I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-T DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEAN?

Long ass title but it's fittingly appropriate. Let me explain. I used to be the person who wouldn't go shopping alone, who wouldn't go to the grocery store alone, who wouldn't even like frolicking on the daisy abundant fields alone (okay, who would do this alone? oh, you would? ohhh...awkward...) After just a semi-short, semi-long semester off (okay, twenty minutes away...but still) at college but I came back a changed women (girl, chick, baby gurrrlll, vagina carrier, or whatever). Now, I actually enjoy it and sometimes even prefer it. It's nice to be able to do something by yourself for yourself, it's awesomely liberating. HIP HIP HORRAY FOR WOMEN AND INDEPENDENCE!

My post-Christmas shopping extravaganza wasn't my typical "let's hit the mall!," oh no, no no no! (I've been avoiding my mega packed super ghetto mall like the plague, lame.) But it practically forces me to be more proactive and shop at different places unless I want to get mugged or cat-called at (the lather I mind less).

So to the thrift stores I ventured! It also didn't hurt that goodwill was 50% off on the 26th and salvation army was over 50% off, score! I forgot how much I loved thrift stores; they push you to try things you would never even imagine to pick up! Unlike normal stores like F21 and Urban Outfitters, thrift stores don't have genres of clothing and they don't carry what's "in" or hip at the moment. It also makes me want to revamp clothing that I like into something I'll love and be proud of rather than spending quadruple the amount of money I would've at a store on something generic that everyone else will also be sporting.

On the 26th, I thrifted with my bestie laura and then my mother, and both trips were fairly different experiences. When I thrift with laura, it's magic, we have this sort of chemistry that just flows between us. We know what each other digs and what we don't and it's fun to pick random weird stuff to try on (and end up loving...okay, only I do but still!) When I thrift with my mother, it's different. I'm not saying it's not fun but it's not the same. She still thinks I dress odd, weird, crazy, and teenage-like (well...duh). But still, she likes it...sometimes. So when I thrift with her, it's nice to have her pick up the tab (cheap is still not cheap enough for a poor college student like me, boo.)

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah, independence. Well on the 27th (today), I decided to do it solo (NOT LIKE THAT...get your minds out of the gutters...heh I still giggled). I used to hate shopping with just me, myself and I but I found it to be refreshing. It was nice to shop at my own pace, to dwiddle dwaddle around looking at ludicrous stuff, and actually like it. Chheyaaa, I definitely felt like the girl WEBBIE rapped about, but on a lesser level (I'm not THAT independent...yet!) Nevertheless, it was still a small victory for moi! Can I get a what what?!

(LOOK AT MY FACE, I'M SO MUGGIN' AT THE CAMERA AHAHA!)

cropped leather jacket: h&m

leopard top: buffalo's exchange ($7)

skirt that's a size too big: taiwan

black over the knee high socks:f21 ($3)

grey booties: mother's

gold dreamcatcher-esque necklace: f21 ($6)

Are there any activities that you like to do sans personas?

MY BEARD IS FESTIVE

Yes, yes, it is. My desktop background so elegantly states it so.

A quick little post to get the holiday festivities rolling...

Instead of doing a holiday wishlist, I'm going to start a new tradition. This is the first (of many to come) holiday want-to-do-list! It's a compilation of sexy good looking men I wish I was getting all hot and heavy with underneath the mistletoe this Christmas.

My Holiday Want-to-do-list (you may look but don't you dare touch!):

1. Francisco Lachowski

The epitome of sexy, Francisco (aka Chico) is panty dropping hot. Of course he would be a brazilian male model, the brazilians have the sexy baby formula down solid (share with the rest of the world please! we need to share the sexiness!) Besides being oober good looking, he is adorable beyond words. Since he's only 18, he's super goofy and seems so down to earth, which makes him THAT much sexier, AH!

2. Enrique Iglesias

I personally breathed the same air as Enrique Iglesias for about 20 minutes and it was the best 20 minutes of my life. I almost died right on the spot as my life was then complete.

3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Just rewatched 500 Days of Summer and my love for JGL blossomed some more! I love how versatile this man is; from being slickly suave in Inception to adorably geeky in 10 Things I Hate About You to indie chic in 500 Days of Summer. And through all that, he manages to look unbelievably doable in every role.

4. James Franco

He's just so damn adorable and fuckable. And he's even wearing plaid, my kryptonite! Looking good with the scruff my man!

