I've Got Hips But I'm Not a Hipster

Playing: F.A.L.L.I.N.G.-Teen Hearts
Reading: BioChip May Make Diagnosis of Leukimia and HIV Faster, Cheaper

Over the weekend, I went to go try a restaurant that I've been hearing about. Apparently hip, "right type" of white people like to eat here, since it serves fancy versions of food we love or foods we love done in unexpected ways. It's called Eat Chow and as you can see, it likes to make everything look different and clean cut. They had a mini cactus on each table and serves the sugar in clear glass jars plus had a variety of Mexican hot sauces.

Eat Chow had amazing interior decorations though. In order to keep the restaurant both open and cozy, they used slated walls to separate each room. It was connected to a high end baby store, so it had a cutesy mural painted on the floor and avant garde book shelves with fairy tales on the wall. I love the glass lamps they had hanging down. They looked like a globe of ice that had frozen, while being stuck in a whirlpool.

I ordered the Truffle Mac N'Cheese, which was macoroni and cheese served with what seemed like three types of cheese, oyster mushrooms, bacon, and truffle oil. You actually couldn't taste any truffle in the dish, which was what made the dish extra pricey, but I have to admit the mushrooms were a wonderful touch and bacon is always a plus. What was really a surprise was the use of goat cheese, which offered a tangy relief from the creamy cheese overload. For $13, I would say this is a pricey lunch, but compared to places like Panera Bread, it's truly not that bad and the food is so much better. I mean I definitely want to go back to try more dishes.

Outside, there's a funny painting of the Beatles on the curb. It's interesting how the Beatles keep on finding a way to pop into my life after I did a History Day project on them. I MEAN THEY'RE EVERYWHERE! Anyways, I like finding quirky things like this everywhere.

Oh, and you know what true hipsters do? We love to make puns relating to bands we like together on Youtube. I have no idea who these people are, so if they're you, high five for liking the Killers. If you're a fan of the Killers, it's pretty easy to tell what is going on here. I suppose if I was a true hipster rather than a sarcastic girl acting like a hipster in order to parody them, I would say the Killers were too mainstream to ever be on my playlist. But whatever, I like them. A lot. Tons and tons. I'm sorry if this post was boring for you because it was just a food review with me rambling, but at least I shared a photo of a pretty lamp, right?

PS I'm sorry that I enjoy teasing hipsters so much and that I like making hipster satires. I'm friends with a few self-proclaimed hipsters, so I just enjoy making fun of them so much. I always have to be a tad sarcastic towards them just to annoy my friends a tad. Click these links to see Hipsterville and A Very Hipster Easter! Oh, and the title is a play on a line from a Killers' song that says, "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier."

PPS I'm leaving for Spain tomorrow, so I won't be updating for over a week unless I can get internet access at one of my hotels. I hope it isn't too hot and I'm still trying to decide what I'll be doing on the 14 hour plain ride.

Last Day of School

Playing: Midnight City-M83
Reading: The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan

Left to Right: Me, Sarah, and Hilary

On the last day of school, I met up with Sarah and Rebecca, who both go to different schools than I, with Hilary. Our original plan was to walk to some place close to my school for lunch and then bum around, but then we decided we didn't want to see anybody from any of our schools, so then we decided we wanted to go far, far away. We ended up taking a public bus to go to the University Center by University of California, Irvine. For Rebecca and I, it was our first time using a public bus in the USA. I've only been on the European and Asian buses. Some guy got in a fight with the bus driver, telling him he was fat and needed to lose weight, so my first experience with the bus was interesting?

While walking around the parking lot, I had a mini nerd attack, when I saw this. First of all, holy cow, Darth Vader only had two kids and now he's making his wife and kids wear the same mask as him? Do you have any idea how hard it must be for him to tell his kids apart?

The long bus ride and walk after the ride were worth it, when we got our meals from Berkeley Dog. I ordered the Green Eggs and Ham, which was smoked ham served on a hot baguette with a fried egg, cheddar cheese, and pesto sauce. I liked how the yolk of the egg dripped out and covered the whole sandwich and how the pesto really served to brighten up the whole dish.

