Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from my family to yours! We went to Disneyland over the weekend and had an AMAZING time. I will definitely blog about it soon, hopefully in the very near future. Christmas at Disneyland is perfectly magical, and I'm really excited to share some pictures and little stories. I've really been enjoying this short break with family and friends because of all the holidays. Life is just so crazy (but in the best way) right now so blogging will be on and off, but I'll do my best to post whenever I can. I hope all of you are having a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones!

And I hope you're getting cool gifts like the ugly Christmas t-shirt that I got my brother. Can you tell he loves it? ;)

The Blogmopolitan Quiz

I'm a magazine junkie, and I occasionally peruse Cosmo in waiting rooms, at home, in friends' apartments, etc. Their Cosmo quiz is definitely one of my favorite parts, and I actually love doing the quizzes in magazines in general. Maybe it's the Psych major in me that loves it, but it's just really fun and I love learning filling out surveys, quizzes, you name it. I couldn't pass out doing this quiz when I saw it at Rachel's blog. She's amazing, and you should check out her answers at her blog too. :) And check out Erin's blog since she created this fun quiz, and link up your answers to the quiz to share with everyone. Do it, I promise it's really fun!

I'm Feeling 22! :)

Spin the birthday wheel for a shot!

Oh oh!
I don't know about you
But I'm feeling 22 ;)

Yup, it's my birthday, and I'll go out with friends and eat everything if I want to. Calories don't count! Other than the popular T-Swift song, I love the idea of being 22. Another year older, another year better I always say. I treated this birthday as like an anniversary of being 21 since I didn't do anything crazy for my 21st a year ago. Most of my friends weren't 21 yet at the time so I skipped out on all the bar shenanigans. I guess this was my long overdue 21st redemption, and it was definitely a night to remember!

Some of my beautiful girl friends! Sadly I don't remember when we took this. Ooops...

My friends and I went out to dinner at El Toro Bravo, which is a Mexican restaurant in my college town's downtown area. Their chips were amazing, and I got flan and churros as nice birthday freebies! After dinner, we went bar hopping and got some yummy drinks and also some not-so-yummy, strong drinks. It was a fun night, but I was definitely a sleepy grandma by the end of the night. Aging is not being easy on me (have mercy!). I was also a hot mess by the end of the night, but thank goodness for amazing friends that looked out for me. I survived!

My friends are the best. :')

To top it all off, my girl friends also made me an amazing poster, and I also received some fun cards from friends this year. They know me so well, and I love them dearly for knowing me almost too well. The sea otter card is so punny. It's OTTERLY amazing (credit goes to the card maker, sadly I'm not that clever)! I'm a sentimental person, and these things definitely made me feel loved and special. :)

My free birthday fro yo! #addicted

I had an amazing birthday, and I feel so blessed to have a fantastic group of friends and family in life. I didn't take too many pictures unfortunately. But I think that's okay since that probably means I was having too much fun to stop and lose precious time over getting that picture perfect Instagram shot. Time is a gift, and I'm grateful for every minute I have of it. Cheers to 22 years, and I'm hoping for good health and more memorable, fun times ahead!

December List

December is my favorite month so I couldn't pass up making a list of my faves this month. I hope everyone's enjoying the holidays doing festive things. :)

• My Birthday - I'm turning 22 on the 15th (this Sunday) so I'm stoked to celebrate another year of life. I'm starting to get really creeped out by the number of candles on my cake, but I get to eat yummy cake and be selfish for the day. And that's my mature approach to my birthday and aging ha!
• Finals - I'll finish finals tomorrow morning so I can't wait to finally be done with school for a little bit. This quarter has been so awful, and I won't miss it at all. Adios fall quarter! Hello winter break!
• Disneyland - My family and I are going to Disneyland next weekend. Obviously, it'll be the best weekend ever. I'm a Disney child, and I need my dole whip fix.
• Christmas - I saved the best for last. Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I'm excited to watch Christmas movies and eat more festive cookies. I love the beautiful decorations everywhere, and I'm a sucker for the smell of pine trees. Gotta love that warm Christmas feeling. :)

What are you looking forward to this month?

Sunday Social: More About Me

It's that time of the quarter again - finals! Yuck. I'm seriously stressed out and overwhelmed. Of course I'm not ready so I'll be studying my life away. :( But here's a fun Sunday Social post as a study break. Because you need breaks to stay sane during this time...

