tatted up.

pleased with my recent addition to my tattoos.
on a whim i went out with a friend and got the short phrase, "move forward" tattooed to my right shoulder. loves it.

i wanted a reminder to not dwell in the past. hence, i want to move forward. pretty simple, i guess. haha.

as long as i'm sharing my ink, i thought i'd post the rest of my tattoos.

the left tattoo on my neck is the character for my last name, cai. i am proud of my chinese heritage, and i think the character is beautiful. i did a post on this one a long time ago, the placement was inspired by freja beha.
the right is the first tattoo i ever had done. it's a quote by benjamin franklin, spoken in the context of politics but i translate it to many other aspects of my life. relationships, my spirituality.. it was originally a reminder to stay true to myself and my independence when it comes to relationships.

my last tattoo is on the inside of my left arm. it's the first part of psalm 34:18. i got this one done two years ago when i was living up in michigan, when i was rediscovering my relationship with God. this one is meant to be a reminder that when i am going through hard things that God is there, and He cares about me.

plan to get a few more. i just love them!! and they're all incredibly meaningful to me.
what tattoos do you have??

all the best,
laura <3

the next beginning.

and life continues.
a fresh start is always, well, refreshing.
it's been almost a year since i've posted, and things have definitely changed.
i've become pretty well established around my home in illinois, i've made friends, gotten a job, progressed as a person, and phil and i broke up.
it would be silly to say that i'm not having a hard time with it. but i am eager to see the personal growth that comes from this experience, and how this will shape me as a person.

i've been trying to talk to God, and learn about who He is and what my purpose is and what He has in store for me. i've started reading slowly through the bible, to learn about jesus and to know him better. hence my new blog, my best friend, the Creator. they are letters/prayers to jesus, to talk to him and tell him what i am learning through reading his word.

i hope to continue to well establish myself. i am excited to see what new things come my way.
but for now, it will just be me and my real number one man, my mini-tiger joey. :)

aww. there's the little guy himself. or big guy. anywhoo. i want to try and keep up with my posts more!! so there's a little commitment to myself to do so.
hooray for new beginnings!!

all the best,
laura <3

lily.

i am now part of the way through the big move.
i finished packing up all of my things in my room, packed up the car, and then mom and i headed up to philadelphia for the night.
as i was packing up my room, deciding which odds and ends i wanted to take with me, i found myself feeling oddly sad, sentimental, and conflicted about whether or not i should take my favorite and only childhood rag doll, lily.

when i was very young we used to get toy catalogs around christmas time. i would daydream about rose window kits and having my very own pet sea monkeys, but one christmas i picked out this doll, among other things. and my bestemor (norwegian for grandmother) bought her for me.
she came in a different dress than the one she is wearing now, but i took all of the nice dresses from my american girl doll, kirsten, who i did not like or ever play with, and gave them to lily.
i loved her and would carry her around the house with me. i still love her, which is why i felt so conflicted as to whether i should bring her along.

in the end i decided to leave her at home. i figured she'd be safer there, and i set her on the chair with the rest of my stuffed animals i had in my room. i figured she could stay and hang out with her friends while i'm gone.

we're heading out at 6am tomorrow, planning to get in tomorrow evening. i'm so excited about the move. we have freshly baked homemade cinnamon rolls for the carride, and one nervous but adorably cute and fluffy mini-tiger named joey to keep us company on the road trip up.

all the best,
laura <3

birthday.

so yesterday was the big 21.
and it was a lovely day, if i do say so myself.
i had to fill in as music director at my sister hana's church in the morning, but then we picked up some bagels for lunch (egg bagels are my FAAAVE), went to a matinee of the new woody allen film, midnight in paris, which was exquisite, hana's boyfriend jeff took me out for drinks when we got home, and then we finished off the night with a yummy steak dinner and a homemade birthday cake. so overall i'd say it was a total win.
it's a little hard because i'm mid-move, and so that detail plus the fact that i've grown apart from all of the friends i have in maryland made it a bit of a bummer to not have a whole crew of friends to go drink with last night. but it was still very fun and i will be one of the few people in my generation that can gladly say i remember every part of my 21st birthday.

there's the limerick pub, where i had the ceremonial first beverage. and second. haha.
the area seemed a little sketch so we were a bit wary at first to go in, but it turned out to be very nice inside. and also very irish.

my first drink if i remember correctly was called an egan's o'thentic irish kiss. it had something like irish whiskey, orange juice, peach schnapps and ginger ale. i would say it was pretty good, i'm not a super big fan of whiskey but it was diluted enough with other sweet and delicious things that the taste was definitely not unbearable.

