Filed under: news, random | Tags: decision 2008, election 2008, happy, news, obama, politics, president
I just had to take time out from writing my stupid five-page essay and say I’m happy that Obama won. That’s all. 
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: clothes, fashion, style, things we love | Tags: black friday, clothing, dress, fashion, flip flops, fuzzy slippers, holidays, jeans, orange, petite, scarves, season, shoes, shopping, skechers, style, sweaters, winter, wishlist
So Halloween has come and gone, and Turkey Day’s on the way. Do you know what that means? BLACK FRIDAY!!! It’s one of my favorite holidays of the season. 
Black Friday is something I definitely get into the spirit of. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can participate this year (see preceding post about being broke), but it’s always fun to window shop and look at all the stuff I can’t afford even if it’s marked down, all the way down to the underworld!
In anticipation of this glorious day, I have compiled a list of things I want and adore but can only admire from afar. (It’s like unrequited love, isn’t it?) I’m making part of this up as I go along, so I wonder how long this’ll get. Gee, I have a lot of time on my hands! But it’s a Sunday and we just gained an hour to Daylight Saving, so why not? Here I go!
- Scarves. Knit ones in dark red, forest green; silky ones in turquoise and an obnoxious shade of orange.
- A dark wash, straight-leg pair of Joe’s Jeans. They have a line of denim made especially for petite people called Provocateur. I’d love to splurge on one, but I can wait. I think I’ll get one at Ebay or snoop around at some consignment shops in the nicer neighborhoods of San Francisco. I actually saw a pair of Joe’s Jeans at Crossroads this afternoon, but I didn’t grab it because it wasn’t from the Provocateur line. Darn, so close! Also, I specically want a dark wash, straight leg jean because they’re the more flattering than lighter washes, skinny or flared jeans.
- Shoes. Lots of ‘em! Especially sneakers by Skechers and cute ankle boots.
- Fuzzy slippers. To wear at home so I don’t have to get my socks dirty all the time. And so my feet won’t have to come in contact with the cold, wooden floors in my apartment.
- Havaianas. Hmm, a pair of flip flops aren’t exactly appropriate for the winter season, but they’re always nice to have! I love the design on this one:
- A beanie or a slouchy beret. A slouchy beret would be nice because since it’s loose, it won’t be too tight on my huge head. Plus, when I’m wearing one, the fog and rain probably won’t be able to get to my hair and make it frizzy after I’ve spent so much time trying to get it to look decent. This one from Urban Outfitters is cute!
- Cable-knit sweater. This one from Abercrombie is nice.
- Betsey Johnson bobby pins. These aren’t necessary, but they’re so cute I couldn’t *not* put them on this list!
- Orange BCBG Max Azria Dress. I love the cut and color of this. My favorite color may be orange, but I find that a lot of clothes in orange are in hideous shades of orange.
I’m going to stop here. There are so many things I’d like to add, but this is good enough for me… for now, anyway.
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: clothes, fashion, style | Tags: dumb, economy, financial aid, guilt, idiocy, jobs, poor, rambling, recession, rent, retail therapy, shopping, stupid, style, wardrobe makeover
So just over an hour ago, I did something kind of stupid. I went to Macys and purchased a jacket. It cost me about about $41 including taxes. I feel bad. But to justify for my moment of weakness, it’s a really nice jacket. And it actually fits me off the rack, unlike the vast majority of clothes out there. I’d show attach a picture to prove it, but for some reason there isn’t a picture of it online at Macy’s site, and I’m really too lazy to take a picture. I don’t really think $40 is too much, but I’m already financially strapped. I live on financial aid. It sucks. I know, most college students do. But I was also depending on my older sister to help me out with rent and whatnot. Well, she got laid off recently. Recession hurts.
So what am I doing shopping when I probably won’t be able to pay my own rent in a few months?
