Midterms

It's that time of year again!

The time when it's all cram, cram, cram for me and every other college student that wants to pass.

My life right now

I have four midterms today.

FOUR.

Four midterms. Back to back to back to back.

It's Constitutional Law and then Business Statistics and then Microeconomics and the International Political Economy. One at 8am, one at 9:30am, one at 11am, and the last one at 12:30am.

I'm pretty close to loony at this point.

So please forgive me.

And excuse me.

CRAM!

19 Years And Counting...

First and foremost, I would like to start off this post by thanking God for blessing me with these 19 healthy years of life.

He has been so good to me, and has filled my life with goodness and blessings and joy, and I can't thank Him enough.

And keeping in line with the blessings, Thursday was really a day filled with joy.

I actually woke up in a really bad mood. Wednesday night I worked and I didn't get out until 11 30. I made it to my dorm just in time to ring in my birthday at home, at 11 57. Then I studied for my history final until around 3 (after doing the midnight birthday phone calls and answering FB messages). I finally woke up at 7, totally grumpy from lack of sleep. I drag myself over to my bathroom sink and BOOM!

BEYOND cute!!! My roommate is the best!! She wrote Happy Birthday in English, Portuguese (my language!) and German! (she lived in Germany for 10 years before coming to Georgia for college)

Look! It's Hello Kitty! Beyond adorable!!! She later drew on balloons, but I didn't snap a picture of that. It totally made my morning to wake up to that sight!

And she got me a present!

Three Victoria's Secret body mists, and a German chocolate called Kinder, that we discovered early on that we both love! She's just the greatest! I felt kind of bad, because the only thing I did for her birthday was buy her a jewelry case... Talk about being outdone!

Then I finished getting ready, and Carlin came over, along with a Starbucks gift card! Woot woot! She knows the way to my heart, that's for sure. I can now thoroughly enjoy Starbucks Happy Hour!!

Oh, and here's the outfit I bought for my birthday

With blazer

Without blazer

The blazer was already a part of my wardrobe, but the belt was purchased maybe 2 weeks before this, and so far had never been used. The dress though, so cute! When I came out of the dressing room on Tuesday, both Jessica and Karima agreed that the dress was a must have for me. I really like it. I can make it a business outfit with the blazer and some nice pumps, or I can wear it as a party dress, or even just a casual night out with friends outfit. So many endless opportunities, so much adorable-ness. And I wore the cute heels with the bow that I bought at Forever 21 on Tuesday as well. It was just a "be fabulous" kind of day!

We then studied and went to take our final, which wasn't too bad. We both closed the class with Bs even though we BOMBED the first exam (And by bombed I mean under 50%).

Finally, the final was over and off to Ihop we went! I didn't have breakfast, so Cinnabon french toast was the perfect way to start off my birthday. Oh, and the phone calls. Endless phone calls from my mom, brother, sister, aunts, grandma, et cetera et cetera, Not to mention a gajillion texts and e-mails and Facebook messages. I'm not going to lie, it does feel nice to have one day of being the center of everything.

Finally we came back to my dorm where my baby was waiting for me with surprises! He had a beautiful bouquet of flowers waiting for me, along with a big cupcake balloon (cupcakes are kind of an insider cutesie thing between us) surrounded by smaller balloons, and a gift bag!

Beautiful bouquet from him (:

The cute bag my lamp came inside, and his card 

My new (only) lamp (:

Balloons!

Cupcake balloon!!!

It was all so cute it's a wonder I didn't squeal!

He also brought me cards from my family (long story short, all my mail goes to his house).

I loved the cards! They were so cute and springlike, and I felt as if they all matched. If only it had been warm on birthday to celebrate the spring colors... My mom also sent me bonds... That won't be good for another 30 years. I'm sure that when I'm 49, I'll be so happy to have that saved up money to send my children to college. Or, to go on a really nice vacation!

Then off Luis and I went to the Georgia Aquarium! 

I love places like the aquarium and the zoo. Animals are fascinating to me. I really enjoyed going to the aquarium. We had the opportunity to touch sting rays and anemones and sea orchids and starfish. We saw beluga whales, whale sharks, penguins, and otters. We even sat in this huge room with a giant aquarium for a while and just relaxed, watching the fish swim around. So peaceful and lovely.

I also took a LOT of pictures. Pictures of me, pictures of Luis, pictures of fish and crabs and whales and frogs, pictures of everything.

