doing my best impression of a hamster

Okay. So. Yeah.

I didn't blog for a week. Every time I felt the itch to, it was sort of squashed by this resounding feeling of BLECH.

Ever have those weeks? You feel like you're spinning so fast, just trying to keep up, and then you look down and realize you've gotten nowhere? Yeah... me too. Hence the hamster wheel image.

So this past week I was super-sensitive and let just about everything get under my skin, and while I'm aware that it might just be my time of the month (yes, I went there) it certainly doesn't make it feel any better. On top of it all I got really self-protective, sort of like a five year old, but with a bigger vocabulary to scare people off lest they push me to, oh I don't know, talk about my feelings.

BLECH BLECH BLECH.

At any rate, I'm feeling slightly less hyper-sensitive and wanted to jump back into the blog headfirst, so here's some things I meant to catch you guys up on last week when I wasn't sobbing into my pillow over Extreme Home Makeover. Or a tire commercial.

Print Ad shoot

....was amazing. I got to play with three different dogs (Sadie, Sequel, and Riot) for almost ten hours while the photographers snapped away. I worked with Sadie, a six month old basset hound of adorableness, for a good part of the morning, then we broke for lunch, and then I got to romp around in a park with Sequel and Riot (Sequel was a shepherd mix, Riot looked like a mop with puppy dog eyes attached) for the better part of the afternoon. I got to play fetch and tug of war with Sequel and then I got to just hold Riot and let her lick My.Entire.Face (the makeup people freaked) for a good couple hours -- in fact, there was a point when I opened my mouth to say something to the photographers, Riot actually got her tongue INTO MY MOUTH, and that's how I end up Twittering "I just got to second base with a dog", just in case anyone was wondering. Wanted to clear that up.

The print ads should be appearing in the fall in a major pet store, I'll let you know when I do (I can't say the store's name right now, sorry, guys...) and I'm really really grateful that I got to spend such a great day with awesome people (and animals). I even won over the animal trainers, who by the end were saying, "You're a good girl, who's a good girl?!"....to ME. I took it as a compliment.

My web-series

...Hell Froze Over (for those who don't know, I plugged it relentlessly six months ago when I had about five followers) just got accepted into its first festival! That's right, Hell Froze Over (and yours truly) will be appearing as one of the 37 Official Selections in the New York Television Festival, which is a huge deal, considering this is where the television show Fringe originally appeared. It's a great place for people to network and sell their tv and web-series pilots, so keep your fingers crossed that we get some funding and maybe a second season out of all this wonderfulness.

and finally, over the weekend I went and saw:

Julie and Julia

...just go see it. It'll make you want to a) cook more, b) blog more, and c) never, ever give up. Also, Meryl Streep is a goddess.

how was your weekend?

Mine was terrific. I had actually intended to post only this blog for today, but my earlier blog was something I had to get out of my system, so we now return to my regularly scheduled blogs of random spazziness.

So I don't drink wine, but I love cooking (okay, technically I love eating, but I'm learning to cook for myself.) What I do instead of pairing wine with dinner is pair a movie with dinner, like doing fish and chips and Boston Cream Pie with The Departed (success!) or making ratatouille wraps after watching Ratatouille. And oh the geekery, my friends and I do a Lord of the Rings marathon once a year, (all three movies in one day) and last year we served up all seven hobbit meals. I know you're judging right now, and I don't even care, the food was that good.

Friday night I watched Chocolat. (Johnny Depp as a guitar-playing gypsy-like-pirate with a ponytail and Irish accent? Can I get another amen?!) And then I cooked this afterwards and OH MY GOD instant chocolate heaven. (My pies didn't look as pretty as the pies in the official recipe picture, so I didn't take any pictures of my own, but I will when I make it again.)

Saturday morning it was cold, grey, drizzly, and I had some friends in town who were visiting. Did I know any good hikes? they asked. Did I know any good hikes?!

