Thursday, July 30, 2009

Bad People Exist


So I just found out that I didn't actually lose my cell phone. It was indeed stolen. From the waiting room of a hospital. And whoever took it deliberately ignored all my phone calls and texts so that they could purchase Mobile TV and buy 50 some dollars worth of videos. For two days. Because that's how long they were able to use the phone until I cancelled it.

In addition to the 50 some dollars now charged to my recent bill, there is a 10 some dollar charge for adding Mobile TV last month, and a 15 some dollar charge for the upcoming month of Mobile TV.

So now, not only do I have an extra 75 dollars worth of charges to my account, I have proof that my first expensive phone, ever (which was also in part a gift from my dad... and is apparently a lot cheaper than it was when WE bought it), was stolen for a whole two days worth of entertainment, and likely the resell of it on ebay. I hope it was worth it for them. Because it definitely doesn't seem worth it to me. What an asshole. There are bad people in this world. Petty. Bad. People.

I need to call AT&T and deal with this, to cancel Mobile TV and at least try and get some of the charges reimbursed. I don't think they'll reimburse all of the charges, but maybe the monthly Mobile TV purchases. At worst 15 dollars, at best 25 dollars.

I don't want to deal with it now. I'd rather continue reading Blink. I think I'm going to go downstairs and eat a snack and then venture outside to read in peace somewhere. Maybe at the park. Or by the Arbor lake so I can get some tasty boba at the same time.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Lately in LA (and Other Places)




So nobody seemed to care about the circus, haha. It's ok. I still enjoyed it :)

Things of late have included dates, dinners, friends, games (Zombie Fluxx, Power Grid, Zombies, and Bang! of course), and a LOT of LA visiting. I went back to my beloved Versailles, and also got a bit of Red Mango while in Westwood. Saw Harry Potter (at the beautiful Fox Village Theatre, aka Mann Village Theatre) and was underwhelmed. (I'm not a Harry Potter buff, and while I enjoyed the books, I think the casting for the movies is pretty unimpressive and that, ultimately, the movies made me like the books a lot less.)

Over the weekend the boy and I spent a few relaxing nights in LA after attending a friend's birthday dinner on Lido Isle (which is actually in Orange County, not LA). I can't remember the exact name because the restaurant our (too large!) group was at has no website and the only prominent sign I recall was one baring the words: "Mediterranean Restaurant." Which it was. And it was good! The boy and I shared a spinach and feta appetizer wrapped in fillo dough, and a "Yogurt Kabob" which was a beef kabob surrounded by a tomato yogurt (?) sauce on top of a number of delicious crouton type things. The croutons really made the dish. It's hard to describe, but believe me, it was good. I'm looking forward to going back sometime with a smaller group or just the boy. The view is gorgeous (Lido Isle is a small piece of land right next to Balboa Island, so it's surrounded by beautiful Newport Beach/Bay water, complete with yachts and gondolas) and the quaint little restaurant had a lot of romantic charm.

A bit of Italian/Argentinian food, a bit of sushi, a bit of Wing Stop, a bit of fruit, ice cream and dumplings, and a bit of homemade potato bread french toast (my own!) rounded out the weekend. I also grabbed some Lofthouse Frosted Cookies on a whim - they're decidedly terrible for you but OH so deliciously tasty, and thus some of my favorite store bought cookies of all time.

In addition to the above, I've been doing a lot of cleaning (with good help, at times). And I've been enjoying it! My car is clean, both on the inside and the outside. The entire downstairs of my house, including the garage/pool room is clean and organized (which was ideal for having people over). My room is clean, minus my desk, but once my roses die (they make the clutter look quite nice, actually) I'll probably clean my desk as well.

Oh, and because I haven't specified yet, the above pictures were taken while I was on Lido Isle. A quaint little place, isn't it? :)

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Zing Zang Zoom



A lot of enjoyable things have happened in the past few days, including a number of good conversations, some roses, delicious meals and snacks, a lovely lakeside walk, and an exciting invitation. I will leave those to be discussed at another time, though, because yesterday I went to the circus!