1. What is the wallpaper on your cell phone?
I like to change my wallpapers occasionally according to the season or holiday of the time. My current wallpaper is very festive because I'm obsessed with Christmas.

Snowy Christmas trees are amazing. :)

2. What do you keep beside your bed?
I have a lip balm, hand cream, cuticle balm, and magazines by my bed. Basically some of my night essentials and reading.

3. What is your least favorite chore? 
I hate doing dishes and cleaning the shower area of the bathroom. Emphasis on hate.

4. If you could eliminate one thing from your daily routine, what would it be?
Waking up and getting out of bed is a forever struggle. It's so cold in the mornings right now and all I wanna do is snuggle under my covers and be cozy.

5. What do you do to vent anger?
I do a bunch of things, but I mainly eat my feelings or bake something. I like to be in my head to cool off and avoid taking it out on other people.

6. What is your favorite holiday of the year and why?
Christmas, duh. I LOVE everything about it. I'm a December baby and Christmas fanatic all the way!

October and November Pijon Boxes

Simply put, I love snail mail. I love it even more when I get packages in the mail, and that's one of the main reasons why I love the idea of subscription boxes. It's like getting a gift in the mail every month and what's not to love about that? I got a 4-month subscription to Pijon, which sends out monthly care packages geared towards college students. So far, I've definitely enjoyed the products they've sent me so I'm sharing the contents of the box from the past 2 months. They also contribute to an awesome charity so it's like a gift that keeps giving back. I highly recommend them to fellow college students or subscription box lovers!

In the October box, I received the following products:

• Rooted Beauty Raspberry Citrus Invigorating Facial Wipes - I've actually heard about this company before, and I'm dying to try their lip butters. I haven't tried these face wipes yet, but I already love that they're earth-friendly and gentle for your skin.
• Metropolis Lavender & Spearmint and Lime & Spearmint Lip Creams - I'm using the lavender one right now, and it's like a mini aromatherapy session when I apply it. They're so moisturizing, and the packaging is also beautiful.

• Awake Caffeinated Chocolate - These are so yummy, and the caramel flavor is my favorite! They don't give you a lot of caffeine, but I've gotten a little bit from eating them.
• Awesome Bars in Salty Peanut and Blueberry Almond - The packaging and name are definitely a win! The salty peanut was a tad too salty for my liking, but they were still okay. The packaging was kind of loud, almost similar to the Sun Chips packaging a while back when they became more eco-friendly, so be careful opening these bars.
  

• Baggu Reusable Bag - I love reusable bags, and I really like these because they fold up so neatly. The info card also noted that they're freakishly strong so that's a super win in my book.
• Coupon Codes for InstaEDU and ThredUP

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Found on Pinterest

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you that are celebrating it today. I'm home from college so I'm extremely grateful to be with my family. Life isn't always great, but I still have a lot to be thankful for regardless. My family and friends mean the world to me so I am eternally grateful for them. Count your blessings everyone today and always! And may the odds be ever in your favor if you're braving Black Friday tomorrow!

Found on Buzzfeed

If you're celebrating two holidays today, happy Thanksgivukkah! I love Jewish food (mmmm hamantaschen!), and one of my closest friends is Jewish so I know a thing or two about Hanukkah. If you don't know how awesome Thanksgivukkah could be, you have to read this. Challah stuffing anyone??

Whatever you're celebrating today, have an awesome one! Every day may not be good, but there's something good about every day. :)

CVS Couponing Haul

Everything was free.99!

I'm just gonna say it - I'm a broke college student. With the cost of tuition, books, and rent nowadays, I'm on a tight budget and it's a rough life. I'm pretty frugal in general so I try my best to make this all work and please place an emphasis on try. Anyway, one of the main ways I save money is to shop with coupons and browse the weekly circulars for good deals on stuff that I need or want to get in the near future.

This week, CVS and Rite Aid are running some great promotions this week, and you can score some free products after CVS's Extra Care bucks or Rite Aid's Up Rewards. If you're not sure what those are, they're basically like vouchers that you can use for your future purchase(s) at each store. In the picture above, those are the free items that I purchased on sale at CVS this week. I think I spent about $12 and I got $12 back in Extra Care bucks that I will definitely use soon since I need to pick up some more stuff for my apartment anyway.

