A recap of what were possibly the best four days of 2014 (or maybe of my life)

Disclaimer that this will probably be interesting to no one except me. I just wanted to have a record of a serious life high.

Drove to San Rafael for Puerto Rican food with Matt and Brandon
Took 280, because California is beautiful
Got coconut water at Trouble Coffee
Got the perfect vintage Boy Scout shirt at General Store, ending a decade long search
Went to the beach
Napped on the beach
Smelled like sunscreen
Walked into the Pacific
Collected sand dollars along the shore. Wished they'd convert into real dollars.
Ate excellent tacos and drank a first-rate horchata at a Mexican dive right by my house. Who knew? Not me.

Went to the new Palo Alto Pizzeria Delfina with Ben
Laughed at the kid-proof booth material
Died a little over the meatballs
Definitely overdid it with the sundae, but #noregrets
Bizarrely ran into Marc and Dana as we were seated next to their group. They were (MAYBE) a little drunk, which was a little funny, and nice.
Drove to the mall because we are suburban teenagers forever
Vowed not to buy anything at Urban Outfitters when Ben dragged me there (bad quality! expensive! my better judgement protested)
Decided to get matching beanies
100% bought into their scheme of having amazing things to look at and buy near the register. I needed everything.
Miraculously walked out with only the beanie
Drove back to campus, aimlessly
Drove to the lit up Rodin garden
Took silly snapchats with the art
Laid on a concrete table and talked while lamenting the lack of stars





Discovered California Bookstore Day on Twitter
Drove to Kepler's Books to celebrate
Fell a little in love with Kepler's
Spent too much money on books and art, but if you're going to spend money, it might as well be on books and art (and food)
Had a sudden fierce love and appreciation for Northern California (this is rare)
Went to Costco for gas (I'm bragging because I had some adult-ass foresight to do this. I usually wait until my car yells at me and I pull into the nearest station in a panic)
Ate lunch by myself at another Mexican dive. Eating alone in America feels profoundly different than eating alone in Europe.
Drove down El Camino the whole way home, just to see what's there
Stopped at the pop-up Pace Gallery in Menlo Park
Discovered new dimensions to Calder
Pondered a Rauschenberg
Missed studying art history with a burning intensity
Wished I was rich enough to buy the Rauschenberg (it's for sale for the low, low price of 3 million)
Loved that the gallery had kind and enthusiastic guards
Lounged at home
Picked up Ben
Took a bus to SF to see the ballet (for free! thanks, ITALIC)
Was blown away by the costumes and the dancers (and their butts)
Went backstage
Went ON stage
Went home

Decided to try a new (to me) market in the spirit of adventure and the best few days in recent memory
Bought a week's worth of groceries for $25
Mind was blown
Mind was also a little suspicious about how everything was so cheap
Lounged at home
Felt very attractive (no, seriously)
Decided finish my book on the porch at Philz (let's be real, it was an excuse to see and be seen)
Was eventually joined by The Usual Suspects (Matt, Connie, Brandon)
Made flirty (?) eye contact with the handsome man seated in front of me
Noticed his wedding band
Continued to notice his flitting eye contact
... did not look away
Made progress on the book (but didn't finish)
Scandalized my friends with a choice bit of info
Went home; finished the book
Had an extreme bout of Adult, wherein I:

• Listened to 3 episodes of This American Life while
• chopping celery and carrots so I can snack on that instead of chips
• washed ALL of my dishes
• prepared some tofu
• made kale salads for the week
• cleaned out my fridge
• roasted broccoli

I suppose, above all, I felt a deep sense of contentment and independence.

And now, the anvil falls.

Great things from this weekend

1) Sleeping in. My body actually let me sleep until past 8:30 which was unexpected and spectacularly wonderful. Also much needed after the craziness of Admit Weekend.

2) Getting Philz coffee. This is really superficial but I always feel a little badass when I order coffee black. I'm hoping that any hipster aesthetic pretension is mitigated by the fact that I usually order it while wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and sneakers. My 15-year old fashion obsessed self would be horrified that I haven't yet spent my paycheck on MiH jeans and PS1 bag (she knows we're still too young for a Sofia Coppola LV bag, though that's the ultimate dream).

3) Hanging out with Ben! That kid is way too busy, but that means it's even more special/fun when we do get to hang out. Sometimes I wonder if it's weird that one of my residents from last year ended up being one of my best friends, but I try not to overthink it (unlike everything else in my life). Ben is great. He's one of the only people I feel like I could tell anything to and he'd still support and love me.

4) Meeting Ben's Kairos friends. Not that much to explain here, but they were all very nice and welcoming and fun to hang out with.

5) Getting a beer in the sun with Matt and Brandon.

6) Watching Matt hold an extremely expensive bottle of champagne I bought (as a gift) like a baby. And 100% seriously stating that if it fell he would lick it off the sidewalk. So would I, Matt. So would I.

7) Eating Pizza My Heart and running into Alborz downtown. Palo Alto mainly sucks, but running into people is always pretty fun.

You are not a $100 bill

Not everyone's going to like you.




Like most of life's wisdom, I first learned this from Meg Cabot. Holy hell, is it true.The older I get, the less of a shit I give about what other people think of me. It's actually really, really nice. Four stars, highly recommend.

The best present a friend can give you

Is blind hate of someone you hate.

This is most often applied to exes.

Exes are the worst; you are sooo much better without them, trust me. Don't even worry about it, they look horrible in their new profile picture.

That classic Facebook angst tho...

Let's pretend that your friend who you really love a lot but don't talk to that much anymore, because life and time zones, posts something on Facebook and it's meant to be kind of funny but you decide to try to be even funnier and post a super obscure inside joke that they probably don't even remember and then you feel like a weird loser because no one else remembers so maybe it seems like you care too much but you can't edit it because that would look so much worse and so then it's just this random weird hanging comment and there's nothing you can do about it except care and wow you are overthinking this. Has that ever happened to you?


Yeah, me neither.

Note to Self: I am no longer in college

Things Not To Do On A First Date

You:

1. Ask me how much my rent is
2. Tell me how much money you're saving by living with your parents
3. Be visibly strung out
4. Abruptly announce on a coffee date that you think we should "call it," but then immediately ask me out to dinner for the same night
5. Add me on Snapchat
6. Repeatedly talk about our "second date" and then never contact me again
7. Assume that all I can talk about is art because I work in the arts
7a. Tell me that you think all art is pointless except for the time you "got super high in Amsterdam and went to go see the Van Gogh museum and all the colors swirled around and shit."
8. Quiz me about a museum exhibition when I obviously (accidentally) lied about having seen it
9. Pitch me your startup
10. Act super weird when college comes up and you find out I went to Stanford


Me:

1. Lie about going to exhibits I haven't seen
2. Say "God, no." when the waiter asks if we want a second round
3. Spitefully announce that I never learned how to ride a bike when my date tells me he owns 6 bikes and that 2 only go downhill (ed note: Physics, I know, downhill-only bikes remain a mystery for the ages)
4. Bring up my parents
5. Seem way too into Katy Perry when I like exactly two of her songs
6. Call my date "dude" a lot
7. Be really obvious about my disdain for startups while out with a startup founder
7a. Make it worse by backtracking ("Oh no, but yours sounds really different and important. This is the kind of good more startups should be doing!")
8. Say, "I don't know, normal stuff," when asked what I like to do on the weekends / what my hobbies are
9. Talk about the time I hallucinated that I was in an Ashlee Simpson music video (it was 2004, what can I say...)
10. Check the weather on my phone in order to make conversation