breathtaking

Sailor Lake, Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

Photo by unknown

 Southern Oregon Coast

Photo by Jesse Estes

 Maelstrom in Kauai, Hawaii

Photo by PatrickSmithPhotography

turkey weekend

My weekend was filled with the abundance of eating, shopping, and sleeping that comes with Thanksgiving as an American.

I was crazy enough to suggest going to the Moonlight Madness event at Citadel Outlets on Thanksgiving evening, hoping to get an early start on the insanity that is normally reserved for Black Friday. I left my house at 9:20pm to make it to the event which was starting at 10:00pm. While it didn't take that long to reach the freeway exit, it took an entire hour just to get out! By the time I found parking (which was relatively painless), it was 11:00pm. Then we had to line up just to get into the stores. Tired and defeated after two hours of not accomplishing anything, we hopped back in my car and made for home. It only took me 14 minutes to get back.

"Never again!" I had sworn to myself. Except...

...I slept for 3 hours and went on another mission, hellbent on satisfying my Black Friday shoplust. But finding good deals just wasn't in the cards this year. Everything I purchased was at regular price, with the exception of one ugly-with-potential sweater from H&M that only managed to reel me in because it was so cozy when I tried it on (I am powerless to soft things). Will try to post some pictures of my haul soon.

Saturday night featured a Thanksgiving potluck with friends, a dinner that's become an annual tradition spent at Greg's house where everyone has a jolly time getting fat and wasted. The highlights of the evening were two gloriously juicy, tender deep-fried turkeys:

The skin was the best part! Salty and greasy!

The lowlight of the evening was having to take care of Greg after he had waaay too much to drink, holding him upright after he began vomiting so that he wouldn't choke on it while out cold, only to end up getting it all over my arm. Thanks, friend!

the northern capital

I wish I had been more diligent about documenting my visit with J. But there's not much to photograph when you're just gaming or shopping. As for the food...well, I fully intended to take pictures but by the time I remembered I had a camera, everything was either already half-eaten or in my/someone else's tummy.

Mountain of shaved ice covered in red bean, condensed milk, and fruit

An Orgasm during Happy Hour...*cough* one of many *cough*

Not an Apple advertisement. I just happened to like the pink glow cast by the adjacent screen.

Hot French onion soup topped with bread and melted cheese

A really juicy salmon fillet with a butter lemon sauce garnished with tomato wedges dipped in pesto

My Chocolate Devotion and J's Founder's Favorite in chocolate-dipped waffle cones

View of the city through a dirty window, from 80 stories up

J and I went to a cozy British(?) establishment for afternoon tea, but I don't have clear pictures of our sandwiches, scones, and pastries, so...have some pictures of the surrounding area instead.

All the lights were beginning to turn on by the time we finished.

It got dark fast and we promptly boarded the subway to escape the chilly evening air.

Maybe I'm crazy to say this as someone who revels in the weightless blanket of indoor heating once it drops below 60 outside, but I kind of miss the brisk 40s we had abroad (legitimately cold, I'd say). Or maybe...I just miss the warmth of being held in the midst of it.

southern sun, part 1

I'm going to see J in less than three weeks! So excited!

Okay, so the weather in LA has been really erratic. A couple weekends ago, we had some gorgeous sunsets and I managed to snap a few shots one day, before the colors faded into darkness.

Afterwards, a storm rolled in and wrapped us in wintery (for SoCal) 50-degree temperatures before jerking us into a 90-degree heatwave a few days later. Whiplash, anyone?

summer nights

After an uneventful start to the month of August, life finally picked up its pace again this past week, beginning with a girls' night out with Elise, Leigh, and Irene. (These days, the BFF is nowhere to be found and sometimes I'm not sure how that makes me feel.)

Dinner at California Pizza Kitchen in Glendale followed by some browsing at the Glendale Galleria and Americana made for a pretty low-key evening, which seemed appropriate for a Wednesday night. That didn't prevent Leigh and me from sharing a strawberry mojito though, and I'm glad we ordered it because it was really delicious!

Doesn't it look pretty?
Photo courtesy of Leigh

Another highlight of dinner was dessert (of course). It's probably a good thing that we split the tiramisu four ways--I totally could've put down the whole thing by myself, but my waistline would've been none too happy about that.

Cool and creamy, with rum-soaked ladyfingers. Yum!
Photo courtesy of Leigh

Fast forward to Friday night and we kicked off the weekend with a birthday celebration for one of Leigh's friends. The plan was to check out Supper Club in Hollywood, which is apparently a pricey restaurant in the early hours of evening that transforms into a club come 10:30pm.

