Tragus Piercing Experience

So I've wanted my tragus done since before I got my cartilage piercing but my mom would never let me get it because she thought it was "gross." A little while ago I asked her if I could finally get it because I had the money to pay for it on my own and she said "Just wait until you're 18, then you can do whatever you want." So I waited a little bit longer until one of my friends from school texted me one night and was asking me all these questions about my cartilage piercing. Just giving her advice made me want my tragus even more. So I asked my mom that night AGAIN if I could get it pierced and she said "We'll talk about it." Without even talking about it, we went to the mall the next day and I talked her into letting me get it done. I wasn't nervous until I stepped into BJP at the South Hill Mall and then I felt sick to my stomach. I have always heard that the tragus is the most painful to get pierced but I was only comparing the pain to my cartilage which didn't hurt much for me at all. Long story short, the tragus piercing was definitely my most painful. I've had three lobe piercings in each ear, a cartilage in my right ear, and my lip and the tragus hurt the worst. A lot of people say they can hear a "pop" when the needle goes through but I wasn't really concentrating on listening to the pop, I just wanted to make it out of there consciously. The initial poke hurt badly enough, but the transfer of the jewelry hurt even more. My mom was watching and said there was a lot of blood, which tends to happen with facial/ear piercings but I didn't feel it dripping or anything, which helped ease my mind a lot. The piercing is still sore; I can't sleep on it, put headphones in, or even put the phone up to my ear without irritating it a little bit. I've been cleaning it religiously with salt water spray because I'm even more so afraid of infection since experiencing it with my lip piercing. I'm really happy with my tragus piercing and even though it hurt a lot, I'm really glad I finally did it.

Comparisons

Lately I've not only been comparing myself to people based on their appearance, but also the thing they're good at. One of my biggest passions is photography and I hope to make a career out of it in the future but recently I've just felt as though my pictures aren't as good as other peoples'. I know there will always be a better photographer than me, but these are people I know from school that also enjoy photography and just do better than me in general. Maybe it's just me because I am the biggest critic of my work, but I feel like I could improve so much and I have to if I want to be successful. I have few pictures that I'm extremely proud of and the others are just mediocre. I'm hoping that once I upgrade to the 60D it will improve the quality of my photos, but I'd really love to take classes to help me. In the mean time, I'm trying to come up with fun ideas for a photography project because I'm sick of just photographing the same cliche things that everyone already expects. I'm occasionally updating my Elizabeth Nyberg Photography page on Facebook and now that the weather is getting nicer, I hope to be updating it a lot more frequently.

Long Hair Don't Care

I GOT EXTENSIONS!!! I've wanted long hair for such a long time, but every time I grow my hair out it stops at a certain point and never grows any longer. I researched hair extensions for a good month recently and went back and forth between online companies SO MANY TIMES. YouTube is such a great place to get reviews on products you're unsure of buying because it isn't just a blog post with words that you're supposed to trust, it's a video showing you exactly what you're getting. The first company I found was called HeadKandy. After many hours of researching, I found a lot of bad reviews and a lot of good reviews, but the price was kind of steep for me. HeadKandy was on the top of my list for a while until I found another company called Foxy Locks. Foxy Locks had pretty good reviews and the price was significantly less than HeadKandy but they only had one length to choose from. Earlier in my research I found a website that I never heard of from YouTube but the extensions they were selling were the same price as Foxy Locks and came in a variety of colors and lengths. The website was called Pro Extensions but I didn't do too much research on them until I stumbled across a YouTube review on them while researching the other companies. I decided to look up more YouTube videos and all the reviews I saw were positive. For the price and length choice, I was pretty sold on Pro Extensions. I chose the 20" off black 100% Remy human hair from Pro Extensions and I'm really happy with them. One concern I had from watching a bunch of YouTube videos on them was that they weren't going to be much longer than my real hair, but once I got them they were actually longer than I expected. In the picture above, I have them curled so that takes off about three inches and I feel like they look more natural that way. I'm also thinking about dip dying them turquoise for summer, but I don't want to ruin them. In short, I love these hair extensions!!

