Chin up

Today I got a promotion at work (*yay!). After a brief training period I will assume my new role as Content Supervisor (*eep!). I hope I will be able to handle the extra workload. I also hope I will be as good a supervisor as my predecessor (*Emma!). It's pretty exciting to be growing with the company. This calls for a playlist celebration.

Celebrate Good Times, C'mon!

1. Pinback -  Penelope
2. Ambulance LTD - Primitive
3. Florence and the Machine - Dog Days Are Over
4. Foster the People - Pumped Up Kicks
5. Arcade Fire - Sprawl II
6. The Roots - The Seed 2.0 
7. Pinback - Good to Sea
8. Cage the Elephant - Shake Me Down
9. Broken Social Scene - Cause = Time
10. Jurassic 5 - Jurass Finish First

Balboa Parkizzle

My first encounter with sunny San Diego's beloved Balboa Park was on a date during my freshman year at UCSD. Since that day I have been an avid visitor, a true admirer of the pretty gardens, historic buildings, lovely architecture, and, most importantly, those majestic trees. It's number 3 on my top five favorite places.

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I never really considered myself a keep-up-with-shows-on-the-daily type, but I just recently got into L O S T. Like totally into it. Yeah, it's been a few years since the initial hype of the show, but I prefer it this way, thanks to the seamless stream of wonderful DVDs and Netflix instaqueue. I very much dislike commercials.

At first I tried to limit myself to only three episodes a night, but that's proving to be extremely difficult. Especially right now because I just finished season 3 and am so curious as to what will happen (or happened). EEEEEEEEE I can't help it! Season 4 here I come!

Culinary and things

This past weekend I went to Vegas and pigged the fuck out. I hadn't drank that much soda since I was a chubby 7-year old with a crazy addiction to root beer. Oh and the junk food, buffet, and alcohol didn't help much with the gut problem either.

Rehabilitation step one: cook more
The other night I tried my hand at some gourmet improvisation. I bought these chili lemon chicken patties from Trader Joe's a while back and decided to use the rest of my tomato and spinach for a makeshift burger sandwich.* I had already eaten one of the patties before and noticed that they were pretty dry so I fried a runny egg to put on top. The resulting dish was quite satisfying if I can say so myself.


Time to bust out my vegetarian cookbook and a few bookmarked recipes. I'm gonna try to make a habit out of this cooking/eating at home thingymajig.

*Yes, I practically always make sandwiches. It doesn't really matter if I've been a college graduate for the last 6 months because I'm still on the college student diet, which, for me, consists of a variety of many things put between two slices of toasted wheat bread. A few weeks ago I made the most delicious muenster grilled cheese sandwich and added tomato slices to the middle. If that's not good enough, I don't know what is.

I think I'm turning Japanese

I really think so.

I tried sushi rolls for the first time back in high school. It was during a sushi craze where restaurants were popping up left and right and nightly human interest stories were all about the use of chopsticks or the origin of the mysterious wasabi root. My mother has always been a trend-follower of sorts and brought home California rolls one day from Costco. I remember she was so enthusiastic about it, as though as Vietnamese immigrants we had never tried such a combination of rice and seafood, let alone season it with soy sauce. I ate one and didn't like it at all. Something about the texture of the cold rice and mush of the imitation crab meat didn't settle correctly with me, so I just shrugged it off.

My second encounter with sushi was at a friend's house. She, too, was overly excited about the bandwagon dish and urged me to give it another chance. I held my breath and drenched a roll in soy sauce. It wasn't too bad. Then again, it wasn't imitation crab meat from Costco. I decided then and there that it was an acquired taste, and soon enough I had acquired quite an insatiable taste for it.

Since that day I've expanded my sushi horizons to include an array of dishes that, over the years, I have grown to enjoy and love. Variations of sashimi are sweet delicacies that tickle my taste buds while more exotic choices such as sea urchin have yet gain access to my good side. Nonetheless, I am willing to try anything in the sushi department. And most recently I have been craving every dish and snack I know from the entire Japanese cuisine department. A hot bowl of authentic ramen, salty soba noodles, a steamy cup of miso with just the right amount of dashi, lightly cracked seaweed paper. This past weekend I drooled at the thought of rice with hard boiled eggs and soy sauce. Not quite Japanese, I know, but close enough to a subsitute rice and soy sauce entree that could be managed in my boyfriend's leaky ceiling residence. Now my stomach growls for shrimp boats, baked unagi, and the oh-so-melt-in-your-mouth-delicious o-toro sashimi. I must have. Now.

One day I will travel to Japan and bask in the glory that is their food. One day I will learn the Japanese dishes by their Japanese names and order them as such. One day I will try chicken sashimi. You heard me. That's raw chicken, and it's also known as sasami. One day...

Eye syndrome (just this once)

I get paid to read blogs. I go to work, I go home, I hang out, I sleep, I pay bills. And then I get paid to read blogs.

Sometimes I make things way more complicated than they should be. I know this. I do it often, and quite frankly, I'm not sure why. It's some type of defense mechanism or protective strategy I enable to handle the pressure of...of what? I stress out about things that don't deserve a moment's thought. I worry incessantly. I go crazy when things aren't perfect and freak out when I'm in debt. I forget a lot of the time that I have it good. Like, really good.

I have a roof over my head, friends who care about me, family who is always there for me, an amazing boyfriend who's funny and sweet. I have clothes to wear, food to eat, books to read, a hot shower every morning, internet, a cell phone, clean socks.... Shit, I have more than the average 21-turning-22-year-old out there. And I only have to take care of myself, no one else. How hard do I think my life is? I don't know where I got this crazy idea or why it's been stuck in my head all these years because now that I really think about it, my life isn't difficult at all. It's pretty good, and I'm pretty lucky.

I mean, I get paid to read blogs.