*812 - my newest love affair

... is YEAST. Specifically, making yeast breads from scratch. Ahhhh :)

It all began when I bought that giant bottle of active dry yeast three weeks ago ... and since then, I've been kneading, baking, eating, inhaling, dreaming bread. Four loaves and a huge stack of naan devoured in three weeks? No wonder my jeans are getting tight.

Rosemary and romano foccacia with caramelized onion


Indian naan (with homemade chicken coconut curry)


Cinnamon raisin swirl


Rosemary and cracked pepper loaf with a parmesan swirl


Babka with the prettiest twists of chocolate


There's something brilliantly therapeutic about getting your fingers into mounds of dough, catching deliciously earthy whiffs of yeast, watching the dough rise and smoothen, waiting a painful half an hour for it to bake ... and then slicing through the loaf, getting a puff of steam in your face, and delighting in how pretty your swirlies turned out :) Mmmmm.

*811 - bunion twangs

I have weird bruises on places that are not easy to bruise by accident, e.g. the inside of my elbow. And the bunions are acting up again!

In happier news, Vday: a no-less-special day to celebrate the specialness of everyday :) And CNY, but all I did was to lou hei and eat Chinese food that disagreed with my tummy (must be the grease).

And in very outdated but exciting news: TAKOPACHI in 128C, thanks to Mr. Ex-Roomie. Also Mr. New-Roomie's first time eating octopus. And the flipping of balls was most exhilarating (heehee).

*810 - too many late nights

Sleep deprivation! Gyoza and broccoli! Sniffles and aches! And fresh baked rosemary parmesan bread!

*809 - save the schwartz

I'm highly disturbed by the disproportionate amount of budget cut imposed on the Department of Theatre, Film, and Dance: $2 million out of a $6 million budget cut in the College of A&S! We're just one department out of 27 in the entire A&S College. Professorial faculty are protected, but it is the practical, non-professorial type of education that complements the academic teaching and makes the department as strong and as wonderful as it is now.

The Cornell dance program changed me (cliched but true): my beliefs, my ideals, my personality, my happiness, my lenses through which I look at ... life. Don't cripple the department. The arts are no less important.

*808 - aw crikey

My favorite roomie left for Down Under :( So this is our last 128C roomie picture altogether, because we always take group pictures for our parties' fb pages (we're cool like that):



Happy kangaroos, teehee. Aussie-themed party for a send-off to Aussie!

BYE CASTO!! I will miss our fun times in the corridor, in the kitchen, and in diapers :)

*807 - flat sprite and grenadine

Not what I was expecting, but you always make me happy :)

*806 - have you?

I HAVE DISCOVERED THE G-POOP.

And the g-piggies that blink twice.

HAHAHAHA.

*805 - it's been three days into the new semester,

... and I've only cried once, almost cried twice, and flipped out about seventeen times.

We're off to a good start, folks.

Heh.

Well, that said, I'm actually basically living in some sort of blind euphoria, where my overarching emotion is "Enviable Happiness" punctuated with brief moments of panic when I realize that I'm only twenty-one, but I'm graduating in a matter of months, I'm jobless as of yet, and I don't want to be a Grown-Up. I'm not ready!!

*804 - what one does in cancun

1. Bum around in a lovely hotel





2. Lounge on the beach





3. Go out in search for traditional Mexican food





4. Drink (open bars = omg.)





5. Somewhat in that order, repeat daily

*803 - cancun #2

(While you are brushing your teeth,)

Hello from Cancun! :)

*802 - oddly enough,

... so much time, but no time to blog. Too much time spent either (1) traveling around in a frenzy, (2) cooking for a questionable number of hours each day, (3) immersing ourselves in all manners of Happy Time.

(According to Managerial Communications, the above is a poorly crafted list because not all three items are mutually exclusive.)

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all, a week and a half belated! :)



(New Year's in Times Square, New York City: an experience of a lifetime not to be repeated again--in the near future, at least!)

*801 - evely says

... i have a moustache ...

*800 - winter wonderland

Christmas eve, and I'm back in Rochester, getting excited for a magical Christmas. I haven't been happier in a long, long time :)





Christmas cookies; and spot Cassie (doggie who does not show up in pictures unless she is against a bright background).

*799 - snowstorm

Hopping on the bandwagon since all the FB statuses of fellow Ithacans are some variation of "SNOWSTORM":

Snowstorm = car slips and slides across flat road = car does not make it up even 1/8 of the slope = WHY DO I LIVE AT THE BOTTOM OF A GIANT HILL = car illegally parked and a frigid, slippery, nose-drippy (but exciting!) hike up the slope at 1 am

Today would be a fantastic day to go snowboarding, if I weren't having my (second-last) final in 3 hours!

*798 - three to go

Three more finals (and one more extra credit paper) to go!! Then let the no-guilt, full-fledged bumming begin :D

Life has been ridiculous in an awesome way as of late, with midnight Wegmans-in-a-motorized-ADA-compliant-cart(-that-goes-BEEP-BEEP-BEEP-in-reverse) runs, Sunday brunches with dimsum and spooky fortune cookies, pomegranates and steak and broccoli, torta de tres leches and birthday boy in nightcap, 4 am runway displays that leave A crying (laughing) on the floor, salsa party, Land Before Time and Mary Poppins and Alice In Wonderland, ...

Looking at what I've been doing over the past week or so, one wonders how study-for-finals time fits in between all that ...

My first Hispanic cake. Verdict: EXCELLENT.


Cross-eyed and gleeful with cake.


Wegman's children's cart.


Wegman's ADA cart. Most inappropriate, but we didn't get scolded until the very end.


RPCC brunch memories!


And those lovely make-your-own-waffle memories.

*797 - to snookums

I'm sorry (again)

(You know, in general)

*796 - i would like to believe

that I get a little better each time--
I know a little more about
what I want and what I don't,
what I feel and how I react,
how I love and how I hurt.

Sometimes I contemplate pressing "rewind" and tossing out the shameful bits along the way, but then all those awful things are really pieces of what is paving my little meandering way now

to
you.

*795 - turkey day

I know each break I have, I say "best break ever"--same goes for this one: best Thanksgiving break ever. Being the first Asian girl to set foot in the house (filled with a gazillion Spanish-chattering Latinos on Thanksgiving) wasn't even awkward as one might have imagined.



In addition to good food, also overdosed on Miyazaki movies, cuddly pets, 4 am nights and 2 pm mornings, relatively gorgeous weather (besides the hail on Friday), classical opera (loud) in sports car, feeling right at home, feeling oddly happy.

Amongst other things, this is what I've learned: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. Up to thirty.

*794 - i know i am easier to like than to love

When will I ever stop being superficial?

The trail I've left behind me is not something I am proud of.

*793 - i think i know

what the best defense is
:)