Being a Grown-Up

Remember how as a kid, you think things like, "Wow, when I am a grown-up, I am going to use my money to buy toys and play with them all day.  I'm also going to eat ice cream whenever I want, and I'll be able to choose what I do and when I do it!"?

...then we grow up, and those things aren't necessarily true. Those sentiments turn to fiscal responsibility, health concerns, and general understanding of how a job really works.

Sometimes, though, I think we could learn a lesson from our former selves.  I realized it isn't entirely unacceptable to buy some toys for myself the other day. :)

First Stitches

It was certainly a summer of "First"s.  First triathlon, solo in a plane, road ride > 50 mi, season a MTB, trip to Hawaii...

...and my first time getting stitches.  This story is a bit long...

I was doing a Thursday Night Women's Ride with the Boulder MTB Alliance in Nederland at the West Magnolia Trails.  It's a shame I didn't have my camera with me, because the trails were beaaaaauuutiful!!!  Flowy and bits of challenging trail, I had a blast riding with the beginner group with Beth.  Near the end of the ride, we came across a clearing by a camping site and stopped to collect the group.  I was about second or third to last, so I unclipped out of my right side, and leaned.  You can probably guess what happened next: the bike leaned, I leaned with it...and next thing I know, I'm on the ground with my bike, and strangers are staring.  I was laughing pretty hard, but noticed some nasty road rash on my right knee.  I rinsed it out with what I had left in my water bladder, and we pedaled the remaining twenty minutes or so back to the parking lot.

Upon returning to the parking lot, some of the nice ride leads of BMA handed me some disinfecting wipes, and I was able to get my right knee cleaned up pretty well.  I hopped on my step ladder to get my bike on the top of my car, and I hear Beth gasp, "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR ANKLE?"  I look down at my left leg, and sure enough, a small, semi-congealed waterfall of blood was making its way down my ankle.  Gross.  I have no idea where this came from, but my guess is the chainring.  

Just my luck, my phone was out of battery, and Beth's was left at home.  We were also trying to meet up with Angie, and were running about an hour late...oh, I also had to pick up Ryan from an undecided location in Boulder.  I finally figured out that Ryan was staying at Sam's, so we went there, and the kind residents of the Mariposa House hooked me up with paper towels and more disinfecting products.  I love the Mariposa House and its residents, but their cleanliness standards may have not been the best for cleaning wounds.  Jeff Harvey put it best: "let me get this straight.  You have a deep wound, cleaned it out properly, and then thought it would be a good idea to put a paper towel FROM THE MARIPOSA HOUSE on it?!"  

The next half hour consisted of taking high-res photos of the wound with Sam's shiny new iPhone 4, sending them to my brother, and asking him his doctor-ly opinion.  Finally, around 10pm, Ryan and I got back to my parents' house, where he aided me in very thoroughly washing out the cut, and wrapping it up for the night.   The next morning, it looked no better....so I got myself to urgent care, where I was promptly reprimanded for not being in the previous night.  Oh yeah...the kind medic who cleaned out my cuts happened to be Kash, a high school classmate whom I haven't seen since graduation in 2005.  Small Boulder!

After the scolding, they stitched me up (while Ryan watched) and sent me home.  

...and there I was.  With the first five stitches ever in my life.  

Keiko's Visit

Spring Break was last week! It was much needed, and the weather was gorgeous and varied. Keiko came to visit Boulder for the first time in 13 years. Her dad was pursuing a grad degree in Civil Engineering at CU for two years, and during that time, we became great friends.



That was a long time ago. :)

She was here for a whole week, so we did our best to show her some hospitality and fun. We stayed at mom and dad's, where the food is always good and the beds are always comfortable.

First full day was Easter, so most businesses were closed. We decided to take advantage of the sun and explore Chautauqua.




We concluded the day with some delicious Tandoori Grill, per Keiko's request for Indian food.

Day two consisted of pottery painting at the Caffe with Emily! :D I finished a gift for a friend, Keiko made a teacup and some necklaces, and Emily painted a Fabergé-style egg.



The next morning, we joined Elsbeth at Lucile's for brunch--consistently voted the Best Breakfast in Boulder year after year, this place collects a wait of over an hour and a half during the weekend. Their style is French-creole, and everything is delicious. Beignets (french-style doughnuts) are a must...here is a picture of Keiko's HALF-ORDER breakfast, complete with Beignet, homemade biscuit with strawberry-rhubarb jam, and a partially-eaten egg dish.





