Life's a Beach

Playing: Pet Shop Boys Medley by Pet Shop Boys Feat. Brandon Flowers and Lady Gaga
Reading: May 2012 Harper's Bazaar

I spent my last day of Spring Break, wondering aimlessly through Seal Beach and enjoying being a Californian. Spent plenty of time hanging out around the pier and taking photos of the area such as this little garden they have by the beach. I remember I was walking around this garden a few years back and this guy was walking his pet turtle there. He used to be here every weekend and I wonder where he went, since he's no longer there.

Surprisingly, there weren't that many people on the beach the day I went. They probably all went to Huntington Beach or Newport Beach, which seem to be the most popular beaches. The nice thing about this pier is that the street it's by is filled with vintage shops plus quaint specialty stores. Also, the food is pretty decent along this street and they have "indie" bars.

I took Hobbes, my dog, with me for a walk along the beach, which was a bad idea, since apparently bringing your dog onto the beach is against the rules according to the lifeguard...So I ended up walking along the residential streets looking at homes and keeping my dog away from all the other dogs, since the veterinarian told me he's "doggy aggressive."

I found this super modern looking home that I like quite a bit. I especially like the driveway and how it's a bunch of rectangular tiles with grass in between. It's a nice contrast between rock and greenery. I would love to see what these homes look like on the inside. If you're into architecture like me, this street has a lot of interesting homes. There's Victorian style homes, beach bungalows, modern houses, and some that have Roman influence with pillars and such.

After a long day of exploring Seal Beach and looking at homes, I decided to go off to Ralph's to buy some snacking basics. I bought some lemon curd in lieu of my normal fruit preserves and jam along with some angel cake. I love spreading jam on this cake for a quick and easy (and surprisingly low calorie, for those of you on a diet) snack. Then I settled in for the night watching How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.

What do you do to unwind?

P.S. Life truly is a beach. I didn't get accepted for the internship I applied for and a friend of mine did not get the job she was applying for, even though we both worked hard for it,

Fullerton Adventures

Playing: Under the Gun-The Killers
Reading: The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes by Neil Gaiman

To continue our adventure in Fullerton, Sophie and I walked a mile to get to another area in Fullerton that had this great deserted desert city, retro type of vibe. Of course, I couldn't resist the challenge of telling Sophie to go look like an angry teenager for my photo and have her listen to me.

Our mile long walk took us to The Thrift Store, which was one of our sketchier finds. It was completely random selling everything from clothes to strollers to old china. One of the problems I had with this place was how stuffy it was and how there wasn't much of a breeze. However, if you look through their DVDs and CDs, you can probably find something you like for less than $3.

As you can see, the back half of The Thrift Store was jam packed with clothing from past decades and there was so much that Sophie and I sort of gave up on it. Sophie looks absolutely flabbergasted at how much clothing there seems to be in this photo. By that time, she and I were extremely dehydrated from the stuffiness of the store and the hot weather, so we left in search of a place to get drinks.

We ended up getting drinks at a CVS Pharmacy, but ultimately ended up at a 99 Cent Store, which was at least another mile away or so it felt that way. I kind of want to get this deodorant for a friend, so I can walk up to them and tell them they SMELL LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. I think Nirvana needs to sue this brand and teach them a lesson. Haha, but seriously, isn't this the best name for deodorant ever? Whenever I'm in the locker room with my friends and it smells horrible, I say, "It smells like teen spirit in here."

Sophie ended up digging through the makeup section in hopes of finding something amazing and for doing a review on her blog. However, I was incapable of helping her find something cool to buy because I was too busy drinking water and trying to stop myself from being too dehydrated. She ended up getting some pretty nifty items and we just bummed around for a bit before we decided it was time to call it quits. We've decided that we're going to explore more cities now just to get a better feel for California. Sounds like a halfway good idea, right?

Do you explore different towns just because you feel like it? No reason other than just because you want to?

Recent Acquisitions

Playing: Born to Run-Bruce Springsteen
Reading: Fashion Box by Antonio Mancinelli
I say acquisitions instead of gets because it sounds fancier and acquisitions instead of buys because I didn't buy all of this. And above all else, I just like the way acquisitions sounds.

Over my brother's spring break, he and his roommates came to stay at my home. It just happened that two of his friends had gone on a Mexican cruise for a few of the days, so they left some Mexican snacks behind and forgot to bring them back to school. However, I must admit, I am enjoying the chance to try some foreign snacks and sweets.

