for my birthday...

For my birthday, I ate at Trattoria la Siciliana after work. I ate here for Valentine's Day so it was nice to try the regular menu. The dipping sauce for the bread was really good (I think I'm going to try to make it someday). We ended up asking for 3 baskets of bread and dipping sauce. In fact, D said the best part of dinner was the sauce. The butternut squash appetizer was mediocre. But I really enjoyed the entree...the mushroom ravioli is unparalleled to any other restaurant's ravioli. It was quite the birthday dinner! I came home to Debbie's "happy birthday" decoration in the apartment and Joyce's cupcakes. Thank you, Debs for making my birthday feel so special in Berkeley, too. 

surprise birthday!

To celebrate my birthday before going back to Berkeley, my friends surprised me at my house with beautiful color-themed decorations and cupcakes. I had a really great time spending time with all of you, playing card games, watching Man on a Ledge (which, by the way, is a great movie), and laughing over funny stories and memories. You all are the best for putting in so much effort and making me feel special and loved. The whole night was filled with surprises and lovely conversations. I'm extremely thankful that I was able to spend my last night with all of you from Cerritos and Berkeley. Thank you for those who came down when you all still have school. I'm so blessed to have all of you in my life, especially my high school friends. You all reminded me how amazing y'all are and that y'all are incredibly important in my life. Thank you for the laughter and the memories!

Happy birthday, mama!

For mama's birthday yesterday, I cooked her dinner (with a little help from him). With only an hour and a half to cook for four, I baked mac 'n cheese cups (oh, yes, again) and fried rice with spam (here). He came up with baking the broccoli, sprinkled with salt and pepper. Because I was in a rush, all the eggs came out funny except for my mom's so that was just fitting. My brother bought Porto's cake while mama was coming home and sure enough, she was surprised with everything! I love surprises.

Cooking dinner has made me super excited to live in my apartment. I cannot wait to cook for myself, start new recipes, and try new things with my roommates. I'm ever so excited and this adventure will begin in two and a half weeks! 

Roommates, if you all are reading this, be excited.

Happy birthday, mother goose!

Pledge mom turned the big 21 today! Happy birthday, Sophia - you've brought so much joy into our lives. Thank you for being so understanding during my sleepless week and setting up pledge dates so we could just bond and vent out our stress. As you've made pledging bearable and fun, I hope that your birthday too is blessed and your next year is filled with incessant laughter, incredible miracles, and unforgettable memories. May you experience more joy in this next year (and last two semesters, woo!). Regardless of expected surprises, I hope you enjoy your birthday and those strawberry cupcakes with lemon frosting!

Happy week's end!

To say that this past week had been completely physically draining would be an understatement. For some reason, this semester and this round of midterms have not been kind...at all. But this is the sun after the storm (quite literally too!). On Friday, after midterms were over, I bussed to Starbucks (craving satisfied) and John's Ice Cream with Christine after depositing my first-ever paycheck. That night, I slept for 10 hours, the equivalent of how I slept over the past 5 days. I seriously must say, sleep has never felt better. Saturday was filled with laughter, friends, and really good conversations. I ate brunch with Ashley at Le Bateau Ivre Cafe. Afterward, Kyuseok received his birthday surprise and the green hat syndrome was initiated (if you don't understand, just look for the green hat on everyone's head). Thank you Christine for the dinner date and our random conversations (source of joy, source of joy). Saturday night ended in the best way possible: I had some "big/little" time with Sophia. We stopped by Philz Coffee to check it off from my "to-do list challenge," ate at Gregoire (checked off from my personal places to go), and had really deep conversations over coffee and baking. I'm so blessed: I have the most amazing big ever. So forgive me, but this is going to be a long, picture-filled post.