Left to Right: Me, Sarah, and Rebecca (Who Doesn't Want Her Face to Show. (She hates me!))

After lunch, we walked around the University Center, but then we headed over to UCI's campus to explore. Their school year ended before our year ended, so their weren't any students their to socialize with, but we had fun climbing trees, acting like hippies (shown above), and marching around, acting like we owned the world.

Photo courtesy of Sarah

Being the horrible child I am, I sat with my homie, Lao Zi, pretending to pick his nose. I know, how mature of me. Sarah and I helped the other statues of Magu, Li Bai, and Qu Yuan clean their noses too, which made Hilary and Rebecca laugh. I thought it was unusual how an American college's statue garden was home to four sculptures of Chinese people.

Left to Right: Hilary and Sarah

Before the hot California weather brought us back to the University Center for drinks at Cha For Tea, Hilary and Sarah had to climb another tree, while Rebecca and I sat on the grass, acting like children of the revolution. Just kidding, we were acting like lazy, little kids. Considering I live in California, I always imagine my summers filled with pools and beaches, but I always end up doing stuff like this. Exploring, you might call it. I never knew UCI had such a beautiful campus and that there was such a huge park in the back with gigantic trees, rocks, and statues to mess around with. If you're ever in the area, I suggest visiting UCI's campus just because it's so pretty.

If you're artsy, I suggest checking out Sarah and Rebecca's deviantArts, which I linked up above. Both of them are extremely talented!

"Out Here the Birds Don't Sing, Out Here the Fields Don't Grow"

Playing: How Many Words-Blake Lewis
Reading: One Direction People Magazine: Collector's Edition

As you may remember from my trip to the desert, I went on the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway to visit the Mount San Jacinto State Park. The tram takes you to en elevation over 8,000 feet and I believe it's the world's largest rotating tram out there. In the photo above, you can see me going up and leaving the ticket station. What I didn't like was how long we had to wait to get on the tram after buying the tickets. Since it was very crowded and there's a tram every 10 minutes, my family and I had to wait an hour and a half to get on one. I suggest buying tickets ahead of time!

Once you get up there, you'll be surprised by how different the environment is. For one thing, it was significantly colder up there and I was glad I wore my jeans. Also, look how forrest-y it is compared to the desert down below. Of course, this photo may lead you to think it's rural up there. It's actually very touristy with a restaurant up there and a store plus thank goodness, bathrooms.

We hiked around the area and just wondered along various paths.One of the pamphlets said you should expect to see tons of animals up there, but I only saw squirrels. Tons of furry squirrels...And tourists in athletic clothing. I felt out of place, hiking with my purse and skinny jeans with Converse, which aren't meant for anything hardcore.

While I was walking around, I saw these enormous boulders that look like humpback whales to me. I hope you see what I'm talking about otherwise I'm going to seem plain crazy to all of you right now. The higher the elevation, the lower the concentration of oxygen. We all know that, right? Well, I learned that I do not do well with low concentrations of oxygen. I started feeling lightheaded and a girl I ran into got a nosebleed, so you have been warned.

Look how steep it is! For some reason, the trip back down felt so much shorter! I was standing next to a scene girl on the ride down. I didn't know scene was still cool. Anyways, this story has a point. Her camera looked super professional and she smirked at my inexpensive digital camera and that's when I realized, it's time to get a new camera, since my camera has been acting up on me. Plus, it's all beaten up and changes settings on me randomly.

"Out Where the Dreams Are High, Out Where the Wind Don't Blow"

Playing: A Dustland Fairytale-The Killers (That's where the title is from.)
Reading: Ugly Guide to the Uglyverse by David Horvath and Sun-Min Kim

For this season, in terms of style, I'm really into this retro, desert vibe (that you can see in the music video I linked and in Rumi Neely's Coachella 2012 Photo Diary), so I took a day trip out to the desert to get inspired and to just have a day to look around with my family. We stopped off at a Kentucky Fried Chicken in the middle of our drive at some small town that had an all you can eat deal. I haven't seen a KFC buffet, since the 1990's, so of course we had to go. I tried the Kentucky Grilled Chicken for the first time, which actually wasn't all that bad.

