go watch kung fu panda!!

i drove out to claremont on thursday to lunch with my webb surrogates, bonnie and jeff. it was so good to see them again and catch up. ironically, now that i am moving back to LA after four years of college, they are moving out to the east coast, only an hour or two outside of philadelphia. it makes me sad, but it's a good career move for jeff so i'm happy for them. i also stopped by the fawcetts' house to say hello - it was all so eerie to be back on webb campus, four years later. this year's graduation was this past weekend though, so it was empty and i luckily didn't have to deal with highschoolers running around.

thursday night was dreamworks animation's crew screening for kung fu panda at the mann's chinese theatre in hollywood. the theatre is freakin' awesome, and the movie was even better. it absolutely blew my mind.. it was beautiful, hilarious and they really went to town with the animation. go watch it!! seriously - it is amazing and very much worth watching. multiple times!

the afterparty was across the street at the roosevelt and it was awesome. free food and drinks, and it was just such a cool place. i loved seeing (almost) everyone i worked with last summer and it has somehow managed to make me even more excited to start working in a week and a half. sadly, they kicked everyone out at midnight, but i managed to snag myself a voss bottle. (=

memorial weekend.

despite the aftermath of the weird weather on thursday and friday, i managed to have an awesome awesome memorial weekend. lots and lots happened so here's just a quick list.

• marathon of the three previous indiana jones movies
  
• disneyland! (including, of course, the indiana jones ride)
• dodgers v. cardinals game - witnessing clayton kershaw's first major league game.
• watched the new indiana jones movie
• learned to play catch!

also, tried a couple new restaurants : mao's kitchen in venice, and takao in brentwood. both were really good, but takao was amazing. best sushi i've had in a long time.

murphy's law applies.

tuesday. may 20. day before leaving philadelphia. it's a dreary, cold, drizzle-y day. after a fantastic shaved noodle lunch in chinatown with the two matthews, i return to my place to continue dismantling furniture and finalize packing my shipping boxes. about half hour before jared arrives with a car to help me take my boxes to the UPS store, it starts pouring rain. i mean, pouring. okay, no big deal. as we are moving boxes to the car, i fall down the stairs, face first, and sprain my left ankle really badly. miraculously, everything fits in the car. once at the UPS store, we have to park across the street, again in rain. when all is said an done, i walk outside.. no more rain.

wednesday. may 21. day i leave philadelphia. weather was supposed to be really bad, thunderstorms, etc. woke up in the morning and it was actually beautiful out. big puffy white clouds. blue skies. warm sun. between noon and two, it becomes completely overcast and starts to rain. but throughout the afternoon, it jumps from sunny to rainy to both, with nothing too serious. i think my luck must be changing. flight actually boards only a little bit late, and is slated to leave on time, even arrive in LA a little early. the captain announces the front wheel of the plane is a little flat - not a problem, ten minutes tops. ten minutes later, he announces that the wheel actually needs to be changed - should take forty-five minutes but they need to arm the doors to jack the plane. half an hour later, the captain announces that they can't find the jack for the plane to change the tire, so they unarm the doors and tell us we can get off the plane and hang out in the boarding area if we want. i decided to stay on the plane (bad idea). they find a jack.. it doesn't work. they find another jack. it also doesn't work. third jack finally works and we are up and running three and a half hours later.. and i don't get into LAX until past midnight. gotta love sitting on a plane for ten hours, especially when they don't give you any food except for a granola bar.

thursday. may 22. first day in california. i wake up and it is beautiful outside. i am so excited to be home and in california where it's always sunny and in the seventies. it has been thunderstorm-ing with some lightening hitting very close to my house for the past two hours. seriously!?!? SERIOUSLY!?!?!? wtf is going on. all i hear about is the heat wave here in so cal for the past week and i come back and it's THIS?

but as much as i'm complaining, it could all be a lot worse, and i'm really just happy to be out of philadelphia and back in california.

gradumacation.

yea so i am totally experiencing the ultimate senioritis : rather than attend my own commencement ceremonies, i slept in and then watched it via live webstream in the comfort of my own apartment in my very comfy pajamas. haha. but yea, i am technically graduated (though my diploma will not be sent to me for another few months, apparently). and absolutely loving it. i spent most of today packing up my life and dismantling furniture. and then of course, there is the drunken debauchery that is customary with such celebrations. ahh - such is life. but i will be home in less than 48 hours and i can't fucking wait.. while, yes, i will be sad to be departing such good friends as liz and cricket, i am very much looking forward to a new beginning and a new life. weee...!

senior week / final days in philly.

so i finished my last exams on tuesday, and have really just been having a blast since. here is a quick update with some pictures.

philadelphia city hall.

cricket and i took a tour of philadelphia - taking in all the sights one last time before we leave the city. we started off at the liberty bell and independence hall and made our way to center city and city hall. mattH&co. took us down to the navy yard where we had lunch at the urban outfitters headquarters, which was super cool. afterwards, cricket and i made stops at the eastern state penitentiary and philadelphia zoo. first of all, i had no idea philadelphia had a zoo. and secondly, it is a pretty awesome zoo! (= the penitentiary was really cool but still a little eerie - i definitely would not want to go for their haunted house on halloween, or at night for that matter.

