"She Thinks I'm Much Too Thin, She Asks Me if I'm Sick"

Playing: Blackdown-Patrick Wolf
Reading: A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire

It seems like I get sick way too often, especially this school year. I've missed so many days at school that I'm starting to run out of ways to spend my sick days. Truthfully, sick days aren't fun like they were in elementary school, since I have to constantly worry about what I'm missing at school and have to work on school work, while I'm trying to get better now. I just thought I'd share with you some stuff I did on the weekend, when my cold started. I finally used my Barnes and Nobles gift cards to purchase the last two books in the Wicked Years and two books on Coco Chanel, while the JD Salinger books are late Christmas presents from Tina.

After my book trip, I went to Open Sesame for the best fried potatoes I've ever had. Crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, these potatoes are great for any time. Although it's a bit sour from the lemon juice, I really enjoy the fresh flavors from the chili flakes, olive oil, and cilantro. I order this as a starter every time I go to Open Sesame along with a tamarind drink.

For my entree, I ordered their special, the Molokhia, which is shredded chicken and garden mallow leaves simmered in lemon juice, garlic, and chili flakes served on top of basmati rice. I know I said the potatoes are one of the best things I've ever had, but this seriously is too. As you know, I normally don't eat vegetables, but the mallow leaves were so flavorful and tender. All the flavors were fresh and unexpected yet very comforting. This is how you know I'm sick; it took me four meals to finish this. Whenever I'm sick, I don't eat very much and end up losing weight, which means I can go eat fattening foods later on to put the weight back on. (What a bonus, am I right?)

The area around Open Sesame, Belmont Shore, is so cute and dare I say it, one of the best ways to waste away a lazy afternoon. It's super family friendly and has all sorts of quirky shops. It has literally everything you would imagine California having such as: surf shops, Starbucks, independent stores, music stores, etc. It's not one of those must see attractions, but it's definitely a nice way to spend your afternoon. Unfortunately, I had to leave quickly since my cold was making me very tired. For more info on Belmont Shore, click here and here.

PS I got tickets to go see Andrew McMahon for the sixth time! I'm so close to reaching the double digits; it's great!

Just One More Day

Playing: Only the Young-Brandon Flowers
Reading: Avantgarde Harajuku

For my last day in Berkeley, my parents helped my brother and his roommates set up his apartment, so I spent my time working on summer assignments for AP United States History, which was terribly boring. We went to a gourmet take out place offering French food called Gregoire for lunch. I ordered the Grilled Chicken Patty with Nueski's Bacon and Roasted Peach on Pantofolia, which was delicious except for the lettuce overload. One or two leaves would've been more than enough, but they just stuffed it with tons and tons of lettuce. This restaurant is located in a really cute area of town and all the food is very good, so I highly suggest this place.

To keep myself from dying from boredom, while reading my APUSH assignments, my brother took me around Berkeley, where we visited T-Shirt Orgy. T-Shirt Orgy claims to have the largest collection of
t-shirts in the world and all of their tops are organized by movies, music, etc. There are three levels, offering joke shirts, Cal basics, and other various things necessary for Berkeley students.. The collection is amazing and even if it isn't the largest one in the word, it's still impressive.

While walking around, I came across this message. I love how everyone in the bay area is pretty hippie-ish and environmentally aware, not to mention pretty quirky. Where I live, everything is so clean cut that they'd probably cover this up with a new layer of cement. I guess that's also the reason why everyone wants to move into my town...

One of the laundromats there had a free book pile, so I picked up the three most random books I could find on the Mickey Mouse Club, the year 1873, and  a collection of satirical pieces on Japan. I haven't gotten the chance to read them yet, but if they're good, I'll let you know. My brother's roommate, Joon, is done with his mythology course, so I took his textbook, figuring I enjoy mythology anyways.

For my last dinner in Berkeley, my brother took my parents and me to down town Berkeley to Nanayiro, where I ordered the Nabe Beef Udon. The mushrooms weren't  cooked in anyway, so it had a very earthy taste to it, but I really enjoyed having  the raw egg, so that I could stir it into the soup. Overall, it was good, but wasn't one of the best places I ate at, while up in Berkeley. The service was friendly and the menu had a roll called the Sexy Roll, so who knows. Go try it and let me know.

"Cannery Row...is a poem, a stink, a grating noise, a quality of light, a tone, a habit, a nostalgia, a dream."

