Last Minute Pocky Costume

The Hatsume Festival at the Morikami Museum and Gardens was quickly approaching, and I still had not made my costume. I had planned on being No Face from Spirited Away, but I didn't want to spend money on buying fabric. So I did a Google search for "last minute cosplay ideas" and discovered how easy it would be to make a Pocky costume.

These were my supplies. My dad had a large cardboard box so the only things I had to buy were two cans of spray paint and some glue. It came out to under $5.

Many hours of Photoshop later, I was able to cut out the letters from printer paper and make Pocky sticks out of newspaper. It all worked out a million times better than I had planned. Seriously, guys, I've NEVER done a successful craft in my life!

Katie went with me to the festival. This is a picture of her trying to eat me. O_o

And this is Katie eating a giant stick of Pocky in her fantabulous Rainbow Dash shirt while I stare, terrified. Because we're just that awesome.

I was very happy with how the costume went over. Lots of people came up and asked to take pictures with me, and one of the candy vendors even gave me a free box of Pocky!! (He wanted me to be a cannibal, I guess.) It was an amazing day!

10 Year Plan (Kinda)

I have to write this out or my brain will explode. This is a ten year plan for my life if things go exactly how I imagine (which we all know they never do). I'll probably change my mind again in a few months anyway, but for now, I just like to think about this.

1. From now until 2015, work and play and save up whatever money I can. If possible, go on that road trip I've been planning forever during this time.

2. 2015 through 2017, go to community college and get my Associates degree. Continue saving up money wherever possible.

3. 2017 through 2019, teach English in Taiwan. Live as frugally as possible so I can save as much of my income as I can.

4. 2019 through 2021, return to the US to earn my Bachelor's degree. I should have enough saved from Taiwan to be able to do this at a good college.

5. 2021 through whenever, with a Bachelor's degree and two years of experience teaching English, I can choose any Asian country I want to teach in. (In Taiwan you only need an Associates.) In the past I would probably have chosen Japan, but it's expensive to live there and you can't have pets. I'd rather choose another country and just visit Japan a lot. I'd also like to spend some time in New Zealand.

Citations and Taxes

So today I finally went to the Palm Beach County Courthouse and sorted out some issues I'd been having with my car registration. I can't tell you how relieved I am that everything worked out so easily. I walked into the building nervous and afraid and walked out with the biggest smile on my face, practically skipping.

I was on a roll, so I decided to find an H&R Block and find out why my taxes had been rejected when I tried to file them online. You can insert here the sound effect of a brakes squealing because that's what I felt like happened to my day when they told me my identity has probably been stolen. Someone else filed their taxes with my SSN. Someone else is living under my name. Just... gahhh. I don't really know yet what the consequences of that will be or how it's going to get sorted out, if at all. I just hope it does, and soon.

Racist Teeth

I have a confession: I love the Dollar Tree. Every single time I visit this wonderful store, I can't believe how much stuff you can buy for just a dollar. Potting soil! And bedsheets! And pregnancy tests! And energy drinks! And teeth whitening systems!

That last one is what I'm here to experiment with. It'll probably kill me because heaven knows if you buy it for a dollar it can't be any good, but I'm living on the edge, people! Warning: some very disturbing pictures will follow.

So here it is. One tube of suspiciously tasteless goop and a rubber tooth tray. I feel nervous.

Just in case you weren't sufficiently traumatized as a child, here's a before shot of my teeth. This scares even me.

And here I am with the tooth tray in my mouth full of foaming goop, trying not to swallow any of this potentially-poisonous substance. The instructions said to wear it for five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night until "the desired shade of whiteness is achieved." I've done it twice now. We'll see what happens. If anything happens to me, tell my mom I love her...

Sad

You know you have no life when....

The same part of your brain that responds to your own ringtone responds to the ringtone of the main character in your favorite show.

Also, I bought 8 oz of Chick-fil-a sauce today. Winning. At. Life.

Extreme Photography Goals for 2012

• Do 50 paid photo shoots - Two of my favorite quotes from middle school were, "Shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars," and, "Most people don't aim too high and miss; they aim too low and hit." Those quotes are the only reason I feel comfortable posting a number like this. Oh and also, "When you aim for the impossible, the difficult becomes easy and the easy becomes assured." There. Bet you didn't know I'm the Queen of Quotes, now did you?
• Do 3 photo shoots in one day - You know that feeling in your stomach when you see the really cute guy you have a crush on? That's how I feel when I think about this goal. I don't know why, I just think it would be so fun! And I'd get to edit pictures for days!
• Buy Ikelite housing for my camera - This usually runs at about $1,000 and I have to raise $11,000 to go to China, so it seems silly to aim for this, but I think I can do it! I'll think of it as a business investment. With Ikelite housing... my goodness, everything would change! Everything!

How I Ended Up With Blonde Hair

Right around Christmas, it suddenly struck me that I would look great with light brown hair. Not blonde, mind you, but a very light brown. I became fascinated with the idea, and when we went on our Christmas vacation and my mom went to buy her hair dye, I asked her if I could get some, too.

At the time, I looked like this:

After the first box of hair dye, my hair was about one barely-noticeable shade lighter and the roots where my original hair color (brown) had been growing out from my last dye attempt (reddish brown) were lighter than the rest of the hair.

This was not good enough, and I felt ridiculous with the somewhat-lighter stripe in my hair. I get a little crazy in the winter, so I decided to buy bleach blonde. I didn't want bleach blonde hair, but I figured that since the last box had worked hardly at all, this box would get me exactly where I wanted to be. Wrong!

I ended up with yellow and orange tiger stripes on top of brown.

Plus, the harsh chemicals and cold weather frazzled my already-frizzy hair, so when I brushed it, I got this:

I sent this picture to my fairy godmother, Karissa, and got the response, "Do you want me to kill you now or later?"

So for the rest of the trip, I went around like this:

Luckily, I do have that fairy godmother I mentioned, and when we got home she came and did her best to fix my hair. It's still yellow and orange, but now there are no more stripes! Soon I can dye it back to brown. And that's how I ended up with blonde hair!

And now, here are some pictures of the lovely mountains of Georgia with an after-rain mist hanging in the air. The last one has ice in it! (I'm from Florida, what can I say?) These were taken on my phone so excuse the quality.