The Rock

I realize the following paragraphs will become a conversational piece, especially for some of you who have been silently keeping up with this blog, but it probably doesn't mean what you think it means.

On my flight back from SFO on Wednesday, the woman sitting next to me reminded me of Kim Kardashian, except in her late 30s if not early 40s. She had long dark black hair and olive skin, and despite she moves and talks with the utmost forced femininity, the thick amount of makeup couldn't hide all the thick and thin lines across her entire face. From afar, there's no doubt she looked good: leather jacket, TNA leggings, still in good shape, etc. It's not hard to tell that she takes good care of herself; from the American Express she keeps swiping on the screen in front of me, the Mac Air she was using the entire flight, and the GIGANTIC rock on her finger, you can tell she has both the time and the money to take care of herself--and she does.

I swear the diamond on her finger was unnaturally large, maybe the size of a dime, and obviously a lot thicker (2-3cm?). I'm not gonna lie, I couldn't stop looking at it and secretly wished that one day I can sport a rock this big. And herein lies the irony---just a few days ago, J, one of my awesome awesome coworkers at Fremont, was telling me how she had a dream wedding last year in Prague with close families and friends for an entire weekend (40 ppl) and a dream honey moon (10 days on a small Greek island, removed from any signs of tourists, at a cottage on top of the hill, overlooking the island) while completely forgoing an engagement ring. Her wedding ring had a diamond on it, but it was not those big engagement ones.

At the moment when J was telling me about her whole wedding, I was thinking that this is exactly what I had always wanted--I don't wear jewelery and I don't care to have a large wedding that requires a year's worth of planning--I just want to celebrate the occasion with people i love, and just have fun.

And here is where I feel like I need to clarify again: If you guys are thinking that I must be wedding-crazy and that you guys are about to be attending our wedding, just know that nothing is happening any time soon.

But yes, I have been thinking about weddings and honeymoons lately, and what I want to do for mine. I can't seem to help it. Recently, left, right, and center, I'm attending weddings, looking at ppl's wedding photos, and hearing people talk about weddings. I know I have mentioned all of this before, but when I was little, I never thought about what my wedding would be like, or what my ring would be like, because I just never thought about it. Now that everyone is getting married, it probably won't hurt to just think about what I would want to do one day, because, admittedly, it is an important day--I don't want to look back one day and regret that I had a nonchalant attitude towards me taking a huge step in my life, right?

Anyway, every time I go to a wedding, hear about a wedding, read about a wedding of someone I know, etc., my mind will change a bit. I do know that I want a wedding with just people I know, and not a bunch of people I've never met in my life. And I want simplicity and elegance, which sounds cheesy but thats the type of cheesy i want.

But what about the rock? Big? regular? or none at all?
Thankfully, this decision won't need to be made imminently.
In all likelihood, if i were a billionaire (or married to a billionaire) i'd want a gigantic ring but end up never wearing it.
Since I am a middle-class consumer, I guess perhaps I should really opt to skip the engagement ring and put the money toward something else. Would that be too pragmatic?

Sometimes I feel like pragmatics and relationships are mutually exclusive. It's like trying to put logic in love...

Blog

Although I don't blog as much as I used to, which was a few times a day in high school and undergrad and a few times a month at Oculus and during grad school, my online activities has only increased. On the right column, you can still see my rarely updated twitter, my often updated yelp reviews, my whereabouts on my calendar and people's blogs i do follow.

It's probably better this way because my blogs used to have what I thought was better content, but since I've finished school and am on the full working life, my thoughts and my writing have been devolving into series of unfinished thoughts and superficial posts that doesn't entice me to look back and re-read my entires. At least the conversations I have and re-post here I still find amusing.

For a while, I played with the idea that perhaps the (not-so) newly lack of blogging is a reflection on the emo-teen years everyone goes through. It's true that the older you get, the less you seem to want to release all your pent up emotions from your puberty-induced hormones by some form of self-expression. And maybe it IS that I no longer NEED to write, and therefore I don't. But I do miss writing and and the analysing that comes with it. Hopefully, I will make the effort to find the time again some time down the road and practice writing things that are more observational, and if i'm lucky, insightful.

And...this is what happens when I sleep all day and wake up at 2am PST/5am EST...

About my bags

There used to be a period in my life when I hoarded handbags. It's true. I even made a blog post about my handbag inventory back in the days. In August, I went back to Toronto to move most of my stuff out of the house because my family was moving. It turned out that this "moving" became the purging of all my childhood and young adult life memorabilia. Now that I am writing this blog I wish I took some photos to maintain the memories of the stuff I threw out...such as my gigantic collection of pencils (the ones that need sharpening)...I want to cry just thinking about it. Imagine this: I donated approximately 10 garbage bags worth of clothes, shoes, and bags, and stuffed animals, recycled 3 giant boxes of old paperwork and school work, and tossed out 3 garbage bags of STUFF.

