"Watching Television, It's a Wonderful Life"

Playing: After the Fire-Andrew McMahon
 Reading: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller

This is probably the third time I have tried to type up a post, but blogger has been mean recently and refuses to upload photos, so suddenly Photobucket has become my best friend. Since you have missed out on more than a week of my life, let's get started. Two Saturdays ago, I went to the Ritz Carlton to volunteer at a debutante ball, helping the girls get dressed and such. (I wore Alexander McQueen sunglasses, a Jason Wu for Target blouse, a Jason Wu for Target skirt, a silence+noise blazer,  Reed Krakoff boots, and a Burberry Prorsum purse that shows up in too many of my outfit photos.)

Inside the Ritz, they had the loveliest decorations. I loved this floral piece hanging from the ceiling. The mixture of the glass globes and metallic flower cut outs was so pretty. I wish my camera had done a better job capturing it.

Left to Right: Sarah, Sophie, Josh, and me

Then the next Saturday, or last Saturday (whichever you prefer), I went to Sarah's birthday party and a different Sarah (picture above) brought a mermaid suit for people to try on. Apparently, her mum got it at a mermaid expo, which is something I would like to attend one day. We had a lot of fun with it, but Josh made the most fabulous mermaid out of us all. Excuse my lack of a tan. I had to get changed from a black bathing suit because my mum told me the contrast between my skin and the suit was just too much.

Left to Right: Krishan, Chelcee, Me, Clare, and Katie

After the pool party, I want home and got changed for Clare's birthday. Driving there was a bit stressful due to the traffic, but dinner at BJ's was a lot of fun. Clare is one of my closest friends and I've known her for almost five years now. We have four out of our six classes together, so we spend a lot of time teasing each other and laughing together. This is our group photo of the girls there that could speak French. Clare made me get dressed up for her party and forced me into a dress, so enjoy this photo of me in a dress. It doesn't happen often. I wore a Calvin Klein blazer, Rodarte for Target dress, and everything else I don't think you can see.

Left to Right: Shabaan, Sean, and Me

The last thing I did that I want to share is that I went to a Lakers playoffs game against the San Antonio Spurs. My dad got five tickets in row 10 from a good friend, so my dad told me I could bring along two friends if I wanted. Shabaan and Sean accompanied me and our seats were so amazing. We saw Jack Nicholson there, whose daughter was high school friends with my dad, so my dad was debating if he should say hello, but we didn't get near enough for my dad to do so. Even though the Lakers lost, it was just wonderful to get a chance to spend time with Shabaan and Sean in one of my favorite cities. By the way, I only look extra small in this photo because both of my friends are over six feet tall and I'm barely over five.

While I'm at it, this has been a good week for music. Andrew McMahon's new EP, "The Pop Underground," came out today and tomorrow I'm going to go see The Killers. Sarah (in the mermaid picture) got tickets for us to go see Panic! at the Disco with Fall Out Boy and I'm trying to get tickets to go see Weezer with some friends over summer. But seriously, tomorrow will be my first time seeing The Killers and I'm so excited. It'll be a few hours of me fan girling and wishing Brandon Flowers was closer to my age so that I could marry him. And now I leave you with this beautiful collage of the super talented and handsome Brandon Flowers to enjoy. I hope you enjoy this collage as much as I do. (I do occasionally miss the guyliner though...)

Title from The Killers' "Boots"

"You Are What You Love, Not Who Loves You"

Playing: Take You With Me-French Films
 Reading: AP U.S. History Crash Course by Larry Krieger (Less than a month left to study for the AP test!)

Between meeting Andrew McMahon and Mary Katrantzou, I've been meeting a lot of people that I never thought I would even have the chance of getting within 10 feet of. Almost two weeks ago, I went to Nordstrom to meet Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren of Viktor&Rolf. Originally, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get myself into the Flowerbomb signing event, but luckily a salesperson I knew let me in and pushed me to the front of the line. This wasn't half as intimate as the Mary Katrantzou meet and greet, since they were pushing people through the line as quickly as possible, but I still got a chance to briefly talk to them. Rolf told me I smelled good, which was ironic, since the party was for Flowerbomb and I was wearing Acqua di Gio.

Talking about compliments, I stopped by Milk and Honey to grab a Lychee Shaken Iced Tea and the guy working there let me cut in line. Not only did I get to the front of the line, but he also upgraded the drink to a size large for free and got my drink finished before serving the other people. He told me cute girls get served first, so I thanked him and awkwardly walked away. Since Milk and Honey is one of the best places for drinks, I hope he's there again. The line is always so long and I hate waiting.

