ahhh... it's the weekend! i love saturdays -- they're such lazy, laid-back, carefree days. i truly appreciate the weekends now that my weekdays are so crazy and intense.

i went to the mall on friday to pick up a mac blot powder for a friend, and while i was at the mac store, i picked out some nice neutral eyeshadows, plus a creme liner in dark brown. i love the creme liner! although it doesn't come in just the pan form to put in the mac pro palette. but i solved that problem by extracting the pan from the plastic case with a knife.

i'm actually quite proud of my accomplishment, because it was quite difficult! i first separated the inner plastic tray from the outer case, which wasn't that easy, but somehow i got it to pop out (it flew out onto the floor, but since it's a creme shadow it was undamaged. if it were a powder shadow, it might have shattered). anyway, so then i had to somehow get just the metal pan containing the shadow out of the plastic tray. i'd heard of people baking or boiling (in a plastic bag) the powder eyeshadow pots to loosen the glue holding the pan in place, but i didn't want to risk melting the creme shadow, so i popped it in the microwave! it worked quite well, actually. the creme shadow melted a little, but it turned out to be a good thing because when it re-solidified, it erased all the nicks from the previous removal process. and the glue was loosened enough so that i was able to pry the pan out with the knife. it was only afterward that i realized i'd just microwaved metal! hee hee. luckily the shadow and my microwave seem to be unharmed. :)

i've been bad and haven't been reading jon's journal lately! which is a shame (dare i say TRAVIS-ty? hehe) because it's so interesting! jon leads such a different life than i... i mean, he gets to prance around with magic wands fashioned from random pieces of long plastic found in the server room at work! in addition, he has a far more active social life than i do! not that i'm jealous because i choose to be a homebody... but back to his page -- it's marvelous! he recently added a nifty gratuit section, to list five things he's grateful for every day. what a neat idea! the cool thing about his journal is that when i'm reading it, i feel like i'm talking to him -- he writes like he talks. so much so that when i'm im'ing with him and reading his journal at the same time, i'll forget that i'm im'ing with him! haha! anyway, go check out his journal. you won't regret it. :)

by the way... i love those tofutti cuties! they're so refreshing! and dairy-free! i still love milk but i'm trying to limit my intake of animal products.

the highlight of my weekend was when i was websurfing on saturday and found... the clara shoe!!!! it was on sale, too, at nine west. woo! of course, i HAD to order it... i mean, i can't pass up a shoe that shares my name! i remember i once read about a stila lipstick called clara, but when i went to the stila counter they didn't know about it. it turns out it was discontinued :(... but how cool would it have been to own a stila lipstick called clara!! hee.

on sunday, jocelyn and i went to old town alexandria with our stanford friend eric. it was the first time i'd been there. it's quite quaint. there's a plethora of antique stores, souvenir shops, boutiques, and restaurants, so it's good for browsing while strolling around. unfortunately, it started pouring -- i haven't seen it rain that hard in a while! -- but we were prepared with umbrellas, thankfully. we walked all the way down to the waterside (next to the potomac river), and then walked back to the metro. i was soooo tired when i got home. i'm not used to walking around in the heat, and plus i was wearing these platform slides that are fine for everyday but not the best for walking long distances, i've discovered. they're also relatively new, so maybe they need to be broken in.

i got an email from dave hong, who's been reading my webpage since my freshman year (he's a true veteran!). anyway, he is now working at a startup in korea. good luck in korea, dave! i'm so jealous... hearing from him rekindled my desire to work in korea for at least a year, sometime in the future. i'm not sure how feasible that would be, though... but it's something i've wanted to do for a while now. it would be so wonderful to have my own place instead of having to stay with (very conservative) relatives... steep myself in korean culture... and have access to the fabulous shopping in korea! including korean makeup. i suspect i'm talking a bit too much about makeup on this page so i won't elaborate. :)

clara@rescomp.stanford.edu