welcome, my name is abra

I Am A College Graduate!

2010-05-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

And so four years have concluded. Graduation was an amazingly fun day. I managed to wake up and make it to both the main commencement ceremony and the Thornton satellite ceremony. I'm really glad I made it to the main ceremony! I loved the traditional hob nob, courtesy of USC - everything from flags and stately processions to live music and a lovely release of doves at the very end of the ceremony. I'm really glad that I went.

The satellite ceremony (and adjoining reception!) was a lot of fun too. It was so amazing to be surrounded by friends I have known since the beginning, as well as supportive professors who have stuck by me throughout the years.

It was great to see my family so happy as well... and word on the street was that I looked pretty happy myself!

Thank you to my family and friends for coming to support me. I'm so glad that I will have so many amazing memories from graduation to last me a lifetime. It's unlikely that one day can justify four years, but if that one day were to exist, it would be my graduation day. :)

Pictures from my camera are up on Facebook. Still waiting for a few more cameras to get uploaded... but until then, here are a few highlights:

Lining up for the main ceremony.
John, Jack, and Alex's hand...
Emilie and Adrian!
Devin is taller than me?!
Brian and Derik!
Nate and I, still the same haha.
And last but not least, my family :)

Accomplished Exhaustion

2010-05-13T18:06:00.000-07:00

Man, I'm exhausted. But it's a good exhaustion. One that comes as a result of a week of fun and a week of accomplishments. Today I was recognized by the Thornton School of Music at their annual Honors Convocation as a Renaissance Scholar (a University wide recognition for graduating students who excelled in two areas of contrasting study). I was also awarded the Order of Troy by the University in THEIR Honors Convocation, although I can't help but think what I could have accomplished had I less to deal with these past two years. That's another story for another time, though, and honestly not that important. I'm thankful to have been recognized at all, and WOW some of our graduating class is accomplished! I was repeatedly blown away by the amazing things some of these people have done, all the while excelling in their multiple majors, minors, and leadership positions (often in service organizations). It was pretty inspiring.

Afterwards, my dad (who came up for the ceremonies) and I had a nice, relaxing lunch.

Yesterday I swung by Irvine to get a haircut (I was *long* overdue, har har), have a belated birthday/Mother's Day lunch with my mom, and do a large handful of graduation related errands. I eventually finished up in Orange County and scurried back up to LA for an entertaining/tasty dinner at a Thai restaurant in Sherman Oaks in which I blabbered too much, as usual.

A few days ago I had tea with an old professor and two dear friends at an awesome little cafe called Brick's and Scones. What makes it awesome is its location. It's on Larchmont, but more importantly it's tucked away from the street in this amazing building with high ceilings and a decor that's rich in color. Oh and the whole thing is surrounded by TREES. Trees in LA = love at first sight for me. I don't know how so many people survive in a city that's 90% concrete and pavement. Anyway, I'm looking forward to going back sometime!

Also this week I had a really nice dinner with a much missed friend. :)

Over the weekend I spent a fun day in Pasadena, which included a meal at this cute little restaurant called Mi Piace (in which I had some tasty butternut squash ravioli that was almost as good as [but not quite as good as] the butternut squash ravioli I get at Il Fornaio). I also walked around Old Town, which was enjoyable in and of itself. Pasadena is a really cute area. It vaguely reminds me of parts of Orange County, especially south Orange County, which is really nice because parts of south Orange County are just fantastic.

I guess I'm specifically thinking of Dana Point. I LOVE Dana Point.

Before all that I spent an evening with Emilie (complete with tasty sushi!), watched the lovely Katie sing a very entertaining recital, and scuffed up my leg at a party by falling through an old wooden chair whilst trying to climb over a patio wall to get to a neighboring apartment... hahaha.

Ah I'm actually having trouble keeping my thoughts coherent, and this entry has turned into a picture-less recap of my week. Whatever. I'm pretty exhausted. I've been losing sleep these past few days, all in good fun of course, but still. I'd better stop rambling and get started on some work I need to finish up, because I need to sleep early tonight so I can wake up early tomorrow and be on time to my graduation.

Oh yes. That's the other big news. I'm graduating tomorrow!!! :D

Neglect!

2010-05-07T19:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's been a while. Apologies. I've been busy finishing up projects and papers, studing for finals, and organizing my life so I'll be ready to GRADUATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I'm pretty excited.

But there's a lot to catch up on. Some of these things probably require their own entry, so I might just post multiple entries. We'll see. Maybe I'll just talk about HAPArt and ignore everything else and let all you curious stalkers remain curious about my life. I have yet to decide. But first...

HAPArt was a success! The hapa art held it's own surprisingly well against the eclectic art of the Hive. We were able to put up everything and keep it visually interesting. Our fantastic musicians all played great, intimate sets. Our talented live artists were a hit. We had a lot of people come through, of which the majority were LAers! Apparently some of our widespread LA marketing actually worked, haha. The best guests, however, were my friends and family. Thank you all SO much for coming! :) All the pictures in this post are from my camera:

As for what else I've been doing, I guess I'll just do some highlights of the past week or so. They include: completing my final drawing project, watching the 88 and yOya, sharing a pirate's chai milkshake, eating sushi in Little Tokyo, hanging out with Jimmy, singing in a recital, attending Formal Dinner (my last hapa event!!), celebrating my birthday, wandering the Descanso Gardens, enjoying a picnic, eating Peruvian food, visting with Ann, making friends with a lovebird, experiencing Fight Club, turning in my final orchestration project, dining at Cole's, conversing over mango green tea boba, receiving flowers, receiving more flowers, enjoying POMx iced coffee, and taking my last three finals of my undergraduate career! It's been pretty eventful, and it's SO nice to be done! Wow I'm indescribably excited for life.

Tonight should be a lot of fun too, but I'll save the details for another post. And maybe later I'll put up a few pictures from my month of absenteeism. We'll see!

Interlude

2010-04-27T12:18:00.001-07:00

Hi! It's my last week of undergrad. I'm excited. HAPArt went really well, pictures to come soon. But for now, I've got a paper to finish so I have enough time to start/finish my final drawing project, both due tomorrow. Ahh procrastinating. Ahh school. Ahh LAST week of school. Ahh!!

Rain Makes Me Happy!

2010-04-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

So I was sitting in my room, pondering how I should best tackle the mess that's accumulated over the past week. I decided to motivate myself by listening to one of my favorite Genius playlists. Halfway through the second song, I suddenly hear a new noise. What can this be? Somebody cleaning the courtyard? No! It's raining!! And not only is it raining, it's raining a gorgeous, grey, peaceful, calming, soothing rain. The perfect backdrop for the perfect music. I'm so happy. :)

Rain
+
All I Want - Joni Mitchell
Field Below - Regina Spektor
Both Hands - Ani DiFranco
Tiger Mountain Peasant Song - Fleet Foxes
Cigarettes And Chocolate Milk - Rufus Wainwright
Sweet Baby James - James Taylor
Oh! You Pretty Things - David Bowie
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35 - Bob Dylan
Shadow Boxer - Fiona Apple
Little Green - Joni Mitchell
Little Plastic Castle - Ani DiFranco
20 Years of Snow - Regina Spektor
Nervous Tic Motion of the Head to the Left - Andrew Bird
Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
Poses - Rufus Wainwright
Meadowlarks - Fleet Foxes
Something In The Way She Moves - James Taylor
Postcards From Italy - Beirut
Gotta Have You - The Weepies
Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl - Broken Social Scene
My Old Man - Joni Mitchell
Such Great Heights - Iron & Wine
Hotel Song - Regina Spektor
Heroin - The Velvet Underground
Fake Palindromes - Andrew Bird
=
Love

Traffic Lights

2010-04-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

In less than a month I will be a college graduate.
I'm SO excited!! :D
I've always felt that college life constricts my personality, and I can't wait for the freedom to soar.

In other news, this week was busy as always, highlighted by a handful of delicious dinners. My favorite would have to be my belated celebration of Emilie at the West Restaurant and Lounge on the top floor of the Hotel Angeleno. We had a window table, and wow what a view. You can't tell at all from my picture, but we were basically sitting next to an endless expanse of various shades of light speckling darkness. It vaguely reminded me of when I was a teenager and would seek out spectacular views and sit and watch the traffic lights change. So peaceful, so serene.

The food/live music was pretty good, too. :P

I've rewritten my list of things I would like to do (short and long term goals and the like). It's an ever evolving list that I always like to have on hand so if I ever get to a point where I'm not sure what it is I want to do next, I can refer to it and go from there. Or refer to it, make some changes, and go from THERE. It's all on hold until I graduate though... which means I should stop daydreaming about the (quickly approaching!) future and get back to work on my paper/projects!

Relay for Life, Mostly

2010-04-12T18:55:00.001-07:00

This was another eventful weekend. I went home on Friday to pick up my tent for Relay for Life, take pictures of the house (it's getting repainted at the moment), and clean up a few things. I also had dinner with my mom and the boy.

The majority of Saturday and Sunday was spent at Relay for Life, where for 24 hours I alternated walking around the track, watching over my team's campsite, and napping/trying to nap.

For those of you that don't know, Relay for Life is a 24 hour fundraising event for the American Cancer Society (ACS). Teams are supposed to have a representative walking or running the track at all times, representing the harsh reality that cancer never sleeps. There are also events within Relay, including the Survivor Lap (in which team members line up around the track and high five survivors as they do a lap) and Luminaria (in which the lights at the track are turned off to showcase illuminated white paper bags lining the track, honoring or remembering a loved one). There's also music and food, but above all else, Relay for Life is a fundraiser. Each team member is encouraged to raise at least $100 for the ACS, ultimately for cancer research. I ended the event with $415 in donations, which isn't bad.

Unfortunately, I didn't enjoy Relay for Life as much this year. It was my second year participating, my first as a team captain, and I was very disappointed. While all the elements were there (I'm pretty sure the student organization that runs Relay for Life at USC gets something akin to a "Relay for Life Kit" at the beginning of the year with all the instructions/information on how to put on a successful Relay...), they were executed quite poorly. Everything was disorganized, and at times it seemed as if the student organizers of Relay didn't understand that most of the people who were participating had a personal connection to cancer and took the event very seriously. Meaning, it seemed as if some of them did NOT take the event that seriously, which was pretty insulting.

For example, during Luminaria (one of my personal favorite moments of Relay, and generally extremely moving), there was a guest speaker - a survivor. Her story was touching, and it was nice to hear. But then the organizers of the event had her read off of a script that she clearly had never seen before, in the dark, with no flashlight (until halfway through - remember the lights are off at this point). Worse was that the script was WRONG. It seemed to be something out of the "Relay for Life Kit" because the speaker began to read a line about a "ribbon" connecting all the attendees (which did not exist...) before an organizer stopped her and told her to skip that part and read the next paragraph.

Um. Great. The disorganization during the Luminaria presentation was so distracting it took away almost all the meaning behind Luminaria itself.

Another example has to do with the food. If you raise $100 or more, you get a blue wristband (versus a red one) and are able to eat free food at the track throughout the entirety of the event. The thing to keep in mind here is, if you expect to have food provided for you, you're not going to bring your own food. And I didn't. So I was sorely disappointed to find out that from 12pm-6pm on Saturday, all they had for us were semi-stale bagels (with no cream cheese after around 2pm), goldfish crackers, M&Ms, and water. Absolutely NO protein of any sort, or anything with any nutritional value.

And what did the Relay for Life committee have for themselves?

Apple juice, cake, muffins, and other delightful goodies that weren't available for the people who were walking.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

Anyway, it's still a great cause and while it was disappointing that it was run so poorly this year, I'm still glad to have been out there doing my part in the fight against cancer. It was a pretty exhausting 24 hours for me, but I still think it was worth it.

What wasn't fun was having to clean up on Sunday and then come back and work on two projects, both due today.

On the plus side, I finished both projects and made it to my first class (basically) on time. And then I got some new drawing supplies and had a moment to myself on campus, complete with an earl grey latte. And now I've got to run and get ready for my date with Emilie tonight - I'm taking her to this restaurant that's supposed to have an amazing view to complement their amazing food as a belated birthday gift, and it should be fun!

During the Survivor Lap.

HAPArt: Art, Music, Food and Philanthropy

2010-04-05T04:11:00.000-07:00

Finally, I'm able to talk about this! Months ago I alluded to a project that I was working on, but never ended up talking about it. Well, this is it: HAPArt. Presented by HapaSC, it's an exhibition featuring contemporary art, live music, and food/refreshments. We've also set up another on-site bone marrow drive (like at Mixed and Matched last year) where attendees can register for the National Bone Marrow Registry on the spot, courtesy of A3M.

Until all our musicians and food vendors are confirmed, I'm not going to discuss it (although I'm EXTREMELY excited about both!!).

For now, you can learn more about the show at the Facebook Event or at the HAPArt website. If you're in the Los Angeles/Southern California area, please schedule this in your calender/try to make it out! Also, invite your friends and family! It's going to be a fantastic event, and I really hope you all are there to share it with me :)

Pink's Sucks

2010-04-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

So I mentioned a little while ago that I'm starting to write Yelp reviews again. My most recent was for the infamous LA hot dog establishment, Pink's. I'm cross posting it on my blog just for kicks, but if you want to read it in it's original form you can do so HERE. (And from there you can find some of my other reviews). I apologize for being a wordy writer in advance. If I were to sum up my entire experience with one word, it would be "nauseating." But anyway, on to pictures and the review...

I can't believe I'm actually giving a 1 star review to Pink's, but I am. There's no way around it. The food here is utterly disgusting.

Before I begin, though, I'd like to say that it's worth going to Pink's once in your life just because it IS a Los Angeles staple. The service is good, and the ambiance isn't horrible. If you do go, get something basic like a regular chili dog with onion rings (although Weinerschnitzel has a better, cheaper chili dog). For WHY I say this, read on...

The boy and I went for dinner today because we figured, regardless of the reputably horrendous wait time, we ought to go try the LA phenomenon known as Pink's. Our assumption was that at the very least we'd have a decent meal.

Wrong. So wrong.

The wait wasn't that bad. The line was pretty long but it moved quickly and with good company it wasn't really an issue. At first glance, the hot dog creations looked pretty good. All of them had similar ingredients in different combinations: chili, mustard, onions, tomatoes, pastrami, cheese, nacho cheese, guacamole, bacon, lettuce, etc. They also have hamburgers and "specials" which included such things like a Bacon Burrito Dog (two hot dogs, chili, onions, cheese, and bacon all wrapped up in a "large flour tortilla"). I opted for the Ozzy Dog (a spicy polish sausage with guacamole, nacho cheese, cheese, grilled onions, and tomatoes), the boy got an America the Beautiful Dog (a 12" jalapeno dog with pastrami, bacon, lettuce, and tomatoes), and we shared chili cheese fries.

It was fun watching them make our hot dogs. It's such a small kitchen, and it's interesting to see how everything goes down.

When we finally got our food, it was pretty impressive. And by impressive, I mean huge. The American the Beautiful Dog was BIG, and both our dogs were piled high with toppings. The chili cheese fries were less impressive, but Pink's has a reputation for delicious chili so I figured it would taste good anyway.

Wrong again.

The chili was thick, but almost too much so and the flavor was just not there. It definitely wasn't close to being the best chili I've ever had. What made it worse was the absolutely disgusting french fries - at first I thought they were slightly orange because they were seasoned. Nope! They were orange because they were soaked in cheap (read: bad for you AND bad tasting), disgusting grease. SOAKED. After we got through about half of them, I noticed that the fry boat was filled with a layer of orange grease. Nasty!

Worse were our dogs. My first bite wasn't that bad - I actually thought something along the lines of "considering the portions, ambiance and service, I could give Pink's 4 stars on Yelp!" By my second bite, however, I brought my initial reaction down to 3 stars. And by the time I was half way through, I was at 2 stars. 30 minutes after my meal, I settled with a whopping 1 star. It was just that bad. Here's why:

THE BUN
The bun tasted like stale wonder bread, shaped like a hot dog bun, left out near a sprinkler on a humid day. It was flavorless and slightly damp, with a less than appealing texture.

