5...4...3...2...1

5 events I am totally looking forward to in the next few weeks:

5. Houdini exhibit at the Skirball

4. Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA

3. Mother's Day picnic on Sunday with the family

2. Going to Magic Mountain

1. My friend Anthony's comic book signing next Wednesday

(yes, I'm aware most of those events were definitely nerdy in nature)

4 things I recently bought and I could not BE happier:

4. I'm not a purse person, having bought exactly two in my life, but here's the purse I just bought and I am in LOVE. I never thought I'd like an inanimate object so much in my life.

3. These four Beatles prints. They are gorgeous, and I find it hilarious how clearly they show just how useless Ringo Starr really was to the Beatles. Benni and I found album frames at a craft store and hung them up in our dining room, over our record player (Vinyl FTW!)

2. Tank tops from Target. They are $8 and they go with everything. I don't think I need to explain this one much more...

1. $1.29 daffodils from Trader Joe's. How many times can you say that something you spent a $1.29 on made you blissfully happy for an entire week? But flowers just do that.

3 of the best things I have read lately:

3. The Happiness Hypothesis - amazing, incredible, very non-new Agey, very practical and scientific exploration of happiness. Best book I've read in a very long time.

2. A Short History of Nearly Everything - hysterical, makes science absolutely fascinating, and makes you giddy just to be alive.

1. This commencement speech by David Foster Wallace, which is heartrendingly beautiful and inspiring and I try to read at least once a week. (It's floating around the internet under the title This is Water)

2 books I WANT to read so badly:

2. The Good Book: A Humanist Bible

1. Unbroken: A WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

1 funny story about LA:

I'm sitting in my car in downtown Hollywood, waiting for the light to turn green, when a homeless man carrying a sign that says "Love One Another" ambles over to my open window. I'm not going to be rude, and I have a strict policy of treating homeless people like humans, so I smile as he comes up to my car.
"Excuse me, ma'am, do you have a hundred dollars you could spare?" he asks, eyes kind and smiling. I burst out laughing. Surely he knows how ridiculous this is, right?
"No," I said. "I'm sorry. I have no hundred dollar bills to give you today."
"That's okay," he says, still grinning. "I'll take a fifty if you have one."
Again, I crack up. "Nope, no fifty's either."
He shuffles from foot to foot and pretends to look confused. "How about a gift card to Best Buy?" he asks. By this time we're both laughing.
I look him straight in the eye and tell him, "Man, if I had a Best Buy gift card to give you, I honestly would."
"Next time," he says, and we fist bump, and all the other people in all the other cars can see me laughing and are rolling down their windows to give him money and the sun is shining and life, life my friends, is very, very good.

happiness: a collage

Some days I feel a little defeated, a little discouraged, and like I'm running out of breathing room. There's anxiety I can't shake, bad dreams that follow me throughout the day like smoke clinging to my jacket, and frustrations that I can't just empty my life of, like tipping a trashcan upside down. The trash is still there; it's just changed venues.

Today might be such a day - so instead of blogging and swimming in the cesspool of negativity (dude, totally my next Rockband group name!) I went to Google and put in "happiness" and then clicked on images I liked.

Since a lot of them were images of people throwing up money in the air and looking doofy (Google is a shallow mistress, apparently), I also added some images from my own personal preferences. Enjoy - and if you're having a crappy Monday, by all means, I invite you to do the same. And please, let me know if you do - I'd love to look at all the things that make you guys happy too. :) (Pssst: click on any of the images to make them bigger.)

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo (and website credit): I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

cartoon credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo credit: I got it here

photo (and website credit): I got it here

let the sun shine

Well, it's not exactly sunshine-y outside, but it's less pouring rain-y than it was last week, so I'll take it. Although I'm happy that more showers are headed our way tomorrow, because, let's face it: SoCal needs all the rain we can get. Although we also need to figure out a way to trap this water, make it clean, and then use it while we're in a drought. But I digress.

I wanted to say thanks for everyone's very cool and incredibly supportive comments on my last couple posts - my 2009 post was a little bit brutally honest and I was really worried that my 2010 post was going to scare the crap out of most of you. And then, of course, there was my Haiti/suicide post, which I'm sure livened up everyone's day. So I'm letting the sun shine back in for this post because even though a lot of us get the January blues, there's still plenty of love and laughter to go around.

There's also some really good news too - if any of you had a chance to vote for the first online suicide prevention network in Chase's Community giveaway, it came in third place and won $100,000! They also now have over 7,000 volunteers who want to help make I'mAlive a reality. Writing that post about my acquaintance's suicide was tough - but I got through it, and a lot of that was because of all of your incredibly kind and brave comments. You guys all rock.

On a more personal blog note, I am very grateful to announce that I won a blog giveaway hosted by the adorable Carissa over at The Lovely Dove. She's been blogging for just over a year (and I just got to meet her in person at the SoCal Blogger's Brunch, so I feel twice as blessed) and to celebrate she gave away a beautiful desktop calendar, a cute little journal, and a very cool handwoven bracelet that I'm pretty sure I'm never going to take off. You can check out the stuff here and please, if you get a chance, do stop by Carissa's and say hi. And tell her I sent you :)

And finally - the beautiful Jo over at Jo Knows gave me the Happy 101 award -

it looks like this:

...and the mission, should I choose to accept it, is to pass it along to three other bloggers and write ten things that make me happy. And since we're all kind of fighting off the January Sucks, I thought I'd make a happiness advice list so that everyone can try these Get Happy tips.

