Bonjour, money...

'...au revoir, bitches.'

MONDAY: Chilled out at home for a while, then went over to Neilani's house. Joseph was there, cooking dinner. Had dinner and played brawl for a while. Bryan met me at Neilani's house, and then we drove to Tony's. Hung out with Tony and Shai, and all four of us watched 'Jon and Kate Plus 8' by the request of me and Shai. Repeats to come soon (hopefully).

TUESDAY-WEDNESDAY: I wish I could even remember...seriously.

THURSDAY: Painted the living room with pops. Orange; not an obscenely bright orange, but sort of like a calming burnt orange. Finished that just in time for Bryan to come over for dinner and watch ABDC. I am still trying to recover from the grief. Supreme Soul should have never been in the bottom two in the first place. I'll miss you, George Anzaldo.

FRIDAY: Massage therapy in the morning. No lie, for a small asian woman, she completely and utterly owned me. I did not know that my neck and shoulders were even that tense. Went paint shopping with the parents (yellow, for the kitchen). Went home, and got ready to go out with Pam. Spent the rest of the day in the city with friends. It felt really good to be back, Windy...

SATURDAY: Picked up grandma from work. Went back home and helped dad prime the kitchen. Bryan came over, had dinner, then the whole bunch of us up and went to Summerfest. God, I felt old. Ran into 3/4 of IJL and Alyssa, which was really nice. Haven't seen the girls in a while, so it was all too refreshing. Watched the fireworks on the hillside by the rides, and I think for the first time in a long time, Anne didn't scream. Met up with the parents at the main stage, and finished off the night with a plate of fresh carnival funnel cake.

SUNDAY: Church, and a mass that I didn't sleep through. Went to Grand Victoria's for brunch with family, including the grandparents. Went back home to clean, and Bryan came over when Anne and I were done. Watched 'Last Holiday' and ate gyros and italian beef.

Awesome week.

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When you go...

'...all i know is you're my favorite mistake.'

I've always wondered why, in life, it was the things that hurt me that enticed me the most. Ever since that first day, staring at the flickering candles on the kitchen table. They said it would hurt me if I played with fire, so I shouldn't even start. Too bad, guys. You just made me want to play even more. It was because you said I couldn't have it, that it would hurt if I even tried. I wanted to prove you wrong, that I would be the one that could play with fire and walk away...

Take that concept, and relate it to people. Relate it, specifically, to that one person. They're your candle, your bad addiction. Regardless of all that hurt they cause, the harm they do you to, you just keep coming back for more. As humans, our brains are trained to help us in terms of survival. When something bad happens to us, even once, and the action has bad repercussions, our brains store it. So the action isn't repeated. So the reaction is kept from happening.

...But we come back. Again and again, over and over. For what? For the same reason why we played with the fire. All the rest of the world says it is our very own forbidden fruit, the one thing in which we are simply not able to indulge. Heaven forbid you take away the one thing that, deep down, we want the most. Even with all the red warning flags, we still dare to take that dangerously icy plunge. Why?

Because we hope and pray that one day, we can prove that we are the ones fit to handle the fire.

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Rewind that...

'...just rollin' with the rhythm.'

Wow. I'm usually extremely verbose with my posts, but this particular one needs only a few simple words. I write, without the expectation of anyone to read.

Dear world, I stand corrected.

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Kiss your mirrors...

'...'cause we're all stars now.'

As promised, pictures from the party. Obviously not all of them, but some of my choice favorites. Thanks to Tito Mario and Tita Luz for throwing another baller-ass party, and one awesome birthday shout-out to Rhea...welcome to the real world! Enjoy the rest of your summer, and remember; stay away from any flooded areas when you're in Iowa.

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The world is yours, so play the role...

'...blow the dust off this record and put the needle down slow.'

It's very seldom that I feel the compulsion to do a mid-day post, but here I am. I finally finished Eclipse and now I'm just ready and waiting for Breaking Dawn. A part of me is definitely hoping that there's more to Bella and Edward's saga so that it can't simply be encompassed in a mere four book series.

So I woke up this morning from what I thought was a good night's sleep. For some reason, I felt like I had just woken up from passing out from exhaustion; I was sore and achy everywhere. I know that in my dreams, I was running a lot and what-not. It sounds stupid, but it kinda felt like the psychological exhaustion in my dreams that I should have felt somehow manifested itself to a true physical exhaustion. I'm not one to quickly believe things like that, but for whatever reason, it seemed highly plausible today. I'm still a little sore and tired now, but I got some breakfast in me, which looks to have made things a little better.

In a couple hours, the family's going to my cousin Rhea's cotillion, and I'm really excited for it. My aunt and uncle are renowned for their over-the-top themed parties, so it was no surprise that their youngest daughter's debutante ball wasn't going to be an exception. This time, it's the roaring 20's. Flapper dresses, cigarette boys, fedora hats and gangsters. This is going to be one hell of a time tonight, so expect pictures soon.

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I won't let my guard down...

'...for anyone but you.'

It's been a really slow and comfortable past couple of days. Thanks to Pam, I am officially obsessed with the Twilight book series. I'm finishing the third book, and waiting on bated breath for the fourth book to come out. Basically, that's what most of my weekend was devoted to doing; I was reading the books on our back porch and just relaxing out in the sun...

Nothing much that's new, nothing majorly important. I have been starting to work on more of my music and writing these days, but it sort of works itself out when it wants to. Just...enjoying summer, I guess. Ocean's coming to visit in a couple of weeks, and then there's the annual Streamwood Summerfest which I am thoroughly excited for. Been thinking about school a lot, but that's nothing new. I've been going to bed earlier these days, which is always a good thing. Sleep's always been best at helping me sort out things that I've been worried or stressing about. It's getting better...slowly, but surely. I'll just have to let it run it's course, I suppose.

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Wave your glasses high...

'...'cause we ain't got no choice but to party.'

So good to be back in the city. Taught my second workshop for the summer, and met some cool new kids. After the workshop, Jae and I sat in the quad and did what we're too pro at; we talked, about anything and everything that we seemed to be missing out on. It was hard to fathom that I hadn't seen her since the last day of school, but it was a good feeling. I saw one half of symposium for most of the summer, and it was good to see the final fourth. Met up with Andrew Lee and Tom after their bio class and then we went to Joy Yee's to eat. It was nice seeing them, too. I found out that Jae can't seem to order duck noodle soup without making the waiter laugh, and that Andrew now really wants a Wall-E of his very own. I think he'll have to settle for putting Lucky in a box and watching him walk around. Checked out an apartment with Lesley, then headed off to Millenium Park to finish off my night in the city.

Spent a great day with equally great people. Goodbye June, hello July...

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