Sunday, February 21, 2016

"Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life."
 Bill Cunningham
These past few weeks have been quite busy what with work and my adventure partner busy with school, so discovering new places hasn't been an option as of late. After a long work week for me, I decided that on my one day off this week to make a spontaneous trip up to the city to explore an area aside from the touristy Pier areas and the Westfield mall. Therefore, off to Mission District we went.


While we were on Bart, Christine (my BFF, soulmate, and adventure partner) and I discussed what to eat once we got there. Going through Yelp, we discovered a plethora of Mexican restaurants in Mission District, but we decided we were feeling Thai. I can honestly, 10 out of 10, recommend Krua Thai on 16th Street to anyone looking for a cheap, but amazing Thai fix. The place is not huge, but it's lovely inside and the bathroom is probably the nicest bathroom I have ever been in the presence of. Oh, and the food is amazing and we both got our food within 10 minutes of ordering. Slightly unfortunately for us it started raining pretty bad outside, but not even the rain can stop an adventure.
Stuff I realized I should really invest in: waterproof makeup. Fortunately, my hat protected my makeup from streaming down my face and the direction to this beautiful graffiti filled alley was with the rain. If you're in this district, perhaps trying Krua Thai, all you have to do is walk down the street and you will eventually find Clarion Alley. It is art and it is magnificent.
We walked all over this district-- from the BART station, to Krua Thai, to Clarion Alley, to Bi-Rite Creamery, to Dolores Park, to Castro Street, then all the way down to Bart over at Westfield Mall. For a solid two hours of our walking time, it was raining quite a bit. I woke up this day with the mentality of matching my outfit to the gloom: white and black. Luckily for me, the outfit I pulled together was cute, fashionable, comfortable, and kept my body dry while it rained. Life happens, it's important to be invested in fashion that will be prepared for the unexpectedness that comes with life.

Outfit Deets:
  • Tops: Jacket is sold out, similar x, x
    • Shirt (only available in black) x, x, x
  • Bottoms: Levi's 711 
  • Shoes: Adidas Samoa
  • Accessories: Hat
Here's a little extra from Friday<3














Until next week, 
xoxo Raebae

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Decisions, Decisions.

"You will lose someone you can't live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn't seal back up. And you come through. It's like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly-- that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp." 
Anne Lamott

*Warning: The following post will not involve an adventure or fashion. This will be personal, deep, contains a strong opinion regarding feelings, and is quite lengthy.

On December 11th, 2015, I had to put down my angel of 9 years. Mailee Anne Mensinger (pronounced Miley) was the sweetest, sassiest, and most beautiful Yorkshire Terrier I have ever encountered, but like most purebred dogs, her health waned as she got older. When we first bought her as a month old puppy, the pet shop forecasted her lifespan to be about 20 years, yet she only lasted for 9. 
I remember her last few days vividly. My grandmother was visiting from Florida, so my father, grandmother, and I brought Mailee with us to Santana Row to have lunch at The Counter. The past few weeks Mailee was having breathing problems, but the vet assured us that she was healthy and fine, but her breathing said otherwise. Throughout our day together, she was struggling catching her breath, she could not get comfortable, and she kept looking up at me and would whine. At first we ignored it, but when it came time for her to go to bed at night, she still could not catch her breath and my mother stayed up with her all night. In the morning, my father called our vet and said he was bringing in Mailee as soon as the vet opened. While my parents were getting dressed to rush Mailee off to the vet, I brought her into my room and held her, my angel face, for what I had a feeling was to be my last time. I so badly wanted to go with my parents to the veterinary clinic, but I had to go to work instead, When I got there, I explained to my manager the situation-- that my dog was in the hospital, that these could be her last moments and if my parents call and ask me to come, then I will leave work to be with my family. Luckily, she was very understanding. But unfortunately, I did get a call from my father telling me that things weren't looking too good.
To cut a long story a little shorter, she made it from until 10 AM on December 11th. The 24 hours my family endured, from witnessing her drugged up in an oxygen tank, to applying to health credit cards to pay for her medical bills, to rushing her off to an emergency pet hospital, to agreeing to euthanasia, was extremely brutal. In the year of 2015, I had to withdraw admission from attending a university of my dreams because I couldn't get approved for a loan, and my uncle, whom I was quite close to, had died. But the pain I felt from losing my puppy was almost greater than what I felt from the aforementioned losses combined. 

My biggest regret to this day, nearly 2 months after putting her down, is that I did not kiss her enough, I did not give her enough baths, and I did not tell her I love her enough.

