Speechless

This week's Mama Kat's Writing Assignment that I chose was 1.) Write about a time a friend left you speechless.

It was the first year anniversary of my parents death. Looking back on the day now I can't even remember exactly what I did. It's all a blur to me. For some reason I wasn't with my sister. Thankfully, we now promise to always try to be together on this date but this October 15th, we were not.

All I remember about the day was getting a call from the office of my apartment building letting me know that there was a package waiting for me downstairs in the mail room. I was shocked. I wasn't expecting anything. I quickly went to retrieve it and rushed back up to apartment to open it.

It was a large square heavy box with no return address but my address had been handwritten and I could definitely recognize the handwriting. It was from my friend Tracy. I slowly opened it and could immediately tell that it was some kind of a scrapbook. It had a beautiful butterfly on the cover and if you know me at all, then you'll know that I love butterflies. As I began turning the pages, I realized that not only was it from Tracy but several of my other close girl friends too.


They had all contributed a page or two to this beautiful scrapbook. Each page was full of pictures of my friends and I together, collages of magazine cutouts of things they knew I liked, thoughtful poems and friendship quotes and sweet letters. So many memories of these cherished friendships filled this scrapbook.



Tears formed in my eyes as I scanned the pages and began reading the letters tucked into the clear covers around each page. I was left utterly speechless. No one had ever done something so incredibly kind for me in my life and I didn't know what to say. It had been such a hard day for me and knowing that I would have to endure many more year anniversaries of my parents deaths felt impossible. Just as I was feeling my lowest and most alone in the world, this heartfelt gift arrived and I suddenly didn't feel so alone anymore.

31 Day Photo Challenge-Day 9

31 Day Photo Challenge-Day 9: Post a picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

This was easy. My BFF Tracy has been through so much with me and I'll never be able to thank her enough for everything. I thank the universe everyday for putting us together as roommates Freshman year of college at the University of Arizona. No one truly understands me like quite like her and I feel the same way about her. She is rock and I am sure that she always will be. Love ya girl! XOXO

The Guest List

While I am absolutely no where near getting married, in fact, I think I am several years away from the big day, it's still fun to think about from time to time with my girl friends.

So, my very dear friend Tracy, over at BrooklynNight was visiting me about a month ago and she suggested that we make our inevitable guest lists right now and see who makes the cut. Pretty interesting, right? I thought so anyway.

Here's the thing, try to keep the guest list as short as possible and keep in mind that people have girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and partners. Are they also invited? Is everyone allowed a plus 1? Also, you have to decide whether or not you are inviting children to the wedding. You aren't allowed to check your phone for names that you might have missed either. These have to be people that on your mind right now. I thought that this would be easy enough. I was wrong.

Once I got started listing off people, I think I sort of got carried away. Especially since, I'm not even sure I want a typical large wedding. In fact, most of the time, I only want 10 or so people there MAX! Well, that was not what this particular guest list showed. According to it, I want about 60 people at my wedding! YIKES! The spouses are what really brings that number up-honest! Tracy's list had about 40 people on it which I think is much much more sensible. Good for her.

This exercise really got me thinking about my friends and who I really want at my wedding. What people do I truly want to share one of the most important days of my life. If they aren't on my mind right now, then I think that tells me something. I don't know..perhaps not but it certainly seems logical to me right now. It also got me thinking about whether I want people there because they were my parents friends. I care about these people but where do I draw the line?

What about your guest list? If you haven't gotten married yet, try writing down a list right now. How many are you going to invite? Was this an easy or difficult thing for you to do? If you are married, how did you decide the guest list?!

FYI, the first person on my guest list was my 17month old nephew Lucas. : )

My Chateau Marmont Experience

Last night I had dinner at the renown Chateau Marmont. Built in 1927, it is one of the oldest establishments on the strip. Originally, it was an apartment building but high rents and the Depression kept people away so it was converted into a hotel. Numerous songs have been written in it and several films have been shot there making this hotel quite the historic landmark here in LA. The Chateau is located on the infamous Sunset Strip, up a little slope from it. Thankfully, I've driven past it enough to know exactly where it was.

