Thoughts Swirling in My Mind

There are things I want to write about, thoughts that cross my mind that I think would make an interesting blog posts. But these are things I’ll never really get the chance to write about; I just don’t have the time or that much of a desire to really expound upon them/have trouble writing out my thoughts.

-Living with my aunt has made me notice just how many mannerisms she has that are identical to my grandma(her mom). This just kind of made me think b/c my aunt has not lived with her mom for 40+ years and has quite the life story yet still there mannerisms and ways of moving that have remain unchanged. It intrigued me and made me think if the same holds true for me…which I know is true, but I think it would be interesting to know what exactly and how I move that is unique to my family.

-Time. I’ve never really felt like I have a good perception on time or feel like I really don’t logically understand it. We give time a numerical denomination yet this is where I feel like I just don’t get it, maybe because despite the number associated with it, time is subjective yet as humans we make it objective. I don’t know, I just wish I had a better grasp of it.

-Learning about my Dad’s family history from my aunt and her own life story has been very interesting…can’t explain too much of this without being toooooo drawn out and I’d have to tell everything. But yes, family history on this side and the stories I have never heard before have been fascinating to learn about.

-Dogs are awesome.

There’s been a whole lot more I’ve been thinking about, being alone in a new place provides you time and space to do a lot of thinking….these were just a few topics I thought would be interesting to write about but alas, they won’t probably happen. They’ll just stay thoughts for now.

Omg a Comic!

Finally finished Genesis tonight but.....

Day 42: A lot of has happened, so an update was needed....

Saturday: Walked up to Starbucks real early in attempt to write my paper, though I ended up more just finalizing my thoughts. In the afternoon, went on a day trip out to Rancho Sante Fe. It’s a part of San Diego, but it’s about 30 min. away. It was quite gorgeous and quiet. It was also cool because so many places in it reminded me of other parts of the US, but with a California spin on it. There was an area that reminded me of Minnesota, another that reminded me of Colorado and another that reminded me of Georgia. It was also one of those places where the landscape was just so gigantic and breath-taking, a camera could never really capture it. Anyways, it was a lot of fun. Plus the sun finally decided to come out after a week of overcast and yuckiness. On the way back, we drove down the coast and I got to see all the beach towns, the scenic route is always so much better than the highway. Paula picked up really delicious Chinese food in Del Mar (I believe it was called Double Happiness). Best Chinese food I’ve ever had, delish. At night attempted to write my paper again, absolute fail. I’ve had such a hard time with this paper purely because I have no motivation to write it, I have everything thought out and organized, it’s just writing it that’s been such an issue. Finally gave in and just complained to my mom about it. I really, really dislike complaining, especially over something so petty as a paper, but it had come to that point and sometimes I just need to complain about it and then I can get my head in the game. And it helped…a lot as much as I didn’t want to do it.

Sunday: Went to another Starbucks to get some paper writing done. And wham, wrote over half of my paper. Got home in time to watch the World Cup and yay, Spain won! After, everyone in the house went to La Jolla park b/c there was an outdoor concert going on. I was told it was a jazz concert but when we got there it was 60’s/70’s rock, which was fun. We met up with some of my aunt’s friends and we just hung out for about 2 hrs and listened to good music. Colleen really enjoyed going to it, so it looks like we’ll be doing that again, they have these concerts there every Sunday. I really wish I would have been with friends because I wanted to dance and no one else wanted to. Guess I will have to do that when I get back to good old Minneapolis. Then went out to eat with some of my aunt’s friends in Little Italy, I know the place was called Fantastico….something. It was really good…seriously the food out here is so great and so inexpensive for the quality one is getting. It’s a good thing I don’t live out here permanently cause otherwise I’d be so tempted to eat out all the time! And that was it….I had a very full and well-rounded weekend.

