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.
Posted onMarch 26, 2014|Comments Off on Non Stop NYC (or More Adventures On My Trip)
I know, it seems like I’ve been writing about my NYC trip for forever! But that’s because each day has to be its own post (or two like the past twoposts have been) because Krystle and I did so much while on our trip!
This trip was not a relaxing vacation, but that’s exactly how we wanted it! So after going to a super late night dinner the night before, we tried to sleep in a bit on Saturday (which for me meant getting up at 8am instead of 7am). We then headed to a brunch place that got some awesome reviews on Yelp. They didn’t take reservations, but we figured since it was a weekday that we should be ok.
Turns out, it’s crazy crowded there on weekdays too! We were told it would be about an hour for a table (we ended up waiting about 40 minutes) and the only place to wait was outside. So we tried to kill time in the cold by checking out the menu and figuring out what we wanted to eat so we could order right away.
Once we got a table, we really enjoyed being inside in the warm restaurant.
We ordered a quick breakfast, and then we were on to our adventures for the day. We started by going back to Canal St. and doing a bit more shopping (I don’t have any photos from that because I was pretty sure that the store owners didn’t want people taking photos of the knockoffs they were selling).
Our next stop was back to Times Square where we went to the Discovery Museum. Before going on this trip, I had heard about a Lego exhibit there. I had totally forgotten about it until I saw a poster advertising it at a subway stop. So we went off to The Art Of The Brick exhibit where there were both replicas and originals pieces of art made entirely out of Lego.
The replicas were amazing!
And the original pieces were pretty incredible as well.
I think one of my favorite pieces was the dinosaur. It was huge and I was so amazed that something like that could be made out of Lego and look so real!
At the end of the exhibit, you got a Lego piece to sign your name on.
You then added it to a wall of signed Legos. When the artist creates his next work, all the signed pieces will be used (but you won’t be able to see the signatures then). There were a ton of signed Legos on the wall when we added ours.
After the museum, we headed back to the hotel to get dressed for dinner and our show that night. We saw “Matilda”. I wish I could show you a picture of the set, but they were super strict about no pictures being taken in the theater. But I can tell you that the stage looked like Scrabble pieces exploded everywhere (in a good way) and that the set was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen in my life! I highly recommend the show!
Our last activity that day was something that I had been looking forward to for so long. I had met my friend Alex in 2008 when she and I both worked at Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. We were instant friends and had tons of great adventures together. But about 3 years ago, she moved to NYC to pursue more theater work. I hadn’t seen her since she left, but this past Friday I got to see her again!
She met us at Jekyll and Hyde, which is a bar where she works sometimes. It was right across the street from the theater, so that was perfect for us! It’s a really fun bar, lots of horror related things and all the artwork in there was interactive. But I just enjoyed getting to sit down and chat with a dear friend who I hadn’t seen in forever!
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to the hotel and get some sleep before our last full day in NYC. It was tough to say goodbye to Alex, but I know that I’ll see her again soon.
Tomorrow’s post is all about frozen hot chocolates and seeing my friend in his off-Broadway debut!
FTC Disclosure: I was giving a complimentary blowout in exchange for my review. All opinions are of my own and were not influenced by the free service.
After checking out the Empire State Building, Krystle and I got back on our hop on hop off bus. Our plan was to take the rest of the loop back to our hotel, then take the subway one stop so we could get to Drybar for our 5pm blowout appointments. I had mentioned to Drybar before the trip that I was going to be in NYC with my sister-in-law and they offered to treat me to a blowout while I was there. Of course I also booked an appointment for Krystle so we could have a fun beauty adventure.
It seemed like the perfect plan. Until it the bus seemed to be taking forever to make the loop. We finally ended getting off the bus with only 15 minutes to make it across town. We weren’t near a subway so we tried to hail a cab. Only we didn’t realize that it is very difficult to catch a cab between 3-5pm because that is when the shift change happens. We got turned down by several cabs and I started to panic that we were going to miss our appointments. I called Drybar to let them know that we were running late, and finally we caught a cab.
