Spring Break in Instagrams

Well, it's back to the grind at school, and this really is quite the crazy semester.  In just two weeks, the first draft of my senior thesis is due!  So for now, let's just bask in the glow of memories from Spring Break.

My backyard at home is finally done, so I spent a lot of time outside, soaking up the SoCal sun while I did some reading.

I also ran around with our new puppy...

and even played a bit of Pokemon!

The highlight of my trip was probably getting my ears pierced.  After 22 years of being too afraid to stick tiny little pieces of metal in my ears, I have finally done it and am loving the extra little accessory so far.  I can't wait until I can change my earrings, because I saw some very cute little Batman studs...

Hope you enjoy(ed) your Spring Break!

By the Bay

I still have about a week until classes start, but I am remarkably happy that I returned to San Francisco early this year.  Not only is my internship going well so far, but this is really the first time that I've gotten to just hang out in the city with friends without having to rush home to do homework.  Best of all, we've actually been taking advantage of this free time.  This past weekend, I met friends in the Marina for what turned into an all-day neighborhood exploration complete with a trip down to enjoy the sun by the bay.

It's nice to know that after four years of "exploring," San Francisco can still surprise me.

Happy Holidays

This has been a whirlwind of a winter break.  I am heading back early this year (I'm actually sitting in the airport right now!) to start an internship, so we tried to cram quite a bit of holiday into the two weeks I was home.  My brother and I did last minute shopping and checked out the local giant Christmas tree....

On Christmas Eve, we went down to Balboa Island to walk around and enjoy the lights.  It was really beautiful, and so crowded!

And finally, we cooked our traditional Christmas feast.  And yes, it was amazing.  Great job, Dad!

Happy Holidays, everyone!  What did you do with your family?

The End of the Semester in Instagrams

Hello, all!  Creative post title, I know.  I apologize for my sudden disappearance the last couple of weeks, but I honestly can say I have never had a more challenging finals-season in my 3.5 years of undergraduate studies.  Seriously, this semester was brutal beyond belief.  It involved many 10-12 pages essays...

...as well as a lot of time spent huddled in odd corners of the library, fighting for the few plugs available and the critical sources for said papers.  I really was beginning to feel like a hermit.  Thankfully, when Thanksgiving rolled around, I was able to take a bit of a break.  My dad came to town, and together we did some exploring...

... and some cooking.

This past week was not only our official exam week, but also graduation.  So between frantically writing papers and attending grad-events for my friends, I just managed to squeeze in some DIY graduation gifting.

Now I am finally home for a 2.5 week break.  I am sleeping through the night, reading what I want, eating what I want, and overall feeling incredibly grateful for evening this short period of rest and for the fact that my family prefers to keep our holiday celebrations fairly low-key.

Speaking of which, I better finish wrapping presents.  I hope your last couple of weeks have been less stressful than mine!

Mid-Semester Slump

Half of last week was fall break, which means I got to go home and visit with my puppies and family.  It was absolutely beautiful at home which made it feel like summer all over again.  Which was fun for a few days, but now I have run into a problem: the unavoidable mid-semester slump.

Getting back to school even after those few days off, it's been difficult to focus.  I'll have a really productive day, generally sandwiched between a few really unproductive days.  I think the problem this year is that not only do I have school work, but I'm also slogging through test-prep for the LSAT in December, which is actually rapidly approaching. I can't wait until I'm actually being paid to work on the same thing for hours on end!

I did have a nice break this weekend, when some friends threw a pasta-bake.  Yep, that means we sat around eating amazing Italian food for three or so hours.  Seriously, this was a fantastic way to decompress.

Good luck with your Monday, folks.  Any tips on mid-semester motivation?

Spring Break 2013

I'm back in the city from spring break and have a few pictures I want to share with you guys.  If you follow me on Instagram at all, I apologize because you'll have seen all these before.  But over break I started playing around with my drawing tablet a bit (my wonderful Christmas present - thanks Dad!) and put together these fun little groupings.  Let me know what you think about the writing on the pictures, because I quite like it.  Actually I have a feeling that my tablet will start making quite the appearance here at Little Girl!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Neighborhood Favorite

Even as I'm writing this post, I cannot believe that I haven't posted about Mel's before!  I went last night with one of the directors of my academic program and a couple of friends, and it was only then that I realized that this is a post that needs to happen.