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's show "Zing Zang Zoom" is showing at the Honda Center right now, and my mom decided randomly that she wanted to go. Thanks to her whim, I got to enjoy (from nearly front and center seats!) a spectacularly entertaining show filled with magic tricks, singing, dancing, tigers, elephants, dogs (ultimately one of my favorite acts!), tight rope stunts (another one of my favorites), a double human canon (exciting!), horses, zebras, silk aerialists, contortionists, swinging log acrobatics (cool yet hard to explain), something called dueling wheels (also cool and hard to explain), russian gymnasts (complete with a fire ring stunt!), an upside down act (I can't explain it, nor can I figure out how they did it), and, of course, a number of entertaining clowns :)

"Zing Zang Zoom" utilized live music and a lot of creative lighting. The acts were what made the show so great, though. There was always something going on, and too many places to look at at once. The audience was gasping and cheering and participating at all times, and some of the tricks the performers were pulling off were beyond amazing. And the animals were great! The elephants were regal and MASSIVE (although their feet are smushy looking, which is kind of cute), and the tigers were pretty intimidating. The horses were elegant, and the zebras (some of the most interesting looking animals, ever) did tricks just like the horses! The dogs were adorably cute (fluffy, smart, funny - the works), and unfortunately I didn't get any great pictures of them because I was too engrossed in their amazingly entertaining act.

In any case, words don't do the show justice. I'll try with pictures, but I doubt they will do it justice either. I was so pleasantly surprised by how good the show was. I certainly hope other people recognize the splendor of the "Greatest Show on Earth" as well, so this century old tradition can continue running strong :)












Sunday, July 19, 2009

Keeping Busy



It's been a while since I've (really) written.

Today I'm tired, literally and figuratively. Literally, because I've recently become re-obsessed with Inuyasha. I used to watch the English dubbed versions (they aren't bad dubs, I swear!) on Adult Swim back in high school... but they only played episodes after midnight and after a while I just couldn't justify staying up to watch them anymore. Apparently they finished producing the entire anime series in 2006, and sometime between then and now, they were posted online. So I've been watching a few episodes before I go to sleep every night. (Except I love the show, so a few episodes turns into more than a few episodes, and I don't end up sleeping until sometime between 3am and 8am. [8am was only once, the first night, but still... haha.])

I'm figuratively tired for other reasons.

I've also been surprisingly busy. I'm starting to make an effort to see all the people I've been conveniently avoiding (what? avoiding? never..) because my introverted self has finally gotten enough me time to warrent socializing again. It's been nice :)

To make this shorter than most of my recent posts, here are some highlights of things that I've done in the past week and a half:

Eat @ Del Taco, El Torito (not Grill), DQ, L&L, my uncle's restaurant, Burger King, Thai Cafe, Thanh Binh II (LOVE this place), Pizza Hut, Zankou Chicken, Tullys, the Original Pancake House, Juice It Up, and Lamppost Pizza
Spend an afternoon in Huntington Beach
Hang out in LA/Westwood
Chill in a park in South Orange County
Wander Toys R Us, Target, South Coast Plaza, Barnes and Noble, and various board game stores
Work on a 2000 piece puzzle of Las Vegas
Watch Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Inuyasha, and Pans Labyrinth
Play Sims3, Bomberman, pool, Zombie Fluxx, ping pong, and Bang! (which I FINALLY bought!)
Go on a refreshing bike ride!
Read/practice cake decorating techniques
Help my mom with her real estate endeavours
Relax at the pool
Catch up with good friends
Make a dessert calzone, fried rice, and red velvet bars (with some recipe tweaks)
Go to an old friend's going away party, a dentist appointment (less fun), and a BBQ
Smile :)

Something I haven't been doing is taking pictures... so I used one of my favorite Inuyasha pictures for this post. I first used it as a desktop background while I was a sophomore (?) in high school, and, with my rekindled obsession, I've made it my desktop background again. Good times :)

Thursday, July 16, 2009

Ten Things


So many days have passed since I've updated! I will say that I've been enjoying myself. I'll get into details later, though, because RCaitlin at "City Intern Girl Life" gave me a blog award the other day!

How exciting :)

Apparently I'm supposed to list 10 things (facts?) about me. I'm not sure exactly what to say, but here's me trying:

1. I'm really bad at calling people, whether it be initiating the call or returning the call. I often conveniently forget that people have left me messages, and I find other ways to contact them if it's something important (text, Facebook, etc). I'm not sure why or how I fell into this habit. I wish I lived during a time where there was less technology so I'd HAVE to make those calls. Alas, I don't. So please don't take it personally if it's been a few days and you haven't heard back from me.

2. For most of my life I wanted to be a private piano teacher. Through a series of events (people telling me that I had an amazing voice and should thus pursue that musical specialty in college/life...) and my own laziness (singing was REALLY easy for me and piano/memorization of pieces was more work), I ended up changing my mind at the last minute and applying to colleges as a voice major. Now entering my fourth year of college, I sometimes find myself regretting that decision.