I bought the Moulin Rouge DVD, since Netflix took it down for some reason even though they have all these weird movies. It always surprises me how Netflix won't have popular movies on instant play, but they'll have hundreds of  documentaries on WWII or the complete collection of Guns, Germs and Steel on instant play. Also, bought the new All American Rejects CD and The Tiny Book of Tiny Stories. I also bought the 500 Days of Summer DVD, but I couldn't find it, when I was taking the photo. My friend, Tina, brought some sparkly pink nail polish to school for me, so the whole day I was afraid of the bottle shattering in my pencil case. Luckily it didn't, so I'll have to test it out for Tina!

I also went to Urban Outfitters, hoping to get a new blazer to replace the one I've outgrown, but I ended up leaving with a pair of shorts, earrings, and some bracelets with a watch. I need to rebuild my jewelry collection, since next year I won't have to worry about dressing out for PE. All my jewelry is from elementary school before I had to dress out and I stopped wearing jewelry as soon as I realized it took too much time. Therefore, all my jewelry is extremely outdated and I'm not going to lie, cheap looking.

I ran off to Mitsuwa recently to restock my candy supply in my backpack. Don't worry I only have one of these in my backpack at a time. When I was opening a pack in my Chemistry class, my teacher told me that we're not allowed to eat in class, so I asked, "Would you like one?" And he took one and ate it, but I still had to put mine away. Haha, he's one of my favorite teachers though and whenever I pull out of a bag of candy to get one piece for myself, I end up giving away at least eight pieces to all my friends around me. I also wanted to try the GreeNoodles because they're supposed to be healthy, but then I realized, it doesn't come with a flavor packet, so it was kind of bland and it didn't soak up the soup I made for it.

While I was looking round my house, I found some notepads that I had bought in Japan four years ago that have never been opened. And then my brother found some strawberry and lavender mints that he had bought for some girls two years ago, while we were in Venice, that he had forgotten to give. They're now mine, since he no longer keeps in touch with the two of them. There's no expiration date, so I hope they're still tasty. At least the containers they came in are lovely and are perfect for keeping treasures in. I love finding things from old trips that I had completely forgotten about. Ooh, talking about a foreign surprises! There's a new boy in my PE class from Tokyo. He was born in Los Angeles, but his family moved back to Japan, then to England, then to Germany, back to Japan, and now they're in my town! So his accent is fobbily accented British English! What a fabulous surprise!

Downtown Fullerton

Playing: Kelsey-Metro Station
Reading: War of the Worlds by HG Wells
For a day of hardcore thrifting and fun, Sophie took me to Downtown Fullerton. We had been planning on a day for thrifting for awhile now, but school work kept us from going out and we finally had time this Spring Break, so we went for it.

We started off at the Stray Cat, which as you can see, is very crowded. A lot of clothing and costumes are there, but it's so crowded that you really have to dig to find what you want. I did like the large selection of records and other band memorabilia, which kept me occupied for a long time, searching through everything. I believe Sophie said this one was her favorite that day.

After the Stray Cat, we went to American Vintage, which is only a few doors down. Sophie and I loved how organized it was and I liked the large array of designer and military clothing. What was interesting was that every style of clothing was the same price. For example, a polo shirt will cost you $16 no matter what brand it is nor the quality. The clothing here was actually very reasonably priced compared to some other thirft stores I've been to and considering this one was extremely clean and well arranged.

The Buffalo Exchange was exactly like any other Buffalo Exchange out there, but we went, since it was right across the street from the other places. If you're looking for modern clothing, this is probably your best bet. Sophie and I spent a long time here, but had difficulty finding stuff that fit for a decent price. After we were done with the thrift stores in Downtown Fullerton, we went on a hunt for some food for me and ended up at a Starbuck's.

While walking around, Sophie found this cutout and decided she wanted to see what it was like to be a man. Obviously, she makes a very charming boy and if any of you are interested, I'll let her know. We had to plan out the rest of our day and where we were going to walk to next because walking aimlessly is only fun, when it isn't hot outside and that day it was uncomfortably warm.

 Finally, when we did get going, we walked past Fullerton College and their amazing sculptures. Here I am, sitting in someone's hand and talking to Sophie. "What face should I make, Sophie?" "There! I took the photo!" Wow, in the middle of my question, she took a photo of me. Guess that works too, huh? For the rest of Sophie and my Fullerton adventure, please stay tuned for the next post!

Musical Obsessions

Playing: Indie Rock and Roll-The Killers
Reading: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Hi everyone! I'm one of those people that develops a strong liking for things quickly, whether it be music or people. I tend to obsess over whatever it may be until I calm down a bit and then I might be tired of it, still love it tremendously, or  have found a friend, who likes it too and now has someone to obsess over it with. Here are some of my recent musical obsessions!