After the meal, we met up with Ellery and Brita for a trip to Cherry Creek Mall. Not too much money was spent, but it was still an exhausting day!



We came home to this:



Mom did an excellent job of trying to bring a little bit of "home" to Colorado for Keiko. :) Plus, it was delicious.

The next day was a tour of campus. I took her around to my apartment and classrooms, and the places where I've worked. I also put her through some basic astronaut training; no biggie. ;)



Here I am, being a "good student."



We spent lunch in Gunbarrel visiting with her old neighbors, and since we were in the area, also stopped by Celestial Seasonings Tea to check out the tour of their factory.



Brita models their stylish hairnets.



One of Keiko's most important requests was to go snowshoeing at some point. I thought it was a great idea, so Ryan joined us on a mini-adventure to Brainard Lake, about an hour away from Boulder, up the canyon.



The snowshoe trail was snowy and peaceful. If only the sun had peeked out for a little bit, it would have been absolutely perfect.





Ryan was growing a mustache for "Mustache March"...

The next day was a trip down memory lane. We visited old stomping grounds, including the school and old apartment. We also had lunch with our piano teacher, Mrs. Hata. :) I took lessons with her for fourteen years, and she remembers Keiko during the two years they spent together!







We made sure to frequent Pearl Street, Mustard's Last Stand for a real American Hot Dog, and other such attractions.

On one of the final days, Graham joined us at Ryan's house for some Nintendo Wii. Graham is quite aggressive at even Wii Bowling, and Keiko downright kicked my butt at boxing!





Saturday was spent getting some last minute gifts for her family and friends. Meanwhile, Keiko also got an extra-special souvenir...pierced ears!



Her last full day here was a relaxed one. It had snowed again, so we went sledding in the neighborhood. Mom also taught her how to make earrings.



It was an excellent week, and I am really sad to see Keiko go. I'm really happy that our friendship has lasted for so long, and I can't wait to go to Yokohama to visit her and her family sometime!

Signs of a Nerd

You know you're a nerd when...



you make origami TIE-fighters and X-wings from Star Wars.

KBCO Vol 19

It's that time of year again! KBCO released their 19th Studio C CD. Last year resulted in snow, and this year, it was just really really cold!

My camera battery died as soon as we arrived at the venue, so I have no pictures documenting the event, sadly. It was me, Ryan, and Dan, and we were lucky enough to be 2nd in line (even though we didn't arrive until 10:30pm). Unfortunately, KBCO chose to sell their CDs at the 29th Street Outdoor Mall this year, and of course, the Christmas music was playing nonstop...literally. From 10:30pm until about 6am, the Christmas carols were on continuous loop. The only salvation was when KBCO's publicity tent came and turned it off so they could broadcast their own music at 6. It was ridiculous, and I think I had dreams about the songs...

Real Birthday

I decided to spend my real birthday with some close friends. Unfortunately, Suguna was unable to make the event.

As the ultimate indulgence, we drove ourselves to Sushi Den in Denver...quite possibly my favorite restaurant EVER. Pretty hip place, but it's pretty much a bargain for the quality of food you get. The guy gets fish sent in from Japan every morning, and I've never had better sushi (at least not in the US! :)).


YUM Bento Box!



Elsbeth and Brita are about to enjoy a delicious sampler of mochi ice cream...



Ryan and Nick can't wait to eat the banana tempura (quite possibly the most amazing dessert at Sushi Den).



Yay for free red bean ice cream on birthdays. :)

Afterwards, we came back to my apartment and listened to the Flaming Lips album, Zaireeka. The unique thing about this album is that it is on four separate CDs, each one containing a different bit of each track. You must have four CD systems available to play simultaneously in the room to play all of the songs in their entirety. We had a small speaker party in my apartment, and we enjoyed the surround sound weirdness of The Flaming Lips.

Fake Birthday

Suguna's birthday is two weeks before mine, so we decided to have a joint party at the midpoint. We spent all day cooking and cleaning, and boy, did we get stuff done!


Being the organized, food-allergic individual that I am, I labeled each dish with the proper information (vegan, vegetarian, spicy, etc...). It was fun. :) We made samosas, and many many different tea desserts.

