A Very Happy Easter Indeed

While my Easter (unfortunately) didn't include Bloody Marys and a Lamb Cake like Mary's did, it did include church, yoga and gourmet Mexican food, which made for a very happy Easter indeed. :-)

The holiday weekend started earlier than usual as my wonderful place of employment let us off for a half-day on Thursday and the whole day on Friday.  It. Was. Glorious.  There are few things I love more than 3-day weekends.  My normal weekends are usually so packed that I never get a day to actually just REST and catch up on life.  Three day weekends provide that muuuuch needed day of rest.  I honestly think that we should have a 4-day work week and a 3-day weekend all the time.  I feel like studies have been done to prove that this schedule creates a much more happy, healthy and productive work environment.  One day I just might compile all that info and present a proposal of this amazing idea to my bosses.  (I'm only mildly joking about this).  I digress...

Easter Sunday was was a wonderful day spent with wonderful friends.  I began the day at my beloved church (Pacific Crossroads) where we celebrated the true meaning of this glorious day:

After a festive post-service party/reception and lunch, Ellen and I went back to her place to take an afternoon siesta. Feeling refreshed from this little power nap, I took her to one of my favorite things: Erika's power yoga class at The Sports Club LA. This class is just incredible. It's an hour and half long and an insanely good work out.  As we are sweating our booties off, she plays the best music (NOT your average "yoga" music. Her playlists often include a random mix of The Beatles, Jay Z, Death Cab, Florence + the Machine, etc.) I often go through a full range of emotion/motivation levels in this class: I start off feeling strong and by minute 45 or so, I feel like I am about to die and can't possibly finish; then there's another upswing, and by the end I feel like I just had a full body massage and can't wait for next week. Needless to say, it was a wonderful addition to my Easter afternoon.

Later that evening, I enjoyed an abnormally delicious dinner at a super swanky/sexy/cool new Mexican restaurant on Melrose called Red O with some of my dearest friends: Garrett, Bradley, Matt and Ellen. Ellen is quite the foodie, so she had been eyeing this new venture by Rick Bayless (who, according to my quick glance at his bio, is originally from Oklahoma!) for a while. Everything was delicious, but the Quesos Fundidos appetizer and the Veracruz-style Buelos (with salted caramel ice cream and warm Kahlua chocolate sauce) dessert were to-die-for must try items. Probably the fanciest (and most delectable) Easter dinner I've ever had. :-)

The flash next to Matt's head is Bradley who kindly offered to take my 8:11 pic that evening. (it kind of looks like Tinkerbell in that old weird version of Peter Pan... anyone remember that one?  Just me?  Okay.)

Overall, it was a great day. Happy happy spring. :-)

xoxo, 

at

First Week, Food, and Fireworks.

I successfully completed my first week at the new job!  It went really well, I think.  Monday I had 8 hours of orientation (where I made a couple new buddies). Tuesday I had a tour of the incredible Warner Bros lot in the morning (where I saw such fun things as the real Batmobiles, the set of Cental Perk from "Friends", and a page from Denzel Washington's script from his Oscar-winning "Training Day" which included his very interesting handwritten notes all over it... that was my favorite thing :-) ). After the tour I dove into the new job: Executive Assistant to the Vice President of eCommerce in Digital Distribution (Isn't that a mouth full?...yowza). 

As expected, there were many logistical things to take care of the first week.  In addition to this, I did administrative things for my boss (mainly scheduling meetings and helping him with a powerpoint presentation for a big meeting). He is very "self sufficient", which is good because it leaves me a lot of room to get involved with other projects. :-) I'm already working on our social media outreach and exploring options for involvement in an upcoming classic film festival.  The people in my office are really nice too! (I only had to eat lunch by myself once this week... special thanks to Mary for chatting with me on the phone so I didn't feel completely lame.. ;-) I definitely miss my co-workers at the Academy, but I'm glad that my new ones seem to be great too. Hooray!! 

This weekend I ate some amazing food. Friday I went to Luna Park for dinner.  After hearing numerous rave reviews, I had been wanting to try this trendy spot for quite some time, and it definitely exceeded my high expectations. We started our meal with a delicious appetizer of crispy gnocchi with summer vegetables. SO FREAKING GOOD.  For my entree I had mahi mahi with moroccan cous cous. Not as mind-blowing as the gnocchi but still, quite delectable. Luna Park is known for its speciality cocktails, so in addition to these tasty dishes, I enjoyed their wonderfully refreshing strawberry mojito. A perfect summer drink. :-) To finish this grand feast, we ordered my favorite food in the world: s'mores!  And these weren't just your average everyday s'mores... these s'mores are so good, they have been featured on The Food Network's show "The Best Thing I Ever Ate." That is legit!  

To make this glorious meal even more incredible, we got all of this delicious food for 50% off. Yes, you read that correctly: half off! I had heard an almost too-good-to-be-true rumor that Luna Park occasionally reveals special passwords on Twitter and if you say that word to your waitor, you get 50% off. This seemingly urban legend happened to come to my mind while we were eating, so we checked their Twitter page, and sure enough, we told our spunky waitress the word 'Independence' and badda bing, badda boom, our meal was half off! Whooo! Overall: food was delicious, atmosphere was fun/trendy, service was great, and the secret password was legit (and economical!). You should definitely go to this restaurant. 

The 4^th of July is fun in LA. A group of friends and I drove to Manhattan Beach (my favorite!) for a cookout at our friends’ awesome new oceanview apartment. After some beverages and BBQ, we walked down The Strand to a beach party in Hermosa Beach. I knew the Manhattan and Hermosa crowd would be a lively bunch for the 4^th, but the quantity and quality of American-themed attire and body paint was both unexpected and hilarious. It was almost like Halloween only with everyone dressing up patriotically. I felt a bit out of place since I didn’t have “GO U.S.A.!” or “I LOVE THE 4th OF JULY!” painted all over my body in red, white and blue. (Just kidding… those people really looked like drunken fools). It was fun. After spending several hours enjoying the perfect weather on the beach, we headed back to Manhattan. We watched a classic American film, Anchorman, and then enjoyed several fireworks displays on the beach. It was a lovely day.  God bless America.  J

at