UCLA friends...old and new

Recently, I was able to hang out with Nick, one of the first friends that I made during second year, and Susan, one of the last UCLA friends I made fourth year.

Nick lived next door to me and Christina at Rieber. Crazy times were to be had on our floor! I remember when Nick decided to become vegetarian the first week of school. He still is, nearly 4.5 years later! I also remember when I ventured out with his running club. My legs couldn't catch up! Mostly, I remember that he's such a sweet guy, so different compared to his roommates :D It was good to see you again Nick! Oh yeah, and it's such a small world. He lives so close to non-Korean Susan, up in Nor Cal.



Korean Susan (hee hee) and I met in Hawai'i. We were sposed to be roommates, but I switched and moved in with Trinh instead. At first I think Susan was mad I ditched her even though I didn't know her (I would have been mad too!) but I think she liked having the room to herself. :D And we still ended up becoming such great friends! I didn't really enjoy every moment in Hawai'i, but Susan made it bearable (we both had bouts of misery during the summer). Even after the program ended we still kept in touch and I saw her often (remember our Wednesday lunches!). But last fall she packed her bags and headed for grad sch in NYC, so I don't get to see her that much anymore! :( But I was glad we were able to meet up during her winter break. She drove to my area and I took her on a food tour along Valley. Before you leave let's hang out again Susan! :)


Spring rolls at Banh Mi Che Cali on Valley/Delta


Broken rice with various veggies, charbroiled pork chop, steamed egg, shredded pork, and shrimp paste at Com Tam on Valley/Del Mar


Roasted ice coffee, mango pana cotta, custard platter, and taro, tapioca balls, black rice in coconut milk hot dessert at Phoenix Bakery on Valley/Chapel

"Yes, that's right, a knife!"

All day, I've been repeating myself over and over as I tell people that one of my Christmas gifts from Christina was a knife. A Henckels 8 incher chef knife, to be exact. She also got me measuring cups, THE cutest red colander, and some nifty cutting boards. But it's the knife that people do a double take on.

It's not the bestest luck to give out such sharp objects as gifts, esp during the new year, but whatever. Usually Chinese ppl believe that, but it's not Lunar New Year this week, it's white ppl New Year, so I choose to not believe that it's bad luck. =D



So why am I showing you all this loot?

Because it's all list related! Geez, Christina and I are accomodating our lives to our list so much. :P It's so fun at the moment! Are you guys sick of the word "list"? ^_^
Clockwise:
1. Breast cancer tote- I always go to the library and I leave with armfuls of books and sometimes they fall on the floor and it's embarassing. I was thinking of getting a tote bag to hold 'em all but Christina beat me to it. Yay, now I have a bag to hold my 4 books a month, and then some. Geez, I'm such a nerd.
2. That little card with 3 colors- That's Christina's Christmas/early birfday present. I decided to treat her to a trip to Olympic Spa. I already booked us appointments, we're going in Feb! Going to the spa is on both our lists. I hope we don't get hooked on it- spa-ing is an expensive pastime!
3. Colander, measuring cups, cutting boards, knife- One of the things on my list is "to stock my very own kitchen." Christina gave me a head start! Can't wait to start using 'em.

Schmartness

I love doing crossword puzzles! But I'm kind of picky...I only like the UCLA DB (Daily Bruin) and LA times CW, and I only like the ones at the beginning of the week: M-W. That's because they are challenging enough that it makes me think outside the box, but not too challenging that I get frustrated (The LA times Sunday CW is the worst-I only get like...2 clues right).

Susan, do you remember when we used to be addicted to them in HS? And one time Mr. Krapes caught us doing it in AP Psych? But Mr. Bolen was nice, he would help us! And there was that one time that we did THE WHOLE THING? That was pretty neat. When I got to college I started doing the DB ones to keep awake in class. When you do them enough though, you start to see that clues were being recycled. Any Bruins noticed this too? :D

Anyways, it's rare that I'm able to do an entire CW without "help" or cheating. I've come close on many an occasion, but in the end there's a few elusive ones that I just can't get, no matter how much I rack my brain. That's how I felt last night! But after thinking "outside" the box, I was able to figure out 17 across- Laugh in a Nebraska city?- "Omahahaha", and everything else fell in place.



Another reason I like LA times CW is because some of the clues have patterns. Some examples:

28 down: Taboo in a California city? "Fresnonono"
11 down: Granny in a Cuban city? "Havananana"
56 across: Toy in a Japanese city? "Tokyoyoyo"

And of course, the one that gave me the most trouble: "Omahahaha." :)

Omg, am I really that dorky? But doing CW puzzles makes me feel schmart!

