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.