Wicked!

Can we squeal EXCITED all at the same time? On Friday I'm going to see Wicked again for the first time in four years. While I'm there I will also be trying to get tickets to go again next week for my mom's birthday. This week's showing was kind of a spur of the moment thing since my friend Nick and I were talking about it. He hadn't seen it yet, but had heard good things about it. I, on the other hand, love the musical so I plain wanted to see it! My dad had sent me an email from Travelzoo.com about a promotion that the Orpheum was having until the end of October. We got out tickets for $75 instead of the regular $100. How awesome is that? So this week I'm taking him out and I think that he wants to reciprocate by taking me to Napa soon for a nice lunch. I'm sure it will be splendid. Anyway, I'm super excited to see Wicked and get all dressed up. In my opinion, people don't dress up enough to go to the theater anymore. It is a shame. Nick and I will be dressing up. Hahah! Take that overly casual people! ...It could also be that I was going to see musicals in Schenectady, NY, which is a tiny little town. SF is probably way different. Really, I'm just wearing work attire and he is wearing a suit. It sure beats the sweats I wear everyday and the jeans that he wears. It is nice to dress up every once in a while. This week I went out and got myself a new pair of slacks to wear with an awesome top that I got in DC when I was visiting Josie (as if I didn't have enough slacks already). As it turns out, I think I'll wear the nice top for when I go see the show with my family instead. I will, however, still wear the slacks.

This past weekend my dad, Mrs. Ryan, Shanna and I went down to Santa Cruz to cheer on the CHS marching band. They came in 1st place! Woot! This is Shanna and me all decked out in our school spirit garb.
Major dorks, huh? Yes, those are bright yellow converse that Shanna is wearing. Don't worry, we don't walk around looking like this on a normal basis. Only when we get into our band nerd mode. Haha. We walked so much that Shanna's ankles were hurting and I was about to crumple on the ground and call it a day. After watching all the bands, we sat on the boardwalk for a while until two different bums called us "pretty ladies". After that we got up and walked to downtown SC to find coffee. Man, it was hot. Afterwards, we took the long drive back to our house where Shanna and I practically passed out on the sofa. We did muster the energy to go to a gathering with Nick, but were honestly not very lively. I rarely wake up at 6am, but this was one of those days so I was pooped out. That's familial love right there...waking up at 6am to drive and hour and a half for a 10 minute show and then waiting six boring hours until awards and then another hour and half drive home. We probably looked like death. Hah! It was a full, but very good day. I'm going to miss Shanna when she leaves. No more dorky buddy to prance in green and gold clapping CHS chants with me.

Meeting People

Well, the long distance relationship just isn't my thing. This past week Louis and I called it quits. I just don't like the idea that we are that far away. I gave it a shot, but I'm a red-blooded woman who needs to have her guy hold her hand and take her to the movies every once in a while. Hah! The break up was cordial and I think that we will remain friends in the future. So all is well now. I'm not feeling bummed or anything. I think the distanced made it easier to let go. We will see what happens. For now I think I'll just play the field and meet people. It seems the best thing for me to do at this point in time. I met some people at the wedding that I went to so hopefully I will be able to stay connected with them. Rolando pointed out that it's good for me to (re)start my life out here instead of clinging to NY. I thought that was a good way to put it. So here's to turning a new leaf over!

Hello loyal readers

Well, what have I to say this week? Let me start with last Friday. Since we all stay home and don't do a whole lot with ourselves I invited Shanna and Bonnie over for a musical night. We watch Hairspray and sang some High School Musical to the Wii. Well, Shanna and I sang HSM while Bonnie looked at us like we belonged in a loony bin. Mostly, we just talked about everything under the sun like the old days. I had put out a nice little platter of french bread with little cheeses to go with our White Zinfandel that I had picked up from Safeway. Bonnie also brought a cheese platter and crackers to help keep down our buzzes and Shanna stole a bottle of two-buck-chuck from her mom's cabinet. I lit some of those candles that melt into scented oil and felt like I was the lady from the Glade commercials. It was a good night is all I have to say.

