elephants make me smile

My love of elephants runs deep. It always has and it always will. They are just so beautifully awkward. And I love them. Did I mention that?

Proof positive: my desk. A jade elephant that Sasha brought me home from Israel sits at the base of my computer while my Dumbo mug waits for my daily cup of tea. They're just so dang awkward and I love it.

Anyway, this little guy is no exception. He's so cute and ridiculous and my main reason for this post today. I hope it makes you smile. Enjoy!

a little more than halfway in...

So yesterday marked 7 months into my 29th year so I thought it was about time to see how I'm doing on this little list of mine. I will say I've forgotten about it a little lately, but I've had bigger fish to fry. So let's take a little look:

1. Start taking an exercise class at least once a week
   - I have actually been pretty good about this and have even been taking 2 or 3 most weeks! Now that I have even more motivation coming up, I'll hopefully stick to the pattern. ;) Loving pilates pro/reformer classes.
2. Go on at least 2 hikes
    - I've gone on one official hike so yay me! I'll have to ask Bettina what that place was called. I think it was maybe in the Palisades? Regardless, it was certainly pretty!

3. Cook at least 3 different recipes from 3 different cultures...ideas welcome!
4. Work on my writing at least 4 days per month
5. Try at least 5 foods I've never tried before

   - 1. Fried green tomatoes (verdict: pretty good, but I mean, c'mon, it's fried.)

   - 2.

   - 3.

   - 4.

   - 5.
6. Successfully plant a variety of veggies in my vegetable garden and reap the "fruits" of my labor...
   - This one is sort of a fail. I meant to plant some new ones this year, but just haven't gotten around to it. However, this random bell pepper plant that I gave up for dead last season, pulled through not being watered or even remotely taken care of and now has a large pepper growing on it! That is some serious determination to live. Either that or it's some freaky sub-species that subsists on smog and dust...maybe I should leave the little tyke alone and see what mutant form it takes on next...
7. Go Vegan for one week
   - DONE! This was a total success.
8. Eat at (at least) 10 new places in LA
   - 1. La Provence in Brentwood - love this place. An adorable French cafe with delicious brunch choices, but I even go just for their amazing lattes and macarons now.
   - 2. Bigg Chill - froyo place that always has a line out the door. Not good! I don't understand. Give me Pinkberry or Yogurtland anyday.
   - 3. Scoops - now this is what I'm talking about! An ice cream shop that sells amazing flavors - made fresh every day so you never know what you'll get. We've sampled quite a few now and they have all been delish! Not the cutest spot so I won't say go for the decor, but definitely worth stopping by for a yummy treat.
   - 4. Bouchon - now this is gooood eats. Sash took me here for our anniversary dinner and not only is this place beautiful, but the food is fantastic and the bread...oh the bread. I think they've since opened a bakery and I can hear it calling my name.

   - 5.

   - 6.

   - 7.

   - 8.

   - 9.

   - 10.

9. Paint at least 2 paintings
   - Hmm, not yet though I do have some ideas!
10. Visit at least 10 new cities
   - 1. Atlanta, Georgia
   - 2. Savannah, Georgia
   - 3. Charleston, South Carolina
   - 4. Myrtle Beach, South Carolina

   - 5. Wilmington, North Carolina 

   - 6. Raleigh, North Carolina

   - 7. Temecula, California

   - 8.

   - 9.

   - 10.

11. Try acupuncture as a remedy for my allergies and acid reflux in hopes that I can ditch the pills
   - Yup! I've gone to one appointment and have another coming up soon. Don't know if I can confirm it yet, but I went in for the first one during a particularly painful bout of acid stomach and by the end of the hour long appointment, I was feeling much better. Oddly, the acupuncturist said that the areas to treat allergies and acid reflux are quite similar. Coincidence?
12. Learn how to more professionally use my camera in manual mode
13. Study my family's genealogy and learn more about my own personal history
   - Yes. In a big way. This is probably a post of its own...
14. Study Farsi and learn a little more than food terms and good manners ;)
15. Send 15 hand-written cards/letters in the good, old-fashioned post
16. Visit some sort of farm (thinking maybe cherries) where I can pick my own fruit off the trees
   - Oddly, I did visit one (nearby a potential wedding venue), however, I forgot this was on my list and didn't pick anything! Shoot!
17. Watch the sun rise...honestly, I don't know the last time I saw one.
   - Have been up early enough to watch the sun rise three times already. I wouldn't say that it's a practice I like in general. ;)
18. Leave 10 anonymous "smiles" in 10 library books for future readers to find
19. Give five people one of my favorite books and tell them why I love it and why I hope they will too
20. Read at least 20 books in 2011
   1. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

