Bye-o, LA!

When I come back from the Bay Area, I'm usually saddened by the news of some local establishment's closing ("Wait, where'd the Morning Glory go?" "Davao Grill closed?!" "J.J. Video is no longer J.J. Video?! [well, it actually still is]). But there are certain constants down here that keep me in check and bring me home, over and over again.

This ten-day stretch in Los Angeles has been just what I've needed after this past semester. Spring '09 was filled with its ridiculous hurdles, absolute enjoyments, episodes of achievement, and bouts of distress. Regardless, they're all behind me, waving from the surface of battered driftwood. So Spring '09, as turbulent as you were, I'm pouring this 40 for you,

'cause great friends make things a-okay,
family (as symbolized by Abbey the Malti-Poo) is unconditional,
and some food is just too damn good not to be enjoyed.
This polite farewell is yours.

--
So folks, I'm on my way to Madison, Wisconsin for SEASSI! Convoluted Ponderings will be taking a nine-week vacation. The blog in its stead: Ponderings in America's Dairyland! [hahah.. yeah, I know..] See ya in August! ^_^

Cafe Spasso, a delight

Top 3 Comforting Things of the Morn'

1. Mini chocolate chips- not sure why, but they sure look cute
2. Time article on HDLs- for an obsessive lipid counter like me, learning more about HDLs is the way to go! [does this negate #1?]
3. Not feeling cloudy on a rainy day

Warm weather and High Fidelity reminders

Push it out
Push it all out

I wanna beat ya, wanna hold ya, wanna hold ya to me
Down near hell, that's where I'll be

- "Push It Out" by The Beta Band

This blog made me think...

Well, Happy Friday, folks! While I was in the office, I came across this blog post, and it made me think of my Top 10 Processed Foods. The blogger makes a point that nearly everything is processed... even some of our fresh produce. However, for the sake of following the general assumption of the word "processed," I will try to stick to those processed guilty pleasures. You know, the ones that get your blood sugar riled, LDLs pumped, and body sluggish. >_<

1. Funyuns [retro packaging and all!]
2. Peanut Butter M&Ms
3. Sour Cream and Onion anything
4. Mini Twix
5. spiced chai concentrate [not alone, of course. hahah]
6. orange Gatorade [may be controversial, but I think you'd agree]
7. Pop Tarts of the chocolate variety
9. frozen chimichangas [you know, the ones from Costco]
10. cookie dough ice cream

[Note: These are truly once-in-a-blue-moon treats I lack consistent cravings for. I don't want to come off as a health food snob, though, 'cause we know that ain't true!]

One of my favorites..

Back in the day, Mike and I went to Berkeley's Thai temple brunch nearly every weekend. Then it got suuuper crowded and a bit discouraging. Nevertheless, we recently took another stab at this top-rated Berkeley haunt, and I gots me one of my favoritest yummies.Khanom phuuak!

If you're a fan of the good ol' tuber, somewhat bland things, and coconut milk, these are for you! ^_^

Ack, so many posts!

I know, I know. A ton of posts! But I really felt like I had to share this poem by Li-Young Lee.

Self-Help for Fellow Refugees

If your name suggests a country where bells
might have been used for entertainment

or to announce the entrances and exits of the seasons
or the birthdays of gods and demons,

it's probably best to dress in plain clothes
when you arrive in the United States,
and try not to talk too loud.

If you happen to have watched armed men
beat and drag your father
out the front door of your house
and into the back of an idling truck

before your mother jerked you from the threshold
and buried your face in her skirt folds,
try not to judge your mother too harshly.

Don't ask her what she thought she was doing
turning a child's eyes
away from history
and toward the place where all human aching starts.

And if you meet someone
in your adoprted country,
and think you see in the other's face
an open sky, some promise of new beginning,
it probably means you're standing too far.
--

Or if you think you read in the other, as in a book
whose first and last pages are missing,
the story of your own birthplace,
a country twice erased,
once by fire, once by forgetfulness,
it probably means you're standing too close.

