I am Blogging.

Take notice.

OH HELLO THERE.

So I was doing this thing where I waited until I got my mission call before moving forward with my life in any way.  Because the thing came not one, but two whole weeks (14 days!) later than I expected it to.  So, when you are expecting life-altering news that will change the direction of your life and you wait an extra 2 weeks longer than you think it, will, you start waxing weird.  What is this thing called life?  How do people fill their time?  What things should I be doing right now?

The point is, Bahia Blanca, Argentina.

Doesn't just reading that make you want to smile and be me and go serve people for 18 months in Argentina?  Seriously, if I could've picked where I went, this would have been close.  (That sentence didn't end quite like you expected it to, did it?)


The other day Luc said to me, "Gigi, you are so weird.  Like, you're never normal."  I have told this story to various people in my life to see if their opinion would vary from Luc's.  It hasn't happened yet.

I bring this up because little Lucas and I had a bonding experience a couple weeks ago.  We drove to Utah to go see Adri and Marcus (who is a college boy now!) and we just had sibling bonding moments left and right.  Well, kind of. I mean, we did drive up together, and help Adri move, and go through a scary haunted circus thing, and see Grouplove in concert, and eat a billion pizza, and jump on a trampoline, and then on the way home we hit traffic.

And we got stuck next to bees.  Like a truck full of hives with nets around it all and bees.

We were just trying to pass through Arizona.  In one-billion-degree weather.  In my un-airconditioned car.  So we had the windows down and sooner or later ... you guessed it, A BEE FLEW IN MY CAR.  And landed on my leg.  And slowly walked down.  And I was screaming.  And laughing.  And freaking out.  And I told Luc not to hit it because I didn't want to make it mad.  So I just giggle-screamed as it crawled down my leg and slowly made it's way to the bottom of my foot and then it flew off and I had no clue where it was but THERE WAS A BEE IN MY CAR.

Eventually it flew out and all was right in the world.  Except that we were now driving in a billion degree weather with the windows rolled up.  We eventually inched past the semi full of bees and Luc even got out and jogged for a while.  He was keeping up with me pretty well.  And what's better than a picture of your brother jogging on the freeway?

Not much, that's what.

The Sun'll Come Out.....

Tomorrow will be spent

• Doing laundry
• Baking a pie or a cobbler or both
• Sleeping in the Bed I slept in in high school 
• Flying in a Plane 
• Awkward Smiling at my Parents 
• Applying shameful amounts of fake tanner and possibly lying out 
• Reading 
• Eating 
• Getting my Eyebrows done? 
• Lamenting the absence of all three of my brothers (Is it a coincidence that they all left the day before I got home?) 
• Enjoying

Vamanos a la playa, playa!

Talk About This and That

We're not going to talk about the fact that my car died again on my drive back to Stanford.  And how Lolita might be dead forever.

We are going to talk about how the tow truck man was talking to another tow truck man, but then reprimanded him for using foul language because there was a lady in the car, and how he opened the door for me.  Gentleman do exist, they are just older than my father.

We're not going to talk about how much money I spent to get a plane ticket back to San Jose or about how I sat down on the plane and just cried.  Just cried and cried and cried and avoided eye contact with anyone and everyone.  Or about how I'm a dummy and booked the shuttle for the next day.

We are going to talk about the fact that a homeless man gave me his bus pass for less than the price of a ticket and then told me all about his deceased wife.  And then we'll discuss how the bus driver and I got to be really good friends on account of the fact that I had been on his bus for about an hour by the time I got off.  And we are going to talk about how good it felt to come home and shower and eat cereal and just lay in my bed until I fell asleep, feeling for the first time in this entire day that I was where I was supposed to be.

And then, I'll tell you that that was a day of sadness and today is a day of happiness, and that there are always a billion things good in my life.  Like the fact that even though my car blew up, I made it safely to the side of the road.  And that I was only an hour from home and my hero-dad raced over to save me.  And that smart phones make it so that when you book a shuttle for the wrong day, you can figure out how to cheaply get back home in approximately one minute - perfect timing for catching the bus you need.  This summer is going to be good, my friends.

If nothing else ever, this summer is going to be good.

$50 on 5

Oh, I owe you a few stories, and maybe an explanation.  There are just so many emotions that this cold heart of mine does not want to relive.

I keep going home.  In the seven weeks that have occurred in this quarter, I have gone home twice.  That's a total of 24 hours of driving.  Just me behind the wheel, driving driving driving.  Which is probably why I haven't been doing anything as often as I'd like.  I'm behind in school, in blogging, and I think today I just finally caught up on all my sleep.  So here we go, me attempting to get back into blogging.  I think I'm afraid that I'm no good at it anymore.  Not that I was great to begin with, but that homeless guy/little girl I babysit post was one of my favorites of all time.  That was two trips home ago.

The last time I went home, I left for my drive at like 740 PM.  Except at the gas station before I left, I locked my keys in my car.  Yes, my only key to my car, trapped right inside my car, visible.  I had no phone, only an ATM card that I had grabbed in order to pay for my gas.  So I ran into the gas station and borrowed the cell phone of the man working there to call triple A, only they couldn't find my membership record so then I called my dad so that he could drop everything and take care of it remotely for me.  (I have a really outstanding father by the way).

AAA didn't get there until just after 9.  So in the mean time, I had so, so, so much time to talk to the man working at the gas station and to keep myself from crying because it had already been a long day and I just wanted to be home already, and I don't handle these things well, as it turns out.  I can't remember his name, mostly because I never quite pronounced it right.
But the man was from Nepal.  And in Nepal, he had gotten his college degree in Economics and then after graduating, he got a visa to come to the United States, and without thinking twice, he and his wife and child moved to this here US of A.  And when he got here, he tried to take some college courses and some English languages courses, but he had to make ends meet, and he took a job at ARCO to get some money and to help his English.

