Karen

It may seem kind of silly for me to even bother blogging about past events, but a lot has happened over the last 2 months that I took pictures of but never blogged about. School finished up last week, so I am finally getting around to things again. (Two months of blogging to catch up on? NBD! ) Life has consisted of work and school Mondays through Fridays, then fun events planned on the weekends. Now, I get to take a short break from night classes and enjoy being a lazy bum again! After looking over how much I have been doing, I have to admit... I love my life and the people in them.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Adrian came to visit and we decided to check out Roxie's in Sacramento. There's one by the same name in San Francisco, but I'm not sure if they are supposed to be the same. (Update: Yelp review says they are brothers! Cool!) Sponsoree Alex said he liked it more than Ike's, so I had to check it out for myself!

Not knowing what to expect, I thought the place looked pretty janky. No lie. Inside was very run down looking. A girl standing in line in front of us was asking about the place and we found out it used to be an old butcher shop. Inside looked more like a convenient store, but there was a small seating area outside.

Adrian and I had no idea what we wanted. We went with recommendations one of the sandwich makers suggested and just hoped for the best!

I think this is the Roxie House sandwich, but I cannot remember exactly. It is one of the most popular sandwiches at Roxie's.

Roxie's meatloaf sandwich. Adrian and I loved this because the meatloaf was so flavorful. Delicious, delicious!


There was a large variety of bottled sodas available, so Adrian bought two for us to accompany our meal.

We went to Roseville Galleria afterwards to walk around. On the way back home, we stopped by McDonald's because I was craving for some sweet tea. I missed the one located near the mall, so we found a random one to go to on the GPS. I cannot remember which McDonald's we were at, but it was one of the worst experiences I ever had. First, the workers there were incredibly lazy... not wanting to take our orders and not wanting to refill the sweet tea dispenser. Then, I experienced a group of African American girls being incredibly racist towards me for no reason. (Or it could have been one in particular and a group of followers.) I had ice spat on my back while I just sitting at a booth. I thought it was an accident at first, but when I came out of the bathroom, one of them looked straight at me and said, "what's up ni hao?" PISSED. ME. OFF. I was shaking from anger, so I figured it was a good time for Adrian and I to leave. It is sad that we still have people like that in this world.

After all that happened, Adrian and I went to pick up Cathy at home and took her out to eat at Boiling Crab since she has never tried it before.

"Give me food now!!"

Adrian took time away from gaming on his phone to take a picture with me. Yay!

w0ot! First time at Boiling Crab!

Aside from the McDonald's situation, it was a nice and delicious day!

To be continued.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

My shift at work was shifted 30 minutes early for the day. My supervisor had a webinar, so she wanted me to be at work earlier while she attended it. With the spare time I had, I swung by Starbucks for some cake pops. It was my baby seastar's 19th birthday! I did not have time to get a cake, so I figured some cake pops would suffice. I also swung by Jamba Juice before heading home and surprising Cathy with her little treats.

Friday, March 23, 2012

After work, I waited for my dad to drop Cathy off so we could spend the rest of the day together. Cathy and I stopped by Starbucks to redeem her birthday coupon and we started heading out to Davis.

My little sponsoree Alex still had a final that day, so I swung by Quickly to get him some boba. I called him when I first got to Davis and he sounded sleepy. I called him again when I got to his apartment and he still sounded sleepy. Turns out, he was taking a nap before his last final that was happening later on that night. He was super adorable when he realized why I was at his apartment.

Afterwards, Cathy and I met up with Chris, Kristi and Teresa. The plan was to go shop and eat in Vacaville. Initially, it was supposed to just be me, Cathy and Kristi, but since Chris and Teresa were heading home to Oakland and Vacaville was along the way, they came along as well!

My urge to shop at Cotton On was finally satisfied. It was actually Cathy's first time shopping there and all she ended up wanting was a pair of jeans. After shopping, we went to eat at Fenton's Creamery.

Chris tried hiding from all my photos! Not sure what he is doing here exactly...


My boo!


The baby seastar and smiley Kristi!

Cathy and I shared the french dip sandwich and chili cheese fries. The french dip sandwich was a bit disappointing because it was literally just roast beef and bread. I guess I was expecting a little more substance, but perhaps that is just how the sandwich is supposed to be like? The chili cheese fries, on the other hand, was incredibly filling. The portion was huge!

Teresa and her sandwich.

Kristi's sandwich + Chris in the background with his sundae!

