She Likes Purple

Globetrotting

September is trying to make me forget I have a blog! I'm traveling a lot this month (six flights by month's end) and even though the last thing you need is some idiot complaining about all the flights she gets to read her Kindle on, traveling this much can be exhausting. I was eating dinner by myself in the JFK airport the other night and a guy pushed over a glass case of drinks. I'm not sure why he did this, and I'm not sure why because I couldn't be bothered to ask or get up or even look in the general direction of the chaos. When my waitress told me about it, I was just like, "Well, we all have bad days, you know?"

Traveling solo can also be kind of lonely. I was a little desperate for adult conversation at one point and invited a stranger I met on the elevator to dinner with me. I knew this was a mistake the second I said the words because she started awkwardly inching toward the door and trying to come up with a reason she couldn't. "I may meet you there! If I'm feeling up for it! Where is the restaurant, exactly?" Yeah, she was asking so she could walk in the total opposite direction to her own (not filled with crazy people) meal. (Kristie is somewhere laughing because it is just like me to freak out a stranger by inviting her to dinner.)

I called Mike to lament my lameness and he said, "Shake it off! You should go out and do all those Sex and the City things!" Apparently, Mike thought I was visiting New York in 2001. (Love him for it, though.)

Still, the marketing conference I was at in NYC was awesome, filled with great information and inspiring speakers, and I got to do this, a silver lining any day, if you ask me:

I have another quick trip this weekend and then I'm back for all of October. Where I might actually cook a meal in my own kitchen or sweep the floors or convince Kyle his mother hasn't moved to the airport.

(In reality, I'm going to dive right into party prep since Mike's big 35th birthday party is next weekend! It will not have a travel theme.)

What have you been up to?

Best Eats in Southern California

I think I said I'd round-up where we ate in California, when we were vacationing there a couple weeks ago. Whether or not you care about restaurants you may never try yourself, I'll still throw this post up. If only to live vicariously through my three-weeks-ago former self.

When we got off the plane, it was only 8am, but we'd been up for something like five hours already, so we were ready to EAT. We flew into LAX, even though we were staying in Orange County, so we decided to go in the completely opposite direction (it was 8am! we had all the time in the world!) and head to Hollywood for breakfast.

We ate at Joan's on Third. I had a delicious omelet (though you can ONLY get three things in your omelets there, no budging, which made me pout) and the rest of the table had pancakes, which I sampled (yum!). I also had the strongest cup of coffee of my life because, again, UP FOR FIVE HOURS AT 8AM.

We dined outside! Because California sure knows how to do weather even if it really doesn't know how to do inexpensive anything.

Hours and hours later, I headed down to Laguna (dragging Natalie along with me) to visit with some of my favorite bloggers. Rebecca suggested Nick's, and we had this lovely table right by the street, with a breeze coming in. I had already eaten a big meal, so I got the fried deviled eggs (they were....interesting) and a delicious farmer's market cocktail. It was filled with fresh berries and was just so refreshing. A few ladies got burgers that looked mouth-watering.

The next morning, we found Off the Vine, a breakfast place that was Zagat-rated. It was off the beaten path (a little bit) but INCREDIBLE. I still can't believe I didn't give in and get the peanut butter and chocolate French toast! Intsead, I opted for a mimosa (yay vacation!) and the chili verde quiche. It was TO DIE FOR. So good! I'd go back in a heartbeat, if I could.

I would like a mimosa right noooooow.

After some time at the beach later that afternoon, we were driving along the PCH and decided to stop for dinner somewhere nearby. I turned to Mike and said, "What do you feel like?" He answered with pizza, so I grabbed my phone, typed pizza into Google Maps and we were two minutes away from a pizza joint. We risked it and stopped into Gina's Pizza. It was good! (I love love love it when that happens.)

The next morning, we planned a beach day, so we met up with friends at Mutt Lynch's for brunch. We left so full, I could have napped right on the beach. It was insanely crowded, but on a non-Labor Day day, I'd recommend stopping here before your own day at the beach.

Disneyland was the next day and after a full day of searching for Mickey and riding rides and eating mouse-earred ice cream, we just wanted a good, sit-down meal. So we sought out a place Mike really wanted to go to (even though we were exhausted and it was 20 or so minutes away) and I'm SO GLAD WE DID. We went to Slater's 50/50 (here's the review I wrote on Food Lush) and it was FANTASTIC. Best burger ever! We had such a nice final night in California, toasted glasses, grubbed on food (all while Kyle snoozed on the bench, zonked from his day at Disney), and just relaxed a little after such an exhausting day. This place might be our first stop if we ever return.

I felt like we had non-stop restaurant winners on our trip. Good job, California!

