Begin Again

{"Be Brave" tile entry found while exploring Portland, October 2019}

Oh hey there. It's been... a really long time... since I've written something down on this platform.

Life updates: graduated OT school, passed the national boards exam (with a pretty decent score considering I walked out of there with shaky hands and thinking I'd failed), got my first full time job as an OT working at a skilled nursing facility (SNF), did that for two years with the best rehab team anyone could ever ask for (including two excellent bosses back to back-- hashtag grateful)...

Then in just this past year (oh hey, 2020), COVID hit, I tested positive in April due to a bunch of patients testing positive at work, self-quarantined through mid-May, went back to work for a few weeks, and then with how my company handled everything and treated us while we were dealing with the pandemic, I needed a change.

So here we are.

New adventure.

Something different.

Something I'd thought about before, but hadn't felt ready for yet.

I'm going to do travel therapy.

I accepted a position at a SNF several hours away from home for 13 weeks. The place looks good, the rehab team is supposedly cohesive and works well together, it's a busy place, and they use a different documentation system than I'm used to, so I'll get to add that to my repertoire.

It's definitely not Bay Area-esque with infinite places to go/eat/do things, but it's near a lot of pretty hikes (from what I've researched so far) and greenery and small town vibes.

I'm excited... and pretty anxious at this exact moment because I can't find housing out there...

Everything is either already taken (one homeowner said she JUST accepted a security deposit from someone else, another said her current tenant is most likely staying an extra month at least), not available when I arrive (there are a few places that say they'll be available mid September when I'm arriving late July), or crazy expensive (like... blowing past my entire housing allowance I get from the travel therapy company because I'd have to rent the entire house when it's just me... I don't need a WHOLE house! O.o).

So yeah, a little panicky. Mostly just the housing thing though, not about the whole travel therapy situation. I figure I've done enough internships throughout college/post-college that I can handle a new building and a new team for 3 months. It'll be like that, but I'll know more about what I'm doing and I'll be getting paid. Heyyy.

Since I'm headed out on this new adventure and I'll have the time to write (since I won't have homework and I'll be living away from the fam), I thought 'why not start this back up again?' I can document new places and experiences and it'll be good.

I will have to remember how to adjust my photos so they do what I want them to do on posts, though, cause it's been a while. Plus, I just got a Chromebook so I have a computer while I'm traveling, but I haven't quite figured out if I like it yet or how/where I would save my photos to use on posts. Soo... learning curve.

Rawrawrawr. My brain is flying now that I've broken the ice and written this first post in, like, 3 years.

So. Many. Things. I. Could. Write. About.

😯

It's gonna be good, guys. Let's do this.

The 2017 List

{Documenting adventures in my new Passion Planner}

A few things I wouldn't mind accomplishing this year...

Adventuring-Related:

+ Visit 5-7 more EBRPD parks with dog and parentals.

+ Go on a road trip with Janelly.

+ Plan STSS 2017 trip.

+ Explore more of San Francisco.

+ Visit Ruth (St. Louis, MO) or Debrr (Urbana, IL).

+ Keep track of wages and set aside 10% for travel.

+ Take solo trip somewhere.

+ Go to a Giants game.

+ Show Patrick snow.

+ Try 1 new restaurant per month.

Communication-Related:

+ Get back to blogging (at least once a week).

+ Send 5 letters or cards (that aren't thank you cards) to separate people.

+ Show Mom CreativeLive, Skillshare, and other learning websites.

+ Send 4 surprise care packages to friends.

+ Listen to 10 podcasts.

+ Reach 300 followers on Patrick's instagram.

+ Get Dear Dog Photography's instagram back up and running. 

Dog-Related:

+ Enroll Patrick in more doggy classes/get him to be less reactive to people and doggers.

+ Make 2 bowties and 2 bandanas for Patrick and his friends.

+ Eat out with Patrick there.

+ Volunteer at the local shelter at least once every 2 weeks for 2 hours.

Health-Related:

+ Get 6+ hours of sleep at least 3x/week.

+ Try rock-climbing.

+ Try biking with the dog.

+ Finish my large water bottle every day.

Self-Improvement Related:

+ Graduate OT school with good grades.

+ Do my best during Fieldwork II.

+ Bake 3 new things.

+ Practice handlettering.

+ Drive to 1 new place every 2 weeks to practice driving.

+ Keep room clean and begin to glean through the stuff in there.

+ Get a haircut.

+ Do less complaining and more encouraging.

+ Keep van as neat and clean as it is now.

+ Write more.

