Day 366: ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Monday: February 23, 2015

Wow. It's been a whole year. I almost can't believe it. It's been a hell of a year (in a good way.) When I first started, I didn't think much of it. It was an extra credit photography project. But it's been really amazing going back throughout the year, and I'm so glad I have so many memories preserved here. Naturally, I'm celebrating this milestone with a photo of the puppy. He's been great, just like this past year. 

Day 365: Micro Homework

Sunday: February 22, 2015

It isn't fun or pretty, but it's what I'm working on at the moment. So far, Microecnomics hasn't been too bad. I like it because I did well in Introduction to Marketing, and that was fun. Living in a busy and booming city like Dubai, I figure it's a good idea to get to know it from the business perspective. 

Day 364: Styling Stationery

Saturday: February 21, 2015 

So just an update on the whole sandstorm debacle, it's still sandy and still stormy. My sinuses are still killing me. It's fine, though. I recently got some new stationery from my favorite place ever, Muji, as a late Valentine's Day present from the fam. It's all incredibly awesome and for the sake of maintaining a clean and orderly photo, I couldn't feature it all. But here are some of my faves. 

Day 363: Dust in the Wind

Friday: February 20, 2015

Have I made this pun yet? In any case, it still fits. We've been experiencing a large sandstorm that started yesterday. It's blown in hot, arid, sandy air from who knows where and it's annoying. I went on a run, and woo was that a mistake. The air was so hot, it felt like the earth was personally burping on me. Add in the sand, and my contacts were acting up and I started collecting sand particles in my sinuses, just for funsies. I also got a headache, because why not? I've heard that the US east coast has been piled up with snow and cold weather; I will trade for a day, on the condition they keep all this dreaded sand forever.

Day 362: Ghost Puppy

Thursday: February 19, 2015

I was watching the puppy downstairs, and he wasn't too happy when I started playing my music. For a while now, we've all thought that he'd grown too big to fit under the couches. When we first got him, we lost him a couple of times because he'd just chill under the couch, behind curtains, and in small corners. Apparently, he still fits. And he patiently waited for me to stop my horrid music. I had to coax him out with a treat.

Day 361: Hauls and Things

Wednesday: February 18, 2015

Today has been pretty uneventful other than the fact that I filmed a haul video. It's the first one I've ever done for SparkLife, and in general, and it was pretty fun. I find myself hilarious, and I hope other people do, too. These sunnies were definitely a favorite, because they're rose tinted and spunky. I've also been digging the floral pjs you see in the back. They're so silk and soft, kind of like hugging a dolphin made out of fabric.

Day 360: Game Winning

Tuesday: February 17, 2015

I've had a long, but good day. I went to a meeting in the afternoon [which is so weird, like I've also dealt with tax papers this week and I don't know whose idea it is to give me all this responsibility, like is nobody aware that I'm actually just a really sad slug-potato hybrid???] and it went well. I took notes and all that jazz. Then my brother had a football game, which has been scheduled for today, since a lot of the kids are going to be out of town with their schools. The good ol' Barracudas won, 28-0!! It was an exciting game, I'm pretty sure.

Day 359: Nails and Keratin and Stuff

Monday: February 16, 2015

Today I took off the black nail polish I've been rocking for about a week. It kept peeling and flaking, which wasn't ideal because black nail polish is really obvious. I was pretty surprised to see how much my nails had grown, though. I don't think I've ever had my nails this long. Personally, I don't like longer nails because I will scratch an eyeball out or something. But I've also never been able to grow my nails out, because both of my index finger nails tend to split and break really easily. This is kind of nice, and it makes me feel like maybe I've been doing something right in terms of health.

Day 358: Back at Practice

Sunday: February 15, 2014

It's felt a little weird this weekend, because my little brother had a football game on Saturday instead of Friday, so it seems like the weekend has been chopped a little short. So I'm back at practice today, just doing my usual tutoring thing. My youngest student has a little entourage of fellow little girls, so I've started bring along crayons and scratch paper so that they have something to do while I work on math with her. It's been going pretty well, especially since the little girls are so nice and respectful.

