A Nighttime Conversation

For the 10 minute writing challenge on hitrecord.org, the theme is "Red"

Story: http://www.hitrecord.org/records/1063261
Illustration: "The Climber" http://www.hitrecord.org/records/1011952

"A Nighttime Conversation"

Red, red everywhere.

Her hair is splayed so beautifully on the pillow, her lips slightly parted in what appears to be the beginning of a smile. My body shudders at how perfect her perfection is, at the multiple images of her moonlit skin soaring through my mind. I nimbly comb my claws through her red, red hair. Gently I sniff it, the scent of strawberry wafting through the tiny slits that comprise my nose.

"Brother, do not wake her with your misplaced affection."

I click my teeth in protest, hundreds of sharp points clashing in tiny successions. "She is OURS. You may have the better share of our brain, but I have better eyesight and reflexes than you, so do not boss me around." My tiny chest tendrils wiggle in excitement, unmasking my eagerness to show off.

"We have to do this quickly, or we will starve for an entire year again."

"Yes, yes, I will move in haste."

We position our bodies so that we are almost encircling her, our tendrils growing and extending and waving in unison towards her. This is the part that I loathe, but I can't do anything about it. We crawlers need blood, youthful blood to survive, to help us see in the dark, to power our hungry muscles so we can move with extreme agility. I drown in her beauty as we close in.

Red, red, lovely red everywhere.

Love Songs

Preoccupied with love songs lately. Must be due to the fact that I'll be seeing him in less than a month.

For me, a good love song:
-makes my heart aspire to be a gymnast and do tiny somersaults
-makes me press the repeat button because I can't get enough of it (although if I am going through a difficult time and it's a depressing song, I would listen to it once and move on to other, less unhappy songs. Or maybe just skip it altogether like I do to Adele songs. I love her voice, but goodness is she overplayed. Except for Skyfall, which I love because of the movie, which is superb, by the way!)
-has to be well-written
-has to be guitar or piano-driven
-is soulful

Examples:

Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart

Cycles

Cycles are always present in your life, unless you exert enough effort to end it or maybe change slowly. My bad habit is shopping. I do get really great deals but it all adds up in the end (in my defense, most of my recent purchases will be gifts for Christmas, and as a lot of people around me know or have noticed, giving gifts is one of my main love languages), which is why I decided to download an app to help me track my expenses and make me aware of how much I spend on non-essential purchases. Let's see how it goes! Wish me luck :)

On a side note, I am currently creating backups of my old Multiply account, and spotted this oddly familiar "rant":

I'm getting a bit scared of my spending habits. I've got all these shopping bags (containing clothes) stashed in my closet and over my crate of books, all of which I bought so "I can wear them during the Holidays". Eek! But all these sales keep cropping up everywhere I go, and I tend to remember the times in college when I pitied myself so much because I wasn't able to buy things I really, really wanted. Must. Stop. Buying. (And making excuses). Hay.

That is exactly how I feel right now. Oh cycle of being a spendthrift, I shall try to end you soon!

<3,

Cute and Warm Pajama Bottoms

Ugh, I am now dying of cuteness. I don't care if they make me look like a 15-year-old, I won't be wearing them out in public and I think they will be instant mood lifters whenever I look at them :) I loooove flannel and fleece pants, they're perfect for the cold weather or when the air conditioner's on full blast. I've had two pairs of flannel pants from Old Navy that have lasted me a long time. If you're going to be wearing them for extended periods, then they should at least be cute, right? The comfort factor's already there. I would rather wear these than those expensive track pants that have words on the bottom (I'm looking at you, Juicy and bebe!), which look weird when you walk in them.

 Old Navy - $8 fleece/flannel bottoms + more

Tiny sheep with tiny cups of hot chocolate!

Amazon $3.99 album sale!

One of the best deals out there, Amazon has a collection of new and recent albums for a mere $3.99 each. It's the album sales that keep singers/bands going, so show your support (and silently urge them to keep on cranking new music) by buying their album(s) :) If you have devices hooked on the Amazon mp3 app (I have both an ipod touch and a galaxy tablet), it's so easy to download an album after buying it, even more so if you set up "1-click" which will allow you to use your saved credit card and shipping information. So much easier to use than iTunes, if you ask me ;)

Here are my recent purchases and some that are still on my wish list (have to keep the Christmas shopping budget intact):

Black Friday Steals:

Imagine Dragons (recommended by my coworker, who shares my love for John Mayer)

Threadless Tee Sale!

