A Fair-ly lovely Schmorgisboard

So, back a billion years ago when my life was all carefree and I had no studying to not do, I went to the LA county feature with a couple of girlfriends from high school. And then weeks later I remembered it and decided to talk about it on my blog.
So here we are. The fair! Ok, besides the fact that since being at school I have heard LA referred to as "a stink of a city", I love so many things about it. And one tradition that rests deep in my heart is the fair. When I was a kid, we would go to the fair every year and my mom used to work at the information booth and all the kids would beg for those wristbands that got us onto unlimited (or as I like to say, infinity) rides, and a lot of years we actually got them.

I remember one year I was on the ferris wheel with my two little brothers and at the top of it I got a terrible nose bleed (we must have had quite the elevation change) and we kept yelling at the creepy carnie folk working the machine to let us out every time we were at the bottom and finally like five rotations later they let me out, after I had gotten blood all over everything.
What an appetizing story.

But even though the fair can be a bit gritty, I love it. I wanted to try a deep fried klondike bar this year, but I am mega cheap and it cost $7. I also love the farm animals. My mom loves the baby piglets and my older brother used to make us get fresh squeezed milk, but I would only get chocolate milk because high milk fat is very intense.
Another fair tradition is the table settings. I'm glad my friends were down to do this because out is such an old lady hobby. Basically contestants set tables:

And the judges take off points for things like "champagne glasses smudged with fingerprints" and "menu includes soup, but there is no soup soon on table" and there is an intense scoring system that scares all the manners right out of me.

And new this year! There was a shark exhibit where a man swam in a very, very small tank with sharks (it was so small that I felt bad for them) and played air guitar and danced a waltz with the sharks in what appeared to be animal abuse. But apparently if you flip a shark upside down it automatically goes unconscious. Which I think makes the animal abuse worse, not better.

Oh and Hot Dog on a Stick!  I love eating this stuff at the fair.  It is just... so very the fair.  They have cream cheese on a stick!  I want to try it sometime, but I saw the sign for it right after I had already ordered (and the lady working there had already taken a block of cheese on a stick and dipped it first in batter and then in a boiling vat of oil - yum!).  But the limeade is superb.
And just because I can, more pictures: (but don't worry, they are good)

Acrobats!

A very secure system!

I guess that's it!

Oh and ten points for whoever gets the reference in the title.  

First Fool Friday

You know how on blogs they always do things with cute alliteration for the days of the week (Wordless Wednesday, Fashion Friday, Tutorial Tuesday)?

Well, I've decided to start my own alliteration day: Fool Friday.  Basically, every Friday, I will post something that makes me look like a fool.  Got it?  Good.


I've been busy unpacking and gearing up for  new school year that starts on Monday, so this week's Fool Friday is a picture that is actually a year and a half old.  I know, lame.  But I'm busy.

OK here it goes:

And there's a whole lot more of fool where that came from.  :)

Back To School (Year 3)

If you wouldn't terribly mind, could you listen to this song as you read this post?

Let me tell you a little thing about my hometown.  In my hometown, the first week that school starts is always the start of a massive heatwave.  It's like Summer's defiance of school.  Because Summer gets angry that there are no little children to watch cartoons until noon and go to the beach and get sand in their swimsuits.  Instead of sprinklers and popsicles there are backpacks, and pencil boxes, and tags to be taken off of clothing.

This year I've just been sitting back and watching the whole city settle into it.  New routines, new teachers, new friends, and for my brothers and I'm sure many other boys across the city, video games and pool side lounging are replaced with homework and staying after school for practice.  And every year, even though there is always a lot of dreading and sighing and tired eyes early in the morning, it feels good to go back to structure, to go back to activity and teachers and a sociability.

I'm starting to get really excited for this new school year.  Can you tell?  Things are finally, finally falling into place and I feel like there is a great year coming up under my toes.  I remember growing up, I met every year with a few nerves in my stomach and a few of those sighs that I mentioned before, but always excited to become immersed in something.  To get lost in my day and spend time studying and accomplishing.

This year feels different.  It feels like I'm losing a few of the safety nets that I grew up with.  But at the same time, I have that same little nervous feeling that I used to have growing up.  A little worm in my stomach that wiggles around and makes me antsy.  I think I'm more nervous for this year than for any other year of college.

But that's also because I'm sooooo excited!  Yesterday I made the drive back to school and let me tell you, it was actually kind of awesome.  I know, this coming from the girl who had an emotional explosion last time time I did this drive.  (I think the key to a good road trip is good mixed CD's.  I burned myself one and forced a friend of mine to burn one for me and I survived it all.  But that is just a side note.)

I was sad to leave Upland more than usual this year.  Sad to leave my family (even though they will hardly notice I'm gone once my Grandma moves in on Saturday).  But the exciting part is that I moved into my new apartment yesterday, and it feels like home too.

Please excuse my face.  No makeup and 6 hours of driving without air conditioning in a fairly hot environment will do that to you.  Or at least it does it to me.  Also, that is a strand of hair, not a crazy eyebrow.  

It's a little space to call my own (well, mine and kristin's) and it has couches and a bed and hardwood floors and a little makeshift kitchen and so many little things that make it feel like it's mine that I will tell you about later.  I feel like this little space is the start of a lot of good things.  The start of a year that I think I will look back on for the rest of my life, hopefully with smiles.