Day 357: Outfit Preparations

Saturday: February 14, 2014

So I don't have plans this Valentine's Day, other than staying home with the puppy and eating chocolate he can't have. BUT I did really want to put together a cute outfit, especially since I have this great heart-printed T-shirt. It was very hot though, and also kinda awkward taking pictures when everybody could see me. I also had to keep my sunnies on for most of the shoot, since the sun was so bright I could't keep them open without squinting a ton.

Day 356: Card Making

Friday: February 13, 2015

For the past couple of years, it's been my little tradition to make Valentine's Day cards for my family. Every year has a different theme. In 2013, the theme was "historical figures." Last year, the theme was "Breaking Bad." And this year, the theme was "By-Tor," because I obviously can't get enough of that little furball.

Day 355: Tea Time

Thursday: February 12, 2015

My grandma sent over some tea and other related goodies for my birthday, and I've been thoroughly enjoying them all. The tea is particularly great - they're all green tea blends, and my favorite so far is the Cherry Green Tea. It makes me want to try other fruit flavored teas, too. I haven't tried the Ginger Green Tea yet, because it scares me. I don't want the ginger to burn my throat.

Day 354: Yellow Blooms

Wednesday: February 11, 2015

Today I was oat-n-aboat on a run, and saw these yellow flowers. Notice how I always describe flowers by color and not by name, mostly because I am poorly versed in the speciation of flowers. Anyway. Flowers bloom kind of early here in Dubai, because of the weather and probably also because of confusion, since I don't think many flowers are native to the region.

Day 353: Winter Sunsets

Tuesday: February 10, 2015

Today I had two tutoring sessions. Just to clarify, I am the tutor, haha. I currently tutor in math, and I have two pupils. Within the next few weeks, a third will be added in. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's the most fun thing I've ever done in my life. I mean, hello. I've been to DisneyWorld. But it really is very gratifying. I love math, and it has so many uses and applications in real life. Especially at the elementary and middle school level, the skills they learn they'll carry with them throughout their entire lives. Additionally, I have a particular bone to pick with people who complain that they'll never use algebra or other higher math in their daily lives. This may be true, but the reasoning skills learned in higher math can indeed be applied to other areas. Rant over, haha.

Day 352: Bottoms Up

Monday: February 9, 2014

Today we went to the mall and I did some shopping. It was a lot of fun, and definitely brightened my Monday. I picked up some clothes on sale, as well as much needed bath supplies. As for the photo, you're looking inside the bottle of my Arizona Peach Iced Tea. Or rather, whatever was left of it.

Day 351: Manhunter

Sunday: February 8, 2015

For the first time in millennia, I've re-painted my nails. I'm going dark while the winter months still allow me to. I'm using this color called Manhunter, from H&M. It's a really great polish, because it dries quickly and only needs two coats to become opaque. I've had a few bad runs with polish before this one, where the formulas turned old and goopy. Not fun. I removed them before they even had a chance to dry. But I think I'll let this one stick around for a while!

Day 350: Tiny Mouth

Saturday: February 7, 2015

Well, would you look at that. Another puppy picture. Any time I take photos off of my phone and transfer them to my computer, I feel the compulsive need to fill my phone back up with pictures of By-Tor. I always like having pictures of him to look at, and they're pretty fun to edit. He looks dramatic and eyeball-less in this snapshot, almost like a movie poster. I love it!

Day 349: Put Your Paws Up

Friday: February 6, 2015

I wasn't kidding when I said I wanted to dedicate this entire blog to the puppy. Here's a close - up of his tiny, tiny paw. They're so soft! He's a lot like me, and doesn't like to be touched too much. He doesn't like if I sit too close to him, and if he's not drop-dead tired, he won't let me hold his paw. It's okay, because I snapped this shot while he was snoring away. :-)

Day 348: Power Tripping

Thursday: February 5, 2015

Today I went to youth group. I've been pretty bad about attending on a regular basis. There was a gap of three months this year where I just kind of disappeared. It wasn't intentional, I just got busy with school and college apps and I couldn't make time to go. Now, it's a little better so I'm going to try and go every chance I get. It's been nice seeing familiar faces.

