scarf accent

you know, what i really like about anthropologie is how functional their clothing is. i love how all their dresses (that i own anyway) have pockets! it's great. although i think they might channel a bit too much boheme and could do with some more classy looks, i guess the boheme style is their thing. (i looked at their boots and they all look dirty and used-- hehe)

but anyway. i browsed their dresses and found a few that i might try if i come across them in the store on sale. but this sweater really piqued my interest. i really love how there is this silk scarf just intertwined into this wool sweater. being wool, it would definitely keep me warm. and i just love the scarf accent!

in pretty boots

i'm looking at boots again. i should really stop. i want all sorts of shoes now. pumps to wear on a more day-to-day basis... booties to wear with my jeans even though i'm trying to phase out of wearing jeans... and a high-heeled mid-calf to knee-high boot that isn't black.

anyway. so i was thinking. i wonder how tall i am. last time i went to the doctor's i was 5'6.5" and the time before that i was 5'6.75" and i really shouldn't be letting it get to my head (but i will anyway) but everyone seems to be telling me i'm taller. i'd chalk it up to them not seeing me for nearly, or over a year. but also, i have a few friends (read: 2) who say that they are 5'7" and i am clearly taller than them. (i usually tell them they are lying about their heights. heh.)

so i'm usually 114 between meals (so not while i'm starving, but i'm not stuffed either). and i can go down to 110 very easily (aka. without starving myself) although i think when i was a freshman i was about 120 lbs.

why is this relevant? well. of course! i'd love to model. (so i can fund my love affair with boots/pumps/shoes in general, clothing in general, med school? hopefully?)

given that i spent this quarter watching project runway (not too diligently) i fell in love with kojii helnwein. if i were a model. i'd be kojii helnwien. she is gorgeous. i love her look and her hair (haha. it's black against her pale white complexion. i think she's beautiful! AND she's a mother!)

according to this site, she's 109 lbs and 5'8". i guess if i want to make up for that final inch i better do some more yoga and stretch out that lazy spine of mine!

and if this all works out! i can model and wear all these pretty clothings and make money to go to med school! all in pretty boots of course. (:

taylor lautner

omg. finally saw new moon. was a horrible movie. as melody put it "too many pregnant pauses". it was annoying. but i really really really liked jacob. well. taylor lautner. i thought he was super hot. (:

went and had dinner with jesca, melody and andrew! that was fun. our bill was sorta huge though.

more cinnamon and sugar!

friday was super busy. john organized an iron chef: pumpkin for us. so that was exciting. there were four teams. team1: john, vania, byron, slu, debbie. team2: me and lulu. team3: chang, charlotte, stacy. yup. and me and lulu made three dishes too! (appetizer, entree, dessert) we had waffles of course. i forgot to bring my camera though. so no pictures.

i made pumpkin gnocchi, and to be honest. i thought it wasn't very good. i think i put in way too much nutmeg, and it ended up being a bit spicy. and i think they were too big. i'll try to make them smaller next time. but i was expecting greg to get here early enough to make them with me, so i was on a time crunch. yup. ppl said they liked the waffles, but i didn't think they were sweet enough. i just added some pumpkin mash to the waffles and nutmeg and cinnamon. next time. probably more cinnamon and some white sugar.

today we had some pretty delicious food. but i'll probably blog about it later. cuz it's late. and i wanna sleep!

kerplunk!

i have this theory. that even if you have the most mundane life. you can use your imagination and make it quite interesting. just by manipulating your own experiences, and showing your own view.

right.

then i read melody's blog.

kerplunk!

My sentiments exactly, Mika

unfortunately. i can't find a video that i can imbed. but i highly encourage you to click this. especially if you're in evanston right now.

When it rains, it rains, it rains...

