TGIF

I was away from my desk from 11am - 4pm. Back to back meetings and lunch and meetings. Lovely. So here is a humor to brighten up your day.

A cake delivered by Walmart. Keep in mind this really happened. Someone was moving from an insurance company.

This is how I imagined the conversation went:
Walmart: T'is be Walmart, how can I help you?
Customer: Hi, I'd like to order a going away cake.
Walmart: Wha'chu want on it?
Customer: "Best Wishes Suzanne" underneath that "We will miss you"



Stephie and Daisy signing off.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A few word about work

I thought I'd give a little more info to clarify what I do for a living..

I'm a class of 2006 graduate from a small business college in Boston. My school was well known for its accountancy program, which I absolutely hate. Instead, I majored in Finance thinking I'd avoid that dry topic - Accounting, took 9 credits of it, got A in all of it, not that I'm not good at it, I just don't like it. It wasn't hard, but it was dry as hell.

So graduate with a good GPA, president's list, dean's list for all semester, except for that 1 semester I was studying abroad in Hong Kong (HKU). Got to say though, that was the best semester of my college life, it was like a 6 months vacation, I barely went to any class and traveled every single weekend. Spent my nights making out with my boyfriend at that time and getting drunk at local bars.

Life was getting better and better as I approached graduation. I was enjoying life, loving life and didn't give a crap about all the small pity shit in the world. Then I started interviewing for jobs, and things got a little out of hand. I was emotional and afraid I won't be able to find a job. 5 months of job hunting. It was like having a job just by job searching. My days used to be like 3 interviews, 2 midterms, then go to work and tutor at night. 12 hour days were like NOTHING. I lost weight, not just because I didn't have time to eat, but I was partying and drinking from Wed to Sat. and getting wasted and throwing up.

Whatever, long story short. Got an offer in CT, didn't want to live in CT, so I waitted and didn't call them back to accept the offer (salary was in the 40's). They withdrew the office in April, them B*TCHES. Anyways, interviewed somemore, and didn't have anything good because I really REALLY wanted to work in NYC. I don't want to stay in Boston, didn't want to work in NJ and loved the BIG APPLE.

Then I attend an interview for a company I never heard of. It was a consulting company, I didn't know what consulting was. I always thought I'd be in finance or investment. My internship were mostly with financial advisors or investment firms. So I didn't know much outside of that world.

The interview went well. They told me I'd travel a lot, 50% of the time and that I will be working with a variety of companies. BINGO! It's exactly what I want! Travel and see different industries. PLUS! they could transfer to the NYC office, which is the headquarter, even though they were interviewing for the Boston office.

2 days later, I got a phone call to pack my bags and go to NYC for a "super day", which means you will get interviewed by 5-6 different people all in one day. It's like a mega interview torture. Let's see how long u can talk about yourself for. I was so out of this world happy. I had an exam the day before, came home, packed my bags and sat there until 4am to have a car service pick me up. I didn't sleep for 24 hours, no joke. 6am flight, sat on the flight with a suit for 1 hour, got to NYC via cab ride at 8am. The first thing I did was finding a Starbucks and get a red eye.

As I entered the skyscrapper building, I thought to myself, just do your best and present yourself well. This is it. I'm almost there! Interviewed from 9-1pm, and I was on the verge of passing out. Hailed a yellow NYC cab and went home in NJ.

2 days later, I got a phone call. "Stephanie, we'd like to offer a position in the NYC office as a consultant. The offer is $5X,000. We look forward to have you on board, please let us know when you decide."

I ran to the bathroom crying (was in the middle of a tutor session) and just let all that tears out. OMG, it was a dream come true. 10G's more and NYC! and the traveling, omfg, I'm in heaven!

Anyways, fast forward a few months. I'm in training, traveling to philly and houston, everything's all danty. Got on the biggest client of ours, a very very big Japanese firm. Worked and worked...

Until one day, I just didn't know the purpose of my job anymore. All I do is write page numbers, copying, making binders and I'm not sure if my manager knew my name. We all sat in a conference room, stuffy and small. Dude, where is this going?

Turns out, my actual professional is an AUDITOR. fucking great. i thought i'd be able to avoid that. Anyways, for people that's not in finance, auditors are basically accountants. You check people's books/processes and make sure everything's in place. Checks and balances, get it?

Everybody hates auditors. Imagine u r doing your job, I come up to u and ask you, "Hi, I'm going to audit you. Give me the last 10,000 checks you deposited and I will see if you've verified every thing." then I will let you know if you've made a mistake. This could cost your job. So of course you'd hate me.

But it's too late now. For me, at least I'm at a bigger firm now. And the audits I do are finance related. I make sure our balance sheets, income statements are correct when it's published. This whole thing about auditors wouldn't blow up if it wasn't for Enron and WorldCom. We need to make sure that alll of our disclosures are following the FASB and SEC.

Sigh.. anyways... I just had performance review with my VP. I don't understand what does me being too straight forward have to do with my performance. I asked him where I could improve on, he said something like "think before you speak" "improve your communications skills" "be professional"

all of these is just because I didn't know that Priests are supposed to be celibate. He's a vietnamese roman cathlic. I don't know what's more embarrassing, I don't know that Preists are not supposed to have sex or him pretending he doesn't know about Asian traditions. He doesn't celebrate Chiense New year, but go all out during Christmas, However, he doesn't accept a gift if it's a clock or watch.

Just because when he said Preists are celibate and I asked "they are not supposed to have sex?" He's saying I'm unprofessional. Dude, we were having a group small talk. Just cus I mentioned SEX! doesn't mean I'm being dirty. Preists are like monks then, except monks don't molest little boys.

