Color Scheme for chez moi

I lurrve having my own apartment. It’s exhilarating to get to decide what furniture to buy, where to put it, and what personal touches to add. All by myself! Of course so much freedom must come at a price, and at the rate I’m going, I think I’ll be paying a pretty hefty price. But ah well, as I always say, a happy apartment is a happy me.

The big news today is… I’ve finally picked a color scheme for my apartment!! I spent so long trying to choose, there’s so many colors out there and each one has its own advantages. I mean do I want blue because it’s soothing, or green because it has “great healing powers”, yellow to invoke cheerfulness or red for la passion intense. And then they all have their negatives too, blue suppresses appetite (which is important because I have a 3-in-1 room that’s the dining room, bedroom and living room), green is just not my color, yellow makes people irritable and too much red can create aggression. You see my dilemma?

But finally, finally, finally, I have decided it’s going to be… *drum rolls* … white, red and black! Yeah I know I said too much red makes people aggressive, but since I’m such a demure and gentle person by nature, it wouldn’t be much harm right? :P Just kidding lah. Stop rolling your eyes please. And to clear all questions, this has nothing to do with wanting to create passion okay? It’s just a nice striking color that goes well with white and black. :P

I’ve been reading quite a lot of articles on interior decorating. Budget interior decorating to be exact. It says that I should start decorating one area at a time. So I’m gonna tackle my living room first! Well, actually more like my living corner since almost everything is in the same room. (I live in a studio.) Current plan is to get a slipcover for my loveseat, it’s brown at the moment and in my dreams it should look more like deep red. Can’t decide whether I should go for a lighter shade (maybe beige) and use red for the throw pillows instead, or stick to a deep red loveseat and light-colored pillows. How how? Which one is better?

Oh and I’m checking out posters too! I want to hang a sweet romantic-ish one above my bed. Found one I really like, but don’t know whether I should get it or not. It has 2 white cuddly teddy bears holding a velvet red heart together. Costs a lot to frame it up though and I don’t know if it will look good laminated. Here’s the poster, I think it looks very cute, and it fits my white, red and black scheme too! So should I frame, mount or just laminate it?

This is so fun! I think I'll be so obsessed about decorating that I won't talk about anything else for the next few blogs. Hehe.

My 2nd week in Louisville

Arrrgh!!!! I did a stupid thing this evening coming back from work. Why did I do it? I hope it doesn’t come back to bite me. Why couldn’t I just say No? Why? Why? Why? DANG IT! EeeeeeeeeeeeSshhhhhhhHHhh!!!! GggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRrrrrrrr!!!!!

Ok now that I’ve got it out of my system… moving on to the happier stuff…

My first official weekend in Louisville was quite nice (last weekend doesn’t count because I had to spend 2 whole days setting up my apartment). I went to a Vietnamese grocery store on Saturday. There are quite a lot of Asian grocery stores here, apparently one of them sells Malaysian stuff too! :D But I don’t know how to get there and I don’t have a car, so… don’t know when I’ll go to that store. But at least now I know where to get Chinese stuff though, not stuck with eating lettuce, cabbage and broccoli only. Phew! Oh btw, I’m becoming a vegetarian again after a 3-year hiatus heehee. Lacto-ovo vegetarian to be exact. Meaning I’ll eat eggs and drink milk. But I’ll eat seafood about once a week lah, Mummy’s orders. I had lobster pasta on Sunday. :D

Sunday I went on a tour of Louisville, too. I had an unofficial ‘tour guide’. Hehe. It was more fun than I expected. Went to Bardstown Road, which has those tiny mom-and-pop shops on both sides of the road. Quite unique stuff. Then after that we went to Mall St. Matthews. I tell you, it was so difficult to walk inside loh. Every single shop was on sale!! And the mall had all the shops I like too!! I think I have internal injuries now. My heart was fighting with my head the whole time I was there. Let’s go shopping! No, save money! You need that nice bag! No, you won’t use it! Luckily, my credit card came out unswiped.

Then, after that we went to the Waterfront Park right next to the Ohio River. I’m still waiting for the photos though. I’ll write about this next time so that I can post the photos together.