THE DOG
My spicy polish dog had a little bit of spice, but the texture was pretty awful. The casing was too thick and/or overcooked, and the meat itself was dry. (If you've had Wurstkuche [or any real sausage/dog], it'll be a huge disappointment. If all you've had are Weinerschnitzel or Costco dogs [or even Ball Park or Oscar Mayer dogs that you make yourself at home], it will STILL be a disappointment).

THE TOPPINGS
The guacamole was, in the boy's words, "guacamole inspired goop," the nacho cheese was only slightly spicy but somehow completely overpowering and by the time I was half way through utterly disgusting, and the grilled onions were flavorless chopped onions that had been thrown on the grill to burn for a minute (which, by the way, was SUPER disappointing because I LOVE onions).

Needless to say, I couldn't finish my hot dog. The thought of doing so was nauseating. It was also unnecessarily messy, as in all the sticky, goopy toppings were constantly falling over my hands. (I don't mind mess for something that tastes good, but mess for something that's as nasty as my Ozzy dog is just excessive and cruel).

The boy didn't finish his either. The pastrami was just poor quality meat, and he later said the best part was the lettuce and tomatoes.

Bottom line? This was one of the worst meals of my entire life :(

More pictures for your viewing pleasure...

The line.
The dogs.
The chili cheese fries. Yucky yucky...

Drawing Dilemmas

2010-03-31T04:39:00.000-07:00

"Passage" by Amy Cutler. Oh, if only I were half as talented...
I just finished up the final touches of my latest drawing project. It... didn't turn out quite as I hoped it would which leads me to believe that I still suck at drawing and I will need many more hours of practice before I can get the worlds in my head transfered accurately on paper.

In any case, this particular project was to be anything inspired by one of 50 or so artists. I chose Amy Cutler, whose style of fine art is illustrative and somewhat bizarre. I like it a lot. My drawing is neither illustrative (it borders on cartoonish...) nor bizarre. Well that's a lie. The concept behind my drawing I actually like a lot, and it is quite strange. Just not as out there on paper as I had imagined it to be in my head :/

And when did it get to be 4:40 in the morning?? Aughh...

An Update

2010-03-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

This week I had delicious Thai food in Glendale. I also had dinner with Kim at the 2-9. Kurt visited, which was a lot of fun. We went to Wurstkuche before picking up 6 40s and playing Catchphrase/Guesstures/Scattegories. Kevin and friends stopped by, which was entertaining. Zombie Flux followed. Then I baked a cake. The highlight of Friday was Kim's birthday dinner. I drove myself and friends to Newport where we had an extremely tasty home cooked feast (no joke), and played such things like pool, Mafia, and some game called Pyramid. I'm looking forward to an upload of polaroid pictures from the party - some of them were pretty fantastic. Saturday was spent mostly at the Mission Viejo Lake where the highlight was chasing aquatic birds while kayaking. Blokus occurred as well. Contented lazing filled in the gaps. That night I had an adventure picking up Jimmy from Union Station, and then I got hardly any sleep (such is the trend lately) before waking up at 6:45am to drive 2.5 hours to go snowboarding. Again. After snowboarding, I stopped by KSCR Fest (which was awesome, yay Emilie [and friends]) before eating a late dinner and crashing. I was exhausted.

I'm still exhausted.

I'm also waiting.

The picture is from the drive back from Big Bear. I don't feel like putting up more at the moment. Maybe later.

Day By Day

2010-03-25T12:28:00.000-07:00

It's been a rough few weeks.

On a happier note, Spring Break was pretty spectacular. My favorite moments include a spontaneous trip to California Adventure, breakfast with my Dad, a beach day with Ann, dinner with my Mom, hang time in beautiful Irvine, and a whopping seven hours of no-break snowboarding. I'm not exactly enthused to be back at school, but this tends to always happen after Spring Break so I guess I should be used to the feeling by now. Oh well. Seven more weeks, then it's onwards with life I go!

I Love Tucson

2010-03-18T16:32:00.000-07:00

My second trip to Arizona was, although different from the first, just as fun and probably more relaxing.

Highlights include a lot of hiking, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, 4th Avenue, hanging out with Emilie's family, Book Stop/thrift shopping, movie watching (The Informant and Bottle Rocket), Auld Dubliner, and a plethora of delicious homecooked fare. We also ate out a few times, namely at Guadalajara Grill which was both fun (they make their salsa tableside) and delicious (homemade tortillas and unusual menu items = win), and Bumsteads where I, the pretentious sandwich eater, had a delicious sandwich.

There's so much to love about Tucson. Like how welcoming Emilie's family always is and how it's never hot when I visit (on this particular trip it was borderline chilly and all of Tucson's usually drought ridden rivers were full/flooded). I also love the flatness of the landscape and the fact that the region is surrounded by mountains - everywhere you look the view is scenic and beautiful.

With that said, it's good to be home. Jimmy picked me up from the airport and we swung by Wurstkuche for a late, tasty dinner. The next day I took my time leaving for Irvine, stopping by the pool before even reaching my house. The plan was to go out for St Patty's Day, but when I finally got home my mom was really sick so I ended up doing errands and helping her out instead. I did head over to Lollicup for a bit, eventually.

Today was going to be a beach day, but it's so peaceful in my house right now. Los Angeles is always noisy. Irvine isn't. Irvine is quiet, calm, and serene. I love Irvine. I think I'm going to spend my afternoon working on my orchestration project instead. :)

Here are a few Tucson pictures. Most of the pictures I have are from the hikes/Emilie's backyard so there isn't much variety!

Emilie's backyard.
Hike #1 - Sabino Canyon
Hike #2 - Ventana Canyon
Hike #3 - Wasson Peak

LA Art Walking

2010-03-13T01:23:00.000-08:00

So a few days ago I stopped by the LA Art Walk, starting at the rooftop of the Independent. It was a lot of fun! The art itself is pretty hit or miss, but the atmosphere is great. For dinner I ate at Blossom, a Vietnamese restaurant I had heard about via Yelp and randomly came across while going from gallery to gallery. I had Bun, Tom, Cha Gio, Bo Nuong (aka Vermicelli with Shrimp, Egg Roll, and Steak) - one of my favorite dishes that I usually get at Thanh Binh II. Superrrr tasty. Super super tasty. I was a fatty and finished the entire bowl. And then I was more of a fatty and got a huge cup of frozen yogurt at Yogurt Land. It's fun being a fatty sometimes. :)

Tomorrow I'm flying to Tucson for the first half of (my last) spring break (ever). I'm excited! It should be a lot of fun. For now, here are some more pictures from the Art Walk...

Live art by Robert Vargas

On Flowers and Dogs

2010-03-11T17:04:00.000-08:00

I hate them. They're a weakness. I automatically smile when presented with flowers, and I get giddy with joy when I see a dog. The fluffier the dog, the more joyous I become. The more unexpected the flowers, the happier I feel. And then people use it against me. And I can't help but smile. :(

Almost Crunch Time

2010-03-08T00:33:00.001-08:00

Three Objects of Interest (Pen and Ink)
So apparently there are less than two months left this semester. That blows, especially because I haven't been able to practice voice for the past two weeks. I usually enjoy losing my voice (huskiness is fun!) but right now I'm anxious to get it back. Plus my throat still really hurts. Maybe I'll go to the health center tomorrow to make sure nothing serious is up...

Yesterday (Saturday) Emilie and I drove up to Snow Summit. We took four hours total of snowboarding lessons which I personally thought were REALLY helpful. I'm also glad that I had snowboarded a few times sans lesson, though. It made it so I wasn't nervous during the lesson(s), just excited to learn.

Our first instructors were an interesting juxtaposition of super chill and informative/mildly condescending. Our second instructor was a nice combination of chill and informative, without the mildly condescending.

And now I'm semi snowboard obsessed. Granted, I have been wanting to snowboard for years (a decade? How embarrassing...) now, and seeing myself progressing quickly (it comes pretty naturally for me) gets me extra excited to get really good. Good enough to do (double?) black diamond runs, at least. Maybe by the end of next season? Now THAT would be cool.

I'm trying to figure out what the most economical way of learning how to snowboard would be. I'm debating a season pass (if I get one after the 15th it'll be good all of next season as well), but they're pretty expensive. I'm definitely going to get gear... but I'm going to hold off until I try skiing (on the off chance that I love skiing more than snowboarding).

Ski poles kind of scare me, though.

I posted a really awesome snowboarding video on my Tumblr. The first girl in the video (Victoria Jealouse) is REALLY good. Super inspirational. Yay!

I just finished my drawing project for tomorrow (headphones, snowboarding gloves, and my purse - in case you couldn't tell) and an orchestration quiz. I need to seriously start reading The Museum of Innocence by Orhan Pamuk for lit... but it's an intimidating (albeit interesting looking), fat, hardcover book and I'm really, really tired. As soon as I'm done with this post I'll go do that but there's a high risk I will just fall asleep. Which would be bad. Because I need to read it.

Gah I'm really excited about snowboarding. Once I master the basics, I plan to learn a little bit of freestyle and what not so I can ultimately be a better freerider. I'm a little worried about freeriding because I hate heights... but maybe I'll get over it by then. I found a board I really like. It's supposed to be a really good board to learn/progress on. I think I've picked out some good/decent bindings to go with... and for boots I'll have to go try some on. I already have outerwear, goggles, and gloves so that's no big. I might get a new beanie. The one I have is a little bit small/thin (it isn't really made for snow).

But like I said - I will try skiing first.

I also came across an awesome looking 11 day ski/snowboard tour (!) in New Zealand (!!) during their winter season (August/September) complete with helicopter lifts (!!!)... but that won't be for this year. That's for next year, after I've gotten the basics down and have risen to an intermediate level of sorts (hopefully), and after I have money to shell out on the trip.

Ahhhhh but snowboarding! In New Zealand!!

Anddd now I'm done.

EDIT: Changed my mind about the bindings. Going to get these instead :P

Where Did My Voice Go??

2010-03-05T17:11:00.000-08:00

Rock Study (Pen and Ink)
Whew, I need to step back and slow down. The culmination of these past two weeks has been me basically losing my voice entirely, as a result of my being sick and combining my cold/flu medication with three (four?) beers at a potluck whilst shouting over particularly loud music. Oops.

Going back in time, things I've been up to include:

The Counter, rock hunting for a drawing project, a crazy night at Tiger Heat, a home cooked breakfast, lunch with my Dad, errands in Irvine, hang time with Emilie (where we didn't quite complete the Wrong Eyed Jesus circle), a dramatic trip to Big Bear, a cynical viewing of David Garibaldi's Rhythm and Hue, a tasty dinner at Thai Corner, being entertained by a shwasted roommate, lunch at Orochon, a potluck/kick back, a multitude of good conversations with good friends (as well as much missed friends), plus the usual collection of late night meals, meetings, classes (minus a few due to sickness), and hapa what not.

Tonight is the HAPArty. I'm really bummed to be sick/speechless, but on the plus side at least I won't be tempted to stay out late since I'll be going back up to Big Bear tomorrow. At 6:30 in the morning. Ahh, good times...

In other news, things have been changing in my life. It hasn't been easy for me or the people involved (made more painful by meddling kids), but I think my decisions as of late have been good ones that will ultimately lead to better life possibilities. We'll see. Only time will tell.

Story Time

2010-03-03T12:44:00.000-08:00

This is such a belated entry, but I've been busy (being sick, mostly) so it'll have to do.

Last Saturday was filled with moments that will be hard to describe to their full effect in words. Proper effect? I just don't think I can clearly articulate everything.

Basically, the day was supposed to be one filled with snowboarding (and skiing for John and Ky). It ended up being a day filled with unexpected events surrounding two hours of snowboarding (yes, only two hours). First off, I drove. I didn't mind driving. I did mind the pouring rain I was driving in. I don't usually mind rain. I do mind rain that doesn't let up, flooding the freeways. Still drivable, it just takes a lot more concentration. In any case, the drive up was challenging but fine. We made good time, despite the rain. We had a late start (in part because we were all running late, in part because we needed to grab chains for the snow) but it was OK. If all went well, we'd have at a minimum four hours of snowboarding (in case the resort didn't open up for night skiing/snowboarding because of the weather), and since none of us were snow sport enthusiests, we were fairly OK with that.

Once on the mountain, I was getting nervous about driving in snow. I spent a lot of time focusing on remaining calm, and I think I did a pretty good job because nobody really noticed to what extent I was exerting myself to concentrate and focus. I was also a little nervous as to how I'd do in the high altitude (I'm not a fan of heights), but because we were driving in clouds and I couldn't see how high up we were, this part actually worked out alright. There was quite a bit of traffic. Mostly good traffic, as nobody wanted to tailgate or rush because of the weather. There came a point in which we needed to put chains on. In the hail. That was fun (and by fun, I mean blisteringly cold, pinching, and wet). But the chains went on, and off we went. Nervously. We rechecked the chains two or three times. They seemed fine. At the checkpoint, they remained fine. So chains it was.

A side note about chains - I don't like driving with them. It changes the feel of my car. I know my car very well, I've been driving it for quite a while. I'm very intune to it's responses in varying conditions. Even in new conditions, my judgment is quite good. Chains, however, changed the feel of my car and thus changed the responses and thus made me nervous. But it was OK. On the way up, we made it to Snow Valley (the lowest of the three Big Bear resorts) without mishap. Just a lot of traffic.

So much traffic, in fact, that it ended up taking a total of roughly three and a half hours to get there, even though we made good time on the way to the mountain. Kind of lame, but whatever. The other lame part was the fact that Snow Valley indeed was closing it's lifts at four because of the weather. Ultra lame. That left us two hours to actually board. But we had a really good coupon, so the price was actually not that bad and seeing as we just fought through awful weather for however many hours to get there, we decided to just go up.

The snowboarding itself was fun, although I suck. And by I suck, I mean I suck in general (I've only gone once and have never taken a real lesson), and I suck more in soft snow. I kept getting caught in it. Thankfully Sharon hasn't gone much either, and it's been years since her last trip. So we got caught in the soft snow together, often. At one point we went down a blue square and reached a patch of snow that first stopped us, and then prevented us from moving properly on our boards. We literally spent 15 some minutes (exaggeration? I don't know) crawling out of it. Yeah... haha.

The other thing is, Snow Valley's green circle runs are pretty terrible. They all have lulls in the middle that basically bring you to a stop, especially in the soft snow. EVERYBODY was stopping. Maybe experienced people wouldn't, but hey what experienced person would ride a green circle unless they had to? And seeing as they really didn't, all us less experienced people were getting stuck. Next time I'm going back to Snow Summit, me thinks.

Anyway, our two hours were fun. And then it was time to go. Except my car was super snowed in. And I was no help to anybody since I stupidly wore flip flops (I know, stupid. I was in a hurry >.<) so I was regaled to sitting in the car while everyone else tried to dig the car out. In the end, four Snow Valley people kindly helped us with a flurry of shovels and off we went.

Into treachery.

Dun dun dun.

Actually, the drive down wasn't that bad. I was going slowly, but I guess I wasn't in a low enough gear. (Oops). Even still, the drive started fine and I was feeling better about the chains until suddenly the traffic in front of me started slowing. And then there was a turn. And going at about 17 miles per hour (the current speed of traffic), my car started sliding out to the left into the opposite lane. In which I saw headlights of a car coming towards us, so I held on and turned my wheel to try to right us back into the lane... which ultimately completed our spin and spun us 180 degrees into a small turn out. We were now facing the wrong direction, but at least we were out of the way of traffic.

We were really lucky.

During the whole event of losing control of my car, I wasn't actually scared. I was commended on staying calm. I'm actually not surprised that I DID stay calm. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. I'm just really glad that not only were there no cars immediately in the oncoming lane, the car(s) behind us slowed where they didn't plow into us during our spin, and there happened (for this I might be MOST thankful for) to be a small turnout in exactly the right spot with enough soft snow to stop us completely without bumping into anything. That is correct: we hit nothing.

