Tag: sallythings

You Can’t Heal If You Keep Pretending You’re Not Hurt.

To anyone who needs to hear this, including myself: STOP PRETENDING AND JUST LET GO. Let whatever you are trying to suppress out and allow your mind to rest. You can’t just sweep things under the rug and then expect it to go away. It doesn’t. Believe me, I tried and thought it would and now I’m here a year later still hurting about the same things.

It’s okay to feel hurt. It doesn’t feel good, but it’s okay to feel hurt. It’s a human thing, it’s normal. Even though you didn’t ask for it, you can’t let it control you and you have to find a way to accept it. Acceptance can happen in hours, days, months, or even years, but you will get there one day. It doesn’t have to happen quick and most times it won’t, some things are just too big to snap back from. That’s normal. Please do not beat yourself up for not being over or healed from a situation. You’re going through something already, you don’t need to add more to it.

If you pretend that you’re not hurting, you can’t heal. The out of sight, out of mind might lighten the load, but it will come creeping back. The only way to heal is to go about it head on. That can mean talking with people, making amends, going to counseling, etc. There’s so many healthy and positive ways of healing. You never are alone and you don’t have to heal yourself with no help. I think that’s so important for people to hear because sometimes we feel like we’re alone or our problems are just baggage that no one else wants to hear. There’s always someone to talk to and listen, you never are alone and you don’t have to heal yourself without help.

Be kind to yourself and be kind to others. You might be hurting still, but hurting others can disrupt whatever healing process they have going on too. It doesn’t feel good to be on the receiving end, believe that. Plus, projecting your hurt on someone else makes no one happier in the end. It doesn’t help you and doesn’t help them.

I could probably go on about healing and I’m pretty sure this is my 3rd post about this topic, but this is where I have the most feeling. Just like many of others, I’m just trying to accept it, move on and be okay. Just like many others, I’m in the thick of it and still struggling to get to where I want to be and picture myself to be. I am just like many others and if I can help someone while I get through mine, just perfect. The first step towards healing is to not pretend you’re hurt, but to acknowledge it. It’s okay to feel hurt.

SALLY ♡ T

Confident and Comfortable: Eczema

If you didn’t go to school with me or know me before high school (2009), you probably wouldn’t even have guessed that I had and dealt with severe eczema. My skin is pretty clear now and I get a pimple or two once every few months, but it wasn’t like that before and the confidence that I have now would not exists without my eczema. I just wanted to say I am PROUD of my younger self and take a little time to appreciate this “horrendous” period of my life.

I actually first started noticing my eczema when I was in 3rd grade (2003) and it wasn’t a huge deal, but it just got worse and worse very quickly. To the point where the eczema would scab over and if I scratched myself or it got caught on my clothes, I would bleed. It spread over my entire body too, behind the knees, on my legs, my elbows, my stomach, including my face. My cheeks and nose especially. The button on my jeans would cause me to break out, so I would have to tape a piece of tissue or something to cover it. I brought extra shirts to change into at school because the eczema scabs would get caught on my shirt and bleed through. Then for my face, I had glasses that would rub on my nose and cheeks. Having a flat nose bridge and big cheeks did not me out at all. It seemed like nothing would help for the longest time.

I remember in elementary, we would go to the school pool as a class for swimming lessons and the eczema on my stomach was so bad that I had a coverup skirt and wore it the entire time. One time a classmate saw my stomach while I was putting the skirt on and she seemed disgusted. The swimming teacher tried convincing me that I didn’t need the cover up and when I took it off, she told me that I should just put it back on. My eczema would burn the first few seconds of getting into the chlorine pool water.

Through out middle school and some of high school, my cheeks and nose were red 24/7 even when the eczema rash itself was gone. The nickname I had was Rudolph the red nose reindeer and honestly I hated it, became very insecure and use to cry about it sometimes. I wanted to cover it up with makeup so bad, but I knew that it would irritate it even more. None of the steroid creams or medications that was prescribed helped enough to get rid of it. I was pretty much just stuck with it.

Younger self Sally was just as stubborn as I am now and I just pushed through the teasing and didn’t let it show (for the most part) that it bothered me. Along the way I started to accept my condition and started planting this little seed of confidence inside. I somehow found a way to love myself and the scabbed eczema skin. I actually started to forget about it and I don’t even remember when it went away or how, but it was sometime during sophomore or junior year. I was left with scars on my stomach (that faded away over the next 3 years) and my face is forever red, but I don’t look at myself any less. I just appreciate my strength at such a young age and how I dealt with it because of how emotional I am. I don’t think I could deal with it as strong now if it were to come back.

I still get eczema on my stomach or sides during super dry winters or if I wear certain metals for jewelry, belts or rave pieces. It actually has gotten worse now though, my eczema comes back and I get hives as well, but I do avoid those pieces at all cost. I can definitely say that without going through all of that, I would not be so confident and comfortable with how and who I am today. So thank you little Rudolph, you kicked ass ♡

SALLY ♡ T

Food Alert: Orlando, Florida

For the past few weeks, I’ve been eating waaaay to good for my own good. Just food and drinks after another. I LOVE FOOD, but I do not have a big appetite and get full off of a couple of bites. It’s so hard to be a food lover when you can only eat a few bites. Maybe one day it’ll all change and I can just stuff my face, but let’s get into the yummies!

Let’s start off with some of the food that my boyfriend and I ate. We started the trip with some pizza from Flippers Pizza and they did not disappoint at all. We got their Hog & Honey pizza which had ricotta cheese and local raw honey drizzle. That combo was just the best that I have ever had. I was way too excited to eat it, I didn’t even take a picture like I usually would haha. If you are in the area, try it! I love trying new pizza combos.

