veggie chili

busy day today. this morning majjy and i went to the outlet mall to buy assorted necessary items. we found boots for me, underwear for jaime and joyce, and random things for some of my coteachers. all in all, a success.

in the afternoon, i went back to the publishing company where i used to work and we all went to my favorite restaurant for lunch. this is erin, me and celeste. we all worked on books together so we were kind of a little team.
i challenged ron to a chinese-off, but i think he was too intimidated. no, i'm sure he knows more than me. we were all learning chinese at the office in the summer.after lunch, i met up with patrick and we went to sweetish hill for dessert. i couldn't wait long enough for him to take the picture before i had to try some of the gingerbread man, evidenced by his missing arm.
we also got some random christmas shopping errands done around downtown.
most people take pictures in front of this wall when they get engaged. but now that i'm an independent, international lady, i can take them by myself ;)
in the evening, maj, jeffy and i made [delicious] lamb and veggie shishkabobs. mom sliced her thumb, so she had to use a baggie.

the neighbors came over for dinner and chatted for a bit, and then i went bowling with friends from high school.
the first game, will won and john lost.
but the second and third games, john bowled over 130 both times and whooped all of us with his random 'oops, did i just drop the bowling ball?' throw. it was amazing.
i'm still enjoying willbo's shaved head. today it was kind of scruffy, but still fun to touch.


time for bed! another fun day in austin.

jeff's first movie

blustery

today we woke up and it was really, reaaally cold! i think it's technically in the 40s but it feels like the 30s? but brrr it feels chilly.

so this morning we decided to go get a tree. our family tradition is to wait until at least 3 days before christmas, so this was early for us.
it's not [entirely] out of laziness or procrastination.. we try to find the least lovable tree, as long as it meets height and width requirements, and bring it to our house. the idea is to rescue the sad trees.
we went to a tree farm where andy works. he helped us find one that was 'one andy plus an arm' high. and the bottom of it is a little smushed on one side.
so that was adventure #1 in the cold. we didn't get it in the house today because we couldnt find the tree stand, so i guess the decorating will be tomorrow night.
faj and i went to central market and i could have happily flown to texas, walked around central market, and turned around and gone home. i love that place. it's a mostly-organic, fancy grocery store and it was where i did my weekly shop last year.
it's relatively cheap when you're just buying a quarter of a pound of things or little bits of whatever. and i can only hold $40 worth of groceries in my basket before my arm starts to fall off, so it works. so it was fun to be back there. it's so pretty and the people are so helpful and knowledgable.
then this evening, zach, will, john and i went for sushi down by campus. i knoooww, i know. i had made a pact against eating asian food. but their food is american-japanese and it's delicious and i've missed it. i had fried fish with udon noodle soup and 4 pieces of california roll. if that's what real japanese food tasted like, i would be in heaven.
and that was it for today. tomorrow is going to be reallly busy so i'm headed to bed. special thanks to jeffy for waking me up from sleeping on the couch so i could take my contacts out before they made my eyes puffy.

with bells on

i think only being in town for 2 weeks has forced me to cram as much fun as possible into every day, which has been really cool.
yesterday, marisa and i went to ballet in the morning, just like old times. it was a different instructor than we had all last year, and she didn't really demo too much.. so i was lost a lot of the time.
then i came home and matt had microwaved a giant bag of tamales. YUUUUM tamales!
during the day, it was pretty warm. we still have some pretty leaves. i went to j. crew but they didn't have anything at allll that i needed.
maj was angry that we were all hanging out in the living room on our laptops at one point :X i guess that's the picture of the family of the 21st century.
against my specific orders for no rice for the length of my visit, we had hot pepper chicken for dinner. i admit, it was pretty tasty. in the evening, andy had a holiday party at his new apartment. it was a bunch of fun. becca and i made spiced cider and rice crispie treats and andy's mom made an assortment of balls. a cheese ball, olive balls, dessert balls.
willbo liked his shirt from taiwan.
john and kelly. john lives down the street from me so we used to go to coffee shops a lot together in high school. and kelly has always been a part of the group.
will and andy. andy tried to make it a tacky christmas sweater party.. but he was the only one. it was cute though.

