Back from Chicago. this is the 2nd time i've visited the wind city in the past 6 months. Still very fun nevertheless. got to do a lot of things I didn't get to do last time. for example, getting a Go Card and maximizing its use:

1. taking the Gray Line tour of the South side of Chicago: didn't get to pop in this neighborhood at all last time i was here. it was pretty easy to get to the meeting point where the tour departed. We drove passed Kenwood where Obama's house is and the local pizzeria/barbershop/baskin robins etc. also University of Chicago and its medical center where i will never get in...

2. Skydeck on the now Willis Tower (formerly Sears). super fun because i could cut in front of everybody with my GoCard and there weren't that many visitors anyway. the view was fantastic and i thoroughly enjoyed the Ledge, the new glass installation/protrusion out the building on the 103rd floor you can literally stand on and watch the traffic beneath your feet. I should have been really scared, but i wasn't because the excitement took over too much. ;)



3. visited ALL of the museums: because they were all included!! so we visited the Adler Plantetarium (fun x1), Shedd Aquarium (fun x 3, lots of exotic fishes and the white whale), and the Field Museum (fun x 100, Sue the T. Rex and lot of other interesting stuff about earth and its beginnings were on display. oh, and the largest mummies collections).



4. and i finally got to window shop. last time i hit magnificent mile i was so tired i literally just sat on the bench in the lobby. but this time we actually took our time with the 900 shops and the water tower place and nordstrom and neiman marcus...it was shopping heaven! Although i still didn't buy anything because i was too lazy to try anythng on and bring anything back...but Macys on State st was real pretty for sure.

5. different coffeeshops! one of my favorite things to do while being outside of east LA where the closest choice is usually..you guessed it..starbucks! or coffeebean/seattle's best/peet's. we took our time to try out every coffeeshop around the corner. and i really loved Argo Tea (i experienced tea euphoria there) and Lavazza coffee and au bon pain and Corner Bakery. can i PLEASE move to a big city already where there's tea shops around the corner where i live???

6. Pizza- Giordanos. Yum last time, Yum this time.

7. Hot Dog - Portillo's. yum both times. the italian sausage was to die for.




8. Signature room on the 95th floor of JOhn Hancock tower - love both times. had a bottle of sparkling wine which tasted yummy and the plum tart and coconut bavarian. interesting desserts i never had before.



9. Architecture cruise and Navy Pier (and the firework show at night)

10. the Bean, art institue (the Grant Wood drawing was there this time!)

11. and the people were exceedingly nice. i wish i didn't have to choose btw moving away to somwhere i really like and some place whre i can be close to my friends and family. :( everybody knows how much i LIKE LA...but this is where most my friends/family are...

last trip before the start of my rotation next week! ><

ahh no time!

haha it's already pretty late and i really should hit the bed soon. so i'm just gonan write up a short one. went to santa monica today and got a blazer (FINALLY)...been wanting one of those forever and now i finally have one. goes with everything and looks instantly dressed up. my FIRST blazer. :) at a reasonable price too. took my parents to Anisette Boulangerie. ordered some beef tartare, steak au poivre and salmon tartine. delicieux.

will update about my annoying neighbors later. but yeah. few things in life can get me REALLY WORKED UP. one of them being extremely inconsiderate neighbors who park their cars on the driveway next to my window every night/morning, leave their engine on, play piano until midnight, have construnctions year-round that start at 7am, and let their super whiney and loud kids cry into the night (and morning) without any sort of intervention. still trying to come up with a good way to get back at them without breaking the law or shouting obscenities out my window. any ideas?

yee haw!

yep! it's that time of the year again. what i did yesterday was precisely that, attending the LA county fair! i'm HUGE on county fairs, whatever county i've resided in i have to attend their county fairs. yesterday was a perfect day to go, a weekday so probably less crowded and cheaper and so close to home, i took my parents to the county fair. Of course, what is a county fair without paying a visit to the barn animals..? We stopped by my favorite section..PIGS!! haha these piglets were taking their afternoon nap in groups. for some odd reason (as i've noticed before) they love to sleep in a pile right next to each other. i have a series of photos following them migrating to literally on top of each other. they were also super cute when they ran. it totally reminded me of my Babe stuffed animal at home. can i PLEASE get a pet piglet??? their snouts are just too cute!
haha yeah. i literally can go on and on forever about how cute these piglets are. i'm pretty sure instead of a cat lady, i will turn into a pig lady with no doubt. so the rest of the time we ate a frozen lemonade (hmmmm~) and walked through different exhibition halls. i got these lotion and skincare set from a lady who makes organic products in beverly hills. felt nice on my skin so i got a set. then we walked by a booth that sold these magic mops (think tv infomercial) and it was literally that. the guy demonstrated how good his product was and we were sold. well, we needed a mop to replace our Wetjet anyway. these microfibers on the mop was supposed to be so good that the static picks up everything. you can then use the same mop with some water to MOP the floor.
Our last purchase was 2 pairs of Ray Ban imitations...2 pair for $15. haha! i dont mind the tackiness as long as they looked good and they did.
ahhh..i LOVE county fairs. :)

fetished guys

Today i was running a bunch of errands in the morning, including picking my car up from the garage...the damage parts from previous accidents were fixed, and with the insurance kicking in cost about $500. I was missing it a lot when i was on my trip, and when i reunited with it i almost couldn't recognize it! the entire right side was perfect. they matched the color and really did a great job. and THEN....

