♔ An eighteen-year-old lass named Khae who was born and grew up in the Philippines and now living her life in the U.S. I am nowhere near perfect, but I can always be true to myself and be forever grateful that I have a perfect God who has blessed me with not just a beautiful life but also with a wonderful family and friends. Big dreams will someday be fulfilled by an ambitious dreamer like me, who has yet to make them all finally come to reality. Good books and photographs, white roses, baby's breath, sticky notes, sunsets, and dandelions are only a few of those things that make me simply happy. I'm one of those teenagers who desires to learn horseback riding and would love to receive a handwritten letter someday from the one who owns my heart.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
013013: I looked out the window and saw this. I thought, I can’t miss this! So I hurried down into the basement to get the camera. I was lucky I was able to take a couple of shots of this glorious sunset before it completely vanished from sight. Ah, Why can’t sunsets last long enough, that’s the question.
“I have good news for you!” These were the first six words my dad said to me earlier this morning while I was getting ready for school. I just barely got out of the bathroom when he revealed the good news. The news was about my brother. My brother back home. ”Your brother sent me a message,” he finally said. ”What did he say?” I asked excitedly. I stood still in the hallway, staring at him, waiting for him to get the words out. Then, “‘Dad, tell Mama that her son is now a police,’” he quoted my brother as he read the message on his phone, a smile pasted on his face when he was done. ”Really?” that was all I could manage to say. Of course, as my brother’s little sister, what I felt inside was more than that. I felt so proud and extremely happy. I could feel that my heart was smiling, and it only took seconds for the emotions to reach my mouth and my eyes. Before all this my brother failed twice, but he is a man of determination. He never gave up because becoming a police was his dream. And now that, at last, his dream came true, I could not really express how proud I felt. It was beyond that. He made it! He made it! I was beaming because I know that my brother did everything to turn this dream into reality. I am so proud of him. January 11, 2013, the day he became an official police officer—the reality of it all.
”But don’t tell your Mama yet, though,” Dad continued. “She’s still asleep. I want to surprise her.” I already knew what her reaction was going to be. In fact, I knew exactly what she was going to feel. My mother would be the happiest of us all. And she was. And she still is. One text, one good news from my brother…totally made my day. God is amazing.
The school musical—The Mikado—ran for 6 days, which also meant (for me) six days of putting make up and costume on and six days of curling my hair.
Today…marked our last musical performance.
After 3 months of coming back to school 3 days a week at 7 PM for the rehearsals and not getting back home until 9 PM (or later than that), it’s officially over. I would not say that I loved the idea of late night rehearsals because I really did not, especially when those nights were school nights. That gave me less time to do my homework or to study for a test. I didn’t get enough sleep. And these were probably the main reasons why I was glad, in a way, that this musical has ended. It’s a bittersweet good-bye because I was, at the same time, sad to see this musical end. The experience, the joy backstage and on stage, the new friends I’ve made…being in this musical was a lot of fun. And you know what, the sacrifices that I made for this show was all worth it, so worth it.
It was my first day of school today! The new 5x5 block schedule—which is basically an A day, B day schedule—was confusing. I was worried that I’d get lost and come to the wrong class, but thankfully, I did not.
Back to the 5x5 block schedule (I just thought I wanted to explain it a little bit more, you know, haha). Instead of having 7 classes like what we had last year, we have 10 classes this year; first 5 classes on A day, then the remaining 5 classes on B day. With 5 classes a day, each class is an hour and 10 minutes long. Oh, it is long, all right.
My A day classes went well. But—okay, I’m going to be honest here—except for my U.S. History class. Unlike with my other classes, I don’t have any friends in this class. Sucks. There are more boys than girls in it, which I do not like very much. My Honors English class, on the other hand, is the total opposite. There are only 4 boys in that class; the rest are girls! Now I like that. (Well, I just don’t like having so many boys in the class. I think it’s awkward. Hahaha.)
And tomorrow is Thursday, our short day! Yay! I am really looking forward to my Select Chorus and Wildlife Biology classes, which are two of the five classes included in my B day schedule. I can feel that these two are going to be fun!
Today was just the beginning, and I survived. Although I wasn’t entirely glad about being back to school, I was absolutely happy to see my friends again! I’ve missed them so much. With them, this school year, guaranteed, is going to be more fun!
