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1. Surf and Turf  1. Happy red poppies growing outside my apartment 2. Seattle Seahawks win the Superbowl   4. Addicted to the Werthers at work  5. Jen and Eric: Muracci's 2 Japanese Curry and Grill 7. Sochi Olympics  13. Che with Tiff  14. Valentine's Day 16. Quadruple date at B Street and Vine  18.  My mom's 60th birthday!! year of the horse  23. Ate at Gather with one of my long lost friends John Kim!  23. Hanging out at Tammie's house  25. Trying to start studying again 26: Slice of New York with Julie  25: RAIN.. we actually got some rain

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February was a month full of good friends and good food. I really cherished all these moments and am so grateful to have such great people in my life!

p.s. Here are some previous recaps

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1. My first day at my new job... what a day- stayed til 8:30 trying to finish my first assignment!  3. Starting the day with a healthy breakfast  4. Finally jumped on the kale smoothie bandwagon  6. I feel like it's really hard to be sad when you're wearing yellow jeans 7. Ate at Liang's Kitchen with Tiff  8. Taylor bought me a tablet for my birthday!!!! 13. Golden Boy Pizza with Slam and Jon... (this was of course before I gave up on my dream of moving to San Francisco.... sigh)  15. This is How you lose her by Junot Diaz  20. Dinner at Wood Ranch with Taylor's family, a perfect southern california night eating out doors!   22. First day at sea on our cruise! 23. Day at santa Barbra  24. Days of Obligation y Richard Rodriguez... life changing, I'm not even exagerrating  25. Alcatraz 26. Ensenada 30.  Back to the Bay Area again

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Oh dear, it's June and I'm just finishing up my April Recap now.  April started off with my first day at my new job, and since then, it's been busy busy busy.  The major highlight of this month was undeniably a cruise I took with my family (ironically from LA to SF....which pretty much means I drove to LA, took a cruise to SF, took the cruise back to LA, and then drove back to the Bay again).  My brothers and I are all in different parts of the country now, so it was an amazing (and rare) time with the whole family together, and the first trip that Taylor took with us!

p.s. Here are some previous recaps

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1. Sketched this tree while waiting for Taylor to get off work  3. Umami Burger with some people from church to celebrate March 1  4.Bought my first tube of red lipstick with my friend Kim 6. Taylor bought me Samoas!!!!! 7. Chevron pattern in the J.Crew Store display 8. Finished reading Blue Nights by Joan Didion  9.Cooking lessons with my mom  11. Wearing glasses more these days 17. St. Patrick's Day  18. Ate a seafood feast at my parent's house  24. Had an Ice Cream Social at church :) 26. First day of apartment hunting in San Francisco  27. Ate at Smitten  
31. Brain Cancer Awareness in memory of my cousin Rayson

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Previous  Recaps

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1. Spring tulips at Whole Foods, I love tulips  3. Super Bowl 2013  4.Taylor made us turkey burgers for dinner, he's becoming such a great chef! 6. Celebrated my mother in law's birthday at Macaroni Grill 10. Gung Hay Fat Choy! :)  11. I have too many striped sweaters 13. Went to Rockets vs. Clippers game! (Thanks to MIL and Tibayans for tickets and jerseys!!)  14. Happy Love day 15. Got cute V-day cards from my friend Sarah Lam via snail mail... love them!  16. Biking in Ojai  17. Finally got to visit John and Linda's mansion! 18. Celebrated my mom's birthday! 23. Praise and Jason are married! 25. I love my fobby pencil case 26. Ate at Lemmo's Grill

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February was a short and sweet month- only 28 days, but had like 5 different holidays, both Taylor and my moms' birthdays, a day trip, and a wedding.  Been loving all the bright and cheery colors I've been seeing everywhere, but have also been experiencing some tingling allergies in my nose and throat, which can only mean one thing- spring is on it's way!

Here are some previous recaps

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1. Hello 2013! 3. Ate soul food with Joyce and Jen Chiang at Les Sisters... amazing food, and even better company! 4. Wine Tasting with my awesome mother in law, Grammy and Aunt Sarah  6. Started getting into Fraiser, now that I'm older I finally get the jokes! 7. Taylor bought Costco dinosaur chicken nuggets, feel like a kid again when I'm eating them 8.Been so cold at my apartment that I've been wearing beanies indoors  9. Saw Beasts of the Southern Wild, so amazing, never seen anything like it  11.  Tiff was in town and we ate to our beloved Hugo's Tacos  16.  Visited the Pasadena Art Centerr with Tiff 17. My go-to flats this month  24.  My mom surprised me with sushi!  Moms are the best!  26.  Addicted to Milk Duds for the past month and a half  27.  Started watching the West Wing. I wish I worked at the White House and talked in Sorkin-eque snappy dialogue with my coworkers all day  30.  Finished The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes, funny, sharp and deeply insightful.  31. Stayed at the Hotel Valencia, really gorgeous and staff could not have been friendlier!


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Happy Chinese New Year!  I am still stuffed from the Chinese banquet my family had last night, and probably ate a month's worth of meat in the span of 3 hours!  I think I need to eat a salad this morning for breakfast.  It was a festive occasion to be sure, we decided to celebrate everything at once- 5 birthdays and my cousins' newborn son Tobias being born on January 1!

