Sore Bottom et al.

Whaa. I went to a spinning class today at the gym. I thought I was a goner and I almost was when we er, dismounted, after 45 mintues and my legs buckled and I almost keeled over. That would have been embarrassing.

Reason why I felt compelled to torture myself with spinning. These are the glorious brownie waffles at Cafe 101 at the Best Western Hollywood Hills. I really love this picture. It looks like the heavens are smiling down on the waffles or that my camera captured the flash from Crystal's camera.

Oh my goodness. This was a Nut N' Honey Shake aka Heaven in a glass. It was a peanut butter, vanilla ice cream and honey milk shake. Seriously one of the best shakes I've ever had.

I was really hungry so I ordered a hamburger, turkey burger, macaroni and cheese and

turkey club and salmon curry sandwich. Yum!

Also played some Monopoly with the roommates in celebration of the three day weekend and The Year of the (Golden) Pig.

Monday we attempted to eat dim sum at Empress Pavillion but we got there too late. Chinatownland is whack.

But that meant we could go to Kang Kang Food Court in Alhambra aka home of the most delicious Taiwanese dumplings ever!!! This is a really bad picture of reheated dumplings but still delicious.
And dessert is always a must.

Text sent to Anne yesterday:

Would you mind getting me one of those nyc condoms from the subway? Oh and happy valentines day

Text received from Anne:

I have chocolate penis in pocket and am standing in snow waiting 4 subway. Will look 4 condom. Happy v day to you.

Text sent to Anne:

Good thing its cold, your chocolate penis will stay hard

For some reason, when I read Anne's text, it sounded very much in the voice of Bridget Jones. Agree?

A Valentine's Day Tail (meow)

This is Perry, my beloved, most favorite, most bestest cat in the whole wide world. How Perry came to be a part of my family is the quintessential Valentine's Day Tale.

Once upon a time (maybe 1997) when I was a sophomore or junior in high school, I finally convinced my parents to let me get a cat. I had a Spanish teacher, Ms. Canellos, who was a crazy cat lady. She recently rescued a feral kitten and said she would give it to me. It was around Valentine's Day so I decided I would name my new kitten Cupid. The day I was supposed to get Cupid was the happiest day of my life. The minute I saw Ms. Canellos, I knew something terrible had happened. She said that the kitten had run away as she was trying to get her in the carrier. I was shocked. I had bought kitty litter and toys the day before and now I was kittenless. I moped around school for the rest of the day and I told my friends I couldn't bear going to the Valentine's Day dance because I was just too sad.

I went home and told my mom what happened and she was nice enough to say that we could go to the SPCA the next day. If you've never adopted a stray before, walking around the kennels is really depressing because you wish you could just take them all home. Anyway, I remember thinking that none of the cats really stood out to me (they didn't have any kittens at the time). There was a long-haired white cat named Cookie that I considered getting and a really sad, twenty something year-old cat, that had been at the shelter for years which I almost got because I wanted it to live out the rest of its years not in a cage but then I walked by Perry and I asked to see him. I went in and Perry started purring and rubbing against my leg and I thought "Oh, well, this is a nice cat. I like him!" Looking back, it's actually really funny that Perry reacted that way to me because he never ever rubs up against anybody now. So we took Perry home and we all lived happily ever after. The end.

It's been ten years since we adopted Perry and he's now fourteen. I'm quite certain he still has a lot of good years left in him and many more catnaps to take.


I asked my roommates what they love and this is how they responded:

WES: I love the Internet!
CRYSTAL: I love fruits!
and me: I love kitty cats!

Hipster Parents?

Probably my two least favorite groups in society: hipsters and parents. Apparently now, they are one and the same. Instead of feeling reassured by this Time article that suggests that becoming a parent doesn't turn you into a subordinate drone, I was a bit weirded out by this new concept of Parent. I'm not sure I want parents to call their kids "little f**kers" nor do I want to see punk rock, emo babies. I understand the idea that parents want to retain their identity but isn't a big part of parenting being completely unselfish and devoting yourself to the care of another? That's exactly how I know I'm not ready to be one, at least not anytime soon. I'm too self-involved and not ready to give myself over completely to someone who needs my absolute and total attention. I'm sure there's some middle ground somewhere but please, you're not Brangelina.

