I love the rain; always fresh and new. Washing the bad away. Things are looking up. <3

My friends and I had a great Christmas! My gift was a douche bag jar and it's already been put to use. We had a quiet new year's celebration with rum balls and Magic as well as a going away get together for a friend who moved away for work full of beignets and alcohol. We're planning our trip to Anime Expo as well (Flights and booking) and I think, aside from the bf and I, everyone's sharing a gigantic suite. It should be quite exciting~

Art wise, I've been more crafty and drawy. A friend of mine commissioned me to crochet a Nyan Cat scarf and I was really pleased. I have plenty of yarn left over so I'll probably end up making her one as well. I have a bunch of unfinished doodles and sketched I might upload. I'd rather finish one and upload it but with all these games, crafts, work, and social life, it's been a little difficult to find time to draw. I've been getting this craving to paint but my whole life is packed into boxes still. I'll have to wait.

I can be a mopey person but I'm usually optimistic, so I will continue to stay that way~

We're losing the house.

It's been hard after my dad's stroke; can't be a nurse anymore and has been unemployed since. I have no idea what's going to happen. My mom's moods are... unexpected. She'd been planning on moving down to southern California by herself if we would lose the house, which we have. I don't know if that's a scare tactic for my dad to get his depression fixed and get a job or if she's just being a bitch. I really hope it's a scare tactic because there's still a lot of things our family needs to take care of.

My hours at work are getting cut again and I'm not sure if that's because my performance hasn't been the best. It's improving but it's still quite unfair to me to only get 8 hours a week when I have bills to pay. I'm hoping to try and find a second job or a whole other job if everything falls apart. Sometimes, I don't really feel appreciated anymore.

I was really hoping to get into a couple of vocational classes but I couldn't get the financial aid in time. I'm hoping to get into a school next year but that's hoping I can afford it.

Money's a real drag.

Fuck yes! My friends and I are going to Anime Expo this summer. I'm pretty much excited. For Jared, he doesn't really watch anime, so I guess it'll be more like a vacation. Five days no work? Awesome.

I haven't been drawing much. Doodling and all that fun stuff, yes, but nothing too noticeable. I've been crafting more than anything. My sister's huge Totoro is almost done; about the size of a normal pillow. I have the tail left and all the sewing to do. I'm really tired of crocheting Totoro, as much as I love Totoros. ):

Not much else. Just Minecraft. I should be sleeping though. x:

Wondercon was alright! It was so full and busy (Shoulder to shoulder status) that it took away a lot of the fun out of conning. I only bought a Game of Thrones shirt and saw one artist I really wanted to see. There was a gallery we went to see afterwards but it was also so full that I couldn't buy a print, or see if they had a print, of a painting I enjoyed. Not much you can do now though; money spent.

Other than that, the trip was fun. Had a picnic in the park with buddies and walked around for a bit. We got lost in the city while looking for parking. lol

On the drive home, my friends thought it might be a better idea to go to Anime Expo in a few months. While it's the anniversary weekend for my boyfriend and I, it'll at least be a good idea to get our own hotel for a weekend to celebrate.

That being said, I'm not sure if I'll have enough funds to go to both Fanime and AX. Tickets for AX are $70 right now and who knows when we decide to reserve hotel rooms and how much that would be (Granted we get one attached to the convention center) because they go up the longer you wait.

We'll have to see. Doesn't help that I'm kind of stressed with work; recently got promoted to another location and my 30 day review is coming up (Numbers haven't been too great for me or our district, unfortunately), so I'm not sure if I'll be able to keep my position or get demoted. If that happens, I might not be able to go to a con at all. ):

I also hit a dog on the way home tonight. It ran in front of my car and when I turned around to see if I had hurt it or if I had killed it, it was gone. No owner in sight. I'm still kind of shaken but I'm being told the dog's fine if it was able to get up and disappear. I hope it's doing fine.

Going to try and relax with some wine my sister bought.

Going to Wondercon in San Francisco with three other friends this Saturday~ Got the day off!

My friends got to see Royksopp in concert and I'm jelly as fuck. I got a concert shirt though! I haven't received it yet so I have no idea what it looks like. x:

It's my sister's birthday soon so I've been crocheting her this huge Totoro; doubt I'll finish it in time but I might upload a picture to scraps when it's done.

Not much going on here. Working? Yeah. I'm too lazy to scan or save any pictures I've drawn but I'll get to it someday.

I don't have any resolutions. I never meet them so I don't bother too much. So far, the year has started off kind of rocky but it's picking back up~

Jared got my a new table for Christmas. <3 I need to make sure to draw him something naughty.