I’m torn, as ridiculous as it sounds, between looking good and maintaining a stocked fridge and a roof over my head as long as I plan to go to school in SF. I’ve started to take pride in my appearance and looking polished and sophisticated and just plain put together (not that I didn’t care about how I dressed or looked before, just not as much as I do now), and I’ve begun to develop my own style. I want things that are well made, that suit my proportions and flatter and compliment me. Unfortunately, several of the pieces currently in my wardrobe seem very juvenile and clash with my style now. Some of the most important staples, such as jeans and jackets, are ill-fitting as well. It’s really too bad that my good, or at least better, taste has just hit me now because now I really haven’t any money to throw around on getting quality pieces that fit right.
And I don’t want to settle for less just because I don’t have disposable cash. I’m not going to go to Forever 21 and pick up something that’s sort of my taste, something I kind of like but don’t love, and just buy it anyway because that’s what I can afford. No! Because if I do that, I won’t like wearing the piece, not to mention it’s bad quality, so it’d just be a waste of money in the end. I’m trying to live by the concept of “quality over quantity.” So it looks like I’m stuck with these clothes until I can actually afford to do something about them.
*sighs* I need a job, stat! I’ve been looking for a long time, but I haven’t been very successful. No one really wants to hire anyone who’s young or inexperienced, and then there’s that factor of the economy being down. Recently I thought I had a shot at a restaurant in the airport, but apparently they don’t hire people who don’t speak or understand Chinese seeing as how it’s a Chinese restaurant and all the workers there speak in the kitchen and yaddayaddaya. I’m disappointed because they sort of strung me along until they finally told me I wasn’t qualified because I couldn’t speak Chinese (even though they said on the listing that knowing Chinese wasn’t required… psh).
Filed under: random | Tags: Halloween, holidays, HP, laptop, Minnie Mouse, school, technical issues, vista
I am SO happy. I got my laptop back with Vista running perfectly! The HP tech support sent a new installation CD, and as it turns out, the one I had before was faulty and causing all the problems. JOY! I get my baby back. You know what this means?! Regular blogging! Well, hopefully! I’ve been a little preoccupied with writing papers and drawing stuff for school. :/ Anyway, this is the cherry on top of my Halloween.
And speaking of Halloween, I sure got into the spirit of it this year. I dressed up as Minnie Mouse, a borrowed costume from a friend. It’s my first *real* costume. At 18. Yep. Hehe.
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: random, San Francisco, thoughts | Tags: baking, blood, cold weather, cookies, day, degrees, hiking, hot weather, oatmeal raisin, San Francisco, shower, sweat, sweaty, winter
It’s finally Friday and I just got back from class! Woohoo! You know what this means? Free time to do whatever! I’m planning on baking oatmeal raisin cookies, something I’ve delayed for a couple weeks now (one week we’re out of butter, the next we’re out of oatmeal, then we’re out of time…), so I’m happy because I enjoy beating the living daylights out of eggs, smooshing all the ingredients together, whacking wandering hands away from the bowl of cookie dough (I can’t have the essence of all my roommates in the cookie dough… that would be weird enough with all the sweat, blood, and love I already put into it), and throwing the dough on a baking pan into a hot oven. Ah. Yes. This is what I’ve waited for all week.
But first, I’ve got to take a quick shower to wash away all that sweat I’ve collected while trekking from the BART station to home. Yikes–it’s actually a lot more like hiking on concrete in city clothes… and I know hiking, ’cause I do it often (in fact, I’m going tomorrow!). The odd thing is, it’s not even that warm out. It’s merely 77 degrees, and that’s just no excuse for sweating out. In San Jose, a measly 77 degrees would never be enough to break a sweat, even while walking around a lot. Hmm, it’s just something about this city I guess. It’s hard to go a day without sweating. It’s massively irritating. I’m actually looking forward to the colder weather now just because I’m tired of being all hot and sweaty when I get to class or arrive home. Old Man Winter, bring it on!