I'll try to document as I go; the padre, pupper, and I already crossed off a new-to-us East Bay Regional Park yesterday, so we're doing good! Let me know if there's anything on this list that you'd like to join me for or if there is anything you think I might like to try this year! <3

STSS Spring Adventure 2015 // Day Four: Church with Steph & Home

^ Steph and Mellieee! ^

^ So green. I approve. ^

^ Either we're stuck in traffic or Tommy doesn't want to leave. Both options are valid. ^

Day Four of our SoCal adventure started early. Like, 5:45am early. Which I know isn't that early for some people, but for this particular kidlet, it's definitely not my normal waking time.

The plan was to leave by 6:30am and get to church by 7am in order to help with the special Mother's Day brunch. However, plans were meant to go awry, and luckily for us, apparently everyone else involved with the brunch arrived late as well. O.o Asian churches. Nothing's ever on time.

Helping serve brunch to the many mothers at Steph's church was fantastic. I highly recommend working side by side with people you don't know as a great way to make insta-friends. :P After a morning spent meeting and hanging out with a bunch of Steph's church peeps, I can definitely see why she likes them lots. They were all so amazingly friendly and sweet and welcoming.

Since there were a bunch of moms whose kids were away at school or all grown up, and whose husbands had to work over the weekend {again, Asian churches. There's a lotta doctors. O.o}, Steph's family invited them to join us for a fun lunch out to celebrate the holiday. Before we all piled into cars, Steph dragged me into the photobooth and was like, "Let's take pictures!" "But Steph, we're not mothers..." "So?" "Oh. Okay." As you can see from the above photo, I definitely need to work on my photobooth game. For someone who did theatre the entirety of high school, you'd think I'd remember to cheat to camera by now. D:

Lunch was an adventure. Because it was Mother's Day, everyone who hadn't really planned properly took their mothers out for lunch. Which meant that every single restaurant we tried to go to either had an exorbitant prix fixe menu or had a two hour wait. No bueno. We finally ended up at a Chinese restaurant because they were the only ones who didn't have a ridiculously long wait and had space for a table of thirteen. Thankfully, their food was also pretty decent.

Steph and I had to awkwardly cut out in the middle of lunch since we needed to meet the guys back at her house. {Btw, sliding under the table at a Chinese restaurant in a long drape-y Sunday dress is not advised if you can help it. I was inwardly shuddering {and outwardly nose-wrinkling} at the thought of cleaning that floor with my clothes. Ugh}. We dashed across the strip mall to a new boba place to pick up milk tea for us and the guys, jumped back into the car, and made our way home.

The drinks we picked up were from Teacup in Westminster, and the interior decor there was an excellent shade of green, if I may say so myself {so so many of my things are that color... heh}. Steph really liked her selection, some sort of orange-pink fruit concoction that tasted like a sugar shot to the bloodstream {I said that for the drink from Class 302 on Thursday, too, but this one tasted better and was half the price}. From the speed that Stephen's iced coffee disappeared {with a little assistance from Tommy}, I'm guessing that wasn't too bad either.

Tommy and I started the drive back home around 5pm and didn't get back until 11:45pm-ish. That's longer than the normal four and a half hours it takes us to get from the Bay Area to UCLA, but then again, we started an extra hour south this time, we made two stops, and there was more traffic than both other times {apparently driving north on a Sunday night is a thing lots of people like to do}.

It truly was an excellent weekend. Although any time STSS gets to hang out, it's an excellent weekend. Thanks so much to Evelyn and Mickeyla for letting me stay over and hang out Thursday night and Friday morning, to Steph for having us over Friday {and for me, Saturday} night and hosting oh-so-excellently, and to Tommy for doing lots and lots of driving over a four day time span. {Stephen, you're a cool kid for giving into our peer pressure and showing up Friday night instead of Saturday morning. :P } Also, yay for parentals who are down with me disappearing on them for a weekend. Semi-spontaneous adventures are the bestest and so are you guys! (:

--

Earlier parts of STSS Spring Adventure 2015: day one, morning of day two, afternoon of day two, and day three.

--

Tasty Garden
9433 Bolsa Avenue, Suite C
Westminster, California 92683

Teacup
9393 Bolsa Avenue, Suite A
Westminster, California 92683

STSS Spring Adventure 2015 // Day Three: Kayaking & Crystal Cove

^ Only group picture we got the entire road trip. We can do better than that, guys! ^

^ Sleepeh Tommeh. ^ 

^ Steph & one of her chickens. ^

 ^ Ruby's Shake Shack. Apologies for the weird lighting; twas staring into the sun... O.o ^

Sleeping in unfamiliar places always has me waking up super early, no matter how late I went to sleep the night before. For instance, I fell asleep at 3am at Steph's and woke up at 6am. Yayyy. O.o

Upside though, that meant I got to watch the rest of the household slowly come alive {no, not like I creepily stood over them until they opened their eyes. -___- Like, it went from being silent to people slowly stirring upstairs and then hearing chattery voices over running water. Morning noises}.

