I HAVE MOVETH!

i'm back!

I've been MIA from life the past couple days because I've been packing, disassembling/reassembling furniture, hauling boxes and getting paint all over my hair. After 2 bruises and 3 days of major arm and leg workouts, I'm (almost) done moving!!

I love my room, I love my kitchen, I love my roommates. So happy. :) Now the only thing I have left to do is tell my mom that my roommates are actually guys.

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p.s. Counted my bruises. 9 total. Geez.

Beautiful Holga

ready to fly - november 2010

Life through the lens of a Holga becomes a different type of beautiful. When you're shooting, you really don't know what you'll get until it's been developed. It's like Christmas morning when you finally get to see the results. It's also quite like a box of nuts & chews chocolates (my favorite kind).

A YFT Christmas

<3

things i'm thankful for:

breakfast/lunch/dinner with family

oversized fuzzy socks

hot tea of various kinds

good reads (current read: Me Talk Pretty One Day)

waking up to a friendly furry face

friendships that keep getting better and better

compassionate bosses

letters from overseas, over mountains, over valleys

the Lord's grace and mercy (keeping us safe during accidents and rainstorms; keeping us sane during the holiday rush hours)

before she fell asleep, foxy told me that she also wanted to wish you all a merry christmas. 

Reflect & Plan

I get high from planning. I'm feeling a little light headed even thinking about it right now, actually. For me, planning for the new year is a gift in itself. Merry Christmas to meeee.

Just below are two major suppliers for my planning addiction. This is for my fellow planners/goal-getters.

1) The Perpetual Planner by {paper & type}

my new toy!

I've come across many planners in my day as a planner addict. I could probably even claim that I'm a planner collector seeing that I have about 2 boxes worth in my small studio apartment. That's like 10% of my space.
This, right here, is my favorite of them all. The Goldilocks of planners. Not too big, not too small, just the right size to carry around everywhere. And I love the simplicity and functionality of the structure. I love it so much, I wish we lived in multiple parallel universes so I can have a planner for each universe.


2) Annual Review by Chris Guillebeau of The Art of Non-Conformity

he's living the dream

This guy reminds me of a more artsy version of Tim Ferris. I'm sure they're friends. They probably hang out together during their 4-hour workweeks somewhere in the mountains of Tibet, Chris sipping on yak's milk while he watches Tim practicing Tai Chi with a 102 year old nainai. Oh, how I wish to join them someday.
So Chris - he's adapted the well known business practice of the annual review to plan and set goals for his life every year. He uses his own examples and also has a template for folks to use.


Yay! Let's all get high together!

All I Need

all i need on a cold winter's night

Bright yellow sun dress - check

Soft white rug - check

Sound of raindrops - check

Gingerbread house - check

David Sedaris' short stories - check

Pitcher of sangria - check

Billie Holiday on the stereo - check

♥ Happy Holidays ♥


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sidenote: I sent a friend request to my favorite chef, Ben Bailly, on Facebook today. I hope he accepts. Ee!

Post-Crash Update

While on lunch break yesterday, I told my awesome coworker, J, the nitty gritty details of my accident. Like where I was when it happened, what the girl who hit me looked like, et cetera et cetera. Later, J went to her boyfriend's dinner party and during dinner, this one girl mentioned that she scratched her car in an accident. And another girl immediately commented, "That's nothing, I ran into a girl's car yesterday, and I hit two of her
doors." And J yelled, "Did it happen on Melrose??" And the girl responded,"How'd you know?!!"
 

SMALL WORLD.

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Sidenote: I am now the APEX Director of Community Service for 2011! Volunteers unite.

Knives

Quote of the day: "Parents always have the best knives."

Seriously, by the time you're a parent, you (hopefully) have enough experience to know that investing in a fantastic knife makes life a whole lot easier.

Please, people, get rid of your ikea knives.

Did that really just happen?

