2017 So Far...

Its almost been a full month into the new year.

I'm finding most nights I'm staying up really really late, I go to bed at around 5 or 6AM. It really doesn't help when I have shifts at work that start at 6AM lol but I manage.

Its not that I'm preoccupied with a lot of thoughts, I'm not even thinking about Steve anymore so I'm going to rule that out, I haven't even talked to him in a long time.

Although, I've been thinking about someone else that I work with a lot lately lol. I see his name EVERYWHERE and I didn't know that it was such a common name.. even various variations of that name and yes I have a major crush on this guy LOL, the thing is I barely see him at work and rarely get to talk to him since its been so busy. Everyone keeps telling me to ask him out but I'm SO SHY! -___-' plus I don't even know if he's single or not so until I know I'm not going to do anything about it.

My best friend seems to think I'm going to end up with him, only because he does tarot cards and has said that he's popped up in my readings a lot recently, and I don't even know what to make of what he said anyway so I'll just let it all play out and see but I am keeping my options open.

But! I hope he's right! This guy is like the TOTAL OPPOSITE of Steve. He's so nice! and not cocky at all (at least not right off the bat like Steve was) their personalities are very different, I think he suits being a nurse very well, a great bedside manner and can be tough with patients who are problematic, which is why I was attracted to him while I was still dating Steve (Steve on the other hand would just treat people like he was more superior than him, which he still does)

Some of my friends have been telling me to try online dating. But I know its not for me, honestly, a majority of my friends have dated someone online and it never ends well, mainly because the guy they've been seeing is SUPER FUCKED UP in some way or my friends would go crazy and end up treating them like shit.... plus I'm not one to talk to some stranger over the internet and then meet them, I've got paranoia about that...

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We have a new girl at work that NOBODY LIKES. She's brand new and just came out of school but she's worked in a different department in the hospital for a number of years so she has racked up quite the seniority and people are worried that she'll get a full time position ahead of some people who have been working in the lab for a number of years.

She's not that bad, I mean, I'm sure I was just as bad when I first started BUT there's a difference between the two of us. When mistakes are made, she doesn't learn from them, not only that, she has a terrible bedside manner, so a lot of people get nervous when she has to poke them... we've also had numerous complaints from patients... I doubt she'll get fired, I highly highly doubt it. Maybe she'll get better? But its been a while and she hasn't gotten much better...

I also screwed up my back recently, no idea how that happened but I almost had a week and a half off of work to nurse it back to work.

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I have two long vacations coming up this year, one in April and one in December. Depending on school in December I really would like to go to Asia or something.

I've been itching to go somewhere for a while but the problem is I want someone to go with! Ashley is busy with working and school and most of my friends are broke and I've got no boyfriend to go with lol! I'll think about where I want to go in April.... if anywhere...

So far this year... is confusing LOL

Will update again at the end of next month!

Realization and Changes

Now that its been a few weeks since Steve and I broke up, I started thinking about the things I didn't like about him and realized he was a pretty shitty boyfriend. Despite what he might think, I'm actually pretty glad I don't have to be with someone so crazy and I won't have to deal with his psychotic sister and his parents.

I think the thing that made me sad the most was that we spent so much time together when we had days off and stuff, so now that I'm single I have to find things to do, either on my own or with friends and I decided to take a few classes (indoor climbing and yoga - will start soon) I didn't realize I lost so many friends while I was dating him because they just didn't like him... I think that's the thing I regret the most.

I did make the mistake of hooking up with him after the break up (Ashley don't kill me LOL) but I think it was because we were just lonely, I hope to god I'm not knocked up... lol.

