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!

Les Vacances...

Jamie: "Beach, septic tank. Beach.... septic tank... hmmmmm... why would you come to Utah on vacation?"

LoL. Well, I am indeed in Salt Lake... for a vacation. "But you live in a vacation," said 2 or 3 people yesterday. "Well, sometimes I need a vacation from the vacation."

:)

Well, it's been a great week so far. My brother came to Cali Wednesday night, Thursday I worked and he walked around the neighborhood and beach (the sun didn't make an appearance once), and Friday we went to the Santa Monica Pier and 3rd Street Promenade, which was a lot of fun. We had a late lunch at "Monsieur Marcel" and it was delicous - and very French. We just had a charcuterie & cheese plate - and a delicous tartin tatin with ice cream for dessert. Yum - or should I say "Miam."

I even found an H&M - and bought a really cute leopard print bikini. When you live at the beach, 2 swimsuits aren't enough... and we walked around shops and stuff. My brother likes to shop so it was actually fun.

Saturday, drove up to Salt Lake... left around 8:40 (9:00 if you don't count the stop for gas) and arrived at 8pm. We made great time! 10 hours and about 4 stops. Probably because my bro was driving. I swear I closed my eyes after we passed Baker and 30 minutes later I could see the Vegas skyline. After I got home and freshened up, I went to see my sweetie... for the first time in 6 weeks. It was great. Sunday we hung out basically all day and saw a movie, and it was actually really good.

Guru: "What should we see?"
Me: "I was thinking T4... or Star Trek"
G: "You've never seen the Star Trek original series though... let me ask someone that's seen it if they think it's ok"
M: "Do I need to? Can't you just brief me on it?"
G: Well, I could... ok, let's see what you need to know..."
M: "Here's a question: is this happening in the future?"
G: "OMG..." (unstoppable laughter) "Ok, maybe T4"
And the clerk says that she saw it, loved it and was able to understand it even without seeing the original movies. So we go see. Guru briefs me first on Star Fleet Academy, the space Federation, Spock's control of emotions... and the movie was GREAT! They explained it well in the beginning, too. "I might even start watching old Star Trek movies," I say. That is, only if the special effects were that good... which I know they're not.

So it was a great day. We had chicken on the BBQ and ratatouille for dinner, and that was Sunday. Monday I brought my car to the dealership for service, besides needing new brake pads it's in fine shape (woo-hoo!), took Roxy on a walk to wheeler farm, I ran 7 minutes, and on the way back Roxy had to stop and rest - she was exhausted, the poor thing. I actually carried her for about 5-10 minutes (she was probably thirsty too, it was a warm day), then she was fine again. I then got Guru from class, went to dinner and hung out.

Yesterday I went to my old work around 11:15 to see former co-workers, had lunch at the Chubby Toad with $teve and The Mad Scientist, and ended up hanging around for 3 hours before leaving to get Guru from class. We then went to the Gateway, came back home, then I was going to play Petanque at Liberty Park - but a crappy rainstorm ruined it, so we went to Gourmandise, my uncle's bakery instead.

Today, I'm having lunch at Gourmandise with my mom and my aunt, then getting highlights!!! So excited. I think that sun-kissed caramel streaks in my hair will go just perfectly with a California tan. Pictures maybe on the next post...

Today I'm grateful that Salt Lake doesn't really smell like a septic tank. Have a great day!

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!