Stephen was the first of us four to decide that getting up was worth it {I'd already brushed my teeth and everything, but was sitting back under the covers because it was warmer there. And I really didn't have anywhere I needed to be, so. Why get up?}. Our morning consisted of bidding adieu to all members of Steph's family except Roxy, waffle and omelette making, exercising the backyard chickens, picking cherry tomatoes off the vine, and a whole lot of just goofing off in the family room. The kind of no schedule hanging out that hadn't happened since last August when we did this same roadtrip and that we missed being able to do since we graduated college.

Around one o'clockish, we realized that if Steph's mom came home and found us all still sitting around and talking in our pajamas, she'd think we were crazy. So we decided to get dressed, clean up the kitchen of breakfast dishes, put all the couch pillows back where they belonged, and figure out our plan for the day.

After a lot of "what do you wanna do?" "I dunno, what do youuu want to do?", kayaking got the majority vote. We piled into the car, greeting the neighbor's very excited English bulldog puppy on the way, and off we went.

The first place we tried told us that all their double kayaks had just left and wouldn't be back for another hour-and-a-half to two hours. They recommended we try their other location further down the street with potentially better luck there. And we did have better luck there because not only did they have two double kayaks for us, but they were willing to offer us the Groupon discount simply from us mentioning the Groupon discount. Like, okay, sure.

The employees there were really friendly {if maybe a tad too friendly at some point? Semi-hitting on a girl when her boyfriend is standing right there miiight not be the best idea, dude... O.o}. They also had stand-up paddleboards, single kayaks, and covered motor boats, in case kayaking with friends isn't your thing.

You WILL get wet while out on the water because, even if you and your partner are the smoothest paddlers of all time, there are these holes at the bottom of the boat that are there to let water out in case it gets in your kayak, but all they really do is let water in every time you hit the wake of a passing motorboat. ))): Boo. I've gone kayaking before and had NEVER gotten as soaked as we were when we stepped out onto the dock at the end. Basically, everything from the waist down was water-logged. ): Our recommendation is to wear shorts, leave your shoes/flip flops on the dock, and bring a change of clothes. Also, if you don't know how to kayak, go ahead and ask the dock attendant BEFORE you push off and attempt to learn on your own. It's so much easier.

Our two hours paddling around the bay were fun, if a little tiring. We opted for going the quieter route where there were less motor boats and the water was calmer. Stephen and Steph made friends with some very pretty swans while Tommy and I found Gru's (from Despicable Me) house {it had a mini Statue of Liberty in its backyard}. Since we left everything either in the car or at the boat rental place, we relied on Tommy's faux FitBit to let us know when it was time to turn back. It was a pretty good plan until we realized that we weren't actually sure how far back the place really was... O.o Did we pass it? Did we not go far enough? WHERE ARE WE, GUYS.

Turns out, we needed to paddle, like, fifty more feet and we were there. Heh.

Steph suggested dinner at Ruby's Shake Shack near Crystal Cove in Newport Beach and the drive there was really pretty. Lots of small shops lining the sidewalks, rolling hills to our left, the ocean to our right. *two thumbs up* We parked up the block at Crystal Heights {a shopping area with a very residential name, no?} since Ruby's parking lot is tiny and always full.

After a lovely stroll along the Pacific Coast Highway on the Crystal Cove Trail, we arrived at this cute, bright yellow, beachy building with a gorgeous wood patio to the side and a ridiculous view of the beach below. We ate our food facing the setting sun at their patio railing and although that basically meant we were squinting the entire time, I think we'd all choose to sit there again. (:

As soon as we finished eating, the unanimous decision was made to head down the long set of wooden stairs to Crystal Cove and hang for a while. I'm not normally a fan of beaches {too many unknown things in the sand, thank you very much}, but this one was clean and nothing was on the beach that wasn't supposed to be on a beach {in other words, no weird trash or sketchy mysterious objects or whathaveyou. Just seaweed and rocks and sand}. I took a lot of pictures while we were there, so I'm thinking I'll make that its own separate post...

Once the sun had set and darkness was falling, we trekked back up the stairs, along the highway, and back to the car, in search of one last thing to do before we went home. With a peek at our "Future Adventure" GoogleDoc {yes, we keep a running list}, we realized we weren't too far from a Creamistry, so off we drove.

The place was busy, though we got there just before a huge line of people formed. Watching them make the orders is a lot of fun, since large clouds of cool-to-the-touch white vapor poof out of the giant mixing bowls, spilling over the counter and slowly dissipating just in time for another cloud to appear from a different station. We tried the lemon meringue flavor and it was pretty good. Another thing crossed off our "Future Adventure" list!

