A sumptuous feast!

So this weekend I got inspired to cook!....

And I went to good ol' Whole Foods to get some provisions (and get rid of a lot of my money!) But I came out with some really great and delicious stuff! Of course, I went to the regular store for the basic stuff.

So after I got home from grocery shopping on Saturday, I made myself a great dinner that I think I will have to add to my regular repetoire of special occasion meals. I took this thick NY strip and seasoned it with sea salt and freshly cracked pepper. I cooked it and also blanched some asparagus. Then I made this balsamic cherry reduction and drizzled it over both. The result was YUMMY!

Then Sunday was the big cooming day! I made, what one friend of mine lovingly refers to as "brazzle" (don't ask me why, I honestly don't know and I am not sure he does either!), which to most other folks is Olive oil poached halibut. Some may remember that I have talked about this dish before. It occurs to me that I should probably explain it a little. You basically cook the halibut in enough olive oil to completely cover the fish (a lot of olive oil, I know, but so worth it!) at a temperature of about 200 degrees or just warm/cool enough to dip your finger in and place a dot on the back of your hand and it be pleasantly warm. You cook the fish for about 10-12 minutes. Because of how it is cooked and at what temperature, the fish is not oily at all (hard to believe, huh?) and the fish a flavorful and light.

This time I placed it on bed of creamed leeks and spinach accompanied by an heirloom tomato goat cheese pasta and some asparagus in a lime vinegrette.

Then for dessert I made an apple pie with a crumb topping with some homemade whipped vanilla cream and garnished it with some amaretto caramel sauce that I made on a previous occasion.

The weekend....

So the thing that happens when you dont have someplace to be every day during the week is that the weekend loses a little bit of its significance. TGIF? The only real difference is that there are more people off with you and you dont have to work to avoid rush hour traffic.

Job search chronicles, Days 4-5

Day 4

I decided that I needed to unpack and try to straighten up my house, which looked like a hurricane hit it. I spent all morning unpacking, cleaning up my room, doing laundry and cleaning dishes. But in the afternoon, I had, what could only be described as a little anxiety attack because I hadn't done anything with the job search that day. It was really strange....I started to feel really uneasy and my heart started beating really fast. But then I talked myself down and it passed.

I am paying attetion to my procrastination practices and coping mechanisms. I will be honest, when I was a kid, I was really shy, starting from about 3rd or 4th grade and I still have some closet introvert tendencies. A lot of people would probably be very surprised to hear this, especially those who have met me in the past 10 years because I make a conscious effort to not be so. And, it is easier to be more extroverted and outgoing as I have become more and more confident in myself and my accomplishments. But a situation like a job search can really tap into these latent tendencies if you let them. So I need to make sure that I do a certain amount of job search stuff every day and not get distracted by the other (non-money making) things that I get distracted by.

When I was still working, I committed to run in a corporate sponsored 5k run so I spent the afternoon trying to update my Shuffle so I could take it with me on the run. But it had been cloudy all day and started to rain. I could not find any rain day information anywhere and since partial thunderstorms were forecasted for the rest of the evening, I decided to not go. Of course, after I changed clothes and made other plans, it had dried up completely. :-(

Day 5

I was Job Search Johnson! I spent just about all day looking at job listings, sending emails, looking in LinkedIn etc... I applied to 3 jobs and talked to a friend I know at one of the them. He said that he will talk to HR about me and put in the good word for me.

When looking through the LinkedIn network of the recruiter I met this week, I saw the information for a guy who works for a company that I had no idea had an office here. While looking at the company's website, I saw that there were a couple jobs there that I might be qualified for. I typed up an introduction email and asked the recruiter to forward it to him. I also applied for one of the jobs. Hopefully, I can catch up with the man this upcoming week for an informational inteview. I also discovered that a man, who I was familiar with from my previous company, now works as a VP at one of the companies I am looking at for a new job. We actually have 7 contacts in common on LinkedIn but I am trying to figure out who is the best person to forward an introduction to him. Some folks who I think might have a closer connection to him, I don't have such a close connection to so I will have to work on this. One of our common connections is a former boss of mine and I already have some emails out to her so based on her response, I might ask her to forward an introduction.

