Limey

I respect and adore his clothing, but why must Alexander Wang make such simple clothing so ridiculously expensive? I do enjoy a nice racer-back tank dress, but not at $90! A cheaper alternative (although not as long) is this AE Pocket Halter for $19.50.

I was eying (eye-ing? it looks weird) it at the mall the other day because I feel like my wardrobe needs a nice lime *pop* in the springtime. I should also make a stop by American Apparel since they tend to have really cute basics in tons of colors. Plus, my white v-neck is getting a bit too worn out and I need a replacement!

Oh, Edward Cullen...

I swear I'm not a 14-year-old teenybopper.

Anyone want to watch Twilight with me?? It's, shockingly, still out in some theaters! Now that I've read two out of four books in the series, I need to watch the movie.

I would start reading the third book, but I don't want to pay more than $10, so I'm waiting for it to be published as a paperback novel :)

On to weirder news... I think I have another abscess in my mouth/jawline. I had one when I got my wisdom teeth out, so I'm not sure why I would get another one 4 years later, but it feels the same. If it isn't an abscess, I have no clue what this lump/uncomfortable spot is. I'm starting to think I'm being cursed for hating my former students. -_-

Time for bed!

Re-do

I really need to re-do my nail polish. My nails have grown a centimeter since the last time I painted them, and I want to try another color. Preferably something brighter than the old dark blood red :)

Crate and Barrel

If I could have everything in C&B's inventory I would be the happiest little non-homeowner in the world! The chance to decorate/furnish my own home is what I look forward to when I move out.

... Aside from living with Darryl and being independent, of course :)

Today I went there to buy some "Round Au Gratin" dishes in preparation for homemade chicken pot pies. Hopefully my lazy cooking streak ends and I decide to go grocery shopping Thursday. I haven't had a cooking post in SO long that I think I'm going to force myself to cook Thursday.

...and for a future post, I've been meaning to use some two buck Chuck from TJ's, so maybe next week I'll make something that requires red wine. Any suggestions?? I was thinking of making this red wine risotto that Giada does, but I want something more substantial than that. Maybe a coq au vin type of dish... or a rich pot roast? (Two buck chuck is probably too cheap for coq au vin, hehe)

Humdeedum...

Bored and not ready to go to sleep.

I was able to get out of jury duty by answering the prosecutor's questions in a way she didn't like :) I wasn't lying to her! I just knew that I couldn't be impartial the way she wanted me to be, so I made it clear when she got up to ask us questions individually.

I went out and bought New Moon so that when I finish Twilight (hopefully within a day or two) I can dive right into the next book. I'm excited :)

I think I may be getting sick again... one of my tutees has been sick and my mom has also been sick. I've also been a bit sleep deprived due to jury duty and early basketball games (UGH UCLA!) so that isn't helping my immune system.

Speaking of basketball games... UCLA failed me this weekend when they lost to Washington State. I'm not terribly upset because I figured this year could never live up to the success of the past 3 years, but I was hoping we would at least be the Pac-10 champ. Josh Shipp failed me even more, though. How does he miss crucial lay-ups??? One was a wide open, nobody-was-defending-him, momentum changing shot in the last 2 minutes. UGH!

Jury Duty

Today was pretty unpleasant, not counting the wonderful time I had reading Twilight. I was transferred from one court to another, and was sadly put on a jury right at 3:50 p.m. Since we were picked so late in the day, we didn't have time to question more than 6 of the 30 eligible jurors/do the first elimination process. I'm really hoping that I can somehow get out of it before 4:30 tomorrow because I neeed to tutor my math girls.

On to nicer things, Twilight is a really enjoyable read, haha. I never thought I'd say that! The reading goes by very quickly, and since I know which actors play the characters, it's very easy to visualize everything in my head. I want to see the movie now, but I feel like my imagination will disappoint my movie-going experience. I thought Robert Pattinson was cute in an unconventional way ever since I saw him in Harry Potter. Mixed with Edward Cullen's description.... he sounds way hotter.

