Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Instagram roundup: vol 2

Instagram fun from the week. Follow me @mostlyglasses
Geez, how many more pictures of myself could I have taken?!

cousins visiting had a lovely view from their room + my shadow snuck in there too

henna fun courtesty of B [don't flip Mama, it washed off in a week!]

morning jams

shirt from f21. right before attempt 2 [failure 1] at paddle boarding.

Mama got jokes!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

blogs I love

A lot of my family and friends are confused about my blogging, why I started and what exactly my motivation is. I have a bunch of blogs that I read every day (they automatically load into a feed so they're all in one place for me, I use google reader) and I love that these ladies all are going to have these memories documented for the rest of their lives. There are so many talented and awesome people out there who are willing to share their lives and be open and honest, and that inspires me to do the same. Plus, I feel like there's constantly funny things happening to me and I don't want to forget those silly or exciting moments in life that sometimes get overshadowed by normal life stuff.

Here's a few of my favorites that I've been following for a while. They're all examples women who have a clear voice in their writing and take great pictures, too. Each one has a different style and topic but each one is a great read in it's own way:

Danielle's blog is one of the first that I really started following. I found her blog through her Tattoo Tuesday feature (which is on hiatus and I miss it!) but stayed because she just seems awesome in general! She is a former English teacher and now a mama to a total cutie of a little boy, so her stories of being a mom are so well written and thoughful. She also posts a lot about health, cooking and working out which I am into too. Something for everyone!

Mandy is a blogger from the PacNW with a super adorable little girl, Harper, and a love of thrifting. Besides sharing tons of funny toddler stories and pictures, she's also mega stylish and does it on the cheap which I can appreciate! She's also way funny. Worth a looksie for sure!

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Kristin is a nurse from California who is currently working at a clinic in India that repairs cleft palletes and cleft lips. Her blog is full of inspirational stories and photos of the kids (and adults) who have had their lives changed by the surgery. She also does community service and outreach in the slums and her stories are heartwarming and sad at the same time. Plus, it's so interesting to hear about daily life in India for a recent American transplant. Check her out!


Friday, August 17, 2012

little league



This was me in preschool or kindergarten. My teacher, Peggy, took a picture of all the kids for their end of the year report card and my mom loved the picture so much she got the negative from Peggy and made a million copies. I give credit my grandma for teaching me how to machine sew when I was a little bit older [and I remember being the most ornery student and Nana getting so mad and pointing her crooked Nana finger at me for not listening all the time] but Peggy was the one who sparked my interest at the age of three and fostered it for two years. She dealt with her fair share of my tugging at the bottom of her shirt to get her attention to trace my 10th cross stitch for the day and to also please tie off all my knots while she's at it. Because of her, I have a whole little quilt of my crazy preschool embroideries. Stick people with hearts for heads and all.  My mom picked up where Peggy and Nana left off gave me the kind of guidance I learn best from: stay away until I either make something awesome and then tell me how awesome I am, or share a laugh at my whacked out project and take me to the fabric store to buy more fabric and repeat until it's awesome. I can't even explain how glad I am that there were people in my life who let me get away with that crazy, manic crafting that has been going on since toddler-hood because it basically led me to a job that I freaking love. And I'm so glad I have a picture of it. It's basically the sewing equivalent of getting a pro ball players little league card.

Anyway.

The fact that my work day is not that different than my day at preschool kicks much butt. Also amazing? My crazy sideways hat, my boldness in pattern mixing, and the fact that if you threw some mascara and boobs on that kid that's pretty much exactly how I look now... in the least creepy way possible, of course.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

the beaches of wrath

Been nerding out on The Grapes Of Wrath for a couple of weeks now, which for some reason a ton of strangers have stopped to talk to me about. The general consensus is that it's a much better read once it's not required in high school [not gonna lie, I read the Cliff's Notes back then.] Other noteworthy items: my dad bought me a hat just like this one at Disneyland and I have yet to wear it here though I threaten to often, that bathing suit top is the exact one I just got for half off at Macy's and it's awesome (tassels rule) and only 20 bucks, and every day I say I should go paddle boarding (did it once and got hooked) but every day I end up just watching boys play beach volleyball instead. It's really not a bad compromise.

the beaches of wrath

the beaches of wrath by mostyglasses featuring reef slippers
[click link for image sources]


Monday, August 13, 2012

Sunday Suggestions


If I were you, I would...

Watch this video shot by the super talented Bahar just down the street from where we live:


Riding through Life from BaharGoob on Vimeo.


Listen to this playlist of mine that has been on repeat for the last couple of days. It's a little bit random but so am I...

Watch this amazing video of dolphins (they are natures clown, you know!)


Hope everyone else's weekend was great! On to another week- lets do this!



Saturday, August 11, 2012

I'm leased!