Then, one of my old co-workers called me to meet with some other folks in the company for drinks. So I went! The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed some drinks, wings and blue cheese chips on the patio, while I got to hear about all the changes that have gone on in the past 2 weeks since I have been gone. I am still thinking that I am probably better off to be in the position I am in (except for the regular paycheck.) because there is no guarantee what will happen in the next few months. There may be more cuts, the severance packages might not be as nice... who knows....

The Job search chronicles, Day 1-3

So I have decided to add a regular installment to my blog about my job search as 1) a way to keep myself honest and focused and 2) because hopefully, in all of this, I can provide some useful information to someone out there who is or may be in the future in the same position soon...

So here it goes.....

I told myself that my vacation would be a great way for me to clear my head and then I would hit the ground running when I got back. Well, it didn't really happen that way....

Day 1
Day 1, I got so overwhelmed by all the stuff I had to do, job search, cleaning my house, unpacking that I got tired and decided to take a nap! Luckily, I had agreed to help my admissions director from my business school at a recruiting event so I had something to get me out of the house!

Day 2
One of my former co-workers had this great idea that a bunch of us should get together once a week for breakfast to talk about how we have been, share contacts, keep each other from being lonely/depressed/going crazy... We are meeting at this funky little place with free wi-fi... So we had our first breakfast meeting and one of use already has a job. She is starting on Monday which is really great for her.

We actually ended up staying longer than I expected so I had to run home to change for an orientation session with this company that is providing job transition and training services. It was pretty general -- they have a bunch of other classes to sign up for to help you with resume editing, interviewing skills, networking etc and a computer lab and job bank listing. It will probably be a good resource -- and another reason to get myself out of the house, motivated in my job search and around people.

One thing that the woman told us was to make sure that we stick with our regular routine, not to stop doing things that you would normally do which I can see could be a very important thing. When you don't have a set schedule anymore it is important to keep some sort of routine going so that you don't just sit around like a lump on a log. One thing that is routine that I am not doing so well at is getting up at my normal time. Some of this is probably because I am still adjusting to the time difference from my trip but some of it is also that it is one of those actual benefits of not having a job.... to be able to sleep late! My dog is not too good about letting me do this though. I manage to wake up, let her out and then go back to sleep for as long as I can.

That afternoon I decided to go to the Tuesday step class that my regular step teacher (who I love!) teaches at another location. I normally go to her Monday and Wednesday classes but since I hadn't been in 2 weeks I decided not to wait until Wednesday to get back in the swing of things. It is an advanced only class and it was really great and fast paced. I always love going to her classes because the music is good, the choreography is fun, she is really enthusiastic and kicks our butts!

Day 3
I met a friend at the gym this morning for a moderately vigorous weight training session. I figure if I am going to be out of a job, I shouldn't be out of shape too. If I dont have to go to a job everyday then I can at least go to the gym!

Then, in the afternoon, I met with a woman I had been referred to at a recruiting/executive search firm. We had a really good meeting and I also got to meet the managing partner (who I still owe an email....) She emphasized the importance of using LinkedIn for networking and told me to send her an invite to join my network so that I could then look at the companies in her contacts and see which ones interested me. She also told me how important it was to make sure that my profile is up to date. While I actually got my last job because a recruiter saw my resume on Monster (yes, it actually does happen!), she said that she and other recruiters now more often do candidate searches in LinkedIn. She also recommended the site The Ladders, a job search site that specializes in middle management and above jobs. It is actually a subscription job search service but she says that she often finds better candidates
on the site, probably because you have to pay for it. They do offer a 30 day free trial however.

Then, since it was late, I skipped going home and headed back over to the gym for my regular Weds step class. I was a little early so I hung out in the coffee shop nearby, checking my email. There I actually ran into a woman who I am friendly with from my step class. We used to live in the same building and I would see her at the gym all the time. Well, she has been out of work for a number of months now and has been having quite a lot of difficulty finding a new job, especially since she needs sponsorship to work in the US because she is a Canadian citizen. Turns out that she was meeting a friend there who lives one street over from me. So, I got to meet a new neighbor.