The second day, we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The food everywhere in this park smelled so yummy and I wish I could have eaten everything! One thing that caught our attention was the Satu’li Canteen at Pandora – The World of Avatar. What a hearty breakfast we had that day. We got these Na’vi cultured or inspired protein bowls where you choose your base, protein and then sauce. I got a potato base, steak and a creamy herb sauce and my boyfriend got the same, but with a noodle base. It was so delicious, the sauce was filled with flavored and you didn’t need much of it for the whole bowl.

Next and probably not to your surprise, but we decided to get some nice cold alcoholic beverages! You can find this drink stand in Asia, right next to the Expedition Everest ride. It was in the early to mid 90’s with the craziest humidity, so you bet we got a lot of cold beverages or ice creams. Plus, who wouldn’t enjoy some booze at Disney World? That’s pretty much the added bonus of going to Disney as an adult.
I enjoyed a nice snow leopard lemonade and my boyfriend got a delicious Yeti slush. I couldn’t gone about the day with out a boomerang cheers!

After a day at Animal Kingdom, we got some all you can eat Korean BBQ from Izziban Sushi & BBQ. That was our second time there, our friends took us there on our previous trip to Orlando. There’s only like one Korean BBQ place where I live and it’s not all that, so you bet I was happy dancing while cooking all the foods. I think Korean BBQ is just so fun too. I don’t want to say I like playing with food, but I like playing with food. All the meats where seasoned and sauced so deliciously, my mouth is watering right now just typing about it.

The third day in Orlando, we went to Universal Studios as well and I experienced the wizarding world of Harry Potter. My dreams came true and I’ll post all about that soon! Even though I was skeptical about how the Butterbeer would taste (I’m not a butterscotch fan), I just had to try it while walking down Diagon Alley. I was actually pretty surprised at how much I liked it! The Butterbeer is a non-alcoholic beverage and is pretty much a butterscotch-vanilla soda. A nice cold sweet drink to have in the Florida heat and under that dragon fire!

We went to King Cajun Crawfish after Universal Studios and it is the best and I mean T H E B E S T seafood boil that I have ever had. If you know me, then you know that I literally thrive when eating seafood boils and it’s the only thing that I can just eat so much of. This location that we went too, it was also vietnamese owned as well! (Love supporting my culture and people) Seafood boils are my absolute favorite. We got the Shabang flavor with a medium spice level. King Cajun Crawfish is so flavorful and their flavoring is more spices or a sauce than oil like most places I’ve eaten at. Another thing is that the day after eating the seafood, I did not wake up feeling super thirsty like after every other place. The spice level was actually a medium and you could taste it too. It was just perfect. I’ve been craving it everyday after since! It is a MUST every time we’re in town now.

Now, we can’t forget about dessert…
This place was right down the street from the seafood boil and if you’re a matcha lover, what are you doing cause you need to go now?! Matcha House Tea & Creamery, the mother of all matchas. Their menu is insane with different drinks and ice creams. Everything sounds and looked so good, tooo bad we ate so much seafood before or I might’ve gotten three different sundaes! The one we got was the Matcha-Lover. DELICIOUS, perfect dessert after a boil. Matcha ice cream, with coconut jelly, mochi and lychee fruits, topped with strawberry pocky sticks.

For our last day, I hope you didn’t expect anything less. We literally had two lunches from two different places, one right after the other. Our first place was Krungthep Tea Time. They are known for their teas and their Thai Twist sandwiches. Why isn’t there one by me? The universe hate me. These sandwiches were so flavorful, Panera Bread could NEVER. I chose the Thaiger is Crying and my boyfriend got the Larb sandwich. Bon Appétit! Now let’s talk about these gorgeous colored ladies to the right. Their teas are just stunning in color and they taste absolutely amazing. The one on the left is the Honey Lemon Anchan and the right one is the Lychee Anachan.

Our second lunch and last dish of the blog, Korean fried chicken. We found Chi-Kin on accident actually. It was the place right next door to Matcha House Tea & Creamery and we just couldn’t leave without trying it. Funny enough, we actually talked about finding some Korean fried chicken before we knew about this place and said that we would save it for another time. So it was just fate that we came across Chi-Kin. Korean fried chicken just hits differently and the flavors are better than our usual American ones. We got the sweet soy and gochujang sauces. Top tier chicken wings, I’m telling you!

Everything we ate on the trip was just so amazing and satisfying. I cannot wait to go back to Orlando for everything else we didn’t go too and to eat the same things again! My mouth has been watering this whole time typing and my stomach has been growling and craving. Food from anywhere else then where you live is just automatically better. (But I do have a post coming up on some good eats here in Grand Rapids, so stay tuned!) You can find pretty much all these places on Instagram and just admire the presentations on there. I pretty much find a lot of the places off of Instagram for trips or even when I want to try something new at home. That’s where I found the majority of these food places and drinks! My personal pictures and videos do not do any of the food justice, I might just have to invest in a camera that will! Hope you enjoyed my list and if you have any recommendations in Orlando let me know and I’ll definitely add them to my list for next time!
Also I would like to give credit to @seigeyourday for his “Cluck Yeah!” mural that I used.
Stay hungry guys ♡

SALLY ♡ T

First EDM Set Feature

Karpow reached out to me to be featured in her GRLFEST virtual set and I’m still so honored for it! Just a huge moment for me because I love her and have attended so many of her sets. She is so sweet and kind every time we talk. Watch her kill her set in the video below and look out for me at 17:25 ! Remember her name, she’s going to make it big! ♡

SALLY ♡ T