Saw in person my first Xangan today, Nick! (besides people I knew before finding them on Xanga).

I forgot to snap a picture, and I realized shamefully that if I don’t write or don’t take pictures, my memory is often faulty (regardless if I care or not, it just seems deficient when it comes to events -_-”…I am not sure why I fail so…).  So here’s a little tribute to today’s lovely adventures + recap of my day.

So my day started off being very pathetic…I awoke and grumbled about the time while answering a call from my dad needing my mom’s flight information (groggy and slightly grouchy some mornings…today was one of them).  Yesterday, I had visited a bakery, Tartines, with my sister and a park, Dolores.  I bought her a pastry with pepper and Gruyere cheese, which is her fav and a buttermilk currant scone (it had sugar crystals on it…and I basically love most sweets with sugar crystals…couldn’t help it!).  So since she ate her pastry, she wheedled for me to buy her one to replace it for our upcoming trip.  So today my plan was to revisit Tartines and buy one and then visit the park again.  Well, it was close to noon, so I did not want to leave for fear that Tartines would be super crowded since it was lunch time, and not wanting to hangout in the noon sun…so I decided to delay my trip for a few hours.

How did I spend that time?  I had already finished catching up with Big Bang Theory and HIMYM, so I was kind of stumped.  Then I saw this ridiculous video with dancing gnome looking people and ended up watching YouTube video upon YouTube video of America Got Talent.  The pathetic part is that I saw some incredible videos that caused me to tear up–some because of the performance, and some because of the sheer happiness of the contestants at being accepted.  Then suddenly I got a call from Nick saying he wasn’t too far/if I still wanted to hangout.  Yay!  I was pretty excited, probably the most happy I have been since being in SF besides when I first saw my sister. 

I’m not really too familiar with the area, so when he arrived we stopped by Tartines since I needed to grab a pastry for my sis; and I grabbed a scone for Nick because I thought it was pretty fantastic the day before (nom nom!) and we swung by the park briefly too since I knew at least it’d be pretty.  After returning we chatted a bit more before going to visit my sister working at Facebook!  The traffic was horrific on the way there (ugh…o_o), horrible in a small-town-person-wouldn’t-understand-way, though visiting large cities had prepped me for it (but that doesn’t take away from the aversion towards traffic…meh).  After we arrived, we found my sis and got a little introduction to some of her co-workers and then toured the two campuses briefly.  I was excited about all the Magritte references found around Facebook since he was one of my favorite artists (!).  Got a glimpse of Mark Zuckerberg from afar too.  :O  I was pretty excited about being in such a nerdy environment as a whole. :3  Yay…but unfortunately my sis said since they’re relocating a lot of the cool stuff has already been removed.  :.  We then ate dinner which was quite scrumptious (I guess Indonesian food?).  I was particularly excited about my sparking apple juice and the fried tofu they had and some of their rice (with coconut stuff in it??  Reminded me of Thai food, nom nom!). [wait...did my sister just chuckle in her sleep?...updating in the dark >_>]  Then we bounced back to San Fran, but took a different and much prettier (and faster) route.   It was gorgeous…so many hills…it’s nice seeing topography, especially coming from Florida where it is flat as a pancake.  D:!  We hardly even have hills, it seems; though we should since we should have some karst topography with our groundwater/aquifer/sinkhole/limestone/etc…(?)..or maybe it’s just flat where I’m from (well, in Marion County, apparently our highest landmark was our landfill…fail -__-”).

(:

I chatted briefly with my sis’s roommates after getting home again; two of which are doctors :3 (!).  But then I got tired and went to hide out in her room, doing a combination of packing and laying plastered to the floor.  (Yes, pathetic -_-”)…I guess sleep calls now, since we need to catch Caltrain [?] and BART to find our aunt tomorrow to hitchhike to LA. …zzz.

P.S. Xanga rearranged my tags alphabetically when I hit edit !  And it removed my exclamation marks …

and I don’t feel any different.

Sometimes I feel like I’d be a bad mother because when I see my cat cower, I laugh.  It’s New Years Eve which means the fireworks scare him witless.   But I care about him a lot :], such a cutie!

I was going to look back at resolutions to see if I had any success with them, but apparently I didn’t make any last year! 
a) I had already given up on them

b) I was too busy (apparently I got back at the same time from LA)

Oops, fail!  Well, I know one thing I’ve been wanting to do for a long time was improve my journal keeping skills, whether online or written; and I think Xanga has helped me a lot with this goal.  (:  Cheers!

