Galactic Greetings Space Ranger

a thousand words...
That's my focused face. Apparently when I shoot galactic guns, I look like I'm eating. Ryan's disgust seems to come from the fact that I won! Trust me, I still can't tell whether or not the laser is coming from my gun. I just wave it around and shoot. (In all my years of experiment and experience with these types of games, I've come to the conclusion that my "just push all/the button(s) as quickly as you can" method works. This is just as applicable to games like Wii boxing, where you "just wave your arms around as fast and in as many directions as you can".)

Took us about an hour and forty to get there, traversed the long and winding road from the 405S, 10E, through the downtown, Grand Ave cluster of joy, then the final 23 mile stretch on the 5S which is STILL under construction. Our mission: four hours to soak up as much happy magic as possible. Ryan turned on the speed walk with power arm pumps while I switched gears to super crane speed. Lines were beautifully short--for Thursday at 4pm in February, they'd better have been! Most of the crowd consisted of baby-toddlers (cute!), the tween-teen group, then me and Ryan, the probably-too-old-to-be-enjoying-Disneyland-this-happily-but-whatevs group. Ryan's birthday pin not only prompted a "Happy Birthday, Ryan!" from every worker, but also got us into the fastpass line at Space Mountain. This magic pin is the equivalent of being a hot girl and getting into the club fo' free.

I admit that the toddlers became decreasingly cute by the end of our four-hour marathon. Hadn't slept a wink the night before, driven, then basically exercised around Disneyland. We were dying of exhaustion and hunger on the tram, having held out on eating inside the park to avoid wasting precious ride time. Hi-five to us for conquering seven rides! We found a perfectly sketchy Red Robin located off the 5 inside a Holiday Inn, bathrooms being those of the hotel lobby. Actually, it was one of the nicer Red Robins I have come across. We tried and failed and had many leftovers--just too exhausted to enjoy all the food.

Discovery of the night award goes to B.E.P.'s new single. Ryan and I were kind of freaking out in the car because of how amazing it is--grew on us halfway through and we had the lyrics down. Download here, now because you will realize how much you love it when they drop the beat at 1:55 after Fergie's Aretha soul moment, yessss. I anxiously await their new album, filled with enough vocoder/auto-tuning to put a smile on your face and a groove in your shoes. Even if you can't stand mainstream club "noise", be be patient and don't hate 'cause they "3008", simply ahead of their time.

dear diary

Steph brought up something that I haven't really thought about in a while, keeping a journal--an actual, physical journal. "Psh", you say, "what's this here blog then?" I brushed off her IM with a nonchalant, "Oh well I blog now and I don't have too many incredibly personal things I need to keep hidden on paper." She replied, "Sure there are." Then I realized how lame and ignorant my response was. Of course there are! There are things I never really put out here for all to see and I do think it would be nice to return to and turn to (in times of need) a diary.

The conversation triggered some good ol' nostalgia, got me thinking back to when I was obsessed with diaries as a little girl because they made such darn cute ones--Sanrio, Suzy's Zoo, generic flowery ones from Hallmark--gotta catch 'em all! and I did. I collected diaries like I collected pogs and Pokemon cards. Though, there were two points during my childhood that I sat down and seriously kept a single (okay, maybe two) diary of my deepest and darkest secrets, Ooo ominous. You're probably thinking, "how deep and dark are a middle-junior high schooler's emotions?" But I can remember that the writing was, in fact, cathartic for my pre-teen soul, as were those delicious Chicken Soup series! I drank them up! If I correctly recall, there were recurring entries lashing out at father about how he kept "forcing" me to practice piano--my eight year old emotions tended to exaggerate, but I did go through some miserable times with discipline on lessons and practice. Now that I'm older, I can understand why he was so adamant about me sticking with piano for the ten trying years. His explanations are clear now and I'm sure further life experiences will continue to elucidate his reasoning. I also realize now that some of my reasons for understanding are a bit more personal and probably more relevant on the pages of a diary. Perhaps someday soon, when I'm more comfortable sharing those juicy stories, I shall, but I gotta keep something in the suspense box out of fear of losing you, my avid reading audience of three, or four, or maybe more?! I iz basically famous!
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In less dense and weighty news, I believe I have officially crossed over from Daisy Fail Scout to Junior Fail Scout after sleeping 20 hours from 6 P.M. Tuesday until 2 P.M. Wednesday (yup, straight through my classes). At first, most of you may be happy that I finally slept, but the cause of this mega-slumber was a weekend of insomnia. So, fail it is!

