1. hot light

um. there's a krispy kreme in california?! for some reason i thought these only existed on the east coast.

and in my dreams.

2. speaking of dreams...

since the hot light wasn't on at krispy kreme earlier, i decided to wander around the shopping center to see if there was anything else i could find. or eat. instead i stumbled upon a michael's. i've got some crafty ideas up my sleeve for a few things around the apartment, but i unexpectedly found this lovely wall pop that goes perfectly on the blank wall beside my bed. i have a few more thoughts to make this wall interesting, so i'll keep you posted. as for the other crafty ideas around the apartment, that's going to be a surprise! but the supplies are officially bought. watch out martha stewart.

3. mexican monday

as i excitedly counted down the minutes to the bachelor tonight, i debated my dinner options. clearly, i went for the quesadilla. always a great choice. normally i don't get TOO into the bachelor, but while accidentaly catching the premiere last week, i saw a very familiar face.

if the name keltie rings a bell for you, then you've done a very good job of paying attention to my blog.

does that wallpaper look familiar to you?

if you think back to four months ago when i was BRAND spankin' new to hollywood, my very first living space was a sublet from a dancer named keltie. she told me that she would be traveling for three months and that she would love to have me look after her apartment. it was a great opportunity for me because it gave me a while before i had to start looking for furniture...and a place of my own. instead of walking into an empty apartment all by myself in a brand new city, keltie's cozy little place was where i called home for my first few months in hollywood.

it wasn't until one week ago today when i was watching the bachelor and eating a totino's pizza that everything became clear. i was concentrating hard on getting a piece of pepperoni off of my lap when suddenly i heard a familar voice coming through my television screen. i looked up, and literally dropped my fork.

it turns out that keltie's whole reason for subletting her apartment was because she was in los angeles filming the bachelor. no wonder she kept coming by every few weeks to get more clothes. as most of you know, after moving out of keltie's place, my suitcases didn't travel very far. i moved right downstairs in our little beachwood courtyard and keltie has become a neighbor, a friend, and someone who texts me occasionally to borrow canola oil. not two minutes after i text her asking if i just saw her on my tv, she knocked on my door and asked:

"will you accept this rose?!"

it was so much fun to watch her on the show and know that the whole world is getting to see her wonderful, goofy personality. if you missed it, or you're not a bachelor fan and you're just curious: click here to see her hilarious entrance out of the limo. it's a seven minute video, so skip to 4:45 to get right to her.

only in hollywood would you accidentally end up subleasing the apartment of a rockette who is a contestant on the bachelor.

now THAT is bananas.

highlight of the day:

while driving to lunch in burbank today (long story), i looked up and realized what road i was on. 

because olive is one of the top names on my kitty name list, my first thought was: IT'S A SIGN!

and then i realized...wait. it IS a sign.

after much thought over nameless kitty's name, tonight, the verdict is in! i knew she couldn't go by "no name kitty" for much longer.

no matter how many times i asked her what she thought, her response was usually a yawn. or sometimes she'd just flip over onto her belly and stretch. at least we had it narrowed down to two. after practicing calling her both names back and forth all day, i decided it was time to stop confusing her.

...and put the ball in her court.

needless to say,

everyone...

meet olive!

nothing wrong with having a little olive on your face.

sunday brunch!

because what's a sunday without omelets?

like i've told you in past blogs, i'm not a great omelet flipper, so i usually rely on some sort of wacky use-my-hands method to flip the sucker over. i've also tried to just will it, you know...with my eyes, to flip on it's own. but that method has been less successful. while watching aarti party yesterday (the newest show on food network from the woman who won the most recent food network star), i saw her making an indian omelet. it was right then during that show that my omelet-making life was changed forever. although i can't exactly show you what happened--because it's hard to flip an omelet while videotaping yourself--i can try and describe it to you:

once the bottom side is cooked, and it's time to flip (see above picture), you slide the omelet onto a plate. then you put your now-empty pan over the omelet on the plate, and flip the plate over so that the omelet drops into the pan un-cooked side down. i'm sorry if that made no sense, but the most important part of this is the pretty pictures below.

i always love to set up my omelet station so that everything is organized and ready to go:

(this is the part where sara usually says to me, "i can't believe you're still single."

today's fillers: smoked apple chardonnay chicken sausage, gouda, cheddar, avocado, red wine/thyme infused mushrooms, and basil.

i normally opt for a muffin on the side (bran, blueberry, english--whatever i have on hand). but today i went for some fresh pineapples and strawberries with a little bit of greek yogurt (voskos exotic fig) and granola (pumpkin spice) on top.

beauty shot (duh):

"um. pardon me..."

who knew that nameless kitty (yes she will have a name soon) liked omelets!

she must be fancy.

yep. DEFINITELY fancy.