As i was driving home in super good mood, i came to a red light. i noticed the car next to me (in the left turn lane) stopped as well (and there was no car in front of it, so he was practicaly stopped in the middle of the left turn lane next to me). NOrmally i wouldn't even bother to turn because i hate how sometimes drivers check each other out in LA (because we are all bored in traffic, i suppose). but today i did. I thought i might have a flat tire (happened a month ago). so i rolled down my window, and this dude was looking straight at me. and then he mouthed something. i was like what? and he said it again. and now i heard it loud and clear. he was asking for a friggin BODY MASSAGE! i mean, WHAT THE F**K! because i'm asian i know how to give massages with my toes with botanical oil? what the hell?! i was so shocked at how offensive this whole thing was and how disgusting a human being this guy was and how unbelievable shit like this even happened to me. who does he think he is? are there still psychos like him who go around thinking asian females are submissive and hypersexual? the thought angers me.


The funny thing is, i recently read an article about the latest TROPHY WIVES, being young, foxy asian females coupled up with disgustingly old, out of shape, twice or thrice her age white business tycoons (please refer to the latest issue of marie claire) and i totally agree with the author! she (asian as well) was merciless in her article and attacked every aspect of these relationships. these horribly dysfunctional relationships and many others between highly unmatched interracial couples make asian females look highly (and easily) attainable. thanks to these ladies i will continue to be harrassed by freaks everywhere old enough to be my grandpa and still want to sleep with me or get a full body massage.

Oh god i'm so angry at that guy. he needs to shoot himself.

mental stress, already

I just finished corresponding with a friend via email and found out about the happenings from her rotation. and immediately the stress came back. it's only been 2 days after i returned from prague and right away i feel like i'm behind already. this is bad. i'm feeling GUILTY about taking a break.

Basically i was updated about her rotation. she's taking a particularly challenging one that requires a lot of hours but she's also learning a lot. but her preceptor was nice enough to take them out to celebrate the midpoint of her rotation. and the attending physician took the whole team out to dinner. yes i know, none of this ever happened to me.
I'm feeling anxious and sort of sad at the same time. like i know i wont be having any more hospital rotations until next year. and during this time i will be forgetting everythign i've learned thusfar and will look bad during my interview. and regarding the social aspect, i was never treated liek a part of the team during my hospital rotation. i was never directly talked to, neither was i invited to any of their mini lectures. my friend's attending asked her to listen to the pt's chest with the stethoscope and also invited her to coffee with the rest of the team. my other friends would go to dim-sum or Yardhouse with their preceptors and that never happened to me either.

I'm looking at the Prague city guide that is sitting on my desk right now and it all feels so far, far away.

older man...

Is it so wrong for me to have a thing for an older man?? haha ok. i must say that after watching Galileo i've developed a super celebrity crush on 福山雅治. really talented as a musician and an actor. I must say that after the above music video in which he wrote and played his own song along with 柴崎幸 i was totally mesmorized. he's officially the only person who's broken my age bracket for liking someone (+5 and - 2 from my own age). haha, i normally dont condone may-december romance but i'd say 'hell yeah' in his case.

:) by the way this is a music video called Kiss Shitte by the band he formed with 柴崎幸 called KOH+. and he's FORTY years old.

lotsa things....

Lotsa things happened today..

- stopped by old work place to turn in paper work for my intern hour sign-off: haven't seen my boss et al. for a while (more like 2 years, intentionally). surprised that everyone still recognized me (didn't want them to). had a nice civil interaction with all esp. with boss. will probably pick up hour sheet on monday. glad things went well. have been dreading about it forever since things didn't exactly end on a good note when i left.

- sent sis off to school dorm: felt slightly sentimental and worried. although didn't always get along with her but still worried about her new life and her somewhat scary driving skill in downtown LA. know that she will probably be fine but do miss her a little since she is the youngest and i tend to take care of her a lot.

- finally joined the iphone clan: have been wanting it forever. but my phone wasn't exactly broken and worked fine. whatever suckiness i had to deal with i've somehow grown used to it. i chose the last generation which cost $100 less. I mean, i really dont think another 8GB makes that big a difference, esp. when i dont get to use it! honestly, what can i possibly fit in my phone to fill up that 16GB space? i'd rather put that money where i need it-- a camera that takes nice pictures. my Stylus from Olympus definitely has to be replaced since it doesn't take pictures in day OR night. if i dont use flash nothing gets captured. anyway...good to have an iphone. i can do lots with it. :)
- met up with a friend for some okonomyaki and taiyaki. not as good as what one'd get in tw but i enjoyed the chat so much more. hmm old friends. <3
- oh, and the day before yesterday. i finally tried out Roy's (this hawaiian fusion restaurant) summer prix-fixed menu with my friend who i did HI rotation with. conclusion: the sirloin, over-cooked and tough; appetizer, pretty yummy shrimp spring roll; chocolate molten cake with ice cream, delicious; service: the waiter couldn't stop staring at my friend like he's never seen a woman before, even when he was explaining my entrees to me. but she tends to have this effect on men as i've witnessed about 100x while out with her. so i guess i can't really blame his hormone-driven rxn.
ahh! and a flying cricket just nearly attacked me. help!