Category Archives: Celebrations

FOX Girls’ Night Out (or Getting To Meet Women I Admire)

Posted on June 11, 2014 | Comments Off

This past Monday I was invited to go to the FOX Girls’ Night Out event that was being held at the Television Academy. I of course said yes!

Things were a little tough driving over to North Hollywood (there was a shooter incident very close to the Academy and there were street closures I wasn’t expecting). The event started at 7:30 and had advised everyone to be at least 30 minutes early, but I didn’t even park my car until about 7:20.

Luckily for me, I went to the event by myself and managed to find a single seat free pretty close to the front. Thank goodness for people wanting to have a one-seat buffer around them!

I’ve been to the Television Academy before many years ago. I actually went to a screening and Q&A for “Brokeback Mountain” there before that movie was released. But I’m still in awe over how cool the theater is (and how awesome the giant Emmy statues are).

The event was pretty amazing with some of the most incredible women in television on the stage.

On the stage is Jane Lynch (from “Glee”), Chelsea Peretti (from “Brooklyn Nine-Nine”), Mindy Kaling (creator, writer, and star of “The Mindy Project”), Liz Meriweither (executive producer of “New Girl”), Heather Kadin (executive producer of “Sleepy Hollow”), Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa on “The Simpsons”), and Alex Borstein (voice of Lois on “Family Guy”).

I mean, seriously, this is a dream team of women!

The Q&A covered some background on everyone’s stories as well as advice that they wanted to share with all of us. That lasted maybe an hour and then the Q&A was over and there was a reception with appetizers and champagne in the lobby.

But I noticed that some of the women were standing at the stage saying hello to people, so I headed up there to try to thank some of the panelists for coming and sharing their wisdom.

I had a brief second to talk to Jane Lynch. She shook my hand and asked my name and I told her how I admire her and her career so much. I didn’t get to take a picture with her, but that’s ok.

Next, I went over to Yeardley Smith. I have loved “The Simpsons” for forever and wanted to thank her for coming as well. I did get a chance for a picture with her.

After that, we were all told that we had to head out to the reception. But once I got out there, I noticed that Mindy Kaling was still saying hello to people and taking pictures. So I lined up like a crazy fan (which I am, I just try to play it cool more often). The picture is a little blurry, but I’m so glad I got it.

Again, I got to thank her for coming to the event and tell her that I think she is an amazing role model for other women trying to make it in the entertainment industry.

After my pictures, I was walking around to see if there was anyone I knew hanging out in the lobby, and my friend Porter Kelly called my name. I hadn’t seen Porter in a while and it was awesome to get to catch up with her! I loved taking her commercial class a while back (which if any of you actors want to take, Porter said that any of my blog readers can get a discount!).

Before I knew it, it was getting late and I wanted to head home so I could get a decent night sleep before working the next morning. On our way out, we noticed that the step and repeat was still up so Porter and I got a quick picture in front of it.

On the other side of the red carpet, they had the signs for all the various entertainment shows to know where their reporters could stand to do interviews. They don’t give each show a lot of space.

I had such an amazing evening that night and felt more invigorated than ever that I’m on the right career path and that one day it will be my turn. Hopefully that day comes soon, but I’m willing to wait it out.

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged celebrity, Emmys, girls night out, red carpet, Television Academy

1 Year Of Awesomeness (or Congrats To Ms In The Biz)

Posted on May 23, 2014 | 1 comment

This past Monday, one of the blogs I freelance on, Ms In The Biz, celebrated its one year anniversary! Any blog making it one year is a huge deal and I’m so honored that I’ve been a part of it since day one (or even before day one since one of my posts went live before the site technically launched).

Helena, the creator of the blog, joined up with Film Break to have an amazing anniversary party. It was held at Vaucluse Lounge. Vaucluse had an incredible history. It used to be Charlie Chaplin’s house (the second floor is still owned by his estate). I had never been there before, but it’s close to some other bars on Sunset that I have been to so I was able to find some decently priced valet parking nearby.

