Family Affair

I didn't get much done on my to-do list due to an impromptu lunch with Richard. I mean it's a nice surprise! I did, however got the important stuff done like cleaning my room and my makeup brushes.

 I realized that my chin has been breaking out and I'm thinking it's due to the bacteria growing on my brushes. I know a good makeup wearer actually washes their brushes every week. But, seriously! Who has the time? I mean it took my brushes a good two days to dry and I certainly wasn't going to go live my life without makeup. Either way I need to do something about my chin situation. It's definitely not from food or maybe it is? I don't know. I guess I have to start experimenting.

Yesterday, I had lunch with my cousin in our breakroom. I had leftover pasta that my mama made and my cousin had curry and fruit.

 Isn't this cute?! For some reason her mama (my aunt) just put one black grape.

We also decided to eat dinner together since the four of us (me, my cousin and her younger brother and my sister) haven't eaten out together in a long time.

We felt like eating Korean inspired Chinese food. Or is it Chinese inspired Korean food? Either way it's a mishmash of those two cuisines.

 We got fried rice. It's a typical standard fried rice. We made sure we got enough veggies so we got veggie fried rice.

 Then we had spicy noodle soup. We call it jjam bbong. I think it's our rendition of making it sound Chinese? Either way we haven't had good jjam bbong in a long time. Our favorite restaurants would close down and this reminds me of the good Chinese restaurants in San Francisco when I was growing up.

 Then we had THE best fried shrimp EVA. They were huge prawns and were crispy and sour and spicy. This restaurant has the best fried shrimp!

 Unfortunately their jajangmyun was horrible. They didn't give enough sauce and when we asked for more they explained that they couldn't make more unless we ordered another dish. That, in translation mean that it's not fresh. Plus they burned the sauce and it was so smoky and dry. Yuck.

They are also really good at making sweet and sour beef. It was so good and so crispy. They didn't really have a lot of meat but it was so good that we didn't care.
We also had some boiled shrimp dumplings and it was soo gingery and good. I am just so glad we found this hole in the wall restaurant right next to my high school. So good. So very good.

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A New City

I decided to do a review because I have actually tried finding a new and cheap cleanser that won't irritate my skin and won't pull at my skin while scrubbing hard to get rid off the city and makeup off my face. I've not really boughta lot, I've actually tried a lot through samples. From samples I've liked Estee Lauder makeup remover wipes (a generous sample of 25 wipes!), Lancome Bi-facil and I've tried this:

 This is the most horrible sheets in the world. I first rubbed my eyes since that is where I wear a lot of eye makeup and my eyes started stinging. I could barely open my eyes because they were watering and when I came to, I read the back. It said: warning: SLIGHT tingling may occur. First off, not only was the stinging horrible but it didn't take off my waterproof mascara! I mean come on, why else would we spend money on cleanser wipes? To get off waterproof makeup that regular cleansers aren't able to get off. Anyways, I woke up today barely able to open my eyes. They were swollen, red, itchy and burning. Never buy these!

I woke up early today and enjoyed my daily enormous cups of coffee in my favorite reindeer cup, which I stole from my auntie hehe.

 I actually had this yesterday after my final. It's my favorite! It had cilantro rice, black beans, corn salsa, green tomatillo salsa, pico de gallo, steak, grilled vegies, sour cream, guacamole and lettuce. I go all out! It's basically everything but the hot sauce. I love hot sauce but for some reason Chipotle has horrible tasting hot sauce, which is such a shame.

 I also got guacamole and chips.

Richard and I also dubbed Palo Alto as our new city. It is in the middle of San Jose and San Francisco and it is a beautiful city. We decided to have lunch there today.

 We went to Plutos because he wanted to start eating healthier. My salad consisted of:

• farmers greens
• chickpeas
• tomatoes
• corn
• red onions
• parmesan cheese
• balsamic vinaigrette

The focacia bread came with the meal. I wish I didn't get the corn because I didn't appreciate the sweetness against my savory salad.

 Richard's salad.

We also shared a plate of garlic fries. It was delicious because the garlic was still raw and I love raw garlic. I made sure there wasn't any garlic left behind.

Anywho, I need to get poppin on this research paper!
Goodnight

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To Do List



(image from www.google.com)



(image from www.google.com)



(image from www.google.com)



(image from www.google.com)

I have the weekend off again. I am not complaining but I know I need to be productive during these two days so that I can be prepared for the following week. Therefore, I need lots of coffee and lots of determination.

What better to do everything by making a list?

1. Clean makeup brushes.
2. Organize makeup.
3. Clean my room.
4. Wash my blankets and sheets.
5. Take the dogs out for a walk.
6. Get my 6 page research paper done.
7. Get my internship work done.
8. Go to Copenhagen bakery to get: Dutch Crunch bread, French bread, mini croissants and whole grain bread. Yes, I have to get all four.
9. Go to Starbucks to get iced coffee mix, venti cup with straw and the graphite oatmeal thermos.
10. Make lunch for following week.
11. Hopefully work out.

It's a lot of stuff but hopefully I can do it all!

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Get it Together

I was facebooking today and saw that an ex-worker/facebook friend of mine has a blog. Just started, and it's friggin gorgeous. She is smart, she is witty, her pictures are gorgeous and she knows style. Her fashion picks, her advice and her pictures are so great. I keep envying all these bloggers and hoping and wanting to make my blog better but I don't actually do it.

What is keeping me from doing this?

I don't know who I am.

