Stage IV

Sunday was the birthday party and that was fine. But now he's in the ICU. It all happened so fast.

Maintenance

I want nice eyebrows. Like, a little bit of an arch would be hot. Right now I am doing the eyebrow maintenance myself and I know I couldn’t accomplish a somewhat-arch on my own. That would definitely have to be done by the hands of a professional. But I get so nervous! I knew this girl in high school that had really tiny thin eyebrows and it scared me forever. And then I knew a lady who painted hers on. And another girl who once plucked so much that they were only one inch long. Those three bad eyebrows just kind of haunt me. I need to have a serious discussion about this and maybe photographic examples need to be involved. I like my dark, thick, normal person eyebrows. I just want more shape. Is this something that can be created or are the girls with the nice eyebrows just lucky and were born like that? I don’t think so.

My hair was turning weird golden brown again so I applied some more of the $6 brown hair color and I am so pleased. I have very dark, healthy looking brown hair now. I think I’m going to have to keep with this re-coloring upkeep for a while. I was annoyed by the length because I can’t afford a special haircut right now but lately I have been using a hair straightener to make it wavy, not pageant queen curly, but wavy and it looks nice.

Mascara love

I woke up to snow-covered grounds this morning. It was so pretty and nice and by noon it had all melted. I like the snow, for no particular reason other than the fact that it's pretty and it used to get me out of school when I was younger. Now I'm happy with snowy mornings that last only a few hours. I've come to realize that snow that lasts longer than that is just a pain in my ass. These days I still have to go to school/work so unless there is going to be a blizzard, I hope that Mother Nature keeps providing us with this momentary snow. It makes me smile and doesn't cause any significant difficulties for me.

I have two little part time jobs that that I could not even BEGIN to complain about. They are wonderful, but not equally wonderful. At Job#2, where I only dedicate about 10 hours of my life each week, I had to make a little card of shit that I like/represents me to go up on the board with everyone else's cards. I had taken a Benefit catalog with me to work this evening to look at when I got bored. After going through it and circling things that I want, and then coming to the realization that I cannot currently afford any of them, I used the catalog to create my little card. I love Benefit products. They're my favorite, mainly because I love the packaging. This is my little card that I wasted a ton of tape and two hours of my life making. Glamorous Gabi (bottom right) is so cute and the older makeup bags are so much cuter than the new ones. She's not really daydreaming about those love birds.. I made it that way. I was really, REALLY bored.. Obviously.



I love that BAD gal lash mascara. It's my #2 favorite behind Dior Blackout that Julie introduced me to. Here's to irony, big eyelashes, and Valentine's evening spent captive at my workplace...

What's been up

About two weeks ago I decided that the blond hair needed to go. It was just getting TOO blond. I had been contemplating this for a couple of months actually, because once I start throwing the brown dye on it, going back to the blondness would be such a big, expensive ordeal. But it had gotten to the point where it wasn't really highlights anymore. I don't know, I just didn't like it anymore. So I went to Target and $6 and 45 minutes later I had brown hair. It lasted for about three days and then my hair turned this sort of olive green as the dye started fading out and the blond began to be exposed. Tonight I purchased TWO boxes and I feel so happy with the results. I spent more time saturating every little inch and I feel like it might stay brown longer. We'll see. I'll post a picture later.

This weekend I went ice skating. I've been a couple of times and I have a terrible fear of someone chopping off my fingers with their skates. Therefore, if I fall, I would risk busting my head (or ass) open on the ice before I ever throw my hands out to protect myself.

Mr. Jinnah's grave and the zoo

Mohammed Ali Jinnah was the founder of Pakistan. He is also referred to as Quaid-i-azam, which means "great leader". He was really fancy with Cadillacs and 3-piece suits (in the museum). This big tomb was GIGANTIC and you couldn't wear your shoes.




I'm surprised the guards let me take a picture here. I asked first.


This big chandelier was a gift from China.


And then we went to the zoo and saw this tiger:

And these flamingoes:

And this baby stork:

Bizarre Bazaars

You can’t be in Pakistan and not go to a bazaar!

