La Vie Est Belle

Bonsoir bonsoir,

It's getting late and I will be going to bed soon... it's definitely been an interesting week. Even after working 50-52 hours I still haven't gotten everything done at work... we are so busy! Great thing, the economy is recovering. But man, have I been exhausted this week! No energy to cook or anything. Let's see, this week's recap...

Tuesday night, saw "Un Prophete" ("A prophet") a very good French movie. It was a special screening at Sony Studios in Culver City (that place is huge!) in a tiny theater that seats perhaps 30 people comfortably in black leather seats. It doesn't officially come out until the end of February but I recommend it. Lots of violence thought, be ready for it. After the movie I went to an Indonesian place, apparently a food joint that most UCLA students love to go to. I had myself some delicious chicken lime soup and browsed their grocery stores with lots of good stuff. I even found an Indonesian version of French chocolate cookie thingy's - "Prince". Remember them? So tempted to buy... but I'm trying to be good.

Speaking of being good, I'm proud to say that I've lost 7 pounds since I got back from Salt Lake... simply by cutting my calories a bit and doing 100 sit-ups every morning. Hurray! Now, back to the week in review...

Wednesday I saw the doctor about my knee and another kind of pain. Again, just take it easy, but since it's been two months now why don't you get an x-ray to make sure nothing's broken. She can give me a cortizone shot or take advil to ease the pain. "Will it help me heal faster?" "No, but alleviate the pain" Well, I don't care, I can tolerate the pain even though it's a real pain in the buttocks (or in the knee, rather). If it won't let me heal, I'm not putting unnecessary drugs in my body. She suggests physical therapy since I like to keep active and right now the knee's preventing me from doing that. Oh, and you need to get an ultrasound for your other kind of pain you're having. Greaaaaat.

Friday: had my first on-property strategy meeting, which went well, although went way longer than it should have because the GM has a short attention span (he admitted himself), but they're always glad to see me and keep saying they love what I do... so that's a good self-esteem boost. The rest of the day there was so much I planned to do at work but didn't get to do because, you guessed it, other stuff came up. That always seems to happen, doesn't it?

Today was fairly relaxing, drove by an open house and decided to go in, because that's my hobby. The house was up for 2 million. You know, I thought, if it were 1.7, 1.8 million, I would've put in an offer... but 2 million was just a little off budget. :) Now, I hate lying. It doesn't feel good, and I'm horrible at it, so I don't lie. Worst case scenario, I just don't tell the whole truth... "What kind of price range are you looking for?" "Um, well, really more like under a million." (That's not lying, right?) and the questions continued... the agent really wanted to find a house that's ideal for me.... really nice lady, and she actually gave me some really nice tips, advice, and overall know-how on what to expect when I'm ready to buy a home, after she got the hinch that I'm really looking for a cheap-o house. Not that I'm looking to buy here or now anyway, I just love visiting homes. I love getting ideas on architecture, tiles, paint, molding, decorations, landscaping, etc... and if it's got a Mediterranean look and has charm, you've won me over. Nice lady. Hate lying, though.

Next I went to KP to get my ultrasound... I ran across the road by PCH to avoid a cop giving me a ticket for jaywalking (I guess they're pretty strict here), and running wasn't the best for my knee of course... why do I keep doing that?? Right after the ultrasound I got my knee x-rayed. then I stopped at Whole Foods, got my vegan food for the week and indulged in a slice of pepperoni pizza and orange chicken for my linner. At 8PM, my friend calls me as I'm in the middle of my TBS movie "Hey, we're heading to that Mexican place for margaritas, wanna join?" "Sure!" "Ok, we can pick you up. We're actually right around the corner." Lol. I got ready in 3 minutes and off we went. Of course, margaritas for them (3 of them) and coke for me. Chips and salsa too. More fun than not doing anything, right?

Tomorrow's laundry and other boring crap. No volleyball - it's actually supposed to rain the next 5 days, that's nuts!! Should've taken advantage of walking on the beach today or something.

Monday I'll be working from home and hopefully get all my projects done. I've been feeling rather happy lately. Not sure why. I mean, I could be miss pessimist and think, "Great, I'm 25 years old, my knees are giving out on me, I have pain like a 50 year old and other crap happening to me". And I did think that way briefly. But you know what? I'm lucky. I have a great life. I have tons of people in my life that I love and love me for who I am. I have a great career right now, live in a great location, have great friends, am in love with the man of my dreams, my parents would do almost anything to help me if I need it, life is good. When you think of the tragedy of the Haiti quake, we have a lot to be thankful for. And please, I encourage donating to help them out. Texting was easy and felt great!

