Introduction Pt 3: Crafts | Chicago Trip Pt 2: Enginerds

Hello, everyone!~

Here’s part 2 of my Chicago trip: enter my two favorite enginerds (they’re engineers, which makes them nerds, so that’s one of my favorite words that my Freshman uni English instructor ever used, so I’m keeping it): Brian (above picture) and Ricardo (below picture). For those who don’t know, I had originally started in university as an Electrical and Computer Engineering major and switched out at the end of my Sophomore year. I only had a brief couple of hours with them on Friday (March 17^th), but it was great fun.

Laughs:

So in the spirit of someone who actually pays attention to things her friends post on Facebook, I asked Ricardo (as he was driving us through to go meet Brian) if he and Brian were dating anyone currently, having noticed that they had quite a few girls in their pictures as of late.

His response: “No, but we’ve got money.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh because it was true or because that’s the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.

Anyway, fast forward to arriving at Giordano’s for dinner (that is good pizza, guys), the two guys were SO SWEET and treated me to dinner (didn’t know they were planning on doing that, so I was pleasantly surprised).

Ricardo mentioned what I’d said in the car to Brian.

His response: “No, but I’ve got money. And rock-climbing.”

Me: “Oh, well that’s lovely, isn’t it? You’ve got money AND a hobby.”

Ricardo/Brian (I don’t actually remember who said what): “Hey, we are SET on the money issue.”

Me: “Yes, let’s poke fun at the poorest one at the table who’s still a student and basically unemployed.”

Ricardo/Brian: “Well, after a few more times of meeting up over the next year, you’ll have money too.”

Ricardo/Brian: “You still won’t have as much as us, but that’s all right.”

Jerks. I love them, but aren’t they just AWFUL? >:|

Sad but true statement though. :/

They took me around the downtown Chicago area, going through Millennium Park, seeing the Bean (no, I did not take the tourist selfie with the bean, so there), the new Riverwalk (which apparently was designed by the company Brian works at) and though we couldn’t see it in the fading evening light, apparently the river was green for St. Patrick’s Day (dyed by Brian’s friend’s dad), and passing a bunch of shops and theatres.

All in all, I had fun. I’d missed my enginerds and it’s so great to see them moving on with their careers, working for companies that will hopefully result in a stable and enjoyable career path for many years to come.

If you two are reading this, know that I’m so proud of everything you’ve accomplished. :)

All right, that was kinda short and I could’ve probably combined this into another post, but I didn’t really want to. These guys deserve a post of their own :D Uni buddies forever! XD

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Next bit of introduction/updates: crafts!! Don’t feel obligated to read if this isn’t your thing.

- TZArtisan (leading the team, writing the book, taking photos for photoshoots of the products, tutorials, and the models, managing our online shop and social media, prepping and selling at craft sales, and obviously MAKING THINGS).

- Artastic: my friend Hitomi leads the Artastic team and I’m helping :)

- TV appearance for TZArtisan. It’s just on our local WSIU channel, but STILL!!! :D

Up next is the #finallymonroes wedding!! From the look of my draft, it’ll be two posts, one about beginning wedding stuffs and also my visit with my lovely friend, Amber, and the other about more wedding stuffs and FOOD. :P

Comment below if you've got any other questions that I've neglected to answer thus far, and to make sure you stay updated, click subscribe for more updates (to the right somewhere, I believe).

Introduction Pt 2: Church | Chicago Pt 1: Ania

Hey, guys! So, I had originally intended to give more introductory/update style posts, but I just went on solo vacation this past week over Spring Break, so you get to hear about THAT in addition to these intros. Wheee~

It’s worth mentioning that I made the MOST of my trip, so I’m going to post and categorize these according to the people I hung out with and spread it out over a few weeks’ worth of sharing, in addition to introduction posts. The people I met with are so important, they deserve their own post :) and you deserve shorter ones lol XD

Wednesday:

For those who don’t know me too well, I’m SUPER type A, according to Heroine (my TX based best friend for those who missed the last post).  This means that I don’t do well with spontaneous, unplanned things, though I can make it work if I absolutely have to. Which means a) the world is ending, someone messed up big time and this is all I have to work with, or b) Heroine happens to be in charge of whatever I’m doing, in which case she’d tell me to woman up and roll with it, so I do. Or…I try. Same difference.

