Totally bowlin'.

We got together with a few friends last night to go bowling before our dear Brittany leaves us for school tomorrow.

Matticus.

Brittany!!

The elusive Joey.

Wow, check out Ethan's perfect bowling form.

Matt likes to use his entire body to bowl.

Pretty sure the master just bowled a strike here. Ethan would probably like me to note that he was not wearing his contacts, so he was bowling blind. SKILLZ.

This is what I look like when I bowl. So cute.

Matt bowlin' a strike. Naturally.

I love this photo. :]

But really, we're all winners.

Food, glorious food!

After our first week of school back at the beginning of the month, our butts were seriously kicked. So, I took Ethan out for a much needed dinner date. He needed a little pick-me-up, so we bustled on over to the local Japantown to visit his all-time favorite Japanese place, Okayama. My camera (and my amazing new macro lens) joined us.

The salad was amazing. The dressing was delectable.

The miso soup was also amazing. Simplicity at its best.

I didn't touch this little veggie medley because I couldn't bring myself to eat those baby shrimp. I mean, look at 'em!

Let me preface this by saying: I am aware of the fact that I always get the same meal. Always. It's only because I'm new to this whole Asian food thing. Baby steps, people. :P Anyway, the tempura was quite good. Shrimp tempura is tasty, but I can usually only handle one of those. I love squash tempura, so I was disappointed they didn't offer more.

I wanted to love the teriyaki chicken, but I kept thinking of the dishes I've had in the past at Arikake and Okayama. At the time, Ethan always assured me that "This is good, but it's no Okayama," sooo I found myself let down. I'll admit that the chicken itself was delicious; I just like a bit more substance to my teriyaki sauce.

The green tea ice cream was nothing short of absolutely delicious. And I don't even like green tea.

Boring post. But the pictures were pretty.

Weeks later, school is STILL kicking our butts. I can't wait for some recuperation this weekend. Somewhere in between hours of completing assignments and writing essays, we plan on bowling with friends, watching a movie or two, and - oh. Sleeping. :]

Village on Yarn.

A couple of weekends ago, Ethan and I joined a few friends at a local nightclub. One of our former high school classmates and his band, Village on Yarn, were performing there. So fun!

Super nice drummer and super cute vocalist.

How cool is the stand-up bass?

And thiiis is our friend on guitar!

Check them out here. :]

Makin' bank.

Not really. This was my first paid headshot session with a student.

It's always interesting meeting up with a stranger to take photographs of them. Sometimes it's pleasantly surprising how easily the conversation flows.

This is the lovely Noelani. :]

All bets are off.

I'm not a huge football person (baseball is my main squeeze), but my family is pretty enthralled with it.

When my mom heard that Ethan was convinced that the Vikings would win over the Saints today and win their spot in the Super Bowl, she immediately offered him two dollars betting otherwise. Ethan replied, "Oh, I'll take that bet. That's like taking candy from a baby."

Well, the Saints won in OT. So, my mom sent a little friendly text message Ethan's way.

Mom: Who's getting their candy taken now?

I love it.

Edit:

Ethan: Want to go double or nothing? I'll bet that the Colts win the Super Bowl.

Ask me some questions; I'll tell you no lies.

Inspired by the recent increase of formspring.me accounts to procure one of my own...

Ask away!

It's design time.

You might remember that I've dappled in in design before. This is my first swing as a costume designer.

Behold: my projected designs for Christopher Durang's " 'Dentity Crisis" for the Winter One Act Festival. Please ignore any mangled hands and the lack of facial identity. I don't do faces because I can't draw faces. I guess that fits in with the idea of identity crisis. Just to give you a little insight into the craziness of the show: that's my character, on the left. The fourth guy from the left? That's my son. We might share an on-stage kiss. Or several. SAY WHAT?

Excited to venture into the costume shop and start pulling pieces. :]

Follow your heart[s].

Don't think I haven't noticed the steadily declining number of followers to this blog. I have, and it hurts me deep. Because my level of coolness obviously depends on how many people read my online diary - I implore you, readers: don't deny me of our friendship simply because of my lack of time.

It's not you. It's me. This quarter is my busiest yet - I'm taking more classes than recommended; I'm filling out my application to study abroad next fall; I'm rehearsing for a steadily-approaching one act; I'm serving as a costume designer for said one act; and I'm back to my old photographin' habits. It's all great, but it leaves very little time for spilling every last detail to the internet. You, my readers, get lost in the shuffle. But I am a faithful friend. I always come back.