In any case, try not to let another carry
the burden of your own nostalgia or hope.

And if you're one of those
whose left side of the face doesn't match
the right, it might be a clue

looking the other way was a habit
your predecessors found useful for survival.
Don't lament not being beautiful.

Get used to seeing while not seeing.
Get busy remembering while forgetting.
Dying to live while not wanting to go on.

Very likely, your ancestors decorated
their bells of every shape and size
with elabrate calendars
and diagrams of distant star systems,
but with no maps for scattered descendants.
--

And I bet you can't say what language
your father spoke when he shouted to your mother
from the back of the truck, "Let the boy see!"

Maybe it wasn't the language you used at home.
Maybe it was a forbidden language.
Or maybe there was too much screaming
and weeping and noise of guns in the streets.

It doesn't matter. What matters is this:
The kingdom of heaven is good.
But heaven on earth is better.

Thinking is good
But living is better.

Alone in your favorite chair
with a book you enjoy
is fine. But spooning
is even better.

by Li-Young Lee from Behind My Eyes

The Cloud Looms Over GSPP

My workspace during PP157. Sack o' brownies chillin' to the right.

Derek's workspace.
Derek's Murakami-inspired masterpiece.

Oh, school...

Rain rain rain

I finished a nice order of red bean milk from Tapioca Express. Milk blended with red beans ::drool:: I had it with mini boba, but I would have liked it just fine without the chewy bits.

I hope I don't tire of red beans anytime soon. There are just so many possibilities! (red bean trinket from the fantastic G-Chan)

--
I'm not the biggest fan of studying in libraries, mostly because I get fidgety and weird or farty and hungry (the combinations are very interchangeable). I also think I have a thing for white noise that can potentially cover up the mumbling I do when I'm writing a paper. ("Furthermore, Villa attempts ::espresso machine:: to explain the ::laughter:: ack, no, Villa attempts to ::Lady Gaga:: #$#@$").

However, the library is fat with interesting odds and ends and is a necessity for those papers. The main stacks in Berkeley's Doe Library are intimidating foolios that don't kid around. You can crank levers to separate and join the heaaavy stacks, which is fine and dandy... you would think!

How sterile-looking, right?

But when I have to comb through the collections to find something that'll fit into my papers, I fear that in my pursuit, I just might get squished.

The end of Dance MagIK?!
[Yup, got my share of stares for staging the photo :p]

Monday Morning for Mutts

--

Blasting DnB in the office. Perhaps a different genre will calm me better...

What nice weather we're having

While waiting for office hours on Wednesday, I gorged a Healthy Heavenly Foods spam musubi.
(still made with the sweetened rice, though :/)

I, the Perpetual Sucker for These Sorts of Delights.
I also tried the apples and cinnamon version of Jamba Juice's oatmeal. Again, oatmeal texture and brown sugar = poifect.

--
I had such a relaxing day with my friends yesterday. Good bonding, nice environments [Go, botanical gardens!], massive snacking, and the relief in knowing great people.
Good times keep rolling, got to escape now
Good times keep rolling, dance to escape now

"Hey! It's a bottle of French vodka!"
"Kat, don't pick it up.. Oh, oh jeez Kat, put that down!"

Now... to prepare for that midterm! >_<

Reaching Content

I haven't been this me in so long.

When in need of a good lol

"You two always put up with me. Thank you!"

"No, we just want you to be a normal person for once and not Kathleen!"

UMF

Great music all the time. Festival weather. Pendulum, Infected, Mstrkrft, Moby. Heck, everyone! I'm so exhausted it hurts to move.

So marks the turning point of the semester and the end of Dance MagIK. Wait, what was I thinking?!

Maybe not forever, but for a very long while. humm

Absolutely perfect for a Monday morning..

