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Sunday, January 30, 2011

Bread and Cocoa

Richard and I decided we would run early in the morning today since last week but decided we were too tired and wanted to sleep in. Then my mind started going crazy about pastries, bread and a big cup of coffee. It may have to do with the fact that I was watching Julie and Julia or I did 12 miles with Richard yesterday but I was feening for some!

Then Richard texted me and said that we could get coffee and pastries instead of running and the moment made me grab my heart in sentiment. I think it just has to do with a lot of things because coffee and pastries was something I did with my grandma when I was little.

Anyways, before getting pastries Richard, my sister and I got some Mexican food. 
 I love Mexican restaurants that give you chips and salsa fo free.
 I got enchiladas. They were meh.

Then we headed off down the yellow brick road and went to Copenhagen Bakery in Burlingame!
 Got my usual dutch crunch loaf and sweet French baguette.
 Then I shared two raspberry pastries with Richard. It was very comforting. It reminded me of childhood.

I was basically raised by my grandmother because my parents worked like dogs to provide for us and I spent every waking moment with her. Every morning we mostly had the same breakfast and it became like a routine for us. She would make some coffee for herself in a rose patterned china cup and saucer and hot cocoa in a plastic cup for me and we would dip our crusty French bread in it and enjoy our mornings together. I eventually wanted to be an adult really bad so she switched me to the rose-patterned china cup and saucer as well. I don't really remember what we talked about but I remember my mornings with hot cocoa and bread with my grandma. So I really cherise every warm moment that includes hot drinks and pastries. =)
Then we saw this cute little poodle! He/she was a lot smaller than Titan (and he's only 6 lbs!!) and I was awwwwing the whole time! I love doggies!

Well I am going to stuff my face with the rest of my Mexican meal and tune out to some Friends before I have to return the DVDs to my friend.

Goodnight!

a n n i e

Saturday, January 29, 2011

My butt hurts

I am beginning to think this time off is a blessing. I've really cleared my head and have been less stressed than I have been for awhile. My mom just told me to relax since I have been going to school and work since I was 16! Do the math and it's basically almost 7 years that I haven't had an elementary school-like summer vacation. Just nothing and forget what day it is and enjoy every morning by taking my time in making breakfast and drink a venti-sized coffee.

I've also had time to make sure my dogs are pooped at the dog park. I also meet some cute and funny doggies along the way.
 Like this little pitbull. He will come up to the waterbowl, drop his ball and plop on the floor while drinking his water. He made a HUGE plop noise. What a cutie.
 Another cutie is Titan! Does any of your dogs stick out their tongue and leave it out for awhile? Titan is such a huge tongue-sticker-outer and I have ALOT of pictures of him sticking out his tongue. Such a cutie patootie.

So I finally took my kid's road bike and finally hit the trails! Richard and I set off to do the San Andrea's trail and it was really beautiful! There were plenty of deer just eating and they were so close to us that it awed me. I was just astonished that wild animal and humans can coexist in the same area and not be such a big deal.
We rode to the start and end of the trail and back so it was approximately 12 miles. I may look miserable but I was actually having fun! It started to get really drizzly for most of the time but it was good! I am actually going to go as much as I can and hopefully I will be able to conquer the steep hills like Richard did today.

Anyways, this little biker chick is pooped and I will be preparing a huge trail run tomorrow with the beloved. As for now I need to sit on a bag of frozen peas.

