Allie's Ramblings

Hello all!

I'm subletting my apartment this summer, located in Flint 303, starting probably as early as May 15. It's a two bed two bath and I am not sure if my roommate is staying for the summer or not. Let me know if you are interested and I can give you more information about pricing, move in/out dates, you can come check it out, etc.

I need to find someone by April 11 so if you're even remotely interested please let me know soon! Thanks!

Hello, its been a while!

I have been SO busy with school, which I'm a little sad about because it's my last semester. While all of my friends are still in the same place, I'd like to hang out with them more. I've been making new friends though! I decided to participate in my school's International Fiesta this year, which is a dance competition between all of the international student associations on campus. I'm on the Japanese team and if we win we will have a 3-year winning streak. Pressure's on and the practices are really tough... 3 hours a day every day! I've been extremely sore considering I haven't done any kind of exercise in a long time, haha. So my days generally go like this: Work at 9, class until 3:30 or 5, dance practice, come home, ice my knees and shower, do homework while contemplating how miserable my body feels, go to bed. Fiesta is on February 29, less than two weeks from now, but already I'm losing sleep while getting all nervous about it. I'm sure tons of videos of our performance will be on YouTube, so I'll link them all. :)

In more Japanese news, Molly and I have an interview with the English language school Aeon. We will be going to Chicago to be interviewed in a group first and then individually if they like us. I hope to be placed somewhere near my host family in Tokyo. The interview is from noon until 8pm one day! I don't know about the individual interview. I'm kind of nervous :(  I hope that Molly and I have a chance to be placed in the same office or very close to each other.

And one final funny story: My host mom sent me a package earlier this month and told me that it was a Dentsu calendar that she got at the beginning of the year. It took a while getting to me because she sent it to my parent's house and my mom sent it to me here in Buffalo, but when I finally got it I was excited to look at the calendar. Inside the package was a lovely note from my host mom, some candy, calendar stickers, and these two really weird-looking ceramic cats. Obviously not a calendar. Confused, I e-mailed my host mom and sent her a picture of everything in the package. I was SHOCKED when she wrote back that she had never seen those cats before in her life!! After examining the box, I noticed that the brown tape she used was on one side, but there was clear plastic tape on the other. We figured that customs must have been examining packages and accidentally switched my calendar with these weird cats. So now someone has my calendar, and the cats are sitting on my kitchen table. I will definitely be sending my host mom one for her birthday, haha.

So it's looking more like I may go to Japan for a year after I graduate to teach English in Japan. Molly and I were half-joking about it one day, but I was shocked to hear that she was actually looking into it if I went as well. She wants to teach ESL in the future, so it's a great thing for her to do. I've thought about teaching as well, so it seemed to be a really good idea to both of us. We'll be researching it more come this weekend to see if it's something we really want to commit too. I'm excited, but scared at the same time... Japan for a year. A lot can happen State-side in that time. What will happen with me and Andrew? My grandfather hasn't been doing so well lately; what if something happens to him? Will I be able to find a job after I get back? Lots of things to think about. After looking at some companies and what they offer, I could probably find a better-paying graphic design job with better benefits and I can live at my parents house... but Japan is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I know that if i don't do this after I graduate then I never will.

School has been pretty hectic lately. I came back from Thanksgiving break and realized that there were only two weeks of class left. Next Monday I have an oral exam in Japanese class and Wednesday I have a digital art project and research paper due. My teacher for the New Asian Cinema class (that I have the research paper due in) said that she would give us an extension into the following week if we need it. I might e-mail her and ask for one so that I can do a better job on the project as well.

But Thanksgiving break was good. I really needed a break from school this year. I made a bazillion and a half pumpkin cookies the day before Thanksgiving because I'm stupid and put toomuch shortening in them, so I had to double the whole recipe, haha. My neighbors were happy though, because I gave them some as well as took them to the family Thanksgiving at my aunt's house. My entire family seemed to be cranky as hell on Thanksgiving which was kind of a letdown. Lauren and I went into the city to do some karaoke on Black Friday. Midtown was PACKED and I thought we were gonna die, lol. We had an... off-singing day, to say the least, but it was fun anyway. Saturday I went to Mitsuwa with Yuriko, her housemates Yoshiko and her husband, their two adult children, and the one child's wife and daughter. Lots of Japanese to go around... I was pretty sleepy after having to focus on speaking the whole day. It was a good time, though. We ate ramen and taiyaki and I bought this 3-piece poster of all 1,945 kanji you generally need to read a newspaper. Currently, two sheets of it are by my bed and one is by my computer. I've been looking up the English kanji meaning as well as trying to take in the onyomi and kunyomi of them a little at a time, but it's a bit overwhelming to see them all at once, haha. I hope it helps though, because I suck at kanji like you would not believe.

