The Windy City

They call Chicago the windy city; which really isn't all that exciting considering that I come from the (self proclaimed) windy state of oklahoma. But Chicago is a 13 hour drive north from where I am, and at this time of the year, north = COLD.

But for some unexplainable reason, a friend and I decided to take that 13 hour drive northward in winter instead being sane and staying home watching movies with a big mug of hot chocolate and a turkey carcass in the trashcan.

So that's me taking my first driving shift. For the first time in my life, I thanked my creator that I have a butt, because my bee-hind was nice and numb after each shift. I can't imagine what it would be like if my hiney wasn't as well cushioned as it is.

So we stopped by the University of Illinois to crash at my DNA ex-roommate's apartment which was a ton of fun coz a bunch of other Malaysians decided to crash at her apartment too and after two days, the Malaysianess had its effect on me: all the lah's and aduhai's started sputtering out of my mouth like nobody's business. I even got all excited when I saw an angmor in the car in front of us. That is, until I realised I was still in America and I was supposed to see angmors in the cars in front of me.

But yeah, we went to chicago and took pictures by the bean. Because that is what tourist do. They go to the bean, gasp at their reflection in the bean, take pictures of themselves in the bean, ask people to take pictures of them and the bean, and finally walk away from the bean.

So we wandered around chicago for a bit...and met up with some fellow OCU kids for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza. Again. Trust me when I say one slice is enough. Unless you are a guy...coz culinary rules fail to apply to guys.

And that's Chicago at night. Kinda looks like KL from my bedroom. Lol.

The next day we went to the aquarium to look at fishies before driving all the way back home. Which means we reached at 2 am. Half dead, but still breathing.

Road Trip *woooot!*

I'm turning into a galavanter, a galavanting person, a person who galavants.

Last weekend was labour day, and a couple friends and I made a road trip *wheeee!!* down to Dallas to catch a show.

So we all piled into the car and I realised just how Asian I am.

You all know the hierachy of car seating, right? Dad is always in the driver's seat and the passanger seat is taken up by the mother or the eldest boy (depending on the length of the leg etc). And however rest of the world aranges themselves, the youngest child always ends up in the middle back where the hump between the two seats are. Correct me if I'm wrong.

It was only on my way back when I realised how natural the whole arangment was to me. My brain did the math and the butt found its way to the middle without me thinking twice.

Yes, I was the youngest kid in the car. I always am, and always will be.

But back to the show.

We went for this show called Medieval Times where there are a bunch of knights dressed up and they have a script about some prince getting kidnapped etc. And there were a bunch of jousting matches (hawt!!) and horsey parades (cute!!). What was really cool was that we got to eat dinner with our hands - medieval style! But cooler than that were the outfits we bought.

Now most girls in their right minds would go for the princessy stuff. Whether or not we want to admit it, we all want to be pweety.

But then I saw the suit of armour. It was in kid's size, but whatever. Minor details.

Now when I was a baby girl, I played with barbies and teddy bears like all the other baby girls. But teddy always had a gun on hand and barbie hid behind a fort. 10 years later and I'm still fascinated with boy's playthings. Blame the big brother for my tomboyish ways. But then again, how many knights in shinning armour carry pink handbags? If you ever find one, let me know.

In the event of a carb overload...

Here comes another Friday night,

And she squeals aloud in pure delight,
For a swift glide over satin ice,
Alas she falls not once but twice.

Just so you know, I've been skating ever since I was 8. But you know what? I've been falling since the day I was born, and I guess I just am better at that.

She falls butt-first on the ground,
A gasp or two comes from around,
Up she pops with a smile for all,
And limps to the bench against the wall.

Knocking one's tailbone out of alignment certainly makes one famished. And after a carb overload, we felt the need to scale a fence and sneak into the baseball field to work off the extra glucose in our systems.

In the event of a carb overload,
Take a short run across the road,
Jump a fence and pose on the mound,
All the while dancing and prancing around.

What happened last friday...

So on Friday, after the whole go to class/work thing was done with, this happened:

Yes ma'am, it's the 16-shot function on my camera at work again. My friend and I tried to do the lala pose thing...obviously, I can't count. What am I doing in uni?!?! I need to go back to kindergarten.

1. Smile, relax, ONE.
2. Still at ONE?
3. Oh yeah, change to TWO.
4. TWO and a HALF/THREE?
5. Finally, THREE!
6. FOUR times two equals eight, dong dong.
7. What the? TEN?
8. HEE HEE, she messed up. She does the chicken dance.
9. She laughs at herself.
10. HELP, she's in spasms.
11. ...frothing at the mouth...
12. ...stretch?
13. She hides.
14. I lift up my eyes to the hills- Where does my help come from?
15. *GASPS*
16. *DIES*

And after I was exercising my abs, I went to tag some people with lasers! And I found out I wasn't half bad at it. I got third (from behind!!!) place. Not bad huh? Lol!! *koff koff*

But yes, laser tag was a blast. Put it on the list of "things you need to do before you die". Basically, you run around in the dark shooting people and getting shot at. When you get shot at, you die for 5 seconds where you can't shoot or get shot at. And as you can see from my ranking, I am very good at getting shot at. =)

Girl's Night!!

