iOwn, iHeart, iUse and iEat Mac!

First of all, when you're thinking about Big Mac from Mc Donald's, I know where you usually end up for your meal :P  And it's not Mac-and-Cheese either :)  What I mean here is Macintosh.  It's A-P-P-L-E in other words.

Apple is something which got fascinated since Adam and Eve time.  But who knows that it'll still get influences and will still be fascinated for generations to come.  Thanks to Apple's father, Steve Jobs, who created jobs for people out of (an) apple as his name suggests :P

I'm always fascinated by White and thus design innovations in white by Apple is always eye-catchy to me.  They really make me love at first sight.  I still remember myself seeing the first time of those gorgeous white Mac PCs which was displayed at a computer exhibition and it couldn't get out of my mind.  But with a thin or flat wallet as a student, it was something I could only have dreamt of.

So, when i-Products revolutionize the gadget world, it's no doubt that icrazy about them.  Then, iBuy, iOwn and iPatronize those iPhone, iPod and iPad and iXXX. 

When my ex-boss was getting an office cell for me, ideviated and idecided to get Android instead of iPhone4S out of curosity to see what an Android has to offer.  iAdmit that Droid got more features, functionalities and ifancinize voice-command feature and voice-prompted Google navigation system.  But iFind that iProducts are much more intuitive and easier to use.  iPrefer and thus iStick with iProducts. 

iBrag about the new iPhone5 here :P

Now that, iPhone5 just came out and imanaged to get one for him.  ihaven't really explored it yet but ilove it so far for being lightweight, Siri and voice-prompted iMap, which is very similar to voice-prompted Google map which ilove from Android.  Being a lot lighter in weight than iPhone4 alone is making me to get one for myself as well.  Especially when the middle main button of my current iPhone4 doesn't work all the time, it makes me in the midst of iHate and iLove of my iPhone4.  Anyway, when iheart and ifascinate by them, iforgive and ioverlook any flaws or downsides they might have. iKnow, iKnow, iBaise :D

Just like that, iInsist and iGo on fascinating iProducts.  iBuy, iOwn, iFan, iUse iPhones and iProducts which are otherwise known as Apple(s).  OH, Ah!  And WAIT!!!! iEat Apple(s) too, LOL :P

Cure for Shopaholic Syndrome?

One of my favorite things to do is shopping.  Which girls don't like it anyway, right?  Well, I've come across a couple of those who are not really into the shopping so...  Anyway, I'm speaking for myself and shopping is one of my passions.  Yeah, yeah!  I'm one of those girls or whatever you call me.

Just the other day, I've come across this article on Yahoo! and it really made me to testify whether I'm a shopaholic?  I couldn't escape from a lot of points mentioning there and I'm a shopaholic of course as you might have already guessed :P

Just this morning he was telling me that closets at our place weren't large enough to accommodate all my stuff.  That's why I need California closets and I'm glad that we happen to be in California.  Thanks God! LOL :P

There got lots of items with tags still on in my closet.  See!  That's one of the shopaholic signs of the aforementioned article, isn't it?  Shopping is my relaxation, my enjoyment and yes it's my entertainment as well :)  When I'm stressed, frustrated or tired, I need window shopping online to make myself relieved from them.  It works for me most of the time, if not always.  Of course, there got times when even shopping could not cheer me up though. 

Luckily, I'm not a very obsessed shopper who always need to buy something but just looking and drooling over stuff could satisfy me most of the time.  Good deals always turn me on though.  :P  This really contributes a lot to my shoe shelves for adding more pairs to them.  A Junkie Me(hot deals addict or coupons queen or you name it :P), a Shoe Lover and a Shopaholic, they all are linked together, aren't they? :P  And even California closets give me up for loading them up with way too many stuff.  :P

I still remember those days when I teamed up with a very good and close friend of mine and shopped til dropped.  We literally started out like 10:00am in the morning and when we got back home it was about 10:00pm.  Believe it or not!  And my feet were super ached and killing me that I could not even wear my favorites wedges for a day or two :P

With that momentum, Singapore's shopping paradise, the famous Orchard Road, left us no fresh places to go :D  And I still remember those crazy yet carefree my college days where we (my other two close friends and I) often skipped lectures to cruise around different shopping malls.  "Window shopping" was a pretty fancy term for us as students with slim wallet. 

You know what?  This world needs people like me, especially for the current economy downturn, to stimulate it.  LOL :P 

Recently, I come to my senses that when those little things which I acquired through the good deals that I'd thought really add-up.  Just like a dime seems nothing but when tons of dimes are added-up, it could make big $$$$.