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: random, San Francisco, things we hate | Tags: blisters, callous, calluses, feet, flip flops, foot scrub, gel soles, pedicure, plastic, San Francisco, shoes, sore
Of course, no one likes calluses or blisters… especially on the feet! I never had a problem with them before-I used to think of them one of those things only other people got, and I always mentally cringed a little when I saw my sister’s feet, which are quite hardened at the heels.
Having traipsed about all over San Francisco for about a few months now, I now understand her ordeal. I’ve developed a few calluses at certain pressure points on my feet. There’s one near my left pinkie toe that feels like a knob sometimes. Ugh! It feels odd when I apply cream to my feet because instead of massaging soft feet, I get to come in contact with hardened skin cells. Mmm, sexy!
I suppose this is all do to the increased walking I do every day in the city. Back at my home city, the public transportation is pretty inefficient, so everyone drives or rides a car. My feet have certainly suffered since leaving my home city. My footwear isn’t exactly improving matters either. I have my trusty Sketchers that don’t cause any problems, but if they don’t really “go” with what I’m wearing, I’ll put on plastic orange flip flops (which I adore… they’re like my signature flip flops). Yes, I know, I’m just ASKING for calluses whenever I wear them out, but there really isn’t much else to choose from other than two pairs of black boots (which aren’t practical when it’s warm out), a pair of dressy silver flats, some heels (there is NO WAY I’m going to willingly walk around in them unless I absolutely have to), and a couple pairs of really uncomfortable flats.
The last time I wore something other than sketchers or my plastic orange flip flops, I ended up walking home totally barefoot with raw blisters on the back of my heels and the devil pair of flats from Ross that caused them in one hand. Old ladies pointed out to me that I had no shoes on (really?). A guy who was reading a book on his front steps asked me, “Don’t you know the ground is dirty?” (Thanks for the news flash!) I lifted up my flats and responded, “They’re really uncomfortable.” “I don’t know if I’d sacrifice my feet for that…” “YOU WOULD!” Shortly afterward, I decided I would just stick to my sketchers or my plastic orange flip flops until I could invest in some really, really, REALLY good quality shoes.
Heh, that’s not going to be for quite a long while… I’m EXTREMELY picky when it comes to shoes. Until then, I’ll try using Dr. Scholl’s gel soles and some heel liners and scrubbing the living daylights out of my feet with a pumice stone.
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: clothes, fashion, random, rants, style, things we hate | Tags: coat, cold, freeze, pea coat, petite, rant, shopping, short, size, winter
The other day, I went shopping in search of the perfect pea coat; actually, I’ve been on the lookout for a great pea coat for a while now, but I have always walked out of stores empty-handed every trip.
There just isn’t anything that fits me right. Everything is either too big, some parts of the coat are off or fit weird, the sleeves are too wide and long, the armpit areas are too low (not unlike how the crotch of pants can be too low if they don’t fit right), or the overall length of the coat is too long. Even the petite sizes are all wrong, mainly because they’re made for older petite people who are kind of differently sized from young petite people such as myself. I just end up looking like I’m playing dress up in everything I try on. It’s unbelievably maddening. I’m only 5’2″ and average weight, about 110 lbs! It shouldn’t be this hard to find a damn coat!
It doesn’t help that I’m picky and hate many of the styles of coats that are flooding the market these days, so that leaves a very narrow selection of what I will even consider trying on. I just want a simple, normal pea coat like the “Classic Peacoat” by J Crew (picture below on the left), but they seem to only have these online, and I don’t like purchasing such items over the internet. On Friday, I was close to getting the “New York Pea Coat” by Kenneth Cole (below, right; looks much better in real life) since it seem to suit my proportions, but they ran out of size 0 in the charcoal color I wanted. Snickerdoodles! It was on sale, too.