We took the gondola to go up and explore the national park, but I'll talk about that later. What I wanted to show you was the beautiful view way up high. The desert sky is just such a clear blue and it seems to stretch on forever with the actual town of Palm Springs in grids down below.

I liked this cactus quite a bit and how it was all by itself in a patch of pinky-grey rocks. The pastel yellow needles look very nice with the pastel pink rocks and I just like the way it looks. It kind of irritates me that someone piled rocks on top of the cactus because it looks like the cactus has giant, pink dandruff...

The landscape is pretty sparse with only some green popping up, mostly around small creeks and wherever humans have planted them. And then the mountains are so odd, looking like a pile of gravel that could tumble down and fall apart at any moment. There's just something about these mountains that amazes me. Maybe it's how they never look that large in pictures or from far away, but when you get close to them, they're absolutely enormous.

My favorite part of the desert are the wind farms. I love the tall tooth pick-like structures that look like sleek pinwheels. I've always been fascinated by them. One time, I was driving by this huge white fin object that was probably as tall as my house and then I realized it was one of the spokes from one of the wind farms' giant pinwheels. It's just funny to see these dotting the landscape.

Oh, and today was my last day of school, but on a more important note, I want to wish a very happy birthday to one of my favorite musicians, Brandon Flowers! He's turning 31 today and I think the perfect gift for him would be to vote for "Mr. Brightside" for the 100 Greatest songs of NME's Lifetime, so click here to vote! Thanks for reading and look out for my next desert post!

School is Almost Over

Playing: Are You Gonna Be My Girl?-Jet (I was playing this loudly in chemistry and someone yelled, "Whoever's playing the crappy music, turn it off!")
Reading: Elle July 2012

Alright, I know I should be studying for finals, but I spent seven hours doing algebra and chemistry homework today, so I think I deserve a break, right? Friday was the last day of school for the seniors, so they pulled off a bunch of awesome pranks this year. For some reason, this was the first year I got to see senior pranks! Whoever saran wrapped the outdoor lockers is my hero. I love the person that came up with this idea so much right now. I don't know if YOLO is popular, where you live, so let me explain: YOLO means "You only live once" or "You obviously love One Direction." "You only live once" is more popular, since the latter is only used by One Direction fans.

Another person that deserves a high five is the senior (or seniors) that filled one of the buildings with balloons. A bunch of the students including me were kicking these around and kicking them up into the air until a teacher told us to clean them up, so we all ran away like good kids. A bunch of us stole a balloon as a celebratory sign that school was almost over.

By the time I saw this senior prank, a bunch of people had taken the post it's down already. The same people that wrapped the lockers, I'm guessing, put 2012 up on some windows and I actually thought it was a very cute idea. Not as funny as the other ones, but still it brightened up my day and it's perfectly harmless.

My French teacher, Madame Bonfiglio, is retiring after 39 years of teaching various languages including English, Italian, and French. I've had her for two years now and I was hoping to have her for the rest of my years taking French. She's really funny and likes to talk about hot guys like Joseph Gordon Levitt and Project Runway with me. We used to have arguments over who the better designer was and how Tim Gunn is the best dressed man ever. She's taught me so much about the French language and the culture. Everyone in my class decided that on one of the last days, we would all share our favorite memories and stories of her in class and we surprised her with a Starbuck's gift card, since her three loves in life are coffee, donuts, and Sylvester Stallone. Nous va manquer beaucoup Mme Bonfiglio. Even though my eyes aren't visible in this photo because I'm smiling so stupidly, I wanted to share this photo of us.

At lunch, Christine brought in some homemade blueberry cheesecakes to share with all of us. This was kind of like her birthday celebration and we sang "Happy Birthday" to her really loudly, which seemed to embarrass her, so mission accomplished. For birthdays, we've decided to stop wrapping each other's lockers, bringing in balloons, and buying presents. Instead we decided to start celebrating with treats.

