turn on the bright lights

work sent me to new york city for a week, so i thought, why not head up a few days early and spend some time with my pretty friend jpowers in brooklyn? i flew up on saturday and the fun was full on upon arrival. we went out to a delicioso tex-mex inspired restaurant called lobo. they have queso! after that we met up with some of our friends from undergrad at this cool neighborhood dive bar for a nail-biting game of jenga.


the next day was a walk-a-thon. we walked the loop at prospect park, grabbed a nyc bagel (the rumors are true!) and then headed out for our adventure around brooklyn. jpowers took me out to dumbo (down under manhattan bridge overpass) to her workplace. it's beautiful down there! we left dumbo and headed back to her place near prospect park. that evening we headed down to artichoke for a slice of pizza and then over to upright citizen's brigade for an improv show. hilarious!

the next day was work work work. we had our event in the penthouse suite of this cool, modern hotel called the morgans. i was right in the thick of things in manhattan, on 35th and madison avenue. we were right around the corner from the empire state building. check out the few from our suite.

i was able to sneak in a bit more playtime during the evenings. i met up with one of my friends from sxsw, a hoboken native, who took me down to grand central station, the chrysler building and up through times square. i loved grand central. i believe one of my favorite scenes from the movie 'the untouchables' was filmed on the staircase. can you see kevin costner chasing the baby stroller down the marble steps? anyone?

after work was said and done, i had some time to check out the sites near my hotel. i skipped down to rockefellar center to catch a glimpse of tina fey. i walked around the corner to the rainbow room and radio city music hall.

across the street from rockefeller is a beautiful church called st. patrick's cathedral. i was totally drawn to it. it's huge! it takes up entire block, which is really saying something when you're downtown in new york city. 

i concluded my blissful week at bryant park. it was such a beautiful, lush park. i was a little bummed that i couldn't run barefoot through the think green grass but there's always next time. all in all, i give the big apple two perky thumbs up!

bunny hop

best. easter. ever. 
weird to say considering this was the first time i didn't celebrate with family, but maybe it was the joy of creating my own traditions that really pushed it over the top. check out the breakdown:


friday
railroad revival tour down in san pedro. the bf and i didn't have tickets, but we did have hope. we sprinted down south to san pedro after work and hit up the first scalper we saw. $150 a pop for a $55 ticket. thanks for no thanks. we moved on, closer to the show. we ended up watching the rest of old crow medicine's show through the chain link fence. while we were standing there, i suppose looking a bit defeated, a nice fellow came up and asked if we wanted a ticket to the show. face value. sweet! about 5 minutes later a lovely lady approached with an extra ticket in hand and we were set for the show. to top it all off, my new zealand roommate was in the audience and we got to hang with her and her posse. 
edward sharpe was cool, but the show antics weren't as wild as i had read about. i did like the hippie band. definitely reminded me of austin.

 

mumford put on a gem of a show, as expected. i'm jonesing for the new album to come out.

my goodness, can you imagine how wildly exciting it must have been on that train tour?!

saturday
we grabbed a cheapie hotel for the evening so we could be well rested for our whale watching tour in long beach on saturday morning. the san diego trip was much cooler, but it was also twice as long so we were able to journey out a bit further into the ocean on that trip. the long beach watch was 2 1/2 hours with no whales in sight. we did get to see some cutsie sea lions lounging on a buoy. 

we also saw this amazing dolphin pod, about 40 dolphins deep. since we were in a much smaller boat this time around we were much lower and closer to the dolphins. we rode next to the pod for a good 15 minutes. quite exciting!

after our mini cruise, we headed up the coast and stopped at our favorite spot in rancho palos verdes for a picnic. after our homemade sandwiches, we ended up falling asleep on top of the picnic tables while we watched the birds and the clouds pass by overhead.


recharged from our sunny nap, we continued up the coast, back into LA and headed over to hollywood to celebrate mrs. schwo's birthday. amazingly fun-filled with new friends, baked goods, wine and a catch phrase meets charades game called butros butros gali.


sunday

i had spotted a billboard a few weeks back advertising easter service at the hollywood bowl. the bowl has hosted a plethora of big shows like led zeppelin, elton john, the beatles and more. i had never been to the bowl, but i had heard from my favorite texas church oldie that easter service at the bowl was pretty magical. he was right. it was wild! the beverly hills presbyterian church hosted the celebration complete with an orchestra, choir and praise band. only in hollywood would you receive an ep after church service! check out some of the photos we took from the top of the bowl.

after the service we headed back to my place for a big brunch complete with omelettes, waffles and fresh berries. to relieve our full bellies we went on a hike in the santa monica mountain trail near my house. we borrowed my roomies dog for the trip.
no chocolate bunnies or marshmallow chicks, but a fabulous easter weekend nonetheless! cheers!