At the end of the night Christopher came home with his friends and played Taboo. I guess they didn't enjoy the game because they asked us to play with them and we kicked their butts. Musical night also gave me a chance to gripe about this wedding that we had to go to, which I survived by the way. Since I lost hope with Edward after he got his CS Master's, I started to become very bitter about weddings. My sentiments still haven't changed. My eyes brimmed with tears only once during the whole thing. I am a hopeless romantic after all, but I have a hard time bringing myself to be happy for others when they have what I want. Ah, jealousy brings out the monster in me. Holding it in didn't work very well because it manifested its way to the top of my patience tolerance. It all came out a couple of days ago while watching Private Practice with Christopher. I just started bawling because two of the characters are so in love but can't figure things out. Poor Christopher. I pretended that I had to go to the bathroom so that I could attempt to contain myself, but the walls are thin so I think he could hear me. Oh well. At least I got that out of my system. It could have been also that Shanna had told me earlier in the evening that she's moving back to NC. Then I took my frustration out on Louis and we got in a pretty big tiff. I've reverted back to my old ways of finding scapegoats. Louis happens to be one of them. Why he stays with me, I don't know. But the Shanna thing kind of came as a shock that I wasn't very happy about. The Private Practice break down could have been a result of the culmination of it all. The wedding, Shanna, fighting with Louis, and the bittersweet love story were just too much for me I guess.

I have been, more or less, addicted to Private Practice lately. I've been Netflixing the earlier seasons to catch up with what's been going on now. Netflix doesn't have season 3 on dvd yet so I don't know what I'm going to do. Blockbuster maybe. I need to get out more.

The wedding itself was okay. I spent most of my time staring at the sky, literally. I was at the same table as Christopher and his friends. They spent their time playing on their iPods and trying to get cell reception. It was a nice outdoor wedding that was more like a giant party. There was awesome homemade beer and a pretty good band. Though I enjoy beer, I was much more happy after they broke out the champagne. I'm a sucker for the bubbly stuff. Since I was at the kiddy table, I got the whole bottle to myself. Meeehhhh *evil laugh*. I did take it over to my parents table where I spent the rest of the night because at least they talked. It was about boy scout stuff and people I didn't know, but at least I got to listen to something. After a few glasses of champagne I found myself dancing with Mr. Ryan, one of the scout parents, and then somehow intermixed with all of the 20-somethings. In my drunken state I was coerced into taking a picture with all of the girls, who happen to be best friends of the bride. I'm not exactly sure how that happened and kept saying that I'd rather not since I had only met the bride once before. Nevertheless, my face is burned into this picture with girls I don't know. It was nice to be included I guess. The people were really nice and hopefully Facebook will keep us in contact. We'll see.

This week has been as mild as the past couple of weeks. I did get some polar fleece sheets from Kmart that are absolutely divine. Don't mistake these for flannel. They are full on fleece, like the stuff that Old Navy uses for sweatshirts. (Old Navy, Old Navy, Old Navy performance fleece...) I never want to get out of bed. The only down side is that the sheets get lint everywhere. There's lint on my floor, in my hair, all over Honey Bear, you name it and there's sheet lint on it. I even found lint in my ears when I was cleaning them today. No wonder they were itchy! I think that the warmth and softness out weighs the downside of a little bit of lint. I got myself a set of the snow flake ones.

This week I also did some cooking experiments. I tried some Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce. I made the sauce myself and have to say, I would have preferred my eggs sans dressing. It was just too rich for me. I also tried my hand at some bread. I don't think I killed the yeast because the dough doubled in size the first time, but after the punch down and the letting it rise a second time it remained flat when it should have doubled in size again. Haha I thought that they kind of looked like lungs while they were sitting on my counter. The bread tasted good with the soup, but the bottom was really hard. I joked that I could take someone out with one of the loaves of bread. It was a fun project though that I might try again in the future if I have the patience. The soup itself was amazing. I will attach the recipe below, though it will be hard to replicate. I was intending on making just a vegetable chowder from my Good Housekeeping Cookbook, but then my mom said that we had a bunch of left overs to use. So in the pot they went. I added boneless beef ribs that my dad bbqed a few days before, left over homemade pasta sauce, left over tomato paste, and a bunch of bacon. It turned out super awesome. I don't know if I'll ever be able to make it again since it all depended on the left over stuff that was seasoned on its own, but it's worth a try if I have left overs that are similar. I didn't have to add in any seasonings since the leftovers were all seasoned up themselves. Super yummy. Pictures for experiments follow:

