from raleighwood to hollywood

brrrrr!

damn this winter weath...

wait.

apparently california likes to do winter a little differently. where i'm from, winter means hoodies, hot chocolate, and possible snowflakes. on the left side of the world, the only hot chocolate i'll be seeing is the snickers bar that melted inside of my pocket. i know, i know, i should be excited about this beautiful weather--but it was actually nice to have some cold air outside a few weeks ago. maybe i'm biased because i only have heat and not air conditioning in my apartment, but i wouldn't mind a few more weeks of cold weather. i guess i'll have to find that groundhog.

seeing as the temperature has shot up into the 80s, the warm sun rays are slowly seeping through my windows. olive and i have tried a few methods of blocking ourselves from the heat.

it didn't really work.

i'm sorry about not catching you up for the past few days, but the truth is that there hasn't been much to catch you up on! my days consist of job hunting (craigslist, networking through different contacts, etc.) and running the occasional errand. i didn't want to bore you with days that haven't been all that exciting, but then i realized...hey, what if everyone out there is wondering what i had for breakfast?

so here i am.

and i'm ready to update you with all kinds of completely random and utterly useless details, pictures, and stories of my everyday life that will hopefully lead to you laughing outloud and having someone in the other room ask you,

"what are you doing?"

good old beachwood has also been having some internet problems which has made it a little difficult to update the blog. i was having so much trouble the other day that i almost decided to go to the fedex kinkos up the street to use their computer. but seeing as i like to kick back and relax while i blog, i didn't think that they would appreciate me coming in to borrow their internet in my pajamas with a mug of sleepytime tea and a TV with an episode of jersey shore playing on it.

...i like to have background noise while i write.

i was invited to a sunday dinner with friends the other night to enjoy some homemade pasta and the golden globes. don't ask me who won what because i requested a game of taboo and it turned into a two hour long tournament--which of course involved cheesecake and homemade oreos.

"homemade oreos" you ask? why yes! thanks to the bff, AKA mclamb, AKA lambchops, AKA dr. mcsarapants, AKA simple girl as most of you know her from her lovely blog--i got the lowdown for these delicious little desserts. she had gotten the recipe from another blog, and once her computer is back in business, i know she'll have all kinds of great pictures of her homemade oreos.

 these are the ones that magically came out of my oven. and despite my lack of baking skills, they were a hit!

if there's one thing everybody knows about me and sara, it's that we loveee our desserts.

speaking of another auntie sara(h), olive and i received a very exciting package in the mail today! my sister sarah (and of course nani) had sent us a sweet card and a delicious bag of "meowie wowie" catnip! well...olive told me it was delicious. i didn't try any.

i didn't want to ruin my dinner.

not only was the card hilarious, but the cat on the front looked very familiar...

which obviously meant that it was fridge-worthy.

of course i've been doing some cooking to keep me energized for the hours i've spent staring at craigslist. to me, breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day. i got some yellow heirloom tomatoes to use on an english muffin sandwich, and the night before i knew i was going to use them...i was so excited i could hardly sleep.

okay that's a bit of an exagerration. but look how beautiful they are!

i also bought some fresh basil at the store and i decided to try a rachael ray trick with my herbs when i got home. every time i buy a box of fresh herbs at the grocery store, they only seem to last me for a few days. i washed the basil leaves and let them dry on a paper towel. then i loosely wrapped the basil in the damp paper towel and put it into a plastic ziplock bag. it's a much better idea than just leaving it in it's little rectangular box, and so far it's holding up pretty well! i'll keep you posted on its shelf life.

rachael ray: 1

rectangular box: 0

and we all know if fresh basil belongs anywhere, it's on top of pasta.

last night, i made a white wine, lemon, and butter sauce to go with my sundried tomato and goat cheese ravioli from trader joes. i also used the rest of that yellow heirloom tomato.

some oven roasted asparagus on top...and i was a happy girl.

you know the rule.

one of you cooks, one of you does the dishes.

well here, we like to say:

one of you cooks, one of you falls asleep in the sink.

i know what you're thinking. and no, i did NOT move back up into apartment #14. but i did pick keltie up from LAX this morning and one of my jobs as a good neighbor was to grab her spare key and pick up some of her clothes to take along for the ride. although it seems a little odd that i would be bringing her purple miley cyrus stretch pants, a gap jean vest, and black lace up heels to pick her up from the airport--sometimes when you're a professional dancer in california, you go right from the airport to an audition.

luckily i got to tag along and see some kickass hip hop dancers audition for neyo's new tour. i even caught a peek at a few of keltie's insane dance moves and although she wiped the floor with the rest of the girls--she ran out of the audition holding her half broken trader joes paper bag full of clothes that i brought her yelling, "fanny, did i look normal?!" that's one of my favorite things about keltie. after over a decade of professional dancing, touring the world as a rockette, and being a contestant fresh off of the bachelor--she'll steal glances of herself in the mirror adjusting her tiny jean vest, freestyle like a baller to a hip hop song even though she's the whitest girl in the room, and then ask you if she looks like a normal human being while dancing.

a lot of people here--especially those who have been successful--have a tendency to be extremely self-promoting in every conversation they have. it's refreshing to be around someone who--despite having years of name-dropping glory in this business--is a regular old goofy person...just like you.

now back to the food.

 there aren't very many east coast eateries that reside in california. example: the day a boondini's pops up in los angeles is the day i grow a tail and a set of antlers. of course we all have mcdonalds, but that's not really where i'm going with this. up until a few months ago, i didn't have a clue that jersey mikes existed on this side of the country. seeing it on the corner of la brea and santa monica was almost like seeing a cousin that i didn't realize lived in west hollywood. although i eat it at least once a week in raleigh, i try to reserve it as a special treat over here.

saturday...was a special treat.

i hadn't gone food shopping yet, so saturday night was also a special treat as well.

thai food delivery.

also known as "the sara special".

once i made my way to the grocery store on sunday, i began by picking up the essentials.

hence the diet root beer and corona light hiding behind the chips.

even though we didn't technically do a "TEAPOT" today, i'd still like to end with one of these:

highlight of the day:

mahalo for the great present!

moral of the story: i spoke too soon.