It's because I think too much

Daily Outfits

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:26:52 PDT

My co-workers and I decided that we want to do outfit posts on a daily basis and we've been keeping up with it fairly well. I've been posting them on my Kaboodle blogazine. I don't want to fill up my blog with all of the pictures, but here are some highlights.

To see where I got each article of clothing and more pictures, go ahead and visit my blogazine on kaboodle!

Adiel = Happy

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 21:42:01 PDT

I can see the many visits this blog is getting every day despite the lack of updates. I apologize for this. I don't feel that I've got much to say.

It's been so great having a job that I feel like I need to be thankful for this great opportunity at all times of the day. Everything out here has been going so smooth!

I found an awesome roommate and we're going to be looking for a place to live immediately. I've got high hopes for this.

I'm steadily learning new tasks at my new job and I am absolutely loving it. The people I work with are beyond-words fantastic!

Activities outside of work have been in abundance as well. Two weeks ago I had never been to San Fransisco. I've now been to the city several times for different meet-ups and events. I love it!

It's so great out here and I just want to once again thank every single person that had anything to do with me being able to come out here. It really is like a dream come true.

Adiel = Happy

I'll leave you with a few photos of me and a few of my co-workers at a shopping event.

First day!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 18:03:26 PDT

, originally uploaded by swnktstic.

First day of the new job is going well! As expected, I love it!

My co-worker Chris took this photo of me holding his giant stuffed ham. This should sort of say it all...

Loving it!
More later...

Hello California!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 16:26:44 PDT

Alright friends. It's truth time. I feel I owe my readers, if I have any left, an explanation to my prolonged absence. As you may recall, I was laid off my full time office job last October. It was pretty life shattering and looking back on it, it is more than clear that it put me into a bit of a depression. Probably somewhere around two months ago I also received word that the school I had been coaching cheer at no longer had the funds to pay my position come the end of this school year. Needless to say, I was devastated. Getting laid off two jobs in six months was far from fun for me. I had a long time to think about what I wanted to do with my life and had considered many things including moving out of state, maybe even out of the country.

Then the light at the end of the tunnel arrived.

Recently I landed a job as the community coordinator for Kaboodle.com Any long time reader of my blog knows how passionate I have been about this site for a long time! In fact, my kaboodle profile tells me I've been on there since January 17, 2007. You seen me talk about kaboodle many times on this blog, clearly I'm a big fan. So I'm pretty stoked to have this opportunity to join the Kaboodle team and do something that I've been passionate about for so long!

So this is the reason for my recent to move to California, this is where Kaboodle headquarters are located. I'm stoked to be out here and I already love the place. I can't wait to start my new job tomorrow!

Monday, my sister, dad and niece drove me and my belongings out to Sunnyvale. Many of you may have followed this roadtrip on my Twitter. I took many, many photos that day and would like to share them with you in the form of a slideshow.

...and as long as we're on the topic, I think you should all sign up for an account on Kaboodle and check it out. It's been my favorite website for years, maybe it's time you find out why! Be sure to add me as a friend when you do!

Goodbye SLC!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 12:39:03 PDT

My friends and family helped me celebrate my last weekend living in Salt Lake in an unforgettable way!

Friday was a night at the Sandbar with Tilila, Alisha and Chris.

Saturday my girlfriends threw me a really awesome party. It was perfect. Thanks to everyone that came!

Sunday my mom threw a really awesome dinner party for the fam. It was super nice!

The goodbyes were sad and I'll miss all the people in Utah!
Next stop: Sunnyvale, CA!

Tilila's Birthday

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 16:42:36 PDT

Tilila's birthday was last week and here are some photos of the celebration.

Lauren and I decorated her bedroom door and her car the night before her birthday.

Saturday, we went to dinner at P.F. Chang's. Next we headed over to the Tavernacle for some lovely piano music fun. We finished out the night with dancing at The Hotel.

I went with a hint of nautical for my outfit for the evening.