eastern state penitentiary.

al capone's cell in eastern state.

of course there was walnut walk, the annual senior bar crawl that starts at 2nd&chestnut at 2pm and ends at smoke's at 40th&walnut at 10pm. it was quite a crazy time, and i was introduced to a new drink, the dirty hoe : hoegaarden and framboise (raspberry beer). really tasty acutally. AND, chef robert irvine from the food network's dinner:impossible was at one of our stops : the black sheep.

me, cricket, tim and keith at irish pub.

jason and i at new deck.

friday night was making time at pure - probably my last making time ever! the night actually started off with me, liz and erica going to a penndesign party at mattK and rayD's, then we proceeded over to the gayborhood for everyone's favorite monthly dance party. i actually stayed until the very end this time - so proud - and i even remembered to bring earplugs so i can actually hear today.

joey, jared, jeeyun, aj @ making time.

liz and i being ridiculous as usual @ making time.

saturday i went with mattH to the 2nd annual kensington kinetic sculpture derby, which was so awesome. so many amazing and crazy pieces. i also got a really bad sunburn because i hadn't realized how long we were going to be out in the sun - at least i was wearing a sleeveless top so i don't have a farmer's tan. ;)

i met up with lily, her friends and her dad at lacroix in the rittenhouse hotel for her graduation dinner. it was a great time - the food was great, many a laugh - and the two of us even got little complimentary deserts since we're graduating. luckily, lily will be in LA for the next couple months so we will be able to hang out before she leaves for south africa again.

lily and i at lacroix.

current state.

it's such a strange time. the days have finally become consistently mild-temperatured - low to mid-seventies during the day, possibly even hitting the 80s. the nights are cool but humid so one always feels a little sweaty and never quite clean.

people are studying for finals, or already done and gone. those remaining crawl the campus during the day, soaking up the sun; students are out tossing frisbees, baseballs as they take breaks between cramming and finishing up final projects and papers.

i've taken one of five exams i have this semester, and am currently studying for the two i have tomorrow (chemistry and microeconomics). it's hard to come up with the motivation to do well when all that matters at this point is passing, and yet i can't actually get myself to not care enough to call it an early night and get a full night's sleep.

my mind flutters to and fro among the people currently impacting my life the most - family, friends, theodore. yes, it's been almost two months since the breakup became official and yet he still manages to put me on one hell of an emotional roller coaster whenever we have any sort of real conversation. i mean, most of the time okay - i'm pretty good at building walls and overriding my emotions - but it's not something i can do 100% of the time.

i hate still being in philadelphia - every inch of me aches to be back in california, and to be working instead of studying, going to baseball games instead of simply following them online, to be driving the thirty or so miles to the west side instead of walking the mile between my apartment and campus to attend a worthless review session. and yet a tiny bit of me will miss this place - living in my own apartment, the multitudes of food trucks, BYOs and fantastic restaurants, being able to go out drinking and not worry about driving home, the handful of close friends without whom this year would have been impossibly agonizing and miserable.

and of course, it's always interesting to look at the past four years and how much things have changed, how much i have changed. which then leads to thoughts about the future and what it brings. it's scary as hell because i know it's not going to turn out the way i'm planning it - life never does - but i still can't wait for it to happen.. thirteen days!

quotables : change.

theodore : you go from family-defying, class-breezing, hair-dying girl freshman year to beautifully domesticated, class-acing, mom-obeying daughter senior year.

oh, how things have changed.

drench puppet.

despite my aversion to dolls and puppets because of how creepy they are, this commercial for drench water is hilarious. this puppet's got more moves than most guys out there - that's some amazing puppet bust-a-move'ing.

the beginning of the end.

it suddenly hit me that the school year, and my college career, is really coming to an end. i've been so busy with my senior design and studying for finals that the days have been flying by, and i didn't even realize yesterday was cinco de mayo until it no longer was. it really hit me today because tannis, cricket, leah, adie and i got together for a lineage lunch at marathon since tannis is leaving for california tomorrow. looks like the lineage is in good hands with tannis, leah and adie next year.


it's really kind of crazy. i mean, but for the first time i'm kind of realizing that there are people here that i will really miss. especially cricket since she has really been there for me this year and she's going to be going to law school in new york, and i really have no idea the next time i'll ever see her after graduation. at least tannis will be in LA this summer so i don't have to say goodbye to her just yet.


in other recent news, it's looking like i will definitely be graduating. senior design is done and the presentations were last friday. i spent twenty four hours this weekend in new york hanging out with bradR and his roommate jordan. we saw iron man, which was amazing. and other than that, i've just been studying for finals. one tomorrow. two friday. two next tuesday. and fifteen days until i'm back in california. can't effing wait.

song du jour : golden touch by razorlight. yes, throwback to freshman year.