Tiffany brought in Sprinkles cupcakes to celebrate Christine's birthday for all of us, which was so incredibly sweet of her. Jackie and I split a lemon cupcake and a coconut cupcake because both of us wanted to try each of them, while Christine and Tiffany got the limited edition key lime cupcake, which was so good. I feel guilty for stealing a bite of Tiffany's cupcake, when she refused to take a bite of mine. Vivian got the chocolate one, while Tina tried the banana one, which she said tasted more like a muffin. I hope Christine had a fabulous birthday!

After school got out, we waited around for other people that way we could sign each others' yearbooks. Here are my good friends, Tina and Tiffany, looking as beautiful as ever, while we waited for Sagiv, Shayan, and Devin to finish up writing messages in our yearbooks. They always have that Asian swag with their peace signs and charming smiles. Haha, but seriously, I hope we hang out tons over this summer. Tina said that Jackie, Christine, Vivian, Tiffany, and I can come over to her place to watch Totoro, which I haven't watched yet.

By the way, congratulations to the winner of my giveaway, bollykecks! Expect an email soon! Also, thank you to everyone that entered. I hope to host more giveaways because I want to share more of my life with all of you!

Last of the American Girls

Playing: Somewhere Over the Rainbow-Judy Garland
Reading: "America's Next Top Model":Blogging Sensation Bryanboy "Signs Contract"
Memorial Day was originally started to celebrate all those, who had fought in the Civil War, but was extended to all veterans of war later on. Nowadays, it's mostly a holiday, where us Americans celebrate being American and talk about how great it is that we can live in the USA and how "[we're] proud to be Americans, where at least [we] know [we're] free." Also, the air force likes to give air shows and anything related to the military will probably put on a show to show off how great America is. Kind of like the Olympics, where we all cheer on our teams only with Memorial Day, we aren't competing against anyone else.

For lunch on Memorial Day, I went to Corner Bakery to get their panini combo with Roasted Tomato Basil Soup and the Club Sandwich. Considering Corner Bakery is a chain, the tomato soup here is probably some of the best I've had in my lifetime. I like the panini combo because it doesn't seem like enough food, but it's always enough for me.

After lunch, I put my ego aside and went to Forever 21 to buy a dress for Ghazal's Fire&Ice themed birthday party. I had to swallow my pride and buy a dress because I didn't feel like spending a lot of money. And then I did something even worse, I sold out and bought a second dress because I genuinely wanted it. Ok, so for my experience with Forever 21, I found that the sizing is odd. I bought the exact same dress in two different colors and I ended up getting them in two different sizes. The red one is a large, while the black one is a medium, but the black one is baggier on me. Also, I'm normally a size extra small. I've only worn the red dress once and I haven't worn the black one yet, so I can't report back to you about the quality.

Then I did something super American and went to an Angels baseball game against the Yankees. Angels games are known for being family friendly and for being very clean cut other than the creeper sitting next to me that kept cussing every five seconds. To celebrate memorial day, they had three fighter jets fly over and had an American flag cover the whole field during the national anthem. Also, they had fire works and everyone talked about how it "makes you proud to be an American." Since the team colors for the Angels and Yankees are red, white, and blue, everyone looked super patriotic too.

This isn't related to Memorial Day, but it's related to being an American. I went to go see American Idiot about a week later. I loved how they pulled together all of the songs through three friends and their struggles. The vibe of this musical was weird. Half the audience acted like it was a concert and screamed about how much they love Green Day, while the other half was elderly and acted all nice and proper. Overall, it was a nice production though and I highly encourage you to go see it. The performers were extremely enthusiastic, especially Joshua Kobak, who played St. Jimmy, and the female singers had absolutely beautiful voices. If it comes to your town, you must go see it for me.

