I Need To Stop Buying More Clothes

My Fashion Wish List: Multi-Color Floral Embroidered Tunic $39.99 + Cutout Flower Bohemian Earrings $7.99

My closet is literally overflowing. Decluttering my closet is one of my resolutions for 2017.  But it's not an easy resolution to keep because  I find it very difficult to part with my clothes, particularly when they are almost like new. I had spent way too much money on clothes and accessories shopping until the absolute end of 2016. This bad habit of mine had not only hurt my savings, it had been creating unnecessary stress on both my living quality and financial situation.  Looking at my overflowing closet, I recognize that I need to stop buying more clothes, if I can't bear to give away some clothes to make room.

I've been on my no-clothes-shopping track and I haven't made my first purchase yet for 2017.  I pray that I can stay strong for the rest of 2017.  To help refrain myself from clicking the "buy" button while surfing the internet, I decide to register the fashion items that I have an urge to buy on my wish list here.  The process of posting the items that tempt me so much takes away my time and focus, and therefore distracts me from clicking on the "buy" button.  Meanwhile, I love that I have my beloved clothes hanging in just right here, ready for me to buy with a click on each item in the photo; if I decide I can't really live without them after reading this post over and over again for the next week.....

Making this post was initially a challenge to me because I was no graphic designer and I was never trained to do graphic or web design.  I had to learn as I went.  I'm pleased that I can now play fashion editor with my new web skill....So am I now one step closer to quitting my nerdy day job in corporate finance?

Appreciate The Beauty Of Nature

I'm not a gardener, I had never done any gardening, unless you consider my 3rd grade science project on sprouting green beans as gardening. Born and raised in the expansive forest of skyscrapers, I never paid attention to any plants.  I just never cared.  My dad had some ugly flowerless plants and bonsai trees in our tiny balcony that he cared for every morning before he left for work.  But my siblings and I never took one glance at my father's solitary hobby. Our flat also had the annual Chinese New Year plants that came and went with the holidays.  My mom just tossed the plants into trash after they wilted and died in the total absence of care or watering. I still remember those pots of wilted yellow Chrysanthemums that my mom trashed every year.  I was never impressed by them when they were alive in our tiny living room.  I don't know why I had no appreciation for them back then.  Now that I no longer live with my parents, I suddenly felt a sense of nostalgia when I spotted the Chrysanthemums last week at a home improvement and supplies store.  Their beauty just struck me at that particular moment and I couldn't resist bringing a 6-inch pot home.  I don't even have the space to put flowers, so I just put the pot on a chair on top of my books.  The Chrysanthemums in the above photo is the first pot of Chrysanthemums I bought on my own.  I had never seen this variety before and I am totally mesmerized by their glorious flowers in bi-colors.  I can stare at them and feel really relaxed and pleased with my discovery.  It cost me $9.79 (including sales tax) , which is 4 times my spending on plants in 2016, and it's not even the end of February.  But this lovely plant is worth my every penny because I really enjoy staring at them when I feel stressed or when I start to lean towards negative thinking.

Reminder to myself: Learn more about the care for Chrysanthemums when feeling down or anxious, because it's better to direct energy and time on things that can give me joy and satisfaction.

Playing With Garden Design

I was just going through a lot of the junks that cluttered my home, and I found a box of software that I bought back in 2008.  I never opened it because I just didn't have time.  I was going to just throw it away because who needs a piece of out-dated software?  But before I threw it out, I installed it on my computer and surprisingly it worked with Windows 10...

I used it to render my rental apartment's tiny patio after going out to take measurement of it.  I suddenly had this idea to offer my landlord an improvement of his horribly empty patio with some plants,  in exchange for rent reduction.  I'm not sure if he is going to play along  just by looking at the above picture.. But I'm going to plant 4 Mexican Sunflowers and 5 African Marigolds.... May be when he sees the real thing, he will agree to reward my effort to beautify his patio... If not, I will add gardening on my resume.  Either way, the flowers will make me really happy.

Reminder to myself: Feeling bored and unhappy? Plant some flowers.

