September 27, 2004 viva las vegas :D Room Count: 6 (I don't know how we're going to swing this) Me, Ape, XL (thanks for putting the rooms on your card :D), Maria Tortilla, and as of Saturday, Steph (flying down from Davis!) and as of yesterday, Christy! i so excited. Anyone know of any good clubs in Vegas that spin hip-hop? (link) Midori | | 5:45 PM

September 25, 2004 this makes me sad :( (link) Midori | | 10:49 PM

Yesterday I fell into a bush and it bit me. (link) Midori | | 1:06 PM

September 22, 2004 Sara's 21st Sara's 21st Birthday September 18 2004 heading over to the patio she still doesn't know yet! birthday girl being shy? april, me and steph can you tell that she's been drinking? the card made her suspicious =0 i missed me? i missed again high school friends steph and ape at the bar me and hoho at the bar the bartender watching tv instead of doing his job 2sexy i think i took this picture myself but i'm not sure... first shots of the night lemon drops holy crap she's red sara can't taste a fuckin' thing! hoho likes russians sara and hoho drinking away deciding on the final drink hoho: i don't like that picture take another one...here...i'll pretend for you... the deceptively pretty sexy alligator. tastes like crap. time to go home This is going to be a long one, so brace yourselves... Damon and HoHo have been trying to swing this whole surprise birthday thing for a while now. So after a deluge of evites, emails, and phone calls, we finally had the story straight. Sara knew that we were going to have a dinner thing for her at BJs, but not as big of one as it was really going to be. Steph got to our place a little before five. We were waiting for April to get off of work so we could all go to the restaurant together. We got there kind of late (almost six...we were supposed to be there at five) but there were only a few people there when we arrived. Jason, Irv (who called me fobulous), Claudia, Luis, and the manager/my babysitter/Jim. Jason called Damon and HoHo and told them to stall while we waited for more people to arrive. Her USC friends and roommates showed up shortly after we got there so we were able to get seated. Jason called them again to tell them to get over to the restaurant and then sent April and I outside to go wait for them since she was expecting us. They (Sara, Damon, HoHo and Lynette) came and we told them that we already had a table out on the patio. Damon led her in and yeah, she saw everyone then hid from my camera. There was already lots of food there since Damon pre-ordered everything. Chips and salsa and pizza. For some reason our end of the table got the vegetarian one? I think the only vegetarian-type person was one of Sara's USC friends who made the trek over first when we had the vegetarian pizza and later when (for some reason) we got the tomato cheese pizza. Right on. Steph and I were having a blast with our abortion jokes (send hate mail here) and sexy body (and cell) part convos (because corneas and rough endoplasmic reticulums are such turn-ons). Punctuation drama for everyone! April and I got her the best gift. Sexy good-girl lingerie stuffed in a Hello Kitty purse. She showed everyone the camisole (pink cotton w/ lace) but refused to even take the thong out of the bag. Party pooper ;P In the meantime, Sara was drinking a raspberry beer (I didn't taste it) and some sort of spiked root beer type thing (which was pretty good). Oh, and there were two big pizookies and a Hello Kitty cake. Made the mistake of letting tipsy birthday girl cut it and she basically massacred it from the neck down. I wanted to scoop out her eyes with a spoon but HoHo and Lynette wouldn't let me. We left BJs a little before nine and headed over to Spectrum so we could go to D&Bs. Damon and HoHo took care to find a babysitter (someone 25 or older) so Lynette and I could get in too. April, Steph and I took the 405 and parked in the structure. When we walked to D&Bs we found that Claudia was the only one there. Irv and the manager/my babysitter/Jim arrived not too long afterward. Turns out, the manager/my babysitter/Jim followed Irv off the wrong exit. Everyone else arrived much later. Parking was really bad I