fun

my face in anime!

Late-night College Dinner!

In the tradition of my awesome aunt, I wanted to post a recipe I just created for myself:
Not fancy, but super yummy, and smells great!
This is what i did:
For a total prep time of about 20 minutes, I started boiling some water in a saucepan on the stove, and then added about 2 cups of dry pasta. I used penne because that's what i had on hand, but next time i would consider using a different kind. In any case, a good sized box of pasta can be found for less than a dollar. I put the lid on the pasta to cook, and meanwhile, took out 4 pieces of TJ's wheat bread from the freezer (lasts longer that way for just one person) and lightly defrosted it in the toaster. Next, I whipped up some garlic spread, using about 1/2 stick of butter, 1 tsp of minced garlic, and 2 tbsp. of parmesan cheese. i first melted the butter for a few seconds in the mocrowave, to make it easier to spread, and then added the other ingredients and mixed them together in a small bowl. When the pasta was cooked (al dente) , I strained it, and added 1 cup of canned pasta sauce (heated) and some cheese to taste. Then I spread the garlic mixture on the toast and cooked them in the toaster oven at 350 for about 4 minutes.
It made the whole apartment smell wonderful, and everyone had to come down to see what was cooking. I saved about half of it for leftovers. Super easy meal in less than 20 minutes! : )

Muir Talent Show

Wednesday night was fun-filled, thanks to the awesome performances at my friend Linda's theater troupe talent show. Here were some of the highlights:

A singer named Jewel who performed and played guitar to a sweet country melody she wrote herself

Linda (in the orange) dancing with others to the Time Warp, part of the Rocky Horror Picture Show



The Muir Juggling Club, who were also accompanied by a stand-up bass player and a gutiarist who improvised to the juggling acts. highly entertaining!

A group of three girls who sang and played "Let it Be" by the Beatles.

A amplified ukelele performance of "As my guitar gently weeps"

eww

Note to self:
NEVER put off laundry for this long again!!

5 loads = (.75 + .50) x 5 = $6.25

YUCK

Acacia Trees do not grow Walnuts

Apparently. this is what I found out last night, after an acute allergic reaction to nuts that landed me in the hospital. fun times! I'm on antihistamines for 5 days to quell the reactions. I almost couldn't breathe!


But on the bright side, I got this fabbolous jeweled peacock bag today from Anthropologie at the La Jolla mall. I met up with my roommates there today after a Rotaract (my community service club on campus) international "potlunch" for which I made a super yummy romaine salad with candied pecans, toasted almonds, rasberries, and rasberry dressing. Everyone brought super delicious food, the menu was:
Drinks- vanilla soy milk or horchata or sparkling blood orange juice
Appetizers- foccacia with marinar sauce, rolled fried eggs, greek stuffed grape leaves, rasberry nut salad, mozzarella basil tomatoes
Main dishes- tuna pasta salad, chicken wings, soy sauce eggs, teriyaki pasta, beef potato stew
And for dessert we went to Forbidden Yogurt at Governor and Genessee.
Awesome event!

Treats

Food made in my new apartment!
Yummy treats for me and my neighbors : )
Top, a berry chocolate fruit salad, bottom, fresh hot cinnamon rolls

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus of blogging, due to the natural course of life, I have returned to my space in the blogosphere. Lots of fun and exciting college escapades will hopefully be noted, and I would like to start with some pictures:

cutest people on earth in the new kitchen
awww... kiss sandwich on the new couch
late-night yoga in the new apartment

went to the movies today...

Saw Wall-E and it was really good! such a cute movie!!

Happy almost Fourth of July!

First Day off!

Today is my first day off of work and school in two weeks! whew.. I slept 13 hours last night trying to recover! I just started my statistics class on Monday, and I like it, but the time frame (monday-thursday 6-9) is a little draining. I also started work on Saturday, and it's been going really well. I thought I wouldn't remember how to do anything at Peet's, but it all cam back to me really quickly.
In a few minutes I'm going to Target to get myself a hand vacuum- very exciting! I'm in the process of trying to move all my stuff back in to my room, which is challenging because not only is it dusty because it hasn't been cleaned in almost a year, but I still have clothes and books and furniture from my entire childhood in Morgan Hill, which would be fine, except that I have acquired an entire room's worth of stuff to live with in San Diego. And it doesn't help that its about 10o degrees today here! hot hot hot! my poor kitty is just sprawled out on the tile floor, panting, trying to keep cool with all her thick long black fur! I convinced my mom that we could afford to turn the AC on for today- its just way too hot. I miss San Diego weather!

