Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Happy New Year! ミ☆


Happy 2014, everybody! Just finished watching Kathy Griffin making Anderson Cooper crazy uncomfortable while the ball dropped over here. Actually didn't have a very exciting new years celebration here, so we'll skip that. I'm interested, what's your new years resolution for 2014?


As I wrote on twitter, I came home on the 21st. My mum decided at the last minute that since I had so much unscheduled time over the holidays she would just buy a ticket and ship me home, so home I came. (Granted I did miss Plastic Tree, the GazettE, Sendai Kamotsu, and Angelo lives respectively.)



My connecting flight from San Francisco was balls awful, btw. Seven hour layover on a 9 and half hour flight with no sleep (and not a penny on me to buy a water or anything while I waited). Then the actual connecting flight to Atlanta was super turbulent and I got sick. Never want to repeat this experience if possible.

Jet lag has also been a bit off this time around. Usually I'm snoozing by 9pm and up reading or drawing with a coffee by 5am during my first week or so, but this time it's been opposite. Sleep kicks in around 5am and then I'm up and at it around 1pm.

Anyway, I got home just in time to get in the mood and celebrate Xmas with the fam. Which mainly consists of me drinking at any and every possible occasion.




I hope everyone had a very Merry Xmas and got lots of great things! My real present this year (to myself, lol) was my MacBook. So from Santa this year I got a few bucks to put toward covering it as I continue to pay it off over the next couple of months. I did get some other lovely things, though...




Yay! These converse aren't as blatantly red as they appear; they're actually kind of pink. I adore them! I've been wearing them out every day since I got them. I also got some Ciate nail polish in yellow with a vial of these colourful sprinkle-like beads in different colours to accent. It's strangely Eastery, though, haha.

Also, since I told my family I wanted nail polish, my sister assembled this for me...




12 bottles of nail polish and my facial moisturiser from Origins! She literally just went into the store and picked every shade she would never wear in a million years and got it, haha.

I also got a furry hat, some lotion, and a portable DVD player thing (which I will hook up to a TV and use as an actual DVD player, haha). Hope you guys got some good stuff too!

Anyway, I have to be honest and say I haven't really enjoyed this trip home like I thought I would. It's been sort of a bitter pill for me, especially after my good friend from Waseda came to hang out and drink with me the night before I headed back. I feel like every time I remember why I loved living in Japan, lately, reality sort of punches me in the face soon after. It's difficult to explain and I know it's mostly psychological and probably just a part of growing up, but... Growing up sucks.

I guess I'm sort of in a place right now where I don't feel like I belong anywhere. I know I don't belong in Japan, Japan is for the Japanese and I feel like it will always be that way. I also see very clearly that I don't belong back here where I grew up, but that's not really surprising, since I never really felt like that when I lived here either.

Which brings me to the point of this entire post (aside from wishing you season's greetings and showing off my pretty things): New Years Resolutions.

I've never been big on them, but I'm hoping to give it a real go with three resolutions I'm going to try to make good on. After all, can one really improve without setting some sort of goal to improve toward?

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2014 New Years Resolutions of a dish

1. Write More - It hasn't been long, granted, but since I've gotten my new computer I've started keeping a very casual, jot-like journal in the memo pad. It's simple: a date, a time, some kind of list or random feeling or simple description of what I've been doing. I've never been a good journaler, but I can't help but feel like I'm thinking a bit more clearly when I'm writing my thoughts these days.

2. Think Positive - I've been in a rut, and I do believe in the power of positive thinking. I really want to get back into that positive mindset. I think that positive thinking even when it all seems bad can help you get through all kinds of difficult situations, so I'm going to put that belief to practice this year. I'm going to have a good year. ("Year of Penny!")

3. Explore - This year is the year of exploration. I wanna go new places and do new things. I've lived in Japan for about 4 years now all together, and there's just really no excuse for not having seen more than I have. This year I'm going to explore everything and reawaken that childlike curiosity that sent me there to begin with. I think I'm going to start with that damn Sky Tree!

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I'm interested in what resolutions you guys are planning for this year and whether you've ever had much success in keeping them? I know it's easy to feel like the world is your oyster at 1:30am on Jan 1st, but there's no telling how things will be come February, right? POSITIVE THINKING.

I know. I need to calm down on the Kahlua before bed.

Anyway, tl;dr.

HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYBODY!ミ☆


Snagged this from the post right before I headed out for the states.
Thanks for the lovely card, Ande!