Sunshine, Food Trucks, and Drives

Today I was chatting with a guy sitting next to me in class right before discussion started and I was talking about the weather [haha I'm lame but nice weather is an actual conversation!]. Anyway, I was just telling him about how I really wanted to just be outside and have summer already because sunshine is such a tease! Anyway, at that moment, he looked at my TA and asked if we could have discussion outside. My TA looked around at the room [only half of us were in attendance] and then said "we'll have discussion outside if five more people show up." After a few minutes, five people randomly trickled in. YAY! So we had discussion out on the grass outside. I think this has made my week. I guess simple things really make me happy...sitting on the grass in the sunshine + banh mi = a lovely date :)

A recap of random things in my life since my last post...

I went to my first food truck in LA!!! I was actually intending on finding a truck called Phamish because I was craving Vietnamese food SOOO badly, but they weren't there near USC like their website said they would be =/ No worries, I ended up eating at Bull Kogi, and just had a bowl. It was just okay...I want to try the original Kogi truck though!

Hehe so Asian...they had plastic trash cans [more like buckets] flipped upside down for you to sit on right where the lunch truck was.

Last weekend I got picked up by a friend to go eat dinner in Westwood, and I was telling him a fairly lengthy dramatic story. The next thing I know, I look around and think "wait...I don't recognize this...this isn't how you get to Westwood..." Well, I guess he wasn't paying attention to driving cause of my story and we ended up taking the 10 all the way to Santa Monica, and then ended up on the 1. After a few miles going on the 1, I was like "we should turn back!" but there were no places to make a legal u-turn so I suggested that we turn right onto a small street and then turn around. We ended up randomly turning onto Topanga [Canyon Rd.] which is basically a winding mountain road that was rather dangerous and not exactly ideal to u-turn, especially with cars tailgating us due to the lack of horsepower in the hybrid we were in which was struggling to drive up the mountain. Anyway, using the fabulous technology of 3G, I used my phone to figure out where we were and decided to just keep going through Topanga state park.

I'm so glad we decided to drive through Topanga State Park. Some of you may have already heard me bitch [excuse my language] about how much I hate LA [well I don't hate it, but the Bay Area is just better on an infinite number of levels. hella.]. But seriously, I concluded on my flight back to LA at the end of winter break that Los Angeles is just a desolate flattened grid of grey poured concrete and steel. At the sight below me with 7 minutes till landing, I finally saw this massive patch of green. I got superrr excited and was like "Wow a large park!!! I need to find this place!" We flew lower and lower and finally flew over it and I realized it was actually a cemetery and I could actually see a funeral going on. -_________- shattered dreams much?

Anyway, back to driving through Topanga. It's a little north of Santa Monica, and I never realized I could escape the city. I was so happy! We stopped by a liquor store [for a snack] and the owner of the store was telling us about how about 200 feet up the road, we could make a left onto a street called Fernwood[?] and at the first and only stop sign, make a right and go up around 8 miles. At the top, supposedly, is the best view of just the city and the ocean...we didn't go because a hybrid car would die, but I will be checking that out once I have a car in the next few years! :) We kept driving through and passed through a small town called Topanga. It was really cute!!! Ah, to live up there is like the perfect retirement...huge nice houses and secluded from the city.

Proof that we were in Topanga! haha

Okay, so I saw this RANDOM flying pig just on the side of the road and I demanded that we pull over so that I could take a picture. Haha :)

Eventually we made it to the other side of the mountain and you can take a slight right to a vista point and it was absolutely fantastic. The view of the city lights is just incredible and Priya's Hill pales in comparison. Hmmm, but I've never been to Hunter's point back home so I can't compare it to Hunter's.

So we took a 2 hour detour and made it back to Westwood around 10? 11? and had a very late dinner. The End!

Sugar

Hi kids!

Well this will be a rather short post. I just wanted to let you know that my teeth hurt right now! I basically ate too much sugar today. I shoved two poptarts down my throat while I headed off to my last midterm. And then was handed a sour punch straw right before my exam. Finished my midterm! Ate dinner, and then had the sugary top of donuts. UHHH yeah, obese to the max! And now my teeth hurt. Who knew that your teeth could actually hurt from eating too much sugar?! I thought it was just some parenting stories to keep kids away from candy. Ooops...shoulda listened.

Anyway, hope you have a good day :) I will try to post again soon!

what-the-f#%k-blanket

I, Chanel Hung, am an official owner of a Snuggie.

If you are not already aware, I had very strong feelings toward the idea of a Snuggie when it first came out. A blanket + sleeves = why don't you just wear a sweater or robe? My general sentiments toward Snuggies have not changed much - it's pretty much in line with that one YouTube video that calls it the "what-the-f#%k-blanket." If you haven't seen it yet, see the following:

So, if I wrinkle my nose at the snuggie, why do I own one?! Just to be clear, I would never spend money on this thing. I actually won it. Oh, and it's a USC Snuggie. Fantastic!

I decided that since I can now read, eat, sew, use the remote, talk on the phone, or work on my laptop in complete comfort, I would give it a shot and let you see how retarded I look in doing so. Except I don't exactly have anything to sew...or a sewing machine...or a needle...or thread. And I don't have a TV and therefore no remote...

But seriously guys, look how happy I am and creepy I look! I'm definitely going to be using this contraption all the time when I eat, sleep, study, go to class, play, drive, go to the beach, sew clothes, party, etc. Especially with Los Angeles' freezing weather. DAMN it must have been 75 degrees today. Time to pull out my snuggie since my blankets aren't good enough.

ALSO my aunt told me that when this thing first appeared on infomercials, it sold like hot cakes. Apparently so many people called in to buy the thing that they had to stop airing the infomercial because they couldn't keep up with sales. Whoever came up with this idea for a retarded blanket must be a fricken millionaire. Time to go find him and gold dig that.