'first' weekend

one of the great things about living in california, or LA for that matter, is the wide selection of activities. my past weekend experience was no exception. pretty much a full on day of firsts, all of which were exceptional.

friday – sushi dinner with the bf and then off to venice to visit his san fran friends. i have been to venice a couple of times, but that night was ‘first friday.’ very similar to ‘first thursday’ on south congress in austin, just bigger. more food trucks and spectacular people watching. we didn’t stay on abbot-kinney for very long, but long enough to promise myself to make it to the next ‘first friday.’ our group headed up to santa monica to a beautiful victorian house turned bar. we sat under beautiful flowering trees and drank wine. phenoms.

saturday – probably not the best day for my first beach trip. the majority of the week had been insanely beautiful and sunny. somehow mother nature didn’t get the memo that we were hoping to enjoy our saturday on huntington beach. instead of warm sunny skies, we got clouds and brisk winds. we used our towels as blankets and snuggled up to each other. after we threw the football around, we packed up our picnic and headed further south to costa mesa. brandon boyd (lead singer of incubus) was showcasing his artwork at hurley’s headquarters. we got there 15 minutes after the doors open and there was a line around the building. i guess there are a few other b boyd fans in southern california. who knew? the show was really cool, very impressive. some small framed pieces of beautiful artwork, but the most impressive part was the huge 4 wall floor-to-ceiling mural in the back room. golly, he’s talented. mr. talented was there, but he was hiding out upstairs. i saw jose pasillas (drummer for incubus) check out his bandmates artwork, but that’s about as close to b boyd as i was able to get. probably for the best. the bestie has seen me freak out while in brandon’s presence, but i wasn’t ready to let the bf see that side of me. we’ll save that gem for later.

sunday – one of my officemates, let’s call her ncpeanut, as she works with me at ncompass and she looooooves peanut butter, has season tickets to all of the home laker games. her parents were out of town for the weekend, so she was able to bring 3 friends to the game instead of her usual 1. the bf and i joined ncpeanut and her bf. wild! we grabbed brunch at an upscale bar in the LA live neighborhood, and then walked to the staples center. row 17. srsly. i can’t express how amazing this experience was, nevertheless how wildly close are seats were to the floor. again, row 17. the laker’s gm was sitting behind us. behind! silly. we saw jack nicholson, lawrence fishbourne, will ferrell, jeremy piven, kevin connelly, a kardashian and a few other celebs. oh yeah, and there were basketball players there, too. lakers vs nuggets. ironically enough, the bf’s sister lives in denver and she plays on a rec soccer team with nene from the denver nuggets. while nene is probably a great soccer player, he is an amazing basketball player. a little too amazing. lakers lost 91-95. oh well. still wild.

after the game the bf and i headed to a beautiful mansion in the hollywood hills off mulholland drive. our friends, the schwo’s, were house-sitting and hosting a movie screening. the schwo’s are both professional actors and mrs. schwo had just walked the red carpet for her first full-length film the week prior. we weren’t able to catch the red carpet premiere, so they decided to host a little screening for us and a few other friends. awesome. she was great, the company was great and the house was baller! did i mention there was a zip-line in the backyard?

oh my, i’m so happy i moved out here.

san diego - day 2

keeping with our ‘best thing i ever ate’ theme, the bf and i headed over to café 222 for brunch. naturally we ordered the peanut butter and banana stuffed french toast. definitely tasty, but i enjoyed the pesto and goat cheese eggs more.