Bye Bye Mint Nikki! AND Nautical Blue Devote!

It was a unique and colorful bag, but it just wasn't the right one for me. I'm shipping it back to Shopbop tomorrow morning.

I saw this Nautical Blue Devote (also by Rebecca Minkoff) at the Nordstrom in Brea and thought it was soooo beautiful. When I got home, I still loved it, but once I put my stuff in it and carried it, it just did NOT hang nicely. One side looked like it stuck out too much, and it just was too large. Sigh... when will I find my perfect purse???

This little baby is going back to the Nordstrom in Santa Anita in the morning.

WTF

This is not an angry post, just a very confused post.

So, after all that I ate this weekend...

-Avocado bacon cheeseburger + fries + soda.
-Carne asada fries + part of a carne asada burrito.
-At least 2 cans of Pepsi.
-2 double chocolate cookies.
-$2.50 worth of Yogurtland.
-Chipotle burrito bowl.
-Carne asada burrito + chicken burrito.
-Filet mignon, twice-baked potatoes, creamed spinach, bread pudding.
-Pizza rolls.
-Fried rice.
-Cheeseburger.

....I managed to lose 3 lbs. from Friday to today (and I haven't weighed 128 since middle school.) This was without exercise, and consisted of me sitting on my ass (I watched 3 movies) for at least 75% of the weekend. I did walk around in heels every day, so that might have caused me to work my muscles out, but still, do I have a parasite or something??

Weddings.

I'm not engaged, but Darryl and I have been having some heated debates about wedding traditions.

Bachelor parties:

I have no idea what the traditions are for bachelor and bachelorette parties, but he thinks that he has zero say about what is going to go on at his. I think he has at least a 65-75% say. Why would his buddies want to take him some place he wouldn't enjoy? If I were a friend, I would ask the bride/groom for preferred activities and other preferences, but I would be the one to do the dirty work such as finding the perfect place, booking it, and splitting the cost with the other bachelors/bachelorettes.

Who pays for the wedding nowadays?

In the past, it's always been the bride's family. Recently, I've read that a lot of couples have been splitting the cost of the wedding, and are not even involving their parents. Darryl still believes that my family should foot the whole bill, but since my parents do not want to help me pay for my wedding, that means I have to. Since I thought that was completely unfair, I told him that I will intentionally leave out some of his friends I don't like from the guest list (there's only like 1 or 2.) I think that if I'm paying for everything, I should have some say about who I'm feeding a $60 meal to, and who I have to hug and be nice to (I can be fake nice, but I don't want to be forced on my wedding day, ya dig?)

In this modern day and age, I think some traditions need to be put to rest.

Bored.

I was supposed to go home tonight but decided to stay at Darryl's (more like didn't want to drive home at 1 a.m.) This weekend was good! If you ever go to Downtown Disney, you HAVE to eat at the Jazz Kitchen and order their bread pudding!!! If you love chocolate, it is heaven in your mouth. I really enjoyed our dinner there. After we ate, the waitress took our picture for us, but she made us turn around and it was a hideous close-up. I would have asked her to retake it but I didn't want to be an ass haha. After that we watched Taken, and it was badass and really good. I think parents (who like action movies) can relate to it because most parents would do anything for their children. Liam Neeson's character was just way more badass about it than most parents.

Next year I was hoping to take a trip to combine both our anniversary and V-day, but Darryl made a little joke about how he's not made of money so I don't want to do that anymore...

Weekend

Hopefully I take some cute pictures of Darryl and myself this weekend. We have no recent pictures of just us :(

On the agenda for this love-filled (should be more like food-filled) weekend:
Friday dinner: Brea's Best for some delicious burgers.
Saturday: BBQ carne asada and chicken while watching the UCLA/Arizona game. Dinner at the Jazz Kitchen, and watching "Taken" at 7ish?
Sunday: ?

Love it or leave it?