guess, plus Damon had somehow managed to twist his ankle while we were at the restaurant. After the manager/my babysitter/Jim got carded, the door guy just let everyone in. It was weird, even though I walked in before the manager/my babysitter/Jim with my ID all out and ready, I didn't get carded. I think it's because I was below his line of vision. We all headed towards the bathroom and then to the midway (I had never been to Dave and Buster's before) and hung out there for maybe five minutes. Somehow, Luis had already gotten a hold of a bottle of beer. April, Steph and I contemplated getting a card to play games but instead headed over to the bar w/ HoHo. HoHo and I each had a Midori Sour and April had a Cosmo. We tried the whole cherry stem tying thing again but we ran out of stems. I went to the bar to get more but they all had stubby stems =\. HoHo and April went back to get another drink. HoHo got a Midori Melonball and...I forgot what April's second drink was. Anyone care to refresh my memory? HoHo disappeared for a while and we hung out at the bar. She reappeared with the birthday girl and Damon in tow so they ordered a round of shots (B-52s at my suggestion) for Sara, HoHo and April and they all had their first shot of the night. After my very messy shot-taking incident in Santa Clara I have new respect for those who can down those suckers, and April took it like a champ. Sara, in the meantime, takes her shots very similarly to the way I take mine. Drink a third and start choking. Drink another third and start coughing. Finally take the rest down and the realize it wasn't so bad. HA. I think the next round was a round of lemon drops which I offered to buy. I gave Ape a 20 (since I couldn't actually buy it myself...) and she got a round of three lemon drops which they all quickly downed. I think by then they were all feeling it, especially Sara. For the third round they had a Scooby Snack, and when someone asked Sara how it tasted she yelled out enthusiastically "I CAN'T TASTE A FUCKIN' THING!". Sometime around here I had to take Sara to the restroom which was interesting...she saw a picture of a drink on the wall and said "OOOOHHH THAT LOOKS GOOOD!" and kept repeating "Ice and Spice! Ice and Spice!" so she would remember what it was by the time we got back to the bar. Sara insisted upon finding some of her other friends on the midway because she "had to make sure they were having fun!" We found Claudia, the manager/my babysitter/Jim, Luis, Irv and his friend Amy who has the same birthday as me which automatically makes her badass. After that we went back to the bar for more drinking. I think around here Jason showed up and so did Lynette, who got a soda (she's only 18). I think somewhere around here Sara insisted on getting her Ice and Spice so Damon went to go get it for her. I'm still not sure whether it had alcohol in it or not because Damon was trying to deter her from drinking any more. While Sara was away from the table, April was busy looking through the drink menu. She asked HoHo if she wanted to try a White Russian to which Hollie responded "I like Russians!" I think she was really feeling it by then. Sara was the one who was really drunk though. She hit Jason in the face with her head and walked off as if nothing happened (I don't think she realized what she had done) and spilled HoHo's drink later on in the night. After April and HoHo finished their drinks, they wanted to have just one more. They all looked at the menu and Sara and April decided to get Peanut Butter Cups and HoHo got a Sexy Alligator which ended up tasting pretty gross. Or at least the top of it tasted gross, which is okay because when Sara spilled it, the entire top layer was gone. HoHo downed the rest of that sucker like a pro. April had to get to sleep early so we left at around 12. From what I hear it was pretty interesting after we left, the most notable being HoHo calling Irv "Irvsjournal" for the rest of the night. She's great. And then we went back to the apartment and danced around the living room like idiots. Just kidding. Maybe. Anyway, Sara, I hope it was as good for you as it was for me ;) Happy 21st birthday! (link) Midori | | 3:22 PM