When we got back to Steph's house, the guys left for San Diego and we simply got ready for bed since we'd have to be up early the next morning. There was some watching of Pitch Perfect and Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader in there {her siblings were watching and we were slowly calming down after a long day}, but otherwise, the rest of the night was uneventful and quiet.

--

Earlier parts of STSS Spring Adventure 2015: day one, morning of day two, and afternoon of day two.
Later parts of the trip: day four.

--

Newport Fun Tours
3101 West Coast Highway #160
Newport Beach, California 92663

Ruby's Shake Shack

7703 East Coast Highway

Newport Beach, California 92657

Creamistry
3972 Barranca Parkway
Irvine, California 92606

STSS Spring Adventure 2015 // Day Two, Pt 2: Hanging Out in Irvine

 ^ One of the MANY pictures we sent Stephen to try to get him to drive down and join the fun. ^

 ^ And this one. Because Steph. :P ^

 ^ These two collaborating in order to beat Stephen at trivia. ^

 ^ Dinnaaaar. ^

Tommy and I left Mickeyla's apartment around 2:30pm with plans to meet Steph at 3:45pm. We didn't get there until 4:40ish. Oh, LA Friday rush hour freeway traffic. How ridiculous you are.

Luckily, Tommy and I are decently used to sitting in the car for long periods of time {road trip from NorCal to LA in August, driving around SF and to/from Monterey in December, NorCal to LA again Thursday, etc}. Poor Steph was wondering when in the world we'd get there though and kept us company for about an hour on the phone. Girl needed sleep since she got up at 5:45am for teacher training day at work, but was fighting it hard. She finally gave in about half an hour before we showed up and took a nap in her car.

The first thing we did when we arrived at the location Steph specified was... get boba. What else? The Class 302 in Irvine allows you to fill your own cup with whatever combination of extras {boba, jelly, pudding, whathaveyou} and flavored/milk tea you'd prefer. Sounds lovely in theory, but since you can't adjust the sweetness level, it's like drinking liquid sugar that goes straight to your bloodstream. Holey moley. O.o

With no other set plans beyond getting boba, Steph, Tommy, and I ended up wandering around the shopping area, strolling into and through Lowe's {where Tommy petted a flameless stovetop and Steph stared mesmerized by a strobe disco light}, and sitting in one of the patio furniture/gazebo things on display inside. You know you're good friends when you don't mind your entertainment being that lowkey.

Once we finally exited Lowe's, we went back to the small seating area outside Class 302 and I absorbed sunlight {coldblooded much?} while Steph and Tommy played a trivia game on her phone against Stephen. Every now and then, Steph would get a call from either siblings or parents to remember to pick up her brother from school later or to ask if she could get her older sisters from church in a few hours. We also tried our hardest to convince Stephen to drive down that night as opposed to in the morning like he originally planned. He finally gave in after a lot of pleading and cajoling on our part. Heh. 

We decided on a game plan of: grab dinner somewhere in the shopping area, then Steph would go get her little brobro from UC Irvine and Tommy and I would find Charlie and Roxy near church. Everyone would meet up back at home and sometime near 11:30 to midnight, Stephen would arrive with Steph's little sister and her friends in tow {they were coming from Westwood}. So that's what happened.

Dinner was Pieology near the Edwards Stadium Cinema movie theater. The line was decently long, but we weren't in any super rush, so we just talked the entire time while we waited. The food was pretty good-- Steph and I split an Alfredo pizza and Tommy... made his own with a whole bunch of random things. I don't even know.

Everyone split up, found their assigned peeps, and drove back to Steph's house. The rest of the night was just as lowkey as the afternoon had been, which was cause for some confusion from Steph's madre since she was like, "But you guys haven't seen each other for ages and you're our guests. Shouldn't you all be doing something more exciting than taking a shower (Steph) and putting together a mini lego set at the kitchen counter (Tommy and me)?" Hee. In all honesty, the best part of seeing the besties is that you can fall back into the same comfortableness that warrants treating them like family and just hanging out together, not doing anything special. It's great. I love it.

Stephen, Mellie, and friends showed up when they said they would. The first thing the sophomore girls did was scoop bowls of ice cream. The first thing we old people did was simply sit near each other and revel in the fact that we were all in the same place again. You know you're getting a bit older when you don't want ice cream at midnight. :P

With five extra people in the house that night and all of the five siblings home as well, the sleeping arrangements took a bit of finagling. It was ultimately decided that Mellie and friends would stay in Steph's room with a giant air mattress, Stephen and Tommy got the floor of the living room, and Steph and I would share the pull out couch in the family room. I really do look forward to spending time with these kidlets and Steph's family. There's never a dull moment and there's always someone around {as an only child, that's a novel idea}. Twas a good day.

