Honestly, the packing so far hasn’t been too bad. Believe it or not we are actually ahead of schedule. We rented these green boxes again and once again, I have to highly recommend them to anyone moving in SoCal. They are so genius, and the customer service is A+. Our entire house is filled with these stackable green boxes, and we’ve been on a roll getting everything squared away. One of the reasons I love moving is because it gives you a chance to clear out any clutter/junk you’ve accumulated. Thank goodness we have an Out of the Closet donation center right around the corner from us!

So we’re basically done packing, though the movers don’t come until tomorrow morning. And that’s when the fun begins… because in the span of a week, we move, unpack, coddle the cats as they adjust, get a new puppy, figure that out, coddle the cats some more and assure them that they’re still my babies, then on Friday I leave Julian alone in a new house with two cats and one dog and drive to Tucson to pick up my little brother & sister, drive all the way back to LA with tiny siblings in tow on Sunday, and then we have them for a week. And I think that’s around the time I’ll let out a massive sigh and jump into this:

Ha. We are soooo excited to be moving into an actual house, in an actual neighborhood, close enough to the action but away from the madness I’ve been living in for the last 5 years. Bring it on!

Hope you’re all having a happy Monday!

In my experience, the 4th of July is one of those holidays that is generally better when you aren’t living in a big city thousands of miles away from your family. Because I grew up celebrating the Fourth on a remote beach on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, being a 20-something in an apartment just hasn’t proved effective for having a fantastic summer bash centered around lighting food & explosives on fire. Especially in LA, where the beaches and parks are crazy busy, you aren’t allowed to grill most places, and the fireworks shows are busy (and sometimes pretty cheesy), so unless you happen to have a friend or family member with a backyard and a pool (or you go out of town), your options for celebrating Independence Day are limited.

Mostly, I haven’t even attempted to celebrate since I moved to LA five years ago. It just doesn’t feel right to me unless we are shucking corn with dogs running around, kids with sparklers on the roof of the beach house, Dads breaking out illegal fireworks, and fireflies buzzing all around us. (J’s family also has a enormous annual bash at a local park – complete with REAL fireworks – it’s kinda his Grandpa’s thing.) This 4th of July, however, I was determined. As of 10am on the 4th of July, that is (as I mentioned before, J and I didn’t make a single plan beforehand. But I woke up determined.)  For starters, we’ve been a little busy with preparing to move, preparing for family visits, and preparing for a new dog (more on that soon). We couldn’t go out of town because of our busy-ness (though we had an invitation to go tubing in Palm Springs – would’ve been amaaaaazing), so an LA 4th of July was as good as it was gonna get. Usually,  that involves watching movies all day and driving around at dusk hoping to see some sort of a firework. But seeing as we’re about to move into a house that would remedy the no-pool-no-backyard syndrome, we decided to make it count as our last non-house, lazy LA 4th of July. Kinda bittersweet in a way, it feels like I’m becoming a ‘real adult,’ whatever that is. This was the 4th of July we wouldn’t have a cocoon to nestle into and pretend we don’t live in Los Angeles.

So we looked for plans. As luck would have it, Hall & Oates was pulling a double header 4th of July Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl, and tickets just happened to still be available for not outrageous prices. So we bought a couple. But that didn’t start til 7:30pm, and we had the entire day to kill. And it was hot. And we don’t have AC (yet). We must have been feeling a little insane, because we decided to hop in the car and drive all the way to the luxurious Paradise Cove in Malibu (for non-LA readers, this is not a close beach – nor a cheap one.)

We had it all mapped out – 4 hours at the beach, just enough time to come home, shower, and get ready for the Hollywood Bowl. But then we got to Malibu and noticed we weren’t the only ones who made plans to go to the beach today. Whowouldathunkit? After driving up & down the PCH for longer than I would like to admit, we finally finagled our way into a parking spot at Paradise Cove – which we only paid $3 for, thanks to validation after eating a meal of questionable quality. The beach was packed of course – the worst kind of packed, too – frat boy packed. Plus, we had all the double nipple piercings, Swarovski crystal-embossed bikinis, and full back tattoos we could handle. Instead of searching for a spot to lay on the hot sand, we splurged & rented a couple chairs & an umbrella thinking it’d allow us some degree of relaxation. And it was nice – that beach is gorgeous, after all – and had it not been for the constant grunts & howling from our rowdy neighbors screaming “Party fouuuuuul!” over spilled buckets of calamari, I think it would have been quite perfect. After 2 hours of driving, 1 hour of eating, and 2 hours of reading & sleeping (& me applying layer after layer of SPF50), we decided we’d had enough holiday beach time, and headed back to civilization. It wasn’t quite the beach excursion we had in mind, but hey, we tried.