There was a pretty intense scene just in front of the hotel! There's even a list to valet-you have to have a dinner reservation to even park there! There isn't a ton of parking around it so valeting is really the only logical thing to do. If I was smarter I think that I would have investigated the parking garages around the Strip and seen how far they were from it. Oh well.. next time. I know for sure that I definitely DO NOT want to ever pay $28 for valeting again! UGH!! I about choked when I got my car at the end of the night and the guy told me that! Gotta love my expensive city, right?

Unfortunately, my friends that I was meeting there for dinner were about an hour late and I was 30 minutes early. So how long did I wait? You do the math. Needless to say, several people who worked there asked me if I was ok a few times-kinda embarrassing! At least they were being attentive. This did give me plenty of time to think about future blog posts and of course lots of people watching.

When I googled the Chateau Marmont, a million celeb faces appeared. Apparently, the celebs love this spot. Ok, so you are all probably wondering if I happened to see anyone last night? Well, yes, we saw a few... While I was waiting (ahem!) I believe that I saw Courtney Love wandering around the lobby. I thought so at the time but didn't think she would be alone and so quiet so I put it out of my mind...but then hours later during dinner, I overheard a group of men talking about her as they walked into the restaurant. So, you tell me? : ) Next, at the end of the night as we were getting our cars, in the span of like 10 seconds, we saw Chris Noth aka Mr. Big from Sex and the City and then Michael Lohan, Lindsay Lohan's dad! Crazy, right? So, yeah, it's safe to say that celebs enjoy this hang out. : )

Alright, so I've told you about the celeb sightings and the pricey parking but I haven't even told you about the Chateau Marmont itself.

I found the following quote on the hotel website and I think it sums up the experience pretty well:

"Arriving at Chateau Marmont you surrender yourself to a grandi-loquent environment, an infamous hideaway and the perfect getaway in the center of one of the world's most exciting cities. Modeled after an infamous royal residence in France's Loire Valley, Chateau Marmont is a fantastical folly in the land of make believe. While in residence you become part of a highly discriminating, international clientele desiring an experience at once luxurious and unique. Chateau is the perfect co-conspirator; as Harry Cohn, founder of Columbia Pictures said in 1939, 'If you must get in trouble, do it at the Chateau Marmont.' You can be yourself or, better yet, be whomever you want to be; don't be surprised if your visit brings out your inner Howard Hughes, your Greta Garbo, your Jim Morrison. As public or private as you wish - there are those in residence who are desperate to be seen and others who choose to remain anonymous. The eccentric and highly personal history of the place, its luscious rich past, its tarnished patina are all part of the charm." -A. M Homes

Yes, it's a stylish and yet cozy hotel. Take the dining area for example, I felt like I was in someone's living room rather than a posh hotel.


The food? Well, a good friend who knows I love it recommended the gnoocchi so I had to get that and yes, it was great! I think that everyone else at dinner enjoyed their food too. Despite everything being very good at dinner, the service was pretty awful. I mean, if you are going to spend this much money on a night out, you'd expect the waiters to be super meticulous about your entire experience. This was not the case. If you remember in a previous post, I talked about my dinner at Mastro's Steakhouse and how amazing the dinner and the service were together. It was an expensive dinner but the food and the waiters were incredible. I'm totally willing to pay for a pricey meal here and there if it's deserved.

All in all, it was a lovely night and I am so happy that I got to see my dear friend Tracy who is in town for work with her sweet boss, who also joined us for dinner.

Here we are after the meal at a bar, The Den, which is just across from the Chateau Marmont.


So, have any of you been to the Chateau Marmont?

Tasty Tuesday

One of the many great things about living in a big city like LA is all the exposure you get to cultures of all over the world. I love being able to hop in my car and escape to a whole new country for awhile in one of these somewhat exotic neighborhoods. There's Little Ethiopia, Korea Town, Little Tokyo and so so many others.