September 21, 2004 Aquarium! Aquarium of the Pacific September 17 2004 the two silhouettes would be me and april April has a good buddy Aaron who is working for Boeing. Boeing has a display in the Aquarium of the Pacific so all Boeing empolyees are allowed free admission into the aquarium (with guests!) for a limited time. Since April knows I love aquariums, she invited me to go with them. We ended up getting there at around five-thirty because of our schedules + traffic (the aquarium closes at 6) so we only got to spend about thirty minutes inside the aquarium itself. The outdoor exhibit (sharks and rays) was open until nine, so after we got kicked out of the aquarium we went outside to go touch some rays and sharks. And then we got a churro to share and watched a bunch of over the hill-ers (including one older asian man on drums) play rock/countryish music. After leaving the aquarium we went to Rainforest Cafe in South Coast Plaza where April had a couple of drinks. The first one was good. The second was a cosmopolitan that I think was 95% vodka. Towards the end of the meal April and I got balloon corsages because we're retarded like that. that's right. Since Aaron picked up the dinner tab, April and I paid for drinks. April won the cherry stem contest so we had to take shots :( I only took a half because I'm not hardcore like April. We had a good time :) Thanks Aaron and April. (link) Midori | | 11:23 AM

Random... So bf is in Vegas with three ofhis friends at this moment. He called me last night when he was slightly drunk and playing nickel slots. Him: I slept with D last night. Me: Was it fun? Him: Nah, it was pretty boring. I love bf Once at a conference for Jr. YBA I heard about a group of four guys that were so adamant about not sleeping with eachother that two of them took the double beds, one of them slept in a chair, and the last one slept in the bathtub. The best part was that none of the other guys knew that he was sleeping in the bathtub, so when one of them woke up in the morning and went to the bathroom, in the middle of doing his business he heard the guy in the bathtub breathing, turned to look at where it was coming from, and saw him in the tub fast asleep (haha). Silly boys. Aquarium photos coming up soon. I'm all caught up to Friday :) (link) Midori | | 10:41 AM

September 20, 2004 Day 4 I don't have any photos from the barbeque but it was interesting I discovered that Kit has four names, took a B-52 shot, heard a drunken cousin sing "Kumbaya my lord, I love drugs", watched another drunken cousin make Amber cry (twice), and saw Kit's uncle not only walk into the screen door but walk into the screen door holding a knife (topped my incident with the screen door for sure). The food was good, the beer was flowing (yech), and there was lots and lots of pie. (link) Midori | | 7:41 PM

Day 3 Day 3: Monterey Bay Aquarium September 4 2004 badass jellyfish The original plan was to leave for Santa Clara early Friday morning and stop by the aquarium on our way up. Then we discovered that the rest of Kit's family wanted to see the aquarium too, so the plan changed to we head up late Thursday and go to the aquarium on Sunday. Then we discovered that two of Kit's cousins would not be able to make the barbeque on Sunday so the plan changed to we go to the aquarium on Saturday and have the barbeque on Sunday. So yeah, we went to the aquarium on Saturday. We got to Monterey at around 12 and hooooly crap was it crowded. Parking was awful. Kit and I paid for about 6 dollars worth of metered parking (after driving around in circles trying to find curb space) and then waited in line to get into the aquarium. It was fun. What can I say? I like fish. (link) Midori | | 4:05 PM

Day 2 (cont.) Day 2: Berkeley September 3 2004 built by a berkeley engineer That evening we drove up to Berkeley to visit my little brother at his apartment. I called him and he came down to get us. Turns out, he needed help with his Java program. Berkeley makes their students use emacs, which is a pain in the ass. Anyway, after we finished fixing his program (Kit played video games) we went to go look for a restaurant to eat dinner. We walked down Shattuck (I think) and tried going to Mel's (the ORIGINAL Mel's) but as it turns out the entire length of that side of the block had a power outage and it was closed. So we went to Manga Sushi (or Manga something or other) for some Japanese food. After dinner we went back to the apartment. Kit played more video games and Brady and I tackled the remainder of his homework, which we finished very quickly because I am brilliant. And then Brady played video games and we threw a beach ball around. Word. (link) Midori | | 3:19 PM

Day 2 Day 2: Japanese Friendship Garden September 3 2004 koi pond We got to Kit's uncle's place at around 1am and went right to bed. We woke up before nine because his three year old cousin Amber was running around making noise. That plus the sun was shining directly through our window. We went to the Japanese Friendship Garden after we showered and dressed. We took Amber with us. After struggling with the buckle on her car seat, we left. It took us a while to find the place since the last time he had gone there he was about 8--he told me he threw his dad's watch into some plants and they never found it. Anyway, we walked around and bought some koi food (25 cents for a small handful) and discovered that Amber was afraid of puddles. And bridges. And dirt. And squirrels. After we left the garden we went to Tung Kee Noodle (Amber insisted on it) for lunch and then headed over to Valley Fair where some woman outside of Build-A-Bear asked if my daughter would like a balloon. Um, hello. We went back to the house to take a nap but when we got there there was no one home which meant we had to put Amber to sleep. First she turned on the TV and rolled around on the bed saying that her stomach hurt and then got off the bed and walked to the other side of the room. At this point Kit (who was watching her from another room) yelled "Amber why are your pants pulled down?!" and indeed her pants were pulled halfway down her butt. She told me she wanted to change so I changed her clothes for her and then finally got to go to sleep. Kids are great. Right. (link) Midori | | 2:13 PM

