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CONGRATS TO EVERYONE WHO GRADUATED!! PLEASE DON’T LEAVE THE COUNTRY BECAUSE I HAVE FEW FRIENDS NEARBY AS IT IS!! I will especially miss my roomie, Heren, but we will have a ball in Europe soon enough. To celebrate (more like mourn) the “end of an era,” as Meeshella likes to put it, we shot a really touching video, which was put together by the talented M-Dub. Please watch it over and over and over again and then spread it amongst your friends.
Only a couple hours in and out of the sun and I am now as pink as Pepto Bismol on my shoulders and a slightly lighter on my chest and back until where my strapless dress ends. I look sort of like I’m wearing pink overalls and then there’s normal skin color in the middle where my large head luckily cast a shadow, providing shade for my poor epidermis that so rarely sees light that it blushes in its presence. I sunburn really, really easily because pretty much every day of the year I am in a t-shirt and jeans and very little skin is exposed. On the few occasions that I show anything outside of my farmer’s tan, I get burned like a mofo. Not only that, but it shows up really slowly. At first I’m only a little pink and then several hours later, long after I’ve left the evil rays of the sun, I turn a ghastly shade of hot pink. It just sort of sneaks up on me. I don’t think my shoulders have ever only been a little sunburned. Go big or go home, the sun seems to feel. Lucky me, I get to have charred shoulders while abroad. How will I ever hook my British boyfriend now? No one likes crispy shoulders. Oh well, our lovely photos with the grad were worth it. 
Pictures soon to come! Congratulations on your graduation, Roomie!!! I’ve been waiting to say that to someone for years because it’s been a while since anyone I knew graduated.
Really though? I was only in the sun less than two hours! Goodbye o-zone layer. Remember to wear sunblock, friends! Especially if you don’t want to have leather skin when you’re older. I’ll have leather shoulders for sure. They’ll be like shoulder pads. They’re gonna come back one day and you’ll all be jealous because my shoulder pads are built-in.
So while I was driving to pick up my roommate, I got a text that she would be getting out later than expected. Rather than turning the car around, Michelle and I decided to head to Ralphs. When we got there we decided instead that we wanted to go to their neighbor store, Best Buy. We spent some time looking at lovely gadgets and then headed over to the laptop area because I wanted to see if they carried any sort of tiny laptop (My sister told me about this laptop that has a 7-inch screen and costs but a couple hundies and so I looked up computers of that sort and got a little excoited.), but they unfortunately did not. We then headed over to the Macbook Air, which really is as incredibly thin and amazing as the commercial with the envelope and catchy song makes it look. We still had some time before I had to get my roommate, so we began taking pictures, and then Michelle had the genius idea of putting our picture as the desktop. We had a bit of difficulty figuring out where to go to do that, since we are both Windows people, but due to the simplicity of Macs, we eventually got to it. After that, we did it again on the Mac next to it, having some trouble finding the Desktop preferences once more, because for some reason, that computer seemed to be configured a little differently, but Meeshella figured it out. Whilst we were changing the second desktop, this guy came by to look at the Air, so we had to step on it before he minimized iCal to reveal us incognito. After changing the second one, we ran out the store. The pictures are probably gone now, but if you happen to see two bearded girls on a Macbook Air……yeah.
Most peoples have one date for Valentine’s Day, but I got to share it with these two lovely ladies. Our date consisted of a night out on the town in Westwood Village, where we shared a romantic dinner at Corner Bakery and then caught Definitely, Maybe afterwards, stopping occasionally to take some pictures. We also made a pit stop at the local thrift store on the way to the movie, because I guess no Westwood outing is complete without going to Thank You Mart.
