January Post, finally.

I have started this three different times and was halfway finished when everything deleted, so I am hell bent on getting this posted today, finally.

My goal of a year without snow is going VERY well.  I have my balcony doors open and am in a tank top because we are in the 70s today and it is sunny, again!  My mom sent me pictures from home which was bittersweet to see.  While I am happy to have no snow, I really wanted to be home to see everyone on Christmas and into the new year. 

This is pretty - to look at.  No more space heater burns for this girl!  I do like the little snow caps though.



Christmas eve and Christmas, I got photo updates from family and friends which made the distance seem a little less. 

Alyssa and Olivia were waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve.  The future Kendall and Kylie sister-duo?  Will is opening one of his first Christmas presents.  I cannot believe how big they are getting!  They represent the age of my traveling.  It's neat to watch them, and my life, as they grow.  

Christmas day, a few traveler friends and I scheduled a morning mimosa catch up on Google+, that's where all the props came from.  It was entertaining and a giggly Googly experience. 

A friend from work asked me to help her decorate the Kaiser (hospital where I work) float for the Rose Bowl Parade (still had my awful camera).  We went on day one and there was A LOT of work to be done.  In the 8 hours we were there, we barely made a dent.  We decorated the see saw in the front of the float (probably 1% of the float).  I had doubts that it would be finished well.  I don't know if anyone out there watched but I was BLOWN AWAY!  It looks fantastic!  It was really neat to see the behind the scenes.  It was almost like a TLC/Discovery marathon of how things are done, except instead of sitting on the couch, my hands contributed (even if it was a small percentage that someone sat on while the float was parading around Pasadena) and I was being fed for free.  There is a lottery where you can enter to volunteer but they have to pick you, so we were lucky to get in.  A neat once in a lifetime experience!  The float won best theme this year.

Yes I took a picture of the TV.  Its blurry but you can see half of the see saw just before the mushroom  ^^

 Then, like every year before, it was my <Oprah voice> BIIIIIIRRTHDAAAAAAAY!

My first birthday dinner was at Bottega Louie, my newest favorite go-to now, thanks John!  I have a new obsession - macaroons (not my thumb, Jessica).  Also, Happy Birthday written in nutella?!  Am I in heaven?!


For my second birthday dinner, I met up with a traveler who used to work with me and we went to Figaro for a birthday drink.  It snowballed into dinner at Little Dom's where she once saw John Hamm eating, but he wasn't there that night, and then we went to see Silver Linings Playbook.  I'd recommend all of the above.

"First came birthday, then came the new year..."  Or something like that.  

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, totally not me.  We were in Hollywood so, of course we got wrapped up in the club scene for NYE.  We bought tickets and went to Drai's to celebrate.  I went with these fabulous ladies (below) who are SPECTACULAR at hailing cabs, especially at a busy time.  Where does one learn these skills?  I can use an app and that's about the extent of my skill. 

 Red hot in the elevator

Drai's is a rooftop club.  The view was pretty good.  The crowd was a little..  crowded.  The bar was almost impossible to get to to find a drink.  It was still fun though, getting dressed up and hanging out by the pool with these girls.  All of the traffic (shown above) was coming in, none was going out. 

One of my favorite pictures of the night - Me and Karli, and that's after a full day of work!

 The beach tried.  It was January 3rd.  Sunny and warm, next to a Christmas tree.  People were biking, playing volleyball and frisbee, walking dogs and running without shirts on!

I am feeling the pressure of not crossing everything off my to-do list in LA now that it is the new year.  Emily and I went to Solstice Canyon to hike one day.  We had to go through a tunnel to get there!  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves but the view when we got up there was amazing!  You could see the ocean in the distance.  Before reaching the top, we passed through the ruins of some houses that were burned down but preserved.  It was a beautiful day.

 

It's January, just saying...

421..  almost 412

that's the ocean out there!

As if those views weren't enough, we rode just above the Pacific Coast Highway (PCH/"the 1").  This is the view I imagined on my first assignment when they said "You're right off of the PCH!"

We grabbed a quick lunch at Moonshadows in Malibu where Britney Spears was when she went bananas and Khloe and Rob Kardashian met for a business related lunch.  There were 0 celebrities there that day. 

 It is tough to see in this picture but there is a pelican on the rock out there in the ocean.  Reminded me of The Little Mermaid, so we were quoting that movie.  Weird how things stick in the memory!  There is also a paddle boarder out there (looks like a small person on the rail).  Again, it is January.



 Then....

Karli (from NYE) and I were going to go to the yoga session on Runyon Canyon.  Unfortunately, there was an accident so she was late and they had started by the time we arrived.  We decided to just hike instead.  There are three different routes, easy, medium, hard.  We chose hard.  It was a good surprise workout! I felt a little like I was back at the Grand Canyon with the height, but the views (and pictures) turned out to be amazing.  Again, they can speak for themselves...

One of my favorites.  I love angles.  And Los Angeles.

 

Look at those snow capped mountains!