I spent the rest of the day glued to TED Talks and fortunately, they're more guilt-free than watching trash tv. I like to think that my IQ goes up a few with each clip. Wishful thinking? Oh well, eat, pray, love. Gilbert also has a wonderfully soothing voice much like Karen Sharp. Gawd, that voice! She can make anything sound like a spa tape. I'm always tempted to call in with a dedication just to hear her say it. "___, Megs is stuck out there cursing up a storm in L.A. traffic, but she wishes you the best Vday ever. She hopes you stickittodaman at your new job and wants to dedicate 'B*tch' by Meredith Brooks to you. Sleep tight." So soooothing.

all night long

I'm not sure what brought about the insane munchies, but my Monday all-nighter from dinner 'til dawn was steadily comprised of:
rice, salmon, steak, seaweed, salad, tomato basil wheat thins, teriyaki beef jerky, fruit leather, goldfish (pepperidge farm, not live), ghiradeli, a bowl of apple jacks, a bowl of healthier cereal (boxless and anonymous), maple brown sugar oatmeal, a slice of toast with TJ whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon (as close as I could get to lox on a bagel), all washed down with water, O.J. and diet lipton green tea (diet, only 'cause that's what the coupon at Costco was for).

I posted this solely for your sake. Hopefully you feel a bit better about yourself.
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dineLA Ocean Avenue: 3 stars mainly for the dessert and 'cause it's pretty and located right on Ocean Ave by the beach.

Appetizers::
Raw oysters: Nothing amazing, decent oysters but they gave us the dinky leftover ones. I understand that it's the tasting menu but the whole point is to make a good impression for us tasters to want to come back.

Clam Chowder: Pretty good, not over-salted, thank goodness. That's always the downfall of a clam chowder. The floaties--what I like to call the chunky ingredients in soups--were fresh.

Entrees::
Seafood linguine: Bummer. Strange texture to the linguine, unlike any I've ever tried. Bland sauce, skimped on the seafood, tiniest mussels I've ever seen! The scallop was cooked well, but that was about it.

Salmon: Again, nothing spectacular. It was cooked nicely, but the dark meat was a bit tough and didn't cut easily. Mashed potatoes were mashed potatoes. Highlight was the Pinot Noir dried cherry sauce, delish!

Dessert::
Chocolate bread pudding w/vanilla sauce: Warm, rich, creamy, win.

Key lime & coconut tart w/strawberry sauce: Another win! Tangy and refreshing with crispy fried coconut shavings.

Oh, the bread n butter was excellent. I LOVE bread n butter...
All in all, they probably have some specialty foods that are amazing, but none of what we tried yesterday. I spotted numerous other dineLA restaurants across, down, the street and ones over includng BOA Steakhouse and I Cugini. Probably just try them out on their own some other time.

On another note, the roomie brought up the question of what in the world I might be like when I am with child and with cravings. What else could I possibly eat? I'm frightened for myself in the future and for my child who will probably be the fattest baby ever. Eesh, scary.
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Going out to Roscoe's in about 20 minutes. All night...

keep an eye out

I'll be spending a great deal of moolah over the week, eating.
I have three dineLA reservations lined up starting this afternoon and there is a strong likelihood that I'll be adding another.

Where will this magical mystery cash come from, you ask? Nowhere that I know of. I might as well be pulling bills out of thin air. My checking account dwindles quickly before my eyes, but all I can think about is food. I, the insatiable appetite, the black hole stomach, eternally hungry.
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Since it's already old news, here is the Oscars recap as short 'n' sweet as possible.

FASHION: A majority of the ladies looked like a sophisticated version of...
BAM! Glenda the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. Mickey Rourke looked rather spiffy in his unique, white suit. RDJr. looked equally spiffy in his classic black tux. Many men had the satin tuxedo-stripe-down-the-pant-leg action.

AWARDS: No comment, neutral. I haven't seen many of the films so I really can't protest and fuss about undeserving winners or more deserving losers. You're all amazing, putting on probably some of the best facial expressions I've seen when the camera cut or panned over to your faces watching speeches. If only I could have such a convincing face while merely sitting and listening.

SPEECHES: I am belly belly happy too for you, Yojira Takita. Here is the rest of the Departures crew speaking (some of it unintelligible but too darn cute!)


And, of course, sank you my Kunio Kato, for giving da bomb speech of the evening.

PARTIES: I wouldn't know, I wasn't invited for some odd reason. Bruincard isn't accepted everywhere.

THE SHOW: Hugh da man! I already had a longstanding love for him, my music man, but he is "off the hizzoook", for lack of more sophisticated words. Surely most viewers' gag reflexes were worked during this lavish, dramatic, and oftentimes cheesy Oscars, but i absolutely loved it. C'mon, we'd all be much gloomier people without song and dance!
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I always end up blogging in reverse, backtracking on my days. Bummer, unlike Benji Button, I'm not aging in the same way.

