2. What book are you currently reading?
Just wrapped up The Hobbit a couple weeks ago and am working on Fellowship of the Ring. If you can’t tell I’m rereading the whole Lord of the Rings series. I haven’t read the books since the movies came out.

3. What’s the worst book you ever read?
Twilight, mainly because I hated the movies and everyone was making me feel like I wasn’t allowed to hate the movies till I read the book. Well guess what I hate them all now, LOL. At least I can enjoy making fun of them, hah!

4. What makes a book perfect for you?
One that really draws me in to the point where I’ll stay up all night reading. The only book I’ve had that experience with is the Harry Potter series.

5. If you could buy any book right now, which one would it be?
Um… I’m good on books for now. There are a couple of interior design books on my wishlist, but I don’t need to buy anything right now.

The Friday Five ~ Comparisons
1. What’s something you do more quickly than most people?
I’d have to say navigate both the computer and Internet. Drives me nuts how slow people can at that sometimes, especially at my school and it’s a fellow web design major.

2. What’s something you do more carelessly than most people?
Probably posting what’s on my mind via Facebook or Twitter – whether it’s good or bad.

3. What’s something you do more slowly than most people?
Anything I am unfamiliar with or don’t really want to do.

4. What’s something you do more carefully than most people?
Check the spelling and grammar of the things I type on the web. Seriously people, there’s a reason why you have a red squiggly line under your words!

5. In what contexts are you more patient than most people?
Waiting in lines whether it’s at Disneyland or the grocery store. Also dealing with people in general – thanks to my years in customer service!

- – -

I can’t believe in less than 4 weeks I’ll be wrapping up my first quarter at school. Yesterday I registered for next quarter’s classes: Digital Illustration (all about using Adobe Illustrator – yay!), Typography, Fundamentals of Authoring (Flash – meh), and College Algebra (booooo). I’m getting the math over and done with so I don’t have to take it during the summer; I believe that will be the last math class I have to take.

School has kept me super busy – busier than I like at times. What keeps me going is knowing I have a week-long break coming up in between quarters, so hopefully I will have some time to catch up on my web stuff. As for wedding stuff I went to another bridal fair last weekend, and then I have another one to go to next month at the church I’ll be getting married at. Other than that, not much to report on!

How are YOU doing?

Although their customer service is available Monday-Friday, Joshua was able to get on the phone with someone late Saturday afternoon to see what was going on. Turns out UPS never picked up the order. Instead they refunded the shipping, sent it out via Fedex and it showed up yesterday. Well, yesterday they only sent the berries; the cookies and truffles were missing. Joshua called today, and they are resending the entire order and it should be here by Friday. We shall see! All I know is UPS sucks and Fedex wins. Yay.

Aside from the berry fiasco, I had a pretty chill Vday. We went to church and lunch with the family, and then hung out at the house till 5:30pm. During the afternoon Joshua watched Nascar while I worked on my mid-term project. At 6pm Joshua and I met up with my girls Amber, Abby, and Debbie at Chili’s for dinner. Because the wait was super long (about 45mins) we were forced to go see the movie Valentine’s Day at 8:45pm instead of 7:30pm as originally planned.

The movie itself was really cute and funny. My one annoyance is because it’s directed by Gary Marshall he has the same friggin people in all of his movies. Seriously, everyone that was in Princess Diaries, Runaway Bride, and Saving Helen was all in that movie (even the annoying tap-dancing maid and the yelling guy from Princess Diaries 2). Come on Gary Marshall mix things up a bit! Other than that, this is probably the first movie with Ashton Kutcher in it where I don’t hate him! Hooray!

Overall I had a great Valentine’s Day because once again it was spent with the people I love. That’s what it is all about. A day of love. ♥

Joshua and I took the 9:40am Ferry into the city, hopped into a cab, and checked into Macworld by 11am. Overall, it was okay but wasn’t as good as I expected it to be. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that Apple wasn’t there, and we had Expo Only passes. Most of the vendor stuff I wasn’t really interested in. There were only two app booths that really caught my eye:

The FastTrac app. This app creates a customized schedule based on the rides you want to go on at Disneyland and gets you through all of them without super long line waits. Another cool app I discovered is called iKeysToGo for Photoshop CS4. It gives you a list of all the different shortcuts in Photoshop plus definitions. It’s pretty nifty! I also stopped by Joby’s booth to pick up a Gorillapod for Joshua’s brother since he was so enamored with mine the last time I brought it over.

