The search continues...

Jan. 24th, 2009 10:11 pm
azurite: (purple nails jewels)
[livejournal.com profile] aelibia, I will willingly accept whatever punishment you see fit for me for reneging on my promise to be online by 2pm today. My grandparents and I ended up going to the mall at 1:30, and what was supposed to be a short excursion turned into an all-day affair because my hair stylist no longer works on Sundays, and I couldn't think of a time during the coming week to go see her, so I opted for a last-minute appointment that took 2.5 hours (I got a cut, highlights, and my brows done)! After that, I went on my search for shoes, and... well, that didn't go so well.

So yes, still searching for the perfect, sexy, comfortable shoe. I went to Macy's first, since I had to return something there anyway (well, get it "fixed" is more like it), and I saw a lot of cute shoes, but cute ≠ comfortable, and I've got to apply my same standards that I do for clothing as I do for accessories and shoes. A variety of brands had nice designs, but I was going for a few specific traits:
* A medium-to-high heel; no more than three or four inches
* Heel support-- there has to be something in the back of my heel other than a strap or straps
* Over-the-foot support, preferably in the middle-- a series of straps or one thick strap to hold my foot in the shoe while I'm walking
* No pinching of my toes at the front-- I love peep-toe shoes, but these kind of shoes tend to squish my toes into a very uncomfortable shape, meaning blisters later on, which are NEVER fun

Other pluses would have been:
* A candy color or something different from my usual black (patterns are okay! I actually saw a pretty flower-patterned pair by Jessica Simpson and a paisley-patterned one by Carlos Santana --what is it with musicians and shoes!?-- but the heels were a bit too crazy-high for my tastes)
* No sequins, rhinestones, or other "bling" that can either leave imprints on my skin or fall off and ruin the look of the whole shoe
* No bows or ruffles of any kind
* Good arch support-- nothing TOO curvy or wobbly, like a platform shoe. But platform heels and/or toes are okay, so long as it's not platform from front to back, with the tapering in the back-- those kind of shoes are like asking for a broken ankle!

Anyway, I checked out Sheikh, Bakers, Love D, Guess, JCPenney, Sears, Reflections, and any other shoe store I could think of or saw. The only "for sure" one I didn't get to (but might try to tomorrow) is DSW. All were a bust except for Reflections, where I did find two cute pairs that I might go back for. Sad thing is, the cute color one (Qupid) doesn't have the over-foot support, and the cute style one (Delicious) only comes in black. I went to Guess and also found a cute pair of the right style shoes, but they only came in black and pinched my toes together too tightly at the toe.

Despite what the measuring thing at Macy's said, I'm a size 6 shoe, though with some brands I'm a 5.5 or a 6.5. Sometimes I need a wider shoe, as my feet, when put together, resemble a heart-- arched and wide near the top, and tapering down toward the bottom. I have a high arch and pointy heels (as in, the back of my foot), so I require support for those, and don't want to be tottering around in something that can give me foot AND back pain.

I would go for kitten heels or ballet flats as Morgan suggested, but any ballet flats I've ever had ALWAYS fall apart from the toe (I guess I'm a toe-tapper) and don't help me -5'1" at the most- look any better. At least heels give me a bit of a boost. As for kitten heels, I have worn a pair, and they just hurt my ankles like crazy. I'd rather go "all or nothing" if it comes to heels. That doesn't mean I'd go crazy with pencil-thin stilettos, but I'm fine with a few inches of height. Dressy, sexy shoes doesn't mean "thick-heeled clunkers" in my book.

The search goes on! As always, advice appreciated. I hope my feet aren't "too weird" for nice shoes. It's either a new pair or I have to break in the ones I already have (praying that they CAN be broken into).

Good news? Well, my hair looks great if I do say so myself, and I did get myself some new clothes-- a new outfit for yoga and a cute top and vest from Anne Taylor LOFT (couldn't resist). Plus, I picked up the latest Susan Wiggs "Lakeshore Chronicles" book for Baba and I to read together (as soon as Baba's done with her latest thriller romance that she can't stop raving about and which title escapes me at the moment).

 Aankh Milaoongi by Asha Bhosle from See You Breathe - Sight Through Sky-Eyes Disc 1 (Rating: 0)
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Back in black

Jan. 20th, 2007 11:03 pm
azurite: (dancing 2k-tan)
Well, I did it. I spent ¥11,920 on my hair-- more expensive than I thought, because according to the stylist (who was a super-nice, gentle guy with nice style), a "C-Curl" (the kind I was hoping for) wouldn't produce the effect I wanted (something that I saw in Mina magazine-- sort of loose curls on the bottom half of my hair, with the rest being semi-wavy). What I ended up doing was paying ¥9000 in cash and putting the rest on my card, and I was hoping it didn't hit yet, but my account is already showing the deduction as on hold. To make matters "worse," the Skype payment that usually takes more than 2 weeks to go through went through, as did the charge for a taxi ride I took MONTHS ago. I still have enough for the extra suitcase on the way back, BUT ONLY ONE. I will raise holy hell if I have to if they even THINK about making me check my stupid blanket-and-cat in a bag, or if they say any of my bags are "overweight" (even though I do want to try and stuff the contents of some of my mailing boxes in my suitcase; I'm going to do my laundry tomorrow and put all my clothes in except for the Mon/Tues ones and my pajamas, and I hope there'll be enough room leftover for the stuff in the box so I can save ¥6000 that way).