Anyways, work is pissing me off. What do you do when you have a 35 yr boss who doesn't care about you? Go tell on his boss. I'd be funny if I showed up at the MD's office and said "hey, did you know your VP is saying he thinks every one will quit soon? and he said someone might get laid off?" you better put him in check, cus that boy talks too much and doesn't watch his mouth.

Talk about unprofessionalism. Sh**************t

Beware - Boring entry

NYC is blanketed with snow this morning. When I woke up and looked outside, I thought I'd just stay home and catch up on some dvds. But noooo.. Since I'm a responsible adult now, I gotta go to work. No snow days allowed. So I got to work, late, I didn't have to, but I took this opportunity, because I know everyone's gonna be late, so why come in early if I don't have to?







And guess what? Nobody came in late, THEY JUST DIDN'T SHOW UP. So I signed up online, everyone's either taking a personl day (snow chicken) or working from home (code for "I'll send a few emails and stay on IM to make it look like I'm working, but really I'm watching tv and having a beer"). So here I am, in an half empty office with the 2 analysts. At least they came in, otherwise I'd be pissed and just get up and leave. Actually, one of them came in at 10:30 and lave at 3pm, why did she even come in? just stay home.








since it's quiet and i have nothing to do. here are a few pics of my boring corp america life. this is my desk. i used to have a cube, but since we moved, everyone just have a "desk", even the higher ups, well, VPs still got their offices. I like my pink bobbing head doll, the only thing that keep my day going. thats my gmat book flipped open to page 4. lol. yea... let's not even talk about how much i've studied.




me in the bathroom, showing you guys how boring i look in my work clothe. black, grey, dark blue, dark green, brown, and sometimes white, are the staple colors. i wore a pink cardign to the office once and everybody took a double look at me. i wore my shoes without stocking once, and i was told by my manager that i was dressed inappropiately. in this pic, my pants are so damn short, shrunken by dry cleaner. crotch is way too tight, can you see the camel toe?




I wanted to take a pic of my face to show you guys my "office look". and this is the best of the bunch. i just seem to have this face when i enter the building. i was cracking up looking at this picture, just had to share with you guys, lol... watch "the office" and you'll understand...



To make this entry somewhat beauty related. this is my office 5-min makeup bag. i usually do my make up at work, just to save more sleep time at home. here are the usual steps:


1. conceal eye bags and dark circle with YSL gold pen thingy


2. lightly powder with EM foundation or sometimes the palgantong powder i got from hk.


3. useing the KATE spicy line palette shown in the pic to do my eyes, using my middle finger, spread the pink powder all over lid, and line eyes with the deep dark brown in the palette.


4. curl lashes with the golden shu lash curler


5. line the upper water line (tightlining) with Lancome Le Stylo Waterproof(this smudges) or the japanese New Born Gradation W liner (it's too hard) or the TARTE emphasEYEs(way over priced little pencil.





here is Daisy when she had longer hair. i took her to the groomer last week and told them to cut it short since i hate having to brush her and comb her everyday. she hates it too. now she's all clean cut.

Zitology

I'm sure many of you read about my unbearable stress from work last week. You know, I was having the "good skin" period before that. No breakouts. No dryness. Just nice smooth skin and I've already decided to work on lightening the discoloration on my face already. That's usually the last thing I worry about when I go through checking off my skin problems.

Low and be hold. With the start of GMAT, poor diet, long nights of watching movies with H and just simply being mentally and physically tired from being ALIVE. Godzitla came pay me a visit. It started on the right side of my face. I thought, ok maybe my pillow case needs to be washed. Then 3 days later, it's the left side of my face. Not in any one particular area. One on the cheek, the forehead and 2 on the chin. According to my zit history, I could tell that the chin ones are from greasy food, cheek ones are from poor cleasing and forehead ones are from lack of sleep and stress.

I usually ignore them and let them mature and dry out on its own. I could live with the embarrassment of walking around with zits at age 23. But apparently, Mr.H will never get over his zit popping obsession. So whenever he's around, I need to beat him to it to take care of the zits. Otherwise, you never know, he might just go on a zit popping rampage when I'm sleeping.

So here is what I do.

1. examine the type of zit, is it underground? is it hard? is it red? is the white head out yet? is it thrumbing? in the Wang household, we treat zits like humans, no discrimination allowed. I mean, H and I talk about zits like our babies. We fight over who gets to diagnose it. Who gets to touch it. Who gets to eventurally pop it. We might as well just put a stethoscope on it an hear its heart beat. I mean, it's just insane the amount of diagnoistic we do on a zit. He usually use his terms of "seed" to refer to the underlying white head, that comes out hard. I dont know, I don't quite agree that they are seeds, they are just white heads, not shown through yet. Whatever, you get the idea. We are zit crazed people.

2. determine if i should let it "mature", eventurally let the "seed" purge out and sqeeze it. this way usually leave no scars. But you know patience is scarced when it comes to big red thrubbing zits. I could kill it on the spot with a needle, open up the pore, sqeeze out the puss until i see blood, when the blood runs clear, and put the rubbing alcohol on it. the pain, it's almost pleasureable, like having the 33rd orgasm and you clearly just cannot scream anymore. this option leaves pot hole like scars.

3. for the next few days, if i have open wounds on my face, i will use tea tree oil to spot treat it. if i'm letting that thing live, i will put some kind of SA lotion on it, pile it with some clay mask to try it. during this period, my face is usually tight and dry, because i'm afraid any kind of lotion/cream will give me more zits and sometimes the open wound catches some lotion and form another "psudo-zit" - looks like white head, but it's just the lotion trapped in there.


now, on to my weapons. The ZENO was a Christmas present, goes to show you guys how much my friends knows about my zit obsession. I literally went to sleep with this thing that night. Anyways, I used a few times. I like the feeling of heat on my already volcanic like zit, it's like, heat killing heat, i almost can feel the battle going on in there. it's like a comet came crushing down on a volcano, the spilling lava could be the blood. It works ok, the only thing is, you have to hold that thing for 1 min, that's a long time to hold anything. it's just not practical. plus you have to heat the zit up every day for 3 days for it to work. i usually use it on the first day and then use other treatments depending on my diagnose.

