tuesday = fresh new flower.

it was a good day.

i'll tell you about it tomorrow,

eyes are sleepy.

toast, tits, and that's pretty much it

having a 6'6" male sleeping in your living room/family room/t.v. room has its downsides. i haven't had a toasted anything in over a month now and this morning i just really, really needed my fix--but even doing something as simple as placing my english muffin into the toaster oven turned out to be a major production. everything in that damn kitchen wanted to squeak. or fall. or belt out a loud "beep" when it was good and ready. half-way through this process of trying to tip-toe my way around made me realize how suffocating my living situation can be. if i had attempted to make a smoothie, i think they would've thrown my mattress out the door. oh wait, i don't have a mattress. and isn't it funny how tiny kitchens in over-priced apartments are so noisy but more spacious ones in nice homes are so quiet? go figure.

and another thing...how is it that the farther along in your pregnancy you are in this town, the slimmer, prettier, and more adorable you look? absolutely ridiculous. only in l.a. man. one of my new co-workers just informed me that breastfeeding has the amazing benefit of dramatically reducing the appearance of fat cells in your body. maybe that explains the four year-old boy i saw glued to his mother's breast.

;)

a few things to look out for in the week ahead:

i'm kicking off a major "girls girls girls" campaign today in an effort to make meaningful volleyball connections (even though that sounds like i'm recruiting talent for a girls gone wild video). this means i'll be contacting total strangers in an effort to train or play with them. you miss every shot you don't take, as they say. or, as my brother would say, "you miss every shot at scoring with a girl you don't try to hit on".

i have just two more days of training before i get to fly solo at my new restaurant. this means more money, which means more happiness...because money = happiness, right? yes, food and shelter make me happy. timing is a funny thing because i JUST received this text from my dentist back in north carolina: katrina, you are due for your dental visit. please call ... to set up an appointment. don't hold your breath, doc.

my tuesday

hit the coffee house for just a house (no fancy concoctions today). luckily, there was one seat left open for me, so i proceeded to nestledown. nestledown, a new term i created, meaning "to arrange ones personal belongings outside of the home much like one would in the privacy of ones own home." or, put less delicately, "the act of arranging and spreading out all of your personal shit in a public area so as to take up as much space as possible while making yourself feel at home". notice the little brown crumbs on that tissue paper? that's just what was leftover from the hunk of dark chocolate i brought with me. with almonds--can't forget those.

then i began to make a list...the things i enjoy doing in one column and the things i don't enjoy doing in the other. try it--it's harder then you think, partly because you catch yourself wanting to censor what you really like or dislike.

next, i headed over to the manhattan beach farmer's market where i have been volunteering my time for the past three weeks. two small boys were pulling leaves down from a nearby tree and us ladies were discussing different ways to make them stop. my suggestion won much acclaim: "hey kids. did you know that santa claus is best friends with mother nature, and everytime you pull a leaf, santa puts one less present under the tree for you?"

at the end of my shift, i bring home one of these:

to put in one of these:

classy, huh? i think so. that was a good bottle of wine, too...no more than four bucks from our trusty friend trader joe.

after taking a short-lived nap, i played volleyball with my roommates for a couple hours and then here i am, post-shower, watching enemy of the state and writing these words. tomorrow is an important day because i start training for my new waitressing job in the early a.m. and then i'm attending a social networking event in the evening. i've already crafted a cheat sheet of all the interesting people who i want to talk with...a culinary artist, nutritionist, screenwriter/producer, and several personal trainers just to name a few. i'm sure they will be equally excited to talk with a...wait for it...waitress! fascinating.

wish me luck :)

a plunger these days costs about thirteen dollars. i am not expanding on the subject.

happy father's day

dad, this one's for you...

college is the quintessential time for young people to realize and take advantage of exercising frugality...of finding ways to be extremely, painfully cheap so that they could afford to be more lavish later on. for me, the college years were not the beginning of my training but rather the fine-tuning of it. i have been exposed to the values of saving and scrimping since i was a little tyke, thanks in large part to one person: my dad. so for me, taking hotel toiletries from the maid's cart is as normal as brushing my teeth.

friends, teammates, roommates...they could all attest to my frugal ways. depending on how you look at it, i am either down right cheap or ingeniously resourceful when the situation presents itself. i think it was sometime in high school when i rinsed my first plastic straw after enjoying a homemade smoothie. starting my sophomore year in college, i would rip out all the perfume adds from magazines i could get could my hands on. clinique one night and chanel the next. i never once bought a bottle of perfume. i use paper grocery bags to wrap packages and plastic bags to line bathroom and kitchen trash cans. did you know that empty coke cans make excellent depositories for grease? and if you smash an empty cereal box so that it's flat you save that much more space in your disposable bin?