Girl's Nights need no introduction. We camwhore, talk, camwhore, eat fattening food, camwhore, play games and camwhore again.

This particular Girl's Night was to celebrate Christmas, and we had the usual gift exchange thing. I got a baby Christmas Tree for the gift exchange, had tons of fun decorating it...

...and figuring out how to wrap it.
In return, I got a pregnancy test.

I think they want me to be the next Virgin Mary. AHHEM!!! It was positive, by the way. BUT only because it was a fake/trick test. Pa, you may pick yourself off the floor.

So talking about pregnancy tests...*flashback to August 2008*...here's a conversation I had with a church member right before I left for my freshman year in uni:

So Caryn, how long will you be in the US?
9 months. Enough to get pregnant, give birth and come back.
*silence*
I'm kidding.
Oh.

I am a very naughty pastor's kid.
.

And they lived happily ever after...

I'm beat. Running around in stilettos for 6 hours is no joke. Running around in stilettos for 6 hours doing registration/tearing down deco's/washing dishes is even better!

And I'm not even one of the main people helping out. But then again, most of them didn't need to squeeze into a teeny piece o' cloth and wear shoes which make men feel short in order to look semi-presentable at the registration table.

But whatever, Alice is safely married, and I'm glad I was able to help out in whatever way I could. She deserves it!

And presenting to you my date for the evening:
So this was the product of yesterday's 12 hours of headless chickenism. And it got torn down in like 1 hour.

So yes, Alice and Dennis, have a blessed marriage. It was a joy to be able to be a part of your happily ever after!!

Crash!

Last night's Thanksgiving Turkey (mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, bread, gravy, snack-age and dessert) has been officially digested.

Side note: The dropping did not stuff out of the turkey. Sorry, private joke.

You see, I spent today helping my friend decorate for our friend's wedding. 12 hours of OH MY COWNESS. It was fun, no doubt, but I'm about to collapse.

So, last night's gluttony caused a spike in my blood glucose which probably turned into glycogen, and God forbid, fat. But the energy I spent in the last 12 hours probably burnt up all the glucose in my blood stream, causing glucagon to convert glycogen into glucose so that I don't drop down dead and spoil the happy bride's big day.

Please excuse the human anatomy jargon. I'm just helping the SPMers out there review for their bio exam.

So a glimpse of the table which ain't finished yet!

And the backdrop which was built from scratch, by the way. Not by me, I was just the nail passer. Is there such a thing?
We did take a break to lie in the grass though.
Envious? Oklahoma weather can be pretty nasty. Or gorgeous.

Today, was gorgeous.

Let's par-tay!!

This has been an amazingly chill week, and when the weekend rolled around, I found myself homeworkless. So I decided to take advantage of this abnormally and par-tay!! That is, Caryn style: A few friends, food, movies, and a bunch of talk.

Someone suggested making a cake, and I was like, "Yeah!" Then I realised I didn't have a cake pan. So we did cupcakes. Black bottom cupcakes...which really were brown bottom cupcakes, but I guess black sounds cooler.

So this is the crew who baked "them things".

And if we weren't already loaded with sugar, we went to get bubble tea.

And of course, the customary cam-whoring.

I love weekends where I actually get to chill.

The return of the...

...CAMERA!!!

My little Malaysia-U.S. adapter-thing is in my possession again. So I can now charge my camera, take pictures, put pictures on my blog, and make everyone happy. Are you happy? Coz I know I am. *big smiley face*

So here's the first picture in a veli veli long time:

Food! A few of us Malaysians got together at my place to makan. The scary red thing in the pot was scratched up by yours truly. I'm praying I don't get a call complaining about stomach aches tonight...

But yes, moving on...here is a long overdue glimpse of my apartment...I figured that after my pre-dinner party cleaning fest, I'd snap these pics before everything gets messed up again.

So that's the living room...which ironically, is my least lived in room. I usually hover in between my bedroom...

...and the kitchen.

...and the bathroom. The bathroom is very important. And since I'm in the bathroom...

...I might as well make use of the mirror there, to prove to my mama that I'm still alive.

Da blaine hath flied...

The last time I watched 3 movies back to back was with Hannah about a month before I got kicked out of the nest: Get Smart, Kung Fu Panda, and Wanted. Right before watching Wanted, mum called up to say that she had bought my plane ticket to a place halfway across the globe. Needless to say, I spent the next 2 hours freaking out in a cinema chair.

