Category Archives: Food

A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

Posted on December 5, 2018 | Comments Off on A Hanukkah Dinner (or Sharing Some Traditions With A Friend)

I’m Jewish, but I’m not really religious or celebrate most Jewish holidays. That’s just how I was raised and it’s not something I think about much. When I was little my family did do Hanukkah and sometimes Passover, but we really didn’t do other holidays or celebrate every year. When people ask me about being Jewish, I say that I’m much more culturally Jewish and religious. But whenever a friend wants to celebrate a Jewish holiday with me I’m always happy to share what limited knowledge I have about the holiday.

My friend Christopher (who wrote the short film we starred in together) asked me very early this year if I wanted to have a night of Hanukkah with his family. They are not Jewish, but they wanted to celebrate it and to have their kids learn about holidays that other religions celebrate. I loved that he asked me very early so I could put it on my calendar before other events were filling up my time. So of course, I said yes and we figured we’d talk more about what they wanted to do closer to the date.

Christopher started to text me questions about Hanukkah because he wanted to make it exactly how I would celebrate it. I told him that I don’t really celebrate, but I let him know different things that I think of when I thought of Hanukkah. I told him that latkes or donuts are traditional foods since you usually eat things that have been fried in oil. And I gave him my mom’s brisket recipe since he was asking for a good main dish options, but I knew that since that recipe takes a long time to be made that he probably would just save that one for another day.

Christopher also did a bunch of research on his own and decided to make dreidels for his kids! I was just going to buy some at the store, but he’s really great at making things so he took a look at some and made plans on how to make them from scrap wood. I was very impressed when he sent me a text with a photo on how they came out!

I also wanted to bring things with me to help celebrate Hanukkah. I was going to bring the menorah my dad made for me but I also wanted to bring little gifts for the kids. I went to Party City where I was super surprised by how many Hanukkah things they had! I don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a wide selection of Hanukkah stuff. Even though it’s still a fraction of the Christmas stuff, it’s still a big improvement over what I’ve seen in the past.

I went over earlier this week to celebrate with Christopher and his family. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to get to their house at sundown (when you are supposed to light the menorah), but since this was a casual thing I was fine with it and told Christopher that it didn’t matter if we were doing things the traditional way. I got there just in time for dinner and that worked perfectly.

Christopher went all out with the food he made! He got brisket from a BBQ place (which was delicious), but that’s because he made 3 types of latkes and 2 types of donuts! He made traditional latkes, sweet potato latkes, and French onion latkes along with sour cream and applesauce on the side (I’m partial to sour cream on my latkes).  And he made regular donuts and blueberry filled donuts. I wish I had taken a photo of the food, but we were all enjoying it and I wasn’t thinking about documenting it all. But I think that’s a good thing since I don’t want to live my life through my phone, I want to be more in the moment.

One of the biggest memories I have about Hanukkah as a kid is what the holiday smells like, because it always smells like oil. I don’t make latkes at my house because it would make everything smell like oil and my house is so small that all my clothes in my closet would smell that way too. But when I walked into their house, one of the first things I said was how much it smelled like Hanukkah and I think they loved it. And I’m so happy that not only did it smell like the holiday but it tasted like it too!

After we were done with the food, the kids started to play with the dreidels and I was teaching them how to spin them. We didn’t play the game with chocolate or pennies, but I did bring them some Hanukkah gelt to enjoy anyway. I just didn’t want to complicate things with them on trying to teach them how to play when they were just enjoying trying to spin them. And while the original plan was to light the candles on my menorah, it was getting late and Christopher and his wife found a wood menorah with stickers to look like candles. So I showed them what order the candles go in so they could “light” it properly.

And of course, the kids had to open the gift I brought for them. I tried to find little things they could share so I got some Hanukkah stickers, temporary tattoos, and a puzzle (which is a bit more of a family gift since it’s not a super easy puzzle). And whenever you give kids temporary tattoos, you know that you are going to have at least one of them on your skin.

By the way, I discovered that nail polish remover does a great job at removing temporary tattoos!

After the kids went to bed, I had time to chat with Christopher and his wife. It was fun getting to chat and catch up and talk about all the randomness in life. They are doing a holiday party soon that I am hoping to attend, but I know at parties like that it’s not always easy to talk to the people hosting it. So it was fun getting time to talk when they weren’t worried about being good party hosts or they were distracted by tons of different things.

Time seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was much later than I was planning on being there. I wanted to get home at a decent hour to get some sleep before my early work shift and it was already pushing that time. So I said goodbye and headed back home.

I don’t know if I’ll really be doing any other nights of Hanukkah this year. I’ll probably light my menorah at least once, but I’m not planning on doing anything big like I did at this dinner. So it was nice to have one night feel special and like I was celebrating it instead of just acknowledging the holiday and not doing anything for it.