Um. For those who don't know me, quick catch-up: I love hiking. So much in fact that (what feels like eons ago) I created a yahoo group that went on monthly hikes all over Southern California. I love hiking and camping and hiking gear and camping gear and somewhere inside me, I'm just sure of it, is a pretty pretty princess dying for a pedicure but most of the time I'd rather just play with swiss army knives.

Anyways. Cold grey drizzly Saturday mornings are perfect for two things: hiking or snuggling. I opted for hiking. Off we went to Switzer Falls, one of my favorite tried but true stomping grounds, which has streams and waterfalls and is just heavenly in the spring time. It was the perfect workout and a good time was had by all. And then, the highlight of my weekend:

The Cat House Twilight Tour.

Three times a year (one in spring, summer, and autumn) an exotic feline breeding compound in Southern California opens up its doors after dark to the public and lets people come view tigers, mountain lions, jaguars, lynxes, snow leopards, white tigers, and all other types of exotic, endangered cats - about three feet away from the cages. The keepers give the cats "enrichment" toys -- usually salt licks, cardboard tubes and cardboard boxes, phone books -- and you get to see 400 pounds of man-eating tiger turn into a kitten in about 8 seconds. I took a bunch of photos, and I will post more over the next few days, but I wanted to leave you with this shot, a sneak peek if you will:


I hope your weekend was awesome too -- and that you kicked off the first official day of summer in style :)

shortest movie review ever

Go see Pixar's new film, "Up." It's amazing. Bring kleenex.

(photo credit: I got it here)

Wednesday menu

Dinner is: twice baked potatoes, steak, and Henry Weinhard's root beer from the bottle.

Yes, yes, and more yes.

Also, I am unnaturally excited about the fact that I got "Adventures in Babysitting" for $5 at Target.

It's the small things, isn't it.

:)

Damn Near Perfect weekend, indeed

Friday:

Went with my friend Alli to see Munched, a dark comedy staged play about a mother who is jailed for over ten years for committing Munchhausen's by Proxy on her five year old daughter. The play is told from two people's point of view -- the mother, now released from jail, and her daughter, now grown and in her mid-twenties, who only knows her mother from other peoples' opinions on what may or may not have occurred.

Also, grabbed a cheeseburger and fries near the theater. Cheeseburger could have been better. OhMyGod the fries ruled. I think they were garlic fries.

Saturday:

Skipped the grilled cheese invitational because I had plans to do tea (is that not the best excuse for missing an entire park full of grilled cheese sandwiches? "Sorry, I have mid-afternoon tea to attend to.") After a fantastic breakfast at the best-kept secret in Studio City with my newest Escrima classmate, (and, yes, I caved and bought a book at the cutest bookstore ever that is attached to the cafe), I headed off with my friend Stacy to high tea over at the High Tea Cottage (what makes tea high? Wait, should I not ask that?) and sipped decaf English Breakfast while eating a spinach and mushroom crepe, cream puffs with strawberries, and a Damn Near Perfect chocolate cake for dessert. I am taking my moms (my mom and aunt are identical twins) here soon. Very soon. Oh yes I am.

Then some friends and I hightailed it over to the Sherman Oaks Arclight, where we watched the Disney Earth movie (James Earl Jones' narration puts me in my happy place) and then we headed back to their place, where we had bison(!) and I contributed to the dinner with a strawberry feta salad. (Thanks, Mandy, for the granny-smith apple tip.) Want the ingredients? (I don't do recipes very well -- just kind of throw things around and hope for the best.)

1 carton of strawberries, sliced in fourths
2 granny smith apples, sliced into cubes
1 package feta cheese crumbles
1 package of spinach

and one good tossing with blackberry ginger balsamic vinegar. I use this one and I love it. (It's also good on sliced fresh mozzarella and tomatoes.) It's important to use a balsamic vinegar, I think, to bring out the flavor more and not drown it like dressing would. That's my theory, anyways. At any rate:

YUM.

Sunday:

Busted out my 20 sided dice and played Dungeons and Dragons, 4th Edition, and enjoyed a wonderful afternoon gaming with my friends at the local gaming and comic book store. There, I said it. And, AND!! I had FUN.



Damn Near Perfect weekend, indeed.

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.