Photography Challenge Day Three: Clouds

DISCLAIMER: THIS IS NOT MY PHOTO. I'm just putting this here since I haven't gotten the chance to take my own picture of "clouds" and I really want to move on with the photography challenge.

Venting.

I know I talk about my weight/body image on this blog a lot. I created this blog solely to post my photos and blog about events in my life but I've found that this is the only place I feel safe enough to vent about personal things like my body image. I've been anticipating prom night for months now and the day finally came yesterday. I made the mistake of waiting until Friday night to try on my dress and was extremely disappointed when I found that it didn't zip comfortably. I was in love with the dress and how I pictured myself when wearing it but those dreams quickly disappeared when I was really uncomfortable just in my house. I felt like I was bulging out of my dress in all the wrong places and when I looked at the pictures my mom posted on Facebook I felt even more uncomfortable. Once we got to prom and people were complimenting me, I felt a little better about myself. Even then I couldn't' help but to compare myself to all the perfect skinny girls around me. I realized that unlike many other girls, I don't dress to impress guys. I dress to look as good as other girls, but I know I'm not capable of ever looking like them. I always set goals like "I'm going to cut out fast food and start exercising every day of the week" but I can never follow through. Being overweight is like a disease; a disease that's holding me back from experiencing the life I really want. I never want to get dressed up because I know that my fat is going to be hanging out of my dress, and that's kept me from going to any high school dances - except prom. I enjoy dancing, even though I'm not particularly good at it, but I'm even more afraid because I look stupid AND fat on the dance floor. The thing that I'm most frustrated with is that nobody understands what it's like. Unless you've been over 100 pounds overweight, you have no idea how I feel or what I have to deal with. Everyone always says "If you're unhappy, change" but it's not as easy as just changing your physical appearance. Unless you work at your mental emotions as well as your body, you're still going to have that disease in your mind. Right now I feel like I'm stuck. I'm stuck in a body that I don't want to be in. I don't want to keep feeling uncomfortable in anything without sleeves or pants that don't cover my thighs. I don't know how to get out of this body.

Spring Break 2012

In my 13 years of school, I've never looked forward to a spring break more than this year. When I started high school, I knew I'd be taking a trip to Disneyland with the band and ever since then I looked forward to my senior year just for this trip. I came prepared with my camera but realized that I only took a total of two pictures the whole time I was in California. I'm pretty disappointed to say the least. I guess I'll just describe the trip in as much detail as possible.

I woke up at 3:30 (yes, in the morning) on Saturday and got ready to leave by 5:00. My mom and I picked up Isaac from his house and we went to the school where we got on the buses and were on our way to the airport. For as early as it was, I was wide awake and ready to get to California. Our flight was the first one at 8:30 AM so we got through security quickly and got to ride the train to our gate where we sat for about 15 minutes before boarding. The time on the other side of the plane ride was not as easy. We sat in the Orange County Airport for five hours before the other flight arrived and when the buses got to the airport to bring us to our hotel, there were only two of them. The third one went to LAX which happens to be hours away, so a smaller group of students (including me) had to stay back for an extra hour waiting for one of the buses to come back. We got to the hotel where Isaac was standing outside waiting for me but I still had to change my clothes so I went as fast as I could without looking at the weather and got dressed in shorts. Later that night, I got caught in the rain. Saturday evening was the worst of all the days. I was cold, tired, and sick from the plane ride and I really just didn't want to do anything. Isaac and I rode a few rides, Space Mountain was one of them, and then ended up back at the hotel by 9 PM. We felt really lame for coming back so early, but two of my roomies came back 30 minutes after me so I felt a little better.

