Fams and Cams

My grandpa was/is a professional photographer (read: hella baller). Check out his old school SLR - a foreign object to most of us, but the only kind of camera he really knows how to use. He picked up my Canon T1i, looked at the display, and promptly handed it back. Then he called me a youngin' (in Chinese) and told me that technology is not his friend.

This is how I spent a good chunk of my day after Christmas - taking family portraits, drinking Asian tea, ogling my grandpa's camera and my uncle's lenses, and squeezing in some time for MCAT study. That's actually how I spend most family holidays (minus the MCAT study). This morning, we woke up early for dim sum before sending the fams back to LA. My grandma force fed me everything on the table in an attempt to fatten me up, something that also happens every holiday despite my protests.

I can't believe the holidays are coming to an end and the new year is just around the corner. I realized I didn't make new year's resolutions last year (hence an unproductive year?), so I should start making mine for 2011 now. Better start early before I forget... I have the working memory of a 92-year-old nowadays.

photo adventures in SF

1. Alex's Nikon, 2. compensation lens, 3. Union Square ice rink, 4. tiny child, 5. hide and seek, 6. gossip girl, 7. Neiman Marcus ornaments, 8. being stupid, 9. brief SF sunshine, 10. snowflakes at Westfield (photo cred: Alex), 11. Toy Story clouds, 12. cutest kid ever

Went on my first legit photo adventure today! Legit because I finally have my own camera to play with. Alex and I ventured into downtown San Francisco with two cameras and one umbrella. Through waves of heavy drizzle, we shot at the ice skating rink, the Neiman Marcus tree, Westfield mall, the Contemporary Jewish Museum, and the waterfall outside the Metreon. But mostly I just took stalker photos of small children. It must be adorable child season because they are everywhere!

So I should be asleep right now. I've been trying to regulate/correct my sleep cycle, but it's really hard. Of course, blogging at 3 in the morning does not help the cause any.

Canon T1i and Thanksgiving

Spent Thanksgiving break with family and friends and my new baby. Learning how to use this baby is harder than I thought, but that's okay. [insert huge toothy smile here]

Things I'm thankful for:

- a mostly smooth drive home

- indoor heating or a really heavy pile of blankets

- homemade garlic bread and honey baked ham

- lit-up houses

- reflective tree ornaments

- my new 'I heart Paris' socks

- crepes and napping three times in one day

- nonstop Christmas music on the radio

things i heart

I'm kind of obsessed with hearts. They just tend to show up everywhere - on my jewelry, in letters and emails, even in the form of refrigerator magnets. I don't know, maybe hearts are actually obsessed with me. But the point is... I have a midterm on Friday, so naturally I shop online and come up with a list of things I heart at the moment. I am the worst best procrastinator ever.

1. A key to my heart because jewelry really is the key to every girl's heart. The website no longer has the mini version, which I posted a while ago and is really a lot cuter. I hope they still have them in store.

2. A heart of gold to inspire warm fuzzies on the inside even when it's freezing outside. A reminder that there are nice people out there, so maybe it's okay to trust in mankind every once in a while.

3. An open heart to accept new challenges as they present themselves. And as a reminder to not hit that slow walker in front of you. It's not his fault he's so slow.

4. They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but I'm pretty sure this applies to women as well. When all else fails, snack your troubles away, and these hearty cupcakes may be just my cup of tea.

Hiatus

If you haven't noticed by now, I think you should cross "good at noticing things" off your resume, a la Tag from Friends.

Putting my blog to sleep for a little while so I can study for the MCAT... so at least one of us is getting sleep.

Fishy

1) light coming into my grandma's garden. 2) grandma's chilies. 3) grandpa fixes everything. 4) sleepy Honey. 5) meet fishy

H went home for the weekend, so I babysat her pretty DSLR. I took it to my grandparents' house and took lots of pretty pictures. I really enjoyed my day of family, relaxing, and Chinese food after a stressful week of finals, long hours in lab, and not much sleep. I came home with a new friend, a betta fish that my vampire boyfriend named Casper, like the friendly ghost. But I know my apartment-mates are still going to call him Timmy because they have bettas named Cosmo and Wanda. Still, I end up calling him Fishy all the time because that's the first name that comes to mind. Original, I know. I name like a 5-year-old.

Love and Lessons

This picture was taken with Lil J's new camera, which is as gorgeous as the pictures it takes. I like this picture because it shows off my new "love" ring and my new apartment-mate, K. She is special because she is the best cook ever and loves to cook for people. Which is oddly coincidental because I love being cooked for.

In other news, I learned a few important things this past week. Just thought I'd share some of it.

1. There is a running path in a park near my apartment. It's shaded by trees and it's wonderful.
2. Playing on swings after running may be the best feeling ever.
3. Rendezvous beef nachos, though good pre-sweat-session, are even better after a workout.
4. Gmail's canned response system is genius.
5. Trader Joe's sour cream spinach dip fixes everything.
6. My health would probably improve tenfold if Volcano Tea House's crack boba was more than a 5 minute drive from my apartment.
7. If there's a knock on the door in the morning, answer it no matter how early it may be. As in, don't assume the knocker will just think no one is home and go away. (Because it could be your building manager, who lets himself in to fix the sink and then finds you looking all confused and disheveled in your sleep boxers and morning hair.)

best day ever

So remember when I raved about Marié Digby a year ago? Well, I excitedly posted on Twitter that she's headlining Kollaboration Acoustic 4 (which is going to be ah-mazing) and she replied to my tweet!



and I promptly retweeted:



p.s. Also check out my friend, Judy Lee (aka Youtube's thePeonyProject), who will also be performing at Kollaboration. Her stuff is Sara Bareilles meets Ingrid Michaelson meets soft guitar and cutesy lyrics. Raw talent, she is.

