thrifting – Imaginary Sunshine

Finishing term 1 of Nursing School & Winter Holidays!

Michelle — Tue, 18 Dec 2012 00:50:32 +0000

It’s been so long since I last blogged and I apologize! I’ve been super busy with school and then finals (which ended last Thursday!). Since the last time I blogged, I had:

Written my last pathophysiology midterm
Completed & got my professional portfolio back (93%)
Did my presentation on MRSA[1. Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus]
Handed in and got my last paper back (95%)
Completed clinical (and passed – it’s a pass-fail course)
Attended pharmacology seminars (so boring…)
Wrote five finals

I’ve waiting on my final grades to come back, but I had done a little bit of math work and if I had gotten 0% on all my finals, I’d still be sitting at a 65% GPA so… I’m not entirely too worried about passing or not! It’s nice to finally get a decently long break (just over three weeks) of doing nothingness. Or rather, doing nothing related to nursing and nursing school!

My first day off from school, I went to the mall at 9:30am and was out by about 11:00am. I got almost all of my shopping done in one day, didn’t spend as much as I thought I was going to (always a good thing!). The last bit of shopping I needed to do (I needed candy canes) was done at the dollar store near my house. Of course I ended up buying more than a $1 box of candy canes… I also bought holiday-themed cupcake liners, translucent gift bags (for cookie gifting) and Christmas-themed and Angry Birds colouring books (not for myself…). I love the dollar store by my house though, the ladies that work there know me by face now so we chat a bit whenever I’m at the register or poking around the store.

Because it’s the holidays, I’ve been doing a lot of baking, which is both good and bad. I somehow got roped into doing a cookie exchange at my summer work place (where my mom works), so I got to bake 6 dozen cookies and I get 6 dozen cookies back, each dozen is made by someone different. So today I got a bunch of delicious things. Some had chocolates and marshmallows, some you could just smell the ginger. Delicious! I’m quite pleased, although I did notice that I had the best presentation overall. I made dinosaur and dinosaur print sugar cookies:

The recipe is from Betty Crocker’s The Big Book of Cookies that I got for my birthday back in November but I did adjust it a bit (taking out some ingredients because I didn’t have them on hand) and they still turned out pretty good. The icing is just royal icing (alternatively, you can buy premade icing that comes in containers that look like school glue bottles). I was originally going to individually ice the cookies and then flood them to give them the nice icing layer, but I added a wee bit too much water to my powdered sugar, so it was too watery. So instead, I just picked up each cookie, lightly dip the surface into the icing and then let any excess drip off before putting them onto the wax paper to dry. It worked out well and was a lot faster than individually icing and flooding 6 dozen cookies.

In other baking news, I’ve also made 2 dozen shortbread (will make more!) and have also made one and a half dozen chocolate fudge cupcakes. So much baking! I love baking though, and I don’t often get the chance (or have the time!) to do it during the school year. Especially not with nursing school.

I’ve also spent some time this past weekend with a lovely group of ladies who also share a love of dollies. We had fun exchanging Santa Swap presents. I got a new mug and a bunch of lovely miniature ornaments, chocolates and stationary. I gave a box of chocolates, some handmade things for the dolls, a cute toque with a pompom, a miniature art easel and a Littlest Pet Shop Teensies set that was very well received! I just love shopping for other people, it’s a lot more fun (and easier to spend money!) when it’s not for me.

But today Value Village was having a 50% off clothing (and some other departments) sale for those who have membership cards (and of course, I have one). I went with my sister, who was going to look for pants. I went through housewares, crafts and toys before making my way to the clothing section. I ended up getting 4 cardigans (some looked like they’d never been worn – two still had original store price tags) and 1 sweater for $17 before taxes. My sister got a pair of Guess jeans for $3 (remnants of the original paper tag were still on the jeans, they didn’t look worn at all!). There’ll be other 50% off days – last time there was one, I focused only on pants and it’s a good thing too because I find myself getting overwhelmed if I go and really look through more than one clothing section. There’s just too much stuff everywhere!

