Spoiled

I'm so ecstatic. I love it when plans just fall on my lap. I read my email, and there's a freaking trip set out: People going, check. Rides, check. Housing, check. THANKS CHRISTINA. All I had to do today was pick out my flight times and everything was done! Seattle/Vancouver in July with excom. I LOVE YOU GUYS! Why are things so easy to plan with this group?

*insert picture of excom, one of the many I have, except I have to go to botanical gardens now* HAHA My mom would be so jealous

Felicity

I keep trying to write about Felicity, which I just recently got re-obsessed about, but I never like what I say. Maybe there is nothing particularly intelligent for me to say about it, other than, it's SUCH A GOOD SHOW! At least the first season is - I don't remember anything from the later seasons. I love it when I rewatch a show from childhood, and I remember scenes right before they happen. They're like hidden memories.

I wish they still made tv shows like old WB dramas. People were a little fatter then. Well, not the main stars, but at least the supporting characters and extras were more normal sized. And maybe they hadn't perfected back lighting and they certainly didn't have HD cameras back then, but I like the feel of old television. It's less bright and more realistic. I think that the ability to capture film so vividly has influenced script writing. Everything is just so much more exaggerated now. Like, I can't imagine that Ugly Betty or Gossip Girl would have succeeded as much if they hadn't been able to show how sparkling the sets were.

I wonder what I would eat if there were no Gypsys. Any time I am given a choice of where to eat in Berkeley, I find myself chowing down on a chicken pesto calzone. I tell myself that after senior year, I will rarely have the chance to eat the calzone, so every time I go, it's like a treat. Going out to eat in Berkeley is really just deciding between calzone and House of Curries' palak paneer.

This week went by surprisingly fast. I really liked having a room to myself for the first few weeks of summer. But now that Paulo has moved in, I feel like I'm living with a friend again, so I don't feel like I have to go out as often to stay happy. In fact, I barely have any time for myself - I haven't learned as much Excel as I wanted to, and I just want to sit and watch Felicity all day. Freaking summer school hasn't even started yet and my days are already packed. I don't know how I should alter my schedule after school starts.

I really like this Gym Twice a day routine I have going on. But summer school starts at 8am, and if I were to go running, I'd have to wake up at 6:00. I don't think the track is even open that early, so that is already out. Ugh! I really like running on Edwards track! People are rarely ever there and when it's not sunny, it is a nice place to run. I will figure out my summer schedule part 2 later - now is Felicity!


Gosh, Javier is so hilarious. I was like ... eight when I watched this show and I doubt I had really seen any gay characters on tv. So he was probably one of the first gay male characters I have ever seen. What a cutie

Would you like a birthday sign with that?

I went to Li-Ting's after work today. For dinner, we decided to get a fruit tart from 99 Ranch. Fruit tarts are usually meant for celebrations, but it was just a Friday for us. The cashier asked "do you need a birthday sign with that?" and we looked at each other and said no a little ashamedly. Then the cashier started to wrap it with ribbon and I was thinking "oh gosh, just another obstacle between me and my fruit tart."

When we first got to Sheng Kee Bakery there was this CRAZY crowd of asian moms at the bread place. The bread is sold for real cheap right before it closes, so they just wait there, for their moment to strike. I didn't know how much they really cost, and I think I've been eating too much bread lately so I opted not to. The person in front of me got about 12 breads for $7.50 though - that is pretty dang cheap! But I would complain so much on my twitter if I ate 12 chinese breads.

I've never been happier to get my period. I was really worried about how guilty I would feel about going out and not exercising twice a day over the weekend - but now I have my period which means I wouldn't have been swimming anyway. Good timing, body!

Bucket List #1: Karaoke on Stage

Ok, so I don't really have a bucket list. I guess you could kind of count the thing to your right as a bucket list ... but some of them are out of my control. So I don't think it's a real bucket list. Instead, I will tell you about things that I have done that I feel like are on other people's bucket list.

I write this blog while having a hammering headache and a nauseous stomach. TODAY! I went karaoking with Anu and Kristen in SF. AWESOME. Here's what went down:

I went to work. Got off around 5:00. Walked to union square, supposedly to meet up with Kristen. Instead, Anu decides she will pick up Kristen WHILE testing out her new gps in sf. BAD IDEA.