This is the last day of my summer! Woohoo! Hooray! Yeah, right. Like I’m entirely happy about this. I really am not. My summer is over. Which means no more sleeping till noon (yup, you heard right). No more staying up until 2, or at the latest, 3 AM. No more lazy days.
Good-bye, summer 2012.
Be right back, I’m going to lock myself in my room and wail. Haha, kidding.
I organized my desk almost a week ago. Now it looks clean, because believe me, it was such a mess before I got motivated to clean it: paper here, book there, they were everywhere. It was really messy; you’d think this desk has been abandoned. Haha. What I’m doing is I’m preparing, because school starts soon. Soon and very soon. Yup <sigh> lazy days for Khae are over.
On a different note, I finally finished my essay! Yes, but don’t confuse yourself; school hasn’t even started yet. It’s just that I had to write this 500-word essay…. I am really glad it’s done because I’ve been procrastinating for days and I finally have gotten around to it. Dad kept on reminding me over and over. He got me irritated, to be honest. Probably because my visitor’s here. Hello, time of the month! I don’t blame him, though. He just doesn’t like putting things off till the last minute, which can be a bad habit of mine, sometimes. He was just thinking about his beloved daughter. Haha. Thanks, daddy.
I just got home from school! Got everything done and I am registered for this school year. All went well, if you don’t count the fact that I got a bottom locker, again. I should have known. We have the biggest class so, of course, the top lockers were all going to be taken. And I was right. I should have gone there much, much earlier. This is my fault. I hated having a bottom locker last year. It really sucked. I hated stooping down just doing the locker combination to get my stuff in/out. And again, this year, the same thing? Oh, I just don’t want to think about it anymore.
On the brighter side and on a happier note, my chorus teacher showed me a sample of our new chorus dress for this year and the next year! My, I must say it was such a pretty dress. I really, really liked it. A long dress that falls to your ankle and it looked more formal than the last year’s chorus dress, which was just plain, no accessories and all that. This year’s chorus dress, on the other hand, has a patent belt that goes around the waist. The top color of the dress is black, and all the way down from where the belt is located has the color same as last year’s (a color between maroon and red velvet), but looking more formal this time. And it will look good on photographs, daddy added. (What made me really happy about this, though, is that I got all my expectations wrong about the new dress. I expected that it was going to be a knee-length dress—which would really suck for me if that was all true because I have these stretch marks that have appeared on the back of my knees—, the effect of overhearing the conversation of my chorus teacher with the other teacher about the new dress last school year. So I got all worried after. I’m self-conscious, all right. Haha. I don’t want my stretch marks to show. Well, I guess I was all wrong about what I’d overheard before because when I finally saw the new dress before my eyes, I felt so relieved! I thought, I don’t have to worry about my stretch marks. Oh, happy day.)
I also signed up for two clubs/organizations. That should be three, but the one organization that I was planning on signing up for wasn’t there. So I guess I’ll wait until the school starts.
Summer has gone by so fast! I go back to school in 8 days. This is really happening. This is really happening! I am 50 percent excited and 50 percent not ready. Although I don’t want to see it leave, I must say good-bye to summer soon.
Annoying neighbors this morning were trying out their cars for the demolition derby event tonight in our town.
So yes, my sleep was majorly interrupted.
It was already 11-something when I woke (by the noise), so that was all right.
Uncles came down to visit the family.
After one of my uncles went home and after we had some good talk with the other uncle, Mama, Daddy, and I got out of the house and went grocery shopping.
We stopped by the Maverik to get some drinks.
We bought food from Wendy’s.
And I spilled my drink all over the floor!
Clumsy.
I asked my parents to buy the food that I was craving for: a box of apple cinnamon muffins!
You spoiled child! Hahaha, half-kidding.
We were in the parking lot putting away our groceries in the trunk…when something really unusual happened.
I’ll just leave it that way if you don’t mind. Haha.
And we were on our way home.
Meanwhile, it’s 5 minutes past 2 (AM) here, so I must hit the hay. Good night, y’all beautiful tumblr people!
Woke up to the sound and the smell that I love: rain.
Dad dropped me off at the library.