BADASS I'm in the UCI searchable schedule. That's so badass. I wish I could register for my own class. (link) Midori | | 1:56 PM

Day 1 Santa Clara September 2 2004 on the 5 heading north Photos from Santa Clara/Monterey/Berkeley coming soon... (link) Midori | | 11:12 AM

September 19, 2004 GWM 10x8 Uncut GWM 10x8 Uncut August 5 2004 me, maria and ape Our former roommate Maria (the non-evil one) interns at a Santa Monica gallery that does some pretty risqué stuff. When Maria told April about a gallery benefit she was going to be assisting with, April and I decided that we should broaden our horizons and take a look. The theme was GWM 10x8 Uncut, photos inspired by personal ads. The exhibit was (clearly) geared towards gay males and I was a bit thrown when I saw that the invite said "fetish attire encouraged" but we went late Friday night and had a good time. april and maria April and I arrived fashionably late (actually we're always running late) and discovered that most of the food was gone. We also discovered that we were the only females present that were not employees of the gallery. Anyway, we ate some bread and hummus and made our rounds of the exhibit. The attendees were almost as interesting as the photos. We saw a black Peter Pan-ish looking guy (black man in black tights, pointed shoes, tight black shirt and bowl haircut), a shirtless (very buff and very tan) long-haired guy in khakis with lots of shell necklaces, and of course some leather here, some retro there, etc. The exhibits were very graphic. Photos of extreme piercings, BDSM, and tattoos. Oh, and I learned a new term: blood play. There were photos of that too =0. We met a photographer whose exhibit consisted entirely of Asian males. I believe that his were probably the most conservative. My favorite was probably the one called "Adam and Steve", a photograph of two men in a garden. april losing her ocular virginity After the benefit, April, Maria and I went to Mel's diner on...okay I forgot which street...to eat. We dropped Maria off at home (she lives around that area) and then headed back home. All I have to say is...you should've been there ;) Fantastic. (link) Midori | | 4:25 PM

Crocodile Cafe Crocodile Cafe July 30 2004 we met at april's place Steph rarely comes back down south so the fact that she was there meant that we absolutely had to get together and do something. Unfortunately, Sar was in Japan and Ra was in Santa Cruz so it was just the four of us. We went to Old Town Pasadena to revisit the Crocoldile Cafe we used to frequent around our senior year in high school and the summer after we graduated. Sometime during our first years of college we decided we were going there way too often and somehow ended up never going there again. Sometime in the past two years, that particular branch closed down. We didn't know this, so when we got there there was no Croc Cafe. Instead we went to the one on Lake (also in Pasadena) which took us a while to find. steph and ape, hoho and me I got the usual turkey ham avocado sandwich (I believe Ape did too) and HoHo got a tuna sandwich that ended up being seared tuna and not tuna salad. HoHo had to go home early, so she went home and the three of us went to go get boba someplace on Garvey (that really narrows it down). We stayed there and caught up with eachother's lives until about 12:30. Oh yeah...there was this group that came in while we were at the restaurant. Three adults and two kids. The kids were clearly exhausted and fell asleep immediately. They didn't even eat. So I took a picture. steph and i leaned in to make it look like ape was photographing us and not them. i had to adjust the brightness quite a bit before you could even tell what we were photographin. (link) Midori | | 3:55 PM

September 16, 2004 21 happy birthday sarabean :) (link) Midori | | 10:26 AM

September 15, 2004 Eastmont Look at how diverse my first intermediate school is badass * * * First I went here (3 yrs). And then here (3 yrs). And then here (1 yr). And then here (2 yrs). And then here (2 yrs). And finally here (4 yrs). And now I'm here! How about you? (link) Midori | | 3:28 PM

