Coincidence?

...I think not!

I walked into my room to see a new netflix sitting on my desk.  I got excited and immediately ripped it open to see which one it was....  Chocolat

I was eating chocolate at the time.

Thundercat Victorious!

Yesterday was a beautiful day.  I awoke to it being sunny and warm; weather perfect for a day spent outside.  I had the idea of sitting in the sun in the backyard to write & read before going to work.  And if it got really warm, I could go swimming.

Nico, however, had a "better" idea, "Let's play frisbee!" His eyes lit up and got way too excited.  Two words came out of my mouth almost immediately, "Um, no."  Frisbee is one of those games that are only fun if you're good at them, like hackey-sack or horse shoes.  I only played frisbee at summer camps when I was young when there was nothing else to do.  It was something to pass the time with...not a hobby.  Nico didn't really understand my "no" answer, so he assigned me to a patch of grass to go stand on.  "Stay there and just catch the frisbee," he instructed.  Oh boy.

The next thing I knew, a yellow frisbee was flying in my direction coming quickly from the opposite side of the yard.  I caught it! Yeahhhhh, maybe I wasn't as bad at this as I thought.  I pitched the frisbee back (gracefully, I might add), and it reached Nico perfectly at chest level.  Nico seemed impressed which only added to my frisbee-throwing confidence.  "Hey, I might actually be kind of good at this now that I've grown up," I  mused.

Nope! Definitely was an overstatement.  The next frisbee that came out of my hands traveled at a 90 degree angle and hit the house, barely missing my dad's office window.  Woops.  I laughed..I was embarrassed.  Nico stared at me like I was a crazy person.  But hey, what's new!?  The next throw was also highly off as I smacked the umbrella pole, sending the entire thing into vibration mode.  Nico then tried to instruct me as to "how to flick you're wrist to get a good aim at your target." I was getting bored.

We switched places on the lawn, so that he was in a more narrow area, bordered by a large flower bed on one side and the pool on the other.  The other side of the yard enabled me to run, jump, and hop after the frisbee if need be.  Why he hadn't originally put me in this spot I have no idea.  Things seemed to be working out better in our new positions.  For all you frisbee throwers out there, I was even able to throw underhand with a quick flick of my right wrist.  Things were going quite well, and I was really enjoying this whole frisbee business.

There were a few instances where I caught myself from diving into insect-infected bushes in vain of catching the frisbee gallantly.  After every catch/failed catch, I would do a 2-second dance move before passing the frisbee quickly back.  And after doing a particularly impressive hip pop, twist, and plie, I threw the frisbee a little to the left of Nico.  Instead of reaching Nico, the frisbee hit the umbrella pole AGAIN, sending it spinning onto the patio table.  Nico, however had not anticipated the abrupt end to the frisbee's flight and was waving his arms to keep his balance as his body neared the pool's edge....Nico in the pool! Nico in the pool!!!! He hopped out as quickly as he had fallen in...fearful that his precious iphone was in his pocket.  Thankfully it wasn't, because that would have been the fourth time he'd fallen in our pool, phone in hand.

MUAHAHAHAHA!  I had gotten Nico to fall into the pool with all of his clothes on!  Thundercat victorious!  I can over there to check out the situation asap..I wasn't going to miss this!

(Side note: Thundercat is my newest nickname that Nico most creatively thought of on our last hike.  I in turn, named him Gay Lighting).

Nico looked a little shaken up at first with his sopping wet clothing and matted hair, but was laughing the entire time.  After he calmed down, he wanted to keep playing freaking frisbee!  Great...what a trooper.  To make a long story short, Nico ended up in the pool again by accident..which slowly but surely ended our frisbee playing.


Frisbee might have been worth it after all...

Food Lesson Du Jour

Interested in a little tea time?

Christmas in June & Hello Summer

In honor of the Summer Solstice, I decided that it was time to celebrate Christmas again.

(NOTE: At this point, I advise you to start playing Christmas carols on your computer to make this experience more enjoyable.)

My family always has a Christmas party with my godparents, Howard & Jane.  For reasons unknown by anyone really, we had not yet found the opportunity to celebrate in the past 6 months.  I had made it the #1 bullet point on my To-Do list that we needed to schedule a time to honor Christmas sometime in June.  The solstice was a perfect excuse to celebrate!

When I got up the morning before the celebration, I yawned, rubbed my eyes and looked out at the perfectly gorgeous day.  What a wonderful day to have Christmas!  For breakfast I had the usual 2.5 bowls of cereal, and proceeded downtown to the Farmer's Market with my mom.  The Saturday's Farmer's Market is always a treat to go to, especially when you're hungry for endless fruit samples and honey sticks.  We quickly ran out of money as we found it necessary to buy every type of berry & flower in sight.  Life was good.

Our Christmas day got better when we stopped by the market to pick up some more food (Hobby #3 for me in life).  My mom asked me to go looking for some agave syrup; however I quickly got distracted by the cheese aisle.  "Hmmmm brie," I mused.  Twenty minutes later I found my mom, with goodies & wine underarm..and no agave syrup.  The wine I had picked up was the Coppola Claret from Napa Valley.  It was a wine I had been hoping to try for months... yes!  I will save more details on this particular wine for "Earthy Sustenance."