Definitely, Maybe was a lot better than I expected. The storyline sort of keeps you guessing, which is good, because romantic comedies usually have the same predictable story. Of course, you could sort of guess what this happy ending was going to be, but they used a different approach in getting to it. The actors and actresses were pretty good and Abigail Breslin is so cute! I just had trouble with Ryan Reynolds age and appearance. His love story starts in like ‘93 or something while he was in college, which would make him about 37 or so, which is kind of unbelievable, unless he and all the other characters just look super good for their ages. Other than that, it was really funny with a cute plot. Overall, it was a loverly night with my two dates. <3
I’ve been spending this long weekend relaxing and having funs. Friday, I didn’t really do anything. Had pho with the fam. Hung out at home, played with my awesome new dictionary, as sad as that sounds. haha. My cousins just came back from China and they bought me this dictionary that I can’t really understand because it’s made for people in China, not people learning Chinese. haha. It makes me feel like what I’ve learned so far is useless, especially since I can’t even order food, the most important purpose of learning a foreign language. 
Anyway, it is sort of a mini entertainment system on top of being a dictionary. It’s built like a PDA and you can watch movies and listen to music on it, so it’s pretty awesome.
On Saturday, I went snowboarding until my pass ran out of points around 8pm-ish. I still haven’t gotten my carving down, but I’m like…1/3 of the way there, I feel. My shoulders hurt a lot, because I landed funny when I fell coming off the lift. I found that dismounting is probably the worst part of each run, because I never knew where I was going to end up, not that falling while snowboarding doesn’t suck as well. That pain probably lasts even longer. But the anticipation of possibly falling while getting off the lift is always quite nerve-wracking, especially because I could potentially take down several people at once.
After snowboarding, I ate dumplings from this place I like to go to called Shanghai Noodle near where I live and then I went with my friend to watch Jumper. I can’t say that I thought the movie was super great, but the effects were really awesome. The power is really, really cool and it totally made me wish I had it, but the story itself wasn’t fully developed, which Meeshella and I discussed, and the acting was not the best. I think they are probably making a sequel, so maybe that’s why they decided to show off Hayden Christensen’s character’s gift and maybe later they’ll resolve everything? I was pretty amazed by what he could do with his power but was not totally intrigued by his story. There were some pretty funny parts, though; some intentional, some not. One of the parts that stand out in my mind was this expression that Samuel L. Jackson made, sort of like a “Oooh, you got me. That was a good one.” face, towards the end. I think I would watch the sequel, if there is one, just so I can see where they take it and to be amazed by his powers again.
The rest of my weekend was filled with bumming around and not leaving the house much. I went out for a little on Sunday to accompany my mom and brother on a shopping trip, but that was about it for my weekend at home. When I came back to my apartment, I sat for quite a few hours talking to Katryn about lots of stuff, Heren and Meeshella joining in randomly. I love procrastination talks! Not that I don’t love to converse with my roomies under other circumstances.
While I am starting over, I noticed many people around me seem to be going backwards in time, going that extra step beyond reminiscence. I’d like to think that’s where the plumpish guy in the building across from our balcony went. He decided he wanted to go back to the life he had before he liked to stand on his balcony shirtless, sometimes staring at the girls across the way innocently sitting in their livingroom with their curtains drawn back, who did nothing to deserve such an unpleasant sight, or sometimes just staring outwards into the world with a distrustful eye. Now some lady lives there, instead, who has our lamp. But then again, who doesn’t? That’s the beauty of mass produced, inexpensive Ikea products. Well, wherever you are, Almost Naked Guy, hope you’re having a jolly fun time.
Sometimes I think that it’s stupid to chase your past. It’s called the past for a reason. But I know that there are some things worth going back for and hopefully that’s what these people are doing and not just trying to relive the good times.
I’m done with midterms now. Phew. Too bad I feel miserable after each one. I’m not exaggerating. I’m just not a good test taker. I especially hate multiple choice questions, because they purposely try to confuse you. Midterms season is something I definitely do not want to relive, but alas, we must face this horror every quarter.
Speaking of the past and horror, check this chick out.
Well, it wasn’t in the rain, but it was raining that night. The choir I am in had a performance last Thursday for the Martin Luther King, Jr., Oratorical Contest. We were just a filler for the time period in which the judges chose the winners of the contest, but it was still really fun. The speeches were pretty good, some a little more cliche than others, but the very last one sort of annoyed me. It was supposed to be funny and all and sometimes it was, but it was inconsistent and the girl enunciated every single “t” in her words except once when she said “seventy” really fast. She tried to include superhero icons to spruce up her speech, but if you’re going to do that, stick to one superhero storyline, or at least one comic book company. Batman, Kryptonite, and Darth Vader don’t go together. Geebus.
