Too many times

Rainy morning, rainy day~  And with rain often comes some gloomy ponder time.

Sometimes I think it's too easy for me to break things, to cut things and end things.  There is a bridge crossing the chasm of emptiness between some memories and now.  Made of tattered bars of wood hastily tied together with sturdy rope, it creaks and groans as it fights to stay steady against the blowing wind.  I stand at one end, looking towards the other side.  So easy.  To just end it.  Simply a few strong swipes with a Swiss army knife, a round of well-aimed shots from a pistol-- the bridge would give way and slowly drift downwards, fading away to leave a gaping emptiness between the other side and where I stand.  

Since when did I become so cold?  After hearing the bridge rebound against the cliff with a thwack, I would turn around and walk away to find my own happiness.

I hate depending on other people; this is probably from a few letdowns from the past.  I hate the up-and-downs that comes; I would rather just have a minute up instead of the roller coaster ride of laughter and disappointment.  

I hate when people say things when they don't mean it.  If the meaning is not there, why waste those words?  Why give others a shard of hope to hold onto, to wait for you, to believe in you, to depend on you when you have long forgotten the very syllables you uttered?  It makes me pull my belongings closer and tighter.  I can't believe in words.  They're worthless.

I hate trying to decipher whose words mean what.  What can I believe in?  Spontaneous smiles and unstoppable laughter, twinkling eyes and subtle winks, playful shoves and secret handshakes.  But for those, I have to hold on, to know, to accept that not everyone is as frugal with words as I think they are.  I should stop remembering what people have promised me and drop the hopes of things others have told me to keep.  But it's just so hard to do.

It's tiring, sometimes.  Keeping my word.  Because I don't want to let people down; I don't want people to think that everyone is just hand-waving with their mouths.  Scraps of papers that are scrawled with reminders for me to do things that I said, even if it's as simple as agreeing out of courtesy to bake something after someone says, "You should make that for me!"...  they're all there... sometimes gathering dust, but eventually, I'll blow those dust bunnies away and set out to fulfill my words.

Because it's only a little thing, and that all these little things bound together become something big enough to push against my chest, weigh down upon my shoulders, and squeeze me from the inside, I need to try letting it go.  

Rewind.  There is a bridge crossing the chasm of emptiness between some memories and now.  Made of tattered bars of wood hastily tied together with sturdy rope, it creaks and groans as it fights to stay steady against the blowing wind.  I stand at one end, looking towards the other side.  I spot a fraying section in the thick rope near the edge and kneel down to mend it.  A clumsy knot formed by my fumbling small hands, two tight pulls to seal it, and an exhalation.  Facing the other side, I feel uneasy and unsure.  I place my foot on the first piece of wood and take a deep breath before willing myself to slowly make my way back across.

Life is full of compromise, they say.  And I will compromise.

... and hope that the next time I am standing on my land by the bridge, I won't unravel the rope without a second thought.

Winter break: CL kiddos reunited + Girls' Day 2012

Ahhh!!  I'm so behind in posting D:  But it's okay... because that just means less ramblings for you to read and more pictures to scroll through!  Huzzah!  ;)  Maybe I should just take less pictures so I won't freak out when I have 2938298 posts to write up..  Hmm, so smart~

I'm so glad my high school friends still make a huge effort to get together to do fun things during breaks when most of us are back in Houston ^_^  And we also try *new* and *fun* things, like rock climbing and archery!!  (Both of which I didn't get to do this break =_='' haha~)

But to start off, after I managed to get my butt off the couch from two weeks of living as a couch hobo (read my previous tonsillectomy post if you actually think I am a hobo D':!!), I saw them for the first time at Masa Sushi!  This place is amazing for lunch; I ordered a bento that came with soup and salad for $9.  O_O

Caterpillar roll.  Squid eyes, SO CUTE!!  (not really if you think about it @_@)

Caterpillar:  "AHH... I have squid suckers for my freaking eyes!"

:D  Annnd the mustache face~

Whee!  Ting and Tracy~

House salad

and House soup (chicken broth with mushrooms)

Also, the generous portions of sashimi here come with a small price tag too!

Hehe, cute plates too~

HOLY MACKEREL SALMON!!  Look at the size of that thing!

And vegetables??

I'm in heaven *heart*

See those sushi pieces in the corner and that huge mound of rice?  I finished everything but half the rice and the sushi so that made a nice part of another meal later :)  I don't know what type of wrappers they use on their rangoon and egg rolls, but the skin was so thin, light, and crispy-- soooo good!  Very delish~  And the salmon filet was extra large O_O  It wasn't cooked to perfect juiciness, but it was grilled, and it was big.  Thus, it was Grib.  Er... I mean, yummy.

