I'm on a roll.
There's a site where you can check real-time 911 incidents, and today, there's a handful of brush fires. Brush fires? So it doesn't rain here for a week and suddenly there's brush fires? No wait, it was raining early this morning.
It's probably just the hobos, or the hooligans or the college kids, and it's probably not in the scale of what I've grown up around, but still. Seattle gets brush fires? Crazy.
Since the weather's been nice lately, a lot of you have been driving with your windows down and your sun roof open. I don't blame you. I've got all my apartment windows open, despite the loud rush of four-lane traffic.
But for those of you who play your music loud enough for me to hear in my non-street-side bathroom, know that I take a great deal of pleasure in judging your music. I've heard more country pop (SUVs) than I expected for the Northwest. And just now a mid-thirties yuppie in a nice car was blasting Hotel California. I didn't mind him so much, although his car suggested he was a douche bag.
PS: Thank you for patiently letting me out of my scary parking spot. Somehow I don't think that'd happen in LA without a great deal of aggressive malice on my part.
Olive bars.
Is this a Northwestern thing (I've only noticed them in Oregon and Seattle), a yuppie thing, or a new trend that I missed while I was away? Now, I like olives, and I'll probably break down and buy some for snacking, but it seems a bit pretentious to me. An entire section devoted to fresh olives, as long as the salad bar.
It's almost as strange as the full service gas stations in Oregon and parts of northern California. I'll post a mini rant about that later.
Dresser and bathroom cart purchased. Extra purchases: plastic colander and utensil holder that will hopefully fit in my plastic magnetic bin that will go on the fridge. Refrained from buying floor cushions, because I'm not sure if I've got the floor space for them. They're frickin' huge! I even put together the bathroom cart within an hour of coming home. Piece of cake.
Minus 10%: The heavy dresser box is still in my trunk. Also, I opened the other dresser box, took out all the pieces, sorted all the brackets and doohickey things, and got thoroughly intimidated at the thought of putting everything together.
Too many damn things to consider. Bedroom first, I suppose.
Researched storage containers (how the hell do you convert quart storage to pound storage? I found tips for flour and sugar, but what about brown sugar? Powdered sugar? Cream of Wheat? Do you see why this takes me so long), attempted to shower numerous times, finally succeeding around 3pm. Tried to determine if any Macy's stock the microwave I bought last week, because online Macy's got it on sale for 10 bucks cheaper (doesn't seem to exist in the Seattle area).
Finally forced myself to leave at 7pm for a stroll to the grocery store. (15 minutes, along an interesting street.) Trips to the grocery store are a lot more pleasant when it's no longer necessary to haul milk and juice home. I bought salad stuff, a little cheese, and a couple cans of tomato soup. I did not buy tuna, mayonnaise, or anything else heavy that I wanted. Go me.
I walked home, wondering where Dave Matthews lives.
I had a huge salad for dinner. No meat, and still full! Amazing. Wow, I think today was completely vegetarian. Whoops. I guess it helps that the only meat I have in here is lunch meat and a bit of beef jerky. I wonder what essential nutrients I missed out on.
Well, iodine for one. I accidentally bought un-iodized salt, and even though it was 67 cents, I can't bring myself to toss it. I'm sure there's enough iodized salt in the processed crap I eat...which I really don't eat that often. Oh well. I highly doubt I'll get a goiter.
Didn't get horribly sick from the taco-mobile. Hooray! Although I did pass out for a bit, but I think that's because the apt isn't clean enough, or my hair wasn't dry enough, or something mundane like that.
I think tomorrow will be Ikea day. Dresser, small cart for the bathroom, hopefully very few knickknacks. I'd like to get some floor pillows, although so far I've only seen picnicky ones. I didn't think I'd miss zabuton, but there ya go. I should probably just break down and buy that couch, although big purchases like that scare me. And I'm still not satisfied with the living room layout.
I hate that I'll probably make numerous trips to Ikea, just like Target (I already have a handful of things I want to return) and Fry's. But I just can't plan an entire apartment in one go. The current stumbling block is trying to accessorize everything in blue, because, well, I like blue. But even I've realized that a blue living room, kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom is overkill. The bathroom and kitchen are already blue by fate of stuff I already own. I'd love to get a sage green (like my mixer!) into the bedroom or living room, but right I'm so overwhelmed with everything else that I can't make up my mind.
So here's a new call for opinions (onegai!): colors for the living room and bedroom. I'm not sure I want to paint yet, but I know I'll need to buy sheets and a couch.
