reading, eating

hey, my approximate rhyme is a lot better than most rappers' these days.

i can't believe i only have one more month of relative freedom left. i should blog it up while i can and before you all (five of you) stop visiting because of the lack of posts during the school year.

reading:
i finally started reading again. i was hoping it'd be school-related stuff so my mushy brain could start to firm up again, but i just can't yet. one day, the bear brought home his free copy of this:

as far as business-y self-help-y books go (yes, that's a genre in my library), this one was pretty dang good. the style is very anecdotal, and his narrative style within each chapter is very straightforward, smart, and written the way your uncle who tells concise but great stories talks. the interweaving of his own, personal life stories with that of the growth of his business made it way more interesting to this not-so-technical and not-so-business-savvy reader.

oh, and the title? it comes from something he learned when at deep springs college out in the desert of california, where a small, all-male student population runs a very highly-regarded liberal arts school on a ranch. no, i'm not mentioning this just because i'm that random.

then i borrowed this whole series at once from the library as i'd heard some buzz. young adult fiction. yay! perfect for summer reading. by the way, how much do i love the public library system in this city that allows me to request all the books i want be sent to the branch near me, that emails me when they're ready for pickup, and sends them to the branch that is within walking distance of our new place? um, a lot. too bad i can't take advantage of it 8 months of the year.


at first, i was skeptical. honestly, the first book was tiresome for me. her name--jessica darling. ugh. she was so whiny and angsty (and very similar to me at that age) and just...an annoying teenager whining about stuff that really isn't that bad. however, she totally grew on me sometime in the second book. then her and marcus' love story turned out to be very similar to the bear's and mine--long distance relationship, breakup, reunion, random details, and all. since the five books span jessica's life from ages 16 (angsty teen years) to 25 (quarter-life crisising, finally really getting comfy in her own skin), there are definitely things that most girls/women can relate to going through during those years. bonus points to megan mccafferty for using vocabulary that i only learned in my mid-20s when i was studying for the GRE and really thought i would never use, read, or see again.

and guess what? [kind of spoiler alert] the boy in the story attends a fictional college named pure springs, which is described exactly as the real-life deep springs is described in david hitz's book. full circle rambling, yo.

eating:
sorry, no photos. just a log for my own reference, really.

• labor- and bowl-washing-intensive yet delicious home-cooked salmon cakes and corn, avocado, tomato salad.
• brunch at taste. not too badly priced, perfect-sized portions, the semi-alfresco table was perfect (inside, but next to the windows open to the patio). the patio ON melrose with cars whizzing by...meh. nice time catching up with baby platypus and gawking at the ladies holding a baby shower there. whose guests were all wearing hotel conference-style name tags. hm.
  
• dessert at milk. grasshopper macaron ice cream sandwich (MINTY, cool, delicious). mini key lime meringue pie. yum. watching the dude shave ice from a BIG, drippy block of it on the sidewalk from our window table was fun, too.
• a snack at yogen fruz (umlaut as happy face!) when i dropped baby platypus off. her nephews were HUGE, so outgoing and friendly toward me (most kids RUN from me...or are totally silent and unsmiling when around me...really), and um, cute. anyway, they put the fruit and yogurt through a mashing, smoothing machine that makes the fruit a part of the yogurt, like humphrey yogart at beverly connection used to do back in the day. hm, there's still one in sherman oaks. too bad the valley's outside of my bubble.
  
• a decadent brunch/lunch with the FGDs and 10yearstogether at break of dawn in laguna hills, replete with amazing cinnamon roll hot and bubbly in a square, cast iron, mini skillet, blood orange mojito, and pork belly. yes, that's stretching my bubble a bit far in the southward direction, but it didn't pop. yay. and i had fun. and i must admit, it's pretty nice down there. to visit.
  
• TONS of korean bbq with mom, her SO, aunt, and uncle tonight. good family time, good laughs thanks to my uncle, and good food.

i really should work out for this last month while i can. my gym 2-3 times a week resolution for this summer break? heh. i've been once.