   2. The Winter Rose by Jennifer Donnelly

   3. The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

   4. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

   5. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

   6. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley

   7. Things I've Been Silent About by Azar Nafisi

   8. Bossypants by Tina Fey

   9. The Oracle of Stamboul by Michael David Lukas

   10. Dead End Gene Pool by Wendy Burden

   11. Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl

   12. The Blind Contessa's New Machine by Carey Wallace

   13. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout

   14. My Name is Mary Sutter by Robin Oliveira

   15. Peyton Place by Grace Metalious

   16. Dreams of Joy by Lisa See

   17.

   18.

   19.

   20.
21. Refurbish an old piece of furniture and turn it in to something beautiful
22. Take the hundreds of printed recipes I have, organize them and create a cookbook with my favorites
23. Go on a hot air balloon ride
   - Oh did I ever! See the post entitled "engaged." ;)
24. Watch every movie that has won the Oscar for Best Picture
   - This is definitely taking more time than I thought, but I've made a dent.
25. Find a new way to store and organize all of my books so that they don't succeed in their plan to take over our house.
26. Go horseback riding
   - Yup and soooo fun! Definitely would love to go again.

27. Redecorate our bedroom
28. Pay off any looming credit debts
   - Pretty good on this front though I just somehow managed to get myself a red light traffic ticket notice that was sent to an address I haven't lived at in 3 years! Thus accruing unnecessary fees. Ugh...I'm praying the photo evidence they are sending me will not be sufficient and I can somehow contest. Ridiculousness...
29. Go to the movies at a drive-in theater
30. Volunteer at least 50 hours in 2011
   - I need to count these up, but I am definitely much more than halfway there! I've volunteered on two school murals and continue to volunteer weekly at the elementary school with The Young Storytellers Foundation.

29 is turning out to be a pretty awesome year in life. :)

engaged!

Yup! I have myself my very own lovable fiancé. Wahoo! :)

People keep asking me for all the deets so I thought it was about time I write a little post about the momentous occasion since it was indeed fabulous.

The day's festivities started out groggily at 2:30am. Yes, you read that right. After going to bed around 1am, the sound of my alarm was not a welcome sound. I hurriedly got ready, barely notating the existence of my significant other due to the fog I was in.

At promptly 3am we were dressed and driving down the empty 405. Carmageddon shmarmageddon. At 4:45 we promptly parked in front of the Monte de Oro vineyard in Temecula and tried to rest until our 5:15 call time. At this point nothing was suspicious to me because Sash and I had been planning this balloon trip for a few months and had actually come to Temecula a month and a half earlier only to be sent home with a reschedule due to fog. After the disappointment of that trip, Sasha made it pretty clear that we were going up even if there was a snowstorm in July. Luckily the weather was perfect.

Prior to take-off, we hung around the balloons while they were being pumped up and our photographer for the day took lots of photos (still waiting to receive those, however). While I had been wanting to go up in a hot air balloon for a long time and had even made it part of my "30 before 30" list, when I glanced over at the basket we would be lifted in...not gonna lie...I was a little nervous. At one point I even leaned over and asked Sasha if he was feeling nervous and knowing what I know now, he managed to keep a look of pure calm on his face. He did confide in me later that he was definitely nervous, but for obviously different reasons than I!

Once we loaded into the basket with about 10 other people (yes, they can hold a lot of weight apparently, despite their flimsy appearance), I felt a bit more assured since our balloon operator told us he had been flying for about 30+ years. One of our fellow passengers even happened to be a retired balloon pilot. Score! A back up! ;)

What was most amazing to me was that you honestly don't even feel the balloon leave the ground. It's THAT smooth and slow. You literally ascend as calmly as a smaller balloon lifts into the sky when a child lets go of its string. It's so pleasant and beautiful.

One thing I will note is that the day started off extremely chilly. I mean, it was super early so that makes sense, but it did start to warm up a bit as we went up. Nothing extreme, but my teeth stopped chattering at least. That being said, once we went up I swiftly realized that Sasha and I were going to slowly fry to death. Being the tallest on board we were insanely close to the source of fire that heats up the interior of the balloon in order to change altitudes. It was hot. Like crazy hot. Sash took off his sweater and I rolled up my sleeves and tried to concentrate on the amazing scenery.