This man told me that he knew all of his numbers very well.  After 5 years of living here, his son had near perfect English, but he and his wife still struggled.  And when he got to this job, he learned that the only thing that people would say to him was '$30 on 4" and "45 on 7 please."  No one ever said more than that.

I would have cried for that man, except that by the time 8:45 rolled around he started asking if I had a boyfriend and if I was on facebook and if I liked to go out to the clubs.  It got weird fast, and I made excuses to go clean my windshield.  But still, I had to think about him.  I don't realize sometimes, that I am literally living a dream.  I am a Stanford student with a bright future and I'm studying Econ, a topic that just seems right sometimes.  In fact not only am I living a dream, but when I was in high school, this was my dream.  Only now I have new dreams.  Too many dreams that don't quite meld together very nicely.

I think my point, or my realization, was that dreaming is good, but living is more important.  Or maybe that happiness is not going to happen all of the sudden if a dream comes true.  Life is not a waiting game til the next thing you want happens.  Every moment is not a stepping stone, it is a time, right now.  Today is a day; 24 hours where I can decide to live a happy life.  And there is so much to be happy about.



__________________________________________________________________________________

P.S. Look for me on my sister's blog.  I will be posting there ish-regularly and if I'm not there, than you can just admire how much cuter her blog is than mine.  No, but seriously, her blog is so cool.

Quiet

Things have been awfully quiet around this blog.  I've been busy with studying for finals, taking said finals and writing a paper and then going home.

Oh, and then once I got home for spring break, within hours I had convinced my oldest sister to drive down to California with her two little children to spring break with us. or really to spring break with me while the rest of the family had to continue with their normal people lives.  

I loved having Adri home.  We went to Disneyland, we lazily watched television, we went to the targets and the thrift stores, and we bugged our little brothers.  Meanwhile her children were fed candy after candy after candy and I chased them around like a madwoman because they are so stinking cute and they grow faster than dandelions in your front yard.  Also, I may be addicted to toaster strudel.  

I got really caught up in it all.  There was so so so much noise all the time.  It was glorious, it was like growing up in my parents house again.  I was actually left home alone for a couple of hours one day with only the zoo of animals we keep and my sleeping grandmother to keep me company and the quiet was absolutely deafening.  I actually got scared by that thing that we have in or house that sporadically sprays stuff that smells good.  You know you've seen the commercials.  

I have come to learn this week though, that when it comes to little kids (they are hardly babies anymore), all bets are off for me.  I mostly mean that I will do anything for those little suckers, but I also mean that I get sick really easily around them.  I think they expose me to about 17,846,921 new germs a day which I willingly absorb in the form of wet kisses and having my nose "eaten" until I beg for it back.  Which means that today, I am le sick.    (Also possibly to blame: Disneyland).  

I feel seriously sickly.  Like I am easily weak and my body feels achy and stiff and I keep getting the chills despite the fact that I have the space heater on and I keep wrapping myself in blankets.  Swallowing feels like shoving knives down my throat, and I think I have a fever.  My point in all this complaining is that whereas three days ago I wondered what I would do when left in the lonely quiet of my school-home, now I wish I could have that sort of quiet.  

My violin-practicing housemate had been subletting his place to a seriously quiet and sweet girl and now he is le back in all his violin-practicing glory.  Meanwhile, my neighbor to the back (slash his place goes directly over my bedroom) seems to be hosting some sort of boys night which involves what I'm assuming are video games making motorcycle noises on the tv that backs up to my bedroom, and jumping up in down every few minutes in the room that is above me.  What I wouldn't give to be trapped at home with only eight fairly silent animals to keep me company.  

This post is admittedly whiny, which I don't really like to do because whining is boring to read and I just feel worse after writing it.  But I will publish this anyway because it explains the quiet of my blog which has been going on and which I think will continue to go on for a few days while I try to recover while simultaneously starting a new term in school.  This quarter system really throws you through a loop every single time.  I am possibly more negative due to the fact that I have a sinus headache.  Yummers.  

This is the part where I should throw in some cutesy photos of my week to make this end on a positive note.  Sadly I did not take any.  Weird.  

Instead, please to enjoy:

Blake Griffin at the Beach

Aladdin's Mysterious Lack of Nipples

A Photo of one of Upland High School's parking lots as found in a Google Images Search?

Yeah.

What a Weekend

I had a divine weekend this last weekend, and it made for an excellent birthday.  It was the perfect blend of lazy and fun and if I could relive that weekend every weekend for the rest of my life, I would (broken clutch and all).

Saturday was spent doing laundry upon laundry (so that I would actually have clothes to wear) and then my Mom and I went shopping.  I used to hate the shopping, but lately it is not so bad.  Because you get new clothes when you are done (and the Burberry perfume that I absolutely laaaaave).

Sunday, I got the extreme pleasure of waking my little brothers up to force them to eat birthday breakfast of waffles and fruit and so much orange juice.  If there is one thing that is important for my birthday, it is orange juice.

What I am about to describe is largely what I imagine heaven to be like.  After church, I was taking a nap and my Mom woke me up because my sister and her children were calling me to sing happy birthday.  Then I went back to sleep, only to be woken up to realize that it was time for dinner and more presents, and that while I was asleep my dad had started the fire in the fireplace and put a blanket over me.  I'm sorry, but you cannot convince me that 21st birthdays get much better than that.  Not for all the free drinks in the world.