We made it to the Parker Meridien hotel about 10 minutes late. Before the appointment, I was a little worried about how my sister-in-law would like going to Drybar. My first experience with them (on my birthday) wasn’t the best. But I was trying to go into this with an open mind.
As soon as we walked in, we were both very happy. The place was gorgeous and as soon as we walked in, we were offered our choice of coffee, tea, water, or champagne (we both chose champagne).
I was very happy to be offered a drink as soon as we walked in. That wasn’t not what happened at my last experience at the Drybar in Marina Del Rey (I was actually never offered a drink that time).
Krystle and I took a quick before picture. Our hair was totally windblown after being on top of the Empire State Building.
We were taking back to have our hair washed. The warm water was so nice after being so cold on the bus. And the scalp massage was heaven. We got to sit in chairs next to each other, but we didn’t chat too much during the blowout because it was a bit loud with all the blowdryers.
I chose the Straight Up hairstyle, which is a straight style with body at the ends. I can’t remember what Krystle chose, but it was a style with curls. We looked pretty amazing afterwards.
It was so perfect that we got blowouts that day because we had an exciting evening planned that night. We started by going to “The Book Of Mormon”. We had seats in the very last row in the theater, but we were very centered.
The show was great and Krystle enjoyed it as well. After the show, we got a cab and went down to Chelsea for dinner at Buddakan. My quick review of the restaurant was that the food was amazing, but the service was awful. Even though we had a reservation, we still waited over 25 minutes for our table. But if you go, I highly recommend the appetizer sampler and the mushroom noodles.
I also recommend the Charm cocktail. It was delicious.
By the time we were done with dinner, it was after midnight. We were exhausted.
But this was such a wonderful day of the trip.
Thank you so much to Drybar for providing me with a blowout that day. And now that Krystle has experienced the blowout experience, she’s hooked on it (as am I after seeing how great the experience can be). I know that blowouts are now going to be a regular outing on the trips that Krystle and I take in the future. And I know now that the Drybar experience is not what I experienced on my birthday, I will be going more often in LA, especially when I have special events.
Posted onMarch 24, 2014|Comments Off on Day 2 Part 1 Of NYC (or Trying To Get Used To The Cold)
Krystle and I had decided that the first part of our second day in New York was going to be our touristy day. We had purchased tickets for one of those hop on hop off buses and figured that we could combine that plus using the subway to get around the city and maximize the day.
We started by heading by subway to Union Square to have breakfast at Chocolate By The Bald Man (yes, they have breakfast there and not just desserts).
I had an egg scramble and it came with a sugar biscuit and a dish of melted chocolate on the side. I used the biscuit to dip in the chocolate and it was amazing!
After breakfast we crossed the street where the hop on hop off bus had a stop. We only waited a minute or two before we saw the bus headed our way. While it was a pretty sunny day, it was in the low 40’s and very windy, so we were pretty cold.
But despite the cold, we got seats on the top of the bus so we could have the best views.
We were in awe over all the amazing architecture around the city. While Los Angeles and San Francisco (where Krystle and my brother live) have good-looking buildings, the ones in New York are very different. We spent a lot of the time on the bus just enjoying the view.
We got off the bus near where the 9/11 Memorial and the new Freedom Tower are located. We didn’t know that you needed tickets to see the 9/11 Memorial, but we were lucky enough that they still had same day tickets (and that the ticket time was only about an hour later). We waited around for our time at the memorial at a nearby store and once we could go in, we got through all the security checkpoints pretty quickly (it’s similar to what you go through at the airport).
The last time I was in New York, it was August of 2000. I went to visit the World Trade Centers (somewhere I have a picture of me standing between the two buildings). This was the first time I was in the city with the towers being gone. It was different. But I think that the memorial is beautiful and that it was done so well and tastefully.
And the new Freedom Tower looks amazing as well.
