saturday, we went to tram’s wedding– a huge celebration, complete with dragon dancers, a slide show, and funny little skits. ryan and i gorged ourselves on the chinese food and fondue, and then had cake. mmm. tram looked beautiful, the reception hall was beautiful, and my chocolate covered rice crispy treat on a stick was beautiful… that is, until i dropped the plate it was on (and made the carpet a little more brown than usual). at the end of the night, we danced to one slow song (no dancing for ryan’s knee), drank coffee, and ran home to our nice warm bed.

william and i braved the 110 down to torrance to meet giada today– so much fun! we ran around the pier at redondo beach (only stopping to dislodge the heel of my shoe from between the wooden planks) looking for food, then we gave up and had dinner at a little korean cafe (complete with gigantic shaved ice topped with fruity pebbles), waited in line for an hour or so at borders (while quizzing each other with first aid and pretest medicine), and spent two seconds getting our books signed and drooling over giada. she’s too cute.

now, i’m tired… and wondering if i should break out the new wine kitkats and other chocolates from japan that william gave me. hmmm.

yesterday, around noon, ryan and i showed up at tram’s house to make programs– and ended up staying until 10pm. tram and regan liked the programs that ryan and i made for our wedding, and wanted to do the same… but i don’t think they knew how labor intensive the whole process was. tram had an army of people working for her, though, and in the end, we finished around 160 of them. she still has about 40 more that she wants to make, though. busy, busy girl.

after a grueling test/essay extravaganza, the kids and i went out for indonesian food and an adventure. we drove up to the mountains and hiked along a trail to a cliff overlooking a waterfall, then climbed the side of a mountain to get to another trail to get to the waterfall. we took the wrong road back to the car… and ended up hiking up up up through the mountain… and didn’t realize it until about a mile in. after we doubled back and found the car, we picked up ice cream, root beer, and berries galore to enjoy back in the city. mmmm.

pictures here.

the test over, henry, francisca, and i went down to the driving range for some very therapeutic ball smacking. i really must make this a habit. out of 100+ balls, i hit about 10 out past the lake and onto greener pastures [my first time at a driving rage, obviously]. a few wayward shots nearly hit a lost duck that was idly swimming around in the firing range.

ryan came by for dinner at honolulu harry’s [coconut shrimp=fun], and we ended up microwaving peeps from the 99 cent store. additional pictures to follow when i have more time.

to the right: the remaining un-microwaved peeps squished together so that they looked like gyri [everything looks like the brain to me now] or strange multi-headed alien forms. in the full sized picture, you can see them in their spectacular purple-sugared glory.

the week of rest is nearing an end, but i still haven’t done everything i planned on doing… no beach, no mani/pedi, no running through fields of dasies, no cleaning of my very messy apartment, no taking loads of pictures of places outside my home.

and… my upcoming exam is breathing down my neck. i’ve still got 2.5 days to study hardcore.

highlights from the week:
saturday- bought a new camera phone, new mouse, had dinner with the family down in irvine at caspian (sans belly dancer).
sunday- worked at the house in simi to get things organized and ready for the move.
sunday night- went to the griffiths observatory sattelite center to stargaze and ended up looking at jupiter and saturn through one of their mondo telescopes. i can’t wait until the main site is fully renovated.
monday: little saigon medical clinic with the asian club. helped treat a room full of little old ladies that looked like my grandma. tea with dong, ellie, and steven. drained my bank account at south coast plaza with steven. haircut at interfashion. dinner in pasadena with ryan at the new shabu shabu restaurant.
tuesday: studied at borders.
wednesday: back to simi for more cleaning.
thursday: early morning facial at orgins. shopping and lunchy with annie at south coast. studied at the science library at UCI. dinner with annie at CPK.

regarding boys:

“decent can change into cute, but short can never change into tall”

-cat

according to rumor, my friend regina is now engaged. so exciting! i’d been waiting for it for a while now… but it still seems unexpected. i love the gossip– it almost makes me excited to go to school tomorrow to spread the news around. i’m a dork, i know– but i have to live vicariously through these people, you know.

cat will be happy, though– she’s been wanting to go to a wedding. at least it’ll take the pressure off of me. i really can’t afford to buy jellyfish and candied walnuts for 300 people right now.

i wonder if the girls will throw another obscene bachelorette party.
i wonder what the ring looks like.
and most of all, i wonder when she’ll find time to have the ceremony. between boards and rotations… i’m interested in seeing how they juggle things.

so, i sigh and watch another friend pass over to the old married girls club… whilst i drink jupina and dance crazy with my happy little white boy.