Got books? (how original :P )

I've been an avid reader ever since I can remember.

Wait, that's not entirely true. I remember when I used to live in Moreno Valley, my mom would force me to sit on the steps and read while she sewed. I think I was 7 at the time. Ok, I've been an avid reader since I was 8. Heehee.

Since I love to read so much of course one of the things on my list would involve books!

Here are my 4 for the month:



How Nancy Drew Saved My Life by Lauren Baratz-Logsted

You gals/guys know me well enough; how could I not resist?! I've been reading Nancy Drews since I was 9...and 14 years later, I still do. That's a post for another day though. :)

The first and foremost reason that I read this book was because of the title. Doh. That's enough for me. Haha, ok all kidding set aside, I was pleasantly surprised at how the book was written. It wasn't as fluffy as it sounds. Basically it uses the same story vehicle made popular by other pieces of chick-lit: girl meets boy, boy breaks girl's heart, girl moves away and takes a job somewhere else and meets other boy. But you add in a setting in Iceland, an adorable little girl, a somewhat silly but smart heroine (Charlotte Bell) and Nancy Drew (doh!), and it's not just another boring story. Oh yeah, it has a non-conventional ending, which was refreshing!

I actually read it in one sitting the second I came home from the library, and I plan to read it once more before it's due at the library next week. :)



Anybody Out There? by Marian Keyes

Marian Keyes is an author that I stumbled upon by accident. I think the first book I read by her was Sushi For Beginners, and I saw that, as well as this book, at the "recommended" section of my local library. I've been looking for another author to get into ever since I finished reading all of Olivia Goldsmith's books (she died of plastic surgery complications maybe 2-3 years ago?).

Anybody Out There? was a pretty good story. It's about a woman named Anna who wakes up from a terrible accident and doesn't know what happened to her or her husband. The book weaves in and out between past and present so it can get confusing. Plus Anna has a zillion sisters so it was hard to keep track sometimes. Oh and did I mention it takes place in the US and Ireland?? However, all the random stories lead to what happened to her husband, and how she copes. It's almost like a mystery, but more poignantly told. I actually teared up at some parts. This book really made me think about how we deal with loss- not just the actual loss, but the eventual acceptance of it.

After reading Anybody Out There? I think I will make it a point to check out all of Marian Keye's books.



24-Karat Kids by Dr. Judy Goldstein & Sebastian Stuart

Okay, I just read this book b/c it looked fun. And I wasn't really look for substance, which is the reason why I also read Bergdorf Blondes last year. What is so great about reading fluff is that sometimes there's something of value in it, and if there isn't, well at least I had fun reading it. :P

This book is about a lady who gets an offer to practice in THE prestigious Upper West Side peds clinic. Of course she comes from humble beginnings and hates everything that the rich stands for. Her fiance (who she's kinda bored with) also shares her sentiments. But she takes the job anyway, vowing to never become one of them. Almost immediately, she bonds with her little patients and she doesn't want to leave them to their psycho parents, so she has to learn to understand the lifestyle of the rich so she can better understand and treat her parents accordingly. And of course she and the fiance had a break up and she met other guys. The book is very predictable from the beginning. I knew what was going to happen at the end. But it is what happens in the pages in between is what made me like the book alot.

This book isn't for everybody! Boys, you'd be bored. :P



The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan

Finally, no more fluff! Okay, I LOVED THIS BOOK. I need to read this again. There is amazing stuff in here! Gosh, where to start.

Okay, this book is divided into 3 parts- corn, grass, and the forager. In the corn part, you learn about how corn is such an integral part of our everyday diet- it's in nearly every processed food we eat! Even the meat some of us eat come from corn-fed animals. In this section, the author walks the reader through how meat is processed (pretty sad), and how cows aren't sposed to eat corn but they are force-fed it b/c it makes 'em grow faster! Cows, by nature, are only sposed to eat grass. There's some other stuff too but I don't remember it.

Okay in part two it's basically about the organic food industry. It talks about if the "organic" food really that much better than regular stuff, and if there is such a difference in the end. Very interesting! Then he talks about farms that rely on old-school farming. Man, that's way too much for me to even go into. You people need to read this book!