And also, life is short. I'm living it up. I'm going out with friends and discovering LA County without spending a fortune. I'm going to Vegas in 2 weeks with my buddies (nothing too crazy), will spend a lovely weekend with Babe for Valentine's, the next weekend in Palm Springs with M&B, Mom's coming back in April to Orange County, $teve is planning to visit SoCal in April/May too... the next quarter is all planned out! LoL.

I wish you all a fantastic holiday weekend!!

C'est bientot Noel...

Wow! What a fun week and this weekend sure has gone by fast. Let's see, a quick recap:

Work - the same, although I found out that if we were to lose our jobs, they would've called us by now. So I'm pretty set (Phew). I'm only 90% sure, because we may acquire another property and all... anyway, I'll keep you posted. But I've decided that I'll stay here for another 6 to 12 months if it all works out. Hopefully we can find out before I go on my awesome 2 week vacation to Salt Lake for Christmas!

So - Thanksgiving was a lot of fun, there were about 22 people, lots of different foods, my frozen pumpkin mousse pie tasted good but the consistency wasn't great. I also made oven roasted winter squash with garlic and parsley, and a delicious green mix salad with juicy grape tomatoes, and another salad of field greens, robust feta and sweet cranberries. Are you drooling yet? Good.

The day after Thanksgiving, I went to Bloom Cafe for lunch with some friends, and for dinner Saturday night, "Osteria Latini", in the Brentwood area of West L.A. So good! It was for a friend's birthday dinner. Total came to $75 per person (ouch!) but so worth it. After that, per the birthday girl's request, she wanted to go to a gay bar and club, for fun... so I went too. That's right, birthday girl, her husband, myself and a gay guy friend went to West Hollywood. Nice thing is, I don't get hit on or bothered at all (except for this one chick for a brief second), and, um... different atmosphere than I'm used to. I hadn't been to a club since I was what, 17, 18? So here's to me going out and having some fun and enjoying LA. I'm not going to do this forever or on a regular basis... but it was fun, different experience.

Wednesday this week, I went on a girl's night out to a special screening of "Up in the Air" with George Clooney. It was ok. Kind of a weak story, although a good point at the very end. Oh, and there's a fictional Hollywood character that is more obsessed about frequent flyer miles than I am. After that we went to "Kabuki" in Hollywood. Very good I must say! Oh, and I love miso soup. and I've yet to try tempura but it looks so good, I'll try it next time... what's great is my friends know what they're doing when they order, so I just sit back, watch, and enjoy the food that is presented to me that we share.

This weekend was filled... with a whole lot of nothing. I believe I watched about 5 hours of TV total on Saturday, did some Christmas shopping, and that's seriously about it. Today, I went to get some blood work done this morning (and holy crap, I'm healthier than I thought) then to the beach to try and play volleyball, but after 5 minutes my knee was killing me, so I stopped and watch my buddies play some 2 on 2 games. It was so cold - 56 degrees or so. Brrr. Yeah, I know, all you Salt Lake people think I'm weak. I've grown accustomed to this warm weather, dang it! :) Then, Lillian, her man and I went to In n' out Burger (in honor of Salt Lake just opening one), and went to Costco where I bought - a baked brie (mmmmmm.....) babybel (nothing like gouda in red wax), diced tomatoes, 5 lbs of carrots (for juicing), 18 eggs (can I finish them all by the 21st?), and I was so tempted to buy this saucisson I saw... that, the real French/Italian kind... but they have some in Salt Lake and I'll save the holidays for the indulging part. Oh, and some blueberries. All pretty much healthy stuff. 

This week: it's the first week of the period, so yay! Easy stuff at work. Tuesday night I'm going to see a screening of "the Lovely Bones" and Thursday night I'll see a screening of "Invictus." Both in Hollywood. Some fun nights out again. I think I'll skip on the eating out Tuesday night, because I've got some miracle soup waiting for me at home. Plus, It is a weekday... and I do work at 7:30am every morning...

Today I'm grateful that I have my health. My knee may be screwed up still, and I'm waiting for the doctor to contact me so that I can come in and be evaluated, but otherwise I'm in really good health, I feel like on my own I'm taking decent care of myself my keeping active, working out, and despite the occasional chocolate I'm eating pretty well too (I know, I went to in-n-out, but for your info, I had only been there once, it was 4 years ago, and I literally haven't had a cheeseburger in... probably 8 months.)

Good night everybody! Have a fantastic week. 