Saturday was a fulfilling day. I received another reality slap-check in the face upon picking up two sisters who are both regular campers at Camp Kindle--for children infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and a beneficiary of UCLA Dance Marathon. The home was cramped, far too small to accommodate the girls, their mother, father, two puppies. Appliances were basically falling apart, dusty vent on the floor taking up the whole width of a three foot hallway leading immediately into two cramped rooms. I was promptly reminded of how strong these kids are and just how meaningful the one week at camp each year is, not only for them, but also for their families.

The younger sister has ADHD. Unfortunate, yes, but also one of those situations where the CK family can laugh about it and move on. Let's just say if my car had one of those "eject" buttons, little Z would've been shooting out of my car a minute after she buckled in. Never has anyone pushed so many buttons inside my car over a span of five minutes--lock, unlock; windows up, down; radio stations galore; "What's that?", "a GPS", "Can we turn it on?", "Ohhh not right now, we're two minutes away..."; air freshener open, close. Meanwhile, her older sister sat in the back attempting to comment on the songs as they changed rapidly. The elder is stability and it's sad that she has to be that figure for the family at such a young age.

Anyway, we finally arrived at UCLA for Dance Marathon. I stayed with the Camp Kindle kids and danced for about four hours, ran to the car in Lot 8, drove to the apartment, took the quickest shower, tornadoed my room in the process of getting ready, then was off to Kollaboration, aka a CelebrAsian! All in all, the night was 100% entertaining with talented performers, amazing dance crew sets, my life saver Burger King, a dip in fun with an awful first hour at the after party, but concluding with the usual dance partaaay and me losing my voice singing along.

In related news, BoA's self-titled, U.S. debut album has been pre-ordered and been sitting in my Amazon cart for a while. I'm not quite sure what to make of
Oh! Eye muffs! I guess it's good to draw in the U.S. crowd. After all, she's not 14 years old in Korea anymore. Hopefully she doesn't get distracted and maintains the high caliber of actual dancing skill and choreography that shot her into super-stardom way back when. That was a smart move in deciding to use the American version of the "Eat You Up" MV just for intro/promo clips and release the Korean version as the official video.
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Continuing to read Beloved, Mrs. Dalloway, The Handmaid's Tale, and our film directing book for classes. This quarter is so-so. I'm anticipating the short, but much needed spring break to refresh and recharge.

NOM x 6

Susan and I tried out LUNA PARK from the dineLA list tonight. The restaurant was definitely opposite of what we expected--though we're not sure what our expectations were either. Located on a deserted and shady corner of La Brea/Wilshire, the only landmark immediately nearby was a Blockbuster across the street. We passed by trendy tweens while crossing the street as well, scoff.

'Twas packed. We stepped inside to a Disneyland size crowd by the bar and I observed an overall small, very dim-lit, bustling room with a casual chic crowd. Slightly awk, but, the service was impeccable* and the food...Oh My Gawd, the food. I thoroughly enjoyed every dish start to finish.

Apologies for lack of photographs, but a camera flash in their lighting would've been like the light of Jesus blazing through.

Appetizers:
+Warm goat cheese fondue with green apple slices and bread:: Inspired to melt all the cheese in my kitchen and dip everything else in my kitchen in it.
+Hawaiian marinated tuna "poke" with fried wonton chips:: Basically a light citrus marinated tuna tartare with nicely fried crispy wontons.

Entrees:
+Grilled marinated flat iron steak with salsa verde and french fries:: Wifey is a "meat well-done" but thankfully the waitress convinced her down to medium well, and even luckier for me, it came out more like medium :) Delish, tender steak!
+Grilled salmon with braised greens and grits in whole grain mustard over mashed potatoes:: The whole grain mustard n grits was the only thumbs down of the meal--incredibly bitter >_< (sometimes aZn emoticons are most expressive). Everything else, nicely done.

Desserts:
+Make your own s'mores:: Yesss. Cup of bittersweet fondue o'er candle + cup of molten mini marshmellows o'er candle + house made graham crackers. Leftover chocolate was appropriately slurped up with spoons.
+Deep fried apple pie:: 2 cute deep fried apple "dumplings" with caramel and cup of rich vanilla ice cream.

Then, we exploded.

*Impeccable service comment includes our server being thoughtful and intelligent enough to have the kitchen split our entrees, so we each had a plate of salmon and plate of steak. Four plates?! Fatties are we. It was probably just an optical illusion, but I felt like the split gave us even more food than we would've gotten--my stomach definitely felt the difference.