Ahhh... this, my friend, is my all time hero, or as HG in beauty language. whenever i open up a zit, squeeze out the gut, the blood and all (be sure to get rid of the blood, if you close the pore before the blood runs clear, you will have a bruise like scar). i usually put some alcohol on it just to kill all the bacteria, you will notice that the blood on the cotton pad will turn brown, pretty good stuff. then before i go to sleep (always pop zits at night! you dont want no clear bloody stuff running out of your zit during day time), i dad on some of this tea tree oil. this battle is like the Troy battle, you send in the horse and wait for the city to fall apart. the oil will clear up any infections and keep the area around the zit moist, so you won't have dry scally scar.

this is the Prescriptive Acne Defense Serum, bought it under pressure from SA, but surprisingly works well. i rub this thin serum on my face to prevent break out. usually when the break out is OUT this thing doesn't really do anything. it's a good preventative measure. think of it as vitamins, it works, as we think it does, but you still get sick from time to time. it's no miracle medicine, but does a good amount of work for what it's worth.

This little thing here is what I put on underground zits to make it "mature" faster. I would say this lotion speeds up the ripping period up to 2 days. it's a little to drying as a preventative measure. also, you have to be careful not to put anything else on top of this lotion, it will 'ball" up in little greasy balls. think of it as a blow job instead of a hand job. they all achieve the same goal, but bj takes half of the time and that thing will be hard in no time. and then it's just RIPE, POP, done!

Hope this helps. I'm not chemist, so I can't tell you all about the chemicals and this and that acids. but this is how i use them and I will definitely be stock piling the tea tree oil. it's been my HG for 5-6 years now. The alcohol i mentioned is usually the Clearsil wiping pad? They are all the same, it stings when you put it on a open zit, but feels so damn good, I don't think it's made out of alcohol, but whatever, you can google it right?

1 more day girls and boys. Happy Thursday!

Ramblin'

Howdy! How was everyone's long weekend? It's always good to have an extra day off, though I have no idea what President's Day's supposed to celebrate.

Sat was hectic for me. Reminds me a bit of my senior year..
8:30am - wake up, wash up, no time to shower, put on my yankee cap, feed daisy.
9am - drop off daisy at the groomer, ask them to clip it short, i'm not in the new mom mood anymore, i hate brushing her and it's just less torture for the both of us.
9:10am - while driving back home, i saw the bus i'm supposed to take is behind, so i sped up and raced home, parked the car, grab my bag and ran to the station.
9:45am - in the train, the wrong damn train to my first GMAT class. WTH? why does some trains runs on weekend and some doesn't? i'm not a tourist and i can't even figure out the new york subway.
10:10am - 10 mins late to the first class, they are already talking about Data Sufficiency. Just like in college, I never make it to class on time.
1pm - 3 hours of number properties, data sufficiency and ADBCE (if you are taking gmat, you know what i mean). let's see, where is the volunteer event.. ASTORIA, QUEENS? that's like another planet! V train, uptown, 7 stops. Anything that's over 3 stops away is ungodly. ARGH.
2:20pm - I'm late.. again.. but can you blame me? try to find 36th street at 35th ave in astoria queens and you will know what i mean.
2:30pm - i'm supposed to meet my mentee at a museum. it's a group event and our second time meeting. but she's no where to be found.
2:41pm - 2nd time going around the entire museum
3:04pm - I will go pair up with someone else just to get over it. I came all the way from NJ to meet some freaking high schooler and she ditched me?
3:40pm - it was nice meeting you. where is the door?
4pm - waitting for my roast beef sandwich at a local general store. I haven't had a bite the entire day and i'm not sure if I'm still hungry.
4:30pm - dozing off on the bus.
4:46pm - walking to wards my car. slowly. i put the key in the ignition and just left it there. the smell of my roast beef sandwich is caling me. i inhaled half of it down.
508pm - traffic traffic traffic. on a freaking sat.
5:23pm - daisy looks like a shaven baby lamb. still cute though.
6:12pm - no matter what happens, don't wake mommy up. passed out until 9pm.
10pm - my friend linda came to visit. we decided we need some good spicy food.
12 midnight - 2 kalbi, 1 yukaijung later. we are back home. playing with daisy. showing each other our new clothes (makeup in my case). and she got me a beauty book! DON'T GO TO THE MAKEUP COUNTER WITHOUT ME by PAULA (the lady behind Paula's Choices)



..... me pass out in the couch......in and out of conscious.......




4am - sometimes during the 4 hours. linda left my house and henry came in. i was sleeping in the weirdest position ever. leg up and the drool. aaahhhh.. finally, my day ended....

Sunday was mellow. We had dimsum and shopped for food to cook for our Valentine's Day dinner. I was the cook for the night and totally messed up my dish. I havent cooked in god knows how long. From now on, I hand over the wok to H.

Monday was Ikea and Bed andBath day AKA H's Hell Day. This consist of him pushing the cart following me to every isle, taking down things that's 10 feet high, asking him to pick out the heaviest things and tell him to put it back, carrying humanly impossible things back to the car and back up to the apt. =)

this is why i love him.

Oh and we had White Manna's Burger, OMG it was so good. No wonder it's feature on Food Network. If you are in the Metro NY area, consider dropping by, afterward you can go shop at RiverSide and see if you can bump into Lil'Kim.