We didn't get to sleep in very late on Sunday morning either, so I was up by 6 AM and we left our hotel by 7:15 because we had to be in line at Disneyland by 7:45 for our performance. We performed at the Gardens Plaza Stage at 9:25 AM. I didn't think it was going to be that cool, but I was amazed at the amount of people that showed up to watch us play. We played a Disney medley in the middle of Disneyland and it was truly magical. I loved every second of it. After our performance, we had a couple hours of free time in the park. The weather was getting warmer so I wasn't too excited to march in the parade later that day. In full uniform, we marched down Main Street of Disneyland and even though my feet were killing me and I sweating like a pig, I had a lot of fun and I would probably do it again if I got the chance. I can only imagine how many bad pictures of me are floating around now, though... After the parade we had more free time until an 8 PM check-in. Isaac and I rode more rides including Indiana Jones and then we went over to California Adventure (first time for both of us) and went on Ariel's Undersea Adventures (cutest ride of all time) and California Screamin'. That roller coaster is the best one I've ever been on and I would ride it over and over if I could. We got back to the hotel fairly early again this night because of how bad my feet hurt. All that walking was ridiculous.

On Monday I was really excited because my boyfriend was going to be in Disneyland that day too so I knew I'd get to see him. We also didn't have to be anywhere until noon so sleeping in a little bit was great. Isaac wanted to be at the park early anyway for some reason so we got there at around 9 and went on more rides until noon where we had to go backstage to the recording studio. This thing was legit with headphones and everything. We got to play music from popular Disney movies including Beauty and the Beast, Tangled, and the Emperor's New Groove. The piece from Lion King actually made me emotional watching it back with the scene from the movie. The workshop was definitely my favorite part of the trip and I'm so thankful I got to be a part of that experience. After the workshop, we got more free time until the 5 and 8 check-ins. I spent this time hanging out with Mike and his family and I loved it. After 8 PM, all of us, including Mike, went to California Adventure to ride Screamin' California again. We also did the virtual Soaring over California thing which I was pleasantly surprised by, and we used our fast pass for the Tower of Terror. That ride was a must-do, and I loved it.

By Tuesday I was ready to go home and be able to sleep in my bed again. I knew I'd be leaving the sunny skies for rain in the Pacific Northwest but looking out the plane window on the way home made me realize how much I love Washington. It's really beautiful here and I'll probably never move away. California is nice to visit every so often, but there's only so much Disneyland a person can handle. I'm very thankful to my parents for paying my way to Disneyland this spring break and I am proud to be a part of the Puyallup High School band because if I wasn't, I wouldn't have been able to experience this life changing trip.

Experience Music Project

For those who don't know, the Experience Music Project (usually referred to as the EMP) is located in the Seattle Center with the Space Needle and the Monorail. It's the abstract mirrored building across from the "Ride the Duck" attraction. I've been to the EMP one other time a while ago with my mom, but this time my dad took me.

When I went the first time, I wasn't as much of a music appreciator as I am now. My knowledge of music has grown exponentially over the years and the genre no longer matters to me. I'm not a huge fan of grunge or rock and roll itself, but seeing all this stuff was really interesting anyway. The first thing you see when you walk up to the second floor of the building is this giant guitar structure. Those are really the only words I have to describe it... unless there's a real name for it. It's just how it looks; a bunch of guitars strategically placed around each other that goes from the ground of the second floor to the ceiling of the third. Such a novelty.



The EMP just added a Nirvana wing to their second floor and it is AMAZING. I've listened to a couple Nirvana songs but I wouldn't consider myself a "fan" in the least. I still thought it was really cool, mainly because I know Nirvana is from Seattle and that made it a lot more personal. There was a bunch of memorabilia including instruments, vinyls and clothing that Kurt Cobain actually wore. I just thought all of it was really cool, even though I'm not a huge fan of Nirvana's music.
The next leg of the tour was the Jimi Hendrix room. The look of the room
really caught my attention because it was retro and awesome. There was a TV playing one of his live concerts with a few purple couches in front of it. Behind that were four black and white blown up photos that represented him. I loved those because of my love for photography. On the wall next to that was a bunch of memorabilia from Jimi's musical career including photos, records, and little blurbs about his life. Just outside the Jimi Hendrix room was the orange and pink outfit he wore at Woodstock. The actual clothing that was on Jimi Hendrix's back..... SO COOL.