So, I just wanted to share this post because there's still time to get the same deal at CVS this week. Rite Aid has a similar promotion so I'd check out Rite Aid as well if you can. I think I might make a trip this week too and check out what they have since I love getting essentially free stuff. I really like couponing sometimes, and it's not as much as work as some people think. To my fellow college-aged peers, I highly recommend that you try couponing. All the savings really add up in the long run, and there are a lot of couponing blogs nowadays that make it so much easier for beginners. Happy couponing!

Friendsgiving '13!

On Friday night, my friends and I had a "friendsgiving" dinner, and it was a potluck style event. Everything was yummy, and I definitely had seconds of mashed potatoes and stuffing. Yummmmm! They're definitely my favorite Thanksgiving dishes. I made pumpkin swirled brownies, and the recipe didn't turn out exactly the way I hoped it would. If you have any suggestions for a recipe, please leave some ideas in a comment below.

Even with our busy schedules, I'm so glad we all managed to have a friendsgiving together. It was the best way to wrap up a long, busy week. I can't wait to get through the next few days of school so I can finally go home and relax with my friends and family!

Anyone else super excited for Thanksgiving with friends or family?

UCD, You're the One for Me.

I can't help but feel immense pride in my school after watching this video. The campus is enormous, and I like the areas that were highlighted and included in the video. It really captured the beauty of campus, and I'm definitely going to miss a lot of things here after graduation. I love my school through the good and bad, and it's a blessing to be an Aggie. Go Ags!

Target Haul!

Overview of my Target haul!

Yes, I have a serious problem. I basically have no self-control when I shop at Target so hauls like this tend to happen. #sorrynotsorry - real talk. The quality of the pictures isn't the best, but I tried to do this under 5 minutes while my roommate left the room so I did what I could...

I got the L'Oreal Original Voluminous mascara at a good price with a coupon so I'm excited to try it. I've heard a lot of Youtubers raving about this mascara so I hope it works well for me. I've never tried a L'Oreal mascara before so I'll definitely mention it in a favorites post if I end up liking it. Then, I also saw a bunch of OPI polishes for $4 in the One Spot area so I grabbed this light gray/off-white neutral color. I love OPI polishes, and that was a great bargain!

I bought two dresses in the clearance section. I LOVE the dark blue dress, and it has a great silhouette. It'll be perfect for professional and party settings so I had to buy it. Plus, it was on sale for $12 - no joke! The pink dress was on sale for $5, but I'll be returning it since it doesn't fit me well. It's also a bit longer than I would like so I'd rather get my money back.

Empties #3

Sadly, I lost the other pictures I had from my Moving Out mini series so I'm just moving forward with recent empties. These are the recent products I've used up lately, and this will be a little review of them. I love finishing products, and I've been going through a lot of stuff lately so more are on their way soon!

• Kiss My Face Ultra Moisturizer in Peaches & Creme - I used this as a body lotion, and it was really hydrating and moisturizing. I didn't like the scent after a while, and it was also really hard to apply because you had to really rub it into the skin. I won't repurchase it in the future.
• EOS Shave Cream in Vanilla Bliss - I loved the warm vanilla scent, and it was a great thick shaving cream. You can use it wet or dry, but I always used it in the shower for convenience. I may repurchase it in the future, but I have other ones that I want to try for now.
• Method Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner Spray - It worked pretty well, and I'll probably repurchase it in the future since it works well. The scent is pretty strong so beware if you're sensitive to fragrances. I'm in the mood to try other natural cleaning products so it may be a while before I'll repurchase it.
• Hurraw Vanilla Bean Lip Balm - This is probably my favorite lip balm out of everything I've used in my life. It's so moisturizing, and it also has a decent wear time. With this lip balm, I usually only applied it once or twice a day and I experienced no dryness whatsoever! This is a holy grail kind of product for me, and I will definitely repurchase!

My First 5K!

Obviously we kicked butt! ;)

If you really know me, you know that doing a 5k is a pretty big deal for me. Don't get me wrong, I like to be active, but running just doesn't do it for me. Even with good music, it's just not too fun or interesting for me so I get bored and feel tired quickly. Basically, it's just not my thing. I like to play tennis or do fitness classes a LOT more than running so why the 5k?

