Sisters

“If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.”  ~Linda Sunshine
“A sister is a gift to the heart, a friend to the spirit, a golden thread to the meaning of life.” ~Isadora James
“More than Santa Claus, your sister knows when you’ve been bad and good.”  ~Linda Sunshine
“Sisters never quite forgive each other for what happened when they were five.”  ~Pam Brown
“What’s the good of news if you haven’t a sister to share it?” ~Jenny DeVries
“How do people make it through life without a sister?” ~Sara Corpening
“You can kid the world.  But not your sister.”  ~Charlotte Gray
(↑ Psh. So true.)

Irene is three years younger than me, yet she is the one who usually knows how to handle situations smoothly; you can’t imagine how much I learn from her.

Whenever I turn on the TV, she doesn’t forget to ruin my moment and asks, “Diana, are you sure you’re done with your homework?” I tell her to stay out of my business in an effort to defend my title, but of course, I know she’s right.

Whenever we get into fights about unthinkably stupid things, she gives me lists of reasons why I’m wrong, which, annoyingly enough, make sense. Yet, she is also the one who sacrifices her self-esteem first, and ends up apologizing.

We had a huge fight this morning (I don’t even remember what we were fighting about) and we just stormed into our own rooms after enough screaming, teeth-gnashing, and hair-pulling (no, not in the literal sense). I heard Irene leave the house several hours later, and I finally came out of my room.

This is what I found when I opened my door.
She used her favorite letter pad and envelope to write an apology letter to me, and she even cared to make a cup of coffee for me, fully aware of my endless quest for coffee. Wow, I thought, my sister’s only in 6th grade and she sure knows how to make someone feel guilty. I definitely owe her one!

Essentially, it’s in the older sister’s job description to be a good loser to her “immature” sibling. Ironically, my little sister has demonstrated what maturity is to me. And thank goodness for that.

In the cookies of life, sisters are definitely the chocolate chips.
Thank you, Irene, for making my life so interesting! Love you.
♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sister quotes via The Quote Garden

Restless

Remember the list of things to complete over the spring break? I’m done. I’m done with everything, and it’s only Wednesday.

– Finish English essay
– Prepare for World History project
– Prepare for Geometry project
– Prepare for Chinese project
– Celebrate Irene’s (my sister) birthday
– Hang out with friends
– Go shopping
– Sleep in
– Catch up on the latest episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives
– Play Scrabble with Dad

See? I’m done. I don’t get it. Why? How? Was my list was a little too short for a week-long break? Could be so. But still, the fact that I am so free is starting to worry me.

Yesterday, I shopped for 5 hours and watched three movies in row with my friend Marie, woke up at 11:14 in the morning, and ate lunch right after breakfast (No, not brunch; we had breakfast and ate lunch 15 minutes later.). After taking Marie to the subway station, I took a walk. I took a two-hour-long walk simply because the weather was nice. As I tried to decide how to use my day wisely, I randomly bumped into a lot of people along the way. That’s it. Right now, here I am at Starbucks, enjoying myself. Again.

Why am I so relaxed? Yeah, I did some schoolwork, but I spent more time entertaining myself. I don’t know how some of my other friends are spending their break, but for some reason, I doubt that theirs is as relaxing as mine. Or maybe this break was meant to be a real break.

Who knows?

By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY my baby sister 🙂 How old are you again? Eleven? Hope you liked my present + card ❤

Unleashing the Chef in Me

Yesterday, my friend Jung decided to come over to my house completely out of the blue. My dad went out to work out, my mom and sister went out to shop, and I wasn’t doing anything in particular so it was a perfect day to hang out.
I was thinking of going out to the mall or cafe, but Jung had something completely unexpected in mind: he wanted to bake cookies. Why not?
*Please note: Jung and I had no idea how to bake cookies; we totally depended on a website which seemed fairly reliable.

Ingredients
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 2 large eggs,beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
• If desired, 1 cup chopped pecans, or chopped walnuts

We first went to the nearest store to get some chocolate drops and vanilla extract. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find either one, so we decided to use M&Ms and forget about the vanilla extract.
Another thing – little did we know about softened butter. I decided softened butter meant melted butter…and panicked with Jung after microwaving the stick of butter and it came out like this:

According to our research, softened butter is also called “creaming the butter”, usually done with a rolling pin. Nevertheless, we just decided to use the melted butter.

Steps
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix sugar, brown sugar, butter, vanilla and eggs in a large bowl by hand.  Stir in flour, baking soda, and salt.  The dough will be very stiff.

This was basically what it  looked like when we poured all the ingredients in the bowl. I’m not sure if this was how it was supposed to look like, but I kind of lost my appetite at this point.

Now, the instructions clearly said to mix by hand, but Jung and I were chicken-hearted; we decided not to touch the substance in case of allergic reactions.

2. Stir in chocolate chips by hand.  You’ll need to use a sturdy wooden spoon for this and a bit of muscle.  You can add the pecans, or other nuts, at this time if desired.  Keep stirring and folding the chocolate chips and nuts into the dough until they are evenly dispersed.  (This makes sure you have enough chocolate in each cookie!!)

