May 2019 - Big Island weekend trip, CA friend visit, I flipflop about social media again

Aloha, May! This felt like such a long month but I actually had a quite a few things to do, so it was enjoyable at least. Compared to earlier in the year, things really slowed down to a normal pace at work despite some administrative issues and I hardly worked any overtime. This freed up a lot of my afternoons! 

Outfits
I figured out how to position my phone to get full length non-mirror photos of my outfits at work, so I decided to try this out for a bit! It's not a great set up (due to the framing being inconsistent), but it's fun for now even though anyone walking by can see me being a weirdo lmao.

Liz Lisa lace sleeveless top, Liz Lisa dress up doll skirt, Liz Lisa 3-strap pumps

Liz Lisa sweet confiture jumperskirt, Liz Lisa knot wedge sandals, Paris Kids hair ribbons

Liz Lisa flower dot OP, Liz Lisa cardigan, DreamV cross strap pumps

Forever21 floral print dress, Liz Lisa momonga cardigan, Liz Lisa tulle can can hat, Forever 21 heart pouchette, DreamV cross strap pumps

EatMe 2-way lace up blouse, Delyle Noir front slit floral skirt, DreamV cross strap pumps (PC glasses from J!NS)

 Liz Lisa off shoulder lace up blouse, Liz Lisa monotone flower skirt, Liz Lisa clear pearl wedge sandals, Samantha Thavasa puse

 off brand ruffle sleeveless blouse, Rojita check skirt, DreamV cross strap pumps

 Liz Lisa (Emma) floral romper, Flag J sandals

Walked to the mall one evening after the sun set and looked around for a bit. I wanted to wear something lightweight but still cute, so I chose this romper! Slippers because it was a 20 minute walk and I didn't want to attract too much unwanted attention at that time of day.

Liz Lisa tulip romper, Kate Spade New York purse, (Coach mini bennet purse), Nine West braided slippers

This jumpsuit was really my only purchase of note this month (that I have in hand/i.e. not in the mail). Wore it jumpsuit to dinner in Waikiki but didn't get a photo I really liked. I mostly plan to wear this to work but I think it might even be okay for a wedding or similar kind of event/party!

Michael Kors belted jumpsuit, Michael Kors purse, Nine West sandals, Betsey Johnson necklace

Big Island weekend trip
Bf and I took a short trip to the Big Island over the first weekend in May. We went to visit my bf's grandma and use a flight credit we had. Not the best planned or fullest itinerary, but it was nice to spend some time with his family and just lay low.
We flew in on Friday night, did some shopping on Saturday morning (Two Ladies Kitchen, Sig Zane, etc), helped around the farm in the afternoon and then flew out Sunday morning! All meals were home cooked and generously provided and prepared by my bf's grandma.

Christa's visit
My college friend Christa visited during the second weekend in May while my bf was away on a work trip (timed purposefully because I knew I was going to be bored on my own lmao). I don't have a lot of close girlfriends, and it's been years since I've seen her (same friend from Japan trip Autumn 2015!), so we had a blast. First day of her trip was even her birthday!

Itinerary mostly included various restaurants and shave ice places with a few beach things in between.
Saturday - Lunch at Waioli Grill & Cafe, shopping at Ala Moana, shave ice from Uncle Clay's HOPA, dinner from Waikele Outlet food trucks, shave ice from Mountain Magic
Christa and I ordered the back ribs with curry donburi and the chicken kaarage from Waioli Grill. She ordered the pina colada special from Uncle Clays and then li hing & POG from Mountain Magic. I got a malasada instead of shave ice for after dinner dessert lol.

Sunday - Mothers Day Brunch buffet at Waikele Country Club Restaurant, hiking to Makapuu Tidepools, shave ice from Waiola's, dinner from Mitch's Sushi/Fish Market, dessert from Gimme Chills
Christa got POG  & li hing mui at Waiola's, the chirashi from Mitch's and then the matcha soft serve and nutella taiyaki from Gimme Chills. I got li hing mui from Waiola's, cucumber hosomaki from Mitch's and then vanilla soft serve from Gimme Chills!

Monday - On-the-go 7-Eleven breakfast, Waimea Beach, shave ice from Matsumoto's, Detective Pikachu movie, omiyage shopping, dinner at Goma Tei, shave ice/ice cream from Island Shave Ice & Creamery
Waimea's parking lot surprisingly had a few empty spots and we were able to settle in without too much fuss. Christa had to take a work call from the sand, but we still had time for a dip or two prior to heading out to Matsumoto's. Christa got li hing and POG with li hing powder and I got green river and li hing with li hing powder. At Goma Tei, Christa got tan tan ramen with the ajitama egg and I got shoyu ramen. Dessert was li hing and ramune shave ice with li hing powder for Christa and kona mud pie ice cream on a cone for me.

Tuesday - Late breakfast from Tanioka's, shave ice from Baldwin's Sweet Shop

Oops, no photos from this day! Christa got a spicy ahi poke bowl from Taniokas as well as an ahi patty musubi and a deluxe spam musubi. I got 2 spam musubis and a garlic butter hot dog roll to spread out between breakfast & lunch. I also got a mess of things for my coworkers for lunch which I delivered later in the day and was completely preoccupied with that.
We got great service at Baldwin's even though they were having a little of trouble with their new payment system. Christa got Li Hing Mui & POG shave ice. I got Lemon Peel & Li Hing Mui. Since we were waiting a long time for the payment to go through, we also got a small sample of the Ume flavor which was really nice and refreshing and not too strong!