My sentiments exactly, Mika. My sentiments exactly.

balsamic vinegar makes everything taste italian and delicious.

i made waffles today and had a few friends over to watch Up. it was exciting because one of the boys' names is kevin. haha. i love it. i always think of that darned bird whenever i say kevin.

waffles were good. so good, i forgot to take pictures of them. i think i have the waffles perfected now! yay! :D it's all about being patient and waiting for them to be ready.

this friday we're doing a "iron chef: pumpkin" competition. i'm teamed with lulu, greg and chenfei. chenfei is lulu's boyfriend. and according to lulu, he can't do anything. greg might not be able to come on time. so i don't know what we'll do. hah. we might be a two women team. oh well. :P

i think i'll make pumpkin gnocchi, the recipes online seem pretty easy. and putting balsamic vinegar over things seems to make everything taste italian and delicious. (:

strangely glum

i got my h1n1 flu shot today. jenny got the mist, but apparently because i have asthma they decided to give me the shot. woot. my arm feels a bit numb and sore. oh well.

i strangely feel a bit glum right now.

do a corny christmas movie

if i ever wanted to become an actress or anything, i would definitely consider doing a corny christmas movie, or at least something seasonal. that way i would make sure that i get seen at least once a year. everyone does it! makes sense to.

And I'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins

why is this song so awesome?

i love this song.

i think i'll just post all the lyrics because the song is full of good lines. (: love it love it love it!



High rise, veins of the avenue
Bright eyes and subtle variations of blue
Everywhere is balanced there like a rainbow above you
Street lights glisten on the boulevard
And cold nights make staying alert so hard
For heaven's sake, keep me awake so I won't be caught off guard
Clearly I am a passerby but I'll find a place to stay
Dear pacific day, won't you take me away?

Small town hearts of the New Year
Brought down by gravity, crystal clear
City fog and brave dialogue converge on the frontier
Make haste, I feel your heartbeat
With new taste for speed, out on the street
Find a road to a humble abode where both of our routes meet
The silver sound is all around and the colors fall like snow
The feeling of letting go, I guess we'll never know

Cheer up and dry your damp eyes and tell me when it rains
And I'll blend up that rainbow above you and shoot it through your veins
Cuz your heart has a lack of color and we should've known
That we'd grow up sooner or later cuz we wasted all our free time alone

Your nerves gather with the altitude
Exhale the stress so you don't come unglued
Somewhere there is a happy affair, a ghost of a good mood
Wide eyed, panic on the getaway
The high tide could take me so far away
VCR's and motorcars unite on the Seventh Day
A popular gauge will measure the rage of the new Post-Modern Age
Cuz somewhere along the line all the decades align

We were the crashing whitecaps
On the ocean
And what lovely seaside holiday, away
A palm tree in Christmas lights
My emotion
Struck a sparkling tone like a xylophone
As we spent the day alone

Cheer up and dry your damp eyes
and tell me when it rains
and I'll blend up that rainbow above you
and shoot it through your veins

Cuz your heart has a lack of color
and we should have known
that we'd grow up sooner or later
cuz we've wasted all our free time alone.....

glass water bottles are for lookin'

i know this is random. but last, last weekend when i went to old orchard, greg also took me to tj maxx afterwards. tj maxx is definitely my favorite store to walk around staring at all their kitchen goodies.

anyway, we discovered these glass water bottles. and given that i've been thoroughly scared about the BPAs that people talk about being distributed in my water when i use plastic nalgenes, i was very interested in these glass water bottles. although i kept on using my plastic water bottles because i own so many, my purple NU water bottle was getting ready to retire as the opener spout button was breaking. in my opinion, i skipped the aluminum water bottle phase because it was so weird to me. the aluminum water bottle was "sleek" but seriously, i hated how the opening was so tiny and that because of the aluminum, you couldn't see the inside of the bottle very easy, thus meaning to me, lots of dirty things could be hiding/growing/multiplying in there without you noticing!

so i've been using my glass water bottle since i've gotten it. i throw it in the dishwasher whenever i run the dishwasher (once every four/five days because i wait until i use up all my dishes and have a full load before running it). i got a little bit of a scare today because the cap was coming apart. it's made of this plastic part that has the screw grooves to close the bottle, the glass circle on the top of the bottle (for aesthetics i think) and then that metal part to make it look prettier. the metal part and the plastic part separated slightly, and the glass part became loose. but i just kept pushing the metal part back down on the plastic, and for now it's holding. i think i just won't dishwash the top part.