my officemate and i share an affinity for peanut butter and other nut spreads. strangely enough there is a great nut butter shop in san diego called ‘spread.’ and yes, also featured on ‘the best thing i ever ate.’ after an hour searching for nut butter bliss we finally found it. unfortunately it was hiding for a reason. closed. boo. no mexican chocolate and hazelnut peanut butter for me.

spread put us close to balboa park, so we decided to head that direction and check it out. no time to actually get out of the car and really look around, but we were able to slowly roll through the area. definitely looking forward to my next trip to san diego. i have a feeling i could spend an entire weekend in balboa park. zoo, history museum, ginormous pipe organ, hiking, beautiful grassy knolls. done.

after balboa we headed up to birch aquarium. just a note, do not use the address on the birch aquarium brochures, as you will be taken into a maze that is UCSD. stick with the address on the aquarium website. trust me on this one. by the time we made it to birch we only had a couple of hours before we were supposed to be at the bestie’s for a surprise party with her parents and sister. we decided to scratch the visit, but decided to take a potty break at the aquarium before we hit the road. we were already there, right? another quick note, if you walk in through the gift shop versus the main gate entrance, you don’t have to pay. we didn’t mean to get in for free, honest. we just really had to pee. once we realized this little flaw in their set up, we decided to take advantage of the situation. teach them a lesson, ya know? we only had about 30 minutes to enjoy the sea life, so it was a quick visit, but it’s a small space so we were pretty successful. i would say the most impressive part of the aquarium was their view of the ocean from the back patio. pretty stunning.

i definitely give san diego two thumbs up. looking forward to my next trip down south.

san diego - day 1

i took my first trip to san diego a couple of weeks ago. while it’s only a 2 hour drive south of LA, the bf and i decided to make a full weekend out of it. while we were hoping, or rather i was hoping, to pack about 14 activities into the first day, time just wasn’t working in our favor. we left about 2 hours later than expected. instead of hitting up the birch aquarium on our way in, we headed straight to lunch. hodad’s burgers to be exact. this hot little joint was featured on the food network. as many of you know, i don’t eat red meat, but i can definitely get down on a bird or veggie burger. i got the chicken burger. i was thinking it would be ground chicken, but it was actually a chicken patty with burger fixin’s. think back to the chicken patties they served in elementary school. yeah, those. i wasn’t impressed. luckily there was really no time to write a rave review, as we were running late for our whale watch tour. we ate our burgers in the car as we raced over to the marina.

a few months ago i was dreaming about going to an aquarium and noticed that birch aquarium in san diego was hosting whale watching tours through april. the gray whales were migrating from alaska to the baja through the early spring months. done! we went 10 miles out into the ocean. we floated into international waters and we even caught a glimpse of mexico! wild. we had been heading west for about 2 hours and still hadn’t seen anything. luckily the boat ride was incredibly fun. well, we had fun. the other two-thirds of the passengers had either passed out or thrown up. maybe both? it definitely wasn’t as crazy as my first whale watching tour from cape cod. no regurgitated clam chowder. i call that a success.

after our 10 mile journey we came to a stop and just floated. then, whale! there were 3 whales. two adults and a baby. they would come up for a couple of breaths and then dive back down for a few minutes. we ended up watching 2 different groups of whales for a while. they were pretty far from the boat, but we did get some great fluking views (when they dive down and flip their tail into the air).

on the way back in we passed a huge pod of 30 dolphins racing towards the boat. i felt like a little kid. i couldn’t stop laughing, i was so excited. then we rolled up on a massive group of sea lions just chilling on some floating docks. we were so close we could smell them. i hollered down and they hollered back. i LOVE sea lions. i saw ‘fools with tools’ at sea world once and i was hooked. if you go to the one in san antonio, say hi to clyde and seymour for me. they’re presh.

after our 5 hour journey, we were pretty wiped. not sure how sitting on a boat for 5 hours can make someone sleepy, but it did. we pulled up to our hotel and took a nap. the only bad thing about early evening naps is that they result in late night dinners. late. by the time we found a restaurant that was still open as well as a parking spot in the gaslamp district, it was after 11pm. maybe it was the sharp hunger pains or the excitement of an open restaurant, but i swear, this place was yumz! i highly recommend toast in the east village. delish. we wrapped dinner around 1am and then headed back to the hotel. we weren’t looking forward to ‘springing forward’ in the morning.