Dogeared

Enjoyed a lazy Sunday being artsy at home. I was inspired by the collection of pretty Dogeared necklaces at the Nordstrom anniversary sale, but buying the entire collection seemed a bit excessive, so I decided to find an art store and make my own. After a successful trip to a local bead store, I had heart pendants, jump rings, gold clasps, and a few feet of gold chain. An hour, a tool kit, and two episodes of Friends later, I had my shiny new babies!

A weird coincidence: as I was watching Friends, I learned (unless I grossly misread the contextual clues) that "dogeared" refers to folding down the corner of a page in a book. Cute, right?

Tom's favorite place

My vampire boyfriend visited LA this weekend. Naturally, we spent it doing all sorts of fun things. For you indie/chick flick lovers, these pictures were taken at Angels Knoll, near downtown LA. The grassy "park" is actually just a handful of benches and trees thrown onto a small patch of grass, but it's a really peaceful sanctuary tucked between LA's busy streets and tall buildings. Well worth the rush hour traffic and $6 parking fee we paid to get there.

I spent most of today in responsible-because-I'm-living-on-my-own mode. I went grocery shopping, did laundry, vacuumed, swiffered, and clorox-wiped all smooth surfaces within reach. So spring cleaning came a bit late this year. Better than never, I suppose. My boyfriend left me with his cough, so now my voice is all kinds of sexy. I bought an economy-sized pack of cough drops, which are now keeping me company as I finish up my physics assignment. Really cannot believe this summer session is already half over. Really really cannot believe I'll be officially declaring my major soon. Cue panic.

new.hair.new.shades

My morning went something like this:

8:30 - alarm goes off
9:00 - disgruntled because I'm out of bed, and am now late because I overslept, as usual
9:15 - frantically getting dressed while using the useless USPS phone "service"
9:25 - rushing to post office #1 to get my package while calling hair salon for an appointment
9:30 - silently cursing after being redirected to post office #2 because that's where all the packages are
9:45 - watching the postal workers move slow as molasses, all the while thinking LATE FOR FIRST DAY OF LAB!!!
9:50 - graciously thanking the shuttle driver for not leaving me behind
9:58 - all sweaty because I speed walked to lab (because running just looks dumb), but worth it because I made it just in time
10:05 - where is everyone? I am informed that lab actually starts at 10:30, not 10

Happens to the best of us sometimes. What was in the package, you ask? My new Wayfarers and Costco/AmEx card. My sunglasses have polarized prescription (read: very expensive) lenses, mostly to be used for driving. And to feel badass when the sun is out. And they're fun to play with because it's kind of a mind-trip to be able to see farther/better with sunglasses. Also, Kaiser was kind enough to send along the original lenses so I can get those put in when my prescription changes (read: worsens).

Mia, my hair stylist complimented me on my sunglasses when I saw her. She also complimented me on my hair, telling me that she loves running her fingers through my soft, luscious hair. All creepiness aside, she's a really nice lady who has never failed me or my soft, luscious hair. Which means a lot because I'm probably the pickiest, hardest-to-please customer on this planet when it comes to my hair. Because getting only a few haircuts a year makes each one a fairly long-term commitment, considering I have to go to sleep with and wake up to the mess on my head every single day. Not that other people don't. Just saying.

baby just say yes

These pictures were part of a series taken for my vampire boyfriend's birthday present, courtesy of my friend who is very good with this sort of thing. I'm very much in love with his DSLR, and grateful for his abundant free time and willingness to follow me around campus with his camera. We spent a good portion of that Sunday afternoon lugging around poster boards in search of sunny places, climbing sculptures and trees, and attracting stares from random passersby (which made the experience all the more fun).

I haven't posted pictures in a while, so I figured it was time to return to this blog. You know, with it being finals week and all. Probably not a good thing that I turn to this blog for procrastination more than anything else. But more productive than just staring off into space, which is what I've been doing for the past hour instead of memorizing the differences between proteostomes and deuterostomes. Before you judge, though, I did finish my research paper, which I lovingly refer to as my pride and joy. Seven reprints and a million revisions later, I have seventeen very professional-looking pages reporting on a study that my project group and I designed, created, and conducted over the course of 10 weeks. Feels pretty good to hold the finished product.

Spent yesterday in SLO with my vampire boyfriend for his birthday. His house has no real concept of time. People awake/asleep at odd hours and strategically placed windows that distort the daylight coming in so that at the instant you wake up, you're not quite sure whether it's 9AM or 9PM. Speaking from experience. Still, wish I was there instead of here. The real world is no fun.

Things I can't have

But that's what makes me want them more.
Because I fail at productivity excel at procrastination, I am not rewatching the LS lectures that I slept through, reading about schizophrenia, or writing up the labs that are due soon. Instead, I have but 5 things on my mind:

1. This Tiffany key necklace

and other small shiny things, like
2. the Kiel Mied forget me not ring.

But more than anything, I want
3. the D3000 from Nikon

with which I can capture all of life's Kodak SD card moments and landscapes like
4. Yosemite

and Alaska and
5. last summer.