FNL :(

Friday Night Lights was one of the best shows on TV, and now its all over.  I know it ended a few weeks ago, but I finally got around to watching the final episode.  I don't think you have to love football (like me) to enjoy this show.  It gives such an interesting look at high school football in Texas.  I'd like to know how accurate it is, but I like to think its pretty accurate since its based on a book that was a true story about a high school Texas football team.

I think it always got good reviews, but for some reason couldn't hold a steady audience.  Part of the problem was that the show wasn't on Friday originally (it eventually switched) but that might've been confusing for people trying to watch a show called Friday Night Lights on a Wednesday night.  Besides that, I'm not sure why people didn't follow the show.  I was very attached to all the characters and got really sad whenever an episode was over, I think that's a really good sign of great show.

I highly recommend this show to everyone, go out and rent it or hulu it or netflix it, you won't be disappointed.  On a side note, I'm starting to read the book Friday Night Lights, and really enjoying it so far (there will probably be a review at some point).

Reconnectin'

I just realized I missed another day...darn late night rehearsals (yes ending after 10pm is late)!

So yesterday I decided to reach out to a couple of people I haven't been in contact with in a very long time. One of them was easy enough because I'm friends with her on facebook, I'm just not sure if she remembers who I am (our Moms were best friends back in the day).  She writes an amazing food blog, that I've been following for a while so I thought it was time to actually email her and tell her how much I enjoy her blog.  Still waiting to hear back from her, but I'm sure I will.

The other person I wanted to try in get in touch with was an old friend from a music summer camp I went to 9 years ago, we were very close for the 4 weeks we spent there.  I didn't really have any other information on her except her name and that I knew she was a violin/piano player.  After not finding any info on her,  I realized that she probably got married and has a new last name.  Almost giving up, I finally found something with her old last name and what I guessed could've been her new last name.  Searching with her potential new last name I found out she has a blog and did a quick look around realizing it was her and decided to send her an email.  I knew this was all kinda a long shot, but within a few hours she had written back to me and we are currently trying to catch each other up on our lives over the past 9 years.

I think maybe this will be a new thing for me...trying to reconnect with people who I've lost touch with that were really important to me...I think this is a good way to fulfill one of my goals of being happier!

I am super cool

So this happened today on gchat:

the bf: c ya at hip hop

me: werd

(then he logged off and left work)

For some reason I looked at this multiple times and every time it made me laugh.  Not sure if its because it's pretty funny to watch me hip hop dance, or if its cause I'm trying to be cool just cause hip hop is mentioned. Ok, yes, I am taking a hip hop class.  It's at a gym so its only meant to give you a workout, which is great because that means no one is judging how ridiculous I look!

OK, I agree this post was pretty lame, but I didn't have much to draw from today.  It was this or me ranting about the white trash people on bart coming from the giant's game. I hate it so much when fans of teams I like represent themselves poorly, they don't deserve to be Giant's fans.  But that's all I got for today, maybe something better will come tomorrow!

Cafe Gabriela in Oakland is amazing

The title says it all.  It is my favorite coffee shop in downtown Oakland, actually, all of Oakland.  It's been open for just over a year and I've happily been a patron since the first week they opened.  I was always switching coffee places looking fora place I really liked until this place opened.  Now, if I need coffee it is very rare I'll go anywhere besides Cafe Gabriela.

Some of the things that make it so great:
The owner, Penny, is very personable and really makes an effort to reach out to all of us "regulars".
They serve Blue Bottle coffee.
They also serve kick-ass sandwiches (as their sign clearly says!).
It's small and local and less than a block from my work.

I'm not sure if its all just a great combination or if there are other things that really make this place so wonderful.  It has recently got much busier and I couldn't be happier, I hope this place is around for many years to come.  If you are ever in downtown Oakland and need a place to get coffee head to Cafe Gabriela (Broadway and 10th) and you won't be let down!

Book Review: Miss Garnet's Angel

So I missed yesterday...oops...oh well I guess I'll just carry on...

I love to read and I'd like to document some of that here, so on with my first review! (I feel like I'm setting it up like a grade school review)

How did I come into possession of this book?
This book was given to me by my mom.  It has always been one of her favorites and she happened to see it at a used book store, so she bought it for me!  She knows I love getting books and book recommendations from her (and really anyone else!).

What is it about?
The main character, Julia Garnet, is recently retired and then loses her best friend, who was everything to her since neither of them ever married.  Julia decides to do something she's never done and take an extended vacation to a different country, Italy.  There she meets all kinds of new friends.