They also re-filled our water every five minutes, switched out silverware, wiped table before dessert (all things I thought they only did in ultra-fine eateries).

I don't dock points for the slight lag in taking our order, the place was packed, and I just accept the fact that restaurants in America just take forever and a year to complete the bill.
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I should get sleep soon because tomorrow morning I need to pick up two Camp Kindle campers from Santa Monica and bring them back here for Dance Marathon! Originally, I'd planned on taking the free practice LSAT on campus from 12:30-4:30pm, but I think I'd like to spend some time at DM with CK (hopefully you got that, not trying to pull a cool slang thing).
Also, 4:30pm might cut it close to when we leave for KOLLABORATION. Woot woot! I expect the Asian half of UCLA and of other local universities to be there, plus Matt and Alex!

SO EXCITED. Five other CEC-ers that I know of are also going. We takin' over...

48 hours later...

Pulled two consecutive all-nighters and am consequently crashing now.

I am not fancily equipped with a scanner and was too lazy to photograph my work, but I created my first-ever storyboard! Three non-consecutive scenes illustrated by yours truly via mechanical pencil--alas, I left my crayola workshop at home--based on the script for AUTUMN IN NEW YORK! Whosa Whatsa? No, not the Keanu Reeves movie; that's SWEET NOVEMBER, silly, but basically the same bittersweet conclusion (pretty lady must pass on).

Thumbs down and frown to me for procrastinating on this project. It's something I'd never done before and had I not waited 'til the last minute, I would've thoroughly enjoyed the process. Definitely felt great to have pencil in hand sketching/drawing again. The artistry did not come back easily--I tried my bestest to sketch Richard Gere and Winona Ryder, but they all ended up looking slightly Asian, and Asian they are not! After numerous rough sketches and scrolling through google images, I came up with neutral looking sketches of man and woman, decently Caucasian looking too. All my childhood bad habits rushed back instantly with this project. I spent far too much time on detail, erased erased erased, then erased some more. I guess in the shots of close-ups, the detail in the eyes did come in handy. Eyes are so tricky! And hands! I never could draw those well, still can't. They looked more like Freddy Krueger claws, so romantic. Hopefully the professor/TA takes into account the fact that some of were clueless going into the project.

In other pressing and interesting news, I found a piece of pepperoni in my purse. Not suprising since I consume at least three Wetzel pepperoni twists with butter and Parmesan a week while sitting in the CEC office with purse in lap.

Tonight will be a cozy and casual potluck: meat, meat, meat; Chinese brocolli courtesy of Jo. If interested, basic Korean BBQ marinade is easy peasy:

Soy sauce / Sesame oil / Sesame seed / Sugar / Pepper /
Pineapple juice (balances the sugar and soy sauce) / Diced garlic (because it's garlic!) / Onion (diced or puréed mixes better) / Diced green onion

**The last four aren't absolutely necessary, but they definitely add more flavor!
Then, Magic Bullet that sh*t. Or if you don't have one, stir that sh*t.
Then you can either soak meat in bowl of sauce and cook it pronto, or put meat in freezeguard Ziploc and pour sauce in so it's fridge/freezer ready. Orrrr you can vacuum seal as my dad loves to do and preserve in freezer for many, many uses.

a place for my stuff

"If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

Year-old news, but the rents and I just caught a re-run of the Mark Twain Award for American Humor to George Carlin from 08. I'm in the same boat as all the comedians and friends who came out to tell their Carlin stories and intro their favorite clips, speechless. The world lost a whole lotta finely-tuned funny as well as a critical mind with his death and it's a shame. Both Carlin and Twain were geniuses, comically and linguistically.

Did you get all that? from NYC at his sprightly age of 68. I don't think there's anyone to match his way with words and expansive vocabulary, a pioneer in comedy i.e. his Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV.

Hopefully you've been able to come across some of Carlin's brilliance. He truly made you think about things subconsciously while you were consciously laughing. All our comic favorites today (Maher, Black, Colbert, Leary, Cho, Stewart...) were influenced by him as he was by some of the greats before and during his time--Richard Pryor, Danny Kaye, Lenny Bruce among others. If you have the chance, his books are some of the best reads.


Hats off to you, Mr. Carlin.

would you expect anything else?

It's Valentine's Day! Mother is playing online Tetris*, father sits beside me watching online tv, I write this post while setting reminders on all the chick flicks coming up tonight. YEAH! Would you believe me if I said that I have three blind dates lined up for after dinner? No? Okay, I wouldn't either. I'm just happy to be home--it's refreshing to get away from school for a few days.