Navy linen dress - F21
Red peep-toe pumps - Bakers
Gold anchor necklace - F21
Clutch - Urban Outfitters

So long, farewell

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 14:38:44 PDT

Well, my first (and maybe last) year as a cheerleading coach has come to an end. Monday was the Goodbye Assembly. My girls performed together for the last time and then it was time to say goodbye. The administration presented us with a beautiful bouquet of flowers as a small token of thanks and well wishes.

Here is the video I took of them, I cut of the beginning on accident, but hopefully you get the idea.

End of year routine from Adiel C on Vimeo.

I'm sad that I won't be coaching anymore, but my future is bound to have loads of exciting opportunities for me!

Future Me

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:43:02 PDT

I recently received another message from myself sent via futureme.org. I've talked about this on my blog before the last time I got a message from Future Me. I just think getting that message from yourself in the past is so fun. It's nice to see where you were and to think about about what you've been through since then. I recommend everyone try it out and I definitely need to remember to do this more than once a year!

It's all over. Wait, no, it's just beginning.

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 13:26:22 PDT

Yesterday marked the end of a very long, tiring, fun, exciting week for me. This last week we held tryouts for next year's squad. Turn out to our first meet was pleasantly surprising. We had a lot of interest in the squad this year. We held workshops all week where this year's Seniors taught material to be performed for judges. Everything ran really smooth and after a long day of judging and tabulation yesterday, we now have a Varsity and a JV squad! I'm so very excited for what next year holds, but sad that my first year as a cheerleading coach is coming to and end. It'll be sad to see our Seniors go. Thanks to the judges and to Wendy! The whole process went well and I owe it to you!

2009-2010 cheerleaders
2008-2009 Captain - she did so much to help this week!

Things to come...

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:35:29 PDT

I've been feeling the urge to be creative lately.

Not to mention, my new sewing machine hasn't had a real good breaking in yet...

...and all that Jazz!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:26:30 PST

Saturday brought two groups of my friends together. After a few delays, we all were finally able to meet up for bowling. I wasn't able to bowl, largely in part to my bad wrist. Instead I played Ms. Pacman!

After bowling, we got ready to go dancing. What else?
Unfortunately, Suzi and Aline weren't able to join us for dancing.

DJ Juggy is always so good to us! My legs are still sore from dancing that night!

The highlight of the night had to be the fact that we were dancing 5 feet away from Jazz players Deron Williams and Ronnie Brewer. They were also there with a player from the team that they played that night, Chris Paul. They wouldn't let us take pictures, but we were able to sneak this picture of DWill's legs...

Mini Cheer

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:20:27 PST

Recently my girls held a mini cheer clinic as a fundraiser. They made up cheers and dances for three different age groups to perform at a basketball halftime.

My little step-sisters came to the "cheerleadering" clinics and had an absolute blast.

It was also really fun to see the shirts I designed running around all over the place.

Another night out

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:45:01 PST

Just another night out with some of my friends. We got some cotton candy for the ride and I found a random hot sauce packet in the vehicle.

Then, of course, we danced the night away. This is seriously my favorite workout! DJ Juggy was very good to us and played lots of fun music!

I've got to find something better to wear out dancing. I'm tired of wearing the standard jeans and a top...

Valentines!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 14:37:00 PST

In the days leading up to the holiday we all have a love/hate relationship with, I did lots of fun things to celebrate.

I can't remember who's idea it was to begin with, but me and my girlfriends decide to get together at mine and T's place to make Valentine's cookies. For two days, we made valentines cookies. They were so much fun to decorate, I may have to do cookies for every holiday! I had so many cookies that I had to give them away, which I'm sure no one was upset about.

Chris and I did lots of things around Gateway on Valentine's Day, including some educational time at the planetarium!

Holy ArtsCow!

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 22:44:22 PST

I don't know why I've never heard of this website before, perhaps it is new, but my sister just told me about it about I just have to share.

Artscow.com is offering 1200 free prints for each new individual that sets up an account with them. I checked it out, there are seriously no strings attached. So if you have millions of digital photos on your hard drive waiting to be printed out, here is your chance. Sign up using my referral code http://www.artscow.com/?Ref=555038

Sorry to be so short, but I'm off to check out my new ArtsCow account and redeem my free prints!