The rise

...and the fall

Leftover vegetable soup

5 slices bacon, diced
1.5 onions, diced
8 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbls flour
3 zucchinis, quartered and sliced
3 carrots, quartered and sliced
5 celery stalks, sliced
2 yellow bell peppers, chopped
2 jalapenos, diced
left over spaghetti sauce
left over bbqed meat, diced
4 cups water
2 cups chicken broth
3 tbls tomato paste

Cook bacon until grease renders. Add onion and garlic. Cook until soft. Add flour stirring until incorporated and flour cooks. Add zucchini, carrot, celery, bell peppers, jalapenos, spaghetti sauce, water, chicken broth, tomato paste, and meat. Stir until incorporated. Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Let simmer until ready to eat.

Well...

Reason's I haven't been blogging:

1. I'm back in California
2. I live at home
3. I practically never leave the house
4. Getting Private Practice from Netflix is the highlight of my day
5. Nothing ever happens.

Can you tell how mediocre my life has been since I moved home? Now that my room is nearly done (closet doors are still uninstalled) I have very little to do with my time. I think about blogging all the time but then I stop and say "What in the world am I going to blog about?" You know it's sad when I look forward to going to marching band reviews at the end of the week. At least my friend Shanna gets excited to go too so I don't feel like such a loser-deviant. (Does anyone know where that's from? I'll buy you a coke if you know what I'm quoting.)

Other than marchingband, I've been going to weekly dinners at Melanie's house. Juni and I used to do Monday lunches to stay in touch with each other after the boyfriends started taking up all of our time. Since I'm home now I decided that it's time to do that with my Concord girls as well. It gives me a chance to have a little bit of girl time and to get out of the house. Working from home is nice and all, but it can get a little boring. I'm even working from bed right now! Hah! I should probably get out so that I can brush my teeth and then clean the bathroom. It looks so gross right now. You wouldn't even know that I cleaned it just last week!

I should also practice curling my hair. We have a wedding to go to this weekend, which I'm not stoked about on any level, and I think I want to have curls. At least the wedding gives me a chance to dress up. I've been wearing elastic waistbands an awful lot lately. The only problem with curling my hair is that I don't know how to do it properly. Usually what happens is that one side of my head looks good and the other side looks flat or I burn myself with the curling iron. I have a feeling I'll end up just flat ironing it.

I've also been making dinner a lot, but haven't been taking pictures of them. Last week I did remember once though. I made Coq au vin, from the Good Housekeeping Cookbook that I love. This one got an A. I did as the book said and cut up a whole chicken. There was absolutely no need to have a whole chicken. If you do this recipe just buy the parts of the chicken that you like to eat. The rest of the time was spent in preparation, which wasn't so bad. I do have to say that this meal isn't exactly healthy. It's French and in my opinion no French food is good for you. The late Julia Child can attest to that. I also made a vodka pasta sauce from GHC that was amazing. I think Christopher had three servings! I highly suggest getting this cookbook if you don't already have it!

Coq au vin over rice

Picture update

It's been pretty hectic this last month or so. Most of last month I spent my days working and evenings packing all of my stuff in NY to move back home to CA. I have soooo much stuff. I didn't even have to pack any furniture since it is all Ed's. I have to say, it didn't really look any different after I moved out. All of the furniture was still there and it looked well lived in. Even my friend Rolando said that it still seemed familiar to him. I guess I didn't really make that big of a difference there. You wouldn't have thought so though since I had half a U-haul full of stuff to bring back. I joke with my mom that I'm never moving out of the house again. I already disliked having to move, but moving across the country is an even bigger pain in the patoot.

Mary Beth, Neil, me, and Dave in front of The Ruck

The night before I left we had a going away get together at a local dive bar called The Ruck. We played table shuffle board and had some delicious bar food. I don't remember the last time I cried so hard. When I got home I could barely contain myself. I had called my mom and was crying so hard that it made her choked up. I miss my Celery-folk dearly, but I talk to them everyday while I work from home so it's not so bad.

Smiling faces at Louis' house before we took off.

Originally my dad was going to come out to drive me, but then the guy I started dating, Louis, offered to drive with me instead. This worked out really well since both my father and I have horrible night vision. It also allowed me to introduce him to my parents (thank goodness they like him). Louis did most of the driving, which was fine with me. I was surprised that the U-haul was so comfy. It wasn't a luxury car by any means, but it wasn't as bad as I was thinking. It was extremely loud and I think that we were missing shocks (it was bumpy), but it was a pretty good ride. By the end of the 3000 mile trip I think we both had a small attachment to the truck.