Anyway, for those of you, which is everyone but my loverly roommates and Helen’s friendlies, who missed the super awesome singing, someone in the audience recorded it and put it on YouTube. Yays! SO, we sang God’s Got a Blessing, Emmanuel, and Why We Sing. I’m not really in any of them, because the person recording cut the video off right where I was standing, but I can be seen in Emmanuel for a split second. I am kind of glad, because otherwise you’d see my inability to move with the groove. We sounded pretty good, I think, for people who had just learned the songs that day. My favorite to sing was Emmanuel. It’s just so great. haha. It isn’t included in this particular video, but the choir director confused us all by making us do an encore performance of it. I had some trouble finding the harmony at that point because I was ready to jet. Hope you guys enjoy the vids.
Afterwards, Helen and the friendlies went to Noodle Planet, while Katlyn and I took full advantage of the Rainy Day Special at Subway, and then we met up with them afterwards. I had a hankering for sandwiches that week and was very satisfied with mine, especially since there was barbeque sauce in it. We braved the rain once again and walked back to our apartment and sat around talking nonsense for a couple hours or so until Michelle came back. Katlyn and I then accompanied her to pick up Harroldo, singing songs from the radio all the way. It was a very musical night. I found that anything can be turned into a country song if you give it a little Western twang.
Thanks everyone who came to watch the performance. I lava you. 
Really, I doooo.
Before I get to the pictures, here’s a little update:
I go through many, many cough drops a day. Good thing I got the 80 pack from CVS, which conveniently came with a Chapstick knockoff. Convenient, I say, because I think I recently lost my generic Sav-On one. I lose them so often and they usually resurface somewhere, but I had a gut feeling that this one was lost for good. Why CVS was crazy enough to give away these babies, who knows? The only cough drops I really like are lemon-flavored Ricolas, but those do absolutely nothing for me so I just eat them like candy. I recently discovered some Vicks cough drops that were pretty tasty, but I needed a giant pack to help me cut back on my coughing fits. They hurt my already-in-pain abs something awful. And now I forever have a something awful taste in my mouth. Great trade-off. I also bought a huge pack of ham yesterday. Mmm. I don’t know why I love ham so much. I always have though. I eat it the way people eat string cheese. And by the way, what’s with Whole Foods and their crazy deli meats selection? I just want normal ham.
So here are some pictures from last week from our Dollar Christmas and Selwyn’s birthday celebrations. Some of them lead to sets of photos. Try to guess which.
I finished my first week of winter quarter and I must say, my classes this quarter are really cool. The one I look forward to most, though, is gospel choir. This style of singing is just amazing. You let the music take over you and just sing as loud as you want. I love it! The other choir I was in was too formal, ugly dresses and all. In this one, they want us to move and get a feel for the music and no uggo dresses! Unfortunately, I confirmed this week that I have no rhythm. I have no rhythm and I don’t know how to let music move me. haha. Because it’s gospel music, we’re supposed to “tell a story with hands,” but I don’t know what to do. I have always had a lot of trouble multitasking and it had never been so apparent until we stood up and had to move with the music. I found myself always out of synch with the others and swaying in the wrong direction, so I’d have to catch myself as I was trying to remember the lyrics as I was singing (since it was only the first day and we ran through the songs quickly) and watch other people to make sure I was going the right way, all well telling a story of some sort with my hands. I’ve been watching videos of gospel choirs on Youtube to try to figure out what I should be going for, because I felt pretty awkward doing what I was doing and after a while, I forgot and was just rocking left and right, no storytelling whatsoever, every once in a while bringing one hand up and then back down. My remedy? I’m going to stand at the end so I stand out less when I’m going the wrong way. And do NOT try to take my spot, because I WILL resort to biting.
The quarter system is tough because it goes by so fast and everything is packed into these ten weeks so my workload is already pretty full, even though it’s only been one week. I already had a quiz Thursday and have tons of reading I’m behind on, which I should be doing instead of updating. Meh.