Anyway, I packed everything pretty well, even left room to bring back my sister’s bridesmaid dress for a pending wedding in May. And left my shower necessities. Why? Because I’m a freaking genius who picks things up, puts them down somewhere else, and only remembers the place that I left them in BEFORE. Ask my sister how well I describe where things are when I need her to get stuff for me. She could rant for hours about the failure rate of my memory of where things are and probably list off the times that I actually got it right on one hand (though I’m hoping it’s at least two hands by now). Thank God for friends that have shower necessities to share. lol

Rode the Amtrak train up to see my girl who’s getting married in Aug, Ania. Long story short, the train delayed, and we didn’t get back to her place till midnight (my train was due to reach Chicago at 9:45pm, but we didn’t pull in till past 11pm). There was a chance that I would have had to take the Metra to her suburb, but I’m just grateful that God knew my train would be delayed and freed Ania and her fiancé’s schedules up to have arranged to pick me up instead of the aforementioned arrangement (which would have backfired horribly because I would’ve ended up missing that train due to the delay).

Thank GOD for verses like Psalm 139:3: "You know where I go and where I lie down. You know everything I do." 

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Thursday:

Grocery shopping at Woodman’s and I LOVE this place for one primary reason: Rowntree’s Fruit Pastilles. Hands down, my FAVORITE candy, particularly the blackcurrant flavor. I have loved these things since I was a kid, so not only are they delicious, they’re nostalgic. So if you’re ever stuck on things to give me for no reason, this is a great option :) I shamelessly cleaned out the shelf at that place of these babies and for a brief moment, I wondered if I was just as bad as those overseas tourists from a *cough* certain country that is notorious for shelf clearing brand name items, and decided to ignore my gut and go with my stomach :P

And then we went and saw Beauty and the Beast. Opening showing. IMAX.

I loved it. I cried. The casting was awesome. The music was beautiful. The costumes and period design were so on point that I was stunned. Emma Watson was PERFECT as Belle, and Dan Stevens was epic enough for me to finally watch Downton Abbey, something I’ve been meaning to do for ages, but putting off (for whatever reason). Not going to get into that other debate, so…MOVING ON. But to those concerned about it, just know that the “surprise at the end for same-sex couples” is just a 3-5 second dance scene between LeFou and another (hinted at) gay character.

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Friday:

Given that I'm one of five bridesmaids for Ania's wedding, we had a bridesmaid dress fitting appointment at "A Joyful Occasion" in Naperville, IL. After, we went out for a lovely lunch at Olive Garden, and her mum treated me to lunch. I got a Choose 2 appetizer of calamari (because I freaking love calamari) and lasagna fritta, and then we split a Choose 3 Dolcini. The one pictured above is the one I got, the Limoncello Mousse. Ania got a double chocolate and her mum got the Amaretto Tiramisu (which I liked, actually).

Next bit of Chicago trip updates coming soon!

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And back to introduction posts!! XD

Church updates. This will change as of August of this year to give way to other priorities with my studies, but at the moment:

- I lead worship at our Calvary Chinese Fellowship (CCF), singing and playing guitar (not well, but I manage), or going back to playing the piano if the little sis isn’t available. I also head up our Missions Sunday planning, arranging, composing (when necessary), and other things because all of our valuable music major people left :( I could list them all but I’ll be sad if I do, so I won’t. In addition to this, I function as one of the “leaders”, despite my horrid Mandarin speaking ability. The worship leading confuses some people because they assume I can read, write, and speak Chinese well (I can literally only do pinyin).