This was our route and plan of action.

Fri 21st: Hopewell Junction, NY to Dayton, OH ≤ 10hr 37min
Sat 22nd: Dayton, OH to Tulsa, OK ≤ 11hrs 37min
Sun 23rd: Tulsa, OK to Albuquerque, NM ≤ 9hrs 19min
Mon 24th: Albuquerque, NM to Grand Canyon, AZ to Needles, CA ≤ No time limit
Tues 25th: Needles, CA to Concord, CA ≤ 8hrs 29min

We took a detour to go to the Grand Canyon since it was sort of on the way. It was pretty nice, but after a while it started to all look the same.

Two hams goofing off at the canyon
I had the hardest time getting onto this rock and then an even harder time getting down. Louis literally had to carry me off of it because I was afraid of falling. Meanwhile, Christopher was hopping around the trees and rocks like a little billy goat.

Is this the kind of stuff you learn in the scouts? This tree log is like 10-15 feet high and the one other is over a big cliff. Sheesh! It's a good thing my mom wasn't around.

After we got back Louis, Christopher, and I went to Muir Woods as a half day trip. I hadn't been there in a long time and felt like I needed some exercise from all of that sitting I was doing. We had a lot of fun and Louis got to see redwoods. New York has a lot of trees, but none of the ones in our area looks like these.

The USS O'Brien is a ship that's docked right behind the Musee Mecanique on Pier 45 in SF. I've been there before but I never noticed the half naked lady at the top!

Christopher had a dentist appointment with Patty at Uncle Baldy's so afterward we went to have dim sum. It was sooo good.

The resident Great White shark.

For my birthday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to check out the new sea horse exhibit. I thought it was pretty cool. There are so many new exhibits since the last time I was there! I think out of all the aquariums that I've been to, this one is my favorite. It's a long drive, but I'm considering getting a yearly pass. I love watching the people watch the fish in the salt water section of the aquarium. I find it very relaxing. After we were done with the aquarium itself we went along the beach to take some pictures and admire the view. If it wasn't so darn expensive to live down there I'd make the move (to live there forever) in a blink.

We got stuck in rush hour traffic on our way back home, but we did make it in time for our reservations at Black Angus. Oh man, I love that place. One pound of meat and two sides of garlic mashed potatoes down the hatch for me. Yum!


I finally bit the bullet. I've never bought myself anything from Coach before, but I did last week. Auntie Mary sent me a coupon for the Coach outlet so last week I took the drive out there and got myself this purse and matching wallet. I love them, but will not disclose how much they set me back. I wasn't feeling so hot afterward, but Auntie Mary came by with her friend Gleda and they convinced me to keep it. It didn't take much coercion.

Other than that, I've started to redecorate my room, which is a bigger undertaking that I realized. At the moment I have a new desk and bigger bookshelf. I'll be getting rid of my old bed and getting a newer one. I wanted a full sized bed, but the room is just too small. Instead of spending money on a frame, I'm just going to go back to having a mattress and box spring on a plywood board and cinder blocks like I had in Riverside. The way I see it is, if I get a new twin size frame I'll have to take that with me when I do eventually move out. And when I make this move, whenever I forget how much of a pain it was to move back in was, I'll want to get myself a bigger bed for sure. So I don't see the point in spending money on a new frame. I'm tired of my old frame so I may as well go frameless, which eliminates the possibility of becoming tired of the new frame. Plus, with the cinder blocks I'll be able to store stuff under the bed where as right now there is the trundle that doesn't allow me any storage space. Hopefully by the end of the week I will also have my new closet doors put up. Christopher and I both took down our old ones and I bought bifold doors so that I can access my clothes a little easier. I'll take pictures when the whole project is complete. Right now the room is quite a mess.

