Nail Polish Haul (OPI and Sally Hansen)

In honor of the spring spirit, and celebrating the fact that I got 5 A's and 1 B; I decided to treat myself to some nail polishes to play with. So I went to my resident Sephora and Rite Aid, and went a little crazy. I used to buy a lot of different nail polish colors purely because they were cheap. But the only problem was that I love to cook and bake, which breeds dish washing... and that's not good for your nails or your nail polish.

When I used cheaper nail polish, I was only able to get about 3 days out of my nails before they started to chip and peel completely off. As a college student, I don't have the kind of time to do my nails every week- but I don't like to have chipped nails. So even though these brands cost more (OPI is anywhere from $6-$9.50 per bottle and Sally Hansen is $7.50 per bottle), they tend to last about 5-7 days without chipping or peeling.

The colors from left to right are: Read My Palm, Fairy Teal, Iris I Was Thinner, Dim Sum Plum, G-listen To Your Heart, IM Beauty and Choco-Latte

I love pairing different colors together just because I don't like to be too matchy-matchy. It's all about coordinating, not matching. :) These colors are IM Beauty (yellow) and Dim Sum Plum (pink).

These colors are Read My Palm (greenish-teal) and Iris I Was Thinner (purple). The ring is from Forever 21.

 I think that my next manicure will include these colors; I'm thinking to use Fairy Teal (teal) and IM Beauty (yellow)

The Player

One day, when I was living in my old apartment, my roommate (who I am no longer friends with- so I don't feel bad about telling this story) came in and told me about this cute guy that possibly lived in our building. He was very tall (as she was 5'9'' and still had to look up to him) and had held the door open for her and smiled at her as she was entering the building. Neither one of us could deny a polite guy :)

We concluded that he was probably a school athlete, as so many people who lived in our building were athletes.So naturally, we stalked down his picture on our school athlete website.

 His name was J, and he was a junior basketball player. And he was fine. Light brown skin, over 6 feet tall, and his body... damn. Even I couldn't deny his sexiness. So she convinced me to contact him on Facebook and talk to him for her. She was extremely shallow in the sense that she only liked black guys, she only liked tall guys, and she only liked guys who were physically active and had great bodies. Even though she didn't do anything but shop and sit in the apartment. But whatever.

Seeing as I have no shame, I contacted him for her. We found out that we in fact lived in the same building, we just lived on the first floor and he lived on the top floor. I told him what my roommate told me and then described her to him and told him to look her up on Facebook.

The Weird One

In September of last year, I met a guy on campus on my way home from the bookstore; let's call him D. We met on campus as I was walking home from the book store. He approached me and introduced himself; explaining that his mom worked at the school, so he decided to transfer in to cut the commuting costs.

We seemed to have some things in common, and I wasn't in a rush to get back home- so we began talking. He seemed nice, he didn't have a lot of friends besides his brothers friends so he was trying to build up a little network. I related with him because of that. When I moved to LA, I joined clubs and went to school functions and was extra nice to people in my classes as a way to make friends. I knew how hard it could be.

So when he asked me for my number, I handed it over with a smile and a promise that he could meet a few of my guy friends that had similar interests. We chatted a bit longer about school and classes and on-campus functions.

Then he followed it up with,, "So... do you have a boyfriend?"

I internally face-palmed. Fuck! I was blindsided!

I politely answered no and explained to him that I wasn't looking for a relationship at the time. He said that he understood. Then he followed that up with, "...because I think you're really cute. And you have a nice personality; I wouldn't mind getting to know you better."

Um. No. Again. No.

Where have all the (good) guys gone?

College is like a minefield, specifically a minefield of guys. You can step on a grenade and dodge a great guy instead.

Why do we only see the commitment phobes and the players, the weird guys and the ones that lie?

Where are the good guys? How do we find them? And more, importantly, how do we tell them that we're good for them?

These stories are in no real order, but they all have a common theme- that dating in college is a crazy fucking beast. It's hard, scary and something that is nerve wracking and intriguing and fun all at the same time. It's a scary ride, but it's one that many of us are jumping on.

Welcome to my ride.

with love, D.

Here's a list of some of the more... memorable ones. Names have been either changed or I only used initials, out of respect for the people talked about:

The story of D.B

Reverb 2001. Day 4. Healing

What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip evolution? How would you like to be healed in 2012?

Solitude.

As much as I want to say that my family and friends healed me, it was seriously the time I spent alone that really made me heal. I didn't begin to crave my solitude until I moved out and away from home. 


Going through so many things as a young adult made me wonder about the choices that I made. Being alone and being able to reflect on my choices and subsequently learn from them made me take my choices as lessons and not as mistakes. 


I saw Eat, Pray, Love for the first time this year and I loved it. It really made me think about the time I spent by myself and how nice it was to be able to begin to find myself on a deeper level.


I would love to be able to continue the journey of discovering myself in 2012.

Reverb 2011. Day 3. Ambition.

What are your ambitions? What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to/detracts from your ambitions? Can you eliminate it?

As shallow as it seems, my ambition is financial stability. Being a dance therapist would give me not only the ability to go home knowing that I helped people, but I'm also able to support myself and whomever else I choose to. I know how it feels to not be able to help someone because you simply don't have the funds to do so. It's a helpless feeling.


Currently, as stupid as it seems, my university's stupid policies are the forces that detract me from my ambition. If I never get out of college, I'll never be able to reach my goal.

Screw you and your 15 unit cap on classes, Northridge. Grrr.

Reverb 2011. Day 2. Let Go.

What, or whom, did you let go of this year? Why?

Negativity.

Being around negativity was just mentally exhausting. It gave me a headache, it made me anxious. With negativity came confrontation, and that made my body shake.


Whether it came from myself or from people around me, it was just so tiring. I kept thinking that maybe the people would change, maybe if I just gave them the benefit of the doubt, they would change their ways. And all it did was bring out the worst parts in myself.

So I removed myself from the equation.

I was able to do things better for myself. I slept at night. I didn't worry about people talking about me or having to feel obligated to shit-talk. Then reality crept in. I thought that I had lost some good friends. I wondered who I would spend my time with now that I let them go. But one night; while being on my own and thinking about it, I realized something.

I didn't feel guilty anymore.

That made it so much more worthwhile.

 with love,

Dayna