Visa "Extras"

Even though I've had my Visa debit card for about 6 years now, I just signed up to Visa "Extras" Reward Points system. It was only until after I signed up that I noticed how ridiculous these "extras" really were. Every $1 I spend is a point. So far, one of the cheapest things that I've found on the site was a $5 Subway giftcard for 3200 points. Meaning... I would have to spend $3,200 for a $5 giftcard. That's pretty pathetic... Why even bother?!

Superstitions

My mom's super superstitious. I've been trying to track down the random things she comes up with that are supposed to be "bad luck" and here's the list that I have so far:

• Big, tall trees covering the front of your house.
• A fork being stuck straight up into your dinner.
• If you get married, you can take/borrow anything from your parents (i.e. plates, blankets, toasters, etc.), but not knives. Never knives.
• When stepping into the house of someone who's past away, you must step with your left foot.

That's all I have for now. I will definitely update this list because she keeps adding to it!

Totally Normal Phone Convo With My Dad

Me: "Hello?"
Dad: "Yuh"
Me: "I called the neighbors and they said the construction workers aren't at home."
Dad: "Verizon's not coming?"
Me: "... Uh, what?"
Dad: "Huh?"
Me: "I called the neighbors and they said the construction workers aren't at home."
Dad: "Yuh." *click*

5th Grade Anthology

The past couple of months remodeling our house has forced my family to finally get to every nook and cranny and corner of this house and throw out the things that have been ignored for years (hello 7 year old can of corn in the back our cabinet--seriously!). I joke with my sister that we should be on that A&E show, "Hoarders" because we literally keep everything forever. I've been digging in my closet and I think I have every single school notebook, note I passed to my friends, book report, drawing, scribble since I was 5 years old haha. Who needs the Geometry homework that I got a check + in??

Anyway, I came across my 5th grade Anthology which is a book of haikus (we spent the year learning how to write them) and two-liners about whatever we wanted to talk about... from God (I went to Catholic elementary school) to our future to our favorite dessert. Here are 2 of my masterpieces:

If I could walk on the moon,
I'll bring some ice cream and a spoon.
If I could walk on the moon,
I wold sing a little tune,
If I could walk on the moon,
I'll sleep there until noon.

By: Christa Lee

My Haiku--

My prayer talk to God
He always listens to me
Whenever I need him.

By: Christa Lee

I always knew I was a writer in the works!!

On a rainy night

At my house, whether you're downstairs or upstairs, if it's raining hard outside you could hear it from the inside. One of parents always make it habit to open the front door when this happens, stare at the rain for a few seconds, and then comment how hard it's raining. It doesn't seem that strange I guess, but I don't know anyone else who goes through the trouble of stopping what they are doing to open the door and look at the rain each time.

Almost Every Morning...

On my way to work, I check out Yahoo news on my phone. The first four headlines were sort of a mildly depressing way to start off the day/week:

- "Worry that Gulf oil spreading into major current"
- "Afghan passenger plane crashes with 44 on board"
- "Explosion at Turkish coal mine traps about 25"
- "Family: 7-year-old shot by police was asleep"

Yikes??

"Bad Luck": Sticking a Fork in Your Food

I'm not sure how my mom comes up with them(okay, I'm not sure how 98% of the things my mom says come from), but every so often she comes up with things that are "bad luck." One of them being that if you serve food to someone with a fork stuck straight up in the food, that's a terrible omen. Don't ask me why! And don't ask her why either... What my Korean mom says is, just IS!

I figured it out!

As an ode to one of my favorite blogs that (very unfortunately) sort of died down over the past year, Stuff Korean Moms Like, it's given me some inspiration as to what to do with this blog since I'm not ready to give it up!! I will continue to put my ramblings and random finds, but I think some of the most ridiculous and funniest parts of my life come from the mind and mouth of my very very traditionally Korean parents. I think it might be sort of neat to document some of the wacky things that they come up with... especially my mom! Most of the time I'm just staring at her in shock or with a weird stank eye, but in retrospect, a lot of it is amusing.

New Adventures

Oh blog, you've been so avoided! But I always seem to come back to you when I have something new going on in my life. The latest event is my departure from InStyle and my entry into a permalance position at one of Nickelodeon's fab sites. A previous boss from InStyle became the editorial director there, and I am so appreciative that she thought of me for a new editorial assistant postion at her work. I've always had bosses tell me that I've done a good job, but for one reason or another... never heard from a lot of them after my internship or work there was done. Bu it meant a lot that even though we only spent about 7 or 8 months working together, that I made a good enough impression for her to think of me for this!

Crazily, the same day I found out that I rocked my Glamour.com edit test for a beauty blogger position for the summer and I'll be their new "Girls in the Beauty Department" writer while one of the ladies goes on maternity leave. I'm so excited and obviously can't wait for the money flow situation to become a little better ;) And I can't wait to update my resume! Wooohoooo

Having a Twin Must Be Fun...