The second half of our 4th of July plans were even better. Despite horrendous traffic (partially due to the police arresting Paris Hilton’s stalker/intruder outside her Malibu house on the way home – ahhh, life in LA), we made it back & began the trek up to the Hollywood Bowl with time to spare. The show was packed, but even our cheap seats were good seats (one of the reasons the Bowl is amazing), and it was so much fun. I’ve never had a desire to see Hall & Oates live, but I can say this – I’ve had “You Make My Dreams Come True” stuck in my head ever since we left. I also finally got to hear that song that older folks sing when they meet me (imagine going through life having people sing you a mysterious song whenever you say your name… it’s kinda weird!) Additionally, both of our mothers were extremely jealous and went all squealy on us when they heard our plans (apparently Daryl Hall was quite the dreamboat in his day?)

Best of all were the fireworks, which were truly spectacular when backed up by the LA Philharmonic Orchestra… somehow they timed it all perfectly and the fireworks went off on the right beats of the Star Spangled Banner & other patriotic tunes. They were probably the best fireworks I’ve seen in my whole life and I’m not ashamed to say I teared up a little bit when they lit up the cheesy backdrop that said “America” and had a picture of an eagle, the Statue of Liberty, and some other patriotic icon that I can’t quite remember at this moment. To top off the night, we even made it home in time to watch an episode of House Hunters. We are a couple of party animals.

All in all, a perfect little last non-house Fourth of July. And I normally don’t do recap posts on here with play-by-plays of our daily life (who wants to read that anyway?) but I felt compelled to document this for some reason. It would have been easy to do the usual lazy LA 4th of July, and I’m proud of us for making some kind of effort to celebrate a holiday just the two of us. Perhaps it’s just a reminder to myself that just because you live an entire country away from your family, it doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate holidays the way you would have celebrated them back home. Sometimes you just have to put in a little effort!

Except next year. When we’ll be sitting by the pool eating grilled corn & (turkey) burgers. With a dog.

Photo: Greg Manis / me

Just an example of what we got in this week’s box from AHO. All organic, all local. All harvested just a couple days ago, and more delicious than anything I’ve ever bought in a grocery store. Sometimes living in an agriculture-friendly state like California is really, really great. And did I mention all this cost a mere $21.80? That’s for a small bin. Large bin is $36.80. Every week the contents change, for example, last week we got the most incredible honeydew. If you live in a place that offers a CSA like this, you are a fool if you don’t take advantage!

Sorry, no pictures of this week’s booty, but trust me, it looks fantastic (with the exception of the cosmetically-challenged peaches – what are ya gonna do?)…

Here she is now*, leaning up against the Techno Jeep. She needs a good name… anyone got any ideas?

See Mom? That $400 of “Christmas/birthday money for a new bike” you gave me back in 2007/etc has finally materialized into something I can pedal.

*Once again, sorry for the l-a-m-e cell phone pic. But it’s easy.

I’ve been riding a few times before, but not in years, so as far as expertise goes, I’m still very much in the “beginner” category. Julian’s had a bit of experience as well, since his grandfather has a farm with horses (!!). We both loved being on and around the horses. There is really nothing quite like it!

The ranch was adorable and the folks working there were very friendly. They had around 100 or so horses, a handful of adorable ranch dogs (including one, Sadie, with only three legs! Bless her heart), and various other farm animals – roosters, goats/kids (which sounded like actual kids), even an albino peacock.

Once everyone was mounted (I rode the fantastically well-behaved and kind-hearted Ra and Julian rode Tanto), our guides led us up past a tiny faux-version of the Hollywood sign, then past the real Hollywood sign, and through the beautiful mountains, over into Burbank, where we had dinner at a little Mexican restaurant. It was delightful! A little bit on the cold side…. it took me about 30 minutes to defrost once inside, but still, amazing. The waiters even gave us carrots to feed to the horses.

On the way back, it was darker, colder, and all the riders in our party were a lot more silent. Riding through the mountains on Ra, looking up at the stars above, freezing my butt off, and thinking about who won Best Picture, I definitely had a few moments where I pretended I was in True Grit and had the sudden urge to call my horse Little Blackie. But then I realized just how freaking cold I was and snapped back to reality. For all of you who think life is one big beach party in LA, think again. This is still the desert, after all, and after the sun goes down, it gets cold.