5. Andrew Garfield

Andrew is a newly acquired lover of mine. After seeing him as Eduardo in The Social Network, I fell. No, I swoooooned! He's so UUMMPH and MMMHM, I just want to AHHH! Good thing he's in the new Spiderman movie, and word on the street is that the crew spent a whole day trying to cover up his enormous..."package" for the movie. Yup, you heard me right. No more needs to be said.

MERRY CHRISTMAS WORLD!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Be thankful for all you have, be grateful for all that is going well, be happy that you're alive because it's mothereffin' Christmas yo! Go out and party it up! Drink a little too much eggnog, eat like there's no tomorrow, love until your pores ooze out love, and do it BIG. Love you all and be safe in the most dangerous ways possible, YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!

LETS SCARF

Wooooooot for winter break! For the past four days I've been in an indefinite insomniac zone; bed at 6AM, wake up at 2PM. Hmmm, problem? NOPE! That's how winter break should be spent, duh! It's been amazing catching up with old friends, make plans with new friends, and eating delicious home cooked comida! Even though it's been literally heaven, I slightly miss CAL already (shhh, don't tell anyone because I'll shamelessly deny it!) I loved having all my friends just a couple doors down instead of having to drive 20 minutes to see anyone. But still, I'm making the most of my month off. I'm hoping for a little road trip to...let's say SOCAL? Since the quarter system kids are back in school in a week and a half, my semester friends and I thought it would be epic to road trip down to san louis obispo, LA, and SD to visit our friends and do a little sight seeing (beach seeing more like!). YEAH YEAH? FUCK YEAH! My dearest mommy even OKAY-ed the whole shingding! Ahhh, this better happen! Fingers crossed!

Tired of Cafe 3, the roomie and I ventured off to Cafe Durant for brunch. Delicious, relatively cheap, and CAL-ed out, I think I can get used to this place! What makes it even better is that there's seating outside on the balcony, and you know what that means...it's perfect for stalking the people passing by! My favorite game!

I wore the outfit to my family celebration at Dragon 2000 in Walnut Creek. My baby cousin Kyle is already a month old, how precious! It sucks being away at college because I've only seen him twice since he was born and he's growing up so fast! Pretty soon his family is moving to China and I'll rarely get to see him. Sad. But anyways, it was nice seeing everyone again but I had to dip out early because it was my bestie Maria's 19th birthday! GOLLY GEE!

So dearly sorry about these terrible pictures, the combination of rain+darkness+impatient brother=fail fail fail and...wait for it...FAIL!

black scooopneck top: mother's closet

large scarf: thrifted ($2)

black jeggings: old navy ($19)

grey sweater: old navy ($8)

brown bowed boots: taiwan ($50)

vintage coach bag thrifted: ($15)

vintage belt: thrifted ($4)

earrings: gifted from somewhere online

It's almost Christmas! Yay! I love everything about this holiday; from the twinkling lights, to the decorated delicious smelling tree, to the ornaments that bring forth memories, to the belly busting food, to the beautifully wrapped presents. What I love beyond all else is the spirit of Christmas. The spirit brings smiles to children, adults, and elders all the same. It's such a beautiful thing.

P.S. DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT WATCH HUMAN CENTIPEDE! Curious and bored, I thought the movie would provide some sort of entertainment because it slightly reminded me of the Saw series (which I love!) But no, it is not like that AT ALL. There is absolutely no plot or point to the movie at all, I watched all 94 minutes and all I saw were human lips being sewed to the assholes of one another, yeah, you heard right, lips to ass. It's seriously that disturbing. What a waste of a hour and a half of my life, I would have much rather spent that time staring at a blank white white wall.

Christmas is in 4 days, what's on YOUR wish list?

MEDLEY OF PLAID

OH BLOG, OH HOW I'VE MISSED YOU! I PROMISE I'LL NEVER LEAVE YOU AGAIN, NEVER EVER NEVER! Finals were taking up all of my time, that little gold diggin' hoe, I promise I'll never let it come between us again! It was merely a fling, a little indiscretion, shamless fun (PAH, NOT EVEN!), nothing more than that, I promise! You will always be priority #1 from here on out!

Finals are over, FINALLY! (AAHHAHAHA OMG IM SO FUNNY!) But in all honesty, finals killed me. Raped me. Used and abused me. I can no longer handle even thinking about it. My final grades are going to make me cry, I can feel it all the way down, down down down in my bones. Oh well, 2 all nighters, 4 hours of sleep, 3 finals in 2 days, what did you expect? Back to reality, it's winter break, YAYZ! Time for a month of nothing, nothingz, and absolutely nothing but mindless fun, ah!

