Weekend Recap, Because I Have NO IDEA What's For Dinner This Week.

Many moons ago -- you know, when I was in my early 20s -- I used to have to be at work by 5am regularly. Being the socializer I was, I often went out the night before and somehow made it to work bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to take on the day. This ability is no longer my reality.  In fact I packed so much into this weekend that when my alarm went off this morning I couldn’t figure out if my radio was playing music or if I had been hit by a truck and the sound I heard was angels singing.  Then I realized it was Bon Jovi on the radio and while it is many things, Wanted: Dead or Alive isn't quite what I would call a Pearly Gate Anthem.  And my day began.

You all, I am TIRED.

I realize that all of you with adorable babies and multiple children are probably rolling your eyes and thinking Holly, you don’t know tired – so I won’t make this a post about trying to one up your fatigue. Instead I will show you some pictures and tell you some random things and we will call it a post for the sake of documentation, mmm kay?

For starters I spent the weekend checking a few more things off my summer bucket list  so you know despite my tiredness I am sublimely happy.  Friday my mom came out to visit for the weekend. She actually lives close by, but we both had similar errands to run and we were going to the same party on Saturday so we just made a weekend out of it. It was basically a girls weekend + Garrett.  You know he loved it.  

My mom can shop with the best of them, and Friday we did just that. After a crazy intense workout Friday morning, we headed out for most of the day to take care of business.  Taking care of business with my mom always involves at least one trip to Target where we A to Z every aisle in the store.  This is dangerous and while I love it, I do not recommend it if you are trying to save money.  My mom is a fantastic shopping enabler!  By the time we got home on Friday night we had just enough energy to have some dinner with Garrett, during which my mom got a long overdue lesson about the strategy of Formula One racing, we did a little prep work for the brunch I was hosting on Sunday, and then we all headed to sleep.

On Saturday morning we woke up early and I got to check my first item off the Summer Bucket List: Have a picnic in the Plaza in Sonoma.  My cousin Jim’s birthday was on Sunday so the bulk of my family met up in Sonoma at Sebastiani to eat and celebrate because that is how we roll.  Ok, truth be told we didn’t picnic in the Plaza, but my mom and I did get to see the plaza, because that was where we got sandwiches.  Qucik PSA: The ONLY proper sandwich choice when picnicking up in wine country is The Sonoma Cheese Factory.  They make the kind of sandwiches that God would make if heaven were a deli. Paleo diet be damned, when in Sonoma there must be sandwich consumption. I believe that is written in the epilogue of The Bible.

Then we headed over to have a picnic at a winery so I’m just going step in and call that close enough -- CHECK!  I seriously LOVE chilling with my family.

There was lots of wine drinking and baby squeezing and joke-cracking that afternoon. It was a fun, yet too short, visit with my family. All the photos are here if you enjoy that business.

Unfortunately Garrett had to work and miss out on the Saturday afternoon fun which was a bummer, but when we got home he went all out and put together an impromptu scotch/whiskey/bourbon tasting for the three of us while I did a few more things to prep for my brunch.  I don't even like any sort of brown liquor, quite frankly, but I highly recommend comparative tasting.  That's probably the coffee/wine geek in me, but it was so much more fun to taste the differences between all the different types rather than just drink a glass of brown stuff.  My favorite at the end of the tasting?

Who knew?  Never thought I would enjoy scotch on purpose.

Saturday night Garrett suggested we bust out some old family movies and all watch them together and if you guessed that this melted my mama’s little heart, then you guessed correctly. That Garrett knows just how to get brownie points, so the 3 of us stayed up way too late laughing and reminiscing about old family stories. Also, about how awful the fashion was in the 90s. I turned off those videos with no clear understanding of what purpose the mock-turtleneck served, and with extreme wonder surrounding why people ever wore matching sweatsuits. Awful, really really awful.

