The House Poet

This past Wednesday, I luckily was able to go to San Francisco with my sister; it was the first time I'd been in a long time! :) Fiona and I took the BART train and caught a MUNI bus. It was a lovely sunny day, which was such a treat as you can see in the pictures! We got off at Octavia Street because I wanted to look at a Victorian hotel that is so beautiful inside and out. :) This is the Queen Anne Hotel, which supposedly has a haunted room! :D One of my dreams is to stay there someday~ I really want to show this to Andrew too! On my 18th birthday, my friends and I walked inside and sat down in the lovely common room. I then proceeded to open all my gifts there; it was so fun! Japantown! Yay! :) This is Benkyo-do, the oldest business in Japantown. They make mochi, some of which is really good, and sell Japanese snacks. They also have a food counter where burgers and hot dogs are super cheap; it's very old-fashioned and charming! All the older folks like to congregate there ...

I can't believe I haven't put up this post yet! In the beginning of this semester, my college offered a trip to San Francisco by bus for only $5! Such an awesome deal! So, my friends and I were lucky enough to hear about it so we paid and were excited to go! Above is us putting our shoes together. My shoe is the awesome orange one!!! :D The bus dropped us off in Union Square, and since we were hungry we walked over to Katana-ya after shopping a bit in Macy's. Katana-ya is a super tiny and very popular Japanese restaurant in Union Square. The place itself is very narrow and the walls are adorned with colorful and funky pieces of art! There was a nice mix of jazz and Japanese pop music playing while we ate. :) I ordered a combination lunch of Miso Ramen and katsu don. Above is the katsu don, which is pork katsu with sauce on top of rice with a salad. The dressing on the salad was a delicious creamy sesame one. I wish Japanese restaurants sold the dressing they use, it's...

Today turned out a little different than I expected, but in an awesome way! I didn't go to work this morning, but stayed home and packed some more. I am practically all packed up, except for a few necessities and my stuffed animals! :D Before dinner, My sister and I put most of my boxes and random things into the trunk of the car! Anyway, one of my closest friends and her little sister who is my sister's closest friend came over today for lunch and ended up spending the entire afternoon with us!!! :) We had so much fun and said our good-byes. We are all leaving except for my sister. For lunch, we went to a pretty new Walnut Creek joint called The Counter. It's a burger place where you can build your burger and they have tons of options! I was dying to try it, as I've been in a burger mood lately!! :D To start with, they brought us our order of fries. I think it's a little odd to bring the fries way before the burgers.... I enjoy eating my fries with my burger. The...

My room is becoming more and more bare as I pack things up for school on Wednesday. Now that I am just about to go back, I can hardly believe it! I don't know what to expect, but I want to have fun and become closer to the special people surrounding me there! I am also super excited about being on my own again! Being in the same city as Andrew also makes me so happy and excited!!! :) This afternoon I went and hung out with my two closest old friends for the last time. I probably won't be able to see them until Winter Break, but it's okay. We plan to keep in touch, so the goodbyes weren't dramatic or sad. They never are between us. :) So, we decided, since it was a hot day, to go chill and talk at a really cool cafe called Caffe La Scala. It's an old cafe that's been in Walnut Creek forever and it's walls are decorated with vintage French and Italian posters. I ordered a small hazelnut gelato and water. The gelato was good, but almost tasted powdery. Perhaps ...

I can't believe its already July! Yay! :) Today, my sister and I took our grandmother downtown for some shopping and lunch! It's a tradition we have, so it was fun to do it again since I am back for the summer! My grandma gave us a bit of money to buy some clothes; we first went to Macy's since she said there was a sale going on, but we found nothing good. Then, we started walking towards H&M, but made a detour at Bath and Body Works for some lotion and body spray. I bought some special lotion with shea cream and then a body spray that smells like honeysuckle! It makes me happy since it smells so summery! :D There was a huge amazing sale going on at H&M!!! I bought two dresses, a nice shirt, and a cute denim short skirt for all under $40!! I am very happy about that! After clothes shopping, we walked down to Le Cheval, a Bay Area Vietnames restaurant that was started by my grandma's friend from Oakland! When we went in Le Cheval, my grandma knew the people worki...

Yesterday I spent the day with my two oldest friends! We hadn't really hung out too much since summer started because we've been busy, so it was nice to be with them again and have fun. It's been a while since we did that. :) Things are changing in our lives and ourselves, but we will always be family. It was a hot but pretty day so we wanted to eat outside. Thus, Val went to go get a burrito from Chipotle and then walked over to Whole Foods where me and Andrea were getting sandwiches! We sat outside and had fun talking and eating. My sandwich was delicious and filling! I got lettuce, spring mix, onions, roasted turkey, cheddar cheese, hummus spread, and basil pesto spread on a sweet baguette! I loved how all the flavors meshed together so well. Pacific's sandwich counter could learn a lot from Whole Foods! One might think that having basil pesto spread on one side and hummus on the other might taste kinda weird, but it works! The hummus had a nice strong garlic taste t...