With that said, currently I'm in the process of looking to adopt my new passion or hobby, LOL :P  My enjoyment of shopping is already imprinted to the bottom of my heart or head so I don't think that I could get rid of it completely.  I'm just merely trying to find a way to divert my passion into a different perspective so that I could downgrade myself to a shopper from a shopaholic.  Simply put, I'm just trying to find a shopping substitute. 

The thoughts that I should prevent myself from being a shopaholic has already clicked my mind for a while.  And when I came across the aforementioned article on Yahoo!, it motivated me even more and my revelation followed. 

I'm on my way to rehabilitation.  If you're a shopaholic like me, think twice and think over yourself again.  It's never too late to change you know? :D

I'm one proud MaMa!

OMG!  It was so incredible!  Never thought of how it will be like to start a piano lesson with someone who created the book.  When Jane Bastien called me last week that she got an opening spot for Sophie, I was really thrilled. 

At the age of 6, Sophie went for an interview with her a couple of weeks back.  As a parent, I thought that I would just let her give a shot but never thought that she would be selected.  I know, I know.  Nows-a-day, interviews started at the age of 5 or 6 years old :P  What's a competitive world! 

Right after relocating to San Diego and while practicing her piano one night, Sophie noticed that the author of the piano text book from which she was learning her lessons was from San Diego.  At that point of time, I know that James Bastien is the author of all those Bastien piano lesson books series which most of the piano teachers follow.  But it was all and no more or no less. 

It was until then I learnt from one of parents' of Sophie's good friend that Jane Bastien who is the wife of James Bastien and co-author of all those books provide piano lessons.  Even at that point, I still didn't have an idea that James Bastien had passed away.  I went back home and did a little research about both James and Jane Bastien and I started to find out more about them.  I learnt that this couple is a piano Gurus and really renowned people for piano world.  Having her contact information on hand, I thought that I would just check with her to see whether she would have time for Sophie.

Even when Mrs Bastien called me back and gave me an appointment to meet with Sophie, I didn't fully understand that it would be an interview to say yay or nay to Sophie to become her student.  I knew that she would be evaluating Sophie but didn't even stress Sophie that it was the most important part.  Honestly, I didn't even do much preparation for Sophie.  Even though I wanted Sophie to start a lesson with her, I guess that I would be fine if she couldn't make it. 

The bottom line here is that I wasn't as crazy as other parents whose dreams were to become their kids to be students of Mrs Bastien even though I was hoping that Sophie could make it. Last week when Sophie started her very first group lesson with another girl of her age, I was a little bit surprised by the gesture of the mom of Sophie's partner.  When Mrs Bastien gave both of us permission to go in to the piano room to listen to her lessons, the other mom whispered me that it was the moment she had been waiting for all her life and she could not express how happy she felt that her daughter got selected. Her words made me wonder that being a student of Mrs Bastien was an once-in-a-life-time opportunity or something like that :)

Then, I realized that there got so many parents who were dying to make their kids to be students of Mrs Bastien and I wasn't as bad as them :)  When Mrs Bastien called me and gave me the time slot for Sophie, I didn't even accept it right away even though I was overjoyed.  I told her that I needed to think for a while since Sophie got a conflict with her After school lessons.  :P 

Anyway, I could not hide the fact that I was really thrilled and was really proud of her though regardless.  Even it takes me to wake up and go to work super early on every weekday where Sophie got her lesson so that I could send her there on time, I still feel so worth it.  Even it took me to wait for hours outside of Mrs Bastien's house in the heat with both Sophie & Michelle for her interview as Mrs Bastien was running late, I find it was really a trivial thing as well.  I have to admit that it was like a dream when I stepped into Mrs Bastien's house for Sophie's very first lesson last week with her.  Basically, I could not believe that she was getting that opportunity. 

Sophie was mad at me on that day of her very first piano lesson with Mrs Bastien as she had to give up her Chinese and Kung Fu classes for that piano class.  She didn't understand that how lucky she was to have that opportunity other kids are dying to get it.  But she came out happy of her piano class as she enjoyed it.    I just would like to create this post as a memoir for my little girl as a milestone so that she could read it one day when she grows up.  Keep up the good work, girl!  It's no doubt that I'm one proud MaMa!

