Californication

I can't believe how fast this year has gone by.. I can't believe that its almost Thanksgiving already, and that pretty much means its almost time for externships! I just bought my ticket from BWI to SFO. It feels pretty much final I'm actually going!

I'm always about buying the cheapest tickets and looking around for the best prices. I usually use Kayak, AirfareWatchDog, and all the various usual sites to look for cheap tickets. I ended up buying one from Southwest. It was decent for a one-way, although if I could have gone a week after New Year's, it would have been $50 cheaper, but oh well, can't help that! Also, if you are part of their rapids rewards program, you can get a free flight after 8 RT flights. So, we'll see how much traveling I will be doing to be able to get a free ticket. haha.


I will be in the San Fran area for about 5 months starting right after New Year's, flying in on Jan 2nd, eeks! I can't wait although it'll be totally different since I'm so use to the East Coast life and even being so close to my family and friends. Being only 2.5 hours away from home from Philly isn't really that bad and I've always gone home about every month or so. It'll be a change not seeing my family for 5 months, but luckily I have relatives on the West Coast I'm staying with so it won't be lonely. I have a ton of things that I want to do while I'm over there. One thing is that I need to get better at snowboarding so I can take advantage of Lake Tahoe!


I've been watching a lot of Californication lately. Love that show. It's a little more adult since Hank sleeps around with everything that walks, but its pretty good. He's got a good heart & loves his daughter. I would definitely recommend it, watch a couple episodes to really get into it!

I guess I'm ready to move on! I will update you guys on my travels to the Sunny State!

Deals and Steals of the Week

UPDATED 11/21 4PM - the deals keep on coming!

Everyone is having a Friends & Family sale!! I guess with this slowing economy, stores are really trying to get consumers out there. Enjoy the sales :)

J. Crew - Extra 20% off on markdowns
Code: EXTRA20
Ends: Nov 24th

Martin & Osa - 30% off Friends & Family
Code: 20119061 . Print
Ends: Nov 23rd

Urban Outfitters - 25% off
Code: LUCKYBREAKS8
Ends: Nov 30th

Ann Taylor and Loft - 30% off Friends & Family
Code: FRIENDS08 . Print
Ends: Nov 23rd

Aeropostale - 30% off Friends & Family
Code: FRIENDS08 . Print
Ends: Nov 23rd

American Eagle - 20% off
Code: 36249027

Ralph Lauren - 30% off Friends & Family
Code: HOL2008 . Print
Ends: Dec 08

Sephora - Free Shipping off $25
Code: SHIPFREE25

Arden B. - $10 off $50, $25 off $100
Code: SHIMMER10, SHIMMER25
Ends: Nov 25th

On the Lookout for the Perfect Hair Straightener

I've been so busy lately. We're taking this study course for boards right now, which is taking up ALL my time. Its pretty much like 8 hours of a lot of information crammed in for 4 days.. so we have 2 more days to go. Its really good but its just so tiring! But in the mean time, I've been looking up hair straighteners to buy. I really want a new flat iron that curls your hair. My hair has been getting longer so I just want a bouncy head of curls! Haha.

Right now Folica is having a sale with $20 bucks off $100 purchase, which is perfect since I want to spend only around $100 for a new flat iron. There are just so many brands out there, its hard to choose. I want something that is high quality/professional, that will curl/straighten well (that means my hair stays stick straight for most of the day), and something that will last. I've been looking at CHI, SEDU and SOLIA hair straighteners so far. GHD seems like the BEST out there, but its too pricey and out of my range.

The CHI straightener is a very well know hair straightener. Although some of my friends have Chi hair straighteners and had no problems, I've read online that many of them have broken easily, like within a year or less... which makes me a little uneasy about getting one, plus there isn't any temperature adjustment. My hair is fine-medium so I don't really need something that is super heated or anything so I would like the option of using a lesser setting.


SEDU seems like a pretty reputable brand. This one is the specifications that I'm looking for, 1" used to straighten and curl hair with adjustable temperature. The only thing is that it is a little pricer at $140. I wouldn't mind spending more if I knew it was worth it, but I'm not sure if it is. From the reviews I read, it was comparable to the SOLIA hair straightener.


The SOLIA brand is one that I wasn't too familiar with until I started researching what hair straightener to get. This one seemed very similar to the SEDU and from what I was getting, most people online were choosing between either the SEDU or SOLIA. I couldn't really tell much difference between the two except the SEDU is pricer and little more well known (one of their flat iron models was mentioned in numerous magazines such as Allure).



The last one I was deciding between was the Enzo Milano hair straightener. I'm only considering this one because my cousin has the same model and it works really well for her. It is also a professional iron, but I believe this brand is more well known for their curling irons.