The GPS claims it will be a 10 minute drive. I knew immediately that was a lie. It would take ten minutes for a car to go four blocks in SF. I could have walked to Kristen faster than Anu drove to Kristen (but I stopped at BOA). No worries! They were trying to loop around to get me, OTHER BAD IDEA. SF rush hour traffic is already crap. There were also a whole bunch of accidents, which made things MUCH WORSE. I ended up coordinating with Kristen to figure out where they were stuck in traffic, then ran down the street and just jumped into their car. Which is always something I REALLY like to do (no sarcasm, I really like doing it).

Car ride was crazy. So much food consumption. Ate an entire tupperware of pasta that Anu had made - later realized this was a TERRIBLE idea. Gosh, it sounds like this whole day was full of bad ideas, when it really wasn't. I haven't even gotten to my bucket list portion of the day yet.

LONG STORY SHORT (because I want to sleep) - we went to a bar and had happy hour. Kristen paid for my drinks (AW!) and forced me to drink beer on top of the extremely strong cocktail that I had. I didn't get carded! Another score. I feel like I drink more in public as a 20 year old then some people do as a 21 year old. Thanks to all my older friends! Then we left, drove to a karaoke bar. One of those places that is a stage. EFFING FUN! Kristen and I sang DON'T STOPPPP BELIEVINGGGG (is there any other song?!) Anu sang ... OH NOS I forgot. Ended the night with singing Wannabe; then walked back to the car singing Smashmouth's All-Star and then driving down Bay Bridge singing to the radio. I passed out multiple points in the night

In the end, we got home around 10:30. AMAZING. I love this "work in the day play in the city at night" feeling. I felt like I had been out for an hour, but it was like FIVE hours! Even though I felt EXTREMELY terrible from my alcohol. WORTH IT! This summer is bomb. I only wish I were working a paid job as an audit intern. But my job is pretty bomb right now too.

SUPER long entry! Why must I ramble. OK SLEEP! I feel like in my drunken state I may pick a fight with my stupid apartmentmate.

Transfer: complete!

I finished transferring my music! Only a few hiccups along the way where I would sit at my computer and wonder what was the most logical thing to do.

1. Songs that "feature" an artist. Which is essentially every popular song now. I don't know who to attribute a song to - like, is Rihanna the main artist or is Sean Paul the main artist? Who is featuring who? I generally figure the first voice I hear is the main artist, but this seems unfair to anyone who collaborates with Jay-Z. Jay-Z is always the first to be heard, but I don't think he contributes anything significant.

2. Is Hannah Montana Hannah Montana or Miley Cyrus? Previously, I refused to acknowledge this split personality and just labeled everything Miley Cyrus. But now I realize that there is a difference in a Hannah Montana song and a Miley Cyrus song. So I reseparated them

3. Complete albums? If I like a majority of the songs on an album, I like to have all the songs because then I'll label track numbers and album title. But then I don't know if I should keep songs that I hate. For instance, should I download Matt Pond Pa - Crickets, since it's the only song missing from the five albums I have of his? Even if it is literally just CRICKETS CHIRPING for a good two minutes?! WHY do artists like to put stupid shit on their cds? Like when there's just noise for thirty seconds before the song finally starts. Unnecessary!

So I guess that's one goal I can cross off my summer to do list. Next: Read my "Excel 2007 for dummies" book

This is my new favorite song and I will probably play it until the end of summer.

Set Me Free - The Lovemakers

I just read the following FML (which I haven't read in so long)
Today, it was my 18th birthday. I got one thing: a fancy electric toothbrush from my little sister. I would say I'm happy to have something rather than nothing, except, for as long as the toothbrush works, there will be a Hannah Montana concert going on in my mouth. FML

Sadly, my first thought was actually: "where can I get this toothbrush?!" Here. But they only sell Pump Up the Party and Best of Both Worlds. If they had had Rock Star or See You Again, or Nobody's Perfect, I would have done it. Actually, for SURE I would have done Nobody's Perfect, because I really did use that as my wake up morning song last semester. (proof)

99 ranch dim sum

This summer is kind of like last summer in that I plan out my weekends far in advance to ensure that I'm not sitting at home being lonely and depressed. The only difference is that last summer I HATED the weekdays, and this summer I kind of like them! This weekend I went to another Dine About in SF, this time to Cafe Andree. I was a little less willing to pay for such an expensive meal this time, but I figured ... actually I never justified the price in my head but it's too late now. HA

The dessert: sadly I forgot the name, but inside that cake was an inner chocolate cake with chocolate syrup inside; the ice cream is plum

