h a l l o w e e n

Playing: Il Volo Mix
Reading: Bacchae by Euripides

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope your Halloween was filled with fun adventures and horrific costumes. I know mine was. This Halloween marked my first Halloween in New York and for many of my friends, marked their first Halloween ever. Being the clever college students we are, my friends and I thought it would be hilarious if we went as the Wizards of Waverly Place, since NYU has buildings located on Waverly Place. We spent the afternoon doing an elaborate photo shoot, which you can see on my Instagram, before heading to class. As soon as the sun set, we hit up SoHo and the East Village before ending the night at St. Marks with late night boba. SoHo and the East Village really know how to put on a show with the Village Parade and all of the elaborate costumes out there. Cheers to the confident guys walking around in boxes dressed up as either God's gift to women or kissing booths! Those costumes totally work on women.

Halloween

Playing: Let's Kill Tonight-Panic! at the Disco
Reading: The CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund: Where No Designer is Left Behind by Eric Wilson

This Halloween was very different from all the rest because rather than trick or treating, my friends and I decided to go on an adventure. To start off our night, we grabbed dinner at Cha for Tea because they were offering a free drink upgrade if you came in costume. Since my group looked like a major Japanophile group, we did the peace sign semi-ironically.

Afterwards, we drove down to the Balboa Fun Zone, but it turned out to be Balboa Island not Peninsula that was the place to be. However, the peninsula was a very creepy place to spend Halloween because it was almost completely deserted other than a few people fishing here and there. It's rather unnerving to visit the beach and not be able to see anything other than an endless black void.

Lately, Sophie and I have been really into the song, "Runaways," so we keep on messing around with the idea of road trips and running away (obviously). This is one of our photos from the night, where we are running down a pier into the night sky. I wanted something resembling this picture from the film, Never Let Me Go, but we got this instead.

If you ever do want to go to Balboa for Halloween, just keep in mind it's Balboa Island not Peninsula and that there will be a tremendous amount of traffic. Also, in case you were wondering what all of us went as: Tina went as Alice from Alice in Wonderland, Sophie as Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, and I'm a Slytherin student. By the way, Slytherins aren't inherently evil. They typically are successful, loyal wizards (with a slight lust for power). Also, all three of us wore clothes that we already owned, so even though our costumes aren't the best, I think we deserve credit for at least not wasting money on new costumes this year.

I'm wearing an L. Erickson headband, a Zara blouse, a Habber&Dasher sweater, a Zara skort, Gap tights, and Converse sneakers.

Autumn Update

Playing: Welcome to the Black Parade-The Vitaming String Quartet
Reading: Candide by Voltaire

I decided that this school year I will be better about people's birthdays and about holidays. Rather than just doing cards for people's birthdays, I now bake them something and I'm trying to be better about seasonal changes and holidays. After doing a food drive for a local charity, I stopped by Trader Joe's to grab some autumn-y flavored foods like pumpkin baked goods and apple cider along with a few pumpkins. When it gets colder, my family usually buys a few candles from CandlEssence for decoration too. I just wanted to share a few things that may (or may not) help bring the fall season into your home.

Last Tuesday, I hosted a huge Friendship Picnic at my school for over 50 students and it was Halloween themed. However, most people went as far as coming in black or orange for the picnic, while Sarah, Sophie, and I went over the top with our costumes. Sarah is Little Red Riding hood, Sophie is Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service, and I'm Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Holden is one of my favorite fictional characters and I imagined him to look kind of like Robbie Wadge. I used this picture of Robbie in a hunting hat and this picture of him in a navy blazer for inspiration.

PS Congrats to Hannah for winning my giveaway! Thank you everyone for entering and I hope you'll win one of my giveaways soon.

Year of the Snake

Playing: Nothing Left-One Night Only
Reading: Kappa by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Left to Right: Michael, me, Jessy, and Tina

Last Thursday, South Coast Plaza hosted a private party for Chinese New Years, so my fashionable group of friends and I took my parents' place at the party. Michael, Jessy, Tina, and I were trying to coordinate our outfits, but we kind of gave up on it. Somehow without talking to each other, we all showed up in jewel tones though! The party was held in Jewel Court right outside of Macy's. It was surprisingly large and they had some stereotypical Chinese New Years entertainment like lions and musical performances.