1) Have an impromptu picnic - grab your favorite food to-go and eat it in in a grassy park with your socks and shoes off. Don't put on your Ipod, that's cheating. Just enjoy the sunshine and people watch in the park.

2) Smile at five complete strangers for no other reason than the fact that we're all in this together. If they scowl instead of smile, rest assured that three hours later they will feel like an idiot for not smiling back.

3) Celebrate Bubble Wrap Appreciation Day - it's today, Monday, January 25th, and no, I'm not making that up - by pouncing on some bubble wrap that you have lying around and popping it until you feel better about life. Or until you run out, whichever happens first.

4) Buy your friend, roommate, girlfriend, boyfriend, mom, dad, favorite sibling or mortal enemy flowers for no reason at all, and have them sent to the office to brighten his or her entire week.

5) Loan a friend a book you think they'd like. Tell them why.

6) Let someone have the right of way while driving. Even if you're 100 percent sure you had the right of way and that the person you let in might be a total idiot. Let them in anyways. Then breathe deeply.

7) Blow bubbles. I promise you that blowing bubbles with a $1 bottle of bubble solution is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to get happy.

8) If you feel safe enough to do so, buy a homeless person coffee and a muffin. It's what I do instead of giving cash (which I usually don't have anyways) and homeless people appreciate the human interaction, even if they can't always show it.

9) Forgive someone. Even if they don't deserve it. YOU deserve it. And no, you don't have to tell them.

10) Go to the dog park. Bring dog treats and watch your popularity skyrocket. (Just make sure the owners are cool with you spoiling their dogs' appetites!)

And I pass along this award to three of the most upbeat people I know:

Gwen, over at Confessions of a Control Freak;

Irenicineri, over at Harmonious Grub; and

Eeeno, over at Eeeno's World.

I adore all three of these girls for their upbeat perspectives on life and how awesomely kick-ass they are in their own ways. (Come to think of it, two of them know martial arts and a third probably boxes like a pro. Coincidence? Probably not.)

So here's to a shinier Monday, everyone!



photo credit: I found it here.

what a wonderful world...

Apologies again to all of you guys not in SoCal...but here's the coolest stuff going down for the next month or so in LA and the surrounding areas. Please note that not all the prices are under $15 this time, due to the fact that when it's the holidays, apparently people get to charge whatever they want. But I made sure to include as many free and super cheap stuff that I could here, so don't throw any snowballs at me, k? :)


Nov. 17th - Yes, we all know how awesome the concerts are at the Hollywood Bowl. So why don't you go check out the concert posters for the Bowl's Poster Art Show, premiering at the Hollywood Arclight movie theatre tonight at 7 pm - there are 13 commissioned posters from the Bowl's 2009 lineup, along with vintage works from the Hollywood Bowl's earlier days. And since you're at the Arclight anyways, check out a movie or stop by Amoeba Music, the coolest record store in all of Los Angeles. Admission is free; the exhibit starts tonight and goes through Jan. 5th, 2010; and if you attend the opening party tonight you gotta RSVP to this email address: hbposter@gmail.com with the subject line RSVP to Hollywood Bowl Poster Show Party 11/17


Nov. 15-20th - Get your art on for free! The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) is celebrating their first 30 years by doing two awesome things: a) putting on an amazing exhibit showing off more than 500 works by over 200 artists (the exhibit goes from Nov. 15th to May 3rd, 2010); and letting you in for no admission charge during their regular hours all this week until Saturday, when the price goes back up to $10/person. MOCA's hours are Mon: 11am - 5pm, closed Tues and Wed., Thurs: 11am- 8pm, Friday: 11am-5pm, and Sat. and Sun.: 11am - 6pm. You should also know that if you miss this free week and don't have $10 to spare, admission is free every Thursday after 5pm as well, so no worries.


I've blogged about this in one of my previous About Town blogs, but if you haven't checked out this venue yet, you really should: The Edison Lounge in downtown LA. Yes, driving and parking there are hellish, but hear me out:

Every Wednesday in November, the Edison hosts DJ Imagika and a group of what they call "Fliers and Eccentriques" for Incandescence: The Dark Side of Light, to entertain you and bring you back to the old days of cabaret-style entertainment - it's $10 to get in, but if you bring an unwrapped, brand new toy in before 9 pm, you get in for free.

Every Thursday from 5-7pm at The Edison, they have a mixologist on hand creating a unique happy time drink - that they sell for only 35 cents. Yes, 35 cents.

And every Friday, they serve FREE grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, depression-era drinks at depression-era prices, give 25% of the proceeds to a local soup kitchen, and forward on any letters the customers wrote about their feelings on the economy to LA's Congressional reps. Kick ASS.


Maybe tea is more your style - ever checked out the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens? It's a wee bit on the expensive side - general admission into the gardens is $20 for adults (parking is free) and it's an additional $24.95 to take high tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room, but I've heard the food is amazing. And good GOD but are my nerd senses tingling - two exhibits are on rotating display in their library, and I don't know which one to freak out over more: a) The Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (c. 1410) or b) Original poems, notes, and manuscripts from one of my favorite cranky and bad-ass poets of all time, Charles Bukowski.

I am in nerd heaven.

Also, admission to the Huntington is FREE every first Thursday of the month during its regular visiting hours (10:30 am to 4:30 pm) but you do have to make a reservation for their free days.


