We need to talk.

I'm sorry, Blogger. It's not you, it's me. We've had a fun run together, but I need to move on now. Maybe we can still be friends?

The talk is hard. It's painful and awkward, but I think Blogger knew that our relationship was coming to an end.

Find me in my new relationship here: Tumblr

every day I'm tumblin'

Well not every day. But maybe most days unless I get really lazy or the wifi in my dorm is really slow (both of which are likely, one of which is out of my control).

I'll be updating from Paris here: Pretty in Paris

A bientot!

La rentrée en Juin

Rue de Vaugirard in Paris, France

This was the street view from my dorm building the last time I was in Paris. That was three years ago. Now, I'm getting ready to go back to Paris and getting progressively more excited as the days pass. In exactly two weeks from today, I'll be on a nonstop flight to Charles de Gaulle and I can't wait. I'm wondering if it's too early to start packing (common sense tells me it is) because there aren't that many things left to cross off my pre-Paris to-do list, but not doing anything makes me anxious.

In the meantime, I'm keeping busy with work. Another summer at the pool. Despite my complaints of pool covers on windy days and awkward tan lines that last through multiple winters, I've come to love and appreciate the summer days spent with plenty of sunshine and my lifeguard family. But even they can't keep my mind off of scenes from Amelie and strolling along the Seine at night... did I mention I'm excited?

Countdown to Paris: 2 weeks

holiday

Memorial Day weekend always feels more like a holiday break than a pre-finals study weekend. Maybe it's because summer is just around the corner. Or maybe it's just been too long since the last break. Spent a day in Santa Monica with old roommates and forever friends. Rode all of the big kid rides for cheap (thanks to Groupon), then spent whatever I saved on rides at shops on Third Street. Of course. Spent the next day cleaning out my closet and selling/donating the clothes I no longer wear and decided that I should really shop less.

There's about a week of school I have to get through before summer finally gets here. Family time, working at the pool, and Paris. I've been waiting for Paris since last summer. I've made a packing list, a restaurant list, a sightseeing list, and a souvenir list. I've made so many lists for Paris that I need a list to keep track of my lists. I kid you not. It's really hard to contain my excitement, so I guess it's productive that my excitement manifests itself in the form of list-making.

Countdown to Paris: exactly 4 weeks

retreat

This past weekend was bliss. 24 hours by Lake Arrowhead with friends, s'mores, drinks, and nature-y adventures (kind of). But mostly it was a quiet mountain escape and a wonderful place to relax and forget about work, deadlines, and responding to all the emails that constantly clutter my inbox.

I couldn't stop taking pictures of the water. And the sky. I loved the way the overcast sky and foggy lighting made all of the lakeside pictures look like screen captures from a haunted love story. Sometimes, my artistic musings are a little too Romantic for my time. (That's capital R for the Era.)

Revelations

It's pictures like these that make me realize what a fatty I am. I'm just so inexplicably, ridiculously attracted to food. (Revelation #1)

I went to College Night at the Getty a couple of nights ago with girlfriends. We ate free food, met Lady Danville, fell in love with Sophie Roux, and did artsy and sophisticated things before ending the night with a calorie binge at the Cheesecake Factory. I heart girls nights out. (Revelation #2)

And on a totally unrelated note, my hair has gotten really long. (Revelation #3) I don't want it any longer, but I don't want a haircut either. Waiting game.

Interview Season

I bought these last weekend and like them so much that I had to photoshoot them in the ambient lighting that drops by my living room every late afternoon. Black suede, block heel, and a perfectly rounded toe - everything I look for in a solemate.

It's definitely interview session. In addition to 2 of my own interviews, I've been interviewing people left and right for my clubs/lab and it's been taking more of my free time than schoolwork. So glad today was the last day!

September 10th, 1pm

Made jewelry the other day as a sort of productive procrastination. Had to find some outlet for all of my pent-up creative juices, you know. I think jewelry making may be my Plan B if medical school doesn't pan out, which may end up happening if I keep pushing back my MCAT date.

