Weekend and What Not

Yesterday was a fun day filled with business and relaxation. My phone has been turning itself off lately, and although it usually isn't a major problem, it interfered with some things yesterday which is a bummer. The best part of the day was dinner with my awesome cousin who is in town for work. He took the boy and I to Lawry's for some tasty prime rib and beer. And TASTY creamed corn. Honestly, that might have been my favorite part of the meal (besides the good company). Afterwards, Emilie and I had a POW WOW! An event dear, significant, and unique to us, and VERY missed by me over the past 8 or so months.

Today was also a fun day filled with outings and relaxation. After a quick breakfast, some time at home, and a quicker lunch, the boy and I ended up at the MOCA. We walked through the entire museum and read the blurb for every piece of art in the building. There're a lot of interesting pieces in there. There's a lot of work that doesn't appeal to me at all, also, but hey. Such is modern art. One of my favorite parts of the MOCA was the store, in which I found a pack of 30 AWESOME postcards for only $10. A steal in a store like that, and a REALLY good price for high quality postcards! (Only 33 cents a card!) I'm excited to send them out via Postcrossing :)

Also today I ate some Versailles (not at the main restaurant, unfortunately, so it wasn't quite as tasty as usual) and watched District9 at CityWalk. CityWalk is a fun place, just because there's so much going on. I love lights, and CityWalk has a lot of them. I'd say CityWalk > Downtown Disney, also, because it's less family oriented. Then again, Downtown Disney houses the Jazz Kitchen and their famous beignets... so maybe I'm wrong in saying that.

RE District9... man that was a stressful movie. I didn't think it would be good (viral marketing really turns me off)... but IMDB reviews gave it an 8.7/10, surprisingly, so we watched it. It was well made, considering. Not enjoyable (SO stressful), but it was good. I'm not sure if I like it yet... but I think I do. I don't think I'd watch it again, though.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy work day (why do I have so much homework already?), but I'm looking forward to staying on top of things so no big there. If I finish early enough, I might watch some live music at the LACMA. That should be fun.

In other news, there's an onimous cloud of SOMEthing growing over the mountains east of LA. Looks like it might be a fire of some sort, but I haven't heard anything. News to come RE that later, hopefully...

Hope everyone else is also having good weekends. Sorry I haven't been commenting on your blogs! I will get around to it soon, I promise. Maybe tomorrow. Anyway. It's kind of nice to be back in LA :)

A Good Start

And I'm back at USC! It's of course been a busy week, what with getting everything prepped academically and at the apartment. HapaSC is taking up a lot of time, but not more than it should, which is good. I like my classes so far... and I think they will all be manageable. In fact, I think my 20 units would be a breeze without HapaSC... but then what's the fun in that? Haha.

The boy's been staying with me recently, which has been a neat adventure. Not like it's anything new, but it's more... I don't know how to describe it. It's less of an option, and more of a situation now haha. I've been enjoying it though :) It gives me a chance to cook more often. This week's meat of choice is chicken. Last night we had Chicken Marinara (complete with terrorizing experience), and tonight I'm going to make a Chicken Katsu. And I just found some leftover Tiramisu in the fridge, which I made for a retreat on Sunday. So that was a nice surprise!

The goal is to get all of my work done as soon as I can so I have time to watch the Prestige tonight, which I have been wanting to re-watch for about a year now. The worst part is, I actually own it - I just can't find it. So we had to get it via Netflix. Boo. But at least it's finally here and available to watch...

Tomorrow will be the last day of my first week of classes, because I'm free on Fridays! Although this Friday I will be doing some practical things before getting dinner with my cousin. I'm excited for this weekend, also, because the plan is for the boy and I to head out to a museum. I really enjoy museums (they're very relaxing), but I haven't had the opportunity to go recently. So I'm looking forward to that.

On top of all this (and I apologize for the randomness), my econ class doesn't look like it's going to be all that bad. My professor managed to be engaging for the full two hours. At 8 in the morning. Amazing! It's a good start to hopefully a good year.