I went to Li-Ting's afterwards to stay for the weekend and do a ton of shopping the next day. God I love that house. Amazing views, quiet neighborhood with large chain commercial establishments. Every time we drive to her house, I always say "TRADER JOE'S! DSW!" We ended up watching Mean Girls and The Sweetest Thing on TBS. I had heard that The Sweetest Thing is a pretty crappy and wtf movie, which I definitely thought at some parts, but there were also other parts where I'd be like "mmm ... not a TERRIBLE movie." I ended up falling asleep and missing the end of the movie. I woke up and saw Li-Ting giving me a "WTF JUST HAPPENED" look. HAHA It was funnier because at the midpoint of the movie, I had said "this is such a bad movie but I just want to know what happens in the end."

Slept in Tiffany's bed which was very comfortable. There is an Ikea mirror in her room and I seriously believe Ikea mirrors make me look thinner than other mirrors. Trickery!

We had breakfast the next morning at 99 ranch. OMGGG SO GOOD! This 99 ranch and the richmond one both have areas that serve dim sum. I kept saying things like "THIS IS AMAZING" and "OMG! THIS IS SO GREAT" SOOO much better than actual dim sum (except that it's essentially a fast food buffet). You can get 3 items for $2.20. So you can get all you favorites (buns and sweets for me), and you don't have to eat crap that someone at the table wants and no one else wants. Also, there's no awkward "we have four people but there are only three pieces" moments. Great quality (because who can really be that picky at dim sum?) for a very low price!

That's all. I'm so tired of transferring my music, but I've only gotten to the M's.

*songs left to transfer: 1,947*

Time obsessed

I noticed that there are tons of clocks in urban areas. Probably because everyone is concerned about whether they're going to make the next bus or train. But I also noticed that they are all usually off! The analog ones at least. How ridiculous. The clock we should all go by is the Bart's clock, because that is the all-mighty timekeeper.

Oh god, I'm so glad I had the foresight to move my red bean bread to the kitchen. I'm too lazy to get up and eat some, even though I am very hungry. I need to sleep soon so this hunger doesn't continue to plague me. Now I understand why I did not buy bread at 99 Ranch. The Richmond 99 Ranch bakery is complete shit! My red bean bread has barely any red bean. It's just bread! RAH. Shing Kee Bakery forever. Out of all my diet food rules, the only one I haven't been able to do is "take home half of anything you buy outside." I am very opposed to taking leftovers that are wrapped in aluminum foil, because I have to go through so much effort to microwave (and I hate eating cold foods that are meant to be warm). Unfortunately, most of the largest food items are wrapped in aluminum foil. Chicken bakes ... burritos ...

Going back to the time theme of this entry ... I figure I got most of my schedule down. If I want to catch a bus on Bancroft, I leave 3 minutes before arrival. Walking from my work place to the transbay bus station is 11 minutes if I speedwalk, 15 minutes if I walk at a casual pace. It takes me 12 seconds to comfortably cross a SF crosswalk, but if it's at 9 seconds, I can make it to the other side right as the light turns green for opposing traffic. The bus ride home is about 40 minutes and I'm usually asleep for 20 of those minutes. I think the most useful number is knowing how long it takes to cross a crosswalk, because I am too proud to run but I also don't want to be honked at.

My project at work has been google searching a huge list of rich people who are likely to donate to gay causes. It is really interesting. I am a little creeped out by how much information you can get from the internet. Granted, these are rich people who probably have more public information. But I bet someone could find out an uncomfortable amount of information just from this blog. I know from my personal experience that if I'm interested in someone, I can find out A LOT about them - creeper stalker amount. *loud laugh to cover up awkwardness*

I was looking up one person and found an article about him... keep in mind that I work for a legal organization that works on gay rights... Skadden is the name of a law firm

According to a Skadden tradition, the spouses of new male partners receive bouquets of red roses on the day partnerships are announced. (New female partners receive the roses themselves.) When a single man makes partner, flowers are usually sent to his mother. But when new York tax attorney Kirk Wallace's partner, Mark Sexton, got home that April day in 1997, he found a bouquet from Skadden waiting for him, with a card that read "Dear Mark, welcome to the family.

I literally read that paragraph five times before I realized that partner meant LAW FIRM partner, not marriage partner. Then I had to reread it another two times to finally figure out exactly what the paragraph was talking about. MASSIVE CONFUSION! I thought I was picking up on tons of grammatical errors at first. Turns out I was just stupid.