  

For as long as I've been here, I don't get tired of the Hollywood sign.  Every morning when I go to work, I still look up on the hill to make sure it's still there.  It's like a visual *pinch* because this is my awesome life!  2012 was seriously the hardest but best year of my life.  Hopefully 2013 has even more to show me.

Funny enough, I was secretly eyeballing everyone while we were there.  I missed it, but Rob Kardashian was there the same time we were.  How did I miss this?!  And also, how did he make it into my blog post TWICE?!



Back to the city now.  Every traveler friendship comes with an expiration date (more often than not).  One of our traveler friends just completed her contract and is heading back east.  We had a girls day to send her off.  First stop, Dry Bar.  I never heard of this before moving here, but why didn't I think of this!?  You don't need a lot of skill, it's just pampering.  They wash and dry your hair and then have a menu of styles.  You can curl it or put it up or whatever you want.  They give you drinks while you are playing with your hair.  I loved this!

There were mirrors everywhere (of course) and each one had a quote from Girls on it.  I love that show! 

 Then we of course did lunch and nails.  The usual.


My friend Amy (Anne Hathway's double in Love and Other Drugs and also the most recent Batman where she was Catwoman and got to wear the real Catwoman suit) was in town.  We were lucky enough to meet up two times while she was here.  We met up at Venice Beach the last night she was around.  I arrived just as the sun was setting.  It was beautiful.  No filters here.

She was with her friend who is dating the son of Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, Jack.  His Hollywood photo is to the left, his regular people photo is to the right - and includes us, heh.  He was really nice.  He looks like his dad.  I just wanted to scream, "I LOVE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION!" but we played it cool.  His parents bought him a condo but he is actually trying to make it on his own and I am not going to screw up his job title or employer because I can't remember it now (see why I have to update immediately!) but good for him.

January has been a good month for running into big deals so far.  My next encounter was with Brody Jenner (son of Bruce Jenner who is married to Kris, mother of the Kardashians).  What do any of these people do other than associate with each other?  Does anyone have a real job?  I don't think so.  Anyway, we were having another girls night out (GNO), making new travelers feel welcome and as we came out of the bathroom, Brody Jenner was sitting near the bar.  We (not me) decided to say hello.  He was also very nice.  My friend expressed her love for him and he replied. "Well I love YOU."  Our conversation was brief but he asked where we were from and what we were doing in LA.  He liked that we were nurses, pig :)  I shooed my friends away and I later snapped a photo.  A girl has got to work it for the blog!  I'm doing it for you!  

real time...

...Celebrity time (on the left, with Lord Disick).  Yes, Brody really is THAT pretty in real life.

 To be able to afford these things, I must work.  Argh!!  At least my lunch break looks like this.

 

Work has been surprisingly tolerable so far this year.  I've let myself become a little closer with the staff which I was hesitant to do because if anyone knows me, you know I hate goodbyes.  One of my patient's husbands went to a bakery nearby and brought me back this sinful box of goodies.  

How nice!  We bonded because I was there for 4 days straight and also because he was also from Pittsburgh.  He moved here in the 40s.  He went to Taylor Allderdice.  It was neat talking to someone about Squirrel Hill and Shadyside.  We talked about Myron Cope and also the sports that he played while he was there.  I tried to google it but didn't have any luck.  He said Myron Cope wrote a story on him, calling him the Flying Frenchman.  He's not French but he accepted it.  He joked that the only thing you should want to be is FROM Pittsburgh (but not currently living there).  It was funny to me...  I have been running into a lot of people associated with Pittsburgh.  My other patient had a friend who lives in Latrobe.  His roommate overheard our discussion and stopped me as I was leaving the room to let me know that he also is from Pittsburgh.  We are everywhere! 

Yesterday I crossed something off all by myself.  I went to the zoo! It's hard to giggle about animals to myself so I took a ton of pictures and videos.  I will say this, the zoo was confusing and awkwardly laid out.  Most of the animals were sleeping or curled up where you could barely see them.  The variety was limited.  The lion exhibit was closed because that one lion they had died.  Lots of the exhibits were closed and there was a lot of construction going on.  I felt like I was at work with the amounts of butts I saw.  Maybe I picked a bad time (the winter, brrrr at 65) to visit.  Maybe once the construction is done and the weather is warmer, things will be better.  Even then, The Pittsburgh Zoo is far superior!  Yinz do a good job with the animals. 

I like your style

Typical guy...

I feel you.  Just outta reach...

!!!!!!!

I don't think I've ever seen one close up.  I love how perfect it is!

::shiver::

Got chills when I finally saw him!

uh, what?

I like your style, little buddy

Can you find a better picture for me?  I don't think so.

I've still been cooking paleo.  Here are a few of my recent dishes: 

Salmon and brussel sprouts with, duh, bacon!

spinach and squash meat quiche, delish. 

So that was really my entire January.  I have been 32 for an entire month and so far, I am pretty pleased with my accomplishments this year.  I have been working out almost everyday, eating well and staying active, thanks to the California sunshine.  I feel pretty good about me, but pretty bad about you.  I miss you!  Come visit me!  I bought traveler friendly patio furniture for my balcony.  Let's catch up.  Kelly and my parents are on the list for next month.  Who else?! 

XO