I started studying for the GMAT and so far so good. I think I can handle it. I was too scared before, now I just feel like, oh wells, not a big deal, as long as I study steadily, I should be ok. Manhattan GMAT class is definitely helpful and it's not as boring as the Kaplan one.

Happy Hump Day!

my lover, my best friend, and my soulmate, all in one big package. =)

I was in a training session when the flowers were delivered. By the time I got back, all the girls by my cube were like, oh my, you better open it now, I want to steal it so bad! lol... I'm not a rose girl, so he got my favoriate - tulips. Love them in every and any color.

The flowers were only a prelude, leading up to the card, which reads:

Roses are red, violets are blue.
What would I do without you?
Three years and counting and still you take my breath away everyday.
Wish there were more ways to say all that you mean to me.
love, always, H

cue for watery eyes and blushing cheeks. =)


These are some of my favoriate photos from our Turks and Caico's getaway trip last year.


Yes, I did ask him to do the seal thing in the video, lol. You guys should see him with a wet suit on, complete resemblence, I swear. Cute as a seal.

I <3 you too hunny. You are my everything, and don't you EVER stop loving me! I will bite your ding dong off! (don't worry, he's used to it, that's my usual threat.)

First GMAT

edit: I'm feeling much today since I vented last night. Work's ok. I'm happier now that the weather's great. I think I'm bipolar in some way and easily affect by the weather. Whatever, I might end up in a psych ward like Britney, at least I can dust myself and try again at being nice at work. It's Stephanie, bitch.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I just took my first GMAT prep exam from Manhattan GMAT. The first class is this Sunday and they asked us to do a diagnostic test and I got a 470. Pretty low, but I was surprised to see I scored higher in verbal, which should be my weak area.

Whilest taking the exam in the living room, I saw from the corner of my eye that Daisy was eatting her shit. I paused the exam and stomped over to her. I have no idea WTF is wrong with her recently, she's been fucking shitting everywhere in the house. I just took her out 10 mins ago and she's fucking shitting again. I was pissed as fuck. I threw her in the sink and whiped her with my key chain (it's a soft rope). This is the second time today! I came home and took a shower and she fucking shitting in the bathroom while I was showering!

I am fucking tired. Pissed off at the world. I am so fucking angry at everything and everybody. It's V-day tmr and I have no idea what to do for H. He just left today for Boston, but coming back on Friday night and I miss him so much when he's not here. I feel so bad for not being so romantic to him. I mean, we barely even have sex now a days, it's only our second year! It bothers me that I'm not romantic as I was with my exes. Hell, I made a scrap book for my ex - I hope he burned it, that mofo.

While I was taking the practice test, all I can think about how much I hate my job and everyone I work with and how much I want to quit. All I wanted to do is to finish the test fast, I didn't even use all the time to take the exam, I just guessed most of it. My mind couldn't concentrate and I didn't even want to read the questions. My mind is blank and my eyes are zoning out. I feel like I'm day dreaming all the time.

My mind couldn't stop thinking about how much I just want to walk into my VP's office and tell him off and walk out. I swear, I'm so fed up with everyone at work. Here are just a few reasons WHY:

1. I don't think he knows I'm on his team, he passes by me all the time without saying hi. He'd tell my coworker in the next cube about an event and not telling me. I don't know if he's assuming she'll rely the message to me, but I think it's pretty disrespectful and it's not the first time already. He'd say "hey we are going to get starbucks, come if you want" to my coworker and leave me completely out of the picture.
2. When I first started, he made all these promises of how challenge the work is and how they reward everyone accordingly, he'd come by and make sure I was ok. AND NOW, 8 months later, he act like he doesn't even know me. We sometimes bump into each other at the water cooler and he's just slient, talk about uncomfortable moments.
3. I am the only staff on this team, the person who used to be a staff just got promoted. I understand there are rankings and all that. So during the assignment meeting, that bitch was complaining how she wants my assignment, because it's more "fun", and OH did I mention, I've done all the research already and the manager wanted ME on the project? She jumped up and acted all bitchy and took my assignment. and today, she had the nerve to tell my manager in front of me that the "research" was nothing, it was just some documents from previous years. WHY DON'T YOU GO SEARCH FOR THEM THEN? YOU FUCKING DICK SUCKING WHORE!
4. Thank god the new office assignment have me one cube away from my manager, cus bitch fucking gets on my nerves. She's a "bridezilla" type. You know, about to get married and asks me to look at her damn fucking shoes every other 5 mins. DO I LOOK LIKE I GIVE A FUCK WHAT YOU WEAR WITH YOUR CANKLE? FUCKING FAT ASS BITCH. she was telling me she can't wear boots cus her calf is too big. I'm like, you used to be a runner or something? She's all like, no, I was a ballerina. HAHAHAHAHAA... I'm sorry, but that was a funny joke, ok whatever bitch.
5. the only person I was close with at work is just turning into this super self-absorbed annoying ass bitch. O M G. I cannot believe the amount of time this person talking about "me, me me" "me and steven played wii last night" "me and steven had sex last night" "steven loves me, got me a phone" "steven want to buy me a new tv." "steven is so cute but i don't like him" "steven asked me to go over to his house, should i go?" while i stare at her blankly and zoning out with the "steven, steven, steven.." she's like, "hello? any answers? u r no help." I'm like.. "well, i don't know, does my opinion matter? I've never met him before and i don't really care if you go over his house tonight." She responds with a snappy "you are boring." turned around and kept walking.

