A box of donuts

Several people have probably heard me crave a box of donuts. Not just donuts, but specifically, I have been longing to go to a donut store and pick out a dozen donuts. I don't know how it got into my head, but one day before winter break, I just suddenly remembered how much I enjoyed waking up on Saturday mornings and going to the donut store with my dad. Of course, he would always let me choose whatever donuts I wanted. I would always choose the ones I liked first, and then he would choose the chocolate ones for my brother (after making sure that I agreed with his choices), and then he would choose some neutral donuts that everyone could enjoy.

My favorite donut now is probably a long twisty one with chocolate glazing on it. But when I was young, I would always choose one of those cake donuts with white frosting and sprinkles. And then I would choose a twisty one with sugar on top. Now, I hate cake donuts because I think they are too heavy. I am making myself very hungry just writing this blog.

Well, now there is no reason for me to buy a box of donuts. I have worked very hard to avoid even eating a single donut for the past few years. It was a particularly difficult feat when Crossroads served free, unlimited donuts from King Pin. But over break, I realized that what I want isn't just a donut - it's the freedom to choose TWELVE! donuts. I kind of want that feeling of choosing things that people will enjoy, and ideally, people would say to me "you have excellent donut selection" afterwards. That is why I wanted to buy a box of donuts.

But the opportunity to buy donuts never arose during winter break. Which is a shame, because I really wanted to try Lucky Donuts and Peacock Donuts again. I didn't want some fancy donut that would be overglazed and pumped with preservatives. I just wanted cheap, normal donuts.

Well, I will be buying a box of donuts in a week! How exciting. It will be SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!! And I am extremely excited for it. I was like "OMG CAN I BRING DONUTS" and Caroline might make her delicious homemade pizza. This is combining two things I wanted to do: buy a box of donuts and have a Superbowl Party! I have wanted to attend/host a Superbowl Party for many years. But TMV is not a very sporty group. I always kind of wished that I would date someone who was into sports and would share all their sports knowledge with me. And I would throw annual Superbowl parties complete with alcohol and chips and dip and pigs in a blanket and delicious finger foods. Yum...

Mmm baked beans

I have some favorite foods that are truly bizarre. I'm not a foodie or someone who has high tastes in food, but some of these foods really don't belong on anyone's favorite foods list. However, these are some things that I LOVE LOVE LOVE and will eat, regardless of how unhealthy it is or how disgusting it looks. This includes:

1) Baked beans

2) Chili

Please refer to above picture, as chili looks remarkably similar to baked beans

3) Taco Bell's Crunchy Tacos

Today my dinner consisted of microwaving leftover rice, throwing a can of Bush's baked beans into a simmering pot, and boiling a husk of corn. Sadly, I thought it was DELICIOUS. I was kind of happy with myself until I read a blog where the person was talking about having canned soup as comfort food. And I have this automatic "ew how unhealthy and lazy" reaction to canned goods. And then I realized I ATE CANNED BAKED BEANS TODAY. And as delicious as that was, I'm kind of sad now. I hope I really do learn how to cook one day. I would say that boiling corn was the closest I've come to perfecting cooking instructions. Generally, I've been able to fuck up everything else. Also, today was the first time I ever opened a can. I remember in high school, Johnston tried to teach me how to open a can, but we both got exasperated after one try.

I've sat on my ass for the past two days studying. It actually kind of hurts because my seat doesn't have a good cushion. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I spent an hour doing lunges. I don't really know if I actually learned anything. I can say that now I am ADDICTED to Lipstick Jungle, which is what I watch every few hours. I have a draft of an entry solely about Lipstick Jungle that I wrote yesterday, but didn't post because it would have been my third post of the day. I will post it one day when I have nothing to say. But if you want a quick reason for why I am watching the show, it is because of THIS

Honestly, I don't really notice what happens half the time these two have scenes together, because half the time he is shirtless, and when that happens, you can't help but stare and just COUNT ALL THE ABS HE HAS.

His IMDB profile says he went to UCSD. SO THERE WAS AT LEAST ONE person out there in UCSD who is insanely hot.

SO MUCH READING! MIDTERM OF MY MOST IMPORTANT CLASS OF MY LIFE TOMORROW (my first accounting class, which will be the only accounting grade I have on my transcript when I apply for internships). But ... I think I'll go to Rasputin and look for music.

Banana Longevity

I've read somewhere that apples release some sort of chemical/hormone (do fruit have hormones? I forget all the things I've learned in AP Biology) that makes the things around it ripen faster. So do gas oven, so don't leave your fruit next to them! You're supposed to keep your apples away from other fruit that you do not want to ripen as quickly, say bananas. Well, I brought an apple and a banana to work yesterday, assuming that I would eat them. I must be eating a lot more, because when 6:00 rolled around, I still had not gotten hungry enough to eat them. So I just left my fruit in my bag, and NOW LOOK.

On your left, you have three bananas who were left to their own devices and just sit around in a Trader Joe's bag on my floor. To the right is the banana who had to suffer through a day of banging around my tote bag, and the apple that has made it age before its time. And now, this banana will no longer be able to serve its purpose of being consumed as breakfast. I have to wait for it to get super brown, and then I can cut it up into little pieces and make a banana peanut butter sandwich one day.

And the green wire is my LAN cable, which I use when this stupid wireless fails to work, which happens quite often.

Also, right after taking this picture, I realized that I had just let something I will consume touch a surface of my sublet, and I barfed a little inside.

And nowwwww time to work! I have six minutes to wash my bowl of cereal, put on shoes, and walk there. Good thing it only takes me three minutes to walk there!

*This appropriately short blog has been inspired by a new random blog I have found and attempted to read through 145 posts in one night*

(almost) The End of Sophomore Year

Hit play!

This entry would be a lot more depressing/heartfelt if I had written it when I first had these feelings an hour ago. Instead, I tried to encapsulate my feelings into a failed slideshow, which entailed uploading pictures onto both flickr and photobucket. I couldn't figure out how to put the album onto a pretty slideshow, and now, instead of feeling 100% mopey/sad for unknown reasons, I am instead 50% sad, 20% feeling fat, and 30% annoyed that I wasted two hours of my life.

I don't know why exactly, but I was feeling kind of :( yesterday. Probably not PMS. Probably a lot of little factors thrown together. I'm pretty sure I've lost my TMV ring forever, which makes me super, super sad. It was like "the one thing you would save if you were to lost everything" item. Well that and my folder of music, but even music can be somewhat replaced, if only a small fraction of it. Then, school is ending and people are slowly leaving. Most of them are coming back to my house tomorrow, but it's still really sad to think we'll never live together again.