jetsetter

one of my favorite perks of my job is the travel. yes, it’s all work related, but it’s still fun. although i will admit am one of those weird people that enjoys the mere ride on the plane. i’m pretty easily amused.

i’ve already done a san fran cameo. I’ve also worked outside of phoenix in scottsdale, arizona during the first week of march. that was very exciting.

i’m currently sitting on a plane right now as i type this and i will have to say i am anticipating this to be the best trip thus far. we are flying to new york city! i’ve only been there once, when i was 11, and i was with my family for the day. that was it. statue of liberty, united nations, giants stadium, done.

there’s nothing on the schedule for today other than just flying up to new york. we’ll be busy tomorrow with site visits for my upcoming event in may. tomorrow evening, after our busy morning/afternoon, we will jump on a plane and head to san francisco. more site visits on wednesday and then fly down to LA that evening. busy and to the point, but i’m sure i’ll still be able to squeeze in a little bit of fun. pictures to come!

working woman

september through november were pretty painful job searching months. no one was biting. no one. i really started tapping into my connections and still the wells were dry. not until december did things start to turn around. i believe the fear for an unclear 2011 coupled with christmas vacation really helped play to my advantage. phones were ringing and emails were coming in. i believe one week i had 4 different interviews.

some interviews were great, some were not so great. i could definitely tell my body language read like ‘i don’t want to take this job, but i’m really desperate so i’m here’ at a few of the companies, but there were a couple of great places i was super jazzed about.

my top pick seemed a bit far-fetched. i met a woman at the sxsw music mixer party through my friend who works as the sxsw sponsorship director. the woman, let’s call her my job fairy, was very well connected in the events and entertainment industry. she shot off an email that night to her friend’s company and i got a response that evening. it took a while for me to connect with the company due to their busy event schedule, but by mid-december i was rushed in for an interview. a few days passed (which seemed like weeks) before i heard back. i got it! a working girl, finally!

*note, it's a 3 month contract gig at the moment. i should have a better idea of my full-time status in a few weeks.

i have been busy working as an account manager for two and a half months now at this experiential marketing/events company. my main client is activision, the gaming company. we have a permanent account with them, so we are constantly working on new events and game releases. it definitely keeps us busy. i'm on a team of seven, so it’s nice to have so much support. our team is very fun loving but also very hard working. i think we all mesh really well. the entire company is really like that. i mean, we have a slurpee machine and wine closet in our kitchen. what more could you want? how about 2 adorable French bulldogs in the office? yeah, we have that too. we’re located in west Hollywood, a super cute and clean hip area. there is a large homosexual community in that area and a lot of fabulous people watching spots. i love it!

toasting 2011

new year’s eve celebrations were always a big deal in our group of friends. for the past five years my friend’s and i would go see this awesome 80’s cover band called ‘the stummies’ play at one of our favorite downtown bars. the last two years we upped the anty and rented a hotel room. 2 hotel rooms + 12 friends = a wildly entertaining evening.

again, another ‘first’ experience in california. the bestie was having a get-together at her place with a few of her college friends in town. our dear friend from high school was also flying through for the weekend, so he made it to the party. and yes, the bf and joecoffee even swung by. it was a casual house party with plenty of libations and celebrating.

occasions like this make me feel like i’m really growing up and becoming an adult. not that i would ever claim to be a booze hound, but nye was always a big to-do with our friends. this year i traded in my plastic red cup and 80’s dive bar band for mini quiche and champagne. golly, i really am high class. what has california done to me?!

west coast roadie

i knew i was in for an entertaining trip once i met my bf’s friend, let’s call him joecoffee. joecoffee is also from arkansas. they met each other back in junior high. joecoffee had been a football coach for many years, but was ready to get out of teaching and coaching and he decided to move west to live with the bf.

joecoffee had packed up all of his belongs for this move, so needless to say we were a bit crammed. three adults, one sedan and the smallest little uhaul you have ever seen. he packed that thing like a mary poppins bag. now because of this trailer, we were only able to max out at 60 mph and we dropped down to 16 mpg. not something you’d like to do while driving through a desert.