This is kind of off subject, but I remember hearing about Rogers High School's prom last year that took place at the EMP and while I was there, I found out the actual location of the dance floor. It was a wide open space with high ceilings and a HUGE TV. The TV was playing Jimi Hendrix's performance at Woodstock that I talked about earlier and in front of it were more chairs and couches. It made me feel like I was actually there watching him play and I loved it. It made me appreciate Jimi Hendrix, who is also from Seattle, so much more. Also on the second floor, the EMP had an Avatar exhibit. They change this section of the building out frequently so if you went back in a month or so, you would probably see something completely different. I thought the Avatar stuff was pretty cool though. There was a part of it where you could stand in front of a red screen and play the part of one of the characters in a certain scene. I didn't do it myself, but I watched someone do it and it made me realize how advanced we are in technology. Connected to that was a horror movie exhibit where they had a bunch of TVs playing old horror movies, random props from those movies, and a scream booth. I thought they spent way too much money on an exhibit that wasn't that interesting, as least to me. Upstairs was the Sound Lab. My favorite part of the whole thing. You could go into little booths with actual instruments and get a free guitar or drum lesson. They also had recording studios where you could go and jam out for 10 minutes at a time. I guess I'm more of a hands-on person which is why this has always been my favorite part. Also upstairs, they had a Battlestar Galactica exhibit with props and information about the show. I thought this was kind of random, seeing as how it's called the "Experience Music Project" and the only thing in that section related to music was a playlist from the show. All in all, I had a great time at the EMP and I hope to go back another time :)

Valentine's Day.

I've never personally been a fan of Valentine's Day but this year I actually had someone to spend it with so naturally, I decided to enjoy the holiday for the first time ;) I don't know if it was because I had a Valentine this year, but the cliché negative posts about the holiday really started to irritate me. People posting countless Facebook updates saying "Single Awareness Day!!!!" or "I have two valentines this year: Ben AND Jerry!!" SHUT UP. Valentine's Day is really just a holiday that card companies made up so they could make more money. Although it's fun to give and get gifts, it's completely commercialized and it shouldn't matter in the least if you're single or not. You're single every other day of the year, so it's just another normal day for you and if you really feel that bad about not having flowers or chocolate, go out and buy some for yourself! I'm really not that bitter but when people are annoying, I feel like calling them out on it. I made Mike a candy love letter, which you may have seen on Pinterest, but I got the idea a while ago when my mom received one from one of her coworkers. It's just a display board with a love letter on it but you substitute words for actual candy, and glue or tape the package onto the board. It's a really cute and unique idea so I went for it. I also got him a lady(love)bug pillow pet. Originally I got the bee and wrote "Bee Mine?" with red fabric paint but I accidentally set something on top of it while it was still drying and it got messed up so I went out and bought the ladybug instead. The pictures to the right are what he got me :))

Deciding What's Important

I've been wanting to lose weight for as long as I can remember, but the whole reason I've decided to actually start eating healthier and exercising started a few days ago when I noticed giant black circles under my eyes when I woke up one morning. I started googling ways to get rid of them, hoping some magic cream would come along and solve all my problems. I read that the reasons for under eye circles are: lack of sleep, poor diet, and dehydration. I was getting enough sleep, so that led me to the conclusion that I need to be eating healthier and drinking more water if I want the bags under my eyes to go away. I just felt so ugly when I looked in the mirror and I knew I had to change something if I wanted to look at myself and be happy again. Every day after that initial realization, I would see myself in reflections of windows or glass doors and hate how wide I looked from far away. When I look in my full-length mirror at home before I leave for school, I only see myself from about a foot away and never realize that it changes my perception of myself. When people see me from far away, they see the huge, wide angle of me, the one I don't see in the morning. But I've been looking at my reflection a lot more and noticing that I hate how big I look. Both of these things were what finally convinced me that I need to change something if I want to be happy with the way that I look.

However, eating healthier has been extremely hard for me. I've had numerous thoughts about just stopping at McDonald's or Taco Bell on the way home and pigging out to make myself feel better. Like I said in my last post, food has always been a comfort to me. It's the only thing I have when I'm sad. It's like the snowball effect; I get sad because I see myself in mirrors and absolutely hate the way I look, and then I get even sadder because I don't have food to cheer me up. I just have to keep asking myself, which is more important: the food or the perfect body?

More Change.

