As I was pondering about what to post today, I reminisced back to last year when I made this blog and thought it would be cool to revisit my old posts. I stumbled upon my New Year's Resolution post from last year and figured it would be fun to see how I did on my resolutions for the year.

A bad habit I want to break --> Procrastinating. I really really really want to break my horrible habit of waiting until the last minute to do most things, which always gets me in trouble and ends up in bad quality results. 

Although I'm still not the most organized person, I think I've made a few strides along this alley! I've definitely gotten better and was super proud of myself for not procrastinating on getting my residency application materials together -- in fact, I was done super early around August, which I was mega proud of! It definitely pays to not procrastinate and really, really helps de-stress your life. With that being said, I still want to work on this and not procrastinate on all of my projects. Here's to procrastinating even less in 2016! 

A destination I’d like to visit--> I'd like to visit a lot of different places, but I think this year I'd really like to try and visit Boston or California. I'll be interviewing a lot this year, so I'm going to also use that as some time to travel! 

I traveled alottttt this year! Although I didn't get to travel to either Boston nor California, I went to a bunch of cities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic areas. Some of my favorite and most memorable locations were Long Island, Washington DC, and Norfolk! 

I’m going to work harder at --> Staying healthy and binge-eating less. 

Unfortunately, I struggled with this goal again in 2015 :( but, I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet! 2016 is another year and another chance to crush it! #optimistic ;) 

A project I’d like to finish --> My 2015 scrapbook. 

I'm SOOOOO excited to say that I've finally started working on my scrapbook! Last year, I was planning on making it solely about memories from 2015, but I decided at the end to make it a culmination of my undergrad and medical school experiences. Mainly because this year was so stressful and busy that I didn't get to do as much fun stuff as I thought. I have about 5-6 pages done and am well on my way to getting it done in 2016! 

A class I’d like to take --> I'm actually really excited to take my Pediatrics rotation, and do various medicine and pediatric electives! 

Boom, did my Peds rotation and loved working with kids! Yes, I applied into pediatrics, but surprisingly I didn't really enjoy the rotation that much mainly because of the residents I worked with. Most of them were incredibly obnoxious and full of themselves, which is why I will not be ranking Pitt #1 on my list this year! :) But I know Peds is my calling, especially primary care pediatrics, and I'm super pumped to start the next phase of my training this upcoming year!

I’d like to spend more time doing --> Spending time with my friends, both old and new. 

Yes, yes, and yes! Although this year was incredibly busy in terms of finishing up clerkships, doing my acting internship, and interviewing, I still made a lot of great memories with friends both old and new. That ranges from attending my former roommate's wedding, grabbing dinner with the Forbes Hall crew, visiting my best friend from college in Washington DC, having bro nights with my medical school friends, watching the NZ and American bachelor, hosting a bonfire party, and many many mannnyyy more events! 

A food I want to eat more of --> Vegetables. Also i'd like to start making salads at home because those are a great way of getting in veggies, proteins, dairy, etc. and are really fun because you can customize it any way you want and the options are endless! 

Been working on it! I definitely got better at grocery shopping this year and cooking at home, but I went up and down in roller-coaster waves as far as my diet goes. I really want to work on solidifying a meal plan and healthy eating habits for myself this year now that I have more down time to focus on these things.

I want to wear more --> More jeans and less leggings/yoga pants! Also I want to finally start wearing cute dresses more often and finally buy a nice bikini this year. 

Yeahhhhh not really :( but like I said, next year's a charm! ;)


So from the looks of things, I didn't do too shabby on my resolutions this year! I'll be posting my resolutions for 2016 sometime tomorrow, probably following the same template! Happy New Year's Eve!!! Party it upppp.

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I hope everyone who ends up reading this post/blog had an absolutely wonderful holiday season this year. Even though Christmas may be over, there's still lots of holiday fun to be had with the sales and New Years celebrations coming up. In fact, I'm blasting the Michael Buble Christmas CD as I'm writing this post! Being a busy as I am, it's hard for me to carve out time to fully enjoy the holidays each year, but I try to do my best each year and spend quality time with as many friends and family as possible. I may not get to see, call, text, or hangout with all my friends regularly but I still try to send all my close friends a holiday card each year to keep in touch and let them know that I still care about them. For me, the holiday season isn't so much about getting as much as it is about giving, even if it's something as simple as a holiday card or a $10 personalized gift to my closest friend. It's honestly the thought that matters, at least for me, even if I get nothing in return. The fact that people have stuck around in my life as long as they have means a lot to me.