Monday was the Harlem GlobeTrotters.  OH MY GOODNESS! If there is anything cheesy and awesome in the world, I will love that thing.  And if there is anything cheesy and awesome in the world, it is the Harlem Globetrotters.  Because not only are the puns abundant, but the basketball is good.  There were long shots and crazy dunks, and absolutely no defense and a billion travelling, but it was soooo good.  Or maybe you would only like it if you are under the age of 10, or me.

I was busy taking a billion photos for my photo class (just ask my mildly annoyed family), so I didn't take very many digital photos during the weekend, so sadly I have only one pic to share, and the quality is terrrrible.

Clutch

Gilroy.
Aka Garlic Town, USA

I drove home this weekend for the three-day weekend + my birthday is on Sunday.  And I made it as far as Gilroy, CA before I ran into trouble (Gilroy is only like 50 minutes from my house in Palo Alto, and yes, this is another blog post about my drive to and from home).  When you get to Gilroy, you have to get off the 101 and onto this small highway (152), that takes you through a few street lights and past some fruit stands and also there's a section where you have to turn on your headlights even if it's day time.

In Gilroy, the clutch gave out on Lolita. I got off the highway and found that it was very difficult to get Lolita into any gear at all.  It was like trying to do it without having the clutch pushed in.  Freaked out, I pulled over and called my Dad.  I don't know why calling your Dad in a car crisis is so comforting.  He was over 5 hours away, but he was still my hero for the day.  Side note:  I thought I did a pretty good job of sounding not stressed out to him, but apparently he saw right through it.

As I waited for my Dad to figure out where I should get my car fixed, I did the most useful thing I could thing of at the moment:  I did my makeup.  Because, you know, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.  And on road trips, I probably look a little more like vinegar usually.  One call to AAA and a tow ride later, I was standing in a fairly sketchy part of town being told that my car would be ready in 4 hours.  (not to mention $480).

But what else is Gilroy famous for?  Outlet malls.  Literally every brand I can think of has an outlet store in Gilroy.  So after looking it up on my phone, I began the 2.1 mile walk to the outlet malls.  And let's just say that within 5 minutes of walking, I'd been honked at, I'd been whistled at, and I'd walked past a white unmarked van with the word "meth" spray painted on it in gold.  But, after a couple of blocks, it wasn't so bad.  And then..... I made this video:

I should preface the details of my shopping by saying that I had a crappy week.  I was really trying to not be a downer and I made it about as far as Tuesday before I decided I was woefully unhappy and that everything in my life was terrrrible.  Which meant that my only option was to put my nose down, push through, and then be a blob of laziness and birthday bossery this weekend.  But since that was also not going to be easy for me, I decided retail therapy was the only answer.

I started telling everyone in my family about my plight in order to get sympathy and also shopping advice from my oldest sister who seemed to be similarly bored.  Since I hadn't told my Mom what I wanted for my birffday, she had yet to do any shopping, so I texted her to inform her that that would no longer be necessary.  I also was texting my sister basically the entire day.

Text me what you buy
I feel a blog post about today coming on...

To which I responded
Coral pants, striped flowy top, two sunglasses, tan belt, chunky necklace, lacy underwears
What else are you supposed to do with days like today?

To which she responded
Coral pants? Jealous

To which I responded
I am awesome

To which she responded
Yes
Why?

To which I responded

Because of my icee sunglass combo.

To which she responded
Are you on a bus?

So after taking the bus back to Rom's Auto Services,  I once again started a long drive.  Which was filled with traffic that I had planned to avoid and also with pretty scenery that I took bad pictures of while simultaneously driving (I was looking at the road, not the pictures, otherwise, they would be centered photos, and I would be dead)

And that's all I have to say about that.

What a Weekend!

Have you met my mom?  She's pretty cool.  This weekend she turned 50 (well, on her it looks more like 25).  And not only was her birthday this weekend, but it was on Friday the 13th.  How lucky is that?  So to celebrate, my family threw an awesome surprise party, that you should totally read about on her blog.  (I also just learned that my Mom has a blog.  That she rarely updates, but it exists!)

Anyways, to celebrate just a little bit more, let me tell you a couple of things about my mom:

• Her favorite color is red, as evidenced by half of her wardrobe, and a good portion of the house she lives in
• She loooooves chocolate milk.  For most of my childhood, I remember all of us kids around the table at breakfast eating cereal, while my mom sat and drank chocolate milk with some vitamins
• She likes listening to rock versions of the song Milkshake.  Like this, for example.  Does it get cooler than that?
• My mom can do a backflip.  Just kidding.  But she does have that magical mom ability where she knows where 85% of items  in the house are at any moment.  "Mom have you seen my flip flops?"  "Yes, they're under the kitchen table."  How did she even see that?
• She has run two half-marathons.  That's a total of one marathon!  But, she did them year apart, and I think she's planning on doing a third this June.  Girl can run!

That's all I'll divulge.  Happy 50th Mom!

The way this relates to my weekend is that I drove home on Friday in order to be there to see her as she walked through the door into a room full of people that she was not expecting to see.  Which turned into a lovely four-day weekend for me (well, I guess Dr. King also had a thing or two to do with it).  

SO what else did I do this weekend?  Well, Saturday I did largely nothing.  I'm actually trying to remember if I even left the house.  I did.  My mom took me to Hobby Lobby (which is probably her favorite store).  And I watched Laker game after Patriots/Broncos game after 49ers/Saints game (my man Harbaugh pulled out the W!).  

And Sunday, I went to church and probably watched more sports. 

And on MONDAY, I had a party.  Literally a party.  My familia got box seats to a Clipper game.  I have never been to an NBA game before, and my dad felt a little bad about that, so it was really cool that I got to go.  