FUN, JUST PURE FUCKING FUN WORKING IN A FUCKING CIRCUITS. I am so depressed working there, I sometimes wish a bus could run me over on my way to work. All of these after 4 years of college, working my ass off for exams, interviews and multiple internships. Graduate Cumma Laude and THIS IS WHAT I GET! WORKING WITH FUCKING IDIOTS ALL FUCKING DAY.

I want to cry. Seriously... I just want to cry my fucking eye balls out because I cannot believe what my life has come to be. Since no one likes me at work, I predict no one will write a good recommandation for me to go to grad school. they are already looking at me weird for taking GMAT. Why waste time on someone who's gonna leave right? I wonder why they never thought about how to retaining their workers instead of just finding another one to replace it.

Corporate America... is worse than hell.... for all your college students out there, find your true passion and go for it. Don't live someone else's dream, it's not your duty to fulfill their dreams. Live out your own fantasy and you won't be miserable like me.

I'm gonna go cry myself to sleep now...

2 more days of hell.

kill

me

now

DF&CCO and CCO Haul - Feb Edition

What is better than finding classic HG make up or skin care? Finding them at 50% off and taking another $15 off your purchase of $75 or more. =)

This past weekend, yours truly, went back to Beantown for CNY (really just to get some red envelope). I nagged H for the longest time to bring me to Wrentham outlet's CCO, I was supposed to go last time, but my spending urge meter weren't revving that high, so I passed and spare him the 1 hour waitting time. This time, we didn't even go home first and went to Wrentham under my combo seduction and threat, which works great ladies. He's such a trooper for waitting outside with Daisy (no dogs allowed) in the dip 20F weather, it was hard to "hurry up" and I really thought I could use another arm and leg to swatch everything!

without further adieu, my mega haul:


5 items from DF&CCO (all shu):
2 cleasing oils
1 eye shadow
1 blush
1 eye shadow crayons


I only use Shu's cleansing oil to remove makeup, nothing else, I swear. When I went to HK and Japan, I literally bought them in bulks in fear of not able to find them in the US. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the shu cleasning oils on sale for 50% off!!! at DF&CCO. I nearly fainted and almost angry at HOW DARE THEY DISCOUNT SUCH GREAT PRODUCTS! They are $50 per bottle and they are worth every single drop! So I nabbed 2, Fresh for oily skin and the 1960 Original for normal/combo skin. They have all 5 types, anti aging, dry skin and some other ones. Go check your local DF&CCO see if you can get one!

Not sure if I've mentioned the Sierra marble blush I got a few weeks ago (left). I wanted to recreat Karen's glowing bronzed blush look. Shu definitely make the most pigmented blush I've ever tried and it applies so evenly, no need to blend blend blend, the powder is soft and smooth, definitely my HG for blush. That says a lot about a blush, cus usually I hate them. Then I saw the Rose Marble this time and without even testing it, nabbed it too. Just the right amount of shimmer, LOVE IT!


I have never heard of Shu's eye shadow crayon, but when I tested it, it came to be very pigmented and smooth. I thought it was going to be creamy or just a big eye liner, but it's actually powder! The colors are deep green, deep burgendy/purple and icy white, all shimmer. Haven't tried them on my eyes yet, but I have high hopes for them.

Another Shu's e/s. I'm on a deep/forest green trip, this one's not too gold-ish and really shows up as green. A great blending shadow, I think it'll do well with a nice green paint underneath.


6 items from CCO (all MAC):
1 Holiday lipstick/glass set
2 MSF
2 Pigments
1 Lipglass pencil


the MSF's are Northern Light (left) and Gold Spill (right). It was the last Northern Light and I grabbed it in fear of anyone stealing it. It's such a beautiful coral/pink color, it'll do great as a blush or a blush highlighter, but I found some relatively "big" glitter on it when I came home, hmmm.. I'm gonna need to test it one day and see how it turns out. Goldspill is just pretty in everyway possible. As a bronzer or highlighter, it'll be great for the summer to add some glow. I just couldn't resist getting them since they are mentioned countless times in blogs as HG. They are my very first MAC MSFs!

Pigments are Aire de Jardin and Mauvement. I was never interested in pigments. I'm not a makeup artist and not into those crazy bright orange colors, so pigment really serves more as disaster maker and time consumer in my makeup applications (I've heard too many horror stories with spilling pigments). But the color of these two really stood out to me as great neutral colors. I like soft shimmer on my lid and just add eye liners and mascara, not crazy about layering and blending, too much work. so I think these two will be great when I'm in the mood for some pretty soft look for my eyes. I love Mauvement, it's not too grey and still got a big of purple and gold in there. I know my eyes looks the best with purple and grey color scheme, so we'll have to see how I handle the application with pigments.

The lipglass liner is in Pink Edge. I like pairing warm lipliners with warm/gold tone lipgloss. And I have been looking for a perfect pink lipliner for a while now. This one's not too pink and is closer to my natural lip color, plus it's more moist than most lip liner.

I was surprised to see a Holiday set came out so early! It's the PINK lips set. I don't have the colors in front of me, but 1 is a rose under tone pink and the other is a beige with pink shimmer, the lipglass is mostly just beige. I'm not a lipstick person and I want the staying power, so I will definitely be wearing the pink lip stick a lot more.

By the way, I got an extra $15 off the DF&CCO purchase. The outlet has these coupon books you can get if you are a memeber and u can get further discounts. I didn't know, but the SA was nice enough to give me the discount anyways. SCORE!

My way of thinking for buying makeup now is if I'm going to spend money on makeup, I might as well get them on sale. I don't really carea bout the newest collections as long as the colors are nice and I will use them. If I won't use them, what's the point of buying them. I'm not a makeup artist, I'm not a makeup collectors, so I don't need to always catch up with the newest of everything. Also, BOSTON's got a lot more goodies than NY. The CCO and DF&CCO by my work is so small, there is practically NOTHING there. I'm so sick of going there now, I won't find anything anyways.

