20 things

It's not my birthday today, but I felt like starting this post early. I don't really know exactly what I want to accomplish with this post, but you all know how much I love lists, so maybe I'll do that.

20 random things I remember about the last 20 years (in chronological order):

1. Falling asleep to Dumbo on the sofa and getting nightmares

2. Playing hockey with my brother in the living room and getting angry when he didn't let me score a goal

3. Watching I Love Lucy with my grandma as a child even though she didn't know English

4. Helping put up chairs and erase the chalkboard after Chinese school

5. Cleaning Johnston's house for fun and his mom telling me "all these dishes have to be clean, okay?!"

6. Redoing every problem of my AP Calculus homeworks on my living room floor weeks before the AP exam

7. Going through a box of Frances Lo's mom's video tapes and deciding to watch Drop Dead Gorgeous

8. The time I met Alvin and asked him to drive me to the mountains for APES and being very impressed by his driving skills

9. Gathering for group pictures at the last few minutes of filming the TMV music video

10. Being berated by a tall Asian man at Souplantation for having to wait in line, and the couple behind him telling me he was an idiot a little later
11. Danny shooting an air soft gun and puncturing a hole into Frances L's windowshade

12. Greg S. asking Chrystal and me if we were rooming together in Berkeley and us looking at each other with a "... I hadn't thought of that..." look

13. Feeling like I might die from exhaustion during my first Black Friday and sleeping in the food court of Ontario Mills

14. Owen getting stung by a bee in his swimming pool and looking extremely sad and little boy-like

15. Passing out drunk in my bedroom and waking up to a very angry mother

16. Walking to the Arcadia gym at 11pm and having my mom walk me back at midnight because she thought someone might attack me in the .25 miles between the gym and my house

17. Turning in my statistics final and being very happy when my GSI smiled at me and said goodbye

18. Waiting by the bus stop near the Bart station with Angelica and other RCSA people and bonding over never dating anyone and realizing that maybe I'm not so abnoormal

19. Talking to Caroline in the Unit 3 restroom and telling her to take her family to Cafe Durant, which is how we became friends

20. Going to my first Big4 Forum and feeling completely unqualified and unprepared

20 things I hope the next twenty years consists of:

1. Annual dinners with TMV

2. Dinners consisting of salad and fruit

3. Ironed dress shirts and comfortable high heels

4. All my favorite television shows on DVD lined up in rows next to my tv

5. Abs of steel

6. Making hot tea for myself during late nights

7. Taking friends out to eat and taking turns paying the bill

8. Inviting friends over to my apartment to watch football

9. Cleaning my living space thoroughly every Saturday morning

10. Going on dates

11. Driving my surfboard to the beach

12. Throwing my house keys on the kitchen counter after coming home from work

13. Sitting down at a big table with TMV during one of our weddings

14. Eating meals at the counter on a wooden bar stool in front of my laptop

15. Crossing off things on my "to do" list

16. Making friends in unexpected places

17. Some sort of heartbreak that I learn from

18. Sushi

19. Good television

20. Fulfillment

20 random thoughts about life at this age:

1. You don't have to work hard to get far in life. You just have to have connections

2. Sweets are my weakness and I'll never be able to ban them from my life

3. I don't even remember most of the things that used to stress me out

4. But that doesn't mean I should become apathetic about things

5. Being thin is a pretty good step up in life

6. "Don't cry over someone who wouldn't cry for you" - Lauren Conrad

7. Don't bother getting mad over something that probably wouldn't happen again, or if you can't change it

8. I've pretty much done everything I ever seriously wanted to do, which means I'm pretty lucky

9. AHS was a fairly atypical public high school

10. It's better to just buy something expensive and good quality instead of buying crap all the time

11. People judge you constantly. You just shouldn't worry about it all the time

12. Converses are really shitty shoes. And I shouldn't buy things just because they're popular

13. Most people don't know what they're doing in life, even if they sound like they do

14. Waking up at 4:30 is surprisingly easier than it sounds

15. You can't please everyone, but you shouldn't be annoying everyone

16. Eating healthy and keeping fit makes me a much happier person

17.  There's always someone better than you

18. "Some experiences can't be valued by how much you pay for it" - my mom

19. Some people really aren't cut out to have kids, and I'm more certain now that I am one of these people

20. I've led a pretty good life

:) Going home tomorrow. I'm going to try doing homework now. I ate like 1/3 of a really sweet cake today. Plus House of Curries. I feel terrible. I wish I were thin. That's what I'll be wishing for on my birthday. And for Christmas. And for all the subsequent years.

