Time's a wastin

This three week break feels like it was really short probably because I'm only at home for 9 days or so.

Week One- spent it in LA working at ashe and at the store. went to the pound with kevin who was thinking about getting a dog. it was more depressing than fun looking at the dogs in their cages, living off their own feces and with no room to stretch. in one house the water was leaking so bad the dogs were being drenched and had to be removed. [this is a picture of one of the german shepards. reminded us of Julie's dog, coco.]





will and i were supposed to head to norcal on saturday but come friday night decided there was no rush to get home, if it weren't for my jury duty we would've left xmas eve. luckily i didn't get called in at all. woke up too late on sunday to go on our scenic route via PCH and leisurely drove up the 5 and 101 instead. maybe i should've taken all those bad omens seriously... i'm going to be more superstious from now on. [this is what we missed out on. we're gonna do it one day.]


WEEK TWO- really didn't do much. had a mini family reunion with the 2nd cousins which we haven't done since our great grandma died 3 years ago. so weird to see them all grown up ... and by grown up i mean not toddlers.

Christmas Eve- i'd been thinking about going to UC Berkeley's Museum of Anthropology since the 2nd half of last quarter because of their exhibit on the CA Indian tribes. Didn't think anyone would want to go a museum with me, but WILL WU is was my best friend of the day. SO AWESOME to see all the artifacts in person versus the pictures and descriptions we have in class. I'm glad they had artifacts from Ghana so Will could enjoy it too. The art/film museum across the street had an exhibit called MAHJONG, boldly presented outside and of course we had to go check it out. the lady there was nice enough to give us free admission (or else it'd cost $7 each). Yay for christmas cheer. The exhibit was art displaying China's Cultural revolution between 1966-76. Pretty interesting... made a point to myself to read up on my history of my motherland. One piece was a scroll from ceiling to floor with the artist's menstrual blood-- symbolizing the cycles of life. Yea, i guess that's pretty creative... Overall, it was a good day. =D [picture: one of my favorite pieces at the art museum. can you tell kind of expression the man is making?]

i was super psyched about day after christmas, met up with all the old dboaters for an early dinner, movie, late night bowling and snack! didn't matter what we did, it was fulfilling just to be with them.

Woke up very late Saturday and headed out to Sports Basement w/ Brandon to check out running apparel and backpacking gear. I got some Super Feet to put in my vans and now I can walk a thousand miles comfortably! We also spent a good 20 mins picking out the perfect Sigg bottle for me. I got a 20 oz. one with some trees and one of those sport tops instead of the regular screw. I am now upgraded to a BPA-free bottle! we decided to meet back up after dinner for bi-rite ice cream again. came up with a better idea of making the best ice cream run ever-- hitting up #1, 2, 3 ice cream shops in the neighborhood. (Mitchell's, Bi-Rite, and Bombay). Met up Jim at bi-rite first and had some DELICIOUS ice cream (my favorite). and then scrambled over to bombay, except it was closed, and then onto mitchell's, where i got the WORST ice cream flavor ever. never get green apple sorbet, you might as well eat an apple!! i guess they redeemed themselves with the kahlua mocha.. but my vote still goes to bi-rite. [local-famous ice cream shop by my house]



ROAD TRIP- kind of. Headed up to Cache Creek w/ high school buddies to a long overdue reunion. I think the last time we all hung out was... before we were all 21, and now Liz is 22! Anyway, won some money quick on the slots and decided to buy a round for Jim, only the guy at the bar beat me to it. THis was at 3pm, less than an hr after getting there. Does that convey how bored we were already? Won a little more at the slots and then lost all the winnings PLUS 10 bucks playing roulette. My luck had run out by the end, and so half of us left to Jim's apt in Davis to make dinner instead of paying 20 for the buffet. I never get my money's worth anyway. Getting a bit lazy to write more.. so for more details, read on Jim's blog. All in all, it was fun to get together again and literally do NOTHING, but watch the office. i think a few of them are hooked now. YES. Definitely need more of those.
[who can resist this cutie, right?!]




Ok, flight in the morning, I'm out.

best job ever

I walked into work super tired and hungry this morning but it brightened up at 845am when a patient canceled, leaving us a long break till 10am. We just closed the door and headed to Kerchkoff for some bagels and coffee. Unfortunately Roadside Grill at the Cooperage is being replaced w/ a Carl's Jr... LAME! Ok i know roadside isn't any better but at least it's not a big fast food chain! too bad cause i really wanted some real breakfast too. we get back to enjoy our breakfast and right after that, katie's next eval cancels also. good day for her.