January was a whirlwind of a month- been going through some unexpected transitions, but I'm so thankful to friends and family who have been so loving and supportive about everything.

Here are some previous recap sketches... hoping I can keep these up this year!

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1(a). Cal football's first game of the season at our new stadium.  I can't say i care about football as much as Taylor would like me to, but I'll root for anything regarding Cal! 1(b). Finally met this little guy!  (I drew his friend Roy the Rhino because I cannot draw people)   3. Celebrated my friend Tiff Foo's birthday by going to a Dodger game  4. the DNC kickoff!   5.Our new office pet 6. learned how to use our dishwasher... it was life changing! 8. Eric proposed to Jen at Twin Peaks! 10. dentist appointment 15. pretty much lived off ling lings the entire week because I was studying  17. Took my second exam! 22. first day of fall.... although it doesn't really start to feel like fall til the first day of winter   23. My newest house plant  25. Taylor got an iphone! 30 (a) mid autumn moon festival 30 (b) noah purifoy foundation

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I'm super late in posting my September recap  but I was inspired to stick with it when I saw Daphne's awesome September highlights.   

September came and went and just flew completely by!  The beginning started with another trip to the Bay area, and was buzzing with the start of the sports season (which would have gone completely unnoticed by me except for the fact that Taylor no longer hangs out with me on Saturdays) , and the Democratic National Convention.  (Clinton speech = uhhhmaaaaaazing) After that, I went into hibernation and dropped off the face of the planet to prepare for my exam, but was then whisked away to our getaway in Palm Springs shortly after.

My favorite part about this time of year are the mornings.  Crisp and cool, not deathly cold yet (by California standards anyway).  For some reason something in me really loves leaving the house while it's still dark.  The sunrise over the clouds during my morning drive to work have been pretty spectacular.

Here also, are July and August recaps if you missed those!

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August: 1. caught up on season 5 of Breaking Bad at Danny's apartment. Heisenberg is out of control 2. Happy Birthday to my brother Geoff! 3. Bought a rainbow rug for $12! 6. Ate Chik-Fil-A after our date night here. Taylor can't get enough of this place... . 8. why is it so hot?!?! 11. visited my parents  15. Happy Birthday to my dad 17. Discovered Noodle Star, our new go-to 18. visited my parents again! 23. Birds migrating during sunset 22. I found my perfect make coffee at home solution! 24. Been seeing butterflies everywhere 28. First day of Republican National Convention  30.Took more scenic pictures from the I-5  31. Char and Johan got married!

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August was HOT and I spent almost all of it indoors and trying to find ways to be near air conditioning that I wasn't paying for. Although the days are still quite long, I can feel the sun starting to set a little earlier each day and can see the rest of nature prepping for fall as birds are migrating and the produce at the market is changing. I always complain when it's hot, but I know I'm going to miss it as soon as it gets cold again and am remembering to enjoy it while it's here. I am definitely a summer girl at heart!

Also, here's a link to July if you missed it!

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August already!
My feelings on this are just about the same as the feelings I had on my 26th birthday (Wait a minute, didn't I just start my twenties?!?) 2012 indeed is zipping by.

This past month, I tried to make a habit of doing a quick sketch per day, 3 days of the week. I was pretty good about this the first few weeks, but I'm not going to lie- the last few ones I pretty much just drew yesterday. In any case I think it's such a great exercise to sketch, even if  the perspective or proportion is not exactly right or if it looks kinda weird.   I'm convinced it's good for the brain. My friend Michelle gave me this book which has a section that discusses how drawing is an exercise in seeing and understanding the relationship between things.

Some thoughts from the past few weeks

1. Do you ever feel like there are so many cool things out there to do, but no time to learn?  I was at CVS on Wednesday, and I saw this pottery spinning machine for 8 year olds, and it took all the self control in me to not buy it.  How cool  would it be to spin pottery at home?!

2. Been feeling tired this week because I feel like I've been pulled in a lot of directions lately, and not able to focus on anything. But then I look at moms around me and I see how amazing and selfless they are, and it makes me realize that if I think it's tough now, wow, motherhood is going to be insane!

3. I am very saddened by the Jonah Lehrer scandal,  he was one of my favorites, I even wrote a post about him in april!  He was really good at taking really brainy and scientific ideas and infusing them into pop culture.  My brother and I would refer to his most recent book, on a pretty much daily basis

4. Serve LA with the Harmony Project this past Saturday was such a cool experience! I definitely want to do it next year.  If I have kids, I would want them to be involved in something like that.  It totally brought me back to my earlier days playing the harp in youth orchestra and the Berkeley Symphony.  My harp teacher was probably the most inspiring teacher of my entire life (and that's saying a lot, because I'm very fortunate to say that I've had a lot of inspiring teachers).  She invested in me so much and even though I don't really play the harp much anymore, the things she taught me about work ethic, discipline, love of the arts, and integrity have stayed with me in everything I set out to do.

5. Had a really encouraging time hanging out with the Hongs last night.   The whole car ride back,  I kept saying " I reaalllly like them!"

6. Taylor's mom and Tim gave me a cutting from a Swedish cactus plant in their home, and has the coolest story of how it got passed on from one person to the next. We are growing it at our apartment and named him George Michael after a character from Arrested Development.  I think I might try to chart its growth if I can remember to do so!