Eric J had posted a blog about how sad he was for the year to end. While reading it, I was like "eh I don't really feel the same way but I see his point." It's interesting because his blog kind of suggests that as you move through life, you lose the friends you had while you make a new set of friends. Jackie's blog is more like hey, you actually can keep all your friends. I'm leaning more towards Jackie, I guess because we're both part of TMV. The greatest friendship of all. HAHA jk I'm not that lame. I love my floormates and we've had really great moments that would probably never happen with TMV. But TMV is like the group I'll always compare all of my friends to. If something huge happened and I were sitting alone, I'd probably go to the TMV facebook group first before going to the Visitors of Room306 group. I was going to write more, but I'll just end it with "heart!" <3

And yesterday I went to Angelica's 22nd birthday dinner. While talking to Li-Ting I realized that I have no friends who are my age from college. At the dorms, I'm the oldest, and when I hang out with my other college friends, they're all older. Even the people I met in my IEOR class are all older than I am.

Angelica all night: and that's Mel. She's only 19!
...
Me: Aw Ryan you're not that old! I have a friend who's 25... wait. Are you 26?
Ryan: Yeah

Sidenote: wholefoods cakes are INSANELY DELICIOUS. Now I'm sad I didn't buy one for Eric's bday. I'm tempted to buy one for myself in September. Best fruit tart ever. Are there Whole Foods in Arcadia? Why am I even asking - I won't even be in Arcadia for a time that requires cake.

Anyway, so I'm also partly sad because my good friends are graduating from college! So far, every time I've had a graduation, I never thought it was that sad because we're not REALLY leaving each other. But wow. College graduations. It's so crazy to know that I have friends who are graduating from COLLEGE. Some are going to grad school and some are actually starting work. Insane.

Ok. So my feelings of sadness have dissipated because I ended up leaving the computer about three hours ago to eat at CU Sushi. Omg. CU Sushi is my favorite sushi place here. But it's not my favorite restaurant in Berkeley - that is designated for Crepevine. Delicious Crepevine. My favorite restaurant of all time is Roy's Restaurant from the time we ate there for our RCSA SoCal Interviews. I would go there for birthday celebrations once I have a real income. And my favorite restaurant in Arcadia is Ichima Sushi. I think my favorite places are mainly sushi because it's food that I can't make myself, and it's light so I don't leave the restaurants feeling heavy and fat, as I usually do other times.

Well. Now that I've ruined my "boo hoo I'm sad" entry with a digression of food, I guess I'll have to wait until the next time I'm sad and blog about it then. But anyway, I don't think there are many other reasons why I'm sad. This sounds pathetic and I'll only say it once: I kind of wish I were in a relationship. I never really say this to people, even TMV people, because it just sounds sad when you say it out loud. But I kind of want an excuse to eat out with someone. HAHA That's not the reason. I'm just joking. But hohum. Time to finish studying a bit more, then Jonathan and I are going to ride a random bus for a few hours until it reaches the final stop. Which is something I've always wanted to do but never had the time to do. And I feel like the day before my most important final is the best time to do it.



I put my camera on a pole in the street and set the self-timer. People clapped when they saw the picture. HAHA

Socal Trip

Omg this weekend was unbelievably awesome. I had an all-expenses paid trip down to socal, where I stayed in the Wiltern, ate free food, ate free but EXPENSIVE food, talked to a ton of people, and just generally had fun. So... get prepared for a very xanga-like entry

Friday: I ended up talking to my floormates for way too long on Thursday, so I totally forgot to do my laundry. I had to dig out a pair of underwear that I don't like, because I had nothing left. So Friday, I had planned to at least go to one of my three classes, but I ended up ditching them all, and just doing my laundry. Caroline came over and gave me A SHIRT THAT SHE BOUGHT! AWWW so cute. :) It is grey and says Cal with Haas School of Business underneath. She is awesome. (I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS. Actually, I don't.)

So we had shuttles pick us up and take us to the airport. I wish I had eaten before I left, because then I wouldn't have had to spend my $64 on airport food. But I did get a delicious sandwich from the CPK there, and I was really tempted to get Fenton's ice cream but we had to get on the plane. I think the joy of going on airplanes is dying down because now I just sleep on them. Or maybe I'm getting older and more tired.

Very little plans for Friday - we just checked in and ate at Kyoto, the hotel restaurant. I only bought $30 of sushi and afterwards we went to a restaurant across the street, Engine Co 28. The hostess was a bitch - we came in pretty close to closing and we just wanted desserts, but I think because we were young, she didn't really want to seat us. Our server was nice though. I got a tres leches cake and it was pretty good. After that I was insanely full...

So I went back to the hotel and Naomi and I turned on the tv but we both instantly fell into food coma and just fell asleep with the TV on. I woke up close to midnight, got up to shower, and just went to bed. She was completely knocked out HAHA. But around 3am I woke up and I felt really awake. It also started getting really warm under the blankets and I ended up sleeping horizontally. Naomi said she saw my feet sticking out of the bed at night and was really confused HAHA. I never really fell back asleep, around 4 I just listened to my iPod and at 5 I couldn't take it anymore and I got up to gym. SO YES, 24-hr gyms you are awesome. They had pretty good equipment too. I ran 2 miles and then went on the elliptical for about 20 minutes and went back to the room. I guess now this qualifies as Saturday

Saturday:
It was about 6:30 when I got back to the room. I just lied on the bed sheets in my gym clothes and napped. At 7, I woke up, took a shower, then went back to bed in regular clothes. 8:00, I went down to start interviews which were AWESOME. I really like talking to strangers when you know that they are listening to what you're saying. HAHA I like talking to parents more because they have more interesting questions and students don't have very good eye contact. Parents are also so much more appreciative of the info you give. Questions I was asked EVERY TIME: what about class sizes? how safe is Berkeley? what is there to do? should I bring a car? what is housing like?

Interviews ended at FIVE. I actually missed my lunch because I was just so into talking to people. Drank cups of water and my throat hurt a lot. I went to the hotel restaurant and they said they were closed but the lady was really nice and said I could still eat at the cold buffet which was AWESOME. I was the only one in the restaurant and I got everything I wanted. There was a bowl of mixed fruit and I just stole all the watermelon because no one is going to eat more anyway. It was perfect because I got to eat salad and fruit for my lunch which is wonderfully healthy and just made me really happy.

After interviews, there was a wine and cheese session between us and the faculty who came to interview. No wine for me though, and I didn't eat too much cheese because we were going to ROY'S.

OMFG. ROY'S is SO. delicious. It's definitely one of those restaurants they picture in brochures about LA. One of those places the girls of The Hills would go to and MTV would film in. We were told to wait in the bar and we were asked to order drinks (I PASS FOR 21!) but we didn't. I would totally want to bring friends there if 1) people enjoyed spending $60 for a meal and 2) we were older. The hostesses at nice restaurants are seriously bitches. Like the other one, she was kind of rude, I assume because we were young. She made us wait and when we went back, she led us to a back room where most of the tables were empty. UH, THANKS. But once again, our server was really nice so it's redeemed, slightly.