3. My first kiss was in first grade with a cute little boy named Blaine. Technically this wasn't my first "REAL" kiss, as they say, but I still think it's an interesting fact :)

4. I have an overactive imagination and thus hate (HATE) scary movies. If a movie looks interesting but there's a chance it might be scary, I have to have a friend watch it first and vouch for either it's scariness or non-scariness. I also close my eyes and hum through scary commercials/previews on TV/in movie theatres.

5. I am an only child.

6. I used to take Irish dance lessons. I'm half Chinese (and very proud of it!) and not very Irish looking so I stood out, but for some reason I didn't mind. They were very welcoming of me. The classes were held at night, and after each week's lesson, my mom or dad would pick me up and we'd stop by Jamba Juice and I'd get the original version of what is now called an Orange-A-Peel. Those were good days :)

7. I am afraid of heights and mildly afraid of the dark. Leave me at a mountain top or in a dark park for too long and my (previously mentioned) overactive imagination goes wild and I start panicking. Combine the two fears, and I literally can't move. This makes hiking at dusk especially difficult. It also makes going out onto an ocean pier at night a challenge - I have to walk straight down the middle of the pier while trying to control my thoughts, or I can't make it very far. I also never go near the pier's edge at night. This is unfortunate, because the view of the mainland is gorgeous when seen from the end of a pier.

8. I love amusement parks. I particularly love Disneyland, and I go to Six Flags often. I once made it a rule when I was younger that any guy I seriously dated would have to be ok with my love of Disneyland. (As horrid as it is, there are some men out there who think Disneyland is only for children. The nerve!)

9. Although people will tell you otherwise, I am an introvert. I don't mind large groups of people, and can carry my own in most any social setting just fine, but I prefer smaller groups of people, one on one situations, and alone time. A lot of alone time. I don't get much alone time while I'm at college, and it really stresses me out. I've been overcompensating for last year by spending as much time as I can reflecting by myself this summer. I've loved every second of it :)

10. I love my family. Even though we have a strange dynamic, and it's never said aloud that we love each other, I do love them. And I can type it here on this blog because neither of my parents are computer savvy and they will probably never come across this particular entry.

And there you have it. 10 facts. I also think I'm supposed to pass this blog award on. I will be giving it to Lisa at "Where the hell do I go from here?," Regina at "Regina Mako," and Sarah at "Yosh! よし!".

Have a good day everyone!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Lists, Putzing, and Big Smiles



Earlier in the summer, the boy and I created a work-in-progress list of 100 Things To Do before we had to go back to school. I lost the first one, and so we made a second one. A few days after we made the second one, he broke his collar bone, and most everything on the list suddenly became null and void.

We need a new list, but I almost don't want to make another one. Summer is nearly half over, and the things on the list that I wanted to do were basic things that I do every summer (taking advantage of the sun by kayaking, hiking, bike riding, and exploring... going to every pool, every beach, every restaurant, and every park - amusement or green... flying kites, watching fireworks, dancing, etc). Now that many of those things aren't viable options anymore, I'd like to just wake up and do spontaneous things. Hopefully this desire will prompt some interesting entries recapping such things like driving out into the desert to look at stars on a whim, going to the San Diego Zoo because I have the time, and baking more desserts to bring to people because I can.

A few possible problems that I can foresee (besides the boy's physical restrictions) are his non-physical restrictions, and both of our bank accounts. Hopefully neither of these things will be major issues in the final half of summer.



In other news, while putzing around with one of my oldest friends in Target, I came across a metallic silver coin bank that looks like a schnauzer/terrier. I immediately fell in love, and even though it didn't have a visible price tag, I decided to buy it. Thankfully it ended up being $10, so it didn't "break the bank" (ha... :P)... and as a result, I now have a cheery, fabulous container to keep all my change. And every time I see it, I smile a really BIG smile. Awesome. :)

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Sunny Days









All pictures taken in Southern California during this past week (specifically in Balboa, Los Angeles, Mission Viejo, Irvine, and Orange). See you in a few days with a real (aka written) update :)

Saturday, July 4, 2009

Excessive Recapping



I wanted to get a quick update in today, just because the things I'd like to blog about are piling up. So I'm going to do an expanded highlights post if you will.