But oh my gosh the Clippers!  Obviously I'm still a Laker girl (always will be), so I was still a little sad that on Saturday the Lakers lost to the Clippers, but the Clippers are suuper fun to watch.  You've got Blake, who's always dunking and being cute in those commercials, and Chris Paul who I have a major crush on.  Because, I mean, look at this:

I can't get over how cute he is in this picture.  Sure he's married and has a kid, but chances of me actually ever meeting CP3 are preeeeeeeetty small.  So there you have it. 

Oh and afterwards!  We went to this great little restaurant in East LA called El Tepeyac which has giant portions of deliciousness.  It was weird eating the leftovers yesterday for lunch knowing they had been made in LA by real Mexicans (and probabl using real animal fat).  But it was delicious all the same.  

And then I drove home.  Which was actually not that bad.  When there's not traffic, and I am not throwing up, I don't even end up crying.  

Also, another Clipper photo:

Oh, and apparently my Mom took a video of me dancing (I reeeeeeeeeaaaaaally wanted to get on the jumbo-tron but no one around me was excited), which you can see here if we are fb friends.  I just learned that I'm that girl who always dances, although I guess I should have known.  

Wherein A Space Heater and Top Ramen Saved my Life

Happy Belated Thanksgiving Everyone!

I had a great holiday and I hope you all did too.  I will get to that part of the story later.

Yesterday I made the drive back to school.  9 hours, my friends.  It was a record.  Traffic and accidents galore!  I know some people who were stuck in it all until 1 in the morning!  But, as with most things that suck, it was made muuuuch better by the presence of a friend.  And good music.  (I think I'm onto some sort of formula with that one.)

OK, but here's the real part of the story.  My little slice of house (well actually the entire house)  got fumigated during the week that I was home spreading holiday cheer.  And besides that, I was gone for an entire week.  Which means: food.  I couldn't keep anything in my house that would go bad after a week (the milk that we bought three weeks before the break started or fresh fruits and veggies).  AND because of the fumigation, we had to put any food that we did leave in the house inside a plastic bag with a special tying method.  Then that plastic was to be put inside another plastic bag.  Because apparently they've invented fumes that are harmless when inhaled but not when consumed.  And also they kill termites.

Point two about fumigation (I had to start a new paragraph because let's face it, I am easily distracted.): They had to turn the gas and pilot light off in our place for these fumes (apparently they are flammable?)

So back to the drive back to school.  After driving for more than 3 hours, especially where rain and/or traffic is involved, my makeup gets droopy, my emotions get funny, and that spot on my shoulder starts yelling at me to lay down and possibly take a nice warm bath.  But when I got home on Sunday night, my house was an ice box.  Literally an ice box.  And the emergency make-your-house-warm people wouldn't come to my house because this was not an emergency.  Frigidness under exhaustion is apparently not a good enough emergency? I would like to see the people try it.

But I was prepared.  And proud of myself for driving for 9 hours without shedding one tear.  And I was full of optimism.  And my optimism paid off!  Because for some reason our bedroom sink was giving hot water. Like enough hot water for me to wash my hair and face and wish that my body fit in my sink.  Which it certainly wouldn't.  Tender mercies of the Lord, I tell you.  If you're the praying type, I highly recommend saying thanks for hot water next time you get the chance.

It's a little strange how I become so emotionally attached to objects that I feel have saved my life.  I now call him Mr. Kevin.  

As I blow dried my hair, I plugged in the space heater I had borrowed from home because I knew I would be sleeping in the cold if I didn't do something.  And then the combined bedroom light and space heater and blow dryer power blew a fuse!  A fuse!
One call home to Dad and some stumbling around outside my house looking for a fuse box later, I discovered the box behind a bush and was back in business.

Oh but back to the food!  I was starving!  9 hours of driving apparently makes you hungry!  And since I had no fresh foods, it was the top ramen that saved me from certain death.  Because even cereal is no good if you have no milk in which to drown it.

That Top Ramen was oddly comforting.  I think it was the warmth combined with the fact that this is the meal I eat every time I have a stomach flu.  Plus I learned where the fuse box to my house resides.  And it gave me an excise to spend the rest of the night under blankets and without moving more than a foot at a time.

So now I just have to survive three weeks of school.  which includes finals week.   yum.

Photos and Giveaway Info

Dudes.

Remember when I told you that I was hosting a giveaway when I reached 10,000 pageviews and that I would give a hint every time I passed another 1,000 mile marker?

Well, I have since had about another 1,000 pageviews, and you, my dear audience, are clearly needing to be rewarded with a hint as to what my giveaway will be!

And here is that hint:

There is not one giveaway item, but instead of compilation a few pretty cool things, and one truly terrific item.

And with that very vague clue, here are some photos that I have taken lately from my cellular device.  Here we go dudes.

From the random category:

Apparently someone at work has the nasty habit of pulling about 7 toilet protectors out and then just leaving them on the counter by the sink.  Sign says, "Who is doing this?  Please Stop!"

 Just because I go to a world-renown university doesn't mean our TA's don't get lazy.  This is literally the only comment on the whole paper.  

 The fountains this week are blood red in honor of the upcoming rivalry game vs. Cal.  All this fountain does is make me want kool-aid

As I poured my third glass in one hour, I thought, "I probably shouldn't drink alone."

And these are the "I like what I see" photos:

I like this photo, but let's pretend it was taken 100 years ago:

Much better.

 I love these fall colors.  They're pretty much a new discovery for me here.  Because of the whole lack of colors in SoCal thing here.  And anyone who is from New England is scoffing at me right now.  

If I had an architectural obsession on campus what do you think it would be?  Oh yes, it's the most Stanford building there is, Hoover Tower (named after our only presidential alum, not the vacuum).

Happy Weekend, all!  Wish me luck on the drive back to Southern California this weekend!  I have company this time!