Nov. 21st - Dec. 27th - ever wanted to see How the Grinch Stole Christmas, performed live? Sure you did... we all still do. :) If you're in Orange County or the San Diego area, go catch it playing at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego - tickets range from $39.00 to $49.00, and kids aged 3 -17 years cost $20.00 to $30.00. Is the price of admission probably worth it? I'm betting yes.


For those of you who still get all warm and fuzzy when a Christmas tree lights up for the first time - I know I do - The Grove in Hollywood is celebrating their annual Tree Lighting ceremony on Nov. 22nd at 7:30 pm with musical performances and maybe a few celebrities - all you gotta do is pay for parking and somehow withstand spending the rest of your money at the Crate&Barrel store.


If you haven't gotten your fill of museums lately, or you need a place to take visiting relatives over the Thanksgiving weekend, consider this - from Nov. 26th through Dec. 9th, 20 different LA institutions threw this together: Holiday MADness (Membership Appreciation Days). Basically, a bunch of museums and other art institutions in Los Angeles got together and wanted to give back to their membership - so if you're a card-carrying member at any of these museums, you can get in for free on the days listed - AND you get 20% off all merchandise at the museum stores, which we all know is the coolest place to get gifts that nobody else will have.


Thursday, Dec. 3rd - the annual Griffith Park Light Display starts up again! For one night only on the 3rd, bicyclists are the only ones allowed to tour the Crystal Springs Drive light displays - and then for the next two weeks, Friday Dec. 4th through Thursday, Dec. 17th, it's only pedestrians. Finally, beginning Friday, Dec. 18th through Dec. 30th, cars will be allowed to cruise slowly through the brightly lit streets. This is a huge hit with most Southern California residents, so do NOT wait until the last minute to do this one :)

Dec. 5th, Saturday - if you've ever felt particularly crafty during the holidays, hop on down to Descanso Gardens in La Canada and for the (somewhat steep) price of $35, materials and an instructor will be on hand to help you make a beautiful, fresh Christmas wreath to hang on your door and greet your holiday guests.


Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, are curious about celebrating it, or just looking for a really good party, look no further than Fiesta Hanukkah!, which is the Skirball's way of blending Jewish and Latin American traditions into one really awesome party. Join the festivities on Sunday, Dec. 6th and learn how to play Jewish Latin games, taste yummy food, and listen to Latin American bands put their own spin on traditional Hanukkah songs. Adult admission is $10, children under 12 years old are free.


And finally - if you are in a singing mood this holiday season but don't want to get made fun of (or dress up like an extra from Scrooged) this might be just the thing: The Walt Disney Concert Hall puts on two performances of Handel's Messiah - and YOU'RE the chorus! Whether you want to sit in your seat and just enjoy the music or stand up and sing along, you're welcome to either way - just make sure you've got your ticket for either the Dec. 12th, 2 pm performance or the Dec. 20th, 7 pm performance, then sit back, enjoy the soloists and full orchestra on stage, and sing along with all your heart if you feel moved to do so. Tickets start at $24.

So there you go, folks! Long blog, as usual, but tons of stuff to do this holiday season. So go forth, eat, drink, and help others be merry.

blog love... and I'm a winner!

Hi guys,

I hope you all had lovely weekends... I will post a bunch of photos I took over the weekend tomorrow (playing catch up at work today) and in the meantime I thought I'd share with everyone that I have won my very first blog giveaway, over at Miss Anne's blog Indefinitely Definite. Anne, thank you SO MUCH - I LOVE your blog...I love the fact that you post inspiring quotes with beautiful pictures, share adorable heart-warming videos that you've found, and seem like an all-around awesome kind of woman. What other kind of person would have a surprise giveaway on her own birthday? (And no, I don't know what I won yet -- but I will post pictures when I get it!)

So Anne, happy belated birthday (again) and thank you so much for all of the blog love and support. I love reading your thoughtful comments on my blog and you've always been so kind to me. :)

And to pass along a little bit of love, I wanted to highlight the fact that my bff Radical Bradical is now blogging, and she was inspired by my top ten list to create one of her own, which I think kind of rocks: The 10 Best Things About Being an Adult. Because trust me, we all need reminders.

Finally, I got a lot of fantastic responses from everyone who commented on my Top 10 Lists, but one person really stood out after I began reading her blog, and reading this post made me sit back and re-think a few things. You can feel free to agree or disagree with the blogger's point of view, but it's totally fascinating to read someone else's perspective on a somewhat controversial issue. Go ahead, take a look. :)

Have a wonderful, survivable rest of your Monday and I should have lots and lots of photos up tomorrow that documented how amazing my weekend was... let's just say that I went to a wedding on Saturday night and the bride and groom had set up a photobooth(!)

Apologies to the other guests for how much I hogged that damn machine. But seriously, how fantastic an idea is that?!

Top 10 best things about being a female

Here we are, folks. Having received love, a few complaints, and a few laughs from my Top 1o Worst Things About Being a Female post, I revel now in writing about how truly, truly awesome it is to be a female most of the time. I wouldn't want it any other way.

I am off to an early start this weekend, and I hope you guys have some fantastic stuff planned. I've got a movie to catch tonight with friends I haven't seen in a while, a wedding to attend Saturday night, some butterflies to visit at the Natural History Museum on Sunday afternoon, and a lot of other fun stuff in between...and I'll hopefully have some pictures to share on Monday. So have a great weekend and enjoy reading all about the other side of being a woman. :)

1) I wouldn't trade my ability to multitask for just about anything. Good lord can women Get.Stuff.DONE.

2) Women can actually look GOOD in skinny jeans. Men, don't try this in public. Or at home. Hell, just don't try it at all.

