Don't Ever

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Small Blip

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

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