Sushi Lesson

Today, two of my friends took me to my favorite restaurant for the sushi lesson that they got me for my birthday. It was so much fun, and making sushi is definately more difficult than it looks. Well, making sushi is actually very easy. Making sushi that actually looks good and is appetizing on the other hand is really difficult.

At any rate, I got to actually go behind the counter and wear a chef's shirt and make all of the sushi that me and my friends ordered. We had tuna and salmon sashimi, edamome, spicy tuna rolls, spicy yellow tail rolls, tiger eye rolls, and dragon eel rolls.

It was so much food and I wasn't sure that I could even eat it all. But it was so delicious and I managed to finish it. (well, Amy had a few pieces to help me out too haha)

After lunch, the owner made me a special banana dessert with a candle in it for my birthday. It was so delicious, and was covered in this sugar and butter sauce. And as we all know, sugar and butter are two of my favorite things!

I'm so full now, but this was so much fun! What a great present!

There's nothing quite like...

... a really great first date.

Two Sites You Should Know About

There are two websites that I've discovered recently that are really awesome and worth sharing.

The first is Post Secret. For those of you that may not have heard about it, Post Secret began as an art project that allowed people to annonymously share personal and intimate secrets through postcards. It has since grown and become very popular. There are several books available where you can look at the postcards and the secrets. You can also go to http://postsecret.blogspot.com/ to see some of the postcards/secrets as well. Some of them are really creative, some are really moving, and others are just really strange. But, it's defintely worth checking out.



The other website that I want to share is KIVA.ORG. KIVA is an online community that matches people in developing nations that are in need of small loans to develop and expand their businesses, with sponsors in developed nations. KIVA is not about giving donations. Rather, KIVA utilizes the micro loan concept made popular by Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Prize for his work with the concept in Bangladesh. Sponsors are able to browse through the profiles and business plans of all of the people requesting loans, and then help fund one or more people with contributions as low as $25. The loans are generally repaid monthly with repayment terms of 6-12 months. I think that this is a really easy way to make a big difference in a family's life, so check it out.

Old Minus Four

Today was my 26th birthday. 26 ---- so old!!! Sigh…

Normally, I hate my birthday. I’m happy to celebrate other people’s birthdays, but mine always just suck. Something bad always seems to happen (ie my parents getting the day wrong or forgetting all together, my significant other spending the day with his ex-girlfriend instead of me, etc…). So, I never make a big deal out of it, and when possible, I even prefer to go on vacation to just avoid the whole day all together.

But, I woke up today and decided to change my whole outlook and think positively that maybe today would be really great. And it worked: today turned out to be a really nice day. A lot of my friends and family wished me happy birthday, my coworkers took me out to lunch, and my friends had a nice dinner for me. I had a really easy and fun day at work for a change, and I got a really cool birthday present: two of my friends arranged for me to get a private lesson on how to make sushi at my favorite Japanese restaurant. How cool is that?! I’m really excited!

And after feeling so sure that my parents had once again forgotten my birthday, they actually came through and sent me a happy birthday email a few minutes ago!

So, all in all, today was actually a pretty great birthday. Thanks everyone!! *o*

And even though people have been making fun of how old I am now all day, I’m actually pretty excited to turn 26. After all, 25 was a pretty shitty year for me, so being 26 is bound to be better, right?! *o*

New iPod!

So after a long and tiring week, I decided to reward myself with a little present: a new iPod!!!!

I was having a hard time deciding between the Classic, Nano, and iTouch, but ultimately I decided to go with the new Classic. And I LOVE it!!!!!

Today

I've been feeling really down yesterday and today: I have such high expectations for myself, but I feel like I've been falling short of those in a number of ways lately. If I were a stronger and less fearful person, today would have been the day that I flew out to SF for my final interview and probably would have come home with a job offer. Instead, today was the day that I took off from work and laid around in my pajamas, watched tv, shopped online, and cleaned my bathroom. Sigh...

But at least one good thing happened today: Hung was declared the winner of Top Chef. (did I call it or what?!) I'm not really sure why I was rooting for him so much, but I'm really glad that he won. He got such a bad rap from people - nearly every blog I read and person I talked to thought that he was a jerk and an a** hole. But no matter what people think, he's a hell of a chef and totally deserves to win.

Big decision

Several weeks ago, I applied for a really great position at a university on the west coast. This position seemed to be my dream job and was in the perfect location, so I was very excited. It's no secret that I'm not super happy or satisfied here on a variety of levels, so when I received a call 2 weeks ago offering me a telephone interview, I was even more excited.

The interview went well, but the position is very competitive, so I wasn't expecting much. Therefore, I was even more surprised when I received another phone call last Wednesday informing me that I was the finalist for the position and that they would like me to fly there this week for one last short interview before offering me the job. I was extatic to say the least!

However, something didn't feel right. In fact, I spent the past several days feeling stressed and afraid of everything that taking this job would entail: leaving my current position, apartment, and friends, using all my savings to move clear across the country, finding a new (much smaller and more expensive) apartment, making all new friends and leaving my current ones behind...again, buying all new furniture, starting a new job where I'd be the "new guy," adapting to a different quality of life, etc... It's not that I can't do all these things - I've done them all before...several times. But the more I thought about all of these things, the more my dream job seemed less and less perfect. In fact, it made me realize that it comes with some pretty major drawbacks. Most importantly though, my gut was telling me that taking it would be the wrong choice. It's the same feeling that I had when I got on the plane to leave Japan last year, and I've regretted that decision for the past 10 months. So, if there's one thing I've learned this year, it's to trust my instincts.

So, this afternoon, I cancelled my plane ticket for Wednesday and notified the university that I am removing myself from consideration for the position.

This is a pretty huge decision for me, but I'm proud that I was able to think it through in a really rational way. It's also a pretty shocking decision - I never would have expected that this would happen. I'm still in shock that I was even offered an interview! Hopefully this isn't something that I'll end up regretting...

But, there is one really good thing that is coming out of this. Because the job required me to have a driver's license, I have finally started to learn how to drive! I got my learner's permit (yep...at almost 26 years old!) and have been taking driving lessons for the past two weeks. My drivers test is scheduled for Oct. 26, so I have my work cut out for me. But, I'm confident I'll be able to pass. So, although I may not be moving and ending up with my dream job, I am conquering my fear of driving. And I really do believe that getting my license and a car will change my life and open more doors for me professionally, socially, and romantically than I could ever dream of. So, wish me luck! And stay off the road... haha