The Blog of Jasmine Sadler

I had a great time at home (as always).  Nowadays, I spend most of the time with my boyfriend because it’s long distance and I don’t get to see him as often as I would like.  Friday, I met his neice and nephew and they were sooo cute and loads of fun.  They kept me laughing and I was the new bff by the time we left.  My mom got me into dolls and Barbies so when I asked about his neice’s dolls she showed me a couple of Barbies, but no life-like babydolls.  I didn’t really even like Barbie’s because they were all grown and iIcouldn’t do anything with them but change their clothes and maybe comb their hair with the littlest comb ever.  Anyway, I’ve decided to get her one because they’re great, and she’s 5, done and done!

Saturday, Corbin and I went to Cedar Point and had a really fun time.  He wanted me to get on rides that I would have just passsed up and I had him do the same.  The biggest surprise was the Maverick.   It’s the newest roller coaster, so I had to ride it just to say I did.  It didn’t look like anything impressive: not too fast, not too high, but the line was super long.  Corbin and I wondered if everybody else was thinking the same thing.  But oh no, we got on that ride and it was the BEST one that I’ve been on and I have ridden EVERY roller coaster in the park.  I think the fact that it wasn’t the best at one thing made it great at a lot of things.  Dragster, Millenium Force, Mantis, Raptor: ALL Tallest and Fastest Coasters of their time and class.  But (being an engineer) I know that certain rides can’t be long (in time) because they are so fast or they are so tall.  The Maverick was great in a lot of categories including length of ride, which is always worth the wait for me.  And it has a 95 degree first drop!!

In Detroit, there was a Techno Music Festival so the traffic was crazy.  We took a walk downtown and got rained on, but it was just great to be with him.  I came back to Indy and officially changed my license and plates over!  I guess I’m official now.  Which it seems like, right now, isn’t too bad of a change.

This post stems from one of my good friends ‘Champagne’ that is an avid follower of this blog.  It talks about girls who “don’t just look like a slightly better version of Precious” that “deal with repeated non-sense from men”.  It is usually due to not thinking they can do any better or they just aren’t sure of their full potential.

Champagne is a really beautiful girl that has admitted [but still doesn't quite believe] that she is worth the best and still doesn’t know “whats the best she can do” in terms of guys.  To me, the best is different for everyone.  My personal best is a guy that makes me happy, makes me laugh, supports me, and can tolerate my mood swings.  The things that are probably best for her seem to more deal with stability and dedication and really following through with what they say.  Guys dealing with her need to know that she has dealt too much with guys that don’t realize her value and often want to leave her on deck while there is another batter that may get a home run or strike out.  The home run will finish the game, which will be great for the guy.  On the other hand, the strike out may give her the chance to bat, or it may just end the inning and she’ll never get her chance.

Champagne is finally at the point where she knows that it’s not okay for a guy to just leave her hanging, but she’s still not sure on what type of guy to wait for or with which guy to continue dealing.  According to her, today is the day that she will no longer have Ugly Girl Problemsand finally start moving on when a guy presents BS.  Good luck Champange!  It is now written in my blog to mark this date, June 2, 2010.

As you know, I have a puppy Cooli O..  He’s 14 weeks old and just had his big boy “Dog Package” shots 2 days ago.  So now he is good for the next year.  Along with his shots, he got his first nail trim (praise) because those nails were sharp!  I was trying to wait until he had all of his shots before I just took him to the groomer where there are a bunch of nasties floating around.  He was really good the whole time we were in the store and he was WAAAY too friendly with EVERYONE, but I guess that’s a good and bad thing.

I got him at 9 weeks old from a breeder in Angola, IN about 2 hours north of Indy.  They were really nice and have been breeding for years and were really professional.  This little boy was really bad on the way back and just wanted to walk around the whole car and cry because he didn’t know where he was, or where he was going.  That was the Longest 2 hour ride until he fell asleep at my feet for about the last 45 minutes.

Day 1: I tried to make him sleep in his crate after reading multiple blogs and tips online, but he was not having it.  I ended up letting him sleep with me and he loved that, and would even put his little head on the pillow with me.

Day 2: We had to quit that and that was when i started to realize that he would cry/whine himself to sleep for about 20 minutes +/- 5.

Week 1: We just played a lot and I kept trying to clicker train him and just get him used to the place.  He peed everywhere!  There are set times that you should take them out to pee, but he took naps so frequently that it became inconvenient.  Luckily, he was already good on doing #2 in the grass and not in the house.

