Saturday, October 30, 2010

I'd been wearing these tasseled loafers  all day long, and only at the end of day I noticed that there's really just one tassel left, the other was no where to be found. Well, it doesn't take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out who was guilty, the only person in the house who loves chewing on shoes is Bobby!
My father half joked the other day that he was going to make a stew out of Bobby because he's such a troublesome dog, and I immediately said that I'd jump off a building if he ate my dog, but after Bobby ate my second pair of shoes within a month, I think I'm having some second thoughts on that...
Why do I love my dogs so much? Sometimes I don't quite understand it myself. I never had a doll phase like a lot of girls when they were young, I found dolls very boring because they can do very little if next to nothing, but when Kelly came to my home, I almost couldn't believe what a smart and sensitive little dog she is, and people actually get to keep these magical little creatures to themselves.  I have to admit that she wasn't the beautiful white fluffy dog that I'd always dreamed about, but soon I realized that she is better than a picture perfect pet, she's actually the best little dog in the world and I immediately fell in love with her.  It was so nice to come home and being greeted by someone that jumps, twirls around and give you kisses, and my home always feel so cozy when I have these cute little friends around. So there it is, in a nut shell, because the mess I can clean up, torn up clothes can be replaced, and shoes, well, I have enough shoes, but with how much love I received from my puppies, I just don't really care what trouble or mess they make.

Friday, October 29, 2010

With winter approaching, I am digging out all of my knitting gears again. For about three to four months in a year I really get into the mood of knitting, I would finish a scarf or two, and start a ambitious plan along the way to knit a thousand projects and then drop everything suddenly when summer rolls around and I never even want to look at a knitting needle again.
So, here are my unfinished knitting projects from last winter, a wool scarf that I promised my boyfriend, a granny square blanket, a coral cardigan for me, a pull over sweater for boyfriend, a neck warmer for me, and last but not the least, the blue glove for my left hand. Last year my boyfriend joked that he would have his scarf by next year, well, kid me not! Next year is already here and the scarf is still not delivered :/

Thursday, October 28, 2010

As much as I complained about having to drive around and make time when there's no time when my father is here, it is nice to have family around after all. I eat three meals a day like a normal person instead of sipping on a latte all day long, I got some tips on cooking stir fried vegetables, and my dog pee stained carpet was deep cleaned, plastic spoons were replaced by real cooking utensils, and dirt that was piling up in all corners of the house magically disappeared like they all of a sudden decided to take a hike.
Tonight my father cooked some pretty damn authentic Chinese dinner and invited my boyfriend to eat with us. This was a pretty big deal, I'd never eaten a dinner with my boyfriend cooked by my parents before, it was real nice, and I don't just mean the food.
inspiration of the day: Mia Farrow.
hehe, little did I know, my father is into photography. I've worked out a system where I drop him off at a large shopping center before going for class and then pick him up a couple of hours later and we have lunch out. I totally forgot about the things people have to learn when they visit a new country such as reading the maps, learning the street names, trying to speak short sentences or even just basic things such as paying at the cash register and tell people what food to order.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A beautiful day today. I had such a chaotic morning but all was made up with a nice breakfast.
new around here: a wireless mouse. Why wireless? Because last night I came home after all day of practicing and ready to write my papers, I found out that little mouse was beheaded by Bobby. I suppose it's a sign that I should sleep early and quit playing with the computer for a night. So, a wireless mouse, you can't chew on it anymore Bobby!

Monday, October 25, 2010

little finds from the flea market over the weekend. I really fell for these two colorful paintings, especially the girl with the little fluffy dog. They were two for $15, and my boyfriend got them for me, I think they are the most perfect gift for a girl, no?
It has been from one utterly miserable weekend to another. We walked, drove from Huntington garden, to Melrose flea market, to Beverly Hills, to Sunset Blvd, to lunch, to dinner, to shopping malls, while my dear boyfriend drove the entire day and my stress level shot over the roof thinking about all the stuff that haven't got done and had become pretty much impossible to make up for school. What if I can't graduate this semester? Can't finish my recital? I'd have wasted half year of my life, and for what?
Sometimes I wish life would just give us a break!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

I love the new shirt dresses from J.crew, maybe a WAY early Christmas present to me, heehee.

Friday, October 22, 2010

I'm getting used to the idea of eating breakfast everyday, there's also steamed vegetables and oatmeal but I've gotta run. Have a good day:)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

chocolate for my sweet tooth.
new around here: L'Occitane hand lotion/ Marc by Marc Jacobs Franny bag/ and amazing knitting book that I ordered from my local yarn shop.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Tonight I had dinner date with the you-know-who, no not my parents again, my boyfriend! We dined at Nick and Stef's in downtown L.A., and before our dinner arrived had a tour of their aged beef rack. It was truly a gruesome experience to see rows of raw animal body parts being processed and I also saw a live lobster killed right in front of my eyes, and that's when I ran, not walked, back to our table. Since I have not been following my vegan diet deligently I felt a bit pretentious to not order what was the specialty on the menu so I tried the steak, and I'd hate to say it, but it tasted really good:(

After dinner with the aid of wine I suggested that we explore the different parts of downtown L.A. and so we drove through some of the good and bad parts of it, and got lost a little bit in a deserted looking warehouse neighborhood. Some parts of downtown is so luxurious while other parts of it feels empty and eerie, I in a weird way loved those huge creepy abandoned buildings, I thought they'd make great photographs one day, but I was too afraid to step out of the car late at night on a empty street. It was as if the city was on a full force to becoming a cutting edge modern city but the momentum all of a sudden stopped, 30 years ago.  In this backdrop we told each other scary-hilarious stories of our bus riding days as students, mine back when I lived in Beijing and he's was back when he was a college student. So much fun!

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

 A trip to the Getty, it's been so long since my last visit!

I've done a lot of reminiscence since my father got here. It surprised even myself that I had so little resemblemce with both of my parents that I felt on occasion a mild confusion as to whom are those perfect strangers that all of a sudden stumbled into my life for the last week or so. My father had always been an obsecure figure in my life, he was gone working for most of the year when I was a child and I always remembered growing a big chunk when he got back. Then when my mother left for the States I was home mostly with different house keepers who also subbed for nannies, until when I was 15 years old and decided that I wanted to study music in Beijing. Two years later I came here, completely out of the blue and I was in the middle of preparing an audition for entrance to a music conservatory. High school in the US was again a boarding school where I lived with a group of kids my age so I got to see my mother about once a week. I'd say these boarding school years were the closest I've had to having siblings because I was a only child and never had sisters or brothers to play with. Since then I've seen my father for about a total of four weeks in eleven years plus the occasional phone calls about a few times a year.

Now I'm adjusting to the strange idea of having ready before the elderlys rise a full blown breakfast every morning with several dishes starting at 6:50 in the morning, cleaning up the dishes for everybody else at the table when we are done eatting, putting aside my life including school and work to be a tourist guide and being taught a new doctrine about the meaning of my life is to 1. serve your man and your parents, 2. produce offspring, and 3. make money.
I can only smile at that and thank god in the bottom of my heart that I beg to differ.

New Year Preparation

I always like to do a bit of preparation at the end of each year to welcome the new year, although this year things were very challenging, I...