I sort of realized he made tons of excuses not to do things with me. A few years ago when he applied for the RCMP they asked him what he did to de-stress himself, he didn't really have a way to relieve his stress (besides punching shit whenever he got mad) and they didn't really like his answer so they deferred him for two years. Since then.. he didn't really make an effort to go on dates with me but he seriously made an effort to go drinking with his buddies every chance he got. His excuse was "I need to de-stress" the same excuse whenever he played video games for hours or watching tv/movies. So he really didn't make an effort to go out on dates especially when I wanted to and he really wanted me to understand that he was sooo stressed out all the time and that's why he didn't want to go out for dinner or watch movies or do any activities with me... -__-' and then he says that he felt like we were more like friends with benefits even though HE was the one that made no fucking effort to go out or do anything with me... dodged a bullet there!

Not only that he has rage issues, all my friends even talked to me about it. One time he walked into the doorknob and it hurt him and he got so angry he started punching the door... I was like "WTF ARE YOU DOING?!" and he said "I'm mad at the door" .... yeah... lol, his coworkers talked to me about it once too but he doesn't seem to think that's a problem so... I hope he fixes this before he becomes a police officer. Knowing his buddies, they will vouch for him and not say anything but that's because they really don't know him that well. He really does behave differently around them.

I do worry about him being placed in a position of power and how his family will probably manipulate him as they do now. When his dad got in trouble with the law in Korea his mom pulled some strings to get him out of it, it wouldn't surprise me if he bailed out his family members if they got in trouble here otherwise he would be "selfish" for not thinking about his family as his mom and sister would say.

At one point we talked about getting married/having kids and I was pretty worried because his family values money above anything else and its pretty sad (especially his sister) I brought it up once and said that money really isn't the most important thing and Steve said to me "I hate to break it to you, but money does cause a lot of happiness, if you can't see that then you're blind" -__-' what I mean by this is that, they have to ALWAYS have all the new toys and gadgets, the name brand clothes just to show off and pretend they're rich. Not sure if I mentioned this but when his grandma died and instead of packing and heading off the the airport right away, his mom and Steve went shopping to buy name brand clothes to impress their cousins.... because that's so important! I feel bad for his future children and the generations that will come from his sister.

As for dating again... the ladies at work want me to date one of our coworkers who is also newly single.. But I really don't want to. He's a nice guy and all but I honestly don't think we'll get along or have much in common plus, I don't really want to date somebody in the same department as me because if we broke up - things would get so weird. Anyway, I'm not really thinking of dating someone else right now at least... it'll probably be another month or so before I start even thinking of dating... Unless its this super hot nurse at work LOL I told Steve I would leave him for this nurse HAHAHAH.

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Anyway, I can't remember if I mentioned this in a previous post or not but I'm moving back home. I literally live around the corner from Steve and I really don't want to live here lol. I walk past his house all the time when I go to work and I'm just like FML. He asked me if I was going to move back home and I didn't tell him anything - he doesn't need to know.

Honestly, I'm going home just to save money, I know its going to be hell because my mom is insane. I didn't even tell my parents yet that I'm single... so I'm just going to let it be for now because I can just imagine what my mom would say "I knew he would leave you for someone else" "he left you because you're crazy" shit like that... >.<

I also don't think I mentioned that I bought a car lol so going back home would help me save so much money. I promised myself I would get girlier this summer so let's see how that goes -___-' LOL

Hawaii - Day 3

 Day 3!!

So we went to bed early the night before because we knew again that we were going to head to the North Shore the next day and it was supposedly like a 3 hour drive or something, plus we had to stop by Walmart and buy some snacks and extra towels so we wanted to leave as early as possible.

After we went to Walmart we drove by Yogur Story - I saw this place on instagram when I was looking through the Honolulu tag and thought that the purple pancakes looked interesting and I wanted to try them but I figured it would be too far from our place, but it turns out it was super close to Walmart, so we stopped in for breakfast.

 Ube pancake and Crab cake benedict

I got the ube pancake (which is made from Okinawan sweet potato that's what makes it purple or something) and Steve got the crab cake benedict. The crab cake benedict was pretty salty to us.. but otherwise I probably would've gotten it over the pancakes. The pancakes themselves weren't too sweet which was nice but there was something about them I didn't really like maybe I ate too much of it?

