I saw The Namesake!

Last Wednesday I finally saw The Namesake in the theatre!

Two fridays ago I was having dinner with Steve, Terence, and Mike at Kit N Kitchen, and I noticed that the Varsity Theatre sign read "THE NAMESAKE" in those big black letters. I was thrilled! After all my disappointment, I could finally see it. I knew that Varsity wouldn't let me down.

Aaron went with me to see it on Wednesday night. I was afraid that he wasn't going to enjoy it because it's not a testosterone-pumping storyline, but to my surprise he liked it a lot. His favorite character was Ashoke Ganguli, the father. I liked all the actors and actresses; I couldn't choose just one.

Surprisingly the changes in the adaptation weren't disappointing. There were some parts in the book that I didn't find humorous but in the movie, they were very funny. The characters were almost exactly like how I imagined them in the book. At least the director kept my favorite scene.

I can't wait to buy it on dvd!

Finally...

It's been a while since I've had the energy, time, and motivation to update my blog. My nights have been spent either lying on my bed, watching television, or eating after I get back from physical therapy or work. I was discussing my tiredness/lethargy with Aaron one night and he said that it's probably because I have such a packed schedule every week. Working twenty hours at my job, plus eight hours at my internship, along with taking two classes and going to physical therapy three nights a week is pretty tiring.

I was pretty sad when I found out that Kurt Vonnegut died. It was like a distant uncle died, and I hadn't told him how much I cared about him before he passed. He was old, but still. Sometimes you wish that certain people could live forever. Well, he'll live forever through his work.

Then the VA Tech shootings happened. But I'm too digusted with the shooter and the incident to even write about it. I will say that some of the victims were the most heroic people I have ever heard about.

I graduate from college in a little over three weeks. That's really scary. It's such a major shift in my life that I'm a little worried about it. There's a part of me that doesn't want to be a full grown-up. Hello responsibility!

Hot!

Right now I'm eating cold leftover ham from last night's family dinner. Unfortunately I'm eating it cold-cut-style because I don't have a fork, so I'll probably be getting some funny looks from whoever passes by my desk. I also heated up my Safeway Select Tomato Basil Pasta soup, but today's really hot so I wish that I had waited to eat it on another day.

I did nothing productive this entire weekend. Each day I watched hours of tv, which is so bad. With my partially ripped rotator cuff muscle in my shoulder, I can't do most of the activities that I would do if I had a weekend with awesome weather. I can't golf, I can't play basketball, I can't wash my car, I can't swim, I can't play Wii with Aaron. So instead I've been eating and watching tv. Yay for sedentary lifestyle!


Aaron let me play his Xbox 360 when I was at his house, which was the biggest mistake ever. Now I constantly want to play it. I'm having withdrawals.

Is it bad that I don't want to go to physical therapy because it interferes with my naptime?

It's Tuesday.

I just finished my microwavable cup of Campbell's chicken noodle soup and I am blissfully content with my lunch. Yes, I am aware that the soup has 870 mg (36% D.V.) of sodium, but it's so delicious and nostalgic that I don't care! Mmm, mmm, good!

On Sunday night, Aaron and I were watching a Travel Channel special on Walt Disney World. Now I want to go back to Disney World! I went to Disney World when I was in eleventh grade, but now there's all sorts of new attractions and rides that I have to see! Disney reminds me of my childhood because my sisters and I would always watch Disney movies, and we had tons of Disney toys. I'm such a sucker for Disney; that corporation sucks up all my money.

Today I finished editing a major chunk of the articles in the next issue of Transition. I was dead tired because it was 8 o'clock in the morning, but I survived. Maybe I should consider brewing a thermos of tea before I leave the house for Ward. Ack, I just can't adjust to leaving the house at 7:30 when I normally wake up at 8:30 at the earliest.

New happenings.

Today I finished my first article for Transition Magazine, which I'm doing writing and editing for my new internship with Obun Hawaii (a local publisher). Unfortunately I had to quit my internship with Spunge, but only because this internship with the magazine will hopefully lead to a full-time position. My article was a story for the career pathways section--in case you're wondering, it's a magazine for middle and high school kids who are "transitioning" into life post-graduation. My boss wanted me to interview Aaron about his position as a station tech because Aaron is young and would relate to our audience. I interviewed him last night, which was the easiest interview ever because I was wearing pj's and lying on his bed. This afternoon I typed up my article, about 900-something words, and my boss loved it. Success is mine!

I'm receiving the initial edits tomorrow so that I can make changes, then my Aunty Jean is going to proof the article. I'm so excited, although I am a little nervous because I haven't written anything that the public will be reading. Too bad the next issue with my article doesn't come out until August!

Today I also attended the Hawaii Publishers Assocation awards luncheon. At first I was embarrassed because I thought I was extremely underdressed (I was wearing my red jersey dress, a cropped denim jacket, and slippers) but luckily some people were wearing jeans. Thank heavens I was wearing full-face makeup! Although it was pretty much a snooze-fest, I was able to see the award-winning publications. Maybe in a few years I'll be the one winning all the awards! I was feeling a little out of it so I wasn't able to chat it up with many people. It's hard being the new kid in the office, especially since it's not like me to just go up to people and talk to them.

Spring Break is pretty mellow for me. I'm working at my campus job and interning all week. A lot of sleeping and television watching will be occuring. Homework is on the bottom of my priority list. On Friday night I have a dinner for my stepbrother and on Saturday night I'm attending the Cherry Blossom Pageant dinner with the magazine staff. Unfortunately today I was hit with some anti-socialness, so I hope that it doesn't last all week.