Day 347: The Sass-Master

Wednesday: February 4, 2015

Here's the puppy after I stopped giving him belly rubs. He kind of just turned to me and looked disappointed. Surprisingly, By-Tor has moments of cooperation. He's usually a blur in photos, because he refuses to be still. But sometimes, he does alright.

Day 346: Practice Makes Perfect

Tuesday: February 3, 2015

My little brother's football practices have been running a little longer than usual. As in, 45 minutes over. Currently, the weather is very nice so the wait isn't too bad on my part. I've started math tutoring some of the players' sisters, which is why I'm finally attending his practices again.

Day 345: More Walking

Monday: February 2, 2015

Today I took By-Tor on a walk and he still isn't very cooperative. He tries to sniff the black boxes full of rat poison, eat cigarette butts, investigate other animals' fecal matter, walk me into traffic, etc etc. So, I forced persuaded, By-Tor to go to this grassy walking area, where there are lots of safe things to smell and dig through. He wasn't too happy at first, but once we got there he was alright.

Day 344: Super Bowl!

Sunday: February 1, 2015

We had a few friends over to watch the Super Bowl. I've been told the game was pretty exciting. I watched the first half as well as the half-time show, and saw the right shark killing it. I mostly stuck around for the food, though. My family made ceviche, another family made wings, and a third family brought tons of popcorn, shown here. All in all, it was a very fun night!

Day 343: The Heathen Section

Saturday: January 31, 2015

...also known as the Non-Muslim section at Spinneys [no one actually calls it "The Heathen Section," by the way.] This is the place where all non-halal food can be found. The obvious are available: hot dogs, pepperoni, ham slices, and so on. The less obvious are also there too: baked beans with sausage, certain soups, chili, and so on. Then there are the surprising ones that kind of made me re-evaluate my life: Pop-Tarts and marshmallows.

Day 342: Glowing Canine

Friday: January 30, 2015

I stayed in with the puppy today, and we have our nice moments. Sometimes, when he's super tired, he'll join me on the couch and actually chill out instead of jumping everywhere. I've also liked using PhotoShop Express on my iPhone to edit photos. That's why By-Tor looks so ethereal.

Day 341: Desert Chill

Thursday: January 29, 2015

Ice cream trucks are great inventions. I think they're particularly great for Dubai, as it's so hot here year round. This winter in particular, there have probably been a handful of days where ice cream trucks were not inappropriate, mostly due to rain. I've always heard this truck around my neighborhood, but I finally spotted it! Sadly, I was on a run and had no cash with me otherwise I totally would have stopped it, because I'm actually only five years old.

Day 340: Grooming, Finally

Wednesday: January 28, 2015

I've lovingly mentioned many times in the past that the family dog usually smells pretty putrid. He rolls around in the grass, and traps the smell of doggy sweat and dirt into his fur. He also won't stay still for very long, so it's hard to brush him like we're supposed to. Overall, he's pretty rank sometimes. But Shampooch saved the day! They had to cut off a lot of his hair, so it's shorter now. Plus, he smells like bananas!

Day 339: Tape Up, Don't Tap Out

Tuesday: January 27, 2015

As usual, my titles really don't make sense anymore. I don't do martial arts. The term "tap out" does not apply to me. However, my mom did want extra practice taping up ankles, since she's going to tape up some of the boys before practice and games. That is, my little brother's football buddies. So I volunteered my own ankles, and I went on a run with it all taped up. Oh my gosh, it hurt. I'm naturally really, really flat footed and so forcing my legs to run with that much support actually tired out my calf muscles pretty quickly. I don't think I'll be taping up my ankles again like this, because it hurt and also looked pretty orthopedic.

Day 338: Red Lips, Great Tips

Monday: January 26, 2015

Today I took pictures for a pic-torial on my blog [you can see it here.] These things are always a lot of fun, and I don't know if that makes me sound narcissitic by admitting that I enjoy taking pictures of myself.