Turbulence

So I know that my previous post said that my next one will be about snuggies, but I actually didn't get a chance to finish putting that together yet so, that will have to wait for when I get back to school! In the mean time...

Turbulence. After an interesting not-so-typical Thursday night in college, I hopped onto a plane to finally come home for spring break.

Well, before I hopped onto that plane, I took the shuttle to LAX. One of my friends booked the shuttle for me and used SuperShuttle. I normally use Primetime. Anyway, Supershuttle told me they'd be there by 2:45. At 2:30 they said they had arrived and would leave without me soon. UH THANKS I was forced to scramble and throw all my crap into my luggage. I'm missing a few things, but oh well it won't kill me. Note to self, my patronage in the future shall be solely toward Primetime. SuperShuttle pissed me off.

Anyway, this post is about turbulence. On the decent into San Jose, my plane hit turbulence. Turbulence normally has a negative connotation, whether it be on a plane or in life. On planes, most people feel uncomfortable or uneasy. Some who rather hate flying actually panic. But I love experiencing turbulence on airplanes. It gives me a rush, a thrill, a sense of excitement. You never know what's going to happen next. How long will it last? Is the plane going to crash? Maybe I'll make it out of here alive with an interesting story. A plane ride without turbulence is a boring plane ride. Sometimes I think to myself, if I feel like I'm living on the edge of life whenever the captain asks us to return to our seats and fasten our seat belts, I must not be living on the edge enough.

Which got me thinking...

Life is full of turbulence. Sometimes this turbulence only lasts a minute of my life, and at other times stays with me forever. Normally when things seem unstable, I feel like all I can do is hang on and wait it out.

But I want to live my life embracing turbulence the same way I embrace it during plane rides. Life is an adventure! I want to begin to welcome turbulence into my life, because the product of turbulence is change and growth. Without it, I will someday wake up years from now wondering why I haven't lived.

On airplanes, when turbulence actually leads to a crash, I will come out with a great story to tell later on.

In life, when turbulence actually leads to a crash, I will come out with a great story to tell later on and also be a better person for it.

So bring it life! I am so ready for the next span of turbulence you give me. Ready for some thrills, excitement, and stories to tell.

I am weird.

On Sunday, I went to the bookstore to pick up bluebooks. I also bought a children's picture book called "Sunny Bunny" because it made me happy.

I have been awake for more than twenty four hours. I'm writing a paper on gang violence in Los Angeles. I still have not finished. It's due in less than two hours. I think I'm going crazy because I've been extremely happy the past few hours. I think I was really really really trying to look on the bright side and it kinda went beyond what I expected, because I am SUPER happy right now [shout out to Bryan...the whole "happiness depends on attitude" thing is seriously creeping me out right now because I honestly don't have much reason to be happy at the moment. But I am]. I SAW THE SUNRISE. That made me happy...at 5:45 in the morning. Now it is 7:20 and I have to finish my paper!

It's been super windy in Los Angeles.

Confession: I'm listening to Miley Cyrus' new song and I like it

You should listen to: Sunrise - Norah Jones

Stay tuned! My next blog entry will be concerning the infamous snuggie.

OVER AND OUT!

Potato, Tomato

So the layout of the blog is cutting off the right side of this video and I'm not sure how to change it :( does anyone know how to fix this? Anyway, if it bothers you, right click and you can watch the video on youtube.

This is really sad :( I admittedly am not the healthiest of eaters...although I'm getting a lot better about it. This classroom that Jamie Oliver visited is in West Virginia, which has been deemed the unhealthiest state in America. It's quite sad that these little kids can't even recognize vegetables. It's funny because I remember growing up as a kid, there were always ads and such which encouraged parents to force their kids to eat vegetables. And I assumed parents in reality would...I think mine did. Calvin's [of Calvin and Hobbes] and Zoe's [of Baby Blues] parents made them eat vegetables! Anyway, I guess I never realized how massive a problem this is! I know that America is getting fatter, but I think living in California, where body image and health plays a huge role in our every day lives, makes us oblivious to a very large problem...no pun intended! These kids are only in first grade...it's not their fault they have not been exposed to healthier eating habits. Americans need to start eating healthier. So do I.

Happy Birthday

This past weekend, I was at a birthday party. I love birthdays. I love getting together with friends, acting crazy, playing random games, having an excuse to eat recklessly, and relishing in the excitement of surprise presents. But there's one thing that I LOVE about birthdays, and one thing that I HATE.

I love love love cake. I've mentioned this before: I am the fat kid who loves cake.

I hate hate hate the 2 minutes prior to cutting the cake: singing the birthday song.

I swear to freaking God, I don't remember the last time I was at a birthday party and people actually sang the Happy Birthday song decently. IS IT THAT HARD? I know that a lot of people claim they are tone deaf and can't sing, but I feel like they're just making excuses. It's as if they think they can't sing therefore don't even bother trying to keep a tune. Every time I have to sing the Happy Birthday song, aside from whenever we sang it choir, it somehow feels wrong to sing it in tune because everyone else is so off tune it makes my ears want to fall off and rot away. I always end up mumbling the song in tune.

Has it always been this way? 50 years ago, did people stand around lighted candles and sing very very off tune? When did people [not you necessarily, the individual, but people as a collective whole] become incapable of holding a simple tune? Most people can sing Mary Had a Little Lamb, right? Is the Birthday Song harder to sing?

I understand most people don't sing much because they don't think they can , but just try it. Try to sing Happy Birthday in tune. Please? I promise it's not that hard. If you find it hard, let me know. I would love to help.