The day didn't stop becoming even more wonderful, especially when Hilary showed up at my house with her new car...an extremely shiny black Prius.  Marshy, my white Prius, hopes to soon become good friends with "Black Magic," although it may be a bit of struggle as Mashy is a bit socially dysfunctional.  Hilary and her new car took me down to the beach where we had plans to meet the rest of the crew.

Upon arriving, we were quickly invited to join a game of Bocce Ball.   Nico and I were assigned to the same team, which allowed us to kick some seriously Bocce butt.  Our opponents found themselves overcome by our talent, and it wasn't long before they had gone into the water to swim & surf.  If I may add as a side note, I'm not particularly a fan of the beach or beach water because it is either too cold or too hot.  But on Christmas, the water was just perfect.  The surf wasn't too big to make body surfing a hazard.  I even found the ambition to surf on Nico's new long board.  I hadn't had much surfing practice lately as my first surfboard had been stolen indirectly, and my second stolen directly out of my garage.  It was interesting to surf again...to say the least. 

After almost getting wiped out by a baby tidal wave, I headed back home to ready myself for the Christmas party.  My parents, Nico and I headed over to Jane & Howard's with presents underarm.  Upon arriving, we found their front door covered in Christmas decorations, most importantly a felt banner reading"Happy Christmas!"  Also present (no pun intended) was a massive wreath about 3 feet in diameter, covered in colorful ornaments.  All I could think at the moment was what their neighbors were thinking.

To make an extremely long and delightful evening short for the sake of space here, we had a very happy Christmas.  My parents received a present the size of a Smart Car with 17 bows attached to the top of it.  It was quite entertaining to watch them unwrap it after 7 glasses of wine each and whilst bickering about how they were going to fit such a large box in the car.

Lastly, I must note that we contributed handsomely to the Jane & Howard Cork Collection (J&HCC), which had only been begun the week prior. ;)

Food for thought

So, as you may have noticed many of my thoughts/blogs/ideas revolve around food. I live for food and it lives for me.  My friends realize the minor obsession I have with creating it, thinking about it every 20 seconds, and devouring it.

When I first started this blog, people would ask me what the theme was.
"Hmm, FOOD," was my first thought...
But to be honest, I thought that there were enough food & cooking blogs already out there. My blog wasn't going to have a theme...it didn't need one. Still to this day, it's subjects are as random as the jar of jelly beans on my counter.
It's more eclectic this way.

Getting to the point, I've created another blog. It's all about what really matters..

hethsfoodonearth.blogspot.com

Night at the Museum, Part 1

Last Thursday evening was the first NIGHTS event of the season, where I had the opportunity to go to a little party at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. I must admit, these parties are some of my favorite times of the year.



Art + interesting people + musical performances + arts & crafts + amazing people watching + tasty drinks = THE BEST..... How could it not be?



And after perusing the galleries, utilizing the private bar situation, and munching on gourmet grilled cheese nibbles, Hilary Michelle and I found ourselves in a different gallery of the sort...



Part II, to be continued...

Naps not the solution

Yesterday was the second day in a row that I had woken up for work before the sun was in the sky. Now, I usually am lucky enough that I only have to get up once a week to do this. That alone is difficult for me, so you can imagine what doing it twice can do to my mood/eye size. Bottom line: I'm a complete baby when it comes to getting up at ungodly hours of the day.

So, after I got off of work, I went straight home to take care of the dog that I'm house-sitting for. Lilo was not in the mood to play so I sat down outside on the chaise to rest for a bit. I wanted to try and finish the book that I was reading which I couldn't put down the night before. Coupled with the soft cushion and heat, my head began to feel 40 pounds heavier than it ever should. I trudged, more like pseudo-crab walked, upstairs with my book and decided to try a nap...

(SIDE NOTE: Heather does not take naps.)

Now, the last time that I had attempted to take a nap I had failed. Failed. Not only is it almost impossible for me to relax enough/stop using my brain at high speeds...I frankly just feel awful afterward. The only 2 naps that I've ever taken in my life have been after an all-nighter during finals week in college, and then once when I was a baby. This being said, naps just aren't in my vocabulary. So you can imagine what I must have been feeling when I thought it would be a good idea to attempt one.

I ended up passing out on the room upstairs that has the sun directly streaming in to (at pretty much all hours of the day), making it 85 degrees. It was so hard to keep my eyes open..........It felt like 2 days went by during that nap...but it probably was more likely 45 minutes. When I woke up, I FREAKED. WHATTTTTTTT!!! Not only was this not what I had expected, I felt disgusting/awful/lethargic/grumpy/over-heated. I ran into the bathroom and wanted to throw up. Nico had been there and seemed a little concerned about my reaction to (in his case, the daily activity of) taking a nap.