Appetizers and dim sum were catered by Capital Seafood, I think. Even though there were servers passing out shumai and sushi, it was easier just to wait in the long lines for food. Most of the food was actually pretty good and from my surprisingly long history of pretending to be more in touch with my Chinese ancestry than I am, I thought it tasted pretty legit. The cha sio bao was a bit sweeter than normal and the dan ta (not pictured) had a cookie shell instead of a pastry shell, but it still tasted good.

After the party, they even handed out red envelopes with dollar bills and valet parking vouchers. Amazingly enough, this is the most generous offering I've gotten so far for Chinese New Years. Even though I'm primarily Chinese, I really have never collected huge amounts of cash for Chinese New Years unlike my friends. One of them got a new laptop and another one got over a thousand dollars. How did they do that?

Once we were completely done with exploring the mall, we walked around the parking structure, taking photos and joking around. I really like how these parking lot photos turned out, even though this photo is so obviously posed. It was such a joy to be able to hang out with the three of them again, since we hadn't seen each other since Michael's birthday. Hopefully, we'll see each other soon for another party.

One more thing, here's my outfit from the day. I wore an Ann Taylor LOFT sweater, Zara shorts, Gap tights, Marc by Marc Jacobs earrings, a Bally purse, and a pair of Barney's Co-Op heels. How was your Chinese New Years? How did you celebrate?

New Year, Same People

Playing: Konstantine-Something Corporate
Reading: W January 2013

Happy New Years everyone! I hope your New Years has been amazing and that you've had tons of good food. I spent New Years eve with my friends, Tina and Sophie, at a sleepover over at my beach house. Tina and I have celebrated New Years with each other for two (or maybe three years now) and it's become kind of a tradition. In Sunset Beach, the city occasionally builds these mounds on the beach that are quite a bit of fun to climb around on. Tina and I act like little kids around each other, so we raced each other up the hills, forcing Sophie to photograph us. We spent a lot of time wondering around the beach and listening to music. I woke up this morning and my hair looks rather edgy and Freja Beha Erichson-y right now, so I'm going to go now and dance around the house to the Cure. Bye!

Christmas Day

Playing: Let Your Heart Hold Fast-Fort Atlantic
Reading: An American in Paris, Again by Eric Wilson

Merry late Christmas! This Christmas day post is a tad late, I suppose, but I still wanted to share it with all of you. Since my grandparents come over every year for Christmas and they always go to bed at a ridiculously early time, my family has Christmas lunch instead of Christmas dinner. Every year my dad and I make prime rib with au jus, mashed potatoes with gravy, and some kind of a vegetable along with some biscuits. We've been discussing stereotypical French Christmas meals in French class and that got me thinking, what is a stereotypical American Christmas meal? I don't think there really is one...

This year there wasn't really anything I was dying to get my hands on other than a few CDs, so I mostly got cash, which I'm saving for some future splurge.  The Patrick Wolf CD is my favorite from him after "Lupercalia," while the Something Corporate CDs are to replace the ones my brother's idiotic friends borrowed and never gave back. Sophie gave my everything that I like-cute stationary, sparkly nail polish, sweets, and a yetti button. The Burberry scarf is actually my mum's gift to my dad, but I plan on borrowing it, since I've been wanting one for myself for quite a few years.

My dad and mum didn't communicate with each other, when they were getting gifts for me, so I ended up with two purses. In the end, I won. Actually, I'm probably going to return both of the purses, so I didn't win. The Alexander Wang tote is too heavy for me, while the Marc by Marc Jacobs purse is too safe for my liking. Since I already have a plain black purse, I don't see why I need another one and I'd rather save my "purse money" for something I'm dying to own. I want to keep the Alexander Wang purse for school, but some jerk is going to stick gum on it or something, so I know it's not safe to bring it to school and I don't want to keep it if some idiot is going to ruin it.

The day after Christmas, my family went to Bruxie, since my dad has never been and I tried the Green Eggs and Ham there, which was very good. The pesto oozed out of the sides and I liked how gooey the cheese was. The only improvement I can suggest is cooking the egg less so that the yolk oozes out too. Surprisingly, the mayonnaise added a nice creaminess to it even though I normally dislike large amounts of it.