And then I read a pretty interesting interview on a gay Ford executive. My favorite quote in the article is when he says "gay people don't lie; they dissemble." HAHA

I really need suggestions for new music! Not even just artists - if you know of some keywords that I can type into imeem.com, let me know! Keywords like "Laguna Beach," "house music," "lounge music," or "cute love songs." I think next week I'll be emo and listen to something like "sad breakup songs."

YAY the weekend has arrived. This week went by crazy fast. I think I went out too much. I need to spread the fun out! It interferes with my swimming schedule.

Super full yet super empty

I was just in the most amazing house I have ever been in. I don't think I will ever be in a house that nice again. HAHA It wasn't nice as in mansion with gleaming granite countertops and marble floors. It was one of those huge North Berkeley houses that feel incredibly homey the second you walk in. The rooms were perfectly sized to feel lived in, not cramped but not excessive, there were huge windows in every room, the bathroom felt like it was three times the size of mine, and the kitchen was like my dream kitchen. Countertops that were like huge cutting boards, a high table with stools, and even a dishwasher that blended in with the painted walls. There were stacks of books (but not so many that it was overflowing) on tables, all the furniture went well together but they weren't bought as a set. To enter the house, you have to climb an incredible number of stairs but once you reach the front door, you feel like you've just entered your own private kingdom.

The backyard was huge and overrun with weeds - from the back porch it looked like just another Berkeley houseyard gone wild. But once you get down to the ground, it looks less so and you start to feel comfortable even within the huge mess of brush. I wasn't even able to go to the other half of the yard, where it looked like there was a greenhouse and some two story tower looking thing.

GAH every time I hang out with Angelica and Ryan's friends I feel INCREDIBLY stupid and very limited in life experience. I think 80% of their jokes go completely over my head. Most of them are physics majors but they know a crapload about biology and chemistry and many of their jokes stem from knowledge of the natural sciences. It's not even book smart, they know everything about EVERYTHING. They are also amazing story tellers too - whenever they tell a story that I actually understand, I find myself laughing uncontrollably. Also, they are generally pretty fit and I spent a long time today discreetly looking at each person, remarking to myself "GOOD GOD LOOK AT THEIR JAWLINES."

I ate way too much - BECAUSE I HAD NO ONE TO SHARE MY FOOD WITH! I am jealous that Angelica has Ryan because she could just share her hot dog and other foods with him. Everyone who came to the BBQ would bring a six pack of beer - but it would be really nice beer. We must have had at least ten different types of beers by the end of the night. I think it's really cute when you throw a little shindig and your guests bring a little six pack and just nonchalantly put on the table. It makes it seem like they get together all the time and it's just a weekly kickback or something.

I always think to myself, I'm GOING TO STOP BLOGGING SO MUCH! Seriously, how can I talk so much when all I do is go to work? Somehow, I find it possible.

Things I ate today:
- a crazy good salad that had spinach, grapes, some sort of nut, and a dressing that was created by the host. It was made of 2:1 olive oil and balsalmic vinegar, honey, and dijon mustard, sprinkling of salt and pepper
- hamburger. this is where I was impressed: they had set out a dish of condiments that included red leaf lettuce, tomatoes, onions, avocado, and pineapples, all freshly cut
- hot dog, or specifically, a bratwurst
- a chocolate cake made with williams sonoma mix
- smores. a REAL smore with graham cracker, giant marshmallow and chocolate
- corn

God. Why is this summer turning out so well?

To be as cool as Ryan's friends, I'd have to
1) go rock climbing
2) be in school to get my phd OR be Alice Water's personal assistant (GOOD GOD)
3) form my own band
4) GSI for a class
5) do research
6) travel internationally every year
7) drink more
8) Be 27+ in age

Why is MY life so meaningless in comparison? Seriously, each time I meet one of Ryan's friends I'm like "ok, this has to be the end to his parade of talented and sociable geniuses." And then I go to something else and meet five more.

Dumplings!

Today I went grocery shopping with Alvin at 99 Ranch. At work, I also did the most e-mailing I have ever done. This internship has made me read much more news and talk to more friends than I ever would have otherwise. Oftentimes I finish my projects and my supervisor doesn't have anything prepared for me to do, so she tells me to play with the computer. I do so very obligingly. So e-mail me if you want to start an e-mail chain with me!

