Back at Eaton Canyon Falls

Happy New Year everybody!  😀  I hope things are going well for everyone so far.

I’m usually terrible with new year resolutions but it helps when you have a goal in mind to keep at it.  My friends and I decided to do a 5k bubble run in April.  This meant that I needed to be more active again.  I fell behind on working out last year and so I’m a bit out of shape.  5 kilometers (or 3.1 miles) isn’t that much but if you dislike running like I do, it’s a good starting point.  Running usually ends up with my body falling apart on me.  I much prefer walking :’D

To warm up to working out again, I joined my friends for a hike this past weekend.  We used to hike quite frequently before all our schedules made it more difficult for us to go together.  We do try to get at least one hike in a month nowadays.

We went to revisit Eaton Canyon Falls in the San Gabriel Mountains.  My first time here was back in 2012 and so coming back felt like a refresher.  The trail is about 3 miles roundtrip and relatively good for beginners.  It can get a little rocky in some places but nothing too difficult to get around.  With all the rain we’ve been having here in California, it was nice to see more water on the trail as well.  There are some small streams to cross before you get to the waterfall but if you’re careful, you won’t have to get your feet wet like I did.  I tried my best to step on the rocks but they can be slippery.  Eaton Canyon Falls is popular trail and so there are a lot of people on it.  We got there around 9 am on a Saturday and by the time we got back, it was getting pretty crowded.  The trail is dog friendly and also very shady, which is good during the warmer weather.  Unfortunately, most likely because of all the foot traffic, there are some trash and graffiti around the area.

But despite all that, I still enjoy this trail.  It’s a fun little hike to come back to after being so inactive for so long.  Plus, climbing rocks and crossing streams make me feel like a kid out on an adventure 😀

 

My Favorite Things: December 2015

It’s December!!!  It’s time for sweater weather, hot chocolate, and watching holiday movies!  But before that, it’s time to jump back on my favorite things for Raisa’s and Eirene’s link-up 😀

Hamilton the Musical

I’ve been a fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s work after I listened to the ‘In the Heights’ and got the chance to see it live a while back ago.  Now, Miranda is back with a fresh new musical about one of the founding fathers of America- Alexander Hamilton.

I listened to the soundtrack for Hamilton the Musical and I am HOOKED!  The mix of broadway, hip-hop, and R&B is just genius.  The music is so catchy and full of energy.  I can only imagine what it would be like to see the show live.  And despite the story in the beginnings of America, the color-blind casting also just really makes me happy :’D  As Lin-Manuel Miranda explained, “This is a story about America then, told by America now.  It looks like America now.”

Highlights: King George’s break up song with America, “You’ll Be Back” and Thomas Jefferson’s “Whaaaaaaat”

My Favorite Things: October 2015

It’s time for Raisa’s and Eirene’s link-up: My Favorite Things! 😀

September was a strange month for me.  My sleeping schedule has been off.  My tennis elbow started acting up so I had to keep icing it and letting my arm rest.  The weather kept bouncing back and forth from an annoying heat to out-of-no-where rain.  I had plenty of those days that just felt weird.  For all of that, I’ll just place the blame on Mercury being in retrograde >_>

If I was being honest, this was a month filled more with food cravings than favorites.  But then I really wouldn’t have craved them so much if they didn’t become favorites either.  Bah whatever, I’ll count it for both ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Mugicha or Roasted Barley Tea

I’ve been craving coffee late at night because I can usually smell my neighbors brewing it at that time.  Living across a college usually makes it easy to tell when midterms or finals are by the fresh coffee I smell during the wee hours of the night.  But since my sleep is already messed up, I wanted something else to drink to satisfy my coffee cravings.  And then I found roasted barley tea!

When I first tried roasted barley tea or mugicha, it tasted like a really light coffee to me.  I was even more excited to find out that it was not caffeinated.  A trip to the Asian supermarket later, I brewed myself a large batch of mugicha to keep in the fridge.  It doesn’t taste much like coffee to me anymore but it’s still hits the spot for me during the hot days we’ve been having.

My Favorite Things: September 2015

August was filled with hot and humid days that I felt like I was melting in the car each time I had to go somewhere.  My car AC is broken and so the struggle of wearing shorts, having leather seats, and sitting through traffic lead to a constant dehydration after sweating out most of my water.  Just as Edward Bloom said in the movie Big Fish, “I was drying out.” :’D

Summer is finally winding down and so while I enjoy the temporary reprieve from the heat, here are a few of My Favorite Things from the past month!

Kingdom of Dreams and Madness

Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is a documentary that gives you an inside look into Studio Ghibli’s history and Miyazaki’s animation process.  I have been a long time fan both and so I was really excited to see this up on Netflix.  This was filmed during the making of The Wind Rises and so there are some spoilers for that if you haven’t seen that yet.

My Little Green Friends

I fell in love with succulents a while back ago.  However, I didn’t have the heart to go out and actually buy some for myself.  But luck would have it that my friends were giving them away as party favors for their wedding shower.  And sure enough, it planted a new interest.

Catch a Falling Star in Joshua Tree

The Perseid meteor shower happened recently so my friends and I planned a quick turn around to Joshua Tree, CA to go see it.

My Favorite Things: August 2015

I can’t believe July came and went like it was nothing.  Now that August is here, it’s time to join in the fun with Raisa’s and Eirene’s link-up: “My Favorite Things”.  This post also ended up much longer than I anticipated ^^; So here are a few of my favorites, in no particular order 😀

Aziz Ansari’s Modern Romance

Aziz Ansari is one of my favorite comedians.  And if you’ve seen some of his stand-up, the subject of the book is a familiar one: modern romance.  Now this isn’t your typical humor book.  Modern Romance is more so a sociological study with an extra side of wit. This book brings a little insight into what the dating struggles are like these days. Aziz Ansari partnered up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg to design and conduct a study on modern romance with the constant change in technology and the ever growing presence of social media.  It’s a large topic to cover in 300 pages but I think they did pretty well with what they narrowed their research down to.

Since I tend to multitask, I opted for the six hour audiobook while I worked one day.  Being able to hear Ansari’s delivery with the jokes in the book was great but I did miss out on some informative graphs and pictures.  I’ll have to read the book one of these days to see them.

A Zombie Baby Shower and Fantasy People

It was a twofer at Gallery Nucleus this past weekend!  Downstairs at the main space is an exhibit for Zombies in Love 2+1 with Scott C’s  absolutely adorable illustrations for the book.  Upstairs at the atrium is a second exhibit showcasing Sam Bosma’s Fantasy Sports No.1 and his fantastic series of fantasy themed characters.

          

Peek-a-Boo!

My name is Mara and welcome to a couple bite-sized pieces of my life. 🙂

It’s been cloudy and rainy for the past few days where I am.  At times like these, I just want to curl up under my comforter and laze about.  But lazing about has made me restless. And from there, I had the urge to start something new.  Or somewhat new. It’s been years since I’ve tried blogging since I’m practically a social media hermit.  My earliest attempts were the sporadic rantings of a silly pre-teen.  My art blog in college didn’t last very long after I got buried under school work.  Tumblr is my version of instant gratification blogging and so my blog there is a stream of funny gifs, pretty illustrations, and all the egg recipes that happen to pop up my dashboard.

Which brings me here for a blogging do-over.

Now that I have an inkling of clarity, I want to try blogging for several reasons.  I want something to work on.  I want to see my progress as I find fun with art again.  I want a place to share some of my interests and adventures. Hmm… okay but to be real though, this blog will probably end up filled with silly things. XD