The party was so much fun! My friend Robert arrived at the same time as me so we walked in together (and tried to mingle together as well). Our first stop was on the red carpet where I tried to have a cute pose.

Next, we walked around trying to see if we knew anyone else at the party. I saw Helenna and grabbed her for a quick photo at the step and repeat.

I also ran into some friends who I hadn’t seen in years! That’s one thing I love about events like this. It helps me reconnect with people who I haven’t seen in forever!

I had such a great time at the party. I normally get a little panicky at events like this. I don’t like crowds and I’m always worried that I won’t know someone else there, but fortunately this event was so perfectly set up (and the timing of me running into my friends could not have been planned better if we had tried) that I never had to worry or panic at all.

So here’s to 1 year of Ms In The Biz and I look forward to being a part of it for many more years to come!

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Posted in Acting, Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged acting, anniversary, blogging, event, party

A Belated Mother’s Day Post (or The Awesome Women In My Family)

Posted on May 16, 2014 | Comments Off

I know that Mother’s Day was almost a week ago, but I wanted to write a post about it anyway.

Growing up, I’m sure my dad always made sure that my brother and I did awesome things for our mom on Mother’s Day. Once I moved to LA to go to college, I know I always sent a card to my mom, my grandma, and my great-aunt (the closest person to a grandma on my dad’s side).

After college for a couple of years, I had a pretty set Mother’s Day weekend tradition. My parents would come down here on the Friday before. Then on Saturday morning, my mom would drive to San Diego to go to my grandparent’s house while my dad and I did the Revlon Run/Walk 5K. After my dad and I finished the 5K, we would get into my car and head down to San Diego to join the rest of the family. We would go to dinner on Saturday night to celebrate Mother’s Day. Then on Sunday, I would go up to Laguna Hills to celebrate with my Great-Aunt Shirley (my dad’s aunt).

This tradition really maximized who I got to spend Mother’s Day with. Sadly, a few years ago, my Great-Aunt Shirley passed away.

After that, my Mother’s Day traveling pretty much ended. Last year I went down to San Diego because my parents were down there, but that was a trip that just happened to fall on Mother’s Day.

But just because I didn’t see my mom or my grandma on Mother’s Day doesn’t mean that I didn’t celebrate them.

I think you all know by now how incredible my mom is. She’s kicked so much butt in the past year that I wonder if I could be that awesome in my entire lifetime.

And my grandma is pretty amazing too. She and I get to talk on the phone pretty much every week, and she’s always excited to hear about what adventures I’ve had since we last talked. Sadly, life is pretty much work, work, and more work these days, but she still loves to hear about it. She’s done very well since her fall last year and is possibly stronger now then she was before.

I got to talk to both my mom and grandma this past Sunday. Of course, I sent them both cards. And hopefully I’ll get to see both of them soon. I’m hoping to pick a day to go down to San Diego to see my grandparents this summer and I’m currently planning a trip to Tahoe to see my parents in the next month or so.

But even though I don’t get to see my mom and grandma a lot, I’m sure that they know I love them and appreciate them every day (not just on Mother’s Day).

This picture was taken in 2007 at my grandparent’s 60th wedding anniversary. It was also taken when I was at my thinnest I’ve ever been as an adult.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged grandparents, mom, Mother's Day

A Concert, Film Premiere, And A Fire Pit (or The Best Saturday Evening Ever!)

Posted on May 14, 2014 | Comments Off

After taking my spin class on Saturday, I rushed home to shower and change so I could head over to my friends Chris and Marie‘s house. They were having a party at their house, and I knew it was one not to be missed.

This party was first of all a birthday party for Darci, who I met through Marie and Chris many years ago (if you ever need a vocal coach, Darci is amazing!!). There was also going to be a concert in the backyard featuring Mark Aaron James. And finally, Chris was going to premiere the show film he shot recently.

