a corner of biscuits and warm tea

Another warm day again (90 degrees Fahrenheit)! Bern and I waited around sunset to do our outdoor stroll. Going out after 6pm felt very niiiice because the temperature dropped ten degrees, with a little bit of a light breeze. I think anywhere around 75 degrees to 80 degrees Fahrenheit is my ideal range for summer. I'm a wuss when it comes to extreme heat-- I wouldn't be doing much of anything. It was a golden hour during our stroll-- there were a lot of walkers, friendly dogs and cyclists, especially on a weeknight!

After that, Bern and I picked up our pizza from a local place-- which means it was movie night for us. We ordered a Grandma-style pizza. As usual, it was scrumptious! Because our group of friends raved over Godzilla Minus One, we ended up watching it. Godzilla Minus One is indeed a well-made movie, our friends were right! I'm so used to the cartoony/ campy mascot versions of the monster; this film was a good reminder that Godzilla from this universe is completely cruel. Objectively terrifying. I know this is typical of non-Hollywood media in general, but I appreciate when character-friends of a protagonist does not question their experiences of "unusual" sightings-- they tend to believe the protagonist, even if one of them was just skeptical for just a second..so, it's refreshing to see! It's been awhile since I watched a good blockbuster movie, the pacing reminds me of Jaws. I highly recommend if you're into monster films with some decent drama between the characters.

Also, here are some drawings I did from the past weeks:

Bern and I did a little stroll through a farmers market. It was just a way to get us active in the morning and we happen to stumble on a day when it was the more-eventful type of farmers market-- there were some bootleg Beatles performers. Dogs & people of all ages vibing to an outdoor market with mild weather. Keep in mind, I don't get out very often, and it has been months since we were last at the farmers market. So, a little stroll of culture felt very vibrant to me.


Found a pretty nice outdoor seating place, I looked at their menus, and their foods looks normal & not ridiculously priced. Bern and I are suckers for outdoors-option food places. As usual, I like shopping for plants.

I spotted some collections of Fleischer cartoons. We did a bit of "window shopping" and I thought this Calico Critters display is super cute. 


Since this is the last month for our cherry season, we bought 1.15 lbs. Compared to last year, they've gotten a bit pricey! In the region that I'm in, I believe we're getting cherry shortages this year. I ended up making mini cherry pies. Probably will be the last time and the only time for cherry pies this year. They're delicious as fruits, just not the most convenient.

My parents are about 380 miles away, which means they're just one little phone call away. Seems like my mom is doing okay...she's still trying to convince Bern and I to move back to our hometown, which is probably not going to happen for awhile, whether or not Bern and I want to make it happen. My sister just got off the phone with her from a separate call, according to Connie, our mom has been feeling a bit lonely. She also tried convincing my sister to move back in (objectively, she probably needs to move back temporarily because her rent has been kind of costly). My sister is superstitious and she thinks there's a ghost in her old bedroom. These were my mom's exact words to her, "She's not here anymore, you can come back now".  I'm not much of a believer, but I think my mom should just hang talismans around, just so my sister feels better about returning home.

I'm sure my brother and my sister-law took our mom out to brunch, I feel like they're good about this kind of stuff.

In the past, I've made complaints about Tiktok being very addicting and unproductive. Sometimes,  along with Twitter, I would doomscroll on my depressive days...and it's because these issues are more of a personal thing and not so much because of the apps I use. However, Tiktok is the only social media app that I find useful when it comes to food recipes, musical artists, art clips, local businesses, public resources, housing advices, and current events that are not from the Global North perspectives. The idea behind the ban is pretty concerning. It's also an app that I find the most entertaining too...I'm also going to miss some of the mindless content, things that are similar to Ratatouille musical or Appalachian Shakespheare-- it would be impossible to do these type of interactive trends over Instagram reels. There are many creators who rely on the TikTok algorithm to boost their personal businesses, and having an app banned can strip them away financially. The reasoning behind the ban isn't surprising and it makes me feel disgusted thinking about it. If it actually happens, I will be very upset for all of my favorite content creators. Just in case, I'll have to make sure I follow all of my favorite creators' socials.

Anyway, so far this week for a belated Songkran celebration, I've been having stir-fry glass noodles (cha mee suor), lemongrass chicken breasts, & grilled corn with coconut milk (not pictured). We had one warm day this week and I ended up having strawberry mango smoothie mixed with coconut juice...it was quite refreshing.

This week has been a mixture of rain, sunny, warm and cold. Since April just started, I'm thinking of switching out my Valentine decors for a bunch of rabbit stuff... I don't know, I love my Valentine-related displays. Bern and I didn't do a whole lot for our Easter Weekend or April's Fool Day. Neither of us grew up religious (all of our childhood stuff were just cultural), and we're both way too emotionally exhausted to pull creative pranks towards our friends. Since we can't be around a lot of unmasked people, we did end up having a quiet outing after an hour of errands. We did some window shopping, people-watching, strolling & getting lunch from a windows-only food joint. There were so many thrift stores around-- we didn't do any actual shopping, it's just nice seeing them around. Sometimes we just like having a change of scenery.