I got: omg.
1) Miso Salmon and Tofu Salad: the salmon was the best salmon I've ever had. The tofu was PERFECT. Insanely soft inside but incredibly well seasoned outside with a nice harder shell. Omg ...
2) Hawaiian Ono and Crab Dynamite with a Chive Butter sauce: I have to say I usually don't like seafood and I really don't like "butter sauce" but even though I was getting full ... OMG SO GOOD. I ate it all and I enjoyed every bite. It's good to try once, but there are so many better things that I would choose something else next time. IF THERE IS a next time
3) Hot chocolate souffle: I don't know why but I always order some chocolate dessert when I don't actually like chocolate. But this ... was insane. Chocolate POURS out when you pierce it with the spoon. Vanilla bean ice cream, and this raspberry sauce that was the PERFECT amount of sugar and I just wanted to lick the plate clean.
4) Appetizer of ... and this is where my computer crashed. I tried to draw up a pdf of the dinner menu but my firefox died. It had the words Hawaiian and Ahi. It was ... the best fish I've ever had. Ok, it was kind of on par with Ichima rolls but it's a different thing. SOOO good. I am definitely ordering it again (next time). Everyone I ate with said mine was good and I LOVE when people like the food I order! Also, people complimented my heels which YAY! No one ever compliments me on things like that.

So that was Roy's. I found out they have locations in SF and LA JOLLA! Awesome. When I'm rich ... I will treat my friends. And myself. HEHEHE. I think by the time I'm "rich," I can order from the bar too. So I can PUKE OUT ALL MY FOOD.

This is getting boring to write because I went to shower and everything. Oh well...

Sunday:
More interviews, woke up at 7:30 for interviews at 8. :( No gym today at all. Interviews were a lot more fun today, I think but I wish I had talked to more people. I actually ate lunch at the right time, and talked to a professor and he was AAAWWWWWsome. He's mathematics, and he went to Oxford for undergrad and the school is sooo different from anything in America. He said he did really poorly because he was more interested in "living life." But he had met three American Rhode Scholars and one of them invited him to come to America and go to graduate school and "start over." He advised him to go to a second-tier school, so he went to Standford. HAHAHA It's pretty cool when people talk about the little things that made a big impact on their life.

Left for the airport at 3:30 and got to our gate an hour before departure. It sucks because we couldn't spend $64 after we arrive in Berkeley, which they used to do. I was all planning to buy $64 worth of Sushi House too! But after Roy's, Sushi House has dropped a level. HAHA I just bought airport food - baked ziti with meatballs, a $6 bottle of naked juice, pistachio ice cream (I remembered after I was half done that I have a no-ice cream rule, oh well) and like 5 candy bars for my floormates. HEHEHE "souveneirs." I wish I could have bought something more personalized, but it was mainly bought for Caroline in mind. HAHA

Slept in plane. Shuttle back to Berkeley was ... very interesting ... Kind of thought we wouldn't get back to Berkeley. But we did! AND AWWW I HEART MY FLOORMATES. Caroline said she MISSED MEEEE. HEHEHEHE

I didn't do very much work. Tomorrow ... I shall. AND GYM. OMG ONE WEEK TO GET BIKINI SEASON READY. I don't even OWN a bikini. TEARS. Also my skin sucks because it totally breaks out and dries out when I go on planes or drive home. BOO BOO

I hope I get to do more of these fly to places, eat for free things when I'm an auditor! I spoke to a parent who is GOOD FRIENDS WITH ALICE WALKER. I was like "ARE YOU KIDDING I wrote my Haas essay about her!" Wow. She was like "oh do you know her?" and I was thinking "ARE YOU KIDDING. Am I friends with JK ROWLING?" And then I spoke to another woman who worked at Ernst and Young and after her daughter left for her interview she was like "do you have any questions for me" and I said "I ... don't know ... I didn't really think I'd be asking parents anything." She said most people don't stay at Big4 firms for long because there are better things to do. She also said the people who leave are usually either really good or fairly bad, so the people who stay and become partners or whatever are usually middle-level capable. I think I qualify as middle level. HAHA So hmm ... now I don't know what my long-term goals are. I guess you really wouldn't know. I mean ... I still have to actually GET A JOB at a Big4 before I plan out what to do after. Anyway ... a lot of parents are so cool. Even the crazy Asian ones that remind me of my mom.

SPRING BREAK AHHHHH

Chocolatey Delight

I'm eating out of a bag of cereal right now because there's not really anything to eat for lunch in my house. I went to Costco with my dad but I didn't want a chicken bake. I think he got pissy so I have to "handle lunch on my own." Well, I'm too lazy to cook and I can't work Chinese magic like my mom and whip up some magnificent shit using the ingredients in the refrigerator, so I'm eating a bag of cereal. It was a 3 pack from Costco which included regular Special K (disgusting), Vanilla Almond (decent) and Chocolatey Delight. I finished the Vanilla Almond a long time ago.

The Chocolatey Delight is like ... regular special K coated with an extra layer of sugar, with little bits of chocolate thrown in. I don't get who this caters to. Isn't special K the "diet cereal?" Is it really that crucial for some dieting lady to get her chocolate one way or another? Does there really have to be candy thrown into an already sugary meal?

It doesn't taste very good with milk. Chocolate is not going to get soggy in milk and it kind of eludes the spoon, so I end up with a bunch of little chocolate to eat at the end. It IS however, oddly delicious when you eat it dry. Take a handful of cereal with one bit of chocolate, and it's suddenly the perfect amount.

With that said, my throat kind of hurts from all the sugar I just consumed and I'm oddly full yet still dissatisfied with my meal. IF I WERE IN BERKELEY, THIS WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN A PROBLEM. I would just have eaten a yogurt parfait, damnit.

Next year I think I'll just go back to Berkeley after the third week of vacation

Forgetting Sarah Marshall

I just got home from a 7 hour road trip from Berkeley to Arcadia. I'm ready to just crawl into bed and sleep. It's ridiculously cold in my house. Maybe I should have brought the really warm socks that Alvin bought me last year. I would blog about the last few days but I think I'm too tired to really make it exciting. Highlights:
- Getting everyone to love How I Met Your Mother. It's so gratifying to hear Eric's loud, full laughter when he really likes a joke. It's even more insane to see Danny laugh his silent laugh, and actually pause the episode just to stop and laugh at the line. He was always extremely willing to watch an episode whenever we wanted, which makes me think WOW he must really really like it because he would even stop his episode of Firefly to just watch HIMYM when we wanted
- Eating Cafe Intermezzo Marinated Tofu sandwich as my last meal. Yay to me for not getting something from Cafe Durant and going over to Cafe Intermezzo instead. It was delicious and made a great last Berkeley meal of the year. I now love their tofu sandwiches again. I just have to get less mustard
- Deciding to go swimming at 11:00 in the morning and worrying that they would wake up before I got home to take them to breakfast. I got home at 12:45. They woke up at 2:30
- Totally messing up my sleep schedule by sleeping at 5:45am last night, waking up at 6:45, taking Alvin to the airport, and then resuming sleep from 8:30. When I woke up I thought it was late, late afternoon, possibly 3:00. It turned out to be 10:30
- The boys getting insane food cravings while watching HIMYM last night, during which they tore through all five bags of chips, 4 laughing cow cheeses, and a bunch of cereal and granola
- On the way to Alvin's, we went downstairs, discovered it was raining, decided to not get an umbrella, which was only 3 flights of stairs away, walked through campus and ended up getting extremely wet.
- Playing Bang and now I actually recognize the symbols. Danny is a very strategic player