When I got to the house, there was a little bit of time before the concert was going to start, so I got to catch up with my friends who were there. Then I took a seat and got ready to hear the show.

And the show was amazing! Mark was so good and his songs were awesome. The music was very fun to listen to and he has really clever lyrics (if you want to buy one of his CDs, you can do so at this link). Darci got up and sang backup for one of the songs as well, and that was really fun to watch.

After the concert, we all headed inside the house to check out the film that Chris did.

It was a cute little short and I encouraged Chris to submit it to the film festival I run. Hopefully it will make it in (I have nothing to do with programming so I can’t help him out that way).

And of course, since we were all there to celebrate Darci’s birthday, there was birthday cake.

After the cake and short film, some of us headed outside to hang out by the fire pit.

There were some hot dogs that you could cook over the fire as well as marshmallows. I cooked a hot dog, but since there were not graham crackers for the marshmallows, I ate one uncooked (they are just as delicious raw).

Eventually, I had to head out since it’s like a 30-45 minute drive home and I was still pretty tired from that spin class. It was an awesome night getting to hang out with friends and I’m already looking forward to the next Marie and Chris party!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged birthday, concert, movies, premiere

Margaritas and Mexican Food (or Girls Night Out!)

Posted on May 7, 2014 | Comments Off

My Girls Night Out group hasn’t had a get together for a long time (pretty much since the Magic Castle). Life kind of took over and we just couldn’t seem to organize another gathering.

About a month ago, we agreed that we would meet up for dinner on Cinco De Mayo. I wasn’t in charge of planning this gathering, but I was super excited to see that El Cholo was the restaurant that was chosen! I usually go to the one in Santa Monica, but this one was in Koreatown. It was still pretty easy to get to, and I lucked out finding some free street parking a block away (valet is not in my budget right now).

I had seen many of the girls from the group more recently than the Magic Castle outing, but we all hadn’t been together for almost 2 years! So of course, as soon as we sat down, we had to get a group picture!

Of course, we all had to get drinks as well. I got the Borderline, which is a half regular blended and half strawberry blended margarita.

And for my meal I got a combo plate that had an enchilada and a pork tamal on it.

The food and drink were great, but the best part of the evening was the company. I’m so lucky to be in such a great Girls Night Out group. Even though it had been a while since we were all together, once we were sitting down, it was like no time had passed.

We updated each other on our lives, shared crazy stories (I’m such the loud laughing from our table annoyed the tables around us), and just had fun being together as a group.

I’ve agreed that I would help to plan our next outing, which will be going to the Hollywood Bowl. Some of the girls in the group have never been to the Bowl, so I think that it will be a perfect Girls Night Out event. We just have to figure out what show and when.

Even though the specifics of our next gathering aren’t figured out yet, we did promise that we would make Girls Night Out happen way more often. And I’m super excited for that!

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged dinner, drinks, friends, girls night out

Day 2 At Disneyland (or Gardens and Roller Coasters)

Posted on May 1, 2014 | 7 comments

Monday was another fun-filled day at Disneyland. After going to bed pretty late due to the evacuation of the hotel, I was pretty surprised that I woke up early and feeling pretty well rested (those hotel beds are pretty awesome and magical that way).

My parents and I started our day with breakfast in Downtown Disney before heading over to Disneyland for our first adventure for the day.

While planning this trip to Disneyland, I knew that my mom would love it. She’s a Disneyland person like I am. But my dad really isn’t a big theme park person. But I saw that Disneyland had a tour of the gardens of Disneyland. And my dad is a big gardening person. He has a really green thumb and takes a lot of pride in making the front and back yard of their house look really amazing. So I got us all signed up for the Cultivating The Magic tour.

As soon as we checked in, we got name tags and a headphone/audio set up so we could hear our tour guide without her having to speak too loud. I felt a little touristy in my getup, but I was super excited to do something at Disneyland that I’ve never done before.

We had an amazing tour guide, Amberly. She was super knowledgeable about all of the plants and really made the tour a lot of fun.