I liked that they had a sticker machine in front of a second-hand shop. I normally don't see a whole lot of anime-related stuff on this street. The artwork (picture on the right) touches my heart. Unfortunately, I don't think very many people are health-conscious at the moment as they were in the year 2020

I just finished Shall We Dance (1996) this past week. It's a pretty light-hearted comedic film about a salary man who was trapped in a monotonous rut until he encounters a beautiful woman (ballroom dance teacher) at a window of a building as he was heading home in a train, he sees her by the window pretty often. One day, he skipped his path to a train station and ended up visiting the building by signing himself to the dance courses. After a few dance classes, he asked her out to dinner-- she rejected him by telling him that she prefers not to go out with her students (big yikes, because he's a married man with a teenage daughter). She takes dancing seriously and reminded him that the dance studio is to not be treated like a "disco". This has been a common occurrences for her and these are the type of students don't stick around dancing for too long, because they were more interested in her than the dance lessons. The MC continued to show up to the dance courses because he wanted to prove to the dance instructor that he's not that type of person.....Good thing is, he actually later then realized that he fell in love with ballroom dancing and even became friends with his classmates! One of his classmates happens to be his co-worker and they both agreed to keep their hobby a secret from their work life, the main character also kept his hobby a secret from his family. I don't think the director did enough to show the consequences or the reparations between the main character and his spouse ..it is almost as if they romanticized the main character's intent to commit adultery?

Otherwise, it was a decent film to watch! They did a charming job showcasing a shy, nearly mid-aged man picking up a new hobby, not being particularly great at it first, but does become a good dancer (mainly waltz style) as weeks passes by-- the most important part is that he truly enjoys it, dancing made him happy. The sight of watching his mid-aged classmates encouraging each other to dance better and see them all attending competitions together was very cute. ..They all felt like a team and each of his friends got different strengths in different dance styles.

This movie makes me think of hobbies in general and that one can never be too old, too this, or too that to get into a new interest. This isn't anything new, there have been countless of research that having hobbies is a great way to keep your brain strong!

Well today, I spotted a giant cockroach in my kitchen..I basically screamed and almost cried. The thing is, I lived next to a creek, I'm actually used to seeing all kinds of bugs: daddy long legs, spiders, and splinter bugs... I do not react when they're around because usually they're always in their corner minding their own business. With cockroaches, I really loathe them...especially with the one I spotted this afternoon, ewwww. I think it was almost as big as a credit card in terms of length and the width of three Crayola markers lined together.  I found a bag and placed the opening of the bag near it as it slowly crawled into the opening-- I quickly folded the opening of the bag and took it outside. Maybe a trash panda will get a hold of it.

From now on, I will have to be extra vigilant with keeping my kitchen clean. All food scraps will just go into the freezer. I had to rewash my dishes because it was crawling around the dish rack. ;__;

After doing a full kitchen cleaning, I decided to call my mom just to check up on my parents. The last I Facetimed my mom, I could sensed her disappointment when I told her that I won't be able to attend my cousin's wedding. She understood where I was coming from and she knows that my health is a priority. I'd love to reconnect with my family members, it's just that I know that the wedding venue won't be an outdoor place, there will certainly be a lot of people, and I can't expect my relatives to make any accommodations for those who can't afford to get sick.

I can also sense my mom's nervousness every time I bring up my tests/ body scans... just to be sure that I don't have any "suspicious" cells left after a treatment I had a couple years back. I told her that Bern and I will be extending our lease in our Los Angeles home and that we're doing okay with rent after all...even she felt disappointed by that news. "Ahh ok, incase if things don't work out for whatever reason, you and Bern are welcome to live here anytime" she said, "it has been so quiet here". I love my parents for that, but I honestly feel unloved by my hometown (at least from several years ago).

Since I finally got my test results back, I wanted to put her mood to ease by sharing the good news--  I told her that there's nothing suspicious in my body, except that I just have to watch out for my digestive system and take things easy. Yayyy. It turns out she was at work with my elder cousin when I called her this afternoon-- we waved back at each other through the facetime. It makes me happy to see that our relatives  are around to keep her on her toes. Being reminded that my mom is pretty social makes me feel relieved to see that she isn't alone. Really hoping that they remind her of her blood sugar level and I hope that she pays attention to the food labels. I get that change isn't easy-- especially having to cut down certain foods that has been a healthy staple for your whole life.


Right now, I'm working on upcycling a pair of low quality skinny jeans and turning them into a ruffled denim skirt. I wanted a shape that goes with soft lines. I haven't been sewing for quite awhile, which means my line stitches are wonky-- that's okay though! All I need is more practice.

 Whether you are single, in a relationship or celebrating with a group friends I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day . 