Beyond all the melodramatic sarcasm, I guess what I'm asking is this: what do you guys even like about my blog? What keeps you kids around? What do you like to see here? To hear here? I'm curious. :]

In other news this week, I took the photograph for the poster for the upcoming One Act Festival (remember when I did this in October?). My favorite shot is also probably the creepiest shot I've taken.

I told you so. The Santa Clara University Winter One Act Festival will occur on February 13th and 14th at 2pm. Each performance will include productions of Christopher Durang's "'Dentity Crisis" and Carly Mensch's "All Hail Hurricane Gordo." Bay Areans, do stop by. This means you, Allison. :]

At the risk of making this my most sporadic post to date... I now will, at the suggestion of the super sweet and fun Celeste (who is currently living my future life, studying abroad in Florence, Italy - what fun!), I will now share seven facts about myself. I know you're curious. ;]

1. I own close to ten pairs of boots, simply because I can't get enough. Functional and stylish.

2. After graduation, I plan to get my teaching credentials in order to become a teacher of some sort.

3. You just can't beat a fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookie, methinks.

4. I will admit that I am somewhat of a text message-aholic.

5. My first kiss from a non-family member was on the cheek from a sweet eleven year old named Armando. I met him during a missions trip to Mexico with my high school; my team was assigned to build his family of five a new home. Despite my complete inability to speak Spanish he and I developed a friendship. After we handed over the keys to their new home, the little boy tapped my shoulder. I leaned over and he smacked one on me. I returned the favor. And then he returned the favor again. ;] Such a special memory to me.

6. Whenever I see an inspiring film, I start to think about how I can make my life better, while a soundtrack plays in my head. Does that make sense?

7. My biggest fear is death - but not my own.

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody!

No shame!

Ethan is in a Violence Against Women class as part of the Women's and Gender Studies Core Requirement at our university. The course is currently focusing on feminist theories and perspectives. One particular session, the professor asked the class to share words that, in their minds, were associated with sex.

And amongst all of the profanities and vulgarities, one little voice awkwardly said...

"Marriage?"

Everyone was surprised and amused. And although Ethan was a bit embarrassed to admit his lack of experience in the realm of sex, he was pleased that it gained him some fans, in addition to his biggest supporter (me!).

No shame, people. ;]

edit: I am proud of Ethan, too, you guys! ;] And I must say - this is a value we both uphold.

Crash bang boom.

For whatever reason, I have yet to share this on my blog. Last month I had a bit of a scare.

I was driving home from Ethan's house one night. It was a chilly and damp evening. I was on a exit ramp merging from one freeway on to another. The ramp comes along the left side of the next freeway; it is relatively narrow and curvy. I've driven this ramp countless times, so I was kind of on auto-pilot, singing along to the radio.

A couple of summers ago, I got into a minor fender-bender after getting lost driving to a birthday party. Ever since then, I've been kind of paranoid and also imagine the worst possible situations wherever I drive. So I was thinking to myself, "It would be awful to wreck right here in the rain," because a lot of drivers tend to rush through that on-ramp, merging dangerously and causing accidents.

All of a sudden something caught my eye: the white Corolla in front of me has just driven up the steep embankment on the side of the on-ramp. The car was nearly standing up on its tailend before it fell straight back. It landed with its roof on the ground. It then flipped over so that it was sitting with the drivers side on the ground.

What the heck do I do? Probably the most unsafe thing I could have done: I moved my car only slightly out of the way and hit my emergency blinkers and frantically search my phone to call 911. I don't know what possessed me to stay so near the lane as opposed to pulling over, but I soon saw why God had me there: as I started to dial 911, I could see the driver trying to push himself out of the driver's side window. He slithered between the car and the ground and stood up - completely okay. Thankfully there had been no traffic to threaten either of us. We were both safe.

I called out to him and he was able to walk the distance to my car. As soon as he arrived, he said, "I'm so sorry! Did I hurt you?" The whole thing happened so quickly, he didn't even know what had occurred. So we both talked to 911 and I instructed him to get into my car so that we could pull over to the side of the freeway. It started to pour rain.

The driver's name is Stephen. He is an exchange student from Hong Kong and lives here to go to school. He had been driving home from getting a haircut when he had somehow lost control of his vehicle.