Part of the tour included going on a few rides. First, we were taken on the Jungle Cruise. Our tour group got a private boat and instead of hearing the usual Jungle Cruise jokes, Amberly gave a tour of the plant life in and around the ride. That was pretty amazing!

Next we went on the Haunted Mansion. We did learn a bit about the plants in front of the ride, but inside the ride we just rode it like everyone else. I’m not sure why that ride was part of the tour, but I’m not complaining since that’s a ride I go on anyway.

The last ride included on our tour were the Storybook Land Canal Boats. This ride is another favorite of mine and I was so excited that this was a part of the tour. Again, like the Jungle Cruise, instead of hearing the usual spiel, Amberly gave us a tour of the gardens on the ride. My favorite (and I think my dad’s favorite) is the succulent patchwork garden.

Our tour pretty much went into every land of the park. We learned that all the plants in Tomorrowland are actually edible or usable in some way and that in Fantasyland by the Dumbo ride, there is a rose that is named the Disneyland rose.

Our tour ended over by Tomorrowland which was perfect because my family’s plan was pretty much to do all the roller coasters in the park. Because that was our plan, my mom decided to not wear her wig at all during the day. This was the first time she has been wigless for an entire day since losing her hair, and I thought that was very brave. Her hair is growing back and I think it looks great!

We rode Space Mountain first and then we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Big Thunder just reopened after a long refurbishment, and this was my first chance to get to ride it.

It was really great and I love the improvements. The only problem I had was trying to keep my hands up for the entire ride. My parents rode together so I rode alone. And since the restraint in the ride is a lap bar for the entire bench, there was a lot of room next to me. And whenever the ride took a turn, I flew across the bench. I ended up having to hold on with one hand.

Our next coaster was the Matterhorn. I personally don’t love this ride, but my mom does and she really wanted to ride it. I got a great picture of the three of us before the ride started.

I’m glad I took a picture before the ride because my dad really didn’t like the Matterhorn. He had the same complaints that I have: too rough, too little padding on the seat, and it makes your bones hurt.

After the Matterhorn, it was getting really hot inside the park so we took a lunch break in Downtown Disney (where it was nice and air-conditioned!). After lunch, my mom decided she wanted to rest and my dad and I headed back into the park for one final ride.

I wanted to take my dad on Star Tours. It was redone a few years ago, so obviously my dad hadn’t been on the new version yet. And I don’t know if my dad and I have ever ridden Star Tours together. As a kid, I was terrified by the ride. So my dad would take my brother and my mom and I would ride the People Mover while we waited for them.

Fortunately, I’m over my Star Tours fear so my dad and I got to enjoy the ride.

After that, we joined my mom back at the hotel where she was resting by the pool in the shade.

We relaxed at the pool for a while. I had to head back to LA that evening, but I wanted to wait until rush hour traffic died down.

We had a very busy two day trip, but it was so perfect! My parents had a great time and I got to spend some nice quality time with them. I’ll probably see my parents again sometime this summer. I’m hoping to make it to Tahoe and my parents might be coming down here to see a show at the Hollywood Bowl (my dad has never been and my mom hasn’t been in 50 years).

I know that my mom and I will do another Disneyland adventure in the future and now I’m thinking maybe my dad will join us for it as well! And if not, at least I got to show him why I love Disneyland so much and I know that he at least understands it a little bit.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged cancer, Disneyland, rides, roller coaster, theme park, tour

Vacation At Disneyland (Celebrating My Mom’s Badassness)

Posted on April 30, 2014 | 2 comments

Once my mom was done with her treatments for cancer, I knew that I wanted to celebrate with her somehow. I knew my parents would be headed down my direction (they wanted to see my grandparents first) so I tried to think of ways to celebrate in LA. But then I decided that we should celebrate at Disneyland instead (why not be at the Happiest Place On Earth to celebrate?).

