006 a regurgitated skype conversation that may or may not be helpful in life

Before Stacy disappeared from the face of the earth (aka America), she and her sister, and I had a prolonged conversation over Skype(R) about our fourth most favorite subject. You wonder what that list is. Prepare for your mind to be blown.

1) Sushi and eating sushi
2) Being Asian and all the great things it entails
3) The only sitcom we watch in common How I Met Your Mother (House doesn't count because he broke up with Cuddy.)
4) Guys
5) Cocktails
6) Purposeful exposure of my mind to a subject that should never be touched by the light of day (Starts with "S" and rhymes with "ex")
7) Rave comics
*Boom.*

I know our priorities might seem very out of order, but this is how our mind works.

Anyways, I was about to go to bed whilst texting Stacy when she demanded a Skype conversation. I had a good 7 hours of sleep pre-allocated for the night, so I figure it wouldn't be too much of a pinch if I stayed up for thirty minutes.

I should never underestimate how awesome we are and how said awesomeness cannot be contained in a paltry 30 minutes.

We went through that list, first off by mentioning how Japan holds all kinds of interesting things that Stacy will probably ignore because she'll be 1) eating sushi, 2) *insert your choice of verb here* her boyfriend. Then we moved on and finally we hit Priority Number 4.

In a nutshell, what we have come realize is this. We, Stacy and I, operate on a cycle... (and I don't mean the kind you plug up). There are multiple times in our life where we have a collection of boys in the back of our minds. As we went through college, our interactions with said gender became more tangible and less oh-i-dont-know...IMAGINED, which made it easier to analyze the pattern we seem to find ourselves in over and over again.

1) Collection
For some reason, Stacy and I (AND HER TWINKIE LITE JR!!), tend to notice guys in threes. *Boom.* Okay, alright, I know. When I say "notice," I do mean notice. We don't do anything with them, dare I say it, simultaneously. At most, we'd only ever interact with one guy at a time. (Most of the time, I don't interact at all... but that was four years ago).

And we always seem to order the same combination of men. (And I use the word "order" in a similar fashion as I do when I'm on the phone with a Chinese food delivery service. I have no shame in this.)
Prepare once more for a mind-blowing realization:
a. The Safe Bet
b. The Trump Card
c. The Dark Horse

The Safe Bet is the guy you should like. He is everything plus the cherry on top. Good looks, kind, well-mannered (sometimes), and you most definitely didn't meet him in a bar. There might be a potential future with him, if you're the kind that looks that far ahead. He seems to like you. You can't be too sure, because there's a perpetual shyness in your relationship. This man will probably not break your heart.

The Trump Card is the guy you want (*insert "in bed" here if you are so inclined*). This boy has the looks of you're very own personal adrenaline shot--as in, this boy looks so good, you wanna do...Everything. Capital E. This boy-toy is elusive, and his attention is sometimes dubious. If you do manage to get a piece of him, something always comes up, making him quite the not-destined, ill-fated, choice. This boy might break your heart.

The Dark Horse is the guy who probably wants your body. And let's face it, the attention is down-right arousing. You know he's good, he's got references. There is not a doubt in your mind that there is a world of fun waiting for you on the other end of that third tequila shot. He's pretty hot in that sexy, animal way. But he's not your type, and you're not really his type. He has other women waiting on him, so he's not about to wait on your ass no matter how much he wants it. This one guarantees a bloody broken heart. And possibly STDs.

Time and time again, we seem to manage to have these three characters in our text message inbox. (In this case, yes, simultaneously.)

The cycle then moves on to:

2) Confrontation
Wherein one, or two, or all three, manage to somehow have drama with you. And in the end, you can only have one or none remain as your friend. (Friend in the simplest of sense.) The other two will probably lose interest completely, or you lose interest completely, but most likely, you'll drop all three for either reason.

3) Cessation
The time where you just need to stop and have a girl's night out. Or two. Or for months. It maybe a day (Stacy), it maybe two years (Hannah). Just Kidding.
Basically you just reasses and reconnect with your inner super-mega-foxy-awesome-hotness that no man can take away from you.

4) Continuation
Where you're super-mega-foxy-awesome-hotness becomes apparent to everyone around you, but specifically--and more importantly--to yourself. And you may choose to start the cycle again, or find another path. One that has not yet been traversed to completion by either of the Twinkie Lites.

And truly, we're not there yet. We would like to think we'll end up there someday, that in fact we are well on our way to that last destination. But Stacy and I both profess, we're not in any hurry to get there.

005 the adult life - twinkie lite version

So I've been living at my new residence for a total of one month as of Monday. What in the world do I do?
Easy.

I basically take pyrophoric materials (things that spontaneously combust when it touches air or water, so no, you cannot touch it) put them in a reactor, mix them, cook them, and pray to God it doesn't blow up.