Here's my new Mint Nikki! I'm only like 60% sure I'm keeping it, but it's such a unique color I feel like I'll never find anything like it again. What do you guys think??

Also, my last day went okay. One kid kept acting up, but I'm thinking he's realizing why he gets into so much trouble. I had the kids do a writing exercise about kindness and being nice to others and he knew why. He kept making fun of one of the other kids (who is supposedly his friend) because he says "untinue" instead of "until." It's not his fault he's ESL! Actually most of these kids are ESL, but they sure as hell know how to spell violent words. It's amazing how much these kids learn from TV and cartoons, yet they learn NOTHING from teachers.

One more session of tutoring my math girls on Friday, and then it's time for an awesome weekend!!

Things I want to do within the next 5 years...

1. Tour Hearst Castle.
2. Go wine tasting in Napa. I may not have tolerance, but I still want to do it :)
3. Eat at the French Laundry (in my wildest dreams... maybe within 10 years.)
4. Stay at the Hotel Del Coronado for a romantic weekend (I love Coronado!)
5. FINALLY visit New York City.
6. Go to Hawaii again, and not do stupid shit like visit the swap meet. I'm hiking Diamond Head, going to Matsumoto's, parasailing, possibly taking surfing lessons, and more.
7. Take a cooking class.
8. Go to a beer festival (probably not the real Oktoberfest...)
9. Visit the Arboretum and the Huntington Library (easiest and cheapest.)
10. Take my mom to afternoon tea at the Ritz Carlton (or somewhere else nice.)
11. Get my effing Masters.
12. Get a REAL job!
13. Help one child enough so that he/she will never have to go to a speech therapist again!
14. Buy a Welsh Corgi (or a Yorkie, or a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel.)
15. Not buy any more purses!! Darryl will agree with this one.
16. See UCLA win a National Championship in men's basketball!!!!
17. See UCLA beat USC at least twice in football (wishful thinking..)
18. Eat at Osteria Mozza.
19. Go to Descanso Gardens. I would get married there, but it's super expensive and restrictive :(
20. Get married?... ;-) This will probably happen before Hawaii, and is all up to Darryl haha.

The purse that started it all...

I'm really bored and I can't go to sleep so I decided to make this post.... you may ignore it.


I don't remember how I learned about Rebecca Minkoff, but it was all downhill from there. This is me with my faaavorite purse in the whole wide world: Morning After Bag Mini in Wine. I'm literally praying that the Nikki in Mint that I ordered will be hideous in person so that I'll actually want to return it, thus saving myself lots of money.

Bored...

Nooo... the nice sunny weather today tricked me into thinking the weather was going to get better! It's supposed to rain again this week/weekend :(

Since we're now into February, I decided to look back at my resolutions. So far I've been good about most of them. I've eaten at a ton of new restaurants (enough to cover half of this year haha.) I've hung out with a lot of friends who (whom since they're objects? I think?) I normally see once a year. I've been exercising fairly often; it doesn't help that I've been eating like a maniac on the weekends, though. I've been more patient with my mom than usual. When I feel a condescension coming on, I stop it. I mostly get irritated by her when it comes to technology; I know I shouldn't, but most of what she doesn't understand is so simple. For example, today she inserted a music CD into her Mac laptop. iTunes opened up, and she freaked out! She was like, "Why did iTunes just open up???" and I explained to her all of the things that iTunes can do so she doesn't freak out again.


I should also NOT online shop at shopbop.com while I'm on a shopping ban. Granted, I can't afford 95% of their inventory, but everything that is within my range is so tempting!! I normally abhor anything Juicy Couture (hah, I rhymed,) but this watch is so cute! I love white accessories. I think they look great against a nice tan (which I'm trying to build in this intermittently sunny weather.)

Double Chocolate Cookies

Darryl and I said there will be no gift-exchanging this V-day, but cookies that we'll share can be an exception :)

It was supposed to be a surprise, but I told Darryl tonight haha. I might make this and another cookie, or this and brownies. We'll see how I feel on Thursday night/Friday morning.