And we are that couple. The icky, super lovey and affectionate, PDA, too cute couple. We make people jealous and wanna puke and awww and ewww and whatever else people have to say about us. But the point is, it's not a special date for us, if we don't take at least one oober cute picture (which usually involves kissing). So here it is

Cue awwing and/or ewwing

Aren't we so cute? He took me to Starbucks afterwards to pick up my free birthday drink (Yes, I am a rewards member!) and I got my first Starbucks venti ever! I tried the new Caramel Ribbon Crunch frappuccino! So yummy!!!

Our next stop... Buckhead! We went to this super nice, French restaurant, Bistro Niko. It was a beautiful place, and delicious! 

The bottle of water.

Our glasses were never less than half full. The waiter was at our table almost instantly after we took a drink. And the food was beautifully plated as well!

My shrimp meal!

He even had flowers delivered to our table!!

Aren't they beautiful?? They had a card attached to them as well. 

Dinner was wonderful and delicious. (not to mention fancy!) I had the shrimp over pasta, and he had a seafood pasta. It had shrimps, scallops, calamari, and more in there. He was slightly surprised to learn exactly what calamari is...

He tried feeding it to me, but I wouldn't touch that squid thing, much less allow it inside my body. He did end up eating it, after I was done taking pictures of it.

After we ordered our dessert, he got up to go to the restroom. Restroom my foot! He came back with this beauty

SO pretty!!! He brought me a little gift bag and when I pulled this out, I couldn't believe it. This necklace, WOW. Beautiful. AND it's real diamonds and white gold! I haven't taken in off since I put it on.

Our dessert finally came.

Three beautiful and delicious profiteroles! Now, the idea behind taking me to this French restaurant is rooted in the fact that I am a francophile. If it's French, I love it! French nails, french fries, french toast, french kiss... Just kidding! None of those are actually French, but since I was 8 years old, I have dreamed of going to France. I started teaching myself French in middle school, took French all throughout high school, listen to French music, read the French newspaper, am minoring in French, et cetera. I am French obsessed.

So of course, with my French obsession, I am always trying out new French bakeries, restaurants, diners, shops, boutiques, whatever. I love it. But, there's a curse that accompanies this immersion of all things French in my life. In French, the way to say Happy Birthday is Joyeux Anniversaire. They don't use bon. Bon is good. Like good food, good friends, good. Not happy. Happy is joyeux. It made me slightly sad, but more amused, that this French restaurant with such a lovely French ambiance and French food, would mess that up. Oh well, we can't have it all I suppose.

Then after dessert, the drama started. No day can be perfect I suppose, we always need a little bit of drama. I go to reach for my purse (I was actually using the Coach one Luis had gotten me for my birthday last year) so I can reapply my lipstick, now that dinner was over, and boom, no purse. Where is my purse? I go check the bathroom I went to at the restaurant to see if I hadn't left it there. Not there. I double check the table and floor again. Not there. We pay the tab, ask the hostess if anyone has turned a purse in. Nope. We go check the car, just in case I hadn't brought it with me. No purse. I call CNN Center to see if I left it at the Starbucks (the last time I definitely remember seeing my purse, when I loaded the gift card Carlin gave me onto my rewards card). Not there either. We go back inside the restaurant and check all the bathrooms, just in case. No purse.

Needless to say, I was freaking out. I lost my Coach purse with my Coach wallet inside. My ID, debit card, school debit card, school ID, dorm key card, cash, brand new Mac lipstick, and more, all gone. Of course I called Bank of America right away to cancel the card, which took FOREVER. And by forever I mean I had to call three different numbers, was transferred at least twice, and had to listen to that stupid automated voice way too much! It took almost 30 minutes to cancel the card, and then the people kept asking me stupid questions like my account number and the 16 digit number on the front of the card. Seriously? My card is LOST, just cancel the stupid thing!

I was so stressed out that I was a bit rude on the phone. I hate rude people, and I felt so bad afterwards because of it. It's not those poor people's fault I'm an idiot and lost my purse. At least the card got cancelled before anyone could use it. I left my contact information with the hostess and the manager in hopes of it being turned in.

I finally calmed down, and we went to Luis's house to say happy birthday to his sisters. Yes, their birthday is on the same day as mine! Isn't that cool? They're 10 year old twins, and totally adorable. I gave them their presents. Each one of them got a nail spa kit and a Hello Kitty eraser. Luis's mom gave me two undershirts (which will be normal shirts over the summer... promise!) and a pair of shorts. This was really interesting because Luis got mad at her for giving me shorts, saying they were too immodest. The conversation that went down after that was downright hilarious. (Just as a PS, they're not... I wouldn't have been able to wear them to high school, but they're long enough that my mom would approve, so we're good)

Finally, we left to head back to my dorm in Kennesaw. I took a quick nap in the car and woke up definitely not in Kennesaw. A few of our friends were there: Jessica (not the same one I went to the mall with), her boyfriend Rodrigo, and another friend, Pedro. We were at Rumba!