So far, dinner has been at most, a five-minute walk away. The closest grocery store is less than a mile away, and once I finish with the massive shopping trips, I'll probably walk over when I want light things like fruit and bread. How awesome is that?
But yes, here are my dinners. When you come to visit, there'll be plenty of fun places to go. I haven't tried the real restaurants yet, as I'm not quite ready to eat out on my own, and I've only gone south, so there's probably a million other fun places to discover.
Saturday night: Deluxe burger and fries from Dick's Drive-in
It totally still looks like a drive-in, complete with rotating sign.
Sunday night: Slice of chicken pesto pizza from Pudge Brothers
You can buy it by the giant slice, and they're open 'til 11.
Monday night: leftover pizza
I bought three slices of pizza. I was really hungry and I figured it'd be good to have leftovers. Somehow it didn't register that I could've just walked over for a fresh slice. It'll take me awhile to get over that.
Tuesday night: plain pasta and corn.
Nice to see you again Apathy. We can also blame that on a poorly stocked pantry and an overwhelming urge to try out my new pans.
Wednesday night: Bravo burrito and horchata from the taco-mobile.
Very disappointed that they only used one tortilla to wrap it, even though it definitely needed two. But they've got tamales, so I'll be going back soon. And it's a taco-mobile! I can't wait to get food poisoning again.
Help me! D, I know you've been waiting for this. Everyone else can play too.
So, here I have this lovely empty apartment, and I need to start filling it with crap. Well, not clutter-crap, I have plenty of that waiting to be unpacked--but real crap, like furniture. I think I'll be borrowing G's bed (a huge queen! I don't need that!), and I've got a coffee table, a small bookshelf, and a small bedstand/end table. That's it.
So you've seen the spaces, now I need some advice. Where do I put everything?
Here's my awesome bedroom thus far:
The lump on the right will be a dresser of some sort, and I might want to put a desk in front of the window. But it's a nice bright window, and it'd be great to have a bright place to sit and read. And yes, I need a nice wide dresser (up to the window), because the closet space is tiny.
Here's the living room:
The boxes on the bottom are where I think I want the couch to go. I've got enough space for a three-seater, right? So here's the problem: where to put a desk? I think there'll be two desks total, so I was thinking, maybe one in the left corner facing the wall, one on the left side of the windows? But I love the view, and was thinking about putting this bench there.
It's the perfect size. If I didn't have to worry about desks and a tv stand, I'd put two under the window, or maybe one with two end tables on the ends, but then you'd lose the wall to lean on. But yeah. I want to go out and buy things, but I also know I need to plan this out.
So what do you guys think? Two desks cluttering the living room, which doesn't have much natural light, or one in the bedroom, sacrificing the bright corner? And what about the bench idea?
Help meeee!
That's the exciting part. Here's the more mundane stuff:
I drove up from SD a few days ago. I stopped in SJ and in Eugene, (Oregon). Some of it was unbearably boring, especially once I got desensitized to the endless green--quite a contrast to the dusty Central Valley. I got shamelessly excited when I saw Mount Shasta peek through the hills, and I was bummed that I couldn't see Mount St. Helens or Mount Rainier, although you can see Mt. Rainier when you drive south on the 5, and that's a bitchin' view.
Uhm, I've been to Fry's (Electronics) twice, and will probably go back for a vacuum cleaner even though it's a 30 minute drive. 30 minutes is nothing now compared to The Drive. Tonight I chatted with two employees about vacuum cleaners and a lot of other stuff. It's nice to find people as starved for attention as I am.
OOOh! I saw Rent on Sunday. My second time. I might do a long review later, I haven't decided.
So much other stuff, but I'm going to go play on the internet now. It's good to be back.
I went to bed at two and woke up around 6 or 7 two days in a row. I was barely human on Saturday, when I went to the church (temple) used furniture sale at 7am. I'm still kind of out of it now (Sunday), but I got some good stuff--a shoe rack that I had seen at a real store, a collapsible bookcase painted an amusing shade of green, a small outdoor table (also collapsible), and a sweet coffee table.
The coffee table I'm especially proud of. It's sleek and solid and there's even a page on the web devoted to it. On the underside, the maker, design patent number, style number, and serial number are all branded on. My coffee table has a serial number. Kinda awesome if you ask me. It's probably too big, but it's at a great height for eating. If it's wide enough for a set up of Settlers of Catan, then I'm totally set.
Hmmm. Board games. If anyone sees Looping Louie for under 40USD (including shipping), let me know. It's become the next thing to lust after...
It's 8:50pm, and it's still quite dusk-like outside.
Summer's gonna mess with me. As is winter.