We walked around the memorial for a little bit and then headed over the subway. We got the subway over to the Empire State Building, where we got tickets to go up to the 86th floor observation deck (there’s a higher observation deck but it was almost $20 more per person to go up there).
Up at the observation deck, we took lots of pictures. I got a picture of the view of each side of the building.
And of course we took selfies at each side as well.
Since it was such a nice day, we also had an amazing view of the Statue of Liberty.
After the Empire State Building, we hopped back on the bus to go on some more of the tour. We planned to take it back to the hotel, where we would get the subway to our next adventure of the day: getting blowouts at DryBar.
But that story is going to have to wait until tomorrow’s post.
Right after my flight landed at JFK, I had to go from one terminal to another to meet up with Krystle, my sister-in-law. It was only one terminal over, and being used to LAX I figured it couldn’t be that hard to walk over.
While it wasn’t too far (maybe about 1/4 a mile), it was freezing out! And I mean literally freezing! It was about 30 degrees outside, so I definitely woke up from that walk over. On the plus side, I got to see the amazing sunrise.
Once I made it over to the other terminal, we got a cab and headed into the city. We had let the Waldorf Astoria know that we wanted a very early check in, but there was no guarantee that they would have a room ready for us. But when we got to the hotel around 8am, we were lucky enough to be able to check in then and go to our room. We got changed and got our purses together and headed out for the day.
Our first stop was going to be breakfast. We found a place that we wanted to check out, and we consulted our map on how to get there. But we mixed up what were subway lines and what were bus lines and weren’t able to figure out how to get there. We eventually found the subway and took it to Times Square because we figured we could find something there.
We ended up finding a random breakfast place that made custom omelets for about $6, and that sounded perfect! And those omelets were super delicious!
After getting some breakfast in our stomachs, we headed down to Canal St. where  we did some cheap shopping. Krystle got 2 fake Louis Vuitton wallets and some jewelry. I got 2 rings (there were selling them for $15 each and I got them down to $25 for both).
For fake rings, I think they look pretty good.
After doing some shopping, it started to rain and it was getting close to the time that the show we were going to was starting, so we headed back to Times Square on the subway. We hung out in a Starbucks for a bit to warm up (it was still close to freezing temperatures) and then headed down the street to the Broadway Theater to see “Cinderella”.
Right now, Fran Drescher plays the stepmother and Carly Rae Jepsen plays Cinderella, but Carly Rae Jepsen doesn’t perform on Wednesday matinees, so we saw the understudy (who was fantastic!).
We had gotten some really great seats in the mezzanine, and they weren’t too expensive either (we bought them online before going on the trip).
And the theater was really gorgeous with some amazing chandeliers.
The show was so great! The cast was amazing and it was a fun and upbeat show. Before I came on the trip, I had mentioned on Facebook that I was going to be seeing this show. My friend (and previous boss) Laura had mentioned that her friend was one of the cast members. So after the show, we found him and I got a picture with him to show Laura that we met each other.
After the show, it was still raining and we had about an hour and a half before our dinner reservations. As we were walking to the theater, I realized that I bar that I had been wanting to go to was around the corner from the theater. So after the show, that’s where we headed.
We went to McGee’s, which is the inspiration for the bar McLaren’s on the tv show “How I Met Your Mother”. Not only do I love the show, my friend Woody has been playing the bartender on it for the past few seasons!
I didn’t really get any pictures that made McGee’s look like McLaren’s, but you can tell being inside there that there are some similar things and how the creators used the bar to inspire the one on the show. Of course, I texted my friend Woody to tell him I was sad that he wasn’t behind the bar.
Besides the bar being the inspiration for the show, I have to say that it really is a great bar. We both ordered a drink there and honestly they were the strongest drinks either of us has ever had.
Finally, it was time to head back onto the subway to get to our dinner. We had reservations at Rubirosa, which is known for their pizza. We ordered some rice balls as an appetizer and got a pizza to share.
