*♥* It's Fall!! *♥*

[Currently listening to おかえり by the lovely ayaka :) ]

Happy October everyone! :) I know it's been long overdue, but I am back!

I've missed you all ('-^)v ~♥

It has been a roller-coaster ride this past month, mainly because I've been so busy working, working, WORKING! For those who have just started reading my blog or just to remind my current followers, I work as a bartender/waitress at a retirement home. :) There are a lot of changes going around at work, mainly construction in the dining room, which meant that we had to push ourselves extra hard to make food service for the residents as pleasant as possible. I will tell you all right now that it really hasn't been easy trying to adjust around the construction site, but somehow in the last 3 weeks of construction, we made it! The Bistro area has been re-arranged and updated, and will open again on Wednesday. We're very excited for this and hoping that with the changes made, operation for making and delivering food to the residents will run more smoothly than before. :)

After working a very busy long week, I finally have tomorrow for a day off! I've been looking forward to this since Monday, my last day off... (^-^;;) I've been running around so much that yesterday (our busiest day) I felt as though I walked a marathon! I've never worked myself so hard until this day, but tomorrow, I will be having some well-deserved rest! Yay!!

The weather here at Virginia Beach has been super crazy with all the RAIN!! Lately the weather's been lacking forecasts of rain, and in the last 3-4 days, we've received... well, RAIN! Lots of it! The day before yesterday there were delays and even cancellations for schools and other places because the rain just kept going! Sure, we've been long overdue for some rain, but... I didn't think we'd be getting this much... (-__-);; The good news is now we've had rain, and... Well, tomorrow will be a good break - it's supposed to be a beautiful day. (^-^)

There will be more rain on the way this coming week though... (O_o);;

In other news... @SleeplessFish, a.k.a. my boyfriend Taylor and I have been together for 2 years and 2 months this past Wednesday :) I've said it before and I'll say it again: it doesn't feel as though we've been together that long... But nothing better than to be in love with your best friend! (^-^)♥ We are able to see each other only once a week now that he's back in school - he is in his last semester at University of Mary Washington studying Political Science. I've given him plenty of space so that he can concentrate on his school work - from what I understand they are writing-intensive classes, and those take up a LOT of time and effort to do. It hasn't been easy waiting on my part, but I always look forward to the day when I do get to see him, even if it will only be for a few hours. I'm very proud of him though, and I'm going to cheer him on until he gets the diploma in his hands :) Let's all cheer for him too, okay??

So, it's October! That means Halloween is right around the corner! What is everyone doing for Halloween this year?? Last year I dressed up as a black cat for work, but this year I want to dress up in something that I know I want to put some effort in. It's been a long while since I last cosplayed so my costume this year will be from the anime "Kaichou wa Maid-sama" - Ayuzawa Misaki!

I actually finished watching "Kaichou wa Maid-sama" last night and this is, by far, my favorite shoujo anime. Long story short: Student Body President of her school by day, Maid Latte cafe's maid at work! It's really cute, so ladies, and guys too - go watch it now! :)

I'm also going to Nekocon this year! I told myself 2 years ago that I wouldn't be able to go to anime conventions anymore, but... Well, I miss seeing my friends, and I would love to go meet new friends too - so I'm making a comeback! The convention is November 5-7 this year, and I've already pre-registered! I plan to wear my completed cosplay at this convention, and I'm not sure if I will have time to make another one by then... We will see, won't we? :) I might be able to buy my materials tomorrow and get started soon!

Before I go, I want to share with you all something that I'm going to do soon: making videos for YouTube! I finally decided that I want to give video-editing and such a try! A few weeks ago, I experimented and made a video. I have it posted below - I hope you all will like it :)

By the way, if you have tips and pointers to fixing this problem with the video, let me know because I'm willing to try and learn!

Enjoy and I'll check back with you all tomorrow!