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Default ThumbnailGrandma’s Birthday Dinner (or One Of Our Thanksgiving Traditions) Default ThumbnailFirst Half Of Thanksgiving (or Hanukkah Gifts And Birthdays) Default ThumbnailCheesecake Dinner (or A Half Birthday Outing) Default ThumbnailGrownup Dinner (or Seeing A Gym Friend Outside Of The Gym) Default ThumbnailAn Overdue Friend Hangout (or A Medical Discussion Dinner) Default ThumbnailA Goodbye Dinner (or My Friend Is Becoming A Georgia Peach)

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Posted in Celebrations, Food, Fun Stuff

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Having To Defend Myself (or My Eating Disorder Isn’t Taken Seriously By Others)

Posted on November 29, 2018 | Comments Off on Having To Defend Myself (or My Eating Disorder Isn’t Taken Seriously By Others)

My eating disorder is still a big part of my life. I don’t think about it as often as I used to, but it’s still a major factor in multiple aspects of my life. I’m so grateful that I’m on medication that does help make things easier to manage at times, but it’s not a cure. But I do still have to do a lot of work on my own and it’s not easy. I struggle most days at least for a part of the day and there are days where I struggle the entire day. I often wish that this wasn’t how my life had to be, but it is the way it is and I can’t change it about myself. I feel very certain that I was genetically disposed to have an eating disorder and all I can do is work on managing it and trying to get into recovery.

I’m very open about having an eating disorder (possibly too open at times), but I find that being open is helpful to me. I don’t have to hide something about myself and when I try to explain things that my eating disorder affects it’s much easier than just speaking around it. One thing that is easier to explain is why I look the way I do when I workout 4 days a week.

If I didn’t have an eating disorder, I’m sure that I would look amazing. I don’t know if I’d be as thin and muscular as I’d like to be, but I would be in normal sized clothing and nobody would question me if I worked out or have other people in my workout class who don’t know me treat me like it was my first class ever and come congratulate me on starting to work on my health. I know that I’m much stronger than I look and I’m probably in better cardiovascular health than people who are naturally thin and don’t work out, I just don’t look like that.

And I’ve had people question me about if I really work out or if my workouts are worth it lately. Whenever I go to the doctor they do the intake questions which includes if I work out. I always say I do 4 days a week at Orangetheory and the person doing my intake usually looks shocked and tells me they are proud of me. I hate being talked down to like that, but it’s not worth me saying anything back. They don’t know me and I don’t need to explain myself because it will just happen again the next time.

But more recently I had someone who I know well ask me if my workouts were worth it because I look like I had gained weight (I haven’t, but maybe I look like I have?). They didn’t question if I was working out, but they questioned if I was wasting my time and money on something that they felt was not worth it for me.

I was speechless when that happened and I could only mumble that it’s hard to show progress when I still am battling my eating disorder and quickly changed the subject. I really couldn’t think of anything to say or a good comeback and just wanted to move past that discussion. I knew that if I had to hear them dismiss my workouts or effort any longer that I would probably start crying and I didn’t want to deal with it.

But the more I think about it, the more that conversation angers me. Beyond it just being rude, it’s disrespectful and if I was in a worse mental state it could be harmful to me. If I wasn’t feeling so good about my workouts, maybe hearing from someone else that I am wasting my time would make me stop working out because it isn’t making me lose weight right now. I might have a binge episode because I felt like all my work wasn’t worth it. Fortunately, I didn’t have either of those reactions and I almost used it as motivation to just keep trucking along.

I know that binge eating disorder isn’t as well understood as other eating disorders, but that doesn’t give anyone who knows I have an eating disorder an excuse to downplay the seriousness of it. Imagine if I was someone with anorexia and was trying to get into recovery but was still very thin and unhealthy looking. And if the person who talked to me said that clearly I was still sick looking so working on eating food is a waste of my time and effort. I don’t think anyone would ever say that to someone battling anorexia, but binge eating disorder isn’t taken as seriously by many people. They see it as a lack of self-control, lack of willpower, or just being lazy. And that’s not the case at all.

I think if this was all about willpower that I would probably have already gotten into recovery and this wouldn’t be anything I would need to worry about. But there are so many factors that make this so tough to get over and it’s not just eating less and eating healthier. Whenever I have a binge episode, it’s not something I want to do. And I always regret it immediately. Sometimes that regret happens in the middle of an episode so I can stop myself, but sometimes it’s not until it’s over and it’s too late to make it less severe.

I know that I can’t expect others to change how they treat me and that when people treat me and my eating disorder with this lack of respect that it has nothing to do with me and everything to do with them. But it does still hurt because I work so hard every day to get into recovery. I hate having my efforts being dismissed like this and I have to remind myself that they don’t know my life or my situation. I’m just grateful that I am surrounded by so many people who treat me the way I should be treated and they have helped me realize that I am working hard. They show me that they are proud of me and I use that when I am feeling down. I’m lucky that most of the people in my life are people who work to help me and it’s only a few people who seem to want to bring me down.

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Default ThumbnailDealing With Hormones (or Trying To Work With My Eating Disorder) Default ThumbnailMore Eating Disorder Research (or Reading About HDE) Default ThumbnailAnother Thing I’m Learning In Isolation (or Eating Disorder Issues) Default ThumbnailWhat Will Be Sobriety (or A Friend Making Me Think About What I Want) Default ThumbnailNational Eating Disorder Awareness Week (or Not Talking About It Is Part Of The Problem) Default ThumbnailBinge Eating In The Media (or More Help Might Be On The Way)

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Posted in Food, Health, Tough Stuff

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A Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out)

Posted on November 14, 2018 | Comments Off on A Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out)

The current season for the Pantages has officially begun! Our first show of this current season was actually an add-on show, so this past weekend was the first show of the main season. And since this season is so close to the end of the last season, it does just feel like one long season. And that’s perfectly fine with me.