Thursday, I looked at the 6th apartment on my hunt and fell in love the instant I walked into the building. I decided to up my budget by 100 bucks and what a difference that made in the quality of places. It's a studio, but has a KITCHEN! It was only myself (and Bahar) and one other woman at the showing, which was different than the other showings where 10+ people were there all putting in applications. It turns out that this was the first showing of the place, too, so there weren't a bunch of people ahead of me (I was #49 on a waiting list for a different place last week...) The other lady at the showing came prepared with her application fee and all kinds of paperwork to give to the agent, and all I had was my fee and a big cheesy smile. I hustled and turned in the app that afternoon with all my backup documentation right afterwards (reminds me of my last job, hah!) Something worked in my favor because on Friday afternoon, the next day, the agency called me to let me know that I got the place! I went today to sign the paperwork and I couldn't be more solid on the choice. People here really look out for each other and are all about the ohana (family) which is so refreshing. The agent even said that he might have some furniture I could use when I told him I didn't have anything. If this was California, they'd have been like, better hop on the bus to IKEA, sucka! 

The call that I got the place came right after an aloha Friday BBQ at work, which included a conga line and beat boxing on a karaoke machine. After work drinks at a bar with a cover band & a 10-to-1 military dude to lady ratio made it an amazing day. How everything came together so quickly and perfectly is a mystery but I'm not fighting it!

So the moral of the story is, you guys better start making your plans to come and visit! You'll be sleeping on an air bed but it's an air bed a block away from Waikiki beach, so suck it up :)

Friday, August 10, 2012

apartment hunting in Waikiki: a total WTF moment in life

Apartment hunting in Waikiki is flipping CRAZY. cuh-ray-zay. I lived in San Francisco for college, which I thought was as ridiculous as it could be in terns of renting, but oh no. Hawaii is a different kind of mayhem. Yes, it is expensive. Space is limited, it's a dang island after all. The price doesn't shock me anymore. What gets me are the things I have become accustomed to that now make me feel like a princess for wanting in my future apartment. Liiiiiiiike a kitchen. Because a lot of the buildings were (or still are) hotels, the studios and one-bedroom apartments used to be hotel rooms. Some of them had kitchenettes or have been renovated to have a stove and little fridge. But most of them just have a hot plate. As in, a camping stove. As in, a single burner. As in, I hope I don't want a side dish ever. A lot of the pictures I see of apartments online have a mini fridge, with a microwave on top of it, with a toaster oven on top of it or some variation of a stack of appliances. Like a little totem pole of fire hazards. For example:




My favorite whacked out apartment had no kitchen, just a mini fridge in the room. The selling point, said the craigslist ad, was the communal kitchen in each floor's lobby. When I got to the showing, it turned out that this alleged communal kitchen was two burners and a sink. One kitchen. With two burners. For eight apartments. In a hallway. No bueno,

The runner up for most bizarre Hawaii accommodation I've run across was a studio that had no bathroom door. Your bathroom, living room bedroom and kitchen (hot plate!) are all one room. You know how they say 'don't sh*t where you eat?' You gotta throw that advice right out the window, which is hard because they were just window slats. The (live) cockroach visitor at the showing was the bow on top of the present at that one. I kindly said no thanks, I would not like to pay the $20 application fee to put my name in the hat, even though I bet that Dog the Bounty Hunter will be making an appearance there any day now and everybody loves a z-list celebrity sighting now and again.

BUT. At the end of day, you're a block from Waikiki beach and a big ol' dormant volcano with tourists clamoring up the side and a McDonalds that gives you a tiny cup of pineapple with your meal. Paying a thousand dollars a month to live in a glorified closet with a hot plate is worth it.I just have to find the right glorified closet to call my own. I know there are nice, safe places that I can afford, it just takes a lot of leg work to see them and apply (there's usually at least 10 people at each showing competing for the apartment.) My time will come! Until then, thank goodness for my friends and their futons!


moving to HI, part 2: getting here!

After I got the job here, I went back to CA to pack up and get my life together (the story of how and wy I got the job is here.)I landed in Hawaii with two suitcases and my laptop/camera bag. Besides regular girl stuff (clothes, too much makeup, a lot of hair straighteners/curlers/etc. literally all I packed was:
- my yoga mat
- two Jason Segel movies ('Forgetting Sarah Marshall' and 'I Love You, Man.' obvs)
- my mini blender and a bag of protein shakes
- a framed picture of Jenni and I that she gave to me the day before I left and made me cry at the mall
- an Indiana Jones hat my dad bought me in Disneyland
Clearly my priorities were established: get my beach body right and look like a bad ass crocodile wrangler doing so. And if all else fails, Jason Segel will console me.

Packed Jenni along for the ride!
Other than that pile of random stuff, I left everything else that I owned in California. I sold almost all of my furniture after my last move. I didn't ship my car over (it costs a thousand dollars! Ay yi yi!) Part of me feels like a crazy person for leaving all my stuff and catching a flight to an island in the middle of the ocean on a whim, and the other part of me still feels crazy, but crazy like a fox. This is an option, people. You are allowed to move to Hawaii. Realistically, what have I got to lose? If I don't like it, I'll move back. If I love it, I'll stay. At the worst, I'm out some money and I'll go home looking all bronzed and super blonde. There are worse ways to be defeated.