but how did i get this way? let's go back to dad, the master of this game. dad does not like to waste things. not gas, not water, not energy, not toilet paper. and if you really know him, definitely not to-go cups. when he leaves a coffee shop, he will return home with at least a half-cup refill so that a) he has a "free" cup to enjoy later in the day and b) can rinse the cup when he is finished and store it in his paper cup warehouse. oh yes, the paper cup warehouse. i wish i had a picture, but just imagine a whole shelf filled with stacks of cups from starbucks, caribou, peet's, and several other local "breweries". complete with stir sticks, plastic lids, and sugar to boot. oh, the sugar! we tease my dad every time we leave a cafe because there is a 99% chance that he will have stuffed some sugar packets in his pockets for the road home. he also saves every container possible for later use...i couldn't leave an empty plastic container in the pantry one day without discovering that it was now a storage place for coffee grounds or plant life the next. he'll cook dinner for himself and eat right out of the pan so that he saves the water form having to clean another dish. i once caught him leaving the kitchen after having microwaved his tea and noticed that there were a few seconds left on the timer..."dad, why don't you hit 'clear'?" he wanted to save those seconds for the next item that was to be heated.

growing up, i viewed this as strange. obsessive. embarrassing. but now, i see it as being smart, not only for the environment but for my wallet. i proudly bring my brown paper lunch bags and sandwich bags home for round 2 (and 3 and 4). my dad has taught me how to take something that is "used" and make it useful again. why throw something out that can still serve a purpose? we like to cling to things that are new and shiny, getting into a wasteful routine of using things once and then starting all over the next day. i think it's definitely easier to start these practices when you are in a tight financial situation, but it is actually wise to allow yourself to adopt them even when you feel no pending financial burdens. i'm not a tree-hugger, but i'm not a careless consumer either. without my dad's influence i would've never realize the value of saving and come up with signature moves of my own (i'm wearing giorgio armani). times are tough right now, and when i catch myself doing something conservational (or borderline "are you seriously saving/stealing this!?") i smile and think of him.

happy father's day dad :)

sunday funday

i.love.sundays.

i love the feel of the thick bundle that is the sunday paper. i love the feel of a hot beverage in my hands, even if all it is is empty calories (140 to be exact--hold the whip!). i love how a sunday morning feels like the first day of the rest of my life. people around me are earnestly enjoying their last carefree morning before the work week begins, and i think everyone is just more patient and thoughtful in general. i am optimistic i am inspired and i am game for love. if you are a stalky, bald, sheepish man out there, i suggest you stop by the starbucks on manhattan ave. because even your worst pick-up line may just just work on me.

anyhow, the news is rich today--as i say--and i feel like every sunday morning at least one article strikes a chord with me. so i think i will start a new habit of making a point to share them with you. the one i found today is a little obscure...it's titled, "the ultimate test kitchen". straight from left field, you may be thinking...but trust me, it's relatable. the guy who is featured, brad metzger, is a restaurant recruiter in santa monica. he built this incredible kitchen in his own home so that top chefs and prospective employers could come together in a professional yet still casual setting. genius. in a time when management positions are being cut, this guy decides to become the much needed middleman. what i admire about him is how he passed up opportunities that others would kill for because he knew what kind of a person he was and what he was after. he passed up the cornell university school of administration to move back to l.a. and wait tables. he closed his first deal while on the phone in the employee restroom of one of his restaurants. i just love reading these types of stories.

one of the best talks i have ever listened to.

be inspired.

(what i learned about myself after listening to this TED talk was that i still dream big like a child but i don't necessarily think my dreams are still within reach like a child would...maybe you will come up with your own epiphany)

all my single ladies

before heading out to watch the nba finals last night, i asked my roommate, "do you ever hit a certain age where you stop chugging beers before going to a bar to save money?" "probably not" she replied. case closed.

so we left the apartment in search of a drinking establishment downtown that could accommodate both ourselves and two other girls who we were meeting up with. not smart, seeing as it was game 7 in the city of los angeles...and only ten minutes until tip-off. but we managed to finagle a table in a place that was more swanky (18 dollars for a kobe burger) than sporty. i noticed the abundance of collared shirt and v-neck-wearing men as i surveyed the scene.