And just last the past few seasons, we are going to try to have dinner before the show to make it a full night out. And even before we started to plan what we would do for dinner before this show, I got an email from the manager at Wood & Vine. They have a new chef there and they wanted to see if we wanted to come in for a tasting! We all love Wood & Vine so there was no question that we would be coming in!

I had taken a look at the menu before we went in, and everything looked delicious! I knew it would be tough for us to decide what we wanted to get, but I had a feeling that anything we picked would be amazing.

When we got there, my friends ordered cocktails and we knew we wanted the French onion dip with chips so we got that ordered right away. Then we checked out the menu and I think we got a pretty good variety and selection of things to try.

For starters/side dishes we had the dip with chips, wedge salad, and asparagus.

For entrees we had the shrimp and grits, the 50/50 burger (we got it without a bun as one of my friends has a gluten allergy, scotch eggs, and pork shanks.

We also tried the pasta dishes. We got the mac and cheese and the vegan spaghetti and meatballs.

And we got 3 of the 4 desserts they had (one of them was already sold out so we couldn’t try the cobbler).

It really was a ton of food, but the portions aren’t ridiculously huge and almost everything was split among the 4 of us. So while we were all full, it wasn’t that bad. And everything was so good so it was so worth it!

There was nothing we tried that I wouldn’t get again. But there were a few standouts to me. We all loved the French onion dip and even asked for more chips so we could keep on eating it. Then when we got our burger we discovered that dipping the fries in the dip was even better! The pork shank was a favorite among the entire group and I know that I will be getting that every time I’m there and it’s on the menu! The shrimp and grits was a hit with my friends, but since I’m very sensitive to spicy foods I had to only have a little taste. But what I tried was delicious! And I think the mac and cheese was the best variation of it that we’ve had from all of the times we’ve ordered it at Wood & Vine (yes, even better than the lobster mac!).

All the desserts were delicious and we were happy to see they kept the butterscotch on the menu. This version was a bit lighter and had more air whipped into it, but I liked that. And the ice cream was the perfect thing to have with the butterscotch. But I think if we had to pick a favorite dessert, the donut holes were the winner! It came with a chocolate bacon sauce and a raspberry sauce, and they were both great dipping options.

We also got a chance to meet the new chef, Rick Sipovic. He has been the chef at restaurants all over the country, but he grew up in the south so a lot of his dishes are inspired by that. He was so friendly and fun to talk to! We enjoyed hearing about how he decided on certain things on the menu and how the crowds that come in for dinner before the show can be very different from show to show. We were enjoying talking with him so much that we were there until about 5 minutes before showtime! We quickly said goodbye and thank you to Rick and everyone else at Wood & Vine to go across the street to the Pantages.

The show we saw this time was “A Bronx Tale” and none of us knew really anything about the show. A few of us knew it was based on a movie which was based on real life, but we hadn’t seen the movie. But I’ve heard that sometimes when seeing a show based on another thing, it’s best to go in with limited knowledge. We didn’t have the movie to compare the musical to and that’s usually a good thing.

We enjoyed the show. It was an interesting journey about the life of the main character when he was a kid and as a teenager and the story was easy to follow (a worry I have when I don’t know anything about the story). There were several very catchy songs and a bunch of them reminded us of other musicals which was a fun surprise. I think it was a nice musical to have to officially start off the season and it’s one of the only shows this season I had no familiarity with before going in. I’ve said it before but it will be interesting this season when I know a majority of the shows we are seeing, since usually I only know one or two of them.

This really was the perfect night out! The show was fun and we had a truly incredible dinner! There was never a question before that we would keep going to Wood & Vine before several of our shows, but now I’m looking forward to it even more to try the other things on the menu and see how it changes as the menu is based on what is available that season. I’m sure the winter, spring, and summer menus will be just as good as this fall one is. And I am so excited to keep having the best dinners before seeing some of the best musicals!

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Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)

Posted on October 9, 2018 | Comments Off on Such An LA Night (or Just Having Some Fun With A Friend)

I usually write about the SAG-AFTRA Film Society at the beginning of the summer because that’s when the season usually starts each year. But this year, there were some delays with the theater and the season had to start late. But since we are going to have a shortened season, we also had reduced pricing so I’m not too mad about it! And finally this past weekend we had the first screening season!

The first weekend had 2 screenings but I was only able to make it to the first screening. And the first screening was “A Star Is Born” and I was so excited to see it! I had heard so many great things about it and the screening was going to be on opening weekend which is a rare treat!

More often than not, I go to screenings alone and that’s fine with me. But I always ask around to see if anyone wants to go with me because it’s always fun to see a movie with a friend. Plus, since I pay for the season, I like to invite friends so they can get a free movie! It’s one of the fun things I get to do and share with others and it always makes me happy when someone can come with me.

This time, my friend Dani wanted to come along. She has never been to one of these screenings before (although she has been to screenings through other ones) so I think she was excited to see what the Film Society is all about. We got there pretty early since the first screening weekend is usually crowded. The way they had us line up was different from the other years I’ve done it so it looked like there were so many people in line, but I reassured Dani that it always looks like that but then when you get inside the theater I can almost always find seats in the center.