patrick came and mingled like a pro. newspaper reporters have a knack for talking to anyone though. he scored 2 goals in his soccer game today!
all of us went to high school together. we get together in the summers and over the holidays every year which is a lot of fun. it's weird that everyone has a job or is in grad school now and is living in different cities and living different lives.bec and i went home around 330. fun night.

they don't love you like i do

well this morning i sucked it up and crawled in the little closet under the stairs to get the christmas boxes out. jeff or matt usually holds a flashlight for me, but it was almost less creepy when i wasn't able to see the spiders today. i only got a few things out. maj is way better than me at decorating.
went to the j. crew outlet this morning which i've been dreaming about for 6 months. i think i tried everything on and then bought half of it. they were having a giant sale and then 20% off of the total, so i saved $188, which was more than the total. ruffles are my weakness.
this afternoon patrick and i went to late lunch at kerbey lane, an austin original. loveee their california enchiladas. it's got avocado and big purple olives with a delicious white sour cream sauce on top.
it was rush hour so we went to spiderhouse afterwards. it's the coffee shop my friends from high school and i practically grew up at. they don't close until 2 and it has all of these pretty little metal tables and chairs outside with christmas lights all year round. we liked it because you can pay $1.20 for a bottomless cup of coffee and hang out for several hours.
i think i've been there with everyone i've ever dated. and you always see someone you know because it's right next to campus.

the christmas lights are up around the neighborhood. one house has 2 longhorns in it. they're the university of texas' mascot. it's fun to have so many alum in the state who are so happy to show their school pride. i forgot how much longhorn stuff there is around the city
let's end with the garland on the railings. it sheds little green pieces everywhere and pricks the heck out of your hands when you wind it through the rungs, but it's so satisfying to plug it in and light up the whole front of the house. it makes it feel so warm and christmasy in here
faj is home!

don't tell me you don't know bootsy.

today was awesome in spite of me being completely exhausted.
this morning i went to try to get a working phone. they couldn't unlock mine that i screwed up while i was in taiwan, but i bought a go phone sim card. maj's friend, kathy, donated a phone to the cause, so i should be up and running tomorrow.

then this afternoon, becca and i met andy downtown for lunch at.. i don't know where it was. mood? moonshine? moonshine. i ordered a shirley temple and waldorf salad, which was delicious. it was fun to see them. i think andy and becca are 2 of my very favorites in austin.
we went to middle/high school together. andy is the only person i know who works in a semi corporate environment. and becca is on the verge of getting engaged.
so this is my hair before my hair appointment..
3 hours later, this is my stylist, audrey, and i with my new cut and color. i feel so much more like myself with my hair light again.
then right after the salon, i went to see the nutcracker ballet downtown with some people i used to work with at the daily texan (the school paper at UT). i hadn't seen any of them basically since graduation except for patrick. the ballet was nice. they had really pretty costumes and i could appreciate how hard some of the stuff was based on my failed attempts when i took ballet class before i left.
that's jeffy and i a minute ago. he wants to watch some gretta garbo movie. iiii don't think so.

home!

well, 24 hours in and out of airports has come and gone and now i'm hooomeee!
the flight from taiwan to LA was actually not bad at all. those 10 hours seemed much shorter than the 7 hour layover that followed it in LAX, which i spent looking at this:
austin is so gray today and cooldd! i think it was in the 40s (that's in the less than 10's celsius)
my mom brought me a bagel! a real bagel. with real cream cheese.
matt liked soso.
i headed straight for the fridge :X
my mom's been out of town all week so the house was just as messy as it always is
and they left my chaise in the living room from when i moved out. i think it was originally supposed to go somewhere else. but it just didn't make it. (that's jeff and his friend josh taking one of our many couches to josh's new apartment in the background).
clementines!
nog!
maj and kitty
ripley and kitty
and meeee, in texas!
tomorrow will be so much fun.

'i'm not in taiwan anymore' moments:
- i got to flush my toilet paper!
- there are trash cans everywhere
- and overweight people
- i can eavesdrop again
- i can walk up to anyone and ask a question without using any form of pantomime
- i get to sleep in my own bed, in my bedroom, in my house, with my family!