Extra Curricular Activities

Besides spending most of my weekends up until last weekend looking at apartments I have had a chance to do some fun things since my move out here in February. I am so thrilled I have two very, very good girlfriends close by. I have had awesome times with both of them - T & I and that has been a big help in keeping me from having any major homesickness or being too lonely.

The first week I was here I mentioned in one of my early, if not my first posts that I went down to T's house and we went out for dinner and I stayed over and then on Sunday we met I, C & V for lunch at Neptune Ned's (did I get the name right yet??) in Malibu. As an aside T & C (her husband) have the most awesome-est bath towels. They are so luxurious, it's like staying at a hotel when you are a guest at their house, love it!

The weekend of February 28th I went up to T's Aunt's house in the Santa Ynez Valley( T was house sitting for a few days) and we had a lovely, leisurely lunch at Los Olivos Cafe, watched a bit of the Men's USA vs. Canada Olympic finals hockey game, wine tasted at a shop in town, visited a few shops, wine tasted at a winery. The Santa Barbara County Wine country is where the movie 'Sideways' was set. I love that movie and since that movie was released the area has really experienced quite an influx of visitors and growth. As everyone can guess this has it's good and bad fallout. Unfortunately, our first tasting at a very chic LOOKING wine shop in town with a pairing of a cupcake flight was dissapointing to put it mildly. T was really upset by the experience and commented about it on yelp.com (a website I had never heard of until then) and in all the years I've known her, and it's been just a couple, this would count as probably the most offended and ticked off I've seen her. But, the tasting we did at the Rusack winery was quite relaxing and enjoyable. It was a beautiful day, the drive from Santa Barbara to Santa Ynez Valley was pretty and about 40 minutes, not too shabby. I appreciated T showing me around and indulging me in my 'Sideways' moment.

The following weekend, March 7th was the Academy Awards, what I consider my Super Bowl. I. came up from L.A. and we watched the show together. In all honesty the anticipation, trying to cram in as many best picture, actor, actress nom. movies, preparing food and drinks and having I. over was way more fun then the actual show. And watching the 'red carpet' is not as fun as it used to be when stars dressed themselves and wore hilariously awful ensembles. Gone are the days of Cher, Kim Basinger with her one sleeved dress, Demi Moore in her biker shorts and cut away floor grazing skirt... I miss those days. It's hard to pick on someone wearing a $7,000 dress, $1.5 million in diamonds and $800 shoes, but that doesn't stop me. Nor does it stop me from calling NY-T to discuss winners, dresses, and movies. For the Oscar viewing we nibbled and imbibed the following:
Piper Sonoma Sparkling Brut - my fave CA champagne and it's WAY cheaper out here than on the East coast.
salame, prosciutto, asiago
mushroom bruschetta
artichoke hearts
roast chicken
roasted asparagus
crudite - celery, snap peas, carrots, grape tomatoes
1000 crackers (from Trader Joe's, these are sooooo tasty and $1.99 a box)
guacamole
dark chocolate
lemon wafers
sparkling water
red wine
I've attached a photo of our spread (before we attacked).
Needless to say we were stuffed and due to all the eating and drinking didn't sleep too well.

March 14th I decided to treat myself to brunch. I first went to a Pilates class at the gym. Never have taken a Pilates class before. I really enjoyed it and am going back tomorrow, and it was a workout, major spaghetti legs afterwards. Well, I decided a workout like that deserved crepes. I had read an article in a local magazine about crepes and I was just salivating from the article. It mentioned a place in SB so I went, took my Vogue magazine that my Mom spent more money than it costs for the magazine to mail to me and sat outside and ordered coffee and a ham and cheese crepe. The coffee was terrible, terrible. In a french restaurant coffee should not be an issue. The crepe was fine, but it was missing love, no love went into the making of it. Then to give them one more chance I ordered an espresso and a dessert crepe, lemon squeeze. A crepe with powdered sugar dusted on it and fresh lemon juice squeezed over it. Ugh! Seeds, seeds from the lemon on my crepe! And the espresso, came in a very cool little cup, but no demitasse spoon and it had some grinds in the bottom of it. No love. My silly crepes I attempted on Christmas morning had more going for them.... just ask my parents. I've attached a photo I took of the dessert crepe menu. I had to take a photo since they had a crepe named after my youngest sister, how crazy is that???