The Namesake is not showing here!

Instead of doing my Latin homework, I am writing about how annoyed I am that the movie version of one of my favorite novels, The Namesake, does not have any upcoming shows playing in Hawaii. There's showings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities on the mainland, but no upcoming screenings in Honolulu.

I've been waiting for this movie to come out since December, and now I'll probably have to rent it either at Blockbuster or on Netflix.

I didn't want to see any pictures of the movie, but today I caved and watched the trailer. It's excellent. First off, the movie stars Kal Penn, and he fits the image that I had of the main character, Gogol Ganguli. Maybe it's because he's one of the more popular American actors of Indian descent around today, so I just pictured him in my mind from the beginning. I'm not quite familiar with the other Indian actors because I haven't seen many Bollywood films, but it seems like they are very talented.

Just another one of the difficulties of living in an island in the middle of the ocean.

Hooray for Hollywood...Part 1

It's been over a week since I've returned from my short vacation to California. By this past Saturday I was finally set back to Honolulu-time, and Sunday was the first day that I haven't woken up at six o'clock since last Wednesday.

Here's a summary of my trip, which was from February 16th to the 20th. I'll write about that Friday and Saturday, and Sunday and Monday will be in another entry. You can also see my trip pics in my Flickr account (the link is at the top left corner of my blog).

So on Friday the Sixteenth, Aaron dropped Katie and me off at HNL airport. I'm grateful that Katie and I were prepared for all the security checks (like checking in our liquid toiletries and tweezers, plastic-bagging our carry-on liquids--all which need to be 3 fl. oz. and under), because everything was fast and stress-free. After a five hour flight, we arrived at John Wayne Airport to surprisingly warm weather! I didn't even need a jacket! We caught a shuttle to Amanda's dorm room at Chapman University; the driver dropped us off first instead of the four guys who were waiting in the shuttle before us! I think Amanda was happy to see us, and it was good to see their high school friend Blaise since he didn't come home from Seattle for Christmas.

I woke up everyone at seven a.m. on Saturday morning (after going to bed at almost 3 a.m.) so that we could get breakfast at Blue Frog, this bakery that Amanda works at. It's a ten minute walk from the dorms, and we were able to cut through campus to get there. I must say that I enjoy the small town feel of the Orange County Circle--there are cute antique shops lining the streets plus a fountain and sitting area in the center of the circle. Amanda introduced Blaise, Katie, and me to her co-workers and her boss. After breakfast (I ordered a yummy egg, ham, and cheese croissant with a side of homestyle potatoes) we headed toward the Orange County Train Station so that we could catch the 9:50 train to L.A. Union Station.

I must say that trains are so much fun! Being able to see some scenery is the most fun about it. We travelled past Angels Stadium and stopped at Fullerton before we got to Union Station. From there, we caught the metro to the Hollywood and Highland stop. I kept getting motion sickness from the metro rides! After we exited the metro stop, we stood in awe of being right on Hollywood Boulevard--right on the Walk of Fame! We had some misdirection getting to the Renaissance Hotel, which was right up the block from the metro stop (I told everyone that it was up the block, but they didn't believe me). After that, I was given the nickname "Den Mother" because I was taking care of three cubs.

After checking into our hotel, we hopped back on the metro so that Katie could go to J-Town and Little Tokyo. We got off the metro at the Civic Center stop, and we thought that it wasn't that far but of course we were wrong. It was 90 degrees in Downtown L.A., and we must have walked over a mile to get there, so I was a grouchy, sweaty, thirsty Sara. Once we got to Little Tokyo, we went to Mitsuwa, which is a Asian market that's like a mash-up of Shirokiya, Marukai, and Daiei (or Don Quijote). After spending some time in there and getting lunch in the food court, we decided to call a cab to take us to Melrose Ave so that we could do some shopping. Melrose was excellent; I bought three tops from this boutique and was disappointed (once again, since I was disappointed when I went to Melrose in Fall 2004) with the Urban Outfitters.

It turns out that as we were walking down Melrose, we were actually walking in the wrong direction to our metro stop. Yup, about two hours in the wrong direction. We had to be at the hotel to get ready for Wicked the musical at 8:00 p.m., and it was already about 6:00 p.m. Luckily there was a cab that was cruising across the street, so we hailed it and about $14 later we were at the hotel. We quickly got ready to see Wicked at the famous Pantages Theatre; Amanda, Blaise, and Katie couldn't contain themselves. I seriously thought that they were going to scream as soon as we got there.

The play was really good; in fact, it was one of the best musicals I have ever seen so far (other than We Will Rock You in Vegas, but that doesn't count as a real musical.) I thought that the story was genius--you can read up on it here if you want. When I got back to Honolulu, I saw that stars like Jennifer Garner saw the opening night of Wicked on the Wednesday of that week. That probably means that there were some celebrities in the audience, although I didn't see any. We stayed at the back entrance after the musical got out so that we could get the stars signatures. Amanda and Katie got Eden Espinosa's (Elphaba) and Megan Hilty's (Glinda) autographs, plus we took pictures with them.

On the way back to the hotel, Blaise and Amanda come up with the genius idea of walking back from Pantages along Hollywood Boulevard. It's about a mile to walk there...at 11:00 p.m....with all sorts of weirdos standing around. You can bet that Katie and I were more than pissed off about that experience. When we finally got back to the hotel, we were tired and hungry, so we ordered room service. $13 for a hamburger? You bet.

To be continued...