I know, it's been FOREVER

...since I last posted. I just forget. And nothing interesting ever really happens to me. But I realized that there was a picture I wanted to post...

This is not the one I meant, but I decided to include it anyway. I saw these at the VW auto center in Tustin, and they are so awesome looking. I totally want to bling out my car. Maybe when I go back for the car part that they had to order for me....

Here's the picture that I was thinking of. I saw this in a middle eastern fast casual restaurant. Yogurt Soda. Yes, you read correctly: Yogurt Soda!!! If you look closely at the picture, you'll notice that the bottle on the left has "mint flavor." So....mint flavored yogurt soda?!?! That just sounds gross.

News (as in, random statements, not really news) from the past week:

*Went to the dentist. Eeek. Why is it that your teeth feel totally fine for 6 months then you go to the dentist and your gums start to hurt and bleed and stuff afterwards? Most of the time when you go to the doctor, you leave feeling better, but not the dentist. Not when I go anyways. 

*I bought Castle Season 1 from iTunes and began watching it on our iPad. I never saw season 1 (and I don't think I've seen Season 2 either, because (a) The show began when I was abroad, and Europe gets their shows way later so I didn't even hear about it and (b) We didn't have cable at Middlebury, so just from lack of access I didn't see the earlier shows. Totally hooked on it now, though), and it's so interesting to watch earlier shows after having seen like 2 later seasons because it answers questions about the characters & the situation & all, and you also know what the early episodes are hinting at. If you like cop/detective dramas, you should definitely get on board with this show. Seriously, an awesome show and in my top 5 favorite shows (along with the Mentalist, the Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, and either Hawaii 5-0 or NCIS Los Angeles).

*It was my birthday!!! I am now in my "mid-20s" Eek. Where am I in my life? Nowhere. The only good thing about a birthday after 21 is the cake. =D hehehe

Have you done the Belt Mambo?

The last time I was at the airport, I saw this:

They had several of these "Security Line Moves" inside the basket things. Awesome. Way to make travel more interesting. I didn't have a belt on that time, or just *maybe* I would have....considered it. =D

If you live in the OC, you should try out Stacks Pancake House. These are the French Toast made with Hawaiian bread and covered in Nutella & bananas. Delicious.

In case you missed it on Facebook, here is our (my dad's & mine) Starbucks mug collection (not including the demitasse cups we got in Hong Kong/China/Macau). Above: before putting them in the case; Below: End result.

Yummy looking and very creative cupcakes that I saw at my new cupcake spot, The Cupcake Store, that I go to whenever I get my hair done (because it's close to my hair dresser. There's also one in Downtown Disney, so I have heard...). If I went to Thanksgiving here (vs. in Chicago, which is where I was), I would totally have gotten this - turkey leg, peas &carrots, mashed potatoes & grave, pumpkin...all as cupcakes! Oh yes).

What a DEAL!

5% off!! Ok, so it saves you about $9 which is good...off of something that costs you $20. But really, 5% off? That's just *barely* a sale.

World Traveler: 32 Countries and Counting...

According to my Where I've Been Map, which I think has been updated. But anyways, I had an interview today and tried to list every country that I've been to, but I definitely missed some, so I am going to write them out in more or less alphabetical order:

Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Canada
Chile
China (Incl. Hong Kong & Macau)
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Mexico
Monaco
Peru
Poland
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Turkey
United Kingdom (England, Scotland & Wales)
United States (duh)
Uruguay
Vatican City (yes, it's own country)

Two More Thoughts

...that have nothing at all to do with the previous post.

In one of my classes, we were talking about how people feel more sorry for animals than people when it comes to beggars & things like that. I'll admit that I often feel more compassion to the animals, probably because they are truly dependent. They cannot earn money and because they are domesticated, they don't know how to get their own food like their wild counterparts. But it's still interesting that the data from the USA Today app's Snapshots poll shows that most people would most like to volunteer in support of animals than people.