Literally a week after putting Mailee down, our Ukrainian student who is renting out a bedroom in the house, bought my parents a new puppy. We were all still grieving, but none of us really knew how to be around each other without Mailee. Our students reasoning for the purchase was
"This family needs a dog to survive, we need an outlet to pour love into. She will never take Mailee's place, but she can help fill the void."
 Needless to say, my heart melted when I saw the fluff ball and I broke down, grabbed the puppy, and have "loved" her since. I used the term "loved" very loosely because I believe that love is not a feeling, but it is instead a decision.
When a significant other messes up and straight up pisses you off, you don't feel "love" towards them, you feel anger, but decide to continue loving them. Love is a decision you make through all the good times and the bad times because imagining a life without a person, or in my case a dog, seems exceptionally worse than living it with them.There have been so many instances with Mailee where I did not feel love towards her, where she would ruin a project I had worked hard on or peed on expensive fabric, but I knew that at the end of the day, I would decide to love her because I am her entire life and she was mine. Even after her death, I choose to continue loving her each and everyday. With my new puppy, Zara, I tend to continue reminding myself that I love her because she tends to do stuff that frustrates me like peeing on my white socks, or pooping inside the house right after I took her out, or (my favorite) eating her own poop as if to get rid of the evidence that she pooped in the house.

This puppy is new to me. She's extremely different from Mailee and is probably the weirdest dog ever, but I "love" her. The regrets I had with Mailee, I plan to compensate with Zara. Every morning I wake her up with kisses and whisper in her floppy ears that I love her. Zara will never be able to replace the angel that grew up with me and was there with me through puberty, the boyfriends, the heartbreaks, and the many phases I underwent, but she will be part of a new chapter of my life where I have learned from my mistakes and am trying to right my wrongs. Our family pets are precious beings that are too pure for this earth, only aware of the world we allow them to see. We are their entire world, so let's make it amazing. 

"Pets are humanizing. They remind us we have an obligation and responsibility to preserve and nurture and care for all life."
James Cromwell
Sleeptight and kiss your pets goodnight
xoxo
Rae Mensinger + Zara Audrey Mensinger


Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Treat Yo'Self


"When you can, it's good to make healthy choices. But, I also believe in balance. It's not about being 100 percent this way or that way. It's about making healthy choices when you can."
 Miranda Kerr 

I decided on Monday to take a break from adventuring this week because not only has the weather come back to rain on my parade, but I've come down with a severe cold. I took this opportunity of sickness and gloomy weather to embrace the lazier side of my closet and comfort myself up while I was out and about.

In all honesty, I'm not the healthiest girl in the world--  I eat Wingstop maybe once every two weeks and go to Philz Coffee almost every other day. But as of lately, I have been struggling hard with my weight. My issue may not seem major to others (I have been told that I'm just complaining and this is not a real problem) but to me, it is a real struggle. No matter how much food I stuff into my face, I can not stop losing weight. At first, it was fine because I had just gotten out of a relationship and being in a relationship tends to make people gain a few excess pounds, but eventually, what I had lost had far exceeded my normal weight. Again, this may not seem like a problem to most, but when someone owns as many clothes as I do, losing weight and not being able to fit in all of my investments is beyond frustrating. My solution: eat all the junk food I could get my hands on. The result: I was still losing weight but had less energy and felt sluggish 24/7. A few weeks ago, I came to a realization: putting all my effort into one method of gaining weight will never work for me. Instead, I decided to follow the words of Miranda Kerr and "balance". I do try to eat healthy for the most part; I enjoy broccoli, cauliflower, and avocados and I plan on continuing to eat those, but when my cravings (like my time o' the month milkshake needs) hit, I shall allow myself to indulge.









In my opinion, it is 100% healthy to indulge every once in a while, to let yourself live a little and to perhaps drink that decadent milkshake, or buy that new shade of Urban Decay lipstick. My problem with my weight was that I was always doing an extreme, either eating really healthy or indulging far too much. What is really important when it comes to indulgence is the balance.Whenever I allow myself to indulge, I balance by restricting myself in one area or make myself work extra hard in another. A few examples:

  1.  I bought a pair of $80 shoes. For two weeks after that, I did not allow myself to tempt myself by banning window shopping and had a spending allowance of maximum $5 a day.
  2. I enjoy working out when I have the time. After I had My Milkshake the other day, I set up a schedule for the next two weeks consisting of scheduled squats (the first day was planned at 60 squats, and in two weeks, my last day will have about 160 squats).
Maybe you checks and balances will be far different than mine, and hopefully they are since my decisions seem to may not always be the healthiest, but a balanced indulgence system is something to consider.
Hopefully next week I will be back to exploring the world and will have better pictures to post!

Outfit Deets:

P.S. I 100% recommend trying My Milkshake in downtown San Jose at least once. Customized milkshake places are delicious and is an indulgence you will nor regret. 
Treat yo'self
-Raebae <3