Over the summer, I started going to the gym and being more active again so I wanted to keep that going by trying to get into running. A 5k is only 3.1 miles so that's not too bad, right? Considering that I've probably never ran that much in one go in my entire life, I got a little panicky, but I just hit submit button on the online form anyway. 3.1 miles is a lot less than a marathon so I figured I could do it. With months to prepare, I thought it was a lot doable so I signed up and hoped for the best.

Just my luck, I actually got a little sick a couple of days before the race. The weeks leading up to the race got really busy for me so I wasn't able to run as often as I had planned. With those two things in mind, I was starting to think that the world was seriously sending me a hint. Well, I didn't want to back out last minute so I went ahead with the run anyway. I honestly didn't care about getting a good PR so finishing was more than enough for me.

October '13 Snail Mail Collective - Autumn Adventures

 

When I started my blog, I discovered a monthly international gift and postcard swap called The Snail Mail Collective that's hosted by Melyssa and Chelsea. I definitely wanted to join in on the fun so I participated in last month's program. The theme was Autumn Adventures, which is perfect since y'all already know how much I love fall. I was paired up with Gaelyn from Gaelyn's Heart of Iron, and she is currently living in South Africa. She is super sweet, athletic (she's even doing an Ironman in January!), gorgeous, and friendly. And she definitely has sold me on traveling to South Africa someday so that's now on my bucket list.

Sweater Weather Tag

Sweater weather is the best weather. I love that it's finally cold enough outside here in northern California to wear sweaters and hoodies. It's super chilly in the morning, but it warms up throughout the day to the perfect cozy temperature. I love fall so much that I needed to do this tag in addition to The Autumn Tag. This tag has been going around Youtube for a while now so I got the questions from there. Of course, I had to include the Sweater Weather song, right? :)

1. Favorite candle scent?
I love cinnamon or apple scents. More like the sweet kinds, not the spicy ones.

2. Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
I like all of them, but I think I've been into teas more often lately. My current favorite is Good Earth's Sweet & Spicy Tea. It's like fall in a cup. Yep, best description ever.

Available on Amazon, but the best deal is in Costco!

3. What's the best fall memory you have?
Apple Hill visits! The place simply epitomizes fall for me.

4. Which makeup trend do you prefer: dark lips or winged eyeliner?
Winged eyeliner! I prefer very plain nude lips since I'm more of a lip balm girl on the daily. I have the hardest time with winging out eyeliner, but when I get it right, it is amazing!
  
5. What do you want to be for Halloween?
Well, I wanted to be a cat burglar, but I ended up doing the baseball girl thing instead. Special mention goes to this awesome cat puns costumes list!

6. Favorite Thanksgiving food?
Mashed potatoes and gravy - 'nuff said!

7. Hats or Scarves?
Scarves! I recently discovered the awesomeness of infinity scarves so I'm looking forward to acquiring more of those this season.

Influenster Dr. Scholl's Active Series Insoles Review

I recently received another box from Influenster, and the Dr. Scholl's Active Series women's insoles came in during the perfect time. It came during the week of my 5k run so I immediately started using it to help me workout and of course also use it on the day of my 5k. I regularly use foot insoles already, and I'm a huge fan. Surprisingly, I never thought about using insoles during my workouts but it makes a lot of sense, considering that running and playing tennis can definitely put a lot of pressure on your feet and legs.

These Dr. Scholl's Active Series claim to reduce shock by 40% and help relieve and prevent pain from 3 common sports injuries (shin splints, runner's knee, and plantar fascitis). It has a lot of cushioning, and it has a reinforced arch that I love since my feet are so flat. It's a really thick pair of insoles so I ended up having to adjust my shoelaces to give my feet more room. The insoles I received were slightly bigger than my shoe size, but you can trim the ends to make it a perfect fit.

So what's the verdict? I loved them! I may never go back to working out without insoles because they're just THAT comfy! It definitely provides a lot of support and cushioning, and my feet feel very relieved after each use. So far I've only used them for the gym and running, but I think I will love them even more for tennis. Playing tennis can be really hard on your feet so I'm excited to use them for that. My feet and knees can be so sore after playing, and I know these would really help a lot. I'm so stoked for these insoles, and they're definitely worth checking out!

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes; all opinions are completely my own.