$9.99 shirts over at Threadless.com down from their usual $20 price. Since I already spent some moolah on forever21 items (mostly gifts, OK? :P) because they have a 50% off deal on all sale items (hello, $6-$8 for a cute top?), here is my mini wishlist of threadless shirts that I find witty and/or cute! :) Hurry, sale ends TODAY!

Side note: I'm still procrastinating on whether to go over Old Navy or not, since I and my cousin will be hitting the outlet malls tomorrow, but the deals in store are awesome too. I'm trying not to spend too much but all these Black Friday sales are not helping AT ALL.

I love owls, I think they're interesting creatures - You're a Hoot

Chic After Dark

Whoa, super tired but happy after pinning 444 beautiful images of what I think best describe "Chic After Dark." This was for a contest hosted by Refinery29 and Estée Lauder, and the prize for the winning pinterest board is a 3-day trip to Paris. I am giddy just thinking about it :) Crossing my fingers! Lord, You know how I badly want to win this :) Below is a small sampling of my Chic After Dark pinterest board.

http://annstreetstudio.com/2012/10/08/le-bal-paris/

Emily + Ross Scarves

Came across this contest through twitter! Their designs are so pretty, I want everyone else to get a chance to win one of these babies :) See!

LA Scarf: http://www.emilyandross.com/filter/collections#Los-Angeles

I love all the tiny car details on the border, and when you actually wear it you can still see them! So cute :)

Day 5 of 21DaysofStyle

Outfit for today, my flowery blouse from Nordstrom and jeans from H&M plus black leather biker boots from Nine West. I don't have nice pictures because it gets dark pretty fast now that it's no longer daylight savings time, but the top I wore is really pretty in person as you can see in my outfit from months ago.

My "let's just get this over with because I'm tired" face for the requisite outfit photo. The theme for today is #jeans, though you can't really see my jeans :)) Would have made this outfit better by picking better shoes, accessories and cinching the waist with a belt.

Chloé Frames, Chocolate Truffles and Walk the Moon

I was so happy my frames finally arrived that I ate my last Champagne Truffle from Teuscher New York in celebration hahaha :) Gosh I should have taken a photo before I ate it! :c Anyway, you can buy them here: http://www.teuscherfifthavenue.com, get the mini ones, they're absolutely delicious!

 Nomnomnom! The champagne-infused center just melts and the chocolate shell is super smooth

I've been binging on chocolates lately, especially after I watched Romantics Anonymous, a beautiful, quirky French film about two introverts who share the love for chocolates. One of my favorite scenes is the one were they try some of their chocolate..mmm!

I wish I could be a chocolatier, but I'll probably just eat them all hahaha

Forever21's 21 Days of Style Instagram Challenge

F21 announced the 21 Days of Style contest (via Instagram) a couple of days ago, and so far I've revolved my outfits around the "item for the day" calendar they have:

 

If you plan on joining, integrate what is posted for the day into your look and post a photo of it on Instagram and tag the following: the item (ex. #reds), @Forever21 and #21daysofstyle.

Let's talk about.. Joseph Gordon-Levitt

photo courtesy of moviecultists.com

What is it with Joseph-Gordon Levitt? He may not be crowned the "world's sexiest man," but he's one of the few and far-between male celebrities whom most people like and respect (I did a poll at my workplace, and the general consensus was he is both good-looking and a good actor). I wonder where his appeal stems from - is it because he is non-threatening to guys due to his slight build (though he did bulk up for his role in Looper, so that may change things a bit) or his boyish/boy-next-door charm? Do you have your own reason(s)? Tell me in the comments section! Let's have a long discussion hahaha :) (I would like to think he is one of the best actors among that age bracket, and he doesn't come off as a know-it-all even if he really is smart. Or maybe it's the dimples and the way his eyes become so small when he smiles and he looks like a cute little kid? Kind of like my boyfriend minus the dimples haha :) )

By the way, he and his company, hitRecord, will start touring soon! Their first stop is at the Warner Theater in Washington DC on Nov. 13, I'll probably go :) To check out their other stops and to buy tickets, go here: http://www.hitrecord.org/tour

<3,

New York Pre-Sandy

Last Oct. 21&22, I and my friends drove to New York to see a band from our homeland, Eraserheads, perform their reunion concert (they were the kings of Filipino Rock during the 90s, having popularized the genre by penning their own songs on love, friends, driving and everything in between). It was all sorts of awesome despite the bad handling of the organizers, because we were there for the band and not for the hoopla around the band (although I must say, the $85 we paid should have been enough to cover decent lights, a better stage and bigger screens for those at the back + not blessed with height aka me) and the waves of nostalgia they brought with them. 

 The Erasherheads, fondly called the E-heads, back in their heyday