My mom helped me buy a new car (My old car finally died on me sometime in November), which took me completely by surprise. The idea of car payments was unsettling because, since the fire, my hours at work got cut bad. Less than 8 hours a week bad. Fortunately, I'll be getting promoted so it's not too much of a worry. :3

Nothing too new other than that. I'll hopefully be attending a class to become a pharmacy tech in March. 1 day a week for 8 months followed by a 140+ hour internship. /crossfingers

~tazer got me back into reading with A Game Of Throwns and I love it~ I just started the first of the series, on the second, and I hope HBO does the book justice with their new TV series. John Snow's a bad ass.

Working on both my art finals at the same time and next week is our last.

On the other hand, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving with ~tazer's family! Delicious food! His G was a ladies man~ Black Friday wasn't as bad as my coworkers and I believed it was going to be, at least I thought it was alright.

Uh. Nothing else. I'll post both my finals (Self portraits) after they're done. I'm taking a real liking to pastels but I need some fixative.

To the ground! Some crazy dude came to my store, lit it on fire, and now the wing of the mall where my store was located is all burned down!

Sales are so hot, they're through the roof! Get it? Cause the roof caved in.


):

Takahiro and my Tita Gigi stayed for 2 weeks! They brought a lot of Japanese instant food and sauces. Takahiro was supposed to barbecue for us, including yakisoba, but had to leave a day early to catch their flight back. They bought a pretty Yukata (Black with pink and purple flowers) which I'll be wearing for Halloween!

Taka was so excited to hear that he could study abroad here and plans on doing so this Spring semester, my family being his host family. It would be interesting, considering he doesn't know Tagalog or English and no one in my immediate family speaks Japanese. lololol

There are some art pieces from my portrait drawing and digital painting classes that I have but haven't gotten around to scanning/resizing. I'm so lazy x:

Learning how to crochet better and my yarn collection has doubled in size. My sister's been quite fond with all the amigurumi I've made and asked me to make her a breakfast plate with toast, eggs, and bacon strips lol I'm wondering what to do with all these extra dolls though. Give to friends, maybe?

Also found out my that the CEO of my BF's company is an international arms dealer. I've since pushed him further into finding a better job lol Although they toss him around and treat him like shit, he gets paid fairly well, making finding him a "better" job all the much harder.

I'm not sure why I'm writing a journal entry. It must be the soda I realized I've regretted drinking lol

As some have known from my last journal, our friend ~nigglesworth has been having difficulties.

She passed away at 2:32pm yesterday.

I'm glad she was able to be a part of my life. The amount of love for her and the people that do are insurmountable.

Love you lots, Nicole. I'll see you next time.

A friend of ours, ~nigglesworth, has been in the hospital for 3 and a half weeks. She's gotten a lot better but in recent news have been in rough condition. I'm hoping she will be well enough for surgery this weekend so she can get better! If anyone wants her Caring Bridge journal, sent me a note and I'll pass it on.

I've been working more recently. Idk if that's good though x:

Any who, school started last week and I like my two classes so far. I'm having a lot of fun in portrait drawing! I'll upload my gestures when I get the time (Scanner is le tiny). We recently started drawing in my digital painting class and honestly, I wish we'd get more art done than playing around with the Mac, AKA look-at-this-neat-setting. I hope I can start using painter more in my leisure time as well~

Crocheting is really relaxing~ :3 I've crocheted a coffee cup and I'm working on an octopus since, you know, I love octopuses 8D It's taking me ~15 minutes per "leg". I'm trying to learn new techniques by following patterns and hopefully, I can use my own pattern! I'm wondering if I should buy some eyes through Etsy instead of using buttons. Thoughts?

I'm going to be giving away a book shelf soon if anyone (Around my area :b) wants it. It's about 6' wide and 5' tall with birch shelves held up by silver rods. Also! I have Aion codes for those who want to try it out. I'm pretty sure it's pay to play but it comes with a month for free if anyone wants to try it out. I played it when it originally came out and it was really fun but haven't touched it since their PvP changes. I'll give it another shot. :3

I need to buy a Japanese dictionary. Takahiro will be here next Saturday and I need quick translations. Any recommendations?

Came back from Vegas Monday afternoon. It was a fun trip and yes, it was really hot. Hottest was 112 degrees when I was leaving.

We were staying at a friend's house for half the trip. When the sun rose in the morning, it rose in front of the bedroom I was in. I never had to use an alarm clock since the heat would wake me up. @_@ 98 degrees at 2am.

