All Sorted

I arrived in Boston on Monday afternoon and stayed with friends for a few days while looking for an apartment. Though moving into an apartment yesterday morning might seem like it all happened very quicky, it kind of felt like a long process as I saw a lot of places and basically lived on Craigslist from the moment I arrived. I've been in my new studio apartment for 24 hours now and am feeling very put together already. A trip to Home Depot, Target and Trader Joe's helped immensely ... I really like the small space; it keeps it interesting. Today I'm going to explore! Pictures to follow!

BOSTON!

As many of you know, in keeping with my fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants trajectory of the past several months (years?), I have made a very quick decision to move to Boston! Thanks to the job-stylings of a very good friend, I will be starting a new job there at the end of November and am very excited. Just five short months ago I was in Los Angeles, then I was in Upstate NY, right now I'm in Florida and in a couple of weeks, I'll be starting my life as a New Englander!

Please feel free to contact me if you have a room/studio/one bedroom/etc to rent or if you know of one in a cool Boston neighborhood conveniently situated to get to Back Bay. I know it'll be hard to line up before I get there, but it's worth a shot. I will be out of the blog world probably until I get settled . . . so, I'll see you back here in a few weeks!

Berkeley Square

I've been in Florida a few days now and it's either been too hot or too rainy to do much which is just fine with me since Netflix successfully mailed me - to my new address - disc 3 of the mini-series I was in the middle of when I hit the road. I finished watching Berkeley Square this afternoon and, as my mom said when she finished watching it yesterday, I feel like I've lost my best friend! I think that is precisely what is so great and horrible about a mini-series: you have more time with characters unlike in a movie, but then by the time it is over, you are even more sad to see it end because you've spent so much time getting involved in the story.

So, I would totally recommend this mini-series and others that I've watched in the last year: Cranford, Wives & Daughters and The Cazalets. I have a feeling that my Netflix will be great while in Florida. What to watch next?

Florida!

After a two day stop in NC along the way, I've finally arrived in Florida and am trying to get used to the extreme heat and humidity! Yesterday was a long day of driving which both started and ended in the dark and during which I shared the Buick with a moquito who buzzed in my ear, bit my forehead and then hibernated under the seat until it got dark again at which time it came out and repeated its dirty deeds.

Today I'm getting unpacked, buying groceries and picking up my grandmother at the airport later in the day. Tomorrow - or Monday - I start looking for a job and who knows . . . I may just fit a couple swims in, too.

Media/Stupidity Overload

I've finally had enough television, movies and the internet. TV is boring and the same movies seem to be cranked out every year only with different actors. The internet is full of gossip sites and the newspapers chocked full of "editorials" which I find offensive and a waste of time. I have only been on Facebook a couple of months and am irritated by it. I mean, how much do I need to know about people? And their politics?

As for TV, I have only 4 shows I feel compelled to watch weekly and I can justify my choices because they're somewhat educational:

Desperate Housewives: Education about pop culture
One Tree Hill: Education about today's youth
Biggest Loser: Education about fitness, health & food
Private Practice: Education about medicine and personal relationships

OK, so obviously I know this is kind of a joke, but honestly, I have trimmed the fat off of my TV watching and, after watching many mediocre movies lately, I'm pretty much over movies, too. I am getting my Netflix back up and running (they are great and have let me put my subscription "on hold" for the last several months since I moved out of LA) and have been watching BBC mini-series. The latest is Berkeley Square and I'd totally recommend it.

Otherwise, I am getting back into books! And other things that don't subject me to others' opinions and the constant circle-talking on issues like Dave Letterman's affairs or how we're going to be in a breadline if we allow people health care or how it's not actually racist to make a picture of the president in which he looks like an ape. Ugh! People!

Countdown: 6 Days

Only 6 days until I leave for Florida! I have kind of a lot to do between now and then, but this weekend I opted to do a lot of other things including going to the movies to see "Whip It." It was an OK movie - not the big hit it was kind of promised to be, but I'm glad I saw it. I sometimes have a hard time getting into movies when I am distracted by other moviegoers who are talking. Yesterday was particularly bad; my mom and I even had to get up and move across the whole theatre to new seats because a lady and her husband were being so rude did not quit for the entire movie. To make matters worse, they were both very old and she was in a wheelchair, so despite knowing that someone can still be wrong - and a total *%^$& - even though they're challenged, I didn't want to yell at them and make them feel worse. This is a common thing for me . . . going to the movies and letting my blood boil for the whole thing because of other people who don't know that going to a movie is different from watching a movie in their own house. I need to restart my Netflix subscription and forget about the theatre. It's not just big cities, it's not just small towns . . . from Los Angeles to Oneida, NY moviegoers are a sorry, pathetic, rude lot.