Sweet California

The first mistake I made when it came to our recent trip to Southern California--a trip to spend time with friends and to take Kyle to Disneyland--was to tell Kyle we were taking him to Disneyland. I have absolutely no idea WHY I did this except sometimes I make poor choices.

This was made all the worse by the fact that we arrived on Saturday morning and our day at Disneyland was Tuesday. Kyle absolutely broke the record for the number of times a three year old has asked, "Are we going to Disneyland now?" in a three-day time-span. Thankfully we had the beach, a beach house with a pool, friends and their adorable kids, pizza, ice cream, and a bunch of other consolation prizes. Still, learn from my mistake, friends! Surprise your kids with Disneyland news the morning of. Or as you are walking through the turnstile into the park. That's an even better idea.

Anyway, so California! We got to vacation there! It certainly redefines sunny, doesn't it? It's sunny the way sunny was intended to be. Not sunny that makes you want to stab things (that would be sunny in Texas) but sunny with an ocean breeze, sunny with just a slight chill at night, sunny without any stupid mosquitoes, sunny with a view. Mike has never had much interest in California, in general. Until he met me, he had no interest in ever visiting, but I slowly changed his mind (so much so that we got married at Lake Tahoe, totally his idea) and now I think he's fully in love. A few days with 80-degree temps and beachy views, and he started saying, "Yeah, we should find a way to get rich and buy a vacation home here." (I'll get right on that! My plan: either lottery rigging or straight-up bank robbing.)

California was good, very good, and my only complaint is that California isn't where I am right this moment.

Let's get to the pictures, shall we?

He hated the water, every drop of it.

Closed-eyed pre-schoolers, ruining family memories since forever.

Just a few people at the beach in California, on Labor Day.

Not bad.

He said, "What is that big blue pool?" Poor Texan.

You are shocked I enjoyed some champagne on vacation, aren't you?

It's always disappointing when you order a "large mimosa" and are brought something like this.

 

Oh, hey! I got to hang out with (and drink delicious drinks with) some S. California bloggers, all ladies I really really love and get to see in November at the Blathering. (Woo!)

I was a little worried Kyle would be timid with the Disney characters. He's just sort of a timid little dude in new situations. (He gets that from both parents, actually.) But he LOVED the characters and he wanted to see them all. (Pluto eluded us until the parade.)

Kyle's first rollercoaster! He loved it. That kid continues to surprise me.

MICKEY! You really can't tell--Kyle looks like he's always hanging out with Mickey, no bigs--but his mind was blown. Mickey was his top choice and when we walked into the room to see him, I could feel his excitment.

All the boys on the trip.

Kyle and his Nana.

Friends' kids holding hands. I KNOW, RIGHT?

I hope Kyle remembers the trip as I hope he remembers all his trips--an extra bright spot in an already bright life. That's exactly what they mean to me.

We miss you already, California.

(All the delicious food we ate coming next week!)

Book Review: Gone Girl

Every now and then my Twitter feed erupts with talk of One Big Thing: a book, a movie, a TV show, a speech, an event, etc., etc. Sometimes it's the awesomeness of Bill Clinton, the insanity of the Grey's Anatomy finale, and--most recently--it was about the book Gone Girl. I easily had a dozen books in my to-read queue, and I abandoned them all to read this book. I had to see what everyone was talking about.

I read it quickly, in just a couple days. About half-way through--when a big twist is revealed--I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to keep reading in one sitting until I finished but pesky things like life and parenting called for my attention. (So demanding! Those things.)

So, that proves it's a quick, engaging, novel, and I'll also say it's incredibly written. I highlighted phrase after phrase just because the writing was too good not to look back on one day. (Example: "But there's no app for a bourbon buzz on a warm day in a cool, dark bar. The world will always want a drink.") I think you'll enjoy the process of reading this book a lot, regardless how you feel about in the end.

Speaking of that.... (here's where I warn you spoilers are ahead--about this book AND In the Woods; turn back now if you don't want to find out details) ... when all was said and done, I just didn't like it as much as I hoped I would.

One, it left me with about a million questions, some of which I'll include below so you can help me with answers in the comments. I don't always hate loose ends. In fact, I love a vague, fill-in-your-own-blanks ending that does not answer every single question a reader might have. What I hate is when all those loose ends are ignored in order to give a particular ending.

The two main characters are pretty universally hated, as far as I can tell, and while Amy (oh Amy) was deservedly vilified, I didn't get the Nick hate. He was awful in the first section--the section that was based on LIES--but once those lies were revealed, I was like, "Huh. I might have cheated on her too."

