Today was my 24th birthday and I got to spend it with Panda and my parents.  🙂

I couldn't drive off without a picture first!

I got up early in the morning, surprising my parents, since  I love to sleep in.  Well, I had a date to catch!  Since Panda does not have his own transportation, I went out to pick him up so we could have lunch with my parents.  I was allowed a day of joyriding in my new car for my birthday, after which the car will be stored away until I get myself a job.  Call it sort of reward and encouragement at the same time.  I got a chance to set up the Bluetooth connection and made my first call with it to Panda.  He couldn’t even hear a difference!  Excellent.  Now I’ll never miss a phone call in the car since my music will automatically be muted for incoming calls.

Isn't that the smallest cone you've ever seen?

So we drove back to my neighborhood and I called up my parents to direct them to the local Souplantation.  I can’t believe we never knew about it before!  But you know, now that I think of it, it looks awfully familiar and I think it’s been there for a long time, but we just never knew about it.  So lunch was nice, with my dad and Panda doing most of the talking.  My parents really enjoyed Panda’s choice of restaurant and it was quite healthy and filling.  Plus, they had the cutest little ice cream cones!  By and by, it was time to part and for me to head off with Panda for the rest of the day.  We did a little strolling around the area before heading over to the dealership, since we’d noticed that the floor mats in my car were missing.

Look what we came across on our stroll!

With the paper mats in the way, we didn't notice at first that the actual mats were missing!

This fish must have been very hungry, since it spent the night trying to eat rocks.

The rest of the day was very chill as we hung out and enjoyed each other’s company.  For dinner, I had a hard time choosing, so we found something on Yelp that was near his home and headed that way.  Unfortunately, the place was closed for some reason, but thankfully, he had just gone to a nice Japanese place just down the street the day before.  We went there and had a nice time eating and watching the fish doing silly fish things in the tank in front of us.  Nice place and nice food.  To round out the night, we made a pit stop at cha for tea, my all-time favorite boba place.  They offer games there for people to play as they hang out, drink tea and boba, and munch on some food.  We’ve got a little tradition of playing Connect 4 there, so we sat down to a showdown.

All too soon we had finished our drinks, played many a round, and realized it was time to head back for the night.  I dropped him off and drove on home, enjoying the feel of the Corolla one last time.  I came back to dozens of birthday well wishes from friends on Facebook and a steadily growing number of votes coming in to help me towards winning a job interview for January 4th!  It’s great to have support and it’s been a fun way for me to earn my foot in the door for an exciting job.  With just one day left, I’ll do one final push and hope for the best.  I do believe I can stay in the Top 5 and earn an interview, but just in case I’m still working hard to ensure it’s taken care of.

In honor of the “numbers game” that my parents keep saying job searching can be, I thought I’d play around with some numbers myself…

1 lifetime:

2 parents

3 cats

4 countries lived in

5 states of residence

6 cars our family has owned

7 major relocations

8 cousins (and a step-cousin) I don’t get to see enough

9 jobs where I’ve earned money (3 internships without)

10 years old when I started documenting my life like the packrat I am

11 (and a half) places I’ve called home

12 grandparents, aunts, and uncles living in Asia (plus a step-grandparent)

13 years of keeping a daily journal

14 schools attended from pre-school through college (some simultaneously)

15 European countries traveled over a 5-week spring break

16, an eventful age: took driving lessons, attended Leadership Academy, went to Australia & Hawai’i, and moved to California from New York

17 (and a quarter) years’ worth of education thus far

18, the last landmark birthday (21 doesn’t count since I don’t drink)

19 affiliations with UCLA organizations throughout my college career

20 (intermittent) years in this country

21 major cities traveled to over that 5-week spring break

22 countries traveled to overall (not counting the 4 I’ve lived in for some period of time)

23 airports I’ve been through

culminating in 24 years of rich experiences!

I’ve certainly got a lot of stories.  As always, things in my life tend to be more exception than rule, so these numbers may be slightly off, depending on your criteria.  You get the idea though.