The pizza seemed huge, but since the slices are super thin crust, it wasn’t as crazy as it seemed. Plus, it had been about 10 hours since we had breakfast so both of us were pretty hungry. It was delicious and a perfect dinner for our first day in NYC.
After dinner, the jet lag and lack of sleep started to kick in. My hips were also starting to get a bit sore from all the walking (and all the stairs up and down for the subway). So we got back on to the subway and headed back to the hotel. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, I went to bed pretty early and I really needed it. I had a lot of sleep to catch up on, and I needed a lot of energy for the rest of the trip!
Posted onFebruary 28, 2014|Comments Off on One More Outing To Bar Food (or A Friend Leaving LA)
After my training at the new job, I headed back over to my side of town to go see my friend Kate. Kate is moving away from LA today and I wanted to go and hang out with her before she left.
It’s been a fun novelty to have my best friend living in the same city as me. We grew up living close to each other. When we went to college, I moved here to LA and she moved to Minnesota. While I’ve been in LA for 12 1/2 years (wow, I’ve been here a long time!), Kate has moved around. She’s lived in Minnesota, Ireland, Missouri, Alabama, and Washington State. I’ve visited her over the years (only to Minnesota and Washington) but when she moved here about a year an a half ago, it was awesome!
It had been so long since we lived an easy driving distance away from each other (or in the same state). We’ve had some awesome adventures and I got to show Kate why I think that LA is the most amazing place to live.
But Kate’s boyfriend lives up in the Bay Area and she got a job offer up there, so she has to leave. When I went over to her apartment, I kept her company while she did some packing. We also spent a while reminiscing about funny stories that happened in high school. It was a pretty fun afternoon.
Once Kate got most of her packing for that day done, we headed out for dinner. Kate’s roommate, Beth, joined us as well. We just walked across the street to go to Bar Food. They don’t have free happy hour hot dogs anymore (they are now $2 each), but we all wanted to get some real dinner.
We started off with getting some drinks, where of course I ordered a Dirty Shirley.
We ordered some spicy edamame to share for the table (I forgot to take a picture but it was really yummy!) and for my dinner, I ordered mac and cheese.
It was the perfect dinner for a rainy evening. We also got some bread pudding for dessert, but of course I forgot to get a picture of that too.
While I’m sad that my best friend is moving out-of-town, I’m happy for her. She’s moving closer to her boyfriend and her new job is really amazing. She’s going to kick butt there. Plus, it’s only a short flight to the Bay Area and I go up there anyway to see my parents. So hopefully we will hang out more than we did when she lived in another state.
So if you are reading this in the morning, please think good driving thoughts for Kate. She’s driving up north with 2 cats in the backseat, one of whom is a good traveler and one that she’s not too sure of yet.
And I’m sure that the next time that Kate and I hang out, it will be another amazing adventure!
Posted onFebruary 6, 2014|Comments Off on Biggest Loser Finale (or I Wish I Didn’t Have To Write About This)
On Tuesday evening, the finale for the most recent season of “The Biggest Loser” aired. This is the season that had the contestants that I saw at my birthday spin class. I’ve already written about how the show is a guilty pleasure of mine and that I have issues with how weight loss is shown on the show. But now I feel like I need to write about the reactions to the finale.
In case you aren’t too familiar with the show, the finale is a live event (or at least live for the east coast). Everyone who was eliminated prior to the finale weighs in for the at-home prize. The contestant with the highest percentage of weight loss wins. Then the finalists come out and the finalist with the highest percentage of weight loss wins $250,000.
When the finalists came out, the two men who were finalists looked a little thin, but that’s to be expected when they try to be at their lowest weight to win. Then the girl finalist, Rachel, came out. And you could hear gasps coming from the audience.
I thought she looked pretty thin. Her legs were muscular, but her arms and face seemed very very skinny. When she weighed in, her weight was 105 pounds (she’s 5’4″). She lost about 60% of her body weight in about 8 months.