Something I'm trying to change about myself is my weight. I've struggled with this problem like more than half of America for my entire life. I used to be really self conscious about it in elementary school because I would get made fun of. I was always the biggest girl in the class and eventually, by my junior year of high school, I learned to deal with it. My junior year was the first year I ever had a boyfriend. It sounds sad, but having a boyfriend actually gave me confidence. It showed me that a boy actually liked the way I looked, even though I was fat. My self consciousness started going away, I was beginning to be more outgoing and I didn't let the way that I looked stop me from doing anything I wanted to do. I used to always tell myself that I don't deserve this body. I'm a good person, why do Ihave to get made fun of because of my weight? I played soccer for ten years before taking a year off and then starting up again this past fall. I've always enjoyed being active and exercising, as long as it doesn't involve running... But food was the thing I turned to when I felt like I didn't have anything else. It was, and still is, a comfort to me. Starting this month, I've been trying to cut down on unhealthy foods and start eating more fruits and vegetables. No more soda. No more processed chips or candy. Three years ago, I would've wanted to do this so a guy would like me. But now that I have the guy and the friends, I'm doing it for me.

Change.

I'M NOT A BLONDE ANYMORE! The last time I dyed my hair this dark was 8th grade so I was hesitant about doing it again for the sheer fact that I've changed a lot in 4 years. I stood in the hair color aisle at Walmart for a good 15 minutes trying to decide what color I wanted. I knew I wanted it to be dark, but I haven't had much luck with dye out of the box. It never seems to turn out how the box says it will. The same held true for this instance, but I'm surprisingly happy with the outcome.

A Craving For Music

I've always considered music one of my passions but recently, I've noticed that all I want to do is listen to it. These past couple of years I've gotten into going to shows and discovering new bands. It sounds cliché but my life has changed because of it. It has gotten to the point where whenever I meet someone new, the first question I ask them is what their favorite music is. I will admit that I judge the answers I receive. "Oh, I'm into everything really. Except country... ew." or "You know, I really just listen to the stuff they play on the radio." would be considered "incorrect" answers. I want an answer that will intrigue me. Someone who is really specific about their taste in music is intriguing. It tells me that they are just as passionate as I am. Even if our taste in music differs, I appreciate the specificity in hopes that they can introduce me to bands or artists they like. Now that I've gone off on a tangent, back to my craving for music. Liking your favorite bands or artists on Facebook or following them on Twitter is a great way to find out about upcoming tours and show dates for your city. I've noticed a ton of good tours popping up for winter and spring this year and I'm so excited. For example, A Day To Remember is coming back to Washington this Spring. The last time I saw them was March 31st of last year and it was one of the best nights of my life. However, ADTR is not headlining this time but it should still be awesome. The tickets are a little pricey, but it's worth it to see my favorite band again. We Came As Romans is also coming back to WA next month I believe. I really want to go, but I have to start thinking more about the money I spend. That's a totally different blog post, though. Another way I've been filling my craving for music recently is downloading music. With the new SOPA/PIPA bill on the front burner, people are freaking out about file sharing websites being the first ones to get taken down. My music downloader of choice is Mediafire and I know tons of other people use it so it'll probably one of the first to go. I'm looking up bands and downloading their music by album so I'll have all of it just in case. My boyfriend Mike has been introducing me to a lot of bands too which has helped me decide what to download. I've been listening to a lot of The Wonder Years, You Me At Six, Title Fight, Major League, and Of Mice & Men. I have my iTunes on shuffle constantly. Especially these last few days when I've been stuck in the house because of the snow.

Snowpocalypse & Ice Storm 2012

Starting this past weekend, Washington has been getting slammed with snow and ice storms. We had a day off of school for MLK Day and the only school we've had all week was the 4 or so hours on Tuesday because of a two-hour delay. Everyone anticipated no school on Wednesday because the news (like always) had winter weather advisories for basically all of Western Washington. I woke up Wednesday morning to about 4 inches of perfect, powdery snow. It was exciting for a few hours before I realized that I'd be stuck in the house all day.