We left the expo shortly after 12 and took a cab back to the Ferry building. Our cab driver on the way back was a bit of a loon who spent the drive ranting and raving about global warming (he was driving a Prius cab ). He even made some comment about Joshua needing to go back to school (Joshua is a bit skeptical on global warming), which I thought was super rude and unprofessional. The only good that came out of that cab ride was he knocked $6 off our cab ride if we downloaded a free new cab app called Cabulous, so our cab ride ended up costing us $2.

All throughout the day I was feeling very run down and exhausted, so I wasn’t at all sad we left the expo so soon. I think the nice part was I got to spend an entire day with Joshua. We stopped for a late lunch at Mary’s Pizza Shack and came home where we spent the remainder of the evening catching up on two weeks worth of unwatched TV in the DVR.

Overall it was a good day. Would I go to Macworld again? Probably not, but it was a cool experience nonetheless.

Last night I went to dinner at Joe’s Crab Shack with my parents, sister, and Joshua. We had a great time. Today I went to service and then had a big birthday party in which we celebrated my birthday, Joshua’s birthday, my future mother in-law’s birthday, and my future brother in-law’s birthday. There are so many birthdays that we’re celebrating them all on the first Sunday of every month.

Words cannot express how truly grateful I am to have the family and friends I do that care so much about me. I can’t thank you all enough for the kind birthday wishes. ♥

So because she had to be at the train station so early, my mom came along and we went out to breakfast afterward. Then I was able to go from there to class since my school was about 10 minutes away from the station/nearby Denny’s. After class my mom called me and arranged a walk-through of the church we were seriously considering for the wedding.

Our current church doesn’t do weddings because they have way too many events going on. A chapel is in the plans to be built, but it most likely won’t be started until next year at the earliest. This forced us to do some “church shopping.”

My mom helped Joshua and I out a ton the last couple of months looking at churches all over El Dorado County; it wasn’t until Friday that we decided on Lakehills. Problems we ran into with other churches included not being allowed to marry because we weren’t members, charging too much money because we weren’t members, not allowing us have our own officiant, and too many hoops to jump through for too much money.

At one point Joshua’s aunt and uncle offered up their place (along with his aunt’s catering services) for us to have our ceremony and reception as a wedding gift. We were going to go through with it, but because the weather is sketchy around November and we didn’t want to move the date we decided to keep looking. We’re still taking them up on the catering though!

Things on our checklist for the ideal church included reasonable price, fitting 100+ people comfortably, allowing us have our own officiant, and nice areas to take pictures. We were able to find all that plus more and a very friendly staff all with Lakehills. The location works out perfectly as it overlooks a thriving shopping center which includes an IMAX movie theatre, Chili’s, and a Holiday Inn Express Hotel and Suites; perfect for out-of-town guests. Not to mention it’s pretty much in between our house and our parents’ houses.

The church itself is awesome. They have an auditorium that seats up to 500 people which will be used for both the ceremony and reception. There’s a perfect little bridal room which has a TV and bathroom with shower in it. They have an enormous kitchen and will allow us use of their smaller hall to keep guests entertained while the bridal party takes pictures and the auditorium is set up for the reception.

I feel so much better now that we have a venue set in stone. Now I feel like I can continue with the rest of my wedding planning. Next Monday Amber and I are going to try some dresses on at Dave’s Bridal. Plus we have 3 more bridal shows we plan to check out. Hoorah!

Remember when the iPhone came out and they had giant ones in the windows at the Apple Store? Well now you can finally take one of those home! It’s called an iPad! Actually it’s more of an oversized iPod Touch with optional 3G. With iBooks. In other words, not impressive!

I was really disappointed in today’s release. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Mac, iPhone, and iPod, but Elliot Stocks brings up a good point/question in his article, “If you have an iPhone and a MacBook Pro, why would you need an iPad?”

All the hype and rumors surrounding this release are of those that are so Apple obsessed they will love anything shiny Apple throws at them. This is one event I think I’m going to pretend didn’t happen and wait till March/April when they hopefully announce something interesting, such as AT&T losing iPhone exclusivity and/or a 1TB hard drive for the Macbook Pro line.

Steve I’ma let you finish, but Always had the greatest pad of all time!

Other articles to check out…

• Elliot Jay Stocks First Thoughts on the iPad
• iPad Leakage
• The iPhone Blog: iPad – What We Didn’t Get
• iPad vs. iPhone – What Does 3G cost you?
• The Problem with the Apple iPad

Common sense would say, “Hey perhaps I should have the products in stock I plan to demo, especially since I’m expecting people to want to buy stuff. Plus it shouldn’t be too hard since there are only 3 different shades.” She didn’t have my shades of product so she told me she would send them out in the mail the following day. Amber had bought some product too that the lady did have on her, but for whatever reason she decided she’d send Amber’s out the next day as well.

