Something GOOD for a change

My good friend R sent me a coupon via e-mail for Wicked, the ever so popular musical in LA that's impossible to get in unless you buy super in advance. The coupon takes 50% off of a regular price ticket so i got them for my family, and ORCHESTRA SEATS! for next weekend. Just in time for Chinese New Year Celebration.

Aside from that, I will have to write another post on the beauty of having Swingbox on my computer. I have to say that i am fully entertained by the Japanese shows I can now watch from the comfort of my home. i LOVE 緯來日本台. if only they play more 玉木宏 stuff.;) And i wonder why my friend and i met these attractive guys at the party last week and i didn't feel a thing. ;) damn you tamaki for lingering in my dream!

It is the official start of LA Restaurant week:




And i have tried the first one of this year, Takami Sushi:


we did this right before our 1pm class and bascially wolfed the 3 courses down. I have to say that for $22 this is not a bad deal at all. you get a combination of everything with very high quality fish and wonderful dessert (my friend S had the green tea and original creme brulee, I had the mochi ice cream with fresh fruit) and it was wonderful. the restaurant was a little tricky to find though. It's located in the financial district of downtown LA and parking was a nightmare and the parking lot sucked. I can't decide if it's worth it for the trouble but I have to say downtown LA looks a whole lot like the east coast with people walking about btw tall buildings dressed in suits or longer coats. (hmm business guys <3)The best part of the experience is that the restaurant is located on the 21st floor. So the view is great overlooking the buildings (would be great for a night out). And the ambience is very chic. great for dating, bad for singles.....ok i made that up.

A couple others that are worth a look:
Ciudad, twin palms, Roy's, I cuigio, Ruth's steakhouse..etc. The prices aren't cheap but if you compare to what you normally can have with that much $ it really is a killer deal.

hehe ok i'm having 2 killer quizzes tomorrow so i will stop here.

Thank YOU

I am actually kind of embarrassed today but also realize how fortunate i am. I woke up and received an e-mail from a close friend and she was expressing her concerns for me since i .....almost never talk about anything good in my blog....
I'm embarrassed that when i look back on these entries i do sound kind of psychoish and have constant anger outbursts. But I'd also like to say that I don't often realized how loved i am by my friends and family and people who really care for me. I don't realize that enough to put that in my blog. I suppose it's because bad things stay with you longer, as psychologists have proved.

In any case, I want to say THANK YOU <3, and i want to constantly remind myself to get out of that little black hole that sucks me in ever so often.

and thank you for reading. even though this is not a pretty blog. :P

A quick one before i'm off to bed

Well, I'm really glad I did what i did tonight. ;)

After much contemplating, my friend and I finally decided to forego with the snowboarding option and go to the ucsd alum association "wine-and-cheese" mixer. Well, partly because of the bad weather these days, rainy storm almost everyday, we figured it would be too dangerous too go up when it's slippery and all, and neither of us, own a four-wheel drive or snow chains. :P That's just the sad thing about being a girl without a bf. :P and driving in the storm just sucks, as i've experienced on the freeway.

Anyway the gallery is located in Santa Monica. I've lived in LA all these years and never discovered this little area where there's a ton of studios/galleries and apparently people do go to them! esp when I was told later that Kate Hudson was just there moments ago. Anyway, here's a link to the exhibition:

http://frankpicturesgallery.com/home.html

Turned out to be a really interesting one on rock stars and different media to present the photography, some creative, some are just down right creepy. We walked in there, not sure what to expect, but people were actually very nice and open. Apparently some of us were there for the first time. They've got quite a wine selection, throughout the entire evening i tried all 3 white wines, my favorite Chardonnay from Brittany france i believe, although the sauvignon blanc and this other thing weren't bad either. But as i'm trying to get to know more wines they are very nice introductory selections. The cheese was a bit too much for me, honestly. I've always thought i am pretty good with cheese but when faced with a platter of barely recognizable cheeses i was a bit overwhelmed. in the end i only had the brie, the gouda, and some american i guess. none of those blue, moldy, half melted chesses. i really appreciate it much better when i eat something that tastes pasterized. :P

Anyhoo, i met some pretty interesting people tonight, of them:

Ofet: this guy who i suspected was gay and actually was. but we had a good talk about everything from working out to school to psychology and getting our money's worth glasses of wine. Oh, and his experience coming out of the closet :P. (i didnt' bring that up, he did).