Right now I'm hanging out in my room between classes. I kind of want to skip my night class, but it's the last class before the final so I guess I should go. Siiigh. We've been doing student presentations and they're really quite boring... except mine was AWESOME, trust me.

I just found a bug bite on my arm that is quite itchy XO;;

I took this from my new friend ghetto_ninjette :D

I just got out of class a little while ago and I have a lot to do tonight, but I'm not feeling the pressure to start anything yet. This is a bad thing. On my list of assignments due tomorrow are:

• A presentation for Japanese class. This is big, and I started it over the weekend, but I'm editing video and collecting screen shots/music clips for it, so it's taking  a lot of time. That, and Asian drama synopsis are difficult to write in Japanese x.x.
• An algorithmic art piece done in Flash using ActionScript. This would be a lot easier if I had more experience in any kind of programming. I want to make a Flash animation that draws random shapes with pretty colors so every time you reload the page it's something different. :)
• Two forum posts on what I think of abstract art styles covered in my textbook for Communication Graphics.

The forum posts will be easy, but the presentation and the algorithm stuff won't be too thrilling. I'm going my presentation on Hana Yori Dango, Loveholic and Farewell Firefly (Japanese, Korean and Chinese dramas, respectively), so as I'm trying to pick out what scenes to show in class tomorrow I end up watching a majority of an episode ^_^. I'm nervous about presenting, too. Wish me luck! I'll start it... soon. Yeah.

The following conversation took place at work today. Why I found this SO amusing I don't know, but I was laughing for quite awhile:

::microwave beeps every few minutes::

Me (sitting next to the microwave): Whoever has something in the microwave, it's uh... been done for a little while now.
Mable: That's Kolesnick's... ::comes over, takes it out of the microwave and brings it into Bruce's office:: That you that's been beeping in the microwave for a while now?
Bruce: I've been beeping in the microwave for most of my life.

I don't even want to think about Japanese anymore x.x.

It's been a long time!

I have been so busy with school since it started. I only have four classes, but Japanese class is really kicking my butt this semester. I'm in fourth level Japanese now, and the regularly-scheduled class conflicted with me and a friend of mine's schedules, so now we meet privately with the teacher once a week together. It's more than a little intimidating, but I really hope that by the end of this semester my Japanese will really improve.

These next two weeks are going to be really busy for me. This Wednesday marks Andrew's and my three year anniversary! I'm really excited and very relieved that he hasn't grown sick of me yet ^_^. Friday I'll be going to Rochester to meet up with my sister and my mom and take a tour of Geneseo... I can't believe my sister is looking at schools now. x.x. Then Saturday until Sunday Andrew and I are celebrating in style by going to Toronto, eating at the restaurant 360 and staying in a presidential suite overnight (!!). Hot. I'm looking forward to the restaurant because it's on top of the CN Tower and, obviously by its name, spins around as you eat. :)

The following Wednesday is my 21st birthday! I probably won't do anything special on that day because I have a night class until late, but hopefully Andrew will be hosting a birthday party for me at his house. I live in an on-campus apartment surrounded by neighbors but his house is conveniently located by campus but surrounded by trees, and he and his roommates throw excellent parties. I personally wants a petting zoo and a playground of puppies, but I don't think that will be happening. I suppose that I'll drink enough to see animals there anyway though, haha.

Oh, and after that weekend, my friend Irene, who I worked with in New York City this summer is coming up to visit! I was shocked that she actually wanted to come up. She'll be the first friend to be visiting me here in Buffalo, so I'm really looking forward to it. :)

Birthday party yaaaay!!