Much love to you all,
~Reiko ('-^) xoxo ♥

★☆ Typing this as fast as possible! ☆★

[Currently watching "Dead Like Me" Season 1 Episode 3 - thank you Taylor (@SleeplessFish) for introducing this show to me :) xoxo ]

Hello and good morning everyone! It's been a couple of weeks since I updated, huh? Well, I have been extremely busy - celebrating my birthday all week with wonderful people, worrying about my case for my car accident (which will be written about in a separate post later on today), and spending some time with my wonderful @SleeplessFish :) I hope you all have been well and still enjoying your weekend :)

I'm going to be typing this as fast as possible since I woke up a little bit later than I hoped... Then again, it was good that I was able to sleep in a little bit; I guess I really needed the rest! :)

The main stuff I want to talk about will have to wait until a later post this evening, but for right now I wanted to share with you guys the following:

I bought more jewelry from DSK Jewelry as another birthday present to myself :) Well, what can I say? I'm a fan of Stephanie and her wonderful and creative works! Next month I will be launching filmings for my YouTube channel and this is going to be one of the first videos that I will do. I can't wait to show you guys my DSK hoard! I don't have the picture of the jewelry that I bought, but the day that the jewelry comes in the mail, I'll be filming as soon as possible :)

Speaking of wonderful and creative stuff, I want to share with you guys a really cute store that I discovered in the last week: ekiLove!

I've provided the link to the lovely Eki's online store - just click on the icon above :)

What is ekiLove? Eki, the creator of this kawaii store, makes purses, jewelry, and hair accessories that when worn, it turns a girl into a hime (Japanese word for princess!) ^_^ Just like Stephanie's work for her DSK Jewelry line, Eki's art is handmade - meaning made by her own two hands and with NO assistance from anyone else. What I admire about these girls' works is that they are one of a kind; you cannot find the same jewelry anywhere else - any other jewelry, purse, etc. that is not made by them is simply not DSK or ekiLove because these girls pour their heart, love and soul into each piece. That's what makes them so special and I've become a fan!

Here are some examples of stuff from Eki's store:

I absolutely love this Vintage Hime pouch! But right now I have to save my money, so I hope this purse will still be available by the time I'm able to get this ^-^

This is Eki, the creator of ekiLove - isn't she lovely with her handmade Hime hair bow? :)

This is my favorite necklace from her accessories collection - the Royal Love necklace. Again, I'd love to get this but right now I have to conserve my money :( Isn't it pretty though? And the crystal heart is a Swarovski crystal!

Eki is currently holding a contest at her online store until 9/18 - check out her store at the ekiLove love icon provided above and show her your love! :) For you lovely himes out there, it's worth a few minutes of your time to visit - I promise ^_^

Before I go, I wanted to share with you guys a show that I mentioned that I'm watching while typing this. It's called "Dead Like Me" :)

For a quick simple synopsis: 18-year old Georgia Lass was scheduled to die, and from that moment on, she became an "undead" - or rather, a grim reaper. As in, taking the souls of people, just like what happened to her during the time of her death. The series speaks for itself: A series of life after life. Taylor showed me the first episode from his collection last night and I've gotta say that I really enjoyed it! I'm currently watching the episodes on hulu.com - maybe I'll get my own collection of episodes myself, lol! :)

What really tickles me is that it took me a while to really realize that one of the characters in the series is Mandy Patinkin, the guy who is also in CBS's "Criminal Minds" as Gideon! Awesome!

For exciting news, I will finally be getting my own phone and phone line tomorrow morning: I'm getting the new iPhone 4! I've been using an old Nokia phone that my mom, dad, and I got in 2006 as a back-up phone since my Sony Ericsson phone broke into pieces last summer, so I'm very excited that my phone will be cool and updated! I will also be paying for my own phone bill, so Responsibility +1 for me; just a step at a time to independence :)

Oh so very excited! :)

All right guys and girls, it's time for me to get ready for a good day at work. I will be back tonight to share the rest of my news, especially the court report for my car accident back in March. I can't wait to share with you all :)

Have a wonderful Sunday everyone! xoxo

With love,

~Reiko xoxo

★☆ Early Morning Chat with Reiko ☆★

[Currently listening to Best of KAT-TUN - yes, I'm a JE fan too! :D ]

Good morning everyone :) It's now 5:11am, and I've been up for nearly half an hour. I'm not entirely sure why I got up at this time, but I'm feeling wide awake writing to you all, lol! It certainly has been a while.

Since I'm up, I wanted to share with you guys my weekend - it did have it's ups and downs, but I learned a lot in just 2 days...