I don't think that I had ever noticed the "You may also like..." section on the bottom of my receipt form Barnes & Noble. It might be new, but it's a good idea.

Day at Disney

Yesterday, my mom & I went on a tour of the Walt Disney Studios. It was our second time on the lot because we had been there before for a screening, but that time we only went to the screening building, really. The tour was interesting, but we couldn't take pictures inside despite the fact that we didn't see any sets or anything like that that would be "secret" or whatever, but ok. The tour was interesting, though. Here are some pictures...

 I just liked this. Priority parking for character voices!!! Well, at least then. It looks like the plaque could be changed....=D

 The actual statue and wardrobe  used in the filming of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

 The founder of the Archives (now retired, but still comes in sometimes), brought in an Oscar that Disney won for something...(it was a short film I think that I had never heard of), and we were all allowed to hold it & take a picture with it. Probably the only time I will ever hold an Oscar (although who knows. I'm sure that I have many hidden talents...). Heavier than you would imagine!

 I liked this. Mickey through the ages.

 The Queen's driver's license from the Princess Diaries. They are really serious about props, down to the smallest details!

 I knew I loved Disney. A Starbucks hanging out right in the building (well, this particular building anyways).

 The Disney Legends pavilion with the Team Disney building in the back (with the dwarfs on it).

 The legends plaques of the best musical team ever! They wrote like every memorable Disney song ever.

 Me hangin' out with Roy Disney & Minnie Mouse.

The entrance to the Team Disney building where the CEO and top executives have their offices.

Oh, what I wouldn't give to work at Disney! Although they don't shoot Castle here...that would be just that much more awesome. =D LOL

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

I'm not doing anything particularly interesting for Halloween today, but on Friday I helped out with Trunk or Treat with my Church's Irvine campus. It was fun! We had a small, but fun group. I have decided that on Halloween, kids are super cute. They are in the most adorable costumes and are generally pretty well behaved (and why wouldn't they be? They're getting tons of free candy).

At our "trunk" (we put a table in front of the trunk, so it wasn't technically the trunk) we had a Hawaiian theme and we handed out free wands that our group's organizer, Courtney, got for the event. As she didn't want to take back the decorations or anything, at some point we started giving away the decorations too! Would you believe that kids were happy to get small decorative trees and paper lanterns? Well, they were! One girl came up and we asked her if she wanted a glow bracelet or something and she said "I want a lantern!" It was pretty hilarious. Our "sales people" were able to push pretty much everything! Good times, good times.

Happy Halloween!

China just might take over the world...

I am being lazy. How so? Well, I really don't feel like driving aaaaaaaaaaaaall the way to Irvine to go to the Spanish speaking group tonight, and I didn't go to the French speaking group on Monday (also relatively far), so I am "practicing my language" by reading articles in both languages. Le Monde (French) definitely won in the Most Interesting Articles category for me, which is interesting because Spanish literature is totally more interesting. Hmm. So it goes, sometimes. Here are the two interesting articles I found (yes, the articles/links are in French, but I'll do a quick summary of sorts, along with my commentary, as always)

iPhone: l'application "juif ou pas juif?" devant la justice (Article)

This one was particularly interesting. It's about an iPhone app that was created that contains a profile of about 3,500 (at least somewhat) famous people of Jewish descent. If I understand correctly, people can also add themselves. Based on the image (the article was less about the app itself and more about the controversy), I'm thinking that it allows people to search the database by name or by job category and things like that. The application was pulled from iTunes France after groups claimed that it was racist and antisemitic. It is apparently still being sold in other parts of the world...yep! There it is in the US iTunes Store ("Jew or Not Jew").

I really do not understand the point of this app. I mean, seriously. I agree that it is kind of racist, and it's not even a free app either. So...my questions are: Who is downloading/buying this anyways? What possible purpose does it serve?

