlike this rather daring girl. For some reason, this cardigan is unisex, as in guys could wear it too, but I imagine it too be quite girly. And I'm not sure why most of the items on this post are blue, I'm not even usually a blue person, but for these pieces they all seem to work. And if blue is not your thing, then the wonderful thing about AA is that they all have many color options. $38

I doubt that many if any of you know what I am about to reference, but if you do, you should get a prize. Seriously, let me know, and I will mail you a little something. So, if you have ever seen Ferris Bueller's Day Off, remember back to the scene where Ferris is on the float singing with those German hoochies. Whilst he is working the crowd into a frenzy, they flash to different parts of the crowd. One person they show from behind, and it is a girl shaking her booty and wearing a bright blue mini(and I mean mini) skirt that barely clears her butt (and remember this is pre-Britney) and a gray sweatshirt with blue polkadots. Like I said, if you actually know what I'm talking about, you get a prize. Even if you have to go back and watch the movie. Anyways, this is my own personal take on that outfit. Even if it deters me that the model wearing the sweatshirt is apparently not wearing a bra, shirt, or whaddya know, pants. And even if the skirt is so short you may get arrested. $44 and $22

Stuff I'm Lovin'

Alright ya'll, I'm officially back! Miss me much? :] I am going to try and utilize Jessica's (from Bunnyshop) two main tips in that I'll try to err on the side of caution and limit my posts to around five items so as to not bore you guys outta your mind. Also I'll be trying to post on a regular, daily basis (at least Monday through Friday). This may be re-evaluated once I get more heavily ensconced in school, but for now expect a daily post weekdays, with possibly special posts on the weekend. Mmkay then? Let's get to it...

I always think I am on the cutting edge of creative ideas, but once again I'm not. For instance, I thought I was the first person to decorate notebooks (specifically composition books), but in research found that it's a pretty common thing, especially on etsy.com. Probably highest among stay-at-home moms with a penchant for scrapbooking but still. I love the notebook above, it's very academic and best of all the little ribbons have argyle on them ( I am a sucker for details like this, for certain). Prices Vary (Question: If I made these, would you buy them? Let me know!)

All the items on this list are pretty cheap, as I am very low on cash. However, this bag is way too cute to pass up. I mean, I can't imagine having the money to afford a Marc Jacobs bag any time soon, but this seems like a good substitute. But you know what? I can't bring myself to pay $55 dollars for a screen-printed canvas bag... But I still can look can't I? $55

I have always been drawn to Sharpies. I'm not really sure why, other than the range of colors they come in are so appealing and artistic. You know what kind of Sharpies I especially enjoy? The kind from Walmart where you get 8 for $4.44 :]

I really really love 'zines. For those not in the know, 'zines are like handmade mini magazines that are usually pretty inexpensive. In other words, they combine three of my favorite things, magazines, handmade, and cheap. The 'zine above is particularly cool because it gives cool tips on things like layout, graphics, xeroxing, and other stuff needed to launch a 'zine. $6

The funny thing is is that I have never been able to do Sudokus until Friday. Sadly. But for reals, I would always start them and then not be able to finish, even if they were really easy ones. But we got some on Friday in Math class and I tried for the umpteenth time and was able to complete one. That was apparently all it took and now I'm addicted. Of course, I still stick to like the super easy level ones but once I build my confidence I'll be able to advance. The best part I think is that I can get them online for free. And at this particular website, Sudoku park, you can do them online, or print them out, or even make an ebook of three pages of Sudoku and a page of solutions. Yay for mindless entertainment! Free