Home is wherever I'm with you.

Just Do It.

I have another theory.  I don't know if I actually share about a third of the theories that I think about sharing on here, but anyways, I've got another one.

So you know those days where you just absolutely don't feel like doing anything?  Where you know you probably should be productive, but you just aren't feelin it?  I have those days, even if you don't.  Especially if my day isn't structured.  I just feel so blah when it happens.
Okay so those days?  I have a cure for those days.  So if you have never had one of those days, now you will really  never have one of those days because now you know how to stop them dead in their tracks.

Are you ready for it?  I don't think you're ready (for this jelly).


All bad jokes aside, here's what you've got to do:
Force yourself to complete one task that you know you can finish.

Not just a task you can finish, a task you can accomplish.  Something that has a clear, "I'm done" point at the end of it.  Even if the idea makes you want to lay in your bed and think weird thoughts about which is the unsexiest fruit or how your life would be different if you were a different race (would it be different?) or why you try to kill a fruit fly by clapping it to a smashy death when you know it will just gross you out to have a dead bug between your palms.  Because once you finish, I'm sorry, accomplish this task, you will feel good.  I promise you, if you are built anything like me, you will be like, "hey look at me, I did something." And that in turn, will turn on the part of your brain that likes to do things.

Oh, and while we're completely on the subject, do you like the blue?  Answer my poll on the side up there (under the about me part on the right side there), pretty please?

Pudding and Pie

I love this picture.  It's from the last night that Jordan was in California before he left for school.

I love it for its awkwardness, because my Dad is barely in the picture and Puke wouldn't squeeze in close to me if I was holding a million dollar bill.
I love it for the night it represents, because we had a good time eating and talking, which is what Gamboas do best.
But mostly, I love it for the Jordan-ness of it.  Because his awkward posing is perfect for the occasion.  Because he looks so ready to set off and to take on new challenges and yet, we were all (we are all) backing him.  Our little (or maybe not so little) family that produced one Jordan for the world.  (you're welcome)

I'm so excited to see what he does with his time, because I know it will be something that he can put the Gamboa name on.

See you at Christmas George!  I can't wait!

Your adoring little seester,

G

Did You Know?

Did you know that it has been September for over a week now?
Did you know I was super excited for the September-ness until the apartment I really wanted fell through and I am now much more desperately looking for an apartment?
Did you know even Disney movies are not taking the edge off of my stress-stomach when I think about starting school?
Did you know the Gam Fam was together in near completion this weekend?  (George, this whole college thing you're doing has really bad timing)

So let's concentrate on the positives, shall we?

This weekend was pretty split between enjoying having on of these guys on my lap:

And going out with the gals, aka all my sisters to the Los Angeles for some dinner at a very Los Angeles Thai Restaurant.  So LA that the bathroom looked like this:

"You Don't Need a Mirror! You're Already Beautiful!"

And on the really bright side, watching AristoCats for the first time since I was old enough to really get it has been awesome.  Like, there is a scene where a Parisian is drinking a bottle of wine and then sees the little mouse chasing Scat Cat and his gang of Alley Cats and he just pours out all his wine because he thinks he's too drunk.  I always remember seeing that scene and not understanding it which only makes it all the better.  

Also, I'm pretty sure that whole movie is my mom's ideal retirement situation.  Minus the crazy butler trying to kill her cats and plus my Dad.  But seriously living in Paris in a gorgeous home with a billion cats?  Check, check, and check.  

On the weirder side, if I had a crush on a non-human Disney character, I'm pretty sure it would be Abraham Delacey Giuseppe Casey Thomas O'Malley the Alley Cat. I mean, after that name, who wouldn't?

So maybe the answer to life's problems is definitely Disney movies.  Now if only Disnye movies could find me a place to live in two weeks.  

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P.S. Don't think I've forgotten that I never gave my brother a proper blog-goodbye.  And not to spoil things or anything, but is anyone else suuuuuuper excited for the LA county fair? Let me know if you want to come with (but we already missed out on John Stamos performing with the Beach Boys - I know, I'm still wallowing over the loss).

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Well, I guess Boston.

So my older brother left last night for college out on the east coast.  He's been doing the community college thing for the last few years, and this fall he's moving on to bigger and better things.

So last night my family went out to dinner before George was dropped off at LAX, not to be seen again until Christmas time.  (Side note, It's actually a little difficult for me to call him by his given name, Jordan, when I am the only person in the world who can get away with calling him "Georgey Porgey Pudding and Pie").

Because my family likes to experience new foods, and George is usually the initiator of said food discoveration, we drove out to Koreatown in Los Angeles for some Authentic Korean food (notice the capital A).

Say what you want about the Los Angeles, I lover it.  It's shaped me more than I realized.  Here is the downtown:

We were driving in the direction of the setting sun, so George had to drive blind:

That photo came out in terrrrible quality, but his eyes are closed.  But he didn't actually drive that way.

Anyways the food!  It was ... interesting.  Not our best discovery, but also, part of it was culture shock.  They had things that smelled less than savory and they didn't even carry forks!  That's how authentic it was.  I actually really liked a few of the items.  Man does MSG taste good:

That's the only pic I managed to snag.  Of the food that is.  We took a family photo at the end of the meal, and I would include it because I had a great hair night,  but I don't currently have the energy to go search for it from my Mom's camera.

But don't worry, you just have something to look forward to...