Five things

I'm in a pretty list-y mood - I think it's a combination of boredom yet having nothing particularly interesting to write about. I was showering and I just kept coming up with idea after idea of "5 things" and I'm sure I've forgotten 65% of them by now. But I don't anticipate having anything earth shattering to blog about in the next few days, so I'll take a few days to write this and then I'll eventually post it.

I kind of would like to do "4 things" instead but I guess four is a bad number. I kind of want to cut down on the number of parenthetical comments I make, but then this would just be one giant, boring list. So here we go:


Songs I could listen to forever
1) Paul Oakenfold - Southern Sun

2) Bloc Party - This Modern Love
3) Tegan and Sara - I Know I Know I Know
4) The Stills - Gender Bombs
5) The Perishers - Sway


Ways I'd measure my success in the future
1) I can shop at Crate & Barrel
2) I've gone through a long-term relationship and some random short flings
3) TMV still has annual dinners together
4) I live comfortably and can pay for whatever my parents want
5) People look at me and think "wow for a lady her age, she's pretty fit"


My day mainly consists of
1) Putting in eye drops
2) Listening to my iPod anytime I'm not next to my computer playing iTunes
3) Checking how fat I am in the mirror
4) Thinking about how I can turn some event into a bloggable post
5) Making lists on scraps of paper


Things I hate about myself
1) My strange laugh
2) Lack of common sense
3) Inability to hold conversations with strangers
4) Crappy wardrobe
5) Over bluntness


Physical things I hate about myself (because this needed its own category)
1) My stomach
2) My round face
3) Boring hair
4) Weird bumpy skin on my arms
5) The sides of my stomach (since my stomach is so large it requires two mentions)


Regrets in the 19 years of my life
1) This sublet
2) Not lying better to my mom about my apartment
3) B- in macroeconomics
4) Eating so much as a middle schooler and becoming fat
5) All the times I could have made friends but was too shy


Things I like about myself
1) Very good sleeping habits
2) Became dependent on exercise
3) Except for the section above, I really have had no regrets. And even those regrets are not that big
4) Worked hard in high school and college kind of came easily
5) Self-motivated


Shows everyone should watch
1) How I Met Your Mother season 2
2) Veronica Mars season 1
3) Friday Night Lights season 1
4) Popular season 1
5) How I Met Your Mother season 1, just so you can really appreciate season 2


Foods I could eat forever
1) Green seedless grapes
2) Plain scrambled eggs with ketchup
3) Salmon
4) Coffee ice cream
5) Peanut M&Ms (at least until my mouth begins to break out in canker sores)


Favorite scenes from tv shows
1) Raindance from the season finale of How I Met Your Mother Season 1
2) When Logan waits in the hotel but it turns out to be Alyson Hannigan, not his mother, in Veronica Mars. And then he cries
3) Fight scene from the season finale of Alias Season 2 (it took me forever to remember Francie's name when I searched for this - I kept thinking "it's NOT Fergie ... it's NOT Fergie ..."


4) Jess chasing Rory in some episode of Gilmore Girls


5) All the chicken dance parts of Arrested Development. There used to be a really good compilation but it got taken off :(



Easiest ways to make me want to punch you
1) Be clingy
2) Ask stupid questions
3) Be conceited
4) Walk really slowly in front of me
5) Make me repeat myself


Traits of my "type"
1) Athletic
2) Awkward yet comfortable in their own skin - it's hard to explain, I think basically it's just not being overly confident
3) White
4) Not in business
5) Older


Things I wish I owned
1) A steam iron
2) DVDs of all the shows I've ever watched growing up
3) A better computer that doesn't lag when I watch streaming videos
4) A really awesome wardrobe (boots, business wear, blazers, jeans, sunglasses)
5) Free access to all the music in the world that I could spend the rest of my life going through


Reasons I love my house in Arcadia
1) My parents do everything and more for me
2) The backyard is a peaceful place to sit in, although I never do
3) My dad sweeps the floor every day and mops every week
4) Walking distance to the track and the library
5) I don't feel like the walls are infested with mold, as I do in Berkeley


Reasons I love Berkeley
1) College Ave.
2) Even though it gets incredibly hot, it only lasts about three days
3) Free bus pass
4) Pedestrian friendly
5) SF Financial district


Best things ever bought
1) My TMV ring (the lost one)
2) The camera TMV bought me
3) The solar powered monkey Alvin bought me for getting into Haas
4) Roll of paper towels I bought at Trader Joe's upon arrival at my sublet (used for SO many things)
5) The iPod my cousin gave me


Favorite youtube videos
1) Clearly.