That's not to say that I left without thinking it through or having anxiety. I am an over analyzer by nature and I made enough pros and cons lists to go to the moon and back. I knew it was going to hurt the most to leave my parents. Some family members that I'm just now getting to know (that's a whole other blog post, trust that) are now an ocean away. All my friends' babies are going to be toddlers the next time I see them. My littlest nephew, who just got to know me, will forget me again. My pregnant friends will squeeze out their babies and I won't get to hold the tiny newborns while they're still wrinkly and and make my cry because they're so little and amazing. Leaving my workout buddies pretty much guarantees that I'll never work out like that again. I knew all of these things, but I also knew that if I never took a chance that I would never come close to meeting the goals that I set for myself a long time ago and ignored because it was easier to stay in a rut than make a change. Anyone who is meant to be in my life will be in it, even if it's via text, phone and the faces (time and book.) Thankfully I have a solid little crew already in Hawaii who have helped me so much and made me feel at home even though I'm still futon surfing and living out of my suitcases. I'm sad to leave people I love behind, but I couldn't have had better people waiting for me with open arms here.

my welcoming committee! Akalei is my name in Hawaiian :)


moving to HI: the why and the how

Hello from Oahu! Tomorrow marks a week that I've been on this glorious island and today was finished out my first week of work. I (pretty abruptly) picked up and moved, and didn't have a chance to see or even talk to a lot of people that I wanted to before leaving and instead of telling the story over and over, here it is. I started this blog a while ago but never really kept up with it because 1) there was nothing interesting in my life 2) I saw everyone that cared about me every day and 3) nobody was reading it! I keep texting my mom pictures every day and I figured it would be easier to put it in one place and if any of my friends or fam were interested, they could keep tabs on me too. I plan to use it to talk about sewing and the stuff I'm making on my off time, my Hawaii adventures, and all the silly, funny things that happen in life that I want to remember when I'm old and grumpy. Anyway. This is it, this is me, love it or leave it! But I hope you love it. And remember, you can leave comments too so let me know if you stopped by!

It's not like I'm going off to war or anything and it shouldn't be such a big deal to move, but I am (was) deeply rooted, about to hit a milestone birthday, a total mama's girl and the biggest cry baby and all of those things together just made it a big flipping deal.

Moving to Hawaii is not like any other kind of move I've made before. It's more like moving to a different country than a different state. I couldn't just load up my car with my stuff or rent a truck and hit the road. It's across the ocean, my health insurance wouldn't work there, it's really expensive, mullets and fanny packs are still cool and everyone kisses you on the cheek when they meet you. It's hilarious and awesome, and every day something happens and I find myself thinking "I can't believe this place is in America!"

Bahar and I on my first trip to HI
Basically the story of how I ended up here is a wacky series of coincidences starting about a year ago that led me to meet my super mega awesome friend Bahar. B and I then went on vacation to Hawaii, where her extended family lives. I got a taste for Hawaii that you can't recover from. Three months later, B moved to Hawaii. There were tears. She then got a job and when she told me about it, she said "I'm already trying to find a job for you here." I was an ending point in my job at the time and booked a celebratory trip to Hawaii to visit B for funzies and cocktails and general debauchery. Everybody joked that I wouldn't come home, but I kept saying "but I booked a round trip ticket so I have to come home!" One week into my trip I signed papers to start what is literally my dream job at that same company. Dream job, people, as in the literal job of my dreams. When people who think they're helpful but aren't really say "if you could do anything you want for a job, what would it be?" or "find what you love and then find a way to make money doing it," this is the job that I would come up with. That job. That is the job I was offered. In Hawaii! I took my return flight, visited with my family and friends, did a bunch of boring grown up paperwork, went to Disneyland (SO FUN) and then popped right back over to start working within 2 weeks.
the only Disney ride that made me motion sick
I was clearly not amused, but the boys were having fun.

I am now a pattern maker for an activewear apparel company, and yes, the view from my high horse is fantastic!

I am lucky (so, so incredibly lucky, and if I was anyone else I'd be like, I'm #blessed!) that after a struggle to figure out my right path, I feel like I'm on it. Creating my own destiny, as they say. A month ago, I was having this tremendous anxiety about turning 25 and pretty much feeling like I sucked at aiming myself in the right direction. Everything I tried to do would be good for a while, and ultimately I got burnt out trying to be someone I'm not and force myself into a mold that didn't fit. Negativity breeds more negativity and before I knew it one aspect of my life that I wasn't pleased with was spilling over into everything else and making it all one lame, soupy mess of emotions which no amount of punching things at kickboxing class could make better. But lucky for me, it turns out that the opposite is true, too. When one part of your life is kicking ass, the rest of your life just naturally jumps on the ass kicking train and before you know it, all of life's asses have been kicked and you're feeling pretty awesome.

That's where I'm at today. Feeling awesome for sure.