- I play the bass part on the keyboard (thank God for acappella bass singers like Avi Kaplan and Tim Foust who have taught me so much about how bass parts actually work) for the church worship team on Sundays, and piano when our pianist needs a break. I also have an Alesis Vortex keytar (recommended by YouTuber Jonathan Young) that I’m waiting to play with come summer ;D It’s very pretty and I’m very much looking forward to it. Fluting makes an appearance on special occasions (i.e. Christmas, Easter, etc.).

- I also serve on the accounting team (the most junior member and I still have no idea what I’m doing), and help to proofread the bulletin for church. I had done an informal graphic design related “internship”/volunteer type thing once upon a time and designed the brochure explaining why our church does worship the way it does and also a few bookmarks as one of the church’s gifts for new students.

This kind of spills over into craft updates, but I was also recently told that I’m evidently in charge of decorating the church for a wedding for one of our most anticipated weddings ever (details as I find out what I’m actually doing).

Whew that was long. I’ve got a few more “intro” type posts on the way, in addition to the Chicago trip updates, so that should all be wrapped up in the next few posts!
 
Comment below if you've got any other questions that I've neglected to answer thus far, and to make sure you stay updated, click subscribe for more updates (to the right somewhere, I believe).

Introduction Part 1: School + Work

So just to introduce myself to any internet wanderer who happens across this post, I'm 24. Turning 25.

I've more or less hit the point in my life where I'm going "I have to ADULT now?", to which the world has kind of replied with a resounding “Uh, yeah. Why haven’t you already?”

I feel responsible for my mess ups. Why don't they teach us this in school? I'm definitely in the camp of "I wish they'd taught me how to do taxes instead of having 3 different classes talk to me about x, y, and z (insert whatever you don't remember from school here)". 

A book that I read as a child was “The Very Worried Sparrow” by Meryl Doney (new edition here). It’s about a little sparrow who worries about everything from food, to shelter, to a future mate, and to the survival of his family. He later hears about the Great Father who made and cares for all his creations, even teeny tiny little sparrows like him. And that’s how God is, right? He’s our Jehovah Jireh, our provider, and above all, He’s our good Father. 

So while this 24-year-old may be sitting and worrying about health insurance that will have to be dealt with by the time she turns 26, permanent residency issues coming up in the next couple of years, job/career decisions once I graduate, the taxes and ins-and-outs of business with relation to my crafting, and the overall slew of things that is “adulting”, I’m going to do what I can, but leave it to God to handle most of it. 

Because after all, in Philippians 4:13, it says that I can do all things through God who strengthens me. But let's be real, folks. God does it, not us. 

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So to start of my small series of life introductions and updates, here's a small little excerpt of the kinds of things I do in my day-to-day pertaining to school/work:

- I'm currently attending a medium sized mid-western public university (for those who need to know the university, you already know), just starting grad school (which according to my Texas-based best friend (henceforth referred to as Heroine) is a "stupid stupid decision" but she loves me and supports me anyway lol). The name of my program is Learning Systems Design & Technology, and hopefully, after two years, I'll be an instructional designer (the job title is apparently debatable in the industry. Yay me!). I chose the school I'm in because I don't have to do a thesis. Fun, right? I don't foresee myself teaching in any capacity as a professor later on in life, one, because of my personality (I'm not the most patient person...) and two, I don't think that's what I want to do with my life right now.

- I have an online teaching assistantship at the moment that is paying for my tuition (in addition to paying me a small stipend) and I'm also working a freelance editing job for the National League for Nursing. I do things like editing exam questions and transcribing previous edition books into fresh Word documents, with whatever updates the boss has in store for me to work with.

More updates to come later, guys. I’m in Chicago for a friend’s wedding right now, so I’ll have a more extensive (and hopefully better composed) blog post next week, along with updates on my Chicago trip.

Subscribe for more updates (to the left somewhere). :)