I had a lot of fun with my cousins during the reunion, one of which I haven't seen in like 5 years. Never changed and neither did our bonding-bonding. Sat outside the parlor our reunion was held and talked about drawing and video games. Pictochatted on our DS's lol

I was afraid I was going to miss out on some TV shows my friends and I always watch on Sunday night but luckily, the hotel we stayed at during our last days of the trip had HBO and I got to see True Blood~ Go Team Eric o/

When my sister and I were shopping at Caesar's Palace, we stopped by an art gallery and I think I've found my new favorite artist: Vladimir Kush. I love surrealist art but this guy just blows it out of the water. I want one of his paintings. They're so beautiful and breath taking. I might have to make it a goal of mine to own one of his pieces before I die.

Jared picked me up from the airport and soon after I was helping him move into his new apartment. Nothing exciting there except he lives right across from my old manager. We were discussing how they could have patio wars with Nerf guns 8D

It's getting really late and as much as I can't sleep, I got a full work weekend coming up. Yaaaaaay.

Royksopp album soon!

I'll be heading out to Las Vegas this weekend for a family reunion. I bet it's going to be hot. ;_; Really hot. I've only been on a place twice (To and from Florida when I was in high school) so I'm all nervous for no reason.

Unfortunately, I'll be missing out on a lot of things while away: Scott Pilgrim, The Expendables, True Blood, rice bowls, and our ritual Sushi Saturday. All of which while a friend is coming to visit. Super sad face. Someone see movies with me when I get back? D:

So! I recently picked up crocheting (I used to crochet really long single rows when I was 7 while at my grandparents') and I'm currently making little mouth-less Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro. I originally made a white one and gave it to my sister but now she's asking me to make her three more lol

I made a gray one for Jared with a shamrock~

Why am I watching K-On? Why is everyone making fun of me for watching it but not making fun of me for watching Sugar Sugar Rune.?

I saw Inception with several of my friends this weekend and it was amazing! I got me some free tickets (Cashier was nice? idk how) Totally go see it! Also watch the Anime movie Paprika if you haven't already.

Thanks to =Ranya-Ni and *phr34kish, I was allowed to finish Avatar the series. I'm strangely satisfied with it and was pleasantly surprised. Safe to say though that my favorite character is Zuko~

So.. I'm going to be playing Guild Wars again with my coworker and maybe one of my other friends as well. I made a ranger in Pre Ascalon :3 Everyone's confused at my sparkly emote hands. If anyone wants to tag along with my in me pre-searing journey, add me at Kurisu Roh.

Also: High School of the Dead fuck year go watch it

It's almost 6am. I should get to bed lol

Didn't get into a figure drawing glass again. Figures lol What I did get into is portrait drawing and digital painting. So hopefully you'll see me update my art more often within the next couple of months.

Going to the lake with *phr34kish, =Ranya-Ni, and maybe =temporary-glitch. Let's hope I can even out my tan~

Holler to Awiin (Still talk to him after recruiting me to join OtF six years ago~) for helping me 日本語でタイプをすることが出きる。

I have to brush up on my Japanese so I can hold conversations with my family visiting in September. Apparently, my mom has family in Japan and they'll be staying in our house for a month. My cousin (I think he's older than me by a few weeks) knows no English. Thank god my aunt and uncle know English. None the less, Takahiro and I have been sending each other e-mails. He likes playing games like Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts.

Here's hoping he's a really big geek and will fit in with my friends! o/

On a side note, I'm completely broke. I had to pay for my classes (Tuition fees went up. Sad face.) and I won't be able to buy 1) Fireworks for 4th of July 2) Video games! and most importantly 3) Anniversary gift for Jared. Sad Cris. Well, I guess I can always draw him a naughty picture in Photoshop. 8D And by naughty pictures I mean giant cocks exaggerated by perspective!

I'm glad our anniversary is 4th of July. I think fireworks are romantic~ ♥ He's probably going to get called into work though. ._.'

Anyone wanna light up sparklers with me?

I went and saw Toy Story 3 with Jared and Brian, both who originally didn't want to see it. It was fantastic! I'd totally see it again if I had the money lol Oh! I also saw How To Train Your Dragon finally a couple weeks ago with =Ranya-Ni, *phr34kish, and ~smooshfaced~ Was also fantastic. All my friends in town are boys so we never really see eye to eye as far as movies go lol.