The 4th of Jooh Lie

Happy Independence Day everyone!  It is over, but America is still independent, so there is still reason to celebrate.  

I spent the weekend celebrating as follows:

Saturday I helped my sister sell her cute accessories and clothes.  schtuff like this: 

Then her family and I went to the fireworks show in Provo and one of my nephews FREAKED out. "We should probably go home now guys" through tears is both adorable and sad.  

Sunday I drove 8 hours from UT to home in a car with 2 babies.  Make that 9 hours.  Babies tend to slow things down.  

And Monday I went to a BBQ with the fam and a bunch of friends that I have had since before I was born.  It was fun. 

Afterwards I hung out with my friends from high school and had a blast.  You know when you know people really well and you are just weird around them if you want to be weird and they know you, so it's okay?  Well On Monday night I knew about half of the people at the party I went to and I decided to just be weird anyways.  It was weird that it worked out.  I feel like people are more comfortable around people that they think are not trying to impress everyone around them.  

Fun schtuff guys.  Fun schtuff.  Also, I apologize for the lack of pictures because I haven't been able to find the charger for my camera since I moved home.  What wah.  

Anyhoo.  I'm trying to get back into bloggermode, which means I look for funny things in the day.  Which is pretty much too much to ask for on days where I have to watch my little munchkin nephews.  But I'll try.  (I know that all my loyal, billions of readers are screaming right now).  

OK time to stop while I'm ahead?

If you're wondering

why I haven't blogged even though I was all ranty and like, "I'm going to blog more" last time around, it's probably because I'm a little bit distracted by these guys:

It's pretty hard to get anything done with these guys.  

My half of the State

I went home for Memorial Day Weekend.  Fun was had.  I always want to say that California is two different states but that's just because where I'm from and where I go to school are two very different, very far away places.  Anyways, I had a billion fun.  Good things.  Good good things.

THE BEACH.  I've been looking forward to going to the beach for what seems like a billion years.  To me, the beach is summer and carefree and sunburn and almost everything that I love about Southern California.  And I have kind of been converted to Zuma beach (yes, Camille, you can do a little victory dance right now). It's so clean and not very crowded and there's always the fun chance that you will see celebrities while there.  Anyways, as desired, I got lobsterfied.  Proof:

I don't mean to be inappropriate, I just mean to show off my tan lines and the general pink color of my skin.  It was way worse on Saturday, I promise.  We also ran into a little ... erm ... trouble getting home, but that's not really a story I wan to tell because it is neither entertaining nor something I want to brag about.  Unless you like laughing in the face of the entire Gamboa family.
Also, this picture is meant to show off my cool shirt, which is actually Luc's shirt that got packed with my clothes because we both have the super organizational skills of throwing our clothes on the floor after wearing them and I was exiled to Luc's room while I was home.  But the point is, I love wearing men's clothes.  I hope my future husband is ok with that because I definitely plan on wearing his clothes.  They are sooooo comfortable.

Anyways, I also spent the weekend GETTING FOOD.  We're talking Indian food, Mediterranean food, arroz con leche, zucchini bread, chocolate chip cookies, basically an average weekend at my house.
But then my Mom and I went to an aerobics class to try and undo a little of the damage, and let me tell you, I am still feeling it.  I never knew I had so many muscles in my lower back that could be sore. It's really cramping my style (so much pun intended that it's actually only funny to make fun of me for telling that joke).

Also featured were the traditional Disney movie Sunday.  And when it's traditional, it means that I fall asleep 20-25 minutes into the movie.  In my defense, Shia LaBeouf was not exciting before Transformers.  Although holes was pretty good. Or at least the first 20 minutes were.  Haha

Come a looong way, haven't we Shia?

Then, because it was a patriotic holiday, my family celebrated as we always do: with a Mexican BBQ.  Which usually means tripas, but this time only meant carne asada.  And grilled papas (potatoes), and guacamole.  I love guacamole.  It should be a condiment like ketchup: served EVERYWHERE.
I love my family's little tradition.  Mostly because I love Mexican food.

In other glorious news, I no longer live alone.  Hopefully, my livin solo days are done forever. If this were a video game, I would get points added to my mood.  That analogy sucks, but seriously, living with people is awesome.
Celebrate:

This is exactly how I celebrate.  It is even more awesome than this picture.  I know, hard to believe.  

Driving Back to Stanford (aka BAD)

I went home for Memorial Day Weekend and in general, fun was had.  But that is a future post.  Today's post is on the drive back to Leland Stanford Junior University. (No it is not a junior university, it is just named after Leland Stanford Junior, thank you very much).

OK well first off, I hate this drive.  The drive from the LA area to Stanford is probably the only thing that I regularly do that I absolutely hate.  Well, I also hate exercising, but sometimes I kind of like it too.  This drive just sucks.

I have made that drive in the dead of night almost every time I've done it.  I have made that drive while trying to suppress the urge to throw up.  I have made that drive 11 times now, and 9 of those I was completely alone.  All of those in the last 9 months.  And more than once on that drive, I have shed tears and vowed never to drive ever again.  It is a cursed drive, I promise.

6 hours.  6 hours alone is enough to make me act a little bit crazy, but 6 hours driving is just really taxing on my soul.  But of course at the end of Memorial Day Weekend, the drive didn't take just 6 hours, it tool an entire 8 hours.  8 HOURS!!  Oh my goodness, the bad state of mind that I was into by the time I had finished the drive.

Right after the Grapevine (it's a real city, but you better believe my family makes jokes about things they heard in that area at every possible opportunity), there was an accident on the 5 which was actually cleared by the time I got there.  But because the accident occurred about 10 miles before a construction site, I was in stop and go traffic on a highway (with a speed limit of 70 mph, mind you) for one and a half hours.