Until, that is, we got excited after throwing in the walnuts and M&Ms. (Please don’t ask why the dough is so yellow. We know it’s abnormal and don’t plan to find out how it got its color. Perhaps the butter was…never mind.)

3. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet.  The chocolate chip cookies need to be this far apart because the dough spreads during cooking.  No one wants to cut the cookies apart after baking.

Apparently, the cookies bloat when you put them in the oven. Our piles of dough were a little too big to begin with…and sadly, we ended up cutting the cookies apart after baking.

4. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown.  You may even think that the chocolate chip cookies are underdone, but they will finish cooking through out of the oven.  If you leave them in too long, the cookies will be tough or crispy.  (My kids eat them anyway.  I always over cook at least one sheet because of the phone, a child wanting some attention or some other reason)

Sigh. We really should have taken it out after 10 minutes.

“Maybe 2 more minutes?”
“What about 5 more minutes?”
“Let’s just make it 7 more minutes.”
Sigh. Here we are, right in front of the oven watching a movie and enjoying M&Ms as our poor cookies were suntanning.

5. The centers will be soft.  Let cool completely then remove from cookie sheet.  I use a flat spatula to remove the cookies from the sheet.  It helps to get them off quickly.  If you try to remove the cookies while they are still warm, the chocolate chips are still very soft and this can cause a very big mess as well as messy looking cookies.

Sigh. No, the centers were not soft. They were as hard as rocks.

Sigh. No, the black stuff is not chocolate.

Obviously, the cooking wasn’t exactly successful, but we definitely had tons of fun and learned a number of valuable lessons. 🙂

Spring Alive!

I’m back!
My blog went on vacation for a while because I’d been using some weird version of wordpress.com. 😛 Sorry about that.
Since spring break has begun, I will be posting a lot more posts to make up for everything – promise.

Speaking of which, spring break has finally and officially begun! One of the seniors in my yearbook class said, “I can’t believe spring break is already here; I’ve been dreaming of this moment for such a long time, and now that it’s already here, it just feels…weird.” Indeed, it is the last break that the seniors will have, and off they go!
I, too, have been dreaming of this moment for such a long time, but the fact that spring break is “already” here is not weird at all; in fact, I am overjoyed that I can finally spring back alive.

Here is a list of what I plan to finish over the break:
– Finish English essay (which I was working on a moment ago until…I ended up here.)
– Prepare for World History project
– Prepare for Geometry project
– Prepare for Chinese project (yes…by now, I’ve noticed that the teachers aren’t technically giving us homework, but hmm…I wonder why they are notifying us of projects before the break. No pressure – right? :))

I know, it doesn’t sound too exciting, but taking advantage of the time to finish things up doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
Forgive me, for I am only human; my nature forces me to squeeze in some fun (sigh) as well into my schedule.

Here is the other half of the list:
– Celebrate Irene’s (my sister) birthday
– Hang out with friends
– Go shopping
– Sleep in
– Catch up on the latest episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives
– Play Scrabble with Dad

Now that’s more like it!

I have so much more to say –
I will return as soon as I’m done revising my English essay! 🙂

Thank God for Starbucks

Anyone having trouble concentrating at home?
Try going to a nearby coffee shop! 🙂

For the past few months, I’ve been spending my time at Starbucks to finish up my homework, study for exams, and read. Although I have my own quiet room, I find it hard to focus because my house is a little too comfortable; when I’m at my desk, drowsiness overwhelms me. Although my room is pretty quiet and my family members hardly disturb me, it’s sometimes hard to focus in a place where you’re too familiar with, at least for me. These days, I just use my desk to read books.

A lot of people think that coffee shops are loud and even harder to focus at. The Starbucks that I go to is relatively small, so there aren’t many groups of people who loudly chat with friends. Instead, the cafe seems more like a library; there are people everywhere, mostly businessmen, who work on important-looking matters as they type away busily on their MacBooks. It provides an excellent environment for me to focus – no doubt.

I always get a tall size cafe latte – a cup costs 4, 100 won! It’s pretty expensive, but then again, I think it’s worth it. Actually, I sometimes even feel guilty; I buy a mere cup of coffee and stay there for at least five to six hours. Usually, I get there around six o’clock on school days and return home a little past eleven. Crazy, I know. The poor staff can’t even tell me to get up and go. They’re probably thinking, “Does that girl have a life?”

In fact, I go there so often that they’ve memorized what I’ll order. On Tuesday, a young woman who works there smiled when she saw me entering, as if she’d been expecting me. When I started, “I’d like a hot cafe latte…” she answered, “tall size in a mug, right?” She asked if I was a college student preparing for a test (seriously, do I look that old?). I laughed and said I’m just a high school student trying to finish homework. 😀

I’ve basically settled in Starbucks. The calm cafe music, the sweet coffee bean scent, a hot cup of cafe latte doing its job of keeping me awake, and no one disturbing me as I do my work – what more could I wish for?

photo via Jim Somerville
photo via the Starbucks website