If you've never heard about it before, Mel's Drive-In is basically your classic diner.  It's a California-based restaurant chain, with locations in both the Northern and Southern regions of the state.  What I love about it is that it has great basic, classic diner food like breakfast until lunch, hamburgers, onion rings, etc.  I personally love Mel's for any meal; it's a favorite of mine for breakfast/brunch dates, a quick lunch, or dinner with friends.

As for food quality, it's pretty darn good.  The burgers aren't gourmet or anything, and I don't think I'll ever call it my favorite burger.  (For those of you from SoCal, you will probably understand when I say that Islands burgers have ruined me for all other burger joints!)  That being said, they're still delicious and you really can never go wrong with the Famous Melburger, which is what I got last night.  I wish I had snapped a quick picture for you guys, but I was so excited that I just dug right in!  They have good steak fries, decent onion rings, and you just really have to love their huge selection of items.  I have never had a bad experience with their wait-staff, who are all super friendly and helpful.

 

Oh, and their dessert's pretty good too!

Weekend Skies

Iook a quick trip to the de Young Museum this weekend to see The Girl With the Pearl Earring show. It was absolutely amazing, and if you live in San Francisco I highly recommend checking it out before it leaves!

Of course, the art wasn't the only beautiful thing that day.

Happy Monday, everyone.

Computers and Croissants

Hello friends!  I hope you are all having a good week, and not so many computer troubles as I am!  I took my laptop in to be looked at earlier this week due to a seemingly faulty battery and fan.  They kept it for a few days, ran a few tests, and I finally got it back.  Unfortunately, there now seem to be new issues or quirks that have appeared, and as so much of my school work and writing revolves around this computer, I can only hope nothing else happens to it.

Luckily enough, that same morning my dad and I decided to try Le Pain Quotidien for a quick breakfast.  It's a cute, rustic styled French bakery where they not only serve freshly made pastries and breads, but also full organic meals.  It reminded me a lot of the La Boulange chain of cafes in the Bay Area.  I ordered a hot breakfast tea (which came in that cute little bowl-cup) and a butter croissant, while my dad tried their oatmeal with bananas.  We're not "foodies" in anyway, shape or form, but we thought the food was great, and reasonably priced too!  My personal favorite was their five fruit jam.

Always nice to find a new gem in the same neighborhood I've been shopping in my entire life!

Chill in the Air

The days are getting colder, and I'm finding it harder and harder to focus on school work.  All I really want to be doing is knitting and working on other Christmas gifts!

Happy weekend, everyone.

Dew Tour San Francisco

After a cold and rainy Friday, today was an absolutely beautiful San Francisco Saturday.  But before I get into that, I want to talk about something that I don't particularly like to: feelings.

I've been feeling a little, well, off lately.  I'm having a hard time articulating what I'm feeling, but all I know is something's not quite the same with me.  Maybe I'm feeling a bit lame for not going abroad like all my friends this year, maybe I'm actually lonely without knowing it, maybe I'm just feeling a little pathetic that I never get around to doing as much as I would like to.  Whatever the reason, this morning was a hard one, even after talking with one of my best friends from Paris.  Luckily, my ever-patient mother was able to talk some sense into me after a long phone call.

She reminded me that while sitting around and moping is bad, getting out there and doing something is good.  It's always worked for me before, whether it was just going to the store for a quick errand or spending the day out and about.

So in this spirit, I headed to Civic Center Plaza to check out the 2012 Dew Tour.  For those of you who don't know what this is, well, the best way I can explain it is that it's a low-key extreme sports competition.  There's skateboarding, BMX, concerts, and lots of products and companies to check out.  I'd always managed to catch it on TV before, but decided to take the opportunity of actually being in the same city to go see it in person.  Unfortunately, I missed the skateboarding for the day (darn), but I got to catch the end of the BMX competition.

