Just cuz

It’s kind of hard to believe that a month has almost passed since my blog post waxing nostalgic about the past 25 years of my life. As sad as it sounds, I actually had to go back to my Google calendar to see what was occupying my time for the past three weeks.

In a nutshell, it seems that I have discovered that a quarter-life crisis can go beyond 25. I’ve been combatting a bit of those roller coaster emotions and panic of “what do I do with my life?” and in the meantime, recently took a few days off to relax and melt in the sun in Cabo San Lucas.

More detailed updates on the trip to come about the trip, my unfortunate souvenir and the food.

For now, I leave you readers with this …

If you know me at all, you probably know that I’m a pretty avid Pixar fan. Not just avid, mind you, perhaps close to fanatic. And not just over Pixar…but Disney.

My love for Disney started as soon as I was able to form memories. Part of me thinks that it’s because the happiest hazy memories of my childhood were when my dad took our family to Disneyworld and Disneyland. Although I couldn’t understand the greater picture of what was going on, I feel that deep down I know I was somewhere special.

When I dig down deep into the recesses of my memory, I still remember that time I had the stomach flu and I was absolutely miserable. At the time we were living in Austin, since my dad finally decided to move our family closer to his work. We lived in a two story house where the carpeted stairs lead to the white front door. There was a kitchen in the back of the first floor where I made my dad a birthday cake with dinosaur sprinkles. We had a little television and the same tan couches with the black and red streaked bamboo print.

I was sulking in misery on the couch after my mom had given my medicine (which, I unfortunately must admit, was not taken by mouth but through another more painful means). It had been days since I had been able to eat anything, and the only thing I was allowed - or able - to stomach was Sprite with the bubbles thoroughly mixed out.

Although at the age of five sugar water might seem like the perfect meal all the time, it does get old.

My dad strolled in through the front door, briefcase in hand. He sauntered over to the couch and planted a rough kiss on my head.

“I have a present for you,” he said to me.

“What is it?” I asked, my interest mildly piqued. After all, nothing attracts more attention than the key word: gift.

“Here, I’ll let you see,” he replied. He took out a video cassette and popped it into the VCR. (For those of you who don’t know what a VCR is, you can stop reading now). Suddenly the screen came alive with music and colors, and I was captivated for the next hour or so with Cinderella.

Family portrait back in the day

In short, I love Disney because it was a part of a memorable childhood. And of course, when Pixar came along, my love grew and embraced the films from the award-winning studio.

Earlier tonight I was settling in after a run and a rather late dinner when I decided to watch the recorded documentary on the DVR about Pixar’s history. After watching it, it reignited something in me.

Friends had always joked that I was a ten-year-old at heart, and it’s true — to a point. Like John Lasseter, the man behind the studio and many of the brilliant films, he also had a major love for Disney. He even worked at Disneyland, and at one point manned one of the Jungle Cruises.

It made me realize that I didn’t merely love cartoons or animation BECAUSE they are cartoons or animation…I loved films from Pixar, Disney, and Ghibli (which, of course, is an affiliate of Disney) because of the beautiful stories.

Without the wonderful story that somehow puts my heart on a roller coaster, it just wouldn’t be the same.

From the day that man first began to share ideas - and form culture - storytelling had been a treasured art. We try to tell stories in everything we do. Heck, it’s even possible to tell a story with not only a picture, but 140 characters over Twitter. It’s the reason I love authors like Roald Dahl, who are able to spin stories and create memorable characters like Willy Wonka and Matilda.

Although a part of me hopes that I have the talent and wisdom to recognize the right opportunity to skyrocket to success - as well as the luck to actually have the opportunity presented to me - one thing I really hope is to be what all of those artists, animators, creators and storytellers continue to be: inspired. I hope I can learn to be curious again, to tell compelling stories.

In the meantime, although I might not make it as an animation whiz, at least I can still continue to have fun with what I got.

As an update to my prior post, the holiday weekend was pretty laid back. On Sunday I ended up waking up late, eating, napping, then eating and going out. And on Monday the BF and I ran some errands and then I met some friends for lunch. Afterwards I hung out a bit more at home and spent most of the evening watching the top episodes of the first season of Mad Men.