Halloween '13

Not your average lecture: Star Wars edition

This year's Halloween weekend was really fun so I definitely have to share what I've been up to in the past few days. In one of my classes, the professor and TA's did a cool Star Wars skit in the beginning of class. It was really entertaining and totally unexpected. I love this professor's sense of humor, and it's awesome that he really got into the Halloween spirit!

Halloween night!

My club had a fundraiser on Halloween night so of course I had to dress up! I went with being a baseball girl since I already had the clothes in my closet. It was a really fun, successful clubbing event, and I got to hang out with my new little sib (in the top left box). My roommate dressed up as a chola (in the top right box), and that was hilarious. I got to hang out with some friends that I haven't seen in a while too so that was really nice. I tried a new drink that night, and it was the tequila sunrise. I think it was a mix of tequila and orange juice, and it was pretty yummy. Not really my kind of drink though since I'm not a big fan of OJ.

#21

At midnight, one of my closest friends here turned 21 so we went bar hopping in downtown. It was an extremely fun evening, and we went to 4 bars total. She even completed the Holy Trinity, which is sort of an unofficial ritual that's about drinking 3 of some of the strongest drinks in town. She's definitely a pro! My friends/her roommates also decorated their apartment a little bit and bought her lots of alcohol. I baked her a vanilla cake, and it turned out well. I tried this vanilla cake recipe, and the frosting was really good. I would probably tweak the cake recipe in the future since it was a little on the dry side. Overall, it was a very fun and memorable birthday! Glad she's finally in the 21 club! :)

L'Occitane Samples Haul

I went to the mall the last time I went home, and I stopped by L'Occitane to pick up a sample of their new Divine Cream. They were promoting it in their email newsletters so I was more than happy to pick one up to try for myself. I love getting samples because it's a great way to try out new products without the huge commitment of finishing a full-size product. I love L'Occitane's lavender shea butter hand cream so I'm already a little familiar with the brand. French lavender is one of my favorite scents, and getting their luxurious hand creams is a nice occasional treat.

The ladies there were super generous with giving me additional samples aside from the Divine Cream. It was super sweet of them, and I'm excited to try them all since I haven't tried their other offerings. I'm trying to use up my current products quickly so I can try these samples so I'll definitely post more about them in the future. If you get the chance to go to a L'Occitane shop, stop by and pick up some samples (they often give them away apparently) and try one of their hand creams!

Sunday Social: Halloween

I've been MIA because of midterms, school, and my internship so I apologize for not posting lately. I'm still trying to figure out how to balance blogging into my life, and I hope I can figure out some kind of schedule. Anyway, I love Halloween so I couldn't pass up this week's Sunday Social. I hope everyone has a fun and spooky Halloween this year! :)

1. What was your favorite Halloween costume as a kid?

In the 6th grade, I dressed up as a witch, and it was WICKED!

2. If you could go back to your childhood and dress up as something, what would it be?

I would have loved to dress up as one of the Disney princesses. Maybe Belle or Rapunzel since they're my favorites.

3. What was your favorite Halloween costume as an adult?

Last year, I tried dressing up as a Gryffindor girl. I also had Hermione's time turner as a prop, but sadly it didn't make it into this picture.

Santa Barbara Halloween '12

4. What is your favorite Halloween candy?

Twix and Kit Kats! (mostly Twix)

5. What is your favorite Halloween memory?

I celebrated Halloween in Santa Barbara last year, and it was crazy!!! It was a lot of fun, and there were tons of people out and about in the streets. If you know what what Halloween is like in SB, the party shenanigans are real.

6. What is your favorite scary movie?

I don't like scary movies, but I think one of the best ones I've seen is The Poltergeist. It's an oldie, but it's really good.

I'm so excited for Halloween! Anyone have any plans! :)

25 Facts About Me

It's crazy, but I can't believe it's been like a month and a half since I started this blog. What's even crazier is that my birthday is exactly 2 months away! This year has gone by super fast, and I'm super excited for the holidays. With midterms right now though... not so much. :( Anyway, here are 25 random facts about me!