3) In the wintertime, we can cheat and not shave as much. If guys don't shave, everyone notices. And while we're on the subject, can I get another amen that women don't have to put sharp blades near their THROATS in order to look respectable?

4) Unless a male is 150% sure that his opinion is correct, if he is arguing with a woman, he is wrong.

5) Women have more freedom to be emotional - and I'm not just talking stereotypes about PMS or crying to get out of speeding tickets. I'm saying that when a woman tears up during an amazingly inspirational speech or historic moment or highly emotionally charged event, she is called proud and fierce and strong and connected. If a guy tears up, how is it fair that society then deems him a wimp? Why is it that strong men are not allowed to cry?

6) Our secret weapons: little black dress, knee high boots, kick ass red lipstick, leather jacket.

7) People are a lot more forgiving of women who show up to the beach wearing very little clothing than they are of men who attempt the same thing.

8) The amazing networks of support that women create for each other, as my friend Lira pointed out in my last post. When the chips are down, we females can rally and hold each other up and there isn't a single force in the universe that is strong enough to break us.

9) Say what you will, agree or disagree: giving birth is an honor, a gift, something unique and special, that only women can do. Do not let yourself live in a culture that would paint you as weaker than a man for your ability to give life to another human being.

10) Amelia Earhart. Louisa May Alcott. The Bronte sisters. The U.S. Women's Hockey team. Maya Angelou. Jane Austen. Susan B. Anthony. Mia Hamm. Helen Keller. Rosa Parks. Clara Barton. Ella Fitzgerald. Harper Lee. Florence Nightingale. Eleanor Roosevelt. Sandra Day O'Connor.

And because I'm a cheater:

11) Being a lady. Remember what I said in #9, about not letting yourself live in a culture that would paint you as weaker than a man for your ability to give birth? Yeah. Add on to that this thought: do not let yourself live in a society that would tell you that in order to be a cool woman, you have to act like a man. We can be just as much fun as the guys and still be apologetically and unabashedly female, if we so choose.

12) One of the most powerful forces in this universe, something so incredibly commanding and intimidating that many grown men are terrified of it, religions have been created to undermine it, cultures and societies around the world strive to control it and crush it because of its dynamism and potency: a woman's sexuality.

Claim yours, use it wisely, and never, ever, EVER, let someone make you feel ashamed of your sexuality or tell you that it doesn't make you powerful.

Of course it does. That's the whole point.

Top 10 worst things about being a female

So last night, after a week or so of over-sensitivity, rage, insecurity, and neediness (sometimes I would literally go from one emotion to the next in about five seconds), I ended up breaking down in the middle of a PetCo parking lot for no apparent reason, then narrowly avoided the Halloween Candy aisle while grocery shopping (why? Why would you do that, people?! It's freakin' AUGUST) only to cave in when I saw ice cream sandwiches on sale.

When I got home, the groceries weren't even unpacked before I had devoured an entire ice cream sandwich in three bites.

Yep.

So to celebrate, um, monthly happenings and other things, I thought I'd come up with a top ten list of the worst things about being a girl. But in the interest of fair and balanced blogging, tomorrow you'll get the ten BEST things about being a female...if I can even narrow it down to ten, because being a woman (most of the time) rocks.

Anyways, here we go:

1) women: can spend upwards of hundreds of dollars on an outfit, spend hours doing hair and makeup, and get stuck all night in damn expensive shoes to look hot. men: throw on a shirt and tie, run hands through hair, good to go. Not.Fair.

2) The term "slut," which can mean anything from "how dare you have multiple partners?" to "how dare you reject me?"

3) What the hell am I supposed to do with a plastic pink kitchen set and an E-Z Bake Oven as a kid? Be domesticated by age 4? May I have the Lego's and G.I. Joe toys now?

4) There is something deeply wrong and troubling about this culture that women are expected to actually be able to stand on shoes that are supported by a thin stick the size of a pencil. Really? All my weight is supposed to go on that? Explain please...

5) Longer lines at the bathroom. Every time. It kills ya, doesn't it.

6) Thong underwear, and the fact that it exists.

7) Think about the last movie you saw where an average-looking guy experienced some sort of crisis that challenged him to rise above who he was before and save the day and his loved ones. I can think of about ten right off the bat.

Now think about the last time you saw an average-looking woman experience some sort of crisis that challenged her to rise above who she was before and save the day and her loved ones. Think hard. If you count Jodie Foster movies, the number goes up, but so far I've only got one in mind (here's a hint: it's an older horror movie that is absolutely brilliant and very well-known.)

8) Most lingerie.

9) Ah, the competitiveness of women against other women. Someone once asked what the world would look like if it was ran by women instead of men. To which I say: it would look a lot like high school. ::shudder::

10) Eye-lash curlers and other torture devices sneakily designed as helpful makeup tools. Not cool, guys...and I'm on to you... and I'm coming for you...

