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It's official: I'm going to the Philippines during the second week of December. I just dropped way too much money on a plane ticket today, so there's no backing out now (I'm cringing as I'm typing this). Given the unexpected high-cost of the ticket, this had better be the best trip of my life. Because, hey, a girl needs a break every now and then, right? Ugh.

This weekend was full of Halloween celebration and it was a wild time. I went to a Halloween party on Saturday dressed as a________(you fill in the blank). Whatever I was, I was dead and blond. In a shoddy attempt at putting together a costume at the last minute, I ended up wearing a blond wig on my head and white powder on my face. "America's Next Chopped Model?" you may be wondering. You got it. I, of course, found it exceptionally funny, but not everyone did. So, my costume changed multiple times during the night (depending on who I was around), ranging from "Dead Victoria Beckham" (so morbid), to "a dead blond" (not much better). I admit it: I was running low on creativity. I now know, however, that I simply can't pull off the blond look. The wig made me look dead, even before I applied the five pounds of baby powder it took to make me look good and dead (my skin is still recovering, two days later). Sadly, I didn't capture my blond moment on camera, so you'll just have to imagine it.

Random paragraph #3: I got stuck in an elevator for the first time in my life today. Granted, it was only stuck for a grand total of one minute, but it was long enough to nearly make me pee my pants right then and there. I was leaving my apartment building for work this afternoon when suddenly, between the 9th and 10th floors, the elevator jolted to a halt. I didn't actually start to panic until the your-life-is-in-peril alarm went buzzing loudly through the elevator shaft. I shot a look at the Korean lady who was in the elevator with me to find that she, too, appeared to be freaking out. Regardless, I was glad she was there with me, otherwise I would have passed out in panic (I have an old fear of elevators that only resurfaces when the situation calls for it... and this situation called for it). Fortunately, the elevator jolted into movement again and flung its doors open on the 9th floor. The Korean lady and I ran out of there as if we were running from a pack of rabid dogs. Of course, I'm far too lazy to actually take the stairs in any situation, so I made a quick recovery and pressed the "down" button on the elevator across from the rabid one. Needless to say, I made it safely to the first floor. It wasn't, however, a great start to my Monday.

And with those fascinating stories told, I'm off to class. Happy Monday.