Sunday morning again came too quick, and my mom headed out because she babysits my little cousin Chelsea on Sundays and Mondays. After a whirlwind of a weekend my mom was off to baby wrangle. It’s a good thing I made a huge pot of coffee because you can tell by the look on her face that this little chicky doesn’t want to sit still for long. My mom needed all the caffeine she could get:

After she took off, I checked another thing of the Bucket List: Have a dinner party in my backyard before it gets sweltering. Except I didn't actually have dinner, I had a brunch, but I’m just going to call it complete anyway because Bobby Brown told me that was my prerogative. CHECK! Since Sacramento is always sweltering I thought my best bet for getting to eat outside was to do breakfast instead of dinner. Sarah, Elizabeth, Amy and Elisabeth came over and I would show you a picture of that lovely afternoon except I didn't take a single one!  I think that is the sign of good conversation if you can get 5 women in a room who document their lives via blog and not a single one busts out a camera.  Either that, or they thought my tablecloth was ugly.  I'm going to hope for the former.  

We had lots of coffee, cocktails and food -- so much food actually that I forgot to even serve the bacon I had cooked.  And no Garrett and I didn't have bacon for dinner, why would you even think that?????  Actually we didn't ONLY have bacon, there was also blueberry cake too.  We like to make sure we get in some fruit, you know?  

By the time evening rolled around I basically only had enough energy to play fashion police on the couch while watching my DVR.  For example -- WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE:

photo found here

After contemplating that I was obviously too exhausted to do much else besides go to bed.  And now we are back to the grind on a Monday.  How does that even happen?

How did you enjoy your weekend, peeps?

________________

Paleo* Eggs Benedict Over Spicy Sweet Potato Hash

My Grandma Marian taught me a number of very important life lessons:    

*A good hostess always has cookies in her freezer.
*If you keep the empty expensive bottles of booze you can always refill them with the cheap stuff in a pinch. (Which I only did in college, I promise!) And of course,
*A lady never refuses a second serving by saying she is "stuffed," but rather she delicately reclines and says she's "had plenty."  

More importantly though, she taught me about the magic of poached eggs in hollandaise.


My family usually chooses to brunch on Easter, forgoing the ham dinner with all the trimmings for a stiff Bloody Mary (or two) and a Hallelujah.  As an a non-religious adult, I always kind of forget about Easter (what with the changing dates and all of that) but when I realize it's coming around I never forget my grandma's tradition:  Eggs Benedict!

Since going Paleo I have definitely come to embrace the egg, but I never take the time to poach them -- and for no good reason since it is so much easier than it looks.  A pan of simmering water with a splash of vinegar, dropping the egg right in, and then giving it exactly 2 minutes before you rescue and plop it atop various accouterments.  This year I skipped the English Muffin and set it on canadian bacon over the world's most amazing Spicy Sweet Potato Hash. 

It was so good, I'm making it again for Garrett this week for dinner since he was in Reno all weekend and missed out.

For the eggs:

This video breaks down poaching eggs quite simply.  Plus at the end she puts in on a "nice, tasty crumpet."  And how can you not love that?  I like a 2 min egg though, just FYI.   I always fear I will ruin the egg, and it always ends up working out just fine.  Vinegar is kind of a miracle worker.


For the Hollandaise:

In a blender mix 3 egg yolks, 1 TBS lemon juice, 1/2 tsp of salt, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper.  Melt 1/2 cup of grassfed butter (That's why it is Paleo* -- but this is a special occasion thing, don't get freaked out!) and slowly pour in the melted butter as you blend up the other ingredients.  This will make enough sauce to coat at least 6 eggs and may change your life.

For the hash:  

Cook up 6-8 diced up slices of bacon in a pan.  (Dude, just cook 8.)  Remove the bacon bits and add one diced red onion and diced red pepper.  Saute until softened.  Add 3 diced sweet potatos.  Mine were small-medium sized.  Generously season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder and add a dash of chili powder for flavor and cayenne pepper for heat.  Cook over high heat until potatoes are at your desired texture (everyone likes their taters a bit different). I did mine for about 20 minutes, tossing them around occasionally so they browned but didn't burn.  


For the entire experience:

Throw the hash on a plate, top with canadian bacon you have warmed in the oven, add your perfectly poached eggs, cover with hollandaise, add some cracked black pepper to the top, and die of happiness.  