This was an outfit I wore 2 weeks ago with my floor to cairo night, a hookah bar in SF. I didn't know what to wear so I wore it all, I was like a walking rainbow! I mean, it is SF after all so any and all rainbows are welcome! It was my first experience at a hookah bar, and it was an exciting blur of smoke, lightheadedness, mindless dancing, shameless swearing, rain and then some.

pink beanie thing: crossroads ($12)

plaid shit: borrowed from the roomie (BDG)

teal cardigan: f21

dark blue jeggings: old navy ($19)

mocs: crossroads ($12)

Finals week has been my excuse to practically live in my awesome panda! sweatshirt. Everyone noticed and everyone bombarded me about it. Psh, let me be! I like my pandas! (especially when they dougie, HAHAAH!):

Me and roomie "studying" in the lounge. And Ben's sleeping in the back. Look how friendly and happy my pandas look!

It was also an excuse for me to wear nothing but my newly acquired plaid! YAYZ! I'm totes (totally FYI, yeah I'm supa hip!) starting a plaid collection. Well, more or less. I have to admit something to you guys. I've developed a collar fetish. I love anything with collars on it, I can't help myself!

CAL colored plaid: H&M via crossroads ($4.50)

color vomit plaid: BDG via crossroads ($8.50)

OH! NEW FREAKIN' EXCITING NEWS! I got my left tragus pierced at the ever so lovely Zebra's on Telegraph. I love it so much! Minus the part where I can't talk on the phone anymore since the ring intrudes, but whatevs, that's why texting was invented! I've been dying to get it for FOREVAZZZZ and it makes me "teeheehee" happy all the time!

What are your plans for winter break?!

TAKE A BOW

It's currently 5AM on a Friday morning...dead week is so going to be the death of me (HAHAHA, I know I still got jokes!) I've been reading up on 27 integrative biology lectures, reading/rewriting/cramming/memorizing, I'M POOPED! And this is only one class, PPFTT! This is the only time you'll ever hear me say "ASDFJKL; AHHHH NOOO, FRIDAY, GO AWAY, COME AGAIN ANOTHER DAY! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!" I have a feeling that finals are going to kick my sore-from-sitting-uneducated-frightened-and-afraid-to-fail tushy. At least the light at the end of the tunnel is near, SO CLOSE I CAN ALMOST SEE IT (not that kind of light, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, don't fret)! Only 5 more days until I get to go home for a whole entire month! AH, I can already taste the delicious calories I'm going to inhale faster than I can say "NOM NOM NOM!" It's going to be a fatty, great, amazing, trip down memory lane; I'M STOKED!

Since it's dead week and all, I've taken full advantage of it by not giving a fuuuuccck and wearing pretty much the same thing for the last 4 days (during study time anyways), to the point where my floormates are starting to notice (it's not very hard, I practically live in my bright red panda sweatshirt). Oh wells.

This was the outfit I wore to the Caliber Magazine launch party over at the Space Lounge. It was definitely an interesting experience (and there was free food, YUM!) I'm definitely going to apply and try to write for them during the spring, FINGERS CROSSED!

leather jacket: H&M

red puffy sleeve shirt: decal swap!

bow shorts: taiwan

tights: taiwan

black booties: f21 ($27)

necklaces: old navy ($2 each)

Good luck on finals everyone! LET'S DO THIS!

BABY I LIKE IT

Last Wednesday was the MOVIN' 99.7 TRIPLE HO SHOW at SJSU Event Center. The line up was SOOOO DANCEABLE! And sexy, VERY VERY SEXY! Who performed you ask? Miranda Cosgrove (who's super sweet and adorable I must admit), Nelly(so many memories, ahhh!), Taio Cruz (BREAK BREAK BR-EAK BR-EAK YOUR HEART), Jay Sean (dance, dance, sweat, dance, sweat!) , Far East Movement (LIKE A G6!!), and.....ENRIQUE IGLESIAS! AH, I died when Enrique came onstage. I cried, literally. He's gorgeous, beautiful, sexy (SO SEXY!) He turned me into such a fan girl! Iscreamed until my head start to T H R O B and my lungs ached from being oxygen-less. Ahhhh, Best 20 minutes of my life.

So, in order to get into the concert mode, I decided to dress a little...yeahhh. Leather jacket, holes, tights, booties, gold; yup, it works...right?