Top Ten Times to Never Give Someone a Mix CD

me: I feel like I never really got into Pearl Jam, cuz all I hear is the same four songs over and over on the radio and it makes me not want to listen to the rest of their music.

him: Yeah, you gotta own their albums to realize how extensive their collection is. I'll make you a mix cd of all their best songs.

me: Hey, thanks! You can give it to me next time you're out here in California.

him: I will. And as we're snuggling in the morning, just as things start heating up...I'll make sure to suddenly get up and grab the mix cd to give to you.

me: that actually sounds like one of the top ten times to NEVER give someone a mix cd.

him: You should blog about that! You should totally write a blog called "The Top Ten Times to Never Give Someone a Mix CD!"

me: I WILL. SO THERE.

ahem. without further ado:

The top ten times to never give someone a mix cd

10. As your friend is leaving for a ten day road trip...in a car that doesn't have a cd player.

9. Giving someone a mix cd... as you're breaking up with him/her. No. No. No.

8. After your friend just got out of ear surgery.

7. Right after someone announces, almost angrily, "I HATE mix cds."

6. Giving a mix cd, pretty much anytime, to a deaf person. Now you're just a jerk.

5. As the two of you are about to jump out a plane at 14,000 feet, hopefully strapped to parachutes. If you and your friend do NOT have parachutes, this makes it even worse timing.

4. After you find out that your friend's car was broken into, and the cd player was stolen.

3. At a funeral. At least be respectful and wait until the memorial service.

2. Giving a mix cd to your friends/roommates/parents/enemies when THEY are in bed with someone. Point in fact, why are you even in the room?

and of course:

1. While the two of you are in bed together. There are more important things to be dealt with.

5...4...3...2...1

I'm sitting at my desk, munching on chocolate covered Joe-Joe's (Trader Joe's version of oreos) and feeling all bloggy. What to blog, what to blog...

5 things I want right now:

5) The movie Public Enemies to come out, as it has both Johnny Depp and Christian Bale (::swoon::) in it, and good God, I don't even care what it's about. But the trailer makes it look pretty damn good anyways.

4) a lobster quesadilla

3) tickets to a Tori Amos concert - I'm working on it, I'm working on it...

2) this dress (look at the third picture of it, with the girl under water. How gorgeous is that?!)

1) two words: beach picnic

4 activities I should be doing instead of blogging:

4) working

3) editing my script

2) writing another article for the Examiner

1) finishing The Blind Assassin, now that it's getting AMAZINGLY GOOD

3 places I need to go to:

3) The new crepe place that just opened up across the street from my favorite movie theatre in Burbank

2) Laguna Beach

1) the New Jersey shore

2 things I'm looking forward to this week:

2) Dinner with a good friend of mine on Wednesday night at her place

1) Seeing The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged at Shakespeare Orange County this weekend. Hilarious show, and I worked for this theatre company for four years while in college. I get to see old friends, AND laugh my ass off!

1 quote that is getting me through it all:

Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source.
Tolstoy

happiness is a warm list

I'm recovering from the bummer that was yesterday with a list of things that are making me happy right now. It's cheaper than drowning my sorrows in a swimming pool of Rocky Road. (Also, easier on the thighs.)

I am really craving owning a hammock again (I owned a small chair hammock at one point, and it might still be in my mom's garage), and this one looks super-comfy.

Lately I've been putting fresh sliced strawberries in all the lemonade I've been drinking. I've been getting them at the farmer's market, but Trader Joe's has organic ones on sale for $2.99/1 lb container. Awesome! Also, they are now selling sweet potato fries, so maybe I can learn how to cook them for my very self. And then dump a large amount of bleu cheese dressing on them.

I found the EASIEST recipe on the planet for chocolate croissants. I served them up for guests at dinner the other night, with sliced fresh strawberries on top (noticing a theme? I'm obsessed) and they came out AMAZING. Ready for the recipe?

Grab chilled Pillsbury crescent rolls from fridge/supermarket
Unroll into triangles on cookie sheet
Place about 10 chips of semi-sweet chocolate chips on the larger end of triangle (usually makes two rows of chocolate chips)
Follow instructions on crescent roll package for which temperature to bake at
Bake about 9 minutes, until crescents are golden brown and chocolate is oozing out just a bit
Eat. Then celebrate how awesome you are.

Totally easy, right? One of my favorite things to munch on in Paris was the chocolate croissants -- and they weren't all dry and flaky like the ones in the U.S., just doughy with just a bit of crust to them. These are a fairly good substitute until I can get my butt back to France.

I just got this book and I am so excited to read it, you have no idea. Jane Austen + Zombies = loveliness.

I also just got the first half of the last season (got all that?) of my favorite TV show, Battlestar Galactica (what? I'm a nerd and I'm okay with that) and I Can't.Wait. for season 4.5 (the second half of the last season) to come out on DVD on July 28th. FRAK! Why do I have to wait so long?!

And finally, I am celebrating the fact that my very first post over at Examiner.com is up! It's not the most fascinating post I'll do on an actor's life in LA, but give it a read and lemme know what you think! (Oh, and try to be nice in the comments section, although I know all of you guys already are. My blogging partners-in-crime have been encountering some swirling negativity out there in the comments section these last few weeks, and we in the blogging community are wondering if it's the weather or a sugar-low.)

Have a perfectly lovely rest of your Thursday, people!

budget suck.

Well, boo. Under Governor Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts, over 200 national parks might close in California, and not only does that seriously crimp my verb-ing style, it just downright sucks. Those national parks need all the money they can get, and some financial expert-like people are saying that it could take up to a decade for some of these national parks to recover from the temporary closures.

Here's a partial list of which parks would close in Los Angeles, including my beloved Point Mugu in Malibu, which has one of The.Most.Gorgeous hikes you could dream of:

1. Leo Carrillo State Park.

2. Los Angeles State Historic Park.

3. Los Encinos State Historic Park.

4. Malibu Creek State Park.

5. Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

6. Pio Pico State Historic Park.

7. Point Mugu State Park.

8. Rio de Los Angeles State Park.

9. Robert H. Meyer Memorial State Beach.

10. Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park.