Cats & Tape = Bad

Everyone knows cats and tape don't mix, so when I read that a young man wrapped a cat in duct tape, I just had to read the article to see if it was a joke or something worse. I find it absolutely disgusting that someone has so much time to waste + no sense of right and wrong, but I was surprised and happy to learn that the cat survived this ordeal of being taped up, put in a sack and dropped in someone's yard! People who harm animals only escalate toward doing horrible things on a larger scale, so I hope this guy gets some mental health care. And that this adorable kitty gets a new home! As you can see from the picture, he's stripe-y and cute just like so many cats I've had.

Since I'm on this kick about how great cats are, here's a picture of the absolute angel that I live with, Uncle Boo Cliff:

Announcements

So, I'm just a couple weeks back and recovered from Europe and already things are changing up again! The big news is that very soon, I will be moving down to Florida! My aspirations to live in Florida are nothing new since I actually considered it when I was about 20 and associated Florida with sunbathing, reading Stuart Woods books and sleeping with only a sheet, but then I moved to California instead. Despite knowing Florida is not where I aspire to plant roots, I'm excited that I will be living with my Grandmother in a retirement complex where I will, as it turns out, be able to sunbathe, read Stuart Woods books and sleep with only a sheet! Never fear - I'm not that lazy - I'm also going to be looking for employment. Even if I'm only there a couple of months - yes, it's a temporary move - it can't hurt to get some money in the bank while working a temp job or something.

Now that the big news is out of the way, here is the "news" of this weekend: I unpacked some boxes looking for fall/transitional jackets (that means the weather is turning cooler! just in time for me to pack up for Florida!), went shopping with my dad for sneakers, cooked some lentils in the crock-pot all day and then watched Madea Goes to Jail which, I believe, is probably the best Tyler Perry movie ever. Funny, fun and, like all of his movies, very clearly pointed about doing the right thing and telling right from wrong . . . while also making it impossible not to laugh at Madea.

Also, you may have noticed I now have music on my blog. What do you think? Nice, not nice?

A List About My Trip

Now that it has cooled off and I've got my sweaters and cowboy boots out, I think this will be the last post tagged "what I did on my summer vacation." Fall is here and I think the trip to Europe was the summer's last hurrah. I had a great time, am fully recovered and have finally looked at all of my pictures. Here are some of the things I learned on this latest trip - many of them have to do with food, yes, but that's understandable since I tried basically everything I could while I was there:

1. Drinking the night before a transatlantic flight is possibly the worst thing you can do
2. Getting to JFK to fly anywhere is a huge hassle and waste of time, though it is generally the cheapest option
3. Getting picked up at your destination is much preferred to having to lug stuff on bus and train and foot (which is what we did)
4. Indian food in the UK is everywhere and it is delicious - so is pizza (especially American chain pizza) but I didn't have any of that
5. Full English breakfasts are delicious and can keep you going for almost a full day
6. English bacon is neither like our bacon nor our ham - it is something unique
7. You can get hard cider - and usually many varieties - at most pubs, restaurants and grocery stores in the UK and around Western Europe
8. Irn Bru soda (from Scotland) is interesting and great (it is also sold at Wegmans for $2.49 for a 16 oz bottle!). It is like cream soda with a hint of banana or circus peanut and colored orange
9. Notting Hill is not really like the movie, but then nothing ever really is
10. It is very easy to adapt to new surroundings and customs - big breakfasts, large pots of tea at every sitting, public transportation systems, local terminology, driving on the other side of the road, etc
11. Gas in the UK and Europe is truly expensive - probably about $8 a gallon?
12. It is not as easy to get to Europe from the UK as we are led to believe - you can't drive your car through the chunnel (you have to put it on a train that goes through it) and you don't just turn up (you must make a reservation) - similarly, you must reserve a time and space for the car ferry across (which we did)
13. Tolls in France are ridiculous - over $30 in tolls for being on the motorway just a couple of hours
14. Paris IS as cool as everyone buzzes about
15. They serve red wine chilled in Paris and cider on ice sometimes in the UK
16. Bathrooms are interesting - not only is it uncool to ask for the "bathroom" - you have to ask for the "toilet" - but the toilets are different (taller, deeper, wider) and often separated from the actual bath. As an American, I think saying "I have to go to the toilet" sounds a bit indelicate and impolite, though it is not a big secret what you are doing when you say you are "going to the bathroom." Either way - an interesting difference I learned about
17. I think more people must ride bikes in Amsterdam than anywhere else
18. German toilet paper really is unfriendly
19. Shampoo in hotels is hard to come by (definitely on my list to bring next time) and meant I went without washing my hair for many days and at one point settled for washing my hair with what seemed to be German dish soap. Also on my list for next time: voltage adapters for both the UK and Europe and also a travel towel
20. The Anne Frank House is not to be missed by anyone traveling to Amsterdam
21. Service in Holland stinks
22. Tipping is not really customary - and not expected to be generous - anywhere I traveled
23. It is not only interesting, but cheaper and a lot of fun to explore local supermarkets and then tote around a bag of food with you so that you can eat on the road and/or at night in a B&B when you've arrived late and no place is open to get a bite
24. Food in the UK is underrated and highly enjoyable - take "bubble" for example - a simple fry up of mashed potato and cabbage served with breakfast (tasty!) or roasted tomatoes and baked beans served with breakfast (excellent!)
25. French people don't really "just start talking English to you" like people say
26. I was surprised to learn that, of all the languages I spoke/tried to speak while away, German is the one I think I would like to learn more of
27. Potato chips in the UK and Europe (aka: crisps) are so much more interesting because they come in unique flavors that would never fly in the States (see the picture of the roasted chicken with thyme chips? They tasted kind of like Stove Top Stuffing chip-style)
28. Stonehenge really is tiny
29. It doesn't seem as weird for people my age to live with several roommates as it does in the States
30. Not all atlases are created equally
31. A jar of generic Nutella is considered a liquid/cream/gel and will be confiscated at airport security
32. American Airlines for international flights is great (though I've just about given up on them for domestic)
33. Bringing a tiny suitcase and tiny shoulder bag is indeed doable, though I still could have eliminated a few things . . . I had 2 blouses, a tshirt, a skirt and a pair of tights that I never wore (and a pair of shoes I could have lived without)
34. I like to be on my own schedule (OK, I already knew that - the trip just reminded me) and I like to make my own decisions without having to digest layers of feedback that other people give me about what I "should" do and see
35. Cars are little and efficient there and I think I would like to drive a Peugeot like the one we rented - not that people don't drive really nice cars sometimes, too - it just seemed like cars were much less of a status item than in the States
36. It is fairly easy to eat gluten-free in the UK and Europe . . . things are marked very well and people are aware of what gluten is. I even learned to recognize the word for gluten in Dutch on food labels: tarwe
37. Lots of extremely old towns - Cambridge, York, Bath, Brugge - keep their old, quaint buildings full of businesses like KFC, Marks & Spencer, H&M, etc which kind of takes away from the charm
38. It is really fun to see something in person that you've seen in pictures and on TV and movies for your whole life
39. iPhones are the best option for phone/internet on a trip like this in terms of portability, convenience and multi-functionality
40. Even though the countries are so much closer together than the countries in North America, it still takes quite a lot of time and miles to explore a lot - we drove over 2600 miles and still didn't get to all the places we thought we'd fit in
41. It's so nice to be an American
42. There are so many more places to go! Anyone up for a trip?

There and Back

I have 1500 pictures to sort through and many hours of sleep to try to coordinate with my current time zone, so sometime after that I'll post more pictures from my lovely trip to Europe and maybe some coherent stories as well. In the meantime, there are some pictures of me tagged on Facebook and some others that I mobile-uploaded to Facebook during the trip, so feel free to check those out . . . otherwise, I'll see you back here in a few days.

My Unabridged History of French Things

Since I'll be gone for several weeks on my trip, I leave you with a very long recollection of my storied life as it pertains to France. Perhaps by the time I return, you will have finished reading it! Ha!
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After reading My Life in France, by Julia Child, seeing the Julie & Julia movie (which I liked a lot!) and starting to plan my trip to Europe this month (which will, of course, include France), I started to revisit my own humble interest in the country/culture . . . like how much do I really know about France and its history? How many words can I really speak? What do I know about what I can actually eat there now that I've missed the awesome French-foods-with-gluten boat? Will Chanel No. 5, a black shirt dress and a scarf really help me shake the inborn American sore thumbishness?