But I digress: I wrote this post because I wanted to talk about my handbag fetish (or lack thereof?). I mean, I feel like my fetish is pretty mild in comparison to many people I have known or read about. When I was young, I had one wallet that I often kept losing and never believed in handbags. When I started going out with Mike, he said he would like me to carry handbags so he can put his stuff there and it was then I began buying a ton of bags. Within our two years and some months of relationship, I must have accumulated 15-20 bags.

About a year after we broke up, my horrible bag hoarding issue also broke up a little (partly because it was replaced by a horrible shoe hoarding problem that's outside the scope of this blog post (but do recall my shoe inventory blog post made a few years ago)). By breaking though, I mean that I stopped subscribing to forums that talk about handbags and I stopped paying attention to brand-name handbags. I didn't stop buying, I just bought less and stopped researching. By the time I was leaving for Boston, I had a gigantic Tupperware of handbags (comes up to my waist) plus a few sitting in my dresser, most of which I donated during the purge.

This weekend, Adam's family came to Boston and we spent literally all weekend shopping. At Wrentham Outlet, Adam bought me my second Kate Spade item: a cross-body bag for our trip to Europe in November. Honestly, I haven't been this excited since he got me my Salvatore Ferragamo Saffiano wallet since last year around this time. While admiring my new KS bag, I decided to clear out my collection to see what I have left (*silently cries*).

And here is the essence of my post: my remaining bag collection.

Salvatore Ferragamo:

• Black Saffiano continental wallet <3

Kate Spade:

• Cranberry Maddie <3
• Black signature Noel Thomas Crossbody <3

Coach:

• small white soho flap shoulder (FS)
• small navy signature top handle pouch <3
• large beige leather madison wristlet
• purple signature wristlet
• small red soho signature wallet

Miscellaneous:

• three nine west bags (2 FS)
• two puma bags (1 RT)
• one old navy cross-body sling
• one big aldo bag
• one small aldo evening bag
• one transit clutch
• one guess shoulder bag
• one buffalo back pack bag thing
• one pacsun slouch hobo
• one guess continental wallet (RT)
• one no name oversized yellow synthetic bag I got from HK <3
• one no name pink shoulder bag I got from TW (RT)

Total: 24ish
FS: I want to sell them
RT: Ready for retirement (donation)

At this point, if you are still reading, you probably have realized that I am totally quantity > quality. I don't own any real haute-couture bags like Chanel or Prada or BV or even Gucci and LV...mainly because I can't afford them. I've been threatening adam that i'm just gonna go out one day and buy a $3k bag, but I have yet the courage. I also keep asking myself whether i would actually keep a bag forever and use it regularly for the rest of my life to make that money worth it at my income level, and the answer has always been no.

Also note that I have rather large coat collection....

My blank is better than your blank

lynnie: plus, im convinced that no matter what ur place looks like, mine is gonna be better
MUAHAHAHAHA
Matt: disagree
lynnie: you would, wouldnt you
Matt : mine has hand laid wood floors
yours has BOSTON
ergo, mine is better
QED
lynnie: yours has you, and mine has ME
ergo mine is better
QED
:D
Matt: it has not been established that u are better than me
therefore your argument is flawed
lynnie: haha so is urs
Matt: whereas my floors are DEFINITIVELY better than Boston
lynnie: how does that even work
my car is better than your slippers
Matt: well you see
matt's floors = awesome
and boston = the suck
lynnie: my lamp is better than your door
Matt: and since awesome > the suck
lynnie: my bathroom is better than your pencil
Matt: then by association, matt's floors > boston
lynnie: my book is better than your chair
Matt: yo man, my pencil totally owns ur bathroom
u have not seen my epic pencil
lynnie: LOL
my tissue box is better than ur booger
Matt: if God wrote the commandments w/ a pencil he would surely use one just like mine
unfortunately he actually chiselled them into stone
lynnie: my chisel is better than your stone
QED
Matt: I don't have a stone
lynnie: wait
i dont have a chisel
nm
Matt : lol even if u did that would not be a particularly sour point for me
lynnie: my name is better than your mirror
my elevator is better than your middle finger
Matt: my hour is better than your LIFE
lynnie: haha, see finally u make a comparison that makes sense, though untrue
Matt: or... completely true
lynnie: fine u can have that one
Matt: LOL
lynnie: but my apartment is still better
Matt: I'm not sure that's the one u wanted to give up Lynn

old ppl stuff

Things to remember when renovating a house:
- always have light in the shower rooms and tubs for easier cleaning
- tubs are easier to clean when not attached to the wall (standalone)
- drain for the tub needs to be removable
- toilet too close to the wall = harder to clean the floor
- floors and counters with material that never looks dirty are hard to clean
- cabinets too high are stupid
- make sure shower head is detachable for cleaning rest of bathroom
- double-sinks are awesome in the kitchen
- best type of stove is the electrical spiral ones

...to be continued