How Will You Celebrate?

http://www.nopantsday.com/

It's tomorrow, I think you should start planning now.

Trust Me

So, I apparently attract all the crazies. Something about me, or I have "SUCKER" written on my forehead, or I'm just a good person - they can tell! Last night I was dining outdoors with my sister, aunt and a friend. It was in a large plaza area, and people walking to and fro, but no one really bothers you. Until someone asked how old my nephew was. My nephews are CUTE, (Way cuter than yours, especially you Darrell.) So that question doesn't really phase me. Until the crazy started stroking my sleeping nephew's face and saying "Trust me. Okay? Trust me. Even if he wakes up, he'll be very happy. Trust me." Umm.. no thank you Crazy Lady? I didn't quite know what to say. I have this problem where I can't lie or be mean to random people and strangers, unless obviously there's a reason to or a direct affront... but you know Crazy People have feelings too... I think. So my sister starts saying how we don't know her and she doesn't want Crazy Lady touching her son. And I'm like yea, she's the mom, listen to her. You'd think she'd just be like "sure, sorry" and keep walking right. No... she starts grabbing my jacket (and my hair a little bit... ow) and yammering on about how you should follow your heart, listen to yourself, don't have any regrets, that she gets feelings deep inside and knows I'm a good person and to "TRUST ME" (she said that about sixty four times.) She said that I was good and that I shouldn't trust anyone if I get bad feelings about them, even if I think I know them. Not to go to temples because they'll brainwash me and read my fortune tell me bad things (and she said that she's been affected deeply by this) - and although I really am not a fan of having my fortune be told anyways, it was all kind of a little too much. She kept telling me that the people I was current eating dinner with weren't to be trusted and she "normally" doesn't really just bother random people (really?!) but she saw me and HAD to talk to me. Somewhere in the conversation she said "You probably think I'm drunk" out of nowhere and then later was like "yea... I'm drunk" - although she didn't really reek of alcohol or walk crooked, so my sister just thought she was crazy. She left to go to the bathroom and then came back and started talking to me again and telling me how the people in my life were bad... and finally I just had to tell her that I didn't appreciate her insulting my friends and that she could leave. And she did.. so it wasn't too terrible. It just got old after the first twelve "TRUST ME"s. My sister was cracking up to the point of tears in the background and the Crazy Lady was increasing her grip on my jacket/hair. Not cool lady....

So... who wants to hang out with me now? Free entertainment! And I'm good person... even crazy people can tell.

Brought to you by Bacon Salt

Yup.. this is what we do for fun on a Saturday night. You know you're jealous. I'm still waiting to try this on top of Fries... or Popcorn. mmmmm...

http://www.baconsalt.com

Be Kind to your Neighbors

So I have this friend. Said friend has gotten into a relationship and spends mass quantities of time (read: everyday) with their new loved one, and has fun doing quality couple things. You could say that it's cute. Or you could say that it's grossly annoying. It depends on which end of the spectrum you like to be. Sometimes, if you're friends with said new lovey dovey couple, you just kind of suck it up and grin and bear it. You want to be happy for your friends right? Or you just don't spend as much time around them, which isn't that hard because you're not one of the people in the relationship and that's all they have time for anyway. But suck it up and grin and bear it doesn't apply to people who don't know you. And people who don't know you that you disturb. At least not forever anyways. I've "heard" through the grapevine (not through any actual experience of my own), that some of these activities (not the ones where said couple is just making out on the couch in plain sight, but the kind that are behind closed doors) are kind of disturbing to people outside the room in the same apartment. That's never fun. I spent a whole year of college with not that kind of fun. The crappy part about apartment living is sharing very thin walls. Noise doesn't just travel within the apartment, but apparently throughout the whole building as well. How would you like to come home and find the note below taped to the door? It's a good thing you guys are moving.



Best. Letter. Ever.

I'm Your Huckleberry

Okay.. cheesiest title ever. Sorry. But it seems... fitting. Plus - this place can be my Huckleberry anytime it wants. I'm okay with that. What is this place? Huckleberry in Santa Monica. (brought to us by the people behind Rustic Canyon, which is another place I've been meaning to try...) Way back when on some drunken night, Andrea, Kirk and I had noticed that "hmm.. this place is new" and pondered what exactly it was, and thought "maybe it's a furniture store".. or something like that. But then I found my UrbanDaddy emails and saw a new breakfast food place in town! They don't just do breakfast, but they're a day cafe, and for some reason, I feel as if they were advertising it that way. So I excitedly email them and say that we need to try this place. 2 months later, we actually did - but it was worth the wait. I wouldn't say that the food was OMGSOAMAZING, but it definitely was good and not something that you just say "oh.. I could make it better", because while food is really hard to get amazing, it's really easy to screw up.