*A note on mom's mad Tetris skills: her highest level is twenty freakin two! She gets to 15 easy now. When we used to play on our old Nintendo, yup this classic,she almost beat it...got up to level 19 (out of 20), got distracted, and in a millisecond, death. In her disbelief and anger, she threw away the remote. Unfortunately, old Nintendo iz broke now, duck hunt gun and all =(

Tomorrow I'll be working on something rather new to me. We are to somehow bring to life three scenes from a movie based on the script. Wha? Of course, this is what I signed up for when I enrolled in Film and TV directing, but it's definitely foreign ground. Just selecting the script has been a painstaking task so I've narrowed it down to either THE APARTMENT or AUTUMN IN NEW YORK. I have not seen either. Regardless of the poor reviews for AUTUMN, it might be slightly easier to take this on rather than an extremely well-known, high-intensity action or drama since I have no idea what I'm doing. Eek!

I'll also be starting some T.S. Eliot, Morrison's BELOVED, and Woolf's MRS. DALLOWAY (one of my favs). Luckily, I've been wanting to read the first two as well, so that should make it less homework-y and more enjoyable.
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Last night's dineLA outing was an eventual success. Aside from L.A. traffic being miserable, downtown L.A. is miserably confusing. Missed the 4th/3rd exit--which is combined under the 6th/5th sign only to separate to 4th/5th? or something like that. Finally had to whip out Mr. Garmin GPS who gave a series of "Keep left, then keep left, then keep right, then left..." To my utter disappointment, changing the voice to British-English actually ended up being more obnoxious. Darn.

Finally! We got to Wolfgang Puck's Bistro on 6th, drove around about ten minutes to find the cheapest lot possible ($3). Honestly, the bistro was tastier to me than Grace--again, I'm only making judgments based on the dineLA tasting, but sometimes a good ol' steak or burger and fries does the job. Plus, it's decently cheap so I just ordered from the regular menu: Tuna tartare appetizer (yum!), tortilla soup (so-so), and the bistro burger + fries (NOM!!!), which altogether ended up $2 less than the dineLA price. Of course, the set dinner and desserts were also delish, especially the steak au poivre. My only criticism is that everything was a tad too salty--that tends to be the flaw in a majority of American cuisine, too rich or over-seasoned.

The drive home at midnight was GLORIOUS! No traffic, but also not deserted--perfect driving conditions. Mom is paranoid about those cases where people pretending to be cops pull women over at late hours and dot, dot, dot. "You don't ever have to get out of your car. You have the right to ask for I.D. Don't get out of your car." "Okay, okay mom!" My foolproof plan if anything should happen: act crazy. Chances are, my attacker-kidnapper-___er won't want to deal with a troubled person.

Once home, I went straight for HBO On Demand to see what I'd missed the past how many weeks. Watched DEFINITELY, MAYBE, cried (duh, when Isla Fisher cries at the book and Abigail Breslin cries to Reynolds at the end), then fell asleep. Sigh.

Annnnd, dad just revealed a newly bought RATATOUILLE DVD! I'm all smiles!
Good night to you!

Uhm...

Sharing is caring? Beyonce gives to Jay-Z gives to Rihanna gives to Chris? I only begin with Ms. Knowles because Z must've gotten his from somebody, which leaves me pondering where B got hers from...

Anywho, mother stork dropped off a much safer and more noteworthy gift on my cousin's doorstep. Welcome to the world Mackayla Ann Morreale!
CUTECUTECUTE! Mom and Dad are Korean-Irish and Italian, so you can expect a gorgeous happa lady later on...she's so lucky!

THE INTERNATIONAL sucked ballz, minus some beautiful cinematography of Lyon, Manila, the Guggenheim, and a most useless rooftop scene. Clive Owen (token eye candy with an accent) was being all Clive-y and shootin' guns, that's right, he SHOOT EM UP--another ridonkulous film but with a little more flavor. Imagine him holding above Mackayla Ann, then taking out a bajillion people using a variety of guns. I'd be making the same face. Oh, Naomi Watts is pretty and also in the Int'l. Yep.

DineLA restaurant week has been extended. *Dies.* I'm so tempted to just swipety-swipe that VISA until February 28th, then worry about paying up later. Note to self: get money.

please donate to the Megan-wants-to-splurge-on-music-festivals fund

Coachella 3-day pass: $285 plus a 30 min. drive to buy it cash up front OR $308 via Tmaster--curse your fees!
Coachella 3 days of food (at least three roasted corns a day) + useless stuff I want from vendor tents + overpriced festival tee: $100 in my dreams.
Round trip flight to Florida: ++/-$200.
Ultra (UMF) 2-day ticket: $180.
Housing, assuming I don't have an insider connection or a hook-me-up + foodstuffs + my black hole stomach + souvenir crap: $???
Grand spankin' total of $$$,$$$,$$$.$$ ...priceless? I think not.