By 4PM, the Puyallup School District had already canceled school for the next day due to the ice that would probably be covering the snow overnight. I woke up Thursday morning to tons of Facebook posts about people's power going out and trees falling in the middle of streets. Our precious snow storm had turned into an ice storm.



As you can see from the picture, my poor car that sits in the driveway 24/7 turned into a virtual popsicle. There were little icicles all over it and the doors and windows were even frozen shut. This didn't really affect me, though because I'm not allowed to drive in these weather conditions anyway. Not that I particularly want to. That's a recipe for disaster. The trees and bushes were also covered in icicles, making for really cool pictures.

Lip Piercing: Yay or Nay?

Just recently I've been craving a new piercing. For those of you that don't know, I currently have three lobe piercings in each ear and one cartilage piercing on my right ear. I've been going back and forth between different piercings and finally decided on the infamous lip. I was just experimenting one day when I took the ring from my cartilage piercing and put it on my lip (as shown in the picture) but found that I really liked the way it looked on me. Before, I always thought that I wouldn't be able to pull off a facial piercing, but I was proven wrong by myself! Here comes the tricky part; I knew my mom would never take me to get my lip pierced, claiming that I'll "never be able to get a job". So I had to get creative. A while ago this guy added me on facebook out of nowhere. I e-stalked him (as usual) and found that he was an amateur tattoo artist and piercer. Later on when I decided I wanted to get my lip pierced, I sent him a message and he said he would do it for $40. Meanwhile, I was talking to my boyfriend Mike who got his nose done by one of his friends. I sent him the picture above and he really liked it and said he could get the girl who pierced him to pierce me as well. She would do it for $10. The facebook guy never responded to me being interested, so I assumed he didn't want to rip me off anymore and set up a date to get my lip pierced by Mike's friend Natasha. We were supposed to get it done today, but the inches of snow that decided to fall last night and this morning are stopping us from making it happen today. If the snow melts by the time I get off work, I'll get it done but I heard it's only supposed to get worse.
Anyway, this is the story about my new piercing I'm hoping to get done as soon as possible, hope you enjoyed!!

Photography Challenge Day Two: What You Wore Today

I'm going to be honest and say I used my Photo Booth to take today's picture only because I have been putting it off. I'm at work today so I'm wearing my "casual chic" look which includes black pants, a black shirt, a floral scarf, and a leather jacket.

Photography Challenge Day One: Self Portrait

Disclaimer: I feel like many (if not all) of these photos will NOT have an explanation attached to them, but I felt as though one was necessary for this specific day.


Taking a self portrait was definitely more difficult than I thought it would be. You'd think I'd be used to taking pictures of myself by now but in reality, I had no idea what the expectations for this challenge were. I even googled "How to take a self portrait" because I was so lost. Truth is, I find it easier to be behind the camera than in front of it. I never know what I should do with my face, my hands, my body, etc. I just find it super awkward. Google results for "How to take a self portrait" included being creative and making sure that the photo displayed the person you are. The photo I chose to upload as day one of this photography challenge was taken by mistake. I was messing with the self timer settings right before I got in position to take the picture, and when I pressed the shutter button I realized that I forgot to set the timer back up. I think this photo displays who I really am because I was caught off guard by the premature snap of the camera, which also happens much too often.

Christmakkuh Haul

It usually comes as a shock when I tell people that I celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. I've always spent Christmas with my dad's side of the family, and Hanukkah with my mom's.
With that said, not only do I receive presents on December 25th, but also for eight days in the middle of the holiday season.
The photo to the left displays only a few of the things I received from both holidays because quite honestly, I didn't have enough room on my desk.
This post is supposed to act as a filler until I come up with something real to talk about, but I figured that some people would enjoy seeing what I got for Christmakkuh.

30 Day Photography Challenge

Because one of my New Years Resolutions includes doing bigger and better things with my photography, I decided to try out this 30 day challenge I found on Pinterest. Not skipping days is really important because that's part of the challenge. I want to challenge myself to try new things with my camera, and a few of these could test that. I haven't decided if I'm going to edit these photos yet. It makes sense not to, because it's MY photography, not the computer's, but I really love to edit too. I'll probably be posting these here, so stay "tuned"!