You will not regret it.  But I assure you, after two of those eggs, you will delicately recline and say you've had plenty.  

It's a breakfast (or dinner in our case this week) of champions!
______________________
. 

Odds + Ends on a Friday

Before I get into this giant mish-mash of a post, I just want to say a big thanks to all of you who have emailed, commented, tweeted, and sent me nice messages on Facebook about my Weight Loss Series.  That was originally supposed to be one post, I don't even think I really knew how much I had to say until it all came pouring out.  It felt a little vulnerable and none of you were jerks about it --- man that was nice!  I plan to continue it, but I am going to take a bit of a break because one can only discuss weight loss and food so much, you know?  We'll get back there though, so don't you worry.  And really, thank you again for all your kind words.  So nice you are! 

Completely unrelated to that moment of gratitude, I have realized that I'm in a bit of a funk.  I've composed a thousand posts in my head over the last week or so, but I just haven't felt like sitting in front of the computer and getting it on the page, you know?  It's weird though, it's not like a depression funk, but more of an anxiety funk.  I've mentioned before that I have a tendency to take on too many things at once and a couple of weeks ago I started to feel that inertia forming, so I've just been trying to take it easy, workout, get enough sleep, and enjoy life.  So what is the funk all about, you ask?  Well, I guess I'm just not super comfortable "enjoying life".  I sometimes have this anxious feeling that I am letting an opportunity pass me by or dropping a ball somewhere.  I'm marinating on it, it's lame.  If I have a grand epiphany I'll let you know.  Promise.

Potentially contributing to this funk is that my weight loss has slowed down - who has a sad trombone for me to play? Garrett would yell at me if I didn't qualify "slowed down" and explain that instead of losing 10-15 lbs per month, I'm now only losing 6-10lbs per month -- which for a reasonable person would be totally acceptable and not worrisome at all.  But since I teeter on the brink of unreasonable a lot of the time and have an irritating passion to overachieve at completely unnecessary things -- this seems disappointing.  Obviously I realize I am being lame, yet can't actually stop feeling this way.  I'm trying to let it go, but that might also be part of the funk.  Who knows?

I'm feeling this perpetual guilt though because my workouts have also slowed down DRAMATICALLY.  I'm only CrossFitting 3 days per week and in the last 2 weeks I think I have run once.  I'm getting a half-marathon training FAIL.  If only the guilt were actually motivation enough to get me out the door.  I keep complaining to Garrett about it and he reminds me that I have until June, and I don't have to be so rigid about everything, and I can run 4 miles comfortably at this point so I probably won't die.  But in my mind, I'm sure I'm going to die and then I will have to come back here and blog all about what a giant failure I was at running this half-marathon and how I am a failure at life.  God my penchant for melodrama is just stifling sometimes. 

Everybody take a breath. 
Compounding the suckiness is that I have read some craptastic books this month -- my ONE FREAKING PLEASURE!  Only one really jumped out and grabbed me (which I'm looking forward to telling you about next week when I do my monthly book review) but it is another book about dead babies, and man if the best book you read all month is about a still born child, that is a bad month of reading.  I actually had to put two books down in the middle because I just couldn't read them anymore --  AND I HATE THAT.  I feel like the authors, and the internet, and my old English Professors are going to hunt me down and chastize me for my lameness.  It hasn't happened yet, but I sure looked over my shoulder once or twice just to make sure when I dropped them  both back in the bookslot at my local library.

Life isn't all bad though, I got to see my whole extended family last weekend when we all got together to celebrate my twin cousins' 30th birthdays.  It was loud as hell, but really?  If you expect any different then you do not know my family at all.  We whisper IN ALL CAPS. 

We took a nice family photo, which although not quite as hysterical as this one still made me happy.  I have 7 cousins who are all late 20s/early 30s (plus two younger cuties who are still in school AND a little baby 2nd cousin!) and we started this random tradition years ago on my cousin Jim's birthday that when you turn 30 you get a walker.  You know, because YOU ARE OLD AND DECREPIT and who is going to give you a ride to the Old Folks Home?  Coincidentally my cousin John, whose birthday it was along with his sister Jenny (who is sitting front and center in the pic above), happened to break his ankle the week before (I'll let you figure out which one he is in that pic) and so being the ruthless assholes we are, we all had a blast ribbing him about  the timeliness of his injury.  That is a funny group up there, you all and I'm happy to be related to them.  

