you win some, you lose some

DISCLAIMER: moving forward, all my sentences will no longer be non-capitalized, because my fiancé has intervened and became my biggest grammar critic. grammar police, watch out!
i type this as we are sitting on a bus. he is watching me (side eye and all!). carefully watching if i properly use capitalization and punctuation.

alright so here it goes-

Long time no blog!

"You win some, you lose some."
What immediately resonates when you hear this phrase?

When I hear this phrase, my mind immediately goes to Vegas. Ah. Good ol' Las Vegas.

Viva Las Vegas, I miss you...kind of.
Vegas and I have a weird love-hate relationship. I miss it when I am away from it, but when I spend more than two days there, I hate it (...and hate is a strong word).

I think after the initial 24 hours, I get cranky because:

• It's just too hot. Feels like you are constantly being surrounded by those public bathroom air dryers. Then when you take refuge in the casinos, the air smells like smoke.
• It's too obnoxious with drunk people and totally un-cool people thinking they are cool by wearing sunglasses at night. 
• It's too expensive. In Vegas, a $100 bill goes away in a second. 
• It's just too easy to overeat. A buffet there, a buffet here. After your third buffet, you just feel unattractive and unhealthy. You feel like a blob.

...ok before I go on a tangent about my relationship with Vegas, let me bring this back to that phrase "You win some, you lose some."

The main reason why I started this blog entry with this phrase is because this past week, this phrase has totally given me a complete different image than Vegas.

*sigh.
Let me get to the point- This week really sucked.

I started the week with excitement and nervousness. After a long week of anticipation, we were going to find out if we were the winners of a wedding photography contest, where we were finalists. Last week, we had an amazing interview and ....alright, I'll say it. I thought we got it.

The interview was perfect. Good vibes all around. Better than my job interview that got me my current job! We were selected to be interviewed from over 40 couples! Life was great! (This part is the "you win some....")

So I started the week with some expectations, my mood did a total Six Flags rollercoaster dip from giddy excitement to horrible disappointment when we received the phone call.

*ring ring... hello?

We came in second place. They called us runner-ups. I guess runner-ups sound better than second place. I guess... (This part is the "you lose some....")

I couldn't hide my disappointment.

T seeing a really sad mopey Mai decided to cheer me up and take me to Whole Foods to get my favorite cake ever! The tiramisu there is AMAZING! (This part is the "you win some...")

...but then, guess what happened?

 ...OF COURSE! i swear sometimes i think my life is like the Truman Show.
They had no tiramisu that day! Of all the days in the year, the Whole Foods bakers decided not to make tiramisu that day. (This part is the "you lose some")

T tried so hard to cheer me up..again. This time he suggested we make one of my favorites- Vongole!
We got some linguine, clams, tomatoes, garlic, white wine, and fresh parsley. YIPPY YAY!

We went home and whipped up two plates of wonderful vongole pasta.(This part is the "you win some")

NOM NOM NOM.

...but lesson learned- Soak your clams for at least half a hour because you will end up eating the beach along with your linguine.

There you have it folks:

You win some, you lose some.....then you win some again, then you lose some again, you win some one more time, and in the end you are over it and you laugh and just enjoy life for what it is.

-mai (....i'm still going to sign my name in non-capital letters...just cause I am a rebel. Oh....and the grammar police is sleeping)

sleepy sleepy grammar police

I hate to see mai so disappointed sometimes. so glad the vongole made her smile even though it reminded me of the beaches of Hawaii. T gets brownie points! I love my wolf pack!

T's Cheer-Mai-Up Vongole

Ingredients:
grape tomatoes
garlic cloves
fresh parsley
white wine
salt
live clams
linguine
EVOO (extra virgin olive oil)
crushed red peppers

Directions:
1. Place clams in bowl of water. Let sit for at least half an hour. Longer the better! The clams will get tired of you and spit out all the sand from their shells.

2. Boil water and add salt. Add linguine.

3. Cut your tomatoes in half. Chop up some garlic. Chop up some parsley.

4. Place clams in a pot on medium heat (without anything else in the pot) and cover.  Let the clams cook until they open and water from inside of the clams comes out.

5.  Remove the clams from the pot and collect the clam-water in a mug and sit to the side.

6. Sautee garlic with a small amount of crushed red peppers, and tomatoes in 2-3 table spoons of EVOO.

7.  While the tomatoes are cooking, remove around half of the clams from their shells. and place back in the sauce with tomatoes.

8.  Add a splash of white wine to the final mixture and let cook uncovered for 3-5 minutes, for the alcohol to evaporate.

9.  Once the pasta is cooked a tiny bit harder than al dente, drain the water and return the pasta to the pot adding the sauce from the clams and tomatoes and a small amount of the water from the clams if it becomes too dry.  (Note: at this point, the sand and debris from the clam water should have separated from the water above it, be careful to not add the debris to the pasta).

10.  Serve with fresh parsley and the remainder of the sauce on top.  Also be aware that by mixing the pasta with the sauce and clam water, it will continue to cook the pasta a little more to becoming a perfect al dente.