So then we checked the chains, in case we lost one during the spin. Turns out, the chain on the left front tire wasn't there. Since I was (yes, stupidly) in my flip flops, I was again regaled to the car as the three guys searched for the missing chain. They couldn't find it. If they had found it, I would've just driven down the mountain. With just one chain, however, I didn't want to. So I called AAA. After thanking me for being a member for 39 years (thanks Dad!), they said they'd send a tow truck to tow us down the mountain. While on the phone with AAA, a large white passenger van (ultimately that of a Korean church?) lost control at almost the exact same spot we did. THAT was scary. The AAA person on the phone had just asked me if I thought we needed highway patrol, and I was just in the midst of telling her that we probably didn't until I saw a large white van sliding towards us, and then ultimately spinning 180 degrees and hitting the mountain on the OTHER side of the road. I quickly changed my mind and told her that there were now two vehicles that had lost control and that highway patrol would be needed.

While waiting for highway patrol/our tow truck, a shiny new Land Rover managed to lose control just before the spot where we did and they drove straight up into the mountain, head on. Seeing as there were no other cars around at the moment, they were blocking traffic, and ultimately the car seemed to be in running condition without much damage, they made the choice to just continue down the mountain. After about five minutes of driving forwards, backwards, forwards, backwards, they made it back onto the road and continued (slowly) on their way.

The Korean van was still there, though. They were stuck in a ditch while we only had one chain. It was nice not being by ourselves.

Highway patrol finally arrived. I did feel safer with highway patrol there, even though I'm not sure if I liked the highway patrol guy himself. I appreciated the fact that the highway patrol car was situated in front of us with it's lights flashing so approaching traffic knew something was up. Even still, we watched two cars have a minor crash in front of us because they were (probably) rubbernecking. In fact, the strip remained pretty treacherous until multiple, huge snow plows came through.

And then it was just waiting. Don's towing company eventually arrived... and we were told that they were going to pull the Korean's out of the ditch before taking us down the mountain. We watched the whole process, excitedly taking pictures. Except after varying attempts to get them out, the Koreans were ultimately put back into the ditch. Don came over and told us that apparently there was a short in his truck and he couldn't use it. Didn't look like a short to me. It just looked like he wasn't getting any traction in the snow because of how he was situating the Korean's van onto his truck, regardless of the fact that he had chains. But whatever.

At this point it had been quite a while. We had already waited an hour for the tow truck to begin with, and then suddenly the tow truck was driving away. The highway patrol guy that I'm not sure if I liked or not came back over and asked if we were able to drive down the mountain. I said we only had one chain. He said that since it had stopped snowing and the snow plows had cleared the road, we would be OK if we drove slowly.

And so it began. The (now two) highway patrol cars blocked traffic and verbally encouraged me for a good 5-10 minutes as I tried to get back on the road. And once we were back on, we were headed (slowly) back down the mountain. By the time we stopped at Jack in the Box to get something to eat, the whole event seemed a bit unreal and as I finish typing up the story now it really doesn't seem like it happened.

I have no evidence of it either, seeing as my car doesn't have so much as a scratch of proof. That's a good thing, though.

Anyway, because I'm sick and so behind with life/everything, I'll write about everything else that's been going on later, probably.

The Calm Before the Storm

2010-02-21T13:29:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

Another Amazing Weekend

2010-02-16T00:53:00.000-08:00

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?

2010-02-13T23:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-09T17:17:00.000-08:00

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

2010-02-06T01:46:00.001-08:00

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

2010-02-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

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... :)

Don't Ever

2010-01-31T02:50:00.000-08:00

Sometimes I don't understand myself. Sometimes I cause a quiet scene. Sometimes you listen. Sometimes I leave. Sometimes I listen to Missy Higgins. Sometimes I remember a time when I was better. Sometimes I don't.

Dinner, the Second Course

2010-01-30T00:50:00.001-08:00

After going out to eat twice today I feel like a fatty. The above pictures (camera phone, sorry) are from downtown Old Pasadena where I went with my mom for her birthday dinner. We dined at Il Fornaio and I had tasty butternut squash ravioli with walnuts, tomato cream sauce, butter, and crispy sage. My mom got a veal dish with a multi-mushroom sauce and polenta. I'd never been to the Pasadena location - only the Irvine location - and the set up is a bit different (although still nice). It's also in a great area - lot's of restaurants, shops, and neat places to walk around. I'm excited to go back and explore more. :)

Today, I'm Tired

2010-01-29T17:00:00.000-08:00

Check out the old school vending machine!
So this has been a pretty busy week.

It started with dinner at Guelaguetza before heading over to Shatto39 for bowling with HapaSC. I had never been to Guelaguetza before. They serve Mexican food from the Oaxaquena region. It was unique. I had a Tamal Oaxaqueno de Mole con Pollo (mole being an interesting, savory chocolate sauce). It was pretty good, and although it's not a new favorite dish, I cleaned my plate when I was there. Also, the authentic music was a nice, entertaining touch that vaguely reminded me of a themed amusement park. It was pretty loud, though, and I started getting a headache towards the end of dinner :/

Sunday was spent mostly in Burbank. The boy and I were pampered at rA Organic Spa (my birthday present to him, complete with massage, sauna, and some sort of calming, herbal tea), and we followed that with wayyy too much food at a nearby Japanese restaurant (one of like, 10 within a two block radius...) called Octopus. Afterwards we wandered over to the AMC and watched Avatar in 3D before getting some tasty tasty Pinkberry (which still reigns supreme over Red Mango and Yogurt Land in my opinion, although I don't get it nearly as often as I used to).

I'm reallyy glad I saw Avatar in theatres (in 3D for that matter). I seriously had no desire to see the movie until everyone (and I mean EVERYone [minus one friend]) raved about it. From the previews, I judged it to be another lame, overproduced kids movie with blue people. Now, I take back my earlier assumptions and whatever negative thing(s) I might have said about the movie prior to seeing it. It was good. Really good. It reminded me vaguely of Pocohontas... but hey, I liked Pocohontas. The world they created was dazzling; what a beautiful, non-existant planet. If you're even more of a straggler than me and still haven't seen it, I suggest you get on that. It's seriously worth watching in theatres.

Off the top of my head, highlights this week included a few meetings (continued progress on the secret Hapa project I've alluded to but haven't mentioned yet, as well as the first Captian's meeting for Relay for Life), dinner with Emilie at the 2-9, and lunch with my dad at Wurstkuche. I'm also getting better at drawing (I think?), but I'll talk about that more in depth at another time. Maybe with pictures? Maybe not... haha.

Yesterday I got out of my PSYC class early and decided I wanted to cook. I ended up baking a big slab of cajuny crusted salmon for the boy and I, and pairing that with herb and butter wild rice, grilled sweet potatos (YUM!), and green grapes. It was a good meal :)

Whew.

I'm actually really tired. I spent the last hour just resting, although I kind of wish I took a nap. I need to head to campus to practice/rehearse soon, and then my mom's coming into town for dinner. And then I have to wake up earlyish for another busy day. I'm looking forward to Sunday, which will hopefully be a day of relaxation.

P.S.
I got a new phone (a Pearl!) off of eBay on a whim. It's been four days, and even though AT&T made me purchase a data plan when they realized I had a smartphone (how they found out I have no idea...), I LOVE it. :D

Sherlock Holmes, Etc

2010-01-23T14:48:00.000-08:00

After a week of unexpectedly sad movies (Changeling, Pay It Forward...) I finally watched something that wasn't created to force a tear out of the viewer: Sherlock Holmes. I'm not sure why it took me so long to see Sherlock Holmes... especially since I've been looking forward to its release since I first heard about it. (Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law starring in a Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie?? Count me in!) It definitely didn't disappoint. My favorite performance was Jude Law as Watson (I was initially skeptical about his casting, way back when, so go figure). I think the weakest link was Rachel McAdams, although I don't usually have a problem with her performances (The Notebook, Mean Girls). In this, however, I just couldn't get into her character (Irene Adler). Everything she did was, to me, like: oh look it's Rachel McAdams with a bouquet; oh look it's Rachel McAdams and Sherlock Holmes on a bridge; oh look it's Rachel McAdams trapped in a terrible situation... etc, etc, etc.

Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Would've enjoyed it more if I weren't in the second row of the theatre (I can't fathom why we used to think it was cool to sit in the front row in high school...) but alas, life can't be perfect.

I ran out of postcards a while ago so my Postcrossing activities have slowed recently. I got twenty (yes, twenty) yesterday, though, so I'm ready to reinstate my beloved Postcrossing!

Kurt was in town last week and yesterday prepping for/doing his grad school audition at USC. Last week he stayed at my place (despite my being sick) and hang time was pretty mellow (in part because I was sick). This week he didn't stay at my place, but we DID head over to Wurstkuche with friends because Wurstkuche is a pretty tasty place and I totally saw Kurt loving the idea of it. And he did :)

First general meeting went really well. I stumbled all over the place trying to explain why our amazing large-semester-event (still secret in the blog, sorry) is so amazing, but I think despite my poor introduction of it it will still be fantastic. In fact I'm sure of it.

Today I'm supposed to be doing homework and practicing voice and what not before dinner and bowling BUT I woke up late and have so far had a lazy day with the boy sooo the practicing might not happen until Monday. Oops. But homework will happen - and some Postcrossing - because I want to have absolutely no responsibilities tomorrow when the boy and I finish birthdaying!

Unrelated Thoughts

2010-01-21T14:14:00.000-08:00

It's been super rainy lately. And as cold, wet, and inconvenient as it is, I've been really enjoying the weather. Everything just looks and smells so much nicer. And there's something vaguely exciting about the fact that the major freeways in the area are flooding every other hour or so. I got to experience it first hand last Monday when I went over to Westwood for lunch and what not. It was actually pretty frightening at the time, but it's hard to explain why exactly in writing. I definitely didn't anticipate so much water. Lunch and conversation was good too, as usual. Jimmy and I came across a place called Roni's Diner on a whim... and man they have a big menu! I plan to go back sometime.

I took the boy to Bacaro for his birthday. It was fun, and the food was surprisingly good! I had one of the best hefeweizens ever: Pinkus. Mmmm so smooth and tasty. I also have more birthday-ing planned for this weekend, but that's for another entry.

Yesterday Emilie and I ventured to Vegisoul for the first time, finally. It's another restaurant in extremely close vicinity, featuring "vegan soul food." And for being vegan soul food, it was quite tasty. I just wish my stomach was feeling more up to it (it's been a week and I'm still feeling the effects of stomach flu?) :/

Anyway, my two big projects of the semester are my Recital and a semi-secret Hapa project that I'm SUPER excited about and have been working really hard on. I'm only mentioning it now because I'm itching to blabber about it, but alas, I will wait. I want more aspects of the event in place before I try to explain it :)

Just For You

2010-01-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

I'm appreciating it, finally. A lot. Sorry it took me so long. And thank you :)

A Small Blip

2010-01-17T14:01:00.000-08:00

Last night I stayed up later than I planned reading Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami for my literature class. I finished it. I liked it. My reaction to the ending was "noooooo wait!! UGH." But beyond that, I thought it was an interesting, contemporary novel. And it wasn't at all what I had expected going into it. An interesting passage:

     Amazed at the harshness of his tone, I looked at Nagasawa. "The way I see it, people are working hard. They're working their fingers to the bone. Or am I looking at things wrong?"
     "That's not hard work. It's just manual labor," Nagasawa said with finality. "The 'hard work' I'm talking about is more self-directed and purposeful."
     "You mean, like studying Spanish when the job season ends and everybody else is taking it easy?"
     "That's it. I'm going to have Spanish mastered by next spring. I've got English and German and French down pat, and I'm most of the way there with Itailan. You think things like that happen without hard work?"
     Nagasawa puffed on his cigarette while I thought about Midori's father. There was one man who had probably never even thought about starting Spanish lessons on TV. He had probably never thought about the difference between hard work and manual labor, either. He was probably too busy to think about such things - busy with work, and busy bringing home a daughter who had run away to Fukushima.

It really strikes a chord. If you know me, you know why.

I'm so happy to be in a literature class. I always miss reading during the semester, and now I'm required to do it. Which is fantastic. (Especially so, because it looks like the books are going to be very engaging).

I also love my schedule. Only 16 units! I usually take 20, sometimes 19 units. My first semester at USC I took 18 units. Now, finally at my last semester, I'm taking 16!! Granted, I'm still going to be really busy with HapaSC and my Senior Recital, but wow. 16. It's refreshing to have time to actually do my work and do it well. I'm excited to go out with a bang.

This has been a good week. I came down with the stomach flu on Wednesday (and I'm still fighting it off...) but even so, I've been good. I was trying to explain this possibility to someone on Tuesday and she just couldn't comprehend having a seemingly bad day or days and yet being "good." Ironic that I would come across the perfect example on Wednesday. Anyway, I magnaged to get through all of my classes except for my Criminal Behavior class (which, unfortunately, seems like it's going to be the most difficult of the bunch), so I'm not behind in school. Most of the things I missed out on were social things (parties, birthdays, dinners, shows, etc...) but honestly the last thing I wanted to do was be at a party whilst feeling feverish, sore, and exhausted - with no appetite for that matter - so I'm fine with how everything turned out. People are very understanding when you have stomach flu. More so than when you have say, strep throat. Maybe it shows more.

I've had good, helpful company throughout, and I did manage to see friends (or they managed to see me?). And I made rice porridge!

Today I need to start getting back into gear. I have a list of things that I need to take care of, and it's starting to get long. I'm feeling well enough to go out tonight so the goal is to be finished with everything by 8pm so I can be at Room 5 by 9pm. Wish me luck..!

A Good Start

2010-01-02T01:19:00.000-08:00

This has been a really fun week. Highlights include bowling, Dan's birthday, Six Flags, Jungle Speed, lunch at the Counter, and plenty of New Year festivities. I still don't have a non-irritating-camera, so this will be another words only post. But that's OK. I don't have much to say, beyond mentioning that what made this week so good was not the multitude of fun things that I did, but the fact that I did those things with some of my absolute favorite people.

<3

Holiday Updates

2009-12-27T15:21:00.000-08:00

My sleep schedule is so out of whack :/ From the moment I left school, I started staying up too late. Way too late. This, in combination with my lack of sleep during finals week, led to a few extremely latelate nights followed by a few extremely latelate mornings... which furthur fueled my terrible sleep schedule. In conclusion, I am living a (fun but hopefully short lived?) nocturnal lifestyle. Highlights include:

Late night pizza at Italian Express in Westwood
A looong day at Disneyland
Helping my Dad move into his new apartment
A trip back to LA
Emilie time!
Recording for Arthur's latest game: Merry Gear Solid 2
Recording for Long Live the Duke
Electronics and furniture shopping!
Bang!, RocknRolla, and plenty of laughs at Ryan and Dan's
Caroling Party!! followed by LOTS of conversation...
Holiday Party!! followed by even GREATER amounts of conversation...
Late night Del with old friends! :D
Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day Dinner
Various hangs, brunches, and lunches
An overload of Desperate Housewives watching...
And a bit of gift exchanging thrown in for good measure :)

No pictures, though. I'm waiting for my new camera. It's been 7 months... but I'm told I will get it soon. (!)
My (5yearold) iPod also went kaput. Like, completely kaput with no possibility of quick fixing it. So... a new iPod is coming my way Tuesday! Good times :)

Saturday Night

2009-12-14T01:46:00.000-08:00

Can I say that I REALLY dislike the USC tram system? I have NEVER had a good experience. Saturday, the boy and I decided to take the USC provided LA Live bus to get to the LA Auto Show because the bus is free, we wanted to save the $14 we would've spent on parking, we had the time, and hell, it's good for the environment. NEVER AGAIN. We waited THIRTY minutes for this bus trying to get there, AND thirty minutes trying to get back. That's an hour of waiting, not including the 15 minute walk to the bus stop (which, honestly, wasn't THAT terrible. I like being outside, and walking is progress, not just waiting. But it adds another 30 minutes to our 1.5 hour total travel time... for something that is ten minutes away by car...). Did I mention that I HATE waiting? It's a waste of my time. Plus, it was raining. Normally I wouldn't mind rain - it's atmospheric, romantic, and I enjoy it (since we don't get it very often here). But I don't enjoy waiting in it for an hour, at night when it's cold, when I'm trying to not get sick before recording this week.