i got an apple martini after that. i just really thought that sounded good. and on an empty stomach i was definitely feeling it when i left. one marlboro red in the parking lot after was the perfect finishing touch.
jeff had a small mcsorley's beer and i guess he was feeling it too. and then when we were driving back to the house we got lost. and it was hilarious.

most of my presents will be lovely things like gift cards to target and ikea to buy fancy new apartment things. i am quite excited to make my room look spectacular.
and that's it!!

all the best,
laura <3

short note on baking.

i am not much of a cook.

nor am i much of a baker.

i am pretty much not super gifted in the home/domestics/housewife area of life.

i guess i haven't really tried all that much at some of those things, i.e. sewing and knitting and having babies. but there was a recipe that i stumbled upon on stumbleupon for cinnamon sugar pull-apart bread.

and yes, it is as amazing as it sounds. i have officially baked it three times now in the last two weeks. and it comes out incredible every time.

so perhaps i could be a real baker someday..

 

if that doesn't look amazing to you..

it's probably because my camera sucks. but you should take a look at the website/recipe.

all the best,
laura <3

post apocalypse.

well, apparently we survived.

or we didn't. and we are now living on the post apocalyptic earth, fighting to survive.

but either way, we should have all figured that the world couldn't get any worse, so it didn't really matter if things went bad or not. i guess we'll never really know.

the morning after i got back from the chi-town, my older sister hana graduated from the university of maryland, with a degree in piano performance. what a rock star. she's such an over-achiever. in the best way.

there's our star!! haha. we're very proud.

so, we had a nice dinner, dessert, etc.

in other news, the search is finally over. why? because...

I GOT THE APARTMENT.

i know. i can't believe it. which means that i will be moving to arlington heights within the next week.

so i've been trying to teach myself how to drive stick shift, so i can take my mom's car with me when i head out there.

i'm stoked. and that is really all for now..

oh and i'm turning 21 on sunday. awesome.

in other other news, i took a picture of the rhododendrons by the driveway, whose flowers are now completely wilted. but they weren't when i took the picture. so here it is.

 

i thought there was more going on in my life lately. apparently not. but the fact that i will be moving and have a job interview in the next week and a half is really exciting.

all the best,
laura <3

chicago: the visit.

wow. it's been a while since i've posted. things have been busy/hectic/crazy/exciting/fun/interesting/complicated/all of the above.
but i will now go into brief detail about how my trip to chicago went.
so sunday i flew in, and you saw how all of that went.
and then on monday we woke up, hung out around the house for a while and then we went to glen ellyn to look at an apartment.

needless to say, it was a pretty big disappointment. we drove around until we finally found this awful brick building, then we walked up to the front, or at least what we thought was the front, saw the banged up doors and smelled the awful smell, and then i decided i didn't even want to look at the inside. so we left.
phil went and got his eyes checked because he was having some trouble with his contacts, then after an early dinner at lou malnati's with tony sorrentino, we went and looked at the next apartment that i had lined up.
it was ideal. it was in arlington heights, 10 minutes from church and 15 minutes from phil, stores down the street for potential jobs. a two bedroom apartment, low rent with all utilities included, and an awesome girl living there with her cat looking for a roommate. so after i filled out an application, we left and i was feeling anxious and nervous and excited all at the same time. then we hung out with some friends that night and went to bed.

next day we spent all day recording. i tracked piano and cello for brandon grissom's cover of all the poor and powerless by sons and daughters. it's an awesome song. look it up if you have the chance.
that was the majority of tuesday, then wednesday i tracked harmony vocals and played at axis, the college youth ministry at willow creek. it was awesome.

there's my man on drums. what a stud. then we left after hearing much good feedback and having many good conversations with people there.
when i came home with phil, i walked into a completely dark front hallway to find that my baby had thrown me a surprise birthday party.

he had all of our friends over and they had cupcakes and pizza and some other snacks, and we all just sat around the table and talked. it was really fun. and i've never had a surprise birthday party, nor had i ever had a birthday party in general before. so it was definitely a big surprise, and super sweet. :)

thursday was the final day. we got breakfast with tony sorrentino and then we went to willow where tony got some film footage of me playing piano for a video that he's making for the sons and daughers cover.  then phil and i made a stop, had a quick squiz and then i packed and we headed to the airport, where i flew safely home.

my mom brought joey, my little beast, home to stay with me in maryland while no one is at the apartment in philadelphia. so he's just been hanging out with me during my late nights surfing the internet, and then during the day he runs around in the basement so the other cats don't terrorize him. poor little guy.
and that was my trip! more posts to come shortly after this on the rest of my life happenings!

all the best,
laura <3