I optimistically bought a ton of garlic and many vegetables at 99 Ranch. Not quite sure what I will do with all this garlic. Generally I just cook vegetables and I feel like they taste just fine without having to go through the trouble of mincing garlic. We made dumplings (Alvin, Jackie and I) which I thought was really cool. The dumplings ended up taking about 90 minutes to make, but we started eating them once a batch was done, so I was not painfully hungry. I think we may have made about 210 dumpings, all for about $9! We each have a tray of 60ish left to eat at our own leisure, which is awesome (although it increases the chance that I will have rotting vegetables at the end of the week).

I have been trying to gather recipes in my head to determine what ingredients I need to make delicious foods. I need to go through my kitchen and take inventory and throw out shit. I have thrown away so much food ever since I started living in an apartment. I imagine that I'm going to feel REALLY depressed if I'm old, still single, and I constantly throw out food because there is no one for me to eat with.

I wish there were sites with more Chinese food recipes. I am SERIOUSLY going to learn to make delicious foods. Best case scenario: I learn how to cook well and people think I am amazing. Worst case scenario: I die of food poisoning.

I have been steadily transferring music. I just broke into the D's. Sometimes I'm very conflicted about whether I should transfer a song or not. For example, Celine Dion - My Heart Will Go On. I don't think I could ever listen to the song in its entirety. I'm not in fifth grade anymore. But at the same time, how can you NOT have that song in your itunes?! What if I have friends over and Titanic works itself into conversation and we want to sing My Heart Will Go On together? Prepare for the unexpected.

*songs left to transfer: 3193* Oh god, I was going to finish up the D's but I just hit David Tao and I have 24 songs and I definitely do not want all 24. I'll do this tomorrow. Damn those random asian music phases, where I just added songs all willy nilly.

Things I should hate but I actually like

1. Songs by Fall Out Boy


2. The smell of chlorine on my skin
... so essentially, I like the smell of public pool on my body

3. Finals
Regular school is too structured and vacations are too unstructured. But finals are just right! You have friends all looking for excuses to not study + your own laziness = guilty fun. I kind of miss it now

4. Asparagus


5. Zac Efron
I know I'm about three years late, but I think it just took me three years to get used to his face. I somehow like him more after more media exposure, I think because I don't hear him talk too much and I don't bother reading his interviews so my impression of him never changes.

First week summer 09

Even though I've updated for mostly every day of my first week, I still find it necessary to do a summary of the week. Right now, I'm SUPER full after dinner with Alvin and Jackie. So full in fact, that I think I will continue blogging after I use the restroom...

Ok. Took a shower, brushed my teeth. So I guess around Wednesday I was like "OMG how is it only Wednesday?!" I felt like I had been working for weeks. Every day just sucks the life out of me. Summers always make me cherish being a student. Especially after Li-Ting's comment yesterday,

Li-Ting: I have vacation soon! YAY!
Laura: How long is your vacation?
Li-Ting: Two days! (with real enthusiasm)
Laura: oh god *moan*

I fear the days when 3 day weekends become the light at the end of the tunnel.

Anyhoo, this weekend was great! Such a welcome weekend of fun. Ideally, this is what the REST OF MY LIFE will be like - work work work FUN, repeat. But realistically, I think that FUN eventually becomes ERRANDS, so it's work work work ERRANDS with fun every few weeks (or dear god, months). I ended up doing really well diet wise and exercise wise during the week. Exercised twice a day, so now when people (that is, LAURA) introduce me with "SHE EXERCISES TWICE A DAY!" it's not a lie. BECAUSE I REALLY DID NOT EXERCISE TWICE A DAY. THAT WAS LIKE SOPHOMORE YEAR and maybe a couple of times junior year!

But then during the weekend, my exercise AND diet totally went out the window. We had Li-Ting's birthday celebration. I REALLY ENJOYED IT! We were basically touring the south bay. It felt nice to drive for so long. I was really relieved when we got a little lost, because then I could nap longer. I wish we had had been able to shop at the Great Mall, but if we had shopped, we couldn't have done other fun things.

So we went to D&B for lunch and arcade games. I cannot believe there is only ONE D&B in the bay area. I thought they were everywhere! How can there be a D&B in ARCADIA but none in SF?! That is too odd. I ate way too much at D&B - a huge chicken pesto pasta. My "eat only half of any dish you buy" was forgotten because I was so excited to eat pasta. Then we played games. I surprisingly made a couple baskets while playing basketball. I remember as a kid I loved basketball. I hope one day I can play with Li-Ting, Laura, Janie, and Soo-Jin. I don't remember who is the groper. I have the feeling it is Laura, but it could be both Laura and Soo-Jin.

