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Kelly's Blog
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 Wish Upon a Shooting Star
Sunday, Nov. 22, 2009 11:54 AM
Last night the Leonid meteor shower reached its peak over North America. Even though some of us had tests the next day, this was supposedly a once in a lifetime experience so a bunch of us went to watch it. A couple of weeks ago, Shawn, David, and Lawson had taken a drive “to the mountains” in Saratoga for fun and found a great spot to star gaze. So we dressed in our warmest clothes, packed some towels and blankets, and left for the spot around midnight. Shawn and Jake drove, (without them it wouldn’t have been possible!) and made a pit stop at Jack in the Box before going to the site. The road there was surrounded by trees and winded up the mountain, making the drive feel like a rollercoaster. It was nerve wrecking, since we were so close to the edge, yet thrilling at the same time. I thought the lookout spot was beautiful. And so did a lot of other people. We sat under a completely dark open sky with freckles of stars splattered across the sky. The cold air smelled like trees and nature. It was totally surreal. Every time a car drove past or parked on the side of the road, everyone yelled at the driver to cut the lights as it ruined the surrounding dark.
It wasn’t completely quiet as everyone there was talking, laughing, and making jokes. There was a ditzy group of teens at the site too and every time one of the girls saw a shooting star, they yelled, “OHHHHH MYYYY GOSH! DID YOU SEE THAT? I JUST SAW A SHOOTING STAR” And then a guy in another group would loudly imitate her and everyone would laugh. It was freezing and the stars were slowly starting to dull so people started slowly leaving until there were only Santa Clara kids left. We were still talking and joking around until someone suggested we just sit in silence for a moment and just appreciate the moment. So we sat in silence. And there we were; just a bunch of friends in college, on a dark mountain, watching the skies for a once in a life time meteor shower.
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Jimmy's Birthday
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2009 11:42 AM
This past weekend, my mom came up to visit me and my sister! It was my sister’s birthday on Friday so the timing was perfect. My mom flew up on Wednesday night and spent all Thursday in wine country with my aunty and uncle who accompanied her on the trip. On Friday they got me and my sister and then we did a little shopping and a whole lot of eating. Trust me, my family knows how to eat. Earlier that day I was thinking about fasting because I knew the weekend would be nonstop eating. (David wasn’t as prepared. After we fed him 2 Krispy Kremes on Saturday, he couldn’t believe we were going to eat dim sum right after.) So I packed stretchy clothes just in case. I say it’s better to be prepared than to have a massive stomach ache and a jeans’ button standing in your way of comfort. On Friday, we had In N Out for lunch (always a goodie) and went to Pasta Pomodoro for dinner, Jamie’s choice. The food was of course delicious so I was definitely looking forward to eating those left-overs.
That night, my sister opened some gifts that my relatives had given her. After putting aside a huge case of ramen from my aunty, she decided to open our grandma’s gift next. The box was wrapped in reused wrapping paper and probably a reused ribbon. (At least the wrapping paper had the right occasion on its design. I sometimes get Christmas wrapping paper since my birthday is about a week after Christmas.) The outside of the envelope read “HAPPY BIRTHDAY JIMMY” in my grandma’s cursive handwriting. Who’s Jimmy? Maybe it’s a typo. The name inside the card matched the envelope as well. “Dear Jimmy, Happy Birthday!” The gift was a hand sewn dog printed pillow case, which made Jamie happy since she absolutely loves dogs. Then, a little worried, Jamie called grandma just to see if it was a lapse in memory when she wrote the card. The conversation went something like this:
“Hi grandma! It’s Jamie! Thank you so much for the pillow case. I love it!”
“Ohh you’re welcome”
“Hey grandma, how do you spell my name?”
“J-I-M-M-Y”
“Grandma…. Am I a girl or a boy?”
“Girrrrl”
“Grandma, my name is spelt J-A-M-I-E”
“Ohhhh (hahaha)”
“Try spell it”
“Ah… J-A-M-M-I-E”
This went on for a while and was definitely the highlight of my weekend. I know my grandma is slowly losing it. But just some of the things she says is so funny. I know underneath it’s not really funny at all that she doesn’t know how to spell my sister’s name, but we all still love her and say “that’s grandma.” Last week my sister called and asked her who was holding her hand when she walks now that Jamie was away. “Oh no one,” she replied, “I’m waiting for you to come back.”
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Kooking in the Kitchen (with Kelly)
Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009 1:22 PM
Having the luxury of our own personal kitchen this year is exciting. To me it means no more cleaning up after other people. No more lugging everything but the kitchen sink to the lobby. No more holding my breath when opening the fridge. No more cooking stew, mac and cheese, and curry in a rice cooker. And no more praying that the kitchen isn’t ocupado. It’s wonderful. We have a dishwasher. I don’t even have to take the elevator to get to the stove. Therefore, I try to cook and bake whenever I get the chance and my only complaint is that our oven’s temperature is always too high.
For some of my friends, the newness of having our own kitchens is starting to wear off. It seemed like ages ago that the boy’s suite made shoyu chicken. And all Geoff and Ian ever make for dinner now is steak or fried rice. In fact, they have been making fried rice so much that Ian had an egg revelation. “You know, if you don’t move it around so much it becomes fluffy!” But for others, like Shawn, having a kitchen means an infinite amount of oven-friendly foods such as rocky road brownies, pigs in a blanket, and endless dessert experiments. (Did someone say desserts? I’m not complaining.)
For me, the kitchen is still exciting. I see it as an opportunity to experiment and make things like fortune cookies, red velvet cake, shrimp scampi, or clams, in a hassle-free environment. I absolutely love making things from scratch and seeing how they come out. I love the smell of garlic that fills the air when it’s cooking. And I love eating everything because it really does taste better when you make it yourself. I hope you can see the pictures of some of my cooking ventures accompanying this post! My next endeavor? French macaroons :) I’ll let you know how they turn out.
P.S. – Happy Birthday Mom!
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