I need to talk to some food about this…

October 13, 2011 Nina Penalosa2 Comments

Why yes, that *is* a giant stock of asparagus I’m leaning on.

After class I met up with my friend Caitlin, who was also in the Creative Writing program at SFSU with me! I’ve been missing school like CRAZY. I know I’m taking a Children’s Lit. class at the community college with Jen, who was also in the CW program with me, but it’s not the same. I love seeing Jen all the time, she’s one of mah beeeest frriiiends, but I miss seeing my CW buddies on a weekly basis. I miss reading their stories. I miss talking to them about the good stories and the really bad stories (appletini… oh my god) we had to read for classes. I miss chatting with them before and after class about random shit. I just miss them all in general! So it was soooo nice to hang out with Caitlin, and all we did was talk and talk and talk about our mutual love of Liz Lemon (I swear she’s a mini Liz Lemon/Tina Fey), how Christina Hendricks is the only woman I’d go lesbian for, TV shows we managed to start/or finish watching over the summer, celebrity crushes (RYAN GOSLING! ZACHARY LEVI!), *NSYNC, Harry Potter, food, adjusting to life back in Stockton after living in the bay for awhile, Disneyland… jeez, what didn’t we talk about?

FxCam_1318546012302 — I made Caitlin take this picture so I could send it to our friend Dana. And see? She’s totes mini Liz!

Frozen yogurt found its way into our conversation after I mentioned that Nubi has Dole Pineapple sorbet which is basically the same exact thing as a Dole Whip from Disneyland. If you’ve never tried a Dole Whip — NAY! — if you’ve never been to Disneyland AND never tried a Dole Whip, you haven’t lived your life to the fullest yet.

nubi yogurt — Dole Pineapple frozen yogurt makes me feel like I’m at Disneyland.

After I dropped Caitlin off, my mom gave me a couple of Graham Snackers when I got home. What are Graham Snackers, you might be wondering? Lemme tell you! It’s like an ice cream sandwich, only it consists of graham crackers, grape jelly and peanut butter. My mom and my cousin Cynthia were talking about them over the weekend and I was just so lost. I guess it’s the new thing they serve at school cafeterias. And you know what? I feel like I was robbed. That stuff is hella nummy. Why wasn’t that around when I was in elementary school?!

I suppose I should be thankful that I at least had tater tots. Dammit, now I want tater tots. Or hashbrowns. Jack-in-the-Box has tiny hashbrowns… I think? WHY ARE POTATOES SO AMAZING? <– BRB, I gotta find some food to talk to.

Blurgh.

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outfit details:

cardigan: Mossimo
dress: H&M
belt: from a garage sale
boots: thrifted
necklace: from a street faire (I blogged about it not too long ago)

Lodi Street Faire

October 2, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Every May and October my mom and I wake up at the ass crack of dawn to head to the Lodi Street Faire. Why so early? To get first dibs on all the goods, of course! In May I wrote a post with 10 tips about shopping at these kinds of things (Tip #10: Get there early).

You can find the aforementioned post here.

We ended up getting there around 7 am (an hour later than we would’ve liked), but I still managed to score a bunch of awesome swag. My first find was a vintage Wicket coin bank (I love Ewoks, and my dog looks like one — I had to have it). The vendor originally asked for $10, then I asked if she’d take $8, and she was like, “Well, I originally wanted $15 for it… blah blah,” but then she went ahead and gave it to me for $8. LE WOOT! <– Tip #2: Don’t be afraid to negotiate.

Seriously, it doesn’t hurt to try and bargain with vendors. I have weird social anxiety issues, so I always had a problem doing this — my mom still has to encourage me to ask if they’ll lower the price. *nervous laughter* I think I’m getting a bit better at it though! And a lot of vendors are usually willing to negotiate the prices of their merchandise with shoppers.

Other items I scored:

Snake bracelet (marked at $16, I asked for $10, but the lowest they’d go was $12)
Nefertiti necklace ($5 — it kind of reminds me of my Mona Lisa necklace)
Enamel horse pendant w/chain (marked at $32.50, I asked the vendor if they’d take it for $25 and I ended up getting it for $27 something because they added tax… weird)
Japanese lion musical pendant ($10 — it winds up in the back and plays music!)
Not pictured, but my mom and I also split on a box full of silk bow ties ($20)

It was nice and cold this morning and a cool breeze came in around 8, but by 11 the sun was blaring. Can’t the Central Valley just have real Fall weather already? I’m ready to wear cardigans, scarves, and boots ALL DAY LONG. I’ve been ready since Winter ended! D:

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outfit details:

scarf: Missoni for Target
cardigan: Mossimo (Target)
camisole: Xhiliration (Target)
belt: some Target brand… I love Target, okay? Sheesh.
jeggings: H&M
boots: Madden Girl
purse: Cynthia Rowley

bloop · geek style

The Batcave

September 27, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Check it out, an OOTD (outfit of the day) shot in my newly painted batcave… er, I mean room!