We won Li-Ting a cute polar bear. At first I was really amazed that we got 800+ tickets, because you could get a lot of fairly good prizes with 800+ tickets. Then I realized that the polar bear essentially cost us $40. HAHA But totally worth it! The bear has memories attached to it now.

I think people watching in D&B is a little scary. I get freaked out by the intense dead stare people have when they are playing games and gambling with their money. It's too much like Vegas.

After that, we drove on to karaoke in Cupertino. I actually sang A LOT! Only because Laura joined us which was exciting. I'm pretty sure the karaoke place used to be an office. I think Cupertino is aesthetically better than Arcadia. The businesses in Arcadia seems a little more ghetto while Cupertino businesses look like Irvine. I also think the houses are more toned down, whereas there are more large but ugly mansion in Arcadia. The karaoke place had a lot of really new songs. They even had Sam Sparro - Black and Gold, and MGMT - Kids (which seems like it would be an unfun song to sing karaoke to). My favorite ever was singing Love Story with Laura because she would give me CRAZY EYES whenever we sang "BABY JUST SAY YES" and I would always burst out laughing.

Then we drove to get sushi at one of those places where sushi floats on a boat. I was still full from D&B and the delicious fruit tart so I didn't get too much... then drove back to Li-Ting's place. I love her place. It feels very bachelorette pad like. Li-Ting, Angel, and Tiffany seem very mature (actually, that is hilarious because Li-Ting and Angel are both very child-like sometimes). But they all work and seem very independent and knowledgable about a lot of things. I hope one day people will think of me in the same light.

LOL MY APTMATE JUST CALLED HIS MOM AND SAID "hey mommy" I struggled not to burst out laughing. I hope he doesn't glance at this while walking past me.

Anyway, so we sat there a little bit and Laura and I went to eat more of the fruit tart. While cutting it, Laura was like "wait where is everyone?" and I said "well Tiffany's sleeping, Angel went to her room, and Li-Ting just went to her room" and Laura replied "... so we're just in their house?" HAHA We were. We were just in their house, eating their dessert. HAHA So we left after we had our fill of delicious tart.

I really hope I find a reason to celebrate soon, because I want to eat a fruit tart either from Andronicos or from Shing Keee Bakery. Mmmm... NEED TO ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING!

Laura came back to Berkeley with me! Oh god, this entry is so xanga-like, I don't like it. These are not the kind of entries that get comments. Oh well. My roommate is gone so I just slept on his bed and Laura slept on mine. We were like "this is how it must feel to be each other's roommates!" Laura also said to me on the Bart "even though we haven't known each other so long, I feel like..." and then I interjected with "THAT I'M LIKE YOUR BEST FRIEND?" and she said "... yeah kind of" and I was like AWWWW.

I woke up and planned to gym but I was like, eh, I'm going to look for books to borrow from the library tomorrow. Laura looked at my list after she woke up and laughed at them. :( We ate at Cafe Durant then spent several hours watching celebrity interviews on tonight shows, which was fun. My FAVORITE was one I showed her, of Kellie Pickler on Ellen.

Then we rode the bus to Ici, stood in line, THEN DECIDED NOT TO GET ANY. So we walked home and I ate an apple and Laura ate some of my Fenton's ice cream. What a ridiculous trip. I kept thinking - I really want ice cream ... BUT I'M ON A DIET! ... but mmm ice cream and Laura's here ... BUT I'M ON A DIET!

Then she went home CRIES. I hope I see her next weekend. If I don't, I won't see her for AT LEAST A MONTH while she's in Europe with Soo Jin! I said to her, "do you think if I had been a year older, and if I had gotten a job, and I had known you guys, we would have gone to Europe together?" and Laura was like "yeah, but that's a lot of Ifs" :( They bought their tickets a couple of days ago. I realized that I had been hoping that they would be too lazy to buy their tickets and decide "hey! Hanging out with meltang all summer is pretty comparable to traveling through Europe for a month!" But I guess my dream is shattered.

Then I randomly took a nap. I didn't expect to but suddenly I just found myself face down on my bed. Then Jackie and I went to Alvin's to eat dinner together! Jackie had made this delicious almond pudding SO GOOD I MUST BUY THE POWDER! And Alvin had made curry and a really delicious Chinese dish. We ate in his room, then ate dessert (the pudding and freshly blended watermelon juice) on his back porch. SO CUTE I LOVE IT! :) Then we drove to Jackie's new apt which I REALLY LIKE! I would have loved to live in a place like that, except I don't know who I would have roomed with.