OMG It's insanely cold. I'm starting to shiver. Purpose of this entry: I came home and started going through the sites that I check up on. I wanted to see what movies are out in Arcadia (I want to watch Juno and Atonement) when I saw a trailer for Forgetting Sarah Marshall. OMG I did not know Jason Segel was in this movie. <3 him. Although the guy who plays Kristen Bell's second boyfriend looks too much like Justin Bobby from The Hills

Sitting in my dark room

I just finished my finals. By the end, I was not in the mood to study computer science at all. Boo to that class. It is raining and windy up in Berkeley, which is no fun and now my pants are drenched. Everyone is sleeping in my room and I don't think they'll be getting up until lunchtime. OH I SHOULD GYM. I don't like the idea of taking my umbrella to the gym though, it's a huge hassle. I'll debate after I finish writing this entry.

I used to get very AHH!!AHHH!!! if we went out and things were not perfectly planned. Now, I've grown to just let things fall as they may because plans seem to change anyway. Yesterday was one of those days. I hadn't even decided where we would eat for breakfast when I woke up. Danny woke up surprisingly early. We went to La Note, which is this super cute super cozy delicious French restaurant. I got some sort of omelette that had orange marmalade in it. Danny, Eric and Jackie even got hot drinks, I think because there was such a grown-up coffee feel to the place. I think everyone enjoyed their meal, even though it wasn't as cheap as usual Berkeley meals go. Efforts to find a fabulous picture of La Note on flickr.com have failed.

Then we set off on our walk down Shattuck. Danny suggested a movie, and I was like ok! When he saw that Enchanted was playing, he got excited so we decided to watch it. Henry was like "what is this about?" and I was like "WAIT. You don't know what this movie is? NO ONE TELL HIM" and everyone started going "NO ONE TELL HENRY! NO ONE TELL HENRY!" but then we walked in and he saw a movie poster and he was like AGHHH NOOO. I guess Amy Adams singing is not appealing.

We went in and the movie theater was in a small little room and we were the first ones in. They were very excited about that. We all sat in our own rows. The movie turned out to be pretty good. Danny plans on downloading that album later. Danny also enjoyed singing the songs as we walked around Berkeley.

Imagine that, only with Danny

Amy Adams is freaking cute! I think her character could have been unbearably annoying but it was pretty well done. The singing was actually fairly nice, although I think the problem with Disney movies now is that they try to churn out music that would sound good on the radio, so it gets radioplay and becomes a popular hit for a few weeks. But I think a lot of the magic in classic Disney movies had to do with the soundtrack, and those songs just aren't supposed to be played on the radio.

After that, everyone was happy because the movie was actually good. We walked around with a "What are we doing now? I don't know we're going to walk around" mentality. We went into Games of Berkeley which is this toy store with what seems like every board game imaginable. Danny happily bought Bang. Walked on with the intention of eating at Cheeseboard ... only to find that it's closed on Mondays. Boo.

So we backtracked out of Gourmet Ghetto, with me going "well at least you saw the pretty part of Berkeley!" and headed to Brazil Cafe. The stand was closed, but we went to the actual restaurant where we got sandwiches, although to Eric and Henry they were like little finger foods. Then we stopped by Alvin's place, where we played some Smash. Danny left, saying "I'm happy now. I got to play smash." We all agreed that Danny is complexly simple.

Went through campus to head to Cafe Intermezzo but they decided that they wanted Asian Ghetto again so we went there. Try to guess who got what. 1) Udon 2) Donut Holes 3) Giant hoagies sandwiches

Then we went home and it became a sort of random night where people did what they wanted. In the end, Jackie and I went to bed around 3am and the boys had gone downstairs to the main lounge to play Bang. I woke up at 7am to head off to my final when I discovered that the floor was completely empty. I went downstairs to see them PLAYING BANG. Goodness. I doubt they slept at all. THEY ARE NOW THOUGH. It's 9:40! It's a good thing I ate a yogurt parfait before my final or I'd be sitting here getting hungrier by the second.

I came into the room and Jackie was like "Eric wanted you to wake him up when you came back." So I shook Eric and he turned away from me, still sleeping. I shook him again and he opened an eye and I was like "Did you want me to wake you up?" and he was like "oh yeah" *closes eyes* Then Henry's alarm went off and I turned it off and I shook him said "did you set your alarm for 9:00?" and he nodded and I thought he was about to get up when he ... closed his eyes and turned away. Eric's phone later rang, and I threw it at his pillow and he made a move like "GAH why is it suddenly ringing so loudly" before he turned it on silent and went to sleep. Basically, I think I'm going to be sitting in my room quietly for the next five hours.

This was a really xanga-like entry. Lame huh? Well, I don't think we're going to snowboard in Lake Tahoe because there is now a snowstorm and we can't drive up through a snowstorm. The boys reacted with a "YAY MORE BERKELEY FOOD" and I reacted with "oh good I didn't want to spend money on a snowboard rental / oh good now I can gym before I leave Berkeley / oh crap I don't know where else to take them for food." I guess we shall see.

New food craze: yogurt parfait

Omg my school has two different yogurt parfaits and I love them. It's my new breakfast now. My old breakfast was cereal, but I've moved onto better, more delicious things. I love breakfasts, and now my meals consist of breakfast: yogurt parfait, lunch: cereal, dinner: fruit. Which is pretty good. I need to refine my meals though, because I still end up eating bad things. Anyway, yogurt parfaits. YUM! The one I get at Bear Market, which is right next to the dorms, is basically a flavored yogurt like strawberry or raspberry with a lot of fruit in them. Cantaloupe, honeydew, grapes, and pineapple. I'm pretty sure I wrote an entry about this, because I remember listing out these fruits once. I wonder what I said in that entry... If I were a better blogger, I'd find the post and link it, but I don't have to motivation to.

My floormate told me the one at GBC is better though. The first time I ate it, I was like OH GOD this is disgusting but I finished the entire thing because I was super hungry. I could just tell that if I weren't so hungry, I'd have thrown it away. I promptly told her that it was nasty. Then, I got it again last week. I'm still not sure why. And I thought it was SO. GOOD. It looks a lot like this:
Only there are no strawberries. Where the layer of strawberries are, there instead lies a layer of delicious granola. Yum.

So this is my new favorite healthy food. I think I've manipulated my mind so much that at this point, I actually feel much happier eating healthy foods and when I eat things like hamburgers, I'm like oh god why am I eating this. I want to find out what kind of yogurt this is made of, so I can make it myself. I think a trip to Trader Joe's is in order.