Actually, this part wasn't that bad.  I spent the first half of the time being Ms. Grumpy-Car (my last name is Grumpy, and my husband's is car, but I'm sort of a feminist so I go with the hyphen), but then I decided that was stupid.  And since I discovered three cd's that I had forgotten about in Lolita (my car, who is now clean inside and kind of on the outside too), I decided it was time for a one-girl jam sesh.  Three minutes into that, a car full of 17-yr-old boys was next to me and decided I was hilarious.  So they started trying to attract my attention.  Which ended up with a few cat calls and kissy faces in my direction.  Which, you know, I will always take the ego boost.
But their mistake was to encourage me.  Because after they were safely out of sight, I decided to up the ante. There was like choreography and attitude in my ogjs (one-girl jam sesh, duh).  So I'm just doing my own thing and appreciating the fact that I can enjoy myself even when I am stuck in a billion (and I mean a billionnnn) traffic.  Then I realized the truck full of guys probably 5-10 years older than me on my left was taping me using their iphone.  Somewhere, there is probably a youtube video of my dance moves and insane vocal stylings titled something like "Girl stuck in traffic sings and dances in car"  or something else creative like that. When I saw them I was overcome with a fit of the giggles, which of course started the whole truck of guys in laughing.   At least I improved someone's traffic experience.

So yeah, traffic.  But as the hours wore on, my positive attitude was replaced with tiredness and loneliness (when did I turn into one of those girls who hates to be alone so much?) and the Dr. Pepper I had gotten at the gas station was almost all sparkling water and not very much of the syrup that makes it DP.  And I got sooo emotional.  It all just took it's toll.  I realized around 10 pm that normally I would be back at Le Stanford in my cozy bed by then and then around that time I came upon the second accident of the drive.

And it was a gnarly accident.  I'm pretty sure someone died based on the wreckage I saw, although I'm pretty sure I got there before the authorities did.  But I was so sucked dry from the drive, that I just started crying.  Like uncontrollably.  Ok, it was in control because I was still good to drive, but I just hated everything about that moment.  I don't really like crying, or most definitely admitting to crying, but it was just too much.  Then Green Eyes came on in my car and it made me feel sad in a good way and I listened to it about a billion thousand times.  Literally, 25 or more times.

Sorry for a long, wordy, complainy post, but you didn't have to read it if you didn't want to.  But there is hope.  Today is a new day, I am alive, and Lolita and I made it back to the Stans.

But I do have to make the drive one more time in then next 1.5 weeks, sooo.  If I have some sort of emotional breakdown around then, you'll know why.

Summer Lovin'

You wouldn't believe how excited I am for this summer.  More excited than I am for practically anything else right now.  Well, that's false.  But I'm still PRETTY excited.  (Yeah, I used all caps, so what?)

This summer I am going home.  It's weird how my concept of home changes.  When I had a roommate, I was starting to feel like Stanford was home.  I still love it here, but coming back to my room everyday doesn't really feel like home.  It could be because half of my room has empty walls and a weird, uncomfortable and bare blue mattress.  It doesn't exactly give off a home-y vibe.

Oh the digressions of my brain.

Anyways, to Upland I go.  In about 8 weeks, that is.  I have big plans for this summer.  I hope I get through all the stuff that I want to.

Hopefully, the internship that I wan this summer will pull through and I'll be able to have a grand ol' time learning le business skillz and whatnot.  We'll see.  I'm afraid to count my chicks before they hatch on this one.

But then, since I am recently sort of becoming a foodie (Thanks K-Trizz), I was hoping to get a job as a hostess or the likes at some restaurant.  Just so I can get a feel for restaurants and a little extra cash in my pocket.  Which Stanford can then take away from me in the fall.

And then here's the part where I will (hopefully) never be bored or without anything to do,  because I have made a list of things I want to do during the summer.
I want to:

• Learn to cook a lot of dishes that are yummy and healthy and flavorful.  
• Go the Beach about a billion times.  Or like 4+
• Get tan.  Like, actually look like I'm Mexican tan.  
• Learn all the spices that are somewhat common.
• Have a street art photoshoot in L.A.  I'm sort of obsessed with street art.  
• Explore Griffith Park especially the Observatory.
• Go to the Getty Museum
• Read through the Book of Mormon start to finish.  
• Go to the Santa Monica 3rd Street Promenade
• Go to the Grove and hear some free music
• Hear Friday Night Jazz at LACMA
• Hit up the Garment District in LA

It's crazy how I've lived so close to LA all my life and never seen a lot of these things.  Basically every Saturday of the whole summer will be a day trip for me, so hopefully I can get some friends to come along with me.

Also, I made this terribly awesome joke in a TUSB post and I'm afraid no one will ever see it, so I'm putting it here: Studies show that if you eat a bucket of spinach at every meal, you will grow big and strong.  (You have to click the link to get the joke).

And pictures make every blog post better, right?

This is relevant because he's at the beach.  

This is relevant because it's my blog and it's a picture of me!

This is not relevant.  

The End.  

And Finally, Boston

I've been putting off telling the Boston stories for a while because it means I probably have to stop talking about my crazy awesome spring break trip.
That and because by the time we got to Boston we had figured out travelling and we didn't do any stupid things any more.  Haha jk.  We just had friends in Boston to take care of us everywhere so we didn't really have too much of an opportunity to get lost or be starving or feel a little bit out of control.

Some of my Boston favorites were:

Canolis from Mike's Pastry two days in a row.  Thank goodness we were walking like 8 miles a day.  

Walking the Freedom Trail.  It starts with the old state building (I think it's called that - my memory is already starting to fade - boooo!)

Stopping to give ourselves some beauty treatment.  I turned into the face mask monster.  