It had gotten dark. We stood in the rain waiting for some sort of law enforcement. In due time, two firetrucks, a paramedics van, and a few policemen and highway patrol officers arrived. A quick check of Stephen's vitals and response times relayed that he had escaped the sticky situation without any injury (although, he was probably sore the next morning). We watched as they did their parts to clean up the debris and tow the car.

Stephen and I didn't exchange information. I will probably never see him again. But, I was so glad to have been there to help him when he needed it, especially considering the fact that he's so far away from home.

God works in mysterious ways. It was a wake-up call I needed.

Charlyne Yi and my brother come together for a special occasion.

My former high school doesn't "do" prom. To a Christian high school, the word "prom" wreaks of cat fights, excessive grinding, and - inevitably - baby-making. Duh?

So we have a banquet. And let me tell you - guys go all out asking girls to this event. To give you an idea: a certain someone asked a very single me to Banquet Senior year. Each period, he sent me a sweet poem and an accompanying item to clue me in on his identity. Finally, I received a clue telling me that I would encounter this mysterious man in the Quad during lunch, and he would finally pop the question. Guess what I found? A man in a monkey suit. IN A TREE. Ethan jumped down, serenaded me, and asked me to be his date. Somehow through my shock (and embarrassment - so many people were watching!) I managed to say yes. He also, at some point, was shirtless. But that's neither here nor there.

Incidentally, by the end of the day, we were goin' steady.

Back to the point: although my high school doesn't "do" prom, they do host Winter Formals - the next of which is coming up at the beginning of next month.

I never saw the movie "Paper Heart," but I do know that it starred Michael Cera and actress and comedienne Charlyne Yi. Now, in the season of Winter Formal proposals, my brother made a request to Miss Yi: would she mind helping him ask Cassidy (his girlfriend of three and a half years) to Winter Formal?

Charlyne's response?

See for yourself, my loves.

So, I mean, maybe not quite as exciting as a man jumping out of a tree in a monkey suit, but hey. Cassidy did not complain.* She just said yes.

*I'm kidding. It's pretty darn exciting.

Snow Trip, Part Two.

Time to recap this little gem of a trip.

A group of assorted friends of ours took off to the Sierra Nevadas for a couple of days of fun.

The girls of the trip.

Billy, Brittany, Jinelle, and your favorite couple. This is the whole gang, minus Matt - he would meet us along the way!

One of these things is not like the other...

And then, we drove for four hours. First stop: Panda Express. Second stop, however: COLUMBIA!

A kind soul offered to take a photo of the group. Moments later, we found a Matt!

We stumbled upon these creeptastic masks in a little store.

So, naturally, we did some gender-bending.

Told you.

Exploring the surrounding grounds, I took this photo. It is possibly the cutest snapshot of these two in existence.

Um, I adore Ethan.

Jinelle and Matt!

Me and Jinelle!

I told Ethan to put on a sexy face. The results were alarming.

Jinelle!

Brittany!

Ethan!

Matt!

And, Billy at his best!

I want to love this photo for its amazing lighting, but something about it makes it really awkward. Maybe it's the illusion of my giant head. Maybe it is Ethan's "Please hurry up and take the photo" smile. Eh.

And then we did some more driving. We hit up the grocery store, did dinner, and went home where the boys built a masterful fire and we played games and watched movies til we couldn't play games and watch movies no more. So we slept. And got up early, anticipating some serious TUBING FUN.

The boys spent the better half of the trip playing Double Shutter. I had to tear them away from the game so we could leave, only to find that they brought it in the car as well.

The last shot of us before our life-altering snow day. I assume you've already seen the tubing extravaganza? Make it happen, people!

It was New Year's Eve, of course, so there was much fun to be had that night! We organized a little dinner for six, and had the bottles [of Sparkling Apple Cider] poppin' and flowin'.

A strange photo of my love and me.

We all dressed up for the occasion.

My impromptu centerpiece. :]

The table. On the menu: a previously-frozen lasagna that never quite cooked through, soggy Caesar salad, and a package parmesan rolls. Yeah, my bad. Oh well.

And, for dessert, the usual: [delicious] chocolate fondue.

As the clock struck twelve, I found myself excited for the novelty and uncertainty of the New Year. And then... I found myself super tired. :P

Happy 2010, Belatedly!