TEA---POT

(get it?)

1. absolutely pho-bulous

i've been cooking all sorts of typical "fanny" foods since i've been back. you know--the usuals. 

but a few nights ago i decided to try something different. something i've been very excited to taste. something spicy. something salty. something that i knew would make me feel very warm and cozy inside.

something...

that i can't pronounce.

yes. i lost my pho virginity.

i know some of you may be looking at this thinking "how hard is it to say the word pho?" but it's not that simple. this traditional vietnamese dish--which is very popular in california--is actually pronounced like "fuh" not "fo." all i know is that when i parked my car in this little run down strip mall in koreatown, and walked into pho2000, every single person in there was vietnamese, and looking at me like i was an alien. i didn't know where to stand. i wasn't even sure where to order. i desperately wanted to be in a mcdonalds. 

i heard that the oxtail soup was "off the chains" (thanks yelp), but it was my first time and i wasn't feeling that adventurous. i went with the rare beef pho--or rookie pho as i liked to call it, or "the #3 to-go" as i said to the woman, who stared at me like i was wearing a clown costume in broad daylight.

for those of you who aren't familiar with pho, it's basically a much more traditional, much more delicious version of ramen. as you can see from the picture above, it's kind of a "make your own" dish. it came with all sorts of fun accesories--bean sprouts, onions, jalapenos, lemons, and three sauces which all burned my tongue.

you drop the beef into the hot soup and it essentially poaches itself right before your very eyes. i felt like i should have looked away. the broth was rich and the beef was salty and yummy. the only problem was that i got about 1/5 through my pho...

and had to call it quits.

turns out it was a lot more PHO-illing than i expected.

2. cookie monster

although i actually did see the cookie monster on hollywood boulevard a few weeks ago...

THIS part of the blog is actually about a cookie fairy!

stella--previously known as santa claus after she furnished my entire apartment--will now be known as cookie fairy.

many thanks for these...

and these...

and don't forget about these!

3. it's no bojangles, but it'll do...

when i was home, there was really only a handful of things i missed about california. i'm sure in time i'll develop more of an attachment to here, but there was one thing i couldn't get off of my mind in raleigh.

although i prefer starbucks to the coffee bean for the simple reason that starbucks uses liquid mixers and the coffee bean uses powdered mixers, there is something about the coffee bean's no sugar added vanilla coffee that i'm beginning to get addicted to. the vanilla powder gets so creamy and rich when it's mixed with the smooth, hot coffee--it's almost as if you're drinking a vanilla hot chocolate. although i have my coffee bean, there's still no california match-up for a bojangles biscuit.

but i might as well try out my options...

highlight of the day:

mom, this one is for you:

it's official!

after a month of being ready for a kitty, a VERY long week of searching, and a lot of ups and downs along the way, i finally found the one.

coming back from my trip home was much harder than i expected. i had settled back in so much with my friends and family that part of me was nervous to go back to my quiet little apartment so far away from everything i know and love. i had hoped that the night i returned, there would be a little kitty on my doorstep awaiting my arrival. i would have even settled for one standing outside the airport holding a sign that said "slater: party of one". but life isn't that easy. and i don't think cats can hold signs since they don't have thumbs.

i spent day after day searching for cats online, visiting homes where they were being fostered, attending petco adoption events, and even swinging by a shelter or two. it wasn't as easy of a process as i had hoped, and one unexpected turn after another really put me into a deeply emotional place. doing this for the first time, all by myself and in a gigantic city, was more difficult than i had anticipated. i was exhausted, i was feeling more alone and by myself than ever, and every waking second was consumed by this search. although i was the one choosing to put myself through this, i was so determined to find the right kitty, that i didn't even realize how this was affecting me and those around me. after using the word "cat" about a hundred times a day, i know that my family and friends probably couldn't wait to hear me go back to talking about nothing but boys.