Double Chocolate Cookies (~3 dozen)

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt (I never put it in..)
1/2 lb. milk chocolate (4 oz. coarsely chopped, 4 oz. cut into 1/4" pieces)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 325. Put together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Melt 4 oz. coarsely chopped chocolate with the butter. Let it cool slightly.
2. Put chocolate mixture, sugar, eggs, and vanilla in a bowl, and mix with an electric mixer on medium. Reduce speed to low and mix in flour mixture. Fold in chocolate chunks.
3. Drop dough onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Space 2" apart. Bake until cookies are flat and cracked (15 minutes.)

Excited...

I am way too excited for this purse. Like, unnaturally excited.

Even though I can't buy new things, I have a really strong urge to clean out my closet and reorganize it. It's a mess right now, and I don't have closet doors. If I had closet doors I probably wouldn't mind so much, but everything is just out in the open, visible to guests, and getting dusty.

It's so hard to part with some clothing, though. There's always one or two reasons why I can't throw certain clothing away, and that's probably why I never have room in my closet. "When I'm chubby I'll need it," or, "It could be useful when I need to layer in the winter." I still haven't used those "useful layers" and I hope that I don't need to resort to my size large shirts in the near future.

What a boring way to spend my Monday night...

New Coat

So, like I said, I am on a shopping ban unless it is for a winter coat. Now I'm completely on a ban because I got really lucky and scored a beautiful royal blue coat at Nordstrom for $44 (orig. $89!) The tag actually said $58.90, which is what it is on their website, so the extra discount only showed when she rang it up on the register.

It's really comfortable, it has pockets (I neeed pockets!), and it's not itchy at all because it has a satiny lining. The only qualm I have with it is that it is hoodless, but I rarely use hoods anyway. Dark purples and blues are the new black for me! :)

Potential V-day plans

1. Downtown Disney
2. Jazz Kitchen @ DD.
3. Watch "He's Just Not That Into You" or "Taken"?

I read that couples shouldn't watch HJNTIY together because it'll cause one or the other to become guilty, paranoid, or overly inquisitive.... but it looks so good! On the other hand, 'Taken' looks like it's pretty badass, which is a plus for both Darryl and me. I'm thinking we may be too food-coma'd for a movie, but we'll see.

Superfeet Dress Fit 3/4 Insoles

Do not, I repeat, DO NOT buy these things! I bought them a few weeks ago because all of my flat shoes have zero arch support. Well, due to the stiff, plastic nature of these insoles, they slide around and do not mold to your feet or give comfortable arch support. Even with the velcro sticky dots, these do not stay in place!

I'm hoping Nordstroms takes them back...

Good weekend.

Houston's cheeseburger, $13 (with a LOT of fries, but it doesn't look like it because the burger is that big.)

Since Darryl and I had been to Houston's before for our two year anniversary, we decided we could just have a casual lunch there for our fourth. Granted it was a $70 casual lunch, but it was sooo worth it! Since Darryl and I have a 'no gifts' agreement, I bought this meal, and he's buying the Valentine's day meal.

The last time we were there I got a filet, but after looking at Yelp for inspiration, I decided to get the cheeseburger. Best decision of my life!!! Not really, but my mouth and stomach sure thought it was. Next time I will get it medium-rare; I was a wimp and got it medium-well, forgetting that they grind their own meat so it's safe.

That was on Friday afternoon. Friday night we decided to go to Koraku in J-Town for some ramen and fried rice. It was Darryl's first time and he loved it! It always makes me happy when I introduce someone to a restaurant I like and they end up loving it too.

Saturday was really good because I got to catch up with friends I haven't seen in like 6 months. Good times.

Not sure what I'm doing the next couple of days, but I'm excited that Thursday is my last day at my stressful job! I know I complain about them a lot on here, but this is my place for venting. My new (and highly unnecessary) purse is coming on Thursday so I'll consider it my reward for sticking with these kids for the past 5 months.