Like I said. Easy. I don't ever wonder every five minutes if I'm about to die.

But that's really nothing compared to what I do most of the time outside of my 8 or 9 (and even on occasion...eleven) hour job. I try to do awesome things. For example, my Friday nights have only increased in its quality of crazy since I moved here. I really do think I like my life right now.
Enjoy the pictures I took before and after my phone drowned in the river.

I was invited to go tiki-tubing on my first weekend. These pictures need no explanation. Only the note that I will not be taking out my phone to take pictures over water ever again.

These were taken from my favorite lunch place. I've only gone twice because I realize that too much of a good thing can become boring......THAT IS FALSE. Case in point: Sushi. I've only gone twice because I'm on a restaurant craze. This place features the freshest seafood deli I have ever been to. Fresh seafood that they cook onsite or available for purchase for your own seafood cooking. Which I now do all the time.

Sushi. Duh. I've been to five different places, this was the latest one. They feature a sushi and hibachi buffet. Wouldn't call it amazing, but it was in fact wonderful.

Doing the walmart thing to do... There have been certain people in my limited acquaintance here that I have not seen sober on a Friday  night. They make life interesting.

I'm in the league for Ultimate Frisbee this summer. I still kind of suck, but it's great fun. Sometimes I wish I ignored homework in college. I'm in a team called The (albino) Polar Bears. We wear black t-shirts of death and destruction...or if you're me, a t-shirt that says "Judge me by my size, do you?" with Yoda on the back. It's every Tuesday, so if I don't answer after work on Tuesdays, fear not. I am alive, and am still probably friends with you. I also go running around the lakes on the LSU campus (Yeah. LSU. Nothing's perfect) after work everyday, so if I just don't answer...sorry? ^_^

I live 2 minutes away from Whole Foods. Remember when I had Harps as my backyard? Well I consider Whole Foods as my backyard (as well as the strip mall that it is attached to). Cheese, wine, Italian food, prepped Asian food that isn't half-bad. I once spent $125 here. No joke. Anyways, last night I made gnocchi with beef ragu. It was superb. And I don't mean it to say it was all my cooking, the stuff at Whole Foods is just really amazing. Did I mention they sell top-tier wine?

So there you have it. I'll keep you guys posted when my furniture comes in this Friday. I pretty much dropped half the cost of a semester's tuition on my apartment. You do the math.

*is very self-satisfied with life at the moment*

004 happy birthday, grandma!

DOUBLE TRAVEL POST JUST FOR HANNAH.

Busy day today, as every day in LA has been so far, much to my surprise. Woke up around 10:00 (so much for my hope of lazing around this summer), and ate breakfast with my sister. A Nutella sandwich and Milo. Boom. My grandma is adorable because she thinks I'm still incapable of making Milo on my own (there is some truth to this), and so she made it for me. Yay! After breakfast, Christine told me one of my (many) aunts, Aunty Sau Ying and her husband would be taking my grandparents out for a Father's Day lunch, and that we were invited. When you're Asian (or anyone, really), you don't turn free food down, ever, and so we left with them at around 11. The original plan was to grab some dimsum, but that was quickly given up when we saw the line for food.

Not cool.

So we headed next door to this Chinese restaurant called Happy Harbor for some wanton noodles instead. Omnomnom.

And then we ordered food.  

Boba milk tea, Hong Kong style.

Chicken porridge for grandpa.

YEAH. WANTON NOODLE SOUP. That's right.

Idk what Aunty Sau Ying ordered. Just go with it.

Cheong fun. Nomnomnom.

After lunch, we headed to Ralph's to get some bread and a bottle of Nutella for Christine. When my grandma discovers what you like, she will do everything in her little Asian grandma power to purchase it for you so can gorge yourself on it. Trufax. She's kinda awesome like that. Christine and I helped her pick some things up around the store...she's too much fun.

Shopping with my grandma is a blast.

Bread is important!

After finishing up at Ralph's, the group headed to a tailor nearby to pick up my grandma's cheongsam for my cousin's wedding in Malaysia later this year. She has sexier legs than me. That can't possibly be allowed.

We headed home after finishing up at the tailor, and I helped my grandma put the groceries up once we got back. After a bit, my sister and I started working on a birthday present for her! It's her 80th birthday today! She's such a baller. Chris and I sent some pictures to get developed at a CVS pharmacy nearby using the interwebz, and got to working on her card in the meantime. Not too bad if I say so myself...

The outside. My grandma was born in the year of the monkey.

The inside. We love you, grandma!

Once we finished up, Chris and I went to pick up the pictures and then we got them framed. We headed home soon after and gave them to my grandma, and she was happy. Mission accomplished.