Did I mention that I'd also like to buy a season pass to the Pantages for this year, see Andrew Bird, go to the LA Zoo, the Aquarium of the Pacific (though the $26 zoo/aquarium combo is great), Getty, Lacma, eat at Katsuya, Spago...

Let's take a poll, shall we?
[ ] Win the lottery
[ ] Find a sugar daddie.
[ ] Sell favors and adult videos underneath 555 in neon red light district
[ ] Sell favors at the corner of Hollywood and Vine
[ ] Try sitting by schizophrenic hobo in front of Starbuck's with a cup
[ ] Stand on Bruinwalk in a sandwich board and hold out a cup
[ ] Become my role model, Britney *crosses fingers* or
[ ] Equal the success of the next best thing, Britney Houston
[ ] Steal
[ ] Work for it. ROFLMAO.
[ ]


If only I had patented the darn Snuggie 14 years ago...now I just look like a bitter biter (alliteration intended) when I wear my robe backwards.

Pop Musik and gangsta rap

Sometimes those just get the studying going.
Tuned into the Grammy's about ten minutes ago to catch Sam Jackson intro T.I. and his "buddy Justin Timberlake!" Crude observation of the day: T.I.'s beanie looked like a form of protection against baby makin' sitting atop his head. Sorry, just saying.

Not quite motivated to finish these WWI and feminist poems OMGZ NEIL DIAMOND IS SINGING SWEET CAROLINE...
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Raising Sand ftw, one of the most unexpected but most intriguing musical pairings I've come across. I bought the album immediately after it came out, passed it on to dad, and we've been huge fans of the duo and each individually, of course. Plant may have calmed down since the Zeppelin years, but his voice still has that amazing sharpness that harmonizes so well with Alison's ethereal sound. Given all that, it's won already and is probably old news since last Grammy's, so Radiohead was more deserving.

I've been procrastinating by blogging, but no more. Sylvia Plath, here I come...

Sunday, Sunday. so good to me

I'll start out with something of substance.

"When you write, you lay out a line of words....a minder's pick, a woodcarver's gouge, a surgeon's probe. You wield it, and it digs a path you follow. Soon you find yourself deep in new territory...You make the path boldly and follow it fearfully...In your humility, you lay down the words carefully, watching all the angles...Process is nothing; erase your tracks. The path is not the work..." -The Writing Life, Anne Dillard

Basic but concise, Dillard's has been one of my favorite works this quarter, like a Daoist's guide to writing. I recommend this to anyone. Some of the maxims and advice might be redundant, but there are plenty of solid statements and cute, little metaphors in this quick read, so why not?
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One second power outage. At least I wasn't cooking, but it did cause my printer to re-start and we all know how obnoxious that is with the whirring and grinding and awful machine sounds.

Laundry was costly. The dryer, though it ran a 50 minute cycle, still failed to dry my clothes. Thus, they are all laying out on every hanger I own and on every open beam on my bed, making my room look like a sweatshop/meat shop with clothes hanging everywhere instead of meat. This is also contributing to an insanely noticeable temperature increase upon entering my sweatshop.

All the cafes are crowded in Westwood, so I'll just be studying in my apartment as usual. On the bright side, the sky is starting to clear up and turn a lovely shade of blue. Of course, the downside is that I would much rather be outside frolicking around a park somewhere.

My sleep schedule is fan-freakin-tastic!! I'm sticking to the hard and fast rule in trying to wake up around the same time every day regardless of what time I fall asleep. *Pat myself on the back.*

As for some re-caps, Wednesday evening's dineLA experience was pricey and intimidating. I stumbled into Grace restaurant like a giraffe in my boots, sat down and had nowhere to place my strapless bag. Can I just say that clutches suck. They only work if you are famously fancy and participating in awards season with Charlize Theron. I was impressed with the Dungeness crab salad appetizer, but unfortunately, my smiles ended there. I doubt my pallette is sophisticated enough to appreciate the seasoning of the other dishes, but sometimes fancy = bland. The dessert was most disappointing. Supposed to be:

Choice 1 -	Sticky Toffee Pudding - hazelnut gelato, bruleed bananas
Choice 2 -	Salted Caramel Mascarpone Panna Cotta - rum soaked cake, passionfruit, pomegranate

Suffice to say that all the sauces tasted like salted warheads (EW!), passionfruit my a**. I'll take a peanut butter nutella sandwich anyday. The butter knife also amused me throughout the whole dinner. It had a tiny groove on one side, which captivated me because I still cannot figure out why that exists. I even hacked at the butter with the grooved side down as if it were a pickaxe, but to no avail. Accomplishment of the evening: consuming two consecutive dinners. Did I mention that I ate a full dinner with my dad at Acapulco right before the 3-course evening at Grace with Danny? Must satisfy the food god that is my appetite.