Week 2: Corbin came down and they hung out during the day with some training.  Corbin was not a fan of waking up in the middle of the night.  Well actually, he didn’t wake up at all until I started nudging him!  It was also his first bath and first trip to the doctor (6 lbs).  He tried jumping out of the tub a lot and looked so cute and skinny, lol.

Weekend 2: I went home and my parents met Cooli as a surprise.  My brother took care of him during the night and Early morning trips outside.  My parents ended up really liking him.

Week 3: He’s improving in the house-training and I stopped going home to check on him during lunch.  At first he would go on his pee-pads, but then would hold it until I got home.  He would also ‘sit’ on command and ‘stay’ at the door before I would let him back inside.

Week 4: He like to bite and gnaw at anything!  My shag rug is his favorite, but he loves hands and pants too.  I had to start popping him to let him know that I was in control.  He usually sleeps through the night.

Week 5: Second doctor’s visit (9 lbs) to get shots and nails groomed.  He hated the feeling of the PediPaws so they just clipped them.  I guess I don’t take him outside enough, but he doesn’t really bark to let me know he needs to go out.  We’ve had 2 poop accidents inside.  He also started humping my leg, ehh

I’m taking him back home on the road again and might send him to a daycare or boarding place.  My baby is really growing up!!

So, the concert last night was BOMB!  I was going with a little doubt because I was never an avid listener/cd-buyer for either one.  However, daddy did have the Urban Hang Suite and I used to jam out in middle school, lol.  Luckily, he did oodles of songs from that cd!  I was almost able to hang in there with my girl Ashley and she’s the BIGGEST Maxwell fan that I know (I’m talking 3 concerts in < 1 year).  Fyi, he looked amazing!  The day before was his birthday and he admitted that he was a little hungover, but it was GREAT!  I really like that it seemed like the concert was different every night depending on how he was feeling and he just directed the fabulous band to go wherever he went.

Jill Scott was also great and opened up for Maxwell.  I knew a lot more of her jams than I thought too!  However, I have been studying for like the past month on Pandora and with some songs that I’ve had.  Even if I didn’t know all the words, I really loved the band and the dancers that Jill had doing background silhouettes.

There was also a lot of people-watching afterwards, which is often the best part of the entire experience.  People were buying posters, t-shirts and getting their picture taken with the airbrushed version of Maxwell– “If you like how you look, get your picture TOOK”.

All in all, oodles of fun and I might have to catch the next go-round!

So, I know it’s been a while, but I’m back in action!!  (I’m surprised I still know my password, lol)

I really got the inspiration to come back by my coworker, Eric, wanting to learn more about me with his never-ending questions; and my line sister Monique.  Her blog is really good and since I don’t get to talk to her as often as I would like, I feel that I get a sneak peak into her life

Currently, I’m working in Indianapolis, IN with a military defense company being a Logistics Specialist.  It’s really cool to know that what I do helps others in the military and thus is helping our country.  We have the typical ‘cubefarm’ setting, but it leads to interesting convo, or some good drama-filled eavesdropping!!

I have a great boyfriend, Corbin.  He’s in graduate school back at home.  It’s been working pretty well with the relatively close distance.  He came down this past weekend and we did the Indy Canal Walk and the Indy 500 Bump Day.  Saturday was perfect weather for the canal walk with him and my 14 week old/3 month old puppy, Cooli O.  Sunday was a REALLY hot and humid 88 degrees.  We stayed for a while and would run in and out of our air-conditioned pavillion.

My family is really good back at home.  My brother is doing really great work as a photographer.  My parents are usually doing their retired thing of activities with AKA’s or the Mason’s.  I love going home to visit, but I’m glad I’m grown and out of the house doing things on my own.

 I’m going to the Maxwell/Jill Scott concert tonight, eek!  But I don’t really know either of them all that well, but I’m sure it’ll be a good time.  In another post, I’ll have to update on the past year and my natural hair!!

Cooli and I

I’m back in my dorm after a weekend vacation to the Philippines.  It was a pretty nice trip.  However, the weather kind of forced us to change our plans in the middle of the day.  The first day, we just walked the beach with water coming up to our knees so we could have all day Saturday to lay in the sunshine and play in the water.  However, right as we lather on the sunscreen and open our door, it’s pouring rain.  So, we went to eat while we waited for it to stop.  Then, we realized that we didn’t want to waste a whole day waiting.  We end up taking a boat tour with this guy, Joe, that we had met the day before.