There are a lot of things going on at work that it's gotten me so busy in recent weeks - if you're new to reading my blog, I'm a bartender in a retirement home - it will seem bizarre to you, I know, but as I've said time and time again, I love my job! :) I've been working full-time hours now and I'm enjoying that, but at the same time it's physically exhausting. (Imagine running around serving food where you have to wear long sleeves with little air conditioning for about 8 hours - ooh, yeah, that's me! >_< ) I like to have a break every now and then, and to my surprise I was given a weekend - Saturday and Sunday - off! It's a very rare opportunity for me, so I figured it's time I took it to fully enjoy it :)

[Saturday]
I met with @SleeplessFish, aka Taylor , my beloved boyfriend (of 2 years now) after he got off work. We did have a rocky start over something that was small and stupid, but we eventually came around and had a good time. He showed me around the church where he works - it certainly is a beautiful place, and it's big too! :) I just wished I had taken some pictures to show you guys, but I guess I will have to do that the next time I visit there :) We headed over to my best friend, Nicki's, house for a party :) Our college friend, Jeincy, is moving to Washington state soon to work there for a year, so we had a party to celebrate her new job! It was an absolutely fun fun night - I got to see a lot of cool people whom I haven't seen in so long!

This is Jeincy! I met her in her freshman year in college, my sophomore year. She's one of the sweetest girls ever!

This is me with @babyroach, aka Nicki, my best friend of 17 years next month - I met her while we were in religion classes and altar serving at our old parish, and we went to the same middle school, high school, and even college! I'm convinced God brought us together for a reason - I'm so thankful to have her in my life!

...oh, right, I haven't posted a picture of Tay and me together yet, right? :D As proof that we were at the party together, lol!

It was too bad that I had to leave the party early, but I stuck around for Jeincy's cake cutting :) It was such a cute and delicious cake!

I had to take a picture of this before I left, but it's one of the yummiest things I've ever tried: it's a can of whipped cream... with alcohol in it. I kid you not - it's flavored with amaretto, and is 36 proof/18% alcohol! I'll have to get me one of these if I ever have a party or something. Have any of you guys ever tried this or seen this before? It was my very first time seeing this on this night and it was so yummy :) I'm curious to see if it comes in other flavors!

[Sunday]

I never thought I'd have a day where I could sleep in and just be lazy for a morning until yesterday - I had gotten up a couple of times to get onto the computer to see what was going on in the world, but shortly after that, I decided to have what I call a "power nap" - I wanted to really re-charge my batteries and I didn't get up again until around 1pm! It was a wonderful feeling :)

I didn't take many pictures yesterday, but I met with Tay again after he got off work at the church in the afternoon. In case you guys were wondering about his job, for right now he's a weekend sexton at his parish until the original sexton, currently stuck in Japan, comes back. ^-^; We had a huge dinner at The Silver Diner - we split a peppermint milkshake; I had a small Ceasar salad and had the Shrimp Scampi with gluten-free penne pasta, which was actually pretty yummy! Tay had a small summer salad with his Grilled Wasabi Salmon Sliders - his was very yummy too :D We topped it off with a slice of the Chocolate Cream Pie :) We were so full, but it was very well deserved meal!

Don't ask me why, but yes, I'm a very silly person when I'm eating out :p

We finished off the day with watching "The Other Guys" - it's one of the funniest movies I've seen this summer, especially with Will Farrell in it :) If you guys haven't seen it yet, I recommend it if you really like really ridiculously funny movies :) I still want to see Charlie St. Cloud and Salt too, and even Step-Up 3D since it just came out in theaters :)

Overall I had such a good weekend! I'm fully relaxed and recharged. I will have to go into a full day at work later on today, but I'll be ready for it when I get in :)

If there were a couple of things that I learned this weekend, it'd be these:

1. Looking back at my pictures from this past weekend made me realize that I should appreciate and embrace each moment more and more, like they were the last moments of my life. I may not see these people or do these activities very often, but I need to enjoy them to the fullest. After all, you only live life once, and you need to cherish and embrace each moment with all your heart.

