RESULTS ARE IN

My 23andMe reports came back! What a nice little end-of-week surprise!

Good news: no variants detected for any genetic disorders that they test for.

Their genetic predictions of me were all correct, such as, according to my genes I would be very likely to NOT have red hair, very likely to have light skin, freckles, no cleft chin, and can detect asparagus odors. The one odd I defied was that I was likely to have my ring finger be longer, but it isn't. Take that, science.

Additionally, I legit am part Neanderthal. I have 251 Neanderthal variants, which is more than 18% of the users on 23andMe, although it is less than 4% of my genetic makeup.

Best news? Some of my Neanderthal genetics make me less like to have back hair LOLOLOLOL. You're welcome, my future offspring!

I mean, no one is surprised right?? We all figured this out in 2011...

And of course, the BEST part: the ancestry.

Let's say this: surprising in some ways, not surprising in others. Sadly, no big surprise (I was hoping to find some surprise Jewish or Middle Eastern in there), I'm pretty European, but the breakdown is very intriguing aaaaaaaaand... could potentially be a descendant of Pocahontas...!

My maternal haplogroup is H13.

Hmmm... are you interested yet? Do your own 23andMe and we can connect and share ancestry! And by the way, it connects you to your DNA relative users on the site too... kinda neat! And by the way, if you want to do it, tell me so I can send you a referral!!

P.S. Happy 5th anniversary of the Royal Wedding!

Sigh, I just love Kate Middleton.

Spring Cleaning

I thought this week would go by slow, but it's zooming by, even being swamped and slammed at work. Yesterday I went to an event at the Mission Inn. The appetizers were bomb diggity and the weather was lovely.

I went home to scour my apartment clean. It wasn't fun. That place just never feels clean because it is so old. However, I put my music on shuffle and it came up with the greatest mix on it's own! I kept restarting it because I was so impressed!

"Who Is It" by Michael Jackson

"Shameless" by Billy Joel

"Is There Somewhere" by Halsey

"From The Stars" by The White Lies

"Style" by Taylor Swift

"Lonestar" by Norah Jones

"Party at a Rich Dude's House" by Ke$ha

"Down" by Jay Sean feat. Lil Wayne

"Make Her Say" by Kid Cudi

"Little Lion Man" by Mumford and Sons

"Like A Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan

...I didn't say it made any sense though lolololol

Purple Rain of my Tears

I forgot to say how sad I was when I heard about Prince's death. I remember my friend Mat used to love to watch Purple Rain the movie and laugh at the end part when they close up on Apollonia and the tear is just sliding down her cheek. He would rewind it and watch it over and over.

Last Thursday when he died, I was walking to my car after work and I passed the Jehovah's Witnesses who stand on the corner distributing literature to the students, and I wanted to stop and say "I'm so sorry for your loss"  but I'm not sure they would have gotten it anyway.

Koachella Kitties

I'm not even on Snapchat, but when I saw they have a flower crown filter I used it for me and the kitty!

Like mother like kitty!

How 'bout that Game of Thrones premier, eh?

Spanish Art Gallery

Well, I continue to serve on the Mission Inn board, and going to meetings there feels so regal - it is such a beautiful establishment. Our meetings have rotated between the same 2 or 3 rooms thus far, however, today it was in a brand new room, the Spanish Art Gallery, and each room never ceases to amaze me.

I felt like I was in an actual gallery, and had a hard time paying attention to the meeting because I was so mesmerized by the art and the room itself. I should have gotten pictures of the paintings but I felt dumb even taking this picture. Look at that ceiling!

In other news... I have no other news lolololol.

One Night Coachella

AJ and I went to our own one-night Coachella 2016 last night and had a great time! Back in February I bought tickets for us to see CHVRCHES, one of my favorite bands ever (that I discovered at Coachella 2014!) that I even saw in Hollywood in 2014 too! They are SUCH a good show!