Playing: Love Will Tear Us Apart-Joy Division
Reading:"La Dernière Classe" by Alphonse Daudet

One of my favorite books is John Steinbeck's Cannery Row because it chronicles the lives of this eclectic community and shows how everyone is intertwined. Even though everyone in the book has their flaw, they're deep down good people and that's what makes everyone so lovable. After hearing about Sophie going there, I asked my parents if we could go on one of our days up in Berkeley and they agreed. First of all, the drive down is gorgeous beyond belief and I wish I had time to stop off and hike everywhere. Second of all, I will save that for a day when I am older and have adventurous friends. Anyways, we got to Cannery Row around 11:00AM and it was really foggy outside, but nice to look at. A lot of the old fish canneries were still there too.

The whole area is cute to walk around, but it's super touristy with tacky restaurants everywhere, trying to lure you in. If I had more time that day, I would've loved to have gone kayaking amongst the sea otters. See the little dots in the photo? Those are sea otters! Not only am I really good at kayaking, but I heard the otters were very friendly and would paw at your kayak. I'll definitely have to try that one day.

If you read Cannery Row, you'll probably like the rest of the photos. Here is Pacific Biological Laboratories, which is the basis for Doc's Western Biological in the book. Doc was actually based off of one of Steinbeck's good friends, Edward F. Ricketts. Ricketts owned Pacific Biological Laboratories and was a biologist that wrote on everything from Buddhism to Bach.

Wing Chong's was the inspiration for Lee Chong's in the book, which is kind of obvious due to the fact that the names are so similar. Wing Chong's was a real store, even though it went out of business awhile ago, but it's still there and other shops have filled it. I can't remember which stores, but I think mostly touristy shops with t-shirts and such.

Although it's no longer a whorehouse, since Cannery Row is a family friendly area, the Bear Flag Restaurant is still there. In the book, Bear Flag Restaurant is owned by a lady named Dora, but in real life, it's owned by a woman named Flora. See? Not much of a name change here either. Personally, after visiting, I think Cannery Row is a dedication to the people of Cannery Row, even the bums, because Steinbeck loved them all so much. That's why all the characters are good people because Steinbeck saw them that way and he didn't see all the bad parts. At least, that's what I think.

Have you read Cannery Row?

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!

What Have I Been Up To?

Playing: The Midway State-Paris or India
Reading: Dark Matter Core, Left Behind From Wreck Between Massive Clusters of Galaxies, Defies Explanation 
I haven't been up to much really other than a lot of eating and reading. Trying to read more, since during school, they fill my schedule with so many boring plays and textbooks to read that I decided I needed to have time to read whatever I wanted instead. Here are just some photos that I took and wanted to share.

Since I'm the picture of American healthiness, I ran off to McDonald's to grab a snack the other day. I got my favorite Angus Third Pounder with Swiss cheese and mushrooms along with a small order of fries. Tried the Shamrock Shake for the first time and I actually think it's pretty good. The minty flavor keeps it "fresh" even though it's a milkshake, which is as gluttonous as anything.

I've also been stopping off at my favorite tea shop quite a bit lately to try all their different teas and to warm me up, when it's cold outside. My favorite so far is the almond milk tea, but I do enjoy most of the milk teas. Do any of you know if winter melon and taro milk teas are any good?

Also, I found the art magazine section at Barnes&Noble, so I bought the two that interested me the most. I really like the thick, glossy pages with the bright prints and artist interviews. Also, the copy of Artbox includes a section with cool things you can buy like a rubber band for your iphone that's really a macro lens or a lamp that comes with different sheets of glass to change the color plus the brightness, but looks beautiful at the same time. Just tons of fascinating stuff really.

I've also been addicted to this instant mi goreng, which is just so tasty. My friend, Sarah, introduced me to this and I've been hooked on it since. It's just to easy to make and super delicious, especially when you mix in some sort of pork in it like Spam or pancetta. Probably eat this after school two days a week now.

And finally after trying some amazing banana pudding at this BBQ restaurant, I attempted to make my own. Sure looks pretty, but it didn't taste as good. Needed more flavor, but it looks nice, right? A+ for effort? I just realized my whole post has to do with food. I suppose I should've named this "What Have I Eaten?" instead. I guess I'll ask an expected question and ask, what are you eating/drinking right now? Anyways, do any of you have delicious banana pudding recipes?  I would love to try to make a better version!

An After Christmas Update

Playing: Celebrity Status-Marianas Trench
Reading: January 2012 W
Hello everyone! Today is just everything I've been meaning to share with you and just some photos I want to show you. Nothing big or incredible, but nonetheless, a post about what I was up to on my non-busy days during winter break.