Joyeux Anniversaire Megan

First of all, a very happy birthday to Megan, one of my best friends from Salt Lake. She's a great gal with many artistic talents that I admire and love! Hope you had a fun day today :)

So this weekend was absolutely gorgeous. I mean, gorgeous. I have never, EVER spent a November in the kind of weather where I can wear shorts (and I NEVER wear shorts unless it's uber hot and/or I'm by a beach). Saturday was spent relaxing, and I bought a vacuum, a crepe pan, and groceries. The rest was filled with nada. But Sunday.... was THE most beautiful November day. Blue skies, not a cloud in the skies, air clear enough that I could see the tip of Malibu... and about 73 degree weather. I played a few fantastic games of beach volleyball, and we all met up at my place after for crepes. But really, it wasn't a crepe party... it was a few crepes made from scratch by moi (and everyone claimed that they loved them, yay!) and they all brought some food of their own, so it was more of a potluck. I somehow was able to fit about 18 people in my 300 Sq ft living room. My friends brought over some folding chairs, I had my couch, my dining room chairs, a yoga ball, a storage ottoman... and we were just fine. We even played charades at the end of the night... not sure what inspired us but I don't think we've ever laughed so hard. I heart my California buddies.

Another exciting thing, is that for Thanksgiving, we're all gonna hang out again. we're calling it the "California Orphans Thanksgiving" - as most of us don't really have family here. Can't wait! I also can't wait till Christmas when I come home!!! I feel very very happy.

Today I'm grateful that I didn't go into my usual melancholy stage when Babe left back home, and that I'm able to find my own happiness even though I'm far from the ones I love. I guess this is what independence is all about (t'was about time!). Still, it's hard being lonely. It build character I guess. Thanks everyone for supporting me - as I've now been in California for almost a year. A year, can you believe it? I still can't. I still imagine - if 10 months ago I could travel to now, and see that I've got a salaried job, live in Southern California, get to play beach vball and live 3 blocks from the beach... I would die of shock. I have to say, I'm kinda proud of myself. And it feels good. It's tough, darn it, I'm sacrificing a lot... but it feels good.

Have a great night, until next time...

Yes, White Bread Contains Wheat Too

So I just wanted to say hello on this fabulous Saturday morning.

Last night I was going for a run, but ended up playing volleyball (very poorly I might add) for about 90 minutes. Went to bed at 11pm, woke up at 6:55... and felt refreshed, although I was awakened by my room shaking. I think there's a homeless person living above me who periodically jumps up and down for fun. Great.

So far today I've talked to my sweetie on the phone, watched some funny videos from collegehumor.com, watched half of "National Lampoon's European Vacation," made a delicious zucchini, bacon and avocado omelet (protein overload) and seen what my friends are up to on Facebook.

So today, my to-do list:

-Go to an AT&T store and see about getting my own plan (still on a family plan at home), see if I can get a great deal on a snazzy new phone while I'm at it because mine is over 2 years old

-Walk to Von's for some groceries (organic summer berries on sale! Yum!!)

-75 degrees today and the marine layer's gone, I'm going to get some sun and show off my new bikini

-Clean the apartment a bit

-The rest is free time. There's a festival at the Hollywood Riviera today and tomorrow. It won't be as fun alone, but I might check it out.

Today I'm grateful that I get a day off. Today, for my well-being I shall walk and breathe beach air. Here's to a great weekend :)

Les Hauts & Les Bas

It's Saturday and I've had a pretty interesting day so far running on little sleep.

Went to bed at midnight last night, watched AMC: "True Lies", "Die Hard 2" (never had seen any of the Die Hard series) and about half of "Commando." It was a pretty relaxing night on the couch with my sweetie. We woke up at 2:58am to call Jetblue to confirm, then we woke up at 5:23am (alarm was set for 5:00 but I hit snooze too many times), realizing that, oh crap, we have 2 minutes to get ready and head out for the airport. He made it, which is good because he gets to spend Father's Day with his fam, bad because we could've had one more day together... but it's all good. That's what standby will do :)

I was home by 7:30 am and went to Kohl's, went grocery shopping, and I've pretty much been watching TV since. Fell asleep during "Romi & Michelle's High School Reunion" (can you blame me?), watched "Vegas Vacation" with Chevy Chase, which was fairly funny, then "Spanglish" which is a movie I can kind of relate too, being foreign. Now, I know, you'll say it was a pretty unproductive day - but I've been doing chores in between commercials. 

So It'll be probably another 6 weeks till I see my man - until then, my mom will come visit me Pioneer Day weekend, which 'll be fun. I also have my best friend from elementary in France who might be coming to visit me mid-august.