If I were living on my own, I can imagine myself making a yogurt parfait every morning. I'd eat it out of a glass cup, and then sit and listen to music before rushing off to work.

I was looking around flickr for more pictures and the variation on yogurt parfaits is really wide. It goes from looking like a healthy breakfast to looking like a really sweet dessert. From what I've gathered, a yogurt parfait is basically whatever the hell you want to throw in it.

Clif Bars are my favorite

I generally don't like things that have gingerbread flavors. I'm not big on holiday seasonal foods, because I don't like the typical flavors that holidays are associated with: peppermint, ginger, caramel, etc. Even so, I could not resist buying TWO Iced Gingerbread seasonal Clif Bars. Look at them! How can you resist them?

They're so cute. It looks so much more feminine, compared to the usual designs. Look at the man stepping on a snowflake! Snow is lifting him into the air!

I just want to gobble them up.

And I did.

Other seasonal flavors are: pear apple strudel and spiced pumpkin pie. There is a discontinued caramel apple cobbler. If anyone knows where grocery stores throw away unsold items, please point me in the direction. Caramel apple cobbler sounds like a real winner to me.

My Friday Night

I'm happy right now even though I didn't do ANY of the school work that I planned to do. Not only that, but my diet has not gone well, seeing as how I ate Papamingo TWICE in ONE day. Papamingo is a version of Pinkberry, only it's supposedly better. I don't remember the taste of Pinkberry at all, so I can't make a judgment. I had it in the afternoon during my office hours, because the guy I work with is freaking nice and bought some for us. Last time he bought fried green tea ice cream thing too and he got like ONE bite and I ate practically the entire thing. It makes me feel really guilty but I'm not used to people NOT eating food. I'm used to my friends eating as they please. People are overly polite I think. Do what you want, people! Or I'm going to walk all over you.

Then I went out to eat with my floormate and she was like "I kind of want Papamingo" and I was like "Do you want to go?" "Ok!" I planned on getting some green tea yogurt ball, which I am guessing is somewhat like a mochi ball. Turns out they didn't have any, and I was really about to turn away and be like "oh it's ok then" but the cashier was like "we do have green tea yogurt though, do you want that?" and I was like "uhh ... uhh ... ok." Delicious, and it doesn't make you feel as fat as ice cream does, but my stomach is DEFINITELY NOT flat tonight.

The hilarious thing is both my floormate friend and I had Papamingo twice in a day. It's really bizarre because I'm fairly close to her now and we are oddly VERY similar except in our food tastes, which are COMPLETELY opposite. She loves mustard, and hates sushi for one. But at the same time, she likes to wake up early (although much earlier than me - she woke up at 5:40 today to go running), and we both completely understand each other about eating/exercising. Basically every time we talk to each other, we run through what we ate the entire day, and we'll both listen and go "hmm that's ok that's ok ... oh yeah probably should not have eaten the donut, yeah." Best exericse/diet partner, seriously.

Then we watched some tv before going to a volleyball game with some other people on the floor. Eek! My first college sport game. I know nothing about volleyball, but I had an idea that you have to play to some amount of points. I was like "maybe they play until 15." *time goes by* "maybe 20 ... or ... 25?" Turns out it's 30. We won the first two sets (look at me using a sporty word) and I was like "ok I guess this is it!" but everyone still stayed and it turns out they have a THIRD set. We won that one too (yay!) but I have no idea what would have happened if we had lost. Would we have had to stay for five sets? Because I was already getting a bit antsy.

I LOVED the volleyball game. It makes me wonder how much more I would love going to a football game. I got a little free pom thingy that you wave around too. It was awesome. We're planning to go to all the games now. For me, I'll go as long as they're free. During the game, I was kind of like "aw now I wish I HAD gone to the UCLA vs. Cal game that time with tmv" even though we lost that game. Oh well.

Tomorrow I seriously have to start studying for economics. It hasn't occured to me yet that Thanksgiving is NEXT week, and consequently, my midterm is on WEDNESDAY. This sounds overachieverish, but I want an A+ in the class. Only because I think I could get it, and I think I'm going to get B's in my other classes so I want to do really well in this prereq. Tomorrow is beginning of SWIMMING SCHEDULE, eating Cheeseboard (omg yum delicious eek!), starting my Haas first essay, finish demography homework, reading comp lit, reading 9 lectures worth of econ lectures, and finishing my computer science website. What a long day tomorrow will be. Thankfully there is no TV on Saturday to distract me.

Warm food and tv

The best part about my demography class is my professor's tangents. They don't completely derail the entire lecture, and they're always funny and story-like. He takes the time to just stand in class and think quietly to himself, and then he'll set up an awesome story with a punchline at the end. I wish I had his storytelling abilities. Today, he told us about the time he was on Jeopardy. The gist of it was, it's ridiculously hard to get onto the show at all. He said he had to take a test, and out of about 300 people, only 8 passed. The test is basically just a video of Alex giving 50 questions once every 10 seconds or so. No rewind, no repeats. INSANE.

Somewhere in the middle of this, he told us about an idea for a game show he has, and if I didn't have so many projects to do, I would totally present it to a tv network. Basically, you have two people and a host who says something like "Your task is: to eat a plate of worms" and the first person goes "Mr. Host, I would eat a plate of worms for $50" and the second person goes "I would eat a plate of worms for $30" and the first person responds "I would eat a plate of worms for $25" and the second person goes "You may eat the plate of worms"

Seriously, as an avid, (and looking at the labels I have in my blog, you can tell I really do mean AVID) tv-watcher, I think this has some serious potential. It has drama, it has people degrading themselves, it has money at stake. Also, in lieu of this writers strike, it's SO much more likely for this idea to get onto the air. Imagine the money you could make from this. Maybe like Deal or No Deal, there can be Maxim models holding up the plate of worms. I would just feel a little sick in my soul, knowing that I was responsible for putting another reality show on the air.

Later in the day, I came home and was deciding between swimming or eating. Problem: I didn't know what to eat. Solution: Just go swim, and then I'll know what to eat. Problem: I really dn't feel like swimming. Solution: Just force yourself to swim. Problem: I delayed so long that in the end I figured there wasn't enough time to swim (although there totally was)

But then I looked at the menu and I mentioned how Cafe3 has a baked potato bar, and at Chrystal's reaction, "OMG A BAKED POTATO BAR *__*" we just went down to eat. All I can say is:

WARM FOOD. OMG YUM.