Another goal was to lose weight–I accomplished this on accident, though maybe California undid some of that.    But next year/this coming year should be better, definitely.  I will hit the gym at least once a week…since I have a class there once a week (sea kayaking!)…maybe it isn’t at the gym?  I’m not really sure.  Since it is sea kayaking. But the important point is that I will work harder to make myself healthier in a healthy way. :] 

One day I want to do a triathlon, but I don’t think this year is the year, since I have MCATs looming at the end of summer possibly (which reminds me I need to sign up for that -_-).

Which brings me to a sad point for me: I think I’m going to have to decrease my already decreased Xanga involvement.  I’ve been having a lot of fun, but I think I’m going to have to limit it until post MCATs.  Back when SATs were looming in the distance, I took an hour out of every day to study for the writing portion of the SATs for maybe half a year.  I was able to increase my score from a low 500 to a high 700.  I think If I can push myself to study for MCATs maybe I won’t have to go to some place like Kaplan.  But then again, it’s really hard to push to study that sort of stuff, so I might have to take a cram class come summer anyways.  But my goal is to study some everyday this school year. 

My schedule should be lighter, so that should make my goal a little more attainable.  It’s been a while since I’ve pushed myself to study for stupid standardized exams, but it’ll be worth it.  And I think it’s important for me to understand a lot of the things anyways :], so hopefully studying won’t be a pain.  It’s hard sometimes not to mix my own interest with a feeling of dread since it is easy to relate school stuff with stress and thus learning with stress.  But a lot of it is just attitude.  I usually find myself to feel really ashamed when I start finding what I’m learning to be a pain…I might let organic chem to be an exception; except when I was little I thought chemistry would be one of the more exciting sciences.  And I used to beg my dad to tell me about elements and what different elements were needed for…(I guess gen chem stuff then).  But still…

I think I’ll keep using Leechblock to limit Xanga time to 30 minutes a day.  Which might not sound like a lot, but relative to the amount of time I’ve spent on many a night this past year, it is a really small amount.  I might also deactivate my Facebook, but I think I’m going to wait until the school year starts, that way I can at least keep in contact with my USF friends until getting back…but I’m concerned that I won’t be able to keep in contact with friends away from USF, so I might not deactivate…><  I have time to decide. 

So goals/resolutions:
Academic
–Learn!  Yay, can’t wait for things like Astronomy and First Aid! !!
–Better understanding –>Better grades…it’s like a two for one deal! :]
–MCAT…:[  Only want to take it once, so the goal is to do well first time through.  If not, then I can take the 4+4 year route instead of 7 year accelerated, I guess. No sweat, technically.  But who wants to drill for a 5ish hour test more than once?  Need to get over a 30. 
--Shadowing and research

Non-academic 
--Be a better friend

-Be more understanding

Sometimes it's hard not to expect exact reciprocation from friends; but I have come to realize that we all express and do things differently.  I can't expect them to do the same things I do; doesn't mean they don't care as much as I do.  (If you see this, Michelle, sorry for being harsh-ish; I haven't been kind to you as my permanent BFF and sister )...

-Try to keep in touch better

--> better pen pal maybe too?  Owe a letter that received on Halloween...a few months late...again.  (*Facepalm*)

-Other

--Be happier
--Learn to relax more
--Sing more frequently; dance around a little more

–Better organization, time management
–Be healthier

I think these are pretty humble resolutions–not unrealistic, but probably not all attainable in one year; a lot of it could be attitude adjustments which can be a lifetime struggle.  But at least I’m recognizing these things…

Ah, time in Vegas gave me too much time to think (no internet while there).

But I should start off the New Year in a happy mood!  Not sure what I’m doing tomorrow; the parental unit wants to go to Gainesville to see friends from Chinese school, but I don’t really want to join them; the years before when I did join them I had to end up spending my new years and/or Christmas babysitting their friends’ kids.  Not the most terrible thing, but not exactly the most fun either.  Wish I could get some sparklers…but fireworks (etc.) are like burning money…(but they’re so fun).  The Asian in me is torn.  Lol.

Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey!
(1901 — Phoenix has been stuck in my head for a while…specifically that part)

P.S. Blue moon!