PS I'm afraid I came off as sarcastic, when I was talking about being American, but truth it, I love living in the USA. I love all the people here and how we're so diverse. I like how we're encouraged to think outside of the box and how we're told to chase our dreams, even if that does sound cheesy. I don't think there's any other place I would like to live in more than the USA.

PPS There's still time to enter my cute, stationary giveaway! You've got until the 16th and you can enter here.

I Still Wear Clothes

Playing: Midnight Show-The Killers
Reading: W June 2012
Here are some recent-ish outfit photos I've accumulated. I've been into dressing more comfortably lately, so less heels and button ups. Also, I need to get the socks I wear with heels back from Sophie in order to wear my heels, so most of these are non-heel looks. Easier to wear and easier to walk in, I guess...I should just go to Target and buy a new pair of socks.

Left: I wore a BDG cardigan, an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, a vintage treble clef pin, a Marc Jacobs necklace, Citizens of Humanity jeans, a Burberry purse, and Converse (not pictured) to go hang out with Sophie at Daiso.
Middle: For my grandfather's 88th birthday, I wore an Ann Taylor LOFT tank top, a T by Alexander Wang jacket, MANGO jeans, and an Alexander Wang purse with Alexander Wang shoes.
Right: For a full day of collecting food for a food drive and a tiny bit of shopping at Urban Outfitters, I wore my favorite T by Alexander Wang jacket, a Saks Threads v-neck, BDG floral jeans, and Converse plus a Coach purse (the black thing in the corner).

Left: Once again, I wore almost the exact outfit I wore above only with an Alexander Wang purse and an Ann Taylor LOFT t-shirt.
Middle. To go to the beach with my family, I wore a T by Alexander Wang jacket, a Calvin Klein top, Candie's shorts, and an Alexander Wang purse with flip flops that aren't pictured.
Right: I wore a Calvin Klein blazer, an Ann Taylor LOFT t-shirt, theory shorts, and Juicy Couture heels to go be tortured at school.

Left: To take my California state tests, I wore a Calvin Klein blazer, a Calvin Klein tank top, Marc by Marc Jacobs earrings, BDG jeans, a Gucci messenger bag from my trip to Florence, and vintage boots from the 1970's that kill my feet!
Middle: For my Confirmation, I wore a Calvin Klein blazer, a BDBG dress, Juicy Couture heels, and a Bally purse. I was the only girl at my Confirmation wearing black...Is that bad?
Right: I wore an Ann Taylor LOFT blouse, an Ann Taylor LOFT camisole, BDG jeans, a pocket watch necklace from New York, and my favorite Sam Edelman oxfords to go to school. A boy was wearing almost the exact same thing as me, only his white button-up was too tight for him and he was wearing sneakers. It's awkward to be wearing the same outfit as someone and even more awkward, when it's a person of the opposite gender.

PS There's still a week left to enter my super cute stationary giveaway open to everyone in the world! Also, not many people have entered, so there's a good chance you can win it! Click here to enter!

I Rather Be at the Mall

Playing: No More Love Songs-Lacrosse
Reading: Harper's Bazaar June 2012
Last Friday, my school had an early out for Memorial Day, which was originally created for Civil War veterans and then extended to anybody that had fought in a war. Interesting fact, there. Well anyways, for early outs I usually hang out with friends and bum around my town, but different groups of people asked me to hang out and then the plans fell through due to lack of rides, money, etc., so I went to South Coast Plaza with my brother instead.

We went to one of my favorite Italian restaurants, Nello Cucina, for lunch. To start off our lunch, we got an order of bruschetta, which was delicious. Served on freshly toasted bread and topped with shaved parmesan, it was absolutely wonderful. The parmesan was really a nice touch that I haven't seen at any other place.

For lunch, I got the Calamari Giovanni with Pasta in the red version, which was tasty, but the calamari was a tad too chewy. I really like how you can specialize any of your orders at Nello Cucina, if you ask politely. You can even order off the menu, if they took an old item off the menu and you want it. I usually order the cheese and pasta rolls with pancetta that's no longer on the menu, the actual Italian name is escaping my mind right now.