Transportation

Milk and those that produce it

In Pakistan, you can't purchase a gallon of cold milk from the refrigerated section at the local grocery store. You can, however, buy one of these tiny little milk boxes from a food mart in a crowded bazaar.


Since milk at home isn't that great, everyone gets really excited to go out for milk. There are little milk stands throughout the city where you can purchase flavored milk and cold milk bottles. A cold milk bottle is some really sweet milk with nuts in it that has been steamed and then cooled. I think this is a milk shop with their delivery.


Look at these cows just roaming the streets untethered and free! You could be sitting at McDonalds eating some ice cream only to look out the window and see a herd of cattle making it's way through traffic. That blew my mind.

Stink Shield

Last night I went to the Found vs. PostSecret Charity event at the Man Bites Dog Theatre in downtown Durham. I had only purchased one ticket so when I arrived and saw that it was a lounge-type thing I started to not go in. How could I possibly survive the evening all alone? After circling the block I came to my senses, parked my car, and went inside. I had been looking forward to this for a while. The lounge turned out to just be a waiting area and we sat in an actual theatre. I wasn't as familiar with FOUND magazine, but now I am very interested.

Here are some of the things that I enjoyed at the PostSecret vs. Found event...

Seat 29E

and

Kowabunga!

I was a last-minute, home made Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for Halloween! I visited the family and then went to Franklin St. with Jessica.




Gracie was a fairy!


Jamie started out being a cat but I thought she looked more like a long-eared rabbit so I determined that she was a cat/rabbit hybrid


Ghostbusters on Franklin St.


These guys were my favorite. They would not shut up talking about their respective cell phone plans.


There were a lot of dick-in-a-box costumes. There were also a lot of ipods


Cavemen


Everyone was chasing after McLovin from Superbad

New York City

I saw so many diamonds this weekend it was sick! I visited NY and Julie and covered the entire island of Manhattan like a pro. Well, actually, I wasn’t the pro. I followed Julie’s lead and never once had to experience that “Where the heck am I?” state of confusion that normal tourists have to deal with. It was great!

Julie met me at the airport and we went back to her and Matt’s cute apartment on the east side of Manhattan. Patsy flipped out because she was so happy to see me. We ate lunch at this place called Prime Burger, which was really cute and kind of stuck in the 1950’s. The men that worked there wore white coats and they had big pies and stuff. So then I saw Park Ave. and 5th Ave. We went inside Chanel and Fendi and in one of those stores I felt the softest patent leather I’ve ever touched. It was a really cute pink wallet and I wanted it but that’s impossible right now. So then we went to Tiffany’s and I tried on a $15,600 engagement ring. It was only one carat so it was wild to me that it was so expensive! The lighting in there made everything bling. Julie knew a cute person who works on the engagement ring floor so we talked to him for a bit. He was showing us a $300,000 necklace when the manager came over and took it right out of the case while we were admiring it. He put in a blue book that said “Tiffany & Co.” on the front and it never came back. He knew we couldn’t afford that shit. I got these cute little ear ring pouches from Julie’s friend.



So then we went to Canal St. and it was nothing like I expected. I expected more bags laid out on the street and less people trying to get you to follow them down a dark ally. Right when we came up from the subway there was a lady there with a piece of paper showing the bags she had. There were lots of stores with really cheap random shit and it all started looking the same to me. Afterwards we went to Magnolia Bakery and got really cute cupcakes. We ate them later and Julie’s apartment and all agreed that the icing is what makes them so special. Magnolia Bakery is the bakery that they visited on Sex and the City. There was a line that looked kind of long but it moved fast because the people that work there have worked that shit out. You can’t order anything else once you make it to the register. There’s no going back.

At night we ate dinner at a really good pizza place in Grand Central Station and went to Times Square. Times Square was like the state fair of NY.



I wish I had taken more pictures on Friday but it was raining like hell all day and I was wet and messy.