Next time I'm driving :(

Anyway. Enough ranting. The Auto Show was fun, and Versailles was exceptionally delicious, so all in all it was a good night.

The Worst Is Over

2009-12-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

I think. I finished my second to last final this morning, and it was supremely terrible. On the plus side, I now have only one more final left! First, though, is the weekend. I anticipate cleaning, some recording prep for Tuesday, and lot's of HapaSC planning. I haven't done a recording in a while, so I'm excited :) As for now, I think I'm going to enjoy this rainy day and read some more of Bluebeard while relaxing on my comfy couch, glancing up occasionally at a beautifully cloudy downtown LA...

P.S.
I was going to put up a picture of downtown in the rain from my window... but I decided I like this better. Same window, no rain. Just contrast :D

The Final Countdown

2009-12-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

What's today? Tuesday? In one week I will be done with finals. I will also be doing a recording at Chapman for a friend's scoring project. I will ALSO be cleaning my apartment, packing, and saying a few farewells before I skedaddle down to Irvine.

As for now, I will eat a grapefruit and (hopefully) study like crazy for finals. I don't have high hopes for my grades this semester. I'm going to be pretty sad when my GPA drops. But hey, I'm on the home stretch and the things I will remember about first semester senior year will hopefully NOT be the fact that I stumbled through most all of my classes, but all the good times I had, including HapaSC's end-of-semester Formal Dinner. That's the hope, at least.

In other news, I watched the Korean drama Oldboy the other night. Good movie! Very interesting. Very, "wait, whaaaaaat?". Recommended. Apparently they're making an American remake of it starring Will Smith. If it weren't for Will Smith, I wouldn't even mention the remake because remakes are usually butchered versions of the original movie starring "popular" (but generally less-than-talented) celebrities *cough*Shall We Dance?*cough*. The Korean version of Oldboy was REALLY well done (especially in the cinematography department)... but who knows. I'll watch the remake, I suppose, but for anyone who hasn't already seen it, I'd suggest watching the original first.

Pondering Thoughts

2009-12-05T00:56:00.000-08:00

Classes are over. I still have a project to do, a paper to write, and four finals to study for. It would be less of an issue if I were more prepared for all of the above. In any case, a week and three days from now I will be done with it all, regardless of the quality I put forth.

I sang in a recital today. I miss singing. I forget how much I enjoy singing, sometimes. I feel like I let a lot of things get in the way of my singing these past few years... as well as in the way of a lot of other important, unmentioned things. And now I'm nearing the end and I just want to get out. I have a feeling that a successful college career doesn't end like this, but since I don't have any experience otherwise, maybe it does.

No. No it doesn't.

I took my Dad to Disneyland for his birthday. It was fun. More pictures are below.

P.S.
Lately I've been updating my Tumblr more than I've been updating this. Just saying.

I Love Home

2009-11-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

Driving south on the 405 improves my disposition much more than it should. Not that driving north on the 405 makes me unhappy, per se, but driving south - boy what a wonderful feeling.

This Thanksgiving weekend was a much needed break from the stress and frustration of not-home. It was spent in the company of family and much-missed friends. Lots of delicious food was devoured, and lots of conversation and laughter ensued. Activities included: Bang!, late night Del Taco, Mario Kart, reuniting with Mr. Snow, Thanksgiving dinner, meeting a new cousin, watching Disneyland fireworks from my Uncle's living room, midnight L4D, handball, pool/Taboo/Catchphrase, Claim Jumper, game watching, phone calling, Snatch watching, Laguna visiting, chai drinking, random hanging out, and plenty of relaxation.

Right now I'm fiddling around with myheritage, curious to see how much of my family tree I actually know. I know a decent amount, but not very much. I think I'm going to start researching a bit, though!

I Have Nice Friends

2009-11-25T21:25:00.000-08:00

After hearing about my stressful week, Anhkhoa decided to turn coffee/lunch into ABRA DAY! And it was really fun! We went to Porto's in which I was instructed to eat a (DELICIOUS) sandwich and try (10?!) pastries. We also explored Anhkhoa's hometown NoHo (which, to my surprise, is actually called NoHo haha). And then we took the long way back to the freeway via Mulholland Drive complete with a quick pit stop to check out an AWESOME view. All of this was a surprise to me. I'm still smiling :)

Still Procrastinating

2009-11-23T19:07:00.000-08:00

I need to finish writing a paper today. Instead, I've been paying bills, registering and writing postcards, and staring at my two dozen flowers (roses and tiger lilys!) for hours on end.

I also need to make mini cheesecakes, but that shouldn't be too much of a chore.

On the plus side, pumpkin ice cream is super tasty and I appreciate the amazing effort that was made to get it :)

Changes

2009-11-21T19:12:00.000-08:00

This was kind of a stressful week. I was sick for the first half of it, and the day I started feeling better I was hit with the worst cramps ever. I'm sorry, TMI, but it's true. Ow.

Anyway, the terrifying thought of adding more stress to my already stressful week influenced my last minute decision to not fight my speeding ticket. Even though I wasn't speeding and yadda yadda yadda. I regret this a little bit, because I think people should do what they think is right. In this case, the right thing to do would've been fight my ticket BUT the right thing happened to be the most stressful/time consuming thing and therefore I went with the arguably wrong but easy thing and just paid the ticket, and paid for driving school. And now I'm poor and a bit regretful.

I tried Wurstkuche with Jimmy and I liked it more than I thought it would. I don't think it's as fabulous as some Yelpers proclaim it to be, and I don't think it's as hipster as others complain it to be. It was just a restaurant with a nice vibe that serves TASTY German beer. Why do I like it? Because I love love love beer. Mmmmm.

Thursday was way too f'ing long (back to back meeting, Project ReMiX and LSA event...) but it ended really fun. And then I was sick again (this time of my own doing...) and after crashing at Yvette's place I felt dehydrated and tired for the entirety of Friday. Which was kind of a bummer, because Friday was the APASA Winter Formal... but eh the dance itself wasn't that great. Beforehand, Hapa got vegan Ethiopian food as a group... and the service was some of the slowest I've ever experienced, although the food was pretty tasty. Although they didn't give me what I ordered? But whatever.

While at the dance, I ditched for a little while and took a short walk (finally! Me time!) and ended up having a nice (?) conversation with some guy who was working security that night haha. And then I headed over with friends to Devin's place where the Pinot-ish party was taking place... but by the time we got there the keg was empty. And then DPS came. But I'm still glad I stopped by because I got to see a lot of my friends that I hardly ever get to see!

And then it was a mellower repeat of Thursday night.

And now it's Saturday? And one year. And how things change.

One More Time

2009-11-18T23:59:00.000-08:00

I've done it again. I've gone and created another "me" site without a drop of rhyme or reason. Actually, that's a lie. The story behind this one is that I wanted to post a song here... but was having a really hard time figuring out a simple way to do it with blogger. There might not be a simple way. Anyway, word on the street is that tumblr is simple and lo and behold, it is. So I've created a tumblr (that I have yet to edit to my liking) where I can post things that I like. Not just things that I've been doing, which is what this blog has turned into.

Originally (and you can check my first post on mynameisabra if you doubt me), this was supposed to be a blog about the "many things that interest me, as well as the little things that make me smile." I also noted that I'd be writing about what I find fun and interesting in my own life... but the focus was supposed to be the former, not the latter. myonesmile was a failed attempt to focus on that again... and so now I'm going to try and split it up a bit. This tumblr that I've made will be updated, hopefully on a regular (daily??) basis, with things that I like. Period. Nothing fancy. No words. (I tend to get carried away with words). Just THINGS.

One day I'll start writing about the little things that make me smile again... but as for now, this blog will remain things that I've been doing (and a few little things that make me smile), and that tumblr will be things that I like. Because apparently/recently, the majority of what I do isn't little/doesn't make me smile/whatever.

So It Begins

2009-11-16T14:43:00.000-08:00

Wow, so I had just finished typing up my post when my computer shut off for no reason (low battery without warning? I don't know). Anyway. What I had written went something like this:

I'm sick :(

Even though I've been trying really hard to take good care of myself, I woke up sick sick sick on Sunday. It's given the boy an excuse to show off his boyfriend skills, though. For example, yesterday (before he knew I was sick sick sick), he called to see if I wanted to meet him for lunch. As soon as he found out I was sick, however, the offer to bring me lunch was on the table. He then used the last of his cash (unbeknownst to me) to get me a Subway sandwich (meatball) and some Subway soup (chicken noodle) - both surprisingly good. The catch is, he didn't get anything for himself O.o He just brought everything by the apartment, and soon went to work on a big project. Aww, how sweet :)

Before I was sick, I had a really fun Saturday: Akiko and Trevor came up to hang out! At one point we swung by the Grove (they had never been!). We did a lot of wandering, and a tiny bit of window shopping, but most of our visit was at the Farmer's Market in which we browsed all our dinner options before finally settling on jambalaya (and a really delicious lula plate for Trevor).

I really like the Farmer's Market. It has a nice vibe, and while not all the food is the bees knees (I think the Brazillian place is overrated... in a "I'm not waiting in line for 30 minutes to get this BBQ" kind of way), there are some pretty delicious places. The crepe place is fantastic, for example. Anyway, many conversations and Chinese car crash tests later, I was completely exhausted but quite satisfied with my day.

Has anyone else noticed that the Christmas season began particularly early this year? Like, before Halloween was over in some stores? The Grove had most (if not all) their beautiful Christmas decorations up already... and on the patio of the Coffee Bean they were subtly playing Christmas music the other day. Most years I feel bad skipping over Thanksgiving, but this year the early anticipation comes as a relief. I'm really excited for the holidays (and the end of this semester)! :D

Two Highlights

2009-11-14T01:52:00.000-08:00

Besides an overload of class, meetings, rehearsals, and a midterm... this week was quite fun. Highlights include Thursday, in which I made cupcakes for our General Meeting (in celebration of our members' birthdays that fall in November). Afterwards, I was planning on working on my recording project BUT I decided to grab some free Coffee Bean holiday lattes with friends, first. Which resulted in a 3+ hour long conversation. Followed by Indian food at Manas, in which we were their last customers and the second we walked out the door they shut the lights off in the restaurant haha. Followed by karaoke at Ding Dong Dang, which was a lot of fun, but man I was exhausted by the end of it.

Ding Dong Dang deserves some back story. See, Ding Dong Dang is about five minutes away from school, and has been there for at least as long as I'VE been living here. It was something we always laughed at when we drove by, because Ding Dong Dang was situated RIGHT next to a shop called "Pornomania." It was pretty classic. Well, Pornomania has since closed... but Ding Dong Dang is still there. I'm really glad to have gone at least once during my stay here!

Anyway. That was all Thursday. Friday was also awesome: the highlight was seeing Ann! She was in Century City on business (visiting from San Francisco). After I picked her up from her hotel, we grabbed a snack and caught up before meeting her parents at this cute little Italian restaurant in Venice. Ann had a connection to the restaurant (the owners were friends of a friend, or something), so our meal was comped, which was really nice! Had some tasty bruschetta with proscuitto and mozarella, and we tried two of their soups. Everyone got specials, except for me; I got gnocchi in a pesto sauce. Tasty, but SUPER filling. Which ultimately meant that everyone cleaned their plates, and I had an entire meal to take home, basically. And the toothpick incident, in which everyone grabbed a toothpick, but I politely declined. I was definitely the odd one out! But it was great to see Ann and her family. They're such fabulous people :)

Played a bit of L4D with the boy... and now we're going to watch another episode of SVU. But then it's sleepy time, because I know tomorrow's going to be a fun day as well!

Studying-Ish

2009-11-10T00:41:00.000-08:00

San Clemente, CA. I want summer to get here faster.
So I'm at Emilie's at the moment, where I'm supposed to be studying for my midterm which is on Wednesday. Which I really need to study for, since I've missed a couple of classes. And because I don't think I'm doing that well in the class. Even though I think the topic (abnormal psychology) is fascinating, and I actually know the material pretty well? I'm just failing at thoroughly preparing myself for these exams.

It's one of those classes where I know the information well enough to talk about the topics in a broad sense (and thus am not motivated to study hard for the midterms), but not well enough to answer 100 very specific (albeit multiple choice) questions... and thus don't do incredibly well on the midterms :/ I get half of them right away, and the other half I get down to two possibilities, and apparently I suck at choosing between the two because I'm just not doing that well. Enough on that, though.

I had a delicious homemade meal tonight. It was a classy fish sandwich: seasoned red snapper with sauteed mushrooms and green onions topped with tomatoes and healthy mayo on a perfectly toasted baguette. SO tasty! Which makes today a good day :)

Weekend Roundup

2009-11-09T01:01:00.000-08:00

Uploaded a ton of pictures to Facebook today. Came across this one of a cute little Caterpillar Roll from a Little Tokyo visit a few weeks back.

Shades of Love went pretty well. I've decided that the best way to describe it is small, but successful. Our moderator and panelists were great; a lot of interesting discussion occurred. Speed Dating worked out well, too, and we miraculously ended up with an even number of ladies and men participating! Fun stuff.

The highlight of Saturday was a kick back at Emilie's. Riley was visiting her from Arizona, and as tradition when I, or Emilie, or whoever is visiting someone... a party is thrown so friends can gaze in wonder and meet the visiting person. And it was no different for Riley! I brought lemon bars and some Kona Longboard. Lemon bars were a hit (yay!) and the Kona was mainly enjoyed by RC and me. Some epic Catch Phrase ensued. For hours O.o Which reminds me: I really need to get that game - it's one of my favorites, but it and Taboo are both pretty expensive and I just have never gotten around to it since I know people who own it.

Today was the relaxing, clean-up day of the weekend. I can't say I'm the neatest person in the world, but I'm not the messiest and I actually HATE living in mess. It stresses me out. So while it's hard to clean during the middle of the week, I try to make it a point to clean one day on the weekend.

And then I had dinner at La Barca because we had a coupon. Tasty stuff! Better than I remembered it to be, and super (over-)filling.

Also this weekend I played through the new L4D demo. It's fun. Can't really make an opinion on it yet... but I think I'll enjoy the game at the very least. Might not obsess over this one, though, which isn't a bad thing, really :P

Watched the most disturbing SVU episode last night. Second to last episode of the second season, I think, if you're interested. Really. Really. Disturbing. Not even horribly sad. Just disturbing. Ugh.

But anyway. Four weeks of school left! I'm so excited... :D

A Fuzzy Week

2009-11-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

Nearly a week has gone by. What have I been doing? I can't seem to recall...

I do remember last Sunday though. The boy took me to Salo-Salo for dinner in Glendale... and then surprised me by extending the date, eventually including a movie at a nearby theatre. Law Abiding Citizen, to be exact. It was pretty interesting. Not as good as the previews suggested it might be. There were some plot issues and I'm just not a fan of torture/gore scenes... but beyond that, it was entertaining.

I also roasted pumpkin seeds at some point. Those actually came out really good! Nice and buttery toasty :)

Checked out Maitreya for Marissa's birthday. They have a pretty good Happy Hour menu... which the car I was in missed by 1 minute. Literally. (Darn LA traffic). Shared some Carbonara, which was good. Other dishes looked good as well and I liked the atmosphere, at least for dinner. Either way, I'm planning on going back. Plus, there's a multitude of dessert places to choose from in the area. (Of course, even with the many options, the boy and I grabbed another Pumpkin Pie Shake from Jack in the Box, haha).

Tonight is HapaSC presents: Shades of Love. It's an Interracial Dating Forum (something we've done in the past, but not last year), followed by Speed Dating (something new for us). It should be interesting! We've got four diverse, guest panelists with incredibly different backgrounds, and the Assistant Director of APASS at USC is moderating for us. I have to introduce and close the forum... and will have to, at some point today, sit down and think about what I plan to say. Esther and I are also running the Speed Dating session. I'm so curious to see how that will turn out...

I keep telling myself I should update this more often. Since my memory seems to be failing me, maybe it's time I actually listen to myself!