I've been soo busy over the past few weeks and the weekends seem to be coming and going and feeling like they never happened-- I hate that. I just got back from a fun day with Yuriko-- we ate at East, then she showed me the new house that she will be staying at in Melville. She's going to be living with a married Japanese couple, and the husband invented that camera that can go inside of your stomach and whatnot so he's super-rich. They have four houses and their main ones are in Tokyo and New Mexico, so Yuriko pretty much has the place to herself. For $400 a month. You really can't beat that.

I went to Chicago last week to visit Andrew at Fermilab. It was fun- we went to the aquarium, had yummy food, looked at puppies, saw Knocked Up, etc. I cried when I left and spent my time wallowing in self-pity at the airport and then my TV on JetBlue didn't work so I wallowed in self-pity some more. There was a new record set of 7 crying outbursts throughout the day. Nice.

Now I'm doing laundry and everything else that I should have gotten done much earlier in the weekend but I got lazy. Ironing, showering, some freelance work and three projects for Special Events are must-dos today. I hate ironing and I'm sick of Photoshop, so these things are going to take a lot for me to get started, haha.

Work has been good, but I come home and have very little time to do anything. There's a new girl at work named Irene who is really nice and we go to lunch every day, so I bet she's going to miss me, hehe. Three more weeks of work and then Kat and Rachel come to visit, and then it's back to Buffalo to be with Andrew and not miss him all the time. Home's been pretty good but I like living on my own and being closer to my friends and boyfriend, so I'm really looking forward to going back.

Gotta go do my second round of laundry now. Byeee.

So it's been a while since I last blogged here. I've been home for several weeks and I now work in the city, which has its pros and cons. The pros are that I have an office job for the summer, which is a million times better then retail, and my office is around a bajillion different places to eat for lunch. My boss(es) are really nice and they think I'm funny, which is weird. I'm not used to being thought humorous. The only major con is riding the train into the city all of the time. I essentially leave my house at 6:45 and come home a little less than 12 hours later, and I'm an old woman so I like to get to bed around 10 or 11 so I can wake up and do it all over again. I've been playing the hell out of my Nintendo DS, but I haven't had much time for Warcraft. Or life, really. Sad that I mentioned Warcraft before life.

I've done a few things here and there. Babysitting brings in major extra money, and I hung out with Jake and Dan a couple of weekends ago. We went to Flushing with 4 or 5 of their other friends and ate Korean food and went to karaoke, which is always a favorite past time. I rocked at singing, yo. I'm much better than I used to be, and I can only assume that it's from going to karaoke in Japan so much. I might take chorus next year too, so I'll totally be the next American Idol or something.

I've been meaning to call more people because I went out with Shea for dinner not too long ago and he got me in the mood to talk to people from high school (for once). I had already planned on calling LaFranca (are you better yet?) and Neek, but I wasn't expecting to want to call Laurissa and all of them. Sam is shipping off to Russia if she hasn't gone already.

Speaking of which, this Friday marks the day I left for Japan last year. I'm still pretty down that I'm not going again, but I'll go back sometime. Hopefully with Andrew, and we can go to Puppy the World (you can rent puppies there) and eat Japanese food until we die. That sounds like a brilliant idea to meeee.

 My sister and I have been bonding over this stupid game called Sonic Riders, which is waaay to difficult for a freaking Sonic the Hedgehog game. We manage to clear about a level a day but we should have beaten that friggin game already. We also purchased Super Smash Brothers and some Spyro game which I have yet to try. I feel obligated to play the game that I'm paying monthly for before I go on to playing games with purple dragons.

In a couple more weeks I'll finally get to see Andrew again because he's visiting his family in Albany, so I'm going to take Amtrak up there and intrude for several days. I'm looking forward to seeing him and going to the pet stores to pet bunnies and guinea pigs and play with puppies. It's the fuzzy things in life.

But yeah. Obviously nothing particularly juicy has been going on in my life, other than hearing about stupid yacht club drama and the house phone won't stop ringing because of it. My life has dwindled down to ironing work clothes, living on the train and revolving in swirly office chairs for eight hours a day. And I just bit the inside of my mouth, so that'll swell and I'll chew on that for a while. I'll probably go chew on my new injury and watch some TV, so good night!