So nothing much planned for the next month... except a potluck party on July 3rd if I end up staying here, which I probably will. 

Today I'm grateful that I was able to spend a great week with my man. What made me laugh today: trying to down a 16 oz energy drink in 5 minutes, before passing security at the airport.

Wishing you a fantastic weekend!

Jesus Préfère Sprouts a Trader Joe's

Well, hi!

Back in LA County. What a fun week I spent in Salt Lake! Saw tons of people and had good times. I'm going to bed soon, so I'll go into details another time. 

It's so nice and sunny here... and SLC is cursed with rain, I hear. Who wants to come here on vacation? LoL. Well, it's not that warm... maybe 68 degrees by the time I get off work. But so, very, very nice. I'll tell you though, Tuesday after work I took a walk on the beach... and just realized that much more how much I like it here. I REALLY like it here. I love my apartment, my location, my job, my co-workers... I better stop before I jinx myself :p but seriously, I'm grateful for that.

At work, my co-workers like my new highlights in my hair. That's good, because I love them too and keeping them :). However, I looked really sick and pale this morning (maybe because I only ate 800 calories the day before), and I think the blond washed me out. Hmm. Gotta get that tan going again. And maybe eat a few more calories too.

What are you grateful for today? I'm also grateful that I get to show my mom this cool license plate I saw on my way to work this morning: 

Have a great night!

Enfin Tranquille

It's been a while since I made a to-do list for a Saturday. 

9:30 - check out an apartment

10 - get hair cut

11 - grocery store

1230: get waxed

1 - check out another apartment

The rest - whatever else comes along.

So here we go. I get to my first apartment, or at least what I thought was an apartment. One bedroom, $1200 a month Craig's List tells me. I park on the driveway in front of a dated house, and the truck next to me has big cat moving below it. It starts to cross the street. Wow, that's a huge cat! Wait... holy crap, that's a big racoon! And he's making his way into the neighbor's garage. Nice. I was greeted by an Eastern European woman who had either really bad morning breath or really bad coffee breath, that I could smell from a few feet away. She shows me a room, a bathroom attached to it. "Oh, so it's not the whole thing?" No, she says, chuckling a bit. "Here's your kitchen" and she open a closet door, and in this closet in a mini-fridge, a toaster, and a few shelves. Are you fracking kidding me? I was in and out of there in 2.5 minutes. Now, here's my question to the world. Who in their right mind would rent out a room, unless it's got huge bay windows and is so close to the beach that if I threw a rock it would hit the water, for $1200/month?

Moving right along. Went to get my hair cut, I had a $15 coupon. The salon is... so-so. I didn't feel really comfortable in there. Basically, I got my hair shampoo'ed, rinsed, conditioned, rinsed, towel dried, cut, blow dried, paid the guy, in 26 minutes. Who cuts ladies hair in 26  minutes??!! I probably should've waited until I'm in Salt Lake to see my aunt who knows my hair like I know chocolate. Thank goodness it was only a trim, it could have been a catastrophe. 

I'm way ahead of schedule. I get groceries, make lunch (quinoa pasta with ground beef and fresh cherry tomatoes), watch a little TV, get waxed, go see apartment # 2.

Apartment # 2 was actually semi-decent, everything was remodeled, the kitchen was big, but the living room was smaller than the kitchen. The area was very decent, although there were power lines buzzing just a few homes away. $1150 a month with utilities. Not bad. Conclusion from today: I'm still going to stay here. I really do like this apartment and even if I find something just as good for $100 less a month, the whole move won't be worth it. So, that's that. I still had fun visiting the places and the people yesterday and today... each prospective landlord was from the Eastern Hemisphere. So much diversity here in L.A.

Well, about to play some counter strike against my man... wishing you all a fabulous Saturday!

Smiling = success

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a fantastic weekend. Mine was pretty good, and it went by surprisingly fast. I slept in till 8, 8:30, which felt really good, and the whole weekend had beautiful sunny skies and warm rays of sunshine.

Saturday I... honestly forgot what I did! Let's see... ah, yes, went to Albertson's and bought food for the week, did laundry (finally), walked to the beach at about 4pm. I have a hard time taking people seriously. It's 71 degrees outside and people are wearing sweat pants, dark long sleeved shirts and/or sweaters. It's 71 degrees! Is this cold to Californians or something? Meanwhile, here I am, walking to the beach in my capris, tank top, flip flops and beach tote. I must look like a real tourist :). Ooh, and I bought a plant! A nice green fern. It'll bring more life and oxygen to this lonely place (sigh). My brother had a colleague who told him that he and his wife won't have kids until his wife is able to keep a plant alive. I don't think that's bad thinking. Since I'd like to be a mom someday, why not start by making sure I can take care of a plant? Piece of cake, right? We'll see in a few months. I will add that to my New Year's resolution: keep my plant alive.

