Grateful Tuesday

Today, I was going to school when I realized that I forgot my wallet and didn't bring any food for lunch. I had a huge test in the afternoon, and was planning to stay late to get some other lab work done afterward, so I was slightly concerned how I was going to make it till 6pm. For some reason, I'm especially adamant about making sure I eat before taking a test.. like my blood sugar level is going to make or break my grade. Anyway, so I threw out a prayer, asking for provision and help with my exam.

I actually didn't get to eat before my test, but thankfully it went well anyway. :) But afterward, I had an hour to kill, and my friends happened to be heading over to lunch the same time I called them. They graciously picked me up and spotted me a yummy sandwich, and I went back to lab and finished a good chunk of assignments I was behind on.

So yes.. God provides. Thankful for my education, for food, for friends. Thank you!

March madness

Animal Kingdom-Strange Attractor. This song reeks of summer nights. They are just around the corner...

Happy Friday. Happy last couple of days of spring break. Happy VCU basketball win this weekend? UVA?

Happy.

Better days to come

I'm sitting on my balcony for the first time since living at this apartment. So, it's taken me about 2 years to really enjoy it. Granted, it is littered with feathers from the birds flocking around and it is in need of a good sweeping, but in this moment, those are of little importance.

A really bad picture of the view from my balcony. I felt a lil weird holding up my laptop at oncoming traffic so it was one, two, three, click and done.

It's a little past 7:30pm and the sun has just officially set, thanks to my good friend, Daylight Savings. Balmy weather. A good mix of music playing. The town is a little quieter today, a little less crowded because of all the kids on spring break. I was initially supposed to go with them, but at the last minute decided to stay another night.

It's so peaceful. And makes this city seem almost.. bearable?

I haven't been myself lately. Deep deep down there's this carefree, joyful me waiting to blossom!

And her time is now. I'm claiming it. I can't control my circumstances, but I sure as anything will do my best to stop this negativity floating around in my head.

God, keep me and strengthen me.

Asians with blonde hair

I just caught the finale of one of my favorite shows, Top Chef. What does this have to do with the title of this blog? This episode briefly showed the girlfriend of the one of the contestant's, an Asian girl... with blonde hair. She was making it work! It was so chic and good-weird, as opposed to bad, in-your-face-whether-you-like-it-or-not weird. Which reminded me of this image...

2ne1's Lonely video

So this isn't really that unusual of a trend, and I've seen it done before, but that 2ne1 video over the summer last year was the first time that I really thought it looked good, and wanted to try it! Seeing that girl on TC today reminded me of my desires for crazy blonde locks, especially because she's rocking it stateside. Gives me more confidence that it can work here. Maybe I'll get the guts to go through with it someday.. I told a couple of people about my ideas since its inception in my head, and surprisingly, they say they can see me with it lol. On the other hand, do I really want to induce more damage to my hair? And I imagine upkeep would be ridiculous... constant root touch-ups with my dark as night hair... don't have the time for that.

Stumbling on Happiness

I have no idea what this says about me, but lately I prefer reading non-fiction to fiction. This was the exact opposite a few years ago. Maybe I've become disillusioned to storytelling after reading one too many bad novels (ie Twilight series -_-). Or got especially hooked on Malcolm Gladwell's fact-ridden anecdotes. Who knows.

Currently reading: Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert.

I read about it somewhere, and it had good reviews on Amazon, so I checked it out a la biblioteca. It doesn't seem so much self-help than an exploration of how humans work. Hopefully it'll be an interesting read.

Belted cardigans

One fashion pet peeve I have is when people belt their open cardigans!

J. Crew

It's supposed to "accentuate the waistline", but in doing so, makes the front look frumpy. Look how the material puffs out of the belt, and the fact that it's unbuttoned makes it appear unstable, as if the cardigan is about to shift out of the belt, or backwards, unflatteringly. Also, it takes away the functionality of the cardigan itself. Maybe that's my fundamental problem with this.. I dislike it when clothes have fake, sewn-on buttons or pockets that don't work, etc. If you're going to wear it, it needs to be able to do its job 100% whether you plan to use it or not! Basically, I hate that the cardigan looks trapped when it wants to be free as a little bird.

dailylook.com

Much better. I suppose this is more of a blazer that has some structure, which isn't a good comparison to a cardigan, so...

dailylook.com

Still better than belting it.

Aaaaaaaand so ends my fleeting study break.

Should tip reflect service?

I went out for dinner tonight to a sushi restaurant with a $3/roll happy hour on Wednesdays. I was looking forward to the meal, but didn't expect too much from the quality since it was so cheap. It turned out to be just ok, exactly how I thought it would. However, service was subpar. The place was not even close to being full (maybe 5 tables were occupied), and there were 2 servers, both who were pretty inattentive. My table waited close to 40 minutes before our food came out (after waiting for a while for someone to seat us), and I literally had to get up and wave down a waitress to ask for something after trying to make eye contact/get her attention for several minutes. I would have been more forgiving if the restaurant was packed and the waitress actually cared about her job, but again, neither were the case.

So my question: should tip be an indication of poor/fantastic service? I feel like in cases of great service, sure. But what about the opposite? Is it flat out wrong to go below 15-20% of the bill, no matter how bad the server?

I ended up giving 15% even though I didn't feel like it. Granted, my experience wasn't absolutely horrible.. ie the waitress wasn't rude nor offensive, but it made me think about tipping as a requirement vs. an optional commission of sorts.