Am I the fashionista that I claim to be? Am I the athlete I was before and hope to be now? Am I a healthnut with a passion for eating healthy?

Like Richard has always advised me, I should do it all. Maybe I do need to go balls to the wall.

So who am I really?

A fashionista with a passion for food and that runs on the runway.

Boo. Yah.

Anywho, I had one of the best food combinations in the world:

Beer

and curry.

Goodnight.

a n n i e

Holiday Wishlist

T'is the time of year again when everything seems so magical, the clothes are warm and beautiful, you go ice-skating with your loved one and your cheeks are always rosy and red.

It's also the time for giving and receiving gifts. Although, I'm not really a big gift receiver (unless it's secret santa or white elephant) but I am big on getting gifts for myself! Well I just don't feel great receiving gifts from people because I just feel bad even when I give them gifts back so I'd rather give gifts to people and myself than receive them. I've also signed up to give 3 less fortunate children some gifts. Bloomingdale's does a charity every year where we buy gifts for the less fortunate and I signed up ASAP this year. Last year I ended up getting a gift to a 12 year old girl and her request was, ANYTHING. I had such a hard time because I mean, I don't know this girl and when I was 12 I wanted gameboys and maybe a pair of Jordans. Well I eventually got her a nail polish kit (a set of 25!). So, this year I wanted to take it easy since I'm so busy and signed up for 3, 3 year old kids who wanted books and barbies.

I want to make sure they get the books that I loved as a child like The Giving Tree and Dr. Suess books. Can anyone recommend me a website or a bookstore who does the books cheap so I will be able to get them a lot instead of buying The Giving Tree at Borders for $16? Please recommend me some sites! I do want to make these children happy!

I also am going to do the Barnes and Noble charity in which you can buy books for the less fortunate. It, however does get pricey. I did buy a child The Giving Tree last year and it cost me $16!!

Anyways, let me get a little selfish and show you what is on my list this year. Remember, I'm not asking for this from anyone, this is a list of something I want to give myself!



 M.A.C. tartan collection eye pigment set.

Chanel #5.

 The little brown bag. I am a sucker for our little brown label stuff! I want to have it all! I want this plastic one, the little brown mug, the medium brown mug, the shoe bag, the medium canvas bag and the little brown pretzels. I just want everything little brown something especially before I quit!

This gorgeous Marc by Marc Jacobs Hillier bag. I have been wanting this bag for a while now but I never just had the will to drop serious dough on this bag. I'm not really a handbag person but I do feel that I need a handbag soon because I will be taking lots of classes while going to school and I don't want to carry my little clutch while wearing my backpack. This bag is spacey enough for A textbook and some goodies.

What is on your list this year?

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Giving Thanks

I have been a very bad blogger. I have actually been working a lot more since I do work in retail and the holiday season is the biggest money-making time.

I also hate that I don't have any consistency. I will do good for a couple of days and then I will go back to being lazy. For example, I wanted to make butternut squash soup and made sure I got all the ingredients. Two weeks later, the butternut squash is still on the counter, uncut and the celery has gone bad. I've also been trying to eat salad every day at work (even though it's cold) and half the mixed greens aren't eaten and 3 bell peppers are still in the fridge (still hoping they are still plump and delicious!).

Time to get my life back on track and really learn time management especially updating my blog.

Anywho, I haven't done a Thanksgiving post yet!



Thanksgiving has got to be my most favorite holiday. The food is good, the ambiance is great and even though Black Friday is around the corner you can't help but to be in a good mood. I got to my cousin's house around 1 pm and we got to making a lot of dishes.

 Turkey was cooked in a bag this year and came out really moist and juicy! A real winner!

We had a total of 11 dishes. It was hard work but I'm glad everything came out great!

We had

• turkey
• steak (for the non turkey eaters) and also cooked to everyone's liking
• salmon with onions, jalapenos, garlic and mayo
• penne pasta with garlic, butter, tomatoes, broccoli, shrimp, alfredo sauce, onions and lemon juice
• salad
• brussel sprouts with bacon, onions, mushrooms and garlic
• cornbread muffins
• green bean casserole
• sweet potato casserole
• garlic mashed potatoes
• stuffing

I had a green salad with my aunt's bomb vinaigrette (remind to get the recipe).

This was my first plate and it had a little bit of everything.

Thanksgiving was great this year and it was fun times with my family.

Time to get a move on with school and preparing for the holidays now.

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FUH FUH FUH FREEZING!

It is finally cold here in San Francisco. For some strange reason it got hot for a couple of days and then it would rain hard for a couple of days. Now it's just freezing but the air is still. There are no breezes (those sting your face!) and it's not wet. Just cold. Not even cold but COLD.

Only weird thing that I've been wanting are salads. I've still been constantly drinking hot coffee in the morning and make sure my yogurt gets a little lukewarm for my liking. Lots of teas. The cold has really been making it feel like the holidays are really here.

My salads had 3 different-colored bell peppers (yellow, orange and red), red onions, mized greens, half an avocado that I cut up at work so it wouldn't oxidize and a turkey patty. I couldn't even eat the burger because it was freezer-burned =(

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and in the spirit of being thankful I am going to list 10 things I am thankful for:

1. Having a second chance with Richard.
2. My family, friends and dogs.
3. God.
4. To be able to go to school.
5. My heritage.
6. Even after all the alcohol and drug abuse my health is okay.
7. Music, for giving me the motivation (working out) and entertainment (listening to my iPhone in subways and driving to San Jose).
8. My essentials: food, shelter and clothes.
9. My job.
10. Netflix.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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