Day 337: Tell Her That I Miss Our Little /Walks/

Sunday: January 25, 2015

Today the poops and I went on a walk [I used to call him puppy, then when it took forever to potty train him, I called him poopy, and I got even lazier and just shortened it to "poops."] He's like, not that cooperative. He likes to try and walk me into dirty and/or dangerous places, like busy intersections. I tried to get him to walk to this grassy area because I've seen it while running and I thought he'd like it. By-Tor did like it, eventually. I had to pick his sorry little butt up and tote him to the grassy knoll because I was tired of dragging him.

Day 336: Window to the Soul... Or Something

Saturday: January 24, 2015

Today I've finally got my courses up and running. There was a little trouble in getting my second semester started, just because of the wonky AP course timing. But it seems that everything is going smoothly. I get to read Jane Eyre for AP Lit & Comp, which I love. So I'm excited. I saw the bathroom window in a new light, so to speak. I could've used more light two days ago when I accidentally sprayed Lysol in my hair instead of hairspray, but I digress. 

Day 335: Race Day!

Friday: January 23, 2015

Today was a really significant day. I ran the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon 10k for the second time, I completed my fourth 10k race, my sixth or seventh race with my mom, my second race with my little brother, and my first race with my entire family - whew! My official time was 1:00:26, even though I know I was a good minute or two faster than that. ;) I placed 3733 out of the total 12,294 finishing runners, 698 out of the women, and 7th in my age and gender category! I also ran/walked the 4k fun run with my brother and dad, while we waited for my mom to finish her [third] marathon. Overall, it was a very active day and when we got home, I promptly slept for four hours.

Also, there were lots of photographers with Standard Chartered, so within a week I should be able to look up my number and see the hilarious photos of myself taken throughout the race.

Day 334: Signature Scent

Thursday: January 22, 2015

This set of Jo Malone perfumes was one of my favorite Christmas gifts. I had originally asked for a specific perfume, but this set is way better because I get to mix and match. Their scents are designed to be layered, so I can wear "Blackberry & Bay" on its own, or with "Lime, Basil & Mandarin." It's what I wore today, to my first time back to youth group since, well, October. It was nice.

Day 333: Hola, Soy Candle

Wednesday: January 21, 2015

I got my mom a candle for her stocking this Christmas, and I kind of smell it every chance I get. I forgot to check the dimensions on most items, so a lot of the packages that came in were hilariously mis-sized. For example, I thought this candle was a small, hand held one. I mean, I read it's weight before ordering but that obviously didn't do much for me. Either way, it smells heavenly and I love having it around even though it was my mom's gift!

Day 332: Drinking Goblets

Tuesday: January 20, 2015

I've been having a lot of fun with my new Canon point-and-shoot, the SX520HS. It was a Christmas gift, and has been much appreciated. It takes excellent macro photos, like the close up of this really cool glass.

In other news, I also had my Dartmouth Skype interview today! It went really well, and there were no lulls in the conversation on my end. It was very positive, and I feel a lot better about the admissions process. I also got my second acceptance today, so all-in-all, I'm feeling good. Yay.

Day 331: Rain Rain, You Can Stay But Be Careful

Monday: January 19, 2015

It rained today, for 8 hours. And in those 8 hours, an estimated 700 car accidents occurred. For one, we don't have storm drains. And for two, some people think that since the legislative laws don't apply to them, the laws of physics don't either. But nature is fair that way. It doesn't matter who you or your father is, if you're going 160 km on wet roads and make a sharp turn, you will hydroplane. That said, it's always a little sad when it rains here, even though it shouldn't be. If anything, the skies clear up beautifully, as shown here.

Day 330: Family Portraits, Finally

Sunday: January 18, 2015

For photography, I had to take wedding pictures. Who better to employ as my minions [kidding] than my family? Once everybody was on board, it was a lot of fun. It made me happy, because my parents never really had the opportunity to take wedding photos, so this was their low-budget chance, nearly nineteen years later. And with a puppy now, too!!