4:30am So at around 4:30 this morning my phone starts ringing and it wakes me up. I don't recognize the number so I shut off the ring and go back to sleep. Before I get a chance to fall asleep again, the phone rings again with the same number. I (pissed off) shut off the ring again and contemplate shutting off my phone, but then remember that if I did, my alarm wouldn't go off. So I leave it on. I called the number back this morning at 10. A woman picks up and says "[something?] center how may I help you?" (I couldn't really understand her...). So I tell her that I got a phone call from their number at around 4:30am and she kept saying "Hello? Hello?" so I hung up and moved to a different room with better reception and called back. She then told me that no one called me from that number this morning and to have the police take care of it? Right. So anyway, I look up the number on Google and discover that it's the number for a McDonalds in Alhambra. WTF. Chili rice and Okinawa dangos. I wish it was Obon season right now. (link) Midori | | 2:19 PM

September 13, 2004 Saw Who would go with me to see this? (link) Midori | | 2:29 PM

September 12, 2004 Mommy thinks I look like the Japanese girls on TV. Roommate thinks I look like a schoolgirl. Coworker thinks I look like an anime character. Maybe people will (finally) start getting my ethnicity correct. On another note, try this game [Ganguro Girl]. Andrew and I played it at work (more like he played and I helped him because he's got no game) and yeah, it's a bit racy, but if you skip the end sequence (aka your "goal") like Andrew and I did then I would say it's PG-PG13ish. In any case, it's pretty funny. And then we played Insaniquarium. Go fish. (link) Midori | | 8:46 PM

I (quite spontaneously) decided to get relatively blunt cut bangs. Still haven't figured out whether I really like the bangs or whether I really like the fact that it's radically different from the haircut I've been getting since high school...? We'll see. (link) Midori | | 1:38 PM

September 08, 2004 Okay so I'm back and I've been back for a few days already. I have even more photos to post now and I don't really feel like doing all that right now but it's okay. I think I'm going to get my hair cut on Saturday...? I'm thinking bangs, just because I haven't had them since I was nine or ten. Mistake? Maybe. Oh well. I once knew someone who was actually afraid of me. That was weird. I need more $$$ Carlos is on hiatus :( Xin accidentally walked out of the apartment in my slippers today. She called the apartment to tell me that she was wearing my slippers and when I came to campus I saw her on Ring Road, selling root beer floats and wearing my slippers. I bought a root beer float today. And this post was pretty random. (link) Midori | | 4:51 PM

September 06, 2004 HA and then he yelled "VIETNAM HELP ME" (which is silly because I wasn't doing anything) and Kit looked at him and said "Vietnam can't beat Japan" (even though they beat the US?) and left him there hiding under a pillow on the floor. (link) Midori | | 9:12 AM

September 05, 2004 KIT'S DRUNK COUSIN KEEPS CALLING ME JAPAN AND KEEPS YELLING "PEARL HARBOR II" WTF (link) Midori | | 10:33 PM

September 04, 2004 Santa Clara I'm in Santa Clara right now using their family computer. Went up to Berkeley to see my brother yesterday evening after spending the day with his three year old cousin. We were going to go to Mel's diner (the original Mel's) but it seems that there was a power outage on that entire side of the block so it wasn't open =\ Instead we went to Manga Sushi (or Manga something...) for Japanese food. Today we went to the aquarium and to the Gilroy outlets. Went shopping with bf's aunt and cousin at Valley Fair. I have a few photos, but they'll have to wait until later. I'm kinda sleepy and the space bar is a bit sticky. So peace out dudes. (link) Midori | | 9:43 PM

September 02, 2004 today Plans have changed and we're leaving tonight instead of tomorrow morning. I'm just waiting for him to come get me (yay). Daddy gave me muffins. woohoo (link) Midori | | 7:19 PM

September 01, 2004 Rap Session Rap Session July 25 2004 something stinky? We're an unofficial chapter of Sr. YBA and we're just trying to--well--do stuff. The rap session (an informal q&a session with a couple of ministers) was our first attempt. It was held at Venice Hongwanji (thanks Rev. Iwohara), right before the hip-hop class for old folks. I won't risk boring you with details on the discussion, but I do have pictures :) denise's nasty sunburn (ewwww) neener with guest minister and our first victim preparing the snacks getting started my brother (link) Midori | | 3:19 PM

Labor Day This weekend Kit and I are going to go up north. I think we're going to leave obscenely early Friday morning, stop in Monterey to go to the aquarium (:D) and then head over to Santa Clara to stay with his aunt and uncle. My arms and abs hurt. I'm not used to exercise. (link) Midori | | 3:01 PM

oh baby oh baby (link) Midori | | 10:03 AM