Last Friday/Saturday (I don’t remember when liao) was the Mid-Autumn Festival. (Digressing a bit here: why is it called the Midautumn festival ah? It’s not the middle of Autumn also. I think Autumn starts around September 26, so if it’s true, that means we have only one month plus worth’s of Autumn only!!! Which is so not true.) My colleague gave me a mooncake. Soooooooooo nice. Her friend brought it over from Chicago, so it’s not the cheapo yucky kind of mooncake. It is quite delicious loh, shuang1 huang2 (double eggyolk) some more. Yum yum. Still have half left. I don’t have that much appetite nowadays.

Louisville is pretty nice. I’ve only been here 2 weeks so I can’t say I know the place well yet. But so far I like it a lot. The people here are very friendly (I feel so unfriendly compared to them sometimes, cause I don’t know what to say). Of course there are some very weird people too. Some are nice but weird. Some are just plain weird. And it seems like there are quite a lot of events going on during the weekends too. I’m hoping some band I like will come here to hold a concert. I know Matchbox 20 came last year and Nickelback came here 2 years ago. So am hoping. But I doubt Wang Lee Hom will come here loh. *sigh*

Oh and you know what I found out. According to a report by some online journal whose name and link I completely forgot liao, Louisville is the NUMBER ONE place for families to relocate! Ok lah, I know it says for families. But then if it’s good for families, it shouldn’t be that bad for young adults guaaaaaaaa. At least should be safe right? And families doesn’t mean ‘with small kids’ only right? Should include those with young adult children right right?

Also, according to another report by another online journal whose name and link I also completely forgot liao, Nashville is the NUMBER ONE place for relocating singles!! Hmm… Atlanta, Austin, New York and Houston are in the top 5 too. Am thinking about going to Atlanta October next year when I come back from Canada. But it’s such a pain to keep moving some place where I don’t know anyone. Maybe I’ll just come back to Louisville. I like the city. We’ll see what happens next year.

Okay, going to start on my FAP modules now. Haven’t been studying since I took the exam in May. 5-month break! I haven’t had such a long break since that 9-month holiday right before I came to the States. Ah, I miss my holiday.

Even Shorter Update

Hmm.. haven't been updating in a LONG while. Quite a few things happened since my 2nd day at work. Hehe. Will add a new post tomorrow. I promise! ;)

Short Update

It's my 2nd day at work! Hmm, quite a lot of things happened since I last wrote, but I haven't got time now to write. Don't wanna use 'company resources' for 'excessive personal use', though how they quantify excessive is beyond me. Still waiting for the broadband company to set up my internet this Saturday. Then I can log on to MSN Messenger!! Hmm, haven't gone this long without signing in before.

Anyway, will write more when I get internet access in my apartment. Off to the library to get some movies and maybe a couple of books. I just watched Pride and Prejudice again last night. Yes, I know I just watched it only, but it's very nice mah. And I didn't have anything else to watch besides Aladdin. Haha, guess who sent me that? Should have kept World Without Thieves and deleted Aladdin. Higher repeat value. Darn. So now I want to read the book again. I think I've read it a few times but can't really remember the story liao. Sense and Sensibility I totally cannot recall. Maybe I'll get both. Hope they will give me a library card!

I'm here!

It took me nearly 30 hours and 2 stopovers, but I've finally arrived at Louisville, Kentucky!!!

The trip went well. I slept through the entire flight from KL to Seoul because it started at 1 am. The flight from Seoul to Atlanta was soooo long, good thing noone sat next to me so I could stretch out. There was a Korean guy sitting 2 seats away. He was real helpful, picked the better meal choices for me. The Korean food was quite good! Flying from Atlanta to Louisville was awful though. The plane wasn't that small, but it felt sooooo cramped. The worst hour of my whole trip.

I got to my hotel late evening yesterday. This morning I went apartment hunting! A lady from Apartment Locator Services came to pick me up. She is sooooooooooooo helpful! She did almost everything for me, find out what apartments are available, what features are available in each, set up appointments with all of them, drive me to every single one, ask questions that I forgot to ask, and so patient!! What's more, the service is FREE!! Unbelievable huh? I'm going to recommend them to anyone who's coming to Louisville, i.e. noone.