The next day both Amber and I immediately had our cards charged, but our product didn’t show up until TODAY, 8 days later. I had emailed our rep on Sunday to which she called me yesterday giving me a song and a dance about how she had to go through all these other reps to get my stuff (doesn’t explain the delay in Amber’s stuff); she also apologized for never touching bases with me on the status of my order. She said she’d put my stuff out in the mail that day, and we left it at that.

While Amber’s stuff apparently arrived in good shape, my boxes looked liked they were a bit beat up…

Both my products are about the size of my thumb. Yeah, still not impressed. Good thing I only paid $4 for $29 worth of stuff.

Two weeks ago I went to a bridal expo in Sacramento with my mom, sister, and future sister in-law. It was good experience for us, although we weren’t as into it as some of the other brides were. We were there more to get ideas whereas a lot of women were doing some serious vendor hunting. Majority of the vendor booths had raffles going on so we signed up for quite a bit of them hoping we’d win something. If it’s one thing I learned it’s don’t give out your phone numbers unless you want to be bothered to death by vendors. They’ve been bugging me all week!

One of the raffles we signed up for was to win a Mary Kay bridal package. From what I understood it entitled me to a bunch of “free goodies” (apparently $500 worth to be exact) and something about make-up for my wedding day and a facial. Somehow Amber and I got talked into doing a pampering session to try stuff out. We figured why not, it’s free, and we can invite our bridesmaids over for a little get-together. So that’s what we did.

I got a call from my MK rep a couple days before the scheduled get-together telling me I had won the bridal raffle. She kept emphasizing the “free goodies” I would be getting and that she would explain everything at our scheduled party. I was excited about it, but I was warned by a friend who was a former MK sales rep.

One of the first things I learned in training was that EVERYBODY WINS. A strategy of MK is to place out those drawings/raffles and then literally call everyone who enters to tell them they won. They don’t feel bad about technically “cheating” people like this, it’s just another way to drum up clients. They get “winners” to book a session with them and invite other people, who they hope will also become one of their clients. We were taught to call it a “party”, a “pampering session”, whatever sounds best. They say the more people you invite and the more they buy at the party, the more discounts/freebies you (as the party host) will get.

Yesterday I had all my bridesmaids over (except one) and Amber had her bridesmaids over as well. The MK rep was scheduled to come over at 4pm. When I talked to her two days prior to confirm our appointment (she called me at 8:30pm in the evening ) she said she’d come over at 3:30pm to set-up. I figured no problem since I told all the girls to come over around 3pm; the MK lady mentioned free goodies for people who showed up early.

Everyone arrived at my house by 3:30pm but no MK rep. I get a phone call telling me she was running late and would be at my place in 30 minutes (she also said we’d get some extra free goodies because of her tardiness). She didn’t show up till 4:30pm, an hour later! One of my bridesmaids had to leave at 4:30pm so she didn’t get to partake in anything.

The MK lady shows up in a brand new Chevy Equinox, which I found out upon research is awarded to sales reps that keep up X amount of dollars in sales. She comes in, apologizes for being late and immediately helps herself to the food I prepared for my guests. A little unprofessional, but I brushed it off.

After she sets up in the dining room we all sit down and go around the table introducing ourselves, what our skin-care concerns are and ‘how everyone knows Christine’; the MK lady kept calling me Christine to which my sis and friend kept saying “nuh” afterwards, haha. Finally the MK lady introduces herself and went from talking about herself/the company to showing off her new car which she offered us the keys to go check out. I thought this was a little unprofessional as it had nothing to do with why she was here.

Also while we were sitting at the table I was drinking some Perrier and she says, “Christine could you get me some water? I’d love some Perrier.” I was taken aback, but being the polite hostess I was, I poured her a glass.

Once everyone came back inside from checking out the car, we began our session starting with skin care products, apparently MK’s version of a so-called facial.

The term “facial” refers to a skin care class, where you and/or other girls you invite all sit down and listen to the consultant explain and demonstrate how to USE their products. You give yourself a “facial”, pretty much. The products are nice, but you do all the work! You just learn about and sample their face wash, microdermabrasion, face lotion, lip mask and then their hand products during the class. Not much real pampering to it, unfortunately.