Monday: Woohoo, another work week. I must say, this week I wasn’t all excited to come in….I think mostly because I know that after this week I get 2 weeks off to go on a family vacation, so I’m just counting down the days I have left until I get to take a break (not that I need a break, I’m just excited about this vacation and seeing my family). It was fun though cause since Javier(one of my bosses) is from Spain, he treated the whole lab for lunch to celebrate Spain's win! Then after work, we just chilled at home. The new disk of The Thorn Birds came in, so we watched the next episode. It’s such a good mini series! Truthfully, I’m kind of sad that the next episode is the last. Guess I’ll have to read the book it’s based off of to enjoy it again! Wrote more of my paper and have one section left to write, then I just have to submit it and then take the final then DONE! Oh and the night before we bought some desserts from Little Italy. We had tiramisu....it was delicious and left me wanting more. I'm so going to try and make that when I get back in August.

Tuesday: Today I woke up and was like “ugh, don’t feel like working” and so did my aunt. We decided to take a half-day, which was a good plan cause now I’m totally ready and motivated for the last 3 days before my family vacation. We went to La Jolla because I needed to get a pair of walking sandals for the trip and my aunt needed to get some new summer clothes. It was awesome because I found a pair at the first store we looked at:
yay for new shoes that actually support one's foot
My aunt had a successful shopping trip as well. We went out to eat at Roppongi’s (La Jolla), it was really good, had some Indian Fried Bread and a delicious spinach salad. Found out I don’t like Keffir cheese….though I’m realizing I don’t like a lot of dairy products very much outside of cheese and ice cream.

Day 39: Another review

Tuesday/Wednesday: Hrm…..what did I do besides work? Haaaaaa……errrrr, I don’t remember…..must have just chilled at home after work. Yes that must have been it.

Thursday: Today I had a meeting with my boss w/ the programmer I’m working with to show her everything we have done for the past month cause apparently she hadn’t really seen too much. She loved everything we were doing and wasn’t expecting us to be so far done. What can I say, the programmer and I make a really good team. After she told me she’s really going to look into getting me a stipend for the summer because she likes my work so much. Go home and went biking. Laurie is really nice and is letting me borrow her bike while I’m here and she finally brought it. Although I am really, really happy she brought me the bike, it’s a cruiser bike so it’s really different and slowwww. I felt like I had to fight with the bike just to get it too speed up. And the brakes don’t really work that great. But hey, a bike is a bike. I bike on this Oceanside path I had seen when driving to church cause it sounded pretty. Path turned out to be a path right next to the highway and the ocean estuary, so it was funny one side was beautiful and quiet and the other side was a noisy, crazy highway. And there were a bunch of homeless people chilling by the path too. It was an interesting bike ride.

Friday: For work today I mostly did gaming research which meant I got to play video games all day. After, my aunt and I met up with Anne and Gerine because they invited us to see The Last Airbender and go out to dinner. We went to some Japanese restaurant in the mall and I got sushi….I love sushi so much. It’s so cheap out here and it’s so tasty! Unlike in MN…Then went to the movie….I’m so glad I didn’t pay my own money to see that movie, it really kinda sucked but I knew that going in so I just tried to enjoy it. The scenery, costumes, martial artist, and special effects were good…that’s about it. At heart the issue was the script, the original story idea was not lacking(as the TV series and its popularity show), they just really botched the script. Then the acting really sucked too. And may I add, I found it to be a bit racist too? Like the evil people were all Middle Eastern look and the good guys were all white or very light colored Asian people. So yeah don’t even waste your time with this movie….I wish I had the 2 hours of my life back that the movie took from me. Though it did make me interested to see the TV show.

Now I’m at a Starbucks, procrastinating writing my paper for my Genesis class. I’ve just been putting it off and off but I can’t take my final until I write the darn paper. So here I am about to write.

~Lauren

Dog Park Sketches

Uploaded this to my art blog but since I drew this out here and since most of you following this blog like seeing my art anyway and may not be following the old art blog, I will post this here too. There's a great dog park next to the hiking trails in Balboa park. I've gone twice to hike and then dog watch/draw dogs cause it's fun. So here's some life drawings from the off-leash dog park in Balboa Park.

Brownie Ice Cream Sandwich Recipe

Since everyone who's tried this so far has liked it, here's the recipe for the 4th of July ice cream sandwich thing I made. I got the idea from a Martha Steward recipe but simplified it down cause Martha just tries too hard and likes making everything from scratch and who has time for that? Plus with this simplified version, you get to do a lot of choosing of what you want to do, so you can really make it your own!



Ingredients:
-whatever type of brownie mix you like and the ingredients the box calls for (I used the Ghiradelli Dark Chocolate mix, I would recommend this brand and especially this mix)
-whatever type of ice cream you want in the middle
-Peanut Butter (only if the ice cream you chose would go well with it, like if you chose mint ice cream, that might not be the greatest idea...)

Instructions:
1.Make the brownies the day/night before. Follow the instructions on the box to make. Try to make thinner brownies, like at 1/4'' thick
2.Once cooled, cut brownies into the size you want the ice cream sandwiches to be, big or small, you choose
3.Stick brownies in freezer overnight. This will make it easier to make the ice cream sandwiches.
4.Once frozen, take out brownies, ice cream and peanut butter(if you decide to use it).
5.Put as much ice cream as you want on your sandwich on the bottom brownie
6.If using peanut butter, spread as much as you want on the top brownie
7.Put the two brownies together and stick back in freezer
8.When eating, you can have it frozen or if you want, nuke it in the microwave for about 20-30 sec. if you want the ice cream a little melted.
9.Stick a cherry or other small fruit on top if you're feeling classy.
10.Enjoy!

Day 34: A Lengthy Week in Review

Gah, practically another week has gone by. I need to update cause so much happened, but mostly towards the tail end of the week. Wowza, can you all believe it’s already July? And that I’ve been here for a month? Time is flying by like a rabid monster.

Tuesday-Thursday: No need to expound on what I did each day, cause these days were kinda the same. My aunt was out of town still on her trip to Ireland, so it consisted of me going to work for the most part. I got through a lot of my Genesis class, I only have one lesson left, a paper to write and the last test. Hopefully I finish this week. On Tuesday I tried out Twiggs, a coffeeshop in the Kensington neighborhood I had been eyeing. It was alright, cheap but not fantastic. Will be trying out other coffeeshops before returning to that one. On Wednesday and Thursday, I went out to Balboa Park to go hiking in these trails close to the park and then chill/draw at the dog park. I saw so many Bostons, it made me miss my Otto a lot.

Oh Mr. Otto, I miss you a lot!

Friday-This day was exciting. So on Tuesday, I talked with my good from Sharon from high school. As we got to talking we realized we were both in southern California for the summer, so she decided to come down from LA and visit for the weekend. It was SO good to see her. She is definitely one of my closest friends and I hadn’t seen her in over a year. It’s crazy, we go to school less than 10 miles away but it takes us being in CA to finally hang out. She came in at 6pm. We basically did a lot of talking that night, figured out what we wanted to do for the weekend and went out to Gelato Vero Café, a great gelato place right in Mission Hills.

Saturday-This is the day we were on our feet from 8am-8pm. We woke up real early and went hiking at Torrey Pines, cause that was something I suggested doing. It was gray and overcast, but it was still lots of fun. After we went to Roberto’s cause you can’t go to San Diego and not go to Roberto’s, especially since it’s literally right next to Torrey Pines. After, we were able to go to the San Diego Zoo. It was awesome because we were all set and ready to pay for entrance, which is like $40, but Gladys had two free tickets she wasn’t going to use so she gave them to us. We were incredibly thankful. Once we got to the zoo, we were so lucky because right as we got there, they were opening up the dirt parking lot so we got free parking right away. Such good timing. The zoo was lots of fun, especially going with such a good friend. But describing the zoo I don’t really know how to do without being wordy and boring…I’ll just say it’s a good zoo and if you’re in San Diego, go see it! It’s considered one of the best zoos in the world. After, our feet were killing us, so we decided to go back home…we started making my desert for the 4th that night. I have this personal tradition where I like trying to make a new ice cream treat, so we made the brownies for this desert which I’ll explain shortly. After, we jumped in the hot tub at my aunt’s house. After being on our feet for 12 hours, it felt heavenly. Oh and this day marked my one month mark out here.

Walking along the beach at Torrey Pines.

Sharon and I right outside of the zoo entrance. A day well spent with a great friend!

Sunday-Happy 4th of July! This day as well was jammed pack! I got up ridiculously early because I signed up to do a 2 mi. fun run at Scripps Ranch. Groggily, I got up at 5:20am thinking “I am a crazy person for doing this, but I’m excited!” Anyways, the race was fun and I’m so glad I did it. It was nice too b/c about a mile of the run was downhill, so that was nice, though between that and really pushing myself my tendentious was worse than normal but it was worth it. I forgot how much fun these organized runs are. I didn't bring a camera, but here's a link to pictures from the run online: Scripps Ranch Run Pics☺ Later that morning Sharon and I walked up to this park in the neighborhood because we saw signs that there was a parade. We got there, expecting to watch a parade but instead we were in it! Apparently what the Mission Hills neighborhood does is that the neighborhood comes together and walks together to celebrate the 4th (and everyone dresses up for the 4th). It was kinda cool to take part it. Plus it was great because Paula, Colleen, Laurie, Enrique and Lulu were all able to take part in it too. After that, Sharon and I went out for sushi cause we really wanted to do that while she was in town. We went to Itto Sushi in downtown, right across Horton plaza and it was very delicious! After, we went back to the house because Laurie wanted to do a pool party, so we jumped into the freezing pool and then mostly stayed in the hot tub (which did wonders for my leg). After that, I was tired so took a nap while Sharon figured out her busing situation. Then we had our delicious 4th of July meal-we had hot dogs(and Laurie bough be Chicken dogs since I don’t eat red meat, which was very nice of her, they were tasty!), grilled chicken, baked beans, corn-on-the-cob and a lemonade/cranberry juice drink. It was delish! Then came the moment of truth, finally trying my desert. I had no idea if it was going to be good or not. Basically it was an ice cream sandwich, but instead of using cookies I made dark chocolate brownies and in between there was chocolate chip ice cream and a layer of peanut butter. And the verdict was…..everyone thought they were delicious-even Colleen, she kept on opening her mouth like a bird because she wanted more and more of it, which was quite the compliment. While eating desert, we watched Fantastic Mr. Fox. The movie ended at the perfect time for fireworks. Because Missions Hills is well, built on a bunch of hills, you don’t need to go to a specific location to see fireworks, you just need to go to an opening somewhere in the neighborhood. It was sweet, we saw about 6 fireworks shows going on all at once across the bay(and we could hear them). There were only about 20 people where we decided to watch, so it felt like we were getting our own private showing of 4th of July fireworks. This was definitely one of the best 4th of July’s I’ve had in quite some time.

Picture from the neighborhood 4th of July parade/walk.

The brownie sandwich ice cream desert. With a strawberry on top to make it classy.

Monday-Had to drop Sharon off early this morning. I was sad that she had to go, the time went by so fast but I’m very grateful she was able to come out for the weekend. Really, words cannot describe how thankful I am for the time I was able to spend with her. She’s one of those friends that no matter how much time passes between talking, we can pick up things like we had just seen each other the day before and our friendship hasn’t changed. We just click somehow. I am hoping I can come up to LA, even if it’s for a few hours, but seeing how pretty much the rest of my summer out here is planned out, I’m not sure if it’s going to happen or not. But I’m keeping my fingers crossed! Anyways, after dropping her off, I drove to work fully prepared to work. But then I got there and the building was locked and the campus was just dead. So haha, had an unexpected day off from work(guess it was a holiday today?). My aunt decided that she wanted us to go to the Del Mar fair because she really wanted to go and today was the last day it was open. I was totally up for it cause I’m really loving fairs this year. Anyways, we had perfect timing when we got there. Just as we were going to buy tickets, these people asked if we wanted tickets and we said yes and they just gave us their two tickets cause they weren’t going to use them. This saved us like $26! Seriously, so nice of those people. And it was nice because since we went to the fair so late last time, I got to experience and do new things at the fair this time around, like see the art and place where people sell things and such. I got a little backpack that I thought would be good for hiking cause I’m really into that out here. Twas a day well spent at the fair. And I’m incredibly excited for the MN state fair. I didn’t go last year, so I think that’s why.

Phew, that’s it! But really, one of the best weekends I've had in awhile. Seriously.

~Lauren