Happy HallowEEEeen

2009-11-01T14:03:00.000-08:00

Happy (Day-After) Halloween! Hope everyone else is having a good weekend :) Halloween started on Thursday for me... although it didn't go exactly as planned. I was supposed to go to the Hapa/Troy Phi Halloween party, but because I (and RC, since he came with) was the designated Hapa rep for getting drinks, I didn't start getting ready until 10 something - AFTER the party started. Which is not a big deal, normally (I'm all about the fashionably late entrances), except JUST when RC and I were about to head over, I started getting calls/texts that the party had been shut down. Instead of going to the relocated party (I've never been to a relocated party that's lived up to the original), we decided to mess around with our costumes. We were dressed up as "Scene Kids" (HAHA) so we began our fooling around by taking "Myspace Pictures" :P Not putting any up here... but a few will probably go up on Facebook. And then we decided that we looked more like Rockstars so the night digressed in that direction, hehe :)

We spontaneously switched our Friday/Saturday plans, and ended up carving pumpkins and watching The Nightmare Before Christmas on Friday instead of Saturday. Which was an adventure on it's own, simply because we do things last minute sometimes and had some time trying to find pumpkins to carve!

And on SATURDAY, we drove out to Six Flags for some good ole coaster fun... plus Fright Fest! Which was actually a lot of fun. We went through all the mazes (only 6), and ironically our favorite was the first one we went through: Jokesters Hideout. And of course we went on one of my most favoritest thrill rides of all time... Colossus BACKWARDS!!! Such a trip. Scares the shit out of me every time hahaha.

We got back really late (we kept indulging in Jack in the Box's Pumpkin Shake)... but it was definitely worth it. And today is promising to be a day of relaxation, which to me, is a fantastic way to round out a busy weekend. In addition to the time change (yay for one more hour!), the boy is taking me out to dinner tonight. I'm looking forward to it! :)

A Blustery Day

2009-10-27T19:32:00.000-07:00

"A Very Blustery Day" by Peter and Harrison Ellenshaw
Today was soooo windy! It was such a pleasant surprise :) It was also a good day. I received some unexpected, happy news from my advisor at my appointment this morning... knew most everything on my midterm... had a fantastic lesson... and enjoyed couple-y time with the boy. I even had enough time to sit and watch some squirrels playing in the grass! I love good days!

Study Break

2009-10-26T00:30:00.000-07:00

This was a Regina weekend, most definitely. Lunch at The Counter, the Three Apples exhibition at Royal/T, pumpkin ice cream with graham cracker crust at Cold Stones, exploration and dinner in Little Tokyo, and Disneyland were highlights. It was awesome seeing her after nearly a decade, and cool to meet her boyfriend and friends as well.

Today I stopped by the "RACE: Are We So Different?" exhibit at the Science Center for a MASC/HapaSC event, which was pretty interesting. Since then I've been preparing for other upcoming HapaSC events and studying for my three midterms, sort of.

The following are select pictures from the past few days, namely Three Apples and Disneyland. The topmost picture is of a small painting Regina made me of my childhood dog, Skippy. I've always liked Regina's style, and I LOVE this! Regina is a talented artist/illustrator - check out her deviantART page for more of her work.

Fiddling Around

2009-10-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Uploaded some pictures to Facebook today. While waiting for the upload to finish, I started fiddling around with the image sizes on my blog. I wanted them to be big enough to function without having to be linked to the larger picture... but I ran into issues with image quality because my camera is, well, not that great. An opinion or two regarding the changes would be much appreciated!

Thought I had some pictures from when the boy and I ventured to SinBala... but apparently not? So I picked out a few oldies but goodies instead. Emilie is in New York at the moment for the CMJ Music and Film Festival. I miss her!

Regina is in town, which means a busy weekend is approaching. Plus a Hapa event on Sunday, and three midterms next week. Boo! I'm excited for Disneyland though.

One other thing I'd like to mention before I watch some South Park (and then return to/start studying), is that today I received a letter from my Grandma written on a beautiful, textured card. It features a watercolor painting of a child and a dog at the beach. I love the beach. I love dogs. I love texture. I love this card. :)

While Relaxing...

2009-10-17T18:40:00.000-07:00

Busy week. Again. What's new.

Midterm, General Meeting, Project ReMiX.
A last minute recital I was supposed to sing in but missed as a result of miscommunication.
Homemade Chocolate Kahlua Cake as a result of procrastination.
Two projects due.
Dinner and (TASTY) shaved ice at SinBala.
A bit of sleep-depriving ultra meh.
Good conversation with the roommates.
A few days of much appreciated rain, which resulted in plenty of bruises...
Missed class due to a power outage and a reset alarm clock.
Prep and presentation of the HAPArty, which was a lot of fun but tiringgg.

Today I had a tasty lunch with Jimmy at The Counter. This time I created a chicken sandwich. I'm thinking I'll go back to veggie burger next time, though.

Soon I will be getting dinner with my mom.

Later it's Thomas' birthday party.

Tomorrow I'm getting breakfast with my dad.

Then it's A Very Hapa Halloween, in which I'm looking forward to pumpkin decorating, Coraline watching, and treat eating.

And then it might be a trip to Ikea. Or more likely, homework. And sleep. Hopefully.

Which is why I'm extremely grateful to be home in Irvine at the moment, relaxing on my bed, enjoying the slight breeze of the ceiling fan, and doing next to nothing. The only thing better than this would be a nap - I'm pretty tired.

Only a few more weekends and then it's Winter Break. And then it's Spring Semester. And then it's Graduation! This is all very fun, but boy is it exhausting. Can't wait to regulate my life, have a consistant job, and allot myself some more ME time!

The Day Improved

2009-10-13T02:42:00.000-07:00

So I got the package thing sorted out and am in a decidedly better mood because of it. Mainly because I received TWO packages today (I was only expecting one) and now have my new phone because of it! And this thing is TINY. Having to get used to such a small touch screen qwerty is a challenge, but hey I'm up for it. It's been fun exploring all the little features, and so far it's surprisingly nice. Meaning, everything works. Including the 2g mini SD card that came with it as a bonus. Hooray!

Twas another fun weekend. Highlights include lunch with a good friend, watching Bat Boy (a weird musical but still one of my favorites), Game Night, and a tasty Sunday. Had a great time at Game Night. People brought so much good food, and my Spinach Artichoke Dip AND my Ooey Gooey Butter Bars were a hit! It's always nice when people devour the dishes you make :) Clean up was a bit more involving than I expected... but I had help so it was OK.

Planned on going to SinBala for some Taiwanese food and what is apparently the best Taiwanese styled Shaved Ice in the area... but they only take cash and I (and the boy) am(/are) PLUM OUT OF CASH. And I don't have an ATM card (and really, never did). It's a long story. Anyway, the boy and I ended up in Alhambra at Cofftea, the first boba place I could find that accepted credit cards. Tasty boba, tasty food, but not cheap and not all that filling for two people. Soooo we sauntered over to Tea Station for some Sweet Butter Toast. My favorite part of the evening was still the meal, though. A close second was driving around the city looking to see what other neat places existed that we could check out in the future. It reminded me of Orange County a bit. Such is suburbia, I suppose.

I used to drive a lot when I didn't live in LA, and I loved it. It was one of the relaxing "me" things I would do. Driving down PCH at night... so beautiful, so relaxing, so... bah I miss it. Anyway. Driving in the city sucks, because it's the opposite of relaxing. Which isn't a surprise, seeing as it's filled with traffic, angry people, poorly paved roads, and badly designed intersections. Driving at 2 in the morning on the freeways is OK... but it isn't beautiful like driving along the coast or through the canyons. Makes me miss the home county quite a lot.

Anyway. I'm just up because I've been fiddling with my phone. Which is a bad reason to be up, especially since I have a midterm this week!

Stupid Package Service

2009-10-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Aadfhgpaioshdg. I'm not very happy at the package service here at my apartment building. Why? Because they keep changing the hours in which you are allowed to pick up packages. And if you're unable to pick up packages during their designated hours (which keep changing)... you will be charged $5 to pick them up during office hours (9am-5pm) and $20 to pick them up during non-office hours. Oh except you can't pick up packages ever on weekends and holidays. And the Thursday package pickup hours are drastically different than the Monday-Wednesday and Friday package pickup hours? And... the Monday-Wednesday and Friday package pickup hours got recently changed from AM to PM and NOBODY BOTHERED TO TELL ME. Rather, all that was put up was a couple of black and white, extremely wordy signs filled with bad grammar and too many instructions. So the change from AM to PM went completely past me. Especially since the Thursday package pickup hours remained in the AM.

And I'm now really angry because I'm deathly afraid that they're going to send my package back, because it's been a week, because I have been unable to pick up the package during what I supposedly thought were the package hours (8-10AM) for five days plus a weekend.

And I'm also really worried that my second package (that I am so desperately waiting for) arrived and left without my knowledge because the office SOMETIMES informs us that we have a package waiting (by leaving a 1 inch by 2 centimeter piece of white paper with small black letters taped onto the FRONT of our mailbox [making it quite easy for it to fall off, or be TAKEN off if someone is in a shitty mood when they come back from school/work/whatever]) and sometimes DOESN'T.

And what do I do if my packages get sent back? One to Northern California and the other to some place in China (or Singapore)? I'm not sure! But I need my shit. :(

A Good Mix of Life and Relaxation

2009-10-05T12:41:00.000-07:00

So I successfully managed to NOT get on my computer for Facebook/Gmail/Hotmail for a few days, which is pretty amazing since I use all three frequently for Hapa. Basically, I've had a three day break from Hapa work! (But not Hapa itself).

The major parts of my weekend consisted of...

Hanging out in Westwood
Zankou Chicken (where my chicken kabobs were much greasier than usual? Boo)
Crepes in Long Beach
Drinks at the Bull Bar
Volunteering with Dog (and Cat) Adoption in Culver City
Deliciousness at The Counter
Gelato at Melt
USC beating Cal 30-3
and hosting a joint "belated birthday" party complete with tons of good drinks, good friends,
good music, and silent movies!

High points include Akiko agreeing with me that 27 Dresses is a shitty movie mainly because everything that happened to Katherine Heigl's character was her own damn fault... realizing that my iPod is working again... playing with dozens of kind, friendly, cute, amazing dogs... finding delicious new places to eat... and partying with friends that I don't get to see as often as I'd like!

Low points include not being able to adopt a dog even though I REALLY want to... and taking that stupid shot Saturday night, which I of course hated. Because I always do. I'll have a beer (or two or three) instead, any day, haha.

Completely unrelated (but related because it's still the weekend) was my lovely lazy day with the boy cleaning up the apartment, streaming various shows on Netflix (namely SVU, CI, and the original Star Trek), playing various Zombie themed games (LOVE Plants vs Zombies), eating various unhealthy foods (such a contrast to the rest of the weekend :/), and cuddling at various times throughout the day.

Good weekend :)

That Magic Moment

2009-09-30T01:13:00.000-07:00

Two midterms tomorrow (today), but before I forget the magic of the moment, I wanted to gush about this past weekend. More specifically, the marriage of my childhood best friend.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

She looked so gorgeous. Beautiful dress, beautiful smile. Everyone was all smiles. It was a smaller wedding, but even still I only knew a few people there (one of which being a fantastic friend from high school that I was SO excited to see!). The boy accompanied me. The reception was in a private room of a nearby Italian restaurant that, it turns out, I've coincidentally eaten at before (back in the day after a theatre competition in high school). The restaurant has a creepy basement (complete with broken arcade games and strange ghoulish statues), but the private room we were in was lovely, quaint, and perfect for the wedding reception.

One of my favorite parts of the whole celebration was the father daughter dance.

A frightening part of the celebration was the bouquet toss. I feel old because some of my friends are starting to settle... but not that old because I personally (and Carol too!) am(/are) clearly not ready to, haha.

Other highlights this weekend include going out to Dave and Busters for some late night drinks with some hilarious friends that I haven't seen in ages (consequently causing me to miss the walk I was supposed to participate in with my mom...), lunch with my dad at the Fish Grill, and lunch with my mom at a Chinese restaurant we used to go to sometimes a few years back (which apparently isn't doing as well as it used to :/) followed by some Mochilato (my mom's first taste!). Sunday night the boy surprised me with a home cooked meal, which definitely was unexpected (and tasty!).

I also got a haircut (after the wedding, so the pictures don't showcase it) and tamed my ever growing hair. While at first I wasn't a fan (straight bangs versus swept bangs...), I have since gotten used to it and quite like it! I've come to realize that I can't judge haircuts straight out of the salon because hairdressers tend to style my hair completely opposite from how I usually do it. Meaning, they actually style it and I don't like how it looks all gunked up. I'm not a fan of wasting time where I don't need to. If my hair looks good as it is, I'm not going to throw in expensive, unnecessary product and spend valuable time straightening it. Or curling it. Or whatever. Not to say I don't EVER do this, but usually the extent of my styling is air drying and a quick brush afterwards. An important event calls for blow drying it with a round brush, sometimes... but recently I haven't bothered. My hair's been good to me lately! Although the point definitely came where I was in dire need of a haircut. Haircut completed, my hair has gone back to being good to me :)

But really, the most important part of the weekend was the wedding. And a beautiful wedding it was :)

Relaxing Interlude

2009-09-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

So today was a nice end to a busy week.

Woke up early to get to a 10am meeting. Spent 4 hours in the ceramics lab by myself working on a project (super relaxing). By the time I was starting to get lonely, my RC came to keep me company before we went to get a quick lunch. And then it was a rush to grab a few things before heading off to APASA's Tournament of Champions (which consisted of a Tug-of-War, Relay Race complete with inflatable obstacle course, and Trivia Game featuring marshmallow guns). Not only was the Tourney of Champs a lot of fun (I cheered like crazy during the Tug-of-War and dashed/tumbled through the inflatable obstacle course helping my Relay team win BOTH times we competed in that event), but HapaSC finished in SECOND PLACE!!! Ahh! In a competition among clubs 2 and 3 times our size. :D And THEN it was our Officer Retreat to incorporate our new officers, in which I led a short discussion about responsibilities, expectations, and goals, mainly... followed by absolutely delicious Korean dessert and tea at Hwa Sun Ji which was, thankfully, SUPER relaxing.

We all took our shoes off and sat on pillows while sipping expensive (but surprisingly worth it, even from a cheapskate like me) teas and eating Korean style shaved ice with green tea ice cream, red beans, mochi, watermelon, honey dew, condensed milk, and a bit of mochi powder. I'm used to the Taiwanese version of shaved ice, which I may have mentioned before. It differs mostly in the ingredients that are put on top of the shaved ice. For Taiwanese style, you get to choose what you put in, so when I order it I generally get it with rice balls, red beans, almond jello, and condensed milk. The Korean version (at least at the place we went to) didn't have a choice in toppings, but it was TASTY nonetheless, and similar enough that I became a happy Abra because of it :) The boy and I also shared something called "Lovers Tea" (HAHA) which is supposed to enhance chemistry between two people? Or work like an aphrodisiac? The warning on the menu said that it was for couples or soon to be couples ONLY, so we were the only two who could really try it at the time, haha. It was actually quite tasty. I think the best description of it's taste would be warm cranberry juice with floral accents. It went really well with the shaved ice!

It's going to be a busy weekend to finish off a busy week, so I'm glad I had a good Friday to break the two up a bit. I'm equally glad that part of my good Friday included a fantastic, relaxing night out with my fellow Hapa officers to calm things down a bit :)

Now I've showered, removed some old nailpolish, and prepped for a night of Law and Order: SVU with the boy. It's a good ending to a good day :)

Mixed Thoughts

2009-09-22T21:31:00.001-07:00

First Project ReMiX of the year was today. Sponsored by CBCSA, El Centro Chicano, and APASS, the discussion based events occur once a month, and began just last year. I went to one and really enjoyed it, but conflicting schedules made it so I couldn't go to more. I was looking forward to this year's line up of Project ReMiXes.

Except I didn't leave this one thrilled?

Maybe it's because I wasn't in a great mood to start with. Maybe it's because my mindset on race issues has changed a bit, especially regarding my own ethnic make up.

Being mixed is interesting. It gives me a wide perspective that very few people can share. I feel that it benefits me a lot in life, as I have learned a lot about people, culture, diversity, and heart. And yet being mixed does not define me. Yes, I am President of HapaSC. But we are a Social/Cultural club that focuses on bringing people of diverse backgrounds together, creating an open environment where everyone can feel welcome, whatever their mix. It isn't about defining and splicing our mixes. It's about recognizing our differences and celebrating our similarities.