So we went to 4 apartment buildings. I didn't really know how to check them out actually, and once I got there, I forgot half the things I wanted to ask. Went well though, covered all the basic stuff (I think :P) and I applied for the last one. I just got a call back from the apartment manager half an hour ago and it's been approved!!! Woohoo!! Going back there tomorrow to sign the lease and pick up my keys.

The studio apartment is not very big, about 400 plus square feet. But it's so close to work and everything else! I'm going to walk to work everyday, it's only 2-3 blocks away. :D And it has the nicest kitchen and bathroom among the 4. All utilities paid, too. Love it! Nice and cosy. Don't need to buy so much furniture too hehe. My friend keeps telling me that I only need a bed, but a bare apartment is just depressing to me.

Tomorrow I'm going furniture hunting. Hope that goes as well as today's hunt! Took me 4 hours to get an apartment. :D Got done around 1.30 pm. Exhausting though. It's only 5.30 pm now but I'm going to sleep. Jet lag sucks. I woke up at 3 am today and couldn't go back to sleep. And I only got 6 hours of sleep. Wonder how long it's going to take to fix my clock. Ugh!

So sleepy..

I'm sooooo tired today!

Woke up at 6.15 am to teman my sister to the hospital. 6.15 am!!! I've only woken up this early three times this holiday. And that includes the first day when I woke up at 5 am because of jet lag. It's only 11.30 pm now but I'm already feeling very sleepy. Usually I sleep around 1-3 am and wake up at 11 am. Can't sleep yet though because I just took a shower. Beanie says it's not good to sleep with damp hair so have to tahan a bit longer. Argh!

4 more days before my flight! So fast! I still have a lot of things to prepare. Gonna buy some food stuff tomorrow, cannot forget 'bak kut teh' packets and curry paste. Hope they don't confiscate at customs. Hmm, I think that's the only thing I have left to buy. Already packed up one suitcase (22.5 kg, ngam ngam!). But there's still a lot of stuff I haven't packed yet. Don't know if they can fit into one suitcase or not. Keeping my fingers crossed.

I'm going to Genting this Saturday. Sort of like a going away trip. :D Can take it as a transition too. Apparently it was very cold yesterday (already?) up North, so I go from Kajang -> very hot, to Genting -> cool (I hope), and then finally Louisville -> cold. I didn't know I could plan so well. :) Ah who am I kidding? I'm the only person I know who has missed a flight because I went to the airport ONE DAY LATE.

Oh I went to watch The Banquet yesterday with my whole family. I thought it was okay, very very slow though. A few times I........

.
.
.
.
z.
zz.
zzzz.
zzzzzz........

(gone to sleep with semi-damp hair, will write more when I'm more awake)

Packing Woes

Just started packing for my trip back to the States and the same thing that hits me every time I pack has struck yet again......

I have too much stuff!

I'm bringing back two big bags. Add to that another 3 huge boxes that are already in US. 3 years ago I came to the States with 2 bags, and transferred to Drake with 2 bags a year later. Doing good so far. Then when I graduated from Drake I have 5! Hmm.. something must have went awry those 2 years.

Specifically I have too many clothes (3 boxes worth to be exact). Half of them I rarely wear and another 10% I haven't worn in a year. What is very frustrating is when I pack, I still bring that 10% along because what IF one fine day I need to wear it and I didn't bring it along? Naturally this scenario never happens because that 10% stays unworn. Dilemma here: unworn because it's too uncomfortable/ small/ big/ slutty-like/ aunty-like/ has weird color, but can't bear to throw it away because it's still in very good condition.

Which is why my wardrobe is full of clothes, and yet I can still feel that I have nothing to wear. Argh! Maybe I should take a leave out of the little brown dress project. This woman actually wore the same brown dress everyday for a year. She hasn't went shopping for clothes for almost 2 years. I'm so impressed. But I don't think I want to do that.

So instead from today until next July, I will...

• not buy any clothes or accessories, unless it's something I don't have and I need it for work, e.g. a good bag. Work is the key word here.
• make a shopping list before I go grocery shopping and STICK to it
• browse through catalogs only ONCE and recycle immediately

My goal for next July when I move once again: My life's possessions have to fit in 5 boxes or less.