Cathy and I shared the Leprachaun's Treasure, which was a sundae containing Girl Scout thin mint cookies! We gave the cookie to Teresa to try since she never had one before! She said it tasted like toothpaste. 

Such cuties.

Group photo! <3

Afterwards, we just chilled around the parking lot until it was time to say bye. Chris and Teresa headed home while Cathy, Kristi and I headed back to Davis. In Davis, we went to the arcade to play one game of bowling then some arcade games, of course!

It was a pretty fun night and a great way to start off the weekend.

To be continued.

Grandpa passed away on Wednesday, February 29, 2012. A couple weeks prior to that, I started seeing my extended family a lot more because we all went to see Grandpa at the hospital. We would have around 10 or so people visiting all at once.

The hardest days were when we knew for sure that Grandpa's time was coming to an end. Luckily, all of Grandpa's children and grandchildren were able to make it back in time to see him at least one last time. My aunts and uncles tried to reassure Grandpa that it was okay to go by telling him his friends would take care of him when he got to the other side and that Grandma would be well taken care of.

I was sitting on campus waiting for my class to start when I heard the news about Grandpa's passing. My sister and I did not go to the hospital that night, but I heard it was incredibly crowded.

March 9th and 10th were the dates for Grandpa's viewing. After a lot of reading from prayer books, we would sit around for hours while friends and family visited. During those times, I had some really nice life chats with my older cousins. Draw Something was also a huge hit for my cousins and I.

On March 10th, my cousins and I went to eat dim sum at Asian Pearl together. It was seriously nice being able to hang out with them, which my sister and I do not do very often.

On the 11th, it was the first of seven sessions of temple that we had to attend. That weekend, my sister and I joined our cousins Danny, Ellen and Lung after temple on an adventure to Ikea. Prior to that, we got boba from Quickly. We stayed for dinner at Grandma's house and just chilled for hours.

Grandpa's service was on the 12th. It was our very last time seeing him...

Almost a complete photo of all my cousins and I. Definitely a rare sight with a couple of them in LA and one in Oregon.

After service, we went to King Palace for a huge family lunch. Right after family photos, I had to rush off to work.

Another photos of the cousins!

After this, every Sunday (minus skipping some sessions), I have been waking up early to go to temple. We pray, we eat and we hang out. Aside from waking up early, the rest is pretty enjoyable.

And now the seven sessions are over. Sifu suggested one last session after the seventh one and today was it. I wonder what happens now.

To be continued.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

I learned about the #lookdownlookup phoneography project through Photojojo and was hooked on trying to find "interesting" stories to tell for a while. This day, I was meant to hang out with Andy. We agreed to meet at Quickly and in between me thinking the place was located next to 99 Ranch and Andy not knowing where the place really was, we only got to meet and chat for about 15 minutes. Super fail!

Friday, March 2, 2012

I finally got to try Bambu with Ly! After seeing many photos posted on Facebook about this place, I was so happy I was able to try it myself. The place is more known for their Vietnamese desserts, but I decided to try the taro smoothie. It was really good!

During our time there, Ly watched a kid sitting behind us get bored when his dad took away the iPad then nearly fall off his chair because he was falling asleep. Poor kid! XD

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Got a random call from my Sponsoree Alex about him, Derek and LB Henry coming to Sacramento to go eat and they asked me to join them. I am personally not a huge fan of last minute plans, especially if I have been lazying around all day and have been sitting around in pjs. It took me a while, but I finally managed to make myself get ready to go meet up with them. I felt like a total zombie for watching tv all afternoon!

We started off at Kru, which meant to be an appetizer since it was nearly dinner time. Derek had Groupon coupons for Kamon, so we had to wait for the place to open again.

At Kru, we all shared one roll. It was a custom roll that we created with each person choosing one ingredient. It was pretty darn delicious!

We headed to Kamon after we finished our roll from Kru. Since we were planning to use two Groupon coupons, we had to sit at two separate tables. Alex and Derek sat together while I sat with Henry. We passed our food to share between our two tables. While we were there, I felt like we were eating for hours! 

This day was also my first time trying tempura ice cream. I really enjoyed the texture of it.

To be continued.

I went to Old Sacramento with V and P yesterday for a small photoshoot. P wanted some photos to post around his house, so I figured, why not? I actually took photos for them before back in November as part of my class portfolio. I can't believe how much time has flown by already!

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The weather was not very nice to us. It was sunny all day up until 0500PM, which was the time we agreed to meet up. We still managed to get some shots though. Portraits are really tough me because I have the hardest time thinking of poses and directing people. Thank goodness my friends are patient with me!

