I’m learning more and more to enjoy the little things in life, and today was a beautiful day.

It started out a little rushed, because I had to go to the ophthalmologist and get my eyes dilated. Not. Fun. Basically they numb your eyes then dilate them to a ridiculously large size so they can poke around and generally make your eyes ache. But it was over quickly, thank goodness, and nothing changed with the scar on my retina (more on that another time) and I was on my way.

Only problem was, I neglected to bring sunglasses to the appointment since I forgot they were dilating my eyes. They gave me these awful temporary shades that were strikingly similar to this (with cardboard arms, I kid you not) and they would not stay on my head. I managed to catch the free Kaiser shuttle to BART and take the free city shuttle from there, and I happened to pass by a shopping center on the way there. Bingo! I stopped by and rushed into the nearest shop, which happened to be H&M. Not a single pair of sunglasses to be found. I checked other stores as well. All gone. Do they have some sort of rule in retail that you cannot sell sunglasses past September?!

So, about to give up, I started walking back to the bus stop when my head literally swiveled around. Sunglasses stand. Wat. They had Hello Kitty sunglasses. WAT.

They were 2 for $20, and I have to say, I didn’t even think about it much. Insta-buy. I will, in my defense, point out that (a) I needed sunglasses, (b) my last pair snapped in half, and © Hello Kitty? Need I say more? I never was really interested in Hello Kitty until a year or two ago. Must have developed my Asian-girl-loves-Hello-Kitty syndrome a little late.

At any rate, I hopped on the shuttle again, got to class, and managed to make the last few minutes of lecture (I had been planning to miss it completely so this was a big bonus). Everybody loved the shades, needless to say.

Afterwards, Sarah and I walked over to a drink place. She got boba tea and I got the most amazing avocado green tea milkshake. We strolled back to our lighting lab, and learned about the different lights to use for filming. I’m sure you photographers out there know them - key lighting, fill lighting, etc. We only learned the very basics - enough to be able to use them to shoot. I’m probably going to be using a lot of practical lighting for the scene I’m shooting for our group movie.

I’m sad that one of the guys who responded to our casting call didn’t make it today, but we did have a reading by one of our group members’ exes. She did pretty well, so I’m looking forward to the rest of the casting calls.

We got out nearly two hours early (our lab advisor is pretty rad), so Sarah and I started heading back to her place to chill. Unfortunately, we got sidetracked. They just built a new Urban Outfitters on that particular road, and they were having a 50% off sale. So of course we went in, no questions asked. I managed to restrain myself today, but we are definitely going back next time! They have $5 shirts and other awesome sale stuff.

I worked out with her for about an hour, then we headed back for dinner and had the most amazing girl talk. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been able to unload all the stuff I keep bottled inside me. We worked out part of our scenes together, and then I headed back home.

I have to say that considering how disappointed I was not being able to spend time with Mitch, today turned out pretty awesome anyways. I’m glad that I’m going to Ex’pression, and I’m glad to have met such amazing people there.