Presenting the Presentation of Presents

My last post was about ten days ago, so this is the longest I've gone without posting for a while now, but not without good cause. High school started again, and even though I don't go to Leland anymore, it still means more work, preparing both the middle school program and helping out with high school things. I also have so many things to do to prepare for college, getting ready to leave and whatnot, so I've been dead tired running around the last few days. Again, I've fallen into a cycle of sleeping late and taking naps frequently, which I hope to fix before going to college. However, one good thing has come out of all the college hassle – back to school shopping.

I. Love. Shopping. And back to school shopping is my favorite kind of shopping. My bank account does not love shopping, but since I just received my first paycheck, I figured I could afford to splurge a little. I didn't earn as much as I thought I had (because taxes) so to save money, it was off to the discount stores. However, in doing so, I have found my new favorite store – HomeGoods (connected to the TJ Maxx in the Almaden Plaza). I also went to Ross and Target, so a haul on those will be posted soon.

This is the start of the last week of summer for me (I move in on Saturday) so I wanted to do something special. The plan was to make pancakes, dress up nice, wrap presents, and write a few blog posts. It worked out for the most part, but my morning started off with a horrible stomachache as I got up and headed to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I don't know if it was something I ate or just cramps, but pretty soon I couldn't see or hear clearly because of the pain. My sight was staticky, like the old-timey black and white tv error screens, and all I could hear was white noise. I managed to stumble back into my room, and I think I either almost lost consciousness or did lose consciousness. My skin felt tingly and hot, so all I could do was manage to slide onto the coldish floor and lie there for a while. It felt like I didn't have enough blood in my body to circulate everywhere at once (I do have very low blood pressure), so I elevated my legs on a piece of nearby furniture, which helped a little. After that I think I fell asleep, and then I was perfectly fine again, if quite a bit shaken. It was the scariest thing I've handled by myself, I don't know what it was, and I really hope it doesn't happen again.

Despite that anomaly, I decided to proceed as planned. First up was pancakes. They're the one food that I can make perfectly, and this time was no different. I'm actually quite proud to say that I no longer need to precisely measure out the mix and the water to get a satisfactory consistency; I just eyeball it. And I don't burn them anymore! Since I was out of whipped cream and maple syrup, vanilla bean ice cream and honey made suitable replacements. I'm pleased to say that it tasted as good as it looks!

After going through what clothes I have left over to figure out which ones need to be washed before college and which ones were still wearable (everything was a mess on my bed because I'd packed up my hamper already), I moved on to the third thing: wrapping presents. A friend's birthday was last Friday, and I bought a fancy notebook that I thought another friend would really like. I didn't have wrapping paper so I improvised with tissue paper and I think it turned out pretty well. The box is actually just a plain shoebox. I don't know if you can tell, but I used whiteout to cover the brand of the shoe on the lid, and wrapped the bottom of it with tissue paper. White tissue paper on the inside also covers up the cardboard. I love wrapping up presents nicely because I feel like it shows the effort that went into the present more than the present itself. Plus, they look cute af.