My New Friend

People keep asking me if I've made any friends here in Nor Cal. So, I finally made one the other night and decided to blog about him! My new friend's name is Dashiell. My family went to dinner at the Minors' house on Thursday and this is where Dashiell and I met. When we arrived, my sister found Natalie who is her age. They hit it off and jumped in the swimming pool fully clothed (which seems to be a habit of hers)...I stood around a little bit wondering what a should do. Join Melissa and Natalie? No. Listen to my parents talk to Julia and Tom? No. Just then, nine year old Dashiell walks up and invites me to play Dance Dance Revolution. He was the cutest boy! After we got tired of DDR, we moved on to WII and then some Mario game. We played for four and a half hours. Thanks Dashiell!

August to August

For those of you who know me really well, you know I never go anywhere without my planner. In fact, I think I've blogged about it before. Well, at the beginning of August my orange planner ended. I didn't quite know what to do with myself. My mom got me a random planner from a drug store and I tried it out, but it just wasn't cutting it. Today while I was at The Container Store, I saw the infamous August to August calendar and bought it! All is right with the universe. Now, I can be organized again.

oh what a night!

last night was my parents' anniversary, and to celebrate, we all went to jersey boys in san fransisco! it was as really cute show, maybe a little long though...haha. there was this crazy lady sitting next to me which made the show all the more exciting. she sang along to every song and insisted on clapping too. the only problem with this was that she couldn't keep a beat and somehow managed to hit me with her elbows a bunch since we were sharing an armrest. but, overall i liked the show. the guy playing frankie valli was such a good singer!

happy anniversary mom and dad!
(27 years)

t-shirt quilt

whenever one of my cousins graduates high school, my grandma takes their t-shirts from high school and makes a quilt. i guess she forgot about the tradition when i graduated because she made me a different quilt. its really cute! in fact, it's on my bed right now. but, i had saved all these t-shirts. so at the beginning of the summer, i started making my own quilt and i finally made the last stitch today! here's the finished product!

oakland temple

this is where i went today.

Berkeley Part II

OK...so we decided to play that game again today. bad idea. i brought the rest of the couch over to his apartment this morning and we carried up the three flights of stairs. that was the easy part. and let me tell you, it was not a light couch. once we got it in the hallway of the third floor, we realized just how difficult this was going to be (it was even too wide for the hallway). after flipping it around a few times, we noticed that it just would not fit through the door. fortunately there was a room across the hall. we decided that if we could use that door way and the room inside then we would be able maneuver the couch inside the correct room. Taylor knocked on the door and a few minutes later, a tall boy with messy hair opened the door. we had woken him up. we told him the situation and he opened his door and gave us the go ahead. first of all, it was a miracle that we were able to put the end of the couch through his door and when we eventually shoved the other side through Taylor's we were overjoyed. just one problem. the couch wouldn't budge another inch, it wouldn't go in or out...poor christian (friendly neighbor).

after an hour, we decided the only way to fix the problem would be to saw the corner off the couch and slide it through the doors. i found myself driving back to Danville to find a saw. when i came back an hour later, Taylor started to saw. keep in mind that this was a well-made couch. he had to saw through fabric, padding, another kind of padding, high quality wood, occasionally a few staples and a metal plate. this was all happening while i single handedly held the couch up at manageable level. this went on for hours...


here's a close-up...
and look! you can't even tell! just don't sit in the corner...

Berkeley

Today i spent a little time at UC Berkeley. I went to help my brother move a few things into his new room! When we got there, we played a little game called "try to fit as much furniture into one room as possible." it was quite fun, but afterwards i decided i could never be a designer...after all, it's just not that much fun. Taylor's building/room/neighborhood is really ghetto. haha, but i guess he doesn't mind because he's a boy...

we ate dinner at naan 'n' curry. we had naan and curry.

color me yours

Last night hannah, kailee and I went to color me mine. It was really fun! Hannah and kailee each made mugs and I made a plate thing. They were all really cute! It was funny because each of our pieces totally reflect our personalities! i'll post the pics as soon as i get a camera hook up.

thanks yuki!

I went to wingstop for what I thought would be the last time in a long time. Yuki was there and we chatted for a bit and after ordering the staple “Two can dine for 11.99” yuki only charged us $1.82! how amazing is that?!?!?! I guess it pays to frequent wingstop…and don’t worry, we def gave yuki a tip.

the wings tasted good. and so did the fries. and so did the diet coke!

i admit, i went again the next day and the wings were even better! what am i going to do without you wingstop?

Hair to Dye for!

I dyed my hair everyone! it's black! kind of exciting isn't it? I also have a few chunks of a honey-like color around my face to soften the look...haha, i guess.

why you ask? let me tell you! carlos ramirez, aka hair genius, needed models for a photo shoot he was involved in. he asked me if i would do it, and i said yes! i drove down to irvine on friday, colored my hair on saturday (it was even free!) and shot the photos on sunday.

the photoshoot was quite a funny experience. i tried on a few outfits, got my make-up done (it was quite the sight to see) and had my hair straightened. i didn't look like myself at all! i can't wait until i get the pictures. i shot a couple of "looks," repeated the whole process and then i was done!

if your ever looking at a stylebook while waiting to get your hair done and happen to see me, don't be surprised...of course who is to say you'll even recognize me?