a n n i e
Rules

Since I am unemployed and won't be getting much money for awhile I figured I need to change my lifestyle from being able to buy whatever I want and desired to being frugal and somewhat healthier.
  1. I won't be buying coffee anymore. Although it's not a big purchase, it does add up after awehile. Thus, meaning I must know how to make delicious coffee at home or continue drinking crappy Trader Joe's instant coffee.
  2. No more buying food. That means goodbye to Chipotle (it won't be forever my love!) and hello to homecooked meals. Which means I must keep my tastebuds excited by creating new recipes and meals. I also must get back into oatmeal in the mornings. This also means eating down my freezer (I have a ton of vegetable burgers I must eat up).
  3. When in doubt, just walk everywhere. Gas prices are actually rising and I don't have anywhere important to go so it makes sense that I give Earth a break and not drive. If I have to go somewhere I will catch a ride with my parents or sister.
  4. Being organized. I need to be able to use my time well and not just lounge around and netflix all day.
  5. Work hard on my internship and hopefully I will be able to start earning some money there!
  6. Work out like crazy.
  7.  Be productive. I think this has to be the most important.
I will think of three more rules just to make it an even 10 but right now I am hungry and I must prepare something before I pass out.

Have a great day girlies!

a n n i e

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Hungry for Breakfast

I woke up this morning STARVING for breakfast. It's unusual for me because I'm not really a breakfast kind of person. Maybe it had to do with hardcore working out last night?
First thing I do after getting out of bed is brew some coffee in my favorite Starbucks coffee mug.
I made some "hash browns" with Trader Joe's tater tots generously dipped in ketchup.
Then I made my Sante Fe veggie egg scramble generously doused in Tapatio hot sauce.

Delish.

I hope my pictures came out okay because I am now using my old Sony camera that I got for high school  graduation (thanks Richard!). I left both clubs I attended that night a long voicemail clearly stating them to call me back so lets cross our fingers and hope that my camera is safe and sound!

Have a wonderful day and I will since it's such a beautiful day!

a n n i e

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Nostalgia

Last night, I spent an hour at night just reading all the letters Richard and I exchanged since 2004. It makes me kinda sad that the way he used to feel about me isn't how he feels now.

Sigh.

I turned to one thing that has been helping me feel better: food!
 I had leftover spaghetti sauce mixed with brussel sprouts and a ton of parmesan cheese. I love steamed brussel sprouts with my pasta. It makes it so fabulous!
 Then for breakfast, I had the break of champions: pizza. It reminds me of high school and during 1st and 2nd period I would go over to a kiosk and get a breakfast pizza. I don't know why it was called breakfast pizza because there was nothing breakfast-y about it. Of course I had a cup of joe with it.
Then I found this while reading old letters! I look at this picture and realized that I actually lost more weight than I was in high school! I love my prom dress! It was a 2006 spring collection D&G bustier cocktail dress with camel Jimmy Choo slingback heels.

I remember I hated my hair! It was suppose to look like this:

(image taken from http://www.google.com/)
 Instead I got a crunchy looking, too much hairspray with crazy curls in the back. I paid the lady $80.00 and I couldn't even get it re-done since I had a violin recital right after. I cried for about 10 minutes before getting it somewhat fixed by my friend.

Some people shouldn't do hair for a living. Just saying.

Anyways, I am going to walk the dogs and run some errands!

Good day!

a n n i e

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sweet Tooth

Lately all I've been thinking about is food. I don't know if it's because I have so much time on my hands, my appetite came back ragingly fast or it makes me happy.

Yesterday I did a lot of errands such as going to Target (frozen pizzas 3 for $7!), walked the dogs, cleaned my house, made some food and folded all my clothes from the pile of laundry sitting around.

Another bad note, I remember when I was unemployed last time my energy seemed to have gone down again. I would eat a big bowl of udon noodles in the morning and in a few hours I would be so hungry and all I wanted to do was lay down and sleep. Did I also mention it's not helping my anxiety either?

Anyways, after feeling like poopoo I wanted a real good meal. So, of course I went to Chipotle.
Not even embarassed that I killed the whole thing. Not one bit.

Then I woke up this morning CRAVING sweets. This is very unlikely of me because I have the smallest sweet tooth ever and it can usually be crushed with fruits.

I even got off the couch and actually drive to McDonald's where I had my guilty pleasure: their iced coffee.
I don't know why it was necessary for me to get the large but it was delicious especially since I haven't had their coffees in a long time.
Then I had chocolate cake that I baked last night. It came out really light and fluffy and I feel like Miranda Hobbes from Sex and the City. Well, now I only have the edges left of the cake (I like the middle) and drinking a glass of milk sounds really good right now.