Hope you enjoyed the post! =)

Beauty Review - Lightful: Lightful Essence

Lightful Collection: Lightful Essence
30ml
$40 (Got it @ CCO for $32)

After some prelimilary research, I understand that this collection was an Asia Exclusive in 2006? Then it was available at the Pro Store. In the Asia exclusive collection, they were other items such as the Protective Hydrator, compact foundation and some other color items. This was just relaunched in MAC store with cleasner, softening lotion, essence and a creme.

I first saw this item in the CCO in Woodbury Commons and was looking for a good sunscreen, when I tested the protective hydrator (I mentioned this in my previous post), it was really smooth, light and absorbed quickly. Also, there is a faint flowery scent that's common in Asian skin care lines, definitely a good buy I say. This is hard to admit, but I don't have a set skin care regime and I rotate my skin care products according to what my skin wants. But the protective hydrator has been my stable since then, that says a lot about ANYTHING in my skin care arsenal.

Now, onto the Essence. I finally bought it yesterday at the CCO by my work. I was feeling down and need some retail therapy, I have been eyeing it FOREVER, every time I tested it, I wanted to get it, but it was $32, that's a lot for 30ml. So I waited and waited. Until the lightful line relaunched, I'm like, why would anybody pay $40 to get the same exact thing they are selling at CCO for $32? F this, I'm getting it.

I'm so happy I did! The Essence is a watery serum texture, it's very light and absorbs quickly, however, it stills feel very moisturizing and relieves my winter "dry-on-top and oily-underneath" skin. I feel like I could use less lotion, which is always good, since they take longer to absorb and tend to make my skin get oily faster.

As far as the "whitening" part, like I said before, I don't care about being pale white nor do I really care about tanning my face. whitening products tend to have high acid content that "peels" your skin, that's the whole concept of whitening, so there is no magical lotion out there that makes you whiter, it just peels your skin to reveal brighter skin tone and probably will turn your skin sensitive.

I do notice my skin turning brighter and I look less yellower than before. My makeup looks great with the protective lotion as a base. the consistency of the protective lotion is lighter than strobe cream and the face primer, so it's more like a lotion and doesn't give me that dried out "my face is a canvas" type of feeling.

All in all, I like the lightful line and I think they were an Asia exclusive line for a reason, it suits Asian skin better. I'm thinking about getting the Creme too, but need to finish my Chanel Precision Hydromax first.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

2008 is the year of the rat, which is my sign. I will be 24 this year and it's not supposed to be a good year for me. My parents are back in China experiencing the worst winter in China in 50 years, all electricity and transportation are suspended. But they are ok since they went to my grandma's house in the country side, where they have electricity and use coal as source of heat.

There is much to be accomplished for me this year, but for some reason, I feel like nothing is going to go the right way. I'm gonna need to wear a red bracelet or something to keep the evil away.

I didn't clean my house, or cut my hair or wear new clothes for Chinese New year. Just because I don't feel the "mood" here. I dind't even know it was Chinese New Year's eve last night! Argh, whatever, at least Henry's here spending time with me. Otherwise I'd be sad as hell again, like last year.

Anyways, I hope everyone will have a healthy and prosperous New Year!!! =)

oh, what a week...

This is exactly how I feel like this morning... Hence the 20 oz dunkin donuts coffee, I hope it'll last me until at least 2pm. It's rainy and gloomy in NYC. Wet, slippery and depressing. I washed Daisy last night and was happy to finally sleep with her in my bed again, cus she's clean. Then what happens at 6:45am? She had diarreah all over my bed and was barfing up 3 inches away from my face. What a nice to wake up. I washed the sheets, clean the mattreess (yes it got stained too), took her out, fed her, washed her again and blew dried her. I was dragging my feet out of the door at 8:15am and was feeling like death by the time I made it to the office.

Me and rain don't mix. Especially when it's been like this in NYC for the past 3 days. My feet is feeling weird (arthritis, maybe) and my stomache feel like having a disco party in there. I'm tired and have the chills. Not sure if this is a cold, but I know my monthly's coming up. Usually I feel like Shit McShitty 2-3 days before. I hope this all goes away soon.

oh and on top of this, my coworker had given me a free ticket to join them for a pre-view of Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show. I appreciate the gesture and everything, but I just don't feel so hot right now. Of course, the peer pressure is on. If I don't go, they probably won't invite me to anything anymore, maybe won't even talk to me anymore. Office girls tend to be all group-ie. Plus they are both single, living alone, no sick dog with diarreah at home. I probably have like a bathroom full of brown water to clean up once I get home, but they can just lay down and have a glass of wine. But I used Daisy as an excuse way too many times. I get the whole eye rolling thing if I mention my dog again.

What to do, what to do. It'd be easier to hang out with them if they didn't talk about boys every other sentence. I'm younger than them and yet I am more settled. Own a condo, having a steady boyfriend, no exciting ex stories, not out clubbing and getting drunk. Boring it maybe sound, but I'm more focused on life. There's a lot more I want to achieve than just drinking and meeting boys. I want to be a more knowledgeable person, see the world, meet more INTERESTING people (boy talks doens't entice me anymore, maybe when I was in 11th grade.)

Another thing I hate is when people talk about themselves and ONLY themselves. I zone out every single time and seriously don't give a crap about 99.99% of the shit that comes out of her mouth. Talking TO me and talking AT me are 2 completely different things. I happen to be a single child, so I don't do well when people talk about themselves. In my world, only me exist. So if you didn't ask me about my life and talk about the thing I want to talk about, I probably don't want to talk to you.