Churro's favorite position

New Haircut, Padres Game, FInals, Moving OUT!

I only have one more night in my college bed!
as well as, massive amounts of dirty laundry to do, two finals to take, and all my stuff to pack.
in like a day. Ahhhhhh!!! and yet, I'm awake at five in the morning not doing any of the above.

Anyway, yesterday was really fun. I took my daddy to a San Diego Padres game for Father's Day. We had seats in the right infield, which were pretty good- except that was Dodger territory! haha... it was fun though.

I will be in Morgan Hill Saturday. Woohoo! I'm a second year already : )

Oh And... I got my hairs cut again:

So I've always wondered..

Why being blonde is so seemingly desirable- I totally love it but I've always known that the hair color comes with a certain set of stereotypes.
One of my class reading discusses some of this phenomenon- "Madonna's mega-success is tied to her representation as a blond.... within white supremacist culture, a female must be whie to occupy the space of sacred femininity, and she must also be blond." -bell hooks
Here are some interesting articles about being blond:
Link that maybe cavemen preferred blondes

Link between male IQ and seeing a blond woman

Common myths debunked

Read this!!!

Article about global/water shortages:

Yale 360

Last Day of School

Oh and...

some of the lovely lovely flyering!!

Reflections

Okay, so it's not exactly what I wanted to write, but I had to stick to the prompt- and written while super sleep-deprived:



Writing Exercise #5
Upon being asked to complete this reflective writing assignment about DOC 3, I couldn’t help but immediately think of how far I have come this year- geographically as well as personally. I would like to start with a brief description of my life before moving to UCSD, to help illustrate the shift one year later.
Morgan Hill, California- Famous for its fragrant mushroom farms, this small bedroom community of the high-tech industries of nearby Silicon Valley maintains a population that is 72.4% white, with a median family income of $90,134, and also happens to be my hometown; it’s where I spent the first18 years of my life.
All throughout my childhood years, I was very active and involved with the community and the schools- my parents were both tenured teachers in the district, and as is usually the case in small towns, everyone knew everyone else’s business. Every time I got into trouble or was tardy to class, my parents knew about it before the day was through. As a result, I was encouraged to succeed and to behave well, and consequently found myself more and more intertwined with the people and way of life that was Morgan Hill. My town was very conservative, very suburban, and scandal happened behind the closed doors of perfectly manicured homes. In my high school, there was not very much diversity, and the only way I ever got to interact with students of other races was through my Rotary involvement and my participation in badminton. It wasn’t that I inherently discriminated against those different from me, it was just that I was ignorant of most other cultures and ways of life.
However, everything started to change once I came to college. I’m not sure what the criteria were that determined I would end up in Marshall College, but it turned out to be very appropriate for me. As soon as I arrived here, I was immersed in a sea of fresh new faces, of ambitious young adults who were all here to learn and study, but who all came from different backgrounds. This may sound a little ridiculous, but I was so surprised that all these people of different races and religions could actually be cool, intelligent people. DOC 1 helped with that- I learned how to look beyond a person’s outer appearance or behavior and that in order to gain a proper understanding of the world, I needed to broaden my perspectives and be open to new ideas and experiences. I was immediately making new friends and socializing (even dating) with people that I would previously never have thought to talk to. In a way, this made me angry at my upbringing, and when I went home for winter break, I was appalled at the intolerance of my community. Meanwhile, back at UCSD, I was learning how to live with nine other girls in a tiny dorm with variable plumbing and questionable cuisine, and exploring the rest of the campus and what it has to offer. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to have two consecutive healthy days this year, but despite the hospital visits and vomit-filled trash bags, I was the happiest I have ever been every day I spent here in La Jolla. I have made lasting friendships, had unforgettable experiences, and learned so much about the world already, and this is just my first year.
In my opinion, the DOC program has helped me immensely as far as shaping my perspectives about the world and developing my own ideologies. By far, I think that DOC 1 has been the most beneficial course of the three-quarter series. DOC 2 provided me with a lot of information, but was the least enjoyable. As for DOC 3, I really enjoyed the reading material, and happily read all the assigned texts before they were due. However, as of now, I’m not exactly sure what we were supposed to come away with at the end of the quarter. There was a lot of good material, but I don’t think the course objectives were very clear. That being said, I truly enjoyed the reader and two novels, and would definitely recommend Marshall College as well as DOC to any incoming freshman.