But this is the last time. (Really.)

tea for two, for eight

Lovejoy's Tea Room, San Francisco

thankful

This is a picture I took at the Getty some time ago. This is what I'll leave behind for exactly one week of spring break. If you look really closely - and know what you're looking for - you can see UCLA right in the middle. Sometimes it shocks me how at home I feel here. Sometimes I feel like I'm cheating on San Francisco.

But I'm not choosing one over the other. I'm thankful that I have two homes while so many people in the world have none. I'm thankful that my last final and what to pack for spring break are the only things I have to worry about right now. I'm thankful that I can sit at my desk and let my hair air-dry as I list all the wonderful things in my life.

twenty-one

I turned 21 on February 3rd. Since then, I have eaten my weight in Korean BBQ, Chinese restaurant randoms, and Mediterranean pasta. I have had both ice cream and mango mousse cake. I have purchased three alcoholic drinks and have been carded once.

Birthday highlights:

- my boyfriend (unsuccessfully) surprising me by showing up after chem lab

- a date with Spago and Dine LA

- cake, margaritas, Apples to Apples, and crying through A Walk to Remember

- realizing that nothing can really top family, food, and spa treatments

I love my birthday. It's my second favorite day of the year (the first is Christmas because in a sparkly match between Christmas and my birthday, Christmas would win). I'm glad I enjoyed my birthday without thinking too much about the consequences of doing absolutely no work. I'm now realizing just how much I have to do this week, and the list is pretty scary: 2 midterms, 2 pre-labs, 2 post-labs, 2 CPR classes to teach, and 1 social event to plan. Which explains why I'm procrastiblogging.

work in progress

4:13am and I just finished my Philosophy of Political Thought paper... almost a full 9 hours before it's officially due. (I should really start taking my GEs more seriously.)

Philosophy is kind of funny. My TA helped me revise my paper and taught me how to "write philosophically." Essentially, we cut all of my sentences in half and crossed out all of the big words that I so carefully chose. I called this dumbing-down of my writing, but she called it philosophical writing. Either way, this paper was strangely difficult for me to write, but I'm happy with how it turned out. I wanted to post it here, but didn't want my plagiarism report to be 100% on turnitin.com. I should actually find out what exactly turnitin.com does because I've never really known.

Anyway, while learning how to write philosophically, I may have started to think philosophically. This paper got me thinking about freedom. About freedom and private property and homelessness and life in general. It made me thankful to have a home (two, actually, if you count my apartment) and thankful to be free to do things like take winter ski trips. Or rather, to not be unfree to do these things - because they are apparently different things. Still working on disambiguating the two.

But maybe that's the thing about philosophical writing. It's so simple that it's difficult, and so difficult in its simplicity that it makes you think about... things. It's a work in progress.

Birthday Wishlist

6 days until 21.

Here are a few things I'll be wishing really really hard for in the next six days:

1. To not have organic chem lab on my birthday. Staying on campus until 9:30pm is not something on my wishlist.

2. To take a really glamorous license picture at the DMV, so when I get carded (because I will until I'm 35) everyone will be jealous of how amazing I look in my picture.

3. That spring quarter will not exist. Life would be so great if after winter quarter ends, summer is waiting with open arms. (Hello, Paris? Oui, I've missed you too.)

4. To do well on the MCAT. Because, let's face it, spring quarter will exist.

What if we lived here?

1. depth, 2. Getty quad from upstairs window, 3. symbol of fertility,

4. cutest kid at the villa, 5. roommate reunion, 6. sleepies

Went back to the Getty Villa with some friends today. The place is magnificent. It's hard to imagine that it used to be a residence... must have been quite the babe magnet for Jean Paul, though I can't imagine he had much time for women given that he spent his life collecting art. (But I'm wrong. Just wiki-ed him and he apparently married and divorced five times and had six sons. So he was quite the busybee.)

We spent the day roaming his house and gardens, perusing fine art and enjoying the architecture of the building and its many fountains. It was hard to concentrate on the art because it was such a beautiful day, so I spent a good amount of time taking silly artsy pictures in the garden, learning the buttons on my new camera, soaking up the sunshine, and discussing the best way to steal a small child with my roommates from last year.

A few hours and a whole lot of walking later, we were all exhausted and ready to head home, as you can see in the above photo taken on the car ride home. Does anyone else get some strange enjoyment from taking pictures of sleeping friends? Just me?