I barely remember the rest of the afternoon at this point. All the phone calls, texts, and conversations seem a little blurry today. I don't think naps are healthy. Why do people enjoy them so much?? My brain had a very hard time functioning for the next 4 hours..even after I went on a 2.36 mile walk around the neighborhood and drank some coffee. And that's no exaggeration.

Naps=bad news bears for Heather

Heather Habits, ed. 23 v.6

Yes! I'm finally writing again! ..Aaah, I know what you're thinking, "Thank Heavens, I was waiting for a Heather life update all week!" Hah, I wish! This most certainly is not the case, even if it is fun to entertain the idea. What I choose to write about may be (on rare occasions) interesting, but I'm fairly certain that the only 2 people who actually read this blog are simply bored.

Anyway, becoming a real person (person with a job) has been a real challenge for me in some ways. Besides the obvious difficulties of transitioning from a full-time student to a workaholic, I've been struggling to find the balance between maintaining a social lifestyle and tackling work head-on. In order to do this, I need to practice some healthy habits. Yoga? Gardening? Brick-laying? This being said, I should mention that I'm still in the actual process of forming these habits..

One activity that I've gotten increasingly more excited about is writing! I used to keep a journal everyday until almost a year ago when I became bored with it. Writing had always been an avenue to unwind at the end of the day; however it had turned into a mandatory activity for school. My schoolwork encompassed writing multiple papers a quarter. I would have to follow a strict formula that included a thesis and paragraphs filled with facts to prove my argument. In essence, my writing was only an argument for a grade. I began to not like writing because of this. It was a frustrating time.

Today, writing is becoming a great way to spend my time. Whether my subject of choice is leprechauns or personal aspirations for 2010..creativity is always involved. Hundreds of thoughts go through our heads every day. It is so refreshing to point some of those out and discuss! I can think of so many topics to write about just this moment, but will spare you my crazy thoughts for today...and perhaps bring them up tomorrow.

Another habit which is definitely necessary is the act of challenging ourselves! I'm not talking about stressing yourself out to the point of consuming a pound of sugar, getting 4 hours of sleep, or neglecting yourself from having some fun. I'm thinking more along the lines of doing something that scares you. For example, yesterday I had a long chat with a good friend of mine who was on the brink of calling a boy she likes. There were obvious reasons not to do it, pride being the most important. Yet, I gave her the advice to call because it was the choice she would less likely make. "Who knows what could happen!?"


Today at work, I decided to do something that scared me rather unexpectedly. I discovered that one of the tables that I was serving had a number of Italians sitting at it. Instead of shyly mentioning that I love everything Italian and that I've been to Italy many times (blah blah), I attempted to take the next step. I spoke to them in their native tongue. I felt like such an idiot at first...and honestly throughout most of the entire time (1o seconds). They laughed and smiled and tried to make me feel good about my feeble attempts. However, when I walked away I was actually smiling too. I was damn proud of the efforts I had just put in. Point being, it is a good thing to take a chance and do something you feel uncomfortable doing. This is how we all grow. Bitch-slap that feeling in the face, and become a better person in the process (ironic, maybe?)

P.S. I just had to include a pic of Italy..how could I not?

The Newest Element

On Tuesday after work, I took a little bike tour through the city streets of Santa Barbara on my way to the Farmer's Market. Whilst walking through the fresh produce and colorful sunflowers, I had a strange urge to walk over to the little camera store that I knew was close by. Lately, I have been toying with the idea of buying a new camera.

A hop, skip and a jump later, I found myself peering over the glass counters at the camera store. SO MANY pretty ones to choose from!!! Nikon or Canon..Aaah, not to mention a lifetime's worth of savings to purchase one of these little guys! Hmmm. Well, I decided to give it some consideration on my bike ride home. I realized that if I bought the camera the next day, or a year from now..I was still going to buy one. I was too excited. I had to get one. It had to be tomorrow.

When I woke up on the next morning, I pleaded with my dad to come to the camera shop with me. Bobby, after all, was always a great photographer and recognized a good camera when he saw one. If I was going to buy a camera, he had to be there to approve.

The next thing I knew, I had made the final decision to buy a new Canon. It was a very scary decision because I knew that I'm going to have it for the rest of my life. This little guy is going to be my best friend in so many ways. He (still haven't found a suitable name) and I will hopefully see many great parts of the world together.

Anyhoo, you may guess what my first subject was with the camera...any??








Yes, that's right. PIXIE

Seasonal Fittings

Speaking of seasons, I just got off the phone with someone who is living in a completely different one! Cristina just moved down to Melbourne, Australia where it is the beginning of WINTER! She says that it's absolutely "Freezing!"

Hmmm, well up in the Northern Hemisphere, things have began to warm up considerably (minus today, which was dreadfully gloomy). In the spirit of hot temperatures, I have sorted through more than half my clothes. They are now sitting in a pile outside of my room waiting to be given away asap!!

I have to admit that my closet is now 1/3 less full of the things that I've come to collect, namely clothes and shoes...God-forbid.

Any takers? Come and get them!!!!