Immediately people were posting various sites online that Rachel must be anorexic now. People seemed shocked by her appearance. And two of the trainers on the show looked pretty surprised in the live show and later released a statement that they would not comment on her weight since they weren’t her trainers during the show.
It seems like people are finally seeing some of the problems that I’ve noticed with “The Biggest Loser” years ago. When you reward people for the highest percentage of weight loss, people do drastic things to make sure they win in the finale. Historically, the contestants gain weight back after the finale because they are extremely dehydrated (to make sure there is no water weight causing them to lose the weigh in). Many contestants gain back a lot of the weight they lost because the show is not realistic. And when you lose weight with a finish line in mind, you aren’t looking at it as a lifestyle but a temporary situation.
I know that last one for sure. When I did the RFO diet the first time, it was in preparation for my hip surgery. I knew that the less I weighed, the easier my recovery would be from surgery. And since I was about 90 pounds lighter going into surgery, I did have a very easy recovery. But after surgery, I didn’t have the same motivation any more to lose weight. And I gained a lot of it back. I did the RFO diet again, but again looked at it as a temporary situation (you have to when you aren’t eating any real food). And I gained it back again.
The other thing that makes me pretty mad at “The Biggest Loser” is the fact that many, if not all, of the contestants are at high risk for starting anorexic or bulimic behaviors. It’s a pretty safe guess that most of the contestants are going in to the show with an eating disorder. Probably the same eating disorder that I have, a binge eating disorder. When I was in therapy for my eating disorder, the biggest thing that I remembered is that I will always be at a high risk for another eating disorder because I have a history of having one. I’m also at high risk for another addiction of any type.
When you take away the food from a food addict (which is similar to a binge eater), they have to find their addiction somewhere else. You can see this a lot in people who have had weight loss surgery. When you can’t turn to your comfort item, you find something else that gives you comfort. And if it isn’t comfort that you are seeking, it’s order or control. And anorexia or bulimia gives you a sense of control (even if it’s a false sense).
I’m sorry for the rant, but I’ve been holding this in for a while when watching “The Biggest Loser”. And it seems like many people are now seeing things the same way that I do. I don’t know if they will change “The Biggest Loser” now due to all this backlash, but personally I would love to see them focus on body fat percentage instead of weight. Or maybe on inches lost. But sadly, seeing someone drop 155 pounds still makes good tv.
But at least now, some people will think about it a bit differently.
But when I saw this blog pinned on Pinterest, I thought that maybe I could do the dot art mug. And I’m happy to say that it was a success!
It’s a super easy craft, but I think it look pretty impressive, as you’ll see at the bottom of this post. And you don’t need too much to do it.
First, you need a plain mug. I bought this one at a kitchen supply store, but I think I’m going to look at IKEA for more. You also need a sticker to create the negative space. And finally you need an oil-based Sharpie (you can buy these at craft stores, just look for the marker to say “oil-based”).
To start, I put the “J” sticker on the mug where I wanted the plain space to be.
Then using the oil-based Sharpie, I put dots all over the sticker, putting more dots closer to the sticker and putting them farther apart the farther I got from the sticker.
I then let the marker dry for about an hour before removing the sticker. I would recommend waiting longer as my dots got a little smudged.
The final step (which I haven’t done yet) it to put the mug in a cold over, turn it on to 350, and letting it bake for 30 minutes. I’m going to do a few more mugs before I bake them (might as well be energy-efficient!).
I did a second mug after my “J” one and I think the heart looks even better!
I’m thinking of maybe making some of these for anniversary gifts (sorry to spoil the surprise for anyone who might get one from me).
And if you don’t want to do dot art, you can still follow all the same steps to make a custom mug/plate/bowl/serving dish. The possibilities are endless!
And now I have something crafty to keep me busy while I’m out of work!
Posted onFebruary 4, 2014|Comments Off on Super Bowl (or Faking My Football Knowledge)
My friends Kate and Beth held a Super Bowl party this past weekend. I don’t really care about the Super Bowl. I wasn’t raised in a house that watches football. In fact, the very first time I had ever really seen a football game was at my high school.
