Awesome Vacation Day 2

Most of the time the eight of us have been driving around California in a Honda Pilot, which Charles says is a clown car. But it's really fun because we're all together :)


On day 2 we went to my favorite park because it has a giant farmer's market and on Saturday mornings there are tons of little kids playing flag football and it's super cute. We ran a few laps around the park and then did some lifting and throwing:


and then we bought food at the farmer's market. We shared a giant bag of kettle corn (sooo yummy...)


Then we took a picture with Santa because Charles said it didn't feel like Christmas. What a creepy Santa:


Then we to get dim sum with my parents and they were really amused at how we roshamed all the leftovers. Eugene lost (won) a lot:


Then we drove to Griffith Observatory where we could see the Hollywood sign:


Then we actually went into the observatory and watched the Foucault Pendulum:



And Keith played with the heat sensor:


And Eugene tried being an astronaut:


This is us in front of the Griffith:


And us with a view of Los Angeles:


Then we went to Yogurtland! Which is this awesome frozen yogurt place with both sweet and tart frozen yogurts. You serve yourself and there are like 14 different flavors you can try. And here we are concentrating very hard on eating our frozen yogurt:


And the spoons are biodegradable and made out of corn! So of course the boys (minus Charles) had to try and eat the spoons while Charles stood there and judged:


Then we went to Beverly Hills Rodeo Drive:



And then drove around Beverly Hills and saw Michael Jackson's House and the Greystone Mansion and the playboy mansion and other things. But it was really dark and everything was gated so we really didn't see anything. =P

Then we drove back to Torrance and went to Sue's kitchen for dinner... yummy beef noodle soup!!


Then we went back to my place and my brother and his friends challenged us to Cranium so of course we had to accept:


And of course we won :)

What an awesome vacation... (Day 1)

A bunch of friends came to California to stay with me for the best vacation EVER...

Day 0
Bryan, Keith, Charles, and I flew from Boston to California on a Virgin America flight. If you've never flown Virgin before, it's totally worth it. The four of us sat in a row and played around with the tv functions, including seat-to-seat chat and ordering your beverage from your seat, and tv! We also all watched Jersey Shore together =P My dad picked us up, then we picked up Wuisiew who was waiting for us in another terminal

On our flight to California:

Day 1
After picking up Clare and Eugene, we made our way to Hollywood, where we saw the Walk of Fame, the Chinese Mann Theater, and some wax statues:

Bryan and Keith? Who's Brian Keith?

Bryan meets his idol

It's kinda creepy how real the wax statues look...

Harry Potter!!

Then we had lunch at In-N-Out. Bryan doesn't like In-N-Out so he ate at Carls Jr... =P

Then we drove west to the Getty Museum which is the awesome beautiful place with amazing architecture. And of course we have to take pictures like this:

Then we stayed at the Getty to watch the sunset:

Then we drove south along the coast to Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade which is a street with a bunch of shopping. And they had these dinosaur bushes that had shoot water:

Then we went to El Cholo for dinner and had the most amazing Mexican food:

Then we made our way back to my house where we cleaned our pores with nose and face strips from CVS. Keith won... (I won't show you the disgusting picture of the blackheads)

Don't do this to me again

This morning I was just about to shut off my computer and head out for lab, when I got a phone call from a very groggy Keith. He asked, "Hey... did you leave yet?" And I told him I was just about to, when Doris's name popped up on my gchat and she asked "Hey... are you leaving soon?" I told her the same thing.

Then both Keith (on the phone) and Doris (through gchat) at the same time, start telling me how Doris left her wallet and phone at home and she was wondering whether I could bring it to Keith so he could pass it off to Doris at work. I was like, "ahhh too many modes of communication at once, and, ok."

So I go over to Doris' room and grab her purse which has her wallet and her phone inside (I checked). Then this is the rest of the conversation:

D: thanks so much... my wallet is in my white purse on my dresser and my phone is probably on my bed/desk
me: your phone is in your purse
D: no, my phone is probably on my bed
me: your phone is in your purse!!!