Despite popular belief, my life is not always filled with yft, dates with myself and eight-legged soulmates. I experienced my first car accident yesterday. It wasn't nearly as gut-wrenchingly scary as I had always imagined it to be. Perhaps it was because I was in shock. It felt surreal....like, "Did that girl really just hit me? No way. Is this real life? Am I hurt? Did I just get hit? Why am I hungry?" I was very surprised how level-headed and calm I was dealing with everything. Post-accident, I wrote down every possible detail including street names and store fronts and took photos of everyyyything.

I'm just so thankful of God's mercy. No one got hurt! So after all the calls to family and my insurance company (go Farmer's!), I celebrated by going to the APEX elections, ate some chocolate and Porto's and kicked butt (or at least I hope so) at my interview.

P.S. I adore my gbf. He commented, "Now your car has character." 

BACONIZE

I'm so lucky to have rockstar-status/super talented friends. My fellow catering partner aka food-partner-in-crime, Tsz, is not only a great cook but she is also a fantastic artist. Combine those two talents and you get BACON greeting cards.

The only way this could get any better is if it smelled like bacon.

Up close and personal.

I couldn't resist (um, it's bacon) so I purchased some at $1/card. Let me know if you'd like some! Or you can directly email her at gastrophoria@gmail.com.

Trash Becomes Treasure

What do you do when you have a ridiculous stack of food porn laying around in your apartment? Go nuts and ogle? Done. Ogle again? Done and done.
Then what? Trash them?

No, fool. You share the love. Like this:

Who wouldn't want a gift wrapped in succulent pork belly and dill??

Box stuffed with food porn. Oh yes. This one got shipped to the foodie world of Singapore. Wish I could've gone with the box.

P.S. I ate my first cricket this weekend. Chile-limon flavored, from Guelaguetza. Much chewier than I had imagined. 

Grace

I was refreshed tonight. The Lord provides. :)

My love for Anthony Bourdain

Reason No. 1 why I love Anthony Bourdain:

Necessity is the engine that has driven all great cuisine throughout history. 

While the dumbass aristrocracy was gorging themselves on filet minion and lobster, the masses had to learn how to cook. How to take a chunk of neck or shank and to turn it into something magical. 

And over pots of steaming economy cuts, they planned a revolution. - A.Bourdain

From one of the No Reservations episodes. I wrote this down in my notebook a couple months ago when I heard him say this. Just reread it and wanted to share with you all. Love. 

---

Currently listening:

My friend just sent me this acoustic version. Seriously. Yeah, seriously.

The Story Behind Mister Blue

with our powers combineeeed...

Frequently Asked Questions 

What's with the baguette?

If you had to ask this question, that means you really do not know the power of the baguette. 

How did you tame the spider?

Despite Mister Blue's scary stature and his mean reputation on the streetz, he was actually quite the timid one. I only had to feed him a few jellybellies for him to allow me access to his back. He seemed to really enjoy the popcorn flavored jellybellies. 

What are you wearing?

A blue astronaut jumpsuit. It was fate that brought me to Mister Blue on the day I decided to wear my blue astronaut jumpsuit. Cuz we all know, matchy matchy = fate!

What were you attacking?

We don't attack. We defend.

Where were you going?
Not very observant, are we? We were headed towards the ATM.

Who Cares if It's Winter

Sometimes Oftentimes, YFT includes two scoops of icecream.

my favorite part is the chocolate at the bottom of the cone

DUDE!

Three  interesting things I learned this morning:

1) Currently, women have more mentors but men get more promotions.

2) Men's mentors are in higher level positions than women's mentors.

3) Two thirds of America's families are partially or fully supported by working women.

Paraphrased from a presentation given by Ilene Lang, President & CEO of Catalyst.

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I also won a $25 gift card to Trader Joe's. Muhaha. More burratta for my tummy.

Mm, So Toasty

My booty's been mighty toasty in mornings thanks to seat warmers. I'm grateful for my seat warmers.

The time I drove to Compton

You're now about to witness the strength of street knowledge.

I was looking for my boss. The founder/CEO of our agency.

My plan to quickly drop by his house for a work-related meeting turned into a nightmare-ish one hour long stressventure that made me reflect on my work ethic and fear for my life. In the end, it was quite simple - he had mistyped his address, and the address he initially gave me did not exist in real life but existed in two different places on stupid google maps. But you see, I was not aware of this until he called me on my way home. 