Anyhow, I think it was 2000 when I got really into all things French. I had taken Spanish all through school because I'd heard it was easier and since more people took Spanish, there was less of a chance that I'd get called on in class. This is how 6th graders make decisions which is why, I guess, 6th graders shouldn't make lots of decisions. We also got to make churros y chocolate at least once a year which generally ended up looking like a plate of ribbed dog turds accompanied by a styrofoam cup of Swiss Miss hot cocoa hastily mixed with lukewarm water atop a wheely cart by a frazzled teacher fumbling a plastic spoon, but no matter - it was something fun to do that delayed actual classroom instruction and I perceived, at the time, as being better than going to Syracuse to a French restaurant to eat fish or fowl with the bones still in it - with a teacher. Ack! Plus, the prospect of going to Spain on a class trip made me happier than thinking about going to Montreal. I never did go on the trip to Spain and even after living in Los Angeles for 7 years, I can honestly say I never had to speak Spanish there - even in this ever growing multi-cultural country we live in and even when I went to Mexico.

So I was kind of surprised that this French obsession hit me after my near total lack of immersion in all things Espanol. It was pre-internet as we know it, so the extent of my internet-ing about France was signing up online for a French tourism brochure to be mailed to me quarterly. I did, however, spend a fair amount of time in book stores reading travel guides and pondering French language instruction tapes. I ended up buying a couple of (cheap) tapes with accompanying printed booklets and sometimes I listened to them in the car and sometimes on a Walkman while going to sleep at night. I still don't know how to say an awful lot of things, though I am pretty good with vocabulary and phrases that equate weather as it pertains to suitability for a dog or a duck. I watched French movies with subtitles and tried not to read them. I read every book of poems by Marilyn Hacker. I fell asleep on the nights I didn't fall asleep to French tapes thinking about my new rolling suitcase - roughly the size of a 2 man rowboat - and all the stuff I'd pack in it if I were going to live in Paris in a tiny apartment by myself where I'd write, drink coffee, write books and meet Marilyn Hacker for lunch.

This French obsession coincided with Christmas of that year and my mom gave me 2 really pretty framed black and white prints of places in Paris and a clock that looks like something from Provence - or at least what Americans might expect to see in Provence - or perhaps on a printed sweatshirt from Express circa 1991. The prints are hanging in a room in my mom's downstairs and the clock is in my room right now and I like the simplicity of not having a neon digi-clock assaulting me all night. Now if I wake up and it's dark, I figure I don't need to know the time; if it's light out, I can see the hands on my Provencal clock! I imagine people living there might be similarly uninterested in time as they are enjoying leisurely meals with their friends and their wine.

Someone else for Christmas that year gave me a beautiful Eyewitness travel guide for France, a Peter Mayle book and a thin French cookbook which is a compilation of recipes by famous French chefs. I once had some older colleagues over for a French dinner and it was a disaster: they had, of course, actually been to France and I, despite my best intentions, did not know much about entertaining much less cooking a 3 course meal. I likely served wine from The Finger Lakes Region which was probably bordering on too sweet to properly accompany the meal I served. The apartment I was renting at the time did not have a kitchen equipped for socializing and cooking at the same time, as opposed to some of the apartments I've lived in since, and the ladies sat in the dining room drinking wine and talking to me in uncomfortably volume-d tones from around the corner whilst I literally sweat it out in the kitchen. I prepared a carrot soup which I remember being delicious and impressive (to me) since I didn't/don't even like cooked carrots, though I was not able to enjoy it as I was trying to figure out how to create the next course - a whole fish sauteed in the Mediterranean palette - garlic, onions, tomatoes. I don't believe I'd ever prepared actual fish before much less fish I'd be making with ingredients and techniques I'd never used before. I cannot be sure, but desert, as I remember it, was some sort of apple tart. Pastry? What was I thinking? The guests were, of course, gracious, but I can only imagine the raucous conversation that occurred in the car on the way home. But oh, to be 23 again!

[As a side note, as an accompaniment to French Things, I also learned a lot of Vietnamese Things during this time which was appropriate since Vietnam had been colonized by the French and Vietnamese food still bears some influence from the French. Interestingly, those same ladies I served the bad French meal to also came over once for a Vietnamese dinner once: similar antics followed where I attempted to prepare food that I had no business preparing as I had never prepared it before and, as any Food Network host will tell you, you should prepare food ahead of time and only make things that are not labor intensive during the time the guests are there. I was kind of a pro at fresh spring rolls and I also made a hot and sour soup that was a hit. However, a pan fried sweet potato "nest" was a greasy mess and the chicken curry or whatever it was was so nondescript that I can barely remember if that's what I served, though I know only one of the ladies ate it since the other was a vegetarian. Another strike - serving non-veg food knowing someone wouldn't be able to eat it. Desert? Who knows. I just hope I had the presence of mind to serve sorbet or something that all I had to do was scoop it out of a box. Luckily, other than the lighter-fluid-flavor shish kabobs I served a professor once and an apple martini I made with gin instead of vodka, most of my cooking has been a success - especially after moving to California and having worlds of culinary influences open up to me not to mention several friends to encourage my cooking and give me positive reinforcement.]