The Killers-I've been listening to a lot of music from The Killers lately and this is my favorite song by them so far because I love everything about it. The chorus sounds great, the music video is beautiful to watch, the costumes in it are stunning, Brandon Flower's hand movements are theatrical, but I like it that way, and the storyline reminds me of Moulin Rouge. I like how Brandon Flower's voice is kind of punky and smooth at the same time and how it's deep too. Overall, I just like Brandon Flowers a lot and it doesn't hurt that he's good looking. Such a shame I'm too young for him, but he's married, so no point in wishing for something impossible.

"Up the Junction" by Squeeze-I first heard this song, while walking around the miu miu store and ever since then I've been humming this song in my head. My uncle heard me playing this song and was surprised I was listening to Squeeze and said, "That's some old music you're listening to." Yes, I like listening to music that's older than me. But I like the breezy, summer time feel to it and I think you'd like it too.

"Paris or India" by the Midway State-I like the dreaminess of this song and how his voice is breathy and light. It's kind of carefree and has this feel to it that I really dig. It's kind of this light electronica dream feeling. It's hard to explain, but I just like this type of music that sounds breathy and dreamy. I sound like an idiot. Yes, I know.

One Direction- According to a majority of my friends, they can't sing and they look like girls, but whatever, I still like them. I just like boy bands in general because I like good looking guys singing cheesy love songs and wearing nice clothes. I have to admit, I mainly like Louis' face and that's the main attraction for me with them.  I would like it, if they stopped dressing all of them in jeans that are too tight for them though. That'd be nice. Their music is corny, I admit it, but I love cheesy love songs and I like cute guys, so it's a win-win for me. It's so odd how I like boy bands, when most of the music I like is classified as alternative rock or punk pop...

"We Are Young" by Fun. Feat. Janelle Monáe-I really enjoy the chorus and I like how the singer sings, "We set the world on fire." His voice is just very pleasant to listen to and when he sings along with Janelle, it's just incredible. I also like the message of being young and not caring too much. It's just that simple. I can listen to this song again and again.

What have you been listening to?

Hipsterville

Playing: Locked Doors-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Indian Home Rule by Mahatma Gandhi
Over the weekend, I went to this new area called the OC Mart Mix, recommended by Orange Coast magazine. It claimed this place was a hipster and indie paradise plus had amazing shopping all of which I found to be untrue.

I went on a Saturday, so luckily there was a Farmer's Market going on to grab food at. I went to a food truck called Barcelona on the Go, which had decent food at a price a tad too high for my liking. The Chorizo Grilled Cheese my mum ordered tasted great, but it was overpriced, considering it only had a thin layer of chorizo and cheese. My dish, the USDA Prime Top Sirloin with Fries with Chimichurri, was actually very tender for food truck steak. The chimichurri sauce is what made it great. It was tangy and fresh, brightening up the whole dish.

The only place I highly recommend at the OC Mart is Nice Cream, which serves up interesting gelato at a reasonable price, if you get more than one scoop. One scoop is $5 and for each additional scoop, it costs a dollar more. My favorite was the Strawberry Basil, which was extremely refreshing and overall a strange, but enjoyable flavor. The White Chocolate Strawberry was standard strawberry vanilla, but it was still tasty and very creamy. The Pistachio was better than most pistachio gelatos I've tried, since it tasted nuttier. I really liked the smoothness of this gelato and the friendly service.

The problem I had with the OC Mart Mix was the over planning of the whole place. It was too planned out and overpriced. I hated how every piece of clothing that was affordable looked like a generic piece of clothing I could find at Forever 21 and how everything that was different was as high as Barney Co-Op's prices. It felt like a suburban town's desperate attempt at creating an artsy shopping center. It just felt very boring, plain, and like everyone there was trying too hard.

I left quickly, but I had to grab a photo of this. I crawled through some bushes to get a photo of the SoCo sign only to figure out I could've used the sidewalk. Why is this sign so important? It says SoCo, which is short for Something Corporate in my mind and Something Corporate is my favorite band after Jack's Mannequin. I am a super fan of Something Corporate and they're from Southern California, so I wonder if they've ever seen the SoCo signs. I hope they have!

To get my fill of fabulous indie-ness, I drove to the LAB, which is fairly close to the OC Mart Mix. The LAB has stores that really do reek of hipster love. It's full of semi-thrift stores, high end street wear, and of delicious places to eat. Right across from the LAB is the Camp, which is also great for hipsters. The best part of the LAB is that it feels natural and cool, even though you know everything was well planned out. The people that shop there all look like hipsters and indie people, making the place feel more artsy and legit.