i like how i can see the inside of the bottle, and the top is an extra cute addition. only problem is that i can easily down 2/3 of the bottle in less than a minute. and thus, my water supply is done after a single class (or two). i usually refill, but it scares me to use the water fountains here because everyone is sick. and the water isn't as tasty as my brita water. oh well. i'm getting my swine flu shot tomorrow!

glad she's made friends with me

man. i am craving gnocchi now. i think i'll make it tomorrow for lunch/dinner/lunch the next day. heh.

today after classes, i came home and made dinner. this time it was tortilla, egg, black beans, mushrooms and cheese. it doesn't look too appetizing there, but the crust was so crunchy! i love crunchy!

i also realize that all my food look the same. it's probably cuz i use the same ingredients over and over again, and i have the same yellow lighting. oh well.

i fell asleep after my dinner, and i missed a group meeting. i feel really guilty and i think my group members may just hate me a lot now. i don't really know how to make it up.

and on the topic of feeling not too awesome, i got my second midterm grade for euro civ back, and i got another B! i don't know why. i wasn't 20 minutes late to this midterm and had two very complete, pretty cohesive essays. i'll have to see what my ta says on wednesday.

also a bit of a downer, i found out what the guy who sits next to me during cell bio in the front row got on the second midterm. i thought i did fabulously... whoa. man. this guy got a legit A.

so i basically feel really crummy now. i need to amp up EVERYTHING. so i'm planning on doing a lot of work after my 5 hr and fifteen minute nap. haha. i kinda messed up my sleep cycle. whoops.

but to end on a good note. during lunch, ina told me that i was the best thing that happened to her this quarter and she's glad she's made friends with me. (:

gnocchi

so today i just wasted time. i'll soon have to buckle down and get some work done before the week begins.

i woke up and made sandwiches. the basic thing i've been making before. i added mushrooms too. and now i'm out of bread. :P



then for dinner, i decided that i would try frying some gnocchi that i bought from world market on sale. i've had it for like two months haha. so i basically tried base it off of this recipe. (http://steamykitchen.com/6515-pan-fried-pumpkin-gnocchi-browned-butter-sage.html) but i don't have sage. so i used my basil plant. and then i added a bunch of veggies: mushrooms, red onions, orange bell peppers and green onions. then i just added a lot of butter and basalmic vinegar. the first batch, the gnocchi was a little too fried. and then the second batch, the gnocchi was a little raw :P whoops.


wootwoot!

the giant paper tree had a head. and two feet.

greg and i went to woodfield mall today. in his words, woodfield is the tourist mall of illinois. it is definitely very large and has a weird section with three levels a little bit intertwined. so it's interesting.

i had tons of fun. maybe because i bought so many bras (because i had the 40% off coupon) and in my defense, annie asked for five bras. it went from 150 to 100. so i was pretty happy.

anthropologie was tons of fun too. we definitely played with all the non-clothing stuffs there and greg found a kichen bible which he proceeded to peruse from cover to cover while i was trying on clothing. apparently he knows how to cook liver now. it's a good book, i guess.

i found some very very cute measuring cups in anthropologie and proceeded to photograph each of them. i thought these were the cutest. haha.

i also took pictures of myself in the dressing room with each of the dresses i tried on. some of the less embarassing ones are on fb, but only the ones i didn't buy. i ended up buy two dresses and a skirt. i hope i'll be able to wear them. it's been getting colder lately. i think dresses are so much easier to wear! i don't have to worry about matching tops with bottoms. well. not as much anyway. i ended up spending about $140ish. two were $40 and the third was $50. sigh. it's anthropologie so i have to be okay with spending that much...