Anyway, eventually I bought myself a real French dictionary, an Idiot's Guide to learning French and a preposterous, yet catchy, language system called Rush Hour French which teaches French words and phrases within the context of a musical rendition of a love affair between two people who meet in France - one French, one an American looking to learn French and voila: they fall in love (though not before shopping for every type of clothing, discussing the weather, pondering different job tracks and meeting each other's extended families!) Strangely, the songs are catchy enough that even now, if I need to think of how to ask about the time or the weather, I can diddle out the song in my head. It's just being able to say the phrases without the hokey song creeping into my cadence that I still need to work on.

Two years after my travel-less French culture immersion, I moved out to Los Angeles where surviving a horrid job that paid the same as I was making in Geneva - though all my expenses were at least 3 times as much - became the obsession du jour. My French stuff stayed on a bookshelf and I started getting into other things pertaining to my west coast life: budget vegetarian cooking, coastal travel, going to see live music, socializing, knitting, learning guitar . . . things that, unbeknownst to me until writing this and conceptualizing what I was actually doing, were part of the experience of a particular place. Just as Julia Child experienced France for the first time - and for years to follow - places and people and foods became part of her lexicon and life - and none of it could be predicted or prescribed. I wonder how many people have done with Los Angeles what I did with France - read about it, thought about it and used those thoughts as an escape from a seemingly ordinary and unexciting life?

So, after my LA experience, I'll soon be in Paris and hopefully also taking a drive down to the south of France and though I have modest expectations for myself in regard to speaking any French words to anyone at all, I do look forward to walking around, smelling the smells, drinking the wine, eating the cheese, moving at their pace . . . really just putting actual experiences in my file instead of just having the experience of wanting the experience. I have learned how to ask to have a hotel room with a balcony, but other than that, I have modest hopes for the success of my spoken communication. I would like to see where Julia Child lived, but if I don't, that's OK, too. I can't walk in her shoes, but I look forward to thinking about all these stories of my own French Things within a context of having actually been there. I think it might be even more funny to me then to think about it all - and that my time there will be even better because I will know what it means for it to be real. Bye!

More Small Town News

After much anticipation and preparation, we finally saw Julie & Julia on Monday at the local theatre. I look forward to seeing it again without the benefit of commentary from 3 of the biggest hicks I've ever had to sit in a movie with - they chatted the whole time and acted like no one ever told them to zip it during a movie in public. My revenge of opening a hard candy without trying to muffle the cellophane was not appreciated by my mother even though they deserved much worse. The movie was otherwise good - and we felt good about having read both My Life in France and Julie & Julia. Not that you needed to have read them to understand the movie, but it did add a different level of appreciation for us.

The next day, we went to Price Chopper and three ladies - probably not the same ones who raised hell at the movies, though I imagine they were based on their level of conversation, level of volume and level of regard for others - were talking loudly in one aisle about how "he don't eat no vegables, he only eat chicken nuggets, sausages and spaghettis and all you got to do is always have those things on hand and he be happy ferever!" - and this was repeated many, many times. I could only imagine this was taking place so the matriarch of the group could school her younger kin about how to keep her new man happy and/or how to take care of 'pa while everyone else goes on a big overnighter somewhere to go to a field days. Needless to say, I've temporarily tired of the local color and am happy to be going on my trip soon! I leave for the first leg of my trip one week from today, to be exact!

In more interesting news, my mom and I have been enjoying our latest "challenge" of each making at least one meal from an actual recipe each week. Last night, I made homemade baked beans that have everything from coffee to bourbon to soup stock - oh yeah, and three kinds of beans - in them and made the house smell very good. My mom made zucchini bread - one regular and one gluten free - and we had people over for a big summer dinner that also included hot dogs and corn on the cob. Then we stayed up really late to see the meteor shower, but I think maybe we didn't stay up late enough. Mom and I each saw one shooting star - but not the same one. Then we went to bed! Maybe we will see more tonight.