I'm a Wuss!! That line was from Ice Age 3.

Anyways, my brain got fried that day. And I swore on the grave of my ancestors (not really) never to do such a dumb thing again. 1 1/2 years later, I did the exact same thing. This time it was 7 hours of awesome brainlessness: Zombieland, (half of) The Surrogate, The Stepfather and Couple's Retreat. Don't ask me how the movies were. The last few hours have just been and will forever be a glob in my memory.

But that's part of the pure awesomeness of doing something really pointless.

Fly-dei nite

I honestly thought my fly-dei would end with me doing accounts, laundry, cleaning and rearranging my room. That would have been a great possibility if my housemate did not come back in the middle of the night and announce she was going for a swim. Or if I did not stare at her 'one kind ' for 10 seconds and then say that I'd join her.

I guess I can cross off "spontaneously jump into a pool in the middle of a starry night" off my list of things to do.

196. Fail a class on purpose.
197. Spontaneously jump into a pool in the middle of a starry night.
198. Speed on a 5 lane highway.

There! Been there, done that!

Oh, have I ever blogged about my extreme and unexplainable attraction to stars? They are soooo purty!! I dare my Rich Old Man to propose to me on a starless, barren night. I will reject him downright, no mater how very rich and how very old he is. So there!Anyways, forgive my slight hyperness. Midnight dips in cold water does that to a person ya know?

Did it occur to you that...

Did it occur to you that...

...maybe a klutz like me shouldn't be allowed remotely near the kitchen?


Injury #2 was incurred while putting an end to the demonically thick and hard skin of the pumpkin. Bad pumpkin. Bad bad pumpkin.

But the forces of good prevailed. The pumpkin is now a soup.

...

Moving on to happier, not so painful topics...

Badminton.

Which reminds me...my arm is sore. Dang.

After meeting up with various people...

...I discovered...

...that seniors will always *look* serious-er than us juniors...

...that I don't like fries.
...that I can't keep my eyes open for pictures.

...that I don't scream when I'm 180* upside down.

...that Suet Yee is really really light.
...and that this introvert CRASHES after being out for 14 hours.

*no picture can depict that*

What a day!

One of my friends talked me into volunteering to set up for this art festival thingy...and seriously, I dunno where all the men were...because 7 of us girls ended up with the job of transfering a donkey number of metal shelves down a hill. My muscles are still quivering.

.

But pain is good...right? No pain, no gain...right?

.

After that we did some weeding. And I found a root so long I thought it was a carrot.

.

5 hours later, we got back on campus and I had to get ready for some dinner-induction ceremony thingy...so I jumped into the shower to disinfect myself...squeezed into a dress...and off I went...

.

After the whole thingy, I got side tracked a group of people playing basketball...I must have been a sight, running around with a big ol' ball in a dress and heels.

.

Oh rachHubs, you'd be proud to know that I made my first swish in 9 months on my fifth first (ahhem!!) shot. The first four may or may not have been air balls.

Deja Vu

Today was a repeat of that day.

Except this time is Spring Break instead of Fall Break. Except this time I missed the bus and had to wait 40 minutes for the next bus. Except this time I nearly died hauling my 10 grocery bags of loot back. Except this time I ran into a bunch of kind samaritans (with a car) who saved me 7 minutes of walking.

Besides that, today was a repeat of that day.

Generation 1, 2 and 3.

I gave birth to two papers this morning. What a joy it was to see them come out of the printer, brand new and pure and fragile and beautiful. They will come back to me scared with red ink...but that's another story.

.

Say hi to my babies.

So boss was nice and gave me maternity leave yesterday...but today was back to work:

I snapped this pic while I was trying not to fall asleep in the audio room. Don't you have the naughty urge to randomly push buttons? I do. Did. Whatever.

Moving on...

Anyways, dad sent me pictures...so here is proof that he came last week:

Dad.
Dad and me in me room.

Okay, let me ask you SERIOUSLY. How old do I look? Or how young does dad look? Because the other day someone told me they thought dad was my brother.

Again.

Pa, you need to go and grow a middle aged man's gut. You ARE a grandpa now afterall.

=.=

I think I slept my weekend away...but that's no surprise...since I'm always sleeping...

Always have...

...and always will...

...forever and ever, Amen!

But I did do something non-sleep related. That is, I woke up, went to lunch, and went straight back to sleep. Seriously, I'm a pig. Wait, I'm a cow...whatever.

.

So this is Scarlett. I met her on the plane (the flight that got delayed for 2 hours) last month. And yesterday, we went to consume yummy food.

Gorgeous, ginormous portions of non-cafeteria food.

Anyways, that was my last proper meal for the weekend. Coz I terhilanged (lost) my Student ID and couldn't get into the cafeteria to eat. So I've been living off oats and cereal. >.<

Ahh...the wonderful life of a college student.