2) One of the tasks of the 2nd Annual TMV Dinner


3) Maybe I should just retitle this "favorite videos of TMV"


4) Watching this video made me listen to this song like 50x


5) I can't even begin to explain this. HAHA Basically they recap episodes of ANTM and other shows, and this is a collection of some parts and their show is HILARIOUS but I doubt anyone would really appreciate this because it's taken so out of context



Things I truly believe in
1) The first and second seasons of a show are the best, after that, they're terrible (exception: Buffy, but only because the first season was not that great)
2) I'll have my mid-life crisis in my twenties
3) When I lie flat on the ground for extended periods of time, it makes my stomach flatter
4) I'll never have closer friends than TMV
5) All H&M clothes are perfectly sized for me


Small events that probably changed my life
1) Dancing with TMV on the lawn of Arcadia Public Library
2) Taking the bus home with Angelica and some other RCSAers
3) The day in Pow Wow when we were talking about what colleges we got into and Greg goes "are you and Chrystal rooming together?" and we look at each other and go "hm. Never thought of that..."
4) Seeing Li-Ting at my first career fair
5) Going to SF last weekend


Biggest influences in my life
1) Johnston, who turned me into a giant pervert
2) Chrystal, who showed me how critical (ie. bitchy) some people are (OK that was phrased poorly, I wouldn't call her a bitch. I would just say she's taught me that people judge)
3) My mom, I can't even really say why but I'm sure it's one
4) Henry, who unleashed the inner Meltang of bluntness
5) Jackie and Vanessa, because they were my first best friends


Hottest people EVER
1) Sarah Shahi (she's freaking gorgeous but there are NO good pictures of her, at least, of her clothed)


2) Kristen Bell


3) Kyle Chandler

HELLO?! WHERE are Friday Night Light clips on Youtube?! If you have a show that is critically acclaimed but lacking in viewership, you freaking don't go around taking videos off of youtube. It's FREE ADVERTISING. IDIOTS.
4) Bridget McManus

She's gained and lost 60 pounds FIVE times. I want to know how she does it.
5) My mom.


I'll keep calling myself fat until:
1) I can sit down without having a giant bulge of stomach fat
2) I don't think "OMFG I'M A WHALE" when I have period bloating
3) I go to bed still satisfied with my body, even after eating regular meals
4) I can press my face down and give myself double chins, but not recoil in horror
5) I would feel thin enough to prance around in a bikini


Places I love
1) Danny's minivan
2) Souplantation
3) Danny's house
4) Haas (although it's still early and I may soon hate the building)

5) Bay Bridge


Things that scare the shit out of me
1) Losing my sight
2) Being attacked in the shower
3) Tripping and falling down the stairs
4) Being alone in the future with no friends
5) Someone accidentally slicing my skin with their fingernails/toenails


Favorite clothes
1) Really short A&F shorts I wear to sleep
2) $50 A&F jeans I bought from Ontario Mills
3) Three pairs of underwear I bought off the streets of Taiwan for $2 which never make me look fat
4) $25 Let's Go to the Mall t-shirt
5) White fleece jacket from Old Navy, although it's usually not cold enough to wear


Things that make me smile
1) Old couples holding hands
2) When people who look kind of scary give up their bus seats for the elderly
3)

4)

5)
A9SecondSleeper: when are you going to get yourself a boyfriend
A9SecondSleeper: there are a bunch of them
A9SecondSleeper: lying around
A9SecondSleeper: broken hearted
aznwalmartgurl8: AHAHAH
aznwalmartgurl8: HELLO i DO want to go out wiht someone
aznwalmartgurl8: but i do not meet people :-(:-(
A9SecondSleeper: OH
A9SecondSleeper: what if i set you up with guys?
A9SecondSleeper: hmm i'd have to find some
A9SecondSleeper: that i'd be okay with you dating
A9SecondSleeper: or else it'd be WEIRD
A9SecondSleeper: mmm and its best if you don't date my friends
A9SecondSleeper: because if they break your heart
A9SecondSleeper: i'd have to kill them
A9SecondSleeper: and i'd lose a friend, obviously

.5(20) Reasons my life is a little sad

1. I'm pretty sure I once brought a pair of scissors to high school for the sole purpose of cutting my split ends during yearbook

2. I own two notebooks where I wrote down everything I ate from 3/22-8/19 and then 8/20-11/27. Apparently on my birthday of 2007 I had: cereal, banana, clif bar, salmon, salad, bread. I also went on the elliptical for 30 minutes and did the rowing machine for 10 minutes. On Frances Lo's birthday I apparently had blueberry bread, green tea ice yogurt, zucchini date bread (these are all from Trader Joe's, I can tell), a chicken skewer, grapes, and salad. I have no idea where I got a chicken skewer from. I apparently went on the treadmill for 35 minutes and ran 2.5 miles and did the rowing machine for 10 minutes.

