Visit 5 Cities: Chicago, IL

Part of my 101 in 1001 is to visit 5 new cities.

Trip 3 - Chicago, IL - 8/4/11-8/8/11

Visited Audrey in Chicago during Lollapalooza! Nothing is nastier than an outdoor music festival after a rainstorm.

Sung-bong Choi!!!

Omg! I cried so much when I heard him sing!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BewknNW2b8Y&feature=related

Try 10 New Nice Restaurants

As part of my 101 in 1001, I am going to try out 10 new nice restaurants. I don’t really have a solid definition for “nice”, but who cares.

1. Ruth’s Chris 12-10-10 - Jon’s Birthday! Jon has convinced me that the filet is always the best way to go. I took Jon here for his birthday, but it was both of our first times trying this restaurant. I am pretty satisfied with the choice!
2. Fogo de Chao 2-11-11 - Jon and I ate here for Valentine’s Day! O..M..G! Talk about an amazing food experience. I really love meat, and the bread was to DIE for. 
3.  TRIO
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101 in 1001

I read about the 101 goals to accomplish in 1001 days on Kat’s blog (I also stole some of her goals), so I decided to try it out as well. Here are my 101 in 1001, starting December 1, 2010 and ending October 28, 2013. Wish me luck!

          For my body

1. Work out/exercise at least 3 times a week
   
2. Go vegetarian for a month
3. Get a bike and ride it regularly
4. Take a yoga class (do yoga twice a week)
5. No soft drinks for a year (starting Jan. 2 with Jon!)
   
6. No alcohol for a month
7. Try a personal trainer
8. Avoid fast food
9. Get 8 hours of sleep each night for one week every month
   
10. Wear glasses for a week
    
    For my peace of mind
11. Avoid traffic tickets of all kinds
12. Purge my apartment of unnecessary things
13. Take a day off of work to do something fun alone
14. Swim in an ocean or go scuba diving (my biggest fears)
15. Complete the 50 Questions That Will Free Your Mind
    
    For others
16. Mentor a student one semester
17. Volunteer monthly for a year
18. Donate to a worthy cause each year
    
19. Distribute the first Texas Exes Asian Alumni Network scholarship
20. Campaign for a politician for the 2012 elections
21. Pay for someone behind in a coffee shop line once a month
    
22. Sort through my wardrobe and donate old clothes
23. Help 10 students succeed academically
24. Compliment a stranger each week
25. Run a charity run (5K) each year
    
    For the environment
26. Use only reusable mugs for coffee
27. Recycle whenever possible
28. Get my parents to quit smoking
29. Avoid driving for one week
    
    For fun
30. Learn to play the guitar
    
31. Take a dance class
32. Record 2 original songs
33. Learn to cook 50 recipes and compile in a cookbook
    
    • 12-14-10 Layered Dip - does it count if I don’t actually cook it? I made this for work (DDCE’s End-of-Semester Celebration food competition) and won the “Best Appetizer” award for this one!
    • 1-8-11 Thai Basil Chicken - Not bad! Fish sauce is kind of gross, though. Not in taste, but in smell. Also, too much of it is no bueno.
34. Go on a random road trip
35. Buy a new phone - bought the Samsung Galaxy S2!
36. Buy an e-book reader
37. Finish 10 puzzles
38. Bake a cake/cookies/cupcakes - peanut butter chocolate cookies
    
39. Get Lasik
40. Complete a 7-day Facebook fast
41. Complete a 7-day phone fast
42. Write a letter to 5 friends I haven’t talked to in a long time
43. Perform at an open mic night
44. Make 10 new good friends
45. Write 10 letters (in Chinese) to my grandparents
46. Move into a nice apartment
47. Furnish my apartment with new furniture
    
48. Get a state map postcard for each of the 50 states
49. Host a dinner party and cook the food
50. Complete the 365 Challenge
51. Go on a cruise
52. Host a Halloween party
53. Bake a vegan cake
54. Take a cooking class
55. Write a children’s book
56. Spend an entire day in bed
57. Visit 5 cities
58. Learn Claire de Lune
59. Visit Taiwan - Thanksgiving 2011
60. Live in a new city
61. Go on a trip with girlfriends
62. Try 10 new nice restaurants
63. Celebrate a birthday in a different city
64. Change my hairstyle
65. Take some kids to an amusement park
66. Make a website
67. Watch all of One Piece
68. Watch 26 new movies, each starting with a letter of the alphabet
69. Knit a blanket
70. Get nominated and serve on a well-known nonprofit board
71. Write an autobiography
72. Meet an online friend in person - Done
73. Buy new glasses
    
    For my brain
74. Learn Spanish
75. Read all C.S. Lewis Works
76. Re-learn Calculus
77. Learn how the stock market works
78. Learn to create vector art
79. Learn and keep up with politics
80. Read 50 books (recommendations are welcome!)
    