On Friday I locked myself out of the apartment, which was great. I called everyone I knew nearby and was taken in by my down-the-hallmates. Both of them went out to parties, leaving me awkward and grateful on their couch watching Seinfeld until I headed out to a birthday dinner. I'd like to think that incidents like these just add character and enrich my life, while providing entertainment for others.

Saturday morning, we checked out the TOMS sample sale, located in a shady but artsy alley at the local HQ. We bought ten pairs total with high hopes that Mr. TOM stands true to his word and donates ten pairs. The shoes themselves don't last too long, but I plan on being cool and wearing them with socks (that don't show of course, I don't want to be a total dork) to prolong wear.

Now, I must tackle WWI poems and Feminism in Our Time: WWII to the Present. Hopefully I can squeeze in The Visitor and The Red Balloon, or I might have to temporarily freeze my Netflix account so as not to waste more money.

my practical 21st birthday wishlist and some whining

Option A. Clocky; because I hate coffee and desperately need this devil of an alarm clock to get me going. (It's on sale!)


Option B. Mr. Egg; because you know you want to see me run around the room chasing a flying egg clock in my cranky state of half-sleep.

Option C. The Puzzler; because you want to hear me curse out a gadget in the morning.


Option D. Mensa. Actually, scratch that. Too much for me. If you buy me this, you'll be demoted to my not cool list for a few days.

Gift option E. *Best deal!* A picture of The Little Engine That Could or Thomas the Tank Engine, so I'll know that somewhere, someone thinks-I-can.
- - - - - -
In other news, everything sucks. Apologies for my fussy-baby 'tude today.

I'm missing out on all of dineLA restaurant week. Ideally, I would be filthy rich, have no classes, and thus enjoy deluxe lunch and dinner every day until it's over. A girl can always dream. The weather is also perfect and lovely. Wah wah wah. Womp Womp.

Tomorrow night, though, Danny and I will be indulging and trying out one of the deluxe dinners. Dress code: casual smart. Seriously, wth does that mean? We're planning on wearing our Sunday bests for fun, because when I pay $44 (excluding tax/tip) for a sample dinner, I want to feel pretty--at least before I start slurping down food and expressing my approval loudly. I'm excited to break in my (designer!) Michael Kors booties--I cheated and paid $30 at DSW, but his name is still on the soles). Then I plan on having Danny critique where my outfit went wrong, since I will attempt to match the rest of my outfit to the trendiness of my shoes, as we enjoy our hopefully delish meal.

Now, I must finish this journal entry on Getrude Stein's Tender Buttons. Oh, would you listen to that play on words? She's affecting me already. Then an American Idol break during which roomie and I will be making our infamous Nestle cookie blob.

Days that Megan has practiced a normal sleeping schedule: 2 and counting...

This is the dawning of the age of...

normalcy and regularity in sleep patterns? Could it be? I really, truly hope so. (I'm not clever enough to come up with witty titles on my own so I've resorted to song lyrics) I lived and breathed through today having gotten a full eight hours of sleep. I'll repeat that. I, Megan, slept eight consecutive hours last night.
Result: I did not do the classy head-bob through either of my English lectures and had a fairly productive time in the CEC office. This would be an appropriate time to start sleeping since I'm twenty, and y'know, over the hill.

The day ended in the most magically delicious way possible. Maral swiped me and Jolanda into Covel and I exploded.
I walked in disoriented with excitement, grabbed every, single plate from every section. Grabbed two cups, one for water and one for Sierra Mist because I knew I would need the bubbly and the H2O to digest the feast that lied ahead.

We discussed Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons today. WHAT THE HECK?! Whew! Now that I've vented, I do appreciate what she attempted to do with her radical hermetic poetry and employment of catachresis. (Sooo totally vocab-dropping. Imagine me holding a glass of wine at a soiree trying to sound educated and pretentious with those words. Ew, no thank you.) Anyhoo, wiki both and ye shall find answers.

