MOVING ACROSS THE COUNTRY

This past week, I made the biggest change of my life so far. Yep, you guessed it. I just moved across the country! Last Tuesday, I spent a long day travelling from Southern California to East Tennessee with my sister Kuyuki. The day started dark and early (I say dark because it was so early the sun wasn't even up yet) at 4am. I wanted to wake up at 3am since we had to leave for the airport at 5am, but it was hard to since I only went to bed around 1:30am that same morning. So I had to rush around, take a shower, make breakfast, do some last minute packing, take one last look at my bedroom, and say goodbye really quick to the pets all in an hour. It all happened so fast it didn't hit me until we were halfway to the airport that that was the last time I'd ever be sleeping in that room, living in that house, and seeing the pets for a long time.

We arrived at the San Diego International Airport around 8am. Kuyuki and I had so much luggage we needed help carrying it in. I had two large suitcases, a carry on, and a purse so stuffed it would barely sit on my shoulder, while Kuyuki had a large suitcase, purse, and a carry-on as well. We went to the baggage area and felt free after not having to lug around three large suitcases. We then only had our carry on and purses. Then it was time. I tried so hard not to cry saying goodbye to my stepmom, sister, and father, but I lost it. They watched Kuyuki and I go through customs, then when we were finished, we waved goodbye from across the airport. I looked back until I couldn't see them anymore. For the longest time, I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was moving. But in that moment, it hit me. I began to cry again.

With all this crying, it seems as if I didn't want to move, like it was something I was forced to do, when in actual fact I wasn't. I did want to move. Me moving to Tennessee was actually something that has been in the plan since I was 14. I wanted to move to be closer to my family. I just wanted to wait until I was through with high school first. Now that I have been out of high school for three years, I felt it was time. It was just sad leaving everything I was familiar with, and leaving all my friends and family that I had in California behind. 

After the tears, the ten hours Kuyuki and I spent at the airport was a blast. I don't know if it's just us, but we love airports. There's just so much to do, plus we love traveling. Our first flight was at 10:50am that went to Atlanta, then we had a six hour layover there that we spent looking in shops, eating, checking social media, taking pictures, and taking the underground train all over the airport because our gate number kept changing. Then we boarded our plane at 10:30pm and landed in Knoxville around 11:30pm. We claimed our luggage, almost died from the humidity (not really of course but if there's one thing I hate about the south, it's the humidity), then our mom picked us up and took us to Taco Bell as a late dinner. I was so excited to be at my new home and see my cat who I haven't seen since last year. I unpacked all my things and started decorating and organizing my bedroom and ended up not going to sleep until around 6:30am.

  I've been in Tennessee now for about a week and each day we have been doing activities nonstop. My bedroom is starting to look more like a bedroom, we spent a day at my grandma's house, I've applied for so many jobs I can't even remember where all I've applied and even got a call back from one of them, watched lots of movies, gone out to eat and discovered so many great restaurants we've never been to before, gone shopping, and so much more. But as this post is getting long, I will leave it here. I can't wait to start a life out here and experience new things I couldn't experience anywhere else. Down below are some pictures from our day at the airport and I also posted a video of our airport adventures you can watch on my YouTube channel.  

Outfit of the Day:

Jacket: Free People

Shirt: JC Penny

Jeans: WetSeal

Heels: Guess

Luggage: Carry-on: Amazon//Large: Amazon

SISTER SISTER

My family is not just family to me. They're my best friends. They're the people I go out of my way to spend time with or do anything for. They're the people who I'm closest to and can share and do anything with. Now that we're all growing up and going our separate ways, the time that we share together is even more special than it was when we were all living in the same house. I think it's because we never know when the next time we will see each other will be, so we give our full attention and savor each moment and do everything we can together, whereas before, some days we were just kind of like "oh I see them all the time" and start doing our own separate thing. You may remember last week I posted about how my sister Kuyuki and I had a random photoshoot by the highway. Sounds weird I know, but it was so fun. Well, later that day, we ate lunch together and Kuyuki said, "I feel like we've gotten a lot closer this summer," which is true. Before, I was in college and could do absolutely nothing besides homework, and so in the summer I would just stay by myself craving that "me" time I had been lacking all year. Very seldom did I spend time with my family because I had no energy to. Now I have been out of college for a while and have been by myself enough with my parents at work, Brianna at school, and Alphonse and Kuyuki already moved out, so this summer has been all about friends and family and we've been able to send so much time together and go out and do so many things. So yes, we all have gotten a little closer this summer.

Kuyuki and I ended up spending the entire day together that day. We were barely apart. We went to church, went grocery shopping, gave each other photoshoots, ate together, took more random pictures for hours in my bedroom, then finally we just talked. And we talked for hours. Literally from about 9pm to 3am about veganism, future plans, jobs, society, travel, music, our love for marble print, and just really deep stuff. The world was quiet during the night but our minds weren't. I learned a lot about her that I didn't know before and she can probably say the same about me. Also, I didn't realize how like-minded we were. This was something I really craved. Just talking. Before when we would talk it would just be like "Hey, how's your day?" or "Hey can I show you some Vines?" or "Have you seen Ariana Grande's new music video?" But this chat was so special because it was very long, broad, and deep. Not our normal everyday chats. It made me wish Brianna and Alphonse were here to chime in on it, but Brianna is visiting New York not coming back until next week and Alphonse is at his own humble abode.

So I leave you with that. Set aside time for your family and don't take them for granted. Make your family your best friends, or at least good friends. Go places with them, do things with them, and have long, deep chats with them. It's so much fun when you get to know them on a really personal level. You may feel like you already know everything about them, when really, you realize afterwards how little you knew.

BACK TO BLACK

It's been a long time since my last outfit post on my blog. Matter of fact, this wasn't even a planned blog post. It's one of those "spur of the moment" things. Story is...

After church, my sister and I went to the farmer's market. On our way home, we decided that since we were already dressed up, instead of wearing the usual pj pants and t-shirt, that we should find a place to have a photo shoot. I immediately thought of this bridge in our town by the highway. So, in the scorching 109 degree weather, that's exactly what we did. We parked the car off the road into the dirt, walked to the middle of the bridge, and began shooting away. I must say it was very awkward considering we had an audience. The audience being the people sticking their heads out of their car windows, people honking their car horns, and men whistling at us while blazing down the road. Never experienced that before. It was also very windy. Wind + unbearable heat = death. Not really, that's a a little extreme, but it was so hot that we actually had to stop our little photo shoot to head back to the air conditioned car before I passed out on the side of the road. But it didn't stop there. On our drive home, my sister and I forgot about the heat and decided to pull over again once we were in the neighborhood and took pictures in the middle of the road. That lasted about five minutes. The heat was real.

Now, the outfit. I wore this black cotton t-shirt with white trim and the expression "yay" on the side. I actually had just bought this shirt at JC Penny's the day before we shot these pictures. Had to wear it right away. When I saw it in the shop I immediately thought it would pair well with black eyeliner and some black jean shorts. However, after taking it home I realized how awesome it would look with black skinny jeans and white heels. Nothing looks better than a skinny jean and heel combo. Love the all-black look with the pops of white as well. The purse with me is my favorite vegan leather Gunas bag.

Outfit of the Day:

Eyeliner: Tarte Cosmetics

Shirt: JC Penny

Jeans: WetSeal

Heels: Boohoo (Product Unavailable)//Similar: TB Dress

Purse: Gunas