Another interesting note is that in the article is that one of the advocates wants Apple to remotely erase the application from the phone (in France, where it has been pulled) without asking. Umm...I cannot IMAGINE the protest that would arise from such a Big Brother action...especially in France where they protest absolutely everything. It's just interesting...

L'Europe a-t-elle été bradée à la Chine? (Article) 

Well, I learned a new vocab word today! Brader (the infinitive form of the word in the title) = to sell [something] cheaply; to sell off. The article is about how Europe plans to stabilize it's economy by saving Greece and the struggling countries within Europe by accepting help from China. So the article's title asks, Has Europe been sold off to China? I was thinking about how China bought some of our debt too. China seriously might just rule the world! Maybe I should learn Chinese. Clearly Spanish, French and Italian won't be super useful in the world...=D hehehe

Will it cease to be PC to just want girl time?

So I just ran across this article about a boy who wants to join the Girl Scouts (read it here). OK, I understand that things are getting more complicated, but I wonder if it will one day seem very discriminatory to have a group with just girls. I understand not wanting to discriminate, but personally, there are certain things that I like to do with just the girls and including guys, even if they aren't straight, just changes the dynamic of the group in an uncomfortable way for me. I don't know. I have an all-women small group, and I like it like that. I was in a girl only Girl Scout troop and I liked it like that. I wouldn't want to live in a co-ed dorm room, which is another measure being pushed. Somehow I doubt I'm the only one (male or female) that feels that way, but it's just becoming such a delicate, complicated issue. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out in time...

You can become unpopular super quickly...thanks Internet

So, I noticed that the Oakland PD was trending on Twitter, and so I googled it to see exactly what happened. Upon Googling it, I found two very different reviews. The Oakland PD has a pretty good review (3.5 stars) on Yelp. But their Google review is only two stars. I clicked through, and pretty much all of the negative reviews took place today because of what happened last night. It just made me think of how quickly things spread on the Internet and how upsetting people makes negative news spread especially fast.

 

Various degrees of healthy

Well, this post has no focus, other than all of the topics all have some relation to health. That's it. Basically, it's about random things that I had to find a common thread between...=D

So, I was looking through some sort of local magazine and I saw the ad below. Umm...wow. And marijuana is not even really fully legalized is it? I didn't think so, but it kinda looks like that won't stop someone from getting some at all...

Status: Unhealthy & Dangerous & Smells Bad

 (No, I did not go to the website. Although I kinda want to to make sure that the places I go aren't to close to these kinds of places because I've heard several stories of these shops being victim to armed robbery and things like that. Plus, just imagine who hangs out there....)



On Tuesday, I went to a cooking class (well, more of a demonstration than a true cooking class) called Decadent Desserts. From the name, I imagined rich chocolate cakes or something, but I should have known better because the Church is doing the Daniel Plan, which is a health program that was created at Saddleback along with Dr. Daniel Amen, Dr. Mark Hyman, and Dr. Oz (more info: saddleback.com/thedanielplan). So the class was on desserts, but raw desserts. The teacher has written a raw foods cookbook and has a restaurant too. I cannot find the recipe sheet with the official names of the 2 desserts she made, but one was an avocado bar and the other was a chocolate ball with strawberries. They were actually both good. I really don't like avocados, but the bar (well, sort of a bar. As raw foods aren't cooked, it was more like a thick mousse or something. I would have liked it firmer) didn't taste at all avocado-y. The crust was super good, and was used to make the chocolate balls (literally, the balls were the crust with added cacao). Here are the pix....

Status: Healthy. Very much so.

On Wednesday, I got to see my friend Jean!!! (Hi Jean! You are one of my like 3 readers, so here's your shout out! =D hehehe). Super cool because VT is super far away. We went to Ghirardelli's which is like the best place ever for sundaes; I try to go there every time I go down to San Diego.