The second we stepped in we ogled over their decadent display of sweets and pretty much said "yes" to one of each, in our heads. We ended up having the bread pudding and the coffee cake, both of which were great. (*Side note, my frame of reference for bread pudding isn't great because I'm actually not the biggest fan, but Andrea seemed really happy about it and is probably more of a bread pudding expert.. so we'll stick with "both of which were great".)

The greatest part about eating with friends [who like to share] is that you get to try more than just your dish. This is why you have to be choosy about who you go to eat with as well. Friends who don't like to share food generally don't get invited back - unless it's by other people who don't like sharing food either. That's not me.

So, for Sunday (not particularly Easter) Brunch, I had a Turkey Meatball sandwich (with gruyere cheese!), the Fried Egg Sandwich (mm.. niman ranch bacon) and the Green Eggs & Ham sandwich (the green was pesto). All three dishes were quite tasty and I wouldn't hesitate to go back, for breakfast, or lunch, or to stop in to get one of their take home shepherd's pies or $4 cinnamon sugar croissants or MONSTER donuts. I've heard only stories about how crowded it can get, but we went on the late-ish side, so it was actually really nice. Too bad it wasn't warm enough to eat outside, but we've got a whole summer [of next day brunch post late night drinking nights] ahead of us.

Huckleberry www.huckleberrycafe.com
1014 Wilshire Blvd, Santa Monica CA, 310)451.2311
Wed-Fri 8am-7pm, Sat/Sun 8am-5pm, Open on Tuesdays starting in May!