Jennifer: A all around nice girl who lives in the city next to me. very friendly, and brought a shy friend who didnt' talk much. elementary teachers to be.

Len: this shy guy who actually brought Ofet to the event.

Rick: this EE guy who seemed a bit nervous.

Kathy: nice girl who coordinated the event, and her friend who works at the gallery.

and COLIN: this guy who i spotted very only during the event (no interest whatsoever). practically ran and stopped us on our way out, claiming our need for some water because we both looked red (as i later found out NOT TRUE for me. he was prolly just using that as a line. I'm one of the asians who can hold her bottle, but i think he was interested in my friend). so he was dropping hints left and right, and R never picked up! ;) he probably should have asked for her number directly. i have to say sometimes modesty does not work well with girls.

Post-event:
stopped by a cafe and had breakfast omelet at 10pm. ;) drove home in pouring rain.

after thought

Well, it's always a good idea to wait 24 hours before you post anything. AFter sleeping on that issue last night and waking up really really late, i have new revelations about it. while it's still a bad feeling to be 24 and in a graduate program that feels a lot like high school with the drama going on, i am much more at ease with the situation because:

1. if i didn't like most of these people already, what do i care why they think about me?

2. it's possible that i wont keep in touch with most of them when i graduate (considering there's 170 in the class), esp if i move to another state/country. So it really serves no purpose for me to keep the friends who aren't there for me around. People can be so fickle and i should know better than that now i'm older. my dad was right when he said that you only need so many close friends in your life. i already have more people who i know who care about me a lot and the rest can just come and go. of course i wouldn't want things to be this way, but i have to look at it like this when the situation is below-optimal.

3. and i'm going to get a head-start on researching all the summer internship programs. i WILL FIND ONE and kick some people's a**es for always acting like they have all the connections and experience.

4. and i will ignore the horrible people at work because when i graduate, they will still be there for a long, long time to come.


i hope this post sounds less psycho-ish....:P at least i'm channeling my frustrating into motivation...right?

and did i mention i just got put on AP list (not the good one...)?

a horrible, horrible start of the year (so far)

I'm regretting that I decided to see Atonement today, not because the movie was bad, but seeing a sad movie definitely did not prepare me for the sad bunch of things that followed when i got home. It seems like i'm gonna have to serve my first jury duty ever, and who knows how many days that's going to take. but yes, i've officially received THE LETTER. And i have no good reasons not to do it. So on 2/19 i will be dragging my sorry ass there.

Secondly, the frigging school situation which i still haven't found a solution to because i am simply too mad to talk about it. It started as my professor wanting us to form groups of 8 so we can work on the upcoming case studies. And the situation got really weird because i always sit with these 2 girls and, i decided to wait til break to start the process and also because, everyone will bein a group because you jsut sit with people who you can be in a group with. it really wasn't that big a deal at all. Then the issue came up, it appeared that the girl who all of a sudden joined me and my close friend in sitting this year decided to attach herself to another group, AS SOON AS BREAK STARTED, she just flew over to these people and asked to be in their group. And then me and my best friend in class were liek okay, we'll find other people. and then EVERYONE was already in a group. What really gets me is, the professor said that the group doesn't have to be 8 people exactly, it can be more or less. but when i asked ANYONE about it, they only responded, "sorry, i'm already in a group." without saying that but you can join us too. because that's what i would have said. and i thought i was pretty close with these people. So me and my best friend were stranded in this awkward situation because we were in a group of TWO. the cases aren't that hard, and we didn't really minded doing it with only 2 people. but it's the principle that counts. and the following day when we had to form a little discussion group the fucking girl next to me turned to the people sitting behind us and asked to be in their group. seriously what is HER PROBLEM?! if she hates so much to be in a group with us then fucking go sit somewhere else. it wasn't even so much that i want to be in a group with her because i'm so over high school, but the fact that she tries to act like a friend and then turn around and act like she despises being in a group with you.
And that's not the highlight of the story, TODAY as i checked my e-mail the professor sent out an e-mail to the whole class and said: THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE DONT' HAVE A GROUP SO PLEASE FIND ONE. and there were 7 people on the list. i was one of them. because the PROFESSOR SAID THE LIST IS DUE NEXT WEEK. so i haven't turned it in. now she's broadcasted to the whole class that these 7 people are so extrmely pathetic that no one wants them in their group. i can only imagine what it's like next week in class. great claire can't even find herself a fucking group to be in because the people who she calls friends turn out to be bitches. i really can't even believe i'm whining about this because i'm 20 friggin 4 and i'm still whining about being the fat kid in gym class not being picked to be on a team. i'm sure my best friend in the class shares the sentiment because now both our names are on the list. wonderful, on the class listserve. lets have fun while it lasts in everyone's inbox.