This year, as with all years, I had an absolute blast with my family. We went to see Alvin and the Chipmunks on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas Day we had a home cooked Indian lunch and just relaxed together in our den as a family. The highlight was the holiday quiz game my brother made for the family! It was a super fun and silly time! Today, we went up to Erie and had a nice lunch by the bay front area and then ate some cake and coffee at the Sheraton. On our way back, we stopped at the outlets, where my mom and I purchased a bunch of goodies from Bath & Body Works (their sale is legit SO good!). I also bought a ton of sweaters from Old Navy for only $38! Love that place.

As for the rest of the holiday break, I have a ton of projects planned. My biggest project is to reorganize my room at my parent's house. It's such a huge, cluttered mess that really needs to be redone even if I'm not going to be living here for a long time. And plus, the New Year makes me itch to redecorate and reorganize, so this is perfect! I also want to get organized in other ways including using a planner to organize my life and an expense tracker to budget myself better. Plus, I have some smaller projects like making some holiday brownies, getting my eyebrows done, thinking about my residency rank list, etc. Plus, packing for my trip to India and London that's coming up in a few short weeks. Lots and lots to blog about and hopefully I can continue my blogging spree until the New Year!

Crafting Weekends: Glitter Dipped Wine Glasses

*image credit goes to Cupcakes and Couture

I've been meaning to write this post for months now! I first made these glasses as a present for Mother's Day but I never got around to posting it. I've since made a dipped wine glass for myself so I remembered to take photos this time! I freaking love making stuff like this. It is such an easy, cheap craft to make and it looks so unique and polished! Not to mention that you can actually use it regularly. My favorite part is that you can reeeeallly customize these glasses any way you want -- different glitters, different colors you can use, different gluing techniques, patterns, and a bunch of different messages and patterns you can write/draw on the actual glass portion. It makes for a super cute, cheap, personalized gift for weddings, parties, Christmas, birthdays, ANYTHING. I've even seen it being used as bacholerette party favors on Pinterest! Looking back, I'm actually regretting not making some more for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner table this year! But anyways, enough rambling.

So the materials. First off, you'll obviously need a clean, plain wine glass. You can find these anywhere. I bought mine at Walmart for $1. You can use a more expensive wine glass, although I've read that cheaper glasses actually hold up the glitter and writing better. You'll also need some loose glitter. This is the fun part! There are soooo many different shades and sizes of glitter and you can get super creative by mixing different colors, textures, etc. For mine I chose a champagne white gold, which is my favorite metallic. I bought mine from JoAnn Fabrics in a shakeable container (is that what they're called?!)...you know, the one with holes on top so you can shake out the glitter easily and don't have to dip your hands into it. Makes for an easy, mess-free application! You'll also need some Mod Podge, which is gonna act as the glue for the glitter to stick to. There are SO many different varieties of Mod Podge. I chose the plain Mod Podge with a gloss finish and it worked really well. It's also nice to have some sort of clear acrylic sealant spray to lock your glitter in place. Although it's technically optional, it's going to add a nice finishing touch to your wine glass and make it so that the glitter isn't going to scrape away from your glass with continued use. And if you're giving it as a gift, I think it's nice to add that professional touch. I used the Mod Podge brand, although they had other types as well. Whichever one you choose, make sure it's clear and has a gloss finish! You'll also need a foam brush, which you can buy at any craft store, to paint on the Mod Podge. Lastly, you can buy some metallic Sharpie pens to jazz up your wine glass if you want to add any writing or doodles to your wine glass. They don't have to be metallic although I think metallics go really well with glitter!

So I didn't take step by step pictures, but it's incredibly easy to figure out.