In Love with Doctor Love

Last night we went to the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA Talent Show. I know. Sounds like an oxymoron right? But, goddamn, those med students are a bunch of talented, overachieving, sons of bitches!!! It was called: the price is right "vagus style". According to Eric, "vagus" has something to do with the nervous system. Maybe. Eric was a little faded and I'm a little slow.


Eric (not the one in the tie) scratching on his turntables. Yeah! That's my friend's friend!!!




Yes, one day he will be known as Dr. Love (seriously, that's his name). HAHA. He lipsynched to Shania Twain's "From This Moment" and because it's a duet, he wore this half man/half woman outfit like Two Face from the Batman comic. He won the funny bone award. Who knew med students were so funny?

So this guy "Gunner" wore his white doctor coat (and nothing else) while playing the violin and rapping to his own version of Chingy's "Right Thur" but he was saying something that sounded like "don't ker". I think. But whatever, I was really enjoying the outfit.

Other highlights included a skit called "the lion dean" which is about Dean Parker. Instead of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" it was "Can You Feel the Pulse Tonight?" and instead of "Hakuna Matata" it was "Lacuna Matata". Hilarious. (mmm, I had to look up that last one but fyi "lacuna" is a small cavity, pit, or discontinuity in an anatomical structure).


AND there was a juggling battle or is it juggle battling? Eh. It was entertaining nonetheless. And hottie "USC" juggle boy was also one half of a set of dancing conjoined twins. And there was this a cappella group that sang "Mad World" and "Kiss the Girl".



All's I know is, if my library program tried to put on a talent show, it wouldn't be half as awesome as this was.

I wore overalls today. I'm 25 and I wore overalls. To school. I did receive two compliments though. Compliments from middle-aged ladies. One happens to be a total nut case.

In other news, I finished knitting my hat!!!


I am so proud of myself. I never finish anything. And it only took me a week.


I saw this on Sunday in WeHo. Doesn't skywriting totally scream early nineties? I think it said something like "Olivia ... thinks you are cute". I think there should definitely be more skywriting and blimps. They seem to go hand in hand.

It ain't over

The high in L.A. today was 85 degrees vs. a high of 18 degrees in New York. Hmmm. I'm definitely going to miss wearing shorts in February. The warm weather is making me anxious for spring. Spring means longer days, warmer weather, and counting down to commencement.

COLON CLEANSE UPDATE:
A mighty war is being waged in my colon and I want it to stop. I actually gave up eating yesterday because I couldn't bear the thought of going to the bathroom yet again. I'm up to a record of six, um, evacuations. At least I'm getting what I paid for.

Ugly Nina

I'd like a Henry too please.

Club Pooing

2007 has been about a lot of things and we're only one month into the year. That's how great 2007 is. Right now, my new obsession is cleaning my colon. I've been doing really well with my new healthy eating habits and whenever I cheat (weekends), I feel gross. Last weekend when I indulged in nachos and bockwurst, I remembered the Master Cleanser. I looked into it some more and realized I would be an idiot to subsist solely on lemon water for ten days. So I found this colon cleansing tea and am drinking it as we speak. It tastes like peppermint. Let's hope it doesn't ruin my Sunday.


I started knitting awhile ago and in typical Nina fashion, I have yet to finish either one of my projects. I did, however, start knitting this hat on Tuesday and it looks like I'll be finished with it very soon.

Nice huh?

TOE UPDATE:
I got my stitches removed on Wednesday. Unpleasantly and unexpectedly. I completely forgot about the stitches and thought I was only going to have my bandage changed. It hurt. A lot. But at least now I can shower regularly and I'm in charge of cleaning and changing my bandage. My toe was disgusting. I forgot to take a picture but I guess it's for the best. The bottom of my toe had this huge white blistery thing and the toenail area was super raw. Yech. Only eight more months to go before I have a new, fully formed big toenail.

Thursday I went to go see Dogeaters with Wes. His older sister, Liz, plays Rio. I read the book by Jessica Hagedorn back when I actually enjoyed reading for class. It was intense.

Wednesday I went to Temple Bar to watch Ill Again. This was my first time seeing Andrew on stage and boy oh boy is he fun to watch! Now I get what Crystal (and Cit, and Venise) have been talking about. And I really enjoyed Blue's trumpet, spinning, and fun sounding noise maker thing. At one point, one of their songs segued into Guns n' Roses' Sweet Child of Mine and they played their own version of Tupac's California Love complete with funny voice making machine. Buy their CD and support L.A. Hip-Hop!