(jcrew.com, kennethcole.com)
But it’s hard to find classic peacoats like the ones pictured above. Most of the things I see in store is ridiculous crap like so:
(nordstrom.com)
Well, that’s actually a jacket, but they do have coat versions of this cape style, all of which may look okay on “normal” sized people but are actually overwhelming on a petite frame–it’s just too much fabric and volume (and the design is stupid because it doesn’t even cover the entire length of the arms, which kind of defeats the purpose of wearing a coat)! I don’t care if that’s what’s in style now; this is one trend I am NOT jumping aboard on (then again, I’m not a trend follower). I despise swing coats and other coats with lack of real structure, which seem to be abundant in stores now as well. Trenches are also horrible because they make me look like I’m drowning.
I suppose if I found something I really, really favored, I could get it tailored, but tailoring is only for small problems, and many of the coats I’ve encountered have so many issues, it’s not even worth spending the extra time and money to take to the tailor.
The search continues…
I’ve been doing all right in the past winters without a coat or jacket, but that’s because in San Jose, it doesn’t really get all that cold in winter. In San Francisco, it’s a lot less sunny and warm, and the relentless wind doesn’t help. *sighs* I guess I will just have to freeze this winter.
-Ms. Mouse
Filed under: cooking | Tags: beans, beef, broke college student, cheap, chicken, cooking, cooking on a budget, eggs, food, fruits, hot chili sauce, hot dogs, inexpensive, ingredients, kitchen, kitchen essentials, meat, pantry, pasta, ramen noodles, soy sauce, spam, suggestions, tips, tofu, vegetables, veggies, versatile
These are, in my opinion, the most versatile and relatively inexpensive items that people on a budget should always have in stock.
Dry ingredients/Spices/Condiments/Seasonings/Flavorings/etc.
- Salt, pepper, and sugar – The basics.
- Zesty lemon chicken seasoning – Not just for chicken.
- Butter – Can take the place of oil in many cases.
- Olive oil
- Soy sauce – For marinading, cooking, and seasoning… pretty much everything.
- Hot Chili Sauce – I like the one by Sriracha.
- All-purpose flour
- Steak sauce - Even if you don’t eat steak, it’s good for marinading and cooking in general.
- Garlic powder
- Chicken bouillion
Dry/Canned/Preserved/etc.
- Pasta – Fusilli, Rigatoni, and Linguine or Angel Hair are my favorite shapes.
- Ramen noodles – I like the ones that come in the styrofoam cups if I’m in a hurry. The ones that come in packages are easy to dress up into something more wholesome.
- Canned beans - Great source of protein and really stretches a dish… use in chili (which is very easy to make)
- Rice – I can’t live without it; it really makes food go far. My roommate and I alternate on who gets the carry the 25 lb. sack of rice from the grocery store, on the bus, and all the way home whenever we run out; somewhat of a hassle if you don’t have access to a car, but it’s well worth it! They also come in smaller, easier to carry packages. Get REAL rice, NOT Uncle Ben’s Ready Rice–that’s just such a disgrace to the rice family. Also, don’t get sticky or sweet rice. (I prefer Thai jasmine or Korean rice.)
- Pasta sauce - Get a really good, flavorful one.
- Bread and/or Bagels – Refrigerate them. Bread is really versatile: it’s great for making toast (mmm… cinnamon and French toast) and can be paired with an egg or toast, and it’s an essential sandwich material. You can put jam or peanut butter & jelly on it as well. Bagels are also good toasted and are AMAZING with Nutella (you can’t beat a chocolate hazelnut spread on a warm, airy, perfectly-textured piece of bagel… it’s what I live for). Plain cream cheese also works.
- Canned tuna and/or Canned sardines – Sardines really aren’t as bad as they sound! Get the ones drowning in tomato sauce from Asian grocery stores/markets.
- Canned whole/sliced tomatos or tomato sauce – Your preference.
- Chicken noodle soup – For your lazy days.
Frozen
- Mixed veggies (peas, green beans, corn, carrots) – Good to use in fried rice or stir-fried dishes. Never buy frozen broccoli–it gets too soggy and fragile no matter how you cook it, which is never a good thing.
