So who did Black Friday shopping this year? I scouted out the deals online last week and nothing looked appealing to me, so I didn’t camp out for anything this year. Last year, I stayed at the local Best Buy for about seven hours in the cold, wet rain and scored myself a silver Sony Cybershot T-77 for an awesome price, but then I ended up exchanging it for a green one online In any case, I was awakened close to midnight by a phone call from my younger brother, who wanted me to try to go to the Toys R Us in my college town because he wanted one of their doorbuster deals, an iPod Touch for $200 with a free $50 gift card, and there was about 200 people in front of him at the Toys R Us at home. I hustled out of bed but of course by the time I arrived at the store, there was a line wrapped around the building twice over when I got there, because Toys R Us opened at midnight last night. No iPod for him – he had been waffling all day and Best Buy had the exact same deal on their website all yesterday, but he didn’t decide he wanted to take it until it was already sold out. Tsk tsk.

I ended up going to the mall around noon today. I was pretty amused when I saw that Hollister and Abercrombie were having actual sales! Abercrombie is offering a $25 gift card for every $100 worth of purchases, while Hollister had a sale for buy one top, get one 50% off. They must be getting desperate, because they NEVER have sales or discounts of any kind, excluding their clearance sections, which is where I shop, I’m not ashamed to admit it. I’m not about to drop $120 for a pair of jeans when I can wait a few months or so and snag the same pair of jeans for $30 – $40. And no wonder they’re finally resorting to sales: with the economy the way it is, Abercrombie and Hollister’s profits have dropped dramatically over the last year or so (Abercrombie saw a 68% drop in profits this last quarter!) No one wants to pay $50 for a t-shirt when they can barely afford to put food on the table, especially when cute, quality tees can be found at other stores, like Forever 21 or Charlotte Russe, for a much more reasonable price of $12 – $20.

Anyways, I ended up getting $10 worth of stuff – 5 bottles of anti-bacterial handsoap and shea-infused lounge socks for my mom – at Bath and Body Works so I could use my coupon (get a free item worth up to $13 with any $10 purchase!) I also got a cute white peacoat-inspired jacket from Forever 21 for $17.50 and a pair of black All-Stars from Lady Footlocker for $40 to replace my Pumas, which the puppy has been using as her chew toy. I’m happy with my shopping loot from today and the fact that I was able to control myself from making impulse purchases ^__^

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I hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving today and spending time with your family and loved ones!

My university is five hours away from home, but my parents and brother drove up this morning to have a Thanksgiving lunch with me, and they brought my beloved dog, Caramel! I was so happy to see her ^__^ They had to leave my other dachshund, Ryo, at home though because he’s close to twelve years old and they were afraid he wasn’t strong enough for the long trip :( I was happy to spend the day with my family though, and so was my boyfriend’s puppy, Udon (she and Caramel are mischievous troublemakers together!)

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I’m going to Shanghai in the spring for an entire semester of studying abroad, in order to immerse myself in the Chinese language. I’ve been taking Chinese as my foreign language in college, and I’m currently in my third semester. I hope to come away from the experience more fluent, because I feel like there’s only so much you can learn in a classroom. By immersing myself in an environment where everyone speaks Chinese, I know I’ll gain so much more experience, even though it’s going to be scary as hell knowing that not everyone can understand English in case I get lost somewhere. It’s probably going to be frustrating at times, and I’m both nervous and excited about it. This will also be my first time overseas – I’ve never been out of the country before!

Yesterday, I found out the great news that I had received another scholarship from my university’s study abroad center, which means the entire cost of my study abroad program (excluding meals and airfare) is now completely covered by scholarships! YAY!

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But if its in an enclosed space like a restaurant (or movie theater or play, anyone? yes, this has happened to me), the parents really need to be able to SHUT THEIR KID UP. I don’t care if your child is 2 or 0 or 5 or has a mental disorder and thinks that they are a duck. You either need to keep them quiet in the appropriate settings or leave them home if they’re going to be disrupting everyone around them. – Soompi Forums

I can’t count how many times I’ve been at the movies or at a nice quiet restaurant having dinner and a child starts screaming or crying as they throw a temper tantrum. Half the time the parent just sits there and acts like nothing is happening but hello! You’re ruining it for *everyone else* around you. I understand wanting to teach your child that you won’t give in to whatever they want just because they’re crying, but it is also highly inappropriate to subject people around you to your child’s bad behavior. Remove them from the area or just leave them at home altogether if you know they have the inability to control themselves in public. It is so frustrating – I didn’t pay $10 for a movie ticket or $50 for dinner at a nice restaurant to listen to some kid scream at the top of their lungs.

This happened to me again when I was at the movie theater tonight with my boyfriend to watch New Moon. There was a woman sitting in front of us with a toddler who was running around and yelling at the top of his lungs at the beginning of the movie. After a few pointed glares and muttering from people around her, she finally got the hint and took him out of the theater. Of course, it would be my luck to also end up sitting next to a couple who decided to fight pretty much throughout the movie, with the guy making snide comments and whining to his girlfriend the whole time that he wanted to leave. I wanted to lean over and tell him he can take his whiny ass and leave so the rest of us can actually enjoy the movie, but his girlfriend finally did it for me. 20 minutes before the movie ended. Thanks.

P.S. In terms of shirtlessness, Taylor Lautner > Robert Pattison. But I’m still Team Edward

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Heard this song on the newest episode of CSI: Miami today and I ended up really liking it =)

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