Overall it was a good shopping day at VV. The only sweater I bought today is a fairly thin one (100% cotton, probably more meant for spring or summer) that’s light green and from Banana Republic – I generally don’t find Banana Republic at low prices at VV or in good condition, but this one fit the bill as it was originally $4.99 (so down to $2.50) and it was in great condition with no pilling whatsoever. One of my cardigans is 100% cream-coloured lambswool from Great Britain and it was my most expensive buy today at $5 (down from $9.99). I love cardigans, but I’ve had to get rid of some recently due to them being too threadbare and really well-loved. I’ll have photos of what I bought after everything’s gone through the wash!

Lastly that’s new is that I actually redeemed some points! I think most credit cards attached to banks have this, but whenever I use my credit card, I got a point for every dollar that I spend. I’ve had my credit card since I was 19 (and could have my own), but I hadn’t used any points at all. There were bonus points for the first month that I had it, bonus for my first transaction, etc. I ended up redeeming for gift cards (none of the merchandise options seemed good). I ended up redeeming for a $100 gift card for Sears (as my half of my joint present to my mom for Christmas – my sister is chipping in $100 cash as my mom wants to buy a new vacuum cleaner) and a $50 gift card for La Vie en Rose (for me!) and I still have points left over. I’m pretty sure I’ll end up redeeming more points late for more gift cards for myself (I really want to get an e-reader and I’ve been eyeing the Kobo Glo but I don’t have enough in gift cards just yet), alternatively I’d redeem for “financial rewards” and just get it in cash for general shopping purposes. It’s kind of like getting “free money” – which is nice considering I never leave a balance on my card so they’ve never gotten any interest from me. Always very nice to be responsible!

Oh, and I did my nails for the first time since August (when I started school). It’s nice being able to keep nail polish on for more than 5 days (seeing as how I can’t have polish on my nails at the hospital). Very nice indeed!

Thrifting, couponing and dolly meet

Michelle — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 04:47:07 +0000

I’ve gotten over the shock of having short hair now (amazing what a week does!) and I have gotten used to it to seeing it short. It still feels weird because I keep reaching for hair that’s just not there anymore, guess I’m just used to having long, long hair! But it’s a nice change (or maybe I’ve just forced myself to adapt to to change).

Work for the last week has been busy, gotten a lot of work done while trying to keep sane. Keeping sane involves a lot of tea drinking and I keep having late lunches – I don’t like that one bit. But such is life and the sacrifices made for work… I get a little testy when I haven’t had food for a while, so I’ve been bringing lots of little snacks to have throughout the day. Apparently hearing me munch of on apple slices is distraction (but then, it’s probably more acceptable than me snapping at people so I ignore the fact that people find me munching on apple slices to be distraction).

On Saturday I spent a lot of time in stores, heh. I went to two thrift stores and got some things… At the first store, I got a vintage queen-sized pillowcase with absolutely no wear to the fabric or to the tag (score!) at $1.99. Then there was two pieces of pretty Pyrex. White divided serving dish was $2.99, JaJ ‘Harvest’ casserole dish was $3.99 (missing lid but the pattern is in amazing shape and I should be able to find one for a dollar though).

Then at the second store I picked up a bunch of vintage Singer books. The two propped up (knitting) are actually for machine knitting, but a lot of the techniques that they talk about (especially regarding shaping!) can be used in hand-knitting ($2.49 each). Then there are three sewing books (prices from left to right are $1.99, $0.99, $1.99)

My sister D and I had also gone into Zellers because they have Campbell’s soup on sale at $0.54 and she had 6 coupons (yes, 6 – her condo gets newspapers delivered twice a week, they’re put in the lobby and whoever wants them can snag them. She snags some of the extra inserts only if there are good deals and if there are papers left over the night before the next delivery date.) for them, making it $0.04 a can. Zellers has it in their coupon policy that the phrase “one coupon per purchase” means “one coupon per transaction”. All other stores that my sister and I had ever shopped at took “one coupon per purchase” to mean “one coupon per item” as a purchase is for an item and a transaction is for all the items. But the cashier was quite snippy and was all “You can only use one coupon per transaction it says so in our coupon policy” (but she couldn’t actually show us the coupon policy – I looked it up later and it was true that they’re kind of whacked with their definitions). So my sister just smiled at her and said that she could ring them up. Individually. And we didn’t even have to wait in line 6 times either.