Milk and Honey is located at the Camp just like Blackmarket Bakery, which serves exceptional pastries. Their Largo Citrus Tart is so wonderfully sour and I like how buttery the pastry cup is. Plus, they also sell interesting pastries from other distributors like this Cabernet Brownie made from wine flower. They basically made flower out of left over seeds and skins from wine factories, so the flower is rich with antioxidants and high in iron. Maybe it was just me, but I definitely sensed a fruity flavor to it that I think is from the wine flower.

Just to tie everything in this post back to the title, I love designers, tea, citrus flavored foods, and making my skin look flawless. Overall, my skin is pretty smooth, but I have some freckles and my coloring makes me look like I'm blushing all the time, so I like to use some foundation, BB cream, and other concealers to make my skin look more even. The Chanel foundation and cover up make my skin look the best, but when I'm feeling lazy, I'll use the Maybelline BB cream and Lancome concealer instead. I use the Lancome moisturizer everyday under my makeup and the Chanel lipstick only when I'm not feeling lazy. My makeup routine is super basic, but I just thought I'd share the products that I like using. Have a nice day! I need to get back to reading my English novel and studying for the APUSH exam.

Title from Fall Out Boy's "Save Rock and Roll"

Fan Girl Until the End of Time

Playing: Save Rock and Roll-Fall Out Boy Feat. Elton John
Reading: Despite Tensions, Tourism to North Korea Continues by Andrew Bender

Over the weekend, I went to Los Angeles again and stopped by Little Tokyo to get some lunch. I ordered the Yuzu Shio Ramen at Kagura Downtown. The menu said that the ramen would come in a chicken and pork broth, but truthfully it tasted like ordinary chicken broth. However, the chashu pork was so juicy with a strip of fat through the middle that it more than made up for the boring broth. The bamboo shoots were also surprisingly tender and I loved the inclusion of multiple types of seaweed and fried onions.

Afterwards, I walked to MOCA to check out what has been called the best modern art museum California has to offer. Unfortunately, the museum was installing some new exhibit, so a lot of it was closed. Since so much of it was closed, the museum didn't charge me for my ticket. There were a lot of interesting pieces there and I would like to go back once it's completely open, but there were a lot of paintings there that I can't consider art no matter how hard I try. There were canvases painted completely red and Jason Pollock paintings that just looked like splatters of paint.

This is random, but have any of you listened to "Save Rock and Roll," the new album from Fall Out Boy, yet? A lot of my friends and I agree that it makes us feel rebellious. That's why I let out my inner rebel at MOCA. Look at me staring intently at a painting telling me not to. Rebel. Live fast, live life on the edge, die whenever.

MOCA has a really cute cafe too called Lemonade that serves affordable and delicious treats. My dad and I ordered a Chocolate Torte, a Strawberry Lemonade Cupcake, and a glass of Cucumber Mint Lemonade. They had such interesting flavors of lemonade such as: Watermelon Rosemary and Passion Fruit Pepper. Everything looked so good including the meals, which we didn't try, but from everything we ate, I really liked the place. According to their website, they have a location on USC's campus, so that's all the more reason to go to USC.

I spent some time walking around Downtown LA and when I saw the building in the far left and recognized it from 500 Days of Summer, I fan girleduncontrollably. Tom's favorite place in LA is Angela's Heights (called Angel's Knoll in real life) and I just stumbled upon it that day. I sat on Summer's and Tom's bench, happily thinking about Joseph Gordan Levitt and how I really would like a photo with him on the bench one day. For now, I'll have to live with these photos that my friends edited of us together. Have you ever watched 500 Days of Summer? If so, how did you like it? Talk to me and we can draw parallels between Summer and Daisy from The Great Gatsby like I did with my APUSH teacher. It'll be fun-ish.

Bonus Photo!

"What Do You Say We Leave For California?"

Playing: This Is the Life-Two Door Cinema Club
Reading: Stay Cool. Call North Korea's Bluff. by Andrei Lankov

Left to Right: Me, Christine, Viola, and Tina

For the last weekend of Easter holiday, I had another sleepover at my other home as sort of an initiation kind of thing for my new friend from New Jersey, Viola. Plus, we live in California, so it only makes sense for us to enjoy the beach as much as possible. We danced around the beach, reenacted several scenes from famous films, and in my case, ruined my jeans. (Not ruined technically, I just had to wash them more than once to get them completely clean.)

Not to forget the typical beach type of activities, we also enjoyed writing in the sand. No pretty love messages for boys today, rather a shout out to one of my all time favorite brands in the world, Burberry. Burberry and I go way back to when I was only two. I blame it on my mum. Saw that Burberry plaid and immediately became fascinated with all that Burberry clothing of hers. I told my parents that since I own a lot of Burberry, I need a Burberry husband. They're not liking the idea so far though.