My untriumphant return to IG/more social media thoguhts
I tried getting back on IG for a bit this month. I re-downloaded the app, planned what posts I still wanted to publish (in particular it's my trip stuff), meticulously crafted some captions, and published 1/6. Then gave up again and deleted. Then redownloaded and published the second one which I had to redraft in a vicious cycle.

I really can't decide whether I enjoy using IG anymore. I like being able to scroll through other people's posts and see their updates. It also helps me keep track of what's going on (for example, posts about new cafes/places that I might want to visit), but at the same time, I've been consistently getting wrapped up in likes and comments when I know that shouldn't be the most important thing. Also, it seems like whenever I post something, I lose followers which is so bewildering to me because the kind of content I've been uploading lately has been the truest to my original content as it can get imo, and?? Idk that part is just a little discouraging, you know? Like, I'd keep more followers if I just didn't show who I really am.
I'm going to try and stick with it for a little longer. I'm getting the hang of posting to my stories a bit more, especially with my work outfit photos. However, I think in the long run, it just feels crappy for a post I was really excited about sharing to receive what seems like extremely low engagement (I'm talking less than 2% of likes to followers which is just embarrassing). I even switched over to a Creator account to get a little more insight, but so far that hasn't helped much lol. I know I need to remind myself that I should post just what I like and not worry about the likes, but tbh for me the purpose of IG is to have audience engagement. I already have the blog for "posting for myself" with updates and archiving photos and for no one to comment or read.

I spent some time looking through a couple of my old Japan trip posts from 2017 and prior and I used to shop and purchase so much! I'd be visiting Liz Lisa stores non-stop and coming back with such great clothing hauls. My recent trip Japan experiences have been so different - but I don't think that's a bad thing. Since there's so few Liz Lisa stores now and the stock is so varied, I just know I need to focus my money and time elsewhere.
But also reflecting again on blogging in general, I just spend so little time on the computer (outside of work) lately compared to where I was a couple years ago, blogging non-stop. The comments I get are typically just spam (almost 2-3/week sometimes) and the views just aren't what they used to be, but I guess properly reflect the effort I'm putting in. In reality. the things I'm posting about now just aren't that interesting to the audience that was the typical reader in 2017 - and that's okay. For my "minimal" effort, I can't expect anything more. I'm tempted to just jump back in to my older blogging format with a few recent purchases that I've been excited about but just aren't sure if it's "worth it".

Miscellaneous updates
Once Christa left, I had about a week and a half totally to myself while my bf was still on his work trip. I really haven't had that kind of just alone time in a while - and never in the new house. This was the first time bf is really traveling for such a long period where I was not also traveling as well. What to do? I spent the first few days after work just lazing around but setting a few small goals for myself so I wasn't a total log (grocery shopping, going to the bank, checking on the sprinklers, laundry, cleaning, etc).

My brother was home for the long weekend, so we went to Katsumidori at the Prince hotel in Waikiki so he could try it. It's really great quality sushi for a reasonable price and I definitely recommend it! They also have a ton of non-fish items that are great for people like me.

Since we were in the area, we also went to Waikiki Tea House which recently started selling Lady M cakes! My parents heard about it on the news/radio and the slices are $8-9/piece wtf. They're not really my taste but everyone else seemed to like the lilikoi one.

I attended a coworker's wedding, and it was so nice to share in her joy and love. It was a fairly large wedding and had a lot of traditional elements that must have taken so long to plan.

 Also it reminded me that I hate the bouquet toss part of weddings. I thought it was funny that for the unmarried/single women, the emcee had to call people up by name and table, but for the garter toss, the men all willingly gathered without all the prompting. To me, it's something like feeling shame to go up in a group of strangers to show that no one thinks I'm worth marrying at this age wtf.

I went shopping with my coworker after work one day and just tried on a bunch of stuff in the dressing rooms without thinking too hard about whether it would be "practical" to buy it - just wanted to see how they'd fit and have a bit of fun trying a few different styles. I know it's a little bit of a dick move to the salespeople to just try on stuff for fun but I didn't take more than 6 items per store & I didn't have 0 intention of buying things necessarily (and would have purchased something if, in fact, I liked it enough!). Dumping the quick snaps I took in the dressing rooms ~
At Zara -

At Nordstrom -

 At Homecoming Honolulu & Macys -

In the end, I didn't purchase anything, but I'm still thinking about the denim pants and white crop top from Zara...

Also tried out Somi Somi with my bf! We got the milk/oreo mix soft serve with a custard filled taiyaki upside down style with macaron topping. Bf liked it and would look forward to trying other flavors next time!

Did a few more puzzles! Got a bunch from my bf's grandparents's house and I'm really not picky about the image lol. I do really like this illustrator and how these puzzles were designed but there's sometimes icky stuff in them wtf. I did purposefully refrain from doing any puzzles while my bf was gone because I knew once I started, I would never be able to pull myself away from one and then never get any chores done lmao.

Since my bf was away for about half of the month, I'm glad I was still able to somehow keep busy. I know I wasn't as productive as I could have been, but I checked a good amount of long term items off my own "honey do" list. I also realized I do a lot more online and in-store browsing when I'm on my own but I think I kind of managed to keep a somewhat reasonable lid on that overall. Just a few minor splurges :)
I'm really looking forward to June and I hope that I can get just as much done despite it getting hotter and more humid by the day!