I've been home for a little less than a week now, and its been going okay. Andrew's in Buffalo and will be leaving for Chicago on Sunday, so I don't know what I'm going to do without him around. I posted my resume on craigslist and it looks like I might have three different interviews in Manhattan on Monday, so here's hoping I'm not late for any of them because of the others. I've been checking my e-mail like crazy for job offers- craigslist is the ultimate way to look for a job, I swear. I've gotten 2 graphic designer offers, one freelance web design offer, one job to show Japanese people apartments in the city (lol), and a random one for a French children's clothing designer, so I'm still waiting to hear back on why exactly she was interested in hiring me for anything.

A little while ago I got an e-mail from my host mom, asking if I knew a girl named Sunny from school in Tokyo last year. I remembered meeting her at orientation and we were both in the same level of Japanese at ICU but in different classes. In any case, Sunny is headed back to ICU this year and my host family will be hosting her for the summer. I've really missed my host family since I left, and I think that I feel worse now because I actually know the person that they'll be hosting instead of me. They were really, really wonderful to me and I miss them a lot. From what I know of Sunny she's a really nice girl and I think my host family and her will get along great, but I'm jealous that Sunny is going back to ICU this summer. I didn't particularly like ICU, but I loved the Sawais. So now I'm really bummed that I'm not going to Japan this summer, because it was the best experience of my life. And Sunny gets to go twice AND stay with my host family :(

I'm heading home today. LaFranca and all the other home people, give me a call!!

I'm having a hard time sleeping tonight, so here are some Korean videos:

( More stuff to watch! )

Gnight!

After a stressful day of putting graphics back up onto hacked websites, 2 group projects and making stir-fry (which came out beautifully but now my entire apartment smells like garlic and ginger), I've decided to post some videos similar to what puakalehua has done for the past few days. Here are some catchy Japanese songs/PVs, many of which I enjoy singing at karaoke ^_^:

( Yaaaay stuff to watch! )

It's been kind of a while since I updated, but it's definitely not the longest I've waited to write new stuff. Life has been... life. My Monday class where we're putting on a dance for 6th, 7th and 8th graders is stressing me out and beginning to give me nightmares, but in the back of my mind I know that it will all come through in the end.

My sister came up with her friend to visit last weekend which was a good time. We went to Niagara Falls, ate burgers, went shopping... I was kind of sad to see them go on Monday (especially because that meant I had class). It's gotten VERY cold again in Buffalo and it's supposed to snow for the next three days. What happened to the 60+ weather we were having?!

In other news, my penpal puakalehua invited me to my first swap group! She runs a group called "All That Cuteness Too," an extended version of her original (Yahoo?) group except on Flickr, where we swap some cute stuff with each other. Here's what I sent out for our "scavenger hunt" swap:

( Pics after the jump! )

Also, I'm not really good at sewing or creating stuff, but meet Herman!

( The little stuffed special frog! )

I am sad to announce that my beloved beta fish, Steve, has passed on to fish heaven. It happened yesterday. I was talking to Andrew about what a great weekend it was, went to feed Steve... and he was sideways on the bottom of the tank, pale, and sad to look at. Luckily Andrew was there because I couldn't have brought myself to give him the proper "Viking funeral," if you get me. When I first saw him I didn't cry, but once Andrew poured him out and flushed him I cried. Andrew had been planning to leave right before I discovered Steve, but he stuck around and laid with me for a while. I calmed down, but once Andrew left and I went to clean out Steve's tank I lost it again. I listened to sad songs, washed off his little plastic plant and anime figurine, dumped all of his little purple rocks into a bag, and cleaned out his tank. I'm such a sap... I could cry about it right now just typing it ><;;. Steve was a very good fish and I feel bad that I really didn't take very good care of him. His water was pretty dirty when he died, and sometimes I would forget to feed him until I got back from class. I think that he was sick for a while before he died because he suddenly got really lethargic and sad. I loved Steve...

But before that, it was a good weekend. It kind of feels weird going back to a happy thought after talking about my poor little Steve, but it was a good weekend before that, I promise. For Andrew's 22nd bday/our 2 and a half year anni we saw the Ninja Turtles movie (as per his request) where I got fat off of a cinnapretzel and soda, and then we rented Lord of the Rings (my first time seeing it!) and ate pizza, wings, breadsticks and oreos. It was delightful. I love Andrew very very much and I'm really lucky to have met him here at UB... it's sappy to say, but I really think that he's perfect. He takes really good care of me, we never argue, and he's just as much of a cuddler as I am. Plus we wrassle, which pretty much means we roughhouse until my lame ass gets tired and I make him surrender, haha. But if you read this Andrew: I love you, and thank you very much for this past weekend. Especially being there and taking care of me when Steve died.

