Since I finished uni for the year, I've found myself just laying around the house doing very little which is why I'm very happy about today and am going to put more of an effort in to give myself little outings like this - they make me feel all grown up, going out, trying out friendships, buying food with my own money, doing everything on my own accord. It's great.
The other week, I messaged a girl I met at back in July. We had one class together every week and we just hit it off straight away - you know those people you just click with? Yeah. I don't meet many people I get along with that well, so I kind of wanted to hold onto this friendship. Because we're in different degrees, I knew there was a 99.99% chance that I wasn't going to have any classes with her next year, so I asked her if she wanted to catch up over lunch. We both love Korean Barbeque so we arranged to meet each other at my favorite Korean restaurant in the city, Arirang.
Because we were meeting in the afternoon, I had a little time in the morning to do something I've been putting off for a while - dying my hair. Since I got a horrible job back in March and had to dye my hair a natural colour, I've been waiting for an opportunity to return my hair to its former glory. But since then, I've found a job that treats me well and I actually really enjoy, the only catch is that I have to have a natural hair colour. So because I plan on staying in this job for a long while, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and get a handle on this regrowth that would have allowed me to go back to my blue and green hair. At least my dreads will actually match my hair now. Not to mention, the black hair really made my outfit pop today.
It took me just over an hour to get into the city. I forgot to bring Animal Crossing with me, so I amused myself by allowing my nostalgic feelings to take over and listening to the full versions of anime openings I used to be obsessed with in my weeaboo phase. There's something about the Highschool Of The Dead and DNAngel themes that make me want to run up a hill and kick three kinds of ass.
I got to the city a bit early, so I decided to finish off my Christmas shopping and picked out a cute little scented pamper kit for my boyfriends mother. I didn't buy it though, because I didn't want to be carrying anything at the restaurant.
I was only waiting around for about five minutes when my friend showed up and we went in (+10 friendship points for being on time). Lunch was freaking great. There were literally no awkward silences, I wasn't shy ordering food or eating it (I usually have major anxiety eating in public), we both chatted happily and we found out that we actually have lots in common. It felt so great to have a conversation with someone on the same wavelength as me, and it was refreshing to be talking to someone who wasn't my boyfriend, best friend or family.
We split the bill, because we're both on a budget and then because we both didn't want to end the day there, we went for a bit of shopping.
I took her to my favorite underwear store, we relished in the fact that we both love beauty treatments and went to the body shop together, I bought other mothers present, we shopped around in a few cute stores, and she even showed me an amazing store that was so tucked away, I didn't even know it existed. The store is called 'Cheep' and it really lives up to its name. Literally everything was $10 and everything was so fucking cute. It felt like I had entered in the aesthetic tag of tumblr.
Because we chatted a lot in class, she knows I have a weird obsession with milk and being the amazing friend she appears to be, she bought me this shirt which I freaking love so much and can't wait to wear. I felt like I couldn't leave without buying something from this wonderland, so I ended up going home with this cute cat shirt, too.
We left the fashion district and came back onto the main street where there was a present wrapping station. The money made from it was supposed to go to charity, so even though I love wrapping presents myself, I paid for these people to do it. It's for a good cause, right?
Well, good cause or not, I regret my decision. In retrospect, I should have just donated and wrapped the present myself, but I let myself get too caught up in it all and ended up with some kind of tortured looking thing that although it lacked consciousness, I felt it had to be put out of its misery. I'm not sure how the woman did such a terrible job, I mean the present was a bit of an awkward shape, but really? Not wanting to be rude, I smiled, thanked her, and decided to just unwrap it at home and redo the job. At least my money went to a good place and I contributed to Perths Christmas spirit.
Although I am complaining about the wrapping job, I actually found it pretty funny. Me and my friend had a pretty big laugh about it, and it was on this funny note that it was time to go home. She walked me down to my platform at the train station, and we parted ways.
On the train, my anxiety started creeping back. Did I thank her enough for the shirt? Did we part ways too soon? Was she as happy as I was?
Thankfully, just as I was starting to imagine myself digging a hole and never coming out of it, I got a text from her. She said she had a great day and would love to do it again some time, even suggesting that since I traveled for an hour to see her, she could travel to see me next time. I replied, saying that she really didn't need to, but if she ever did, there's a great Japanese restaurant in Mandurah.
Turns out, she loves Japanese food.
