Curses!!!

Bank of America and I are not friends.

Jenny came into the apartment today, holding a note that had been taped to our door saying we had three days to pay rent or vacate. Seeing as we've paid rent on time every month... This was not a very welcome note.
As it turns out, B of A put a hold on our account without telling us, I guess because everyone's rent checks were such a large deposit, which made our rent check bounce. I called the bank today to see why it didn't clear, and that's when they told me about the hold. The lady on the phone though even said that she didn't know why our check didn't clear, since it was obvious we had the money. She ended up refunding us the returned check fee, and suggested we get a verification letter from the bank to tell our landlord that it wasn't our fault the check bounced. We had the added fun of running back and forth between here and the bank, since our rent would only now be accepted as a cashiers check, since it had already bounced once... So now we're just waiting for them to fax the oopsies letter to our branch, so we can show it to our landlord since she agreed to waive our late fees if we could show that B of A took responsibility. This was all hours before our final that we had planned to study all day for, mind you.

I hate to say it, but in comparison, our Christmas spirit is pretty non-existent. We have a super cute baby tree though! I think everyone's waiting to do the legit decorating when they go home. Which for me will be on Saturday... I'm stoked, and looking forward to shoveling Hula's in my face pretty much every day. That's what being home's all about, right?

Finals week

I haven't fallen off the face of the planet... I just feel guilty going out and actually doing something exciting when finals are so close. My first one is in biochem on Sunday, followed by genetics Monday and physics Thursday. So ah... if I'm updating anything before then, it's because I'm not studying when I should be!

Fun-filled festivities

This weekend was a great success... Friday's game night was awesome and we all got the chance to make complete fools of ourselves.

The girls.... and the guys. Clearly we are the refined half of the group. We played apples to apples, Taboo, Catch Phrase, and charades. About 15 deskers showed up, which meant a lot of yelling and at least one annoyed neighbor. Charades was possibly the best part... we had everything from Rosie O'Donnell to the Michelin man to MegaMan. Here is Valentin, in the middle of his rendition of Wall-E....

As a snack, I brought along some hot artichoke and spinach dip. It was really good, and went over really well! It was demolished pretty quickly, so I think I'll make another batch for the next time around.

In other news, my new department at the hospital is AMAZING. All of the staff is really friendly and helpful, and go out of their way to look for things for me to watch. They're used to having Care Extenders around, so there was always something for me to do. A nice change from the last 6 months of volunteering!

Boring as ever

Highlight of my week: 2 midterms today. That's basically consumed my life this week, to the point where I'm not sure what to do with myself now...

Anyway, tomorrow I start volunteering in a new department at the hospital, the cardio-thoracic ICU. I've heard a lot of good things about this department, a friend of mine even said she got to see an open chest. We'll see how it goes.

The agenda for this weekend (other than thinking good thoughts for Marceau!): soccer game and co-worker game night Friday, cooking experiments and shopping trip Saturday, and endless possibilities for Sunday. Which probably means sleeping all day.


The soccer game is the first round of the NCAA tournament, since we've already won the Pac-10 Championship. Jeraldy and I have been going to a few of the games, when we have free time on the weekends. This one was right after work... or I really just love my uniform that much. You decide.


I also found out today my more or less finalized schedule for winter break; I'll only have to work at the very beginning and the very end, which was even better than I expected. At this rate, I'll only have to work two shifts over spring break.

This weekend I'm going to try out an alfredo sauce recipe I found online... it's much lower fat, so I'm interested to see how it'll come out without the 10 sticks of butter... hopefully my guinea pigs approve!

Crazy Week

Thank goodness for the holiday on Tuesday!!! Since they couldn't hold some of the discussion sections for my larger classes but not others, I had classes cancelled on Monday and Wednesday too.




Monday was our bonfire for RSS, down at Dockweiller beach in Marina del Rey. I was driving, so naturally I got lost and ended up at LAX and made it into a fiasco. I eventually got all of my passengers to and from school safely, but not for lack of trying. We did the traditional hot dog roast and s'mores, and a few ridiculous games. We played Golden Cow, which is more of a prank than a game; you tell one person they're the golden cow, and someone is trying to guess who the golden cow is. You say their job is to moo louder than everyone else, and if the person guesses wrong 3 times, he and the golden cow are "out". Everyone else plays along for the first two times and moos as loud as possible, and the third, the "golden cow" moos at the top of his lungs while everyone else is silent... then immediately falls to the ground in embarrassment. We're a mature bunch.