Anyways, even though I've had these tickets forever and had been looking forward to it for forever, I've been so exhausted with work that I just haven't had the energy lately. I drove out to AJ's right after work, there was a ton of traffic, and I was just in a bad mood. We got Del Taco (that helped my mood some) and some beers and went to the venue, parked, and sat in there for like 2 hours. (This is the camping portion of Coachella). We had got to the venue around 7:30 and AJ had looked up the set times and Chvrches wasn't even on until 9:45p. We listened to some songs by the opener, Phases, in the car and they weren't half bad. We planned to go in for them, but we were so lazy in the car just drinking and showing each other memes. I was so tired I felt like taking a power nap.

I really had to pee at one point. I wasn't ready to go into the venue and the parking lot was deserted since everyone was inside. So I went in the planter we were parked next to. That's when I told AJ this was our Coachella this year and this would really solidify the deal, if I went to the bathroom in nature. So I did.

AJ and I finally went in and ended up missing all of Phases. Welp. We got beers and got in on a side side. AJ wasn't happy with the spot and was down and willing to work our way to the floor, as was I. We decided to go out and around (stopping for shots of Fireball) but they told us the pit was at capacity and no one else was being allowed in. By this time, the crowd was getting worse and we for sure wouldn't get our decent spots back. We stood back and regrouped.

I suggested I just say our friends were down there and we came up to a get a beer. AJ said he would follow me if I did the talking. I told the bouncer our friends were down there and we just came up to get a beer. He said nope, sorry. I watched another guy be let in. "Hey, why does that guy get to go?" I asked. "He came up from here originally," he said. "Hey! So did we! We just walked out like 5 minutes ago!" (A lie. Oops). "You did?! Okay!" and the bouncer waved us right through. (Being a sassy white girl manipulating the bouncers is also Coachella-like).

The floor really WAS at capacity. It was a tight squeeze. But the show started right then and it was awesomeeeee! Dancing and jumping and singing! It was fabulous.

I felt so young by the end of the night! And I think I burned off all the Del Taco by singing and jumping and dancing and sweating. Goodbye Coachella 2016 LOLOLOLOL see you next year.

Matchy Matchy Backy Packy

How is the weekend over already? My weekends have become so fun, I'm really starting to get that whole "working for the weekend" mentality. On Friday I was able to slip out a few minutes early to catch the 5:01 Angels Express train from downtown. Marisa got on at the next stop, and she and I took it down to Angels Stadium, where we met up with AJ and Nate for the game. They were playing the Texas Rangers and they imploded. It was a sad game. Not for me, cause I don't really care, but for AJ for sure.

Since AJ had to stay around home to feed his aunt's dog, I went home with Marisa and Nate, and AJ came out the next morning. We made a trip out to REI to gear up for the Iceland trip (pun intended). AJ surprised me and bought my travel backpack for the trip!

We are matchy-matchy! We got the same backpack, although I got a smaller version. AJ also got some heavier shoes. We are planning to pack only in those backpacks. It will be the first time I will be so unencumbered while I travel. Even when I only pack a duffel bag I always have to hoist it over a shoulder to carry it around and it's not ideal. I will have about two outfits for the whole trip. And my bridesmaid dress.

On Sunday AJ and I went to breakfast down the street from me at the taco shop, and I did more Europe research while he watched the Masters, and then we took Anana on a walk to Fairmount Park. I was thinking that taking Anana to the lake and feeding the ducks would be such a fun activity, and it seemed like it would make sense, but it turns out it does not. Anana kept lunging at the ducks and quite literally almost dragging AJ into the lake after her when she was going after a goose. And Anana hates the water! I really thought her and AJ both were going straight in. So, noted: cannot do both.

The Rose Garden was in full, colorful bloom.

Happy Monday?