Thanks family for the conference call last night! It was really fun! : )
Can't wait to see you all!

Nearing Finals Week...

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Libra

A fantastic New Moon in your ninth house of the higher mind makes it the right time to enroll in a certification program, university or adult education class. Your mind is thirsty and it's time to drink.


Thanks to the SJ Mercury, I now am justified in my thinking it was a good idea to enroll in a summer class. I hopefully will be taking Statistics, monday tuesday wednesday thursday nights from 6-9pm. wow! sounds like a lot of class

I'm just in the library right now- 6th floor looking out over ucsd and the 5. Finding it so hard to concentrate, but knowing that I have to get things done now or i might as well sacrifice sleeping for the next week. I have a lot to do, and a lot of things to do, especially considering the fact that I'm moving out and moving on in 11 days. I'm counting! Change can be kind of scary, but exhilarating at the same time I guess. I'm not really sure if I am going home, or if I'm leaving home.. I kind of feel like a transient. On the bright side, I now have roommates- whom I don't know yet, but who will probably be normal cool people. I hope!

Back to studying- 11 days until I am back in NorCal : )

UC Workers Protest

I will be participating in this- just wanted to raise awareness!

The Internet

Let me preface this by saying... I'm not a stalker.. but i do like to explore the Internet!
I found my picture on a random person's blog today. At least he gave photo credits.

Lurk

I think it's sometimes easy to forget that anything we put online can and will be seen and used by other people.

Lots of Info

Matt Costa at UCSD Sun God Festival '08

I'm sure everyone would like to know what has been going on in my life- especially since I haven't been blogging in a while- so I wanted to get it all out there:

I have been really sick again this quarter, unfortunately, and went to the emergency room twice, and was hospitalized once for four days. I couldn't stop throwing up, and no matter what I tried it didn't seem to help. The doctors thought they saw an intussuseption in my intestine with the CAT scan, but apparently that was intermittent, so that wasn't the cause. They ended up just medicating me and sending me home, so the problem still really isn't solved; the symptoms have just been treated. I had a neurology appointment last week, and the doctor said that it just might be a chronic sort of condition that is realated to my low blood pressure and migraines. It just really drags down my everyday life, because I have to always be monitoring my specific food intake and my multiple medicines, which tend to make me drowsy in addition. It has also been really hard with school work, but I have tried to salvage my courses as much as possible.


I guess that I can say that there are two positive things that have come of this whole experience: For one, I am better acquainted with the way things work in hospitals and am more comfortable with medical procedures. Also, because of my health conditions, I will probably never get high blood pressure in my later years!

One interesting thing that happened during my illness was a very memorable doctor's appointment at my primary care office at UCSD. I went in to complain about my condition and the emesis and dehydration, so my doctor/NP lined me up with a bag of fluids (code for a liter of IV solution) so that I could get hydrated again. My friend and roommate Linda had been shopping at CVS next door, so I called her to come in to the doctor's office and wait while I had the IV put in, just for moral support. But... I wasn't aware that she was squeamish around needles, and when the nurse stuck it in my hand, Linda turned green and passed out, hitting her head on a magazine rack on the way down! She had to be taken off by ambulance, and I couldn;t do anything because I was sitting there with the IV attached to me. What a day!! We laughed about it later, but it was kind of scary at the time : )

Tonight I just got out of my last Rotaract meeting of the year, with a certificate, yay! I have been active in the club this quarter as well, and have made closer friendships with the people involved. It has been a really good year, and I have enjoyed every minute of being in Rotaract. Hopefully, next year we will be just as good, if not better- I would like to be more active next year if that's possible.


Speaking of next year, my freshman year of college is almost up! It does not seem like it has been nearly 12 months since I graduated from high school. It might be cliche, but it seems like it was just yesterday. Maybe the years do fly by faster as you get older....