My New Hot Tub

In moving, my family acquired a hot tub left by previous owner of 282 Remington Loop. This was pretty cool seeing as I had never had a jacuzzi in my backyard before and am no longer within walking distance to a public one. My sister Melissa was especially excited about this new edition. When the movers came on Monday to bring everything from storage and into the house, Melissa decided to go for a swim. Since Melissa's room had not been unpacked at all and she didn't have a swimsuit with her, naturally, she felt the need to take this swim fully clothed. When she decided she was wet enough, she climbed out and began to fold the cover back over the water. She heard a plop but didn't think anything of it. She then realized she didn't have her phone and could better decipher what made the plopping sound. After recovering her phone, we decided it luckily didn't have any damage and was okay...just a little wet...

There are a lot of cool things about this hot tub. For instance, the other day when I was at the grocery store, I found these really cool rubber duckies to put in the water. When their tummies get wet, they light up! They are really cute, but like to get stuck in the filters a lot.

Another neat thing is when you are relaxing the water you can see all the wildlife in my backyard. Like today, there was a baby deer and a mommy deer. They were pretty cute.

Sometimes if you are really lucky, someone will even come and swim with you! Earlier, my mom was showing my brother the hot tub, and he noticed a little frog. I had to go and fish it out since the water was a little to warm for the little guy to handle. It was actually quite sad and a little bit gross. It kinda makes me want to empty the spa and re-chlorinate it...we'll see if any of Kermit's friends want to swim with us again.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

(If you wanted to read the book and haven’t yet, I wouldn’t read this blog…it may give away a few things. and don't say I didn't warn you!)

I finished the final installment of the Harry Potter series! It was pretty good. I do have a few complaints however. First of all, why has it taken so long for the last book to come out? I mean…come on! I read the first book in fifth grade and I have to wait until after I’ve graduated from high school for the last one? Another complaint: I really didn’t like the epilogue. It was too nice of an ending. Too happy, too perfect. I would have liked it to end when it ended, let me imagine what happens to Harry, I don’t need to be told that everything works out perfectly for everyone in the end. And I really wish I hadn't known what Harry names his children. who wants to be named Albus Severus? and it was way too confusing to have the other children named after his parents...I had to keep going back and reading things over to make sure I knew who was being talked about.

About the ending; personally, I think I would have liked it if Harry had died. Make him the tragic hero he deserves to be! Oh well…I guess I a lot of people would have been upset by that, even though we were all expecting it (including Harry himself). I read an article in Newsweek yesterday comparing Harry to Jesus Christ, being resurrected and all. the chapter after Harry dies is called "King's Cross" after all. but what is all that supposed to mean? It's a little too deep for me I guess...

It sounds like all I have are complaints, but I really did like the book. And I definitely recommend it to anyone who was thinking about reading it and just haven’t gotten around to it. it was nice to finally have Voldermort defeated for the last time, now the wizarding world can rest easy.

P.S. For all you true HP fans, I have I question. There was one part of the story I didn’t quite understand. When Harry is talking to Voldermort about the elder wand he says that Draco is the true master of the wand until he is defeated by Harry. How is this so? Did Draco defeat Dumbledore and I just don’t remember? Help me please!

danville, ca

for those of you who have never been to northern california, i thought i would give you a little taste of my new living arrangements. my new house is in danville which is about 15 minutes from walnut creek and about 45 minutes from san fransisco (going the other direction). its been really hot here...but i heard that the heat is unusual, so lets hope i heard right! there are a lot of hills and trees. i have a jacuzzi in my backyard now which i am really excited about and a great view out the front window. i spent my first few days here doing some heaving duty shopping so when you all come to visit me, i'll know exactly where to take you! it's pretty much the same here as in irvine except for a few things like BART. bay area rapid transit. i don't even have to drive anywhere! it's great! i don't really know what else to say...but feel free to ask questions if you've got any!

last days in irvine

nor cal! that's where i live now, can you believe it? i moved out of my house last thursday night and into the classy residents inn in irvine. nothing too exciting happened while i was there. that saturday night ben ross picked me up and took me to hogues to see cory benjamin, apocalipstick, and wingman. i had a lot of fun. i recognized the guitar player in apocalipstick and it turned out that it was a girl named jenna that i used to take ballet class with! what a small world! we drove up to walnut creek on sunday and i've just been chillin' there ever since. i sleep on a pull-out bed in the living room of a one room apartment. it is awfully small, but that's ok, i just stay in bed all day anyway! i've watched a lot of tv and movies and read a lot too! i bought a laptop which is what is allowing me to type about my uneventful week and that has also kept me very busy (playing various games such as insanaquarium, mahjong, and zuma).