--

Earlier parts of STSS Spring Adventure 2015: day one and earlier in day two.
Later parts of the trip: day three and day four.

--

Class 302
13252 Jamboree Road
Irvine, California 92614

Pieology at the Market Place
13786 Jamboree Road #110
Irvine, California 92602

STSS Spring Adventure 2015 // Day Two, Pt 1: Mornings with Mickeyla

^ Doesn't this look like one of those digital renderings of what the proposed building could look like? Alas, it's real! ^

 ^ Re-Bruinitized! ^

 ^ My mom saw this picture and was like, "HA. Look at your tiny feetsies." Thanks, Mom. ^

^ Oh, Urban Outfitters. I want to like you because this interior is THEBEST, but sadly, your clothes aren't my style. ): ^

^ How could I not like a place whose main color scheme is grey and lime green? Answer is, I can't. ^

^ See us? :D ^

 ^ Heatherwick Studio was the featured artist/design exhibit at the Hammer Museum. They're the ones behind the London Olympic torch. So awesome. ^

I love the couch in Mickeyla and Evelyn's apartment. I've taken many a nap on that couch during undergrad and it fits me perfectly. Like sers. My five foot two-ish inch frame can stretch out on it without feeling squished and fills it enough so that other people don't feel like they have enough room to sit where my feet should be. Hee. It's perfect. I could write odes to that couch. *happy sigh*

Anyways. Mickeyla's first class started at eight in the morning, so we were up early to catch the bus to campus. I actually learned a bunch during that first lecture on "Intro to Non-Carious Tooth Structure Loss" and definitely enjoyed meeting a bunch of her classmates. I hadn't realized how much grad school would sort of feel like high school-- you're with the same people for hours every day and it's a small group, so everyone was joking around before the teacher showed up.

The second lecture we went to... ugh. The teacher was good, the kids were the same, but the material was AUGH. I think out of all the body systems, the nervous system is my least favorite. For a psych major, I dislike learning about the brain's physiology a whole bunch. *sheepish* I still took notes since I'm 93% sure I'll have to learn this during OT school, but I didn't quite enjoy it as much as that first lecture. Thankfully, right after that, we were freeeee and Mickeyla and I went off to go explore campus.

Neither of us was super hungry at this point, so we went to check out the new music building near the Inverted Fountain. While we were in the area, Mickeyla re-Bruinitized herself, albeit nine months late. Since people hadn't been jumping in and out of the fountain yet {UCLA graduates in June, so no one should be touching that water until then}, the fountain was super clear and clean. Gorgeous.

If you're looking for a cool kid, semi-hipster, decently quiet place to study on campus, try the Music Cafe in the EMo building {technically, it's the Evelyn and Mo Ostin Music Center, but M and I decided their couple name was EMo}. After walking in, going "Oooh," and walking back out of the cafe, we decided to try and find a way into the building to see what it looked like. All the doors were securely locked... except one. And we found it. Moohahaha. Sadly, the inside was nothing special. Only the outside had been made pretty. ):

Looking at the time, we thought we should probably get lunch, even if we weren't very hungry. As we made our way out into the wilds of Westwood, we came across a Mexican fruit cart and instantly stopped, looked at each other, and raised an eyebrow. "Yes?" "Why not?" I love that she and I understand each other well enough to see an adventure where most people just keep walking. Having no experience ordering from a fruit cart, we simply asked for a bit of everything, which included: canteloupe, honeydew, orange, cucumber, watermelon, coconut, pineapple, and mango with a lot of lime juice and a good dusting of chili powder. The mango chunks were our favorite and if it's possible for fruit to taste brighter, the lime juice and chili definitely had that effect. Worth a repeat, for sure.

Next, we decided to get food at TLT Westwood before walking home. We just beat the lunch rush as at least twenty people got in line after we ordered. O.o The wait was short though and the people-watching good. Mickeyla tried the Beef Short Rib Sliders and I got the Carnitas Fries. So good.

There's this one card by Emily McDowell that says "There's nobody else I'd rather lie in bed and look at my phone next to," and, ignoring the lying in bed part, I've found that you know you're besties when you're comfortable goofing off on your phone next to one another and don't feel like you have to entertain/seriously converse with the other person all the time. For example, after eating our food back in the apartment, Mickeyla and I sat on the couch and played around with VSCOcam for quite a while.

We had passed by the Hammer Museum on our walk through Westwood and the ickle girlikin mentioned how they had an temporary exhibit I might like on architecture and design. With an hour to kill before Tommy and I were supposed to leave for Irvine to meet up with Steph, Mickeyla and I headed back outside to visit the museum. Even though I'd been at UCLA for four years, I'd never stepped foot inside the Hammer until this day. Admission is free and you get a sticker when you enter that lets the docents know which exhibits you're allowed into {if you ARE a member, you get special access to certain stuff, I think}.