I also made chocolate chip cookies, and they turned out pretty damn good if I do say so myself. I don't have to guilt over not giving Chisato or Hiromi a present from Hong Kong; I'll give them handmade chocolate chip cookies! Also, Holly's advice on using pancake mix to substitute for the baking powder (because why buy such a giant can when no recipe ever calls for more than a few teaspoons) worked quite well!

That said, my hair is SO DARK now, I wonder if it's even darker than my natural color. It's all ONE color, so I'm glad-- I'm done with all those crazy highlights and streaks and such. But as Holly said, from behind, you probably couldn't tell me apart from a Japanese person. And Baba will throw a fit, because she thinks I should be blonde. :P But I like it. It's a little frizzy and not as nicely curled as I hoped the perm would be, but I think if I buy some Product (mousse or wax or something), I can keep up the curls. I'm sure none of the pretty Japanese girls get those dos without ANY work involved... maintenance is key for all things beauty, no? Maybe on Monday I can use my bun-maker thing to roll up my hair so it'll curl overnight. :) I want to be pretty when Scott sees me, even though I'll be on an 11-hour flight...

What's left?
-Mail the Yahoo! modem back on Monday
-Mail some postcards and 2 packages, one to each parent (hence the reason why I'm hoping I can avoid paying the ¥6000 SLOW METHOD for the larger package)
-Finish every last shred of packing (that would include the random toiletries, a few pieces of dishware, and my bears which I could probably shove in the bag with Toro-kun)
-Pay the current Yahoo! BB bill (it seems as if my roommates were able to find out SOMETHING, but they couldn't take the faulty BBTV charge off, because I *DID* leave the set sitting around for a week, even though I never could connect it and take advantage of the most expensive thing on my last bill-- the Basic Channel Pack. But whatever, water under the bridge. They also couldn't find out what the next month's bill will be, but I have to arrange things with the Intl. Center and send THEM the money-- an International Postal Order, probably.)

I also updated Epiphany to eFiction 3.1 soon, but I have yet to finish deciding all the categories I want, creating ANY custom pages, creating a FAQ, or making the category images I want. But at least it's a step in the right direction.

And I got to see "Firewall" at last-- does Paul Bettany *EVER* play a good guy? I mean, he's so good at being evil. I wonder if that's just the way he looks-- something about his eyes, he just looks like the perpetual bad guy. Not that I think any actor should be consistently typecast-- they always manage to surprise us-- but from what I know of him, he's always playing some sort of bad guy.

Meanwhile, I still love Harrison Ford, even if he gets his ass handed to him more in "Firewall" than he ever did in any given "Indiana Jones" movie. I respect the guy a lot, and I enjoyed the movie. :)

And now... I'm actually pretty damn tired. I fell asleep a few times while I was getting my hair done, but it'll certainly be nice to sleep in FOR REAL tonight. Except ugh, I think the cookie dough's catching up with me...

ONLY 3 MORE DAYS!
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Back to "Me"

Jul. 6th, 2002 08:01 pm
azurite: (aries)
Well, I'm brunette again. It's weird-- considering I've kind of gotten *used* to being a strawberry-blonde... or whatever mesh of colors you could call my former hair color. I dyed it specifically for a convention I wanted to attend in Late April, but did the dye job at the end of March, because I wanted to go back to school 'new.' I made the awful (well, sort of) mistake of using two boxes-- since the first time around, my hair was a rusty red, rather than the Nicole Kidman-blonde I'd hoped for. So on the night before school started again from Spring Break, I bought another box of dye (when my mom wasn't home) and did it again, leaving it on well over triple the amount of recommended time. But those silly strand tests never work, and the chunks of hair I took out always made my hair look uneven anyway. By the time the convention rolled around, I wasn't really a blonde by definition anymore (if I ever had been, I'm not entirely sure) but I still fit the parts I wanted to play just fine.

Why the sudden change? People liked my new hair color, even if it took them a while to get used to it. The first comment of my chemistry class was "Oh my god... is she trying to be HK?" Of course not. Some people look good with blonde hair-- some don't. ^^; For a long while, I was one of those who didn't-- but as my roots came back and my hair became redder, people said it suited me. Though my mom wasn't slow to point out that due to my ultra-pale complexion, my original dark-brown-almost-black was a far better color for me. So, since my senior portraits are at the end of this month, my mom wanted me to look my best, and so I went back to my original color.

