Apologies! What I've been up to:

I've been getting home so late from volleyball games that I've been too exhausted to write. In fact, last week was my last set of games (except for subdistricts!), and I came down with a cold (again). I've had fevers and body aches and a cough so bad I haven't been able to sit down at my computer for long periods of time at all. It's been really awful, but I think I'm developing abs from all my coughing. They're certainly sore enough to tell me that there's muscle there now. Either way, had my computer been a laptop instead of a desktop, I might be telling a different story...instead, my job-hunting productivity has gone on the backburner in favor of getting healthier and not spreading my sickness around. That said, it doesn't mean I haven't accomplished things! Here's a list of all the TV shows I'm suddenly caught up on:

• Presidential (and Vice Presidential) Debates
• Bones
• The Walking Dead
• Covert Affairs
• Once Upon a Time
• Grimm
• Switched at Birth
• Dancing with the Stars
• Survivor

Those last two are a result of me needing to share the TV with my whole family. Also, I beat my first playthrough of Borderlands 2 and I'm halfway through Clash of Kings now. Yay for "productivity"!

To remedy my inability to keep up with my own blog, here's a post (much easier to write) of some of the things I've been up to, and some more of my sister's nail art. I am feeling a little bit better today, too...ignoring the fact that I can't actually take a full breath without coughing. At least I'm not wrapped up in my blanket anymore. =/


First of all, I painted my nails last week! I only did so because my sister was painting hers at the same time. Here's the comparison:

Kaela's nails.

My nails.

Now tell me who the adventurous one is in the family?

Mikae wants you to disregard the messy nails. The paint on her cuticles came off shortly after this picture and they look amazing, as always. When Dad came in and saw her nails, he informed her that he bragged about her "manicure" skills to the grandma next door, who was looking to get a manicure before her trip down south. She said she'd be down to pay Kaela if she did her nails for her. If you ask me though, I'm not down with manicuring any nails other than my own...that's gross stuff.

In other news, the family recently trekked up to Seattle to see a broadway show: Wicked!

My mom and sister are crazy about this show. They listen to the "Wicked" radio station on Pandora all the time, so they knew all the words. All I knew was that it was the story between the lines of the Wizard of Oz. And after watching it, my goodness, it was funny. I did want to strangle the headmistress at the academy for using words that just do not exist.  Although, I did find it interesting that some of her made-up words were just completely accepted by the crowd--that is, sometimes she'd throw in an imaginary word without making a big deal about it, and the crowd wouldn't laugh like they did when the word was unmistakably incorrect, or framed by enunciation. I think I laughed most when the crowd was silent. That headmistress drove me crazy. But the writers were also very clever in how they fit the story together, and the main characters had excellent chemistry on the stage. The juxtaposition of their characters was hilarious all by itself---and probably extremely relatable in every family.  I just thought it was a really really great show. Bravo!

visit www.seattlegivecamp.org for more!

Being semi-unemployed has made me feel a little...underutilized. So I decided I'd go volunteer at Seattle Give Camp, a weekend event held on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond. The idea is that there are a ton of charities in the area who may not have the resources or the funds to create certain things they think they need--be that a new website, a better website, a mobile app, a game to draw in customers...etc. Give Camp then collects volunteer developers together in one place and they form teams for these charities. Over the course of the weekend, each team gets an idea of what their charity needs and do their best to deliver. This year, there were about 37 charities, and over 120 volunteer developers. 

I think the idea is really a fantastic one, and I wanted to see what I could do. I'm not a developer--I can't code. I'm not a designer (yet!). But their website did say they needed non-technical volunteers as well. So, I threw caution to the winds and signed up...by myself. And I made some new friends on the first day. And I networked! I felt a little out of my element with all the developer jargon swirling around my head, but I learned so many new things. Some people even suggested that I might help with content development for a charity I wanted to work with. There was also a Wordpress and SEO workshop on the second day that I could benefit from.

Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the first day, as my sickness and cough hit me full-swing over the weekend. I was completely incapacitated. I could only drink tea and cough, watch TV, and sleep. I didn't want to get all those wonderful working-folks sick, either. So my volunteering ended abruptly with a nice game of Kinect Star Wars in the Microsoft Commons and a rainy drive home.  

Now that I know what it's all about, though, I may look a little more carefully at the charities participating in the next Seattle Give Camp to see if I have skills to offer, and I'll definitely point my favorite charities in their direction.  

In any case, I hope you are all staying healthy, eating your vitamin C, and washing your hands! Stay away from children, too. Schools are little cesspools of illness and disease. It's like the kids give them to one another like trading cards! >.<

Good night, and good health on this Wednesday evening! =) What have YOU been up to lately?