Favorite gift: her picture at the Clinton house in Fayetteville.
Hahahahaha.

We had some Chinese food for dinner, courtesy of my grandma, and it was awesome. 

Chris and I spent the rest of the night watching the Travel Channel and a football game between Brazil and Mexico. Idk. A little more internet-ing, and I'll be headed off to bed! 

003 asian potlucks for the win

Travel post time! I'm in LA now, and I promised Hannah I'd updated the blog. Bahaha.

Woke up at around 10 this morning after staying the night at my Aunty Sau Kuan's place. My cousin, Shan Shan, is back in the States on holiday from med school in Prague so we wanted to spend some time with her. Snaps for family time.

Aunty Sau Kuan was awesome enough to take Christine and I out for a dimsum brunch (so much for my summer diet) at a new place called New Capital Seafood Restaurant. I'm super obsessed with dimsum because it doesn't exist in Fayetteville, so I was pretty excited.

We got to the restaurant at around 11, and had to take a number and wait in line. To those less well-versed in dimsum restaurants, dimsum is goddamn AWESOME, so there is always, always a line. If you ever see a group of Chinese people waiting outside a Chinese restaurant in the morning, regardless of whether it's a weekday or during the weekend, there is a 99% chance that that restaurant serves dimsum. If you know of a restaurant that serves dimsum, and no line exists, don't eat there. Their dimsum sucks, no question. Go look for a cluster of Asians elsewhere. Chinese people don't mess around when it comes to food.

I digress.

PICTURES OF FOOD TIME.

Fish cakes. Sounds gross, tastes incredible.

Shiew mai, chicken feet, tripe. All yummy. Trust.

Cheong fun. Le nomz.

Char siew bao - pork buns. I will literally fight you
for these.

What's in this incredible bundled treat?

Awesomeness. That's what.

Durian-flavored mochi. Idk. I hate durian.

It has occurred to me that not everyone knows how dimsum restaurants work, so here is a lesson for those not in the know. There are no menus in real dimsum restaurants - only aunties pushing metal carts around. 

Exhibit A: Aunty + cart.

Exhibit B: Aunty + cart close-up.

These aunties walk around from table to table, announcing what type of food their cart has, and then you tell them if you want anything from their cart. If so, they'll give it to you, and stamp your table's receipt card with a number, denoting the value of the food you've just selected. This is how your total is rung up when you're done eating. There is literally no way of knowing if you're getting cheated or not. Bahaha. Just go with it. 

After dimsum, we headed to a Chinese grocery store. Because this is Monterey Park, places such as these are everywhere, unlike in Fayetteville where much like dimsum, they are nonexistent. 

Random things you can find in Chinese grocery stores.

More random things.

Boba stall. Duh.

Honey dew slushie.

After we finished up at the Chinese grocery store, Aunty Sau Kuan dropped Christine, Shan Shan and I off at the Puente Hills Mall so Shan Shan could do some shopping. She'll be interning at the Mayo Clinic (wtf why is she so badass) over the next two months and needed some new swag. I, of course, bought way too much. UGH I WILL HAVE NO MONEY FOR JAPAN. My excuse is the items I bought were necessities - people need clothing, right? That's perfectly acceptable, right? RIGHT?

I digress, again. The mall was fun. 

Unfortunately, Chris and I were too fat for this.

Aunty Sau Kuan and my grandma picked us up at about 5 so we could go for a potluck at my Aunty Sau Ying's house. My grandma turns 80 this year and the potluck was planned as part of the celebration. Chinese potlucks are the bomb diggity. We arrived at my Aunty Sau Ying's at around 6:30, and a lot of my family was already there, with a whole lot more on the way. As expected the food was awesome.

More pictures of food. Geez.

Fried noodles from my grandma.

Prawns from Aunty Sau Ying.

Steamed fish from Aunty Sau Ying. 

Dog from Julian. KIDDING THIS IS BUBBLES WE LOVE HER.

Fried mixed vegetables from Aunty Sau Ying.

Chicken and some sort of chili thing from my grandma.

Fruits from my Aunty Lydia.

Meat pies from my Aunty Cindy.

We ate till we exploded and spent the rest of the night talking and watching K-Dramas. My mom would have been proud. To be honest, I wish I had spent more time with my family before tonight. I've never really spent much time in LA (only during university holidays when my family used to live here), and the more I get to know my family, the more I adore them. I'm pretty lucky to have such a large family who loves me. Yaaayyy. 

After talking and bonding for a while, it was cake time for my grandma! The cake was pretty incredible, no lie.

Check it.

It made my grandma happy, so mission accomplished!

What a sweetheart.

We took pictures with family afterwards to show my mom back in Fayetteville. I miss her! 

Family is pretty cool.