I was all pscyched up for another great step class but to our dissapointment, there was a sub... :-( This guy who is much slower and not as interesting. I hung in for as long as I could but was getting bored so, since this was my second time in the gym for the day, I left early..

I made it back, blog sighting and other stuff...

So to make up for my middle seat on the way to LA, the airplane seat gods made it up to me, by giving me an aisle exit row seat on the way back. It was great!! So much room I didnt even need to consider reclining.

The next day I committed to working the table for my b-school at a recruiting event with the Admissions director. I figured it was a good way to do something positive and remind myself of positive steps in my career. Plus, I could talk to the admissions director about my recent turn of events. I had a lot of fun, talking to bright-eyed women, excited about embarking on the next stage in their career and talking up my school. And the admissions director reminded me that there is an alumni career services guy at our school so I am going to contact him.

Also, this was the site of my first blog recognition. I walked in the space where the event was going on and was greeted by this woman with a cute little 1 1/3 - 2 inch afro. She pointed me towards the area where the school tables were and then said.....

"This might sound strange but you look like someone I saw on a blog recently."

"That could be possible," I said, holding my tongue,

She continued, " I know it sounds weird but I remember something about your friend who just came back from Japan and I remember a picture of you with some bald guy...."

I was a little taken aback! I was getting recognized from my blog! "Was this recently?" I asked.

"Yes"

"That was me," I fessed up.

Turns out, she has been looking around at blogs about natural hair as she contemplates what to do with her own. It was wild!

Another hairstory from this event was a conversation I had with another admissions director from a different business school. We were on a bit of a break and had wandered to the hors d'ouevres table only to find that most of the food had been scarfed up. As I was balancing a plate with some dried out roast beef wrap pinwheels and pouring myself some iced tea, this woman came up to me very enthusiastically and told me how much she loved my hair. I was starting to brace myself for the myriad of questions like I hear from people who aren't familiar with locks, but to my surprise, she was very knowledgeable. It turns out that one of her co-workers in the admissions office has locks and she proceeded to tell me about how when she interviewed her for the position, she told her that she just had to stop and talk to her about how cool her hair was befor they went much further so that they could get it out of the way. She then told me about how her co-worker is always going in and getting new styles and proceeded to describe the latest style. When I told her that I hadn't been to a salon since I started my locks almost 13 years ago, she was floored and then asked me questions about my regimen and if I had ever trimmed them. Who would have thought that there would be all this talk about locks at an MBA recruiting event!?!?

Tony Toni Tone got it wrong....

It's raining in Southern California! Or at least it was --- for 16-18 hours straight! At first, it was just little wimpy, drizzly rain.... But then, when I was driving home last night, it was REAL, hard to see on the highway rain! I have been assured that I am witnessing a freak bout of "winter-like" weather and that it hasn't rained at all in about 4 months! Lucky me!

At least it looks like it is clearing up now, the sun is coming out and..... a deer just walked by the window as I am sitting here blogging....

Celebrity sightings....

I got stuck in a middle seat....

in the middle section.......

on the plane out here....

and in the second row of coach! The woman in front of me also reclined her seat a little. Can you say skwooshed!?!

But because I was all the way towards the front and could see in the curtain for first class, when we were getting off the plane, I saw a familiar face getting out of her seat up there.

It was Eve

and the woman skwooshing me happened to be her assistant. (How does one get one of these jobs??) She looked good, just like on TV, with reddish-brown hair and all the makeup and she waited at the carousel for her bags with the rest of us, although she didnt have to pick them up.

Then, later that night, at dinner we saw the Hiphopapotomus, Jemaine Clemant from Flight of the Conchords, although since I had to look up his name to write this blog post, I am not sure if he classifies as a true celebrity.....

And then..... nothing...... (of there was that Nobel Laureate at the Caltech Athenaeum Club... um, okay.... I am pretty sure that doesn't count for anyone except perhaps scientists...)

Although, this wasnt really a paint the town red, clubbing type of trip (I did not go to one club! Oh, I am getting old!) where were all the celebrities out getting their smoothies and shopping on Melrose and eating Cuban food???

I did manage to get one more celebrity sighting in thanks to some old family friends. Some of my parents best friends from St. Louis live in LA, Sophie and Harry, and we got to meet up with them for dinner. The next day I met up with Sophie again and went with her to her office. She is a VP at a major TV production company and I got to go over to the studio and hang out for a little bit.