Oh, also in the category of things that totally don't suck -- I got new hair and I pretty much love it:  

Well, I did not love it in the pouring down rain this morning because this haircut goes from 0 to Drowned Rat in about 6 seconds, but it's fun and different so I'm going to hang on to that all weekend while I bitch through the rain, sleet, and snow.  Yes, that's right, I said snow -- IT MIGHT SNOW THIS WEEKEND!  Which, in Sacramento, has not happened for almost 10 years.  So that could be fun.  Of course I won't actually be in Sacramento because we are heading down to San Francisco for another 30th birthday party for some of Garrett's friends that was originally supposed to be outdoors but has now turned into a pub crawl.  Good choice.  This basically means I am going to spend my weekend drinking Irish Coffees and laughing hysterically I'm certain. 

So you know, things are looking up. 

Happy Weekend friends!

Greetings from Deserts of New Mexico ...

...where we are hanging out with:


5 horses
10 Chickens
15 Goats
4 Cats
1 Dog


Oh, and also?  Garrett's parents.  


The weather has been lovely and cooperative (clear skies with absolutely crisp air) but the elevation has done a number on us and we've literally been sleeping 12 hours a night like drunken teenagers.  


His parents have a ranch on 200 acres out in the middle of nowhere the state and it has been peaceful and full of adventure all at the same time.  Today I got a lesson on guns.  I'm hoping there isn't a test later because I will fail miserably, but it has been fun learning the paces of a totally different lifestyle.  I feel like Pioneer Woman but less internet famous.  


It's been a blast.  When I have the patience to upload some pics I will, but out here in the Wild West the internet is dial up, so don't hold your breath.  Hope you all are having great weeks as well! 

Family Portrait

My family recently got together to celebrate my cousin Jeff's 30th Birthday and usually when we all get together we try and take a big family picture -- but with 20 of us wisecracking chuckleheads it's often hard to get us all smiling and looking at the same camera, you know? 

And not only did we succeed at getting everyone in it and looking at the camera, we also apparently captured a random shitting dog that belongs to none of us.  I'm sure there's a joke in there, but I am too busy laughing hysterically to think of one. 

I just love my family!

Prayers

The other day when I got pulled over for my license plate debacle, I glibly mentioned that the questioning officer should perhaps busy himself with fighting crime rather than pull me over for some tedious administrative offense. Though I still partially stand by that idea, the last 24 hours have me feeling slightly more contemplative about the whole situation. I live in a fairly nice neighborhood in the outskirts of Sacramento and my 20 minute commute every morning is basically a nice drive down a major arterial street that makes its way through most of town. Yesterday as I was heading back to the office after lunch, an apartment building that I pass by daily was being swarmed by police cars. Then on my home from work last night, that entire section of the road was blocked off and vehicles were being detoured to other routes. I turned on the news to find out there was a hostage situation happening in said apartment complex and SWAT teams had set up shop as an armed man inside one of the units held a 16 month old child inside, while his mother had to watch helplessly from across the street.


Two years ago my cousin John graduated from the Police Academy.  The entire ceremony was pretty powerful – all the uniformed, clean cut men and women seated in perfectly aligned rows in front of a giant American flag. The men in charge of their training outlined what they had spent the previous 8 months doing, and all of us listened intently swelling with pride over what a huge accomplishment this was for John. The thing that resonated with me the most, and the part that still plays in my head two years later was when one of the speakers pleaded with all of us who had come to support our family members up on stage: “These men and women have spent months training to spend the rest of their lives seeing and experiencing things that no person should have to see. And there is a price to be paid for that. They will need the support of their friends and family to get them through those tougher times.”