and atonement is a sad, sad, movie. tortured lovebirds who can't be with each other. just what i need today. I wonder why i came back for another semester.

new year's resolution II

1) stop all things which make me super irritated. yes i need to push myself to do certain things but not to the point of being uncomfortable. Cut out all extracurricular activities which give me stomach cramps.

2) disregard certain people at work: what i realized during the holiday party 2007 is that, you can't please everyone. while someone continues to act like a beeo***, i can choose to ignore and do my own thing. yes i'm aware the tension there and i can be above it. but deep down, i KNOW i'm getting out of there in a year.

3) relationship wise: maybe i should stop talking smack about myself. i dont mind being self-deprecating but other people are taking it pretty seriously. and pretty soon i feel that nothing's off limit for people to talk about. maybe if i get a kiss this year i'll change my luck, let's hope not from someone hideous. (think i'm being bitter again). but i'm serious, someone new in the picture, no old bf, no old friends, no one who isn't emotionally available, no random guy i meet at the bar, no unrealistic much-obsessed-over doctor or ticket-selling person. i'm talking about a real, flesh-and-bone person. and how do i go about that? before family and friends subject me to awkward blind dates?

4) all the while continue to be comfortable with my singleness. it frigging sucks to have to defend it for myself because people obviously think you're crazy/pathetic.

回家

今年的寒假感覺起來特別不依樣 雖然每天都在趕場很累 卻很充實 真的覺得每次回去時間都不夠 回來後有一個月反而越來越想家 ；＊（ .....

And since i can't type chinese as fast as i can think in them, i'm gonna take the low road and do everything in english...when i have a chance i'll come back and translate...I PROMISE! I usually can't start writing right away when i come back because i need time to digest a little and think things over. but i'll do what i can today without getting too sad...:(

some of the more memorable things at the end of 2007 (and beginning of 2008)

1). The trip visiting my grandma X2: as usual i'm happy to see her. She's my only grandparent left and sometimes i feel that i can't see her often enough because even when i do visit her i only spend half a day with her (usually over lunch). And we go to the same seafood restaurant. In any case, I sincerely hope her issues are resolved with...whom i can't say. it just saddens me so much when i look at what has happened. i think REALITY is what happens when you grow up. and it sucks to see it happen to someone you care a lot. there's really nothing i can do, but watch. but i pray for her that everything will be better in the end.

2) my trip to Kaohsiung: It happened the second day after i returned. I haven't taken the HSR before so it was a new experience in itself. very fast and efficient, but VERY UNCOMFORTABLE chairs. fortunately not that many people were on it, so i could spread out and take pictures like a dork. and damn it was hot in kaohsiung. felt like summer a lot. and i was being dragged everywere in my jetlaggedness. although i have to say the part sitting next to the river drinking coffee was not half bad. and the seafood was awesome.

3) My trips with G and P: both my middle school friends, recently got together. I have to say that i've learned a great deal about them this time more than ever. the thing is (it's not a secret anymore so i presume it's okay to say), they have recently gotten together. And i used to see them individually, or in a group setting, but now that two of my best friends are together i see them as a couple. And they were nice enough to take me on these road trips. It feels really strange because i feel that the 10 years between us do not exist. in a way i feel taht i've known them better, because it's beyond superficial dinner talk, and in a way i feel that we relived the memory, the time we lost with each other. i feel that a lot of things happen, and i just come in and out of the picture sometimes. did my departure impact other people's lives as much or as little as i think? (i'll explain it more fully in future threads).

4) New Year's Eve

5) Shopping at Idee and having Okonomiyaki :D

6) meeting up with E

7) Meeting up with R and E + cousins and have the night market

8) hanging with 11+ ppl

9) Kon-kuan and Xi men ting

ok lets up i get to finish this fully by tonight..or tomorrow.