Because of my overly indulgent and lazy weekend, that means the inevitable guilt-ridden feeling when the work day rolled around and I tried to put on …. work pants.

It’s been awhile since I updated on any food adventures or attempts at cooking. Truthfully, other than being extremely lazy this weekend, I just haven’t found the motivation to check out a recipe, go to the store, prep the ingredients and then make myself a meal that can hopefully be eaten over the course of a few days.

Regardless, I recently decided to try my hand at making the super food quinoa:

It doesn’t look too tasty, but so far it’s been a fairly decent replacement for my normal bowl and a half of white rice. Although it does taste a little tiny bit odd, I’ve been able to pair it with some of my favorite Asian staples like rou song (dried beef) and vegetables. If you really have a tolerance for odd, try it with a bit of kimchi as well.

Not much else to report lately … other than the fact that I’m still eagerly awaiting the arrival of Illustrator so I can finally get some use out of my Wacom pen and tablet. In the meantime, I leave you with this photo of the cat:

I love my Canon S90! Pretty amazing shots for automatic - though I really do need to start weaning myself off and start getting used to the manual settings.

I noticed recently that I tend to write most of my blog posts in the earlier part of the week…and it usually tapers down during Friday and Saturday.

Probably because I spend most of my time on weekends doing random stuff or being lazy.

To change things up, I thought it would be good to recap how the weekend is going so far.

First of all, I have to say that there has not been a more welcome weekend in a long time. It’s been a pretty hectic past weekend as well as week.

After an early release day on Friday (hooray!) I headed down (ironically headed down when I normally try my hardest to stay in the city) to Palo Alto to meet some people for happy hour. After two hours or so, I came home to spend some time with the boyfriend. We had some really good drinks and appetizers at Waterbar, and afterwards had a final drink at Murphy’s Pub. Unfortunately, the good night was a bit tainted when we realized we locked ourselves out.

Yup… locked out on a Friday night before a holiday weekend at 1am in the morning. Awesome.

So awesome that it *only* cost $200 to get a locksmith to wiggle a rod under the door and open it for us. Probably the most expensive 2 minutes of my life. Sigh.

Today, we woke up at noon and spent the first part of it just being lazy. Finally, I managed to motivate myself to go outside and soak up some rare San Francisco vitamin D. I ran with a friend for about a mile or so, then headed home to change. We met some others up at the Fillmore Jazz Festival, a lively long street of food, music and wares. Although it was tempting to eat my face off, we limited ourselves to two buns and I indulged in some funnel cake.

Nothing screams summer like funnel cake.

After reaching the end of the festival we walked back and had a wonderful meal at Woodhouse (Yelp review to come) with oysters, clam chowder and a crab roll. Luckily we had to walk home, otherwise it would have been game over and food come would have won.

Good weekend so far…and I’m incredibly pleased that it’s only 1/3 of the way through!

Odd thing I learned this weekend: to check to see if you have bad breath, you lick the back of your hand, wait for it to dry and then do a tentative sniff. It’s not very pleasant but definitely an effective measurement of nastiness. Yeesh.

It’s hard to believe that it’s already Wednesday, and I’ve been back in the Bay Area for two days after my excursion home. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting older (and thus days are a smaller percentage of my whole life) or what, but it really felt like this past weekend FLEW by.

As always, it was fantastic seeing family and friends…and the trip back home was even more special because there is a new member of the family coming shortly. It’s funny and a bit sad when I think about it…the last time I saw my cousin she wasn’t pregnant at all, this time I saw her with the baby bump, and the next time I see her there will be a little wiggling human who is related to me.

It’s times like these when I really miss being around family and being able to see them whenever I wanted. Thank goodness for Skype and webcams….the baby will probably think that I am a 2D person for a good portion of his early life. At least he (hopefully) won’t freak out when he sees that I am three dimensional.

Anyway, Friday was mostly work and getting prepped for the surprise baby shower. It was the first baby shower that I have ever participated in, let alone throw, so I wasn’t sure what the proper etiquette was. Regardless, it turned out to be a great time - and I LOOOOVE throwing surprises!