What did I think?
I thought I would love this book.  Sadly, I didn't and I'm still not sure why.  I might've been the style of the writing that didn't capture my attention or it could've been that I never felt like I connected with any of the characters.  Most of the chapters were split up into two parts, one was the main story and the other was an old text that the main character was reading.  I had a very hard time following the old text and so I found myself skimming a lot, but it all proved to be important in the end and I think I missed some of the story.  I also wasn't a fan of the ending.

Who would I recommend it to?
I don't think I'd recommend it to anyone since I didn't particularly enjoy it.  But if you like books that take place in Italy (which I usually love), you might give it a try.  Since it is one of my mom's favorites I'm guessing there are others out there who will like it as well.

Buttercream!

OMG, we just made (well the bf and our friend) and ate (I helped with this part) so much buttercream.  It was delicious, but I think we might have gone a little overboard and will regret it tomorrow...

Three bowls of buttercream!!

Three types of butter cream were made.  The first was a chocolate with Contreau in it, so it had this amazing orangy flavor.  The second was a vanilla buttercream made from an Italian Meringue (I think, I wasn't really in the kitchen at this point).  And the third was the same recipe as the second but they used brown butter instead of regular butter.  A plain (but delicious) vanilla cake was also baked so we could put the different buttercreams on something!  This might be a good time to mention that our amazing friend who did all this with us went to pastry chef school, so there was lots of help for something we might never have attempted on our own!

The wonderful chefs!

I think the plain vanilla was my favorite, but I also enjoyed the different taste of the brown butter.  The chocolate one was very good as well, but didn't quite complement the cake we had baked (but of course we still ate it).  There were four of us there and e determined that if we finished all the buttercream in that sitting we each would've eaten 3/4 stick of butter, luckily we didn't and we have some of it stored in our fridge!

I think this was right before his sugar crash...

World Cup Fever!

Women's World Cup that is...

For those of you who continue to ignore women's soccer, you are missing out! First, you should read this.

Yes, those are on my wall...I am obsessed!

Team USA has made it to the finals for the first time since they won it all in 1999.  I remember that world cup very well since I attended some of the games.  I was lucky enough to see the USA play in a semi-final against Brazil and it was one of the most amazing live sporting events I had ever been to.  USA won that game en route to an epic final against China.  I remember having a family reunion the day of the final so we taped it (yes, on VHS) and didn't turn on the radio or look at any billboards the whole way back to my grandparent's house.  The first half hour of the game was cut off because of some car race (really, espn?) but luckily we picked up in the 30th minute.  The game went to penalty kicks and USA won 5-4.  It was a thrilling finish to a beautiful match that I enjoyed watching with my family!

Back to World Cup 2011, team USA has had quite a journey to the finals.  The quarter final match with Brazil was AMAZING!  Wambach's header in the 122 minute was perfect and at that point I knew the USA would win in penalty kicks.  Of course Hope Solo had a beautiful save on the third kick and that was enough to send USA to the semis.  The Semi-final game against France was a really great game to watch, both teams played really well.  With some great defending from the US and some quick breaks for our offense we were able to pull ahead (with a Wambach header, of course) and ensure the win with a goal from Morgan.

Now to Sunday where USA will face a great Japanese team.  It should be another great game and a great showcase for women's soccer.  Women's soccer has come a long way and it is a fun game to watch.  You don't get the individual skill like in the men's game but you do get great team play and even better sportsmanship.  I encourage everyone to watch the game and cheer for you home team.

We will be watching the game on a big screen in civic center plaza, outside of city hall in San Francisco. Please join us, if you are interested!  USA USA USA!

1% of My Day

I had a great 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Fouts, who told us that everyday we should spend at least 1% of our day reading.  On the first day of class she derived for us that 14.4 minutes is 1% of our day.  So everyday in her class we read for at least 14.4 minutes.  Since then I've always tried to keep that mentality, and I've tried to devote at least 1% of my day to reading.

Now I'm going to try and use another 1% of everyday to write, here, on my blog.  I'm also going to try to blog at about the same time everyday and avoid blogging from work (this will be really hard for me).  I think if I just come up with a topic for the day and write about that instead of trying to remember everything I've done lately that I want to share.  And only writing for 14.4 (ok I'm rounding up to 15) minutes should keep things short and sweet!

I was also inspired because my sister mentioned something similar on her blog.  She is a photographer, but also a great writer (much better than me) and recently decided she was going to write more on her blog, instead of just posting pictures.  And then there is always the bf's blog that I'm trying to keep up with...

This should be an interesting experiment!