The free viewing definitely could have been set up better, but it was still pretty cool to get so close to the action.  And best of all, it cured my blues for the day.

For those of you living in or visiting San Fran, I would highly suggest checking the Dew Tour out.  Tomorrow's the last day!

Sheepish Yarn Bombing Day

Happy Saturday, everyone!  It's been a very yarn filled weekend so far.  Yesterday I took a trip to the yarn shop to start making a present, and today I went yarn bombing.  For those of you who have never heard of yarn bombing, it's essentially yarn graffiti.  Some people get really, really into it and create amazing pieces of art.  Don't believe me? Try Googling it!

Anyways, last week Meredith from the blog One Sheepish Girl declared today Sheepish Yarn Bombing Day.  As a fellow shy young woman, she's really been an inspiration for me and I have always enjoyed reading her blog, so I decided to get in on the action.  I yarn bombed the park up the street on their basketball court.  I have to admit, it was really exhilarating and I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be.  Quite a few people walked past me curiously, but only one little kid had the guts to come up and say, "Hey, that's a basketball hoop!"

Why, yes it is.  And now it's more colorful than ever.

Overall, I'd count this yarn bombing experiment as a success, and I cannot wait to do it again.  Maybe sometime soon I'll get up the guts to do it in a more public place, or in a bigger piece.  I can't wait to see what everyone else did.  Thanks for the challenge, Meredith!

Update: I'm happy to announce that Meredith posted a collection of all the yarn bombs from Saturday.  My pictures are featured, and I strongly suggest that you check it out!  Some people got very creative.

Getting Down to Business

Happy weekend everyone!  It's absolutely gorgeous here in the city, as it always is when I tend to have a lot of work due.  Seriously, I think the universe just likes to mess with me.  But we're already coming up on midterms in these next two weeks, which means I need to really buckle down and step up my productivity.

Which probably means I should stop writing blog posts just for the sake of avoiding my essays.  One step at a time, right?

Exploring

Here are a couple of pictures from a recent hike my brother Trevor and I took around the Upper Newport Bay.  Beautiful, isn't it?  It's always fun to explore, even if it's just in your own neighborhood.

No exploring today, though.  I'm off to run errands and get a haircut.  Oh, and hope to catch glimpses of the Olympics in between!

Olympic Friday

Tonight is the night that I have been waiting for since 2008: the start of the 2012 London Summer Olympics!  My mom and I are both huge fans, and we're super excited for the Games to finally start.  Will you be watching?

I also thought I would share a few pictures from last weekend with you all.  It was my mom's birthday on Saturday, so we took a trip to the Getty Villa in Malibu.  The sun never really came out, but even in the fog the museum is absolutely gorgeous!  If you like museums, this is definitely one of my new Southern California favorites.

Happy weekend, friends!

Seashells and Sunburns

Finally, finally we are starting to get some real summer weather here in SoCal!  Yesterday, the morning gloom broke to reveal a beautiful day that I spent at Balboa Beach with a friend.  We ate at the Ruby's on the pier, walked around enviously eyeing the beach houses, and played in the water.

Of course, the one downside to spending the whole day in the sun was that, despite our sunscreen, both of us managed to get wicked sunburns.  My nose in particular is bright red!  Oh well.  That's what face powder is for, right?

Happy summer, friends.

Happy 4th of July!

My Baby Girl

For the last couple of days, we've had two very unhappy sick puppies on our hands.  Apparently there's a doggie stomach bug going around out neighborhood.   I think they're finally starting to feel better now!

Wishing you health for the holiday tomorrow!

Adventures in Sunny SF

Sunbathers in Golden Gate Park

These last couple weeks have been absolute torture.  San Francisco has been hit by a run of seriously gorgeous weather, and yet all of us poor students have to toil away inside working on final exams and projects!  I stubbornly attempted to mix sun and studying yesterday, and was rewarded for my efforts with a sunburn!  Even when I'm doing work, I'm not very focused.  All I can think about right now is sun and baseball.

The view from the roof of SFMOMA

The end of this semester can not come soon enough!