Love "Up"

Tumblr

Tumblr Vs. Blogger

I've been in a little bit of debate over which one of these blogs sites to keep! I wish Tumblr would cooperate with merging a combo of pre-written templates and my own html, but it's not working out. Until I figure it out, I suppose there's no harm in using both. And I'll see if I can turn this blog into something else. Anyway, I'm obsessed with this new Sephora vending machine idea that I just learned about. Total domination of beauty retail.

Oprah to Palin: What the hell did you do to your hair?

Haha, watch this "wtf" look Oprah gives Sarah Palin when she sees her new curly 'do:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/22/palins-hair-shocks-oprah_n_433582.html
"It's kinda cute..." Not.


Huffington Post reported, "as the interview was winding down she said, 'It's 9 in the morning here which means it's three hours earlier there...we were just talking about whoever curled your hair this morning had to get up at 3 in the morning.' "
Sorry SP, but don't bother next time! Yikes.

Thinking...

...Heavily about my next career move as usual. I'm sad that I'm being forced to leave InStyle soon (some weird policy about temps...) and I wish I didn't have to go. Or better yet, I wish there was an opening that I could squeeze myself in as a permanent staffer! But that seems to be only wishing thinking with the way the economy is (blah blah blah) :( My friends who are still in school often ask me how I like the industry and my thoughts about magazine publishing. It's funny for them to think that I'm some sort of "expert" on this career path, but truth be told, I'm definitely only just beginning and have a lot to learn. Being integrated into the monthly team after Weddings folded has been a boot camp for me. It went from having to help out one beauty editor to 5! Therefore there have been one or two days at work where I just wanted to break down and let my tears fall all over my "To-Do" list, but in the end, I'm extremely grateful to have had this experience and to have nabbed it so close after graduation. And I'm more than satisfied with all the beauty perks that come along obviously!

However, much to my dismay, I've been forced to expand my job search past beauty and past magazines because prospects have been pretty bleak. But I can't help but keep on trying! Wish me luck. :)

Too Much is Not Enough of Marion Cotillard

All Photos Courtesy of Retna

Nine different looks from the past few months of Nine's lovely French actress, Marion Cotillard. Absolutely obsessed with how she changes her look every time I see a picture of her! So classy and unpredictable. I wonder if I'll ever get around to watching the movie in theaters, but it seems definitely at least DVD worthy.

Love Rocks

Photo Courtesy of Retna
Taylor Momsen of Gossip Girls--sporting the heaviest eye make-up I've seen in a non-MAC Cosmetics advertisement--hostedlast night's Victoria's Secret "Love Rocks" perfume launch. When she's not doing her day job, Taylor rocks it out with her band "The Pretty Reckless" so it looks like she made a easy fit for throwing this party. I'm curious as to what the new fragrance smells like! Maybe Victoria's Secret PR will be willing to give me a sniff ;)

Happy New Year

I suppose people have stopped saying "Happy New Year" already, but I still have my holiday cards that some PR people sent to me up on my wall at work. It makes for a pretty collage!
1. TIGI's Christmas lights out of their hair products
2. Harris Shepard PR's card--they're based in LA so obviously they have palm Christmas trees
3. Benefit's card. Can't quite remember why these based it off of orange cheesy puffs.
4. L'Occitane
5. Tarte send a little leaf charm as a reminder to go and stay green.
6. Origins, known for their goals to improve the invironment, show their PR team planting trees!

All about Leighton

As a beauty assistant, every day one of my first assignments in the morning is to scour the stock entertainment photography sites to find celebrities pictures we could use in our beauty stories for the magazine. I couldn't help but notice Leighton Meester's face is even more omnipresent now that she's boosted her singing career. Not that I have a problem with that. She'll be everyone's crush for a while.

So it's no wonder she graced the cover of last year's hair issue from InStyle. Her skin is gorg and her hair always seems to fall in the right places. Here are a couple of tidbits from the story (can't wait to see who will be chosen for this spring's hair issue cover!):

- Leighton's a natural blond (can't quite picture it)
- Her hairstylist is Charles Baker Strahan who works with Herbal Essences and has clients that also include: Mariah Carey, Lindsay Price and Molly Sims
- Got black bright red streaks in her locks to play a role in the movie Drive Thru
- Her skin regimen includes La Roche-Posay's Cleansing Milk and Evian Mineral Water spray.
- Her style icons are Bette Davis (her rendition of "Bette Davis Eyes" is really pretty), Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn and Cate Blanchett.




Courtesy of Getty Images

a) Performing at The Underground in Chicago
b) Hosts an evening at Tao Las Vegas
c) Klutch nightclub opening