 Waimea Beach

Definitely the nicest beach I've ever been to, I previously thought that Hanauma bay was the nicest beach I've been to but this was just... I mean look at it!

Snorkeling wise - not much to see its literally just water and sand. If I knew how to swim I would've been in the water longer.  The waves at this beach were so strong, Steve and I went into the water to see how cold it was and we were like WTF because these waves were like crashing all over us lol and its shallow when you take your first 2-3 steps in but then it suddenly drops and gets deep.

If you can't swim bring your own life jacket because there doesn't seem to be a rental place nearby, I was glad that I bought that snorkel set with the life jacket.

 Not many people when we got there

Had we left without going to Walmart and having breakfast we would've gotten a parking spot so if you plan on going, leave really early. There's a random lot like across the street but you have to pay like $10 or something. There's a shower and bathroom facilities at this beach which was nice and also a lifeguard but there didn't seem to be any food stands or anything so bring your own food.

 Endless sands

If you've ever been to Vancouver and been to the beaches you'll know how shitty our beaches here are. There are tons of rocks and sticks everywhere, I'm paranoid that I'll step on broken glass or needles when I go there but here.. its so clean lol

I forgot to mention that there are no lockers that we saw when we were here so I was pretty paranoid about leaving our stuff unattended but it was fine but be vigilant.

 In Waimea Valley

So when we were parking, we were curious about what was along the path, we asked the guy who was in charge of the parking about it and he said there was like a small hiking trail that led to a waterfall or something so we decided to go in.

If you're totally into nature then its a nice park but otherwise its kind of a boring walk lol. Did I mention I hate tourist sites? Not many tourists were here but I think it was like $30 for both me and Steve to go in, which was a rip off, there wasn't really much to see but Steve seemed pretty happy about it.

 Waimea falls

So we didn't know that you could go swimming at these falls but wearing a life jacket is mandatory if you want to go into the water. But the water looked dirty so we were like ... no lol.

Ashley told us that at these falls they filmed Lost (I think I gave up after season 2 lol) and that they made it look super huge when it was actually really tiny lol.

I think the total amount of time spent at this park was like an hour? Walking from the parking lot to the falls and back. Yeah... don't want to do that walk again lol. We got back to the car and when we drove back we stopped by the Dole plantation.

 Near the train

So we only got to ride the stupid train and there's also like a pineapple maze but we didn't get to go lol. We did explore the gift shop and the mini garden they have.

Pineapple express and a random pineapple growing!

This thing was so boring! LOL that's because I have no interest in how pineapples grow and the random stuff that dole grows lol. Steve enjoyed it - he even bought the soundtrack that the train plays lol.

A shitload of koi

After we got off the train there was a group of people around the pond so we wanted to see what was happening. Then bam! we were like WTF? there were so many koi! I felt bad that they had to fight for food T_T

Foood

Our first proper meal of the day. I got the BBQ pork quesadilla and Steve got the BBQ pork sandwich (the sandwich tasted better lol) The lineup for food took FOREVER, we didn't get a chance to get the ice cream which looked mighty tasty because we were too full from the food.

There's a lot of meat in there

I ate almost half before I gave up, it was pretty good though and it wasn't too expensive.

After we ate we went to the shop and bought some dried fruits and candies to bring home to our friends/family, which I regret. I bought a bag of dried coconut for my dad because I know he likes coconut and my fucking asshole mom gave it away because she's an asshole - I said that's the last time I fucking buy anything for them when I go on vacation if she's going to give away shit I buy for my dad.

Anyway.. we drove back afterwards and headed back to the hotel to drop off our stuff and shower. I know I took a nap before we went to dinner and Steve sucks at putting sunscreen on people I kept getting burnt on the places where he applied the sunscreen -__-'

Go Sampler at Doraku Sushi

Ok so most of the places we went to I found on Yelp, this place was.. a disappointment. But I'll get to that in a minute. We wanted to drink again so we got this sake flight because I never really had good sake before and I can't really drink that much anyway so it was mostly for Steve lol.