Finally in the last section he talks about pig hunting and mushroom gathering among other things. Made me hungry for salami and mushrooms! Sigh. The book was due today and I couldn't renew it, so I had to shove the last 80 pages or so in during work today. Okay, this is what I remember. (Jen walked into my office during lunch and I showed her an excerpt, so that's why it's come to mind.) In this one paragraph, he talks about how even though vegans don't eat animals b/c they don't wanna kill them, animals still die as a result of the planting/cultivating/harvesting of the grains that vegans eat (I don't remember the examples). So if we want to kill the least number of animals as possible, we need to eat the biggest single unit of food that exists in the smallest space- which is cow! (That's good news for Christina! :D)

This book was really interesting, I wish I could remember all the stories! What I really liked was that the author wasn't telling us what to eat or how to think. He just laid all the facts/stories there for us to digest, and for us to make what we wanted out of it.

I want to re-read this book a year from now. It's that good!

Whew. Look out for my next 4 books in a month! :) I hope all my reviews won't be as long as this one.

I'm prolly the last person among you guys...

...to finally see real snow!!



People rarely ever believe me when I say that I've never seen snow. My mom never took me to cold places as a kid, and in HS snowboarding wasn't popular yet. When that became THE cool activity for the college folk, I still never participated b/c every winter break in college I worked at Rob May. Excuses, excuses, I know. I did have opportunities to go later on, but I just plain never took advantage of it. Just like Leo's invite to his Mammoth shindig. :D

I think all my friends have gone snowboarding at least once, and some are avid boarders- as in they own their equipment and they buy season passes. Personally, I think it's a very expensive hobby, so the cheap-o in me never bothered to try it out. Maybe this will change this year. My bank account took a massive hit this past month, but I hope that won't deter me from finally seeing what the big deal snowboarding is.

Anyways, back to SNOW. Weeeeeeeee!

I helped a coworker with his youth retreat at Frazier Park. I didn't think there was gonna be snow, but I forgot that it had rained buckets on Saturday. Sunday was a gorgeous day. I saw snow as we were driving along in the bus! Finally, we were able to get out and even though there was a meager amount of snow it was good enough for me!



I didn't get to pelt anyone with a snowball, but there's always next time! :) I want to do the whole snow angel and fort building thing!

Where in the world is Indonesia?

I don't know, and that's kinda sad, isn't it? My family stayed at the refugee camps for a couple years on that island but I know almost nothing about that country. I have a general idea of where it is, but it's like having a general idea of where Kentucky is. And instead of pointing at somewhere in the middle of America, in this case it would be some ocean. :P

Anyways, one of the things on my list is to try a new ethnic food. Christina also has it on her 101 list, so we decided to go to Bali Island, a place that her friend recommended to us. Located in a very indescript plaza on Las Tunas right before Mission Dr., we actually drove past it! I've been in that area numerous of times (esp for meals at Tan Cang Newport Seafood Restaurant) but Bali Island never caught my eye. Prolly b/c it's sandwiched in the middle of the plaza.

Anyhoo, we had the appetizer plate and a main dish. Christina looked up all the names of the food! Their menu is online. She saved some time and energy for lazy me. Don't you love copy and paste? ^_^



APPETIZER: Bali Island sampler with Otak-Otak (grilled fishcake in banana leaf), Risoles (meat & veggie crepe), Pastel (meat, veggie, & egg in pastry), & Kroquet (deep-fried potato with meat & veggie). ENTREE: Sate Ayam (Chicken satay with anchovy-peanut sauce).
DRINKS: I got Es Manga (mango iced drink) and Jeannie got Es Teler (avocado, jackfruit, palm seed, coconut, milk, & syrup).

The food was really yummy! I wasn't expecting it to be that good! I think my favorite foods were the ristoles, pastels, and the anchovy peanut sauce (I smothered that stuff all over plain rice!). The satay was actually pretty tasty. My drink wasn't so shabby either. It doesn't top the barley seed lime drink from New Malaysia though. I will never forget how good that drink was. Someday I will devote an entire entry to that drink, that's how yummy it was! Man...now I wanna go back there. Ooh maybe Ann and I can go there next week, it's so close to our houses!



Anyhoo, another nice meal with my Rieber roomie! :)

On the other side of the bridge...

...things aren't always what they are cracked up to be. Does that even make sense? Well, it does to me, but I have a twisted way of processing things that only I understand. :D

Anyways, something on my list that I wanted to do before I had a list, and which I accomplished before I made the list was to cross the Vincent Thomas Bridge. Every year my work has an annual dinner at Simon's in San Pedro. From the balcony you can see the bridge all lit up at night, it's so purty! My coworkers told me that depending which turn you chose, it either went to Terminal Island or Long Beach.