Eating dinner with them makes me feel like I should totally start cooking and make incredible dishes. I always get in those "YEAH I CAN COOK! I JUST NEED TO TRY!" modes when I eat at Alvin's, but then the next day I just stick a piece of salmon in the toaster oven. Then we also talked a little about what we want to do after graduation, which made me think "YEAH I SHOULD GO TO GRAD SCHOOL! LEARN TONS! GET A MASTERS!" but that feeling dies down after an hour of class.

Then Jackie drove us home. I think this weekend was super cute. Hung out with my good friends! I hope all summer weekends are the same, because if they are, then I will gladly have terribly exhausting weekdays. I'm so tired. Sorry for the boring entry

<3 Imeem

The place I'm interning at gives me full access of the internet which means: LOTS AND LOTS OF IMEEM! I wish radioblogclub.com still existed, but I've given up hope that it will ever come back. Its welcome screen has been there for the past three years. But imeem is ok ... I wish people would have more diverse playlists though, instead of just uploading albums. I like to discover new artists. I listened to the house playlist Soo Jin sent me and today I listened to a lot of Silversun Pickups. I would not have ever listened to them except Danny mentioned them in his blog. Their band name makes me think that they would sound like Incubus, (which is why I never bothered to listen to them) when they do not. Of course, I am a sucker for any remixes


I can also go on gmail, facebook when I eat my apple, and read nytimes! So much better than when I could only access sec.gov, as interesting as that was. I think meebo would be too tempting, so I refrain from that. I like reading The Atlantic Monthly magazine and I saw it at Berkeley Bowl so today I read some articles on the website. I was pretty disappointed. Their website reminds me of a giant twitter but with more characters. Too many opinions.

It's 10:20! While swimming today, I suddenly got all these images of food in my head around my 50th lap. At my 70th lap, I couldn't stand the hunger anymore so I just pushed until my 80th and went home. So I plan to make some sort of pasta with broccoli for dinner next week, and then maybe lasagna. I need to think of dishes that I can make over the weekend, refrigerate, and then eat slowly over the course of a week. There's no time for me to cook a good meal on weekdays! My past two dinners were good though. I finished off my salmon patties, and I would steam spinach and put it in the hamburger. If I had had feta cheese, it would have been even more delicious, but oh well. No time to go to Trader Joe's either.

I don't know what's up but I used to be able to swim for a very long time and just think about life. Now, I'm barely at lap 40 and I'm super bored. What did I use to think about? I think I used to have a more active imagination, but now I'm just kind of whatever. Also, don't really want to think about real life. So that leaves me with nothing to think about. I need some drama.

My mom and I are in a non-fight right now - there's nothing we're really fighting about but shit happened and now I don't really want to speak to her. I guess I should be the bigger person and just figure out how to repair our relationship but I'm the kind of person who just cuts their losses and moves on. But you can't really cut a parent out of your life, especially when I still need them for money... haha.

It's 10:45! I can't figure out if I'm tired enough to sleep or not. Tomorrow is Friday, end of the first week of my summer.

Omg... I've decided to rewatch old seasons of Laguna Beach. Two things wrong with that: 1) I'm watching Laguna Beach 2) I'm REWATCHING Laguna Beach. No one should really watch it ever, much less MULTIPLE TIMES. But I'm desperate for drama... omg... my life...

It took me a long time to find the site too. MTV.com is one of the worst designed sites ever. What is this crap. Anyway, if you feel like dumbing down, here they are

A few seconds

I'm glad the place I'm interning at is very flexible with time. Taking public transportation to work is so stressful. Everything comes down to a few seconds. Even if I know that nextbus says that the 51 is coming in three minutes, the entire time I walk to Bancroft, I wonder if I shouldn't have checked my hair in the mirror, or if I shouldn't have attempted to add a few more songs to my iPod.

Also when I'm on the 51, I freak out if the bus makes too many stops. I always tag one person as someone I am going to blame if I miss the Bart. Like today, I went down the escalator but right when I stuck my ticket in, I saw the SF/Milbrae train pull away. So I said to myself, "ARGH IT WAS YOUUUUU person who got on in front of the RSF!"

