The Calm Before the Storm

I intended to update earlier this week (which is why I put up two posts today), but I really didn't have the time. Highlights include:

A Relay for Life Meeting
A Valentine's Day package from my Dad!
A beautiful field trip to the Getty
A combo night with Emilie at the Counter and Melt!
A big dinner at Road to Seoul
A philanthropy show at Theta Xi
A successful trip downtown to check out the Hive
A KSCR party with plenty of the unexpected
A friend's fantastic senior recital
A chance to reconnect with old friends
A night in with thai food and the Olympics
And a lot of fun/meaningful hang time :)

It's been a good/interesting week. A lot is going on in my head. It's hard to describe. My original plan was to swing by Orange County today for a bit of shopping and a chance to finish reading the Enchantress of Florence. I'm not sure if I'll make it down at this point, but if I do I might swing by Kim's to see her family's new house. We'll see!

A few more pictures from the Getty:

Belated San Diego

Another Amazing Weekend

Before I forget all the details, I wanted to blab about my wonderful Valentine's Day. RC and I had been talking about taking a trip for V-day for a while now, and last week we decided to do it. He suggested San Diego and I was all for the idea. I really like the area and it's been a while (almost two years?) since I've been down.

RC did all the planning, which was awesome. All I had to do was be ready to go on Sunday, and after a tasty breakfast with my Dad and a lot of errand running, I was finally good to go. The trip itself went something like this:

Receive a dozen roses :)
Enjoy a beautiful, traffic-free drive to San Diego
Get lucky with free parking in Old Town
Peruse old/familiar shops!
Recollect past trips to the area, including a particularly fun elementary school field trip
Enjoy margaritas and nachos at El Fandango
Listen to romantic, table-side music
Travel downtown to check in to our fancy shmancy hotel
Exchange gifts/introduce Bear
Head out to dinner at Tabule and experience great atmosphere and delightful service
Wander the Gaslamp District
Watch a bit of the Olympics
SLEEP
Brunch at Monsoon, a delicious (FILLING) Indian restaurant
Head over to Pacific Beach
Get lucky again with free parking 10 feet from the pier
Flounce around popping seaweed amongst seagulls in shallow water
Eventually drive back to Orange County
Finish off the trip with some tasty Jamba Juice...
And then immediately go out to have tea/fantastic conversation with Jackie!

My day ended with my mom and I watching one of the most moving figure skating performances I've ever seen: Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao's long program. It wasn't a flawless performance, but there was so much emotion behind each of their movements that I barely noticed their few small mistakes. They were so graceful, and the choreography fit the music splendidly. Plus, they have a fantastic story: Zhao proposed to Shen four years ago at the last olympics, and they went into retirement shortly thereafter. They came out of retirement to compete in this year's olympics with the hopes of winning an Olympic Gold medal - the one title that elluded them during their 18 year career. Perhaps it was knowing this that made me hang on their every move... but seriously, it was a really beautiful program. Oh and in case you were wondering, they won their gold medal. :D

Anyway, I took a TON of pictures this weekend. Although it's tempting to do it now, I'm going to wait to post them (I have 200 pages to read and a project to finish by Wednesday). It's just as well. Although pictures are often beautiful, they can never actually showcase the emotion of an experience. They can only spark memories, and for this I am glad. :)

Why Am I So Tired?

Time really flew by this week. To the point where I ended up at Wurstkuche twice but didn't actually realize I had gone twice in the same week until it came up in conversation yesterday O.O

Part of the reason I think I lost track of time was because of how varied my week was. There were multiple days in which the things I was doing made it feel like it was a weekend night, not a weekday night. The week itself included all the usual things (classes, meetings, tests/papers/projects), plus random things (delivering 100 hand made Valentines Day cards to an orphanage in Culver City, pausing to watch traditional Korean drummers perform on campus), as well as tasty things (Wurstkuche x 2 where I've started to always get a Kielbasa with sauerkraut and sweet peppers and white truffle oil french fries with chipotle aioli, dinner at the 2-9, getting delivery from my favorite local Thai restaurant, randomly getting a free pint at Scoops!), and fun things (getting to know awesome/interesting people better, acquiring both Adobe [thank you!!] and Finale, spontaneously driving down for Micha's surprise birthday dinner, hours upon hours of fantastic conversations, etc).

I also went to a Graduation Info session (in which I started to get even more excited about graduating) and sang in this week's studio class (in which I started to get even more excited about my recital).

And I've also been busy organizing my part of an application for this silly award thingy I've been nominated for. I'm not even sure what it's called, haha, but I'm assuming it's a good thing/worth all the effort?