THE FUTURE

The Future is already here - you can unlock your phone with your fingerprint and your computer with a retina scan. So that's no big deal. But my future isn't that advanced lolololol. I hesitate to say anything because I'm really not sure where (if anywhere) I plan to take this, but in the event that I do do something with it, well let's start documenting the process.

I have been thinking about going back to school. Grad school requires the GRE, which is $205. That's been keeping me off of it for a long time. Well my work offers scholarships for continuing education so I applied for a scholarship to have them cover the cost of the GRE, and yesterday I found out that I got it! So I registered for the GRE test for July 23 of this year. That is 3 1/2 months away. Welp.

Today I got the news that my 23andMe kit has moved onto the next stage! My DNA was read with the genotyping chip and is now on phase 6 of 8: Quality Review. They are validating the call rate and accuracy. After this there is initial raw data processing and then computation and report generation. Getting closer!

I know I should be happy for all the rain coming our way but quite frankly, I'm not. I need to be able to go running on my lunch breaks and this is going to mess it all up! And I don't have great self control, so once my routine gets interrupted... well, it's all downhill from there.

Springtime!

It's springtime and I know for sure because I now sit through baseball games at Angels' Stadium instead of football on the TV. Ha! I don't mind - I enjoy sports, but my boyfriend is obsessed and I'm learning to read the calendar by sports... it's kinda like telling the time of day by the sun.

What I'm trying to say is that AJ and I went to the Freeway Series Angels vs Dodgers and AJ got to debut his official Mike Trout jersey which I'll take the liberty of saying was his all-time favorite Christmas gift ever. I tried to wear my Giants jersey and he ripped it off and put me in his old Angels one.

We had seats in the Diamond Club section, which was sweet. Late in the game, I saw someone walking to a seat who had the same jacket as my friend Marisa. Then I realized this girl had the same hair as Marisa. Then I realized it WAS Marisa! Her and Nate were also there in the Diamond Club, with second-row seats, so naturally we upgraded ourselves to sit with them!

There was a fireworks show afterwards tooooo.

In other news, on Saturday morning I went to a linguistics conference at UCLA. It was fascinating, as usual. This was the closest poster I was sitting next to and took a picture of it. This person researched native English speakers' acquiring Mandarin Chinese tones - it's really interesting data!

On Sunday, AJ and I hit a huge milestone in our relationship. We assembled IKEA furniture together - and we didn't even argue or hate each other when it was done! Success! I have been dying for a new dresser since I moved in. You can kinda see the run-down, janky dresser on the right in the below picture...

And here is the new one!

I feel like a brand-new human being! I LOVE IT. And now my life's mission is to continue to complete my white-stain Hemnes set from IKEA. It's the best. Obviously.

I've also had a goal to go walking/running for 30 minutes a day, 6 days a week, and guess what, I'm doing amazing at it so far. I'm a week and a half in lolololol let's see how long I last. On Sunday I got to have a running partner and took Anana through a lot of natural trails in Irvine, which was actually a little bit of a mistake - she kept trying to catch squirrels and rabbits and pulling me into the brush with her (she's very strong!) but it was still cute.

Aaaand I got to hang out with my cousin Brianna unexpectedly. And I'm counting down the days to Europefest 2016, I can't believe how close it is now! It's always felt like a distant dream.

Khaleesi Bug

Happy Friday. This is usually how I get woken up in the morning if I hit snooze too many times. Seriously. If I'm not getting up, Khaleesi will come and lay on me.

I was getting ready this morning and suddenly there was a cat in my face. Khaleesi had jumped up onto the floating shelves in my bathroom, which was surprising because they're really not very accessible to her. I'm not sure if she's done this while I'm not home, but it's the first time I've seen her do it!

And of course she tried attacking all my rubber bands. She's so cute like that.

Today is April 1st which means it's April Fool's Day and I HATEEEEEEEEEEEEEE April Fool's Day! Last year I got a fake parking ticket and I was so mad! Every year I dread this day. TRUST NO ONE!