You have to try the circular chairs in the courtyard if you go. I'm not sure if they're a permanent part of the museum or if they're just part of the Heatherwick Studio exhibit, but they're pretty great. M was right, by the way. I did enjoy the pieces on display by Heatherwick {check out their stuff; they're so awesome} and Charles Gaines {his stuff is like paint-by-math (instead of just by numbers)}. Everything had a certain whimsy and inventiveness I really liked.

Also. Museum stores' children's sections are the BEST. If I ever have a small human being, I want to have a book baby shower. Ugh. Too much cute. Too many adorable animals. Too many gorgeous, quirky things. Rawr. Can't handle.

Mickeyla and I ended up getting so distracted by all the things in the kids' section that we had to dash back to the apartment in order for me to be ready when Tommy showed up. I'm so thankful for this girl. I've mentioned it a thousand times before, but she had ridiculous patience living with me those first two years of undergrad and has always had my back. We've known each other for thirteen years now {which is over half our lives} and I'm 111% sure we'll be those crazy old lady besties in the future. Thanks for letting me stay over, Mickeyla, and allowing me to tag along to class with you and always being down to create adventures wherever we go.

--

Earlier parts of STSS Spring Adventure 2015: day one.
Later parts of the trip: the rest of day two, day three, and day four.

--

TLT Westwood
1116 Westwood Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90024

Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California 90024

STSS Spring Adventure 2015 // Day One: Road Trips & Cookie Talks

^ My selfie game needs work. As soon as I took this picture, I dropped my phone so far under my seat, we had to move the entire thing all the way back in order for me to retrieve it. D: First world probs. Also, foggy weather apparently turns me into a ghost. Boo. ^

^ The difference between farmland and cow pastures. O.o ^

^ She may kill me for this picture, but I missed her face, so I'll put it here. Those cheeks! ^

When you get a random text that says, "I wanna go to LA," you must immediately reply, "Down. When," and begin mentally figuring out logistics.

I suppose one of the major perks of not being employed/in school at the moment is that I'm free to play when opportunities arise, no matter how last minute. A couple weeks ago, Tommy mentioned that he wanted to go down to SoCal and since I didn't have any plans, I asked if I could tag along. We've done this same weekend road trip thing before, last August, so we had a vague recollection of how to plan this one.

The general schedule was something like:

Thursday: leave NorCal in the morning, get to LA by early afternoon, bother about during the afternoon with whoever is available in Westwood, split up to hang out with separate friends, sleep over at those separate friends' apartments.

Friday: Do whatever in the morning, meet up and drive down to Steph in Orange County in the afternoon, hang out, Stephen shows up later that evening after work, everyone sleep over at Steph's.

Saturday: We leave this entire day free because we never know what we'll all feel like doing that day. We just know STSS Adventures will be had. We did know that the guys would leave that night for San Diego, while I would stay over with Steph another night.

Sunday: I'd go to church with Steph, have lunch con su familia, the guys would drive back up to OC, Stephen drives home to Westwood, Tommy and I head back up to NorCal.

It was an excellent weekend.

Thursday went exactly as planned. Our road trip down to SoCal took the same amount of time as when we went in August, even though we took a break mid-trip this time. The weather was super wonky. It went from foggy when we started out to sunshine to pouring rain to sunshine to dust storm {to the point where the car in front of us would disappear from view and visibility was only a few feet in front of our car D: } to just enough drizzle to get the car dirty and finally back to sunshine. It was ridiculous.

We also hit a tumbleweed. {Technically, it was the tumbleweed's fault. So.}

After spending the afternoon just hanging out in the apartments with very kind GOC seniors, Tommy went to go meet up with friends for dinner and I walked down to Westwood to find Evelyn. She's a good one. Even though she'd just taken an intense law school final and had to study for the next one, she took the time to grab food with me and chatter a bit over dinner once we got back to her apartment. She's awesome. She and I will be making this same NorCal > SoCal > NorCal trip in July for a friend's wedding, so we'll be able to talk more then. For now, I tried to convince her that I could keep myself occupied {perk of being an only child!} and that she should go study without worrying about me. :P

Mickeyla showed up a bit later and we got to catch up on all the things while she made her dinner and I kept her company. I really do think the best thing we did in college to become better friends was to stop living together. *hah* She knows I mean that in the best way possible-- after two years of being roommates, we'd gotten so good at knowing each other's schedules that we never really had anything new to talk about since we pretty much already knew how the other's day went. Nowadays, we can ask and be genuinely interested in the response {as opposed to asking because we're supposed to and getting a short "it was fine" in reply}. She luckily didn't have too much studying to do that night, so we got to sit on the couch, eat cookies, and talk for several hours. Twas wonderful.