I thought that we’d do just one day (and go to both parks), but my mom decided that we would do 2 days at the parks and they would get a hotel room there. And to save me from driving back and forth, I could stay at their hotel room with them for a night.

I was super excited to go! I recently got a new backpack at The Container Store that seemed perfect for Disneyland and I couldn’t wait to try it out.

We all met up at the hotel on Sunday morning. My mom decided that she wanted to stay at the Grand Californian, which is the hotel connected to California Adventure. I had never actually been inside the hotel, and I was super impressed by how amazing it was as soon as I walked inside.

My parents got there shortly after I did, and after a quick stop to put all our things down in our hotel room, we were off to California Adventure. I had gotten my parents 2 day 1 park tickets, which meant that we couldn’t do both parks in one day. But we wanted to spend time in each park so Sunday was devoted completely to California Adventure.

We met up with my mom’s friend Roberta and her family once we got inside the park, but we only really spent the day with Roberta (her son, daughter-in-law, and young granddaughter didn’t want to ride the rides so they walked around on their own).

One of our first rides was the tires in Cars Land. My mom loves this ride because it’s so similar to the flying saucers that were in Disneyland when she was a kid. My dad had only been to California Adventure once (and it was when the park opened so there weren’t a ton of rides there) so this was all new stuff to him. My mom rode with Roberta and I rode with my dad. Somehow, the tire that my dad and I got was a total bust. We couldn’t make it move at all. My mom and Roberta on the other hand we flying around really fast.

Next was on to one of my favorite rides, Radiator Springs Racers. My mom and I both love this ride so much, and in all the times I’ve ridden it, my car has always won the race (I’m sure I jinxed myself now). Before the trip, I was a little worried about how my mom’s wig would do on the rides (because like me, she likes to ride with her hands up). She wore it on Radiator Springs Racers, and as you can see from our ride photo, her wig stayed on without a problem!

And I was super happy that my dad decided to ride with his hands up too! Even though my face is covered up by the photo number, I still think this is a pretty amazing photo. Roberta also took this really great photo of me with my parents while we were waiting in line.

We also rode Soarin’ Over California (the music from that ride is the ring tone for my phone) and Toy Story Mania (where for the first time ever I had the highest points in the car).

Next was another roller coaster, California Screamin’. Neither Roberta nor my dad do upside down roller coasters, so they waited on a bench for my mom and I to ride. We ended up riding twice, the first time in the front row (which is my favorite) and the second time in the second row. Again, I was worried about my mom’s wig on this ride, and so was she. So while we got ready to leave my dad and Roberta with all of our stuff, my mom decided to leave her wig with my dad as well.

It was actually pretty funny when she took it off because my mom said that some lady walking by her gave her a double take when the wig came off. My mom is getting her hair back, and if you didn’t know what she looked like before or with her wig, you’d think that this was just the style that she wanted to cut her hair in.

Both rides on California Screamin’ were awesome, and my mom and I agree that it is one of the best roller coasters out there.

Next we met back up with the rest of Roberta’s family and went to dinner. And after dinner, my mom wanted to rest before World of Color, so we headed back to the hotel.

On the way, we passed all of the bear sculptures that are near the hotel, and since my mom loves everything to do with bears, I took her picture with them all.

I also found the coolest hat for my mom, but she didn’t think that she’d wear it at all.

After resting for about an hour, my mom decided that she didn’t want to stay up for World of Color (the show was at 9:45pm). But my dad and I both wanted to see it so we headed back into the park. But since we had some time to kill before the show, we decided to ride Radiator Springs Racers again. In the dark, the mountains are all lit up and are really pretty.

Then it was time to get into our section for World of Color. I’ve seen the show a couple of times, but my dad had no idea what the show would be like. He was pretty impressed by it, but we got pretty wet while watching it (I guess we were in the splash zone).