While I still have moments of realizing that I’m talking to someone I recognize from tv or movies, it’s seeming more normal to me. But when Dani and I lined up for the movie, she had a look on her face like she was trying to place someone she thought she knew. She told me a bit later that a woman behind us in line was in one episode of “Friends” and she remembered her from that one episode. I love when friends get excited about stuff like that because it’s one of those “only in LA moments”.

When we got inside the theater, I was right and we were able to be seated almost exactly in the center of the theater. We had some time to kill before the movie started, but we used that time to catch up and discuss lots of random things.

My quick review of “A Star Is Born” is that is was amazing! The story is pretty similar to the past versions of it so nothing was super shocking or surprising. But it still seemed to feel new and fresh. And when it was one of the dramatic scenes toward the end (if you know the story you know what I’m talking about), I felt like I couldn’t breathe. And Bradley Cooper did a wonderful job directing it and making the film look beautiful. For his first time directing, he did an incredible job and I have a feeling there will be a lot of award nominations for the movie.

After the movie, Dani and I decided to get some dinner. We were looking at different restaurants near the theater and nothing seemed to be what we wanted. But then Dani asked if we could go to Pink’s Hot Dogs since it wasn’t too far away. She had never been there before and wanted to check it out. I really enjoy Pink’s and don’t go that often so that sounded perfect to me! I prepared her that there may be a huge line, but when we got there the line only had about 10 people in it! It was fate that we went there!

We both enjoyed our hot dogs and just hanging out and chatting. It was also such a nice night outside so it felt good to be sitting outside and not feeling too hot or like the humidity was stifling. Even though we just had hot dogs, Dani and I decided to continue our night out and get some dessert. We were trying to think of a very LA type of dessert and decided to go Milk which is an ice cream shop and a bakery. I had never been there before but had heard amazing things about it so we got in the car and headed over there.

So many of the things on the menu sounded great and neither Dani nor I could decide on what we wanted. So we decided to get 2 different ice cream sundaes so we could try a few types of ice cream plus the brownie and blondie.

Those desserts were so good, but they were so giant! We each tried both sundaes and I think we both agreed that the blondie was the better of the two. But even with us both eating that sundae it seemed like we didn’t even make a dent in it! But we were both so stuffed and the store was closing so we only finished a portion of each before heading back to my car to head back.

We joked that this night was such an LA/Hollywood night. We went to a screening, we went to Pink’s, and we went to an ice cream shop that is known for Instagramable foods. It was so silly but so awesome at the same time! Whenever I have these low-key hangouts with friends I always say how much fun they are, and this one was no different. And hopefully I’ll be able to have more nights out like this with some more of the screenings this season!

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Cooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard)

Posted on September 12, 2018 | Comments Off on Cooking At Hipcooks (or Remembering Cooking Doesn’t Have To Be Hard)

I’ve written about my struggles with cooking on here several times before. I will probably never understand why cooking is something tough for me to prioritize and do more often, but realizing it may be a struggle for forever has helped me feel a bit better about it. I don’t think I’m a bad cook and I do like cooking, I just don’t do it.

Even though this has been something I’ve struggled to do more often, I’ve never really taken a cooking class to help to motivate me or make cooking more fun. So when my friend Dani asked me if I wanted to join her at Hipcooks for a class, I said yes to see what cooking classes are like there. Dani is a volunteer at Hipcooks, which means that she helps clean up during classes. But she can still participate and she earns free classes by volunteering. And for the summer cocktails and infusions class she was also told that she could have a friend come with her. So I got to check it out for free!

The location is actually very close to my house. I could have walked over if I wanted to, but I decided to drive so I didn’t have to walk home in the dark. And as soon as I got there, I noticed that everything was set up to have everyone work together. I imagined it would be individual stations where people learn to do things, but it was a much more collaborative class. Where we did most of the cooking was around a semi-circle station where the teacher was in the middle and we were all around.

And the table where we would be eating and making cocktails was a big square table. It has the feeling of being a party more than a class.

There was also a menu with all the food and drinks we would be making in class.

While I’m not a big drinker (and I hadn’t really had a drink since my birthday party last year), I was excited to learn how to make different cocktails. I knew that even if I didn’t drink for a long time, a bunch of the drinks could probably be made without alcohol. And they would be new skills that I was going to be learning.

The class had 8 people not counting the instructors and Dani so it felt small but we could also have little groups to work on different things. The cooking at Hipcooks is a collaborative effort and everyone gets to work on different things. For example, I was working on the bruschetta with another student in class while other people worked on a salad and a tart.

The bruschetta was an easy process. The instructor toasted the bread and I took a clove of garlic and rubbed it on the bread. Then we covered that in mascarpone cheese and layered sliced figs and prosciutto on it. It was so easy to do but looked impressive which is the best!

What I loved the best about this class was that there were no recipes and no measuring tools. The idea is that cooking is fun and doesn’t have to be perfect and I love that idea! When we were making wontons we were filling them with goat cheese and avocado. We were just told to fill them and as long as we could seal them closed it was fine. We didn’t have to worry about making sure everything was measured out and precise. It made everything easy and relaxing.