And we are far more similar than different. For instance, we all love food. And we adore the fact that, because we're so ethnically mixed, we can eat a different cuisine at every event.

We also love having a University Recognized Organization that we can actually be a part of, where we don't feel out of place. For instance, I've never participated with CASA, even though I am half Chinese. Maybe it's my own insecurity, but I never felt Chinese enough. Even though I love my culture. Maybe it's that I never felt Chinese enough for them, by their standards.

So many people hang out with us (coming to our meetings, events, and parties) that aren't mixed at all. I have no idea why. Maybe because you don't have to feel mixed to feel the pressures of the social construct of "race." Which IS a social construct, by the way. I know plenty of people who are mixed but LOOK white, and therefore are deemed racially white. Although I look at them and think of them as ethnically mixed.

What do they consider themselves? Depends on the person, how they were raised, what they value, etc.

I am mixed, and it has helped shape who I am today. I think that I am a better person because of it. I am not defined by my ethnic make up, however, and this is where I ran into problems with Project ReMiX today. There was too much definition of being mixed. Mixed RACE for that matter. Ethnicities and, more importantly, cultures are fascinating. Race? Not fascinating. Race has a dark history. At one point during Project ReMiX we split off into small group discussions. When trying to respond to the question "What does it mean to be multiracial today?", our answers were all over the place. We all seemed to have some issue with the usage of the word "race."

Anyway.

I learned something about myself today. I have grown past trying to define myself in other people's eyes, in society's social constructs. I've already been there, done that. Endured it. I don't need to be witty or wry (answering the inevitable question, "what are you?" with, "a human being, what are YOU?"). I am what I am, I think how I think. I appreciate my cultural background, and I honestly think that I have stepped one step beyond most people because I am done trying to define people. Judge people. People who judge based on appearances irritate me.

I'll be going back to Project ReMiX because it's an event that HapaSC supports, and because every ReMiX theme is different. As the group of people change from month to month, so does the dialogue that takes place. I won't be looking forward to it as much as I have in the past, however, because there was something that didn't sit well with me at this one.

I think the bottom line is, those who are involved in spreading the Mixed agenda are focusing on, in my opinion, the wrong things. Maybe it's cliche to say "can't we all just get along?" but really, can't we? And getting along isn't ignoring our pasts. It's talking about it, confronting it, sharing it, appreciating it, and THEN getting along. Because we aren't judging anyone by their past, or their present, or their future. We're just recognizing our differences and celebrating our similarities.

Plodding Along

2009-09-21T17:42:00.001-07:00

Super sore from hiking the Hollywood Sign Trail at Griffith Park yesterday. Got some good pictures, and ultimately the Retreat was a lot of fun. The challenging daytime activities made Korean BBQ afterwards that much more delicious.

Been feeling opinionated lately, so I wrote some Yelp reviews. I haven't written for Yelp in... a really freaking long time. I've since gone to a lot of restaurants that are worth reviewing: the best and the worst, of course.

Looks like I'll be going home this weekend. Wedding to go to this Saturday, and I'll be walking in something similar to Relay for Life on Sunday with my mom, I believe.

Other than that, I'm plodding through school as usual. Two midterms this week and no motivation. Let's see how that turns out.

Yum, Yay, Fun, Yay

2009-09-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

Weekday Things I've Done:

Mid-week date at El Cholo. Yum!
Successful HapaSC meeting. Yay!
Lunch with Dad at Versailles. YumYay!
Westwood visiting and Choke watching. Fun!
Took my first exam of senior year. Yay!
Good conversation and kisses with the boy. FunYay!

Weekend Things To Do:

Eat Crepes for brunch. Yum!
Visit the Shoshana Wayne Gallery. Yay!
Try 21 Choices for the first time. YumYay!
Hang out in Santa Monica. Fun!
Hike in Griffith Park. Yay!
Enjoy the Annual HapaSC Retreat. FunYay!
Eat tasty Korean BBQ. Yum!
Watch a ~~yet undecided~~ movie. Yay!
Take pictures with my 2 for 1 disposable camera(s). YumYay?

Shopping is Stressful

2009-09-17T16:07:00.000-07:00

Trying to get this (miniature knock off from China) phone on EBay. I've chosen my seller, I've got my max bid in mind. Now it's all about getting the bid in at the very last second. Timing is key, my friends. Wish me luck!

Days Pass By

2009-09-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

It's been another busy weekend. Highlights include an afternoon with my RC, an Invite with a friend, hosting a game watching party for the USC vs Ohio State game, and attending Calligraphy (a Visions and Voices event featuring a play written by HapaSC faculty advisor Dr. Velina Houston). My brain is a little frazzled because I have yet to organize myself for the upcoming week, start and finish readings, homework and quizzes, and create a study guide for my first test of the year (this Wednesday...). Spent a little too much time passively socializing (Zombies, Zombies, more Zombies, and Bang!). It's been fun, although I wish I had more hours in the day to enjoy it all. Here are some pictures to replace words...

I Miss Taiwan

2009-09-09T08:19:00.000-07:00

My alarm went off around 7:15am. I got up around 7:30am. I was ready and eating Lucky Charms by 7:45am. I had printed power points to take notes on by 7:50am. I could easily have gotten to my 8:00am class by 8:03am.

And yet it is 8:10am and I am still sitting in my room, gazing at my lovely orchids, wide awake, with apparantly no intention of going to class.

Maybe it's because I got a 42.7/43 on this week's homework, thus making me feel overconfident about the material. Maybe it's because I feel like reading on my comfy couch. Maybe it's because, even when I'm energized in the morning, I'm lazy. :(

The Past 48 Hours

2009-09-05T16:54:00.000-07:00

...Have been too busy. HapaSC's First General Meeting went alright. A lot of people showed up, which is good. Hopefully everyone is interested enough to come back. Part of the problem with the meeting was that, halfway through, the temperature of the room we were in seemed to skyrocket. Apparently they're having issues with the A/C in that building. So we moved outside. It wasn't a huge deal, but it came across as being a bit disorganized, I think.

Welcome Mixer was fun on Friday. Again, the heat was an issue. Last year the weather was fantastic, so it was really enjoyable to run around outside taking pictures (for our now annual Picture Scavenger Hunt). This year, my group at least was weighed down so much by the heat we decided not to run. So... we probably won't win :/ That's alright. It was fun anyway, and the Indian food afterwards was tasty.

Then it was DANCEiSM. Ok. So I had been excited to go to DANCEiSM because it's supposed to be a really fun mini-rave. About 1500 people, and much cheaper than say, Hard or EDC. I like various types of electronic music (there's a club in Newport that I like to go to when I'm in the area), and I figured the vibe would be awesome (what with Body Painting, Photobooth, etc). After dancing 3 hours straight, here are my thoughts:

DANCEiSM was a rave, but only in the technical sense of the word. It definitely lacked in rave culture.

DANCEiSM was frequented by shy kids and scene kids. And loser guys. No offense.

DANCEiSM was even smaller than I expected it to be, although the Body Painting was really cool. (Emilie and I definitely got carried away, haha.)

DANCEiSM was fun.

Yup. With all that said, I had a really good time. But that's because Emilie and I are awesome :P We both agreed that while electronic music is fun to dance to occasionally, we don't know how anyone could claim it as their sole music of choice. It's too redundant. If I weren't drunk, I'd probably get annoyed. Don't get me wrong, I like electro. But I prefer Electro Rock. Melodies. Movement. As a music enthusiast, that's what I feel music needs. The DJs at DANCEiSM were spinning great music to dance to whilst intoxicated, but could I listen to their music say, now? No. Not a chance.

Afterwards, we got late night IHOP. I actually prefer late night Denny's (or Mel's), but it still did the job. And then I got to take a hot shower (SO necessary), and then FINALLY I got to sleep.

[ I forgot my camera :/ Photo Credit: Yelp. ]
And then not too long later, my mom showed up for lunch! :) We went to Monterey Park for some tasty, tasty Chinese Food. (It's so worth the drive. I have yet to find very good Chinese Food around here.) Then we swung by a bakery and a market and I got a Mooncake (red bean with egg yolk!), Almond Jello Mix, and some Winter Melon Juice. YUM! I haven't had any since we ran out of the concentrate block we brought back from Taiwan three some years ago. It's SO refreshing. Love it in hot, humid weather (hate the weather, though, haha).

In addition to that, I switched my layout around a bit, I re-watched Howl's Moving Castle (liked it so much more the second time... and did you know that Christian Bale voices Howl? O.o), USC beat San Jose State 56-3, and I've had a few moments to relax. :)

And that's what I've been up to. Wish I could split this into multiple entries. I could, I suppose, but ugh. It's only been two days!

In Full Swing

2009-09-03T11:11:00.000-07:00

Busy day today, but I'm taking a few minutes to sit and drink some vitamin water. It's hot (and grossly humid because of the fires) lately, so it's been far too easy to become dehydrated. Bad bad :(

Anyway, I haven't really talked about my schedule for the semester. So far I like it. It's a nice balance, and surprisingly music empty. Classes are as follows:

BUAD200 - Foundation to Economics
FA212 - Wheel Throwing
MUSC310 - Music Recording
MUSC422 - The Beatles: Their Music & Their Times
MPVA301 - Voice Lesson
PSYC201 - The Science of Happiness
PSYC360 - Abnormal Psychology

It's unit heavy (20), but I have a couple of fluffy classes (Wheel Throwing and Beatles) so it shouldn't be TOO bad. Wheel Throwing is ceramics, by the way. It's SUPER nice to have time in my schedule to do it. My background is handbuilding - I've only worked on the wheel occasionally, back in the day - so manipulating clay on the wheel has been a small challenge. But I think I've got the hang of the basics. I made 9 cylinders last class! (Our current project is to make a sculpture out of 10 cylinders. I made a grand total of 1 the first class, so making 9 last class was a much needed morale booster, haha).

The other classes I like so far, although you can't really tell in the first few weeks. My ECON professor is still engaging, which is great. I've only had one voice lesson so far and it was successful, which was a nice surprise (for both me and my professor). My PSYC classes are fantastic because I love psychology. I had my first PSYC201 discussion/lab today (it's technically a science GE so I think the school requires a separate lab for it), and in it we played a game based off of the "Prisoner's Dilemma." The goal was to interact with classmates by playing a simplified version of Rock, Paper, Scissors to garner points, and the person with the most points at the end would win 2 bonus points in the class (which I THINK equates to 2% of your grade). And... I WON! :D

In other news, HapaSC hosted an Around the World Party on Tuesday and it threw off my schedule for the week. Fell behind and missed a few (hopefully) expendable classes yesterday in an attempt to catch up. First General Meeting today, though! Hope it goes well :)

Weekend and What Not

2009-08-30T00:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-18T01:12:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-11T16:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-08-09T15:32:00.001-07:00

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 :)

Bad People Exist

2009-07-30T14:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Lately in LA (and Other Places)

2009-07-28T02:02:00.000-07:00

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? :)

Zing Zang Zoom

2009-07-23T16:39:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Keeping Busy

2009-07-19T22:23:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Ten Things

2009-07-16T11:09:00.000-07:00

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!

Lists, Putzing, and Big Smiles

2009-07-09T17:36:00.000-07:00

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. :)

Sunny Days

2009-07-07T02:24:00.001-07:00

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 :)

Excessive Recapping

2009-07-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

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 :)

Less Than Fantastic

2009-06-30T00:41:00.000-07:00

Today should have been a fantastic day. The boy and I had planned to spend the afternoon at the beach, soaking up the Southern Californian sun as we took a ferry across a harbor and frolicked in the Pacific waves. Building sandcastles on the beach. Eating delicious beach side fare.

Except it didn't quite turn out that way.

We got off to a late start (which isn't terrible, but still a fact), and were bummed to learn that the entire coastline was draped in a dreary cloud cover. Ew. But the air was fairly warm still, so we decided to take some boogie boards and head out anyway.

After a nice walk (observing the dreariness of the sky the entire time), we took the ferry across the water from the island to the peninsula. (Those who are from the area should know what I'm talking about.)

From there, we walked to the pier/beach and found a nice spot to lay down all of our things. And then it was time for the water! Well, the boy went completely into the water. I didn't. For one, it was freezing (we later learned the water temperature was in the high 50s). For two, I somehow managed to psyche myself out about the waves. The waves today just seemed particularly brutal to me. I knew that I wouldn't enjoy it unless I was only getting my lower body wet (not the most fun), or if I was completely in the water, past the breaking point, bobbing up and down observing the shore from the sea. It was cold though, so I was afraid I wouldn't make it out into the deeper ocean in time before being pummeled by a particularly brutal wave. The boy was disappointed I didn't go out. I was too, truthfully. He said something along the lines of "what is the worst thing the waves can do to you?" to which I gave an answer filled with terrible possibilities.

In any case, we eventually built an unfinished castle surrounded by a superbly superb fort/moat.

And then when we tired of that, the boy ran out into the ocean with his boogie board for a few more waves. I had my camera out at this point, and was happily taking pictures of our lovely sand achievement. And then I started taking pictures of the boy, because he looked so cute in the water. And then, mid-shot, I noticed the boy was looking a bit unhappy from the last wave that brought him in. And then I noticed his hair was filled with sand that he didn't bother to wipe away. And then I noticed the strange protrusion sticking out of his neck/chest area.

AUGhhhhhhhhh.

He didn't seem to think anything was seriously wrong. Yet. I brought him to the lifeguard. The lifeguard called a lifeguard truck. The lifeguard truck inspected the boy and told him he had two options: ride in an ambulance to the hospital, or go to the hospital on his own accord. We decided to go on our own accord.

Long story short, we ended up at the emergency room of the hospital in his city. He ended up having what we all suspected (but were hoping against): a broken collarbone. That means for 6-8 weeks, he's out of service. That's basically the rest of summer. It's kind of a bummer. It will still be fun, but that takes out such activities like Six Flags (which we were planning on going to in a week in a half), swimming, kayaking, possibly biking - any outdoor/active activity, really. It's a bit disappointing.

Worse is the fact that while at the hospital, I had to wait outside in the waiting room. That was such a bummer. Waiting and not being able to be there, and not being able to lend a hand to squeeze or a touch to support. I hated that.

To add to the day's unfantasticness, I found out five some hours after my arrival to the hospital (we were there for about three hours), that I didn't have my cell phone. It isn't in my house, my bag, the boy's house, my car. I called the hospital, and eventually drove back to check the waiting room. Security told me that they will check the linen bags (I think I might have left it tangled up in a blanket the staff gave me while I was waiting in the waiting room) tonight. If they find it, they will call me. They also told me that there are a lot of linens, and while the person I was talking to assured me that if it was there they'd probably find it, I didn't feel very assured.

I'm looking up replacement phones right now. It's kind of a bummer because I got my phone recently, and it wasn't cheap. Oh well. It isn't worse than having a broken collar bone. My poor beloved :/

Something else that sucks: ants. We have too many of them. Darn this more-humid-than-normal summer.

Something that isn't as sucky as I originally proclaimed it to be: Bubba/Boba. I called him a needy dog in my last post. I feel a bit bad about that. Yes, he seems to have dog A.D.D. Yes, he's a bit of an attention whore. But he isn't so negatively needy that I should have complained about it. I think he was just calling for more attention than normal because he was in a new environment and his real family was nowhere to be found. So I offer my sincerest apologies to Bubba/Boba, a remarkably cute dog.

Anyway. That was today. I'll recap the rest of the weekend later I suppose.

Two Things

2009-06-26T11:03:00.000-07:00

Today I have two things to talk about. The first: Bubba (or Boba?), my neighbor's dog. We're watching him for the week (or 10 days, people around here aren't very specific with this kind of information).

Before I begin, I should mention that I LOVE dogs. I'm one of those people that, upon seeing a dog (any size, shape, or form), deteriorates into uninteligible happy noises. Sometimes these noises are accompanied by "ooo, doggie! such a CUTE doggie!" proclamations in a weird, I-don't-sound-like-this-on-any-other-occasion voice.

