Guess who....

Almost forgot I had this blog, but felt the urge to check in.

I started the blog during bouts of boredom after college and wanting to do accomplish things in my life. A confession: I haven't consciously thought about that list for almost 2 yrs. 

But what the heck, I wanted to see how I did!


TRAVEL
1. Visit 3 aquariums (Monterey Bay Aquarium 6/25/10, Aquarium of the Pacific, New England Aquarium)
2. Go on a road trip with friends- Vegas with vet school friends :)
3. Visit Hearst Castle (6/24/10)
4. Bike to Venice beach
5. Gamble in Vegas
6. See a show in Vegas
7. Take a vacation to Catalina
8. Try 5 new restaurants (Cafe Yulong 6/27/10, La Brea Bakery, Loving Hut, Pappy's, Taste of India)
9. Go back to the Grand Canyon
10. Visit Huntington Library
11. Shop in downtown LA’s fashion district
12. Eat a Pink’s hot dog
13. Vacation on the east coast

READ/WATCH
14. Watch AFI’s 100 years..100 movies
15. Read 15 classic books
16. Read 50 books (206 Bones, 1st to Die, Her Fearful Symmetry, Saving Gracie)
17. Watch all the “Planet Earth” DVDs
18. Attend a midnight premiere of a movie- Last Harry Potter movie OH YEAHHH!!
19. Read an autobiography- Julia Child
20. Subscribe to a health magazine (Runner's World)
21. Write a TV schedule and only watch those shows

SCHOOL/CAREER
22. Take the GRE (5/8/10)
23. Write a personal statement
24. Apply to veterinary school
25. Go to veterinary school OR enroll in a LVT program- Oh yeah I forgot to mention, I'm GOING TO VET SCHOOL!!!!!!!
26. Take a nutrition course
27. Finish vet school pre-reqs
28. Learn interviewing skills

CREATIVITY
29. Knit a hat
30. Learn how to read a pattern
31. Sew 5 scrub tops
32. Take a jewelry making class
33. Make 2 pairs of earrings
34. Enter an amateur photo contest
35. Learn how to decorate cakes
36. Learn to use photoshop
37. Be able to use “manual” setting on my dSLR
38. Learn to make fondant
39. Make a ring for myself
40. Make a handmade presents for my immediate family

SCRAPBOOKING
41. Finish Thailand album (5/16/10)
42. Finish Alaska album
43. Finish childhood album
44. Finish Disneyland album
45. Finish college album
46. Finish spring break album
47. Finish pet album

HEALTH
48. Start and finish “couch to 5k”
49. Run a 5k
50. Run a 10k
51. Drink at least 1 liter of water daily for 1 month
52. Go on 5 hikes
53. Get in the healthy weight range to my height (102-128 lbs)
54. No fast food for 1 month
55. Find out my blood type
56. Keep a food journal for 1 month
57. Finish a bottle of multivitamins (consecutive days)
58. Floss once a day for 1 month
59. Vegetarian for 1 week
60. Spend at least 30 minutes outdoors everyday for a week

COOKING
61. Try 15 new recipes
62. Cook 5 soups
63. Learn to make quinoa
64. Try brussel sprouts
65. Make my own yogurt
66. Learn to make French apple pie
67. Make a Thai dish
68. Make spicy tuna rolls and California rolls
69. Have a pizza night (make the dough too!) (5/20/10)

ORGANIZATION
70. Backup my pictures on CDs
71. Get rid of magazines older than 1 year
72. Throw out old school papers
73. Organize financial papers
74. Make a recipe book
75. Update 101 in 1001 monthly (minimum)
76. Get rid of music on iTunes I don’t listen to
77. Create 5 useful iTunes playlists

FOR OTHERS
78. Donate hair to “Locks of Love”
79. Give to 5 non-profits organizations
80. Sponsor a child in a third world country
81. Donate Christmas presents to those in need
82. Help pay for a rescue animal’s medical bills

PURCHASES
83. Buy a new iPod car adapter
84. Get a new cell phone
85. Invest in a new computer
86. Buy a bike
87. Buy a graphics tablet
88. New pair of “everyday” shoes
89. A hard drive with a lot of capacity

FOR FUN
90. Learn to SCUBA dive
91. Learn to drive a stick shift
92. Blog everyday for 1 month
93. Comment on 10 blogs I like
94. Write a letter/card every month
95. Watch the sunrise and set in a day
96. Live on my own
97. Have brunch with grandparents for no reason
98. Finish everything on my list!
99. Grow pumpkins
100. Have an herb garden and make something with it
101. Garden everyday for 1 week

Still have a long way to go, but I did more than I thought!
I now realized some of my goals are no longer possible because of where I am living, but can't win them all!  
Here's to the summer and this list! Let's go!!!!

101 updating!

This week I watched the rescue of the Chilean mine workers. Needless to say, it so amazing they all survived. I can't imagine being trapped for almost 70 days underground!! That's a really long time!

I started thinking, what have I done in 70 days?
Since August 5th I have:

Got a netbook (#85) 
Yay! Its so handy to take to school! Especially since I have a 4 hour break between classes and my laptop is a ginormous dinosaur :P

Visited the Aquarium of the Pacific (#1)
I finally used my free tickets! It felt like my friends and I were they only people there without kids! It was fun to stop at all the touch tanks and watch the animal feeding as a visitor, not a volunteer!