Since we were flying over Temecula, the views were really lovely. Vineyards galore. It couldn't have been more peaceful or beautiful.

  See what I mean? Not too shabby. :)

About 20 or so minutes into the flight the balloon operator said that he was going to turn the balloon a bit to give us different views. He did so and this is what we saw: 

Ok, so you might say to yourself - obvious, a proposal! Well, yes. However, let me remind you that there were approximately 20 balloons in the air simultaneously and I didn't want to be presumptuous. Can you imagine? Awkward!

So I...well...sort of pretended not to notice it. Ha! And then I looked and saw that Sasha was bent down in the tiny basket. I had two thoughts at that instant. 1) We were both really, really hot so I thought perhaps he was bending down to get away from the flames. In all fairness, they were right above his head. And 2) That it seemed very precarious to bend down in such a seemingly unstable basket suspended thousands of feet in the air. Let's not make this more dangerous than it has to be!

Obviously, neither was correct and the poor guy had to get up and down about three times before I caught on. It pretty much took stares from the other people and the ring box for me to realize that this whole display was for me. 

Luckily a recently engaged couple snapped a few shots of the whole thing as it happened and was nice enough to email us the pictures. They were crammed next to us when Sasha went down on one knee so I think they were pretty aware, smushed together as we were. 

So, of course I relieved him of his uncomfortable position and said a big, fat YES. And then, well, we went on with our ride. It was all and all completely amazing. :)

a temporary vegan, part 1

Part One: A Vegan Breakfast

As promised in my 30 before 30 list, I decided to try veganism for a week. Knowing the issues that could arise by cutting out all "fun food" essentially, I carefully chose a week where I knew I'd have limited events and thus decrease my chances of going out to eat, etc. I also chose to do it from Sunday through the following Saturday so that I had the Saturday before to prepare. That actually didn't even end up happening and instead we went grocery shopping Sunday afternoon (though we did make a late night shop on Saturday real quick to pick up a few things for the next day's first vegan breakfast) since I had sort of packed our Saturday full of fun adventures.

More on that later...

Sunday breakfast, my choice: vegan hash

The best part about this short foray into veggie-land was that I went into it overly prepared. I knew I'd be setting myself (and Sasha) up for failure if I didn't plan, so instead, I knew everything I wanted to buy to make this totally do-able.


On weekdays, Sasha makes breakfast in the mornings before he goes to work (unlike me who prefers a quick coffee and oatmeal or toast at my desk) so I knew we needed options there to make his life easy otherwise he'd quickly break down and out would come the milk and cream cheese. Sorry cows!

Sunday breakfast, Sash's choice: hash browns and vegan sausage

For breakfast then I made sure we had soy and almond milks in the house (we usually do anyway) for cereal, oatmeal was still totally a go-to option, swapped out the normal bread/bagels for Ezekiel bread, and skipped our normal choice of Greek yogurt for the soy and coconut versions. Oh and even though our creamer is non-dairy, I was still worried that it was somehow not vegan so I bought the soy option there too.

Verdict:
- Almond and Soy Milk: we are already fans of both though I will say I don't like almond milk in cereal. It's just too thick especially if you're used to non-fat or 1% like I am. However, it's a tasty beverage on occasion. Soy is preferable in cereal due to its thin consistency, but in my opinion when it comes to cookies, neither option soaks into a cookie when dipped quite like good ol' cow's milk. That being said, I don't eat a lot of cookies with milk so this experiment was purely circumstantial and I can easily do without regular milk.
- Ezekiel Bread: totally good and oh-so-much-better for you! It's a little different texture, but if you toast it you barely notice.
- Tofutti: I didn't eat this, but Sasha swears it's a pretty fair swap for cream cheese.
- Earth's Best: hey, it's margarine - totally fine.
- Vegan Sausage: I forget what brand we bought here. I will say that fake meat is fine, but I don't love it really and can easily just do without.

My work day breakfast: Ezekial bread toasted with raspberry rhubarb jam. Yum!

More on Vegan week soon!

take a little time to give thanks

One of my best buds ever, Emily, has a beautiful blog called 365 Days of Gratitude where she daily posts about what she's thankful for. It's an awesome idea and something we should all probably focus in on a little more rather than worrying about the negative. Anyway, she's started a new feature where she's having weekly guest posters write about what they are thankful for...and I'm her first! :)

Read my post on her blog here.

i am oh so thankful

For any excuse to have a 3 day weekend!!