Day 329: Touchdown!!

Saturday: January 17, 2015

Today I spent over 12 hours at the football fields. There's a reason I can't go to games during the rest of my semester. But, this was my brother's first game of the spring season! Their team is now 6 and 0! It was a great game, and the Men's division also won. Exciting, exciting.

Day 328: Honey, I Shrunk the Dog

Friday: January 16, 2015

We found this giant tennis ball in our yard, and the dog looks hilarious next to it. He was approaching it pretty cautiously, because he's not used to tennis balls of this size. I'm genuinely thinking of quitting all types of photography other than the kind where I get to exclusively take snapshots of my puppy. He's that great.

Day 327: Brotherly Birthdays

Thursday: January 15, 2015

Today was my little brother's birthday. We went to eat at Wagamama and then he had an extra football practice. The weather was nice [pictured here], and then we went out to eat with a few family friends at Claw. It's this amazing barbecue place, and I witnessed a nearly-teenage boy [not my brother, haha] finish off an entire rack of ribs as well as apple pie. I also got him the right video game! Score one for big sister.

Day 326: Birthday Shopping

Wednesday: January 14, 2015

Today I had to go shopping for my little brother's birthday. He's turning 12! We have a lot of January birthdays in the family, so it's customary to go from one birthday to the next in terms of shopping. While at the mall, I stopped with my mom for a lovely meal and they had a watermelon cooler and it was delicious. I like how they didn't strain it, made me feel better about drinking the juice with all the fiber still in it. 

Day 325: Cloudy Skies

Tuesday: January 13, 2015


I took this photo while [can you guess it?] out on a run. I finished my last major final yesterday and I feel great! I still have two more to finish, but they're in classes I feel really solid in and they're due in the next week or two so I have a bit of breathing room for now. Today's forecast: partly cloudy // high: 79F // low: 63F // feels like: 75F // humidity: 47%

Day 324: Nude Nails

Monday: January 12, 2015

I received an advent calendar for, well, Advent and it was full of fun Ciaté nail polishes. They're my favorite brand, and I love the formula of their polishes. They're typically very thin but pigmented, so they dry quickly. Out of all the cool colors I received, my favorite has been this natural, beige color called Beach Bum. It's what I'm wearing on my nails today!

Day 323: Barbecue!

Sunday: January 11, 2015

Today we had over people for a barbecue. We had football friends, coaches, former players, and a surprise guest, kind of. It was a really eventful evening full of laughs, broken glass, and excitement. By-Tor was doing really well with all the new people, but he eventually got tired of them and settled on my lap. He likes to be "snug" in places, so he stuck his head under my arm like this. 

Day 322: Carrot Nibbler

Saturday: January 10, 2015

Here it is, photographic proof that my puppy eats baby carrots. Apparently it's not a normal snack for doggies, but the internet told me it was safe. He likes the crunch, I think. By-Tor isn't too fond of sweet things like fruit, or anything too slimy like cucumber. He's caught on though, and will leave carrots alone if he thinks I'm also not eating them. He's a dork.

Day 321: New Perspectives

Friday: January 9, 2015

I didn't do much today, since I have more finals to study for over the weekend. Honestly though, finals week is usually the least stressful time of the year for me. I like having all of my work finished in all of my courses, and studying isn't bad at all. I was a good noodle and I did a bit of prep work over the winter break, too!

Day 320: Voyages

Thursday: January 8, 2015

One of my gifts for my birthday was a beautiful planner. It's incredible pretty, and will help me plan out my future adventures, whatever those may be!

Day 319: BIRTHDAY

Wednesday: January 7, 2015

Today is my 18th birthday. Yikes. I'll be honest, I really wasn't ready for it. It kind of snuck up on me. There was no anticipation this year, at least on my end. It's okay though, I had a great day with my family. We went out to Shakespeare & Co for lunch, and then to a sushi place called Sushi for dinner. It was nice. And I have finals tomorrow, so I should get back to studying.