Seriously, I haven't had warm food in ... possibly two weeks. The food I eat is quite literally just a cycle of cereal, cashew crunch, granola bars, salads, and sandwiches. So when I got a bowl of noodles, I wolfed it down. I wasn't planning on getting a potato, but I did. There was even CHILI. I fucking LOVE chili. It's one of those things that my mom doesn't make, because she either doesn't want to or doesn't know how, so I love to eat it whenever I get the chance. I think I might have gone overboard when I got a second bowl of chili, but I'll just tell myself that it's soup. Really fatty soup. I also got an Oreo Brownie, which I do NOT regret at all because it was DELICIOUS. Brownies are the most disgusting dessert to me (so dry and too chocolately) but this was heaven.
The past few days, I can feel myself growing more discontent because I've been exercising twice a day, but I haven't eaten anything particularly yummy. Every morning, as I sit in class, I dream about what I'm going to eat for lunch. In the end, I end up eating something I did not crave and will never crave, but is fairly healthy. Then at night I end up eating enough cashew crunch that I don't eat a good, complete dinner. Which means the next morning, the cycle repeats because I've been ultra hungry for the past 12 hours. So today, I was like FOR ONE DAY, I am going to just eat this. So far, I'm okay with it. We'll see tomorrow. If it turns out well, maybe I'll revise my diet. Once every two weeks, I'll allow myself something delicious. I'll have little stars in my calendar for those days. Or maybe little drawings of a fat girl.

Another possibility is that I'm just getting my period soon, which would explain the sudden cravings, random mood swings, and slight bloating. Fuck being a girl. Just take all my eggs. I don't plan on using them.

Yum ... not quite

I'm eating one of those packaged salads that I so often get from the campus market. Asian Noodle Salad with Tofu. Noodles, good. Tofu, delicious. So delicious that sometimes I wish that there was just a block of tofu in here and I could chip away at it with a fork. Carrots, good. Sauce, the perfect amount. Bell peppers, ugh but I will eat them since they're healthy. Beans, wtf is this and how do I eat you?

Seriously, they have these ... bean things and I have no idea how I'm supposed to eat them. Usually, foods with such a hard shell mean that you only eat what's inside. Yet, when I peel them open, there's just a few little measly beans, and when you try eating those alone, they're pretty nasty as well. I used to force myself to eat them, but the more I ate them, the more I was convinced that these are pure garnish and no one in their right mind is supposed to eat them.

Something terrible will happen today, I just know it. I'm going to get hungry when class ends at 5, and I'll think to myself "I only ate that salad for lunch... I deserve something delicious. My stomach is pretty flat today" *scarfs down giant lasagna from Gypsys* Fast forward to 9:00 tonight: "OMGGG WHY DID I EAT THAT I HATE MYSELF ARGHHH"

Things I wish I had eaten instead of that salad:
- Chicken Pesto Calzone from Gypsys
- Spaghetti and Meatball from Gypsys
- Lasagna from Gypsys (when I get super hungry, my stomach immediately craves the over-filling Italian food of Gypsys)
- Mushroom steak Hoagie from IB Hoagies

Ouchhhh

I had a lion king roll for dinner today. It was insanely delicious (as it always is). I also did a few crunches and ab workouts. Right now, my stomach is mysteriously in a lottttt of pain. I'm not sure if it was the lion king roll or the crunches, but I don't want to give up either of them. I'm going to say this stomachache is from mysterious causes.

Haas applications come out supposedly today. It's 12:11 but I can't find it on the website. Maybe this is one of those things that come out some time during the day. In the meantime, I will be thinking to myself, why do I want to do business? Hmm...

Yum food

I'm eating a yogurt parfait right now and I'm just extremely confused. With every bite, I look at what's in my spoon and I think "umm... I don't see how a combination of yogurt and pineapple/cantaloupe/honeydew/grapes/raisins/granola can turn out well" but I'm so hungry that I eat it anyway ... and it's not that bad! My throat kind of stings though, which probably means something is too sweet. But it feels somewhat healthy ... and it's only $2.99 with mealpoints so maybe this will be my new breakfast.

Oh my god. My ice cold heart is warmed

The Sunday After

I was watching old episodes of The Hills and I've found the reason why Audrina dates Justin Bobby. In the episode I was watching, they just had to handle a a photoshoot with male models and she says at dinner,

"The pretty boys are nice to hang out with or whatever ... but they're so boring"

That explains this:While looking for pictures, I saw some articles where Audrina defends Justin Bobby and says he doesn't really want to be on the show but puts up with the cameras to be with her. UHH ... if you don't want to be on camera, don't sign the release forms then.

I haven't thought about work since Wednesday night, and now I'm at the point where I don't even know WHAT I have to do. I just literally spent this entire day watching tv. Not even shows that I had to catch up on, but reruns. Tons of Friday Night Lights (I even got teary eyed), South of Nowhere (because it came up in conversation yesterday ARGH!) and a few episodes of Gossip Girl because I heard it's actually a GOOD show and not just a guilty pleasure. There are a lot of moments where you think "who edited this?!" or "who let this through script revisions?" but in general, it's surprisingly good. Damn it, another show to add to my list. Also, darn you Blake Lively, for making me want your legs. I never really care about my legs, as long as they don't get muscular, but Blake Lively has impossibly long, thin legs. She has the kind of body where you can pretty much throw any piece of clothing and it would look good on her. And if it doesn't, it's the clothing's fault.I just ate a bunch of chocolate and now my skin feels kind of icky. I knew I shouldn't have bought a giant box of chocolates. I was at Costco and one of my favorite times of the year is the very first time I go into a Costco and see their holiday aisles set up. This usually happens insanely early in the year, around October, when no one is thinking about the holiday season at all. But every year, the first time I see those aisles full of holiday food, wrapping paper, handmade cards, electric reindeer, and toys, it makes me feel so happy. It's so early in the year that your immediate reaction is not "OH FUCK I have to get presents!" but rather "aww! I remember the holidays last year and it was fun and now I'm getting warm and tingly"

Well, I walked around the aisles and saw all the chocolates they have out. There's one that I want, in a red tin and I think the word crepes is in the name. They're very thin wafers with Belgian chocolate, I think. There's also the giant jars of pistachios, which I used to love until one holiday I just sat and ate so many that now the idea of eating them grosses me out. I walked around the aisle and stared at each box before deciding not to get any because I knew I'd just regret it and I should just not tempt myself in the first place.

Then I ended up walking around alone and I was insanely hungry so in a moment of weakness, I grabbed a box of Kirkland Signature Exquisite Swiss Biscuits and when I found our shopping cart, I just threw them in.

And now I've eaten eight.

They're amazing. A relative gave me a box once, and I scarfed that box down. When I was in Costco, I kept staring at the box because the pictures of the chocolate looked SO FAMILIAR. When I finally placed them, I knew this was THE ONE. I had to have them.They're probably not the best gift to buy people, just because the brand "Kirkland Signature" doesn't really scream luxury item. You should just buy these for yourself and eat them on those lonely nights when you're watching tv. (What's that you say? I'm the only one who has those moments?) My favorite are the kind that aren't chocolate covered, but seriously, all of them are delicious. They come in a pretty white box, and inside there are four little containers. Be sure to keep the little cardboard wrapper on the outside though, because it becomes this barrier to keep you from eating the entire box in a night. If you eat a few and then package it back together, then you're not as likely to open it again and eat more.