So six cans, six receipts. $0.04 per receipt. It would have been a lot easier if she would have just rang them all up together (and would have saved paper too).

Today (Sunday), I headed out to see the local dolly enthusiasts! It was such fun, I got to do a little bit of shopping first at this great store in the mall and then we hung around the food court. Some of the security guards were a little concerned about us being there (did we get permission, why did we need three tables?) but one of the ladies I was with explained to them that we were shopping at the mall and eating at the mall and we had about 3-4 people per table – much like the other similar-sized tables in the food court and we weren’t be loud/disruptive and hadn’t had any complaints from other mall patrons, so they left us alone for most of the time after that. It was fun though, getting to see people again and there were new people (yay!) that I hadn’t met in person before so it was neat getting to meet new people and their dolls.

A lot of shopping, a lot of meds

Michelle — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 04:57:20 +0000

It has been pointed out to me by my sisters that I like thrift stores an awful lot. Mostly because it’s a challenge to find things, and things are inexpensive/cheap (but you do need to know what to look for). My favourite sections are the housewares and the toys. I’ve been collecting soup mugs with recipes on the side for a while and my goal was to end at 6 different mugs. I found my 6th mug last Saturday (July 16th) along with my second oxtail soup mug (because I like oxtail soup!). So while my dad thinks that I’m weird for collecting mugs, I think they’re cute and will one day have a good place on a shelf in my future-kitchen. $1.99 minus 30% for each one.

I also found what I had thought was the perfect work mug. It was light green, large enough for a decent amount of water/hot chocolate/juice/tea/whatever. It was $0.99 (before my 30% card-holder discount). And then I found the perfect work mug. Cupcakes all over it? Cheerful? Large enough to hold a decent amount of liquids? And a little cupcake on the inside? The cupcake cup was also lighter than the fantastic light green mug, and also at $0.99 (before 30% discount) so I was absolutely sold. It sits on my desk at work now. Usually filled with water, hot chocolate, tea or juice.

I’ve been getting awesome mail this week! I got a cute dress and bloomers set (Blythe-sized), two Japanese patterns books (pictured below; Dolly Coordinate Recipe books #5 and #7) and something that’s a surprise for Clay (who does occasionally read this blog so I’m refraining from mentioning it – it’s not much of a surprise if he knows what it is!).

Work’s been… workish. It’s the only thing really going on with my life right now and it’s stressful from 8am-4:30pm because of people. On the brightside, customer that the other people avoid talking to because “he’s really mean” likes talking to me (because I get things done/make sure their stuff gets delivered). Honestly though, I don’t get why they think he’s really mean because he was really nice to me on the phone.

My hand, which I’m not posting a photo of, is swollen. My coworkers have called it my ‘mitt’ and have said things like “Wow, your hand’s like DOUBLE the size of your other hand!”. Yeah, flattering. Last Sunday (July 17th) I went paintballing with some coworkers (that I like). I ended up turning my ankle, winning a laptop-suitable backpack and getting chewed up by mosquitoes. I have 1 bite on my left pinkie, 3 bites on my right shoulder (no biggie, they’re practically gone) and 5 bites on my right hand. 3 are on the back of my right hand, 1 on my thumb and 1 on my ring finger. Which makes life incredibly annoying. On Tuesday it was the most swollen and I had issues with mobility.