Since the class was a mix of cooking and cocktails we went back and forth between the cooking area and the table where we mixed drinks. The square table had different stations for us to work in for making cocktails and we all worked with a partner. I was partnered up with someone who was in class alone as well and we worked together making the different drinks.

We learned how to do a proper pour of alcohol, how to muddle herbs and fruit, and how to shake a drink using a shaker. I took sips of everything we made and some of them are drinks I know that I would totally make another time.

While we were having our drinks, we also got to eat some of the food we made. The instructor did some of the finishing work or baking things that needed to be baked, but most of the work was done by the students in class.

We went back and forth between cooking and making drinks a few times, but I liked that because it split things up nicely. I never felt like we were making drinks for too long or cooking for so long that I forgot what we made. The class was 3 hours long, but it really felt like it flew by. And although I wasn’t in the most social mood while in class, I did chat with everyone who was there and had a great time. I had a lot weighing on my mind while I was there, and it helped me to put that out of my mind for a bit and have some fun.

I also loved how the group came together over the course of the class. While 4 people in the group were friends and there was another group of 2 friends, but we didn’t all know each other when we started. But at the end of class, it really felt like we were one big group and that we weren’t a collection of strangers in a class together. It was really nice and exactly what I needed when I was not in the best head space.

I seriously loved this class! Not only were the things we made awesome, it really proved to me how flexible cooking can be and helped to take away some of the feelings of needing to be perfect that I know I’ve had when cooking in the past. I’m looking at taking some other classes there since they have so many different types. And I’m also looking into maybe volunteering there so I can do some free classes!

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A Belated Brunch (or Just Enjoying Supporting Each Other)

Posted on August 22, 2018 | Comments Off on A Belated Brunch (or Just Enjoying Supporting Each Other)

It has been a while since my last brunch with my mentoring group. This is pretty much my fault since I am the one who organizes these for our group. But I’ve had a lot of things happening in life that have distracted me or just put scheduling this in the back of my mind and not having me take action on it. Fortunately my group understands and everyone is just appreciative that we do these meetings when we can even if they aren’t every other month.

Half of our group was able to meet for brunch this past weekend and I was so glad to get to see everyone. As it has been for a lot of our meetings lately, I knew I wouldn’t have a ton of updates to share with the group. But for me I get just as much from hearing everyone else’s journeys and the advice that they get from everyone else. And sometimes I am able to give advice to someone else that really works as advice for myself as well. Sometimes you don’t know what you need to hear until you hear you say it to a different person.

We had our brunch at Rush St. which really is now our go-to brunch place. We have tried meeting at other places, but they just haven’t worked out for one reason or another. We all love the food and the service is quick and efficient there. Plus, they have booths that can fit the entire group if we are all there and it makes it easy for us to hear each other. It can be noisy, but being in our booth makes the other noise a bit muffled so we can focus on the conversation within the booth.

Since that is our usual brunch location (and I’m there so many other times as well), we all were able to order quickly. I usually get either an omelet or the 2 eggs any way for brunch and I got my 2 poached eggs which were perfect.

When our group started meeting several years ago, we were a bit more organized and worked on giving everyone equal time to talk and get advice. But since we’ve been doing this for so long, things are much more casual. We had been talking about random things before we ordered our food and once we ordered we naturally went into hearing what one person in the group has been up to since our last meeting. And things naturally and easily went from one person to the next.

My update was very limited. I haven’t done much as far as acting work goes in the past few months. I have still been involved in the union and learning as much as I can, but that’s not really an update to my career. I did talk a bit about my book about online dating (more on that another time) and some other things I have been doing that are beyond my day jobs. I know I need to take more control over things and seeing what else I can do, but I know I was in a bit of a slump lately. Between being sick and just feeling off, I haven’t been as motivated as I have been in the past. But I know I need to take some time to myself to see where I can be more proactive with things since I don’t want to just sit and wait for others to have projects for me.

But everyone else had fun things to share. One person has been busy directing lots of projects including a short film for HBO. Another person has been working on a one-woman play she wrote and now it looks like it might end up on Broadway. And another writer in the group has finished a script and has been submitting it to people she knows to get feedback before working on the next draft. And we heard little updates from other members of our group via email that couldn’t make the meeting and everyone seems to be doing so well.

I know that I could be feeling down on myself and feeling like everyone else is making huge strides in their careers and I’m not. But I also know that everyone else has the same struggles that I do and I don’t necessarily know about them. Even I really only share the positive things happening in my life when we are at the meetings. I did share that I had been sick and some health updates, but besides those everything was a positive update. So I can’t compare knowing everything happening in my life with the little bits I know about everyone else’s. And I think our group shares that we all struggle so nobody has to feel like they aren’t doing as much or accomplishing as much as everyone else.

As with all of these brunch meetings, I felt so great while I was there and after leaving. I love having these check-ins and supporting my friends and having them support me. It makes me feel so amazing having such incredible people in my life and I am always so grateful for their advice for me or hearing their advice for someone else.

I’m hoping the next brunch we do won’t be as delayed and I’ve been making efforts to make sure that doesn’t happen. Our next brunch is supposed to be in 2 months and I’ve already sent and email out to the group to see what dates work for everyone. Hopefully we can find a date that works out for all of us and we can all be together in 2 months. But if that doesn’t happen (and there’s a good chance it won’t since we all have crazy lives and schedules), I know that whenever we are able to meet up again it will be just awesome as it always is.