Building Furniture

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:55:35 PST

Okay, so maybe we didn't really build this dresser, but we did get it from Ikea and put it together.

Tilila, Lauren and I had to get a little creative at times while putting it together. I was even using a pair of shoes as a hammer. This was my first time assembling anything from Ikea and it turned out to be far easier than I had thought.

VIPs

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 03:30:23 PST

Saturday night was another night of dancing for me and my friends.

My new place with T is quickly becoming the meet up place, which is so fun for me. I enjoy helping my girlfriends with their makeup and such.

Our first bar stop was for birthday party where we acquired yummy lollipops.

Next we headed downtown for our second stop. We all had so much fun. The DJs got us VIP so we were right by the booth. We danced all night long without stop, the DJs even played our special requests!

My legs were killing me after, I can't remember the last time I danced so long!
Thanks to my friends for another fun-filled, drama-free night!

Thursday Girls Night

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 18:33:52 PST

Most of my girlfriends had Friday off this week, so we decided to take advantage of it and go out.

Alisha, Nicole and Stephanie came over to mine and Tilila's new place to get ready despite the fact that its not entirely put together.

We ended up taking a lot of fun photos, as you can see.

The photos got sillier as we went...

...and they didn't stop once we got in to the car.

Once at Trolley, Steph was in need of a bathroom, as you can tell by her face. We weren't quite sure where it was at this place so the search led to more silly pictures.

Nicole, Tilila and Steph scope out the place from above and later Steph took a shot of Sprite!

Pretty sure the best photo from the night is this one of Steph on the dance floor. Her hair and eyes look awesome, right?

Alisha and I heart you!

Afterwards, we met some people at "eye"-hop for a late night snack!

Despite the fact that we were missing some of the ladies, I had an absolute blast dancing the night away! It made my Friday feel like a Saturday or Sunday, which was sort of weird.
...but who cares. right?

The "almost" outfit

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 02:47:20 PST

In preparation for a night out with the girls, I tried on a lot of outfits. I had settled on this outfit.

The white buttoned top is from angiehearts.net. The black skirt, the maroon tights and shoes are all from Target.

As you will see in posts to come, I changed my mind about the outfit last minute...

Short on time

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 00:05:20 PST

Sorry, I've been quite absent since my last post a week ago! I've had quite the busy week. I'm taking a quit little break to post this.

This week was Spirit Week at the school I coach at. All week at practice was spent preparing for the big spirit assembly.

The assembly was nothing short of wow. I've never seen anything like it. In high school, I always thought my school had a pretty spirited student body. Since I have started coaching, I have to say that this school's spirit outshines my high school every time.

I wanted to share these photos and videos so that you can all see just how awesome this student body is. We had to take a girl out of the routines last minute so unfortunately the routines weren't as polished as they could have been.

Another thing keeping me busy is the fact that I am moving! In fact, I'm probably moving as you read this. I've been busy organizing, cleaning and packing all week. I probably should have been purging as well, but I think I will wait till I unpack in my new place.

Wish me luck in my move, next time you hear from me, I'll be living in a brand new place!

Shall we say, "Breakdown"?

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:12:21 PST

Okay, get ready to laugh at me.

Yesterday was a little nuts for me. I started out by not getting any sleep. I had to wake up at 5am for practice, the last time I checked my clock before I feel asleep, it was already after 3am and I know I was awake for a while after that. I don't know why, but I simply could sleep. I just tossed and turned all night. So I wake up, go to practice, felt fine.

On the way home, I stopped to pick up my favorite Rockstars, guava and pomegranate.
I hurry and get ready for the day and go to meet my friend Roady where I downed the first Rockstar.