Interestingly enough, my favorite shots of the day were in front of the most random locations. Who knew bathroom doors and sheds containing trash (at least that's what we think they were!) would make pretty backgrounds?

I would like to give credit to my high school friend Andrea Mina for creating my logo. P said I needed to start claiming my work, so here I am slapping a logo on it! Hope you guys enjoyed looking at the pictures as much as I did!

To be continued.

I recently placed an order on Fab.com for Wooloot Vozz Earphones since I had some credits that were expiring soon.

The earphones were $15.50 on Fab. For the price, I think the earphones are pretty decent. It is a pretty standard pair of earphones that does a good job blocking out other noises. Bass is pretty good too. It does not come with a microphone or volume control, but I do not think you can expect too much for the price.

I mainly chose this pair of earphones because the design looked interesting. The earbuds are flat and the cord is also flat and tangle-free. Definitely makes wrapping them around a mp3 player a lot easier!

The packaging the earphones came in was unique as well. It was basically a stack of cardboard with cutouts for the earphones and the ear tips. All the cardboard was a tad unnecessary in my opinion. It was kind of like a puzzle that made taking the earphones out of the packaging a little difficult. At least the cardboard is recyclable?

To be continued.

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Months ago, I bought tickets for Cathy, Adrian and I to go to Ken-Ya Dance 2012, a charity dance showcase. We went to the event last year and really enjoyed it. This year, it was a sold out show! However, Cathy had the opportunity to participate in a flashmob proposal with her friends and decided to skip out on Ken-Ya Dance. Sponsoree Alex took her place and went to check out Ken-Ya Dance with Adrian and I.

The event was held at San Jose's Center for the Performance Arts. Before the event, the three of us went to try cupcakes from Loves Cupcakes thanks to a recommendation from Kevin.

On our way to San Jose!

We saw a cool gus along the way.

Loves Cupcakes is a super cute little cupcake shop offering a nice variety of flavors.

Alex treated Adrian and I! I got Oreo, Adrian got Fleur de Sel, and Alex got Creamsicle. So good!

After our little snack, we went to go line up for the event. The turnout was a lot larger than last year and we were so far from the front of the line!

There were even more people behind us and the line pretty much looped near the front of the line. It was crazy!

Adrian and I while waiting in line!

Sponsoree Alex and I before the show began.

TimothyDeLaGhetto, Yuri Tag and Mike Song were the hosts for the show.

Kids in any group add such an "aww" factor!

Academy of Villains' performance was sick!

The same performance set can be seen in the video below:

It was even better watching it live!

$17,000 was raised from the Ken-Ya Dance event alone. Crazy!

And then the highlight performance of the night came onto the stage, I.aM.mE.! A sea of cameras and phones were whipped out to record their performance.

Chachi taking photos in the middle of the performance. Lol!

Ken-Ya Dance 2012 definitely did not disappoint.

For a late night dinner, the three us of went to eat at The Counter in Santana Row thanks to Cynthia's recommendation. It was amazing how beautiful and lively Santana Row was at such a late hour.

It was my first time at The Counter. The place reminded me of Pluto's, but you just build your own burger. Neat idea!

My burger didn't make sense really... HAHA. Oh well! Now I know!

Delicious fries! I have become a huge fan of sweet potato fries thanks to Adrian.

We didn't get home until late, but it was so worth it.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Evely and I made plans to go buy macarons together, so we went in the morning before we both had work. We decided to go to Ginger Elizabeth Chocolates.

I honestly did not notice the decorations until I watched Evely whip out her camera and start snapping around. Balls of macarons. How cute!

There was only 7 flavors, so I bought one of each. Why are macarons so small but pricey?!

To be continued.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

It has actually been nearly a month since I have last seen Adrian. I do not usually like going out when it rains, but Adrian drove to Elk Grove to visit, so I did not mind one bit.

We went to Fuji for lunch. Yes, yes... sushi buffet once again!

We love sitting at the sushi bar!

Had some fun with my wide angle.

Bloop bloop.

Decisions, decisions! The downside to Fuji is that the same things go around the boats. You can order with the sushi chefs, but Adrian and I did not know enough rolls to order.

Adrian and I fought over who got to pay the bill for what felt like the very first time. Adrian ended up winning because the waiter told the waitress, "take the guy's money!"