At this point, I had to stop and think, "Wait, what does she mean by purse?" Because Doris has one of those tiny tiny purses that can fit maybe 3 credit cards and some people call that a "clutch." (I don't really know, I only own one "purse" in my lifetime and I got it in grad school...) And I opened her "purse/clutch" and took out her cell phone and purposely thought, "This is definitely a cell phone, HER cell phone..." then decided Doris was crazy and I'll just give her the entire thing. Thanks for making me question my sanity this morning, Doris.

Eugene

I ran into one of Eugene's friends today at Grad Women's Lunch. She had come out to a summer league game to check it out so that's how I met her. So we start talking about Eugene because he's our common denominator and spent the next 10 minutes talking about how Eugene's sole purpose is to get through grad school without paying for food. Haha

Eugene! - don't get upset, we still love you and all your food-mooching ways. :D

I ran for the #1 bus today...

I had seen it coming down Mass Ave so I ran for the next stop and I made it! As when I got on, still gasping for air, the bus driver said, "You ran so fast you ran past a bus stop!"

me: ::gasp:: ::gasp:: huh?
BD: Did you know you ran past a bus stop?
me: No...
BD: Well, now you know, you ran too far. You could've stopped a few blocks ago.
me: Oh... well, now I know =P

Also, I learned that my new backpack (The North Face "Recon") has a whistle! It's built into the torso buckle or whatever that's called. Genius!

First frisbee experience at MIT

This story involves frisbee and Bryan and it might be entertaining for you and was definitely painful for me.

It was the second Saturday of my first year at MIT (Sept. 2006 - wow, more than 3 years ago!) and all the first years in my program (course 3) were going to George's Island for some quality departmental bonding time. It was a beautiful fall Boston day and everything in my life was awesome! I didn't have to worry about finding an advisor yet, I didn't have horrible roommate problems yet (not Smeri or Doris, OTHER roommate problems...) I didn't have to worry about research or quals yet. Yep, it was a beautiful fall Boston day for me. :)

We took the ferry to George's Island and I chatted with people in my program, people who eventually became my best friends at MIT. When we got there, the group of students coordinating the outing were setting up lunch on picnic tables and most of us were just waiting around, so I got out my disc (of course I brought one with me!) and start throwing with some guys in my department, including Bryan and some other people.

After a while, one of the guys (not Bryan - just thought he would want me to point that out) threw a backhand that I had to run for. And so I ran for it. And it was a little high so I jumped for it and tried grabbing it with my right hand. And next thing I know, I felt like I got punched SUPER hard in my stomach and got the wind knocked out of me. As I was going down, I heard, "Karen!!! GRILL!!!" (What???)

I blacked out for a few seconds and when I came to, I realized I was sitting next to a BBQ grill:



Yep, I had run straight into a BBQ grill.

When I came to, I was like, "Why didn't anyone say anything?!" to the small crowd that had gathered. Bryan was like, "I did!... I said, 'Karen!!! GRILL!!!'" Great thanks, just a little too late, don't you think? =P

Anyway, for the next two weeks, I had a huge welt on my right arm where I had crashed into the top of the BBQ grill, and huge welt on my left thigh where I crashed into the bottom of the BBQ grill. (I hadn't learned to jump with the same-side knee and arm yet.)

For the next year, my course 3 friends would tell the story of how a BBQ grill attacked me while I was playing frisbee. For my birthday a few months later, they would even cite that as a reason from "Top 10 reasons why we love Karen."

The following year when I became part of the Graduate Materials Council and helped organize the first-years' trip to George's Island, I returned to the site of my humiliation and made amends with the BBQ grill by giving it a reconciliatory hug.

I had a point to this story... Oh yeah, I wanted to tell a story involving frisbee and Bryan and MIT and to tell everyone that Bryan and I are engaged! :) I guess I should tell the story of our engagement in the next post. =P