What we had from left to right

The sake was ok, the very last one was so dry and bitter I hated it but the middle one was my favourite and there was also one that was really like soju.

Toro Sashimi and Tuna Poke

So why the disappointment?

The price - the food itself was good don't get me wrong but for the price you pay it is overly expensive (especially because they are small plates). The sashimi you see above cost $16 for 4 pieces.. the quality was good but I can go to a sushi place in Vancouver and if I paid $16 for toro sushi for similar quality I could get way more - maybe there's a low supply? Not sure but definitely not worth the money.

Based on the reviews I didn't think this place was a izakaya style restaurant, I wouldn't have picked this place if that were the case.

Surf and Turf roll

One of the best rolls I've had in a long time, great combination. Frankly I would've just got a bunch of rolls had I known that this place was going to be so expensive.

Miso butterfish and our bill

That was the best fish I've had in a long time but it's such a tiny portion for almost $15. Anyway as you can see, we spent like $80 on 4 small dishes and sake.. we were not full AT ALL and if we ordered more food it would've cost like $250-$300 to get us both full. So we decided to go back to the Korean restaurant which was like down the street LOL.

Pork this time

So we got the Pork combo which was like $40 or something, which was super filling we couldn't finish. We were like "we wish we came here first" the whole time. 

My outfit

Semi-red from all the drinking but yeah we were really disappointed about Doraku Sushi... Now we know not to go there again if we go back to Honolulu.

Otherwise Day 4 is our official last day in Hawaii because in day 5 we have to go home T_T

Hawaii Trip - Day 1

Hawaii Trip

Alright, let's start at the beginning!

The day we were flying to Hawaii I had to work a few hours before the flight. The flight was at 6AM and I got off at 2AM. Steve was supposed to pick me up but of course he forgot -___-' he fell asleep. He came after I called him though, its a good thing he doesn't live that far from the hospital, and then we went to his place to finish up packing.

 Our luggage

Steve had finished packing (he had the grey suitcase) but since I wasn't packing much clothes I had to shift his clothes over to mine and we put all the non-important stuff into the grey suitcase.

 Took a cab...

So Steve's mom was supposed to drop us off in the airport. My mom offered to drop us off earlier but I told her it was alright cause his mom was supposed to drop us off but no, she bailed on us last minute. She told us to take a cab because she was tired but she got up at 4AM to check to see if we were ready to go and all packed up, so I was like WTF.

I told Steve I'm not paying for a cab because he had said that we were getting a lift and I rejected an offer from my mom, plus he had to go back to work to pick up his debit card because he left it there. The cab ride ended up being like $60 something dollars. So.. yeah... good job Steve's mom.

 At the airport past security and baggage drop off

We flew with United Airlines and we departed from YVR. I am so glad that we got nexus cards because when we arrived at the airport it was close to 5AM and there was a huge line for security, we probably would have taken like 25 minutes going through but we got through in like 5 minutes hahaha.

When we got to the nexus declaration part Steve had to get pulled in for questioning LOL. Its because someone shares the exact same name as him and that person has a criminal record so I guess they had to confirm it wasn't him LOL.

For breakfast he got a whopper from burger king LOL I ended up getting something to eat in San Francisco.

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Day 1 in Hawaii

 At San Francisco Airport

Our connecting flight was to San Francisco and our layover was just an hour so we grabbed some pizza and went off to wait at our gate.

 Boarded the flight

Flight to Hawaii was about 5 hours. I usually can't fall asleep on planes, I guess since I worked before we left and didn't get any sleep, I managed to get a few hours of sleep. I ended up playing earthbound on a net book I had lol.

 At the car rental

We rented a car from Dollar Car Rental (...? I can't remember what it was called) It was a mess trying to get to the car rental place from the airport. There were huge lineups and the shuttle that takes you to the car rental place only picked up people from one end and there were tons of people waiting at the other end.