Hope everyone who's still on break is enjoying it, and that everyone else who's back in school (or working!) is enjoying THAT as well :)

The Final Stretch

So I've been working, working, working to get everything done before school starts (at this point it's mainly HapaSC stuff). Right now it's been a full day and a half (with few breaks) of helping my RC with the NEW(-ish) HapaSC website. I'm really excited for it, though, so when it's up I'll let you all know :) One of the pages I helped with was the Gallery. In doing so, I got a chance to look through all of our pictures from last year. Almost makes me miss it! Haha, JK, I do miss it - my fellow hapas (and non-hapas) especially. I never realized how complete of a year we had, until I saw all the pictures in one place. Hopefully everyone else will have a similar reaction when they see our (nearly 1000!) pictures too.

Lately life has brought me back in touch with old friends. I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but my best friend from 5th grade throughout high school is GETTING MARRIED NEXT MONTH! I'm really excited for the wedding. I've only been to one before (le sigh), and that one was a very casual beach wedding between my cousin and his lovely (now) wife, both of whom had been married before. So I'm looking forward to going to a wedding between two people who are taking the plunge for the very first time! I'm so happy for my BF and 1/2. Ten, or eight, or even four years ago I wouldn't have been able to imagine this day, but here it comes, fast approaching :)

The other exciting news is that an old friend from ELEMENTARY SCHOOL is coming to LA to visit in October. Exciting! I'll probably join her for a trip to Disneyland or something (if I can squander up the money), but if she has the time while she's out here, I think it would be really fun to do some severely LA-esque activities as well. Live music, or delicious vegan food, or SOMEthing. Or a museum and/or Korean BBQ perhaps? So many choices!

Alright. Five minutes is five minutes too long for a break right now. Back to work!

As I Continue Preparing

It's currently less than two weeks until classes start. Feels like crunch time. Probably because it IS crunch time. Anyway. I went to the OC Fair over the weekend. LOVE the fair. There is so much to see, and I love all the lights and sounds. It's expensive, yes, but if you plan to not spend a lot of money, you won't, and you STILL will have spent hours there. I always eat at my uncle's restaurant across to the street to save money on food and parking... which leaves more money for rides. A lot of the exhibits are free too. And this year everyone was particularly nice and friendly, which was great! People tell me the LA Fair is better because it's bigger, but I'll stick with my OC Fair because it's home. Farm exhibits, local personal collections and galleries showcasing the history of the Fair Grounds are especially interesting to me because I can relate to it. For example, did you know the OC Fair has been at the same location every year since 1949, the second year of it's existence? No? Did you care? No? Well I did and do care! More pictures from the fair are up on One Smile.

In other news, the Cesar mascot (a Westie!) is such an adorably fluffy dog. Super super cute. I really want a dog. Only 1 (or 1.5, depending) years until I graduate and can fulfill that wish...

Which reminds me. I'm watching my friend's dog for a week and some days, starting tomorrow. Jose (short for Jose Cuervo) is his name, and he's a very very small chihuahua with a crooked tooth. Cute, though. So that should be fun :)

Looking forward to a simple night in with the boy tonight. Sounds like a bit of Power Grid, a movie, some dinner, and a handful of good conversation is in the works. I'm excited :) Hope everyone else is having a good day, also!

Time Is Flying

And it's certainly flying fast. Classes start two weeks from tomorrow, which means that I've been busy trying to get things organized before moving back to LA. I'm President of HapaSC again this year, which means that I've got a LOT to do before we start our recruitment process (don't mind the unfinished portions of our website - it's currently getting updated for the new year). My goal is to get all the heavy planning done BEFORE school starts so I can actually have a life (outside of HapaSC) during the school year. So far, so good. I'm really excited about it, actually.

Spent a few days relaxing in LA and just got back. Swung by Scoops while I was up there and lo and behold - I see a sign for Guinness Chocolate! My absolute FAVORITE Scoops flavor! Except, what's this? They're all out for the night? Aoiahsdpfoih. I've been waiting to have Guinness Chocolate again since the first time I had it, which was the very first time I had Scoops, ever. Long time ago. And I haven't had it since. It's so depressing. (I ended up getting Pistachio Orange Water and Cherry Brandy, which was very tasty but STILL! Guinness Chocolate!)

I have less time to write entires, which means that posts will be shorter (yay) and more infrequent (not yay). In the meantime, I've started up another blog (one that's easier to update) called One Smile. And with that said, I hope everyone is having a lovely day :)