Bubba/Boba is particularly cute. Compared to my own, dear, late Skippy, however... well, he just doesn't compare. I don't mean to be harsh, but this dog is NEEDY. He is in constant need of petting, attention, playing, at all hours of the day/night. He isn't a puppy. He's just needy. Cute, but needy. I don't mind, because I love dogs. But I miss Skippy and her wise demeanor. Nonetheless, it's been fun. There's nothing quite like having a dog rush at you the second you open the front door after being out for a while. With Bubba/Boba, however, this rush comes complete with jumping and licking. Lots of licking. He has unusually bad doggy breath.

The other thing I wanted to talk about is Planned Parenthood. On a side note, I don't currently have Health Insurance. It's a temporary situation, but it's been over a year since I've had a regular check up (and I needed a few questions answered/supplies anyway), so I wanted to get in to see a doctor somewhere. I had heard that PP is a good option for women without insurance, so I decided to head over to one of the six locations in my county. I've got to say, the one I went to was FANTASTIC. Being a woman, I prefer woman doctors. PP is a woman's clinic, so that's all they have. The staff was great. My RN was fantastic. My doctor was completely down to earth. The atmosphere was chill, straight forward, and completely professional. And it was clean. AND it was EXCEEDINGLY cheep! In my current financial situation, I was able to get everything I needed (and tons more) with only the ask of a donation. What? There's no fee? Just a donation plea? That's AMAZING! I don't know why more people don't go. If not just to take advantage of this amazing place, but, if you have the means, to support it as well. To put it lightly, I was blown away by my experience. And yes, I gave a donation.

That whole morning I felt pretty empowered. Like girl power empowered. Listened to a lot of Ani DiFranco that day. I love "Stepping Stones" in particular. (It's kind of slow, not representative of all her work, but the chorus of that song really speaks to me.)

In other news, I got a haircut. Nothing drastic, but I like it. And that's it for now! The boy is on his way over for a nap, and I want to clean up my room a bit before he gets here :)

Today I'm Doing Things

2009-06-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

I'm quite content at the moment. My body is tired, because I spent most of the day climbing, sliding, and wandering around Wild Rivers. It's tired in the best of ways, though, because, since taking a shower, I feel completely refreshed. Plus, it was really fun! I haven't gone to Wild Rivers since Middle School, I think, and that's what... almost nine years ago now? Eight maybe? Anyway. Good times :)

So it's actually been a while since I've written. Enjoyable things that I can remember off the top of my head include getting a double scoop sugar cone (fudge chocolate and french vanilla! a classic and completely delicious combination) at Baskin Robbins, Anhkhoa visiting, going out to eat (Le Dip, Wienerschnitzel, Black Angus, Veggie Grill, Carl's, and Mimi's for Father's Day), random games on random days (I'm going to elaborate on this in the next paragraph, I think), going to (and completely loving) the pool, Koffee Klatch and the beach (I miss this combination so much when I'm in LA), movie(s), some crazy dreams, and a bit of researching.

One thing that I've been researching is cake decorating. I love ceramics, but it's a bit expensive, so I haven't been partaking in it this summer. Cake decorating isn't cheap either, but it's edible! And easier to dispose of (and more pleasantly received) at gatherings :) Speaking of gatherings, most of what my friends and I have been doing lately have involved games of all sorts. Things ranging from Rock Band (quickly deteriorating into Cranium and Zombie Fluxx) Night, to multiple afternoons of the Enchanted Forest, to a few games of Backgammon, to wayyy too much L4D (with a dash of Soul Caliber for variety). And by wayyy too much L4D I mean WAYYY too much. I think our lowest (or highest?) point was when we played almost 8 hours worth over the course of two days. What made it worse, was we were playing into the wee hours of the morning. One night, we didn't start playing until around midnight. Fantastic. There goes getting my sleep schedule sorted out... haha.

I DID, however, appreciate the freshly made homemade pancakes that filled my tummy as a result of said late night(s).

It's kind of funny that I've played L4D so much in large group situations recently. (Even though I love the game, I've so far avoided playing in large group situations.) I like my fair share of video games, but FPS games have never really appealed to me. I've also always considered those types of games to be far nerdier than things like Mario Kart and Smash (which, to me, are comparable with things like Clue and Scrabble). It might have something to do with the fact that most of the people I knew in high school that would sit around, connect computers, and play FPS games were, well, nerdy. (I also think playing computer games in a group is nerdier than playing video games in a group... but again, that's just my own unfounded opinion.) Anyway, it's kind of ingrained in me that FPS games are nerdy games, especially when played in a large group setting. I have to admit, though, that L4D is a LOT of fun, even in (or dare I say, especially in?) large group situations. And maybe not as nerdy as all the other FPS games out there... haha.

So I missed out on Karaoke at the Detroit Bar last night (it sucks to be a woman sometimes), but I plan on going next Sunday. Also, Six Flags is in the works (again, finally), and at some point this summer I need to go kayaking. It amazes me that summer is almost half done and I haven't gone yet. Blasphemy!

Something random that I'd like to do is watch Herb and Dorothy. It's a documentary about the Vogels, a postal clerk and a librarian who built one of the "most important contemporary art collections in history." My dad is a postal worker, and I love museums and galleries, so it looks really interesting. The film is directed by "first time filmmaker" Megumi Sasaki. I watched the trailer, though, and I like his style. I think it suits the subject of the documentary, the personalities of Herb and Dorothy Vogel, as well as the genre itself. To my knowledge the film is not yet released to DVD, so the only way to see it is to attend a screening. There's one at the Orange County Museum of Art this Thursday, I believe... but I have a date scheduled for that night (:D) so I might not make it. It's OK, though. There will be screening's near me soon enough. The next convenient screening will be at the Landmark Theatre Nuart in LA... but it might be more fun to go see the screening at the Cinema Palme D'Or in Palm Desert and make a day trip, or a weekend trip out of it. Both of those screenings are at the end of July.

All this talk of screenings and museums and what not makes me want to go to a museum. Or actually, the Aquarium of the Pacific! That would be fun too.

Spending the day at Wild Rivers was a lot of fun. It got me moving to the point that I'm super motivated to do tons of things. I always WANT to do things, but whether or not I'm motivated to do everything (at every given point in time) varies depending on the day. Today? Today I'm doing things :)

Dear Noah

2009-06-15T15:33:00.000-07:00

My dear friend. I found out last night. I'm still processing the news. It has been so long since we've spoken face to face, it's hard to comprehend the impossibility of once again speaking in the same way. I am devasted to know that, by chance, I was 150 miles from home but only a block and a half away from you when you were found. That whole night, even. I almost contacted you that weekend. Or I wanted to. I didn't realize it would be the last realistic chance for me to do so. I'm sorry. I am trying not to dwell. I don't think you would want me - or anyone - to. Instead I am remembering. Memories of you taking my Pochacco lunch box every day at school. Your hilarious comments that brightened every class we shared. The video projects you would do that made me cry tears of laughter. Always making me laugh. At school. After school. At dances. Our dance. At my birthday party. Our birthdays are a day apart. For the rest of my life I will remember you on your birthday. It will be impossible for me to not. I miss you. Remembering all our interactions. Making fun of each other. Pestering each other. Eighth grade was our year, wasn't it? Things changed, but I had my memories. Things have changed again, but I still have my memories. Oh Noah. "You'll be in my heart. No matter what they say, you'll be here in my heart. Always."

Photo Boxes

2009-06-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday I enjoyed a completely "me" day. I craved Veggie Grill, so I went out and got some. I wanted boba, so I got some Cha (but only because I was in the area - Lollicup is better). I sat outside enjoying the beautiful weather, and finished reading The Devil in the White City (which was a very good book, by the way). I hadn't relaxed in front of the TV for nearly a month, so that night I decided some Law and Order was in order (haha). While watching, I played some old childhood games of mine that I found in a cabinet (Peg Solitaire and a balancing maze game that I can't for the life of me find an example of online).

All those things alone would have made Wednesday a fantastic day.

And then I found the boxes of old pictures.

I was looking through a cabinet in the kitchen in search of some D batteries (for another childhood game I had come across and wanted to play), and instead came across 3.5 heavy boxes filled entirely with pictures. The TV was still on, but I wasn't really paying attention because suddenly I was looking through pictures of myself, my parents, our dog, relatives, friends - everything dating pre 1998, with most pictures dating pre 1990. I've only gotten through 1.5 boxes (these boxes are seriously FILLED), but it's been really interesting/fun for me so far.

I've mentioned before that I have a hideously bad memory. Finding these pictures so I can recall bits of my childhood is amazing. Looking through them I realized two things: one, that I was by far the worst dressed kid EVER... and two, after a while I was examining the smiles of the people in the pictures. I guessed that I was looking for something. I told the boyfriend this and he agreed that it was something I would do.

On a side note, even though I regularly take hundreds of digital pictures... I still prefer hard copies. For me, it's just so much more nostalgic to sift through a box of old hard copies of pictures, versus click through a folder of old digital copies of pictures. To be fair, this might have something to do with the fact that all the childhood/young parent pictures I possess are hard copies because digital technology didn't exist at the time. Still, I have a feeling that the hard copy would evoke just that much more memory, if not for any more reason beyond the fact that the picture itself smells old, or looks old, or is faded, or has a stain on it.

On another side note, it's true. We've definitely come a long way since game night. :)

I Like Things

2009-06-09T14:10:00.000-07:00

I like grits. They're so basic, and yet so deliciously comforting at the same time. Hot, soaking up all the flavors of the surrounding food. I had some good ones last week at the Jazz Kitchen in Downtown Disney (where my man and I met my roommate and her man for dinner).

I also like veggie burgers, although I'm not vegetarian. I had a really tasty one in the dining car of the train on the way to Santa Barbara. And it came with coffee :) (In a plastic cup! Haha.)

On that note, I like train rides. I haven't REALLY traveled by train since I was a little girl, when I went to San Diego with my family (I've taken a few short trips here and there in the years following). I remember that being a fun trip (the conductor of the train entertained me with a Goofy voice as he came by to pick up our tickets), and my recent train trip was fun as well. There's something quite soothing about trains. It could be the slow rolling of the moving cars, or the utterly amazing panoramas of passing hillside and ocean, which can be easily seen from the generously windowed viewing car.

I also like learning new things. Like slacklining, which Kurt introduced to all of us in a beautiful park in Isla Vista. It was challenging, but fun. I'd never done something like it before (the closest thing would be rock climbing, I think), and was super eager to give it a try.

Also enjoyable is drinking supremely delicious Thai Tea Snow Bubble with Boba (from an Indian Restaurant of all places) in said park while relaxing after exerting myself on the slackline.

What isn't enjoyable is being stalked by a skunk while trying to soak up the fresh, night air :/

I do, however, like gift exchanging outside of 85C Cafe, games like Rock Band, Catch Phrase, Munchkin, and Zombie Fluxx (which, by the way, is leagues better than Monty Python Fluxx), Gospel Choirs, horchata, longboarding (even though I'm slow), Coldstone coffee icecream with brownie and Heath bar mix-ins, and good company.

And catching up with family is nice, as well. Sam Woo is a tasty place for such reuniting. I imagine the leftovers I'm about to reheat from said dinner will also be tasty :)

Back in the 949

2009-06-08T17:42:00.001-07:00

Today I returned from my trip to Santa Barbara. Here's a picture I took in the city. ...And that's it for now. (I'll offer up details later - I've got dinner and what not to attend to tonight!)

Life and Changes

2009-06-02T17:29:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday I spent the day at Disney's California Adventure. I'd been to it multiple times, but only once before have I ever spent the entire day there without also going to Disneyland (which is a story for another time). It was a lot of fun! Pictures are up on Facebook - all in one album, amazingly. I guess during the past week (?) Facebook changed their 60 picture album limit to 200. I haven't decided whether or not I like the change, yet. It's definitely more convenient, but it requires less weeding of pictures. Instead of only putting up the best pictures, the good and mediocre pictures get put up as well. I'm still trying to be a strict weeder, regardless...

I found my briefly missing external hard drive, which is good, because now I am able to transfer all the music that was on my old laptop and external onto my NEW lappy toppy :P I'm really enjoying this laptop. The more I look at it, the smaller and sleeker it becomes. And it's handling everything like a dream. I used the "Satellite" option on Google Maps today and found what I was looking for in mere seconds. I used to not be able to use Satellite because my computer just couldn't handle it. Sweet, sweet technology :)

Even still, transferring my music is taking a while. There's a lot of it, and I'm trying to keep it all organized. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to organize it on my new computer. I think I'll just make a single "Transferred [Date]" folder in my My Music folder and do it that way. We'll see.

Ah! I found out the other day that one of my childhood best friends got hired to be a Marketing Assistant in her dream city: San Francisco! I'm sooo happy for her. While San Francisco isn't the city for me (too fast paced and rainy... although I love visiting), it's definitely the city for her. I can't wait to visit her again! (I visited her last summer while she was working an internship - SO much fun.) I'm a little sad because, even though it's an amazing milestone moment, it's one of those moments that signifies growing up and getting older. Especially for someone I've known for so long, it's kind of weird to think about. We used to ride our bikes, complete with trainer wheels, around the neighborhood before school was anything more than a place where children gathered and learned how to spell difficult words like "the." Now, I will be riding an airplane to a completely different city where I expect I will go dancing and get drinks and hear about career related excitement. How life changes.

In other news, I watched UP in 3D yesterday. I expected it to be good, and it was. I expected it to be funny, and it was, sort of. The themes throughout the movie were so unbelievably heavy. I felt like they were important and handled well... but boy I would have loved a warning. Something along the lines of: "while UP may look like heartwarming, humorous movie depicting an old man with a square face, a tubby kid of indecipherable ethnicity, and a friendly talking dog... it's ACTUALLY a movie depicting some of life's most difficult events while attempting to give example as to how to deal with (and move past) these events." I still would have watched the movie. I bet I still would have liked it. Maybe I would have cried less, though, because I was forewarned.

Anyway, that picture up at the top of this post is a painting by Kerne Erickson. I found it online (thanks to one of the many e-mail lists I'm on), and was immediately drawn to the vintage styling. It reminded me a lot of the style of art and design used to decorate most of Disney's California Adventure. It also made me happy. Thus, it earned it's place at the top of this post. Enjoy :)

Catching Up Is Hard to Do

2009-05-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Note: This is post two of two for today. Haven't read my first post? Scroll down a bit and read that one first :)

Even though I haven't written in a while, I'm able to remember most of what I've done. This is because I've started keeping track of my days again. I used to do this during my year off: whenever I remember to, I update a .txt file with a list of what I've done every day. It might seem mundane, but it's the easiest way for me to remember what's occured over a long period of time. (I have a notoriously bad memory. Being able to remember events/things is something I really value).

Hmm. Looking through the .txt right now, I'm realizing that I should update more often, just so I can better record what's been going on. I already have a list of what's happening, I don't need another one. It'd be better if I used this space to elaborate on some of the more interesting things :) Because it's been so long, however, today I'll just do some highlights.

These past two weeks have been a lot of fun - relaxing, yet surprisingly busy. Nate drove down last week, and I introduced him to some of my favorite places in Orange County. I went to Los Angeles twice: once to just hang out and pick up a few things I forgot, and the other time for my best friend's 22nd birthday. My 6 month anniversary was a wonderful night complete with Vietnamese food, a bit of Sweet Dreams®, and a late morning out (filled with tasty corned beef hash and coffee). My Memorial Day was a good one, consisting of a spectacular view, a BBQ, and a fun/refreshing swim.

Some mellow activities I've been partaking in include reading (I've since finished "This Is Cuba" and am now working my way through the enthralling non-fiction bestseller "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson), a bit of TV (namely parts of the Band of Brothers marathon), joy riding, and playing Bang, Fluxx, Mille Bornes, Zombies and Scrabble.

Food highlights include both going out and eating in. Off the top of my head, I remember some of the most memorable being: ordering in Thai food, Del Taco, the usual Fish and Chips place in Dana Point (although I got clam chowder the last time I went), Lollicup by the Arbor lake, coffee with friends, and trying out new restaurants with family. One of my favorite dinners (besides my anniversary dinner) was making a delicious Tomato Basil Pizza and Peach Salad in Irvine :)

Movie highlights include Tropic Thunder (which I didn't like), The Notebook (which I still love), and Anastasia (which I was able to watch on my NEW lappy toppy)!