Today it has been better with increased mobility, swelling has gone down, reddness has mostly gone away and I’ve been dosing myself up with pain medication, allergy medication (for nighttime only) and ointment to help with the itchiness/pain/swelling. My purse is starting to look like mini-pharmacy (I’ve been keeping bottles of pills in there, the jar of ointment, etc.). Hopefully this will all go away soon and my hand will soon be the normal size!

Full of sense and nonsense ramblings

Michelle — Sun, 12 Jun 2011 05:06:58 +0000

Life has gotten a little bit better since my last post (thank goodness). My working situation has changed a little bit. As of Monday, I will no longer be working as the receptionist (yay!) as they’ve finally hired someone (after having the position vacant for, I was told, a few months – and a few very temporary temps later). I’m going to be working amongst different departments very, very, very soon! Once the new receptionist gets settled in and I help her with getting to know the programs and whatnot. I’m going to get to move (!) into a shared office (my own space, finally!). They’re even going to reprogram the phone so that my name will show up via the caller id (at least within the company’s phone network), but I’ll have my own direct line. Ohhh, ahhh. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m kind of going to be having two supervisors at that point, once I get settled into both departments. Two supervisors, two job descriptions, two titles.

Needless to say, I’ve been told that being able to write “Customer Service Representative” on a resume is a good thing. Or something like that.

I did do a lot of shopping with my family this weekend. We’re not candidates for Extreme Couponing (we just can’t do it the same way that people in the USA can with coupon stacking and double-coupon days – such things do not exist in Canada beyond coupon-stacking at one store: London Drugs), but we did fairly decent… I’m the one in the family that looks up all the deals now and have Canadian coupon websites bookmarked (there are a few sites that are pretty awesome, they mail coupons free of charge because they’re all manufacturer coupons). So we got a lot of toiletries at about half-off everything. Then there was a trip to the Greyhound station to pick up my bus tickets (going on a trip soonish!) and a trip to Michaels – they were having an additional 40% off lowest marked prices of clearance beading goods. And I actually contained myself – I bought 10 sets of filigree clasps (so cute with a floral design) and two strands of rainbow glass beads… So pretty, they definitely remind me of the AB coating found on Swarovski crystals. I should really take photos…

My sister D and I went to Value Village again this weekend (I swear, it’s becoming a weekly trip now). She had a 25% off coupon and a stamp card that still needs to be filled. We dropped off a bag of pants that J was donating, which led to another stamp (they do 1 stamp per $5 spent or per 1 grocery bag filled with donated goods). D got a gorgeous scarf with a stain that was easily cleaned by hand with a little soap and water, I got a teal-turquoise-ish and chocolate brown dress. No good books to be had, but her coupon was expiring today so we just wanted to see what was good to be had there. The dress is super cute, and has a bit of a flair at the bottom. It’s even work appropriate (!) which is always good. I’ve discovered that despite my surplus of dresses that I have, not all of them are particularly work appropriate (especially not the ones that are too low cut or too short).

And just so this entire thing wasn’t just a wall of text…

Here’s the dress mentioned in my blog post from May 28th:

And the dress that I mentioned buying today….

Smile, don’t kill anyone.

Michelle — Sun, 29 May 2011 05:37:51 +0000

People have told me that working in customer service is a thankless job and it really is. The only calls I get are people who are wondering where their order is, why it wasn’t correct according their paper work, why is their order late? The only calls I get from people who are nice are people who are trying to sell things to me over the phone. Do I need a new printer and toner? No, thank you! Are people at this company interested in a time share cabin up on a mountain? They might be, but I’m saying no regardless.

It’s kind of miserable working in customer service. All people do is yell at me (for things beyond my control, for things that I know nothing about). And in return, I try to take it all in stride. After all, when people call in a frenzy, they’re not at their best. They’re not polite or remembering their manners like their parents had taught them. But at the same time, seeing how people treat others, even when they’re in a panic, is an interesting way of gauging how their true colours are. The time in the day when I can just enter orders or check orders is when I’m at my most relaxed, because I don’t need to talk to other people and I’m just doing my own thing (which is the best for me).