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An Almost Free Meal (or Amazing Food And Crazy Dating Stories)

Posted on August 16, 2018 | Comments Off on An Almost Free Meal (or Amazing Food And Crazy Dating Stories)

I don’t have a ton of birthday traditions, but one that has been a part of my life for quite a while has been getting my free birthday meal at Truxton’s. I have been doing the free birthday meal pretty much since the restaurant opened in 2006 so I’ve been doing it for 11 or 12 years. And it has been a tradition with my birthday twin Joanna for about a decade now (we aren’t totally sure when we started going together).

Since we’ve been doing this I don’t think we have missed a year. It’s too good of a deal to skip! In the beginning it was a free entrée and a free dessert for each of us. That was a ton of food but we had fun with it. Then a few years ago it changed to $20 of free food for each of us but they would combine them on a single bill so it was easy for us to plan to spend under $40. Then it had to be on separate bills and we had to be strategic. We realized that it was going to be too difficult to have a totally free bill, but we still only ended up owing a dollar or two.

Going into our birthday dinner this year, we had every hope that we could go for a totally free meal. We went to dinner the day after our birthday and I was so excited to have a great dinner and to hang out with an awesome friend!

Since now we aren’t restricted to a free entrée and dessert, we usually get an appetizer to share, an entrée for each of us, and a dessert to share. And for our appetizer we almost always get Monkey Bread because it’s so good! Since we knew we’d be getting that plus a dessert, we picked out our dessert to figure out how much money we would have for entrees left over.

While we could have gotten things cheap enough to make everything free, nothing that we wanted was in that range so we had to decide if it was worth getting things we weren’t totally wanting in order to have a totally free meal or if it would be better to get what we want and owe a little bit of money. We both agreed that we would rather have a meal we wanted and owe a little bit. We both were craving burgers so we got those with the parmesan garlic fries that I love!

The Monkey Bread was awesome too and we got a churro sundae to split as our dessert. We were both pretty full when we were done but it was so good and we were so happy to have a great meal together.

We also took a while to eat because we were busy catching up on life with each other. We both have had some crazy dating stories lately and we were going back and forth sharing some of the weirder ones. She was telling me a story of a guy who seemed like he was trying to gaslight her but was making it so obvious that he just sounded insane and confused. I was telling her stories of some of the guys who have ghosted me recently and how odd it was that someone could go from texting me every day to disappearing and not feel like they should say they aren’t interested. I will never understand guys who ghost, but at least we were both having a laugh in sharing our stories.

When we got our bills, we knew we would both owe a little bit. But we owed so little for our dinner that it was like we had a free meal!

Plus, we had free parking at meters since we had a later dinner so we saved money there! If we had to pay for parking, it would have been more than the cost of the dinner! And another one of our favorite things about this free (or almost free) birthday dinner is that we can leave a bit tip and feel like we are doing something great. Our bill was basically $40 before the discount and we each left $10 for a tip. So we were able to tip our server almost 50% on our meal! I know that some people don’t tip well when they get a discount, but we want to do the opposite since we know how much servers depend on tips. It also makes us feel like badasses because we can say we tipped 50%.

We stuck around after dinner chatting and catching up some more (we didn’t feel bad because there weren’t people waiting for the table and our server seemed fine with us hanging around). It was nice just to chat and have fun with a good friend. And I really did like that we were sharing dating stories because sometimes it feels like the crazy things only happen to me. While I don’t wish that anyone else has to deal with what I deal with, it does make me feel less weird and alone when I hear a friend has similar situations with the online dating world.

Joanna and I don’t really get to see each other in person that often because our schedules are crazy and we aren’t usually in each other’s part of LA. But I’m glad we have this tradition as well as our holiday time tradition so we do get to see each other at least twice a year. And I know that in a year we’ll be doing our almost free birthday meal again!

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Default ThumbnailFabulous Free Food (or Why I Love My Birthday Twin!) Default ThumbnailBirthday Twin Dinner (or Zero Dollar Bill) Default ThumbnailContinuing The Birthday Celebrations (or A Birthday Twin Adventure) Default ThumbnailBirthday Twin Tradition (or An Almost Free Meal) Default ThumbnailStill Figuring Out Meal Planning (or Will Food Ever Be Easy For Me?) Default ThumbnailBelated Birthday Dinner (or We Don’t Mind It’s Not Totally Free Anymore)

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The Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note)

Posted on August 7, 2018 | 1 comment

This past weekend was the last show of the current season at the Pantages for my group. It’s been a pretty amazing season and I’ve loved having these Sunday adventures with my friends. The next season for us will be starting in 5 weeks, so it’s not that much of a gap between this season and next. But one of the members of our group won’t be joining us next season. She is going back to school to get her doctorate so she won’t have the time to commit to the season. We do have another friend who will be joining us, but it was still a bit sad to know that this was going to be the last show for this group that has been together for 2 seasons.

We started our evening out at Wood & Vine like we have for so many shows. We love going there for dinner because it is always great and the staff spoils us there. But they also just got a new menu (they change the menu seasonally) and we really wanted to see what the new offerings were and checking out what some of our new favorites would be.