As I posted last week, my dad and I painted my room purple. I really love the way it turned out, and my room actually feels like a room — like I actually feel like I live here now. Before it was just a big nasty mess and I was all kinds of overwhelmed. When I moved to Daly City 2 years ago I got to start with a blank canvas so it was easy to arrange things and keep my room clean over there. When I moved back to my parent’s house in Stockton, my room was a complete disaster as it turned into a storage facility of sorts. There are still some excess boxes with micellaneous items I need to sort through, but other than that, my room looks pretty fucking sweet.

Rory’s bed was originally in the spot where I’m standing in my OOTD pic, but he just really digs hanging out under my bed. Last night he whined a bit, so I let him sleep by me instead. It was quite nice to have something cuddly and furry snuggled next to me. 😀

Does anyone remember that show MTV used to have called Room Raiders, where 3 people get kidnapped from their homes and some random person goes in and inspects their rooms to determine who go they wanna go on a date with based on the contents of their rooms?<– long ass sentence. All the guys tended to say the girls who still had toys in their rooms were probably really juvenile and they always got the heave-ho. And some have said that girls who own too many purses must have emotional baggage or some horse crap like that. Needless to say, those bag hags got the heave-ho too.

Based on the contents of my room, I would TOTALLY not get a date. If I were a contestant on that show, some dude would be like, “Who the hell lives here? A 12 year-old?” No boy has set foot in my room, sans my homie Tim, and I still ain’t gettin’ no dates, so… um… yeah. x___x

Can you find my Doctor action figure dangling from one of my necklaces?

Star Wars + Audrey Hepburn + Elizabeth Taylor… I call my blog Le Fancy Geek for a reason, y’know.

All my Disney movies fit on one shelf! I’m weird in the way I organize my books and movies — nothing is in alphabetical order (except for my TV DVDs), but I do try to keep things together based on genre.

My fancy vintage typewriter has William Blake’s “A Poison Tree” typed out on the piece of paper that’s in it. ‘Tis one of my favorites. Y’all should Google it. Oh, and CHECK OUT MY SWEET ASS SONIC SCREWDRIVER COLLECTION. And my Dalek coin bank keeps my monies safe.

I just need to buy some frames for my Mike Maihack prints (Poison Ivy, Batgirl,and Wolverine having a tea party) that I picked up at Comic Con and find some other things to hang up on my walls and I’ll be all set.

My room is basically an outward reflection of my personality, and as you can see I’m nerdtastically rad. 😀

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outfit details:

shirt: Forever 21
camisole: I have no idea. o,0
shorts: Mossimo (Target)
shoes: Blowfish Malibu
ring: from my grandma
purse: Cynthia Rowley

bloop · geek style

Vrooom

September 1, 2011 Nina PenalosaLeave a comment

September is here! WTF? This year is going by a bit too fast for my liking. But with September here, it means that we’re on our way to cooler weather… or so I hope. I wore my cowboy boots today and it’s around 90 degrees outside — my calves got pretty sweaty. Ewww.

I can’t wait till I can start wearing my colorful nylons and wear layers upon layers of clothes! If I still lived in Daly City, I’d get to deal with fun bi-polar weather around this time of year. I swear it would be foggy as hell one day, and sunny and über hot the next. Blugh. Facebook informed me that on this very day last year I complained about it:

Wooooo!

Anyway, today in class (Children’s Lit.) we discussed this lecture we had to watch at our last class meeting called “From Mouse to Mermaid.” The lecturer basically talked about how Disney portrayed gender and minorities in a negative light. Some points were fairly accurate, but they all pertained to the views of society in the 50s and 60s. He started to go a little overboard when he started talking about modern films and how minority characters like Mowgli from The Jungle Book and Mulan had “western features.” Mulan looks Asian to me! And he said King Louie was a black man because he sang a jazzy tune. By making that observation, isn’t the lecturer guilty of stereotyping? That man was full of boo-shiz. I could rant on and on about this whole thing, but I won’t! 😛

I don't care if it's considered juvenile to decorate your bags with buttons. Mine are cool!