11. Topanga State Park.

12. Verdugo Mountains.

13. Will Rogers State Historic Park

and the rest of the 220 parks can be found here. A more thorough explanation of the proposal can also be found here.



Boo. :(

smile like you mean it

Hello. Nice to meet you! I'm Tracy.

I realize that I never officially introduced myself back when I began my blog, mostly because it started off as a blog I never intended anyone to find, way back in 2008 when I needed a cheap therapist (and blogging is just that, believe me), and then when I re-vamped it in 2009 to use as a vehicle for which to plug projects I was working on as a writer, actress, photographer, whatever. And I named it Res Ipsa Loquitur ("the thing speaks for itself") because I wanted my blog to speak for itself, and I wanted to avoid the whole "this is who I am as a person" blog because, let's face it, sometimes those are redundant. I mean, if you can't tell my personality from my writing, then I'm not a very good writer, am I.

Wait, don't answer that last question.

At any rate, life has me struggling to keep up this week, I'm not sleeping very well, and I've been busy throwing parties instead of giving gifts (stay tuned later this week for my epiphany on what the hell that means, even though it wasn't really my epiphany).

So here I am, feeling the writer's block, looking to reach out and touch faith (mmm, Eliza Dushku...wait, where was I?) and I dunno...SHARE. Something. Anything.

Things that make me smile like I mean it:

Ray LaMontagne's song "Meg White." Adorable. Watch a homemade music video of it here.

This place has the best red velvet cupcakes I've ever had.

Two words: deep-dish Chicago style pizza. Root beer brewed on the premises. And a pizookie (a just-out-of-the-oven, melt in your mouth cookie that's the size of an individual deep dish pizza. With ice cream melting on it.) Wait, that's more than two words, isn't it. I love this place.

Why haven't I bought this already?!

I'm just starting to watch this show, and it makes me laugh so hard I cry.

I'm celebrating the fact that I no longer watch this show, so I don't have to tear my hair out waiting for the next 8(!) months to see what happens.

My obsession with fresh mozzarella, sweet potato fries, and Cherry Garcia continues. Not all at the same time, though. Ew.

blowing bubbles + kitten = hours of free entertainment

This trailer. I am so excited to see this movie.

I am currently reading this. It's getting really, really good.

Enjoying root beer floats for dessert after dinner every night.

and a partial list of other joys: daffodils, watermelon, strawberry smoothies, chocolate sauce and raspberries, fresh green beans, butter and salt, goat cheese, snooze buttons, good running shoes, clean pillowcases, a new pad of post-its, comfy flip-flops, sunshine and shade (and just enough of both), hot milk at night before bedtime, used bookstores, sprinklers, puppies, laughter, and hot fudge sundaes.

And now you know almost everything there is to know about me. Almost.

Not weird at all! Perfectly normal!!

I was going to write today's blog about something more positive and upbeat, perhaps wishing all of you a happy Cince de Mayo and suggesting some places to get rockin' Mexican food (there are a TON) in LA, but honestly, I'm feeling weird today, and what's a blog for if not honesty and a little self-authenticity, mixed in with a dash of respect for other peoples' privacy. I'm sure you guys have probably guessed that my life, much like yours, doesn't always go as planned, that there are occasional hiccups, issues, and even a little bit of drama every now and then, and I don't usually blog about it because a) that's not what this blog is about, and b) life's bad moments are usually so transitory, why on earth would I want to permanently memorialize something negative that I'm going through in a blog to remember for the rest of time? So I can go back six months from now and re-read what I was going through? No thanks. I'll keep the lessons learned and pass on reliving the pain.

So here I am, in all my over-sensitive, slightly weirded out glory, blogging about it for all the world to see. What's a girl to do when things that usually don't get under her skin are getting under her skin quite well today?

I know. I'll make a list. Because lists make me happy.

My mother's day project this year is a sort of scrapbook with watercolor paintings and hand-written memories and questions for my mother, because I like to throw as many visual mediums together (this is kind of how I do my salads, too, only I'm not sure ranch dressing hides a scrapbook's taste as well as it does a salad's) and hope for the best. I have taken exactly four watercolor painting classes in my lifetime, I have scoured my photo albums for pictures of my mother and myself, and I have racked my brain for memories to jot down and questions to ask. And now I will share with you that list of things I'm going to ask my mother. Feel free to steal, share, or simply opine your thoughts on the questions.

• Was I planned?*
• Did you feel ready for me?
• How was the birth? Honestly. You can tell me. Did it suck? It sucked, didn't it. You can tell me.
• How was I as a baby? Was I a little punk that cried incessantly?
• What do you remember most about me growing up?
• What did you think I was going to be when I became an adult? Why?
• What was the biggest challenge you faced in raising me?
• What was your favorite game to play with me when I was little?
• When was the time you felt I let you down the most? What about the time I made you the most proud?
• How was I as a teenager? What did you want to say to me as I was going through those years?
• Did you agree with my choice of college? What about my major?
• Now that I'm an adult, what choices that I've made do you support the most? How about the least?
• What would you like me to do for you to make our relationship even stronger?

And finally: Do you remember reading "Goodnight Moon" to me when I was little? Because I do. Thanks, Mom. For everything.





* I already know the answer to this one. I was conceived in a Winnebago in Canada. Which makes me one third American, one third Canadian, and one third Winnebagan.