I had looked at the menu before going and had picked out a few things I knew I wanted us to get, but I still took a look to see if my mind had changed. And our group quickly decided that we wanted all 4 main dishes that were on the top row of the menu plus the street corn. We thought all 4 of those main dishes were new ones, but it turns out the lamb burger has always been on the menu and we just never got it!

Our veggies came out first. We ordered the corn but the manager also wanted us to try the salad.

The salad was nice and fresh, but the corn tasted so luxurious! It was perfectly seasoned and the creme on it was delicious! We quickly ate it all and were excited to get the main dishes we ordered.

The 4 things we got were the pork belly tacos, the lamb burger, the pasta with prawns, and the tequila chicken.

Without a doubt, our absolute favorite was the tacos. The pork belly melted but was also nice and crispy. It was so good that I wish I was having it again right now because my mouth is watering! The lamb burger was a bit spicy so I only had a small taste of it, but my friends said that it is a must-order for the next time we have dinner. And the pasta with prawns and the chicken were amazing too! We all were tasting everything and most of the time we were eating we were much more focused on the food than talking.

And the dessert menu at Wood & Vine was expanded recently and the manager wanted us to try 2 of the new desserts.

I don’t like pineapple (it hurts my mouth), but I loved the ice cream in the pineapple sundae. And my friends said the pineapple was beautifully grilled and tasted amazing. And I loved the chocolate truffles! They were really rich, but the perfect size to enjoy them and not feel stuffed.

As always, the food at Wood & Vine really amazed us and we were having the best time having dinner there. I have a feeling that we will continue going there for dinner before our shows multiple times in our next season. The manager also told us some ideas they were thinking for the fall menu and we cannot wait to see what they go with and try out all the new things!

After dinner we walked across the street to the theater to go to our show. This time, we were seeing “Waitress” which was one of the shows I was most excited to see this season.

I love the movie “Waitress” and it’s one that I watch over and over. The story behind the writer, director, and one of the actors is a sad one and that makes the movie even more special for me to watch. She created this amazing movie and was waiting to find out if it got accepted to Sundance but was murdered before she could find out it got in. The movie was critically acclaimed and she never got to experience that. And I love that her legacy is continuing with the musical being loved by so many people.

Since I was familiar with the story and characters, I was excited to see what changed they made from the movie to the musical. Sometimes adaptations skip some of my favorite parts or I feel like there is something missing. But this time I was so happy with how the musical took elements from the movie and expanded upon them. I felt like so many characters were built upon and they were even more lovable. And the main story and plot was very true to the movie and that made me happy too.

I’m so glad that this musical didn’t disappoint me since it was something I had been looking forward to since this season was announced. It’s not that often that I am disappointed by a show, but it can happen and I’m always a little worried that something I’m really excited about will do that. But this wasn’t that situation and it really helped to end our season on such a wonderful high note!

I’m already so excited for the next season and the season after that will be announced in a few months. Hopefully that season will be another one that many of us want to go to and the tradition will continue with getting season tickets. I’ve said this pretty much every time I go to a show, but going makes me so happy and I’m just grateful that I have friends who do this with me and make these evenings feel so special.

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On Your Feet (Good Food And Good Music)

Posted on July 19, 2018 | Comments Off on On Your Feet (Good Food And Good Music)

I can’t believe that my current season of musicals is almost done! Then again, right after this season ends in August the next season starts in September so I won’t have that much of a break (unlike last time when “Hamilton” was here for several months). But this past weekend was the next to last musical of this season, and we made sure we had a good night out!

We started at Wood & Vine again. It really is our favorite pre-musical restaurant and we knew they’d be changing the menu soon so we wanted to go back before the change. We loved so much of the food we had last time and we wanted to have those again in case they were not on the new menu. We were seated on the patio which was nice since the weather had cooled down a bit since the heat wave.

We ordered the mac and cheese, asparagus with tomatoes, and tortellini again that we had last time. But we switched it up and decided to try the rib eye steak as well. It is a bit of a splurge, but it’s a huge steak that was more than enough for the 3 of us to share. If I was only sharing it with 1 other person, I think the steak and a veggie side would be enough to make me full.

The steak was so amazing! We all miss the bone marrow (and hope that it will be coming back to the menu soon!), but the steak was delicious and I have a feeling we will be ordering it again the next time we are there!

We were just deciding which of the desserts we wanted to order when we discovered that they were sending us all of the desserts! They really do spoil us there and I love getting to have all of them awesome food. But we really weren’t expecting to get the desserts sent to us and we were all so happy to try them. They had made some changes to the desserts and they were even better than they were the last time.

After we finished dinner, we headed across the street to the Pantages for our show. This time, we were seeing “On Your Feet” which is the Gloria Estefan musical.

I’ve seen a few different jukebox musicals and expected it to remind me of “Jersey Boys” or “Beautiful“. We although thought maybe it would be similar to “The Bodyguard” since some reviews said it was similar to watching a concert. We all went into the show with an open mind and excited to see what it would be like.

I’m familiar with Gloria Estefan’s music, but I knew that I didn’t know all of her music or that some popular songs were hers. And I knew for sure that I wasn’t too familiar with her story of how she got to where she is now. So I really liked how the musical really did tell her story of her family and how they came to America as well as how she got started as a teenager. It really was a great telling of her life and even though there were a few brief flashbacks it was almost all chronological so it was an easy story to follow.