But yet I hang out with these loser because I HAVE TO. I need to form my little circle of alliance. After all, I am in a war zone. Corporate life is brutal and depressing, but you gotta learn how to survive. I am learning.. and surviving... by tieing myself with the chatter box and admin of my group. You see, chatter box is important, because she will tell me everything and anything I want to hear. Her sole goal in life is not to make friends, but to say everything she wants to say and just none stop talking. She talked to me for 3 weeks when I started and I never knew her name. She talked to me like we were old friends, yet I already feel like why we were "old" friend, cus her big mouth won't shut up and my ears are bleeding. Then the admin, well, you need to friends with the admin in the corporate world. That's the #1 rule of the game. You have to and you need to, at all cost, be your admin's closest friend and you will survive ANYTHING with office politics. You get to hear everything first and you know everyone's gossip.

So should I go hang out with my fake friends or should I go home and blow them off? They are all like "YOU HAVE TO COME! when was the last time you hung out with us?"

Every single fucking day, biatch. If i see you, i consider that hanging out. small talk, that's hanging out. If i hear you or see you or smell you, I noticed your presence, i am hanging out with you.

work/life balance is not balance when i see for more than 8 hours a day.

I hate corp. life.

DISCLAIMER: If you are easily offended by Mega Picture-Whoring & Surgical Procedure Pictures, PLEASE DO NOT ENTER! Viewer discretion advised!

This post is in response to the heated topic of Ulzaang (I didn't even bother to spell it right, so whatever that "best face" picture is called"). Well, with the technology now-a-days, you can play around with your camera, the lighting and photoshop the crap out of your picture. Back in my days, pre-2000, there is only webcam and that huge digital camera that saves to floppy disks. Then it came to the time I learned how to GLUE my eyes and do makeup. Then it came the time when I finally got my eye lid done. Yes, eye lid surgery! I had been gluing my eyes for 6 years and finally got sick of it. Along with the eyes, I got my nose done too. Yup, a silicon piece of mold is inside my nose, ewwww.. What else, oh, I plucked my eyebrows too much and got them tattooed. That's all I've done for my face so far. And I feel so much better now, not because I feel prettier, but because it takes much less time to get ready in the morning!



I know it may sound a bit out there that I'm posting this entry. But I am doing this to help those who might be curious of plastic surgery. I know I might get hate comments, and I am so ready sitting by with my cuppa hot tea to read them. For those who might be clicking on the comment button now, I suggest you just read the post and learn a thing or two. Plastic surgery ain't what it blows up to be. Take a look at my post surgery pictures and decide for yourself if you want to go through the pain. Nothing comes for free ladies, and that includes beauty in some cases. So let's start the show~



1999-2000 (eye lid tape and liquid liners, natrual brow tweezed, webcam)




2002-2005 (digital camera, eyelid glue, drawn in brow)


IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED, DO NOT SCROLL DOWN!!!!













































2006 (tattooed brows after 1 yr, a bit faded, post surgery)


1st pic - second or third day after surgery, the first few days, I was high on pain killer and couldn't sleep much cus of the pain, unless I get knocked out by pain killer. The tape on my nose is supposed to keep the silicon mold in place. The stitches on my eyes are still there.

2nd pic - a week after surgery. eye lid stitches are gone and tapes are off. since i couldn't eat or sleep, i think i lost a little weight, and so unhappily hungry, lol.



2006 (weeks after surgery)


1st pic - about 2-3 weeks after surgery. swelling is almost all gone, bruises are all gone, eyes are healing faster than the nose. happier now. =) cus I'm going on a trip to SINGAPORE!

2nd pic - in singapore, about 3 weeks after surgery. I wore a cap for all 3 weeks, and finally took it done that day. friends didn't even notice my nose surgery, bizzard, i think they were just not looking. Wore makeup for the first time post surgery.



2006 (months after surgery)


1st pic - of course this is a low resolution pic, took it on my camera phone with dimmed dorm light. it's about 2 months after the surgery. everything is fine and I had no post surgery complications. the only thing is, I can't do the pig nose. =(

2nd pic - 7 months after surgery, in Japan, you can see the nose swelling was actually still there in the 1st pic, but this pic you can see the shape better. freshly tattooed eye brows!!! no drawn-in.

SuperBowling weekend

Aside from watching my boyfriend Brady getting sacked in the superbowl and checking his bum out every chance I get on HD, my weekend was super booooring (superbowling, get it? corny I know).

It sucked that the PATS lost. I'm from NY and rules for the PATS b/c my boyfriend is their quarter back, I think you guys have heard of him? Tom Brady? Yea, so he dumped that pregger ex of his to be with me and we were so planning to get married after he gets his champ ring, but it didn't happen. Oh wells, at least I will get to massage his soar backs and arms and comfort his grieving soul in the warmness of my arms.

lol. OK, now you guys know about my Brady fantasy. He's pretty hot for an all American boy, but the only white boy that can twist my panties in a bunch is David.... Beckham... *drooool*. I don't know what the B*tch Victoria has that I don't. All that fake tan and plastic boobies, yucks! I bet she does some humanly impossible moves in the bedroom that she learned from her trip to the Mars, and got Beckham on some alien voodoo to keep him hypnotized on her.

Anyways, back to my boring weekend. I went to a World MBA Tour on Sat. and was greatly disappointed that I spent $5 for NOTHING. The hotel hosted the event was so jam packed, I felt like I was walking in a sardin tin. There were about 20 schools there. All 2nd tier, not on my dream list school. What a false advertisement! I got a hold of an NYU alum and chatted up with him for about half hour. We were about a foot away facing each other and I had to SCREAM EVERYTHING I SAY! "HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CLASSMATES?" "WHAT WAS THAT?" "HOW WOUULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR CLASSSSSMATESSSS!!!???" "HOW MANY ARE THERE IN MY CLASSES?"