Since Bruxie portions are rather small, my brother and I shared the Seasonal Creme Brulee, which was very good. The burnt sugar really made it taste like a real creme brulee and the custard was extraordinarily creamy. My brother and I both agree that we ordered more wisely on this trip to Bruxie than last time. Another nice thing about Bruxie is their seasonal menu, where you can get Egg Nog shakes around Christmas and Turkey Dinner waffles around Thanksgiving. It's a very cute place to try, if you're ever in the area. Hope your holidays went well! Let me know what you did and how you celebrated!

A Very Merry You-Survived-the-Mayan-Apocalypse Christmas

Playing: Christmas Lights-Coldplay
Reading: Holiday Traditions: At Home with Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes by Jane Aldridge

Sophie and I hosted a Christmas/Sophie's Birthday/Surviving the Mayan Apocalypse Party just last night and being the best hostesses on the planet that we are, we spent about three hours decorating for the party. Admittedly, a good half hour or so was spent getting ourselves tangled up in Christmas lights and another hour spent laughing over stupid inside jokes, but still, we put a lot of hard work into this party.

She baked a brownie birthday cake and had me help her ice the cake. It was my first time icing a cake and I had no idea what design she wanted, so I just did the white icing and helped smooth out the cat's fur a tad, while she did the whole laser cat design. I have to admit that I think we did a pretty good job with it and everyone else seemed to like it quite a bit.

John Paul, Sophie's dad, and I did all the cooking for the party. Even though this is going to sound pretty egotistical, I think John Paul and I deserve our own Food Network show. It'll be like Down Home with the Neelys only with us yelling at each other and telling each other to get lost. Oh and a whole lot less deep frying...I made some penne arrabiata plus some vegetable dip, John Paul made a citrus marinade chicken along with some sort of a beignet, and Sophie's dad made mac and cheese for all of us.

Sophie did the most amazing thing ever and surprised me with Aadil! Oh, how I've missed Aadil and his wisdom! We totally claimed him for our game of ghetto Scrabble and put him on our awesome team, +3@/\/\ K|(K@$$ (TEAM KICKASS). Unfortunately, we didn't really kick ass, but it was fun being able to not use proper spelling. By the end of the game, we went from ghetto Scrabble to redneck Scrabble and I'm really not sure how that happened. Since Aadil doesn't want me to post any photos of his incredible dancing, I will have to end here by just letting you know that we ended the party with tons of dancing that vacillated between being really ghetto, borderline mosh pitting, and being reminiscent of 80s new wave moves. Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and get to spend time with everyone you love!

A Very Sophie Christmas

Playing: FALL-Cider Sky
Reading: The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee (Not that one...)

My parents ditched me last weekend to go to to a Christmas party, so I had no where to go and Sophie, being the amazing friend that she is, took me out for a day of fun and creativity. She took me to this yoga studio to make Christmas ornaments, which I kind of slaughtered, but no worries, I'm going to try again! I've always wanted to do a themed Christmas tree, so if I were doing one, my theme for this year would be stars and the sky.

Afterwards, we walked around this little ditch area in my town and explored, while dancing to the Cure and the Police. We like to dance a lot and this is one of my favorite photos of Sophie; she looks so happy and like she actually enjoys spending time with me. After we explored for awhile, we decided to catch a showing of Looper, which was so intense, at the dollar theatre. The only complaint I have with Looper is that the makeup artists changed Joseph Gordon Levitt's face too much. Did I tell you about how I went to go see Lincoln for APUSH extra credit and my teacher, Mr. Harrington, sat right next to me? He chucked popcorn at me and now in all his classes, he does Audrey fangirling over Joseph Gordon Levitt impersonations that are painfully accurate. (I LOVE HIS CLASS THOUGH.) After watching Looper, Sophie took me to dinner because she's a nice person like that and then let me bum around her place until my parents came back home. Thanks, Sopher Gopher, I owe you one.

Later on (not with Sophie), I went to Target to buy some Christmas lights and I'm super excited to say that the Target and Neiman Marcus collaboration hasn't sold out, since it's too expensive for Target shoppers and too cheap for Neiman Marcus' audience. I grabbed a Marc Jacobs scarf, which is so perfect and it's conservative enough that I think men can wear it too. During the post-Christmas sales, I'm going back for the Tom Browne blazer! The Christmas cards were just so cute and for Christmas this year, I'm giving heart felt cards. My group of friends is doing a secret Santa and I just wanted to show you how cute the items I bought for Jackie are. (Just don't show her! She doesn't know yet!) The cupcake bath bomb is so cute and realistic looking, while the hand scrub and lip gloss just smell insanely good.