My days are way too busy. And every morning I wake up thinking "what excuse do I have to NOT exercise?" But I'm going to proclaim that I can not break away from my diet/exercise plan for any reason until summer school begins (July 6th). Let this blog hold me accountable! I only swam 50 laps today which was pretty lame. But I had to go to the library to drop off some books I borrowed, and I wanted to go before the sun went down.

I HAVE NO FREE TIME ANYMORE! I have to do all my errands one per day, because I'm unable to do all of them at once. Also, I HATE how I can't do anything within normal business hours! I had plans to borrow all these library books to read while sitting on the bus/bart, but the freaking libraries are only open when I'm at work! Even if I get off at 4:00, by the time I get back to Berkeley, the libraries are closed. The only books I have left are Blink and Fools Rush In. I think I can finish those by next week. Then maybe I'll go into work an hour late, check out like ten books at the Haas library, and then read them over the rest of the month.

I went with my coworkers to buy lunch at the food court in Westfield. I DO NOT LIKE. SO expensive! Why can't Berkeley food be present everywhere?! Cheese N Stuff should become a franchise. I must have access to $3.50 deli sandwiches for the rest of my life.

I keep having ideas of what to blog about when I'm at work but when I get home there's too much for me to do. And now there's NO TIME for me to blog! I should have been in bed two minutes ago! So goodnight.

*songs left to transfer on my computer: 4787*

I did it! One (fairly good) day

I have some very lofty goals for this summer. All the same goals I always have: lose weight, make friends, eat less. Kristen looked at my post-it note of summer goals and was like "You need TANGIBLE GOALS! BE SPECIFIC!" So here are some more specific goals

Lose weight: keep my same jean size but be thin enough to require a belt so my pants aren't falling down my butt.

Make friends: some at my internship, some in my Haas class. I don't think I can really quantify this. I just don't want to be lonely!

Eat less: Once I finish my box of variety oatmeal (aka packets of sugar and oats), I'm going to buy a canister of PLAIN oatmeal and eat that. I hope strawberry season lasts the duration of my oatmeal craze. Lunch currently consists of a giant apple. Some people may think, "an apple! That doesn't sound very filling!" But I have given my giant apples to Andria, Laura and Soo Jin, and they all looked at the apple as if it were Mt. Everest.
Dinner has been Soo Jin's leftover Intermezzo salad, which I slowly pick at. I doubt there is much nutrition left in these browning leaves, but the garbanzo beans are so tasty relative to the box of tastelessness

So today I woke up at 6:34, a few minutes before my alarm was scheduled to go off at 6:45. I debated ignoring my alarm and just sleeping in, but I realized this would be pointless because I already couldn't fall back asleep. So I got up then got ready to go to the gym. I ran on the treadmill (yay!). I always feel relieved when I see people at the gym during the summer. It reminds me that there ARE people in Berkeley.

Got home, I felt like I didn't have time to do the rowing machine or weights, and I was probably right. Showered then checked my daily websites real quick. Now, my entire morning routine is coupled with panicked checking of nextbus.com and bart.gov to make sure that I'm not going to miss my public transportation.

So I figured out I can catch the 8:47 bart and make it to my work around 9:15, which is still earlier than my supervisor comes in. Worked ... then ate lunch with Kristen, Christina, Kate and Lauren. I'M LIVING THE SATC DREAM! Working but managing to have time to eat with friends. They were in SF for Museum Day. Apparently tons of museums had free admissions today. I have no idea how Kristen and Christina are constantly finding out about events in the Bay Area but I'm grateful for it. We ate at Mel's Diner - this was my one regret: ordering anything. 1) I was not very hungry 2) I'm supposed to save money 3) The potatoes tasted like they were made of cardboard. And kind of looked like it too. Oh well.

So... went back to work. Then took the F bus back home, then sat around in my apartment slowly transferring music from one laptop to the other. I still have 5000 songs (+ my unsorted music) left on the old computer X_______X I think I've transferred 500 songs over four hours. I have all summer to complete this project.

Then went to the RSF to swim. Which is when I realized I should probably eat more because I was exhausted by my 30th lap. I forced myself to keep going though and ended up swimming 80 which was pretty good. Came back home, now I'm transferring MORE music.

Now it's 10:37, already seven minutes past my scheduled bed time. It's so hard to sleep early. It's easy for me to fall asleep because I'm exhausted (especially now that I've gone swimming), but psychologically my brain is like "10:30?! That's prime homework time!"