Status: Technically unhealthy, but ice cream has protein! And chocolate comes from a bean, and beans are good for you, so *technically* chocolate is a health food...right? Plus, friendship is super healthy, so any unhealthiness of the sundae is TOTALLY overruled....=D

Recently, in a Nordstrom, I saw a really cool thing in the bathroom! Wow, that sounds weird, but just go with me. You know how we all like drying our hands with paper towels partly because they dry better but largely because we use them to open the bathroom door because the door handle is likely covered in germs and you totally just saw that woman not wash her hands and go touch that handle and you're super grossed out. Well, the Nordstrom had automatic hand dryers (the cool new kind where you  put your hands into it and air blows from both sides), and then by the door they had this dispenser with mini towels specifically for using to open the door. Genius! It saves paper because they're small and thinner than regular towels, but perfect for that job and the hand dryers are more efficient than the classic ones because it dries all around making your hands dryer faster. Excellent idea, Nordstrom San Diego.

Status: Healthy (in that it's sanitary and also good for the environment)

What does this make you think of?

Ok, I want you to tell me what you're thinking of based on the following clues.


A large group of women at a restaurant.

Several Victoria Secret bags on the table.

The women seem to be closely perusing the cocktails section of the menu.

One of the women, at the head of the table, is wearing a furry pink crown.


Well? What are you thinking? Did you not guess that it was a bachelorette party? I figured that out when I saw the Victoria Secret bags. I mean, is there another time when multiple women bring so many presents from Victoria Secret? One or two, sure; After all, they have great scents. But like 5 or 6? Not normal. Each subsequent clue makes it more cemented, which is why I thought it was funny when the guy seated next to me nudged me and said something like "look at that table" and noted that someone gave the woman at the head of the table with the furry pink crown a piece of lingerie. He had a sort of confused, surprised, "why-would-someone-give-her-that" kind of look. And I'm like "It's probably a bachelorette party" to which he nodded but still seemed a little perplexed. Do guys really not know about bachelorette parties, or was it just him? I totally thought that was super obvious...

NO COFFEE?!?!

So, I just got back from my Philly/Ithaca trip. I flew to Philly first, where I saw my dad's side of the family, then went with my sister back to Ithaca. This post is just about random thoughts and things from the trip. 

 I know that you can fry anything, but cheesecake bites? Suspect. Probably delicious, and 1,000 calories each, most likely.

On Sunday, we (my sister & I)  took a day trip from Philly by train to NYC to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. It was really cool to see it because: 1) We were both in that musical at school. It was the only play that we were both in together. 2) Daniel Radcliffe was in it. =D He was actually really good. I mean, I know that he's an actor, but he can master an American accent and sing & dance & everything. The title of this post ("No coffee?!?!") refers to a song in the musical when everyone goes on a coffee break but the machine is out of coffee so they sing this song, which includes this line: "If I can't take my coffee break, something within me dies!" =D I remembered that line because I was totally into Starbucks by the time I was in this play (though I was a frappuccino girl, not an espresso drinker), and we wanted to put "No Starbucks?!?!" on the back of our play shirts (we always got a line or slogan from the play on the back, often referring to something that was kinda like an inside joke or a defining phrase), but the director wouldn't let us, so we put "NO COFFEE?!?!"

If ever you're in NYC soon (before January, I think), you should go see it! If you travel from the Trenton station (NJ), be aware. It is quite possibly the most suspect, ghetto town that I have ever been to - both the state of the buildings and the people. Not to be judgmental, but...beware.

 So I tried a Pumpkin Chai at Starbucks (as you can see above if you read Starbucks, I got a regular chai with 1 pump of pumpkin spice syrup). Yumm. It's sweet (the pumpkin spice adds sugar and somewhat blocks out the spiciness of the chai), but good. A nice fall drink.

 The above are two pictures of a waterfall in Ithaca.