on my way to the cashier i saw this giant paper tree. and then i realized the giant paper tree had a head. and two feet. haha. it was an ostrich! i had to take a picture with it. i thought it was so cool.

anyway. when we came home, i decided to try to make oven baked bbq chicken since i had bought bbq sauce. i wrapped it in foil like one of the recipes online told me to do. but then the bbq sauce wasn't as thick and yummy as it was diluted with chicken juice. and then since i cut up the breast into much smaller pieces, i think i overcooked it, so it was really wet on the outside but dry inside. we had mashed potatoes and canned corn with it! yay!

legit asian here

last night, alan, jenny and i had dinner with sonbinh. it was definitely very fun. alan is a superb driver. maybe cuz i was tired i was very aware of how smooth the drive was. anyway. kudos to alan for driving us. we had tank noodles. and i was totally excited for jenny because she had never had pho before. so i went trying to explain all the noodles to her. although sonbinh sorta stopped me when i went into egg noodles and vermicelli, because he wanted her to get the basic PHO. so alan, sonbinh and jenny go the same thing. i, of course, got myself my grilled pork. so yummy!

i always manage to cut out jenny's eyes when i try to take a picture of us and the food. sigh.

sonbinh basically made fun of us the whole night saying we're so american. jenny learned how to say thank you in vietnamese and we watched as she said thank you to the bus boy and his eyes just popped open. it was great. we learned a lot of random things from sonbinh. like how to make limeade from the limes they give us and the ice water and adding a whole lot of sugar. it backfired on jenny when she got her dessert and it was super sweet towards the end and she was quiet for a bit. then she yelled out. "i need water!" yup yup, tiff to the rescue with her pure water. i don't remember when sonbinh was trying to say that i was super american, and i had to bring up going to dim sum two dinners ago, in which i ate everything asian-style. ahem. yeah. legit asian here. :P

earlier in the day, actually i had an amusing conversation with spruston. i should talk about it later. but now i'm making dinner (quesadilla with mushrooms, black beans, bell peppers, and red onions) and then i'll be going to the mall with greg...

sounds about right

i was feeling insecure today. so after cell bio, i just went up to my professor and asked if he had time to talk to me. he was very nice and said he was available. i basically told him my situation. although i wasn't worried because i was doing fabulously in his class, i wanted to hear from him what he thought i should do for the following year should things not follow through.

it was interesting. he spent an hour talking to me about this. i walked away with a lot of advice. basically, i should write out my resume/cv and take it to a doctor (or group of doctors) and have them stage a mock interview and help me determine my weaknesses. then i could use this coming next year to deal with those weaknesses. he also advised that i find something that i truly want to do for the next year, and that it doesn't necessarily have to do with medicine. although he suggested that i do something medically-related on the side. it doesn't have to be my main focus.

anyway. i talked to him about life and jobs and happiness and when exactly does a person feel like they've found what really suits them. and he responded that ten years ago, the decisions he made were about right for the person he was ten years ago, but now, he wouldn't make the same decisions because it wouldn't be appropriate for the person he is today.

i'm lucky to have a professor who is willing to talk to me extensively even though he barely knows me. haha. except that i want to be child pyschiatrist.

it sounds about right.

wedge

you know what sucks now that i'm in college?

i realize, that when i'm sad, i need to deal with the feeling. i can't exactly just distract myself with music, or stupid reading, or even ranting/moping to a friend about it. because the truth is, i have to learn to deal with whatever problem i have, because it'll show up again no matter how hard i try to distract myself from it.

i'll feel sad, hours later, after hours of distraction, and have to think about, whoa. where did this feeling come from? why do i feel like this? and it will be misplaced multiple times before i actually come to the correct conclusion. how do i realize that its the correct conclusion, because upon thinking the correct reason, i feel a bit of a wedge stuck into the hurt.

this whole week in one post

so this week has been extremely eventful...

monday

monday was a great day for me. i felt on top of the world because i had gotten my second cell bio exam back. the average was 63, and i had gotten an 86.25% so that was amazing. especially since only 2 people got above 90, and five ppl between 80-90.