On St. Pat's Day I had an East Coast visitor. M. was in SoCal for business for a few days and made the drive up from Calabasas (outside of LA) to get together for dinner. It was great to catch up and go out to eat. I was a bit concerned it may be a little crazy on St. Pat's, but after spending many a St. Patrick's Day in NYC watching people throwing up at 10am on 5th Ave, it was as if the holiday did not get acknowledged here. I was proudly sporting my green and realized that for the first time I was wearing my green tee-shirt without a long sleeve shirt underneath it. Kinda cool!

On March 26th I took part in a volunteer event at work. It was about a 2 hour get down and dirty picking up trash, actually hauling out homeless shanty towns, along the Venture Creek bed. BTW - creek does not mean water, something I'm getting used to. Dusty, dusty, dusty and quite smelly at times. Deckers is very involved with the community and they partnered up with 2 other local companies in the area to help out in the clean up. I can't complain about how easy they make it to participate. It's during work hours, you get paid, they give you lunch, transportation, some 'swag', an after party with tasty beer - New Belgium Brewing, Ranger IPA, dinner, music, raffle for free shoes. I would be lying if I said I enjoyed cleaning up homeless people's shit, but it's good to step out of your comfort zone sometimes and I'm glad I took part and met some other people I work with and people from other companies.

Last weekend, March 20th I headed down to LA to go see 'Alice in Wonderland' in 3-D Imax with I, C, & V. I liked the movie and am glad I saw it in 3-D Imax, but I wouldn't rank it in the top 5 fave Tim Burton movies. I don't know, maybe it was the 3-D that detracted for me, or I'm just not into such high fantasy films right now, or that it costs $20 to see it... Did LOVE Alice's dresses though and would like to read the books. I stayed over at I.'s and the next day we had brunch at C & V's. It was AMAZING!!! I think the great company had a lot to do with it. In all honesty I prefer to eat at home than out, it's more relaxing and the details are usually way better (i.e silverware, glasses, linens, chairs, lighting...) We had an extremely tasty egg scrambled whipped up by C - mushrooms, bacon, onions, cheddar cheese - 4 of the greatest food items ever. And the croissants, I have never, ever (maybe in France) had a croissant like this one. I've been drooling about it since then and today to just rub salt in a wound had a disgusting croissant, that was microwaved (not by me)!!! And of course we had mimosas with our brunch.
Oh and as a perk for staying at I's I left with a huge bag of clothes, most of them still with tags on them and some (the best of them) designed by I. herself. It's like I got a whole new wardrobe just for driving to LA!

This past week M was in town again and we got take-out and chilled out. He also fixed my laptop which most of you know has been dragging me down for sometime. I was accussing Tom's spirit of making it act crazy and was sure once I moved to SB it would behave, no such luck. Now, it's working like a charm. Thanks M!

I've been to the Santa Barbara Farmer's Market every Saturday since I found out about it. Love it!! There is one vendor that seems to only be there every other week. He has insanely tasty tomatoes and cucumbers. How often do you get excited about eating a cucumber, well this vendor's cucumbers are exciting! Last week he was at the Market and it was like feeding time in a shark tank, it was dangerous trying to go in close to grab yourself some cuces and tomatoes. And SB is such a small town that I always see someone from work there, it's kind of funny. I bought a fruit I don't think I have ever seen before a few weeks ago, Cherimoya. It's sweet and pulpy, big dark seeds in it that were a bit off putting to me the first time I ate it. I've bought more of them and like them as an add in to my fresh sliced strawberries each morning. I've attached a photo (I think) of it sliced open. Pale flesh with big dark seeds. Someone at the market described it as a tropical pear, for taste reference. Not a bad description. My West Coast friends and family chime in with some more info on this fruit.
For those of you who buy strawberries and watch them melt and mildew in a blink of the eye I have seen a whole new world of strawberries and I like it. Buying extremely fresh produce is amazing. It doesn't go bad instantly. I can keep strawberries, organic berries, in the fridge in the pint container, in a bag for a week and not have problems. I have thrown out a total of 2 berries since I've been here and I've been buying between 1 - 3 pints a week. The 2 berries I threw out were about 1 1/2 weeks old, sitting in the fridge in a bag. It's a whole new world of produce.