New To-Do List For Chinese New Year

Necessity is the mother of invention.  As the most dedicated reader of this blog, I always come back to look up the little things in my life that make me happy in moments or days past.  Lately, I've been finding the static nature of this blog to be quite boring.  I've been thinking how much nicer it will be for me to come here to find a carousel of things that made me happy before, so I can just click on whatever that catches my eyes at the instance.  To prevent myself from forgetting this blog feature that I want, I therefore put it down on my new to-do list so I can eventually make it happen, when I can find the spare time after my job to learn how to do it.

But if any of you know how I can add carousel to my blog, please contact me, and give me a quote. I'm willing to pay for your help, unless you are kind enough to do it for free, which I will of course appreciate very much.

Reminder to myself:  Problems are good things, because they often lead to better ways of doing things.  So don't dodge it or dread about it, embrace it and take action!

Happy Chinese New Year!!

I find it interesting how the west (like America) labels this Chinese Year as the Year of The Rooster, when the Chinese character itself (雞) doesn't specify whether the bird is a male or female.  In Chinese, rooster is 公雞, hen is 母雞, but the character 雞 is a class that includes all roosters and hens. Somehow I feel the Chinese language itself is less sexist, and therefore less divisive than English... 

Anyway, I wish everybody lots of luck, health, fortune, and love in this year, just like the song says.  The song really sings it all. Today is another chance for me to start anew, another reason to celebrate and share joy and love. Happy Chinese New Year! Enjoy the song. 

So I Don't Have A Cracked Tooth After All

I was told during my consultation with an endondontist that the digital x-ray showed some inflammation at the root of my achy molar.  He recommended an immediate retreatment of my previous root canal at the same tooth. So I need another root canal just like I previously thought I would need.  I hope this end result is not manifested by my constant worry and thinking of another root canal.  I read a book called "The Secret" years ago.  I still haven't finished though because after reading a quarter of the book, I felt the ideas too far-fetched. But I read enough to remember that one of the theories the book stresses is that bad things happen to us because we are thinking of them and the universe operates like a shopping catalog from which we shop.  If a root canal is what I am thinking of, then it's what I will be ordering from the universe and it's what will be delivered to me, based on the universe's law of attraction.

So from now on, I better start only thinking of receiving $100 billions, so the universe will deliver the money to me instead of a root canal.  The good news of my upcoming plight of a root-canal treatment is, the tooth structure of my existing crowned molar looks great under the x-ray and there is no crack. As of now, I'm not going to lose the tooth like I had been worrying previously.  Yes, I was over worrying.

I'm Glad That I Found A Video That Explains Why My Tooth Aches While Chewing

For three days, I've been experiencing pain on my left back molar. I'm surprised because this particular molar had a root canal procedure that took out the nerve several years ago and the tooth is not supposed to be feeling anything now.  My first root canal experience was decent even though I remember the procedure took quite a while. It cost me over US$2,000 because my general dentist back then referred me to his endodontist who wasn't contracted with my dental insurance.  I had changed dentist of course even though the root canal was not as scary as I initially thought.  I was holding a grudge on my dentist back then for causing me to pay more for a procedure when it would have cost me much less if only I had done it with my dental insurance's in-network endodontist.  It took me several more sales oriented dentists before I found my current one who doesn't hard sell procedures or products, who isn't pushy in referring me to specialists, and who always explains to me and gives me the available options to let me choose.  This shows that a negative experience with dentists may very well be what I needed to find a better one, more or less like my situation with boyfriends and jobs.....

For years, I thought that my first and previous root canal was my biggest dental treatment in my life and I wouldn't need another root canal anymore.  Now that this video makes me suspect that I may have a cracked tooth and I may need a rework of my tooth, or a possible extraction if the tooth is too cracked to be saved, I'm feeling all anxious again. Feeling anxious and scared certainly isn't going to help me enjoy my meals more, but I can't help it.  It's easy to want to think positively, but controlling the fear of the unknown is a different matter.  I guess the bright side is, at least I know what is possibly causing my tooth to ache when I chew.  

To help calm my nerve down now, may be I should just remember how I was so nervous and losing sleep days before my previous root canal appointment just to find out that all that worry was pure over reaction.