Masa Sushi

977 Nasa Pkwy
Clearlake, TX 77058

Jeff was in Florida, so we met up later at BJ's to catch up!  I haven't been there since 11th grade :)  And it was fun to crack jokes with Jeff while we swapped plates every 5 minutes.   Haha, so we ended up ordering two different pasta dishes:  He ordered the one that I've had before, and I ordered the one he had before.  Then we commenced swapping every once in a while so we could have a taste of both worlds!  Personally, I like my chicken pasta (like a grown up mac n' cheese) better than the Cajun pasta (although it was fettuccine ), but that's just my preference..  Cheese... makes life better :')

Guess who?

Well, HMMM.. I DUNNO.

Chicken pasta

Cajun pasta

And this is where Texan chivalry really knocks me off my feet.  Jeff offered to pay for my dinner :O  *gasp*  haha, yeah, yeah I know, isn't that what guys are *supposed* to do?  But, we both know we're definitely not dating one another and he still offers to pay!  What?  Why did I go to school in Saint Louis =_=  Haha~  Go Aggies, thumbs up for you guys ^^b  I declined and slapped my card on the table before standing up to shout in triumph (not really, haha!), but really nice of him to ask :)

BJ's Restaurant and Brewhouse

515 W Bay Area Blvd
Webster, TX 77598

And what better to finish off than with FROYO???!  *excessive enthusiasm*

... maybe I should just start bouncing off the walls now... ._.

I've never had Pinkberry before, but I read about the company maybe four years back.  Super excited, since they give you a set amount of froyo!  how cool!  although it can also be viewed as "how retarded!"  Since you can't choose how much flavors you want.  But anyways, let's begin!

Guess which one's mine? :D

You're wrong.  You guessed it was the one on the right, the one overflowing with chocolate, crispy, crunchy yummithings, right??  Noooo, I got pomegranate seeds with a wafer cookie.  Where else can you top your froyo with pomegranates?  Oh!  Also, I mixed tart with chocolate hazelnut.  Best flavors in the world.  Also, I am now 100% in love with pomegranates.  Except I am also 100% too lazy to go and peel and pick out the seeds of the fruit myself.  So logically, 100% - 100% = 0% motivation to do anything except sit on my butt.  YAY! :D:D:D:D  

We took 23982 hours to decide what flavors to get, and Jeff paid for dessert :'O   I actually said I would buy dessert...  but thanks Jeff!  Okay, I must sound like a total dimwit.  Paying for food is not the only chivalrous thing, silly readers!  Jeff made a huge effort to open doors for me.  Like... I was totally in front of him, and he said, "Nope!" and ran towards the door to open it for me.  ... And everyone thinks it's weird when I tell them guys in Texas are expected to open doors for gals, haha~

Haha, I don't know what we were trying to do here.  I think I said, "eat your froyo!"

So yummy :3

Except... MINE IS SO MUCH BETTAH, HAHAHAHAHAHA!!

.. too many Caps in this post @_@''

Pinkberry

19325 Gulf Fwy

Webster, TX 77598

AND THENNNN..

And then...

I went to a Chinese restaurant~  to buy a loaf of bread, bread, bread!

And if you thought I really did go to a Chinese restaurant to buy a loaf of bread, you must be insane.  Why... would you ask for bread at a Chinese restaurant XD  I hope I'm not abusing my readers in this post too much! ;)

Matt and I had lunch at a THAI restaurant!  Called "Thai Seafood Restaurant"  SO CREATIVE.

I think this was probably the first time I've had a meal with only Matt.  So interesting!  We talked about school and life, and ya know, the stuff people talk about over Thai food ;)  Really nice to get to know a little more about what's going on in his life.  It gives a different aspect of people, right?  ^^  For example, I didn't know Matt was a super pro SSBM player.  He went off to New Jersey to play in a national championship.  :O  Anyways, I thought lunch with Matt was really fun :D

Soup that came with the entree.  Very delish, it was a mix between congee and chicken soup ^^

Thai iced tea!  With a layer of luscious cream, sweet!

Satay tofu-- I think I was just eating the sauce for this one :P  I liked it though!

Spring roll and salad with very flavorful, spicy dressing

Scallop curry with heart-shaped rice :D  So cute~  This was so spicy!