But I do love the Super Bowl commercials! It’s even more fun when I know people in them!
So I went over to the party to watch the game and have a good time. I knew that most people there were going to be into watching the game and not the commercials, so I DVRed the game at home just in case I needed to re-watch commercials that I missed (this was a very smart move).
The party was full of food. I’m glad that I brought wine because there was pretty much no room for any more food in the apartment! I got a plate with some goodies and got a seat on the couch for the game.
The tv was working fine for the first 40 minutes or so, then it decided that we needed to watch the game in black and white.
It went back to color after a few minutes, but then right after that, the screen went black.
Turns out, the standard definition feed for Fox went out for Time Warner customers in Los Angeles. Since Kate and Beth didn’t have access to the high-definition feed, we ended up streaming the game from a laptop.
As most of you probably know, the game wasn’t all too exciting. It was pretty much a win for Seattle from the first minute (which kind of stunk since everyone at the party was rooting for Denver). I didn’t really understand too much of what was going on during the game, so I just cheered when everyone else cheered and booed when everyone else booed.
Since the game was looking pretty dismal, everyone started to pay attention to the commercials. But we noticed that we kept seeing the same commercials over and over again and everyone on twitter was talking about different commercials than what we were seeing. Turns out, the live stream didn’t show the commercials! That’s the best part of the game! Fortunately, I had my DVRed game waiting for me at home, so I watched the commercials then (my favorite was the Budweiser one with the puppy).
When the game ended, everyone pretty much agreed that the game stunk but at least the party was good. I liked that the game was boring because I was able to follow along a lot more than I probably would have been able to.
Hopefully next year, the game will be better and maybe I’ll be in one of those Super Bowl commercials!
To be perfectly honest, it didn’t hit me that I’m actually unemployed until yesterday. Before then, it just felt like one of our usual breaks from work. But it’s now sinking it that I don’t have a job to go back to in a few weeks.
It’s actually been a while since I was really unemployed. In 2011 I started working at a credit card dispute company. I worked there until I got my telesales job in May of 2012. I’ve had plenty of times that I’ve been out of work, but this time feels so different because I had been working pretty steadily for a while.
Part of the reason the unemployment is starting to sink in is because I only have one more show shift at work. I’m working tonight, and then after that, they might not have any people working a member table at shows anymore. If they do bring it back, it won’t be for a few months. I’m still trying to see if there is another position open for me at my old work, but it’s not looking too good.
Another reason this is all hitting me now is because yesterday was the goodbye happy hour for my boss. Everyone in telesales was invited as well, but I was the only one who could make it.
Everyone else at my work is still pretty much in shock that our entire department was let go. All through happy hour people kept asking me what I knew about the lay offs and what my plan was to do next. I wish I had a plan, but right now, I’m just trying to get my cover letters and resumes in order and start going crazy with applying for jobs.
Happy hour was fun, but it definitely had a somber vibe to it. I think that with so many people being let go at once, everyone is feeling a little insecure about their jobs.
After most of the people left happy hour, there were still a few of us who wanted to hang out and get some dinner. We had a great time just chatting about crazy things that have happened at work and random facts about our lives.
It’s a little sad that most of the people I worked with I didn’t know too well. The trailer that the telesales team was in was a little isolated, but I always tried to make an effort to get to know people. But I have to say that at the dinner part of the happy hour hangout, I got to know my co-workers better than I had in the entire time I worked there.
Eventually, we all had to head home. Everyone else had to be at work early the next morning and I just wanted to get home (it’s a bit drizzly out and my hip was killing me).
Tonight will probably be my final goodbye to my workplace. I know that I’m going to see some of my co-workers again (we are trying to organize a monthly get together even if we are all working in different places), but it does feel like I’m closing a chapter on my life. Hopefully the next chapter just gets better from here.