Tried a new restaurant (#8)- La Brea Bakery at Downtown Disney.
I had the fresh mozzarella sandwich. Delicious! Along with fresh bread, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and icy water it was a great choice. The price was comparable to some of the restaurants inside the park, but being served, unlimited drink refills, and service made it waayy better!

Read (#6)
I finished 1st to Die, Cradle and All, Her Fearful Symmetry, and Saving Gracie. I’m really enjoying easy reads, and I think each book took an average of 2 days to read ;)

Wrote a personal statement (#23) applied to veterinary school (#24)
Finito!! This is what I was doing on the blog hiatus. Let me tell you, writing a personal statement is tough cookies!

Subscribed to a fitness magazine (#20)
Hello, Runner’s World! I’m still not a “runner!” But there’s some good articles about health, preventing injuries, and food.

Went back to school (#27)
The last of my grad school pre-requisites!! I finally scored a spot in a microbiology class! Phew :)

Wow! While I was struggling with applications and school work, the miners were in constant worry about being rescued. It really puts life into perspective :)

Have a good Sunday!! It’s gloomy weather in So Cal!

Twice as nice

Since I forgot *coughi'maslackercough* to do a June 101 update, I'm clumping it together with July's update.  They both start with "J" can't we pretend it's one very loong month ;)

Plus it'll seem like I did more things!

#1 Visited Monterey Bay Aquarium

#3 Hearst Castle!!

#4 Biked to Venice Beach (sad lack of photos, I'm going next weekend and will remember the camera!!)
#61 Muffins that taste like doughnuts, or I like to call them snickerdoodle muffins!
#62 Mulligatawny soup (recipe coming soon!)

#83 Purchased an iPod adaptor
#86 I got a bike!

I was getting my blogging groove on in the beginning of June (trying to hit the 1 month of blogging!), but then the fear and realization that veterinary school apps (#24) are due very very soon threw me off track.  Juggling school, work, apps, and writing a personal statement have made me want to crawl up into a small ball and wish it all goes away!

Anyone want to trade places with me? Okay, I'm being a big baby, there's worse things that could be happening to me! I take all my whining back. Well, maybe I'll just 90% back. I keep telling myself that I'm blessed with the opportunity to pursue my dreams!

So I'll just settle for the camaraderie of someone has gone through crazy grad school application process! Anyone??

Oh well, I'm off to learn about the biochemistry of DNA replication!

At least I have a study buddy :)
(Yes, I did her hair like that and no, I'm not really ashamed)

Happy sunny Saturday!

Seals and castles and road trips, oh my!

I'm baaack! It was a fun, whirlwind weekend, and its taken a week to get back into the normal rhythm of things :) My dad and I ended up doing 4 cities in 4 days, clocking in about 1,000 miles of driving!

Here's a quick recap of our jam packed weekend!

We first stopped at Hearst Castle, a sprawling 250,000 acre state park in San Simeon. See it waaaaay on top of the hill (I had to use super zoom lens!)
William R. Hearst (an incredibly rich man) and Julia Morgan (an architect who was in my sorority!) built a house with 165 rooms, a zoo, airport, indoor and outdoor pool, and 127 acres of gardens.
The main house (above) and the neptune pool (below). I really wish I could have swam in it! Hmm, wonder what would have happened if I just "fell" in ;)
Its amazing what a lot of money and imagination can build, it was beautiful!

Since I love marine mammals, we drove a little further to Piedras Blancas to see elephant seals!

According to the docent, juvenile males are back to molt, fast, and practice "fighting." Luckily I was a safe distance away, or else I would have been smashed like a pancake. They really went at it!
Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Why hello Mr. Sea turtle, having a nice snack??
I am now in love with weedy (or is it leafy) sea dragons! Who knew they looked so cool!
Saw more pinnipeds, those are sea lions, not logs!! Very smelly and noisy!
Plus we squeezed in some time in San Jose with my great aunt, and dinner in San Francisco with more relatives! (I took more photos of animals than people..oops!)

What a great weekend to cross things off my 101 list!
#3: Visit Hearst Castle
#1: Visit 3 aquariums (2 more to go!)
#8: Try 5 new restaurants (Cafe Yulong in Mountain View, haven't had Chinese in so long!)
#16: Read 50 new books (All the driving left me with plenty of time to read, I finished 206 Bones, by Kathy Riechs)

I'm so glad I was able to get away last weekend because all I'll be doing this weekend is studying! I have an exam coming up fast! Eeek!

Hope everyone has a safe and sparkly 4th of July tomorrow!

Dear ole August

My oh my... I feel like a granny saying "ehhh..where has the time gone?" in a croaky old voice. But at least this month consisted of more than my normal TV watching. Big step.

In the past month I have:

• Played host to visiting relatives
  
• Been to the local courthouse for jury duty
• Went on family adventure to Alaska and Vancouver
• Been to the local courthouse for jury duty... yes twice.
• Gotten good at telling potential employers that I don't have a wealth of experience, but I learn really fast. And am dependable. And am easy to work with.

I've decided (after watching Julie & Julia) to try to write more regularly. Since I'm not doing anything but bumming around the house, I figure this will give me some kind of structure. Or help make sure I don't forget how to write. Or keep my mind active. Or help me with social skills. What if I forget how to converse with people?! Seriously. What if I hang out with my dog all day and then talk to seals on the weekends. I might become the new version of the lady with a million cats. Hmm, I'll keep you updated.