Over my winter break, I went to Little Tokyo to take my brother to my newest find, a nice restaurant called Wakasaya in LA, specializing in fish bowls. I got mine with chopped salmon, negitoro, and maguro. The chopped salmon is my favorite and the maguro is sublime and melts in your mouth practically. At first, I found the negitoro to be too slimy for my liking, but if you get it with some green onion or their don sauce, it's really quite delicious. However, after my brother and I were done eating, we were still hungry because the bowls are very small. Since the portions don't leave you full, it's actually on the expensive side.

The next day my brother and I were just being lazy and decided to go grab the Honey Baked Ham for New Year's. Afterwards, we went to the gardening store across the street and looked at fountains and fruit trees, even though we knew we weren't going to buy a thing from there. So we walked over to Cavanaugh Park because I'm an extreme Something Corporate/Andrew McMahon/Jack's Mannequin fan. "Cavanaugh Park" is a song Andrew McMahon wrote about the times he spent pondering life at this park and I think this is my fourth time wandering over to it. The first time I went there on purpose and the three times afterwards were just accidents. It's not a big park, a very local kind of park, but I still go there just because well, Andrew did.

And because I like to organize my objects and take photos of them, here is my Christmas haul. I got two perfumes, L'eau D'Issey and Burberry Brit Sheer. I really like wearing the light Burberry, but the L'eau D'Issey is too strong for my taste. I meant to write down the Florale version on my wishlist, but I made a mistake, so my mum will probably use it now. Then I received the Coraline, Big Fish, and 9 DVD's because I'm a Tim Burton fanatic and had to grab some more of his movies. I also got the Big Fish book, since that's my absolute favorite Tim Burton movie. My parents also got me some CD's I've been begging for from Patrick Wolf and One Night Only, some of my favorite musicians. No store near me sold these, so I couldn't get them myself and had to rely on my parents to grab them from the wonderful thing called the Internet!

This year I didn't exchange gifts with my friends because we agreed upon it, so I only exchanged gifts with two friends I believe and one of them was Christine. She feeds my cute Japanese obsession. My brother took one look at my gift and exclaimed, "Why do we have so many zombie bunnies? When is it going to be enough?" Haha, it's never enough. I love the Frixion pens she got for me too because I used to always borrow her pens, so she probably got annoyed of me asking her to borrow them so much. Oh, she knows me too well!  

I know this is really late, but what did you get for Christmas?

New York Afternoon+Night of Day 2

Playing: Forever Young-Cash Cash
Reading: Big Fish by Daniel Wallace
On the afternoon of Day 2, we met up with my uncle, aunt, and their twin daughters. It took us some time to find them because their were so many tourists at the place we agreed to meet at. Surprised we found them at all. My yellow pants and my cousin's lime green jacket probably helped us find each other.

When I look at the ice skating rink at Rockefeller Center, I think about Holden Caulfield's date with Sally Hayes. Yes, I am going to make a nerdy allusion. Anyways, I have plans to go ice skating here with one of my guy friends, when I'm older. He will wear a red hunting hat and hopefully, teach me how to ice skate.

My dad and I admired the suits in Ferragamo's window, while we walked to Trump Tower with everyone else. I really like men in suits and my dad likes wearing suits, so we often discuss suits together. Advice from a man (and by that, I mean my dad)? "Buy Burberry, it's classic and makes you look trim."

I never understood the purpose of Trump Tower because it's too closed off to be a shopping center and too big to be a fine dining place, but I like how everything is reflected in the copper walls. I like the angles the patios make, when they intersect. I also like the outdoor gardens, which overlook the Burberry, miu miu, and Dior stores.

While inside, we decided to get some warm coffee to help us fight the chill. Drinks were on me and when I told the guy that my name was Audrey, he wrote down Hagi. Either his spelling or my pronunciation is really off. When they kept yelling, "Hagi," I didn't pay any attention until they yelled it eight times and I realized it was my order.

We took the subway to Little Italy, which is my favorite place in New York to go to for meals. My goal is to try every restaurant there and so far I've tried five of them, I think? We decided to try Casa Bella Ristorante, where I ordered the Papardelle Alla Funghetti. With five different mushrooms and homemade pasta, this made a hearty dish that felt cozy too. I like how they put shitake mushrooms in it and how spacious this restaurant is. Most restaurants in New York are too crowded for my liking. Afterwards, my dad and uncle bought a bunch of my favorite canolis from Ferrera Bakery. Then our two families separated, so my relatives could catch a train home and we just walked around admiring the city.