Shopping ban FOR REAL!

Okay, so I've seriously ignored my shopping ban that I set for myself a month ago. This may have been caused by the fact that my parents agreed to pay one quarter of tuition (their first ever, and the cheapest, btw,) but I also blame it on my weak shopping will power.

My expenses for the rest of the year (minus two upcoming vacations) will be Netflix, food, books, toiletries, family/Darryl gifts, and tuition. No clothes or accessories!

I have reached a low point, especially after buying the RM purse I mentioned a few days ago.... -_-

I never shopped this much in HS or as an undergrad. I swear it's due to all of my downtime. I can never be a housewife, or at least not a housewife who isn't taking care of kids all day.

This will be my last shopping post until I need a winter coat (One of the few things I don't have.)

Always Yelp it...

I almost made a rookie mistake by not Yelping before I went to a restaurant!!

So, I trusted that the Glendale Katsuya would be good due to the hype around it and the number of Katsuyas that have been built, but NO, it had horrible reviews. If I were only going for the ambiance and "hot waitresses" I would still go, but nope, I enjoy food, thank you very much. Now I'm not sure where Darryl and I are going...

At least he really enjoyed Koraku in J-Town as a midnight meal! ...Who wouldn't?

Rain, rain, go away!

Due to the horrible weather that rained down upon us today, Darryl couldn't visit me when we had planned and we missed our reservations at Katsuya. There are obviously worse things going on in the world than not seeing each other for our anniversary dinner, but I was looking forward to it. Thankfully DineLA is still going on tomorrow, so we're going to try and go then.

On to other news... The kids were still extremely rude and misbehaved today. I am so patient with them, and I try to humor their demands, but seriously, kids these days need to get a fucking beatdown from their parents. Sorry if that wasn't what you expected, but they could blow up their own house and their parents would give them a kiss on the cheek. If I were rude to a teacher and my parents were told about it, they would probably grab me by the ear, make me cry, and make me apologize profusely to my teacher. Granted, I never did such a thing, but these kids' parents KNOW what their kids have done in my class (i.e. write in their notebook that they want me dead) and they stop by every day. They haven't even looked me in the eye.

Also, the kids couldn't even stay quiet for 5 minutes. How hard is it to sit in your chair and find something to do quietly? I even told them that if it was hard to stay quiet while awake, they should put their heads down and try to nap. Their reward for staying "quiet" (a few made weird noises and whispered) was to play Hangman with me since it's the only thing they enjoy doing, but of course, they said that the word I picked was, "Stupid," and that, "That game sucked!" when it was over. I tried something easy because they always lose, and since they were actually able to get it, they say it was stupid.... fucking kids.

Rebecca Minkoff Nikki in Mint

How gorgeous is this? If only I had money to waste.

Thankfully I think it's a very impractical color; it's a little too young for me... but it's such a great replica of the Tiffany blue! I might want Tiffany Blue to be one of my wedding colors, but that will probably change by the time I actually get married haha.

Vamp

I figure I would rather be called vampy than goth with my dark nail polish (my mom said it looks like I have blood on my nails...) so that's what I'm calling this look.

I haven't painted my nails a dark color since... ever? I decided to be brave since I was already at CVS buying things, and I wanted to look a little dressier for my celebration dinners coming up. Dark nails just look chic-er than bare nails :)

This one was cheap (<$4) and had a pretty name so I bit the bullet and bought it. I've never heard of Milani so I'm figuring it's some off-brand, but the name of the polish is 'Bella Berry.' Possibly referring to Twilight, and possibly referring to 'beautiful' in Italian? I'm guessing the latter haha. I think we've been inundated with Twilight enough... My brother said Chanel made a nail polish similar to mine and called it 'Vamp' in honor of Twilight. Anyway, here are my horribly messy results and my freakishly long fingers:

Yummy

Anybody want to buy this delicious perfume for me? :)

I smelled it at Sephora today and it is so amazing, but so overpriced. At $65, I refuse to buy it.