1. Plan out your wine glass. Like I said, the possibilities are endless. You can choose to coat the entire stem in glitter, do just the bottom, cover the entire glass, etc. You also want to decide if you want to doodle on your glass with Sharpies. For my Mother's Day present, I chose to write "Mom" in cursive with a bronze Sharpie. Check out Pinterest or Google Images for ideas. 
2. Setup to glitter! Lay down tons of newspaper on your work area so it's easy to get rid of the glitter when you're done. You also want to cover all parts of the wine glass that will not be getting smothered by glitter, especially the insides of the wine glass.You can do this by taping newspaper around the outside of the glass and putting some on the inside of the glass as well.
3. Mod Podge time. Using your foam brush, coat your wine glass with a thin layer of Mod Podge. You want to cover every single inch of the glass that will be getting glitter-ized, but you want to make sure it's not gooped up or dripping with Mod Podge. 
4. Sprinkle on the glitter. Immediately after you cover your glass with Mod Podge, shake glitter to cover the entire area. This is where a glitter container with holes comes in handy! You can go crazy and coat excessively, making sure there are no "bald spots". Remember, you can shake off any excess glitter, but it's a pain to go back and spot-treat any missed areas (been there done that)! Once you've covered the entire glass, leave it alone for about 30-60 minutes. The longer, the better.
5. Decorate your glass. If you want to add any messages, writing, or design on your glass, remove the newspaper covering your glass and draw directly on the glass using your Sharpies. Let it sit for about 15 minutes.
6. Seal the glitter. Once you're happy with your glass, time to lock it down! Hold the sealant spray about 6 inches away from the glass and spray while twirling your glass until each area has an even coat. Do this for the entire glass -- including the parts written in Sharpie and any blank areas. Don't spray excessively at any one point otherwise it might get chunky in one area or the glitter may spray off.You want to give a fine, thin coat to each part of the glass. 

That's it! That's how easy this project is. If you love glitter as much as I do, you can try with different types of glasses, different colors of glitter, different designs, etc. Like I said, the possibilities are literally endless and I love how practical this craft is! Hope you guys enjoyed..here's to many more crafting posts this coming year!

First Dates

Long time, no talk. I know, I know that seems to be theme for this blog :( A LOT has happened since I last posted...I think back in like late November? December's definitely been an interesting, eye-opening month for me in many ways.

Let's first talk about my very first date. Yes, I'm 25. Yes I just went on my first official date like a week ago. It was with a guy that I've known since high school and had a small crush back then. As fate would have it, we went to the same college and had the same major, although he was a year below me and our classes never overlapped. But I would see him around campus and say hi, smile, etc like I do with anyone. Fast forward to first year of medical school, he ended up messaging me one night and we started texting regularly shortly after that. We then made a date to hangout, but as silly me would have it, I of course fucked it up. Instead of going out to dinner or for coffee like a normal person, I decided to text him half-drunk after a night of clubbing during medical school orientation and invite him over to my place. I didn't even think about the kind of message it sent. So he showed up to my apartment with a bottle of Smirnoff I think? Or Bacardi, I can't recall obviously. And of course like any normal man, he thought it was a bootycall. When that didn't happen and I refused to even kiss him after he made it very clear that he wanted me sexually, he of course went home all flustered, embarrassed, and probably a little upset. SO embarrassing! To my surprise, that wasn't the end of our relationship. We still Snapchatted and texted every now and then, but our busy schedules prevented us from setting a date to hangout again...not that he was yearning to hangout with me after our little incident, I'm sure. Fast forward some more to a few weeks ago (mind you, like 3 years later after the embarrassing incident), we decide to hangout again. We got Thai food at a local joint and it was....awkward. Just an awkward fucking date. He had a cute face, gorgeous eyes, and a good head on his shoulders but there was just no chemistry. He made some awkward jokes on our drive over to the restaurant and made waayyyyy too many sarcastic, joking comments for me to even take him seriously. Everything I said would turn into some sort of sarcastic comment or joke. A little over the top and annoying. Just too much of a clown for me, let's put it that way. He paid for the meal, confirming that it was a date not just a friendly hangout...oops. When he dropped me off, I don't know if he expected me to invite him upstairs, but I just told him it was fun, wished him a good night, and left things that way. No kiss, no physical contact, nothing.

Although he wasn't the one and there's zero chance of a second date, I'm still glad I put myself out there. I was so incredibly nervous and wanted to cancel the whole night, but I'm proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and giving things a chance. About fucking time since my ovarian clock is tick-tocking away. Having this experience definitely makes me more comfortable with the thought of dating, and to be honest I can't wait to do it again! I'm a pretty social person and I love meeting new people, so dating isn't as scary as I initially thought. Just getting past those first date nerves and hoping he's a decent, normal guy is the only part that scares me. And to be honest, stepping into the whole dating realm makes me more self-conscious and propels me to get fit and look my best. I may not be America's Next Top Model, but the least I can do it shed a few pounds, tone up, and look good in sexy clothes. Or at least jeans for now! And dating gives me another incentive to focus on my outer appearance and health.

Whew so there it is. I FINALLY got this post up and written. I wanted to write about more fun, exciting stuff that's been happening in my life this month but I'll save it for another blog post. I'm going to try to blog every day until the New Year, but no commitments. I already have some stuff I wanted to talk about like my HUGE beauty hauls, favorites, more life events, and exciting stuff coming up next year so look out for some more stuff coming up soon!