And... the last important thing I did in the past two weeks was serve Jury Duty at the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach. Although I guess I didn't really "serve" - I just sat in a room for 8 hours waiting for my name to be called. When it wasn't, I had completed my "service" and was free to go for a year. It was both a relief and a disappointment - a relief because I didn't have to be bound to a trial with an unknown end date, and a disappointment because actually serving on a jury would have been interesting. Oh well, next time :)

Today I've been uploading pictures to Facebook and catching up with messages and e-mails. Choosing what picture to put at the top of this post was a challenge, since I had so many to sort through. I went with two: a simple view from the top of a hill in Irvine, and the pine tree in front of my house. I'm still trying to absorb all that is home. The other pictures I will put up in time :)

Technological Advances

2009-05-29T18:11:00.001-07:00

So I know I haven't updated for a while... but I have a good excuse! My 5 year old laptop finally went out on me, and I didn't have access to a computer for a while.

Why am I suddenly updating? Because TWO days ago, I received my BRAND NEW LAPPY TOPPY in the mail! I'm pretty damn excited. Nobody else (except for you, my love) is, though, because the things I'm excited about aren't anything special. They're things like, a webcam, for instance. I never had one, so I think mine is pretty damn cool. I'm also enthralled by my wireless LASER mouse, which is more convenient than I thought it would be. The fact that I have enough RAM to watch movies and YouTube videos (in High Def/Res to boot!) is amazing... and being able to do multiple things at the same time (like download files, have a gazillion tabs open in Chrome, listen to music, upload pictures, talk on Skype, etc) is unreal.

Yeah... my old laptop was pretty shitty.

In case you were wondering, I ended up getting an HP dv4t in Moonlight White. It's sleek, quiet (my old one sounded like a small, broken vaccum cleaner), and LIGHT. (It's just over 5 lbs. Compare that to my old one which was almost 9 lbs. Yay technology!)

I'm pretty happy :) Anyway, that's my excuse as to why I've been M.I.A. for a while. And... I think I'll actually split this update into two posts (so I don't have an essay long "hey I'm back!" entry). So this is my post as to why I haven't updated recently... and my next post will be what I've been doing lately :)

Finally!

2009-05-18T04:16:00.000-07:00

I'm homeeeeeeeeee! Home home home! In Irvine! Finally! :D I've only been here for a day, but it's been everything I was hoping for, so far. Which isn't TOO surprising, since I wasn't hoping for much. I was just hoping for home :)

I really needed to leave LA. For one, I was basically out of cash. I didn't have much on me to begin with (I hate carrying around cash in LA, mostly because homeless people like to come up to you and ask for money. All. The time). Anyway, I didn't have much on me to begin with, and when I didn't have a credit card for a few months (my card number was jacked and, even though my bank sent me a new one, I couldn't activate it until I called from my home phone in Irvine...), I seriously depleted my LA cash reserve.

For two, I just couldn't relax up there anymore. It was associated with so much stress, I needed to get out just so I could breathe. And sleep. Yikes. Thankfully, I'm now breathing and sleeping just fine :)

My last few days in LA were fun, though. Highlights include lunch at La Barca, and heading out to the Library Bar. And my one full day here has been pretty fantastic, too. I had an important, heartening conversation in the Lollicup parking lot, read more of This Is Cuba, and continued organizing pictures to print and send to my Grandma. I reunited with Mr. Snow, and enjoyed some home cooked fried rice. I had a delicious family dinner (a rare treat for me, what with how my own family is) in Mission Viejo, and killed my fair share of zombies. And I smiled :)

I'm looking forward to more nubbing. Six Flags. Santa Barbara. Korean BBQ and Karaoke. Westwood. Making a list of 100 things I want to do this summer... and then crossing everything off of that list.

Home home home. It's good to be home :)

Counting Down the Days

2009-05-12T13:43:00.000-07:00

The above picture is of a postcard I received recently from Taiwan (through Postcrossing). When I first saw it, I guessed that it was of a shopping area in Taipei. I messaged the sender to make sure, and it turns out I was right! Gosh, I miss Taiwan food a LOT. It's SO tasty, especially during the summer...

But it's OK. There are a lot of other tasty (and less tasty) things in Southern California that make me happy. Here are a few:

Making breakfast for two
Guava juice
Catching up on Dorm Life
Being (almost) done with this semester
Deciding when I will make a White Russian Tiramisu
Looking through old pictures of good times
Watching Mean Girls instead of studying for finals

I won't really have the opportunity to travel/go very far this summer, but I have a hunch it will be a good (and much needed) break anyway.

In other news, I miss Mr. Snow :/

Catching Up

2009-05-06T03:46:00.000-07:00

These past (almost) two weeks have been crazy. Highlights include:

Mixed and Matched
Porcelain @ The Key Club
Vimbayi's Recital
USC Madrigal Singers Concert
Trojan Consort Concert
Voice Recital
Versailles/X-Men Origins: Wolverine @ Citywalk
Formal Dinner at Maggiano's @ The Grove
HAPArty with UCI's Mixed Student Organization
Birthday!
Disneyland
Flowers, flowers, flowers, and more flowers :)

...Plus dinners, papers, presentations, meetings, rehearsals, and other miscellaneous activities.

It was a lot of work, and a lot of singing for me, but I had fun. I always enjoy singing, and it's fun to dress up for end of the semester events. I also had a surprisingly amazing birthday, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my friends. Although I think Disneyland takes the cake for being the best part of my birthday weekend :)

I have one week of finals, and then I get to go home and celebrate my birthday with my family, and my Irvine friends. I'm excited. I have been looking forward to this summer for almost a year now, and it's finally here. Almost. Hopefully I can focus long enough to get through my finals...

Something I'm really looking forward to doing this summer is swimming laps. I miss being refreshed by uncrowded pool water, and I'm looking forward to getting back into tip top shape. I'm also looking forward to reading. I'm working my way through This Is Cuba, still, but it's been difficult because I've been so busy. It's hard to find time to just SIT. Something I find myself longing to do, often. Being able to sit and not think about all the things you have to do means that you have the luxury to do seemingly useless (but extremely pleasing) things. I can't wait for that. Can. Not. Wait.

I'm also really looking forward to taking spontaneous trips. People have been throwing around ideas, but who knows how many will actually come to fruitition. Off the top of my head, there are two that I'd really like to do: Tucson and Oberlin. Tucson, so I can visit Emilie (whom I miss DEARLY because I haven't seen her in five something months), and Oberlin so I can visit Chris and watch the second run of his new opera, "The Mermaid." I'm considering visiting my Grandma in Longview as well. That's a bit more complicated though.

Less complicated is camping. That will definitely happen :)

Tomorrow I have to seriously start studying. Academically I've been lacking this semester (which sucks, but I'm not going to stress about it if I can help it). I need to finish two papers (one being a term paper, one being a short paper) by Thursday, and I need to study like crazy for my PSYC final, also on Thursday. On the plus side, academically speaking, I found out that I received D-Clearance for my Wheel Throwing class, so I'm pretty happy about that. Even though I prefer hand building to wheel throwing, I will still be working with clay (my favorite stress relieving activity), and it only takes up two units (versus four for Advanced Ceramics). Now if only I can get into the Orchestration class I need...

One More Thing

2009-04-23T12:59:00.001-07:00

Got out of the study a bit early, so before I head off to tour the Key Club, I'm adding one more small thing that makes me happy: this little San Franciscan native :)

Flying Time

2009-04-23T12:01:00.000-07:00

So it's been a few days since I've been able to write. I've actually got a full schedule today as well, so this won't be a full entry. Patience is a virtue, my friends.

Currently, I'm sitting in the Behavioral Lab of the Accounting Building waiting for an experiment to begin. For my business class this semester, I need to participate in two research studies to fulfill one of the course requirements. This is my first one. I'm not exactly sure what we'll be doing... probably something to do with OB. I'm not sure what else they need an undergraduate lab rat for :P

Something small that makes me happy: Making a list of things to do, and crossing things off that list when I do them. I had 16 things on my list yesterday, and by midnight I had only 1 left. Such a satisfying feeling :)

Take-Out and Venice

2009-04-19T18:43:00.000-07:00

When I think about someone eating take-out by themselves, I generally imagine something sad and depressing. I might have to edit that image, though, because right now I'm sitting on my bed finishing off some delicious Yellow Curry from Thai Corner Food Express (weird name, I know, but they're actually quite tasty and thus are currently my favorite Thai place in the area), and I'm probably the most relaxed/content I've been this whole weekend. In this moment, eating rice straight out of that funny little paper box American Asian restaurants like to use isn't depressing at all. It's actually rather fantastic :)

This has been a good weekend. Highlights include seeing Annie Selick at Steamers, kicking ass at Scrabble, going to Wood Spoon and eating delicious Brazilian appetizers, and savoring Salty Chocolate and Almond Date flavored Scoops (although Guiness Chocolate is still my favorite Scoops flavor). I also filled out nine (yes, nine) postcards to send to people around the world, which I'm excited about because that means in a few weeks, I will be getting lots of postcards to add to my collection!

Right now I'm in the process of uploading some pictures to Facebook. Everytime I upload pictures, I'm amazed at how many albums I have. 80 something last I checked. 90 maybe? I don't know. In any case, I'm always surprised because I actually don't think I take pictures that often. It's just that when I do, I take a TON of pictures at once. I just keep snapping pictures until my (two) camera batteries run out... and by that time, even with my shitty batteries, I've often taken 20, 50, 100 pictures (depending on where I am and who I'm with). In any case, the ones I'm putting up now are from Venice Beach. I've posted a couple of my favorites above.

I'm looking forward to my night in. I'll be munching on leftover Thai food for the rest of the night, I'm sure, while (hopefully) working on some school work. If I finish in time, maybe I'll read a bit more of This Is Cuba... although I'd prefer to not stay up too late - early class tomorrow!

Busy Weekend

2009-04-19T03:23:00.000-07:00

It's 3:24am. I am exhausted. So far, this has been a very long weekend. Even though it's been both fun and productive, I feel no more relaxed than I did two days ago. Which isn't the best of feelings, but hey. At least it's been fun and productive.

One of the productive things I did was call up Time Warner Cable and coerce them to send out a maintence worker to fix my internet and TV, which, although neither has been working properly since around December, finally decided to go completely out on me (and my roommates) a few days ago. After two days of surprisingly helpful service, I have internet again. Fickle internet, but it's working well enough for me to use so I'll deal for the moment.

That picture up there is a collage of indie style wedding/engagement pictures by Feather Love. I found the link on Oh, Joy! and, even though I don't have an extreme interest in weddings/engagements, I'm posting it because I love dogs, and the one in this picture made me smile.

Postcard Distractions

2009-04-16T22:59:00.000-07:00

I am definitely looking forward to summer. I think today could be efficiently described as a day long mini-break down. I still need to acknowledge the people worried about me because I was M.I.A. for so long... but I don't feel quite like becoming un-M.I.A. just yet, so I will do that later. Sorry guys.

I was looking at one of my bedroom walls today, and found myself re-examining my many postcards that I've put up. I've received postcards both from friends traveling abroad, as well as Postcrossing, and both are meaningful to me in their own way. Some of the stories behind the Postcrossing ones are pretty neat, actually, so I thought I'd share a few.

This first one is from Finland, and is a picture of Mama Moomin. Apparently the Moomins are an "essential part of [the] (children) culture" in Finland. Besides that, the sender of the postcard included this little story, which I found to be quite interesting: "I found [the card] inside a Library book. The best thing is, it's of Mama Moomin - my favorite! :D AND I'm sending this card from a special Moomin Museum! Check out the stamps!" I love to know the stories behind things, and I really enjoyed reading this particular card.

This was sent from Evanston, Illinois (which is kind of cool because it's the only city I've been to in Illinois - I went to visit Northwestern a few years back). This might be my favorite that I've received so far. The sender wrote "I've had this postcard for 27 years and finally decided to part with it. The super-realist paintings of Richard Estes are amazing! See some of his actual work if you can." He also included a Bob Dylan quote... but I love more the fact that the card is 27 years old and he chose to, for some reason, send it to me. I also love the painting on the front. A time past. I love stuff like that.

The third is from Hamburg. The postcard itself is actually a vintage card that was originally sent in 1936 I believe, written in old German. My sender explained the significance of Plön (the town pictured on the front of the postcard) to him: it was the town his mother was born in. He also mentioned that he tends to send old vintage cards, which I personally think is REALLY cool. I wonder what the story was for the first sender in 1936?

In any case, I've received many other interesting postcards (with some bland postcards thrown into the mix), but not recently. Postcrossing is a very good anonymous postcard sending system - send a card to a random person, and another random person will send you one (once the first is received). I've been so busy this semester, though, that I haven't really gotten the chance to sit down, choose a postcard, write a message (I like to write a note, although it isn't required), and mail it out. So no new postcards for me.

I'm thinking of starting it back up again, though. It really is nice to open your mailbox and find something other than an advertisement or a bill :)

Reorganizing the New and the Old

2009-04-15T22:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I've consistently written in a blog; I'm not entirely sure where to start. (The last time I consistently wrote in a blog was while I was in high school. My blog was kindly hosted by a friend on his website, and it lasted a few years. When he graduated, however, the website came down and with it my blog. Since then, I've only made a few futile attempts to write consistently - all of which failed miserably - and quite honestly, I miss it. I enjoy writing...). In any case, I mentioned in my first post that I would write about some "current thoughts" so I might as well go from there.

Currently, I'm thinking about what's in front of me: my new Steno Pad. I've used steno pads for years as a way of organizing my life: writing out lists and schedules, mainly. Taking notes occasionally. I recently lost my steno pad (which was rather unfortunate, actually, as I had used it to take notes on more than one occasion for my classes. Goodbye much needed notes..!), but hesitated to start a new one in the hopes that it (my original, half-filled steno pad) would show up again. Months passed, however, and it never showed... so today I decided it was time to stop dwelling and start anew! And so it is. New steno pad, new lists, new schedules, new life. I'm optimistic today :)

I'm also inspired by Oh, Joy!, designer Joy Deangdeelert Cho's blog. I love the minimal design, and the clean organization of the layout. Plus, her posts are so interesting, and the pictures she includes so captivating, that I can't help but read through all of them at once (which I actually haven't done, because there are many, but I'm certainly tempted to). You may notice also that many of the Links I Like are artist and designer's blogs. I find these to be some of the most interesting to read because of the combination of life stories (interesting) and art (also interesting). Plus they just LOOK good. Thank you those who have a keen eye for the appealing :) This is a pretty recent interest of mine, though (thanks to Oh, Joy!), so we'll see how long those links last as Links I Like.

Finally, that picture up there is actually an old one. It's of the greenbelt by my childhood home, nearing sunset. I took it with my first 35mm camera, actually, some time before 2004. Or 2003? I can't remember when, exactly (bad memory, as I said). I do know, though, that it was one of the pictures on the very first roll of film I developed for that camera. It was my favorite at the time, and I'm happy that, all these years later, I still like it. In any case, I chose to put it in because I'd like to have a picture in every post, and I didn't want to put up a picture of a steno book.

So there you have it. My first full length post. It's a bit long. I'll work on that...

Welcome

2009-04-15T20:34:00.000-07:00

Today, I've decided to start writing in my blog (which I actually created a while ago, but never found the need to write in). I will be including two posts: the first, as an explanation as to why I'm starting this blog. The second will be some current thoughts.

So. Who am I? In a nutshell, I am a music student with interests in business, psychology, art, reading, adventures, and experiences. I'm blogging because I've entered a point in my life where I feel like I need to refocus who I am. Therefore, I will be blogging about the many things that interest me, as well as the little things that make me smile. I will also be writing about what I find fun and interesting in my own life, simply because I have a bad memory and it will be both nice and convenient to have a place where I can look back on my experiences. Feel free to leave feedback by way of comments. I hope you enjoy reading :)