Personal space

One thing that really irritates me while at the cash register or anywhere in public is a violation of personal space. This happened to me recently at the Nordstrom Rack in Brea. There is one line that feeds into multiple registers, but is set back at least 7 feet away from the closest register.

Well, some middle-aged woman did not follow that one line, and she chose to stand less than 1 foot away from me while I was getting a large amount of money back. Not only was she not following the rules, but she was also staring at me like I was in her way. What the hell?? I don't want you looking in my wallet or giving me the evil-eye when you should be 20 feet away in line./end rant

I don't know why I felt like talking about this, but I neeeed my personal space with strangers. Kind of like lecture halls in college. Why sit directly next to me when there are 4 seats open all around me?

Running shoes.

I've been a little lazy about running 3 times per week. It gets tough when I have a lot of stuff to do and I can't run before I shower in the morning (I hate taking two showers in one day... so drying.)

Despite not running as often as I used to, I can tell that I need new running shoes. My right foot hurts every so often, and my left hip has been cracking/popping at the beginning of my runs (and I can't stretch it out as far when I'm stretching.) I should be talking to a doctor about this, but I'm an idiot and figure it'll heal in time. I figure if it gets worse I will, but right now it isn't bothering me outside of running. I've been wearing the same Nikes for about a year, but I've been thinking about getting Asics or Mizunos. They're supposed to be better for running, but I still am not sure which shoe to get since I don't know anything about my arch or my pronation. Le sigh...

Any advice from seasoned runners/shoe experts? I try to run on the balls of my feet, but other than that, I don't know about whether I run more on the inside or outside of my feet...

Sushi Roku

Darryl and I (mostly I) decided to try Sushi Roku in Old Town Pasadena for lunch on Friday since it was participating in DineLA. We would have eaten at Cafe Santorini but their lunch deal wasn't as good as their dinner deal.

I was pleasantly surprised by how good it was (garlic-seared Albacore tuna was TO DIE FOR!) but I think it was a bit strong for my first meal of the day. All that raw fish didn't sit well with me for a couple of hours haha.

Garlic-seared Albacore/garnish after I started eating it. Darryl reminded me mid-bite :)

Darryl, hiding behind his piece of Albacore :(

The service was great. Our waiter was really nice and always came by to check up on us at exactly the right time. Even the manager came by to chat with us! Normally they ignore us college-aged kids :)

Plus, Darryl and I got to sit wherever we wanted and were able to have a good conversation since nobody was around us.

My bento box
(6 pieces of sashimi, tempura, cod, chicken, kimchi cucumber, steamed rice elsewhere)
Also partially eaten.

I was pretty much focused on the food and talking so I didn't take as many pictures as I wanted.

Sadly I forgot about taking a picture of the dessert, but I was just so excited to have chocolate lava cake!!

Super Bowl

Watching the Super Bowl while drowsy from anti-histamines and with a lot of people I don't know (one being a Trojan fan and half of them not paying attention to the game) was not the best experience ever, but whatever. At least my bean dip was good. Next year I'm sticking with my brother's Super Bowl party at my house.

Sprinkles cupcakes are really good, btw. Although the cupcakes were good, I was surprised I didn't like the Red Velvet more. I guess it's because I make a Red Velvet cake that's just as good. I also make a banana bread that's equivalent to the banana cupcake. I should open my own damn bakery haha. The strawberry was my faaavorite, though! Such light, perfectly sweet frosting.

Clockwise from bottom right: dark chocolate, banana w/ dark chocolate frosting, strawberry, red velvet.

Tutoring this week is on Mon., Wed., and Thurs. Not too bad. Thursday I get to see Darryl and go to Katsuya for our four year anniversary, so I get to end my week nicely :) Not sure what I'm doing Friday, but it'll probably be chill.