Goodnight.

a n n i e

Monday, January 24, 2011

Torture

I wanted to thank you girlies for your kind words on my last post! It's not as bad as I may have made it seem but I do have a lot of time on my hands just to think and what not but I guess I can just take it as a vacation.

I also hear that California has called an emergency fiscal emergency...

Oh God, I have no idea why I walked into Nordstrom Rack today. Sheer torture you guys, sheer torture.

These are Badgley Mischka ribbon satin pumps for $99.90 and in my size! Do you know how rare that is at a discounted department store?! I could've gotten the same pair at Bloomingdale's and even with my discount it would've been about $140.00ish. Oh man, why did I get laid off?!

Like everyone has been saying, at least I have Richard.

We had a Starbucks date last night and discussed upcoming events such as our weekend at San Luis Obispo and our  marathon and arguing who is the fittest at the moment (me).

I had a green tea lemonade hence the GTL on the cup and 1.5 madeleines. I didn't want to get my normal boring coffee since it was so late at night but this was awfully sweet. I'm also thinking of making some madeleines since I have so much time on my hands. Of course I wanna incorporate lemon and poppyseeds in them or orange zest. Mmm, I need to eat.

Love,

a n n i e

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Hot Child in the City

Oh unemployment, what shall we do with our friendship?

Clean, cook, take the dogs out to the park for hours at a time?

I am already going stircrazy girls! There are so many hours in the day where I'm just netflixing and reading blogs but it gets redundant and boring.

So I've revved up my resume (well Richard helped a lot hehe) and applied to a couple of admin jobs just to gain some experience in the office. I'm still debating whether or not I want to work for the SPCA because my mom thinks my heart is too weak at this point to deal with it but I've applied for an executive assistant position for the CEO of a renewable petroleum company right near my house. I am hoping to get this job just because, hello?! I'm totally gonna help someone find a renewable petroleum source!

Anywho, after so many hours of doing all the mundane tasks and surfing the web, I decided to go out with friends!!

I'm not usually a clubber, I would just get drunk at bars with a couple of my besties and that will be that but my friend Jacqueline (in the middle) loves to go clubbing and I haven't seen her in a few months. Either way, we got in free and we had a ton of fun.
I also lost my camera at the club, got hit on by some ugly guys, and my feet hurt by the end of the night.
 Big mistake right there:a long island. I had two (didn't want to get drunk) but woke up this morning dehydrated and had to have soup right away!
Made my mom's bean sprout soup with a ton of bean sprouts and chili flakes. Seriously, it healed my soul.

Oh and also Richard and I signed up to do Chains of Love marathon at San Luis Obispo! It's during Valentine's weekend and we are running 10k and supposedly we're suppose to hold hands before crossing the finish line. It's also for a good cause. Let me do the research and tell you what the cause is (D'oh!).

Well, I will be doing laundry (yay!! <--sarcastic humor!) and taking my little poopies out to the park to stretch out their legs.

Good day!

a n n i e

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Bad News Bears

Richard and I decided that we are going to try every restaurant on Haight/Ashbury after our therapy session (that is where our sessions are located). However, we couldn't last night due to it being crowded and there wasn't any parking so we went out for Japanese instead!
 I first started off with a spicy tuna handroll. It was alright and I don't get the tuna mush mixed with hot sauce? I know really good Japanese restaurants where they will cube the tuna so you still get somewhat of a texture. The wasabi was way too green and pungent.

It could have also been due to me feeling off and I was oversensitive to smells and taste.
 Of course I got the udon.
Tempera udon. I usually love bell peppers but the smell was getting to me so I couldn't eat it. Yuck.

Anywho, on to the serious stuff.

I got laid off today.