i'm an extremely indecisive person. i'll spend twenty minutes in trader joes and have nothing but hummus in my basket. i'll stand in the meat section of ralph's for close to fifteen minutes trying to decide which kind of ham to buy. these are the kind of decisions to make quickly. i knew that my cat search had to be done thoroughly and that it should not involve drastic decisions; however, i learned a valuable lesson about pushing myself and those around me to their limits. if i spent an hour discussing the pros and cons of rosemary ham versus honey baked ham with the shelf stocker at ralphs, i probably would have gotten on his nerves too. i'm a scorpio and being a little extreme runs through my veins, but at the end of the day, if you're acting a little obsessive about something, you need to take a step back, take a deep breath, and realize that you--and others--might need to take a timeout. at the end of this search, i was physically and emotionally drained and praying every single night that i would know in my heart when i found the right one.

after one cat-astrophe after the next (omg...i'm SO my dad), i thought i had made my decision. i spent all day buying her specific food, litter box, toys, etc. only to receive the phone call that she had an infection and couldn't be adopted out for AT LEAST a month. to say the very least, i was devastated. i had finally made up my mind, prepared my home and my heart for her, and then had the rug pulled out from under me. if i truly knew in my heart she was the right one for me, i would have waited TWO months at the sound of this news. but something inside me pushed me right across the "this is a sign" threshold and back out into the world of cat searching.

one trip to the kitten rescue sanctuary, and i had found her, i mean REALLY found her. after realizing that a goofy little black and white kitty had been following me around for five minutes, i knelt down to say hello. she jumped from my knee, into my arms, and then immediately fell asleep on my shoulder. upon hearing the news that she had feline herpes, i was so in love, that the woman could have told me she had two tails, needed to wear a diaper, and disliked queso dip and i STILL would have wanted to take her home. at the same time, part of me was so angry at having finally had "the feeling" that i had been longing for, but there being a catch. before learning more about the feline herpes virus, i went back in forth in my head debating the risks and if it was a situation i should be putting myself in--regardless of my love-at-first-sight feelings for this little kitty. in the end: her eyes get a little drippy, she gets medicine twice a day, and she needs to be in a very low-stress environment.

i think i can handle that.

who would have thought that my perfect kitty has herpes, a teeny kink in the end of her tail, and spots like a cow?

it was a long journey to find her, but i'm finally at peace, and beginning to feel a lot less alone, and a little more like myself.

this was her very first picture inside her new home. not a great angle--thanks to all the wires and the fact that she sort of blends in with the carpet, but who ever said that the first picture had to be a perfect one?

at first, her only interest seemed to be me. she followed me around into every room and meowed if i was out of sight for a second. at one point i went to the bathroom and she ran into my room searching for me...under the bed. she's still trying to figure things out.

i was worried she wouldn't have any interest in her kitty condo that i spent an hour assembling last night, but boy was i wrong...

mom, i know you told me not to use the "fancy" placemat, but it's not like i'm planning on having the pope over for dinner anytime soon.

she seriously couldn't get enough of that thing...

i wonder if chick fila is hiring for more spokespeople.

my best friend once said to me, "you eat so much, i don't know how you're not the size of a house."

the apple doesn't fall far from the tree...

other than learning that she's a big eater, i discovered that she loves a good game of "what's hiding under the blanket?"

i also learned that we have one very exciting thing in common:

blogging!

after she had finished updating her blog, i began to use my computer to write this post. she looked at me like "um. i thought we were going to nap now?"

at first i was worried that she would be upset with me...

but six seconds later i realized i was wrong.

we have a lot more getting to know each other to do, but for now, we have some sex and the city reruns to watch and some serious napping to do. so far, her eating, pooping, and sleeping skills have been successful.

i can't wait to see what else she has to show me tomorrow.

the name suggestion box is now open for business.

many many thank you's go out to those of you who have accompanied me along this journey, spent hours looking at pictures and coming up with names, put up with my happy and not-so-happy moments, and helped lead me to *insert name here*. i couldn't have done it without you.