Second lecture on Wilde's Dorian Gray was also interesting. Mainly because of Wilde and the work. ADHD Professor Grossman, though passionate and hyper, barely gets to much analysis in his fifty minutes. As Kev observed, Grossman is basically the non-celebrity version of Will & Grace's Jack McFarland. With every lecture, I'm noticing the likeness more and more and it's disturbing. He also reminds me of Twitchy from HOODWINKED:

I'm serious. He sometimes sounds like that to me, especially when I'm tired.

Oh, yes. Spring quarter schedules and enrollment appointments were posted today. Kill me. I practiced some self-control and restraint in only making one schedule as opposed to five or six variations-hopeful-backups. UCLA does it again, releasing this life-changing information smack during midterms.

All right. Time to read, read, read...my Newsweek Commemorative Inaugural Edition. Obama's beaming face is on the cover, and I can only smile right back atcha (what a cougrrr!), Mr. Prez! Actually, I think I'll wash up, climb into beddy and read myself to sleep...

tonight for the first time, just about a half past ten

for the first time in history (exaggeration)...
I'm going to bed now. Bonne nuit!

miscellany

I fell asleep at 4 a.m. and woke up at 9 a.m. (not voluntarily, just couldn't go back to sleep as hard as I tried). For Megan the bat, I believe that counts as a notFAIL!

Superbowl Sunday. For most, it's beerjunkfoodtouchdowncommercial time. Given that it's midterm week, I was outside for a bit to take advantage of the weather, but now I'm trying to get some work done--operative word being try.

Friday night was full of crazy shenanigans, a 21st birthday among others, so you can already assume that it was an evening of dance, odd smells, party hopping, creepers, slooty drunk girls/sorostitutes, spotting someone with a suspiciously large ziploc of a leafy plantlike substance passing by in a shady alley and exiting a gate. Hm. I think he profited that night. Of course, I held onto my blue "water" cup the entire time and emptied out most of it into a plant somewhere, made a 2 a.m. Ralph's run, picked up those who could not safely walk home, then flew back to my nest where I stayed up the night again.

Before that we wanted to check out this release for Stamp'd LA on Melrose--far too cool urban/scenester-y for me, but the sneakers were suh-weeeet. If only they weren't $110 for a pair! Obvi I don't belong on Melrose, but it's always amusing to see a $139.00 dress on sale for 75% when it still costs less than that discount price. Then there are those scary stores where they desperately wanna sell, but I can't haggle so I just smile awkwardly, say thank you and scurry out the door.

I am happy to say that I am a new fan of Yogurtland thanks to Bobby and Allen, so everyone go try if you haven't!

Maral and I had a ruvery sreepover, with some wholesome chick chatting beforehand when Michelle and Claire stopped by. We finished the box of TJ's spinach and cheese spanakopita. Noms.

Aside from burdensome midterms, the usual hoard of random questions floats around in my head.
::Will the Steelers win?
::What the heck happened in my dream last night? (All I can piece together: American Idol auditions held at the Hollywood Bowl, one of my friends judged alongside Simon Cowell, I kept pulling in and out of different parking spaces because the lot magically turned off your car if you stayed in a space too long...I need a dream interpreter.)
::Should I go to Coachella? All three days?
::Why didn't I buy a Britney Spears concert ticket? What if she dies after her tour (knock on wood) and I never get to see her?
::How come "Girl Talk's hot cousin" is so freakin' amazing? (Thanks yoko!)
::I'm hungry. Okay, not a question, but always relevant.
::What should I eat now?
::Where am I living next year? Megan the nomad?

Here I come, novels! Tender Buttons, Dorian Gray, Writing Life. Blaableebloo. Again, wouldn't mind reading any of these were they not assignments that we have to analyze to the core. Though we plow through countless literary works, it's frustrating that I no longer have time to read for pleasure/leisure. I've also never been able to break up a novel into several chapters a night, which is why I resort to Newsweek and Vanity Fair for start-to-finish reads. On a side note, ever since John Updike passed away, I've wanted to finish his Rabbit series. Mom gave me Rabbit, Run to read when I was quite young, didn't make too much sense then, so I hope to reread that and get through the rest over spring break.

Ah, and thanks to Kevin for this amusing find. I guess if I follow that precisely, I'll at least get a wedding, kids, a house, dogs, and trips to Orlando before dementia and death.

I have never set click on Perezhilton, but I am guilty of visiting the superficial. Proud to say that Soc 1 with Sherwood led me to this treasure of a site. I leave you with healthy Phelps vs. healthy Jessica vs. healthy Lindsay.


I have never set click on Perezhilton, but I am guilty of visiting the superficial. You'll be glad to know that UCLA's Soc 1 with Sherwood led me to this treasure of a site.