In addition to the presents, the cake, the food … we played the obligatory “smell the diaper” game. For those of you who have NEVER heard of this game, you basically melt different chocolate bars into…diapers. And then you make your guests guess what they are.

I don’t know about you, but it did turn out pretty realistically….grody…

Sunday was mostly spent hanging out with family and friends and then jam packing in even MORE family and friends time on Monday, before my flight.

The only small downside to Memorial Day in Texas is getting used to the 90+ degree Texas heat after being away for 7 months. I’m starting to feel as though I’m losing my Texan-ness (if that exists) since I whined to my mom multiple times that it was just sooooooo hot.

And then she told me the weather in Texas was actually cooler than it had been. Yikes.

My friend also mentioned that I seem paler than I have ever been before. I guess that’s what happens after 2 years living in a fog - and not just a mental one. Har.

Anyway, family and friends aside….the other highlight was the FOOD.

Chick-Fil-A, Rudy’s Barbeque, and Popeye’s Southern Style Fried Chicken, biscuits, mashed potatoes and corn. Oh, and not picture of course is Fat Straws and home cooking.

I do love Texas.

My mom always told me to be thankful for the times when you’re sick because then you really appreciate the rest of the time when you’re healthy. The problem with that is, I tend to forget what it feels like to BE sick since I am (thankfully) healthy about 95% of the year.

To my chagrin, yesterday was the start of a sore throat only to slowly develop into a stuffy nose and mild headache. And suddenly I felt like I regressed ten years and I just want my mom to make me soup, shake her head in dismay at my mild suffering and chide me for not dressing warmly enough.

Instead, I’m wrapped up in my pajamas and bathrobe, I can’t decide whether I want to eat dinner or fall asleep to trashy television. Maybe I’ll find a way to do both at the same time.

On a different note, I’ve been eagerly awaiting a new present for myself (I know, I know…I’m just too kind to me) the Wacom Bamboo Pen & Touch! Yaaay!

Just a few more days and I can finally start digitally doodling - something I’ve been wanting to do for ages.

Anyway, that’s all for today.

It’s been awhile since I’ve made a so-called “personal” update.  The tricky thing is, of course, that it’s hard enough for people to read blogs even when they have INTERESTING news, let alone ramblings of someone’s musings on life.  But either way, since this IS my own little domain of the Internet (as I’ve established multiple times)…in the eloquent words of South Park’s Cartman: “Whatevah, whatevah, I do what I want!”

Last weekend was a pretty spectacular getaway to Mammoth mountain.  A small group of us, thanks to the bf’s generous company discount, headed up for a few days of snowboarding/skiing and relaxation over Easter weekend.

It’s pretty hard to be stressed out when you’re looking at this, don’t you think?

It’s moments like these when I am so glad that I live in California.  It’s hard to believe that for the first 96% of my life, I had no idea that  strapping yourself down to a piece of wood and sliding down snow could be FUN.  Although I feel like I haven’t really progressed THAT much, I’m still pretty pleased that I’m at least able to make it down blue-black runs with fewer falls…and sometimes, no falls at all!

I’m also excited to showcase my very first….HOP!

Okay…sure. I only got maaaaybe an inch at best (and that’s exaggerating) but it felt like I FLEW. It’s always a little sad when you watch yourself on video and realize how lame you look when in the moment you feel like you conquered an entire mountain. It’s like when you run as fast as you can, thinking you look super fast and cool and later on watch a video of yourself and realize you kind of run funny. And your arms flail oddly.

Anyway. Second season and hopping already…I must admit, I felt pretty good even though it was all thanks to gravity and friction.

The somewhat less-than enthused “yaaay” commentary is from my friend Ralph. Thanks, Ralph.

What’s up for this coming weekend? Disneyland! Woo hoo!

I really like California.

I was flipping through public television (yes, I don’t have cable…yes, I do get the shakes from withdrawal, and no, I do not care to discuss it) and my attention was suddenly piqued when I saw puppies. Set to classical music.