So, that's a bit of what I've been up to. Just a few more days before I move into 'my' new cottage...

Well, that's annoying

Last weekend I spent about a 30 - 45 minutes writing a new post about my living situation and it didn't upload. Bummer!
So, the super abbreviated version of last week's floating in the atmosphere blog is.....
I signed a lease for the 'dream cottage' downtown. I had seen this 2 bedroom Craftsman cottage the 1st or 2nd week I was here and I kept an eye on it the entire time I was looking at what felt like millions of other places. I met with the owners again 2 weeks ago, then filled out the application and received an offer from them. When I re-met with the owners I told them I could not afford what they were asking. They advised me to fill out the application then we would negotiate. In the end I was able to negotiate a price $295 below their original asking price (yeah!), but agreed to a 2 year lease. I know 2 years is a long time, but I know I am not like others I know that like to move every year or so. I haven't moved much over the years.
I am moving in next Wednesday, taking the day off of work and I am so thrilled to have a space to call my 'own' and to have my belongings and set up a kick-ass kitchen and have access to all my clothes, dishes, stuff!
The most shocking part of signing the lease was the total number of what my rent payments add up to for 2 years. I could buy a very, very nice car, or put a very decent downpayment on a house (only if I had that money all at once). I am definitely not adjusted to the sticker shock of prices from A-town to here. I even noticed that hydrogen peroxide and witch hazel are way more expensive here than in PA. What's that about??

Next Stop China

Two weeks ago it was confirmed that I would be going to China with my new job. This will be my first time to China and it's exciting and a little nerve wracking at the same time. I leave April 10th and will be there for 8 days. One night in Hong Kong, which should be super cool if I'm not completely incoherent from jet lag, then most likely 5 days at our China office which I'm not exactly sure where that is, then the weekend in Beijing. So, it's about a month away and I need a passport. I knew I had to renew it because it has my name as Jean McElroy, and then I found out that if you travel to China, part of the requirements to get a Visa to go there for business is that your passport is valid for a full 1 year PAST your return date! I don't understand why that is except a way for the government to make more money. My passport is up in July so I need to renew it anyway. I had a lot of back and forth with Allentown about sending me a certified copy of my marriage certificate (for proof of name change). I brought so many pieces of 'important' paperwork with me, but not my marriage certificate, it is in storage in Oxnard, CA. To get a copy of the marriage certificate I needed to send a letter stating what I needed with a $10.00 money order along with a self adressed stamped return envelope. Since, I need this for work I'm doing it all through work and sent the letter, money order, and return paid envelope via UPS overnight 2 Tuesday's ago. I did not get the certificate until this past Thursday. There were a few days this week where I thought it was lost. Fortunately, all worked out and all my paperwork is in the hands of a Passport expediter service. I should have both a new passport and visa to do business in China by the end of the month.

We are supposed to arrive in China and review first samples of our Fall 2011 handbag line. As of right now we don't have a confirmed factory and we have not sent all the designs over to our office. Should be an interesting first trip. I am finally busy at work doing the paperwork to get the designs off to China. It's good to be busy again.

In the meantime I've been looking at what feels like tons of apartments these past few weeks. There is a definite glut of rentals in the market here. I have seen many places I've viewed still on Craigslist weeks later with lowered rent. Today I met with the owners of the dream cottage I saw the second week I was here. I got paid last week and realized there was no way I could afford the dream cottage at the price they are asking. They are willing to negotiate so I think there is a chance it may work out. It would be so awesome to be able to live in a cottage in SB.
In the meantime I'm looking at a few more places tomorrow, one of which from the outside looks really beautiful and it's about 2 blocks from the beach....