 I saw these in Target. Fruity Pebbles treats made with marshmallow...yuck. I LOVE sweet unhealthy things (why do you think I work out so hard at the gym?), but these just sound gross. Super gross. They may only be 90 calories per bar, but I really don't think it's be worth that. I'd rather apply those 90 cal to a latte...

My sister's guinea pig, Chester, getting a bath. He was pretty calm, and it was super cute when he did that thing that dogs do to dry off.

FLIGHT STORIES

• During my layover on the way to Philly, I got some chicken & noodles from an Asian food place. I didn't notice that there was a sauce, so I wasn't too careful taking it over to the area with forks & napkins and everything. The box tilted, and the sauce came out and got ALL OVER my newish carry-on bag as well as my skirt and my newish off-white Coach bag. I was able to get the stain out of my Coach bag, thank goodness. My poor carry-on though...it's black, but I could totally still see traces of sauce when I got back home to the OC over a week later. That poor bag is only a few months old (I bought it right before my Dublin-London trip, so...in early/mid-July?) and it has noticeable ugly holes from when I tried to iron on patches before realizing that it is not a normal fabric. Now the sauce stain. It looks totally beat up and it's the newest suitcase that I have. *sigh*
• I flew Delta, which for whatever reason would not let me choose my seats or get my tickets (other than the first flight) early. Ridiculous. That's how I ended up in the middle seat on all of the longer flights. So annoying. On the way back, I had a really short connection in Atlanta, but they couldn't give me my ticket before the previous flight, which also had the nerve to leave late. I BARELY made my flight; they had closed the door in the waiting area/at the gate, but not the door to the plane, fortunately. And then the flight was fairly bumpy for the first 2 hours. Turbulence kinda makes me nervous, and at 40,000 feet (which seems unnecessarily high), it is especially nerve wracking. But I made it back and plan to fly American. =D

On another note, my new Target (in San Clemente) and my Starbucks (well...one of them. It was closed for renovations for the last 2 weeks or so of September) are open!!! I went to the Target, but have yet to visit the Starbucks. But I will!!!

Are hikers stereotypical jocks or something?

The stereotypical jock is not the smartest fish in the sea, and I wonder about some hikers. Not all hikers, of course, as I have several friends that hike and are super smart. But I have my questions about others...

I was just reading this article about a hiker "Man with broken leg survives 4 days in Utah desert" by Josh Loftin (Full Article Here). When is aw the title, I thought, Wow! What a survivor! Then I read the article and changed my opinion to Wow, what an idiot. I mean that in the nicest way, of course. Here are a few highlights, with commentary.

"A North Carolina man crawled four days across the Utah desert after breaking his leg on a solo hike, inspired by a Hollywood movie about a man who cut off his own arm to save himself after being trapped by a boulder in the same canyon."

So...he decided to hike a canyon based on a movie where the hiker almost died and had to cut off his own arm to save his life...THAT is the model you want to follow? Seriously?!?! 

"Without cellphone service and only two protein bars to eat..."

Really? Even I, a girl who hates hiking and the outdoors in general, knows to bring a lot of non-perishable food if you're going to go off hiking or camping in a remote area because if something happens, you're in bad shape. I'm beginning to think that he wanted to injure himself and have a story like the guy in 127 Hours. Attention seeker, anyone?

"he went hiking alone and without telling anybody about his plans."

Do people never learn? I may be bad about telling people where I'm going if I go to Starbucks or the store or something, but if I went into the woods or anything I would for sure tell several people, put it on Facebook, SOMETHING! By now, I'm super sure that he wanted media attention. He achieved it, and accomplished it without losing his arm! Congrats, man.

Goin' Food Truckin'

So, after getting back from Vegas, I went to the Lime Truck for lunch on the way home from Long Beach. 

