White Reflections

Yes, 7.25. Remember that number.

For the first time this break, I slept soundly. I also had a stream of dreams that I can’t actually recall (okay, so maybe soundly is the wrong word to describe how well I slept). I definitely remember that some of them were pretty close to nightmares, but others were decent. Unfortunately, we made plans to go to Palm Springs today, so my dad woke me up promptly at 7:30. I am now so used to waking up at 11/12PM that dorm life seems to have been a thing of the past.

And here I must digress to to say exactly how useful I think this iPod Touch is. In spite of the fact that I can’t connect wirelessly at most public locations, having something to listen to (especially when that something is Super Junior, TVXQ, SG Wannabe, Takki & Tsubasa, etc.) on long road trips really does keep me sane. And the battery life is remarkable. 

So, I fed the GPS a wrong address and we wasted probably slightly under an hour driving around on desert surface streets. LOL, and by the time we got to Lake Cahuilla, it was already 11. >_>; I guess I really should make use of those (Dexter’s Laboratory?) episodes and their lessons on fishing. You have to make it in the wee hours of the morning, no? Nevertheless, everyone around us managed to catch something. I failed miserably and managed to catch my pants. Ahahaha. Long story short, I learned how to cast… Manmade lake + RVs = Free WiFi. 

McDonalds for lunch. 

Then we drove a ways back to this random botanical garden (Moorten?) in the middle of Palm Springs (privately owned; 3,000 cacti). Some of the cacti reminded me of snakes, mold, and other random and freaky things. ._. And my brother decided to be his typical, so he bought a bunch of cacti ($21 worth), despite protesting our trip/stay to/at the garden. 

Then… well… I had basically waited the whole day to go outlet shopping. It was ridiculously crowded. We were relatively lucky with parking, but… in terms of shopping… well… I bought one pair of Addidas shoes and another to replace the sandal I used for the school shower. It was buy one, get one 50% off. You see, my current shoes have holes in them. -_- There was only one expensive pair I liked, and no one else in my family wanted anything, so… the 50% off came from the $12 sandal versus the $40 tennis shoe. Fail. And what’s worse? The Addidas store was in the outlet adjacent to the one I originally wanted to go to.

Rule of thumb: Don’t go shopping with men. -_- Especially little boys. Even though we saw Lancome, Movado, and other $_$ name brands, the only store we went inside was the Coach store. I don’t know why I want a Coach bag… I used to think buying name brand products is a waste of money. I still do, but for some reason, I really really really want one. o_o Plus, my current Nine West bag that I got from a friend is already really dirty/old-looking. Well, the Coach store was packed. It was violent in there. D: Right after we went inside, the employees started blocking off the entrance, and by the time we left (without a new bag), there was actually a line of people waiting to enter the store. The deals were really great. The line to get to the cash register reminded me of pre 2008 first-day-of-con AX lines. It was that bad. So terribly suffocating. People were grabbing I don’t know 5, 6, 7 wallets… some person bought 2 gigantic bags full of purses (probably to resell). I know outlet usually means old styles. I liked last year’s styles more, but… there wasn’t that much left… (in terms of styles that I liked) It was nearly 5 by the time we got there… T____T Noooo! Dream of getting a Coach purse dashed! Everything was heavily discounted. There was a cute purse that I saw for $70. I liked the pattern on it (reminiscent of last year’s pattern), but it was a tiny bit too small for my needs (lol, what needs, right?). I remember seeing a similar purse at the Galleria for $200+. D:

I came out of the outlet quite disappointed…

But! The rest of the day made up for it. 

One day, I’ll learn how to properly play Poker, and I’ll go back to Morongo with a bunch of friends… until then, I’m satisfied with my first-ever $7.25 in winnings. Yes, I gambled. Yes, 25 and 5 cent slot machines = weak. Yes, my mom lost $10 to $1 slots so I still operated with a loss… But wow! You really feel a rush of spirit? when you see those numbers going up. I was lucky because the machines I was on malfunctioned, so the guy that came and fixed it pressed the button a few times, practically tripling how much money I had. (I started with $5…) I think the machines still pwned me though. I was confused and didn’t know what I was doing half of the time… pulling the lever whenever… not knowing how to increase/decrease my bets, etc… >.< My dad had to help… lol… Sadly, my brother was watching, even though he was underage… so while he was greatly amused, he became very… um… upset/distraught when the security guy told him he couldn’t stay there (shooed him off sort of), so I lost my last dollar and left. I came out smelling like cigarette smoke, and that stench didn’t go away for the entire duration of the car ride home. (oh, and we overheard some guy saying he won $2,000 out of his initial $10,000… ouch. 

My dad bumped into his coworker, and my brother saw his junior high friend. It really is a small world, huh? Lol, when my dad told his coworker that he brought me here to gamble… she jokingly said he was being a bad influence. 

I regret not keeping some 25 cent ticket as a memento. >.<

Then I had dinner at my favorite Japanese restaurant. Keith made my uncle tuna steak, even though it wasn’t on the menu. Wow! It was SO delicious! I love the people at the restaurant. It feels like they treat us like family, giving us fruits and ice cream and extra soup and sashimi tasters… They’re great! 

Definitely one of my more productive days. 

It’s a small world.