It took about 30-40 minutes to pick up our vehicle too because there were so many people >.< We rented a 2013 Jeep (not sure the model, but we think its the base model)

 Made it to the AirBnB

I got a message from our airbnb host saying that our room was ready but we had to wait like 20 minutes at the lobby for him to come. I was getting really impatient lol.

 Our room

The hotel was a little dingy and smelled kind of weird but the room itself was quite nice and air conditioned, there was a small view to the river too which was nice. The bathroom was a decent size but I think the bathtub is clogged or something because it drains water really slowly >.<

 The buildings around the hotel were quite old..

I sent that photo to my friend and said we were in the ghetto lol. We changed and put some stuff away and went off to explore. Mainly get lunch.

 Marukame Udon

We went to the udon place for lunch, I went with Ashley the last time I was in Hawaii and I knew Steve would like it. He got the cold ramen and I regrettably got the hot one (my legs were so sweaty after I ate it LOL)

I also got an egg tempura, potato croquette, a piece of fried chicken (WHICH WAS AMAZING super juicy and crispy T_T) and a prawn tempura.

Afterward we went off to explore the waikiki area.

 Kai Coffee Shop (?)

I can't really remember what the name of the coffee shop was but it was Kai something.. Kai Hawaii?? Bah.. I don't know but we got this Macadamia nut coffee iced drink thing (I can't blog anymore.. LOL) which was really really good.

We ended up going back to the hotel to rest up for a bit and went out to dinner after.

 Nice walk to the restaurant

The restaurant was really close to where we were staying (like a 10-15 minute walk) and plus we were gonna go drinking too so it was a good thing we walked.

Yogurt Soju

They give you SO MUCH in a kettle and! it was all for me LOL. I wanted to finish the whole kettle but Steve wouldn't let me because I turned so red. Steve ended up drinking a giant Hite beer and a bottle of soju to himself, he had a bit of the yogurt soju too but he wasn't that drunk...

So red!

Couple the alcohol with lack of sleep and the long flights, I got fucked up LOL.

678 Hawaii

One of the best Korean restaurant experiences I've had in a long time. Great food and drinks. I drank so much my whole back and legs were red... (I literally can't drink that much). I want to do a full on blog post for this place so just wait for that!

Walking home wasn't fun LOL I was so full of food and super drunk, Steve was worried I'd jump into the river lol.

And that was the first night!

Things for Hawaii

 Snorkel Gear

I know our trip isn't till the end of next month but we're so excited to go we started ordering shit online for our trip >.< lol!

I really haven't gotten anything for myself in quite a while so I did splurge quite a bit.. I kind of regret buying some of this stuff because I know after this trip I probably won't be using it again for quite a while.

Both Steve and I got this snorkel gear set on Amazon (my set cost $59.99 in US dollars and Steve's was $34.99 in US dollars) My set cost more because I need the life vest because I seriously can't swim and will die in the ocean -__-' 

We didn't want to rent the gear because we both know that we're gonna go in the water basically everyday that we're there plus I read that it can get quite expensive renting the gear but I'm not entirely sure about that. But at least we'll have gear like this ready for future trips :)

Set includes:

-Drawstring bag (good for keeping all the gear together, plus its a net bag so its easier to keep water out and sand)

-Goggles (although Steve had to exchange his because his goggles were shattered when they arrived.. lol) 

-Flippers (which are adjustable, I'm a size 6-6.5 in shoe size and I got the small fin set)

-Dry Snorkel

-Life Vest (inflatable so easy to pack!)

Haven't tested this set out yet. I'm going to go to my friends house to test it out in her pool hahaha.

 Macadamia Hair Mask

Last time I went to Hawaii and went into the ocean my hair got FUCKED. Its because of the salt water - dried my hair. Luckily, Ashley brought this hair mask last time but in a big tub and it was so awesome, my hair was so soft and moisturized afterward. So I ordered one from Amazon so I can bring it!