For one reason or another, we weren't able to secure a table and bottle service there like the birthday girl had wanted. So we migrated to another club down the street but I was too preoccupied with trying to refrain from pissing myself for the thirty minutes we were in line to check what the place was called (the unfortunate side effect of having only 10 minutes to pregame with mixed drinks). By the time we were finally granted admittance, I made a beeline for the restroom and only narrowly avoided giving myself a UTI for holding it in so long. Leigh promptly ordered us some AMFs, and wow. They make'em really strong here, but considering they charged $15 for each one, that is expected.

Compared to all the other women walking around, I felt really modest in my outfit. They say classy > slutty, but I think being slutty gets you better results in environments like Hollywood, where everything's more about raw sex appeal than sophisticated allure. Still, I wasn't in the mood to readjust my outfit all night for fear of spillage, so I went the conservative route.

Forever 21 dress, belt, and earrings (not shown), Target tights, Charlotte Russe heels

Oddly enough, my theory that guys tend not to hit on bespectacled girls did not hold true that night. Not one, but TWO guys attempted to win me over by, ironically, commenting on how hot my glasses were. Sloppy execution, but A for effort I suppose. Must do some more field testing before I can prove/disprove my theory. Will report back.

Last night I ventured out to Blitz Ultra Lounge in Alhambra to get drinks with a friend I hadn't seen in months. We had a couple Buttery Nipple shots (which were sinfully good, by the way) and I sipped on a cranberry vodka afterward. Totally didn't mean to drink that much since I had to drive myself home early, but it helped to make dancing on the deserted dance floor a lot less awkward.

The transitions were kind of sloppy and the music was much too loud, making it impossible to have a conversation even whilst shouting directly into each others' ears, but the crowd seemed friendly enough. I can't comment too much more since I left right when the place started to fill up, so I'll have to try this place again some other time to get a better feel for it.

I didn't have time to take an outfit picture, but since it was a repeat of what I've worn before, here's a crappy picture of it taken back in January. Tights are shown, but it was warm enough outside for me to ditch them last night.

Express shirt bought from China, Forever 21 belt, H&M geometric skirt, gifted Urban Outfitters watch necklace

vacation photo diary

...okay, more like a food diary.

World of Color at Disney's California Adventure


Rainbow Roll and Roppongi Roll (basically a shrimp tempura roll topped with spicy tuna and eel) at Roppongi in La Jolla. We were celebrating our 40th monthaversary :)


Chicken Satay with sweet peanut sauce at Roppongi in La Jolla


Lychee Martini at Roppongi in La Jolla. This alone got me buzzed. It had been a while since I last got drunk.


Hazelnut Truffles at Roppongi in La Jolla. They might not look like much, but I cannot stress enough how absolutely fucking amazing these tasted. I have never had a truffle explode into warm, gooey, chocolatey goodness in my mouth...and hazelnut-flavored to boot! Mouth-gasm, if ever there was one. Oh, they were also complimentary! :D


Stuffed French Toast at The Cottage in La Jolla


Eggs Benedict at The Cottage in La Jolla


La Jolla Shores, where J got horribly sunburned because he wasn't thorough enough with the sunblock. I'll never let him live it down :P


The name escapes me, but it's like a tortilla and meant to be dipped in that bowl of curry. Served at Penang in West Covina.


Black sticky rice with coconut milk. It looks unimpressive and possibly even unappetizing, but it's actually quite good and has a hint of red bean (always a plus in my book!). Served at Penang in West Covina.


Turkey Club served with plantain chips at Porto's Bakery & Cafe in Glendale. J also got a potato ball and shared it with me, but it was so good that I forgot to take a picture before we gobbled it up. Oops. (This actually happened a lot during our two weeks together.)


Egg noodles with peanut sauce at Ding's Garden in Rowland Heights. We ordered it medium spicy. Yummy.


Egg noodles with beef and brown sauce at Ding's Garden in Rowland Heights. My favorite!


Sunset on the 10-W towards LA

I swear we also did other things besides eat a lot, but I think I'll save that for another post.

optimistic

Changes are coming.


It's been too long since I've gone back.

Summer is slowly inching its way back to southern California.

I've taken the first step towards breaking away from the Prison, otherwise known as my office.

Best of all, J will be here to visit soon.


I can't wait to see this view again.

Things are looking bright.

around LA

Just wanted to do a quick post about my Saturday.

Afternoon: Griffith Observatory

The Hollywood sign in the distance

Downtown LA in the distance

I like how the terrain looked here.

• Cold and shitty weather
• Quality time with Mom
• Organic dark roast coffee & dark chocolate brownie
• Must come back: 1) at night, 2) when the weather's nicer & warmer, and/or 3) with J

Night: V Lounge

Looked better than they tasted.