I actually got some requests, which I'm shocked about, to do a separate blog of extra photos from my life such as cute things, my food, and just more photos of well, me. WELL, today's your lucky day, I created a tumblr for all of you (but mostly me) that stores all my extra fun photos that didn't make it on my main blog. So if you like photos of Vivian and me dancing sporadically in Disneyland, attracting a crowd of bystanders, then The World is just for you. Really, knowing you guys want to see more of me makes me feel so loved.

PS I apologize for being a cruddy blogger. Not much of interest has been going on in my life.

Disney Magic

Playing: Locked Doors-Jack's Mannequin
Reading: Turning 30 and Making a Difference in a Music Business, Post Apocalypse by Andrew McMahon

Left to Right: Katrina, Tina, me, and Vivian

Ok, so for my birthday, I always celebrate multiple times with different groups of people and the latest round of celebrations was an over the top day at Disneyland with my amazing friends, Katrina, Tina, and Vivian. We took a lot of group photos, but this one is my favorite because we all look so sassy with Cruella De Vil. This happened to be Vivian's first time at Disneyland too, so Katrina and I had a fun time showing her around, since Disneyland is like a second home to us.

The main reason why I wanted to go to Disneyland other than to see the amazing Christmas decorations was to go to Club 33, which is an ultra exclusive club hidden in Disneyland. My dad's friend is a member, so I've been lucky enough to go a handful of times in my life. The buffet part is so amazing because they have lobster tails, crab claws, shrimp, lox, etc. However, my friends and I agree that the scallop chowder was the best. Collectively we drank twenty cups of it and emptied half of the container.

For my main entree, I ordered the King Crab Stuffed Lobster Tail with Lemon Verbana Fettucine, Crisp Coppa Ham, Shaved Saffron Fennel, and Fortified Oxtail Broth. The broth gave the lobster a wonderful meaty quality, while the fettucine was perfectly cooked. It had the slightest taste of lemon, which was really refreshing after the heavy lobster. The smokiness of the coppa ham was a nice way to start off the dish too. If you want to talk about being impressive, each one of us had seven or eight rounds of food at Club 33.

My favorite part of going to Disneyland for the holidays is The Nightmare Before Christmas themed Haunted Mansion. I'm super obsessed with everything and anything Tim Burton, so I always get excited to check out what's changed every year. I'm pretty sure the scarecrow is new? I could've sworn it used to be Jack Skellington himself.

I even got a picture with Sparky from Frankenweenie that day. I'm surprised at how incredibly pale I am. It's like I never get to see the sun, even though I live in Southern California. Did I tell you about how I tried to dress my dog up as Sparky and how my dog just refused to keep the costume on? I should just learn my lesson that my dog hates getting dressed up and will never enjoy it.

Another ride that's always beautiful for Christmas time is It's a Small World. The lights are always so simple yet well done. It makes me want to decorate my house in super bright colors this year and go way over the top (like I do every year). If you come to Disneyland during the holidays, you must go inside to look at all the decorations. The attention to detail is phenomenal. It makes me want to become an Imagineer! Also, it rained that day, so the damp streets reflected all the lights, making everything even more beautiful.

We actually spent a lot of time in Fantasyland, riding all the little kid rides. I love how beautiful and antiquated the carousel looks. When I was little, I would choose which horse I wanted and my dad would run with me to guarantee that I got the exact horse I wanted. Then I would make him go on the carousel with me time and time again until he got motion sick. This time, my friends and I only went on once. We ended the night, watching fireworks and waiting to watch Fantasmic, which had technical errors, so then we went on one more ride. If you're ever in the area and have some spare cash, you must go to Disneyland for Christmas time, since it's definitely a place for people on quest for beauty like me!