RIP John Hughes

Yeah, I'm 32 years old and not ashamed to admit that Home Alone is my favorite movie ever! Ever since I saw it for the first time in 7th grade, I've watched it - at the very least - once a year and just think it's the shizz. So you can imagine I was very sad to hear today that John Hughes had died . . . not only did he write and produce Home Alone, he is also responsible for 80s brat pack movies like Sixteen Candles in addition to writing and/or producing and/or directing some of my other favorites: Uncle Buck, Vacation, European Vacation, Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 2 and more. These are some pretty funny movies and, especially in a political climate like ours where everything seems so serious and dire, it is important to remember to laugh and enjoy our lives. I can only hope that he enjoyed his.

I will continue to enjoy his films and quote lines from them as though they were my own.

Have Blue Coat, Will Travel

Four short months ago, Lara and I took the 704 bus out to Santa Monica to spend a Saturday. It was an inordinately chilly day for Southern California - even for March - and I was wearing an ink blue canvas peacoat and scarf. We opted to go to lunch at a British pub where we sat outside had hard ciders and comfort food. We toasted to a great weekend and cooler weather - and then we shook hands and made a pact that we would go to Europe before the year was out. (Then we stumbled out and almost literally right into my boss who commented that she didn't realize we were such big drinkers!)

The next day I went to work (where the story of our liquid lunch was not mentioned) and secured some vacation time and couple of days later, I booked the tickets from LA to London for Thanksgiving week. Then we groaned about having to wait 8 months to actually go!

We couldn't have predicted, just four months ago while sitting out at that pub in Santa Monica, that right now we'd be living on the East coast again and that those plane tickets would be rendered essentially useless. As I mentioned before, I was able to rebook the tickets - sans penalty - and so we are going to be leaving on 8/20 for a packed-full few weeks touring the UK and other parts of Western Europe. I am beyond excited - especially since we don't have to wait as long as we thought we would.

Last night, I got out a suitcase to see how much space I was working with for packing. I am still trying to figure out what to bring exactly to prevent me from looking like your run-of-the-mill fanny-packer, but I know at least I'll be bringing my little blue coat. I can't wait until we are sitting in a real British pub where we're guaranteed to make reference to that day in Santa Monica where the whole plan was hatched. I never tire of my own bemusement at the passage of time and how much things change, yet how they inevitably change for the better.

25 Things

(Here is a link to a funny article about the "25 Things" web sensation . . . followed by a list of my own!)

1. Summer is almost over and it's hardly been hot enough to make me crazy which is one of the things I worried the most about in deciding to move back here.

2. The book 1000 Places to See Before You Die is fun to flip through but, if I think about it too much, seems morbid, prescriptive and limiting though I think its point is to show the possibilities of life.

3. I stay up really late in my room just as I did when I was a kid, only now I am reading, using the computer, watching Roseanne and Frazier reruns and trying on outfits (as opposed to practicing cursive and listening to records).

4. My great grandmother used to see patterns in the rug and think they looked like dogs and we laughed at her, but now I can see faces in marble floors, stucco ceilings and shag carpets. And I saw Kurt Vonnegut in an ice/snow spray on a window.

5. No War! Ever!

6. I think about Los Angeles every day and miss the following things: impromptu happy hours, appetizer dinners, nightly walks, the feeling that I was entirely anonymous, the smell of honeysuckle on Alfred Street, certain restaurants and bars, friends, colleagues, the view from my office, my apartment, Sunday morning pancakes, the history of Hollywood in brick and mortar, the possibilities of traveling the west coast and always finding something new.

7. But I wouldn't move back there unless someone had a lot of money for me and a job that let me live part time on the east coast.

8. I've been to all 50 states and, despite being 32 years old with several decent accomplishments/skills/credentials to my name, it is probably the thing that makes me the most jazzed to say I've done.

9. I would like to have dinner with the following people I've never met: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Julia Child, Edie Beale, Frank Lloyd Wright, Alfred Hitchcock, Joni Mitchell, Dave Letterman, Barbra Streisand, Hillary Clinton and Roseanne.

10. I got BO when I was 5 years old and my life has since been a series of deodorant experiments and sniff tests.

11. Sometimes I wonder if I could convincingly use an alias like Agnes Kingworth or Victoria Lucas. (And if anyone would know where these names came from).

12. I feel a kinship with my car. Green 1997 VW Cabrio.

13. I can travel just about as light as humanly possible. And I do.

14. There is pretty much a full gym in the basement of the house I'm living in and I'm finally starting to take advantage of it since I quit kettlebells this month to save money for my trip.