I had that pissy entry earlier but after yesterday, I miss home. I felt sad leaving home, even more so than usual. Part of it was because my friends saw me until the last second I got into the car, and also because this time, I didn't have to go through the hell that is airport security. I'm already waiting for Thanksgiving! Four more weeks.

Craziest part of my trip: The ride home, where we passed by this hill that was ON FIRE. It was insane. I'd seen the smoke from far away but I thought it was sand because I heard there had been sand storms. But we drove closer and realized it was FIRE. I took a few pictures but my camera is total crap so it's not even worth posting. I've lived in SoCal all my life, but I've never really had any experience with wildfires. It's an insane sight to see.

Most delicious thing I ate over the weekend: Meal wise, the chicken pomodori that I wrote about. Oh shit, I deleted that entry. Well, I'm talking about the panini from Corner Bakery Cafe. Dessert wise, this crepe from the new Japanese dessert cafe in the shopping center with Sinbala. I now have cravings for crepes

Best reaction to my ear piercing that I've managed to keep a secret for a month and a half: My mom. I had forgotten that I hadn't shown her, so I was sitting in the dentist, reading Vogue when all of a sudden my mom exclaims in Chinese: "OH MY GOD. WHAT IS THAT?! WHEN DID YOU GET THAT DONE?!" This lady waiting to be called was watching, and I was responding in English, so I wonder how she slowly figured out what was going on and why this little chinese lady was talking so loudly and staring at her daughter's ear. Actually, everyone's reaction was awesome. I kind of wish I had filmed it. It also makes me want another piercing, so when Thanksgiving rolls around, I can shock some more people. It makes me laugh to think of everyone's thought process when they first saw it. "What is different about Meltang? Why am I staring at her ear? Is there something different about her ear? There shouldn't be ... it's an ear ... is that? WHAT? WHAT IS THAT IN HER EAR"

I feel like I've broken into someone's home

The Perishers - Best Friends

I'm home! Although I actually call Berkeley my home. The house I grew up in just feels like a really familiar hotel now. Wow, that sounds really sad. I set my alarm for 7:30, which is the earliest I've woken up in a while. I thought my schedule would be really tight, but I ended up doing everything that I wanted. Which included washing a giant bag of grapes for about 15 minutes in the bathroom sink. We were supposed to leave at 9:30 and we ended up leaving around 9:45 which was really surprisingly on schedule. Apparently, last time they planned on leaving at 1 and actually left at 5.

The ride was surprisingly fast. Every time I drive up/down, I'm always really surprised by how short the trip is. Although maybe it's because I am always the passenger, and I typically end up sleeping the entire time. But when we took the exit to PCC (where Erica was going to take me home), part of me was just like "WHAT?! We're in socal?!" It really felt like we had just zipped on over to Costco or something.

HEHE My mom just came home. This whole time I've been wondering how I would "surprise" her. I thought just standing in the hallway and waiting for her to open the door would be really scary. My mom's routine is to park the car in the garage, unlock the house door without opening it, and then getting the mail before going in. So I heard the car door close and I opened the door and went "SURPRISE!" and she looked at me with an initial "wtf? Who is that in my house" and then happiness.

Now we're going to eat Korean BBQ at the new restaurant near Super A. I kind of wanted sushi, but I suppose I could eat sushi anytime in Berkeley. I'm also not in the mood to look at a giant list of sushi and decide what I want. I looked in our fridge, and there's a bunch of frozen Marie Callendar's Chicken Pot Pies. I really want one. I went on a feeding rampage at school yesterday and ate a shitload of pot pie that wasn't even the kind that I really wanted. Of course, I do this right before I go home and now my stomach is not flat. Sometimes, I really wonder why my brain likes to sabotage myself. Time to eat!

I'm back! The restaurant is brand new and at first we were two of four people eating. Then a lot more people came in. It's where Chef's Kitchen used to be, only now it's pretty. I kind of dislike the sign on their building. It's yellow, and I hate yellow lighted signs because it makes the establishment look really dingy. Otherwise, the people are very attentive, and they even give you extra sides if you finish eating them. I'd eat here again when winter rolls around.

Eek! I completely forgot when I greeted my mom, but the car she is driving is going to be mine! Wow, that's how much our relationship has changed in a few short months. Before it probably would have been like "hi mom" (obligatory) while really thinking "my car! my car!" When she first bought it, she said it would be mine. Then I said "you mean I can drive it up next year?" and she gave me a pretty adamant "NO. I meant you can drive it around Arcadia, but you're not driving it up to norcal." But I've kept saying that if I had a car, it would be much easier to find a job, and now she has caved and says that I can take it. SCORE. I love it. The color is so pretty. It's this color called black.

Mom: There is mooncake in the fridge
Me: I can't eat that! I'm so fat
Mom: I didn't say to eat it today. You can eat it tomorrow
My interpretation: Yes, you are fat.

Me: Did I gain weight?
Mom: (hesitates) No you look fine
Me: You're lying! Do you think I've gained weight since summer?
Mom: No, you look the same
My interpretation: She thinks I did. What a liar. Or else she thought I was fat in the summer too

Delicious Cereal

I think there's only three things that I ever eat in the day without feeling terrible, no matter how much I eat.

1. Fruit - bananas, grapes, strawberries, which are ridiculously overpriced at our fruit stand but it's also the only way I can use up mealpoints (besides Odwalla purchases). I also love fuji apples, pink lady apples (which I bought because Frances raved about them somewhere), grapefruit, mangos, watermelon, and oranges. Although I never buy the last four because I don't know how to cut them or I don't know how to choose them. I'm still a big pampered baby.

2. Odwalla - Yum. I love having a giant bottle of Superfood in my fridge. It makes my life feel much more luxurious. It's not something that I can have normally, because I would not spend actual money on this. When I have a career (not merely a job) I would stock my fridge with Odwalla. Otherwise, it's too expensive. Superfood is delicious although it looks like sludge. Toxic sludge. Drink the Super Protein Green Tea after you gym - that way you're so hungry that the weird taste doesn't really matter, and it helps your muscles rebuild. This is one of those brands where I feel like they could never go wrong (other brands that also fit this category include Dreyers, Clif Bars, H&M clothing, and shows on Sho)

3. Cereal - Best breakfast food! It feels healthy, as long as you're not buying Frosted Flakes or Cinnamon Toast Crunch or anything like that. You get a serving of milk, and it usually doesn't fill you up too much. I used to pour cereal first, then milk. But in the summer I got paranoid that I was eating more cereal than I intended, so now I'm used to pouring milk and then cereal. My favorite is Honey Bunches of Oats, but I just bought a box of Honey Nut Cheerios and they are DELICIOUS. I remember not liking them as a kid. I used to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch as a kid, but I think my stomach would turn now if I saw how much sugar was leftover in my milk. I'm kind of hoping that I start eating tons of bland foods and I begin to think that regular Cheerios are delicious. Kind of like that time last year when I thought spinach leaves with no dressing were really tasty.