I have social interaction skills, it’s just hard to say anything when people are interrupting you and yelling at you for things that occurred before you started working there. On a side now, my email is finally set up properly and I have a fancy little signature for work that tells people who I am, that I work in Customer Service and what the numbers are for the company and faxes (along with a hyperlink to the website, yay. It almost makes me feeling professional.). My coworkers have been great though, as usual. All of them have been super nice and patient with me (and thank me when I catch mistakes!). It’s always nice to feel appreciated.

Monday (23rd) was Victoria Day, which is a statutory holiday. I went into the city with my sister because she had to work for a little bit. After, we went out for lunch and hit a few thrift stores (Salvation Army had 50% off everything in store). Despite our best efforts, we only bought books (at the first store we went to). I got a hard cover copy of Sarah Dessen’s Along for the Ride and a Heartland book that I was missing from the series (it ended up being $0.99 for the hard cover and $0.18 for the paperback Heartland book). Clothes were ridiculously picked over and there was no decent Pyrex to be found (and nor were there any Kenner Blythes, although I always look anyways!).

I did go with my other sister again today (to Value Village this week) (she wanted to look for t-shirts to turn into t-shirt yarn [it sounds weird, but she cuts it into strips and then crochets it all together, she wants to make a round living room rug for our other sister]) and I got a cute dress ($4.99) – no picture right now because it needs to go through the wash first. But it’s cute, hooded and has front pockets. My sister thought it was a shirt at first, but it’s pretty long and would look good over leggings because it completely covers my butt (always important! because leggings are not pants!). I also went through my wardrobe today and decided on getting rid of more than half of all my clothes. Now I know what I actually need (jeans, pants) and what I really don’t need more of (mostly underwear, because I have enough for over a month without wearing the same thing twice). And for someone who doesn’t wear a lot of dresses or fishnet stockings, I have a lot of them (dresses on hangers… and stockings that are still in the packaging – and when did I get red fishnets?!). I’ve decided to fix that and, at the very least, wear dresses more often. I really shouldn’t have so many dresses (bought in the last year or so) if I’m not going to at least wear them, right?

I hope everyone had an excellent and hopefully stress-free week!

While my computer was out of order…

Michelle — Tue, 10 May 2011 22:21:51 +0000

My poor computer had come under the weather lately and then had a case of Michelle-enduced amnesia. I spent the better part of the last two days reteaching my computer what to do, but only the necessities (eg. Word, Excel, Firefox, Photoshop). I can work on the other things later. But I thought I would share, in photos, what I’d been doing lately (when not reteaching my computer how to perform tasks).

I did my sister’s nails. I think there’s 5-6 layers of polish (and top-coat) on each nail. Not as neat as I would have liked, but there you go. For someone who doesn’t wear nail polish on any sort of particularly frequent basis, I sure do have quite a bit of it!

I also went to the thrift store with my other sister. We found a whole bunch of lovely Pyrex (she got 2 gorgeous matching mixing bowls, from Butterfly Gold 2) but some of it was chipped (or just kind of disgusting…) I ended up with a cute little one (sans lid, unfortunately) from the Verde pattern set.

Also in my houseware finds was this fantastic soup mug! I’m really happy about this one. I started ‘collecting’ these recipe soup mugs a while ago when I first came across the mushroom and tomato soup ones, now I have 5.

And to wrap up what I’ve been up to, my mom, one of my sisters and I doodled on the windows of the car while waiting (impatiently?).

And hey look, I’m still alive!

Michelle — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:08:59 +0000

What have I been up to since my last final (Monday night)?

Clearly not blogging….

