dinner fail.

though it ended a win...pyramid restaurant. (aside: I'm in this phase where when a word or phrase triggers a song in my head, I feel the need to sing it. the word pyramid just triggered the song "pyramid" by charice and iyaz. good song.)

dinner with my two favorite albany high '06 people. grace and ritchie. we decided to go to dinner on monday but could not decide on a place. it did not help that ferris and I were late coming to berkeley, which only delayed dinner.

last time in the bmw!

after several hours of bickering and going back and forth on a place, (places within our budget, places we like, places we weren't tired of) we finally settled between venus and/or meridian. venus was the first choice. none of us had ever been there for dinner before. but when we arrived, it was closed. already a bad start. then we decided to hit up option number two, meridian. of course, that was closed too! due to renovations, it would open again in the fall. so here we were with nowhere to eat. then ritchie suggests that we try alice water's restaurant, chez panisse on a whim, or the cafe. the wait for the cafe was about 40 minutes. fail. and though there was seating in the restaurant, we were way under dressed and it was a little bit much at $60 per person. it wasn't fair to make grace pay for a dinner she was going to have with her family next week. so we decided to go off to pyramid. no wait and open late. it was a safe bet. though the food was sub-par last time, I rather enjoyed this time!

started with a pitcher. everyone wanted something sweet, not hoppy, and grace did not like the apricot one, so we got a darker sweet one. the name escapes me. ritchie definitely felt it.

then the free appetizer sampler with the press pass. yum!

then braised pork for mr. mit



fish tacos for me [forgot to take a pic! can't believe it...]

chicken for the lady

and salad for ferris. he didn't want to feel bloated for his graduation.

wanted to go out, but we were all tired. especially ritchie. so, we dropped him back at home. no dessert because everything was closed and we were all full. went back to watch tv. house hunters and then saw 4. fail. but yes, good night with my albany buds.

on life.

my graduations are over, and I'm now on life. it sounds weird. this means I need to look for a part-time and/or full-time job. I need to sign up for: testmasters (if I do law), summer school (?), volunteer positions , and a gym membership. Also, I need to be more serious about my diet. I'll be moving out of berkeley this week which makes the "moving back home" thing, all the more real.

after finals on tuesday, I was able to relax and take it rather easy. watched "how to train your dragon" with kelly, and went on a nice walk/photoshoot with catherine. I also hung out with my environmental science friends. I'll put that in another post.

I had my major ceremony this past saturday, and the general one on sunday. loved the cnr one. it was outdoors, had great weather, and really fun. the reception was catered by a.g. ferrari foods. yum. downside: I was left with a freaking ugly tan! the cap covered part of my forehead with the rest of my face exposed. because I have so much melanin, my face tanned so fast and now my head is two different colors. I'll be a recluse and hang out indoors until my skin lightens and evens out again. the general one was way too long. it was in the gym with ugly ass balloons. ghet-to. I swear, half of the 3 hour ceremony was spent on saying the names of all the participants. naturally I was starving the whole time. I sat with sid, kim, elita, ferris, laura, and kelly. sid and kim had a subway sandwich...should've thought of that! this even made the berkeley news (at around :50 on the video). the speaker was tiffany shlain. sub-par. she should've spoken at a different uc. I really wish we could've had a more legit speaker. all she talked about was feminism and "moxie". pssh. the student speaker on the other hand was really good! "way to go josh!" I also saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in a long time (i.e. freshman year, ckc bulding 8). crazy what a memory trip it was. I re-wore my lei from the day before and it died a bit in my refrigerator. oh well, hopefully the pictures don't show that... on the other hand, my outfits did come together quite nicely.

and of course, graduation means graduation dinners. went to ruths chris steakhouse with my family. it was delicious. sorry, no pics of the appetizers.

me - lamb chops. sitting in some sort of melted better.

dad - rib eye.

mom - chicken. stuffed with cheese.

charlene - filet.

sides: fries, creamed spinach, and potatoes au gratin! yum.


dessert: spelled with two "s's" because you always want more...

warm pecan pie:


molten chocolate cake:



ferris invited me to join his family at 2223 in san francisco (as seen on check please). thank you again! also really good!

appetizers:

mushroom pot stickers.


foccacia with proscuitto.


baked mac-n-cheese.


dinners:

meat loaf: dalia, samir, mr. salameh

gnocchi: reem and fida

salmon: me and mrs. salameh

chicken: ferris, mr. graduate


thank you all for inviting me!

Tried to sell my books earlier today and made a cool 30 bucks. my old textbook was only worth one dollar. ridiculous! and one book was missing a cd so I couldn't sell it back. unfortunately, by the time I got home, I realized that the cd was sandwiched in one of the books that I just sold back. I'm an idiot. drowned my sorrows in a subway footlong meatball marinara with italian cheese and herb bread, diet coke, and latest episode of chuck. I'll probably start mad men season 3 soon, finish weeds, and start entourage. I want to travel, which means some massive planning coming up...we'll see how that goes.