This is museum overload.

First the Bower's, Getty Villa, Huntington, and now the Getty :)
The air was chilly and the coldness nipped at our faces.
But the sky was clear and the exhibits were cozy
and smelled of that nice antique scent.

after reading The Lady and the Unicorn,
I developed a new appreciation for tapestries.
Or "carpet paintings" like Jon calls them.

awaiting the tram(but we got the bus instead..)

ah. it's so beautiful

through a screen

rolling down the hill!

she wandered into Versailles

what a nice Sandy Claws Day and 7th! :)

what a curious life

I have found in this place

there is music that sounds from the street

how strange it is to be anything at all
from the aeroplane over the sea

but for now
we are young
so let us lay in the sun

and count every beautiful thing we see.

Maybe if you let someone take your picture for once, they wouldn't all come out like this:

<3

"to please your ghost, I have forgiven a sinner and winked at a homely girl"

whenever sickness has befallen me,

my mom always hands me a cup of
mysterious herbal black liquid.
Never questioning what it is,
I just always hold my nose and gulp down a cup of death.
I wake up this morning,
no sore throat. no sinus. no headache. no chills.
I'm cured!
My mom and I went exploring at a new bakery
and a Korean supermarket last night.
The cashier boy was bewildered with confusion
about pass out staring at the pear I wanted to purchase
struggling to remember the code :-(
I didn't mean to cause such distress.

The regret of not bringing a camera is haunting.
I could have captured the teamwork of us hard at work:
You shoveling dirt/clay/earth worms.
Us granulating dirt clumps and transferring native Californian
plants into snug holes in the earth.
Me watering and indicating the end results
with a neon orange flag.

then the creative attempts to use a towel as a tent
to shield us from the chilly ocean breezes.

but there this.

I might not always know how to show it,
but at the end of the day,
I am happy to have
a personal astrologist who
names constellations,
tells me to look when the moon is prettiest,
informs me it's moving further away each day,
and points out Venus on the left & Jupiter on the right.

happy birthday leah!
I'm dedicating this picture(no color editation!) to you.

even though the sun sets at the end of the day,
its still gonna rise in a mile! ;)

even though this is 25 minutes too late, and its the 13th already..
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I keep finding more pictures from the Huntington.

succulent blackberries and alien-istic flora

wouldn't it be fun to live here!

I came home from school,
and my house got painted a shade of yellow!

and
bitter tarte crab-apples
do posess a certain sweetness to them :)

i'd rather you call me salt.
strays don't sleep.
but they do dream.

Chinese opera has been ringing in my head all day.

I even practiced a song I learned a while back.
But it made my throat hurt
and the screeching-ness gave my mom a headache.

never posted before pictures from 2006

dreary diana

roadtrip to the northern mountains

alley way with a nice geometric pattern

catholic cathedral in the middle of Beijing!?

finish.finish.finished.

there seems to be an excessive influx of wild animals these days.

there's an owl who lives on my roof now.

Which means I can use this handy Backyard Birds guide:

he must be the reason for my converted nocturnal-ism

"goodbye! farewell!"
"yeah, i'll be back in 3 weeks"
-haha,imakillu!- :)

List of Most Important Things I've witnessed in life cont. :

7) (thanks to tonight)

I walk to my car.
On a tree one foot away from my car,
a giant fur creature is clutching the tree trunk.
I gasp.
It turns its head and looks at me straight in the eyes.
I gasp again.
The raccoon struggles to climb
by dragging itself up the palm tree.
It sits up there awkwardly.
I call my mom over and point to the monstrous sized rodent.
" is that a monkey? she asks.

at this rate, by next week,
I'll probably have seen
a Meadow Jumping Mouse, an Iberian Lynx, and hopefully a Pygmy Tarsier.
One day, I'm going to stumble upon and discover a new organism.
just you watch.

and my fossil/artifact collection grew last night!
Along with the arthropod(trilobite?) and leaf fossil,
a porcelain dish, an rusty oil lighter, 2 iron locks, a lice comb
[all found at an abandoned village bordering Mongolia,
that my great great grandfather apparently founded]
2 dinosaur teeth, and a giant mammoth tusk
(sadly, left in my grandma's closet because it was too big and illegal to bring back)
now I have a beautiful rock embedded with different aquatic shells!
And four old calligraphic manuscripts that all smell ancient ,but in the good way.

(taken 3 years ago)

I just got really excited about this all.
I'm going to create my own museum in my room.
make a brochure and do some carbon dating.
whee!
(I'd take pictures of the rest, but I misplaced the camera charger)

we got more than just
the Diet of Worms,
Savonarola the Dominican Monk,
and the Hohenzollern dynasty in Prussia,
when we signed up for that ordinary history class.