And enjoying great seafood.  I'd never enjoyed a meal of seafood before that night.  New England does it right.  

This post doesn't have a cool story in it.  But Boston was soo incredibly awesome.  Everything there is deeply rooted in history and culture that has been that way for practically as long as America has been a country.  Besides there was the time KT and I bought a $7 brick of cheese and some focaccia from a little Italian place and ate it all for lunch.  Or when we went to the observatory telescopes in Harvard and got to see a great view of Boston and Cambridge.  

Boston is cool, yo

DC craziness

Oh the DC.  DC was, I'm not going to lie here, my least favorite of the three cities that I visited over Spring Break.  Although to be honest I'm not sure I really gave it a fair chance.  We were limited to public transportation, which was fine because the place we stayed at was about a quarter mile from the subway station. And also we basically limited ourselves to free attractions.

I guess I have to explain.  I love food.  I love to eat and I love trying new foods and I love the idea of sitting down to a meal with someone.  It's a social thing for me.  It's about sharing.  Kristin and I would go two different places for each meal just so that we could eat half of whatever we bought and then switch with the other person. And in New York, we ate out for every single meal.  And it got to be expensive.  New York is expensive.  So by the time we got to DC, we figured we had better slow down on the food expenditures.

So when we got to DC on Monday night, we had some time to kill, and decided to go grocery shopping.  We could buy sensible things and spend less in two days than we had on two meals in New York.  It was brilliant.  Here's where the fun began.

Fun thing Number 1:
The nearest grocery store to where we stayed was Whole Foods.  I think whole foods is great.  But also, every time I go there, I want to buy expensive cheese and some grapes to go with them and these crackers look so good, and is that curry I smell?  Which translates to not cheap.  So we decided to take an extra little walk to whatever grocery store that the Google Maps app on my phone said was closest.  It was about a ten minute walk.  But then again we were in Virginia. So Virginia decided to have some rain right then.  Correction, Virginia decided to have a thunder storm right then.  A thunderstorm that only lasted ten minutes, and, you guessed it, it chose the exact ten minutes that we were walking to the grocery store.

Contemplating the State of the Union, and also what my next meal would be.  

Only when we got there, it was more like a convenience store that comes with a gas station except there were no fountain drinks and there was no gas station.  Which not only had like negative selection, but was actually probably more expensive than going to whole foods.  So soaked and disappointed, we walked over to whole foods.  But we were good!  Despite being hungry enough to have way too many cheese samples to not even buy the cheese, we were like Ms. Don't spend money and Ms. Only buy the essentials.  We ended up getting some deli meat, bread, boring cheddar cheese, yogurt, a couple of apples, a couple of oranges, and a bunch of bananas.  The  bread and things turned into sandwiches, which we ate for lunch and dinner.  And the yogurt and bananas turned to breakfast.  And fruit for snacks.  Which brings me to.....


Fun Thing Number 2:
Day 1 of eat all the groceries worked out great.  Were were full all day and we were happy and we even got to go to the temple that night.  It was cheap and awesome.
But on day two, we ran out of turkey for the sandwiches (holy cow brains I have been spelling this word sandwhiches my whole life and that is wrong!).  But no worries!  We would make grilled cheese sandwiches (it is so weird to type) instead.  Except that we only had enough bread for three sandwiches.  One and a half each.  And we were out of snack fruit.  But we had a bag of nasty peanuts that we had bought for the bus ride to DC.  So as we made the grilled cheese's, we realized we were using a really funny burner after we had burnt all 3 of them.  And then we put them in a plastic bag, which turned into us having soggy, burnt sandwiched when we were hungry for lunch.  It was the saddest thing we had ever seen.  We walked though cafes at all the museum-y places and smelled the food and instead ate our yucky sandwiches and nasty peanuts.

Not so excited at museum Number 7.  

Besides this, DC is a LOT of museums.  Like 7 museums in 2 days a lot.  So by the time day 2 was ending, we were more than happy to meet some friends at Good Stuff Eatery to eat a properly cooked meal and enjoy something else besides reading a plaque about a dead person (I know I sound terribly insensitive right now).

This trip has soooo many pictures of food.  But the food was definitely a highlight.  

Honestly my favorite part was the temple.  It is such a gorgeous temple.  Not that there are ugly ones, but this one was breathtaking. 

Oh and I left all my toiletries (read: makeup) in NY on accident, so I get progressively more haggard looking in the pictures.  

New York City Stories

Oh my gosh NEW YORK CITY!!!  What a wonderful city.  It is awesome and there about a billion thousand things to do there.  Kristin and I had to squeeze whatever we could into 2 and a half days and we were pretty much shameless tourists.

 I know that hearing about other people's vacations can be capital b Boring, so I will spare you and only tell the stories of the ridiculous things we did.


Thing Number 1:  Stay with a complete stranger
Being the starving college students that we are, Kristin and I opted to not get hotel reservations for anywhere we went and instead depend on the kindness of others for a place to sleep.  Luckily we knew people in every city except NY!  So we ended up staying with a man named Mbe who is Nigerian and in his late 30s!  Not to mention, neither of us had ever met him before.  I make that sound SOO sketchy.  Haha.  But Mbe is a really good friend of one of Kristin's current roommates, so that is how we got that hookup.  Plus he is Mormon, so there is that automatic Mormon trust thing.  He had such a sweet place.  Here is the view from his apartment:

Yep, he lives on the corner of 110th and Central Park West on the 16th floor so his apartment literally overlooks the beauty of Central Park and then the city.  It was awesome.