After Roady, I had to go meet my sister. I'm already beyond exhausted. I felt pretty much like a zombie. My sister had a meeting she needed to go to, so a while back she asked me if I'd meet her and take her baby while she was in the meeting. I love my niece so I jump at any opportunity to see her. When I show up, I found out that the silly breast-feeding mother forgot the nipple for the bottle, probably because she doesn't often pump and use a bottle. I offered to go get one at the store for her. I take off with Hadley in the car seat and stop at a grocery store. Me. A 5-week old.
Alone.
Adiel, who has almost no experience with babies, and a helpless, innocent, pretty much newborn baby.
Me and a 5-week-old.
All by ourselves.
Sense the impending doom?

Off I go in my sister's car with her child in the back seat. At this point, the caffeine is starting to wear off and give me a helium-filled feeling in my head and slow reaction time. Despite that, all is going well. I struggle minimally getting the car seat out of the car. I gently set the car seat in the cart and we're off to find a baby bottle. After walking nearly the entire premises of this grocery store, I find the baby section. Hallelujah! That's when I realized I don't know the first thing about buying a baby bottle. I don't really panic per se, but I had to give myself a little pep talk at this point. "Come on Adiel. You're 23, a big girl! You're smart! You can do this!" After reading the boxes of many different kinds of baby bottles. I go with the Playtex Vent Aire bottles. I'm thinking, the vented bottom prevents air bubbles, the box says it has a realistic nipple shape that is great for transitioning from breast to bottle... sure, why not? Sounds great!

I bought the bottle and after struggling to unhook the car seat from the cart, we safely make it back to the car and back to where my sister was having her meeting. Hadley is fast asleep again by this point so I think, I'll just go sit in the backseat with her and sleep too. She's making far too many cute noises to not watch her though so through my heavy eyes, I just watch my niece sleep. Just as I'm about to feel like I could sleep, she wakes up crying. Her pacifier was not pacifying for long and the crying started up again so I decided it was time to feed her.

I'm my sleepy haze, I pull out the newly-purchased baby bottle. The bottom cap wasn't on the bottle, so I reach in the box and fish it out. That is when I saw the "vent", the cap is filled with holes! I didn't think to take a picture of the cap, but if you look closely, you can sort-of see the vented cap on these bottles.
I don't know how long I sat there staring at the cap and the bottle trying to see how that could possibly be a good idea. I'm scouring the instructions that came with bottle to see how this works. The pictures and the words in the pamphlet and on the box are useless to me. I knew how tired I was and that my brain probably wasn't working on highest level at that particular moment. I willed myself to comprehend was I was currently missing. All the while, I'm trying to keep Hadley calm, but she doesn't stop crying. I just keep reading the directions over and over, hoping suddenly the answer will come to me. It doesn't though. I start thinking that I don't really want to use this bottle if it's not going to be something my sister wants to keep.

At this point I decided to just see if I holding Hadley would calm her down. I take her out of the car seat and cradle her in my arms. The pacifier keeps her calm for a few minutes before she started crying again. I decide that I would figure out this bottle. Funny thing is I was now operating with only one arm, Hadley being in the other. I pull out the new bottle again and decide I'm just going to be careful to not spill. I transfer the milk from the nipple-less to bottle to the new one and start to feed Hadley.
Hooray, she's happy for the moment!

Then all of the sudden I'm feeling something isn't right. The sucking sounds sound choked and there is milk leaking out of her mouth. I pull the bottle out of her mouth and while trying to hold the bottle holey-side-up in the right hand, I attempt to sit Hadley up in the left arm. I was feeling so sick from the caffeine and I was so tired that I'm not really quite sure how the next thing happened. All I know is suddenly breast milk is everywhere. It's all over my right arm, all of my legs, all over Hadley's legs and she's crying again.

I'm feeling beyond horrible at this point that I can't manage to care for my own niece for just 45 minutes by myself. I'm covered in milk, so is she. She's crying and clearly hungry, so I continued my feeding attempt. It just really seemed like the milk was coming out way too fast though and it scared me. I didn't want to break my sister's baby! At some point I realized that the speedy flow was probably due to the "patented air vent system" called the lid.