"hey, we should go on an exotic fruit adventure!"
and look where it got us.
VI : )

I wake up,
peek out the window,
and spot a skunk
wobbling around these bushes.

other than eating lucky charms(with a new hourglass marshmallow),
drinking tea out of a new mug
with an assortment of cookies,
and writing the essay.
it was the most exciting
thing that happened today.

now I can add that to my
List of Most Important Things I've witnessed in life:
1)a fox
2) an old woman with an authentic real binded foot(now deceased)
3) an overweight nurse who tripped on the IV tube which
yanked blood out of my poor arm veins(like a river of death!)
4)a dead bird that fell an inch from my scooter 9 years ago,
stopping Ellen and I from swinging on the swings, as we stared in fear
5) invisible ink with a handy ultra violet decoder
6) and thanks to today: SKUNK.

there must be more.
I just can't think of anymore happenings at the moment.

okay..i'm off to memorize Romanesque and Gothic portals and vaults
and their architectural terms
I probably can't really pronounce.

ps: Jack HUman :)

it was because Figgie had too many ceramical defects
and was a potential threat for lead poisoning
and was too Christmasy for all year-long usage.
so he couldn't be bought and filled with drinkable liquids.

and for the first time in 9 years(not really even exaggerating),
Ellen didn't spill any food on herself!

I dreampt of an unusually warm and cozy slumber.
when consciousness hit in the morning,
the dream lingered into reality !

I realized without her, I don't eat breakfast
or wake up on time(6:55 is kind of late, even for me).
Now I know what it's like to wash piling dishes, every day.
I procrastinate even on that and now there's a sink-ful waiting.

I'm too tired to make dinner,

I'll just eat a banana.

this odd delirious happiness is back again;
even though it'll be hours before I can hit the hay.

windows of opportunity are everywhere.

we just miss them sometimes because
we're busy looking for doors.

no one except you:
1) eats bagels & cream cheese with rainbow sprinkles,
2)eats strawberry nesquik powder on toast,
3)devours your amount of:candy corn, Dunkaroos, and See's lollipops.
4)has a fridge stocked with soda(in their room)
5) opens their mouth automatically alot(for some unclear reason:instinct? hunger?boredom?-?)
6)will most likely eat anything colorful and radioactive-looking if offered.
- - -
sugar=bad; but maybe this all explains why you're so sweet.




-->drilling, whizzing, saliva splashing, sharp tools;
have fun at the dentist on wednesday ;)

Sweeter yet shall blow its breezes on the day that sets us free!
I seem to say this a lot, but it feels most relevant right now.

The breezes are hot,smokey, and stuffy from the fire.
and I feel ridiculously free(in the good way).

After going on a giant grocery trip by myself this morning,
I sat down to get some serious writing progress done.
A soft violin melody floated into my ears from a neighbor's house
and I experienced some déjà vu:
memories of practicing my violin of that
exact same song in Mrs. Krosene's music class in 4th grade!

I hoped the violinist's mother is strict and forces him/her to practice for hours
because I enjoyed the live music to accompany my writing.

trespassing & climbing a wire fence successfully!

8th time's a charm, right?
creaking dark half-constructed buildings,
flapping plastic wrap in warm night breezes;
a perfect night to wander a lost city with the state senate.
--
I am thinking it's a sign

like puzzle pieces from the clay
when this is guiding you home
they will see us waving from great heights
"come down now," they'll say

but we'll stay.

through a looking glass:

life, what is it but a dream?

just like in The Happening

(but not, since nothing Happened)
(except for the fact that it did happen)

ghostly creepy
with the camera obsurca

keys to the ear

"and left the flushed print in a poppy there"

I miss the hazy sunshine radiating
summer onto our skin.

"if I were a vampire, would you still like me?"

:
creepy little girls who jump off
buildings and eat people and drink their blood.
I hope no one ever has to encounter this tragedy.

whatever the day calls for.

for a Chinese assignment, we have to come up with 10 questions
to interview 2 college students.
So here's some of the responses I got that left me in giggles.

q: what are some pros and cons of having a room mate?
Diana: pros: not lonely, nice to have company, an obligation to clean. Cons: snoring
Jon:pros:nice to have a friend. Cons: steals my food(hot pockets and beer)

q: Are you currently interning?
Diana: yes, at a mental hospital for criminals
Jon: no

q: is the cafeteria food good?
Diana: yes. They have good healthy choices
Jon: yes, awesomest food ever

q: what do you do in your free time?
Diana: go shopping, eat.
Jon: take diana shopping. Do stuff in my club(Super Mileage Vehicle Team)

q: what are some differences between high school and college?
diana: no one cares if you go to class, more independence.
Jon: don't need permission to go to the bathroom.

i should really be translating and typing this into Chinese.
(which will take me about 19 hours
to do because I can't type very fast in foreign languages)