I’ve done some baking (but, unfortunately, the proof of that has mysteriously disappeared…), some thrift store shopping (yesterday, with J), some reflection (on life – wow, I make myself sound old…), some playing of the Nintendo DS (Pokemon Platinum…) and some cleaning (although, as luck would have it, there’s very little proof of that as well!). I’ve also caught up on television that has been recorded on the DVR: General Hospital (which took up a nice chunk of the hard drive), Glee(!), some CSI-franchise episodes, Private Practice, Castle… I also need to fit in some crafting (for swaps) and crafting (for pattern writing). Whoot…

Oh, and I’m currently on pins and needles regarding finding out my grades for the term (but they won’t start coming out until Monday, May 3rd – fudge).

But here are some photos to share (mostly from thrifting):

Fugitive from the Cubicle Police and Seven Years of Highly Defective People by Scott Adams. ($4.99/each)

It’s Obvious You Won’t Survive By Your Wits Alone by Scott Adams ($4.99)

Original Soundtrack Recording of My Fair Lady – $1.99 (for my mom)

Romeo & Juliet – $1.99

The Sound of Music – $1.99 (because I really need another copy of the soundtrack, hah)

Dress shirt, for work – $4.99 (still had original tags on, and the extra button was still attached to one of the inside tags!)

Close-up of pattern (yay, sparkly metallic threads).

And last, but certainly not least, Mantracker’s autograph (courtesy of my sister, who lined up to get it!) – still need to get caught up on episodes on the DVR for this show as well…

How has everyone been the last few days? Hope you’ve all been well!

Loot! photos

Michelle — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 22:30:16 +0000

So my sister wanted to go to the thrift store because she wanted more summer wear without spending too much money and I decided to tag along, because I’m still in search of a) sweaters to take apart for the yarn, b) Kenner Blythe doll(s) (lol), c) awesome books, d) the original NES and e) clothes (for me).

And then I found this. And it was $2.99. And the first thing that went through my head was “ZOMG, I HAVE TO GET THIS.” Because it’s not enough to own all of the season sets and the soundtrack, I really just need to let everyone know just how much of a fangirl I really am (at least it doesn’t say Team Edward or Team Jacob or ‘I Sparkly Vampires’).

Is that not awesome?

But look! It gets even better!

^ Back of the shirt.

And it can get even better!

Left sleeve of the shirt.

So much fandom all in one shirt for $2.99 and in my size… I couldn’t say no! (The best part was that the original price tag from the CTV store was still attached to the inside of the shirt, whoot.)

And then my second find of the day was this babydoll top. 100% cotton, super soft, the design is of little blue and green hearts. The original price tag was still on it (why anyone in their right mind would pay $24.99 for this, I do not know, and then just not wear it and donate it? Whatever, my gain!) and it fits quite nicely. This was $3.99.

Anyways… Today, school was pretty okay. Attended my biochemistry lecture (did not fall asleep – yay) and went to my comparative invertebrate zoology lab (LAST LAB – we had to fill out TA evaluations and I gave my TA a glowing review, mostly because he was super awesome and was always willing to help my lab partner, S, and myself whenever we had any questions or concerns and were just like ‘wtf are we supposed to do with this?!’). But it was a super short lab (simple dissection, really quick and dirty) so I ended up leaving early (lab is supposed to be 3 hours long, but I only stayed for an hour – some people left way before I did too).

Now, my real story about today has to do when I was walking from the biology building to the bus loop. I didn’t even realize it, but some person had thrown their cigarette (still lit, it was mostly all gone by the time I saw it) and it landed on my shoulder. Actually, more specifically, it had landed on my hair that was on my shoulder. And the only reason I knew this was because I could a) smell the cigarette and b) smell my hair burning/smouldering. Smell of burning hair is not that awesome. I ended up pulling out a pair of scissors from my bag and snipped off the burnt part (luckily there wasn’t a lot of damage to me or my jacket, since I was wearing it). But seriously… I have nothing against people who smoke, but I do have something against people who carelessly discard their still-lit cigarettes without regard to other people and their safety. I mean, what if that person had flicked their lit cigarette away from themselves and it lands into a stroller with an infant or toddler? It could have been a lot worse than just a bit of burnt hair (which I’m not fucking pleased about, but it could have been a lot worse).