All of the sudden, it all just got to be too much. The sick feeling from the caffeine, the need to sleep, the crying baby that I just could seem to take care of, the helplessness and the failure..
Tears slowly started rolling down my face. I knew it was dumb and pointless to react in such a way, but I couldn't stop. Hadley quickly consumed all the milk Steph had pumped for her, but having spilled a lot of it, she was still hungry. So she started crying again. That is how Steph found me. Sitting in the back seat of her car, holding her baby girl, both of us covered in breast milk and both of us crying. She opens the door and with an amused half smile on her face, her first words were, "Are you crying?"

Once Stephanie showed up, things didn't really seem quite so bad. I showed her the bottle. She confirmed that I wasn't crazy, the bottle with the "patented" vents was crazy. She insisted we take it back. So we did. Got my money back, no problem. We walked back to the baby section to look for another bottle. Turns out the bottle that I bought had a missing piece, some rubber seal that kept the bottle from doing what it did to me. Of course, I'd get the one that happened not to have all the pieces.

After getting plenty of sleep and having time to get the caffeine out of my system, I realize just how silly my reaction to the situation was. Luckily I am able to laugh at myself! I'm just glad my sister still trusts me with her precious baby!

The best part was as we got into the car and started to drive away from the grocery store, this is what we saw

If you're thinking to yourself right now, "Is that old woman wearing a blue knitted beanie, a leopard print jacket, one pink and white swirled croc and one brown croc?" You would be correct...

Things that made my day

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 22:22:00 PST

It's been a while since I've done this, but today has kind of called for it. So here we go, these are things that made my Tuesday lovely!

Seeing an old elementary school friend that I haven't seen in years, Jessica. She's doing well and looking gorgeous!
Finding out that my wrist isn't broken! Hooray! I do have to wear a brace though...
Getting on the scale at the doctors' office confirming that I am indeed losing weight! Who doesn't like that?
Finished studding the dress I've been working on. I'll have to wear that soon.
My girls did awesome at the basketball game today. They put the opposing cheerleaders to shame!

inVESTed in a DIY

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:35:00 PST

Okay, so the idea for this vest has been floating around in my head for a long while. Despite having lots of free time on my hands, I somehow managed to find endless reasons to put it off. Being a perfectionist, DIY projects tend to scare me a little. Because, what if I mess up?

I finally went ahead and did it.

I took an old vest from Forever 21 that I didn't really wear ever and meshed it with the back of an old band T-shirt. It turned out a little skeletal, which I kind of like. I might re-do this project, but this time make the front of the vest as well as the back.

My next roadblock was I had put zero thought into what I might wear with it once it was made. This is what I came up with.

The green shirt is from Old Navy, the jeans are Forever 21, the boots are from gojane.com, the necklaces are handmade and from Aldo, and of course the vest is a handmade/Forever 21 hybrid.

Cheer competition

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 14:56:14 PST

I'm not sure how I've neglected to mention this yet, but the girls I coach competed a couple weekends ago.

This is before they competed. Last-minute touch ups and waiting. Some excitement, some anxiety.

Unfortunately, I did not get a full video of them actually competing. I had forgotten to empty out my memory card. They did really well, didn't drop any stunts and I was super proud of them.

Friends and family made the trip to support me and watch my girls compete. What a great family I have, they'll come sit through hours of a competition when I'm not even the one performing anymore!

I honestly wasn't sure what to expect out of this experience, this being my first year as a cheerleader coach. All along I told myself not to get my hopes up.

Qualifying for nationals was the last thing on my mind, but sure enough, they qualified! I was so surprised that I started crying. Then they saw me and of course made fun of me. I deserved it though, who cries over that? I guess me!

I'm so proud of them for the work they put into the competition routine and for accomplishing what they did! All their hard work has paid off up to this point!

Saturday Night

Triplyksis@gmail.com (Adiel) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:19:09 PST

Just another night out with some of my girlfriends...

I guess I should also mention that Marrdy nominated me for the "Lemons to Lemonade" award on her blog.

I'm not sure I deserve it cos I'm not going to play by the rules and nominate anyone. Sorry Marrdy! Love you anyway and thanks for the award!

P.S. How is this already my 400th post? Holy geez!