Since I had no plans for Friday morning, Mickeyla jokingly asked if I wanted to go to class with her. And after a moment's thought, I was like, "Yeah, why not?" She was like, "It's four hours of lecture..." and I was totally okay with that. You know you're either quite nerdy or really good friends when you're down to wake up early and sit in class all morning when you're visiting from out of town. Heh.

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Later parts of STSS Spring Adventure 2015: morning of day two, afternoon of day two, day three, and day four!

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Gushi
978 Gayley Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90024

Adventuring // Castro Valley Farmers Market

Finally getting around to checking out our local farmers market {is there an apostrophe there or not? I always get confused}...

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Who: Janelle, Dad, and I
Where: Castro Valley Farmers Market
When: Saturday at 10:30 AM

The Place: Every Saturday morning, from 10 AM until 2 PM, the Castro Valley Farmers Market is set up along the street in the BART parking lot. A single aisle of vendors and stalls, this is one of the smaller farmers markets in the surrounding area, but the people are friendly and the parking is plentiful.

While most of the stalls are produce-centric, there are also several baked goods places and a few hot food stands on the ends of the aisle. For a couple years, there were food trucks as well, but those have recently started going to neighboring farmers markets because they get more clientele over there. Hazards of being a small town. :P


What We Did: Wandered. Made one trip up and back down the aisle to check out what was available and what the prices were like at different stalls, and then made another trip to actually purchase whatever we had decided on.

I had read in several different places online that one has to try the pot pies, so we got a few of those. They were really good; we had them for lunch yesterday after Easter service and the crust was amazing and the filling excellently done. We are not usually pot pie people, but we would definitely recommend these.

I liked the look of the greens that were available at a couple stalls-- for one to two bucks per very good looking bunch, that's not bad at all. We got some yu choy {they're the greens to the left in the photo above} and kale. Janelle and I lingered over those cosmetically challenged apples for a moment and thought about whether we'd actually make something during the upcoming week or if we should come back another Saturday when we had a recipe in mind. We decided on the latter. Those apples ARE really good though-- we tried the samples. Delish.

The padre ended up buying some rye sourdough bread at one of the stalls because it's super low carb/low sugar, which works for him. Janelly picked up some cilantro/avocado hummus. She and I tried that on the vendor's garlic pita chips... yes.


Tips: A few suggestions...
+ Go a bit closer to when they open because some of those stalls were almost out of their bestsellers by 10:45 AM. This Farmers Market IS a bit smaller than others you can go to in Hayward or Dublin, but that slightly smaller selection means that the produce and goods that ARE there go quickly. For instance, there's a bread/baked good booth that had three long tables worth of stuff when we started our first trip down the aisle and by the time we made it back to her stall, she had a single table's worth. Impressed.

+ Don't go TOO early though because then a bunch of the vendors won't have finished setting up yet. It's a delicate balance.

+ Bring your own bags to carry your purchases in. Makes life a lot easier if you don't have to balance everything in your arms.

+ Parking isn't really a problem since it's Saturday and you're in a BART parking lot and it's free on weekends. You should be fine on that front.


Conclusion: While I am a big proponent of sleeping in whenever possible, I also think that this was worth waking up early for every now and then. We unfortunately won't be able to go back these next two upcoming Saturdays since Janelle and I will be helping run Ruth's wedding party bonding day this week and next week she'll be at the San Francisco Cherry Blossom Festival, but maybe the week after we'll try to go back and get some apples for baking. I'm not sure if I'm a hardcore Farmers Market person, but I definitely enjoyed myself this weekend.

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Castro Valley Farmers Market
3301 Norbridge Drive
Castro Valley, California 94546

Adventuring // Impromptu Golden Tee Mini Golf with Janelle

^ Is that super Californian or what? Those palm trees, man. ^

^ Shadow selfie! And group picture, too, cause Janelly's shoes are right there! :P ^

^ Celebrate! ^

^ I never realized how derpy/dorky these dragons looked until now. From afar, they're iconic Castro Valley. Close up... O.o ^

^ This hill. Ohmygerd. {Janelle would like to point out that I did get a hole in one here, but... still}. ^

^ Gorgeous day, no? ^

^ Tickets! All the tickets! ^

About six months ago, the madre bought some mini golf tickets-- four were for #STSSWinterAdventure2014 and two were for whenever. Earlier this week, we realized that those last two tickets would expire Tuesday and that we had to use them or *dundundunnnn* lose them forevahhh.