Busy bee on a sunny Saturday

Michelle — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 04:09:05 +0000

Today seemed fairly short, which was good and bad. Good because it felt like the day went by quickly and that I did a lot. Bad because it’s the weekend and who ever wants the weekend to go by quickly?

I got my stitches removed at the dentist, it was a very quick procedure (maybe ~3 minutes!) but I had to wait about 15 minutes for the dentist to be done with his other patient before getting to me. But luckily, it wasn’t too long before he was done just snipping and pulling the stitches out before telling me that I was good to go and that all I had to do was continue to rinse with salt water for about another week or two and then it should be fine. Still doing pretty okay in terms of chewing, but still nothing too solid because I can’t use my back molars too much yet (no pain in general, but if I accidentally clamp down on food over the healed incision sites, it’s a world of pain for me).

Also visited the other medical professional that I’ve visited so far in the last few weeks (in just under 3 weeks, I’ve visited the dentist 3 times, optometrist 2 times and family doctor once), my optometrist. But no big deal, I was just picking up my new glasses and he was telling me to walk in a straight line and making sure that the lenses were centred correctly for my eyes. Nice thing is that this time I got a new case! Last time, I got my glasses at a place that didn’t give me a case when I got my new glasses, which was disappointing because I always need somewhere to put my old pair. But because my prescription didn’t change (I got new ones because my old ones had a few scratches that were making it a *bit* blurry), I can still use both pairs and I’m planning on doing that (the old pair comes with magnetic clip-on sunglasses attachment, the new ones don’t).

My sisters and I went to the thrift store…. I went with the full intention of only looking through the books, toys and glassware (looking for Pyrex prints in good condition – I found one that was in the print that I wanted, but it was so scratched up that it was just not worth it). I ended up going through racks of sweaters, in hopes of finding something good to take apart for the yarn (didn’t find anything nice that wasn’t acrylic) and I ended up with a new hoodie. My sisters both thought it was the most busy-looking hoodie that they’ve ever seen, but I like it. I’ll take a photo of it after it gets cleaned in the wash, but it’s green and the print all over it is of sketches and doodles. I’m quite infatuated with the print. Photos to follow soon! It’s a bit big on me, but it’s a hoodie so I don’t care too much.

My parents commented on the fact that I’ve gone to so many medical professionals lately… And to be fair, it is the most I’ve ever gone to see doctors in such a short period of time. I mean, I went to the dentist three times in under 3 weeks (twice for teeth extraction, once for final removal of stitches!) but it’s just so many. The receptionist totally knows me by face and name now. She looked up and just went “Michelle! How are you today?” without even looking down to see the schedule list or asking me who I was. Gah… Clearly, I go to the dentist too often. When I went back to the optometrist today because both of my sisters had appointments, there was nothing to indicate to him that I was supposed to even be there (no appointment made, since I was just picking up my new glasses) and he goes “Hey Michelle, here to pick up your glasses?” <- That coming from a man that I see once every two years. Or maybe I’m just amazed that they can remember my name because I can barely remember the names of people that I’m supposed to know. Just the other day, I called one of my TAs by the wrong name and I see her 4 times a week! That might be it.

Questions for you:

Do you ever go shopping in thrift stores? (If yes, what sort of things do you look for?)
Do you wear glasses or contacts? If no, do you need them?
If you were stranded on a deserted island and someone came along and offered you one of two desserts (coconut cream pie or chocolate cream pie), which would you choose and why?

My answers:

Yup. I look for doll clothes/accessories (sometimes get lucky with things that fit Blythe), Pyrex (especially in prints that I want) and clothes (sweaters for the yarn, clothes for myself).
I wear glasses. I’ve considered contacts, but insurance wouldn’t cover all of it ($200 for 2 years).
Coconut cream pie. Because I had a small slice of both tonight (lol) and I liked that one better.