Unfortunately, we got there a little bit too early. Whatever though, we got free entrance because it was Thursday night, and the party picked up later on.

I did have a little rebel child moment though. I have never ever done anything slightly naughty before. Never smoked anything, drank, partied hard, skipped, cursed, ran away, sneaked out or anything like that. I figure that doing hookah once in 19 years is pretty good compared to most other college kids. I will probably never do it again either, I almost choked to death doing it on my birthday! So I got to do hookah for my first time, and they let me pick the flavor, strawberry! I didn't do it much though, I was much more amused by their smokes and puffs and whatnot.

This was my moment for the night. After we got this shotgun picture, I was done smoking. I'm pretty sure I could feel my lungs blackening and the lung cancer settling in. Plus, my family has a history of asthma, and I'm not into risky behaviors. It was fun to get to do it once though, I'm not gonna lie. We ended up partying until almost 3am, and then it was time to go home, because we were all exhausted.

Overall, it was a great day, and my best birthday yet. Hopefully I'll have many more, better ones to come.





P.S. Bistro Niko called me Saturday morning. My purse was turned in and EVERYTHING was still inside! God is good!

Shopping Trip!!!

This past week has been absolutely insane! In a super fun way.

In lieu of this, my posts are going to be a teeny bit outdated. I'm going to post about the shopping trip today, and about my birthday (hopefully) tomorrow, because both days were so super awesome that they each need their own individual post!

Here we go!

My shopping trip with Karima and Jessica was awesome!! We had so much super girly fun!

First I had to go to Chick-fil-A and have a meeting with the other drive thru team leader. We got lots of ideas flowing, and we will soon be the best drive thru anyone has ever been in! That's the goal anyways.

Then I had to convince Jessica to come with us, because she decided to be lame and try to bail. But in the end she caved in and decided to come (which she later acknowledged as being the best choice!).

In the car, on my way to pick up (:

So after I do my runarounds and pick up the ladies, we headed on over to Lenox Mall, which is where all the celebrities shop apparently. They have Prada and Burberry and Kate Spade and Aldo and Ann Taylor and Armani Exchange and Bloomingdale's and BCBGMAXAZRIA and BVLGARI and Coach and Michael Kors and Fendi and Lacoste and Louis Vuitton and Mac and Sephora and Oakley and Pandora and True Religion and Zara and all these places that I don't have enough money to even look inside (I went inside Kate Spade hoping to find something adorable and affordable. I almost cried. Everything was adorable, nothing affordable)

I saw this at Urban Outfitters, and snapped a shot because it describes me to a point! #WannabeMillionaire

The first store we went inside that we could actually afford was Mac, which is pricey in itself, but we all wanted new lipstick. I brought a tube of Mac lipstick with me that I got for Christmas over two years ago that had finally run out. Amazing color, I love it! It was a nice neutral color that gave a really finished look to any outfit, especially business-y ones. However, I had the displeasure of being told by the makeup artist/attendant lady at the store that my tube was a fake. WHAT?? How embarrassing!

I later on found out from my mom that it was only sort of fake. She bought it from China from the same factory that produced the Mac lipstick. Exact same formula and tube, and the only difference is a sticker that they put at the bottom of the tube. I ended up finding the exact same color at the store and buying it. So now I'm legit with my official Rumblin' Rose lipstick. Not that I don't have other real ones, I think I buy a new color every time I walk inside that store.

I love the look of a new tube of lipstick

We got Jessica her very first tube of lipstick! I was so proud. I always feel like Alicia Silverstone in Clueless whenever I go shopping with people who aren't as avidly fashion obsessed as I am. We found a good, not too bold, lipstick color for her in Mac that she loved too. Then later on we went to Sephora, where I had tons of fun applying makeup on her. She's so cute, and I had a ball putting on bronzer and eye shadow on her!

I told you she's a doll!

I ended up buying a new bottle of Bobbi Brown's Warm Sand foundation, because my last bottle ran out. They say that the best way to know if something is truly a good product, is if you completely use up the first one and go back to buy a second.

I really like this foundation. It looks really natural, so if I don't wear anything else on my face, I can just put this on and look like I have no make up on! It's also SPF 15. Now, I hate sunscreen. I never ever wear sunscreen, even though I know I should. I just don't like the smell of it, or applying it, and I never sun burn so I have no incentive to wear it. I know it's good to keep your skin healthy and everything, so I've started looking for makeup that has SPF included to trick myself into wearing it! Plus, it's long wear. So it lasts all day long without fading. And it gives my face that natural healthy glowing look. I love it (even though I wish the price tag was a little lower).