Since the madre had things to do and the padre had to work, I needed a mini golfing buddy. Thankfully for me, Janelle was free and responded to my "Mini golfing today? Yesyes?" text at one in the afternoon with "Like, right now? O.o How about in an hour?" She's the best.

Both of us have lived in Castro Valley for years and have gone mini golfing previously {occasionally together!}, so we're familiar with the more popular course that I'd say 85% of people do when they're here. The quieter side, closer to the street, looks less exciting and everyone's heard it feels shorter {even though it isn't}, so it's got a lot less traffic. HOWEVER. Since it was just the two of us and there was no one to really impress with our ahmazing mini golf skills {O.o} and I trusted her to not laugh too-too hard if I knocked the ball into the bushes and/or down a hill, we decided to try that course out for the first {for me} and second {for her} times ever.

It was fun. Both of us agreed that if we're taking out-of-town friends here, we'd still go with the more popular course, but the quieter side isn't too bad. You can take your time, no one's rushing you, and while there are less pretty structures and obstacle things built into this course, the holes seem a bit more technical than the popular side... like there are a lot more sneaky slants to this side that make your ball roll in directions you didn't hit it. D:

The wind was majorly blowing Tuesday afternoon, which made our mini golfing attempts even more hilarious. At one or two of the holes, I hit the ball almost all the way to the hole and it was looking really good for me and then... instead of stopping inches from its destination, the ball would catch the wind and seriously roll ALL. THE. WAY. BACK. TO. ME... SLOWLY. It was killer. I was like, "No... no... no... nonononononoNOOOOOOO," while Janelle laughed her head off next to me. So bad. *sigh*

We didn't keep score {well, we sorta did, but we didn't tally it up in the end and we weren't really trying to beat one another} and it was pretty nice to just play for the sake of playing. Watch out for the eighth and thirteenth holes. Those are the tricky ones.

After finishing the course, we went inside to the arcade to use our game tokens. Similarly to when I came midnight mini golfing during #STSSWinterAdventure2014, Janelle and I solely played skee ball and Harpoon Lagoon. And guess what?!? She got the jellyfish during a round of Harpoon Lagoon and got a ridiculous number of tickets! Pooling our pile together, we ended up with enough tickets to get 17 Gummi Hamburgers. Whoot. :P

I'm so so glad Janelle is available to play and work and keep me company right now. We've seen a lot of each other recently since we're helping plan Ruth's wedding party bonding day {it's coming up soon!} and it was so fantastic to get together and not have to think about any of that {long story short, the plans for the day keep getting more and more elaborate (not our fault-- we're not in charge) and it's kind of stressing us out. A lot}. Thanks for hanging out with me on a random Tuesday, Janelly, and acting like it was normal that I stop a lot to take photos of things! :D

Adventuring // The Best Building in Downtown San Leandro

On the corner of a busy San Leandro intersection, there's a pretty white three story building with one of those sharp angled fronts reminiscent of New York's Flatiron Building. Last week, Joy, Janelle, and I snuck in and wandered around its silent, empty hallways.

Technically, we didn't sneak. It's open to the public {there are law offices in there right now}, but it's one of those buildings where you feel like you're trespassing if you don't have an appointment. Not that anyone inside makes you feel that way-- it's the building itself that makes you feel in awe.

There are black wrought-iron curlique gates guarding the entrance and once you've walked up the short marble staircase and past those gates, your face just goes slack and your eyes wide because... all that warm, shiny, polished mahogany. The slightly worn, still thick, dark red and cream patterned carpet. The vaulted ceilings with a giant skylight. The intricately carved staircase railings lining the entire way up to the long, quiet hallways, where footsteps are muffled and all you hear is the slight hum of the air-conditioning.

We didn't encounter another soul the entire time we walked around. The law offices were labeled, but we never heard voices or the click-clacking of computer keys.

Rereading that, the place sounds really creepy, but it's so not. It's just old. And impressive. And so full of history, that you feel a bit out of place. It's peaceful. Everywhere you look, there are more details that make you nudge your companions and go, "Look at that!"

I would think golden hour must make the light inside that building just... wow. Everything is so warm-toned already that when the afternoon sun comes through the windows, the place has to glow golden.

We really have no reason to ever go back inside the Best Building {it's named after a guy named Daniel Best who was known for his work in tractor manufacturing}, but if you're ever in the neighborhood, it's a gorgeous place to peek into and so many people don't even know it's there.

Tip: There are two side entrances that will get you to the upper floors of the building where all the above pictures were taken {the main floor has been taken over by Citibank, so going in the front won't help you at all}. There's an entrance on both the East 14th side and the Estudillo side. Just look for those iron gates!

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The Best Building

1300 East 14th Street

San Leandro, California 94577