i went shopping right after class because i didn't have my ae coupon (40% off-- totally worth it) on sunday. i ended up taking chang and greg. it was amazing. we got so much clothing all together. it was funny how we all tried to help each other narrow down our selection. i got a blue and yellow flannel, a checkered-like motorcyle jacket and a embroidered t-shirt to wear underneath. greg got a bunch of collared shirts and chang got so much different clothing i think i'll leave it at that.

after shopping, greg and i went to jewel to get my groceries. we tried making "eye of round" because it was really cheap and we felt like trying something new. wow. did i suck at making it. it was so tough. ahaha. we got so tired of eating after five bites. oh well. here have the picture of it.



Tuesday

I think I had a pretty yummy quesadilla that I fried too long for dinner. You know, black beans, cheese, turkey.

That night was pretty exciting though, after a group meeting, I went to phi psi for their bar night. I couldn't find my gold heels though, so I went with my black heels which weren't as exciting. I really wonder where my gold heels went though. This will really make me sad if my mother allowed my sister to borrow them, because she is very clumsy and doesn't take care of anything she has in her possession.

ANYWAY, (rant over) bar night was fun because Barbara was there. The phi psi boys that I know were fun to hang out with too. I got randomly grabbed and semi forced to dance with this boy. So I turned around and started some small talk with this handsy boy. It went something like this.

Me: Hi, I'm Tiffany. What's your name?
BOY: Phil.
Me: Are you a brother? (obvs not because then he would have known I have a boyfriend-- although I had to be sure.)
BOY: No (seems dejected- I quickly follow up with...)
Me: Oh, who are you affiliated with?
BOY: (mutters some names I quickly forget-- but I knew whom he was talking about)
Me: (ends the conversation in a way I don't remember, and walk off the dance floor)

Yeah, I probably could have ended it better, but I prefer not to be grabbed and placed in front of a crotch I don't know.

Then! I totally had my gaydar off that evening, because I knew who all the gay boys in phi psi were already, and I thought other boys would be going to get some ass. However, Anamika ended up telling me this boy (whom I totally thought was straight) was gay and that he was the best time she's ever had with a boy (dancing). So I went and made friends with this wonderful gay boy. I love him. His name is Albert. I need to find him sober and befriend him sober. (While he is sober, I'm always sober...)


Wednesday

So Wednesday, I don't recall what I ate for dinner, although I have a feeling it was a quesadilla with cheese, black beans, fresh bell peppers and turkey ham. I hope this is the right picture for it.

Anyway, after dinner and lounging around doing nothing. I went to see a sorority event. Basically, a phi held a boy beauty pageant called "king of hearts". a phi psi that greg is good friends with-- and therefore i have a soft spot in my heart for too-- derrick wu was one of the boys up for inspection. he's a cutie. he dances like a white boy. so it's kinda funny. :P

i think he did a good job. he played mendelssohn's cadenza (i have it up on fb). sadly, he lost out to the boy from SAE. the SAE guy was kinda cute though. he basically spun things. haha. as silly as it sounds, he did it with such a hot attitude. he was hot was he was spinning the basketball, and the song started playing "you spin me right round baby right round..." and then he spun a book, then a plate. and then he got up, broke down the chair he was sitting in, and spun that. then he broke down the foldable table, and spun that over his head. pretty hot. haha.

Thursday

Woke up late, but managed to make myself a yumy sandwich: I basically lay out my turkey, put a nice layer of black beans and a large portion of shredded cheese and stuck it in my microwave. I toasted my bread, and then put some salad greens on it with fresh bell peppers. YUMMY! This was lunch.


Then, for dinner, Chang brought pizza dough, and with four other girls. We made deep dish pizza! It was amazing. Here's a picture proving it.