After World of Color, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before we had our next big day at Disneyland. But while I was in my pjs and getting ready to brush my teeth, the fire alarm went off in our hotel and we were evacuated. The evacuation waiting area was actually right next to our room so we didn’t have to walk too far in our pjs (and I was glad that I brought pj pants instead of a nightgown). We waited outside for about 30 minutes before we could go back into our room. I have no idea if there was a fire, but we never saw the fire department while we were outside the hotel.

Finally, when we got back inside around 11:30pm, I was ready for bed and for our next adventure the next day!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, cancer, Disneyland, rides, roller coaster, theme park

A Disneyland Tease (or A Mini High School Reunion Steps Away From The Happiest Place On Earth)

Posted on April 24, 2014 | 1 comment

On Easter Sunday, I had absolutely no plans. I was going to do some cleaning in my house and get ready for my work week, but it was a pretty unscheduled day.

I had an errand that I had to do in Anaheim and was planning on putting that off for another day until I saw that a friend from high school was at Disneyland that day.

My friends Ali (who co-hosts The Super Fantastic Nerd Hour podcast) and Nhu-An (both of whom I went to high school with and are now engaged) were at Wonder Con in Anaheim and decided to take their day off to do a Disneyland adventure. I totally wanted to join them, but my pass was blacked out for the day. And I didn’t want to spend a lot of extra money on a blackout day ticket. I really wanted to go into the parks, but I knew that spending that money wasn’t the right choice.

I had messaged them both to see if they would be spending any time outside of the parks on Sunday so I could meet up with them and say hello. Even though it seems like I keep in touch with a ton of people from high school, I had not seen Ali nor Nhu-An since we graduated high school in 2001.

When they messaged me back, they said that they planned to spend the entire day at the parks. So I suggested that maybe we meet up for a drink or something in Downtown Disney toward the end of their day. We agreed to meet up around 9:15pm between the parks so we could have a quick catchup.

I did my errand in Anaheim and then hung out with a friend until it was time to go over to Disneyland. You can actually park for free at Downtown Disney for 3 hours, so at least I didn’t have to pay the $16 to park at the parks. I walked over to where we were supposed to meet when I got another message.

They were at dinner and running late. But they could still meet me when they were done. So I hung out between the two parks for a while. It’s actually not bad there. I was able to see the fireworks (even though I couldn’t hear the soundtrack that went along with it).

While I waited, I did some work on my phone and played a couple of rounds of Words With Friends. And then Ali and Nhu-An came out and we had a mini reunion outside the gates of the parks.

It was actually pretty fun. We chatted about some random stuff from high school and Ali and I discussed podcasting. I’m trying to hook him up with a fun guest (and if it happens I’ll totally share it on here) for his podcast and he is having some technical issues that the hosts of the podcast that I work for can probably help him with.

We only hung out for about an hour before they were both ready to head back to their hotel (they had just had a full day at both Disney parks). Before we said goodbye, we got a quick picture together to prove that we had a (almost) 13 year mini reunion.

While I haven’t really stayed in touch with a lot of people from high school in real life, I love that since we all stay in touch virtually it’s not awkward at all when we get together even when it has been a long time since we saw each other face to face. I also like how all the high school cliques that used to exist are pretty much gone now and everyone I stay in touch with over Facebook is very supportive of each other. I sometimes wonder if high school had been like this if I would have still felt like such an outsider.

Either way, this was a great way to spend a Sunday that was completely open for me! And in less than a week, I’ll be spending 2 days at Disneyland with my parents!

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Posted in Celebrations, Fun Stuff

Tagged California Adventure, Disney, Disneyland, high school, podcast, theme park

Passover (or A Family Reunion A Decade Overdue)

Posted on April 17, 2014 | Comments Off

Monday evening was the first night of Passover. Even though both of my parents are Jewish and I went to Hebrew school for a few years, I don’t really celebrate any of the Jewish holidays. I went to a Passover Seder a few years ago that a friend did, but she and I were the only Jews there.

A little over a month ago, my mom was talking with her cousin who lives in LA and somehow I came up in conversation. My mom mentioned how I still live in LA and her cousin had no idea. I had seen her years ago, but she just thought that when I finished college I had moved away. So as soon as she realized I was still here, she invited me to Passover dinner.