How can you not love a place that is filled with cool people with cool cars? The LAB specializes in sassy people with witty bumper stickers. If you have learned nothing from this post, I want you to know this: the LAB is amazing at being indie, while the OC Mart Mix lacks spunk and is outrageously priced. I might just be a suburban kid that doesn't understand true indie-ness and mocks hipsters, but still I think I have a decent idea of what's fun and what's not.  Since they are relatively close to each other, it is very easy for you to check out both places in one day. Go for it, I encourage you!

PS I do not have a hipster obsession, even though I now have two posts with hipster in the title. It just seems to be the new wave of nonconformists trying too hard to not conform that I can't help but tease.

A Very Hipster Easter

Playing: Daddy's Eyes-The Killers
Reading: tanpopo by camille d'errico
Hello everyone and hope you all had a wonderful Easter! Now I didn't really have a hipster Easter, since I did all of this Friday after school. Anyways, my course of actions isn't even all that hipster or indie. In fact, it was all my friends and I joking about what hipsters we are.

I was left with a very important task to do for my church. Something so mind blowing, I had to give my full attention to it and focus solely on it. What exactly was I left to do that demanded my full, undivided attention? I was left with the important task of drawing and designing an Easter egg for my church's Easter celebrations for the toddlers and young children's event, where instead of pin the tail on the donkey, they did pin the chick on the egg.

With my faithful servants, Clare and Chelcee,  helping me paint my fabulous creation, we messed around more than we painted, scolding each other, when we smudged the colors. We had to mix all of the colors together to get the pastels we wanted, but we ran out of white. We then proceeded to point the finger at each other as to who's fault it was that there was no more white paint. Luckily, we got it done and it looked really festive.

And here's our finished creation! Beautiful isn't it? It's a real Monet, huh? All sarcasm aside, I do like the way it came out and how we were able to incorporate the cross on the egg, since this is a church event after all. I hope none of the little kids, who were going to pin the chick on the egg, noticed that the glitter paint we used started to bead, messing up the lettering at the top.

After I was done helping out my church, my parents took me to Felix Continental Cafe to get Steak au Poivre. Steak au Poivre is a Spanish dish consisting of bacon wrapped steak medallions with crushed peppercorns, green onions, brandy and cream sauce. I enjoyed the bacon wrapped steak, but the sauce tasted of nothing but pepper. Also, the saffron rice wasn't as fluffy as it normally is, but the creamy spinach (?) side dish was really amazing. The nice thing about getting dinner at Felix is that it comes with an order of soup and a small dessert, so I got mine with fish soup and a delicious helping of pineapple bread pudding.

Just before I got back in my car, I noticed the license plate of this car. How dreamy, right? It reminds me of, "It's nine in the afternoon, your eyes are the size of the moon." I love it, when people have cool license plates or bumper stickers. It just adds personality to their car.

 On the drive home, I took some light photos because I'm such a hipster. Jokes, of course. I just like putting my camera on long exposure to get these photos of light streaks. They almost always come out nicely for me and they're really nice to look at. I have no place to store all of my light photos, so I'll probably be storing them on my blog in the form of GIFs. Hope all of you had a wonderful Easter!

What did you do for Easter?

So You Wear Clothes?

Playing: A Dustland Fairytale-The Killers
Reading: The World At Her Feet by Jason Sheeler
I really don't like taking photos of myself, so I don't think I'm capable of doing the OOTD type of posts. Instead I have collected a few photos from the past seven months from when I was feeling narcissistic enough to take photos of my outfits. These aren't my best or my favorite, just the ones I've photographed. Also, please ignore my death glare that I noticed I have in a few of my photos.

Left: I wore a T by Alexander Wang jacket, a Rodarte for Target dress, and Merona tights to go to school plus Converse that aren't pictured..
Middle: I wore a Calvin Klein blazer, an Ann Taylor LOFT t-shirt, a Burberry scarf, a Burberry Prorsum purse, 7 for All Mankind jeans, and Madewell booties to do charity work for my church.
Right: I wore a Façonnable collared top, an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, BDG jeans, a Ferragamo purse, and Versace shoes to go grocery shopping with my mum.

Left: I wore my favorite silence+noise blazer in the world with a vintage 1980's pin from my mum, a Burberry polo shirt, a Full Tilt bando, MANGO jeans, and kb socks to run around school plus the Madewell booties photographed up above.
Middle: I wore a San Diego Hat Company top hat, a Calvin Klein blazer, an Ann Taylor LOFT t-shirt, my favorite 7 for All Mankind shorts, a pocket watch necklace from New York, a Gucci messenger bag, and Exhilaration socks to go visit my old teachers and hang out with my friends. I received the best compliment from someone at school, who told me I looked "very European" that day. Also, a whole bunch of senior citizens told me they liked my hat, so I guess I can use the hat to keep senior citizens from yelling at me to turn down my music.
Right: To go shopping with my dad, I wore an L. Erickson headband, a BDG cardigan, an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, BDG jeans, Sam Edelman oxfords, and a Burberry backpack.