This is Halloween

Playing: Just Like Heaven-The Cure
Reading: Fashion Illustrations By Fashion Designers by Laird Borrelli

Hilary as a cat and me as the Cheshire Cat

Halloween, Christmas, and New Years have to be my absolute favorite holidays. For obvious reasons, Halloween ranks pretty high on my list. I love to get dressed up, I love Tim Burton appreciation season, and I love running around at night. This one guy in my English class hates Halloween, so I had to explain to him that Halloween is the start of Tim Burton time and he told me he hates Tim Burton and that Burton is just a psycho, so I'm considering defriending him on Facebook.

Me with Victoria, the communist witch, and Chad dressed as Sheldon

It didn't feel like Halloween for me until I went out trick or treating like the five-year-old that I am, since no one dressed up at school other than me and a few poor boys that I forcibly dressed up as a cat. I started off the night with Hilary, Sarah, and Victoria, but then we met up with Evelyn, Chad, Simonne, and Jen. We ran around an elementary school's field and playground for awhile, but then it started to smell like someone was smoking pot, so we left. After a half hour or so, Victoria, Sarah, Hilary, and I separated from the other group and just walked around, acting like teenagers for once.

We started off by dancing around, acting like idiots, to some music that Sarah had recorded of her school's orchestra. Hilary refused to dance, so Victoria and I had to pull her along as Sarah photographed us like the paparazzi that she is. I like how happy I look in this picture and how embarrassed Hilary looks.

Sarah as Pacman and me

Then Sarah and I ran out into the middle of a deserted street and started dancing and jumping together. The other two were laughing at us as they photographed us. We spent a lot of time jumping and screaming at each other, now that I think about it.

Finally, we ended the night by acting like we were part of some bad film from the 80s, maybe early 90s. Look at how angsty and misunderstood we are. I have to thank Sarah for always being willing to do stupid things with me and for taking artsy photos with me. Oh, and for always telling me random facts that I'll never use and for reading my blog all the time and for going on adventures with me and for...If I keep this list going on, it might take a year or two, so I'll stop now. HOW WAS YOUR HALLOWEEN? What did you do?

PS I was going to go as Boy George, but I ran out of time to do my hair. And thanks Sarah for the last three photos!

A Social Celebration of Halloween

Playing: Elle Me Dit-Mika
Reading: "Tim Burton: The Rolling Stone Interview" by David Breskin

Over the weekend, I went over to Sophie's house for a Social Celebration of Halloween aka a movie night filled with Halloween fun. Sophie baked some super cute cupcakes for us to snack on. I love the spider one she did! Everyone there brought snacks and we pretty much just acted like fat kids, while we watched Corpse Bride, Shaun of the Dead, and The Nightmare Before Christmas. We also played Scrabble and Sophie was on my team, so we deemed ourselves Team Kick Ass and unfortunately, we didn't kick ass.

With some leftover icing, Sarah drew little faces on her fingers to make petite people and she ended up licking them all off. Does that count as murder or cannibalism? Either way, that's not good news.

I went to Sophie's party dressed as a female Victor from Frankenweenie, but for the photo shoot we did, Sabrina gave me her kitty ears to match Sophie. We were doing a commercial for water brought to you by Mother Nature and our goal for the photo campaign was to make water look positively seductive. Just kidding. And now is a great time to tell you what I'm wearing. I'm wearing a Faconnable blouse, Bullhead shorts, my dad's leather belt from his college trip to Italy, and my favorite oxfords in the world by the marvelous Sam Edelman.

Sophie and I also practiced the delicate art of bitch facing and being artsy together. It was extraordinarily hot that day, so that's why we look worse than usual. Or it could be the fact that we're just being rebellious teenagers and that rebellion doesn't suit us very well.

But then Sophie, Sabrina and I just got weird. We had Breanne photograph us acting silly, doing parodies of popular poses that kids at school do, and pretending we were a part of Salvador Dali's Le Chien Andalou. Things just got weird. Let's expand on what weird is though. We started by vogue-ing Madonna style.

And we ended by trying to show off our Halloween spirit by holding pumpkins. We also danced around with bowls, mocking English teachers' interpretations of how bowls are a symbol for female sexuality. Overall, we just acted goofy or silly, while getting in the mood for Halloween by watching film after film. This is my second costume so far this year and I'm planning on going to school as cat on Halloween and then dressing up as Boy George. Man, I'm really getting into this Halloween thing.

Photo credits to Sophie, who told me to write this.