- Shrimp or prawns – Well, they’re kind of expensive, but they’re quick and easy to prepare. They’re great in pasta, ramen noodles, or stir-fried dishes.
- Broccoli – Good for stir-fried dishes or alongside pasta.
- Bok choy or choy sum (similar to bok choy only a bit sweeter/milder in flavor) – Good for stir-frying or mixed with ramen noodles.
- Cucumbers - Can be cooked or consumed raw.
- Zucchini
- Spinach or baby spinach (milder in flavor)
- Celery
- Fruits – Bananas, apples, oranges, pears, grapes, make for excellent snackage.
- Baby carrots
- Garlic
- Onions – Good for stir-frying.
- Bell peppers - Good for stir-frying and they have a nice, sweet flavor when they’re well-cooked.
Meat
- Eggs – Not really a meat, but I didn’t know what to categorize this as. Can be fried, hard-boiled, soft-boiled, scrambled, or poached (I love poached eggs with raw yolks in a bowl of ramen noodle soup!). Also good to coat chicken as a glue before rolling the chicken around in flour or bread crumbs.
- Chicken breast fillets and/or chicken wings – They both cook quickly and evenly due to their sizes.
- Beef
- Hot dogs – Chicken franks are good. I don’t eat them on hot dog buns; instead, I like them with rice with a bit of soy sauce and hot chili sauce. Mmm…
Random Stuff/Things I couldn’t really categorize above so I invented a new category for
- Jam and/or Cream Cheese and/or PB&J and/or Nutella – Refer to “Bread and/or Bagels” above.
- Tofu – Great for stir-frying or soups! Also, extraordinarily inexpensive.
- Spam – I don’t personally like this so much, but I know a lot of people do.
- Ms. Mouse
Filed under: cooking | Tags: asian condiments, asian culture, asian people, asian staples, cooking, fish sauce, food
Growing up in an Asian household, I was used to fish sauce in my food all the time, and I had the notion that everyone had fish sauce tucked away somewhere in their pantry. So, one day, when I added a few splashes of it into a sizzling sauce pan of beef, I didn’t anticipate the negative reactions from a couple of my roommates (a Caucasian from the midwest and a German) who happened to be in our tiny kitchen at the time.
“Oh my gosh, what IS that stench?” demanded one, clearly revolted. It was then that I remembered that cooking fish sauce magnifies the smell about a thousand-fold.
“It smells like something died!” said the other.
“I think I have to leave now.”
“Sorry!” I grinned. “It’s just fish sauce.”
“No you’re not!”
I laughed. He was right. I wasn’t sorry; I was extremely amused (not that I take delight in driving people away with condiments or anything). This golden elixir… disgusting? Nah! I don’t think fish sauce smells bad at all–I even think it smells good at times (as does my other roommate who is Asian)–but then again, my nose is accustomed to it. I guess fish sauce is just one of those things that you have to learn to like.
I personally love the stuff (though maybe not as much as soy sauce… but that’s another post, another day) as it’s so versatile. Despite what its unpleasant fragrance suggests, fish sauce imparts a unique, salty flavor that may take the place of salt and can transform a dish. (No wonder it’s a staple in several Asian cultures.) It can be used for both cooking and dipping, and goes great with pretty much anything–beef, pork, chicken, and (surprise!) fish. My favorite way to eat fish sauce? With chicken and rice (I like Thai jasmine rice). Just broil a few chicken wings (I like wings because their size allows them to cook quickly and evenly) in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until golden brown, and in a small bowl, mix together:
- 1-2 tablespoons of fish sauce
- Fresh lime juice (to dilute the fish sauce… never down fish sauce straight!); half a lime should do it.
*I usually just stop here if I’m too lazy to grab anything else, but if I want to go beyond the super basic dipping sauce, I’ll throw in:
- Some red pepper chili flakes
- 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
- Basil, fresh and shredded
…and that’s all there is to it! Simple and delicious. I eat this dish quite often.
Anyone else a fan of fish sauce?
- Ms. Mouse