For all other foods, I feel pretty guilty eating them. It's very depressing. I'd add salads to the list, but I don't eat them often enough. I think I might end up like one of those old people who don't eat anything except a very set list of foods, and get ornery when someone tries to change their schedule. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ME. TRYING TO KILL ME? I CAN'T EAT THAT! MY CHOLESTEROL WILL GO UP! GET OUT OF HERE"

I have not yet gymmed and I could be going now. Actually, I could have gone an hour ago. I'm super lazy right now. I think I need to be shocked back onto the elliptical. As in, I take one look at myself and feel like I'm so fat that I start living in the gym.

"I was actually thinking of going to La Burrita for my birthday dinner"

Song: The Last Goodnight - Pictures of You

Earlier, I had written a post where I ranted about my shitty Converses. (Seriously, who started thinking converses were cool to wear? They're the shittiest shoes ever. I can't believe I own three pairs). Before I could finish though, I left to eat dinner with two college friends and when I came back, I was in such a good mood that the ranty entry didn't seem appropriate anymore. Is this why it seems like no one ever updates? Maybe everyone types something and then leaves and then thinks it's not worth posting. Whereas I just type type type and send it in without thinking. I guess that kind of parallels how I speak to people. Speaking without thinking...

Anyway, I am in a super good mood even though I haven't done 3/5 of the work I planned on doing today. The first reason is because I ate dinner at Sushi House. And not the sushi house at asian ghetto, but the ACTUAL restaurant Sushi House. Where you aren't sitting practically elbow to elbow with a table of strangers. It was pretty funny because I had made plans to eat with my friends a few weeks ago and I had assumed we would be going to the asian ghetto one. So when one of them called to confirm, I was like "Well I wouldn't have a preference over sushi house or sufficient grounds so you choose." Sufficient Grounds is this place about 20 feet from my unit, and they have amazing garlic chicken sandwiches for $6.50. Anyway, she responded with a pause and then "We're coming to pick you up." To which I was like "Wait, WHAT?! You're picking me up? ... to go to asian ghetto?" Asian ghetto is like a 3 minute walk from where I live. And she was like "NO. We're not going THERE. We're going to the actual one! What kind of people do you think we are?"

HAHA So we drove there. As I always am whenever I'm being driven somewhere around Berkeley, I was sitting up all straight with giant eyes staring out the window because I like to see what kind of stores are around the area. We got there and it felt so nice to actually sit down in a nice restaurant with friends. I love the small little places to eat around Berkeley, but you really do need a regular, clean restaurant every now and then. Not a restaurant where you bus your own table or it looks kind of suspiciously dirty and sticky. It also feels so adult-like to eat with friends on your birthday. I think high school and younger is all about getting gifts (for girls at least) and then for me at least, there was the first year in college where some friends still sent me cards and gifts. Then second year, it's like everyone stops and it changes to just treating people out to birthdays. I'm getting older. It feels nice. For now at least.

I wish I had ordered something I've never had before, but at the time, I was thinking that I should go with something tried and true for my birthday. I got a Lion King Roll (it's like ... a must for me whenever I go to Sushi House) and a Cherry Blossom. I have to admit that I've had better prepared rolls before at the Sushi House in Berkeley but it's honestly so good that I don't care. The good thing was that the Lion King had less Japanese mayo than they usually put, so I didn't feel too sick. My one regret is not taking more pictures. I've kind of lost the photo-craziness that I had in high school. Sometimes I think that it's good, because it must get extremely annoying for people to have flashes in their faces all the time. But other times, I'm sad because I don't get to have my memories in photo form. Also, I really want to change my facebook picture but I have no current pictures of myself where 1) I look deceivingly thin or 2) I don't have asian glow, so I just have the same picture.

Hilarious moment: just the night before I had told Chrystal that I've never eaten avocado in my life. And today, I was in the middle of eating a piece of cherry blossom and I was like "This isn't as good because there's so much avocado in it--" and I literally just paused and stared at the sushi in my chopsticks. And then I was like "OMG. THIS SUSHI HAS AVOCADO IN IT!" and my friends were like wtf. All this time, I kind of associate the green thing in my sushi as celery or something. It was such a life changing moment. I HAVE tasted avocado. It's like realizing ... that you have a brother you never knew about.

So that was my belated birthday dinner. :) Second year of college is a lot better than first year, and I was actually fairly content first year. I'm happy. I wonder what will happen next year though, because most of my friends are actually fourth years.

Second thing that made me happy: Brothers and Sisters season premiere! OMG. In my xanga, I had said that I thought The Office would be the best premiere I would see this year. I realize now after rewatching it that the first half is much better than the second half. I remember kind of waiting for the show to end past the 35 minute point. For Brothers and Sisters though, I was like "OMG PLEASE DON'T END EPISODE! DON'T LEAVE ME!" and I was ultra sad when I looked at the clock and it was 10:53. Hands down, best premiere! I'm so sad that I think this show is going to get cancelled because I don't think it gets the highest ratings.

Oh wow. I went to see if I could steal a picture from abc.com. Not only do they have a surprisingly low number of pictures, but the pictures they have of the cast are TERRIBLE. They're so photoshopped. Rob Lowe doesn't even look human. More like a Ken Doll.

I heart this show. I almost cried I think. A little tearing in the eyes. This show makes me wish I had a large family and I was a grownup. They have such great chemistry and their personalities are so human. They have faults but unlike the characters of Grey's Anatomy, their faults don't make me want to shoot them.

I'm 5x more happy too, because I went on Limewire and managed to find the two songs they played in the episode. PLUS I was scrolling through my folder of music that I've downloaded but haven't sorted and I found a song I've been looking for! This has happened so often in the summer because before I left last year, I downloaded just about as many cds as I could, as long as the artist had an interesting name. Throughout summer, I'd hear a song, wonder who sang it, tried to download it, failed to find it, and then a few weeks later I would realize that I had the entire cd on my computer already! Pretty awesome. They played Sara Bareilles - Gravity for the next week's promo, which I LOVE. I looked at her myspace and she's going on tour with Maroon 5. Nothing near SF though, so boo. I know that she played here last year and I wanted to go but I didn't bother getting tickets. MISTAKE! Also, it says a lot that I actually watched the next week promos. I'm kind of making a rule that I won't watch these, because I think a lot of shows make shitty promos that give away the entire episode and I end up hating the show when I should really hate the promo makers. After this episode I turned off the tv and was like "NO! I can't watch!" and then a second later I had turned the tv back on. And if I hadn't, I wouldn't have heard them play Sara Bareilles!

Now I'm playing Maroon 5's new cd and it's surprisingly good. If I don't think about how popular they got, I can like them again.

I really need to shower now, and either do work or go to sleep. I'm actually surprised I'm not more stressed, since midterms are next week. It must be all this gymming and waking up early. I feel pimples though. I should stop touching my face. It still smells of sushi.