I got to watch a couple TV pilots for new TV shows this season (Journeyman seems like it could be an interesting new one, although a few points were just a little too corny or contrived) and got a tour of a few of the sets for their premiere show in production. I got to see the courtroom set and sit in the judge's chair and also see the office set. There also happened to be a marking rehearsal going on with 3 of the major stars from the show, one of whom just won an Emmy for his role, so I got to see them run through their lines for this particular scene before heading over to the makeup trailer. My major impressions were this:

1. The actors are shorter than I thought
2. We get the best of it when we see the final product. The actual filming of the scenes is extremely tedious and boring. There is a lot of hurry up and wait. It did not seem very glamourous at at! For example, this was maybe a 1-2 minute scene.

• First, they talked through the scene with the actors,
• then practiced dialogue,
• then walked through the scene and marked their marks on the floor where they stopped during the scene,
• then they talked about the camera angles and placement with the director while the actors were still there.
• then, the actors went away and the crew started moving around the walls and stuff needed to support the scene and started to place all the lights
• Apparently, at this same time, the actors went to the makeup trailer for 40 or so minutes of makeup and hair
• then they come back and film the scene 40 bazillion times so they can get all the camera angles....

All this might take about 2-3 hours..... for a 2 minutes scene! Can you imagine?!?!? I think I would tear my hair out! And they do this for 12 hours each day (on a short day). So, as I said, we get the best of it when we watch the show. Although, I guess we don't get paid.... Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of the actors. Cameras are not allowed on the set, of course.

I wonder if anyone will be on my flight back!?!?

The Stinkin' Rose.....

After a little shopping on Melrose, P and I met up with Q for a couple drinks and then went to dinner at this place that P had once done a little publicity for called

that specializes in food with garlic in it! We sait in one of these tent booths on the right.

Not sure it is a place I would recommend to take a date, although, if you are both eating garlic maybe it doesnt matter that much....

The food was actually pretty regular. I ended up getting the prime rib with garlic mashed potatoes adn creamed spinach.

P got some appetizers and garlic fries, and for some reason, don't ask me why, Q ordered the Portobello mushroom ( I know, is this role reversal or what??) He really is not a vegetarian, y'all!

And then, just because we had to, we shared an order of the garlic ice cream! (I know, I know!) This is what P thought of it.....

I actually thought it was pretty good, in a weird sort of way, especially with the caramel mole sauce and proceeded to polish off the rest of the bowl....

The birthday boy....

It was my friend Q's birthday yesterday, so I rustled up the folks to go to this place called Koji's for a little sushi and shabu shabu. What is shabu shabu you might ask? Well, the easiest way for me to describe it is the Japanese version of fondue.

So, that might not quite clear it up for you either..... When I say fondue, I don't mean the melted cheese or chocolate kind but the kind where you have meat, fish and/or vegetables and you cook them, on the little skewer forks, in either hot oil or hot boullion. So image this concept but the cooking is done by dipping thinly shaved pieces of beef and vegatable in boiling hot water to cook it.

We had a blast, even with a snafu with our table... I think the dirty martinis and Sony harddrives helped! (I still dont know what was in those things!) And I am pretty sure that the birthday boy enjoyed himself too!

Tea for two....

Brunsli and I went to tea yesterday at these nice gardens in the area. I am sure that proper English folks would probably turn their nose up at the California version of tea. There was an option for iced tea and there were folks in jeans, tennis shoes and flip flops there. (As well as a woman with spikey pink hair and a tattoo on her arm!)

But it was fun to endulge our girlie sides. (which I do much more rarely than Brunsli, as you can tell!) and dress up in our sundresses and eat little sandwiches, although I was much more interested in the desserts! Brunsli commented on the proportion of dessert to other items on the buffet so we think most of the other folks came for the dessert too!

Afterwards, we walked around the gardens and let our food digest! The gardens were beautiful and it turned out to be a very nice day!

And then, in keeping with the good vibes, we went to a yoga class in a small local studio. It was really great and my shoulder, which had been bothering me for the past 3 weeks, now feels no pain! I think I am going to incorporate yoga into my daily "get your mind right and find a job" routine.