Anyway. I question why I'm tired because although the week was crazy hectic (what's new), my weekend was supposed to be (is?) relaxing. Granted, Jimmy and I didn't get back to Irvine until super late last night (and then we stayed up talking over tea and coffee) and I woke up early for an appointment today... but still. I also feel like I shouldn't be tired because today was an entirely "me" day. It's been scheduled as such for over a week, in part because at the time I knew I had a busy week ahead of me. You would think my "me" day would be relaxing, and looking back I have a hunch it was, but anyway. My "me" day went something like this, for those who care:

After my appointment I headed over to a Meditteranean restaurant that I like and had a Yogurt Kabob plate (which was delicious but super filling). Then, I wandered around Lido Isle and leisurely took pictures until my meter ran out. And THEN I headed down to my favorite beach in Laguna and lay out to read The Enchantress of Florence until it got too chilly to read on the beach, in which I headed up to the Koffee Klatch and got a vanilla chai tea latte (recommended over my usual chai tea latte by the barista and, as he said it would be, it was GOOD) and continued to read out on their cozy little patio. After which I headed over to the Spectrum to look for a few things that I've been needing but haven't had time to get yet... followed by a late dinner with my mom at this Chinese Restaurant on Quail Hill that I can't remember the name of. Something "Jade" I think. And then I returned to the Spectrum (because I hadn't found everything yet) and by the time I was done it was too late to hang out with friends I originally intended to see, which is just as well since by that point I was pretty darn tired. The last thing I did was go and pick up a few things I needed at Rite Aid and now I'm finally home BUT I don't feel like my scheduled "me" day actually relaxed me much. Perplexing. Maybe I should stop pondering and just sleep...

Except I need to pack for San Diego as I'm leaving tomorrow, right after breakfast with my Dad.

-_-

Thankfully it's a long weekend.




And with all that said... I really did love (LOOOOOVE) this week (and weekend so far!). It's kicked ass all over the place in so many ways. :)

Indescribable Fun

This was such a fantastic weekend. If I kept a list of the best days of my life, Sunday would be on it. I can't even describe the amazingness. I will try with highlights and pictures...

Passing by my exit on the way to San Clemente
Receiving an awesome, much appreciated gift
Grocery shopping for snacks and breakfast
Being surprised by the appearance of a much missed friend
Running around taking awesome scavenger hunt pictures
Getting drenched by a sudden downpour of magnificent rain
Crossing the line with friends
Eating tasty Japanese food with an awesome group of people
PARTY
Being caught in a King's Cup triangle/square
Learning and sharing truths during Hot Seat
Interacting with amazing, non-judgmental people
Walking along the beach at night
Sitting on the roof of a building at the end of a pier
Gazing at a distant light house
Good conversation
Being cold while walking home
Piling 15 people in a beautiful 2 bed/2 bath condo
Waking up early and cooking a tasty breakfast with friends
Washing dishes
Taking a detour on the way home
Seeing my mom!
Saying hi to Mr. Snow!
Picking up my childhood lamp!
Beautiful day-after-it-rains weather
Fluffy, picturesque clouds
Drinking an iced tea latte from the Koffee Klatch
Introducing Mountain Beach to friends
Chasing after seagulls
Admiring a wise-looking pelican
Running along the shore
Losing inhibition in the waves
Sitting on my favorite rock
Staring at 180 degrees of glorious ocean
Watching a group of surfacing dolphins!
Magically appearing rubber balls and non-splintery fence posts
Playing makeshift baseball
Doing well!
Being taunted by a thieving seagull
Attempting cartwheels in the sand
Watching the sunset beyond Catalina
Driving up PCH
Singing in the car
Eating a delicious cheeseburger
Listening to three albums of Norah Jones
Staying up drawing an object of importance
Sleeping soundly, finally :)

Busy Week, End

While I still have a handful of prep work to do for HapaSC's Spring Retreat... I still managed to go out and about (in the rain!). Emilie and I had a delicious (filling) dinner at Manas and went and saw Yeasayer at the Natural History Museum for the museum's First Friday series. It was a really cool show! Mostly because the stage was set up in between all the exhibits... but still cool. It was a nice end to a busy week :)

Good Day, Good Abra

Yesterday I spent an hour and a half drawing a crosshatch tree using India Ink just for the hell of it. It was FUN! And although it isn't perfect, I really like my tree too. And I LOVE India Ink. My art professor doesn't seem to like the medium very much (something about it being hard to control), but I find so much enjoyment in it. I love the defined lines and the fact that depending on how hard I press the quill to the paper the width of the line changes. I love that it's a little bit unpredictable and sometimes a small blob will fall somewhere random. I love that if I'm crosshatching a bit too excitedly, tiny ink splatters start appearing everywhere. I love that it's a little messy. And I love that, even though it's supposed to take a while to get used to it, I can control it quite well. Using India Ink made me so very happy :)

I've reinserted music into my life. Not that I ever took it out, but it sort of took a back seat for the past few years. Not anymore. I've been singing in my room, in the shower, as I ride my bike - all over the place. My iTunes is constantly open. I've reupdated my iPod (and have gotten more used to the fact that I can't fit all my music on it and thus have to pick and choose what gets put on when). Right now I'm listening to Ingrid Michaelson. I've always loved her music.

I've also been practicing my recital pieces a lot. I love my program. I hope you all do too, if you come to see me perform. I hope you come. I finally wrote out my schedule/pre-recital plan. In doing so, I've come to realize how attainable my recital goals are and I'm EXCITED.

I went to the gym with Anhkhoa today and he DRILLED me. Now I feel good! I'm excited to start doing pilates consistently again. It's been a while. I'd been so busy that I'd find myself too tired to move by the end of the day. But now? I'm good now. And that means pilates!

Yes, I'm good today. And now it's time for me to read through "Abandon the Old in Tokyo" by Yoshihiro Tatsumi for my lit class. Until later... :)