Last week I enjoyed a date at the Yardhouse (in which I wasn't super hungry so I ordered crab cake appetizers and a side of mashed potatoes and some Pyramid Hef on tap... and realized five minutes in that I ordered three of the most filling things on the menu). Afterwards, we went and saw Star Trek on a whim. I liked it, although it took a little while for me to figure out who the main characters were supposed to be (I'd never watched any episodes of the Kirk/Spock Star Trek). Interestingly, I also thought the movie was more climatic towards the beginning and middle. The end was exciting, but not as gripping for me as the beginning and middle were, if that makes sense.

The Star Trek movie also inspired us to actually watch the original TV show. We watched the first episode of the first season the other day. I actually really liked it! Yes, it was funny in a "wow, those foam rocks are pretty basic" kind of way... but it was also funny in a "wow, this is actually a pretty witty script" kind of way. And the plot was interesting! Win. I'm excited to watch more :P

Another meal of note was when my mom took the boy and me out to a Vietnamese restaurant in my city, although I can't remember what it's called. They both got pho, but I've been anti-pho lately (I had wayy too much of the stuff my freshman year of college, and it was never a favorite soup of mine) so I got a garlic chicken dish. Wasn't nearly as good as the Vietnamese crispy shrimp from my six month's dinner a while back, though :/

Yesterday I got breakfast with my dad at the Ruby's Moto Diner at the Spectrum, in which I got some corned beef hash and eggs. My Uncle's Restaurant has better corned beef hash, though.

I went to the Moto-Ruby's again for dinner with the boy, where we shared a plate of Black and Bleu Sliders with sweet potato fries - my favorite dish there. It's indescribably delicious. We rushed through the meal so we could get good seats for the 10:20 showing of Transformers IMAX. It was pretty awesome watching Transformers in IMAX. The movie definitely had it's issues (why was the old Decipticon that supposedly existed a "millenium ago" transformed into a 1970s fighter plane when it was found? Hmm?), but it was still entertaining. And I like the Transformer movies because, well, what's not to like about gigantic robot creatures fighting for 2.5 hours straight? And Optimus Prime is pretty bad ass. The only REAL beef I had with the movie was the fact that EVERY SINGLE GIRL depicted at the college Sam attends was hot. That is SO unrealistic. And all it does is show that whoever cast the movie specifically chose girls based on their appearance (to appeal to teenage boys, I suppose). I'm very confident with my own appearance, but it still irks me that a movie could be so shallow in it's casting :(

Let's see...

Oh, I was hoping to go to the most recent Create:Fixate event, "Build", last weekend... but through a series of events, the boy and I didn't make it to LA until after 10pm. Which was unfortunate because the price of admission goes up after 10pm. Also, the event was being held in a warehouse (pretty cool), BUT that meant that it was in a really sketch part of town and, by the time we found the place, there was absolutely no street parking. And, seeing that it was already really late (at this point it was approaching midnight, and even though "Build" lasted until 3am, I was hoping to get there at 8pm), it didn't seem worth it anymore to pay the more expensive admission price as well as pay to park in a lot (something I HATE about LA). We quickly decided to just go back to my apartment and catch up on Bleach. It was still a fun night. Breakfast was tasty the next morning too :)

Oh for those who are wondering, the boy is enduring his broken collar bone pretty well. I know he's hurting, but he tries not to complain, and he's getting more adept at using only his left arm to get around :) On Tuesday I baked some yellow butter cupcakes and frosted them with lemon cream cheese icing, intending to take some over to him. As circumstance would have it, I wasn't able to bring them over until Thursday :/ They were still tasty, though :)

I also went to Westwood this past week and had a delicious (late) lunch at Versailles (YUM Cuban food!) and enjoyed a bit of window shopping at The Grove. I'm not really a huge fan of shopping, but I'll go every once in a while, especially to some place like The Grove (where there are other things to do besides waste -er, spend- money). Anyway, that day concluded with a viewing of The Proposal, which I actually REALLY enjoyed! I do like Sandra Bullock (her movies are entertaining), and even though it was a chick flick-ish type movie, this one wasn't annoying. The character of the female lead wasn't weak and whiny, and I respected that. And it was FUNNY! So yeah. I recommend it :)

Other things I've been doing include playing piano/singing as often as I can, playing with Bubba/Boba (who's still here, surprisingly), not taking pictures (I'd been using my cellphone camera lately, but now that I don't have it anymore, I'm out of habit), and helping my mom with her real estate endeavors. For example, the other night we spent 2 some hours shoving 200 small American flags into the lawns of our neighborhood. That picture up there is one I took of our last 10 or so flags.

Anyway, I'm late leaving for a BBQ at the boy's house so I'm off. I didn't realize I had so much to talk about from this past week, haha.

Happy 4th of July everyone :)