My cousin Ellen introduced me to the Shopkick app, so I introduced Adrian to it. With Shopkick, you can get points for walking in to some stores and scanning items. It is kind of like a scavenger hunt and you can redeem gift cards with them. Adrian and I ended up going to Wal-Mart, Old Navy, Best Buy and Toys "R" Us collecting points in between doing some shopping. It was a good and cheap way to kill some time.

Camera whoring while sitting in Wal-Mart's parking lot.

We walked past Burger King and they were (and still are for the weekend!) giving away free value sized fries for St. Patrick's Day with green ketchup.

I have not tried it yet but I am sure my brain would be just as confused as it was when I had yellow watermelon.

Impulse purchase at Foot Locker for Adrian. This is the first time I have bought a pair of shoes for Adrian. Since Adrian had bought shoes for me before, I did not hesitate. They are so pretty!

Me and Adrian's phones died early on, so we ended up going to the Elk Grove Best Buy to check out the Galaxy Note while borrowing the chargers to charge our phones. Ha! I also bought a fabric steamer with the $50 Best Buy gift card I had, but am not sure if I want to keep it since the reviews I have read have not been good. There were no other options in store though, so I will have to test the heck out of this one. I shall have fun unwrinkling clothes.

Adrian and I went to Thai Chili for dinner. The waitress started chatting with us about Adrian's hair. She wrote down her e-mail address and asked Adrian to make a Youtube video showing how he cuts her hair so she can do it for her 3 year-old son. She also gave Adrian a free Thai iced tea so he would not forget her. It was super cute!

I love how the lighting turned out! I should have moved the cups out of the way, but our camera flashes kept freaking out our neighbors. We decided it was best to not take many photos. 

More fun with the wide angle.

We shared a plate of pan fried flat bread with mango ice cream for dessert. It tasted so good!

Overall, it was a fun day. The rain finally stopped after a few hours, so I did not have to worry about Adrian driving home at night. Hopefully, I can see him again next weekend. I really want to go to a flea market! 

To be continued.

Friday, February 3, 2012 to Saturday, February 4, 2012

Adrian and I were hired by APO's Banquet Chairs (Vivie and Kristin) to do a photo booth setup at banquet. I stayed up late the night before and had some help from the baby seastar with some final touches.

Kristi suggested a more "funny" approach to the normal "Do Not Touch" sign. I gave Cathy some ideas and she helped me put this sign together.

Since I decided to incorporate an external monitor for the photo booth, I created this sign. Thank goodness my mom had old paper promotional fans lying around the house for me to take apart!

I made plans with some of my favorite Davis people to hang out before banquet started. Before that, Adrian and I met up early for some quality Adrian and Karen time!

Before we went to eat, I surprised Adrian with the first part of his anniversary present.

I tend to wrap his presents with paper bags. Don't judge me!

I got him a GorillaPod! Adrian had been wanting one forever and he totally saw this coming. I suck at surprises. XD

For lunch, we went to eat at Barista Brew Cafe.

The place was small, but it was nice and cozy.

We played Tic-Tac-Toe while waiting for our food.

Adrian ordered the Asian chicken wrap. $5 for such a huge portion. So worth it!

I ordered the grilled chicken club panini. I definitely preferred Adrian's order a lot more.

After we finished eating, Adrian and I went to Alex's apartment. Henry met up with us there and we started planning on how we were going to surprise Alex with his letters. We ended up leaving the box outside Alex's apartment. We waited until Alex finished his game and we all prepared to "leave." Once we were out the door, Henry told Alex that there was a package outside. Once Alex realized the package was for him, we took the box to his room to watch him open it.

It was my first time wrapping one of these crazy presents. Henry wanted to make it ridiculous, so I made an attempt at it. Cathy helped me with wrapping it as well.

His present was placed within several boxes and contained lots of bags of air and peanuts. It got messy! When Alex reached the speakers box, he really thought that was it. Hahah!

I duct taped a shoe box. I guess it was too easily done because Alex managed to take everything apart without any tools!

Once he got past the shoe box, the actual present was under three layers of plastic bags. He totally did not see this coming.

Sponsors + Sponsoree with his letters! <3

Alex's letters. The font sizes turned out a lot bigger than I had expected, but I love the turnout! (Especially the back!)

Alex later told me that he re-wrapped the box to keep. So cute!

Kristi met up with us and the five of us went to MUGA for an arcade date. We played our usual games as always.

After killing some time, we said bye to Henry and Kristi then Adrian, Alex and I went back to Alex's apartment to get ready for banquet. Adrian and I were a little behind schedule, but we managed to have the photo booth running by the time banquet started.

