Watashi no Tanjoubi

Today was a beautiful day. It was one of those days that reminds me why I love living in California. Bay Area weather is never the same two days in a row, and it's been raining in alternating spurts of 2-3 days. I guess it takes after bipolar Mother Earth ;)

But what this means is that on the good days, it's really really nice:

Look closely, you can even see the Golden Gate Bridge off in the distance. Okay, it's hard to tell in the picture, so here's a zoomed-in version of the center of that picture:

Hmm...the pixelation that happened because of my zoom-less phone camera actually looks kind of cool. Like a painting, almost.

I was baked a cake by one of the people in my lab. She's been making different kinds of cakes for her sister's (I think) wedding and testing them out on us. We, of course, have no complaints. This one, however, was a delicious birthday cake. Chocolate with an orange zest, topped with candied orange peels:

And to top it all off, I got a lovely little present from my roommate. Apparently she's been planning this since almost last year. Isn't he cute?

Pickup Lines

My roommate got hit on in the oddest way I've ever heard of.

On her way to a physics review session, D. realized that she was a little bit early, and decided to pick up a copy of the Daily Cal newspaper and sit outside while she waited for the review to start.

A tall, blonde, slightly geeky-looking guy (geeky we're fine with, but he was just weird) sat down next to her.

"So…do you read that often?"

"Oh, um, no, just every now and then."

His phone rang. He ignored it. "Oh, do you know when the new issues come out?"
This still in reference to the school newspaper, which has the word "daily" in its name (to be fair, it's no longer printed on Wednesdays due to budget cuts).

"Oh, you know, every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday…"

"Oh, okay." He tried to chit-chat a little bit more. Eventually he decided he ought to pick up the still-ringing phone. With a reluctant sigh, he finally said, "I guess I should answer that."

"Uh, okay."

So he went off to the side talking on the phone and it was soon time for class. As D. walked towards the classroom, tall guy was standing near the door, so she gave him a normal smile, thinking he was a normal, if slightly awkward, person.

Immediately, he said to the person he was talking to, "Oh, I'll call you back later," and caught up with her.

"Umm…so…"
Long, awkward pause.
"Would you like to be given the chance to hit on me?"

D. was utterly confused, wondering what on earth he meant. "What?"

"You know, do you want to be given the chance to hit on me?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, you're supposed to compliment me in some way or say something nice about me. I'm not really sure what ensues, but we'll get to that when it happens."

"Oh, um, I think I'll pass."

"Are you sure? Do you want a rain check on that? Oh, wait, it's not raining. How about a sunny day check?"

"Uh, maybe next time…"


Luckily, it was time for the review session to start, so D. managed to escape.