It was totally unexpected and I am in shock and I called my mama and finally broke down and cried. At least I am getting severance package and am able to apply for unemployment and I'm thankful my birthday is in March so I have some income plus my tax refund to tide me over.

However, I don't know what my plans are as of right now. The obvious and most logical thing to do is apply for another job but I don't know what kind of work I am looking forward to do. Either way I think I'm going to take a vacation from all the stress and just relax and go to school starting next semester. Hopefully I can just take this time to really find out what I want to do in life and work on my relationship with Richard because really that is what is important to me right now.

Life is funny isn't it?

Maybe it's God's way of pushing me to do the humanitarian work I've been wanting to do and in a way give me the "fear" (friend's reference) to do it!

Either way, there has got to be some hard thinking to do.

a n n i e

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Come, let's Gather Around the Laptop

I realized how my scenery doesn't change at all. I am always chilling on my little Korean coffeetable/dining table (the one where you gotta sit on the floor) with my laptop on and Friends running on my PS3.

Tuesday:
 Example 1: Breakfast. I had fiesta veggie egg scramble with hot sauce, roasted potatoes and hot coffee. I got the fiesta veggies from Safeway. It's frozen but so convenient! There are broccoli florets and stems, corn, black beans and red bell peppers. It's cheap and good. Yum.
 Example 2: late dinner. I closed the other night and came home to make some Pastaroni that I mixed my fiesta veggies and frozen green beans in. It made it super watery and lack of flavor. I had to put extra parmesan cheese and Tapatio.
 I only had half the pasta and I was still hungry so I had Joe's O's with freeze-dried (wrote fried at first! LOL!) strawberries and nonfat milk. Simple yet satisfying.

Today:

I went to Trader Joe's this morning and it was SOO relaxing! I took my time going through every aisle and looking at every single item carefully and took it all in. Retail Therapy, always works.
 Example 3: another breakfast. After my Trader Joe run I made breakfast. I got brown rice tortilla and stuffed with scrambled eggs with spinach, mexican cheese, salsa and tons of Tapatio. Halfway through my tortilla broke into pieces! Do I need to steam beforehand? I don't want to steam with a papertowel because I don't want to create more trash. Help me ladies!!
 Of course this was all washed down with coffee. Oh why is coffee so addicting?!
Example 4: lunch. I had half of Trader Joe's Chana Masala (other half is packed for lunch tomorrow) with two naans. Holy Crap the naan was seriously addicting and the aroma from the bag was killer. I am going to stock up on these ASAP.

Anywho, I will be having another session with Richard and dinner after. I have a new idea for my blog and I will share it with you all tomorrow!

Goodnight!

a n n i e

Monday, January 17, 2011

Snow Now

It is the day after my sweet much needed vacation and I am very tired. I had loads of fun with Richard and for once I was able to just relax. We also upgraded to a jacuzzi tub and we also ordered room service. Unfortunately, Richard was a bit sick and wasn't able to sleep or taste his food =(

We, of course, stopped in Davis to eat his favorite Mexican restaurant, Dos Coyotes.
 I always go nuts when there is a salsa bar. There are two fire-roasted tomato salsa, some weird cabbage mixed with tomatoes and onions, avocado cream of some sort, jalapenos and limes.
 I got the shrimp burrito and made sure every bite had a lot of salsa, lime juice, jalapenos and cabbage. It was really good and it was a great deal. I think for two shrimp burritos I paid $17, but considering we had big succelent shrimp and free chips and Chipotle would be be more if we got guacamole in each of our burritos and chips as well. This shrimp burrito had a white sauce, salsa, rice, cheese and guacamole.

When I was coming back, we had Korean food. It's like a tradition of my family's because the best type of Korean food would be in some random hole in the wall and in the middle of nowhere and it tasted the best when we came back from a trip.
 These are the side dishes. That sweet potato braised in some sort of soy sauce-based sauce was hella bomb.
 I got soon tofu and the menu didn't let you choose whether or not you wanted beef or seafood. Luckily for me, it was seafood. It was really good after a long day. The Korean restaurant had the Golden Globes on the tv and so Richard and I chilled and took our time eating. I loved Olivia Wilde's dress though. Favorite of the night!