The good news is I like it-- the color seems darker than it was originally, but now I feel more comfortable choosing my clothes-- I don't have to worry about my pale complexion and tri-colored hair making me look odd. The strange part is, of course, that I dyed my hair in the first place to be different. Not so much to be noticed, but just to be different. I succeeded on that end-- with some odd results. Since dyeing my hair, several people talked to me-- surprised that I would go so far. I've never been meek or shy in any way, but I suppose there's a fine line between being outspoken and being outrageous. I don't think I'll be losing my social skills any time soon just because I re-dyed my hair. Of course, people will notice-- namely, my boyfriend, who hasn't known me with my dark hair, and has only caught glimpses of pictures (and I was feeling rather lousy when he said he liked me with my reddish hair) of me with it. Oh well. ^^
I've also made some rather interesting discoveries about myself-- though having nothing to do with my hair color.

For starters, my three favorite snacks are Wheat Thins, Goldfish Crackers, and Yan-Yan/Pocky. The first two are healthy to a degree, and the last two are "highly addictive." I used to like Mashuga Nuts (the brown-sugar walnut ones) but since they're so hard to find (like Bubbie's Pickles, even though they're MADE here) they're sort of a rare treat. Mom got me a pack of chocolate ones, and you can't eat them without milk. *grin*

Another thing is that I have a love for decorating. I've been looking forward to going to Pier 1 Imports for the longest time; Feng Shui (and astrology) are favorite hobbies of mine, and I find myself reading magazines that "normal" teens wouldn't touch-- Barbie Bazaar (nothing to do with decorating, unless you're a demi-collector like myself) and Family Circle. ^^

Last, but not least, I really have found a variety of journalists and teachers who I admire and aspire to be like. There's my exuberant summer school English (and regular-term yearbook) teacher, Ms. Tay, who has such an outgoing fun personality, but with a snap-like bite to her, it makes me think of spiced Cheetos. Very odd. I also love watching John Stossel, Barbara Walters, Diane Sawyer, and have recently heard of the Hispanic talk-show sensation, Cristina. It just enforces my dream of becoming a journalist-- though I'm not entirely sure WHAT kind yet-- maybe broadcast, maybe print (magazine? newspaper?). I might even (and this was my original idea) want to go back to my high school and TEACH Journalism there, as a real, accredited teacher, rather than an English teacher that had an extra class slot to fill.

I just hope this kind of motivation and aspiration stays with me all year long.
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Blonde, and then...

Apr. 2nd, 2002 07:52 pm
azurite: (double trouble minako & usagi)
This is another one of those entries about the aftermath of something, "and then..." It's a total rip-off of all those lines in Japanese anime where they go (something really pivotal) "and then..." which, in Japanese, is (the something), soshite... It's really corny, but... eh. Never mind.

Okay, so I re-dyed my hair over spring break. I told people I was coming back blonde, and here I am. Only some people have this thing with insisting it's not blonde. To me, it looks strawberry blonde or honey blonde... but some people say it looks orange (NO!) or red (WHAT?). In fact, the one bitch (I swear, one of these days I will post my bitch list, names, dates and all to show people what I intend to do to these pathetic wretches that have made my life miserable) I hate the most in my classes (she's in my English AND History) says, "NO, it's red." I look at her as if she has bug-eyes and ignore her. It's not, I swear.

The first time around, when I let my friend dye it, she left half the solution in the bottle without even knowing it... and we waited an hour and a half for my hair to change, but it never did. Now, I left the stuff on for twice as long as I was supposed to.

It worked-- I guess. My roots, however, which I applied the solution to 90 minutes after I did the rest of my hair, are still brighter than the rest of my head-- hence the orange comments. The top of my head is bright blonde with a scant few brownish patches, and the rest of my hair is a dirty-honey blonde, almost a light rust color.

I was just hoping for a little change-- anything to stop being the girl that EVERYONE recognizes on the street. And today, I've gotten the attention I wanted... but some of it's not so good. Someone in my chem class muttered none-too-softly that I was trying to be Asian. *cough* Excuse me? No offense to any Asians out there, but I've never seen one single born-blonde Asian! Not even PART Asians have natural blonde (and I mean BLONDE, not dirty blonde, not brassy) hair. No. Just doesn't happen. Me, my family has blondes in it. I wanted the look, but I didn't want to dish out the salon price. I'm going as an assassin to a convention at the end of the month, and even if my hair isn't "blonde" it'll do. I'm sick of people judging me by my looks; just because I changed didn't mean I wanted people to treat me as less of a person... I did it because I wanted a CHANGE, and the best way to express change is physically, right? Besides, mental change is so much harder to undertake as a challenge and a task over a single spring break.

So, that's what I did. People have called me weird, stared, grinned, patted me on the head and on the back, and some have just stared silently, looking like my goldfish.

Oh well. Change is good. At least they aren't drooling now. ^.~
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