[ooh! Short story. I flew out of Long Beach for my Las Vegas trip (Jet Blue). I had never driven to the Long Beach airport before, so I plugged it into my GPS. It was taking me in an opposite direction than I knew Long Beach was (As the name suggests, LB is by the ocean, but my GPS was taking me inland), but I thought that maybe it knew a shortcut or something. But I kept seeing signs that said "Riverside" so I got increasingly more suspicious. Once I crossed the line into Riverside County and my GPS claimed that I'd be at my destination in 15 minutes, I knew that my GPS was somehow leading me astray. I don't know how it changed my destination or what happened exactly. Fortunately, I still made it to the airport in time, and had a nice scenic drive seeing all of the mountains and stuff. Seriously, out there along that toll road it looks like the landscape in Cars. I love it, seriously. Landscapes with green trees and everything are great, but I must admit that after a beach scene I love seeing bare rock mountains- seeing all of the crevices and the shadow and all. Love it.]

For the past few weeks, I've been watching the Great Food Truck Race (Food Network), and the Lime Truck is on it and from Orange County! So, I looked up their website and saw that they were going to be in Aliso Viejo (closest location to where I live that their truck stops) and so I decided to try it. It was also on the way back from Long Beach (when one goes to/from LB correctly ;) LOL).

At that site, there were 2 other food trucks that I meant to visit too, but the line for the Lime Truck was so long that by the time I got my food and ate it, the other trucks were closing.

 In line for the Lime Truck

 The menu

I got the Ultimate Taco (the pulled pork one) and the Sweet & Spicy Steak Taco (on the right). They were SO GOOD! Worth the long wait. Seriously. No wonder they are doing so well in the Great Food Truck Race!!! I will be seeking them out next time they are in Aliso Viejo (or south OC in general)

Vegas in a day

So,  I was just in Vegas. It wasn't a long trip, I was there for literally less than 24 hours. The CEO of the company that I work for also founded the Internet Marketing Association, which had an event at the Mandarin Oriental on Thursday evening, and I went to help out and to see the event. I stayed at the Mandarin Oriental (there was special pricing for the event attendees) which was SO NICE! So, I arrive and the doorman comes and gets my bag out of the taxi and greets me as "Miss Beverly" (so probably he looked at the tag. Or they were watching for me...hehehe). Then I took the elevator (all of their elevators have lounge chairs in them, which is cool but really I doubt anyone is in the elevator long enough to use it) up to the lobby on the 23rd floor. Funny, because all of the rooms are on lower floors! =D But everyone was super nice and friendly and it was so luxurious that I felt super weird in my jean skirt and t-shirt =D They had the type of room key that you hold in front of a reader (vs. inserting it into the reader like a credit card). Then I opened the door and the room turned on, so to speak. the shades all raised and the TV turned on and everything. The room was also big and very well designed. Here are some pictures:

Super nice. And there was a tablet-style controller by the bed that controls everything - the lights, the sheer & blackout curtains, the TV, everything. The wake-up "alarm" turned on all the lights, which was nice and I'm glad that that woke me up because there was no sound. I had set my cell phone alarm too, just in case, but I didn't need it! I really should get one of those light alarm clocks! (One's sitting in my Amazon cart right now!)


So, I after settling into my room and everything and sitting there relaxed for a while (I'll admit. I was sort of waiting for direction, and sort of resting). Then I went down and helped, but it was mostly under control by then. So the event was pretty cool. There were speakers from several big companies Adobe and Facebook. The presenters from Adobe and Google were definitely the best. The Adobe presentation was very creative (using Adobe flash, of course) and the Google one was informative and interesting. Not much else to say really, so here are some pictures:

Then there was the after party.! Clearly I forgot to take a picture of the desserts, but there were lots of mini desserts from cupcakes to lemon meringue tarts to chocolate espresso mousse...yumm. But the view was spectacular and was really nice. It was on the top floor of nearby Veer East.

(These sofas were actually inflatable, but the pillows were real)

Afterwards, a lot of us went over to this place called the Chandelier Room or something like that and it was really nice. I had a raspberry martini and it was so good. They used real raspberries and everything.