I didn't take much pictures especially since there was a lot of snow involved and none of us felt like carrying the camera.
 This is me and my snowboard! I loved that bandit Underarmour bandana thing. I felt like a badass. Snowboarding was actually really fun this year, I remember going on my 21st birthday and I couldn't really keep up due to my extra weight and being out of shape. 30lbs lost and I was back to my old self on the slopes!

We also went snowmobiling and it was like a tour and it was so beautiful! Lake Tahoe is seriously a yearly tradition and I am glad we go every year.

Now I need to run some errands and clean my room before school starts tomorrow.

Goodbye!

a n n i e

Friday, January 14, 2011

Anxious

I am impatiently waiting for Richard to get off work so I can finally start my vacation! I'm already packed, dressed and ready for action but I have to hold off for another hour due to an impromptu meeting. This is a true test of patience for me. In order to get my vacation, I had to work 7 days straight and worked every holiday.

Anywho, I received a Starbucks giftcard from my customer and I have been using it to good use.
 My breakfast was a grande coffee and a butter croissant. I don't think Starbucks has the best croissants. They're always really cold, doughy (when they should be flaky!) and too buttery. I think the best croissants are actually from Costco! LOL and you get a dozen for about $5.
My anxiety has been causing me to throw up and I couldn't stomach anything solid so I decided to get some miso soup at the food court and it was really good. Plus, it was only $1.75 for a big cup.

Well, I will be killing time now by playing more snake and hopefully 2 o'clock comes fast!

a n n i e
Last Minute Worries

It is currently 12 am and I have less than 12 hours to get ready for my weekend getaway with Richard and I am freaking out! I guess this is the result of waiting until the last minute to pack but I am missing a couple of important items such as my snowboarding jacket, gloves and probably something else I can't think of at the moment!

Sigh.

Anyways, it's been a stressful week for me.
 Hence the greasy cheesy fries with lemon aioli. That aioli is like crack and I almost cried while eating it. Amazingly at the mall, this is one of the cheapest items but it's very gourmet. At least to me.

I also went to dinner with a very good dear friend of mine and we had shabu shabu! It is becoming our routine and I seriously am addicted! I forgot what the name was or actually it was more of a I never bothered to see what the restaurant was called. All I know is that it is on Geary.
 Of course we got our favorite: spicy miso.
 The veggies that come with our entree.
Our dipping sauce: the grey looking matter is some ginger miso thing? The brown was a soy sauce type of dipping sauce? Either way, I really need to pay attention next time. I obviously got the vegetarian entree but wasn't very fond of the huge Shitake mushrooms that came with it, Luckily I was able to sub it with more tofu.

Like always, I had the greatest night with my friend!

On another note, I have been going to therapy with Richard every week and although there is some progress, I have not been getting better. I now have panic attacks and have anxiety and I mostly stress out. It is to the point where it is physically affecting me and now my therapist wants to discuss being on medication. I came home and cried wondering how I've become like this. Although I don't want to be on medication I dont see that I can cure my anxiety with my mental state. Please give me your two cents and tell me how you feel about medication, or help me find out solutions to reduce this!

I think I will be going to sleep and hopefully I can wake up with a fresh mind and be able to pack all the things I need.

Goodnight.

a n n i e

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Sellout

Did I ever mention how much I LOVE my dogs?

This little guy is Titan. He is FULL cockapoo, yes he is always mistaken for a chihuahua but he came from two cockapoos.
 He's 6 lbs and he's the smartest dog I know.
 We didn't get a long when we first met but later we couldn't be apart.

This big one is Maximus. He's half cockapoo (same moms) but I dont know what the dad is. Everyone just thinks he's a miniature golden retriever.
 He's 26 lbs and he isn't the brightest crayon but he is the most loving dog in the world. I even considered making him a therapy dog because he would run to everyone at the park and just say hi.
My dogs are the sweetest dogs I know and I know they wouldn't hurt a fly. I genuinely love them and it's a big part of the reason why I want to be vegetarian soon.