Our photo booth in action! Photo was taken by Ivana. I had photos of our setup but Adrian accidentally cleared his memory card before uploading them. T__T

The photo booth was a huge success. Adrian did an amazing job perfecting the lights and interacting with the people. Everyone was super fun! The props the banquet chairs provided added a nice touch to everything.

Adrian and I during one of our test sessions. Thank you to the people who helped give me feedback while I was putting the photo strip design together. (A huge thanks to my sponsor Gary especially!) The colorful flags that Vivie and Kristin created made the photos turn out even better!

<444

It was a good night. After it all ended, Adrian and I spent several hours in my car just talking. We covered a wide range of topics and it was nice having that time to ourselves. We probably did not leave Davis until 0230AM that day. Crazy!

Saturday, February 11, 2012

My Pledge Trainer Nanette hired Adrian and I to do a photo booth setup for Chi Delta Theta's formals held in Walnut Creek. This setup was different and was more prom-like. Adrian took care of taking most of the photos that night and he did an amazing job! We also covered the event. It was pretty fun!

The girls definitely liked taking photos.

Adrian and I!

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Cathy and I convinced our mom to allow us to upgrade our phones. We spent days chatting with T-Mobile specialists and checking forums to figure out all the details. After lots of research, we ended up going to Best Buy. Cathy and I both wanted the Samsung Galaxy S2 and Best Buy had it for $150. They also had a special promotion going on where we could get a $50 Best Buy gift card if we reserved the gift card before a certain date and upgraded our phones with them before a certain date. We had to go to two different locations before we could actually place an order. (Our local Best Buys don't even carry T-Mobile phones in store. WHY?!) The Elk Grove Best Buy did not deal with T-Mobile at all, but the Arden one did, so we went there. The Best Buy sales associate that helped us was kind enough to discount Cathy's phone to $150 even though the listed upgrade price was higher. (I honestly thought it was that price though!) We also got expedited shipping for a penny and received our phones the following Tuesday. SO EXCITING!

Tuesday, February 14, 2012/Present Day

After a lot of waiting around the house and being afraid of missing the UPS delivery guy, our phones arrived right before I had to go to class. Cathy and I finally upgraded to smartphones! w0ot w0ot!

My life has been sucked away since. Alex, LB Henry, Dennis, Jeff and Lan recommended me a ton of apps to get me started. If I were still in Davis, I would definitely always be distracted in class!

My first case + a TIZ sticker that finally fit my phone. Unfortunately, I had to retire the case after a month because I did not like how dirty it got. White cases are nice until they get dirty!

My second case that my sister bought me. I definitely miss the other case since I prefer the rubberized feel, but for $2 (yay to eBay coupons!) I can't complain.

Ahem! Play Hanging With Friends, Scramble With Friends and/or Draw Something with me under the username karen0z.

To be continued.

Thursday, February 16, 2012h

I took the day off work and Adrian came to Elk Grove to celebrate our 4 years together. Before we went to eat, we exchanged our presents for each other!

I got Adrian an external hard drive and his favorite chocolates. Edible and useful gifts!

Adrian got me this gorgeous necklace with blue diamonds representing the past, present and future. Diamonds! That's pretty serious!

We went to Azukar for their sushi lunch buffet since sushi is one of our favorite things to eat. The experience was pretty good minus the waitress forgetting our orders from time to time. The rolls were made to order and the quality was pretty decent. Downside was that plates of sashimi cost $2.45 each, so we didn't get any.

Adrian plans to tape this photo in his car somewhere. SUPER cute gesture!

After we ate, we went to Downtown Plaza. We went to get free lotion from Bath & Body Works then caught a showing of The Vow. I thought the movie started out a bit slow, but definitely picked up after a while. It was such a sad movie that got me crying in the theater! Luckily, I had Adrian's sleeve to wipe my tears on.

After the movie, we still had some time left before I had class at 0700PM. We walked over to Old Sacramento and got a funnel cake from Spud Shack to share.

By the time we finished eating, it was almost time for us to part ways. We made a stop by Arco for a quick bite to eat, then I had to drop Adrian off at his car before heading off to class.

Even though we did not get to spend the entire day together, it was still nice seeing him for a handful of hours. I have been lucky enough to see him nearly every weekend this February, but it is usually spent with other people. It is not the same, you know?

Each time I am with Adrian, I am reminded of how much I love him. Aside from the usual minor arguments, we click on so many different levels. I just feel like the luckiest girl in the world when I am with him.

To be continued.