1. I love pandas. They're my favorite animals, and I'm obsessed. Just a tad. ;)
2. My favorite color is blue, like turquoise blue; I hate pink.
3. Trader Joe's and Target are my favorite stores! I'm a proud owner of a Red Card, and I can spend hours shopping or browsing around those stores. And I tend to do that often actually - no shame.
4. I am allergic to mosquito bites, and they're the absolute worst to deal with.
5. Tagalog is my native language, but sadly, I can only speak it a little bit now. I can understand it really well, but I'm working on becoming fluent again.
6. I'm a Sagittarius, and my Chinese zodiac animal is the sheep/goat/ram depending on the calendar.
7. The first time I went to Disneyland was for my high school senior grad night, and it was amazing because I went with my friends.
8. I'm not athletic, but I enjoy playing tennis. I picked it up in high school, and I still try to play whenever I can now.
9. I learned how to ride a bike during my first quarter in college. It was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do, but it was also one of the best things I've ever learned.
10. I have a major sweet tooth. I was the kind of kid that would take candy from strangers (sorry mom!) and not much has changed over the years...

Sunday Social: Blogger Firsts

1. What is the first blog you ever followed?
I'm not 100% sure, but it might be between Bakerella and smitten kitchen.

2. What was your first blog post about?
It was basically a small intro about me and my hopes for this little blog. It was definitely the hardest post ever since I don't enjoy talking about myself too much.

3. Who left you your first blog comment?
Taylor from The California College Student is the sweetest! :)

4. Who was the first blogger you ever met in person?
I've never met a blogger in real life, but I would definitely love to meet Bakerella, Joy the Baker, and David Lebovitz. Food bloggers are so cool!

5. What was your first “blogging milestone?”
Getting comments is awesome, and getting my first one was such a big deal for me. I never imagined that other people could stumble upon my blog and leave comments so I threw a little dance party in my head (It's the little things, right? :) ).

September Favorites

I loved a lot of things in September so I thought I'd start doing a monthly favorites series. Each month, I'll try to include beauty products, food obsessions, entertainment loves, and random favorites so there will be a little bit of everything!

• I've mentioned my Dogeared Angel Wings Necklace before already, but I had to bring it up again in this post. I've been wearing it almost every single day, and it's simply perfect. It's definitely a life favorite!
• I started using L'Occitane Lavender Hand Cream last month, and the French lavender scent is divine. It's a strong sort of lavender, and I like that it's not the artificial type of scent. It also moisturizes well so I've been using it a lot since my hands get so dry from my constant hand-washing.
• I also started using a new lip balm, and it's Butterbeer Lip Butter! It smells like sweet butterscotch and vanilla. It smells more like a dessert rather than a drink, but that's okay with me since I love anything HP-related.
• The Hello Breath Spray in Pink Grapefruit Mint came in my Co-Ed Supply August Box, and it's one of my favorites from that box. The packaging is so cute, and it fits well in my small makeup bag for school. It also locks when you twist it so it won't spill when you store it away. The flavor is also pretty fresh and not overwhelming.
• I bought a new pair of Vans this month since I've had my other one for almost 2 years. I'm bummed that they don't have wide sizes anymore, but I still love the classic style. I chose the gray color so it can complement any outfit.
• I couldn't include images of these in the collage, but I still want to talk about them anyway. I bought the Bear River Valley Cinnamon Trackers cereal this month, and it tastes like a thinner Cinnamon Toast Crunch! It's yummy, and it pairs well with vanilla almond milk. My other favorite is an app, and it's the C25K Free app. I've been using it to train for my 5K, and I like their 8 week/3 days a week program. This app has been really handy since I don't know how to pace myself or train for a run, and the best part is that it's completely free.

Sunday Social: My Younger Self

1. What were you like in middle school and high school?
Middle school was definitely my super awkward years. I wasn't super social, and I mostly kept to myself. High school was still awkward (well that's still true today), but I became more outgoing and sociable especially senior year. Throughout high school, I was really involved with extracurriculars, and I was driven to succeed and excel academically so I can get into a good college and get a lot of scholarships. Boring stuff really, but thank goodness I lived a little during my senior year.

2. What were your favorite pastimes?
I loved playing Pokemon games on my gameboy, watching lots of TV (like Full House and Gilmore Girls), and read books. During my senior year of high school, I picked up baking and watching Youtube videos. I still do all these things now, minus the Pokemon part because my gameboy is lost somewhere in Narnia...

3. What songs were you obsessed with?
I loved Britney Spears and boy bands for sure. I was a major pop music fan, and I was all about the 90's top hits.

