Happy Birthday, Self!

Hello once again~

As I promised, I have come back after a bit of a break, not just from here but from work too.  I've been getting so many hours at such random times that I had to ask if I could get an extra day off.  I ended up getting pretty much 4 (they sent me home really early on one day because it was so quiet).

After that sort of vacation, I feel a lot more energized.  It's great to have money and all, but it's even better to have my sanity!

So I guess I'll talk about the few things that have happened over the past few months~! (besides all the working and sleeping, lol)


First, I've made a new friend!   Or rather, I've gotten closer to a previously casual friend.  Turns out she was just as much into fashion as I am!   I introduced her to the Pastel Goth style, and she totally fell in love with it.  I now have someone I can be Gyaru with, which now means I need to practice my Gyaru style again, lol.   I never like going all out with my other friends, because it feels like I'm overshadowing them since they like more subdued styles.  I mean, I don't want to steal the spotlight from them just because my clothing is flashier.  They're pretty too!

And how is this for a great New Year beginning:  I bought not one, but two fukubukuro!   The yen to dollar rate is amazing right now, so if there's anything in Japan you want to get, jump on it!

The first one is a Liz Lisa one.   This year, I decided to go for the tote and boston pack, as at the time I didn't have the money or space for the trunk (which probably works out a little better anyway).  Since I already had experience with their fukubukuro, I pretty much just let the rush pass me and bought it an hour after it went on sale, lol.  I probably could have waited even longer, since I think I read that they're selling these packs until the 31st?  I guess they've got a lot of inventory they want to get rid of, lol.

Now the second one is the Axes Femme pack!   I've been looking at Axes Femme since I found out about them while looking up Classic Lolita coordinates (a style I'm heavily influenced by).  I went to the website and discovered that they were not, in fact, a Lolita store, but probably more of an Otome-kei store.  Their clothing is categorized as feminine and elegant, with lots of little details of lace and ribbons and pearls.  I did my research and found out that 2013's fukubukuro sold within an hour, so I knew this time I really had to be vigilant.   But everything just kind of... flowed effortlessly.  It sold out in around 25 minutes after release, but I got mine within 5 minutes.  It's a story of serendipity that I'll be replaying in my head for a long time to come, but I'm sure none of you are interested in that, lol.  Just that I was very thankful.

Fashion is really important to me.   I'm not very good at talking to people, so I use my clothing to tell people who I am instead.  That's why working on my style makes me so happy~

I've gotten into nail polish!   I used to avoid it due to the bad experiences I've had with nail polish either not showing up or chipping or forming bubbles after just two layers.  But randomly, I headed to the store and decided to get myself a retro red nail color.  I found OPI's Big Apple Red, and tried it out.  I was instantly hooked!   Not only is it fun to try out designs, but I like that for once I can grow my nails out without fear that they're going to shatter at the thought of tapping them against something.  My nails were pretty brittle....  I'm now doing something about that, but in the meantime, the nail polish gives them that extra layer of protection, and I get to go back to having long, feminine nails that I used to have back when I was 10, lol.   I'm still in "winter mode", so I'm always looking at dark colors and metallics/glitters.  Come spring though, I'll start looking at dusty pastels.  I should get myself a nail polish shelf soon, because I envision myself having quite the selection.

I've recently discovered a magazine called Larme.   It's not a Gyaru magazine, but actually just a girly magazine in general.  So far, they've covered all sorts of styles from Fairy-kei to Retro-kei, and even some styles that I don't know the name of, so I just think of it as feminine.   After looking at a bunch of random scans, I ended up buying the entire collection, lol.  In fact, I have issue 7 headed my way, and I'm thinking of getting a subscription.  It's really inspired me fashion-wise, and I definitely want to strive for this sort of style on regular days.   I was really fortunate in that I found issues 3-5 for $9 each on YesAsia and issues 1 and 2 on animebooks.com for $10, so I didn't have to pay those astronomical prices they're asking for on Amazon and Ebay.  So far, I really like all of them, especially issues 2 and 3.

And I liked my magazines so much that it inspired me to get back into learning Japanese.   After a bit of a hiatus, I flew through pretty much most of the book, and am currently I'm on the last chapter.  I actually learned quite a bit, and though my vocabulary is lacking, I do understand some simple sentence structures and have learned most of the hiragana (there's some I keep forgetting, since they don't come up as often).  I'll be picking up the other three books later so I can continue my studies.  I can definitely recommend getting Japanese From Zero for those who want to learn the language but are having a hard time.   I ended up buying a few manga with furigana in them, so I can practice my reading.  I'm still not too good....  I still have to mentally translate each kana before I can even put them together to form a word....  It's mentally tiring to do it for too long.  But I'm getting better, and sometimes, I can actually understand what I'm reading!

Yesterday my 28th birthday.   I've grown a lot in the past few years.  Heck, I've grown a lot in the past 6 months!  I always was a late bloomer in life, so I can't help but feel that my life is about to get a lot... fuller in the next few years.  Don't ask me why, it's just a feeling I have.


That's really it for now.  I'll be posting my New Year's resolutions in a few days, so I'll see you all then!