A Shoe Lover's Note

Let's just start that I'm a shoes-manic.  I couldn't recall exactly when it started but when it comes to shoes, I'm pretty crazy.  When I was a kid, I used to always donate a pair of shoes for monks as they were affordable from my pocket money vs. the robes which were much more expensive than shoes.  Not sure I can relate it to having Nth pairs of shoes I got.  But there's a saying in Buddhism that if you do generous donations (which basically are sharings) you will get shared by others in return.  Who knows, I'm getting the fruitful returns of those donations which I had done previously :P  Anyway, the bottom line here is that I'm pretty fascinated by shoes and yes I have quite a bit of them (Okay, okie, it's a little more than quite a bit :D). 

When I go shopping, either online or in store, the first section I'd automatically and unconsciously look at is the S--H--O--E--S racks.  I like trying to put them on when I'm shopping in store.  And if they fit and if I think that they look pretty then you'll see it on my shoe rack the next day in addition to those Nth pairs of shoes I own.  I just couldn't resist, that's all :P  My 50-pairs shoe rack at home could not accommodate all shoes I got.  Just for your record though: I got 3 shoe racks to keep everyone's shoes of the family.  Yeah, I know, I know... :P

I still remember that there got 15 something pairs of shoes I gotta throw away when I migrated here from Singapore.  I still remember that moment when my heart got ached when I had to throw each of them away right into the trash chute of our apartment.  As a side note, almost every apartment in Singapore comes with a trash chute. And I really love that convenience of throwing trash without having to leave your house by the way.  Anyway, the point here is about my heartaches that I had to trash my 15 something pair of shoes which I couldn't bring them here with me.  Instead of trashing them, I had thought about donating of them.  But, all of them were used and a few of them were even worn out so I thought that they wouldn't be good candidates for donation anyway.

Well, that was one of dramas of my shoes.  And when I first left to Singapore from my country, I again left tons of shoes at home as well.   It was a collection and some of them were my favorites so I got a hard time back then as well.  Everyone around me knows about my fascination of shoes.  And once I was joked by one of the guys who was courting me back then that the only concern he got about me was that he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to afford for my shoes down the road.  LOL :P  Very well said of him, didn't he?  :D

And just the other day at work, I got a comment of "Oh, you really got lots of pretty shoes!" from a coworker who was passing by me by staring at my feet.  That was a comment from someone whom I only run into at the hallway occasionally.  And he's also not from my group so we didn't see each other much.  Even he noticed about my shoe fascination.  Hmmm.... $$$$ well spent?  LOL :P  Likewise, people around me often stare at my feet to see what shoe I'm wearing is not something unusual either :D  And needless to mention about loads of compliments which I got from them.

He asked me a couple of weeks back that whether I knew which department of Macys makes the most money?  After a small delay, I guessed it right.  Yes, it's so-called "Shoe Department".  When Macys was doing the designer shoes clearance with 65% discount a while back, it was super crowded there.  I no doubt was one of the shoppers there of course :P  I added three more pairs to my collection including a pair of Michael Kors's by then.  The shopping crowd explains that there got plenty of women who are as crazy as I do (or even more crazier than me perhaps) out there.  See, I'm not alone :P

The only thing though is that when it comes to moving, it could be quite a headache.  My shoes alone need a couple of boxes and need certain amount of time for packing and unpacking of them.  No kidding, huh? :P

Regardless, nothing could stop me from my love about shoes.  It's above and beyond of an addiction.  My love about shoes has already been rooted as a part of my brain. LOL :P  I'm now trying to control the pool size of my shoe collection though by buying only the ones which I absolutely love.  Even then, it doesn't mean that I would stop buying; it just means that I'm trying to reduce the volume :P  Guess what? Just like one of my favorite song titles, Nothing Gonna Stop Me, Nothing Gonna Stop Me Now!!  LOL :P  Also, have you ever heard that a girl can never has too many shoes?  :P

Lastly, let me share this cool note from this site with you:
Just in case you're wondering why shoes?

"Shoes don't talk back where men do. Shoes don't just stand there looking pretty, they make you look and feel beautiful. Shoes go with what YOU want. Shoes are the perfect accessory. And having more shoes than friends is definitely the way to go. Shoes are your best friend and always know how you feel. They don't tell you your gorgeous, but they make everyone else see it. Shoes make you feel good inside and always give you that excitement when you try on a new pair. How much it pains me to say it, choose shoes over chocolate, shoes don't make you fat and you still feel nice. And shoes you can live with your whole life. Shoes always replace men!"

If you're still wondering why shoes then I would recommend you need to read on other people's notes from that same link.  :P   But no offense of course :D

                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  THE END     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~