We crossed over the bridge to the main part of the mall, so that I could look at all the designer store. I love the glamorous window display at Gucci. Frida Giannini really created a strong collection for Spring Summer 2012 with the art deco look and the clean lines. That jacket is such a statement piece and is perfect for dressing up the simplest, all black outfit.

I love Burberry's all-white display and that trench coat should hop into my closet asap. It would feel right at home there. Also, look there's a sale at Burberry! Took all my will power to not beg my parents to get me something, even though I wanted everything. I need to save up my tutoring money, so that I can buy exactly what I want from here.

Whimsical umbrella chandelier at Baccarat is whimsical. Wouldn't it be so much fun to carry this around for your umbrella, when it rained? Of course, only if you didn't need to worry about breaking anything and about it being heavy...Although Baccarat leans towards the gaudy side of taste, I do like their whimsical, avant garde creations like the upside down floor lamp and their gothic chandeliers. They should be in Beetlejuice or in one of Tim Burton's other films. (Everything relates back to Tim Burton!)

Before we left, we wanted to grab something to drink from Antonello's Expresso Cafe. I really liked these sparkling juices from Galvania. They actually taste like fruit and are slightly sour, so very refreshing in my opinion. I definitely would buy these again, if I ever get the chance and I highly recommend these to you. Plus, they're organic, which means they're hopefully better for you than normal sodas.

Oh and if you like super cute stationary, please enter my giveaway here! You have until June 16th to enter!

200 FOLLOWER GIVEAWAY

Playing: Together-Patrick Wolf
Reading: The Blogiverse Goes Wild for Pani Jurek's Scientific Illumination by Agnieszka Le Nart
It's happened. I now have 200 followers for my blog! I'm so thankful for all of you that have continued to read and comment on my blog, so I wanted to share with you my stationary collection plus have a little giveaway for all of you.

I love stationary. I love writing letters to my friends and receiving snail mail from my pen pals. I just like writing a lot to everyone in my life. I'm that friend, who replies to your letters fairly quickly and will use cutesy stationary whenever they get the chance. My favorite stationary to receive as gifts are these letter packs, which I'm running low on right now...I just like how they come with everything and it makes matching stationary so easy!

My friends know how much I like stationary, so they'll always give me little notepads or notebooks. I used to be really into Rilakkuma stationary, so I have mostly notepads with pudgy, adorable, Japanese bears on them, but it's alright. No one seems to dislike Rilakkuma right?

I really like these larger note pads that come with five to eight different patterns inside. The problem with me is I get bored using the same stationary, so I tend to get bored with the stationary before I run out. These notebooks solve that problem by having multiple patterns plus stickers. I wish the designer stationary wasn't so expensive. I'm willing to pay for nice stationary, but not over a hundred dollars...I would love to have the Lanvin set, especially since Alber Elbaz's designs are so whimsical and cute.

Here are some of my random stationary goods that don't really have a theme. Some fancy schmancy envelopes and my $1.89 envelope steal plus other various notepads. Since I love stationary so much, I want to share some of my collection with all of you, which is where the giveaway comes in.

You will be winning over 80 sheets of adorable stationary with characters like Rilakkuma, mamegoma, and Hello Kitty, plus so many more plus a cute envelope and a set of Hello Kitty paper bookmarks. Even if you don't like writing letters, you can use this stationary as decoration or for notes in class!

Rules:

You must be a public follower of this blog. To follow this blog, just click on the bar on the right that says "Join this Site" under "MY SECRET LOVERS." This will get you one entry.

To enter leave a comment to this post with the following:
1.) Your name:
2.) Your email:
3.) Additional entry for people that blog about this giveaway. Please leave a separate comment with a link of you sharing this giveaway.

This giveaway ends two weeks from now on June 16th and is open to anybody in the world. The winner will be announced on my blog plus emailed from my old business email to ask for their address. You must respond within a week otherwise a new winner will be chosen. The winner will be chosen using Random.org. Good luck everyone! And thank you for joining my first giveaway!