And then it turned to kittens. Set to classical music. No, really. I ended up watching a solid five minutes of fuzzy baby animals set to classical music. I thought I was going slightly crazy until I realized I was on PBS, and they suddenly switched to a pledge drive.

Oh PBS. You sneaky, sneaky fiends. It’s either really good brainwashing, or I’m just kind of sick in the head.

But hey! If you can’t think of a better way to pass a half hour of your life, you can buy the DVD yourself.

You’re welcome.

Recently, my friends decided that a majority of the weekend activities as of late have been centered around one thing: drinking. Sure, most of the time it was for birthdays…or other times it was for a happy hour. Oh, and people from out of town were visiting and it’s simply an unwritten rule to take them out for a good time. Of course, when you think about it, you can almost always think of a reason to just kick back with a drink. For those of you who don’t consume alcohol, maybe it’s one of those fancy Italian sodas.

At any rate, this past weekend was the perfect opportunity to go outdoors and soak in some good ‘ol bone building vitamin D. Packed with kites in one hand and snacks in the other, we went to go conquer the outdoors…or, rather, find a nice patch of grass and lounge about.

Unfortunately for us, Saturday afternoon ended up being a lot chillier than expected. Most of us ended up huddled on a picnic blanket, and one of the canine companions was shivering her little fluffy tail off. Although the moments where I was able to get my kite in the air were fun, we all agreed that it would have been nicer if there were more blue skies and less wind from all sides.

Go figure that Sunday was a MUCH nicer day. I ended up walking around Polk street and Fillmore street with my friend for some lunch, window shopping and coffee. It’s really times like these where I’m thankful to be, well….for lack of a better word: Yuppie. Yes, I admit it.

All this nice weather has got me thinking about adopting a new hobby or activity. I already have snowboarding to look forward to when the winter months roll around, but aside from running (or, as I usually do it…shuffle at a faster pace that speed walking) I don’t have any other athletically stimulating activities.

I thought about skateboarding, but I’d probably break bones. Then I thought about fencing, but after doing some research there aren’t that many easy to access schools around. Boxing? I’d probably hurt myself. Windsurfing? I’d probably end up awash in the sea.

If anybody has any ideas, I hope you can send them my way. Preferably something that helps up my street cred, if you know what I mean. “Ninja star throwing” and “sweet sword skills” are just some examples that come to mind. Thanks.

Oy vey, it has been awhile since I’ve updated.  (By the way, is it okay for me to use the exclamation ‘oy vey’ even if I’m not Jewish?  It’s just so…applicable to so many things in my life).  At any rate, I’ve been behind on my reading goals because these past few days have been filled with friends visiting from out of town.

Of course, I haven’t given up on reading as many books as humanly possible.  But for now, I’m rather stuck on book 7 and I’m tempted to cheat again and start another book while I work my way through that one.  I don’t know why, but I tend to slog through nonfiction a lot more.

Anyway, I always really enjoy it when friends visit me.  Although I’ve only lived in San Francisco for a little over two years, it’s all to easy to start taking the city for granted.  This past weekend I took my friends up to Napa and we went around the Stag’s Leap District.  For the ill-informed and unexperienced wine enthusiast such as myself, I highly recommend Chimney Rock for red wine, especially Cabernet Sauvignon.  Although the tasting menu is a lot pricier ($20-$30) the wine has a very deep flavor and smooth finish.  In other words, to an untrained mouth such as mine, it’s mighty tasty because it doesn’t have the tannins.

After Chimney Rock we went to the nearby Silverado, which had a really nice view of the valley but the wines themselves were only so-so in my book.  We wrapped up the trip by taking a quick stop at Reguschi, a quaint vineyard with a very rustic farmlike environment.  The nice bartender (bar keep?  wine guy? alcohol enabler?) gave some generous pours and also opened up the cellar, which smelled amazing and was built into the side of the mountain.

All in all, a pretty great day trip.  And what’s amazing to me is the fact that I can take a day trip … whenever I want.

Nothing like renewing your appreciation for a place when you view it from the eyes of visitors.  Anyway, I’ll stop gushing now - I believe an episode of How I Met Your Mother is beckoning me.