Coffee vs. Coffee Ice Cream

I’m not a caffeine drinker. I’m a pretty hyperactive person as is so I don’t need the extra energy that caffeine gives you. I’m also a huge nap taker – mostly because I like sleep, not so much because I need the nap. My intake of caffeine comes from two main sources: bubble tea and coffee ice cream.

Bubble tea has green tea in it and I’m addicted to the stuff. Something about the sugary sweet syrup mixed into the green tea with a dollop of pearls, I always crave it.

Coffee ice cream, however, is my strange addiction. I hate coffee. No matter how many times I’ve tried it, I cannot get over that bitter taste. And putting in so much cream and sugar seems counterproductive. I’ll just get really excited over the sugar and not so much the coffee. But the one thing coffee-flavored I do love is ice cream. I have no idea how I got hooked on it but once I tried it, it’s become one of my favorite flavors of ice cream. Granted coffee ice cream is much much sweeter than actual coffee…

Do you have any strange food addictions? Hate tomatoes but love ketchup? Can’t stand avocado but love guacamole? Leave me a comment!

Moving is a B*tch

Being a graduate means moving. Whether it’s back home or to a new job, you’re going to have to move out of your college apartment (unless you’ve gotten into grad school where you went to undergrad in which case, congratulations!). I’ve moved a total of three times in my undergrad career: out of the dorms after my freshmen semester into a sing room apartment, into a two room apartment after my sophomore year and luckily, I got to stay in that lovely two room apartment my senior year. But graduating means I had to move out of that apartment and my wonderful, wonderful roommate and back home for a spell before I move down to Manhattan Beach to strat my job.

Moving is ALWAYS a pain. I’ve never heard anyone say, “I can’t wait to move! I love putting all my personal belongings in a box and forgetting exactly where I put everything because even though I’ve labeled the box, we all know I put purses in the ‘kitchen stuff’ box and kitchen stuff in the ‘accessories’ box.”

I just moved home and all my stuff is still in boxes. After living for two years in a place, your stuff really accumulates. And since I’ve moved home, there’s a lot of stuff I don’t need to unpack since my parents own it already. As a result, I have a bunch of boxes lying around and I can’t bring myself to unpack anything. Knowing me, I’ll just wait till two days before I have to drive down and panic and freak out then.

Here's a picture of my roommate and I a few days before we moved out. You can see our boxes are sort of out of control. And we get easily distracted.

Anyone have any tips on making moving just a tad bit easier? I made mine a bit more fun with a little friend called Two Buck Chuck but I don’t think I can justifiably do that at home without raising some alarm with my parents and while driving down to LA... And without my partner in crime, the cheap wine just doesn’t taste as good.

“Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?”

I just finished Mindy Kaling’s book, “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” and I really enjoyed it. It was a relatively quick read, only 200 or so pages and it was filled with a whole lot of fun. It read a bit like a blog with a very distinct Mindy voice and after listening to a few chapters of the audiobook, her writing sounded even more like her, if that’s possible. I watched the entire first season of The Mindy Project during my dead week last semester and Kaling's character in that show mirrors her personality so well. It's a fantastic show, I highly recommend it!

I’ve been on this non-fiction reading spree lately: I read Tina Fey’s “Bossypants” before this so for my next book, I’m going to be reading Dan Brown’s “Inferno.” I’ve read all of Dan Brown’s other books and though he has a formulaic writing style, all his stories always fit together so perfectly, I can’t help but read his books. Next on my list is “And The Mountains Echoed,” another one of Khaled Hosseini’s books on Afghanistan and then perhaps after that, Ellen DeGeneres’ book. That one’s been sitting on my iPad for a while but I still haven’t gotten around to it. It’s going to be a reading filled summer.

I’m heading to Hawaii in a few days and I would love to take my iPad and read with it in the sun but I haven’t figured out a solution so that the screen isn’t just unreadable in the sunlight. I did find this article, however, and perhaps my problem can be fixed with some polarized lenses or passive 3-D glasses. I wonder if the glasses I get from the movie theater will work?

Find though she be but little...

This is one of my favorite quotes from Shakespeare and it’s from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The quote speaks volumes to me because I’m of petite size and while sometimes I’d replace the word ‘fierce’ with ‘sassy,’ I think it describes me all the same. A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of my favorite Shakespeare plays to read in 8th grade, probably because it wasn’t as macabre as Hamlet and it had faeries in it. I’ll admit, I had sort of a literary crush on Oberon – he was the king of faeries and really hot in my imagination. It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a Shakespeare play…

Essie Obsession

I’m obsessed with nail polish. Once, during my sophomore year, I just binged and bought 14 nail polishes on eBay just because someone was selling them for less than $15. I thought I was getting a real deal. Unfortunately, cheap price = cheap nail polish. Of those 14, I probably have maybe two or three of them left. I’m also a sucker for those Urban Outfitter nail polishes that come in that rectangular box container and are notoriously hard to grip. Like seriously, whose fingers can comfortably wrap around those cube tops?

But post grad me is a new me! I vow to only spend money on nail polish that is guaranteed to have an easy to grip top and is of quality manufacturing. My latest nail polish obsession is Essie. It’s been one on my “I wish I could afford to splurge” list, but it turns out, this stuff is less than $8 at your local Target! So hail the era of the Essie nail polish. It’s going to be the brand that I’m buying for a while and no more of that cheap drugstore, generic stuff. (I do realize that you can buy Essie at the drugstore, but psh, a little of that cheap me is always going to prevail.)

My first Essie purchase was a lovely color called: Bikini So Teeny. I’m wearing it right now and it reminds me of that block of time right between Spring and Summer when the weather is just warming up but summer just isn’t quite here yet. It also has a somewhat beach-y feel, which is perfect since I’m heading to Hawaii on Sunday!

I love the composition of this photo. Disclaimer: I didn't create it. But to get better at something, it's always good to have examples laying around!

Do you have any Essie colors you’d recommend? I’m looking into so more “work-friendly” reds and pinks but my interviewer/future boss did love my black with gold flecks when I was there so I’m open to all suggestions!