anyhow, the reason why i'm bringing up last night has nothing to do with the lakers or the celtics or the fact that i could probably brew and bottle coors light myself because it has zero taste. the reason has to do with my tendency to believe that every time i "go out" could be the night i meet my future husband. i don't know if it's just me--a romantic, single woman in her twenties--or the curse befallen onto all romantic, single women in their twenties, but i truly believe that every night out could be the night where i could meet the one. talk about going to bed disappointed! i totally agree with the saying, "you find what you're looking for when you're not looking for it" (just ask my mom or sister about the infamous prom dress shopping of 2005).

but i can't help myself!

and it's not like i even want to meet the one (or my next serious boyfriend) at a party, bar, or club. i see myself being somewhere like...the grocery store, fondling just about every avocado for just the right one. maybe he catches me already doing work on my bag full of grapes as i continue to shop. or maybe he eyes me as i pour myself a hefty sample of chocolate covered almonds from the candy isle. like i really need to try them. i used to try and conceal this behavior of mine, putting on a little show for the camera like, "ooh, what are these? i better try one before i make a purchase." now i just stare defiantly into the camera like, "come on, i dare you to come out and get me!" of course, all this talk is under the assumption that i haven't yet crossed paths with the man of my dreams. whether we are total strangers or not, i know i won't be changing my ways until there is a ring on my finger.

can anyone relate?

pretty powerful stuff

big things happened today.

a frantic mother thought that the blue backpack leaning beside the trashcan was suspitous and in need of the los angeles police department's attention. so she asked us, the ladies working the main table at the farmer's market, to call the police. we were much more concerned with stuffing our faces with kettle corn than attending to the drug-laden or bomb-laden blue backpack--so we dialed the number and let her talk to the police dispatcher herself. we'll all look back on this fine day and remember that it was the day we didn't lose our lives at the farmer's market. but a 7th grader did lose his backpack.

i said big things, plural, right? right.

so the other thing that happened today was me realizing that sometimes two great friends should just be that: friends. and nothing more. i've never gone into detail about my love life on this blog and i don't plan on starting now...but i'm just saying...when your heart and mind are in disagreement, listen to your gut. it can not only digest our food, but also our thoughts. pretty powerful stuff.

challenged

i'm...hired? thank you?

just got off the phone with the hiring manager at that cafe i was telling you about. he had told me last thursday (and again on friday when i called to re-iterate my burning desire to work for him) that he would call on saturday (two days ago). no word. so i held out for sunday. no word. then monday morning rears its ugly head. still nothing. so i decide to be pro-active and follow-up on my own, and what comes of it? i learn that yes, i can go ahead and attend the one hour new employee orientation and yes, i need to come in and fill out the paperwork before doing so. he never offers me the job--as one might expect--but rather casually mentions that i can work there.

seriously, what is up with management in this town?? this guy never called when he said he would...all three managers who interviewed me for that retail job didn't bother to call me back when they said they would...and the first restaurant i applied at never set up a time for an interview. is everyone just living under a different time zone than i am? are everybody's correspondence skills and sense of decency plain horse shit or am i the one with the problem?

at least i have one place in this town where i feel warm and accepted. the coffee bean & tea leaf on manhattan ave. the barista and i know eachother on a first-name basis. he gave me free coffee filters and one of those tiny spoons when i purchased my first pound of grounds. and there is always a seat for me. always. so even though i am broke and could definitely use all the change i can get my hands on for laundry, i dropped those fifty-five cents right in the tip jar. now i'm down four dollars and it isn't even eleven yet. luckily, this thursday marks the start of a new month of living here--which means nothing to you but two hundred dollars for me. you see, each month i receive two hundred dollars ($50/week) from my parents to help cover grocery expenses. and let me tell you, $50 per week couldn't feed a street cat.

okay, i exaggerate. but it's been a long time since i have used coupons. cut them out? yes, that's just plain fun! but actually using them? yah, i'm that girl. i'm also that girl who budgets her food expenses by writing out exactly what she needs in one column and how much that will cost in the other. just covering basic and highly necessary foods (bread, eggs, milk, yogurt, meat, etc.) puts we well at fifty dollars, which means that going out to eat means cutting into my savings, and i can kiss making anything special goodbye. french toast? forget about it...that requires buying a loaf of sourdough. homemade chocolate chip cookies? keep dreaming. that said, if you wish to donate any of the following items:

flour

sugar

baking soda

baking powder

vanilla extract

chocolate chips

wax paper

a coupon for any of the above

please contact me directly.

yours truly,

theboomeranger