After out little beach venture, we went back to my house to do typical teenage girl things like paint our nails, try out face masks, watch Mean Girls (I heard Regina George does car commercials in Japan or is that just a rumor?), and eat a lot. No, seriously, our eating frenzy was nonstop.

See? I wasn't joking. I ended up cooking ramen for all of them at around 3 a.m. and we agreed that 3 a.m. ramen is the best kind of ramen. Tina brought the ramen for us and it came in these itsy bitsy packages with the soup base powdered on the noodles, so you could literally add boiling water and be done. No sauces to be poured or powders to be mixed. So quick, so easy, so perfect for lazy teenagers.

The next morning, we made it out to the dock to watch sea life go by. It took us awhile to get ourselves out of bed admittedly and we were all really tired from staying up late, but that's nothing the thrill of adventure can't fix. (Just kidding, kind of.) Luckily, for me, I could go back to my other house and take a shower and then be off to Hollywood within an hour or two after they all went home, but Viola had to go to SAT prep class. I shouldn't tease her about that, since I took the ACT for the first time today and I'm pretty sure my parents are going to slaughter my summer with ACT or SAT prep. Any tips for the SAT Subject II test in French? The prep questions from College Board are too easy and I'm starting to feel like College Board is just putting up those sample questions as a form of mental harassment. You go in to take the actual SAT test thinking you're ready and leave feeling horrid about yourself.

First and last photo are courtesy of Tina. In the first photo I'm wearing: Central Park-Pullover/Urban Outfitters-Necklace/H&M-Jeans/Some Random Japanese Brand-Beanie

Black On Black With Sparkles

Playing: Perfect Situation-Weezer
Reading: The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I know I always tell you this, but I'm updating my wardrobe again. I wear the same t-shirts too often, so I'm thinking of quitting them cold turkey by tossing them in the giveaway bag and never seeing them again, but then my dressing might go off the rocker and I might go insane. Spring break gave me the opportunity to go shopping and buy a few basics I've been wanting. At Urban Outfitters, I finally got a black collared shirt and some  flowy black shorts. My goal for this summer is to not wear denim shorts with a t-shirt everyday, so I'm working on getting nicer shorts and I'll figure out the t-shirt problem later.

Since I tend to wear too much black, I decided all things sparkly will help bring some life to my outfits. The glitter obsession has gotten a bit out of hand truthfully and my nails are ridiculously sparkly almost all the time now. Even though I'm disappointed with myself for giving in with the polishes, I'm really happy with the statement necklace. I was rather hesitant, when buying it, since the price tag was a bit expensive for me at $36, but the cashier register rang it up for only $5 and I was extremely pleased.

To add onto the all things sparkly obsession, my mum and I have been head over heels in love with Givenchy jewelry recently. The "Vanguard" Faux Pearl and Chain Necklace has a great mix of crystals, chains, and pearls, while the "Studio" Triple Drop Crystal Earrings and the Crystal Station Long Necklace are beyond sparkly. My mum and I love how Givenchy jewelry always looks more expensive than it really is and how a lot of the time people confuse the crystals for diamonds. If I really did have a chain of diamonds that long, I would not wear it so casually.

The last big splurge of spring break was a pair of suede Reed Krakoff boots, which I found for a great price. I've been looking for edgy, everyday boots and these work well with pants, shorts, and skirts, so I'm very happy with them. They look like the Alexander Wang boots I was hoping to get, but they're much more comfortable than the Wang boots. Sorry about not posting any of my outfits. I should probably get back to that soon that way I have more to share with you.

PS I'm thinking of going to college in England. My parents are wondering what an English degree would mean in the states. They don't want me to waste several years studying in England only to come back to the states and realize my degree is worthless. The schools I'm especially interested in are University of London, Cambridge, and Oxford. (London School of Economics is a slight possibility too, if I don't go into writing.) I've heard that my actual grades mean nothing, since they'll be looking at my SAT, ACT, and AP scores and that extracurricular activities aren't necessary. I've also been told that college is only three years there and that I don't have finals, rather I'll take two tests to prove that I know my stuff. If you know anything about the registration process, how the system works, the reputations of these schools, and/or schools good for journalism (preferably fashion journalism), let me know.

Spring Break

Playing: Memories-Panic! at the Disco
Reading: A Clean, Well-Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway

Last Wednesday, I had the amazing opportunity to meet one of my favorite designers, Mary Katrantzou, at Nordstrom. If you don't know her work, you definitely need to Google it right away. Her digital prints and imaginative silhouettes are so much fun to look at and I definitely want to buy something from her in the future. She was so friendly and if you wanted to, she could style you.