Since we both turned 20, we thought it'd be cute to have a drinking party...a TEA drinking party. Har har. :) So, the tea treats were appropriate. We spent the entire evening brewing tea, and enjoying the company of friends.


The evening went quickly, and the Sega Genesis (circa 1993) was particularly popular with the boys.

SWE Retreat

I've been bad about updating...whoops!

Two weeks ago was the annual SWE (Society of Women Engineers) Retreat. It's mostly for freshmen to get to know each other outside of school, and for them to meet the older members, too.

We did a quick overnight camp out right outside of Rocky Mountain National Park.

These photos were all taken by Amanda; I didn't have my camera that night.





The evening consisted of s'mores and stories, and we planned a hike in the park the next morning. Unfortunately, we ran out of time (a lot of us had to be back in Boulder for appointments and homework), but we did have a great pancake breakfast cooked by Julia and one lone frying pan!

Ryan's 21st

Ryan turned 21 last weekend! He was the first out of any of us, and we kept it pretty mild. We went to Southern Sun, which is a local microbrewery...they also have great burgers, so all of us underage kids could enjoy the fun, too! I will have to credit these photos to Kramer, who took them on his iPhone.



Our server, and Ryan getting his ID checked for the very first time.



This little girl kept on doing puppet shows with her stuffed animals over Dan and Elsbeth's head.



She had a friend with her, too. :)



Ryan's blowing out the candles on his "birthday cake" -- the Southern Sun Sampler!



Real cake!

Harry Potter Mania

I know this post is really delayed, but since I got my new camera, I have neglected to upload pictures from my old one.

July was a very HP-heavy month, with both the movie release and final book release. Say what you will about Harry Potter not being good literature, but I started the first book after its release when I was 10, and there was a brief period when I was the same age as the characters when I was reading the books...so, I've pretty much grown up with them, and am quite attached to the whole series.

Midnight release of the movie! Of course, we wouldn't have it any other way. :) I believe that I have attended all of the HP movie releases in this fashion.



The theater!



Nick passed the time with his (then brand-new) iPhone.



Sam sports his "Harry and the Potters" T-shirt!

The book release was highly celebrated in Boulder. Every bookstore had its own release party, and Boulder Bookstore took the cake by FAR. They had owls visiting from some bird sanctuary, a costume contest, etc. Borders was geared towards younger kids (their activity was a spelling bee), and Barnes and Noble was pretty decent (they had a fortune teller and a wand-making station).



Other-Kristina was kind enough to make me a T-shirt since I had to work during their T-shirt making party. We are death eaters! Rar! (Kristina, Sam, Heather, me, and Phil).



We later met up with our friends who had made MUCH BETTER death eater costumes. Notice how "Lucius Malfoy" has a wand that doubles as a cane, just like in the book.



The anticipation is over!

Go, Geo!

The 12 year old Geo Prism (that has cycled through all three Wang siblings, by the way) has hit 100k!

I have chronicled the event in a poorly-made animated GIF (don't worry, Ryan took the pictures, not me...I was concentrating on driving!).

The 4th

The Fourth of July was a welcomed mid-week-weekend for me. Instead of going to class and work, I had a lot of fun in the outdoors!

The day started when I woke up at 5am to go on a hike with Ryan. We chose the Royal Arch trail in Chautauqua.



Early morning mountains with the moon.



Beautiful Boulder is just waking up.



It was a gorgeous trail, and at times, it was difficult to believe that I was in the same city that has so many brown lawns from drought.



Here is the summit and the namesake! The view from the top is phenomenal!



After the hike, Ryan and I came back and had an enormous breakfast. It consisted of whole-wheat blueberry waffles, peaches, raspberries, and applewood bacon. We were most definitely stuffed, and probably ate all of the calories that we had burned off in the morning hike.

Since it was still early (around 10 am), I made a blueberry pie to save for later:



At around one, we met up with a few others at the Boulder Reservoir to enjoy the sun. The place was pretty packed, but we still were able to splash around and have some fun. After two draining hours of running around there, we stopped for ice cream to help us cool off even more.

The day was finally capped with fireworks. We found a spot just north of the stadium (where the annual show is)...that way, we got to enjoy the show from up close, but without the crazy amounts of people or the obnoxious music. I brought my pie, and we watched the fireworks with a pie picnic!



The grand finale consisted of so many glittering explosions, that the pictures all looked like giant fuzzballs!