Last Sunday, my roomies and I reunited and it feeels so good! But we haven’t really had a lot of time to hang out and talk to each other because we had to jump right back into school mode right away. We did, however, get to do our gift exchange Sunday night and we are pretty cool giftgivers, if I may say so myself, and I believe I just did. We did sort of a 99 Cents Store/Dollar Store/something similar Christmas and found some nifty stuff. I love us and keeping the simplicity of Christmas! I will put up pictures when I get them from Heren.
Friday morning, I woke up earlier than I would usually on a day of no school to go a-snowboardin’ with a couple buddies. I had every expectation to knock all of them down as I got off the lift, but lucky for me I barely fell this time coming off, except a couple times where Jesse and I took each other down. haha. Not lucky for me was all the other times I fell, because for some reason, I wasn’t in snowboarding mode or something and I was pretty much helicoptering left and right. I tried to devote this trip to learning to carve toeside when possible, but it didn’t quite happen the way I would have wanted it to. There were a couple brief but successful attempts, but for the most part, I ended up eating it. Just gotta let go of my fears, a mantra I should apply to my life in general. Snowboarding is always fun, though, even when I can’t move the next day.
So I went from looking like a big, gross puff ball in the morning to getting dolled up to go clubbing at Avalon for my friend’s birthday at night. The transition is quite tough, because I usually look like crap. But, you know, every once in a while I’m capable of looking like a girl. What I don’t understand is why club wear is synonymous with as little clothing as possible before it becomes underwear. I’m sure they enjoy the attention from the creepers, but some girls do it up a little too much. I’ve only gone clubbing once before for Nat’s birthday and it was pretty fun, because I ran into my childhood best friend there and it was a night out with the girls. I wasn’t sure if I liked clubbing or not, so Friday night was the deciding factor. I’ve decided…not for me. I’d probably go again with a group of girls, but I’m not a huge fan of the environment. I don’t like being crammed into a sardine can full of sweaty people who are grinding each other to mostly crappy and unbearably loud music. When did that become dancing? I know for a fact that I can’t dance, but I will not resort to freaking. I’d really rather learn to ballroom dance or hip hop or something, because at least those are forms of art. I don’t care if it’s easier, I don’t want anyone’s grubby hands or wee-wees anywhere near me or my bum. If I were to go clubbing again, I’d want to go to a club with a cool theme like ’80s Night or something, hopefully where random people will not come up behind me and attack me with their crotches, and maybe somewhere less packed. I’m not saying that clubbing sucks or anything, it’s just not for me. There was one guy out there who was actually a pretty good dancer and he was just kind of rocking out by himself. More people should dance like him. The coolest thing I ever saw on a dance floor, though, was my friend in high school waltzing to hip hop at homecoming.
At one point, we were in the lobby. I don’t quite remember what we were doing there. I was just standing around and this guy tapped me and looked like he was holding something and said, “Excuse me, you dropped your smile.” Taken aback by this, I was unsure of what to reply with, so I pretended to take it back from him and put it back on my face and said, “Oh thanks.” Then he said something like, “There it is!” and poked me in my dimple and walked away. Weird.
So, a recap of things I learned:
Pictures to come soon…
There as in the roller rink that Jessica Simpson shot “Public Affair” at to celebrate Katlyn’s birthday. Yayyy! Our first real apartmentmate outing (besides to Cue)! And you know what? It totally looks exactly like the video, choreographed dancers, creepy Andy Dick, Jessica Simpson and posse and all! Haha. What I don’t get…is how Jessica Simpson and her friends even got in, because there is a sign posted outside that specifically tells you that you are not allowed to go in if you wear everything that they are wearing. Luckily, we were dressed appropriately enough to get in, though not too conventional. Already as we were putting on our skates, there was some snickering and pointing. I sensed a little jealousy. Maybe some Haterade. Not everyone can rock several fluorescent colors at once.