as you can imagine, joecoffee likes coffee. loves coffee. this makes for many pit stops and pee breaks. i was totally fine with this, since i was never the one that we had to stop for.

we grabbed breakfast at the house before we left and hit the road around 10am. we had to take a few country back roads through texas before we hopped on the i-10. my turn to drive. i love driving, but it can get interesting in a car of 3 people with completely different preferences. i like windows down and music up. the bf also likes music, but a few different genres. i got my fill of the allman brothers on that trip! joecoffee prefers 80f inside temp and talk radio. not npr talk radio, but rush limbaugh and conspiracy theory radio. thank goodness for headphones.

the long drive didn’t really wear on me until after we stopped for lunch/dinner. long road trips and full bellies make for a little game of napping while driving. no no, i was fine, really. we did a good job taking turns driving. i think i had the first late shift, but i was able to hand the wheel over at 1am. i attempted to sleep before it was my turn again, but that was pretty impossible. if you can sleep in a crammed car while driving through howling winds across the desert, i applaud you.

aside from pee breaks and coffee refills, no other stops were necessary. of course we ended our 22 hour road trip in LA morning traffic. the remaining 15 miles to the house took an hour. that was a bit painful, but at that point i just laughed. probably because i was delirious and exhausted, but it seemed a bit too ironic not to chuckle.

meet the parents

wow, has it really been over 4 months since my last entry? my sincerest apologies. well fear not, i didn't die or end up in a coma. i've just been having a ball in california. simple as that. i suppose some backtracking is in order. i'll try to make everything short and sweet before i really start delving into what i've been up to lately.

meet the parents

my foxy boyfriend bought me a plane ticket home to see my parents for christmas. i was there for a little less than a week. this is the first time I have really only had a limited time with my family for the holidays. it was very strange. honestly I felt a bit guilty when I would drift off into my post-meal food coma instead of spending down time with the fam, but i think they were just happy that i chose to nap at their place. the time definitely flew by quickly, but it was superb. i don't want to get too nostalgic or anything so I'll just leave it at that. i suppose the summary of that experience is that i was very appreciative of every minute of every day. the end.

my parents and i have never had any wild and crazy christmas traditions, so no exciting stories to share on that end, but the trip home was definitely interesting.

i feel like i should probably start out with the new boyfriend. he's lovely. i dig him. more on our meeting later (for all of you ladies that want to hear that sugary sweet sappy story). for now i will focus on my trip home from austin. as l mentioned earlier, the bf bought my plane ticket home for the holidays. flights are obviously a bit more pricey during the holiday months and i felt very guilty about making him pay for the trip so we used some creative thinking to save money. 

the bf is from arkansas and he was flying home and then driving back to cali w a friend. one of his dear friends from childhood was heading west and moving in with the the bf so they were planning on driving cross-country after the holidays. now arkansas is about an 8 hour drive from austin, but it seemed fairly logical that they swing down and scoop me up on the way back to california, so that's just what we did.

i was very nervous about this meeting. i've only ever had one boyfriend before and mom's approval was extremely important to me. i assumed she would like him, but i was still pretty nervous. i was equally nervous to meet his friend and new roommate. i know it's key to make it in with the bestie so i was trying to figure out how i could win him over. mexican cokes and honeybuns seemed to do the trick :)

the plan was for the boys to leave arkansas in the morning and head down to austin to pick me up. dinner and a good night's rest and then we'd be off to california, no stopping. yes, no stopping. more on that later. dinner was mighty hilarious. mom works until 7p most days, so i had to do the grocery shopping and start the meal. why we had decided to make a cheesecake that we had never made before in our lives is beyond me, but it went over well. there were a few people who were really excited to meet my foxy new man, so what started out as a casual dinner ended up as a party of 8; me, mom, her best friend, her best friend's hubs, my friend, my friend's bf, my bf and his bestie.

the boys made it to the house before the rest of the guests. and before dinner was ready. mom and i were trying to brainstorm icebreakers for this initial encounter. we didn't have to mull over that one too long, because the oven started smoking. after a couple of smoke alarms and a dash of baking soda, we were all fast friends. the dinner went really well and we ended the night listening to mom's classic 'outhouse' story. perf.