Sidenote here: I loved my horse. I think we are alike in that we both like to be first, because he kept butting in front of anyone who tried to ride up past him, and would trot up to the front if he got too far back in the pack. That might have been my favorite part.

I’ve never been so happy to get in a warm car in all my life. The cold was in my bones by that point and I had to sleep in my Hot Chillys (which are… the best – look it up!) All in all, we had a fabulous time and if you’re in the market for horseriding in LA (beginners-style, of course), definitely check out Sunset Ranch!

We had a blast overall, but it was so packed (the park actually sold out), we only rode two rides by the time 5pm rolled around. Thank God Space Mountain is open til midnight. Once the weather cooled off and the crowds thinned out, we made our rounds and were able to ride most of the things we wanted to ride in the evening hours. These two cuties were taken while we were on the teacups – the first ride of the day, around 2pm, while the Christmas parade was in full effect behind us. That ride… is awesome.

Aside from the rides, we also stuffed our faces with massive amounts of BBQ, cotton candy, Dole Whips, and other unmentionables. Julian was recognized at least 5 times by fans and someone even asked me if he was Tom from Myspace because he was wearing my Myspace hoodie. Hilarious.

We’re already looking forward to our next Disney excursion when we visit Orlando in late March for Playlist Live, where Julian is performing (buy your tickets at the link!) Fun times!!!

the dessert table

To explain the wonderful weekend in detail is just not possible, so instead I think I’d like to do a special little “things I love” about this weekend’s birthday bonanza.

• Surprise Sprinkles cupcakes from my coworkers – they tricked me into thinking I was having a Friday afternoon meeting.  Evil!
• Romantic dinner date with my Hubs
• Waking up to a billion texts and voicemails with birthday wishes – this is what happens when you delete your Facebook!
• Traipsing around Larchmont Village with bagels & OJ
• Spontaneously deciding to go buy a bunch of board games
• Spending more time than I’d like to admit doing a 1000 pc puzzle (am I 28 or 82?)
• My new presents!  My husband has great taste.
• The incredible, outstanding, magnificent Phoenix/Grizzly Bear/Girls show at the Hollywood Bowl thanks to Cesca!
• Birthday wine (aka Sofia minis in the pink cans!  With straws!)
• Coming back from the bathroom to find the entire section singing Happy Birthday to me – magical!
• Spotting an old coworker sitting just a couple rows behind us!
• Walking home with my beau (and him getting his first ever street dog!)
• Preparing and cooking all the food for my bash on Sunday afternoon – so much work but it was so worth it!  And it all turned out delicious!
• Having a super long, relaxed party in our courtyard with people coming & going so we had a chance to talk to everyone.
• Projecting our wedding photos onto the building behind us when it got dark outside – this was so cool!  Such a great idea (thanks Hannah!)
• Ending the night with an epic game of Monopoly (we are on a board game kick, FYI)
• The photos!  My in-house photographer did an amazing job.  You can see a couple of them in this post but I’ll do a separate post with all the photos & details of the food & decor.

And of course, having my little brother (who is actually quite tall) in town made everything so much better.  He’s my first best friend and I love him so much!

Now I’m off to get my year started off with a bang. ♥ ♥ ♥

the food table

candlelight

fun fact:  sapphire is the September birthstone

By the way, that’s got to be one of my favorite moments of the year – the minute you realize something smells different, feels different, looks different – and fall is on its way.  I remember the exact place I was last year when I first felt that, it was around this time of month – though about a week later.  You may argue that it isn’t really fall in LA until November, but I trust my instincts and darn it, fall is on its way.

Aside from my birthday party (autumn themed, naturally), I’m really looking forward to spending cozy mornings drinking coffee wrapped in blankets, sleeping without the ceiling fan on, cooking heavier dishes and not feeling guilty about it, walking to the coffee shop for our favorite seasonal drinks, and of course planning for the holiday season.  Yep, I’m that girl that is ready to start decorating for Christmas in October.  No shame!

What’s your favorite thing about fall? And you aren’t allowed to say “sweaters and boots.”

Edited to add: Just heard another heat wave is on its way tomorrow.

source

“It is a scientific fact that if you stay in California, you lose one point off your IQ every year.”
– Truman Capote

And on that note, I’m off to Nashville this weekend for the wedding of one of my favorite couples on the planet, Kayla and Tyler. So excited. And just a LITTLE bit excited about seeing my husband for the first time in nearly two weeks. YES.

Happy weekend!