He was really cool and took us around the island of Boracay to a nice snorkeling spot.  I actually got in the water and it was so beautiful to see all of the fish down there.  And luckily (or not) Joe brought some bread out there with us.  We broke the bread up and hundreds of fish came up to us.  There was a point when he threw a whole piece of bread in there for me to break up, but before I could get it, all the fish were already on it.  So I tried to pick it up, and it felt like they were trying to eat my hand off!!  but I still have it, don’t worry.

Later that night, we ran into some American guys that we me at the airport on the way.  They requested that we have a ‘San Miguel’ beer (brewed in the Philippines) with them.  One of them is married to a lady from here and I guess they had another girl tagging along for his brother.  Unfortunately, we saw a lot of couples like that.  As we were eating at the delicious buffet, we saw what looked like a lady with a European man and her 16ish year old daughter for his brother.  It was really disgusting for me to see that.  I felt like I wanted to rescue her and just have her come hang out with us.

After we took the rocky ferry back from the island and an airplane to the mainland, we explored the city of Manila.  We spent a lot of time just observing the culture and the remainder of the time at a historical museum.  Right before our flight, we took these little jeep-buggys to the Mall of Asia, which was really huge.  It had an ice skating rink that snowed every 15 minutes or so.

It was a really nice trip and I’m glad that I went.  It was great to see a white sand beach, but I probably wouldn’t go back again.  There is still so much to see in the world and honestly I wasn’t too impressed.  However, if you are ever on this side of the world, it is definitely something to check out.

I just started class last week and I have an American professor who is hear for a year to teach the B-school kids something on ethics.  I can tell he wants to teach like profs at home, but he has even admitted to me that he can’t.  1. he can’t bring up a topic and have everyone divide into groups and 2. he won’t ask the class questions.  Maybe it’s a cultural difference, but a lot of the local kids just feel this urge to talk in class.  Usually it isn’t a low murmur either, it’s really disruptive.  So now I usually choose to sit in the front so I can hear amongst the talking.  However, it has been admitted to him by a student (through email) that when he stops talking, the class stops talking and that no one likes to stand out.  For that reason, when he asks questions, he’ll stop in the middle of them and be like “well you all won’t answer anyway” or we can’t break up into little subgroups because they won’t discuss at all.

Most sources said it wouldn’t be too difficult to find people that spoke English in Hong Kong, but oh it’s a struggle.  I feel kind of like I discriminate when I need directions and I’m trying to find someone on the street that speaks English.  We usually resort to the youngish 20-30 year olds that look like they are in hip and educated.  It usually proves to work, but sometimes we still get rejected.  Not really sure if: 1. they don’t know the location we’re talking about, 2. really don’t speak English, or 3. just really don’t want to help us.

I just thought this was funny

There is such an emphasis on exercise and being fit.  Even during our orientation, there was an entire segment on how to work out and where and all the extra details.  Along with that, the food never really fills me up!, which is quite irritating.  On a positive note, I have found a great deal of places that serve ‘American cuisine’ usually meaning delicious cheeseburgers, french fries, pizza, lasagna, omelettes and deli sandwiches.

Eating Spaghetti with Chopsticks

For some reason, the horse racetracks are such a big deal.  I think it’s because gambling in any other form is illegal in HK so everybody goes to the races to give away their money.  Don’t get me wrong, it was a lot of fun, but not nearly as big of a deal as all the locals make it.  They have newspapers printed with stats and probability and it seemed like everyone studied that backwards and forwards.

At the track

Go 8!!

It’s not too bad though.  Nothing that I can’t deal with for the next couple of months.

So I know I should have written this one long ago.  I’ve been in Hong Kong for 2 whole weeks now and have barely talked to anyone from home let alone give an update.  I think my main rationale is because I’ve been surprisingly keeping up with my journal entries.  I think these have been the most eventful consecutive two weeks that I have experienced.  I didn’t really believe the director of the program when she said that I would have a roller coaster of emotions.  I started off in Arizona with the boyfriend where I was really enjoying, my time, the weather and his company.  My last two days there, we went snowboarding with some members of his family.  I get home at like 2am Monday morning knowing that I have to unpack, repack, get my hair done, handle school and financial business and visit a lot of people before my flight leaves early Wednesday morning.  I get through all that, then I am here.

The 16 hour flight wasn’t as long as it seemed, but it was definitely long, especially when I had a window seat and I kept wanting to get up to stretch my legs, but out of courtesy waited until the old couple next to me got up to go to the restroom or wherever.  The food wasn’t too bad: chicken teriyaki in noodles, ramen noodles, and some lasagna.  I wrote most of my family and friends an email in the airport and finished setting up Skype so I could call them.