Mine was turning out fine until I ate a burger takeout food that triggered my acid reflux-- I honestly thought I would have to head to an emergency room. I haven't had a painful reflux for quite years because I've been very careful in what I consume. I'm so used to cooking up my own meals and ordering from places that are "safe" for Bern and I to eat. Sometimes restaurants got hidden peppers and you don't realize it until your stomach feels it... especially if you're the kind of person who grew up tasting spicy foods and not remember how potent it actually is within the condition that you have. At this point, I'm kind of traumatized from doing takeout orders from food places we aren't too familiar with. Some restaurants aren't transparent about all of their ingredients and I have to keep that in mind (I should've known this by learning what happened to Keith Lee). Bern suggested a Valentine's Day redo and I would be fine with that. I'm just happy that I didn't have to go to an emergency room, the pain went  away a couple hours after taking an antacid... which includes running to a toilet bowl, emptying out the stomach and sleeping it off for a bit 

For the remainer of this month, I might just take some time to be my own Valentine alone: do some neighborhood walks, get proper amounts of fiber, absorb some sunlight, do some art sketches, and play cozy games. I'm thinking of snatching up a bouquet of roses and do some still life drawings of them ^^. 

 Around October, I joined a drawing prompt made by a creator with quite a following, I liked her art and her choice of words. They weren't too abstract in ideas, so it made it easy for me to come up with themes just by drawing different types of figures. I just wanted to draw pretty witchy women as anthropomorphic  characters. I haven't been able to post the rest of my Halloween drawings on my blog because my mind was just somewhere else. I've mentioned that October 2023 wasn't as spooky as I would hope for it to be, simply because I wasn't in much of a mood. Regardless, I've managed to push myself to draw-- it felt like a studying. 


I guess she'd be perfect for Valloween? The prompt for this was Barbie Witch, I actually based her off from the 1989 Sweet Roses Barbie doll.


Here's my prompt for Candy Witch. I'm sure if you flipped through any fashion editorial pictures in the 2010s, its very common to see models posing with gigantic sweet treats. I put my own spin by adding Halloween themed treats as the props. 


The prompt for this was "fruit witch". Could I have gone with a lady doing burlesque in a bunch of fruit-like garments? Probably.  I didn't feel like it at the time...  so I went for the cottage core style instead. 

Happy New Year to you all, I hope your holidays went well for you!

I haven't thought up of any real resolutions yet because it's way too cold for me and I usually wait until late winter/ early spring to get a fresh start. Going by the Gregorian calendar is way too abrupt for me to stay focus. Plus, I was on my low- iodine diet for the past three weeks-- I have been feeling very uninspired. It's finally nice to start eating my normal foods again. Bern took me to a nearest Ranch 99 and helped me load up with grocery shopping, after that, we got some burgers-- they're quite delicious. Especially after three effing weeks. Bern forgot to grab *cute* snacks from Ranch 99, but got these Koala cookies from Target instead:


A couple of my friends (lets call them Croc and Panda) are moving away back to their hometown-- their apartment lease is up. If I am speculating his character correctly, I wished Croc put his proudness aside and ask Bern for help earlier!  I know they won't be gone for too long because just like Bern and I, they would not want to stay living with their parents, especially being in a long term relationship and living in separate places.  Panda apparently has strong ambitions to get her Masters at a school in LA, I hope that will be soon for her! I'm going to miss them because they're one of our very few friends who are health conscious and have been considerate about others' physical inabilities even if they're not so obvious. I hope it won't be ridiculously long before they move back over here.  Panda ended up dropping a couple of her furniture to our place. Bern and I were in need of new furniture, so it works out! ..And it's kind of nice to have their things, because now it feels like I have a part of them. 

So far, my January has been pretty uneventful. I got invested in some Bay Area Californians and Keith Lee discourse on social media. Apparently, a few Bay Area folks didn't take his opinions too well, completely misunderstood him and felt insulted. Fans were upset at other fans for recommending him places in the Tenderloins. Most of the Bay Arean locals agreed with him. I can't weigh too much of my opinion about this because I grew up in an agricultural city-town of the Bay, going to San Francisco and Oakland would always be like a mini day trip.

It sucks that our beloved food critic had to cut his trip short after being sent to an emergency room after an allergic reaction. Scary. I guess wherever he went, the restaurant did not thoroughly remove shellfish particles on their grill after telling him they would :/. I'm sure there are tons of delicious food places in every major regions of the US and I'm sure Keith, who's a smart guy, doesn't doubt that all! Afterall, his branding is about going to only hole-in-the-wall shops with dying businesses ..and he was transparent about visiting only 8 food places! I'm sure no sane person can judge a region made up of NINE DIFFERENT COUNTIES on the food culture, especially being right next to the ocean and agricultural places. If Keith is willing to come back, I would recommend a local paleta shop (fits his criteria for a -hole-in-a -wall) from my hometown... I can guarantee there aren't any shellfish foods there! Unfortunately, a lot of my other personal favorite mom and pop shops probably uses some sort of seafood-based seasoning for umami.  I think me being on a LID for the past weeks made me think of food AND that's probably how I ended up reading about the Bay Area food drama. haha