I'm doing it all out of order, aren't I? Oh well. I have an apartment now! It's completely empty, and only a little bit bigger than my Japan apartment (~516 sq. ft.), but I have one! It's part of a house (but separate), and the landlady is really nice. I feel really satisfied with this place.
Hasty pictures are here, on one of the old blogs.
Tonight is a very Whedonesque evening.
I was watching How I Met Your Mother, which stars Alyson Hannigan, and Tom Lenk (who looks kinda creepy these days as a brunette) shows up as a barista at a local coffee shop. (They were both on Buffy.) Some guy dates that woman from Firefly (Morena Baccarin), and then I see a commercial for Drive, which has Nathan Fillion (also from Firefly) in it. Then we change the channel and watch 24, which has D.B. Woodside as the president. (He was a principal on Buffy.) And while I can think of exactly one of you (hi L!) that would be impressed that I remembered these people, I'm still very proud of myself.
From the wikipedia article about ochazuke:
In Kyoto, ochazuke is known as bubuzuke. When a Kyoto native asks if a guest wants to eat bubuzuke, it really means that the person has overstayed and is being politely asked to leave.
It's somewhere between day 5 and day 6. Yesterday I bought a wireless card, so now I'm back on my own computer. Hooray internet!
I really like it here. There are a million more buses to take, but so far, manageable. Japan prepared me well for this. I had an awesome sandwich yesterday from a bakery. I went for a hike in Discovery Park with G's brother. I'll share more, but it's 3am, and I just wanted to take advantage of having internet bedside. Yay!
But I just realized something interesting, that of course must be shared.
I recently bought a pair of pointy heels for interviews, and I think I've finally broken them in. However, I can't decide if I stretched the leather, or if I realigned the bones in my feet. Gross, huh?
I have a cousin who's 17. We're myspace friends. She has "Crash Into Me" by the Dave Matthews Band playing on her page. She was 6 when that album came out, and 8 or 9 when I got into the band. I'm grateful she's got decent taste in music, but it sure is weird.
Read more...I'm going up to Seattle on Wednesday, so things will be quiet here. No job prospects, I'm just going. One-way, but mostly because you can get cheap one-way tickets with Southwest.
I am currently the following:
[Heads up, this entry is full of Japan stuff.]
To balance out the mediocre curry restaurant, today was also an Asian food store bonanza. We went to Nijiya, Mitsuwa, and Ranch 99 in search of dashi (soup stock) ingredients (the usual dried shiitake mushrooms, dried sardines, and kombu (dried kelp)) and udon flour (which doesn't seem to exist down here, I just got a high-gluten wheat flour instead). I also helped my dad pick out some nodoame (throat-soothing candy, not quite cough drops). He's pretty into it. We also found one of our favorite candies ever, the fizzy Mitsuya cider ones. My dad's a Big Fan. He bought three bags. Awesome. Also grabbed a box of the kurogo pocky, which is full of five kinds of black things, but I can only recognize two. Any exciting new pocky flavors in Japan I should keep an eye out for? I didn't check for the weird kitkats, but those weren't my favorite. Fruit parfait-flavored? Sakura-flavored? Green tea-flavored? Don't miss 'em.
I saw the conditioner I used in Japan. Twice as expensive. Dammmmit. All the other ones--Lux and a few others I recognized--were pretty close to Japan prices.
I also bought a Kateigaho magazine, which I still don't approve of, but it had an article on Konpira-san, so I had to get it. Stupid expensive though. The American subscription price isn't that bad, but I put down almost 20 bucks on a single issue. Ugh.
For people who haven't seen a Kateigaho magazine before, it's a beautiful, glossy magazine about Japanese arts and culture. While there have been some really fascinating articles about woodwork, textiles, and uhm, other stuff, they're fond of putting geisha on the cover. The guilt I feel while reading it is the same feeling I get when I read a women's fashion magazine.
Tonight the dashi stuff is soaking, tomorrow we're having udon! With real (frozen) Sanuki udon! It's packaged by Shirakiku (nationwide brand), so I doubt it was even made in Kagawa, but still, Hooray!
There's really nothing special about Curry House (a Japanese curry chain restaurant), so I'm not going to write a long review. The curry was soupy, not much curry spice. Croquettes were small and disturbingly orange. And no pickled onions. I'm pretty sure I've been to the LA branch before I went to Japan, but it didn't leave me with any standout memories.
There were plenty of Japanese people there, the staff spoke Japanese, and the menu was bilingual. But overall, I wasn't impressed. It even made me miss the You-me Town Kirin Curry.
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