Spicy, good.  Spicy and me starting to sweat and causing the waiters to refill my water glass every 2 minutes, not good!  Haha, embarrassing~~

This was Matt's order of pad thai.  Too many bean sprouts in my opinion D:

Thai Seafood

17926 Hwy 3
Ste 107
Webster, TX 77598

Matt paid for lunch because he had this gift card (O_O thanks Matt!), and we headed off to a new-ish shop in Clear Lake.  It's called Rita's Ice, and they sell Italian ice as well as FROZEN CUSTARDDD!!! Omgahh, one of my favorite things in STL finally comes to Houston!  

Except.

It didn't taste like STL's frozen custard :(  It was way too airy, way too fluffy, and way too sweet.  Phooey~  I was really looking forwards to getting some custard after the tonsillectomy.  Well, guess that makes me more thankful for going to WashU for school!  Okay, must go to Mr. Wizard's before I graduate and get a huge frozen custard XD

Oh, we saw Emily, Jack, and Joyce at Rita's too!  Surprisingly, the place was kind of full ._.  Poor Houstonians, don't know what real custard tastes like.. brings tears to my eyes!!  *puts in eye drops*  But Emily said the ice was pretty good~

Standing in line

Huge kiddie size!

Rita's Ice Custard Happiness

1849B El Dorado Blvd
Ste A
Houston, TX 77062

~*~

What's this? 

A salad?

Fish curry?

Chicken Masala and Palak Paneer?  We must be at an Indian restaurant.

Yay!  It was James' first time with Indian food, glad he liked it!

We tried 3 different types of bread:  naan, rotti (theirs was a whole wheat naan), and buttered naan.  All were delicious, fluffy, and soft.  Oh my!  So much better than the crispy, semi-burnt renditions at school. :P

Cuisine of India

1212 Nasa Pkwy
Houston, TX 77058

~*~

And what would winter break be without our annual winter break's Girls' Day?  :D  Yep!  Let's go!

What's Tracy nomming on? :O

Ooooooh...?

We've hunted down the Waffle Bus! :D

And we're very happy :P

Why?  Because it's pretty much the first Houston food truck we've stopped at to sample!  And to start off the morning with some breakfast (lunch for some of the late sleepers), what better than waffles?  ... with stuff sandwiched in between? :D

For Belgian waffle lovers who crave the deep pockets and cavernous crevices where the sweet notes of maple syrup lazily slumber, forget that.  These aren't as fluffy and no where as thick, but they do a good job with a slight added sweetness.  Also, I don't think they use a standard waffle mix... it seemed heartier ("gritty" as some would say).  Perhaps cornmeal?  Anyways, fresh off the griddle in the chilly air with wind whipping the hair around our faces, I'd say steaming hot waffles of any type are pretty darn good :)

Tracy opted for the regular waffle (comes with 4 pieces) and maple syrup

I never had Chicken and Waffles, so that's what I ordered!

Irene picked the lox and cream cheese

So cool how you can split right down the middle :3

We swapped half for half to taste both.  Mmm!

The chicken and waffles had two options; I chose the chili honey, and it was a great choice!  Crispy chicken with a slight kick, and sticky sweetness to round it out :)  Perfect!  And this was also the first time for me to try lox, smoked salmon.  Wow, super flavorful~  I was expecting it to taste like sashimi, but it was already salted.  Mmm, delicious~  I might be biased towards lox and waffles rather than lox and bagels though ;)

Waffle sliders, so cute!

Nancy with her cute little sliders

Ting with a chicken n' waffles

Chilling by the bus for our food

Yay!

The Waffle Bus

wafflebus.com

It was too cold, so we ate in Ting's car :D

Then we went to the mall for some walking around, chatting, and then dinner at Korean Noodle House in K-town~  Never knew Korean town existed :O

Rwarr!

Inside was super cute :)

Dukbokki was reaaaaally spicy-- we were dying because it was too good to not eat XD

Thick seafood pajeon

One of the house soup noodles

And Nancy ordered the seafood noodles!

I ordered the tripe and tofu stew, but they gave me intestine instead D:  It was okay, not a fan!

We were laughing and talking the whole time, and we were soooo loud compared to the other diners :P I bet we made a huge ruckus!  But we only get to do this once a year, so why not? ;)  And plus, it makes the atmosphere a bit more lively~

Korean Noodle House

1415 Murray Bay St
Houston, TX 77080

Afterwards, we swung by Ting's place to pick up something.  Really cool, because I've never seen Rice's dorms aside from a blurry memory from 10 years ago or so.  She and Irene warned us that it was going to be TINY, and when we opened the door, I realized that the room was actually bigger than my sophomore year's dorm room :P  Hahaha~

Ting-a-ling!~

Great time with the girls :)  A girls' day never fails to lift my spirits!~ ^_^