That's What You Said

On making bad decisions...
Jean: It's after midnight, this should not be happening!
Dorina: At least it's not after 2am

~~~~~~~~~~

Talking about exchange of favors
Jean: "Well, it makes up for all the times you took me to school when I missed the bus."
J's Dad: "You should have taken a taxi."
Jean: "Sure, you just would have had to pay for it."
J's Dad: "I'd take it out of your allowance."
Jean: "Okay, I didn't get allowance anyways."
J's Dad: "Sure you did, we gave you money for lunch."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Random Musings in Our Apartment
Dorina: "You know what are awesome?... Jolly Ranchers"
Nicole: "Are they the candy or the people?"

Dorina: "Movie! Movie!"
Jean: "Get up and put it in."
Nicole: "That's what she said."

Drea's birthday @ The Brig
Andrea: "Can I leave you alone to go to the bathroom?"
Jean: "I think I'll be okay."
Andrea: "Don't let weird people talk to you."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Sunday "morning", January 4, 2009 - @ Backstage & Our Apartment
Dorina: "Does curated mean catered?"
Us: "No"
Dorina: "Shit."

Andrea: "I'm not unhappy for them. I'm just unhappy for the rest of us."

True story.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Friday night, December 26, 2008 - watching Bedtime Stories
Movie: "We'll combine the romance, and the action, and make it a ROMACTION story!"
Nicole: "I need some Romaction."

(ps. Andrea - at karaoke Saturday night - we sang Torn for you.)

~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday night, December 5, 2008 @ Gaslite - West LA, CA
Mix girls and alcohol and some awesomeness, and here's what you get:

Dorina: "Sorry, I had to move. I didn't want to get uglier."

[while Natalie Imbruglia's Torn comes on]
Andrea: "This is why I don't come to karaoke. Cuz I would totally be THAT girl"

News at Blu Jam Cafe

I have some good news, and some bad news, and some more good news!

The good news is, Jean and I got together this morning and had an adventure!

The bad news is, at some point during that adventure, Jean admitted that she was terribly pissed off that I didn't blog at all the entire time she was in Ireland! She knows I was having adventures without her, and I didn't share any of them, which is, frankly, incredibly disappointing.

The rest of the good news is, she's not actually pissed at me! She's mad at Kirk. (Hi, Kirk!) Because, naturally, this is ALL HIS FAULT. Naturally. Because he makes me "boring." Right? Right. That is how that works. (Mission: Be not boring.)

To make up for it (because of course I don't want Jean to be mad at Kirk) I picked up our brunch at Blu Jam Cafe on Melrose. And I even took pictures so I could blog about it. I fucken love brunch, by the way. It might be my favorite thing about weekends, even more than drinking a lot (mostly because I like to do that on weekdays) and sleeping in (mostly because I sometimes wake up really early for no Goddamn reason, like today.)


Jean had the Kamil's Breakfast (Kamil being the chef de cuisine) on the left. It was eggs scrambled with bacon, cheddar cheese, garlic, chives, and elbow macaroni. Whoever thought to throw pasta into their egg scramble is a genius. Or was incredibly hungover that morning. And a genius. I had the Eggs Bohemia, which was 2 eggs fried over bacon and black forest ham and topped with chives, served with their home potatoes and [wheat] toast. Sometimes I forget how good eggs and bacon are. And, because of that, I am retarded stupid. Also, the potatoes? Really good. I hate it when you go to a breakfast place and the potatoes are an afterthought.

At some point or another during the meal, I found myself asking, "Nice brunch with my workBFF? Could this get any better?"


GUESS SO. Crepes with strawberries, bananas and Nutella. Don't you get dessert when you have brunch? No? Well, do you get a third entree for two people? Again, no? Never? In that case, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU. Let's make it a point to never have brunch together.

Well, three entrees for two people is a lot of food. Per Jean: "You win, breakfast." (And that was before the complimentary teensy chocolate chip cookies.)


Blu Jam Cafe
www.blujamcafe.com
Open daily from 8:00am - 4:00pm and
Friday nights from 7:00pm - 10:30pm for various "International Bistro Nights"
7371 Melrose Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90046
(323) 951-9191

Addendum...

Yay for adventures! And here is Andrea being a Bohemian, and cute coffee designs in our lattes. Let me just clarify... I wasn't really REALLY mad, but I can be if that involves more people picking up checks. (Thanks Dre!)

*Also... boring = not hanging out with me - so let's rectify that ... constantly. It's not just a one time thing, but an eternal thing you are striving for. And this isn't just to Andrea, but everyone. Got it?

*And lastly, breakfast made a really good dinner. Nuking it a little bit took some of the liquidy grease out of it (or maybe it was just draining on the bottom of the leftover container).. but it tasted really good a little drier. Oh, and leftover crepe was AWE.SOME. God I love Nutella.

It's Been Awhile

Hi world, what's going on? It's been awhile, and Andrea and I haven't been on many adventures lately.. so there hasn't been too much to say. At least not in coherent sentences. I'll try to pick a few shots from Europe to post, but I took over 1400 shots, so when I pick a "few" it ends up being a few hundo. But let me tell you about something more current.

Last Wednesday I went to Hotel Cafe, which for those of you that don't know is a really great music/cafe/bar venue in Hollywood. It's really good it you like seeing the acoustic/folky/singer/songwriter types, and very often have people they play on KCRW and what not. Back in San Diego at the height of my coffee shop heyday, I would go to Twiggs or Lestats all the time to see certain people play, or sometimes to just hang out with friends. Yup, I made friends through the internets. Mostly through my love of Jason Mraz - right before he blewed up. It nice to see some of these people at Hotel Cafe, and that's really the only reason I go now... I don't know why I didn't keep up my whole indie streak in LA. Maybe it's just too hard to follow every aspiring artist out there cuz there's so damn many. And it, for some reason, seems harder here. ANYHOO.. this is not about that.. this is about people I like. Lots.

This very talented girl is Annie Bethancourt. I "discovered" her in my college dorm (sounds kind of like the start to a really "fun" movie).. but this isn't that kind of show.. keep moving people. We're friends from college, but that's not the only reason I like her. She's kind of got a voice like an angel, not that I'm biased or anything. The best description I think was I look at you and then think "how does that voice come out of there?!" And it's kind of true. I hear her sing and I'm always blown away. Apparently now she's living in Portland, OR for part of the year and in Costa Rica for the other part (see: adventurous), but working on her 3rd CD and playing shows throughout. Actually one in San Diego tomorrow and one in Fullerton on the 18th. Here's a snippet - check out more on her site! www.anniebeth.com



I got a double dose of goodness that night as I discovered that Tristan Prettyman was playing that night, along with every Wednesday this month. Whee! Tristan isn't a friend, but someone that I started listening to in San Diego and she's gotten moderately big. She's had songs in several TV shows and most recently (that I've heard) in He's Just Not Into You. I think she has a really infectious songs and her voice can be really soulful. She's also really cute, and funny, has great stories on stage (last week she talked about going on a date with the guy she lost her virginity to... where else are you gonna get that?) and I always really love her hair. I wish mine did that.. but uhhh.. anyways. www.tristanprettyman.com

See.. the place is cute right? (Sorry picture quality is not super fantastic...) You have to be 21+ because they are a bar now, but they also have food which is pretty tasty. Except if you order the Pastrami Panini, they put mustard in it too (doesn't say that on the menu!), so get it without if you're a mustard disliker like me. The roomie and I might check out the show tomorrow - along with another guy Tavis that I saw once and enjoyed. Should be for a fun time and then maybe we'll hit up Big Wangs afterwards or something. Or come home... but definitely NOT go to the Beauty Bar. haha.. I'm boycotting that place. But that's a story for another blog.