    Traveling Mercies (1-4-11)
    Safe Haven (1-7-11)
    Eat, Pray, Love
    Ender’s Game
    Total Leadership
    Time Traveler’s Wife
    Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
    The Fountainhead
    Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
    Atonement
    Their Eyes Were Watching God
    The Sound and the Fury
    The Grapes of Wrath
    East of Eden
    Wuthering Heights
    Gone with the Wind
    A Clockwork Orange
    The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
    Little Women
    Love in the Time of Cholera
    Memoirs of a Geisha
    War and Peace
    Lord of the Flies
    The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
    The Girl Who Played With Fire
    House Rules
    Worth Dying For
    Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
    The Five People You Meet in Heaven
    Olive Kitteridge
    Push
    The Shack
    Sarah’s Key
    The Alchemist
    The Art of Racing in the Rain
    Love the One You’re With
    The Things They Carried
    The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel
    North of Beautiful
    Some Girls Are
    Blue Like Jazz
    Looking for Alaska
    Fahrenheit 451
    The World According to Garp (recommended by Doug)
    Wheel of Life (recommended by Ramona)
    Be There Now (recommended by Ramona)
    Moo
    Beer and Circus
    
    For my faith
81. Read the Bible from cover to cover
82. Blog about faith
83. Attend church
    
    For my career
84. Get a job outside of Texas
85. Present at a Student Affairs conference
86. Get to work at 8 a.m.
    
87. Get certified for High School math, science, history
88. Publish 2 articles
89. Teach an elementary classroom
90. Read the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed
    
91. Graduate with my master’s degree
92. Start my Ph.D.
93. Attend 4 Student Affairs conferences
94. Teach an ESL course
95. Develop a model for educating through technology
96. Develop curriculum that integrates technology for an elementary school class project
    
    For my wallet
97. Pay off student loans
98. Save 10K
99. Invest in real estate
    
100. Own gold/silver (inspired by Jon :) )
101. Save $25/month for my Roth IRA
102. No eating out for one full week of each month
     

Breakfast: tomato omelet with strawberries and toast. Yum!

Secret omelet ingredient: fish sauce :)

I thought this day would never come. I’m all caught up in One Piece.

I just had the worst experience at Madam Mam’s! Today, I went to Madam Mam’s for lunch with three co-workers. I typically love going there because it’s quick and guaranteed to be delicious. We went at 11:30 in order to beat the lunch rush, but somehow, two of our dishes still came out 20 minutes later than the other two. Before they came out, I went to ask the manager what the deal was, and before I say a word, he looks at me and says, “Now is not a good time.”

I probably looked like I was going to burn the building down, and I rhetorically asked, “Seriously?”

Before he could say anything, I turned around and walked back toward our table, and I hear him calling after me…..asking if I was a customer! I get back to my seat, and he runs up and apologizes, saying he thought I was a salesperson. First of all, I’m not wearing anything that looks salesperson-like. But more importantly, how the heck is it OK for that to be the first sentence that comes out of his mouth for ANYONE?

I told him he needs to learn customer service. So, why eat at Madam Mam’s again? Well, besides the fact that they have the “Amazing Green Beans” dish, he gave us half off our bill for the inconvenience.

Got into my car this morning, and there was a girl sleeping in it……

I’ve got to write this down or else I’ll forget how freaking ridiculous it is. I open the driver door of my car this morning and notice that there is stuff everywhere (not how I left it), and my passenger seat is soaked and dirtied with soil. My first thought was that I left my door unlocked, and someone came in and looked around for valuables, which I had none of. Then, something caught the corner of my eye. At first I thought it was a homeless person (because that would make sense), but it was a GIRL. She wakes up and starts apologizing to me over and over again, saying she didn’t have her phone, keys, or wallet with her. She asked me to take her to her friend’s place and apologized again. I was so shocked, so the first thing I said to her was, “Get out…?” She apologizes again and explains she has nothing on her and has no idea where she is. I, for some reason, asked if she goes to UT, and she said she does and is a sophomore. So, after deliberating a bit, I got into my car and decided to take her where she needed to go (West Campus). Apparently, she went out with a really good friend, who she considers an older brother, to Agave and somehow ended up in my car on 4th and Nueces…with no shoes. Needless to say, she had little too much to drink last night. 

Talk about a crazy morning. Now I need to get my car detailed, cause I’ve got NO idea what happened in it last night. I wonder if someone was with her and tried to look for goods to steal in my car. My compartments were open, and stuff was taken out. I can’t believe they didn’t think my Bath & Body Works Warm Vanilla Sugar lotion and burned John Mayer CDs were valuable! 

First of all, maybe the friend she thought was a really good friend is not?

Second, even though I have a panda stuffed animal on my dashboard, why would you stay in some random person’s car who could potentially be crazy and kidnap you?

Third, I know we all do crazy things, but what the hell??????????????????????

Moral of the story: Always lock your car doors, or you might find a person—homeless or not—sleeping in your car. 

(S) Watch 26 new movies…

…each starting with a different letter of the alphabet.

1-2-11 - Shutter Island

Jon and I watched this late at night during our trip to LA when we weren’t ready to sleep. I had only seen part of it before at the Barton Creek movie theater before the theater kept malfunctioning.

You’d think this movie was scary based on the trailers, but it’s really not. The ending has an interesting twist to it! Of course, Jon guessed the ending somehow. He’s so good at that. If you’re bored one night, this isn’t a bad movie to rent and watch.