Now, my flower girl was at this party (she’s 9) hoping to play with make-up, but for the most part she was forced to sit and watch us put on beauty stuff. When it did come time for make-up all we got to try was some mineral foundation, eyeshadow, lip gloss, and mascara. We were limited to an extremely small representation of the Mary Kay line. Considering the suitcases she brought I thought we were going to have a LOT of product to play with. I got to play with more product at the Bare Minerals Master Event at the Sephora University than I did here.

When we were done she took the girls one by one into the living room for a private consultation. In other words, trying to get them to buy something (apparently none of the girls bought anything). Amber and I were the last ones to have our consultation and we wanted to do it together, mainly because Amber wanted me there for moral support so she wouldn’t get sucked into buying a ton of products.

As a hostess I was entitled to $25 off a purchase so I got $29 worth of stuff. Amber got a $25 hostess discount too even though the MK lady made a snide comment to me on the phone about how she couldn’t get ahold of Amber so it’s really my party. Once we filled out the appropriate forms, the MK lady went out to her car to get our products. 15 minutes later she came back into the house informing us she didn’t have our stuff on hand and that she’d send it out to us the next day. She also had the nerve to ask if I was making alcoholic drinks due to the fact I was making Shirley Temples for a couple of the girls.

She then told us she’d like to spend 20 minutes talking to us some more about the company (aka trying to recruit us). All the girls except one followed my lead when I told her I wasn’t interested. In the middle of cleaning up the dining room the MK lady suddenly decided she needed to leave and didn’t bother doing her 20 minute recruiting session. Although we weren’t interested for the most part, I thought it was kind of rude of her to suddenly be in a big hurry to leave when she showed up late.

Oh and you know how I was told several times about receiving free goodies? I didn’t get a single thing unless you include the tiny fingernail sized sample of lip gloss that everyone got. What about my so-called bridal package? She didn’t say a word about it to me. Did my guests get any free goodies for showing up early and the MK lady being late? Nope. Nothing.

To be honest, I was not impressed with how this pampering session turned out. Don’t get me wrong, I had a lot of fun with my girls and getting to meet Amber’s friends. We had a great time playing with my sister’s Guitar Hero for Wii and eating good food and playing with Baby Renee. Other than that, the Mary Kay session was a complete waste of time. The lady was a bit unprofessional with her tardiness and presumptuousness, and I felt a bit mislead with what she kept offering (the supposed free goodies); she also seemed to care more about recruiting and talking about the business than getting us to try/buy stuff (after reading this it makes sense now).

After this experience, I honestly wouldn’t recommend a pampering session with Mary Kay. Anyone out there have any similar experiences?

Other articles to check out:

• Mary Kay Cosmetics: Destroying half a million women a year
• Pink Truth – Facts, Opinions, and the real stories behind Mary-Kay Cosmetics
• Misleading Mary Kay Recruiting Information Highlighted

Since I last blogged about my school schedule it changed again. In fact when I went through orientation it changed because I tested out of a class and was put in another. Orientation was a great day, especially since I hit it off right away with one of the instructors leading me to test out of a class. I’ll find out how I did on the test Thursday, but I have a feeling I did okay since I had to make a web site, hehe.

The classes I’m officially taking this quarter are: Fundamentals in Graphic Design, Color Theory, Introduction to Programming Logic, and Fundamentals of Drawing.

Since all the housekeeping stuff is going on with my classes, I’ll most likely get a better sense of things next week. Still, with all the art classes I am taking I feel like I can let my inner artist come out and learn how to do things I’ve wanted to do but wasn’t confident enough in doing. I get to draw again. I’m excited.

Yes, I love my school so far. I feel like I found where I belong.

Here’s my hat, fellas. I’m staying where I’m at, fellas. Dolly’ll never go away again!

2. What’s something you already own that could stand to be replaced by the newer version?
Hah, the iPhone. If they made a 500GB iPhone I’d be in heaven!

3. What’s something that was better before someone made it “new and improved?”
I totally can’t think of anything off the top of my head. Blah.

4. Of geographic locations whose names begin with the word “new,” which seems like the most interesting place to visit?
New Zealand! It’s home to Middle Earth, and my friend Holly, hehe!

5. On what date will 2010 no longer feel like the new year?
Oh I don’t know, probably in a couple of days.

- – -

I spent New Year’s Eve with Joshua, Amber, and Dani. We hung our at Joshua’s parents house, dropped by a friend’s house, and then partied until the wee hours of the morning at my house. Then we spent all day today lounging about enjoying a day of nothingness. It’s been a good start to the year so far! I still can’t believe that I have a little over a week left before I go back to school. It feels like I just started my winter break. Ah well!

How was YOUR New Year’s Eve?