The rest of the week has been spent working or studying for my genetics midterm today. It went..... well, let's not go there. We were studying the inheritance of colored hominy, which is more than I ever care to know about it.

On a positive note, I've basically found the coolest gift idea EVER for little boys. I need to look into it a bit more.... But right now I'm pretty sure I'll be the favorite aunt.

This weekend will probably be pretty boring... My friend is hopefully picking up some goodies for me from an Asian market nearby, since they still carry.....drumroll please..... CHICKEN SESAME RAMEN!!!! That's right. I almost cried with joy when I saw that sesame oil packet.

Other high point of my day: coworker bringing in some caramel apple suckers. Mmm... tastes like All the Best Video!! It's just a food blast from the past!

Culture clash

The executive board of the Regent's Scholars Society went out last night for a "bonding dinner" at BCD Tofu House in Koreatown. This sounded like an awesome idea, until I walked in and realized I was the ONLY white person in the place. The rest of e-board offered to make me an Asian shield and order for me. I was excited since last time, Korean bbq was AMAZING, but I got a little scared when I saw jars for sale labeled "hidden flavor kimchi". Now, I don't know exactly what was hidden, but I was in NO hurry to find out.


These were our appetizers. I have no idea what anything is. I DO know that those fried fish were looking at me. And they did not look amused. I was advised to order a combo meal, which meant that I would get tofu soup and beef shortribs. Somehow during all of this, I inadvertently ordered the seafood tofu soup....

More stuff staring at me. I was stirring my soup, and things started clinking.... there were clam shells hidden in my soup. I have a strict policy not to eat anything that is looking at me, so the shrimp and I had a staring contest which I eventually lost. The trick is to put a raw egg in the soup while it's still hot, so it cooks in the middle. I now had scrambled eggs amidst unhappy shrimp and shells. I was done.

Next time e-board wants to bond, I'm refusing to go anywhere farther than In N Out.

A new twist

Apparently, my blog has turned into little more than competing with Jessie for whose kitchen gets more action.

This time, I shamelessly display a COMPLETE rip-off... The exact same pasta Jessie already blogged about!!!!


That's right. I made the basil avocado pasta, just making a few changes. I added sundried tomatoes instead of bacon, and cheated by using pesto sauce instead of separate basil, garlic, and olive oil. Clearly that means I need to catch up... maybe soon I'll be planting my own basil too?

This is also yet another example of my stellar planning skills... This is a picture of my leftovers. After feeding six people. I decided I'd "cater" our weekly Grey's Anatomy viewing, since it's always a great source of willing Guinea pigs. The funniest part? When I was cooking, I left the front door open and a couple neighbors came by, commenting that they could smell good food from outside. Had I known how much I was gonna have, I would have sent them off with some!

On Sunday, I'm planning to attempt some enchiladas with my coworkers, although I'm a little intimidated after they informed me we could MAKE enchilada sauce... not from a can! Where's my La Comida?!

Mad Scientists

For some reason, I had the CRAZIEST craving at work for stuffed mushrooms. I'm not really sure why, since I'm not entirely sure I've ever had one before... But anyway, One of my friends still lives on campus and always swipes me for free food in the dining hall, so I figured an apartment-cooked meal would be my form of repayment.


Jehan, during our delicious adventure... Just because I was providing dinner doesn't mean I didn't put her to work! Now, the only problem with my brilliant scheme was that I couldn't really find a recipe I liked, so I decided to just make it up. Here is our finished product:



For the stuffing, we used the stems of the mushrooms, spinach, artichoke hearts, garlic, rice, and mozzarella cheese. They turned out REALLY good!! For dessert, we bought some cupcake mix, funfetti of course! Combined with the rainbow chip frosting, I was in a diabetic coma just looking at them.

Not that that stopped me.
At all.



I took a few to my coworkers and sent Jehan home with some, in the hopes I wouldn't consume 10 cupcakes within the hour. There are still a lot left, so I'm trying to keep them out of sight and out of mind....

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!