Today was a little more productive. Had some eggs for breakfast, went to the beach around noon, people were sunbathing everywhere, there were sun umbrellas... it smelled like summer... and SUCCESS! I think from that point forward I've been smiling all day today. I sunbathed for about 45 minutes... it was warm, and there was a nice breeze, which made it not too hot, not too cold. Holy crap. I am reminded how people spend tons of money on weekend getaways at the beach. Guess what? I'm getting equal excitement out of this and not only does it cost me nothing, but it happens every weekend there's sunshine. Now, again, why didn't I come here sooner? :)

So then I ate lunch, watched TV for a bit... and decided to go check out new mattresses. I went to 3 stores, and there's a few I like... but basically they're $600 or more, and I'm a cheapo... but then again, it's Cali, so I expect to pay more (my last bed I bought 6-7 years ago, a double, for only $300 in SLC). There was one though that was so nice at this furniture store, where everything was 40-70% off. the bed was a posture pedic for $749 (originally about 1300), and I'm wondering if I should splurge on that one. They had nice bedroom sets too (dressers, bedside tables, etc on mega sale) and I might go back for that too.

So... that's the weekend. Oh, and something interesting today: on the beach, I heard French... and decided to go talk to them, a young guy and a girl. Why not make friends, especially French friends, I thought? so apparently they're 20 and 19 from Belgium, here to study English on a scholarship, they've been here since September, and leaving in two weeks. Nice kids. It was kinda fun to speak French again, there's no Frenchies my age in salt Lake, really... and it would be fun to embrace the culture again while I'm here. Well, at least I made the effort to go talk to them... something I usually don't do (kinda shy, you know...).

Today I'm grateful for a beautiful summer vacation day. I could have stayed all day at that beach. Sunbathe, walk, play volleyball, peoplewatch... but too bad there's a little something called skin cancer that prevents me from doing so, especially when you're going in the middle of the day.

Have a fabulous week!

Nothing too exciting...

Hi everybody,

Well, it's a Monday night and the only real exciting thing is that I just watched 2 full hours of Family Guy. Futurama's now in the background while I'm typing this. A funny thing I saw today was on the way from work to the hotel, I saw a sign that said "Stupid lot sale!" And wondered what the heck that could be. Is the lot stupid, or the sale stupid, the seller, or is it stupid cheap or expensive? Who knows. Well, it made me chuckle, and that's all that counts. :)

Oh, speaking of Family Guy, you know what really grinds my gears? Those Kay Jewelers commercials. "Every kiss begins with Kaaayyyyy." I mean, wow, can you imagine if every guy really had to buy their girlfriend/spouse/significant other/lady GPS a diamond or some kind of jewelry to get but a mere simple kiss? LoL. 

I really feel like I didn't grocery shop enough - I forgot the lentils and stuff (well, didn't forget, my basket was getting way too full and heavy with the olive oil and OJ), so tonight I had another chicken sausage (not the best) with a can of green beans, microwaved (I remembered to take the beans out of the aluminum can before microwaving). I'm really not making an effort yet, but it's because I really don't feel at home - and my appliances are limited, so I'm not cooking mouth-watering stuff... but I'll shop more next Saturday for the new place. This morning though I had a wheat-free dairy-free waffle (don't be appalled, tastes just like a regular waffle really) with almond butter and bananas. Soooo good! At work, one of my coworkers bought some home-made toffee with chocolate, and it was to die for. I ate 3 pieces by 10, no wonder I had a headache all day. Isn't that funny? I know that when I eat chocolate I'll get a headache, but it's so good that sometimes I'd rather deal with the headache. Oh, there's the weight gain too, maybe that'll make me stop. We shall see. I don't have a scale with me, so have no idea how my new Cali lifestyle is affecting me. Well, I won't bore you anymore about weight, I know guys read this blog too, so, in other news...

Mom suggests making a list of stuff I need for the new apartment, especially for those who wonder what to get me for Christmas. I think that's a fantastic idea, although I already got my killer deal on my pots and pans, what more could I need? Well, I'll start that tonight since I have nothing better to do.  If only this laptop could handle Counter-Strike... oh wait, maybe it can! Hun? Well, with a laptop mouse it really isn't the best though...

Well, good night everyone... today I'm grateful that it'll be in the mid 70's this week, which means I just may go to the beach after work. That IS why I moved here, right? Later!