I truly think the world would be a better place if we all just worked 4 day weeks and had 3 days off. I mean, doesn't that make perfect sense? Let's even out the playing field a little people and gift ourselves with a little more "living" time. Just a thought (a genius one).

But since I'm not the leader of the free world (yet) or self-employed (writing best-selling novels), I will just take them as they come and oh am I jumping right on this one. Can it please be 3pm on Friday?!

I am nothing if not impatient.

I usually try to make big plans whenever I have a long weekend, but I am so so so stoked to have very little on the agenda this time around. Aside from the inevitability of errands, I plan on taking a yoga class, going for a sunny hike, partaking in a mani/pedi with one of my favorite gals, doing a little shopping, going on a scenic horseback ride along some unfenced hills (help me) and maybe a little pool time if it ever heats up enough. Amidst all of these awesome shenanigans I fully intend to do a little writing and a lot of reading. Ooh, and maybe knock one of those Oscar films off my list too. Overall - perfection.

Hope you all have an amazing Memorial Day weekend and get some much needed (if you're anything like me) R&R!

where volunteering and my favorite hobbies collide

the two deer I painted in the mural

First thing's first. I have 5 more hours to add to my list of volunteering. Recently, in honor of Earth Day, I was able to participate in an awesome project organized through my company. We went to a local middle school where about half of the volunteers spent time planting trees and gardening and the other half worked on a mural on the school's wall with the help of a local artist. So much fun. Having planted trees for Volunteer Day before, I opted to paint since it's also one of my hobbies.

I will say, I was a little nervous I'd mess up since it was going to be a permanent fixture at this school, but the artist who drew out the general lines of the mural was awesome and gave great tips on the overall look that he had in mind. He drew the entire thing out as a tribute to local plants, animals and water sources in our area and then gave us some photographs as inspiration.

After working on a small section of sky, I was into it and decided to jump in further. I grabbed some paints and decided to tackle the nearby deer in the painting. Not going to lie, I love how they turned out! The artist actually sent me an email recently and told me that the section of mural where my deers are is the teachers' favorite and he said he may contact me in the future to help him out on future mural projects in the area. So awesome!

It was a lot of fun in general, combining some of my favorite things: art, nature and volunteering. Not to mention that it wasn't too shabby getting to spend half of the work day outdoors painting. :)

***

Continuing on with the volunteering trend - last night was The Big Show for my group of Young Storytellers (http://youngstorytellers.com). So so so much fun. It's always such a great experience seeing the kids we work with each week have their scripts come alive on stage by so many talented improv actors. Each script is SO different, which just goes to show that individuality starts early. It's such a nice break from my regular schedule to spend an hour each week with an awesome group of 4th graders. The stuff they come up with is nothing short of inspiring at times.

A cool thing for me was that my mentee from last semester and the one I currently have are best friends. This is just completely by chance since we are paired up at random, but it's pretty adorable. The boy I had last semester came and helped his friend (my mentee now) make his poster advertising his show and hung out with us before the event began. He stayed and cheered his buddy on and it was really cute.

past and present "mentees" working on show posters

Another thing that never ceases to amaze me though is how very, very different boys and girls already are at this age. I mean, these kids are only 10! The boys are writing about action and sports and monsters and wars...while the girls are writing about relationships and animals and school scenarios. Both fun and unique in their own way, but oh so very different. Not to mention that the girls show up on performance day in cute dresses with their hair brushed and the boys come looking like they just rolled around in the dirt. I made my kid wash up in the bathroom before I let him put grubby fingerprints on the freshly typed scripts I'd made. ;)

I oddly am always paired with a boy and since our selection process is randomized, this is just coincidence. I kind of love it though because it often alters how I think about things because I want their story to be their own. If I'm trying to help my kid work through an idea that he has, I definitely prompt him to go with his gut because my initial responses to his ideas are in no way similar to what he eventually comes up with. And that in itself is pretty awesome I think.

Case in point: the setting is a snowy day in LA.
- Brittney thinks this must be a major plot point, I mean, blizzards aren't standard practice around these parts and so that must mean something crazy is about to happen.
- For Justin on the other hand, it is plainly obvious that the snow is just setting and provides food for his main character...a snowplow.

If I had brought my own experiences and knowledge to the table, I would have influenced his story and by doing that, changed what turned out to be a sweet and humorous story. Granted, I will say I helped him add some conflict and solution to his script, but only by asking him questions that led to his eventual decisions as the author.

Anyway, point is, so fun to go out of your comfort zone every now and then.

You'll always be surprised what you can learn when you do.