Since I wanted to see for myself, I had Paul take the 110S all the way to San Pedro. We were going to the LB Aquarium anyway, so it wasn't too out of the way. He tried to drive pretty slow so we wouldn't cross it too fast but since there were cars behind us, he had to speed up and then all of a sudden we were in LB and I was like...that's it?!?!



We did have fun driving across though. We talked about what used to be at Terminal Island. I said that there used to be a jail, and he said that there used to be car race tracks. I'm too lazy to find out who's right, but I bet I am! :)

Wa-tah, gimme some wa-tah!

One good thing that I almost always ensure myself is plenty of water everyday. In fact, I am so used to drinking water that I can tell if my body is "thirsty" if I don't drink a lot that day. That's how much my body is used to it. But how much is enough?

Many people say that 8 eight ounce glasses is standard. Others say you should listen to your body and just drink when you feel like it. There is prolly no exact formula for how much and often you should hydrate yourself. This is because everyone has different body types, lifestyles, and diets.

However, I've found a formula that works for me. I forgot what website I got this from, but it recommends that you oughta drink half your weight in ounces. I haven't weighed myself in a while, but I'm pretty sure I'm btwn 110-115. That means I gotta drink btwn 55-57.5 ounces of water per day. That's pretty do-able! My boss got me this nifty Nalgene bottle for my birfday but I never used it b/c it's freaking bulky. But it holds 32 ounces so all I have to do is chug down two of those a day, and I've more than filled my quota.

I think once I get back to working out more frequently I will increase my water intake, but for now I'm happy that I'm able to maintain and do something good for my body. :)

For more information, check out this article!

Blend, hummus, blend!

A week ago, I was able to cross off something original on my list! I absolutely love hummus and I wanted to learn how to make it. I think it qualifies as a "non Asian ethnic food." :)
This is the recipe we used:

NGREDIENTS

• 3/4 cup canned garbanzo beans, drained
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 clove garlic, halved
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 3/8 pinch paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon minced fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS

1. Place the garbanzo beans, tahini, lemon juice, salt and garlic in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Transfer mixture to a serving bowl.
2. Drizzle olive oil over the garbanzo bean mixture. Sprinkle with paprika and parsley.

It was simple enough that I'd want to make it again, except that next time, I need to invest in a quality blender. Too bad Christina couldn't find her good blender, we had to mix by hand! The garbanzo beans were very soft and lucky for us, Christina's sister had recommended that we peel off the skins so it was even easier to mash.



We've been very consistant with our standing dinners. Weeeeeee. =D

Change

What if I don't finish everything on my list? Then it becomes the "Things I wanna do after my kids grow up." Hee hee...serious! :D

I do admit that my list is crazy...I've got trips to over 15 countries in 4 continents spread among other crazy feats like learning not to drown and buying a house. But the whole point isn't to cross things off just for the sake of crossing them...it's to create opportunities for myself to do things that I've always wanted to do. I want to learn more about myself along the way, and become a more well rounded person. Even if I don't finish everything I can at least say that I did something.

My good friend Christine and I had a great talk last month. I was complaining how I felt incredibly robotic- wake up, work, get fooded, surf net, watch tv, see Paul, sleepy time, rinse and repeat. Now, I do enjoy doing these things, but it seemed so routine that I began to take things for granted. There was a nagging feeling inside of me that made me want to break out of this rut, but I was so comfortable with the way things were that I was afraid of change. I wanted to do something crazy or something to challenge myself.

So with a little, ok a lot of nudging from Christina, I decided that I am going to go through with this. No matter big or small the items, I want each one to play a part in effecting change. Positive changes in my personality, my outlook, my attitude, and my life.

This is exciting!

"Things I wanna do before I become a Momma"

Christina has this "101 things to do in 1001 days" goal which I always thought was pretty neat but had always been lazy to even attempt. But lately I keep thinking of all the things I've done or things that I want to do. Since I am the queen of lists, I tell myself, "If I had a list, I could cross it off." So I've decided to be pro-active and start my own!

It's going to be "Things I wanna do before I become a Momma." Why?
1. I want to live it up and do whatever the hell I want whenever I want to!
2. My list is pricey- I can't afford to do these things in the next few years.
3. I want to do some of things with my hubby. Or as Christina points out, some of these things are impossible to do without a partner in crime.
4. Having a baby literally means putting your life on hold for a very long time, so I figure that's as good of any time to stop. :)

This list is also retrospective, meaning that I've done some of these things already. Hey that's not really cheating! My list, my rules. :D