We love the all the all of you
Where lands are green and skies are blue
When all in all we're just like you
We love the all of you

-Spacehog "In the Meantime"

Oh! And..

However this semester pans out, I will make it out alive and kicking.
[Postcard hanging in Ajarn Kepner's office]

PP 157 Office Hours

"Hi, Professor, I'm --"
"Dance MagIK, I know."
...

[well, how it felt like it went]

"I'm a little uncertain about how I'm doing with regard to participation in lecture."
"Yeah, I remember you, you don't say stupid things."

::utter relief::

Curry and Tortillas

... simply when all naan is lacking.

I really prefer using this specific kind of mechanical pencil. Since time immemorial, I've always bought this type and used it to its fullest extent.. sorta. The cap to the eraser is probably its trickiest part because if you're like me, a lost cap to anything (a USB drive, pen, or said pencil) irks you. A ton.
So much so I usually have to get a new one.
::shakes head in shame::

I think I'm making progress, though. It's starting to seem that little imperfections like these can be overlooked.

Until, of course, this pencil loses its cap. We 'll just see about that. o_o

update (4 hours later): OK, well, I officially can't find the cap. CRAP O_O

Las Vegas Food = Bread Pudding Time

from Lucky Cafe in the Stratosphere Hotel

It was a bread pudding extravaganza during the Vegas trip. I had bread pudding with every single meal, and some meals really just consisted of bread pudding. Did I end up tiring of this delectable confection?

I'll have to get back to you on that.

Rio Hotel brunch buffet
Plate 1 (bread pudding front center)
Plate 2 (bread pudding back left)
Mimosa, mint chocolate chip and cookies 'n' cream gelato
At this point, there was some pretty painful stomach distention.
But like most things in life, you have to go in with a positive attitude :)

Post-Tryst meal.
You guessed it.

Bread pudding.

Wonderful experiences

I think I'll need quite a few blog posts to capture the last week and how amazingly eventful, eye-opening, and rewarding it was. Since I don't have too much time to start now, I might as well post up something that made me exhale a comforting "wow."

"'The world's movement is always forward, darkness turns to light; ignorance to wisdom; it is said that man took his form from the fish and the bird; man, it is said, was a monkey before he became a god.

'What I mean is we should not be impatient, Rome was not constructed in just a day; rice is half-cooked or burned from too much fire under the stove; the same is true with fruits, they are acrid and bitter when made to ripen out of turn.'...

Like a spring with a generous flow of water, Lantay and Dupil are twin streams coming from the mountain, at times flowing apart, sometimes merging; they are forked streams certain to reach the sea together.

As if in answer to Dupil's question, they saw the darkness broken by the light, 'Morning has come...' The two friends returned to their quarters while the guerillas one and all, were still deep in slumber."

-"The Forked Stream" ("Magkasangang Agos") from Free Country (Bayang Malaya) by Amado V. Hernandez (1970)

Of course, I should include at least one photo in this post!

CSHC's conference had a great apple theme, which also carried over into CSHC and CSNO's School Health Day at the Capitol. While the buttons cutely conveyed the appled-up motif, the conference break snacks did, too! Apple pastries (turnover? flaky goodness? two utterly yummy things?), apples, apple butter (OM NOM NOM), and apple cider!

More soon..

Some semi-random

The weekend was, without a doubt, amazing+ ridiculous+ hilarious+ memorable. (Hm, when is it ever not?) There is never a dull moment when it comes to Team Kickass, trips to San Francisco for X Y and Z (hah), and making and eating glorious food. hahah And the gargantuan pillow fight was spectacular.

Lookie! I don't know what its name was, but I think it was an apple and peach crumble thing with a cream cheese frosting thing.

And it was from here! AHHHHH!
It was my first taste of Chez Panisse. eeep.

The housewarming required edibles. Ergo, coffee cake!

And cookies!

Aaaaand my uneventful lunch beside my more eventful, but empty, iced chai.