I will be moving out in less than three weeks, Friday the 13th of June, and will be back in Morgan Hill until the end of September 08. I am very sad about having to leave all the memories, fun times, and crazy moments and crazy people of the dorms. I had such an incredible time this year, and it will be a little tearful leaving behind all of this. It was really nice to have 9 other girls always around to talk to and hang out with, and knowing that if you had an emotional crisis at 4 am, that there would be friends you could commiserate with and share ice cream and pizza with. We have seen each other grow and change as people, and go through one obstacle after another, from massive exams to intoxicated mistakes to ever-present boy problems. I will really miss it!

On the other hand, the future and what it holds in store for this sumer and next year looks very promising, and I'm trying to keep a positive outlook about moving out soon. I have my apartment all set up for next fall, as you could tell from my previous posts (SO exciting!) and I will be living with 3 other girls in an apartment with a kitchen, private bathroom, and my own 10' by 12' room adjacent to the living and dining rooms. I know that one of my upstairs roommates will be Linda, but the other two we don't know of yet. I'm pretty optimistic, and hoping that the girls will be cool people. I also have picked my classes for the fall, and have a really good schedule- no Tuesday Thursday classes again. : )

Another thing that I have been enjoying is my campus church group. I started going the Unitarian Universalist youth group here on campus, and I really like it. It is an amazing place to come to every week, and I can really express myself there.

One epic even that took place this quarter was the Sun God Festival, UCSD's formerly famous all-day outdoor music festival. It was not all that I had expected, mostly just a lot of drunken people and a lot of police. I enjoyed it though. The headliners were Coheed and Cambria and Sean Kingston, with Matt Costa and Say Anything. I have lots and lots of pictures on my Flickr page if you would like to check it out.

I also had a visit from Sai; he drove down to SoCal and was able to visit for a day. We got to hang out and watch a movie, and went to dinner at Olive Garden, which I had been bugging to go to for ages. It was fun, but it will be a lot nicer to be able to spend more time together this summer! We've almost hit the 9 month anniversary of our first date (not that a dating anniversary is that important, but it has to count for something!)

Weekend visit May 17th, 08

As for now.. I really need to stop writing this and go to work on my DOC studies. I am sitting at the coffee shop on campus and am going to head over to the library to get some work done. Possible updates soon!

God is In

tunes

I totally am in love with my new headphones. The brand is SkullCandy, and i got them from the bookstore for less than 20 bucks. I think my apple headphones got stolen or something, i'm not sure. It gave me an opportunity to shop around, though, and I'm really satisfied with these. The great thing is, they're really noise-cancelling, but it means i can't hear people if they try to talk to me. great for tuning out though! : )

http://marshall.ucsd.edu/current/reslife/tour/tour_lower.php

Residence for Fall 08-Spring 09

This is where I will be living next year:
Apartment C-7
My room is room #1, on the bottom floor next to the kitchen.
Come visit all!!

Finals are almost through!

Pictures from inside the new ultra-modern Virgin America planes

Okay, so two down, one to go- and then I'll be on a plane headed for the lovely northern California!

I'm really excited to see all the family; wow, I can't believe it's been three months already! This is the longest time I have gone without seeing any family or my parents. It will be nice, I get to see my parents for two days out of the week I will be home as they are going to their Colorado home to work and hang out.

I decided not to go with them, given the arduous process of elevation and climate adjustment that always takes at least half of your vacation. Instead, I booked myself a plane ticket on the new Virgin America Airline and will be in Morgan Hill from Saturday afternoon/morning until the following Monday afternoon.

I would love to see as many people as possible and just enjoy the time that I have off from studying and classes. I'm looking forward to taking lots of pictures, reading some books for fun, and hanging out with my grandparents.

On a different (sort of) note, I recently changed my appearance... But no pictures- you all will just have to see me in person and be surprised! : )

i love the colbert report...

favorite show. too bad i can never seem to catch it on the right day- but old news is okay because it's still funny!
As you can see, the TB test I got today is actually invisible! I think that's means i'm negative. : )
Unfortunately, I also managed to pick up a wicked sunburn from walking around campus for only ten minutes. it was 78 today, pretty nice weather, but I was totally unprepared for the ultraviolet rays!
11 days til i'm comin home..!

