randoms

Instead of packing, I've been looking through old pictures on my Picasa and thought I would share some (really) random ones that I found funny...

Bailey's all nicely snuggled away in my purse on my flight back home. I couldn't possibly put her in my suitcase! That's not a proper place for a bunny.

Norman's shirt happened to match the chocolate&pistachio cake I had made in school that day. LOL.

Poor guy's missing an eye... Alison claims he's cuter this way, though.

No words..

My cousin totally copied me and then wouldn't let me change outfits!!!!

and just for kicks...

kekeke.

my team!

Allow me to introduce you to the DANIEL pastry team. Spending 12 hours doing intense pastry-making and pastry-plating is no joke, but luckily I have some pretty cool cats who slave away with me...

The team is composed of two Frenchies, a Korean, a Croatian, a Cantonese, an Irish, a Greek, a Taiwanese, an Italian, and two others that I don't know... but wowee, talk about diversity! And, all except 3 of us are under 24 years old O_O.

vacations

My parents, brother, and grandpa are leaving for a family vacation to India on Sunday...

My family has been taking family vacations twice a year for as long as I can remember. We've gone to all sorts of fun places like Antarctica, Egypt, Brazil, Thailand, and 36 other countries, taken road trips across the country, and gotten in all sorts of stressful (but fun) adventures. India really was kind of one of the last place I really really really wanted to visit. Although I'm super bummed that I won't be able to go on vacation with them, I think I'm more bummed about the fact that the time has finally, finally come when my family is no longer to go on vacation, all together, the 5 (or 7) ish of us... We've been really blessed to have been able to even go on so many vacations over the past years -- having school breaks, my parents being able to step out of work for many weeks at a time, having the financial security.... but now that we kids are growing older and have other responsibilities (aka real jobs) to attend to, we don't have the luxury of taking weeks off at a time twice a year anymore.

Last winter, after our trip to Israel, Jordan, and Egypt, I couldn't help crying when saying goodbye to my parents and siblings at the airport because I knew deep down that that vacation would probably be the last extended one that all 5 of us would take together. Vacations are something that distinctly sets of my family apart and triggers thoughts of childhood, so having to finally come to terms with not being able to take family vacations anymore is uh, pretty tough, to say the least.

:'(

extravagance to the extreme

Yesterday, there was a party of 14 people who ended up paying....

wait for it...

wait for it...

$67,000 for their dinner at DANIEL. $10,000 of it was on caviar alone, and I'm guessing at least another $40,000 on wine.

Can we just say....ridiculous? I can't even begin to fathom...

remembering

All throughout college (and even HS), I've been known to go picture crazy in order to document every part of life. I have over 12,000 pictures from my 4 years of college, and I average about 800 pictures / 2-week vacation that I go on with my family.

In the past year though, I've noticed a HUGE decline in the amount of pictures that I've taken. Catherin even pointed this out to me a few months ago, too, when she noticed that my Picasa hadn't had any new uploads in the past year! I think I've probably taken.... 5 pictures in the past 2 months, all of which are on my iphone and none of which are on my actual camera. It makes me really sad to notice how I've changed even in this past year (granted, it was a hard hard year), and that my change is evident even in the small things like how many pictures I take. Although deep down I'm still the shameless, klutzy, easily excitable person with really random ideas, I feel like I don't look at life with as much excitement anymore, which is why I am taking less pictures these days. To me, there's just less that I want to capture and remember.

I just spent the last hour looking through old pictures, and it was really strange to reminisce on the past. Life seemed so much more fun back then, masked in pictures by smiles, though I know that college had its fair share of hardship, too. But if I were to look back on this past year sometime in the future, I wouldn't even have pictures to look back on -- only depressing blog posts and lonely tweets. Is this how I would remember this period of my life?

Man, so depressing.

lonely much?

I came home today (at 2AM) to find TWO bunnies (roommates) awake, working away in the living room!! It made me sooooo happy to see them after such an awful day at work. I almost felt like I was living a normal life again...

As I was walking home today, I realized that my life now is a bit similar to my life back in Taiwan in the sense that outside of work, I really don't see or hang out with anyone. Granted, in Taiwan I really had 0 friends and only had Bailey to keep me company on most nights. Although I get to see people at church on Sundays and sporadically during the weekdays and on my days off, it seems like a dream or an alternate reality.

It's tough being an extrovert and living this type of life, secluded from people and friends. Late nights and late mornings are pretty lonely, and even though work stinks sometimes, at least I'm surrounded by people. At home though, in my little room, it's just me and my bunny.

When asked what he loves about being a chef, Johnny Iuzzini (head pastry chef of Jean-Georges and head judge on Top Chef Just Desserts) responded:

"I love the long hours, the constant sacrifices, the fact that I never get to go to dinner with friends, or spend holidays with the family. NOT!!!!"

So true, so true.

Ah sigh.

strange eats

ironically, my sg kids eat the weiiiirdest combination of foods.

exhibit A:

Evelyn's eating an ice-cream sandwich, literally. Two pieces of wheat bread (the ends, mind you), sandwiched around a layer of peppermint soft-serve.