Last Sunday my friend Tracy and I decided to take a trip to Little Ethiopia. We both LOVE Ethiopian food so we were in heaven. We headed over to Fairfax to eat at Messob. It has been rated the best Ethiopian restaurant in Little Ethiopia plus one of my roommates recommended it so we had to go there. I was very happy with the food and vowed to return very soon.

I found the following quote and thought it described the area so well. ''There's a block-long section of South Fairfax Avenue that transports passersby to a distant land. In Little Ethiopia, the lively conversations are in Amharic and the pungent smells are from spices uncommon to most American palates. Be ready to pass the injera bread.... "

Something else amazing that I ate this past weekend with Tracy was this delicious carrot and pecan cake. It was seriously the best thing I've tasted in forever!! It was at a nice restaurant next to the Kodak Theater in Hollywood so I don't have the recipe. If anyone has a recipe for carrot and pecan cake, then PLEASE send it my way! Thanks!

Weekend Picture Recap

I had a wonderful weekend here in LA with my close friend from college, Tracy. It went by way too fast and I was incredibly sad to see her leave this afternoon. I cannot wait for the day till we live at least on the same coast! I think that this weekend was a wonderful combination of planned outings and events mixed in with down time and relaxing in my living room. Right, Tracy?! Haha!

Here are a few of the highlights:

We spent a few hours hanging out on the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica before taking her to the airport. We also walked over to the Santa Monica Pier. She had never been over there before plus it's a perfect spot for pictures. We decided that I must go there on a date in the near future! : )


My roommate Swati had a speak-easy themed fund-raiser cocktail party for her work, Zocalo Public Square on Saturday night so we attended that fully dressed the part. It was fun to get all dressed up with Tracy (I made her wear a long blond wig, which she loved) and be at a classy event. The picture in the middle is courtesy of Zocalo Public Square.


Since New York isn't exactly known for it's sunny skies, we spent Saturday laying out at the beach. Sadly, Tracy didn't get to wear her swimsuit at all this summer in NY so she was super excited to wear one here. I cannot tell you how amazing it was just to lay out with her and simply talk. It was great beach weather for us and I am happy to report that I DID NOT GET BURNT! I was all about my 100 SPF sunscreen!!


During the day on Friday, I did my best to give Tracy a tour of Hollywood. I got us a hotel room at the W so we were able to park there and just walk up and down Hollywood Blvd. Of course we had to get a cheesy pic in front of the "Hollywood" sign. This was one of the best views we found. We also took several pictures in front of a few stars with our fave celebs names on them.


Then on Friday night, we met up with a few new and old friends for dinner at Velvet Margarita just a couple blocks from our hotel. It was a lovely night full of great conversation and delicious Mexican food.


On Sunday, my sister drove to LA with Lucas so Tracy could finally him. We spent time at Griffith Park lounging in the grass and enjoying the train museum at Travel Town. Lucas absolutely adores trains so he was in heaven there. It was such a sweet day and I loved getting to spend it with three of my favorite people in the world!

Leah's in LA!

So after reading my sister Tonya's blog, Letters for Lucas for the past 4 months, I have decided to take the plunge and create my very own blog. My two very close friends, Leslie (My NY Plate) and Tracy (Brooklynnight) have inspired me to create this blog too, props to them for helping me create the name for the blog! So I wanted to wait for a big change to start it and just yesterday I moved to LA so here we go! I'm a little nervous about putting my thoughts out there into the world for everyone to read and critique but I know that I've got a lot of people out there who love me and want to hear about my life.

Here are my top 4 reasons for creating a blog:

-Share and stay connected with friends and family

-Document my experiences by keeping an on-going record

-Celebrate this new chapter in my life

-Be part of the "blogging club"

So now that you know why I have started a blog, here's why I moved to LA:

-Be closer to my family in San Diego

-Break into the music business

- Be apart of all that is LA; the good, bad and ugly

Well friends wish me luck with this blog and my new adventure in LA!

"Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles."

-Frank Lloyd Wright