DC Trip to visit Josie

This past weekend I went down to DC to visit Josie and Del. It was a lot of fun but sooooo hot. We did the touristy stuff, but breezed right through since I've already been there and was going to visit Josie and not the museums. The first day (Friday) I was really tired because I didn't sleep the night before. My flight was at 6am so I had to be at the airport at 5am. I didn't see a point in going to sleep so I just stayed up all night. I slept a little bit on the plane, but the ride was only 50 minutes so I didn't get much shut eye. When I got there we went to the Smithsonian, but it wasn't opened yet. Josie and I sat on some benches and commented about the runners and how it was too warm to be running. After going through the Smithsonian we went back out and sat on the benches for another hour. We had a nice view of the Capitol Building and the Washington Monument from our bench and of the even crazier noontime runners. After vegging out on the bench for a while, we mustered up the energy to take come cheesy pictures with the Washington Monument and then walk to the Federal Reserve building to have lunch with Del. On our walk we passed by the Washington Monument, the WWII memorial, and the Reflection Pool. It was too hot to go and take pictures so there are none of those. I was literally walking with my hands on my hips to air out my underarms. I just hope no one was behind me! After lunch Del showed us around his office and then we got to go see the board room where all the big decisions get made. I think that was the best part of the touring. I thought it was pretty cool that we got to sit in the chairs and pretend that we were important.

Sitting on the bench being hot and sweaty.

At the Natural History Museum





The Federal Reserve
These are a little blurry because we had the flash off so that we wouldn't disturb anything or anyone. Now that I think about it we probably could have had the flash on since news photographers are in there all the time and probably use their flashes. Oh well it's still cool anyway.




The Jefferson Memorial
The Washington Memorial

Bread lines at FDR memorial.

The FDR Memorial
One of the first times that I went to China my dad and I took a picture when we vistied the Terracotta Army. He posed on his knee with a tough face on like one of the warriors and I sat on one of the kneeling soldier's lap. That started my sitting on statues while picture taking. The last time we went to China with my mom's side of the family I sat on a statue of a director at the Hong Kong Harbor. In this picture I'm sitting on FDR and joked that it's like I'm sitting on Santa's lap.

Are we hams or what?

On Saturday we were planning on going kayaking or to the zoo, but I woke up a little to late to go to the zoo and Josie and Del were sore so we didn't go kayaking. Instead we went to the outlet mall and shopped for five hours. We couldn't believe that we shopped that long! After that we went to the Costco that is connected to the outlet mall and bought a premarinated pork roast for dinner. It was very tasty. A few of Del's cousins came over and we had a nice salad with poppy seed dressing, homemade garlic and oregano croutons, homemade garlic bread, and the pork. It was quite good.

Then on Sunday I got to sleep in while Josie and Del went to church. They came back for me and we had lunch at a Peruvian chicken place before going out the Sports Authority and TJ Maxx. Hehe, I got some cute stuff on this trip! After shopping we went to play ultimate frisbee with church people and then out to pho, which I was very happy about. Josie stayed on the side and held two of the players' baby and got eaten alive by mosquitos. Last week I had some pretty nasty bites so I've been carrying around a stick of Cortizone with me. Luckily for her I still had it in my bag. She got like eight bites! I have two, but neither of them are as bad as hers. Anyway, we played frisbee for like, two and a half hours and now I'm super sore. When I first woke up I wasn't sore at all, but now that it's been 24 hours, I'm feeling it. I had made a comment that I had never hung out with so many Asian people who I'm not related to. It was weird to meet another Chin! It was even weirder that he is Del's cousin! I acatually think I met him at the wedding, but I didn't know his last name was Chin also. I had never seen the monuments at night so after dinner we headed out to see the Jefferson and FDR memorials. We drove by the Lincoln, but didn't know where to park so didn't go up to it. I wasn't too upset about it because it was still pretty muggy outside and we were all sweaty and dirty. I also wanted to have time watch High School Musical with Josie.

This morning I left DC to come back to Troy before leaving for Concord on Friday. My flight was at 9:40am so we planned on leaving Josie's place at 8:40am. She knocked on the door at 6:17am asking if I was awake.

Josie: Are you awake?
Me: Huhhh? It's 6 o'clock.
Josie: No it's not. It's eight.
Me: (squinting at my cell phone because I'm tired and don't have my glasses on.) My phone say 6:17.
Josie: It does? (she walks away and then comes back) Oh, you're right. Okay.

I'm surprised she even understood me since I usually don't make any sense when I'm tired. I guess her clock went wonky and flipped ahead two hours because Del's clock said that it was 6:17 also. Oh man, that was early. All in all, it was a great trip and I should have taken it earlier. I didn't realize that the flight was literally only 50 minutes!