Confession.

I still use Windows Media Player. :-\ Don't make fun. I like technology that was popular in 1998. 

You're gorgeous.

I must set a goal in order for me to allow myself to purchase these two dresses. I saw the first in-store. This baby cost $198 dollars, more expensive than the $170 rug that I need to go in my room, and the same color. 

jcrew.com. This dress reminds me of the Darjeeling Limited.

A rug would provide my room with warmth, and cover the bare space that would finally make my room feel like a home. I shouldn't buy this dress. Then! My wandering eyes, in conjunction with my wayward hands feasted themselves upon this! $398 and based on the works of Piet Mondrian, if Piet lived by way of Martha's Vineyard.

katespade.com

Oooo. $398 is how much money I'd like to spend on a digital camera, so that I can take gorgeous photos instead of staring at the ones that my phone takes everyday and feeling unsatisfied! Shall I possess these beautiful dresses the only way I can - via my blog? Oh sigh of sighs. 

In a sentimental mood

If I write this song down online, I won't forget about it and have to search for it again. I've been listening to awesome top 40 hits for so long that I forgot that I love a few other types of music as well. My first love: CLASSICAL MUSIC. Every Chinese girl took piano. I took it for 15 years and what I took away from it was a love of classical music. I'm good at the technical stuff but I could never be spontaneous or move into jazz.

Jazz. When I think about jazz, I always think about this song. It haunts me sometimes until I search for it blindly online, wasting time and time. I find it - listen, then I become obsessed with it again. The last time I listened to this song was at least 4 years ago. When I search for it, I always think it's a Gershwin song, but silly me. It's John Coltrane and Duke Ellington.

It's sentimental, beautiful and sexy. Listening to this makes me loath to go back to Top 40 stuff!

Finally. JT4EVER.

In case you've been living under a rock, Justin Timberlake finally released something that I can play on repeat in the office.

 

Thanks buddy.

Challenge Accepted

Monica's arrival outside at 5:20 allowed me to literally run out my office door. I felt like an asshole leaving her outside, so I ran down. We stopped by the Station Cafe on Pacific to grab a quick coffee before jumping on our bus to food. There was a cute barista behind the counter, but aren't they always?

At one point, I asked Monica when she was coming over to stay at my place and he answered instead. I fought the urge to give him my card.

After a brief, cheap, and delicious dinner at Sun Kwong, I made Monica rush home with me to take a whimsical challenge. I'm trying to make it sound light, but two Asian girls sitting at home in a room in front of a laptop while the Jeopardy song plays is hardly cute.

Thanks to that Blue Bottle coffee, I'm up blogging about this now.

Yep. It's that time of the year. Apparently these past three days have been days where Americans can go online and take the online Jeopardy screening. As a quiz bowler, I jumped at the challenge. Unfortunately, I've done a lot of things to dull my skills as a quiz bowl enthusiast since 2004. Less than a decade ago, I would have been a bloodthirsty fiend over this opportunity.

Tonight, I was able to take it a lot more casually with Monica. When the question of who the composer of Tosca was, I happily typed in Puccini. Still got... some of it. Twelve short minutes later, it was over.

I'll let you know if I ever hear back, but I'm not holding my breath. Whew. 

Thursday morning, is it still morning?

Jesus. It's 11.11 and there's 0 mg of caffeine in my body. The only thing that could make this better are coffee, Monica, and perhaps a Mission hot dog.

10 Things that I noticed in the past 24 hours:

1. When you're on the bus full of people on your morning commute, don't talk on the phone about how people from that specific area suck, and that people in the Marina are cooler.
2. Also don't mention that you have like.. 73 resolutions. That will definitely make everyone look at you.
3. If you have a nasal poindexter voice (and you use it loudly for over 20 mins on the bus on the phone), people will dream about punching you all the time.
4. My addiction to caffeine is severe and possibly fatal for someone that is not me.
5. I really need to get some contacts soon because I just sort of lost my last legit pair of glasses and the only ones I have are the super hip ones that are even beyond hipster; they are ridiculous.
6. Cough drops are delicious and make your throat feel good. Do not misplace these.
7. The realization that a vacation is no where in the horizon is heartbreaking. Does someone want to go to Hawaii or Las Vegas with me? I'm open to both of those things. ALL THE TIME.
8. People who puke on the street, suck.
9. Blogs with GIFs never fail to entertain me.
10. Thinking about ten things is too hard for me this morning!

Monday morning highlights

I just found my favorite pair of earrings. There was free Starbucks coffee at work today. I think I may be able to survive the week!

LACMA LACMA

Two days pre- New Years Eve, I arrived to take on the streets of LA with Lucas. The holiday season meant that traffic must have been slightly lighter.

I arrived in sunny LA on the 30th. I woke up at 5 am in the morning and flew across the country next to a PHD student studying parkour on the West Bank. So cool. It's not often that you get young good company. I feel sort of bad for them because I know that I passed out and probably snored like a snuffleupagus. Eeps. I got off the plane and in true LAX style, they re-routed our gate so that I came out on Terminal 6, not Terminal 5 where all Delta flights usually come out. Poor Lucas waited for me outside Terminal 5 and I was super lost and frustrated! This face was waiting for me in LA. Ladies, LA Lucas wears man cardigans and they are a hit. The sunglasses are mine. That expression... 100% priceless. Please excuse my puffy face in all of the following photos.

Highlights of our first trip. Lu and I went straight from LAX to LACMA.

mouth full!

While we were sitting at drinks/lunch, we saw Mark Valley. He was the original love interest for Anna Torv on Fringe. He also had a show on Fox a view years ago called Human Target. I enjoyed showing Human Target to my 7th graders. Forty minutes and full of action? Who could ask for more?

from imdb. 

LACMA - the Los Angeles County Museum of Art has a beautiful combination of modern, classical and a lot of large structural pieces that invite human interactions. Inside, we played a bunch of games that I enjoy at museums including, title this piece, caption this piece, could my hand fit into this?, etc. Instead of analyzing Caravaggio's use of chiaroscuro, we looked pieces of Mondrian and Duchamp and retitled them ourselves. Get real. People who take themselves too seriously at museums amuse me. Lucas and I obsessed over a piece of alphabet art, where the tiny sign said, Please do not touch. I immediately wanted to poke and touch. We stared at it so hard, musing on the feel of the pile of letters that the guard came over and spoke with us in detail about the habits of adults who touch the letters in spite of the sign. I'm glad we're not the only ones, but the piece itself is made entirely for temptation. It's touch-level, not eye-level. There's just a tiny obnoxious sign that incites the feeling of wanting to bury your face into a pile of letters. UGH. Things that like that drive me wild - THEN, the guard, that sneaky wonderful man, grabbed a letter and handed the baby e to Lucas and then to me. The smooth surface was pleasing and a lot lighter than I anticipated.

After running around for hours, Lucas and I took all the requisite photos that people take at LACMA.

the light posts and our, smiling but freezing face. 

contemplative

kids love this. there's a finger in there and that's just how i likes it.