So, anyway, read it. You'll probably enjoy it and you'll likely even love it (so many people do) and then maybe you can help me answer these questions:

- This "Cool Girl" Amy became when she first met Nick was too exhausting or frustrating and she said she turned off that girl about two years into the marriage (right?) and became more like her real self, alienating Nick, manipulating him, etc. He doesn't cheat on her until they've been together about 3.5 years, though, so no one else noticed her personality shift in the year and a half between the end of the good and the beginning of the affair? She was same ole awesome Amy for her parents? Friends? And she only changed for Nick? To him, she had become cold and horrible--this is why he cheated--but did she only make those changes behind closed doors?

- I'm assuming the part about giving her parents all her money was true but this struck me as something Amy wouldn't have done so easily. Maybe money didn't really matter to her, but I just couldn't imagine she would so willingly give the money without adding her parents to the list of those to get revenge against. She had such disdain for her parents, this part just made me pause. She had years before her disappearance to make her parents pay for that sacrifice, so what happened?

- I had a hard time believing they couldn't poke holes in her story of the day she was kidnapped. No one could account for Desi that entire day? His mother was emotional and irrational but that rich woman didn't have a lawyer? A lawyer who couldn't find a single hole in her story from some point of that day? Not to mention the other weeks he didn't have her when she said he did. It just felt like SOMEONE could have easily proved that story suspicious.

(This reminded me of In the Woods, another book about a crazy sociopath who basically gets away with murder. She gets away on A TECHNICALITY, something so believable and shocking and upsetting that it just made the book THAT MUCH BETTER, for me. At the end, the holes in her story were slowly revealed and everyone started catching on, but they still couldn't pin the crime on her. I actually loved that ending. It felt so unfairly realistic. Whereas Gone Girl ended with everyone just accepting her story and moving on. It just felt like the entire police station scene was glossed over and rushed through to get to the end.

- SPEAKING OF THE END, so she went back to the clinic and got Nick's sperm after they received the letter, but then what? How did she get pregnant? On her own, after a thorough Google search? (Gross.) Did she go back to the clinic with it and just walk in with a sample? If it was left at the clinic, do doctors just impregnate women months later (after they are NATIONAL NEWS STORIES) without the consent of the sperm donor, even if that donor is her husband? I just had some actual medical/legal-type questions about this. (Not that one or all of these scenarios aren't possible but I was just like, oh! She stole his sperm and is now pregnant without explanation of how she pulled that off, okaaaay.)

- I also had a hard time believing that changing her hair, gaining some weight, and getting tan would make Amy entirely unrecognizable at the cabins (or the putt-putt course or the casino)? She was a national news story. Maybe Greta and Jeff DID notice but wanted her money more but that whole arc was confusing to me.

- This is simply because I haven't gone back to re-read the first section, but it was referenced (a few times, I think) that Nick bashed in Amy's head or he had images of her on her hands and knees with her head bashed in and I think this was just his imagination? Maybe? (I loved the foreshadowing at the time but then it turned out not to be foreshadowing. She was alive and well and never had a bashed-in head.) At the time she disappeared, he didn't hate her, right, he just didn't love her. I guess I just didn't understand why these thoughts were dropped in the story--they clearly weren't true and I don't even find them believable as part of his imagination.

Phew! That's a lot of questions about one book and I feel like there's even more I'm forgetting to ask. Anyway, let me know if you can shed any light on some of these, if you loved the book (and why), or if you're on my side of things and didn't love it in the end.

September Menu + Workouts!

So, hey! It's September 10th. This is what happens when you take a relaxing, sun-soaked vacation. TIME COMPLETELY FLIES BY. Anyway, I fell out of my work-out routine with gearing up for vacation, being on vacation (check out the very best burger in all the world I ate while in California, for starters), and then returning from vacation, but I'm back at it now.

The recipes I included this month, in case you'd like to make them or pin them are: Cheesy Broccoli Orzo, Vegetarian Taco Salad, Roasted Corn + Tomato Soup, Skinny Mozzarella Sticks, Mexican Inspired Grilled Cheese (I'm going to try to create this recipe myself. LIKE A REAL ADULT OMG), 5-ingredient Coconut Curry, Quinoa Black Bean Burrito Bowls, Healthier Fettuccine Alfredo, Spicy Black Bean Tostados, Stuffed Grilled Peppers (making this one up too).

As you can likely tell, September is a wee bit nuts for me, especially that third week when I'm on both a work trip and a semi-work trip (blogging-related trip) so cooking is a little light and working out might be a little tough. 

Wish me much luck through it!

California Sneak Peek

We're back from California!

We miss it like crazy.

Can you really blame us? It was 104 in Texas today and there were no beaches, mimosas, or Disney characters anywhere around to soften the blow.

(More photos and "I miss vacation" sentiments to come.)