(it totally looks like I'm grinding on myself...yeah...)

leather jacket: h&m ($30)

black hole infested tank: f21 ($14)

vintage levi shorts: buffalo's exchange ($7.50)

tights: taiwan

brown booties: urban outfitters ($20)

gold heart necklace: f21?

vintage belt: thrifted ($5)

What was the best concert you've been to?!

Links à la Mode: It Gets Better

It Gets Better

Edited by: The Sunday Best

As we head full on into the "holiday" season, with its unbridled consumerism, endless head-whacking charity pleas, and weird tie-ins, I expected the links list to be inundated with shopping guides. Instead, many dealt with what can only be considered harassment or, terribly, abuse; several looked at blogging as a cathartic experience, others as a rallying cry. I was lucky enough to be raised in an openly affectionate household with two strong female presences in my mother and sister, and this has undoubtedly affected my manner and attitudes as a married man. Since I can't go around changing men and society, no matter how cool that superpower would be, I offer this reminder, in what I believe is the spirit of the season (when that spirit is allowed to express itself unfettered): respect is the bare minimum we owe each other, and the bare minimum we should expect from others. Respect is not necessarily agreement, but it is always acknowledgment. For those who are struggling this season--financially, emotionally, physically--I can only echo the words of Tim Gunn, George Takei, and others when I say, "It gets better." Happy Holidays.

Links à la Mode: December 2

• Analogue Chic 1 step forward, ten steps back: Skinnygirl by Bethenny Frankel
• Be Fabulous Daily Women at work: An immodest proposal
• Crimson Rosella My safe haven
• Finding Tokyo Why Paris is no longer the fashion capital of the world
• Independent Fashion Bloggers: The Comment Challenge
• Melina Bee How to host your own clothing swap in five easy steps
• Mrs Bossa Friend Friday Guest Post: Size Matters
• My Heart Blogged Losing 40 lbs., and what I've learned
• Oranges and Apples An ethics code for bloggers
• Piewacket Hot off the press
• Statements in Fashion My Alex, My Dragonfly
• Style Eyes A fashion bloggers mini guide to psychology
• The Button Owl Control freak
• The Chic Curve From the author: "Fat Bitch"
• The Coveted Nicole de Carle: Subversive Architectural Lingerie
• The Demoiselles Can't stand the hate: Cutting Bridalplasty down to size
• The Elegant Bohemian The sisterhood
• The Laugh Slut Giving thanks
• The Sunday Best Give him scotch
• Vogue Vintage The future of fashion blogging
• Wearabout Streets on the runway

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Shopbop Swimwear: Bikinis

GUILT-FREE GUILTY PLEASURES-PART 3

You know you do this, DON'T LIE!

1. Blaming your munchy munchy food-centered cravings on your period...even if you're not on your period. No one has to know right?!

2. Staying in bed until noon, not because you're tired or sleepy, but simply because you're far too lazy to drag your ass out of bed to PEE. YUP, to pee.

3. Jamming out hardcore to a song (pokerface, eyes closed, that don't-fucking-mess-with-me-im-singing trance) then realizing you've fumbled up the lyrics...FUCK! What do you do? Acting like you didn't and continue singing. ROCK ON, ROCKER, ROCK!

4. In the middle of telling a story to a group of people you realize that there is absolutely no point to the story...and then you found $5.

5. Laughing at your own jokes/mistakes/mess ups/drunken mistakes/stumbles/etc. in order to make it seem like your coooool with whatever in order to prevent people from further torturing (aka making fun of) you. It totally works...sometimes.

6. Eating food at 3AM does not make it breakfast because it's in the AM. It makes you a fatty unless you're in college than you're just taking a "study break" to fuel your brain. YEAAAHH!

7. The excitement of getting something brand spanking new and babying the crap out of it! The moment you drop it &or scratch it for the first time, the moment of ":O" and "AWWW SHIT! NOOOOOO!" and proceeding to treat it like crap because it's not "new/perfect" anymore. Wow, this could totally go for relationships as well, and painting your nails.

8. Saying that you "want to sleep forever!" Stop it. That is called "DEATH."

9. Putting something down for a milisecond and immediately lose it. WHAADAAEFF, it's like they grow flippin' invisible legs and scadaddle away!

10. Having a stuffed animal in college is not creepy/weird/awkward/odd. It's nice, soft, pretty and snuggly, it also shows that you're down to cuddle. Unless you're a boy. Or you have 30 of them all lined up across your bed. In order of size. By color. And all have names and personalities. Then it's FREAKY AS SHIZZ! RUN RUN RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!