2. In addition to that, remember I mentioned that Tay and I had a rough start when we first saw each other on Saturday? We love each other very much, but our love is not perfect - we fight, sometimes, mostly over the smallest and ridiculous things. It's normal in any relationship, and in most cases, good because each of us gets to see a side of each other that we may not know about each other; we have our differences, but these can be worked out somehow. Tay and I have our differences too, but we work them out together. I guess that's why he and I have gotten so close, and I'm thankful for that.

So a little message from me if you are lucky to be in a loving relationship or even if you're still waiting for that special person: Love him or her with your mind, heart, and soul. If this is the one that you want, don't let him or her slip away - embrace him or her with all your might.

Immature love says, "I love you because I need you."
Mature love says, "I need you because I love you."

I'm not sure where I learned this from, but I do know that is is true. :)

All right, time to get ready for the day...

...and I just realized that I didn't put up my pics from my cousin's wedding as I promised... I do promise, though, that I will do that tonight :)

Lastly, a pic that I took yesterday that I hope will make you smile too - featuring DSK Jewelry's Rocker Pink Necklace and Heart Love bracelet :) Makes me feel so pretty in pink xoxo

Have a beautiful day everyone :) See you tonight!

With love,
Reiko xoxo

♠ Launching New Blog Soon :) ♠

[Listening to disc 3 of Fruits Basket anime at the moment :) ]

Hey, everyone :) I hope you're having a good day so far - I know I am :)

Remember Taylor? :D He turns 24 today :) Yay!!

Just thought I'd put a funny picture of him for starters ^-^;; (Tay, if you're reading this... xoxo!)

Sadly, he and I are working today, but we will celebrate tomorrow since he has half the day off and I'm off all day :D We plan on having an early dinner, go see Last Airbender, just have ourselves a good day :)

But can you guys believe we're already 7 months into the year? Like... Where has all that time gone, you know?? I don't know about you guys, but through the good days AND the bad, I'm enjoying each day to the fullest and I'm learning a lot along the way. I hope you all are doing the same. :)

I've decided that for my future entries for my recipes, I'm going to create a separate blog, and keep this blog for random happenings of my everyday life :) I think that's a pretty good idea so that I can keep them organized better, so in the next few days I'll let you guys know when I launch the blog site. :)

Again, I'm crunching on time, but I thought I'd write to you guys for a little bit; not to mention that this laptop that I'm writing to you all with is the only working computer in the house - the computer that I currently have in my room has something wrong with it (I think some spyware worked it's way into the computer and now I can no longer browse the Internet...). I will only have limited time and access to you all here but I will update when I can :)

Until next post, you all have a great day! :D And to celebrate Taylor's birthday, and his love for ocean things, here's a picture of me when we went to the aquarium in May:

With love,

~Reiko xoxo

♠ Court Update and Some Sweet Things :) ♠

[I figured out the name of the song! It's 3OH!3 feat. Ke$ha's "My First Kiss" - playing that now! :D ]

Good morning everyone! :D I meant to update yesterday, but had a lot going on :)

...I'm guessing you all wanted to know how the court thing went?

Well... I'm sad to report that there was actually no hearing yesterday :( Dad and I were at the courthouse for quite some time to learn later that the lady who hit me had a no-show. Her lawyer kept apologizing to me for having to wait so long and that the case will be rescheduled for August 26th. Needless to say, I was rather disappointed because I had been looking forward to this day for a long time and wanted to have all this behind me when it was over... Now it's going to be a couple more months of waiting... So until then... :(

I wasn't going to let this get me down, so I had some time yesterday to take some pictures with Taylor at the beach :) The real reason for the picture taking, though, is for the contest that I am entering - the DSK Jewelry model search! I will making a post in the next day or two talking about the jewelry, what it's all about, and even show you guys pictures of my pieces :) I look forward to showing them off to you all!

Until then, here is a preview of the pictures that were taken yesterday :)

Taylor and I; it's one of my favorite pictures of us :)

Enjoying the sun at the beach :)

Sitting pretty :)

Reiko for DSKJewelry! :D

Look out for the new blog entry that I'll post soon about DSKJewelry, okay guys? :D

I'll also be able to post new entries for my food recipes :) I know it has been a while since I posted something for all of you, but please be patient, as my schedule oftentimes keeps me very very busy :) And now that I also have a brand new camera, I can add pictures to show you guys step by step how I make my food :D I can't wait!!