3. I've never kissed anyone

4. I felt tired while running to the bus stop with two Trader Joe's grocery bags. I spent about 30 seconds sitting on the bus trying not to make it obvious that I was catching my breath

5. When I'm interviewed and they ask "tell me about yourself," I really have nothing else to say besides "I'm a second-year at UC Berkeley and I'm a business major. I like to watch tv and go to the gym."

6. I probably read 1/6 of the books that I check out from the library

7. There have been several days when I ate yogurt parfaits for all three meals. One from Bear Market for breakfast, one I made myself for lunch, and one from GBC for dinner.

8. I got more homework done in one sitting yesterday while watching the wushu competition with Danny at Haas Pavillion than I have for the past three weeks.

9. My idea of getting ready to go out is deciding whether or not to tie my hair, and then putting lotion on my face and hands.

10. I have to put eyedrops in my eyes at least five times a day, and that's when I'm not wearing contacts.

I can't think of that many sad things so I will multiply this by .5 so I can still use the label 20 things. I guess it's a good thing that I don't have many sad things. I'm actually not sad by the way! I'm very content with life.

20 more things because I love typing

I've somehow came home at 8:00, only to sit at my computer for 3 hours, watching Buffy and Veronica Mars. My legs are sore from inactivity. I wonder how I will react when I see myself in the mirror tomorrow, especially after Souplantation. I would love to be ready for bikini season by spring break, so I better start doing actual situps and crunches. Which I never do. Well, I'll kill some more time and then I can go take a shower and sleep at the insanely early hour of 11:30 pm. What wild weekends I have. Well, tomorrow will be all work.

1. I actually don't really have 20 more fascinating things to say about myself, so I think this will be more like 20 really specific things I want in my future house, since I am looking for apartments right now.
2. Close to a good gym
3. I probably care most about how the kitchen looks, which is funny because I don't even cook.
4. I next care about how the bathroom looks, I think because there's a lot you can do to make a bathroom look good, but if a bathroom looks bad it just makes your entire house look unkept
5. Matching sets of plates, cups, utensils ... I would hate to have mismatched cups which is why I was very reluctant to buy a Berkeley mug but now that I have one, I love it
6. I would put very little on the refrigerator except for a few pictures and a magnet especially for grocery lists and a magnet especially for important documents that I need to notice, but unimportant enough to leave hanging around the kitchen
7. Ferns everywhere and depending on how well off I am, vases with flowers in them
8. My couch would have a throw so I could fall asleep when I watch tv
9. I like bar counters and bar stools and in my mind, I would sit on my bar stool with a cup of yogurt and granola and use my laptop (hopefully a better one by this point) in the mornings before going to work. (Oddly, I wrote "before going to the gym" before I checked my blog over. I guess I was thinking about life now)
10. Uncluttered bedroom with nothing but one of those low beds, a night stand with a lamp, and some sort of table
11. I would have counters in the bathroom, but if for some reason there is very little space, I would need a stand to put my clothes on when I shower
12. No souveneirs. I hate souveneirs
13. If I have a small backyard, I would like a little table and two chairs, even though I know I would probably never sit outside.
14. Venetian blinds
15. Mainly whiteish carpet except for obviously the kitchen and the bathroom
16. Shower in the bathroom that is hands-free and has a door - I hate shower curtains
17. A cute bath mat in the bathroom
18. Lots of stainless steel in the kitchen which seems kind of guyish
19. In one of those apartment looking condos
20. Next to a few good grocery stores, particularly Trader Joe's

20 Things before I eat

I woke up at 7am today for some reason and the first thoughts in my head were "agh my eyes are dry what time is it 7:00? that's early AHH AHHH FINALS ARE SOON I HAVE TO STUDY FOR ECON get out of bed get out of bed I have so much to do aghh it's cold." I've been surprisingly productive. I just finished a practice final and I felt like it went pretty well. I'm holding off on looking at the answers, because I'm scared that I got a lot wrong, and if I did I would be pissed off and panic about the coming final. So I'm kind of waiting until 10:00 when I can go to the dining commons and eat some breakfast. I don't really want to actually because I already ate yogurt and my stomach feels full/fat. I'm starting to not be able to distinguish between the two.