 Midi/Maxi Skirt

This skirt.. lol. I got this skirt from Aritzia and I'm pretty sure its supposed to be a midi skirt for normal sized people, but on me it works as a maxi skirt LOL. Its really flowy so it'll be great for our trip. The only problem I have is trying to match a top with this skirt but otherwise I can't wait to wear this for our trip!

 Fit and Flare T-shirt Dress

I got this dress from Urban Outfitters here in Vancouver (West Vancouver to be exact) for like $80+! I was like the hell! lol I wish our Canadian dollar wasn't so weak T_T

This dress is also light and flowy and the back has a cut out piece which isn't overly exposing but its a nice detail. I tried looking for a link for this dress but I guess its not available on the website?

*I'll add pics of me wearing these pieces a bit later, probably when I write a post about our trip.

Flowy dress!

I got this dress from Aritzia and I've actually been eyeing this dress for quite a while and was actually super lucky getting this in the store because it was the absolute last one! Plus! It was in my size! Although I think I might be a size small because its kind of loose in the belly area... I just noticed too that this dress is sold out online too so yay! it was meant to be!

Since its our 5 year anniversary coming up I wanted a nice but casual dress to wear for dinner. I donated tons of my old clothes that I don't wear anymore so I don't really have anything like this.

 Selfie Stick

Yep... lol. I was totally against these things for the longest time because they just look so stupid but then I used one of my friends and it actually takes nice pictures! I thought this would be nice for vacation photos and it was like $14 on Amazon or something and it has bluetooth!! So I don't have to set my photo timer every time I want to take a photo or multiple photos, especially if I take a bad photo and I don't have to wait 5-10 seconds every time I want to take a photo.

 Biore Sunscreen

I have a Kose sunscreen that I wanted to bring but I realized it isn't waterproof so I ordered this one since it is SPF 50+ and it is waterproof. Japanese Biore products are actually really great compared to the North American counterpart. Also, this one is quite milky and thin in comparison to other sunscreen lotions.

 Victoria's Secret Bikini

I got a new bikini for our trip! I also have the other bikini I previously wore to Hawaii that I'm also going to bring. This one just makes my boobs look better LOL.

That's all for now! I think I bought too much stuff for a 5 day trip lol but then again I haven't really bought myself anything in a long time.

Bio-essence - Bio-Energy Snail Secretion Repair Serum

 Cracked this thing open a while back

So! I think some of you may remember me buying this about a year ago in a Sasa package because it was on sale lol. I was skeptical because I've used a snail BB cream with bad results and I thought maybe its the "snail" ingredient in it that caused my skin to break out (I still don't really know what caused the break out) but I was pretty hesitant on buying this product. Since it was on sale though, I decided to give it a go.

I bought this product on the Sasa website for about $10, they're selling it now for like $30 >.< but every now and then this product does reduce to $10 you just have to be lucky to catch it on sale.

 Much better bottle design that their Whitening serum

This serum is so much better than the whitening serum by Bio-essence, in terms of bottle design, consistency of the product (how the serum feels) and how well the serum works.

I still have an expectation that the suction would fill the tube all the way but it only fills partially, but I think its the weirdo in me that wants it to fill up so I can play with it lol.

Old lady hands lol

3-4 drops is all I need for my whole face and neck.

The serum is:

• Watery in texture
• Not oily at all
• Absorbs really well
• Not thick or heavy feeling on the skin
• A little goes a long way

This is a great serum, I feel that my skin feels softer after using this and I noticed my laugh line is not as noticeable when I use it (but when I go off of it, my laugh line is noticeable) So I feel like if I used it all the time (I only use it at night) it would have a better impact on my skin than it does now but I'm not really sure what the lasting power is on this product.

I'm gonna wait till this goes on sale again (I'm a poor student at the moment lol) and repurchase. I like it much better than the whitening serum I used by Bio-essence.

One of my new years resolution is to take better care of my body and skin so I may just invest into a more expensive serum but I'm not gonna let this go if its on sale lol.