I got a new desk! As part of the "redoing my room before school starts" that never really happened (oops - who's surprised?) I went furniture shopping for a new desk. Mine was an old family... well, "heirloom" is definitely far too strong a word. More accurately, it needed a home and I needed a desk. Technically it was a vanity from an old bedroom set; its partners had long since abandoned it, and so the poor thing had sort of floated about for a few years until I found a use for it. The paint was chipped, the wood was warped from too many summers and spilled glasses of water, and the drawer of it has been stuck closed since I was, oh, seventeen. I finally decided that, if nothing else, this summer I would replace that sucker for good.


Speaking of replacing, here's my new laptop! As I mentioned earlier, a few weeks ago my old one finally bit the bullet and sailed on off to Laptop Heaven, that big motherboard in the sky. Oh, it was a loyal machine, and put up with a good five years of abuse from yours truly, but finally it had had enough and laid down its arms. That's why I got this sleek little Toshiba in a snazzy dark brown. The shade inspired its name, because I'm that odd of a duck that I have to name everything that's important to me; I call it Chocolat. Between the laptop and the desk, I now have a nice new blog-o-central from which I'll be reporting at least for the next, last, and (for me) only month of summer - at least with my summer class over, I can finally split my times more evenly between work, blogging, and the Project of the Summer - details to come! Next step... buy a real desk chair.

July is the quintessential summer month for me, so I've been making a point to indulge in my favorite summery things all month... lemonade with a touch of vodka, sand between my toes, and, of course, the following songs:

The Decemberists: Summersong
My favorite Decemberists song, ever since I first heard it. The lilting flute and haunting melody always strikes me as very summery, like a flag waving in a July breeze. It makes me think of summer in New England, and my home beach its view of the old-fashioned lighthouses and the islands in the distance.

Iron & Wine: House by the Sea
Another ocean-themed song with a haunting, lilting melody, this song reminds me of driving from sundown to the early hours of the morning in the sticky summer night, with only the Buck Moon as my companion. The scent of roses and raspberry leaves... can I have a perfume made of that, please?

Regina Spektor: Two Birds on a Wire

This fun, poppy piano number is a huge departure from the rest of the music I've posted on these lists so far, but the bubbly effervescence of Regina Spektor is the antithesis of summer with friends for me. Maybe it's because I bought the album Far right before Otakon last year, and spent the entire twelve hour round trip drive blasting it out the open windows with one of my closest friends of all time. Either way, Two Birds is a great track that suits days lying on the beach, where sweat sticks sand to your biceps and calves even before you set a single toe in the surf.

For the record, I was totally looking forward to posting July, July! by The Decemberists on this list, but I couldn't find a track with good audio on Youtube, so you'll have to live in suspense instead.

Don't get me wrong, I love porcelain skin as much as the next girl, and there's a certain ethereal beauty about skin that naturally looks like it's never been kissed by the sun. However, since it's summertime, that's not realy a luxury all of us can afford while still enjoying our time off (if you're lucky enough to have it - I'm still in school and of course working, sigh), and what about those girls who just don't naturally have pale skin? They're just as beautiful and inspirational, and I love seeing pictures of girls with all different skintones in lolita. So I'm making it official, an official call to the universe: Where are all my tan lolitas, my girls with naturally mocha, caramel, or espresso skin? Granted, I may not fall into this category myself, but dammit, I'm sick of monotone lolita! Let's see some variety~

All of the above photos from my wonderful facebook friends (or creeper'd from their daily_lolita accounts): Aria, Jesi, Amber, Angela, and Rashanda ♥ Keep being beautiful and inspiring, girls! Readers: Do you have any pics of amazing tan or dark-skinned lolitas? Post them in the comments!

This weekend Stefan and I trekked out to Manhattan to meet up with mah gurls Victoria, Dalin, Crystal, and their boys for an epic quadruple date at Alice's Teacup. We were lucky to get reservations in last minute on Sunday, which is very busy for them (the only openings were at 8 AM and 2:15 - clearly we chose the latter!) and we monopolized a corner booth for about, oh... two hours of tea and debauchery. We happened to get there on the tail-end of their weekend brunch, so we had some lovely cocktails and mar-tea-nis to sip with our tea sandwiches and scones.


Crystal and Victoria both got Queen of Hearts inspired mar-tea-nis of vervain tea, raspberries, and mint with a touch of Vodka, while Dalin's sweetie Sean and I both opted for brunch classics: a peach tea and champagne Bellini for me and a Bloody Mary for him. The other boys and Dalin herself were both satisfied with their teas.


And the food! Oh, the food! While not horribly impressive in taste, the presentation was really very sweet. The two teas that were ordered were very lovely, coming served on three-tier tea services. My curry chicken salad sandwich came on thick, sweet multi-grain bread with a generous pile of greens (or french fries, if that's more suiting to your tastes). All of the prices are fine for what you get - I think I paid about 9 or 10 dollars for my sandwich and side salad - moderate-low price for a sit-down restaurant in Manhattan, and that's about how it tasted: moderate-low quality. Priced indicatively, so if you're looking for a really special meal, it's probably worth it to get the higher-priced items. This suited me just fine for the casual date-day.






Afterward, we all went to the Sanrio store in Times Square, and then we split up: Crystal and John headed off to a prior engagement, Victoria and Matt started home, and Dalin, Sean, Stefan and I all went to check out the new 4-floor Forever 21 store and Midtown Comics (though I had just given up on the corset and between the cinching, heat, and allergies, I wasn't really up for shopping and mostly just floated around observing. An iced green tea from Starbucks care of Stefan helped, though ♥).