Obviously hearing that and thinking about my little cousin John (who isn’t quite so little anymore, actually) was pretty emotional. Though he has seemed to adjust into his new role well in the past two years, I think of those words often when I see any type of law enforcement officers – whether around town, in the news, hell, sometimes I even shed a little tear thinking about it when I see cops on TV. These men and women, these peace officers, these SWAT team members all have families or spouses, children and parents. They come home each night to their same homes nestled in the fairly nice neighborhoods of Sacramento and they download the events of their day just like I do mine.


When I look at these pictures that have been in the news over the last 24 hours, images that make me feel like I’m watching a scripted episode of some prime time television drama, all I can think about is how all those men and women are going to feel when they get home from work tonight – what they will tell their spouses about the events of their day, or the challenges they encountered. I think about the mother they are representing who is being forced to stand by and watch, of the child that they are protecting who is too little to help himself, of the intensity of those moments with their weapons drawn and the unpredictability of what is going to happen next, and all I can feel is gratitude -- gratitude for the officers themselves, and of course for the families that support them. It is a sad situation, and one that I hope works out peacefully in the end.  And when I contemplate the severity of everything is going on in that little apartment complex that I see every single day, I think to myself that the least I can do is affix my stupid license plate without throwing a tantrum over it.


(If you have a minute, think some positive thoughts for that little toddler and his family today would ya.  And for all of the officers trying to rescue him safely.)

Coffee Is My Religion

Well that was a quick Easter weekend, wasn't it? 

I don't have any stories of bunnies or baskets (well maybe I do have one story about a basket) but I did have a fabulous time!  We headed up to Chico to visit my aunts and cousins and if there is one thing you should know about my family, it is that we always have a great time together.  Although I was raised going to church, as an adult I am not very religious.  Our family holidays almost always end up as religious events though, because boy do we get a little ceremonious (even holy) about our food!

For Easter this means Eggs Benedict.

And you can bet every member of my family, no matter where they were celebrating this year was either eating it or thinking about it.  I'd show you a photo, except that is how quickly the bennys went -- I didn't even time to snap a single shot before all the deliciousness was gone!  This year was the first year I actually made the eggs benedict instead of sitting at the table salivating and waiting for it to be served and it was kind of great!  It sort of felt like a rite of passage -- we used my grandma's recipe for hollandaise sauce and I poached my first eggs EVER, and I'm surprised that it all turned out pretty great.  (I'm sure it had to do with my mad kitchen dancing skillz, yo!)  But it made me think -- what other seemingly difficult recipes I have avoided making just because I thought for sure I'd screw them up?  I'm actually kind of inspired to get in the kitchen!

After breakfast we went over to my aunts' warehouse (they own a coffee distribution and service company) and seriously, Garrett and I were like kids in a candy store!  (In case you have forgotten, we met working at Peet's Coffee & Tea, so we are coffee ENTHUSIASTS!)  We played with the espresso machines, sampled the chocolate, the syrups, the espresso, and the chai -- and I think Garrett rekindled his love for making espresso drinks. 



Of course every time Garrett or Amy made a drink we would all have to sample the yumminess, so by the end of the day we were all feeling pretty amped, if you know what I mean.  Amy told us all about her recent coffee buying trip down to Nicaragua, and we were all ears! 



All in all it was a super fun outing and so nice to spend time with family.  I'm trying to be really conscious lately of how lucky I am that I have family living close by, because who knows, it may not always be like that.  It's fun to get away for the day, have some laughs, and be home in time for some trashy reality tv and some quality time with my current book in bed! 

But let me assure you, I am already ready for another weekend!  
Hope you had a wonderful weekend wherever you were and whatever you ate!

The Trip of A Lifetime

(This post is a part of Gwen Bell's The Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. Thanks for the great inspiration idea, Amy!)

I consider myself a bit of a traveler. I mean I don't really go to super exotic locales or cliched destinations or anything (hell, I have embarrassingly only used my passport once and it was in 1986 when my hair was in full on bowl cut mode, god I should find and scan that picture) but if I have a few extra bucks in my pocket my first choice is always to spend them by getting out of town. Usually I like exploring a new place, and usually it is someplace quaint rather than extravagant, somewhere off the beaten path or somewhere seemingly ordinary. But this year I took the trip of lifetime and of all places, it was to Maui! I'm know. You are all thinking: Holly, could there be a more cliched travel destination than Maui? And the answer is, probably not. But for a few really personal reasons, it was by far the best trip I have ever taken.



