my latest inspiration

summer is coming to an end

the best part?

ok, that, and cardigans. and scarves. and boots.

we go to the moon

we are astronauts. we eat special mooncakes that send us rocketing to outer space. it is dark there, so we light our special lanterns. and then we see it. a full yellow circle. the salted egg yolk.

“you forgot to add that you tried to flag down a police car as a cab”

yes, i did that. in typical yvonne fashion. and it’s not the first time. only this time, the police car actually stopped to ask if there was a problem. and because i’m learning to be honest, i told them, “i’m sorry, i thought you were a cab.”

it’s not my fault that they look alike!

camp camp camp

this time it was at starved rock, about an hour and a half away from chicago. and this time, we had a reserved spot in the state park campsite, rather than a last minute place in a private campground. we got really excited driving through the campsite because they had these private wooded areas which looked really pretty. then just before we reached our spot, the wooded area turned into a clearing. voila! we were so close to getting a nice site. which just goes to confirm the story of our lives – we are losers, indeed.

the next day, we woke up bright (and not so early) to go hiking. it was an awesome trail, with river bluffs, canyons and waterfalls! you could see the layers of sedimentary rock, alternating beds of hard and soft rock, undercutting, erosion, plunge pools, caves, stalactites… okok i’m showing off my geography here.

friday night

we were gonna take it easy friday night. just head to a jazz dive (where the guy at the door asked why my ID was in english!!!) cos we had flugtag and camping to go to the next day. but rob was in town and stef wanted us to hang. so we went to meet rob, stef and andy in boystown.

(yes yes, the ang mos are pretending to be asian as usual. stef – if you’re reading this, ang mo is slang for caucasians. the literal translation would be red-haired)

we were having a good time being stupid when we decided to try another bar. that’s when rob’s ID got called out. he was underaged and using a fake. somehow, the bar called the cops and they came for rob. and because i had a few drinks, i was like, maybe i should play my asian card.  i went up to the police and said, “hey what’s going on?” cops, “excuse me, miss, i’m gonna have to ask you to step back.” i realised i shouldn’t be doing this, and i stepped back while rob got taken away.

we hopped into a cab and headed straight for a police station but rob wasn’t there. the cop was nice enough to tell us to try a few hours later. so we went back to stef’s house to wait for a while before andy said that it was still going to take a few hours, and they would be fine.

the next morning, i woke up with a headache and called stef. turned out that they let rob off with a ticket. everything was gonna be ok.

oh, and we didn’t make it to flugtag in the end. the traffic was crazy and it took us half an hour to get through 3 bus stops. we got off the bus and went to eat lunch instead. what’s new?

blue ridge mountains

so the very lovely listerine invited the not so lovely me up to her dad’s vacation home in the blue ridge mountains of georgia.

here are some things that i learnt during the trip:

– how to play Phase 10

– there’s no need to be defensive

– white water rafting is super duper fun!

– we all have our own points of view, we all have our own reasons for it

– ironic as it sounds, it’s exciting to wait for a relaxing massage

– i remind some people of a mandarin orange

– a soak in the hot tub puts you straight to bed

– it’s hard to argue without facts

– georgia is pretty

– sometimes, people feel really strongly about things

– worcestershire sauce goes great with mushrooms

– never put the two most experienced rowers in the same kayak

– i’m canadian