It Started with a Journal

Korean classes start next week!! Eeee!! The weird thing though was that other than the initial registration confirmation, I'd gotten NO email/notices from them at all. adelagia was like, check the website, duh!!! Which to me is a little nutty. Seriously, you can't email your students some pertinent info like where to go and whether they should buy any textbooks? God, the education system in America... Then adelagia said that since this was community college, she would be happy just to not have Senor Chang as our professor. But you know, NOW I'LL BE DISAPPOINTED!!! That would be so awesome. "Anneyong, CHILDREN!"

Seattle Restaurant Week starts this weekend, and I'm going to try and make it to a few! adelagia and I may do one or two, and I will do a couple with my mom, too -- she looooves RW.

Another ep of Strong Woman Do Bong Soon tonight! Eee!

I'm going to try out some Laura Mercier lip glosses. A coworker of mine uses them and I just LOVE the way they look on her. That said, of course, makeup is super personal and it could look like shit on me. That's why I'm getting a few travel-size ones on eBay, rather than committing to a full tube of one color. My travel-sized Laura Geller gloss (which I still love) is lasting me forever, so really, a small size is really all that's needed. Also, in researching this stuff, it actually reaffirmed my desire to keep going with my Birchbox and Sephora Play subscriptions. High-end makeup/skincare is SO pricey (the cost of a full-size LM gloss is $26), and the sample sizes are really very generous. For the cost of a year's beauty box subscription, I could buy fewer than 5 LM lip glosses! But with the subscriptions I get so much more than just lip gloss, I'm able to use most of what I'm sent, *and* I get the fun element of getting a box of surprises to try out each month. I'm going to cancel the Ipsy subscription, though. I'm generally less impressed with their products/samples, and I definitely don't need three beauty box subscriptions. I should probably also give up either Birchbox or Sephora Play, but I love them both too much right now.

I have gotten sucked back into Groupons because of their irresistible deals to their users who haven't used them in awhile. :)) Luckily, I'm not interested in looking for random deals without those special codes and what not that turns a deal into a steal, so hopefully I won't run into the issue I ran into a number of years back, where I was buying anything that looked remotely interesting, just because it was a good deal!

Living Social's deal today: $9 for 2 tickets to Fandango. Pretty good deal if you go to watch movies at all (or is an excuse to go!). Limit 1 per person. The promo amount expires in June, but the amount you pay is still good for some time after that, which is unusual and pretty cool of them to do.

I am the laziest person in the mornings (and okay, in general). I will do almost anything to be able to sleep 10 minutes longer. I set my alarm for 20-30 minutes earlier, so that I have time to put on my makeup and maybe grab a little breakfast, or if I'm REALLY ambitious, I set the alarm even earlier and figure I might curl my hair. More often than not -- in fact, almost always -- I stagger out of bed when the alarm goes off (my 'alarm' is just a CD player, but it's not next to the bed), re-set the alarm for 10-20 minutes later, and dive back under the covers. This happens 1-2 times, each time justifying in my head why I am allowed to sleep a little longer. When I finally can't avoid it anymore, I get out of bed and rush through what I have to do, because at this point I have to rush or I'll be late. There's minimal makeup (if any; sometimes I end up putting it on in the car), no breakfast, and definitely no hair curling. On the better days, now that I have a Keurig, sometimes there is a cup of coffee.

So yesterday was a pretty typical morning for me. I threw on what was convenient that wasn't my pajamas and ran out of the house. It wasn't until I got to work that I realized I was wearing my shirt that has the Hogwarts coat of arms on the front. "Maybe no one will notice," I thought. Except EVERYONE noticed and felt they had to make a comment about it. I brazened my way through most of the comments -- "I am wearing this because I am just a really cool person" -- but omg it was pretty embarrassing. It wasn't just people I knew, perfect strangers commented (though they were usually nicer, like, "I like your shirt"). It was really hard not to be overly defensive, like, "I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING, THAT I MUST WRITE HARRY POTTER FANFIC. WELL I DON'T. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT FANFIC IS."

And the day before THAT, on the bus on the way home, I suddenly had a HUGE craving for steak. Like, I had to have it. It was the first day of Aunt Flo's visit and I guess I felt like I needed to replenish my body with iron or something, because I was determined to have a bloody steak for dinner. I even thought about going to Outback or something, but I'm trying to be more responsible when it comes to my budget, and eating steak in restaurants is kind of a waste when it's so easy to do at home. I also desperately needed to pee. So of COURSE this is the week that Safeway has no steaks on special. Thank goodness for my Windows Phone 7 because I was able to check the weekly specials at Fred Meyer next door and see that they had NY steaks on 'sale' (in quotes because I don't think $4.99/lb is really that great a price, especially for supermarket steak, but certainly better than the $8-10/lb Safeway was asking for theirs), so I booked it over. Actually this was in the midst of rush hour, so even though it was right next door, it still took like 10 minutes. There was ONE package of NY steaks with the special pricing left, and I swear, had anyone else approached them at that point, I would have been like, "I will KILL you." I guess I was inspired by Jamie Oliver (I've been watching his "30-Minute Meals" episodes and they're seriously awesome, I'm kind of in love with him now), because I had dinner done in half an hour. Steak, broccoli, cheesy English muffins, and mashed potatoes and gravy. Everything but the last I made/cooked; the potatoes were nuked leftovers. And last night I made potatoes for real -- Jamie's "cheat" on roasted potatoes, and they were quick and sooooo good.

I've been continuing to noodle about what to make for the Dinner with 12 Strangers this Saturday, and last night took out Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum. I love her books but I know from other stuff I've made by her that she is NOT beginner friendly. Man is this especially true of this book!! This one cake recipe was like, no joke, TEN PAGES LONG. They are all gorgeous though. I'll have to scan some of them and show you guys. I think there are two possibilities that I have in mind right now. One is a Gâteau Breton, which is basically like a tart-cake-shortbread combo type thing, and the other is something I'll have to cobble together from an idea I got looking through the book: an orange-flavored cake with orange curd, covered with a chocolate ganache. Chocolate and orange together is a flavor combination that, after years of trying it out, I've finally started to enjoy very much.

Edit: Does anyone have £3,000 they want to lend me? Or give me, I'm not picky. Ted Nasmith is apparently selling some of his original artwork, including the art he did for the A Song of Ice and Fire 2011 calendar (which ropo got me for Christmas :D). Probably my favorite is the one of Winterfell, though I also like Castle Black and The Wall, and Storm's End (couldn't find a direct link).