Also, they made me realize all the dreams and hopes I had in high school. I've never really known what I wanted to do in life but I know I've always wanted to help people. But, for some reason I've started going the other way and even at some point I wanted to be those corporate jerks and be an investment banker.

I've been working at Bloomingdale's for about a year and a half and everytime I help out a customer I would feel really good about myself. For example, I've been helping out this Korean customer who never received reward certificates and after many visits and phonecalls during the span of 2 months, I've resolved it for her. Not only was she grateful and even gave me a $25 gift card to Starbucks (my weakspot) I've realized something.

Not only did she purchase $50,000 in Chanel bags that year but every time she's visited she's worn a mink coat, Burberry toggle cashmere coat and carried Chanel AND Hermes bags. WTF?! Why am I using all my energy to help out someone so privileged? Then I realized I'm a huge sellout. I kept wondering what kind of person I've become. I've always wanted to help the orphans in North Korea and be a veterinarian and made sure I've recycled and now I've become the person I've never wanted to be.

A corporate sellout.

At least this kick-start my quest to doing something meaningful in my life.

a n n i e

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Yuck

Tell me how good this meal looks:
It has all my favorites: salmon baked with jalapenos and tons of onions, broccoli lightly stirfried with carrots and more onions with soy sauce and my delicious mixed grains rice.

Yet,

It disgusted me.
First off, my mama made this labor intensive meal for me but I don't know where she got the salmon. I had to carefully chew through my salmon because I kept finding random bones and random fish scales throughout my meat. I don't mean to be a snob but when you clean fish, I would assume that scales are a big NO NO and so are bones. ESPECIALLY in salmon.

So, I couldn't help but to not enjoy my meal because I couldn't. Everything else was delicious though.

Another reason why I may not have enjoyed my meal was probably reading Peta news during. I was reading about the epidemic of pigs getting food and mouth disease in South Korea and how thousands are being thrown in trucks to be dumped in huge "graves" basically being buried alive. Vaccines to cure these pigs aren't even costly. So why with all the cruelty?

I don't understand people sometimes. When have we all become desensitized? When have we stopped appreciating the animals that feed us?

Anyways, it makes me feel more secure in becoming a pescetarian but maybe due to my horrible experience with fish lately, I might just go full vegetarian.

I've also been seeing the benefits of eating less meat such as: feeling better, losing weight (I didn't do it for this reason!) and I have been getting a lot of compliments on my skin!

I just need to come up with more vegetarian meals.

a n n i e


Sunday, January 9, 2011

InspirationPerspiration

I'm kind of getting sick of eating fish. I think I overdid it with bringing fish to lunch everyday with rice pilaf that I wanted to take a break. So, I splurged a little and got myself a vegetarian burrito at the most expensive friggin mall food court food ever.
 This little beauty cost me about $8 with my employee discount. I was baffled about spending that much on a burrito, I mean, Chipotle gives you a crap load of food with TONS of guacamole for the same price! Anywho, besides the price, it was what my soul had ordered. Delicious flour (although I always prefer corn!)tortilla wrap over cilantro rice, salsa, guacamole, black beans and a ton of cheese. Paired with a side salad and tortilla chips. I also had a lot more salsa (yay for salsa bars!) and onions. The onions were a horrible idea because I had onion breath =P

I've also been having such an itchy yearning to be creative and treated myself to a Moleskine notebook.
 Only one is a real Moleskine. The others are notebooks that I bought from Borders for maybe a third of the price of a Moleskine. I realized that although having a journal is basically a blog but I want to be able to have these notebooks for a long time and hope that my children will read these and see how I was like when I was much younger. I don't know if websites will be around still in 50 years. So it's a precaution.
Unfortunately, I have no inspiration at the moment.

Goodnight.

a n n i e