Checked out two books: Crossed (Ally Condie) and The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)
Dad picked me up with mama, who he’d picked up from work, now sitting in the passenger seat.
She brought home different flavors of ice cream for the family.
And a sloppy joe for her ever beloved daughter, and that’s me, of course. Haha.
As planned, we went out to do our grocery shopping.
So I had to stop what I was doing, which was watching the Olympics 2012 live online and miss some parts of it.
I had to go and wanted to.
I mean, we’re talking about grocery shopping here. That means food.
So who would choose watching the Olympics over the joy of picking out food at the grocery store?
Not me.
I tasted banana-flavored ice cream for the first time ever.
It was, mmm, delicious.
Stopped by the Maverik to get some drinks.
And I saw this teenager, a boy, probably about my age. He wore a plain shirt and a pair of jersey shorts and flip-flops.
He was tall. I don’t know if he was a good-looking kid or not because his back was, unfortunately, facing me.
I couldn’t see his face!
But I could tell, though, that he was good-looking.
(Hahaha. What is up with me?)
And man, did he smell good. That, right there, is a major turn-on.
Got out of Maverik with a glass of brisk lemon iced tea in one hand and a freshly baked cinnamon roll in the other.
Headed up to Winco to do our grocery shopping.
Food here. Food there. Food everywhere!
The happiest moments of my life.
Picked out a container of nonfat frozen yogurt in the frozen section of the store—well, duh, frozen, of course—for the first time in my life!
Don’t judge.
And I chose the flavor Caramel Macadamia Crunch.
Gotta love the word “macadamia” there. So classy.
I haven’t tasted it yet.
But I will for sure.
Had another stop at Maverik to get some drinks, again.
It was so hot yesterday; we were breathing in the sun with our skin.
We went home at around 7 p.m.
Took the groceries out of the car trunk and put them into the fridge.
How happy I felt when I saw our fridge so full of food!
Hit the hay at 2 a.m.
My feet were sore.
It was 3:58 a.m. when I was finishing this draft on my phone.
I’d done it in case I forget the details I had to write on this post.
This post you’re reading right now.
And plus, I didn’t feel sleepy yet and it was already 4-something in the morning and I was still wide awake.
Blame the drink. (I had two glasses of brisk lemon iced tea yesterday; one on the way to Winco and another on the way home.) Or more accurately, blame it on me for drinking those large glasses of brisk tea late in the day.
Doing that always, always gives me a hard time sleeping. Never fails.
But Khae never learns.
And here I am: Home alone, on the computer, still feeling sleepy…a little bit.
While sitting on the back of my dad’s red truck, I’ve realized that this is a good spot for reading—shady, cozy, and hideous. Hideous because it is parked beside the garage in the backyard where no one could really see me (which I really like). Yep, I’m a shy person—I don’t want people/neighborhood looking at me while I bury myself in a book. Weird, but true. And since he’s not using this truck anymore, I can set there anytime I want. It’s just perfect.
The thing about living in a small town where you’ve never lived all your life is that you don’t completely feel like you belong, you know. It seems like everybody has known each other since birth. And then you come in and it feels like you’re an outsider. They all bond and it feels like there’s no need for you to join in because it feels like they don’t want you to be a part of them. Yes, you’re in one community but it doesn’t feel like you’re in one. Sucks.
I got these from Chao, one of the Asian stores located here in Utah. These are called rice crackers. The taste—the level of sweetness compared to the level of sweetness of American sweets/desserts—not deadly sweet, just enough to satisfy one’s sweets cravings. It’s so Asian and that’s what I like (well yes, that’s why I’m Asian haha). Along with that, I asked my mother to buy me a bottle of the halo-halo (how I’ve missed that stuff!) ingredients, i.e, sweet fruits and beans. I could not even describe how I felt when I saw it. Did my eyes go wide open? You bet. I was really happy, of course. For almost 3 years that we’ve been here, oh, you have no idea how I miss all the foods in the Philippines. Asian stores always, always give me the feeling—the feeling that I am back home the second I step into their store.
There’s a rodeo going on in our town and the rain has started to pour down again. The sound of the rain, the smell of the grass, the strong wind, the thunderstorms, the showers, I love all of it. But I’m sure it’s a mess out there and the rodeo fans are not enjoying the weather that I find comfortable.
/more about me