Left: Just for some errands, I wore a San Diego Hat Company top hat, a Calvin Klein blazer, an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, BDG jeans, a Burberry purse, and Juicy Couture heels.
Middle: To go see the school's production of Beauty and the Beast, I wore my favorite jacket from T by Alexander Wang, a Timo Weiland polo shirt, my dad's old belt, Citizens of Humanity jeans, a Burberry purse, and Alexander Wang flats.
Right: For a boring day at school, I wore an Ann Taylor LOFT sweater, a Barney's New York belt, Citizens of Humanity jeans, and Chloe heels. 

As you can probably tell, I shop a lot at Ann Taylor LOFT and I like to re-wear my favorite pieces way too often. Oh and the title is an inside joke. I was being prepped for a job interview by a friend and one of the questions asked was what do I like to do, so I said, "I like wearing clothes." And they responded, "So you wear clothes? How interesting." Oh my friends...Goodbye everyone!Thanks for reading/looking!

Diamond Jamboree

Playing: I Forgot If We Dreamed-Pandatone Feat. Julianna Barwick
Reading: My Struggle by Adolf Hitler (It's for history. I'm not a Nazi.)
I've been seeing Diamond Jamboree all over the blogosphere lately, so I decided to do a little write up of it myself. I don't go that often, but I have been there a few times. According to my dad's friend, people from all over California, especially from Los Angeles, like to drive to Diamond Jamboree to hang out and experience all sorts of Asian foods. Diamond Jamboree covers a lot of Asian cuisine including Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, and Taiwanese.  

At Chef Hung, you can order his award winning soup noodles for around $10 each. I ordered the Champion Beef Shank with Noodle in Soup, which to be perfectly honest, was only ok. I've had better and I don't really understand how this could win Taiwan's award for best noodle soup. The service was quick, friendly, and very good looking. Yes, that is of importance. Good looking waiters will bring me back. I like how any noodle dish you order, you can choose from a wide variety of noodles to eat plus you can watch them make your dish, if you like. They also give you complimentary black tea, as soon as you sit down.

85 Degree C bakery is apparently a popular, Taiwanese bakery. The pastries in general are pretty good, but there's almost always a long line that goes out of the store just to get in. My favorite pastries to get there are the Half Moon Cakes, which are fluffy cakes with jam or cream spread in the middle plus coconut shavings on the edges. It's light as air and just so good, but most of the time, it's not worth the wait, at least for me. I tend to find 85 Degree  C's drinks to be disappointing and I much rather go next door to Lollicup for a drink.

 The Papaya Thai Bistro is my favorite restaurant at Diamond Jamboree due to the fact that it's the only non-Thai Spice Thai restaurant that I'm aware of. The food tastes pretty great to me and the serving size is reasonable for the price. My favorite dish there is the Duck Noodle Soup, which comes in a huge bowl that can be shared between two people. The duck is so tender and the soup is just a tad spicy.

The other thing that I enjoy tremendously so at Thai Papaya Bistro are the Money Bags. They're basically like fried wontons filled with ground meat, coconut, green onion, and carrots, but they're just so tasty and I love them. The only issue with this place is their service. They bring out one dish at a time and depending on who you get, the server can be a bit rude and sometimes, they seem too bored. Also, quite a few times that I've gone there, they brought out the food before the utensils, so I had to go up to one of them and ask for utensils.

 At BCD Tofu House, open 24 hours, you can order normal hot tofu dishes plus much more. I usually like to do their combination meals, with the pork tofu and bulgogi noodles, which is a pretty good price for a large amount of food. The food is pretty standard, but the array of side dishes that come complimentary with your meal is impressive. However, I rarely go here due to the long wait just to get a table.

Diamond Jamboree's main attraction for my group of friends is Sticki Picki, a store filled with purikura machines. The only issues I have with Sticki Picki is that they never turn on the air conditioning and it's very crowded, so my friends and I can last two rounds before we all get dehydrated and leave for Lollicup. However, I don't know if this is true, since this is the only purikura place I've been too, but apparently, it's very expensive at $10-$12 per round. Overall, Diamond Jamboree has a lot of food to offer and can be a great hang out place, if you want to do a round of purikura or go to karaoke!