Time for me to get ready for work, but I will be back soon :) Until then, have a wonderful day!!

...oh, did I forget to mention that today marks me and Taylor together for 1 year and 11 months? :D

And one last thing...

Think of you, babiiiii xoxo ♥

With love,
~Reiko xoxo

♠ Reiko's Back - About Damn Time :)v ♠

[Currently having some breakfast with her little brother, Jerome :) No music involved, but has Owl City's "Strawberry Avalanche" playing in her head :)]

My goodness, it really has been a while everyone - sorry for the delays again >_<

I'm crunching on time at the moment, so for now, I just want to bring you guys up to speed to what has been happening with me in recent days:

How's Reiko? Overall, feeling great and just going about my busy days loving each day to the fullest, even on the toughest days :) Due to some personal issues that I have experienced recently (which I can't explain to you guys here, I'm sorry... :( ) in many ways, I feel that I have matured from it all, and I'm taking the baby steps to becoming an even better person than I was a few weeks ago. One day I will be able to tell you all, but for right now, rest assured, I'm doing well, and I'm loving life! :)

Family: In about 2 weeks' time, my family and I will be venturing up north for my cousin Douglas and his fiancee' Christina's wedding. :) Douglas is one of my cousins that I've admired since I was a kid, and now I'm very happy that he is very happy to start his new life with his soon-to-be wife, who will also become a wonderful addition to my family :) I'll be gone for about 5 days to venture up to New Jersey to see my extended family, and then to Pennsylvania where the wedding will take place. I'm very excited not just for the wedding, but for the trip itself. It's been a while since my family and I had a vacation together, and this will be a real treat. I haven't been to New Jersey since seeing my relatives to embark on a flight to the Philippines together 5 summers ago, and I've never been to Pennsylvania before - I'm really looking forward to the adventures to come :)

Work: I'm loving and appreciating my work as a bartender/waitstaff in that retirement home more and more by the day :) I know some of you guys are wondering how on earth I'm able to cope working in a place like this, and I can simply tell you that it takes a lot of love and patience. There are times when it gets busy and difficult, but I know that in the very end, everything will fall into place and will be all right. I like being with people (especially talking to them) and I get along fairly well with the people I work with and work for. Love and patience are the keys, my friends! :)

Friends: Unfortunately, due to my very busy schedule, I only have very little time to see and/or chat with my friends in real life or even online (Facebook, Myspace, etc.). I was able to see a couple of good friends in recent weeks - Kai and Eleni - which is a good start, but when I have time to hang out, or even have an online chat with you, etc. , I will let you guys know :) I may not be able to say this to each of you individually so I'll say it here: I love you all and thank you for being a part of my life :) xoxo

Love life? Taylor and I are doing very well :) I feel that he and I have gotten much closer since the last time I posted, and that makes me feel very good. Tay is a really important person in my life, and I'm very grateful for everything he does and even just being there for me. He's been by my side even through the most recent slumps - I don't think he realizes how much I appreciate his love and loyalty to me... But anyway, we are doing very well, and we'll be celebrating our anniversary (1 year, 11 months) in a few days, as well as his birthday... which is a week from today! Whoo! xoxo

Car accident update: Remember the car accident I had back in March? Well, the case will come to a close in the next few days: On Monday, I will be appearing in court to testify as a witness in the case against the woman who hit me and my car, Rinoa. I have been looking forward to this day for a while - this will be my very first time testifying as a witness in court. As I said before in my post-accident post, I have forgiven the woman since that night, and I still do to this very day. I'm not sure what the outcome will be for the other woman, but I do hope that from whatever punishments and/or fines that will fall upon her, she will learn from that so that she won't have to experience that ever again. After this, my family and I will be truly ready to move forward from this, and I pray that she will too.

So yes! That's the gist of what's been going on with my lately, but I do want to announce one other thing... As of yesterday, I now have a brand-new digital camera!

This is the model of the digital camera that I now have: Samsung T220 digital camera, 12.2 megapixels and dual LCD screens. I'm loving this camera the more I use it :) ...should I come up with a name for it? :D What do you guys think?? Leave me a comment below and let me know!