So in between me getting in the car to drive to his place and the call he FINALLY made back to me, I:

-drove around the same neighborhood 5 times, scaring one gardening grandma who walked inside her house on my third round, looking back at me twice to make sure I wasn't getting out of my car.

-drove to two different zip codes, one being in the heart of Compton

-called my boss 6 times and left 2 voicemails

-questioned if my boss really lived in Compton and convinced myself that if any boss lived in Compton, it would be my boss because he lived there to really be "one" with the community.

-went to a post office and creepily asked where my boss' house was

-wondered if I was really that blind/stupid to be unable to find a darn house

-wondered how long I should search for my boss' house before it was okay for me to give up

-wondered if giving up would reflect poorly on my work ethic

-wondered if i passed the test. If it was a test.

-almost pissed my pants when a homeless guy knocked on my window while I was looking down at my phone to call my boss

-saw a fight take place between neighbors/sisters/lovers? Hair was pulled.

-vowed never to park on a random street in Compton ever again

-wrote an email to my boss describing how I risked my life for him

-deleted the first email and wrote a serious email that I really did try looking for his house and that I was going home since it was getting quite dark

-stopped by Popeye's because I really really needed to pee, and left the place with a bucket of fried chicken and still needing to pee (the bathroom was unusable).

What I learned:

-my boss does NOT live in Compton no matter how empathetic he is

-Popeye's from Compton tastes better (maybe because I risked my life for it)

-I need a raise

P.S. For the abridged version of this story, go here.

P.P.S. There was a bullet proof glass between me and the cash register/food pick-up area at Popeye's.

Intense.

Intense like this picture...

Me, post-Compton.

confession #3

i am addicted to final fantasy. been playing it on the iphone for 3 days straight, underneath my blanket until the wee hours of the night.

confession #2

Another confession. I watched the same movie two nights in a row and lied about it.

I had been waiting to watch this particular movie for days that actually seemed like years, and through the magical wonders of gchat, I discovered my friend shared the same burning desire. So we set a date to go watch it. Now, a week later, friend number two asked if I wanted to watch the movie. I immediately replied "YES! A thousand times YES," (well, I just said Yes, though I was thinking the former). In my blinding excitment, I momentarily and selectively forgot that I had already set a date with friend number one.
So I went with my friend number two and a few other folks and I watched, I laughed, I cringed, I almost hurled, I laughed some more and loved it. Then the following day, friend number one, who I had initially planned to watch the movie with, texted me, "Ready for the movie tonight?" By then it was already too late to back out without looking like a horrible horrible person, so I went again, I watched again, I fake laughed, faked cringed and fake laughed some more...and you know what? Watching it the second time made me appreciate the movie even more.

There really is no moral of the story here. I just wasted 1-5 minutes of your time, depending on how fast you read.

confession

I have a confession. ALL of my edible plants died. Too much travel + temperamental Los Angeles weather = failure. It's better this way since I'm moving to a non-patio apartment very soon. So friggin' excited. Not about the dead plants. About the new apartment. Woot. 

obsession

i'm going through a strange/awesome cauliflower phase.strange because i have a serious case of food attention deficit disorder. awesome because roasted cauliflowers are so damn tasty. i've had it almost every single day for the past week.

my wild exploration into the world of roasted cauliflowers
tues: sea salt + cracked pepper + olive oil + lemon zest
wed: cracked pepper + freshly grated parmesan cheese
thurs: sea salt + cracked pepper + curry powder + butterrrrrrrr cuz it's thanksgiving
fri: cracked pepper + the extra smelly crumbly kraft parmesan cheese that comes in that green cylindrical tube cuz my parents house did not carry real parmesan
sat: plain cuz i just wanted to see if it was still tasty; ended up putting garlic salt on it
sun: sea salt + curry powder + olive oil
mon: sea salt + white truffle oil cuz i'm a high roller
tues: no cauliflower; almost though, almost

stranger danger or yummy in my tummy?

a stranger on yelp asked me out on a date to go eat blood sausages.

i almost said yes. i love blood sausages.