We usually try to finish lunch with 20-25 mins left so we can take a quality nap, but i was kinda bummed i was going to miss naptime since i was having lunch w/ jon. Luckily.... you guessed it, 1245 patient cancels and we get naptime!! I hope i'm not giving the impression that i do absolutely nothing at work. I did a lot today! I also get to watch patients wince while therapists inflict (good) pain upon them! Spent the rest of the afternoon browsing for stuff online, even though i have no money to buy anything. I got a coupon for 50% off select books at borders, and Nicholas Spark's new book was on there!! I can't believe I didn't know he came out w/ a new one months before!! Picked up a copy after work =)

oh yea i'm going into "work" tomorrow for our staff development day, i get paid for going to this catered lunch and white elephant gift exchange from 12-5pm. they're blocking out the entire afternoon for this! sad i can't stay the entire time.

also hit up the new trader joe's that opened up in westwood last week. surprisingly they actually have a parking structure down there, but their system is so funky. you get a ticket when you come in and instead of validating it, trader joe's gives you a 2nd ticket. when you leave, you HAVE to put in the original ticket and then the one from TJ's. the car in front of me couldn't figure it out and eventually backed up and out of the line so the rest of us could get through. they've gotta do something about that cause people in westwood are STUUUPID and never listen.

get out of the way

Wednesday night, Linh comes back to find some Cabrio parked in our spot, not even all the way forward so that someone can park behind her, but in the way blocking all of our spots. Luckily our neighbor was gone and Jeff had my car so we didn't have to worry about parking. BUT STILL, just because there's an open space doesn't give you the liberty to park in our spot!!! So this girl had left a note for us: "My car was overheating so I had to park asap. sorry. It'll be gone by 3am.".. written on the back of a list of alcohol, conveniently on the same night as undie run.. yes, suspicious. Of course we didn't believe her and conjured up all these evil ideas to get revenge. But we decided she'd know where we live and possibly come back to key our cars. We did leave her an angry message and took a bunch of pictures of her car.

Next morning we wake up to find the car still there. The fumes come back and I start googling towing companies. The one I called said since it's private property they can't tow it and there's nothing I could do. Gave me the tele # to parking services instead so I could possibly report her for blocking city sidewalk. After 10 calls later, finally got through to dispatch. You'd think they'd be patrolling the streets in packs since it was street cleaning morning, where are they when you actually need them! The lady was unsure if the citation was warranted since only half the tires were out on the street, but she confirmed it w/ her supe. I explained to her the situation and she said she could give a trespassing ticket instead.. but it was only one or the other, not both. They both cost the same so she wrote her up for blocking sidewalk and even took a picture so there's evidence if she tried to contest it! AWESOMEEE ... to end the story now, some towing truck eventually took it away, but we think it may have been her since we didn't sign for anything and my manager was so slow getting here. Maybe she did have car trouble, but either way, don't use private property to store your junky car.

Also, Julia used my car 20 mins to drop the boys off at brew co and in that time some cop had pulled up in my spot so she couldn't get in! another cop was driving by at the time.. so he was able to move it out the way. he looked kinda annoyed that i made him move.. i think he was in a hurry to break up a party at the univ. apts.

bottom line... i'm sick of westwood, i'm ready for june to come.

KBBQ at your door step!

I just saw something SOOO entertaining that it's worth a 2nd post for the day!!!

Our apt was doing our weekly ritual of moving cars for Thurs street cleaning when we saw a korean bbq truck parked on the corner of ophir and landfair. We stopped by this questionable truck on our way home and there was actually a line of people waiting and the smell of kbbq permeated the street!! One person standing by said they took too many orders and ran out of food and were backed up for an hour. Oh yea, in addition to kbbq, they also sell tacos. WHAT THE HECK!?!? Special of the night-- 3 tacos for $5.

Came home to check out their site and they're legit, guys!!
http://kogibbq.com/ --- Koji, Korean bbq- to -go! They also have a twitter thing that updates the status of the food supply. It's so freaking awesome and hilarious at the same time. Smart move by stopping by college town the week before finals. Got this picture off their site.



Linh and I looked the most ridiculous out there with our bathrobes, my fuzzy socks, and her toe socks. Maybe I'll go back out at 12:30 if my tummy begins to rumble...

Botswana, here I come

I'm going to Botswana! Just look at the picture!! Who can resist the population of 120,000 elephants in the world's largest inland delta?! Finally had the chance to go through every program on the list and narrowed it down to Benin and Botswana because they both have interesting areas of study. Ultimately chose Botswana because I googled it and THIS picture popped with, along with some other interesting info. Yepp paid my $300 deposit, gotta start looking into flights and planning my itinerary. I'm going to make one this time around so my plan doesn't back fire like last summer. Only direct flights to Botswana are from NY/ Washington or Europe. Thinking about spending some time in Europe before or after the program... i'll probably only have enough to visit one country. Does anyone have any suggestions??

This quarter's gone by super fast with two races, football weekends, and thanksgiving being so late. Unfortunately I'm giving up my ticket to the SC game because that's the only day my study group can meet =(( sadly, school comes first... but i'm going to stay in Socal to play for an extra week after finals!

study study study... back to studying......

Bored at Isos

This is what happens when we get bored of studying at ISO's, but also their fault because the internet didn't work. Chris and I proving to Anthony that the tubing in Chris' beanie is for pony tails, maybe.



Left after 2 hours cause I needed the internet to do work. The boys went home to test out their new beer bong. Oh boys...

I need to find time to borrow someone's laundry machine to have all my sweats clean and ready for finals week!

I'm also really excited about my new toy: the ProFit Iron Gym Upper Body Workout Bar. Thank you Justin for the suggestion.

tehehehehe =) I just hope my door frames are strong enough.