• Even colder and shittier weather
• Good company, including a wasted birthday boy
• LA Waters that tasted like grape medicine (Was that intentional? I guess the quality of its taste lives up to that of its namesake...)
• Not sure I'd recommend this venue. People didn't start showing up until 11pm or so, which meant it was literally empty for an hour after we got there.

comic con

My long-time friend, Sweet Talker, invited me out to Comic Con in Anaheim this weekend and I decided to accept since I had never been. I was pretty excited, even though I figured it wouldn't be anywhere near the scale of San Diego's Comic Con. Oh well, you gotta start somewhere.

I saw cute things!

The only person I really wanted to see was Tricia Helfer, but when she finally appeared it turned out that she was only doing autographs...at $30 each. They were doing a photo op later that day and probably charging an equally obscene amount. And I probably would've been willing to pay, but then again...losing monies to juxtapose myself with her? My ego said no thanks.

I did, however, manage to snap a stealthy photo when nobody was looking. Creepy, no?

After having satisfied my fangirl imperative, I obliged ST's need for food and together we trekked over to Mimi's Cafe to grab a bite to eat. This place garnered good reviews on Yelp, so it seemed like a good time to try it out. I absolutely looove spinach and artichoke dip and once I saw that it was a menu item, I already knew what I was going to order.

I love when it's served with bread instead of chips!

The dip was rich and full of flavor, which went quite well with the crispy, garlic-y goodness of the bread. We also split a bottle of white wine and being the lightweight that I am, two (or was it three?) glasses were more than enough to put me in a good place for the rest of the afternoon.

We went back to the convention and walked around a while longer but left shortly thereafter in search of ice cream. It was such a nice day outside that it would've been a crime NOT to get some frozen treats. A quick search on Yelp turned up a place nearby called Joe's Italian Ice. Apparently their specialty is --you guessed it--Italian ice. Behold...!

ST's strawberry Joe Latti and my mocha almond fudge ice cream

The Joe Latti is Italian ice layered with soft-serve ice cream and is freakin' delicious. If you're in the area, I definitely recommend giving it a try!

So passed a pleasant day of eating and talking, but now I've found myself in a bit of a bind. You see, I've been friends with ST for quite a number of years and while I do enjoy his company, I'm afraid he enjoys mine in a different way. A part of me wonders whether he's just biding his time until I happen upon singlehood again and hoping that he can be the one to swoop in and pick up the pieces...

Perhaps I should just tell him I'm a lesbian and be done with it. You think he'd buy that?

saturday sundae

Groupons are amazing. A few months ago, I purchased one for ice cream (no surprise there) at LA Creamery Artisan Ice Cream in Glendale and finally had the chance to use it today.

Even though I'm a self-proclaimed dessert fiend, the size of my stomach is always the limiting factor in how much I can consume in one sitting. No matter how much I may have the appetite for it, I can't shouldn't eat $10 worth of ice cream by myself so I decided to share with a friend.

After much sampling and deliberation, we each went for the Fudgey Brownie Sundae. Two scoops of ice cream topped with chewy bites of crumbled brownie, dark chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, candied pecans and whipped cream for $5.95. I chose a scoop of Coffee and Milk Chocolate-Guinness while my friend got Rice Pudding and Saffron Vanilla.

It was an orgasm-inducing experience and worth every penny.

The weather couldn't have been more perfect for ice cream. Summer's on its way.

ETA:
I also attended a birthday gathering where food, alcohol, and good times were had by all. Though I normally avoid beer like the plague, I was peer-pressured into trying a Blue Moon for the first time. Garnished with a slice of orange, it was probably the best beer I've ever had.

happy valentine's day

Imagine my surprise when a nice delivery man brought these to me while I was at work:

...even when he's so far away.

Thank you, J, for brightening up my day. Or my life, whichever .

pit stop

It's hard to have drive when you have no direction. I want to give my life some meaning and find something that motivates me enough to pull me forward...because I'm getting tired of only being pushed forward. But what's worth gravitating toward?

Mid-day drive on new year's eve, 2010

I've been feeling so unfulfilled lately. And it's made me wonder whether I would feel more at peace with my situation if I was more spiritual. The idea that there's something beyond our reality is very comforting. Even if life is shitty, I'd at least feel like there's a reason for it, even if it's beyond my understanding right now. You know what I mean? But because I don't prescribe to any religion, I tend to function under the assumption that this life is all I have and once I've lived it, there's nothing else. Can you see how that might be a little cold and depressing?

As I've expressed before though, I don't want to dive into a religion for the express purpose of seeking comfort. I'm sure many people find their spirituality this way, which is fine. But it feels insincere and irreverent.

To be honest, I'm a little afraid of embracing a religion because it'll become yet another part of me that I'll have to take responsibility for. And for this reason, I really admire people who can logically justify and firmly hold onto their religious beliefs. It takes courage to defend what you believe in.

There's no real point to this post except that I have a lot of thoughts and feelings that I need to work through.