For the past three years (i.e. ever since I started working here), I've come to think of August as a slow month. After all, we hardly have any events this month, and I think of it as the time to recover from the crazy FHM party in July and the time to build up for the hell month that is September.
But this year, there are so many things to be excited about this August!
First, I finished reading Something Blue by Emily Giffin. A lot of time has passed since I read Something Borrowed, but I remember being incredibly annoyed with Darcy, the self-centered "beauty is everything" PR maven who is now the protagonist of this sequel. At the start of the novel, she was still as annoying as I remembered, but I decided to give her a chance to redeem herself.
What's amazing about this book is Darcy's transformation is very subtle yet real, and you find yourself having a change of heart about her as well. Emily Giffin is brilliant, and I ended up thoroughly enjoying Something Blue. Now I want to read the first book again just so that I can form my opinion on which one I like better!
Second, I'm very excited because I'll be going to Bangkok with a very good friend of mine! I first visited Bangkok with my family in 2001, but I hardly remember anything about that visit. I've always maintained that it's very different to travel with your family because you end up just going wherever you're told. So this Bangkok trip with my friend will be like seeing Bangkok for the very first time.
It's been so much fun planning our itinerary and researching on all the sights we want to see in Bangkok. While we briefly considered taking a two-hour trip out of Bangkok going to Pattaya, we instead decided to take the one-hour trip to Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand (in photo). The Ayutthaya Historical Park is now just a bunch of ruins, but history buffs that we are, we're excited about biking around the area for the greater part of our day. Of course, we're also excited about shopping in Bangkok, but more than that, we're looking forward to the Temple Tour, going to the night markets, trying the restos that friends and colleagues have recommended, and even hitting the library! Yes, because we love books so much, we can't resist a side trip to the Neilson Hays Library for the sake of checking it out and relaxing in the library's cafe. We'll be gone for four days, and it's gonna be so much fun! I can feel it!
Third, because I'll be gone for four days, my parents decided that it's the best time to have my room renovated. My room has stayed the same since we first moved to our house in 1997-- the only thing that changed was adding a custom-made seater and desk set when I was in college, but my wallpapers still reflected the choices of a fourteen year old. I've always looked wistfully at the "grown-up rooms" featured in Real Living, and daydreamed about renovating my own room, but never really thought that it would happen.
But now that it's finally happening, my mom and I spent Sunday measuring my room and drawing the new storage spaces. I downloaded a program that generates color combinations for websites, but of course I'm using it to come up with the best color combination for my room. Everything has been finalized (yes, even my choice of color) and I hope that I'll be around when they paint my room so that I can see if it's exactly what I had in mind.
Once they finish everything in my room, I'm excited to look for some new furnishing. My one insistence was there be space for a nice, comfy armchair where I can do all my reading (because I'm finally heeding the warning that reading in bed is bad for your eyesight), so we worked around that. I want to have a nice floor lamp by the chair so that I have ample lighting for my reading, and I want to have a new wall clock. I'm also considering selecting some of my best photographs and either coming up with a collage or having them printed so I can frame them individually in small frames. It's so much fun to plan a room makeover, and I'm so excited to have a room that finally reflects that a 26-year-old woman lives in it.
Last, even if we don't celebrate anniversaries, August was a significant month three years ago, when my love finally worked up the nerve to tell me how he felt about me. Fast forward to the present, and we're still silly as if we'd just gotten together yesterday. For the first time, I have faith that we truly will make it all the way, and we'll continue growing together in love. ♥ ♥ ♥
August 09 is one for the books, and I love it! ♥ ♥ ♥
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