I was really excited to get to see my second cousin again. The last time I saw her was right after my hip surgery, and I hadn’t seen her siblings (my other second cousins) in possibly over a decade. That’s a little ridiculous when we all live in LA.

I was a little nervous when I got there because I wasn’t sure how it would be with family who were practically strangers to me. But as soon as I walked inside, I was welcomed with open arms. My cousin Wendy, who was hosting the event, was so happy to see me again. She was asking me all about my life and as soon as other guests arrived, she made sure to introduce me to them right away so I didn’t feel left out.

My second cousins Randy and Craig were also there with their families. I had met Craig’s wife before but I don’t know if I had met Randy’s wife in the past. And I had never met any of their kids before, so I got to meet 4 new third cousins that I didn’t know existed!

Dinner was great. I was seated next to cousin Wendy so that was very nice. And I got to catch up with all the other family at the table. Also, pretty much everyone there was either in the entertainment industry or knew a lot about it so that dominated a lot of the conversation.

We did a semi-traditional Seder. We went over the Seder plate and the plagues and said some of the prayers, but we didn’t do a full Seder. But that gave us more time to catch up.

I had also brought the wedding album my mom made of Ross and Krystle’s wedding, so all my second cousins wanted to see that and see other family members (they haven’t seen anyone from my section of the family for a very long time).

Before I knew it, it was time for all of us to go home. I exchanged numbers and email addresses with my second cousins and I’m hoping that I can get to know them even more and make sure that it’s not another decade before I see them again.

But before we all said goodbye, I made sure we all got a picture together so I could show my mom.

It was really an amazing evening. I feel like I’ve gotten to reconnect with a section of my family that had been lost to me in the past. I know it’s nobody’s fault that we all fell out of touch and hadn’t seen each other in forever. But I’m going to make it my responsibility to make sure that I get together with them more often now.

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged cousin, dinner, family, Passover

Bar Food Hangout (or A Quick Friend Catch Up)

Posted on April 8, 2014 | Comments Off

As I mentioned before on here, my friend Kate moved back up to Northern California for an awesome job. It sucked that she moved away, but I understand having to do something for a job that you love.

She finally got a new apartment and she had to come down to LA to get the rest of her stuff. The plan for me originally was to go and help her move things into a van after doing the 5K, but since I was in so much pain (and she had enough help), I decided to just join in for the dinner portion of the day.

I have to say that I totally forgot to take photos of my meal, so I’m sorry. But, as always, I ordered a Dirty Shirley. We also ordered some food for the table and I got some mac and cheese.

But the highlight of the evening wasn’t the good food, it was the good company. Kate’s boyfriend also made the trip down so it was great to get to chat with him some more. And everyone else at the table was someone who I had already met, so that was awesome as well. In fact, two of the girls at the table and I all got season tickets for the Pantages Theater together.

We were at Bar Food for several hours just chatting about everything and nothing at the same time. The food was all great, but I’m sad to say that the service kind of stunk. People who ordered non-alcoholic drinks were charged for alcoholic drinks (and the manager claimed that she put alcohol in them). We also had things we ordered not come to the table until we prompted the waitress and the wrong dessert was brought over to the table as well. And when it came time for the bill, the waitress made it so much more complicated than it needed to be.

I joked that the service was a sign that this was the end of the good times at Bar Food. I’m sure some of the other people will go again (since they live super close to it), but I think unless I’m doing something in that neighborhood I probably won’t be going back.

Now that Kate’s getting settled in her new apartment, I’m getting excited to visit her in the future. I’m not sure when I’ll be going up, but my summer is starting to get filled with fun weekend adventures so I hope I’ll be planning that soon.

Comments Off on Bar Food Hangout (or A Quick Friend Catch Up)

Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

Tagged alcohol, bar, dinner, friends, happy hour, moving

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