Amour Fati*

1) blowing bubbles in the park on a warm, sunny day
2) sand between your toes
3) a cup of hot chocolate to warm your hands, strolling around the neighborhood looking at holiday lights
4) catching the most amazing sunset...in your car, on a hike, at the beach...
5) windows rolled down. radio turned up. driving through a canyon lined with trees.
6) sprinklers on a hot day
7) balloons
8) ceiling fans
9) kittens discovering snow for the first time
10) a really good workout you didn't even know you needed
11) brightly colored glass lanterns
12) a busy neighborhood of kids (or a full house of kid-minded adults) on Halloween
13) thank you notes that arrive in the mail
14) first official day of flip flops
15) working at a job that lets you observe the first official day of flip flops
16) fireworks
17) knowing a quicker way home than the rest of the city
18) sleepovers, even when you're a grown up
19) brand new notebooks, a fresh stack of pencils, new pens, beginning a new pad of post its...
20) exact change
21) refusing to answer the phone if it's not a good time
22) movie previews
23) babies + ice cream
24) dogs + peanut butter
25) the cool underside of the pillow in the middle of the night
26) a cold glass of strawberry lemonade, not too watered down but with just enough ice, on a porch in the mid-afternoon summer heat
27) friends, family, and how interchangeable the two are
28) finding out that someone spoke highly of you, behind your back, and had no way of knowing it would get back to you
29) faith
30) fireplaces lit on chilly evenings
31) spending all day cooking for a very special meal -- and having it turn out really, really well.
32) rainy Sunday afternoon -- burrowing under the blankets with a good book
33) feeling confident in your decisions
34) quitting a job
35) an unexpected check in the mail
36) handwritten notes
37) finding your theme song -- and then singing it loudly and joyfully for all the world to hear
38) making a healthy choice, even if it's not your FIRST choice
39) throwing away or donating things you no longer need
40) letting it go
41) kissing in public
42) picnics
43) having someone make an extra effort to correct a mistake that happened to you
44) root beer from a glass bottle
45) shooting stars
46) colorful fish
47) crayons
48) being good friends with one or more of your parents
49) listening
50) loving yourself, in all your imperfect glory


* "Amour Fati -- 'Love Your Fate', which is in fact your life." -- Friedrich Nietzsche

a few of my favorite things

<--------- This, for one. This is one of my favorite images -- it's St. Paul's Cathedral in London, England, being bombed during the Blitz of World War II. And people volunteered to stay in the city, on the roof of this church, instead of evacuating like everyone else, with buckets of water to put out fires in case it got hit. They risked their lives because of this beautiful church -- and so I love this photo and everything it represents -- the triumph of the spirit of humanity and its generosity over bombs, and war, and hatred. Beautiful. I like quite a few other things too, not just this photograph. It's been one of those weeks, and so I find myself focusing on gratitude, and all the wonderful things that are in my life that I enjoy and make me feel calm, happy, joyous, and grateful. I thought I'd share a couple more with you. Right now, I am particularly looking forward to this movie, and the trailer gives me chills I think it's so good, not counting the fact that it utilizes a fairly awesome Coheed and Cambria song. It's a little dark and weird, but then, I suppose I am too. :)



Some of my other favorite things at the moment (that I'm starting to get a little obsessive about, oops) are sweet potato fries (especially with bleu cheese dressing), the color aquamarine, which I just matched my entire bathroom to (did you know you can search by color on Etsy? This made it really easy for me to buy a matching aquamarine soap bar from Etsy seller Sunbasilgarden), wooden elephants (with their trunks raised for good luck), anything with owls (don't ask me why), goat cheese on my pizza, girl scout cookies (no explaination needed there), red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, chocolate croissants, wooden bowls, and old black and white photos of London and Paris. Oh, and this poem. which helps me keep it all in perspective:

"Antilamentation"
by Dorianne Laux

Regret nothing. Not the cruel novels you read
to the end just to find out who killed the cook.
Not the insipid movies that made you cry in the dark,
in spite of your intelligence, your sophistication.
Not the lover you left quivering in a hotel parking lot,
the one you beat to the punchline, the door, or the one
who left you in your red dress and shoes, the ones
that crimped your toes, don't regret those.
Not the nights you called god names and cursed
your mother, sunk like a dog in the living room couch,
chewing your nails and crushed by loneliness.
You were meant to inhale those smoky nights
over a bottle of flat beer, to sweep stuck onion rings
across the dirty restaurant floor, to wear the frayed
coat with its loose buttons, its pockets full of struck matches.
You've walked those streets a thousand times and still
you end up here. Regret none of it, not one
of the wasted days you wanted to know nothing,
when the lights from the carnival rides
were the only stars you believed in, loving them
for their uselessness, not wanting to be saved.
You've traveled this far on the back of every mistake,
ridden in dark-eyed and morose but calm as a house
after the TV set has been pitched out the upstairs
window. Harmless as a broken ax. Emptied
of expectation. Relax. Don't bother remembering
any of it. Let's stop here, under the lit sign

on the corner, and watch all the people walk by.

There are times, I suppose, that are harder than others, and times that are easier than others. I don't pretend that I'm the only one who has bad moments, bad days, bad weeks, or bad months. I don't pretend that I've never made mistakes, or have no regrets, or that half the time I even know what I'm doing. But things are a little less heavy, and the burdens feel a little lighter, when I forgive myself, and others, when I see all of us as innocent in our own way; and when I do this, it allows me to open up my hands to accept even the smallest amount of light that life gives to each of us, even on the darkest of days.