The last time I rollerskated had to be when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade or something. I thought I would just be able to pick it up again, but I felt like I was the one struggling the most at first. haha. It’s totally not the way I remembered it to be. After a couple rounds, the DJ told us to stop skating to honor this girl celebrating her birthday there. My way of stopping when it comes to any kind of skating is usually by running into something, sometimes a person but for the most part, I run into walls. After I stopped, I thought I was safe, and then I found myself meeting the floor. Luckily, I was collision-free for the rest of the night. We skated until the rink closed and it was soo fun but tiring and painful on the footsies. Rollerskates are not the most comfortable type of footwear. Some of the people there were quite amazing. This one lady was like the Michelle Kwan of rollerskating or something. It was pretty intense. Some of the young’ns were also really good, but a little strange. This one guy gave me the longest, weeeirdest glance, and I do not know why I was targeted for it, but I continued to mimic it for the rest of the night. Maybe we’ll incorporate it into our wide range of soul train moves.
There was this stupid guy in a referee outfit kept bugging Helen about things she couldn’t do in the rink for no apparent reason. I guess he just sensed fresh meat and decided to attack. I had urges to blind him with camera flashes from the side of the rink. Or perhaps just straight up trip him. I did not let the urges get the best of me because we were having a lot of fun and really, he was just some guy who thought he was the shizz because he wears a referee’s shirt and works at a roller rink and picks on people to make sure they sense what he believes is authority. Why bother? Instead, we just enjoyed the music and roller dancing. haha. No one parties it up like we do.
We found out afterwards that that was the place the video was shot and that Disney does some stuff there every once in a while, AND that it’s been around since the 50s. The lady who runs it now, I guess, actually used to work there when she was in her teens or something. That’s so crazy.
We topped off the night with drinks and snackage at BJ’s and just talked about our quarters and whatnot. It’s so nice to take a break from school and go out. I love my apartmentmates! And happy birthday Katlyn!!
Ello loves. It’s time to thanksgive. There’s a lot to be thankful for this year. First and foremost, I am really, really, really, extremely thankful that my grandma is okay and back to normal. A little less than a month ago, she lost her memory. Talking to her made me want to cry. Whenever we said anything to her, she just kind of repeated what was said to herself. My first thought was that she had Alzheimer’s and I was really mad at my family because they weren’t doing anything about it right away. My aunt was the worst because she kept repeatedly demanding that my grandma say people’s names and of course she didn’t know who anyone was, so it probably stressed her out even more. She just sat and looked confused all the time; it was seriously heartbreaking and my eyes teared up every time I greeted her and she looked at me as if she’d never seen me before. I was especially scared because my cousins told me that this happened to their other grandma right before she passed away.
Finally, my mom took her to the doctor and then she had to be admitted into a hospital. The first time I went to see her, she still didn’t quite know who people were and I’m pretty sure she couldn’t remember anyone who wasn’t her child. I think she was slowly remembering faces but gradually she got better and better and the next time I went to visit her, she knew I was her granddaughter. I’m not totally sure what was wrong or what caused it, but from what I gather, I think she had a bruise in her brain. She’s been in the hospital for a few weeks, where they’ve been giving her physical therapy to help exercise her brain and such and just making sure she’s okay, and she finally gets to come home this Saturday!
I am thankful for the rest of my family as well, of course. I love them dearly and life would not be the same without them. We’re not close-knit and whatever like other families, but I know they will be there for me no matter what, because blood is thicker than water. I feel bad because it seems like I’ve spent so much energy and time putting friends first, only to realize that all I really need in life is right here at home. I know in the end that they still have my back no matter what stupid thing I’ve done or said, which I can’t really say about most people in my life. AND I am also thankful for the snowboarding boots my mommer bought for me!! I’m going to the slopes this year even if I have to hitchhike!!! Just kidding, I would never hitchhike. Are you nuts?
Last but not least, I am thankful that my apartment is so home-y and that I get to share it with my real hats. We haven’t had a lot of time to just relax and hang out or go on outings, but I feel really blessed to have met them and to be able to share my college experience with them. <3
PS I love and am thankful for Pushing Daisies, because there’s finally a show about a love that isn’t all about lust. :D!