Thing Number 2: Sleep on the subway
Trying to save money and minimize the time that we would stay in a stranger's house, we bought a red-eye flight from Friday night to Saturday Morning.  It left at 11 pm and got in at 7 am.  We figured we would be fine after a crappy 7 hours of sleep to go explore the city.  What we didn't realize that with the time change, a crappy 7 hours of sleep was really a crappy 4 hours of sleep.  So by 2 pm on Saturday afternoon, we were EXHAUSTED.  Like incoherent strings of words and going into free museums just for the warmth and not knowing where we were.  So we got on the subway for the sole purpose of taking a nap.
Because we were soo completely tired, and we had a Broadway play to go to that night, and we did NOT want to fall asleep for that (which is good because Memphis is now my favorite musical of the ones that I have seen).
We took a train as high as it would go, and then back downtown.  The only problem is we got interrupted by some teenage boys who came on to sing/play the guitar to "Come Together" by the Beatles for money.  And maybe I was just half-asleep, but they sounded really good. 
I do remember saying to Kristin, "Do you know who sleeps on subways?  Homeless people."  And then she responded, "Well, in NYC, we are pretty much homeless."

We were completely fine, and nothing got stolen (except I was wearing a pair of really cheap dangly earrings that are now missing, but if someone stole those I'm too impressed to be mad), but still, I don't think I'll do that again.


Thing Number 3:  Taking the Peep World bus. 
On Monday afternoon, Kristin and I got ready to take a Chinatown bus from NYC to DC.  We had looked up a super cheap bus that left from Penn Station that would take us from there to the Chinatown in DC.  So we got ready to head to "Chinatown Express"  for our trip.  When we got there, it was a restaurant.  A restaurant!  We were there at about 1:10, we hadn't yet bought a ticket, and the bus we wanted was supposed to leave at 1:30.  We frantically tried to find the bus and ask the Chinatown Express people if they knew where to go and figure out a way to get ourselves(and all of our stuff which we were carrying), over to DC.  Kristin turned the corner on 33rd to see a bus that had DC 2 NY written on the side and a line of people.  The bus was parked in front of this classy establishment:

It says Peep World, if you can't tell.  It ended up being $30 as long as we paid the driver right then, and in cash, but we got on the bus and made it DC without stopping or danger of being raped.  It was actually a really nice bus with free water and they played a really cheeeeeeesy Bruce Willis movie called Red on the way over.  It was actually quite enjoyable, despite the mass amounts of stress before getting on the bus when we didn't know if we would be able to go on or not.


So besides those 3 stories, and the normal getting lost in the subway system stories, I only have normal tourist stories about how much I LOOOOVED the bagels or the street food or watching Memphis.  Seriously, you should all go see Memphis.  It won 4 Tony's last year, so you don't just have to take my word for it. 

Oh New York City, I will miss you.  Hopefully some day I can live on you.

East Coast Tour!

Hello blog-lings!

Did you have an awesome time over the last two weeks?  The week before last was my finals week which was pretty much torture for me (it was probably my hardest finals week ever).
But then I went on an amazing tour of Boston, NY, and DC all in one week.  KTrone and I were super tourists.

Since I currently lack the mental capacity to put something cute and creative together, I will rely on the amazing foresight that KTrone had.  At the end of each day, we made a list of everything we did that day.  Probably a lot of it needs explaining, and it's kind of a long list, but I'm going to post all 8 lists.

Enjoy!:

First Saturday:

JFK -> Airtrain -> Trains to Mbe's

Tried to go to Times Square, B line off on weekends

World Trade Center

Times Square

Hotdogs
Tickets

Brooklyn

Grimaldi's

Awesome View

Train to Bull (Wall Street)

Battery Park

Native Museum

Nap on the subway

Dudes played music, "Come Together"

Katz's deli, food too expensive

Gelato in lower east side

Cool Earrings

Knish

Memphis

Magnolia Bakery

Sunday:

Church in the Temple

Mesa Grill!!

Jacque Torres

Garment District

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Central Park

Shower

Middle Eastern Street Food

Columbus Circle - Random Mall

Duane Reade

Indian Food

lost at 50th street station FOREVER

Mbe's

Monday:

Carnegie Deli - Too Expensive

Shoes

Times Square Bagels!

Mbe's, Stuff

Penn Station

Chinatown Express = Restaurant

Buss to DC

Cheesy Bruce Willis

Lost at Dupont Circle

Metro to Sarah's

Mason Building

Thunderstorm

Ghetto Grocery

Whole Foods Memory Lane

Tuesday:

Wait for mattress - bust

Holocaust Museum

American History

Natural History

Capitol

Washington Monument

State Signs - Pics

Big Lincoln

Meet Jared

Temple

Baptisms

Sachi and Julie

Georgetown

Wisemillers

home

silly

Wednesday:

Burnt Cheese Sandwhiches

Arlington - JFK, Unknown Soldier

Freer Art

African Art

Air and Space

National Archives

nasty peanuts

Natural History

Good Stuff Eatery

Thursday: 

King Street - Potomac

Bruegger's Bagels 

flight to Boston

Scott Runyon

Faneuil Hall

Driving Tour

Mike's Pastry/ North End

Back Bay

Newbury ST

Whitney!

BYU game

hangin out

shower

Friday:

Freedom Trail

USS Constitution tour

Italian Grocery Store - bread and cheese

Mike's Pastry

Hahvahd

Ruth Tour/ Observatory

Institute

Burdick's hot chocolate/canoli

Walden Pond

Temple

Lexington/Concord

Fenway

Legal Seafood

JP Lick's Ice Cream

Hangin out' / bed

Saturday:

Yummy apple pancakes and good sauce

airport

Phoenix

starving - Becky

starving - Judy

best friends

San Diego

San Jose

Timmy, Jair

Chipotle

Grocery Store

HOME - exhaustion / east coast time