What else? Oh, I started driving all by my lonesome! This is a BFG (big f*cking deal) because I have been all kinds of scared about being behind the wheel, especially since I got into a ginormous accident last year. I’ve only gone out twice, both times were to go to school, but I did okay. And I’m even parking in between cars — I used to get paranoid about that because I was always worried I’d hit one, or park crooked. My parking skills are actually decent though! I need to start making mixes to stick in the CD player, the music that’s already in there is kinda snoozey.

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outfit details:

cardigan: Mossimo
belt: Target
dress: purchased at some cheapy fashion store @ Horton Plaza in San Diego
shoes: thrifted
necklace: Forever 21

bloop

Little Miss _____

August 26, 2011 Nina Penalosa3 Comments

Yesterday I randomly bumped into my cousin Celeste after running some errands around campus, so I decided to invite myself over to visit with her, my cousin Cynthia, and the kiddies! I ended up helping my niece Isabelle with her homework by reading Little Miss Star three times. I remember my cousin Amanda had tons of Little Miss and Mr Men books when we were little. One time my mom bought me a Mr. Happy book and little plush toy because I was being cranky, so she thought it would help me get happy. 🙂

I also some Lego Star Wars book for Jacob, and Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones. That book is ridiculous and kinda weird to read out loud. I gave Lily a are-you-effing-serious look when she asked me to read it again, but then her sister came by and swept her away to play. *phew*

Tonight I was supposed to go to the Edgar Wright Q&A and triple feature (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, buuut I hit some snafu (original buddy I was going with got sick, couldn’t find someone else to go with, and I have no way of getting to SF by myself) so I decided the whole thing was a bust. Good news is I was able to make it so that Heather could get my tickets (I had the tickets at will call and they’re all strict about who picks them up).

I’m bummed that I’m not going anymore, but I figure the money I put towards my ticket will now go to my Rory fund. Plus I’m supposed to get into some super awesome shinnanigans with my best friend Tim tomorrow. We’re gonna have a SUPER EPIC SCOTT PILGRIM-STAR WARS-DOCTOR WHO-COOKIE BAKING DAY. And we’re also going to see Rory! 😀

Oh yeah, and this bit happened while I was hanging out with Isabelle…

Isabelle: Where did you get that big can of juice (Arizona Kiwi Strawberry)?

Me: At the store.

Isabelle: What store?

Me: The grocery store.

Isabelle: What else do they sell?

Me: Food.

Isabelle: What kind of food?

Me: The kind you eat.

Isabelle: What kind of food do I eat?

Me: Lasagna.

Isabelle: What kind of lasagna?

Me: Italian.

Isabelle: What kind of Italian?

Me: From Italy.

Isabelle: …

Isabelle likes to ask A LOT of questions, which isn’t bad thing, It’s good for kids, and adults, to be curious, but… /facepalm

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outfit details:

cardigan: from Sears
top: Forever 21
belt: from Kohls
shorts: Mossimo
shoes: American Rag

geek style

Bargain Hunter

August 8, 2011 Nina Penalosa2 Comments

I’ve been on a really big Star Wars kick as of late. A couple weeks ago I found this really rad Boba Fett helmet at Target on sale for $10 (originally $40). It was the only one left, and I thought it would look cool on my bookshelf. I couldn’t pass it up! It was too good of a deal. And I’ve been wanting a Stormtrooper action figure for quite some time since I’ve seen people take really amazing pictures of them all over Flickr. Take a gander here. I got my own little Stormtrooper the same day I bought my helmet (and the green shirt I’m wearing pictured above, which was also on sale. SCORE!). I’m not quite sure what to do with him yet. I have some little toys and accessories to use for a silly photo shoot though.

And when I went to Target the other day (I frequent that place a lot, okay?), I found the Funko Star Wars bobble heads! My mom bought Yoda, and I got a Stormtrooper. I dunno why I keep buying things related to the Dark Side. I always thought I was more of a Jedi than a Sith. x___x

I don’t even know where any of our Star Wars DVDs are, or if we even have any! I know my family owns them on VHS, but I’m too lazy to set up my VCR (which is somewhere in the garage). Oh well. At least the whole saga is coming out on DVD/BluRay next month!