And as expected, there were a ton of songs that I knew and loved and a few songs that I loved and didn’t know were hers. Every time a song started you could feel the energy of the audience perk up. Fortunately nobody was singing along (a problem we’ve experienced before at shows) but everyone was enjoying the show and loving the performances of the actors. They were all really talented and there were times I forgot I was watching someone play Gloria Estefan and not watching her sing.

I definitely learned a lot about her story and it made me admire her so much for all the work she has done for her career. It was impressive to see how she had to fight to be a crossover artist and sing in English. And I didn’t know about the bus accident that she was in and how doctors thought she might not walk again. In the car ride home from the show, I was looking up so much about her story because I realized how little I knew about her. While my mom enjoys musicals, she doesn’t love them the same way I do so I usually don’t recommend shows to her. But this was one that I called her about as soon as I was home and told her she needed to see it when it was touring near them.

Our last show of the season is about a month away and then we’ll be in our next season. And of course we are already looking at the 2019-2020 season which should be announced toward the end of this year or beginning of next year. They’ve only announced one show so far, but I have a feeling we will be getting season tickets again because of how fun these nights are for me and my friends.

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Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out) Default ThumbnailAnother Musical Season (or Enjoying A Repeat Musical) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note) Default ThumbnailA Weird Night In Hollywood (or Another Musical In Our Season) Default ThumbnailAn Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food)

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An Amazing Dinner and Show (or The Food Might Have Been The Highlight Of The Night)

Posted on June 26, 2018 | 1 comment

It was already time for another musical this past weekend! It’s been so fun having our shows back to back and I’m happy that it’s going to be that way for a little while. And with all of our shows, we try to have a fun dinner as well. We realized recently that it had been almost a year since the last time we were at Wood & Vine so we had to make a plan to go back there! Because we have gotten to know the manager from the times we had been there before, I sent him an email once we made our reservation to give him a heads up that we’d be there.

And the manager really hooked us up while we were there! First, we sat upstairs and got to sit at his favorite table. We had a great view of the theater and it allowed for some fun people watching.

The menu had changed since last year so we took some time figuring out what we wanted to eat. The bone marrow we love wasn’t on the menu this time (but they did mention it might be coming back in the future), but there were still lots of options that sounded good to us.

Everything on the menu is designed to be shared. In the past we’ve gotten a few things that we all wanted and then one or two things that only some of the group wanted. But this time, we seemed to agree on everything we wanted. We got the cheese plate, the scallops, the salmon, the lobster mac and cheese, and the asparagus and tomatoes. But when the manager saw what we got and noticed we didn’t have the tortellini, he sent some to us because he said we needed to try it (he was right). And he also spoiled us by sending us all the desserts from the menu! It was so much food, but nothing was too rich or heavy so we didn’t feel overstuffed.

All the food came out pretty quickly so we were able to enjoy our time and relax while we were eating. We didn’t feel rushed (which has been an issue in the past with other restaurants) and we felt like dinner was a nice starter to a fun evening out. It feels like such a splurge to eat there even though it really isn’t. But it feels so much nicer and the food is so delicious that it does seem like a treat.

We ended up staying there until about 5 minutes before the show started (the benefit of eating right across the street from the theater) and got inside with time to spare. This time, the show we were seeing was “Cinderella”, which was one of the shows I saw when I went to NYC a few years ago. I enjoyed the show when I saw it then and I was excited to see how the tour compared to the Broadway production.

I was impressed with the tour production. It was almost exactly the same as the Broadway show with the sets and costumes. I know that it’s not always possible to do that when it’s a tour since they have to be able to pack it up and move it from city to city, but they were able to keep it all the same as I remembered it. I’m sure there were some differences, but nothing noticeable or that I could tell.

Dani and Michelle hadn’t seen this musical before so they were excited to check it out. And they both enjoyed it. It was a nice show to see when life has been a bit stressful. We could watch and escape and there was nothing too heavy and dramatic. And of course since we are all Disney nerds this was nice. I know the musical isn’t the same as the Disney cartoon, but it’s close enough.

I’ve had more and more opportunities lately to see musicals for the second (or third) time and that’s still a treat to me. I love being able to compare productions and see the little changes that are made. The shows are still pretty much the same but I do like to notice the little differences or things that make each production special. While this show was so similar to the Broadway show, it still felt special and different in a way. The performers were all awesome and the way the audience reacts is always different too. I seriously just enjoy being in an audience with a group experiencing any show. And that was exactly what I did.

While our next musical is in a few weeks, we’ve actually already been back to the Pantages already! But that will be shared on here tomorrow!

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Default ThumbnailTaking Time For A Show (or Seeing Summer) Default ThumbnailAnother Dinner And A Show Night (or Classic Musicals And Yummy Food) Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing A Popular Show (or It’s “Rent” Time!) Default ThumbnailThe Last Show Of The Season (or Ending On A High Note) Default ThumbnailThe Bodyguard and Bone Marrow (or An Amazing Dinner At Wood & Vine) Default ThumbnailA Tasting And Theater Night (or Enjoying A Fun Night Out)

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