I’m going to do a quick run-through of some main highlights then maybe do a blog later that will go back in detail.  I’ve been on two tours of some cool places in the city where I met a lot of other exchange students.  I’ve gone to see “The Big Buddha” which was really cool because we had to take cable cars to get there over mountains and water.  Inside there was a museum on Buddha and some other cultural things.  I also went to Ocean Park, which is like their version of Sea World with big roller coasters and panda bears, but no Shamu.  There have been many different temples, churches and monasteries to visit especially during New Years.  That was also great because we got to see some of the traditions as well as the big parade and fireworks.  We’ve also done a lot of shopping and a lot of partying.  Surprisingly the clubs play some really great American music like Chris Brown, Neyo, Beyonce, Rihanna, etc.  I just got back from Macau last night.  We had to take a ferry to get there and they have a strip like Vegas.  There, we went to the Ventian Casino where we also saw a Cirque de Soleil show ‘Zaia’.

Everybody seems pretty cool, but for most it seems like they want to meet and please as many people as they can so it seems like they are just easy-going and will go along with the crowd even if they don’t want to.  I think I’ve pretty much found my crew that I will hang out with for most of my time here.  I have definitely been concentrating more on my studies than I thought I would, but it keeps my mind off other things and missing people too much.  We are supposed to be going to the Philippines this weekend!!  I will try to do more of a weekly update; until next time.

So yes, I’ve made the decision and I’m sticking to it.  I’m letting this perm grow out and I’m just going to have natural, non-chemicalized hair.  I made the decision a couple of months ago, but I had to plan it out first.  I needed to have some kind of long-term hairstyle for China.  I decided on a sew-in for the first two months, and then braids for the last two months.  Since I knew I was coming to Arizona before I went to China, I couldn’t come busted.  So I got my final touch-up before graduation on December 11th.  Enough to look fly for graduation and festivities and still look good for Arizona.  The timing would work out so right before I leave would be around the time to get another touch up.  Thus, the sew-in would have enough new growth for the braids to braid and the sew onto.  (Hopefully, my bro bro can follow all of these terms since I have explained them in great detail)

I am really excited about going natural because hopefully my hair will finally make it longer than just my shoulders.  I have never known its full natural growth potential because I have been getting relaxers since 6th grade, omg!  So, I’ll see how it goes, wish me luck.

ps. Still trying to decide if I will post pictures of the transition.

Sorry if that was a little confusing to read, but that’s how I feel when I’m trying to keep up with these different time zones.  Okay, so exchange rates and currency isn’t so bad cuz it’s all multiples.  But, it will still be a little tricky when I get to Hong Kong because I’ll have to try to do conversions on the spot to see if I’m getting my money’s worth (good thing I’m an algebraic beast!).  But then still, I’ll have to try to haggle down the price so I’ll end up ahead and getting things cheaper than my money’s worth.

I digress.  You know how they say engineers and multiply, divide, take integrals all that stuff, but can’t add and subtract?  That is so true!!  (The following is for all my nerds)  You know when you take an integral and there are limits on the integral so you have to add that extra “+C” business.  Yucky.  That always messed me up because that’s where the adding comes in.  Okay I still digressed…

[Real quick on that note: Why do people say I digress?  That's not grammatically correct.  It's I digressed.  and who really cares anyway.  If you are going to get back to the point, do it instead of telling me that you are going to do it.  I feel similarly about the "Outline" slide in a presentation.  But I guess it makes one believe that the real meaning should be that 'I'm going to get back to the subject' instead of the actual meaning that 'I have gone off subject'.  Unless you are digressing from your digression...wayyy to deep, just now]

Anyway, but the time zone thing.  I still don’t understand it.  This WikiAnswers was the dumbest explanation I’ve heard.  And I thought you weren’t supposed to answer a question with a question.  Here’s another explanation that talks about it in terms of sun and whatnot.  I get that.  But when I have an appointment in China for 5pm on the 16th, why must I look online to convert that to an American Time Zone?  I didn’t know if China is really ahead or behind us.  So would that mean whatever time am on the same day, or the day before, or the day after?  NO CLUE!  Why can’t everyone just use the same time (all standardize with whatever the time the sun is at its highest over Greenwich and this crazy ‘International Date Line’.  And then everyone will be fine.  It will be okay if it is dark at 3pm.  Because everyone will still be on the right time.  In Michigan just say come in to work at 6pm because no one will really know the difference since it will be light outside.

They talk about it will be easier to keep track of time if you travel between time zones…HOW?  It makes a lot more sense to me to say leave Michigan at 5pm and get to California at 9pm that to leave at 5pm and get there at 6pm.  I’m just saying.