Sephora also gave me a little early birthday present!

As part of the rewards club at Sephora, I get cute perks like this! It's a little box with a tiny tube of mascara and a tiny tube of highlighter. The mascara is lovely. I've been using it and it's beautiful. I have clump-free, long lashes every time! I'm pretty excited about the highlighter. I've never used one before, so as soon as I have some extra time, I'm going to Pinterest highlighters and figure out how to use it. I can't wait to try it on!

As far as I'm concerned, no shopping trip is complete without a visit to Victoria's Secret. Last time I went, I bought this totally adorable eye shadow pallet with eye liner and tutorial included!

Sultry Spring. I would probably have never even picked this up if it wasn't for my Secret Rewards card, and I am SO glad I did! It really is the perfect spring pallet. It comes with two different looks, along with instructions on where to put each color, in what order, and how to blend. I absolutely love it.

I like the pink/purple look the most. I use it with all my spring outfits. I used to be a natural colors only girl, but this pallet changed my ways. I've gotten lots of compliments on it too!

After falling so much in love with the Sultry Spring pallet, it was only natural for me to go back and get the second tutorial pallet that VS offers. The fact that the name is Sexy Smoky made me really excited. I've been dying to try out the smoky eye look, so this was the perfect opportunity for me to do so!

I won't lie, I wasn't quite as pleased with this pallet. I tried wearing it on my birthday, only to find out that the smoky eye look is not for me. Black eye shadow just didn't go well with my complexion. I was really upset that I had decided to try it on my birthday, because I spent all day regretting my eye shadow color choice. On the other hand, I tried the brown pallet on the Sexy Smoky on Saturday and it was great. It created this subtle, yet noticeable gold hue to my eyes, and I think it looked great, I even got a compliment on it. We all know which colors will be most used on this pallet.

Here's a good moment to stop and show the outfit of the day, sans hat.

I actually bought this skirt on sale at Forever 21 back in March when I went shopping in Florida with my mommy. I was wearing some cute black flats with it too. I felt like such a cutie.

The store were in in this picture was probably one of the more fun stores we went inside, with the exception of the mean looking owner staring us down the entire time. The store had a buy one, get one half off sale on everything except sterling silver, and I am a sucker for a good sale. My favorite section of the store was this one corner of a wall filled with hats. We tried on hats to fill our heart's content.

Me and Jessica, looking cute!

I really liked this one, but it was almost $40!

Here comes the bride...

I finally ended up buying this one as a birthday present to myself (super splurge on my part)

My guilt reliever of buying a hat that cost $18, was the fact that summer is coming up, and I will have plenty of excuses to wear a cute spring/summer hat like this one.

Here's the top view. The adorable-ness of this hat is just too much to stand. I'm in love with it. Hopefully I will be able to find plenty of reason to wear it this summer!

Jessica took this picture, and it was way too cute not to share!

And of course, my favorite store ever... Forever 21!!!

I can't walk inside this store without buying at least one thing and trying on at least five! I bought my birthday outfit from here!

The first thing I saw when I walked in the store were these ADORABLE heels on sale for $14.

I saw them, and they screamed out my name. I tried them on, and on my feet they stayed. Until it was time to check out at the store, I walked around wearing them with the safety thing hanging off the side, because I loved them THAT MUCH! Plus, it was good to start breaking them in while at the store. It saves a little bit of pain later on.

Then, I found a SUPER sale. I didn't even spend $20 in total buying all three necklaces, the eye shadow pallet, and the eye liner.

These are all so super cute! I'm planning on giving two of the necklaces as birthday gifts to my friends!

Then of course, clothes. I ended up buying two dresses, and Jessica bought a shirt. Karima spent the least out of all of us. She's so good and responsible! Although she did manage to snag some adorable sandals at Wet Seal.

I bought this blue dress because it was soooo adorable! 

I feel like it's really different, and not a lot of people would have a similar looking dress. It's also great now that the warm weather is coming. I can totally see myself wearing this around on a beach or pool day. Or I can throw a belt on like in this picture and wear it to less casual place.

The possibilities are endless! I just loved this dress! Plus, it was on sale, which makes it a double whammy.

Oh, and I also got this adorable Hello Kitty car air freshener that smells like strawberries. My excitement was almost uncontrollable when I found it!

I won't show any pictures of my birthday dress, because that's a special surprise for tomorrow's post.

Here's a picture of the three of us!

I could keep going on and on about the shopping trip. After all, we did stay there for over 5 hours!

Overall, it was a great day, and I can't wait for our next shopping trip!