I went to Fanime three weeks ago! Saw a bunch of dev artists there that I don't really remember. I do remember hanging around =temporary-glitch's table and selling her product to strangers. I also saw my friend Josh had his own table but he was shoved off into a corner and he looked rather lonely. I told him next year when we go again to sit next to my friends so he has someone to talk to lol

Fanime hasn't changed much last time I went like three years ago. More people I guess is the only difference. We went to a deviantArt meet up, which was their first panel at Fanime, and honestly, it was quite sad. Depressing. I wanted to leave quick. ~kousagi I think was the only good thing that came out of that meet up lol

Not that much afterwards. There's been a lot of changes at work and I'm getting burnt where I work that I feel I would have to find a second job or find another job all together. That and my boss of three years is leaving for another store. Not sure how I would be able to connect with our new manager. Ah well.

Also, I have a lot of pages in my sketch book unfinished. What should I do with them?

Red Dead Redemption is so fun right now. I played about 5 hours straight without noticing last night. John Marston is mai hasubando~

Lots of stuff happening. *phr34kish called me a few hours ago. She, =Ranya-Ni, and I are going down to San Jose this Sunday for Fanime~ Yayay! I haven't been in so long and my inner weeaboo is dying to come out.

I'm also going to Las Vegas this August for a family reunion. Unfortunately though, I have to buy my plane tickets (around $200 last I checked D: ) this week, the same week I'm going to Fanime. At least I saved some money from my last paycheck (I promised myself not to spend money on video game related products. Thankfully, Jared bought me Red Dead ♥) so I'm sure I'll have enough money for gas, entrance fee, and everything else for Fanime. :3

I saw Ironman 2 with a couple of friends and it was pretty decent; I prefer the first one (Where's my Terrance Howard? ;_; ). I'm wondering how they plan on doing the Avengers movie or how they're going to get kids/teens these days to watch Thor. I mean, He-Man's pretty awesome but Thor's missin' out on the pink tunic.

Other than Red Dead, I'm also trying to finish my Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box play through. This game still makes me feel retarded as ever but I can't help but love the Ghibli charm and the cute character designs~ Professor Layton's so manly with his bead eyes.

Speaking of games, the guild I was raiding with last night was coincidentally from Roseville. My current guild are from the Sacramento area. I never realized how many people from my server were this close to were I live. Small world, I guess.

Before I leave, I'm going to do this meme.

1. What is your name:
Cristina

2. A four Letter Word:
Cult

3. A boy's Name:
Carlton 8D

4. A girl's Name:
Chaka Khan

5. An occupation:
Corporate Douche

6. A color:
Cobalt

7. Something you wear:
Cinch

8. A food:
Chocolate

9. In the bathroom:
Candles (I have candles in my bathroom)

10. A place:
China

11. A reason for being late:
Car crash

12. Something you shout:
CHAMPION OF CAPUA!!!

13. A movie title:
Casablanca ♥

14. Something you drink:
Cappuccino

15. A musical group:
Coldplay

16. An animal:
Carpet snake

17. A city:
Coalinga, CA (God this place stinks)

18. A song:
"Clint Eastwood" Gorillaz

19. A body part:
Cranium

20. A favorite place:
Concert halls

So I woke up one morning with my foot hurtin' pretty bad. I thought I had pulled a muscle so I let it be and I limped to class. Woke up the next day and I could barely walk. My doctor said I had plantar fasciitis, inflammation of the connective tissues in mah feets. I started running/jogging again and I guess my shoes didn't have enough support.

Thank god my sister works at New Balance. I got some arch supports specifically for plantar fasciitis lol. As a result of me being retarded, I can't yog until it's fully healed. I can barely feel it when I walk with shoes but when my shoes come off, it's still there. It's healing pretty fast thought so I'm happy.

Nothing much other than that. Still living my VERY EXCITING life.

Jared's working 60+ hours a week now since his unwilling promotion. I'm worried since he's starting to get self critical, lonely, and anxious. I want to steal him for a week and run away on a well needed vacation for Jared. Because of this though, I appreciate where I work and I'm grateful for my bosses. Despite hating all this pseudo manager, numbers pressure crap going on. I miss Jared though because our schedules conflict. ;_;

As for my Mage's drawing that I posed a week ago, it seems people prefer to stay true to the game and keep those eyes hidden. I'll finish the other one though just to see what it'll look like. I'm not even sure if I'll even finish it. Ya'll know me; don't finish anything. After watching Beauty and the Beast, I want to draw my Druid 8D

I found out last that one of my favorite musicians died in a car crash the end of February. I ran into Nujabes looking for the album for Samurai Champloo and I completely fell in love. His music, to me, was defining the meaning of hip hop, something my generation will never understand. Nujabes' music helped me get through some tough times couple years back and I'm so grateful for what he created.

Hearing some of this music makes me cry. SIIIIIIIGH I wish I had a cigarette right now lol

Hydeout Productions still has unreleased work from him and I can't wait to hear what he's left behind. Rest in beats, Jun Seba.

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