My ears were ringing after I came out of that basement conferenceroom. I felt like a bomb had gone off in front of my eyes and I couldn't hear the world. Sigh, the things you do to make your dreams comes true. Then my friend Benny picked me up and informed me that my ear was bleeding. WHAT?! Oh, that just a pimple I popped. But honestly, I thought my ear drum had popped and bleeding out my ears.

Came home, we made some dinner. He cut his thumb and I got splattered with boiling oil. But I learned how to make gracamoule and corn flaked chicken. Was too tired to even finish eatting everything. Then he showed me his $4000 camera and some of his works. very impressive. All of a sudden, I want to be a photoagrapher. But $1000 for a lense? I will stick to my makeup addict hobby.

SUNDAY was gorgeous. Woke up at 2pm to my radio. "High 52 degrees, currently at 46." WOOHOOO. I put on my booty work out pants and popped on my iPhone. Daisy in tow, we went on a 90 min walk by the waterfront, down to the Pier and up the new constructions. She entertained the kids on the strollers and I chatted with friendly dog lovers. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon.

I don't want to talk about the Super Bawl. Skip until 11pm. I went out to the supermarket and bought more avacado and lunch meats. Came home, made avacado turkey sandwich. AND left it home this morning. sigh... That sandwich could cost about $8.35 in the city. Since my dumb ass left it at home, I'm gonna have to buy a $2.25 soup today for lunch. ARGH!

The drama at work is dying down. Now I've realized. When sh*t hits the fan, everyone's for themselves. Gives me more motivation to kick ass on the GMAT and get away from this sh*t hole.

Adios chicas. Sorry for the boring post.

To blog or not to blog

Read this first...

I'm sure a lot of the fellow beauty bloggers have already voiced their opinions about this controversial article posted by New York Times. However, from a new blogger point of view, I feel like NYT really is just catching the head birds of the forest, while ignoring that there are many many many beauty bloggers out there who do not get free samples and still blogs about the latest, all at their own expense. I don't know about you, but to me, those are the real bloggers.

My first encounter with beauty blogs started late 2006. I was working at my first full time job and lord knows when you just start, nobody notices you even exist and forget you all alone in your little cube. That's when I started reading Glam.com blogs. I was blown away at how fabulous these girls are! Wow, I knew I liked beauty products, but these girls are just over the top glam and girly. I loved it! allaboutthebeauty, makeupbag and themakeupgirl were my first obsessions.

I started to feel OK about my addiction to beauty products. I never knew there are people just like me out there! Then somehow I came across RougeDeluxe when someone mentioned the Inuind (sp?) brand by Dick Page and how it was the 8th wonder of the world and disappeared in the dark dark space. Then she led me to believe that I was right when I told everyone of my friend that Japanese beauty brands are the best for Asian skin. Despite the face that they are expensive and hard to get, we are Asian, therefore, we should use products geared towards Asian skin. Then I met THE MUSE. Oh my god, is she a ball of fire coming at cha. She's always armed with the newest, cutest, and the most exclusive product on the block of Tokyo. She'd tease us with all the shimmer and glitters and make us bite our bottom lips when we find out we can't buy it in the US.

THEN..... comes the Nov. of 2007. I was looking through my xanga site and how it documented my life from 2002 to 2006, then it all ended when my battle with panick disorder took over my life. I wish I could have continued with my xanga, but it wasn't worth at that time. Most people stopped writing and everybody started using The Face Book, which is not solely used for blogging.

cuttibebe.blogspot.com is only 3 months old but it's one of the best things I've ever done for myself. I could already tell that by reading blogs, writing blogs and communicate with my fellow bloggers. I am more engaged in life. I am more in sync with the world. By reading everyone's life, the ups and downs, it made me feel ok that I am blue at times too. I didn't feel lonely anymore and felt that all of my fellow bloggers are my real friends.

With that said, my knowledge of beauty products is so much in depth than before. I learned that not everyone likes sticky lipgloss and that not liking a new product is ok, even when everyone's raving about Cetaphil's lotion, it's ok that I hated it and felt betrayed by the reviews on MUA. The path to flawless skin and beautiful makeup is a long road journey filled with trials and errors. And I am glad I've got company on the road to castle filled with beauty secrets.

I don't think most of us get free samples by blogging. Maybe the ones in Beauty Blog Network, but not us average blogging -for-fun type of people. Most of us drive to 5 different CVS's in the middle of the night looking for the new H.I.P paint, go home, swatch all of MAC paint and compare it to the H.I.P ones. Most of us plow through the internet and find the hidden promo code, so we all can get a silver clutch filled with samples when spend $50 on sephora.com. Most of us just do it so that we all can be educated with the product without spending the extra dime, and simply help out the girl next to us find the best mascara that's clump free and keeps the curls, OR just for pure joy, splash our newest loot from MAC across the table and take a picture of it, so you can see the color with flash, without flash, in day light and indirect lighting.

DO WE GET PAID FOR THIS? NO. DO WE GET PARIS TRIPS FOR THIS? NO. DO WE CARE? HELLS TO THE NO. All we care is that our readers are thankful for our effort and look to us for answers when they can't get the Angel on Bare Skin scrub to mix (MUSE know this one). As a reader of beauty blogs, I am more thankful than ever to have finally find the real blog without the pefect promo pic of the newest product by Lancome. As a blogger, I am grateful for my readers to just stop by and say hi and that they like my blog. These, to me, are the greatest joy in the world.

Thank you for reading.. my fingers are so tired.. I need to go get my lunch now..

Ciao~