While I was there, I got her to sign a look book for me and asked her for some career advice, since I'm an aspiring fashion journalist. Mary and her assistant, who was also super helpful, gave me the names of a few colleges in England that would be good. She also told me that if I ever ended up in London to stop off at her studio and talk to her that way she can try to help me. Even though it's doubtful she'll remember me, I appreciated the thought and the advice. Also, the Lanvin store just opened at South Coast Plaza, so I stopped in and the saleslady gave me a look book, which is helping me practice my French with all the little details written in it.

After meeting Mary, I did some shopping, which I'll be sure to share with you later on, but I needed a caffeine kick. Lately, I've been having trouble staying awake and Starbucks' macchiatos have been getting me through the day. The layered flavors are what got me. It's like having three different drinks, so you're less likely to get bored with the flavor.

Later on, I ran off to a bonfire down at Corona Del Mar to celebrate spring break with Michael, Katy, Sarah, and a bunch of their friends. It was so much fun and we roasted everything from chicken McNuggets to hot dogs to marshmallows to homework. When it got dark, Michael (pictured above) and I danced to Madonna's "Material Girl" and other favorites like "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend." Sorry for the awkwardly posed photo; I didn't feel comfortable asking the other attendees if they'd be alright with me posting photos of them on my blog because then I have to explain to them that I have a blog and things go nerdy from there real quickly. Unfortunately, Corona Del Mar is thinking about getting rid of the pits, so I want to do another bonfire there at the end of the school year. I'm going back to school soon and I'm really sad about it, so now I'm off to enjoy what's left of my break.

Also, I found this ad for Prada Candy on Selina's blog and  you need to watch it.

Spring Break Update

Playing: Can You Feel It Tonight-One Night Only
Reading: Two Soldiers by William Faulkner

Left to Right: Kavya, John Paul, Sabrina, and Me

Right before holiday, a group of friends and I participated in our school's talent show. We did a dance, where the six of us dressed up as our favorite people from the 1980s and it was borderline school inappropriate. I've started to realize that I do a lot of things that are funny outside of school, but really inappropriate for school. We had John Paul (as Rick Astley) RickRoll the audience by popping out at the end of our performance and killing Sophie (as Lena) and then we had Josh (as Freddie Mercury) start stripping. Kavya (as Mick Jagger) and I (as David Bowie) did the gay scene from "Dancing in the Streets" in which they put their faces up to one another, so that left Sabrina (as a cat from the Cure's song, "Lovecats") as the only decent one in the group.

On the last day of school, Sarah and Sophie hosted a gangster picnic and craft day combo, where we all sat around and drew together, while having lunch. It was supposed to be gangster/wizard themed but the closest thing we got to grills was braces and the closest thing we got to wizards was a beard. It was still a really nice way to start spring break, though.

I left the picnic early to go to someone's birthday party, but they switched the location on me right when I showed up at the beach they told me to go to, so I was really upset and ended up going to Tea Station to eat away my anger. But seriously, I drove an hour there and back and wasted a quarter of a tank of gas to go to this specific beach only to be told they wanted me to drive to another location they weren't even sure of yet. I also paid $15 for five minutes worth of parking. I left a picnic early for them and skipped on another party for them.

The next day I went to Old Town Orange on a hunt for vintage jewelry, which proved to be more expensive than I willing to pay, so I hung out in my favorite Starbucks ever. This Starbucks used to be an old bank and it's beautiful inside, definitely a great place to hang out and I wish my friends would come here to study with me instead. By the way, have you tried their new layered macchiatos? They're so good!

On the same day, I decided it was time I ate healthier, so I went to Gelson's for their salad bar. Notice the lack of lettuce? It was all in my juice and it shocked me to take a sip only to realize that this didn't taste like apples, cucumbers, and lemon at all. Just because I like sharing tales of my travels with you, try pouring some balsamic vinegar on strawberries. I had that in Florence and it's such a good combination, even in pasta salads.

Just yesterday, I visited East Village in Long Beach, which is being praised as the next artist hang out and truthfully, I wasn't impressed. It's probably because I went on Easter, so nothing was open. Hopefully, I'll get the chance to go back and eat there on a day, when more action is taking place. It's steps from the beach has a few cute cafes I would like to try, so I'll definitely go back soon. Sorry for not commenting on your blogs lately. I haven't been on blogger for awhile, since I've been busy with school and being sociable lately. I'll get back to commenting as soon as possible!