15. The smell of my guitar is sweet and woody and delightful. It has inborn, predestined history tied up in its smell meant to remind me about February, Los Angeles, impetuousness.

16. Favorite meal as of late: arugula salad with goat cheese, tomatoes, kalamata olives, fresh herbs, corn, blueberries and balsamic dressing.

17. I find people tirelessly interesting or stiflingly mundane depending on the kind of mood I'm in.

18. I am on Facebook now and I pretty much hate it and am considering quitting it! (Even though Facebook is how I got the idea to do one of these "25 Things" lists).

19. I haven't been to NYC since pre-9/11 and I'm not really all that interested in going back.

20. I drive people nuts by asking things like "what kind of Jelly Belly flavor would you create if they let you?" and "if you could make up a unique new flavor for Ben & Jerry's what would it be?" and "what's a way we could make chicken that has never been done before?"

21. Purple fuzzy blanket = necessity for my peaceful sleep!

22. I do not like riding in other peoples' back seats. It is always too hot and too loud and I get car sick really easily.

23. I've never worn makeup except for a few big events in high school (prom, senior picture, concerts) though in pictures I see of those events, the makeup is not visible.

24. When I moved into my first alone-apartment, I only had artichokes, gefelte fish, chocolate and soda in my fridge. I went to a thrift store and bought 15 used CDs for $25. The first few nights I was there, I sat in my living room which only had a futon (no frame) and listened to new music and ate small meals on little plates.

25. Words like "hyper," "hyena," "guano" and "berzerk" make me laugh.

Ode To The French Chef

Is there anything better than spending time with someone who finds life just totally exciting and amusing? I spent the past few afternoons with Julia Child as I read My Life in France and when I was done, I couldn't wait to go up to the 2nd floor of my mom's garage to unearth 80% of my cookbooks which I've been living without for over 3 years since I sent them home in an early, foiled attempt to move home. Three years later, I've acquired a few others, but taking these old friends out of their box (and placing them with the others on a shelf my mom so generously gave up to me on one of her bookshelves) was a lot of fun. I really want to do some more cooking and now that I have all of my books in one place, along with a new perspective on cooking thanks to my latest read, I'm ready to go. But tonight's leftover night, so I will start tomorrow. My French cooking stinks and I have memories of serving sub-par French food to people before, but she wasn't one for regrets and found failure part of the fun. I'll just do better next time!

When I was a kid, we used to go to my grandparents' house on Saturday mornings and watch The French Chef, Julia Child's show, and then we made - as my mom fondly remembers - the treat of sandwiches made with "as many cold cuts as you wanted!" I remember also the treat of a glass bottle of Mountain Dew - the kind of old bottle that had the styrofoam label on it. Mountain Dew and cold cuts might not have been Julia Child's first choice, but she would have approved of the ritual of it along with the fact that she inadvertently joined us each week for our fun. I always knew she was an interesting and good-humored woman, but until I read this book, I had no idea just how full her life was and how it was such a string of adventures! I only hope someday I can tell as exciting a life story of my own, casually reducing the things that were probably pretty stressful at the time to a brief and humorous story and telling about the things that really mattered with lovely and interesting perspective.

I'm going to start Julie & Julia this evening, and I look forward to seeing the movie next weekend, though I am glad I have a relationship to Julia Child that has been going on for years - and not because of the new buzz surrounding her cooking and her life based on this new movie coming out. Perhaps I'll be able to take a stroll by 81 Rue de Loo when I am in Paris next month and I can pretend for a moment that it's the 50s and that I'm going to have a long, luxuriant dinner with an old friend.

*The picture above is of my many cookbooks . . . I so appreciate the variety and can't wait to do some cooking!

Hiking, Bead-Making & Cat-tography

Though I have been doing a fair share of reading, relaxing and ice cream eating, I have also been pretty busy this summer with actually active activities. Last night my mom and I spent our after-dinner walk time at Mount Hope Reservoir. All my growing-up years, I do not recall ever going there except for one time some friends drove up to the parking lot there at night, smoked some Camels and then went home. It's a pretty area, though with nice hiking trails and it's much better to see it in the light and not from the inside of a car. In fact, I don't even remember understanding that driving up Mount Hope meant you could see some pretty amazing scenery from above the whole city. I just thought if you lived up there it was unfortunate that you were farther away from town than most kids. Here are some snapshots from our hike:


Today, we went over to Norma's (my mom's glass business partner) to make glass beads. I made about 10 different beads on a blowtorch and found the whole process very enjoyable. After I bring the beads home, I will post pictures of them. Here is a picture of me in my safety goggles and apron: Then we broke for lunch and I met Gram at Napoleon's. When I got back to Norma's to see if my beads were ready to be sprung from their mandrills (and they were not) I took lots of pictures of Norma's cats, Callie & JoJo instead. They are really pretty ladies and they seem to really enjoy the camera - especially the sound my camera makes when it takes a picture; the cats seem to know that the noise means to strike a different pose.
In other news, I was able to work some pretty serious magic this week resulting in $1500 worth of plane tickets rendered useless by my move being refunded to me in full. Considering they were non-refundable tickets (2 to London from Los Angeles and one to come home from LA for Christmas), this was no small feat. So Lara and I decided to rebook the trip we had planned for London and we did for less money, at a more prime time of year and from NY instead of LA. As it turns out, we'll be going in just a couple of weeks! We are thrilled for the trip and happy it's happening sooner rather than later so that when we get back, we can continue the job search without having to work around the complication of travel plans down the road.

More to follow on the "going to Europe" front . . . so far we know that we'll be flying to London to stay with friends, visiting Scotland and maybe Ireland, heading to Paris for sure and perhaps renting a car to drive the Mediterranean coast from Barcelona to Rome. It would also be nice to go to Bavaria and Amsterdam, but we'll see. We'll be there a few weeks and plan to maximize our time! I'm just so grateful to have this time right now to be able to do so many things that make life enjoyable and interesting and fun!

Fun With Blueberries

After a full week of being sick with the flu and a subsequent cold, I was happy to have a couple of days I didn't have to sleep through! I mean, after the fact, one can look back and say "geez, that was a nice relaxing week and nobody called upon me to do anything I didn't feel like doing," but during the ordeal, let's be honest, there's only so much 7th Heaven one can watch before going a little nuts. 7th Heaven with lots of Nyquil = not a good way to feel like a productive member of society when clearly you are behind the 8 ball on that anyway.

So needless to say, when I woke up feeling somewhat better on Saturday morning, I was happy to get up and go blueberry picking with my mom and Norma. We all picked tons of blueberries, many of which we froze to enjoy during the winter. The picking process was fun and reminded me that fresh, local food is best and that it would be really nice to have my own farm someday - especially if I can sell things that other people come and pick themselves!
Saturday night, I went over to my dad's house to dog-sit whilst he was on a quick overnight trip/vacation. It was weird to be home alone in the house I grew up in - and with a different dog than I grew up with - but she actually behaved and I was happy to read lots of good magazines, watch The Devil Wears Prada and stay up late before falling asleep on the couch. On Sunday morning, I put the dog in her pen and I went back to my mom's and we made gluten-free blueberry waffles and they were good (the mix is from Trader Joe's and is the best ever - and cheap!). Even though I am the only gluten-free one in this house, other people periodically sample my wares and agree that the waffles are delectable if not better than the real thing.
Later in the day, my mom and I took a spin out to Wegmans so I could buy some gf pizza crusts and other fun food items like sushi. We did some other errands, bought some things and then laughed the whole way home about how annoying some of the people were that we came into contact with during our adventure. We ate the sushi for dinner and then took a 2 mile walk around most of Sunset Lake.

I thought it was a nice walk and a nice night and we are going to try to walk the trails - or at least walk somewhere - after dinner every night to try to make the post-dinner walk like I was used to having in LA a habit here as well. They say walking after a meal - especially at night - is a really good thing for your system.

So far, nothing big is planned for this week but I have to finish reading My Life in France, by Julia Child before the Julie & Julia movie comes out next week. I really can't wait to see it! Have a great week!

Two Years Later

Two years ago at this time, I was on one of the biggest and best road trips ever. I started by driving by myself from LA to Minneapolis to visit my friend Jerri. Along the way, I went to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, The Badlands and to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead! After a few days in the city with Jerri, I headed up to Calgary where I met up with Lara, went to Banff, drove back to the US to Glacier National Park, back to Yellowstone and Grand Teton/Jackson Hole and, eventually, back to LA. It was a two week trip whose antics we're still talking about.

That trip was also when I shook the Diet Coke habit and though I have had a few cans of Diet Pepsi recently, I have not had Diet Coke (and for people who have been addicted, you know there IS a difference). And two years later, Jerri has a baby and I don't even live in LA anymore! Things change, but not my travel bug. I hope to take another big road trip again sometime . . . I wouldn't mind a Frank Lloyd Wright tour of the midwest and, if I do get out there, a visit again with Jerri!