Don't Look Back in Anger -- 2008 in retrospect

Given that a blog reviewing the past year is neither original nor particularly thrilling, I won't pretend that it is and instead try to keep this one fairly compact. I love lists, probably due partly to my organized-by-nature personality, probably also partly because I've found it's the best way to sum up a number of events or thoughts into one coherent package. Also because it gives me a sense of accomplishment, when in reality all I've done is actually put down, in a way that I can fully grasp, all the things that were swirling around in my head. Cathartic, really.

I decided to only do a Best of 2008 because there's too much to whine or complain about how hard the year was and I'm so over it. So without further explanation, behold:

BEST OF 2008*

Best album of 2008: Vampire Weekend, Vampire Weekend
Honorable mentions: Coldplay, Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Metallica, Death Magnetic
Lenka, Lenka
Weezer, Red Album
The Ting Tings, We Started Nothing
Ray LaMontagne, Gossip in the Grain

Best song of 2008: Santogold, L.E.S. Artistes (XXXChange remix)
Honorable mentions: Pink, Sober
Little Jackie, The Stoop
The Ting Tings, We Walk
Lenka, Chance (although it's not on her album, sadly)
Zigmat, Between Bullets
Coldplay, Lovers in Japan
Vampire Weekend, Walcott
Innerpartysystem, Don't Stop

Best movie of 2008: Slumdog Millionaire
Honorable mentions: Milk
Tropic Thunder
Iron Man
Kung Fu Panda
Burn After Reading
Cloverfield
In Bruges
No Country for Old Men
Shine a Light
Wall-E

I didn't see nearly as many movies as I would have liked in 2008, so if something is missing from the list, it might not be a diss as much as it is a "never got a chance to see it".

Same with the books read list. Never enough time to read other stuff when you are working on a script.

Best books read during 2008: How Not to Write a Screenplay (ironically enough)
Honorable mentions: The War of Art
Best American Poetry, 2008
Hyperion
The Fall of Hyperion
Eat Pray Love (again)
Religous Literacy
The Saint Plays
Three Uses of the Knife
The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
The Soul of Rumi
Vectors, Aphorisms, and Ten Second Essays
The Book of General Ignorance
Simply Organic (cookbook)
And my script. Over and over again.

Best TV show of 2008: Battlestar Galactica. Hands down.
Honorable mentions: Pushing Daisies, RIP.
Lost (When I didn't want to kick its ass.)
Sarah Connor Chronicles
Robot Chicken

Best TV show moment of 2008: All of the first half of this year's season of Battlestar Galactica.
Honorable mentions: Season premiere of Sarah Connor Chronicles, with Shirley Manson singing "Samson and Delilah" as Cameron climbs out of car wreckage.
Season finale of Lost.
Robot Chicken's Star Wars episode

Best film moment in 2008: The "disappearing pencil" trick the Joker performs
Honorable mentions: The entire film of Slumdog Millionaire, to be honest, but specifically the opening credits and closing credits. And, ok, everything in between.
The "dancing" scene from Wall-E
Just about anything Robert Downey Jr. does in both Iron Man or Tropic Thunder. Take your pick.

Best film performance in 2008: Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, Milk
Honorable mentions: Heath Ledger as the Joker, The Dark Knight
Angelina Jolie (shocker!) in The Changeling

Best film soundtrack of 2008: Slumdog Millionaire. God Bless Danny Boyle.

Best webseries in 2008: Dr. Horrible. No arguements.
Honorable mention: The Guild.

And for some personal bests of 2008:

Best restaurant of 2008: Granville. You can't beat lobster quesadillas or really good stew.
Honorable mentions: Burning Bonzai
Danielle's Pizza
Lotus Vegan
Fred 62's

Best website of 2008: Wikihow
Honorable mentions: A Softer World
Evil Needles
Etsy
Wikiquote
Epicurious
Cha Cha
Rules of Thumb
xkcd

Best moments of 2008: Getting my mom a kitten for Christmas
Honorable mentions: just about everything else; the friends, the families, the memories, the airplane rides, the meals, the laughs, the cries, the shows and picnics and parks and sunsets, the handshakes and hugs, the dinner parties and the double feature movie nights, the walks in cemetaries and the surprise birthday parties, the barbeques, the inside jokes, and the beginnings and the endings.

Best hike of 2008: Eaton Saddle in the San Gabriel Mountains

Best injury of 2008 (c'mon guys, it's ME): me and my guy are watching Kung Fu Panda, trying to figure out who the voice is of the kung fu master, when it occurs to us at the same time and we whip toward each other as we both yell "Dusin Hoffman!" and then we accidentally headbutt. And you guys thought nothing could compare to my 2007 "walked into a tree and gave myself a concussion" story.
Honorable mention: all the sexy, sexy bruises I get from getting hit repeatedly by other people while learning escrima, kung fu, and knife fighting. And walking into coffee tables.

Best concert of 2008: Flogging Molly. By FAR.

Best surprise of 2008: Tickets to go to Boston with my guy, given to me on my birthday
Honorable mention: The entire meal at the Ninja Restaurant in New York

Best thing I did in 2008 for my career: hmmm, starting this blog? :) Oh, and that webseries I shot, which premieres in less than a month....

February 13th, people. Stay tuned.




*purely my opinion, so try not to argue too much.

If I wasn't an actress, I'd be ...

1) One of those people on Animal Cops who gets to arrest/possibly rough up people who have abused animals.

2) Food critic -- eat, write about it, and be overly-opinionated? I can TOTALLY do that!!

3) Door-to-door salesperson... for sci-fi television shows.

4) Dolphin trainer

5) Professional photographer for sunsets

6) Muppet