I'm so emotional over a fish... can you imagine if it was a cuddly animal?

So I think that my job interview at Dentsu went well, but I'm not sure if I'm going to take the job. I applied for a summer internship and they only pay a weekly stipend of $100, which is how much it will cost for me to get there every week, and it could be more than 8 hours a day. I would basically be creating website ad banners with a group of interns and try to generate some publicity for a not-for-profit Dentsu is supporting for good PR. I feel like I could work in other places, get better experience, and get paid more if I searched a little more. Given, I haven't been offered the job yet because they haven't interviewed any other interns... they made an exception for me because last week was the only week I would be home until summer. I saw Yuriko afterward and we shopped until my legs collapsed from underneath me. I love her to death and she really likes to spoil me by treating me to things and offering to buy me stuff in stores, but I never let her. I always tell her not to spend so much money on me, but she said, "I'm not spending, I'm investing." She doesn't have a husband or kids, so she kind of considers me her daughter. Plus, I got my interview project for Japanese class out of the way! ^^

Yesterday was the award ceremony for Student Employee of the Year, which I won :D  I got a comfy fleece UB jacket thingy, a certificate, a squishy Buffalo, and lunch at this nice resturant called Shanghai Red's next week. I've already looked at the menu and I'm excited for a nice lunch. I asked Andrew to come but he has class, so it will probably be my boss Bill and supervisor Sonia. I'm really looking forward to it. :D

This weekend is Andrew's and my two and a half year anniversary/almost his 22 birthday, so we're going to order pizza and wings and watch movies as per his request. My goal is to eat as much as I can without throwing up, lol. Then the weekend after that is Andrew's realy bday weekend, so hopefully Sean and people will come up and we can eat MORE pizza and wings. I don't eat half as many wings in Buffalo as I should.

I've been home since last Friday and haven't done too much to talk about. Went out to dinner, went to the city with Lauren... we went to a Japanese karaoke place and she had a good time, so that's a lesson for all you other people I want to take, haha. I spent $30 on resume stuff (how ridiculous is that?!) for a job interview I have tomorrow in NYC at a Japanese company called Dentsu, Inc. It's the third largest advertising agency in the world and while I was in Japan, I met up with a "distant family member" (my dad's cousin's wife's brother, who is Japanese) who works at Dentsu in Tokyo, so hopefully that will help get me an internship. Wish me luck!

Other than that, here's my WoW character at present. Blizzard has done some cool stuff with their website lately :D

So today Mindy, the woman Ive been doing some freelance design for as of late, told me I had another deadline-- to do business cards by today. That would have been all fine and dandy had 1) she told me before I contacted her first and 2) she gave me ample notice as I wasnt free until 10:30 tonight. Long story short, I ended up having a bit of free time today but couldnt do the cards because she said she was working on some text, and 10 hours later sends me a word file with her name, phone number, and website on it. That was her text she worked all day on. Sigh.

But speaking of this website, she bought three domain names she wants me to design for. I thought I was going to explode in frustration. I thought that after her trade show coming soon that we would put some final touches on the box I did and then we would go our seperate ways. Mindy drives me crazy and she has since high school. Esentially she pays you to be her friend so she can call you every 10 minutes and talk for 3 hours at a time about nothing that concerns you. Case in point: she asked me to do the websites, I told her I would think about it but I have a lot on my plate right now. We hang up. I call her back to tell her the designs for the business cards are ready and she said, "Your work really looks professional and I really like working with you [and chattering your ear off]. I dont want to start over again with someone new, so I will pay you $50 an hour from now on if you will continue to work for me.

I almost wet my pants.

$50 an hour for someone without a degree is a lot of money. Im truly touched that she likes my work so much that she is willing to pay me that much... but Im honestly upset that she offered that to me. I cant pass up money like that, but on the other hand she calls me every day about nothing I need to know. God knows Ill be at her house 24-7 when Im home if I continue working for her. I also kind of feel bad that I made her up her price so much, but she offered it to me, and Im going to take it. Maybe it will help me have a better attitude about working for her.

And thats my story.