My First LA Dinner Party

"One cannot have too large a party." -Jane Austen

Last night my two roommates and I threw a little dinner party at our house. There were 7 guests. When I moved in, I brought a large nice dining room table and matching chairs so it was fun to finally put all of that to good use.

I wanted it to be simple so I just made tacos. We had a ton of veggies, ground turkey, falafel for the vegetarians, black beans, lentil soup and my roommate Gina's amazing guacamole. There was plenty of wine, soft music in the background and mood lighting provided by candles.

If you weren't at this dinner party, you'll be at the next one as the girls and I plan to do this much more often so stay tuned. : )

The funniest thing happened before any of the guests even arrived...

So I was cutting up a few jalapeno peppers (some people like to experience pain during dinner), I threw them into bowl and then went to itch my nose-BIG MISTAKE! Within seconds, my nose felt like it was on fire! I've never felt this kind of stinging pain before ever. I tried to ignore it for awhile, as I had a dinner to get ready and didn't have time to worry about my 'hot' nose! But it kept getting worse... my roommates quickly started offering me advice and then resorted to checking Google. The first thing that popped up that sounded reasonable enough was to dunk my nose into a bowl of milk which is exactly what I did. Of course, this moment just had to be captured on camera. It totally worked so if you ever find yourself in a similar situation then I highly suggest doing this.

TV!

Brace yourself for what I'm about to tell you. Ready?
Ok, I don't have cable, satellite or even basic local channels at home. When I moved to LA, my new roommates didn't have it set up at our house so at the time it felt like a lot of hassle to get Directv or something else hooked up so I just didn't bother.

It's now been 10 months since I moved here and I honestly don't really miss it. I learn about what's going on in the news and I catch up with celeb gossip all online. Most major networks have their own websites so I technically never have to miss anything. Sure, I'm now SO behind all on my favorite shoes since I have to watch them all online. I haven't had the time to do that in awhile. In fact, I haven't seen one episode of this season's "Grey's Anatomy". I can say for sure that I don't miss all those awful and annoying commercials. I also can say that I'm thrilled to not be bombarded with all those terrible reality shows that are on TV now. "Jersey Shore" is definitely not for me!

Of course we do have a great big TV in our living room. I get Netflix movies every week so I watch those, other movies and lots of other TV shows on DVD. However, when I'm around a TV at a friend's or at my sister's home, I definitely do sit down and enjoy whatever happens to be on at the time. I guess you could say, I have a deeper appreciation for watching 'live' television now.

All in all, I really don't feel like I'm missing out on anything. What about you? Could go without all those channels?

Update on the filming...

Yep, there is officially some serious filming going on in front of my house and they will be here for another week and a half! At first, I thought, hey, that's kinda cool, my street and neighborhood will be in a movie, but now it's starting to get annoying.

For starters, the crew isn't nice at all and they don't even smile when we walk past them! Geesh! They are infringing on our home not the other way around! Secondly, their trailers and cars take up the entire space right in front of our house so parking has been pretty annoying and a bit difficult to find. Lastly, they begin working bright and early at about 6AM every morning and don't stop till 8ish at night. Next week, they are going to start working at 3AM! UGH! Yes, they did have the courtesy to put a note on our gate last week to let us know their schedule.

I'm not sure if I should tell you what the movie is called that they are filming but I will tell you that one pretty famous actor is in it. Perhaps, we'll catch him right outside our front door one of these days. Don't worry, I'll be sure to blog all about it.

Home Alone

This weekend for the first time since I moved in, I have the house to myself. My roommates are both headed out of town, one to Redlands, CA and the other to Joshua Tree, CA. Yet, I'm excited that I have a pretty jam packed weekend planned. Tonight I'll be home alone and just plan on perhaps opening a bottle of wine, taking a bath and getting to bed early with a new book.

Tomorrow morning at 8 am my official marathon training begins!! Woo hoo! I'm kinda nervous but anxious to meet other runners and the coaching staff too. There will be a few clinics and then we'll run a mile altogether. I am really hoping that I can get through the mile without too much of my pesky calf pain.

Then after the training session, my friend Courtney, her bf and I are headed to a ASU baseball game against UCLA. I never thought that I would be attending an ASU sporting event. I mean, as a U of A student, we sort of hated the dreaded ASU folks..but whatcha gonna do? I feel like I gotta support any and all Arizona peeps now that I live here in California. After a fun afternoon of baseball watching and all that comes with that, beer, hotdogs and general fun in the sun, I am going to babysit at night. I think it will be the perfect relaxing way to end the day.

On Sunday, I have a double date planned. So, all in all, a very busy weekend so I won't really be able to take advantage of an empty house.. Oh well... I'm glad that I won't be sitting at home alone wishing I was out enjoying the weekend in LA.

“This is my house, I have to defend it.” –Kevin from Home Alone