So that was Friday. There is absolutely NO WAY AT ALL I would have been able to conquer all of that on my own. Julie is awesome.

Saturday we stopped by a thrift store on our walk from Julie’s apartment. She got a cute mint green leather skirt and some other things. I got a cute little black Puma bag. We got ice cream from Pinkberry’s. I was a little hesitant hearing that it was “kind of sour creamy, but good” but after tasting it I understood. It IS kind of sour creamy but you pick three different fruits and it’s soooo good! I’m going to want that in December, I know it! Then we got manicures and I went to see the Blue Man Group. It was really good.


The flash from my camera made me blink, which NEVER happens! So my eyes are halfway closed. I would see them again in the future.



Then we went to the Patricia Field store where Julie works and there were so many cool things in there. I was happy to see normal prices again. We ate sushi for dinner.

On Sunday we walked over to the river walk near Julie’s apartment. The view was very nice.



Then went to the Grace Kelly exhibit and I freaked out over her 10.47 carat engagement ring that was on display. There were so many dresses, and tiaras with loads of diamonds. I think those things are being auctioned off this week and I really need to know how much certain things sold for. The people that were there were fun to watch. It was mostly old rich ladies and they didn’t understand that they couldn’t just BUY a ticket and get in. They actually had to wait in the line that went around the building and that pissed them off. After that we went to see the Statue of Liberty and I saw Ellis Island from a distance.





We walked by ground zero and there were people selling knock off bags and watches from a briefcase and I felt uncomfortable with that. I think they should have to take that elsewhere. There was even men selling pictures of the towers on fire in front of the memorial and I thought that was weird and disrespectful. I mean, pictures of the towers themselves would have been more understandable. The empty lot of ground zero looked small to me and it wasn’t until we flew over Manhattan on my flight back that I realized how big that space is. It was weird to see it from the sky. So after that we went to the top of the Empire State building. The small line outside made me think this was going to be a quick and easy adventure but it turned out to be quite an ordeal. We waited in a lot of lines and there were men shouting about upgrading your package to the one that includes that little audio thing. The people that work there were so funny to me. I wouldn’t last one hour on that job having to deal with all those tourists. We got to the top before sunset so we saw NYC during the daylight. Then after sunset it was so pretty and cool with all the lights! I was amazed.









We ate dinner at Rai Rai Ken, a small but very good Japanese restaurant. We had ice cream from Pinkberry’s again and took a taxi back.

Monday morning we ate breakfast outside and had very cute sugar waffles before going to the airport.

So, in summary… Julie is amazing! I saw pretty much everything! The food in NY is awesome! And I had a really cool time! When I’m back there in December for 2 days it will be much colder but I think I should take more pictures then.

I can't believe it's Septiembre

I'm not used to having weekends off so I totally wasted this one by being way too lazy. With my new job I don't have to work weekends, with the exception of every other Saturday. I've never experienced this hardly ever in my life since I began working. I did have to work this Saturday and it was for ten hours. I am going to have to take me a suitcase of shit to do next time because it is BORING. I took two textbooks... Anatomy and Animal Science. I did okay with Anatomy for about 3 hours and then I couldn't take it any more. I was way too optimistic about my studying abilities. Next time I will take some magazines too. Or maybe I'll take my laptop.

I resolved my car issues.. I HOPE. God, I hope! I bought my cousin's car because she got a new one... a silver mustang. It's a Ford Focus and I like it. I've never had a car that didn't sound like a meat grinder or make grunting sounds so I'm pretty excited over this. Well, there was the time I spent with Syed's camry. We got along pretty well until it starting requiring me to spend all my money. The Focus is dark red with tinted windows so I'm all ghettofab in my drives around Duhram. I hooked it up with a Carolina window decal and I'm getting me a COEXIST bumper magnet this week.

Tomorrow I am going to the Bodies Exhibition at Southpoint. I have been aching to go since it opened but I couldn't fathom spending $30 for some small little museum type thing... but I have been informed that it's waaaaay worth it and I'll definitely be missing out if I don't go. I know I am going to appreciate it.