Anyway, I wanted to do one of these once a month but it's been like a month and a half.

1. I like the sound of heels on pavement/concrete
2. I suspect that my elbow might be fractured but I'm not in that much pain as long as I don't touch it, so I'm not going to do anything about it
3. I keep all my receipts that they give at the campus markets so I can scribble to do lists when I'm stressed
4. I want to ask my floormate what shampoo/soap she uses because it smells nice, but I think that's a little creepy
5. I wish I had really soft baby-like hands
6. Actually, I shouldn't start a "I wish" list because that could go on for a very long time
7. Whenever 30 rock makes fun of how America's youth knows nothing about history/current events, I laugh because I really don't know anything about history/current events
8. When I read a book, I have to read it a little bit every day or I'll forget all the characters and I'll hate the book
9. I keep imagining myself cooking fantastic meals for myself next year, but I suspect that I will only learn how to make grilled cheese sandwiches and stop there
10. My most played song on iTunes is The Stills - Gender Bombs
11. The first thing I do when I get out of bed is turn on my computer
12. The second thing I do is put eyedrops in my eye
13. I don't understand why people leave their computers on at night
14. I choose books by their covers. And not just their titles, but the font of the title, the color of the book, the size of the book, the type of paper it's printed on including weight, color and texture, and the text:paragraph ratio. Which is why I read a lot of chick lit and zero mystery novels. Mystery novels = small Times New Roman text on gross paper with cheap paperback covers.
15. If you say something and I respond with a small laugh and smile and no verbal response, that means I didn't hear you and I'm trying to play it off as if I did.
16. I really need to start buying Christmas gifts soon
17. When I sleep, I have to lie completely flat on my back
18. When I want to nap, I lie on my side because I know I will not sleep as long in this position
19. I think Victoria Secret PINK sweatpants are ugly
20. I want to buy some more Cal gear - sweatshirts, tshirts, cups

Eat time!

20 Things You Don't Have To Know About Me

I was looking through random blogs (because I'm trying not to do work and so far I have marvelously succeeded) and I noticed that a lot of people had a little "100 things about me" on the right side of their blogs. Lists! I love them. I also loved those quizzes people took and posted on their xangas, but that was so middle school. I don't think even my friends who know me would want to read through a list of 100 things, nor would I think of 100 interesting things all in one sitting. So I'm just going to do multiple installments because I'm bored and I don't think anything will happen to me in the next three days that will be worth blogging about so I might as well do this.

1. I actually wrote eight things before deleting the post and napping. The first item had been "I don't actually think I'm fat. I just don't think I'm thin." But right now, I'm sitting here and I really do think I look fat so I guess that point is null.
2. I haven't thought about what I would name my child but I've already picked out a name for my future chocolate labrador retriever (Logan).
3. I was an NSYNC fan growing up but now I think BSB albums aged far better
4. Whenever I hear Jason Mraz - The Remedy, I think of Las Vegas because I was walking through Mandalay Bay once when the song came up and it's stuck in my memory
5. My mom once told me that my dad wanted me to go to finishing school and that lowered my opinion of him.
6. I save the best food on my plate for last
7. I look at myself (specifically my stomach) in the mirror about 20+ times a day
8. I have a terrible memory but I'm oddly good at placing quotes and songs from tv shows
9. I kiss up to my friends' parents
10. I had a job last semester analyzing company's SEC forms (basically tax forms) and I still have absolutely no idea what any of it means
11. I don't bother killing spiders in my house
12. I don't think I could spend two hours straight with my family without wishing I was somewhere else
13. I waste a lot of money buying pretty, expensive shoes that I never wear.
14. I assume the bank would never make an error in my checking account even though I know it happens a lot
15. I really miss my mom's chocolate chip cookies but I think she might have forgotten how to make them
16. I don't know how a fax machine works but I find it amazing that someone invented it so long ago, even before the Internet
17. I can't look at Milo Ventimiglia the same way after Chrystal read that he called Alexis Bledel a cunt in public
18. For some reason, I think all Hollywood celebrities are virgins. Even Paris Hilton.
19. But I assume most regular people have sex.
20. For someone who loves to blog, this list was really hard to come up with and not all that rewarding