Chang brought the dough and mozzarella brick of cheese, and sausage (which we pan-friend before hand). I used tomato sauce (from a can that my mother bought in bulk from costco). Chang added oregano and garlic powder and red pepper flakes. I had red onion chopped up, and Sara sauteed the spinach that she brought and the mushrooms. We had two pizzas actually. One bigger one, and one smaller one. We made the smaller one the vegetarian pizza (even though none of us are vegetarian.. haha.) We also added the bell peppers that Lulu brought. And while we waited for the pizzas to bake, we had the carrot cake cupcakes that Sandra made. It was delicious. After eating the pizza and socializing, we had ice cream (cherry vanilla, french vanilla, mint and chip) and talked until project runway, and then talked through project runway-- while it was on tv. :P

I'll end this post with a cute picture of me and Jenny!

bar night. tired. g'nite

went to bar night. whoa. fun. but now i'm too tired to say anything. good night!

chipotle likes me

Finally got the pictures from Greg. While we were at the mall, this one asian mother was running so fast by us. The little girl was acting so cute though-- so curious and delighted at how fast her mother was pushing her through the mall. Hilarity ensued when we realized that the girl had a rubics cube in front of her. We laughed so much, we had to get a picture of it. Greg literally ran to keep up with this woman. Oh em gee.


Dinner was chipotle. Every time I go to Chipotle, they give me a giant burrito the size of my head. I don't know how that works.

take the stairs

We went shopping today. i got a "moto" jacket. haha.

i also tried on some business-y stuff at gap. i was looking for a winterish skirt. i didn't want something too business-y. then again, i wanted something longer. than a mini-skirt.

now i must do work. ta ta!

have a fun video here. (: I would so take the stairs...

sour

i stayed up all night trying to study euro civ but really pretty much failing. instead i sketched out a music video i'd like to do. i wonder if i'll ever do it.

anyway. have a music video premade. i think its a decent song, and its the song i have stuck in my head right now.

perfect circles and mrs. lien

on the way to the library. i'm in the shadow of a building behind me. but you can see that it is a very nice bright day. (:


see that building behind all those trees? that's the main library. why do they have to make it so hard to get to the main library?


Enigma Cafe had some pretty funny artwork. I guess they were trying to make graffiti into art, which in my opinion, is way tacky: that's like so ten years ago. haha. anyway. I still liked the circle painting. I like the juxtaposition of white and black. And how round the white circle is. dude. i don't think it is stenciled, but dude, that is like a perfect circle. The only person I knew who could draw a nice big perfect circle without a stencil was Mrs. Lien from DBHS.

Enigma

Its sunny today! (and my basil plant is ginormous.)

I think I might just go to the new cafe in Evanston (called Enigma- what a weird name). Let's see if I get any work done...

I've definitely got lots of work to do!

pistachio pistachio

today's midterm was yucky. last time, after the midterm, i needed an oxytocin hug, so i went and hugged lulu. today though, lulu was home sick with swine flu. so i had no one to hug. i don't really like hugging boys who aren't greg. even the asexual ones.

oh and then after the exam, i went straight to the study abroad fair and talked to Vick. basically, the application was due monday, but obviously jenny and i couldn't finish it on time. but we got an extension.

i don't think i'll be going though. i'd rather stay at home and work. =\ or maybe do some field work somewhere.

good thing i had ice cream. pistachio pistachio makes all my aches and pain disappear.

draping

i wish that i had been creative/adventurous enough to have looked into getting a vintage dress for prom/formals. i just found this website (http://vintageous.com/dressy.htm) and i'm just considering all the different outcomes had i considered these dresses. then again, i probably don't have the bust size necessary to really fit these dresses (especially the strapless) but i think i could have survived with some draping of the strapped dresses.

some people have it worse than i

happy end of monday!

price of yummy

jamba juice razz matazz + $1 off coupon = $2.95

Pomegranate steak sandwich = $6.65

Buff Joe's buffalo chips (waffles fries) = $1.86

$11.46 -> a very delicious dinner at home. :D

mmm. now time for ice cream. jewel had a sale for buy one get two ice cream. so now i have mint chocolate chip, cherry vanilla, and french vanilla ice cream. (: