a jolly commuters & friends christmas

december never felt so wrong

After things kinda fell apart in my  family and what was left of us tried to haphazardly stick ourselves back together again (things are still kinda dangling around, unresolved) each holiday we've "celebrated" has felt lonelier than the last. I don't really feel comfortable writing posts like these, especially knowing a lot of friends I care deeply about are and have been celebrating with their own families happily, warmly, safely. So, my holidays have been spent surrounded by wishy-washy, whirly-swirly, humdrum feelings.

Still, I can't help but say, from the bottom of my heart, Merry Christmas to you and yours. May the New Year bring us even better memories and experiences.

sorted

Being on long breaks with no concrete plans is definitely not good for me. I'm already more than a week into my winter holiday and I think I've filled my personal quota for lazy days of doing absolutely nothing productive. After spending my Wednesday lying on the couch watching an unhealthy number of episodes of Leverage from the morning to early evening, I finally decided I was sick of watching TV (despite the fact that I hadn't watched any since school started). So, this post is just a little recap of the my more "active" activities over the break so far.

Thursday, I went inline skating around the neighborhood with my best friend and we went to the park near our houses to sit on the swings and catch up. It felt so good to be able to talk with her in a way that felt like we'd just pressed a "Pause" button after we ended our last conversation all the way back in October and only had to press "Play/Resume" when we saw each other again. Wrapped up our time together with yummy hot chocolate and chocolate-covered biscuits. Later that night, I went to Tofu House and Christmas in the Park with L, D, and S. It was also so good to be able to hang out with them again. Television ain't got nothin' on these sweet little outings with the loveliest people.

Friday, I had to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for my dentist appointment at 7:30. It wasn't too bad having to wake up that early, but it ended up being a really long day. Got home, ate breakfast, then got ready to hang out with my ate and H. ADo was supposed to come but she unfortunately wasn't able to make it. :( We went to Bobo. I ordered a honey lemon tea with lychee jelly (I wasn't feeling up for milk tea, but I tried M and H's and their was really good! A+ for a boba place. It tasted like they use real tea instead of powder, but I'm not 100% sure.) We also shared a plate of beignets, which were really yummy, too! I'm sorry I'm lazy and don't take pictures of my food all the time, but if you sit in at Bobo, they put your drinks in cute little mason jars, which I thought was a cute and homey touch. We ended up sitting there for three hours, and it wasn't until the guy who'd helped us at the cashier got off his shift that we felt really awkward and decided to finally leave. We walked around the Vietnamese mall in the neighboring plaza and bought Christmas gifts from one of the small Asian stores that carries cute video game and anime-related items. Overall a day well spent, but that's not the end of it. I went home for dinner but immediately afterwards went to my Chinese school class's reunion for White Elephant and photos. We went over to visit our senior year teacher at her house and stayed there for a couple hours just chatting with everyone. Finally, I went to N's house with the two A's afterwards and stayed and talked to her for another hour. Didn't go home until very late, but it was a wonderful day well spent. So much better than hours upon hours of television.

Finishing up this post with lists, as per usual:

Things I've been following

• SORTED food's YouTube channel
• Cooking with Dog

What I've been listening to

• Birdy's cover of "Wake Me Up" 
• Small Sound (2013) by Tennis
• My friend J's beautiful piano cover of "Do You Want To Build A Snowman?" : )

an early christmas

Memories captured courtesy of M's awesome Fujifilm instax mini : )

December 13, 2013

Most of our group, Commuters and Their Friends, went to ADo's for an early Christmas party to celebrate the end of the quarter. There was good food, live music (with the three M's on sax and piano), Secret Santa, karaoke, and late-night Monopoly. I couldn't have asked for a better night.

gratitude

Always thankful for this little baby.

I take pride in the fact that I always take a few minutes out of each day to remind myself of all the things and people I am grateful for, but it's nice to have a day specifically dedicated to expressing gratitude and spending time with family, especially since I get an entire week off of school to relax, too.

This year's Thanksgiving was a lot simpler and, to be honest, even a little lonelier than I wanted it to be. Life's a little weird right now in terms of family life, but it didn't stop me from making the best of today. My mom and one of my aunts went up to Reno with a family friend for a concert, so they weren't here with us. My other aunt is staying here with us to help take care of my grandma, leaving me and my two other brothers the only other people at home. My brothers were gone the entire morning and honestly it was so quiet at home I felt a little physically sick. I thought I could get some work done since it was so still, but I ended up just window shopping online the entire time. (So much for finishing my two research papers and starting on a study guide of 200+ terms before the weekend.) My brothers came home in the afternoon, so I ate lunch and re-watched Leverage with them for about an hour. I finally decided I wanted to bake something, just for the sake of filling the house with a delicious aroma that would at least take up a little more space in our big, empty house. My brother and I decided on pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, so we stopped by Safeway to grab ingredients and came back to whip up some of these little munchkins. They're so fluffy and yummy and smell so, so good. I might even make more tomorrow.

Last Friday our little group of Commuters and Their Friends (yes, that's what we call ourselves) had a little outing that I forgot to write about. After class MN and I ran into ML and VY, so we decided to grab ML's ukulele from her car and have a jam session on the outdoor stage behind O'Connor. Afterwards Kumar and VD joined us, but after a bit MN, ML and V had to leave so Kumar, VD and I went downtown to Philz for coffee and Iggy's for burritos. Then we picked up ADo from school and went to Recycle Books! (Hehe, I wonder who suggested we go there...) I picked up a copy of Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and finished it on Tuesday. It was pretty good, though it didn't quite meet my expectations after the cashier's raving recommendation. It's okay, because I feel pretty good about finishing a book outside of school. Anyways, we finally met up with the rest of the group around seven and we headed to Cafe Lattea. I ordered a matcha latté! It was nice. Afterwards we went back to the Flip to play Smash, then ended the evening with football (although I spectated with ADo and VD and didn't play). It was a good day. Good friends and good company are things I am just infinitely grateful for each and every day :' )

Now, getting on to the obligatory blurb of all the things I'm grateful for...

little things

• almond milk
• the smell of freshly baked muffins and cookies in the kitchen
• dishwashing soap
• socks of all shapes, colors, and levels of fluffiness
• holiday music (here's my personal playlist)
• electric blankets
• bookmarks
• Christmas lights and decorations
• sweet little Thanksgiving texts from friends :' )

big things

• the ability to always keep the right, positive mindset even when things are tough
• the support I get from all my friends and family
• the chance to have found family and a place to call home at SCU, despite being a commuter

bigger things

• people (my mother, my brothers, my aunts, my grandmother, my friends near and far, my ate and kuya, Charlie, and all those who influence me in ways I could never have imagined)
• school
• home
• life
• the universe