Imagination

I just read the comment from my last post, about "Imagination," the title of my Marshall College writing class for next quarter. I pulled the definition from the course catalog:

Dimensions of Culture: Imagination (6) Using the arts, this course examines the evolution of pluralistic culture to the modern period. There is a special emphasis on the interdisciplinary study of twentieth-century American culture, including music, literature, art, film, and photography. The course offers intensive instruction in writing university-level expository prose. Three hours of lecture, two hours of discussion and writing instruction. Open to Marshall College students only.

We will be reading materials from a course reader, just like the other two quarters of this program- you have to buy it from an independent company, and its basically just a compilation of articles and excerpts. We'll also be reading the novels Vine of Desire and Fire Next Time, which I just ordered used on Amazon; i think I got them for about 2 bucks each.

Working on Another Paper

Tonight, I am writing a paper for my country music class. I'm writing about Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette, and how they were influential, as female country music artists, during the time of the civil rights and women's liberation movements.
Today was so weird because of the time change! I'm pretty sure it threw a lot of other people off as well.. I wish that there would be something like a whole day of rest after the time change every spring! It's so hard on our bodies and brains..

Yesterday I went to an informational session for the Marshall College tutoring program that I would like to start doing. It's interesting how the program works: if you're volunteering, you have to fill out an application and take a TB test, pick which school you want to help out at (a charter middle school, a private 6-12 UCSD school, or a lower-end high school, and catch the free hourly shuttle from campus) I'm pretty excited, it should give me a feel for the San Diego area and give me some more experience working with students from all backgrounds, and also maybe use my Spanish skills. Let's just hope I pass the TB test! : )

Here are some pictures from a concert I went to last weekend at my college. The groups were Young Love and The Federation:

(the Blogger server isn't working, but the pictures are the first ones on my FLickr site)
sorry!

School

I just got my Biology book for next quarter : )
Doesn't it look all spiffy and educational?? I'm really excited. Reading it is almost more interesting than TV... haha. Thanks Mom and Dad for the textbook money- I really appreciate it!

I'm just putting off doing my case summaries for my DOC class right now.. but I just had some good news to share- I signed up for my classes for next quarter already. I will be taking Chemistry, Biology, Imagination, and Ethnic Studies. I'm pretty psyched for this dern winter quarter to be over already and to just take my finals already so I can go home and see my loved ones! Winter in San Diego is very mild, but clouds all the time leave me wishing for some of the spicier weather of NorCal. I can't wait to come home and see everyone! yay Spring Break!

For my Awesome Aunt and Uncle!!

I have definitely been slacking on the blogging- sorry! I have been running around with my head cut off going from midterm to midterm, paper to summary, meetings and.. etc! I pledge to start blogging more often from now on.

I was so happy today- I got a giant box of California Navel Oranges in the post- a Valentine's present care package from my Aunt and Uncle. I never expected for my package to be the one in the pretty fruit box!
(When you get a package, it is delivered to the Residential Life Office, where they send you an email telling you to come get it, and then you have to show ID to pick it up, but you also get to look at all the other packages that have been delivered and try to guess which one is yours before you get it!)
The oranges are so yummy, and I just lovee that beautiful citrus spray that bursts out when you first peel the orange!

Thank you SO much Aunt Kelly and Uncle Reza! I really appreaciate it!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Back at School!

My new Tv setup- with my newest bear, TMX cookie monster. Surrounding him are Moo Cow, Sockie, and Psyduck. My DVD player has most recently shown Notes on a Scandal and Hot Fuzz. Netflix is ridiculously slow, but if i post it in the morning, it takes only 3 days.

We just had a fish funeral. Liz's beta, Howard, just passed away last night. Here he is in his smelly plastic container of doom, dead. R.I.P. Howard- you were a good fish... for your short 4 days of life with us.

I went to the Student Health Center yesterday morning for a doctor's appointment... and...I got a clean bill of health! No more mono! : ) I also had some blood tests done and had to get my flu shot (yuck!) so all in all i was there for about two hours (losing one of my debit cards in the process! ugh) but I'm very happy that I'm well again. I still don't have 100% energy, but it will come back soon I hope.

This quarter, I am taking Music 15 (Country music) 3 hours on Monday nights, DOC 2 (Dimensions of Culture: Justice) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Chemistry 6A Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the mornings (i must wake up by 6:30) but it's not that bad.
I'm off to DOC section- I ended up with the same TA from last quarter. We're discussing the Federalist Papers today