All of these irons are tourmaline ceramic and all boast that they don't snag your hair and keeps it healthy (although you are frying your hair on like 350 degrees of heat but thats besides the point..) so I have no idea which flat iron I should go for! If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Eyebrow Threading

I recently got my eyebrows threaded, which was a MUCH better experience then when I had my eyebrows waxed for the first time. The waxing was terrible, I was left with thin brows that I hated. I decided that I would never try that again. I was a little reluctant to try eyebrow threading, but with the push of my friend, I did it and it turned out really well!

Eyebrow threading originated in Middle East and Asia (sources vary). I first learned of it from my Indian friends. It is a procedure of hair removal, which uses a cotton string (the type you sew with) that is looped around each hair and is pulled from the follicle. Threading is not only used for the eyebrows, but can be used on the entire face, including upper lip, chin, sideburns and cheeks. Threading can define the eyebrows and keep them lasting longer. The lady who did mine said I didn't have to come back for 3 weeks! I could notice some hairs growing slightly by 1 week, but not enough to go back. I figure I would just keep the natural contour of the brows by plucking them myself with my good old tweezers.

I had my eyebrows threaded at a local mall stand, although I hear the Indian ladies who do it at their houses are much better.. but we were already at the mall and the ladies that were doing it seemed pretty good! My friends and I watched a few people go ahead of us, and everyone came out with really nice looking brows! I would recommend you watch a few people first to get a feel of how it is done. Threading takes years of experience so you want to make sure the person who is doing it knows what they are doing as well.

It wasn't really painful, but it did hurt a little bit because they pull out several hairs at once, plus my eyebrows were a little unruly so she probably had more work to do than for others. haha. Overall, I was really satisfied with the procedure and would definitely recommend it for anyone to try it. I really loved how they cleaned up my brows and gave me nice, natural arch. I would definitely recommend it!

Threading is more precise than waxing since they are taking each hair out and it can be more easily defined. It does hurt a bit, but only slightly more than plucking due to the quickness of the procedure. Your eyebrow area may be red for some time, but it will go down within an hour or so (the lady told us 15 minutes). Mine wasn't red at all, but my friend's eyebrows looked red and swollen, but that went away after some time. There are no chemicals used, so if your eye area is easily irritated by those products, this is a better way to go. The hair supposedly does not grow back as fast and grows back finer! Definitely give it a try if you encounter it.

Deals and Steals of the Week

SEPHORA - 20% off FRIENDS & FAMILY
Code: FF2008 (online only) Ends: 11/10/08
Free shipping over $50 + 3 free samples

LIMITED - 20% off Friends & Family (in stores and online)
Code: 585 Ends: 11/09/08

Old Navy, Gap, BR - 30% off Friends & Family
+5% donation to your favorite non profit organization
Code: D18FYQFTPKWY
Ends: 11/13-11/16

GAP - 25% off SALE items (in stores and online)
Code: EXTRA25 Ends: 11/11/08

Banana Republic - 20% off $125 or more (in stores and online)
Code: CELEBRATE Ends: 11/13/08

Nordstroms - 40% off Half Yearly Sale

Halloween Fun!

So for Halloween, Me and my friends dressed up as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! This idea started after the last Halloween when we saw these TMNT shells on sale for like 75 cents each.. haha so of course we bought them and since we had so much fun dressing up like martians last year, we decided to dress up together again. We're missing our Michelangelo, but it was still so much fun. Everyone had such awesome costumes this year!

I was thinking of ideas to dress up for the celebrity party, but we decided to go with TMNT. But we did try to do a "Gossip Girl" theme for the other Halloween party we went to... but we pretty much dressed up like ourselves and pretended we were Gossip Girls! haha. I'll post a picture if I can find a good one later.



* CONGRATS to the new President of the United States!! Go Obama!

ROCK YOUR VOTE!

Tomorrow is a HUGE day, its finally ELECTION day!

Not only are you fulfilling your public duty tomorrow by voting, you can also receive some FREE yummy treats!

•FREE Coffee at STARBUCKS! Starbucks expects to hand out "hundreds of thousands" of free 12-ounce drip coffees (valued at about $1.75 each).

•FREE Patriotic Doughnuts at KRISPY KREME. Some 85 of Krispy Kreme's 231 locations in the U.S. will hand out star-shaped, red-white-and-blue sprinkled doughnuts "while supplies last". The chain will give out about 200,000 doughnuts valued at 99 cents each.

•FREE Ice cream at BEN & JERRYS. Between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. in each time zone, Ben & Jerry's ice cream shops will hand out single-scoop ice cream cones (a $3.40 value).

•FREE CHICK-FIL-A Chicken Sandwiches. In a local market promotion, several hundred of the nation's 1,400 Chick-fil-A stores will hand out $2.70 chicken sandwiches to those with proof they voted tomorrow

Just an added bonus for those of you who are voting today! Happy voting and we'll see who the next President of the United States will be, very soon!