4. What fashion statement do you look backing and cringe?
Wearing Uggs with everything. I never understood why everyone, especially celebrities, always wore them. I guess comfort is important, but they just don't look that great to me. They actually look pretty unflattering because they're bulky, but that's probably just me. Fashion in general baffles me often.

5. Who was your celeb crush?
I don't really remember who it was, but it might be Chad Michael Murray. One Tree Hill was one of my favorite shows while growing up, and he was so cute!

6. What was your favorite movie?
I never really had a favorite movie, but I always enjoyed watching Disney movies. I was really into the Princess Diaries and all the romantic comedies like 13 Going on 30 and Sweet Home Alabama.

Tako's Korean BBQ Tacos

From the top: chicken, pulled pork, and bulgogi tacos! And Sac Food Co-Op's veggie juice.

I feel incredibly bad for not talking about this place sooner, but better late than never, right? Last month, my friend and I went to Tako's Korean BBQ Tacos. We both love Korean BBQ so we were excited to try this Mexican-Korean fusion casual restaurant. I ordered 3 tacos, and I ordered the chicken, pulled pork, and bulgogi tacos to sort of sample the different meats that they have. My favorite was definitely the bulgogi taco followed by the pulled pork taco. Bulgogi is marinated steak, and it was cooked and complemented perfectly by their special purple house sauce. My friend and I think it might be a berry-based sauce because of the color and sweetness. The pulled pork taco was also delicious and very tender. It was the messiest to eat, but it was certainly worth it! The chicken taco was good, but it wasn't as impressive as the other meats. It was cooked well and it had the purple house sauce too, but I probably just wouldn't order it again. The tacos were $7, which was pretty reasonable for the amount and taste of the food.

My friend and I enjoyed trying our first Tako's experience, and we will definitely return when we're both home from college again. Next time, I'd like to try their nachos or burritos, and I hope they will be topped with that purple sauce too!

Influenster Colgate SoftSlim VoxBox Review

I recently received the Colgate SlimSoft VoxBox from Influenster. If you don't know about Influenster, I highly recommend it if you like getting free stuff and reviewing new products. Check out their website here for more details!

Even though the toothbrush was the main product in the box, they also sent travel sizes of Colgate toothpaste and mouthwash. I liked the flavor of the toothpaste, and I did notice some whitening effects so I was pleased to see it live up to its whitening claims. The mouthwash was also great, and the size is perfect for traveling! It's an alcohol-free mouthwash so it doesn't have that burning sensations like many mouthwashes do.

I've never splurged on toothbrushes before so using this super nice toothbrush feels life-changing. It is the softest toothbrush that I have ever used in my entire life, and it's so gentle even when you scrub your teeth really hard. The bristles are sort of angled, and the tips are < 0.01mm so it can deep clean and really get into the spaces between the teeth. I have deep grooves between my teeth, and I have noticed that it does clean really well between those spaces.

I loved all the products in this box, and I would recommend them to anyone! The toothbrush was definitely my favorite among all of them, and I would probably repurchase it in the future since it works so well for me. If you're looking for a new toothbrush, check out the new SoftSlim toothbrush in stores.

Disclaimer: I received these products complimentary from Influenster for testing purposes; all opinions are completely my own.

October List

Found on Pinterest

I'm so glad it's fall, and October is one of my favorite months of the year. Here are some things that I'm looking forward to this month:

• Halloween! - Definitely one of my favorite holidays of the year. I love the (free) candy, and dressing up can be fun. I'm not sure exactly what I'm doing this year yet, but I'll most likely be hanging out with some friends and having a low-key celebration.
• Breast Cancer Awareness Month - As a woman, breast cancer is an important issue for me, and I like to observe this month by acquiring more tools and resources to be well-informed.
• My Mom's Birthday - She is turning 47 this month, and I'm definitely excited for some birthday festivities. We always have a family dinner, and my brother and I spend a day with her doing whatever she fancies.
• My First 5K Run - I will be running my first 5k run (yikes!) on Oct. 26th. I've been training a little bit with an app that I downloaded, but I hate running so this will be a huge accomplishment for me. I'm not trying to get the fastest time so I just want to finish the race and hopefully jog most of it.
• Enjoying apple-everything! - I love apples, and they're certainly one of my favorite fruits. This month, I really want to enjoy eating Dutch apple pie and caramel apples. I would love to go to Apple Hill as well if the opportunity comes up.

What are you looking forward to in October? :)