And of course, I wouldn't end this post without showing you guys a few pictures from my new camera eh?? :D I had to compress them in order for them to fit here, so if they appear small for you guys, I apologize - I will have to work on them later :(

My handsome boyfriend, Taylor :) He made dinner! ^0^

A very interesting mug that held some tea he brewed for me :)

Dinner! Little steak and vodka pasta! We had a huge helping of seconds after that :)

My brother, Jerome finishing breakfast... and trying to be cute. :p

...and there's yours truly! :)

And there you have it guys! Now that I have a new camera, I'm looking forward to posting more for you guys. I'll update when I can, but I'll definitely chat with you all soon. Have a great day!!

xoxo,

~Reiko :)

☆Let It Snow! ☆

"Happy Snow Day 1/30/2010"
[Currently listening to Oceanlab’s “Sirens of the Sea” album, beginning with “On a Good Day”]

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend – mine was very busy but also very good for two reasons: I started off my weekend celebrating me and Taylor being together for a year and a half and we *finally* got some snow on the East Coast, where I am!

Since I haven’t been able to get on here all weekend, let me bring you all up to speed to how my weekend went down:

Friday: I got up very early to get the rest of my ingredients to my Chicken Noodle Soup tutorial (which I know you guys are DYING to see at this point!). Since I had already made plans to meet with Taylor, I had to work in haste – not only did I make the Chicken Noodle Soup but also tried a new recipe: Irish Cream Brownies. Both recipes are very easy to make, and in the next blog entry, I’ll add the tutorials and pictures to show you guys how it all turned out =)

Taylor and I went to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory; it was very nice because not only was the food (and cheesecake) good, but the time spent chatting and laughing away was just… priceless. It didn’t feel like we were there for a couple of hours, but it was still fun and relaxing nonetheless. By the way, if you like mushrooms and pasta, try the Pasta di Vinci (or if you don’t like mushrooms, like Taylor, just give them all to me!).
Afterwards, we got to watch Avatar! I know, we got to see it so late, but the waiting was worth it. Although it reminds me of a mix between Ferngully, Disney’s Pocahontas, and Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, Avatar was actually a very interesting and entertaining movie. What really stood out to me the most were the vibrant colors in the world of Pandora – how cool is it to see the plants and other surroundings glowing brilliant colors at night?! Each night scene had me mesmerized… Why can’t our world be like that?! Anyway, I really enjoyed Avatar, so if you haven’t seen it yet, see it while it’s still out in your area!

Saturday: Woke up to SNOW. Finally, we got some snowfall for the first time in a long time. Tay and I said that we’d believe it when we see it… And we did! Thinking about it now, I think the last time we had good snowfall like this was when I was in middle school or beginning of high school… Luckily I didn’t have to go to work until later in the afternoon, and even though I don’t like being in the cold very much, it wasn’t a good snow day without pelting my family with snowballs and building a snowman in our yard. YES, IT WAS A REAL SNOWMAN - one of my co-workers thought that we just put a trashcan and covered it up with snow, when really the whole thing was completely made of snow!! T_T I have a lot of video footage that I need to transfer to my hard-drive, but I’ll come up with a compilation video in the next couple of days, assuming that I don’t get too busy then. Work was actually very good despite the limited amount of workers, including me, who could come in. The coolest part about the day was when my dad helped out my co-worker, Yolanda, by getting her car unstuck from the black ice that developed while she was working. Yeah, Dad was being awesome about taking me to work and back home since I was very reluctant to drive my baby Rav4 onto the developing ice.

Sunday: Busiest night on a day that wasn’t supposed to be! Again, we only had a limited amount of workers with us and so many people to take care of. I thought I was going to go berserk from the madness. Good news was that I kept my cool as much as I could before *almost* brain-farting the rest of the night. By the end of the night, I was so tired that while waiting for my mom to finish her shift, even waiting by working out at the gym made me even more exhausted! As exhausting as it was this weekend at work, it was worth coming in taking care of the elderly and chasing paper =)

So, did you all get some snow where you are? I think we got at least 4.5 inches altogether; how about you? Leave me a comment and let me know!

All right, I’m going to go ahead and get started on the next blog entry and you guessed right: the food tutorials! Read on and enjoy!

xoxo,
~Reiko ☆*.