Trick or Treat!

So keeping to the grandma lifestyle I've become accustomed to this year, Alex and I decided to stay in for Halloween. I passed by some pretty awesome costumes though on my way back from the gym; I saw Peter Pan driving the maintenance cart!

Our agenda for the night was a scary movie....


We're pretty freaked out, now. After a couple hours yelling at the screen, we have quite a few lights on and don't plan on going out anytime soon. If anything, we'll watch the parade of dressed up college students from our balcony...

And now, we'll probably drown our fear in Twix... which was bought under the guise of being for the trick or treaters we knew we wouldn't get...

A successful endeavor

When we moved in, we decided we'd each buy our own food rather than try to pitch in for common goodies. Apparently, I need a LOT more practice, seeing as I choose to shop as though I am a family of five.


This is an awesome example of my attempts at grocery shopping... Stew for one person isn't quite the great idea you might think! (As a side note, the potatoes kind of obscure the "root beer" label... calm down, Mom!) I was a little nervous about trying stew by myself for the first time, especially using Mom's I-don't-know-which-seasoning-so-I-double-the-recipe-and-use-both approach. It actually turned out pretty awesome, and I strong-armed a few people into helping me eat my masterpiece.


Now, you might think this is my finished product. No no. This is my LEFTOVERS.... after feeding six people!!! Looks like I'll be swimming in stew for a few days...

Korean-style obesity

During the summer, a bunch of my coworkers planned a trip to go get some Korean BBQ. Me being the silly fool I am, offered to drive. As usual, my car was dead and I had to miss out on that particular trip. Ever since sampling some of the food a friend smuggled back for me, I'd been dying to try it!

Today I finally got my chance... A big group of us from the desk drove out to LA to gorge ourselves on meat, meat... and more meat! I'd never been to this type of restaurant, so I didn't know they were gonna slap down some plates of raw meat, leaving us to cook for ourselves...

We ordered some beef brisket, BBQ beef, and short ribs. I left the cooking to the others, and just sat back and waited to be served like the princess I am.

Of course, being the genius of the group, I thought it'd be an AWESOME idea to try to keep up with the boys and get my money's worth. All you can eat beef with no veggies to get in the way? How much better does it get?!

...Yeah. I'm still pretty unwilling to move. My big plan was to come home and make stew, but I'm pretty sure that's gonna have to wait til next week, when I'm hungry again.

Tool Time

As our first legitimate project in the new apartment, we decided to build a bar for our balcony after being inspired by an apartment below us. Keep in mind that when I say "we", I mean my roommates trailed behind me supportively in Home Depot as I wandered looking for the proper sheet of plywood. I drew up plans for what we wanted, and we bought all the supplies a few weeks ago. Our brilliant plan was foiled, however, when we realized that all of our guy friends are WORTHLESS, and no one we knew owned a drill. Thanks to Susan, this was resolved during my random weekend at home.


This is our SWEET finished product... we sawed a piece of plywood to fit the curve of our balcony, then attached some moulding to the back to be a kind of barrier so we don't send stuff plummeting down to pelt people 4 floors below. The whole thing is attached to the balcony with some U-bolts, so we didn't actually damage the balcony in the process. The coolest part? As we eat out in the fresh air, we can enjoy our perfect view of... the apartment complex across the street.

Totally worth it, right?

Sueltate

For some strange reason, I allowed myself to be convinced by a coworker that it would be "fun" to go with her to a dance put on by the Latin American Student Association at UCLA as a fundraiser. She's a member of the committee, so she was selling tickets to a bunch of the deskers. Even after insisting multiple times that I was white, and my dancing skills followed accordingly, I still found myself boarding a bus to Beverly Hills to some club, "Leonardo's", which was decked out for the occasion.



Here I am with a few of my coworkers that were also bullied into coming... though they were far more willing than myself. Basically the night consisted of a lot of music in Spanish, which meant that all of my friends knew all the words... Although on a better note, in my role of Captain McWhitey, I sang along to a sweet Michael Jackson tune that my more cultured brethren had not heard before.


Another coworker, Valentin, took all of us dancing at some point during the night. I'm pretty sure this was right before some unknown Mexican dance... I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, so he kept having to instruct me in between singing along. All in all it was a pretty fun night, even though I stuck out like a sore thumb. Maybe I'll work on my Spanish a little bit, and try again at the next one.

A new addition to the family

Today, I'm proud to announce that I have brought a new child into our household... A brand new Gateway T-series laptop. I apparently sleep walked right into Best Buy and made the biggest impulse buy of my life, even though I've been wanting a new one for a while. Here are a few pictures of my baby....


She's dark blue and has a webcam and microphone, so I can chat with all my homies around the world!

Humble Beginnings

Alright... So due to popular request (read: fear of Susan) I've gotten my butt in gear and hopped on the bandwagon. For my opening act and your viewing pleasure, I have prepared a guided tour of our lovely apartment, dirty dishes and passed out bums artfully Photoshopped out.This is our living room. I have never quite understood why it is overseen by Bob Dylan, I hold fast to the claim that I was NOT home when that side was decorated. And yes, Susan, those are your sweet pumpkin lights being put to use right under him.


Another view of our living room plus the kitchen... Those are some pretty classy folding chairs, if I do say so myself. Those were bought out of our Top Ramen fund, mind you!


Here is mine and Maia's room. We're spoiled rotten and get the master bedroom with attached bath, while the other three girls are shoved comfortably in their cubicle across the way. For the extra $300 dollars a month, I haven't yet decided if the added extravagance is worth it... I mean, I could be buying real food for that price!



Our bathroom. Nothing really to shout about here... Although I gotta say, this is for sure a step up from the dorm bathrooms; sharing with Maia is definitely preferable to sharing with 30 other girls!


Hopefully soon I'll have some laughable attempts at cooking to show off... but for now, tonight is sushi night, and I wouldn't dream of saying no to that!