Then we all headed back to Magnolia to get some noms for the ride home (a vanilla bean cheesecake for Stefan, a small serving of chicken Tikka with naan for me, and a beverage for Sean - Dalin, did you get anything? I can't remember now, I was so dead by then!). During conversation, we discovered that Sean would be taking the same train as Stefan and I for about half the trip, so we had a conversation buddy for most of our trip home, which was a nice change of pace - normally he and I just take turns falling asleep on each other's shoulders, because we are, in fact, secretly old people. He has an excuse - he's from the country, the Big City tires him out. I'm just a wuss.



Thanks so much to my counter-couples for an absolutely amazing Sunday afternoon! It was so wonderful to get together with everyone and spend a whole day together. We should make a habit of these!

♥BONUS♥

After we got home, Stefan and I collapsed on the couch in out PJs with cups of tea. Clearly I'm five years old and can't drink anything without spilling it on me, as the spot on my Hello Kitties show.

I've done a good amount of discussing body image lately, as has the entire lolita blogosphere, and I think I've beat the mental side to a pulp by now. While I'll always have more to talk about as far as the evils of society goes, for now I'm going to turn to the lighter side: ways to get healthy.

Whether you're overweight or underweight or average in your body type, most of us could probably use a little push in the fitness depratment - at least, I know I always can. Even if your weight is healthily maintained through metabolism alone (you're one of those girls who can eat an entire pack of Oreos in one sitting with no regret, aren't you!), it's still important to exercise and eat right, and here's why. Getting your blood pumping improves general health by improving bone density, sleep quality, and reducing your risk of heart disease, as well as improving your mood and relaxing you; eating right will increase your life span and lower your risk of obesity and other conditions such as heart disease and high blood pressure. It's very important to view exercise as a way of loving your body and doing what's right for it, with weight loss being a happy side effect - if it happens, it happens, but even if it doesn't, it's improtant to remember that it's a nessecary part of a healthy life. That's the reason I find people who give up after two weeks and no visible results to be failed attempts - not because the participants gave up, but because they gave up for the wrong reasons. If you feel like you're gaining asbolutely nothing from your workout, there's no shame in giving up and finding one that's more suited to you. If you find the right activities, getting healthy can be a lot of fun instead of a chore - which I found very surprising!

I've never liked exercise. A slew of physical problems has always made it more uncomfortable for me than for most people, and not gonna lie, I'm also pretty lazy. I've never been the type to go the gym or go jogging, because it's too high-impact and, let's face it, boring to keep my attention long enough for it to work. I've always been on the lookout for more interesting ways to get moving, and since I'm a goddamn princess I needed any workout routine I do to be low-impact, quaint, and moderately lacking in the sweat department. Here are my solutions:

• Hooping: Hooping will always be my number one workout. It's low-impact, interesting, and you probably won't break a sweat with it unless you're getting really crazy. That's part of the fun: it's entirely customizable. You can just stand in front of the TV with it revolving around your waist, or for a little more of a workout you can use it on your arms by rolling it over the back of your hand with your arm held out to the side or in front of you. There's also a crazy amount of creative leeway, in that there are hundreds of different tricks you can learn. My favorites are using it on my hips or thighs instead of waist, over my head with my hands (this move being aptly called the Halo or Lasso) while alternating between my right and left hands, passing it from hand to hand in front of my midsection and around my back in a circle, and the aptly named "booty bump," which I don't think needs much explanation. If you're planning on working out your torso with a hoop, leave the poof aside for now and go for a tanktop and shorts - Victoria Suzanne pointed out to me and I agree that the less clothing you're wearing, the easier hooping seems to be. As far as effectiveness goes, I'm famous among my friends for swearing up and down that I saw improvements in my waist after only ten minutes of hooping (dammit, I did!), but hooping is really great for working out your torso and legs just by using it around your waist, and it's really easy to target specific areas, too - just hoop with them!


• Dance: Of course - this one should be obvious. I danced for a good portion of my life and my entire childhood, and it was only because of skeletal problems that I stopped at all - it was too hard on my knees and hips, and I have bad genetics as far as joint pain go which weren't helped by an accident as a child. However, I know plenty of people who've had amazing results with ballet, jazz, or tap. It not only works your muscles, it is varied on levels on intensity, so you can take a beginnger level ballet class once a week or turn to dance-themed exercise programs a few minutes a day (I know a lot people who've had great success with both). Not interested in your standard regime? Try ballroom dancing, or if you're feeling exotic, bellydance is a fun but very challenging alternative. Similarly, gymnasitcs or tumbling are also wonderful if you can find a really good class/studio.


• Video games: I know, I know, video games are villainized as contributing to the obesity epidemic here in America (which I don't argue with at all) - however, for years companies have been trying to get gamers up and moving, with varied results. While games like those offered on Wii Fit are criticized as being repetitive and boring, the ultimate and first fitness game I've seen is and always will be Dance Dance Revolution. It's so effective and fun, in fact, that there are schools in America (specifically in West Virginia schools; Caltech also supports it, even counting it as a PE alternative) and Norway it's even been registered as an official sport! I know family members who've used DDR to substitute a more structured exercise regime and have lost eight to ten pounds after a month with no over changes to their activity levels and diets. Wikipedia even says that people have purportedly lost a max of 85-150+ pounds! It's also fun, satisfying, and competitive, which is something that all weight loss regimes strive for.

There are really so many fun, captivating ways to exercise - just get creative and you'll realize there's really a lot more to it than lifting weights or doing crunches - clearly evident from the length of this post, and these are just the things that I myself have found to work! After writing this, I think I'll talk about ways to lolify your healthy food selections in another post.

So, girls, what do you do to keep in shape?

(image care of we heart it)