I'm grown....

While I was sitting at the Hollywood Bowl last night, drinking red wine and watching Pink Martini and an orchestra play a tribute to the Cocoanut Grove (with a black conductor no less!),

I realized that I am officially an adult..... that and I want to revise/build upon my secret alter-ego wish.... I don't secretly just want to be a ballroom dancer, I want to be a multi-lingual singer, musician, ballroom dancer who rides a motorcycle! Yeah, that should about do it....

Oh, and there were fireworks!......

Happy belated birthday!

Want to send a "Happy Belated Birthday" shout out to Naturally Sophia! Sorry I missed it. We will have to celebrate when I get back!

Sisters??

Which of these women are sisters??

These two?

or these two?

The answer......neither!! So why have people been asking me this just about all my life??

For P and I, since junior high or high school people have asked us this. The only reason we can really figure is that we were both the same height with slightly similar builds and both wore glasses. And we were around each other all the time.

As for Brunsli and I, well, you have heard the stories already...

It is funny that we all arrived at natural hair through our own independent journeys.

At any rate, I guess it is sort of flattering for people to think that I am related to these two wonderful women who I have had the pleasure to call my friends all these years! As an only child, I have been lucky to be able to choose the women I am close enough to for people to think we are sisters!

Back to blogging....

Well, since I have more time on my hands these days, I am back to blogging so you will likely see a lot more blogs from me, at least until I get a new job.

The last few weeks, nay the last month and a half, has been crazy for me but now I am off on a little vacation (already planned before all this mess) to clear my head, relax and hang out with some good friends. I think you might recognize a face or two!

Stiff upper lip.....

So Friday was goodbye day at work.....

At was all very well organized which, in a way, made me more sad. I have always thought the company was well run and looked out for the employees. Ironic, huh?

Anyway, my group was scheduled to turn in our "assets" at 10:30am. Before, that we went around the floor and said our goodbyes to whoever was around. Hugs and contact info was shared..... Everyone trying to be light and positive... Then we went over to the room to turn in everything. At my previous company, I am sure there would have been lines of people waiting to turn stuff in but here, everything was orderly. There were 4 possible lines, each with 3 sections. Each section was responsible for collecting different things, one for IDs, one for laptops, one for parking passes. In and out in 5 minutes! And then the HR folks handed us a packet of companies in the area who were hiring in the area.

As we were leaving, our co-worker whose wife just had a baby last month was on daddy duty and brought him in for an appearance. And everything was light until we ran into another co-worker who was staying. She was getting teary eyed and everyone else's eyes started to get wet. So we all left, everyone else was going to meet up and have some lunch. I, however, had to head to the airport.....

An update!

So I didn't realize what a hiatus that I have taken from blogging until now..... Things have been CRAZY!! But it seems that as August has drifted away, so is much of the chaos. (Thank God!)

First, the shoe did finally drop and I am being laid off. Interestingly, I am okay with it. Actually, the people who are getting laid off are looking more relaxed than those who have to stick around and try to do all the same work with 1/3 to 1/2 the people. Given the alternative, I am glad I am leaving, although not excited about looking for a new job. But it will give me an opportunity to re-evaluate some things.

Second, I had one renter moving out, one moving in and a contractor who hasnt finished construction to expand the rental unit. So I have been juggling that. Additionally, I decided to save $600 and do the painting myself. Well, after a week of painting on the weekend and at nights, I don't know if I will do that again. Or at least, I will let someone else paint the ceilings. Ceilings are the worst! Sunday, I laid down those infamous Flor carpet tiles (very easy!) and the transformation was complete! Yay! My contractor did a great job and the renter (and her dog) are really happy with the new space. See the next post for the before and after pictures.

Special shout out to Naturally Sophia for helping out in the clutch and coming to pitch in and paint! And on a Friday night no less!

Before and after pics....

Before pictures.....

After pictures........

We built a new wall to divide part of the lower level from the garage, moved the door to the laundry room, put up new drywall on all the walls and created a half bath in the laundry room (the toilet was already there....don't ask....)

Not bad, huh?

1/2 bath