Hawaii was always this mythical place in my mind growing up. My parents had lived there while my dad was in college, and even after he graduated and started playing football professionally in Detroit they spent the off seasons on the Big Island. Growing up all of their friends and members of my family had these great stories about the times they visited my parents on the islands. There were funny stories and amazing adventures, and they all painted a gorgeous picture of a what a crazy life my parents had before I was born. First of all they were in their early 20s. Imagine what you were doing when you were 22? I know I was goofing off in college and then "Finding Myself" in Los Angeles (ha!) definitely not living it up in some exotic locale. It was fascinating to me that my parents had this offbeat life before I came around -- I know that's a little self centered, but as a kid it just seemed so weird to think of your parents life before you, but it was hard to ignore when it was a life of stories re-told in such vivid technicolor. When I was young and my parents would tuck me in to bed at night I always asked for a story, and often times my father would describe tales of surfing and swimming and hiking in the lush Hawaiian landscape with its strange sounding names -- and I would drift off to sleep awaiting the day I would finally get to make sense of it all in person.

As I got older, it became less of a myth and more of a promise. You see my Grandma Marian (who passed away in 2004 and was the absolute light of our whole family) knew how much I wanted to go and was always assuring me that I would get there. Each summer all of us grandkids had the opportunity to take our own "solo trips" up to her house in Sonoma. When it was my turn to visit, she always let my fingers go walking through her perfumes and lotions -- my childhood favorites always being the L'Air du Temps bottle because it was pretty (hello 80s flashback) and a metallic tube of Crabtree & Evelyn Rosewater Hand Therapy. We spent our days visiting, doing water aerobics at her class, watching Jeopardy, having sandwiches at the Sonoma Cheese Factory, and of course always making time to catch up with her neighborhood buddies as they knew all us grandkids.

Inevitably during these trips we would stop by and say hi to her best friends (and my dad's Godparents) Mert and Don, who lived down the street. Many times they would tell stories of their recent trips to Maui altogether and how the 3 of them spent their days lounging and having cocktails and enjoying the weather at at the beach. They would always laugh when I would get upset about not having been to Hawaii yet, and say that someday I would have great friends to go with when I understood the power of The 5 o' Clock Cocktail. I would roll my eyes, of course, but they just made Maui seem so accessible. But I couldn't, in my 9 year old mind, figure out how to make it happen. So instead I'd come home from my week at Grandma Marian's and just nag my parents about it. They finally promised that they would take me when I turned 10, but frankly I'm not sure they ever really meant this. I think it was more of a finite answer to the infinite questions I would always ask "When will visit Hawaii? How long until I can see Hawaii? Can I learn how to surf? Where we will snorkel?"

WHEN YOU ARE TEN, HOLLY. WE WILL TAKE YOU WHEN YOU ARE TEN.

And so that was that. Except of course age ten came and went and we never made it to Hawaii. It's not like my parents never took me anywhere, my childhood was full of fabulous family camping adventures, the aforementioned trips to Sonoma, and one incredibly exotic trip to Bermuda (which I totally didn't appreciate a the time -- God, the regret!) but we just never really made it to Hawaii like we were supposed to when I turned 10. And so as you can imagine I pretty much brought that up annually over candles and cake. It became a bit of a family joke, actually.



I think as I got older I finally came to terms with the fact that nobody was going to Take Me To Hawaii, so I went about researching the cost of getting there myself and Holy Hell are those plane tickets pricey when you are making $12 an hour slinging mochas, so I kind of gave up the dream for awhile. I was fine doing my frolicking around the mainland and exploring California's bounty until about two years into my relationship with Garrett when he nonchalantly mentioned that his family owned a portion of a condo in Maui and would I be interested in heading out there for a couple of weeks at some point? To which my answer was, HELL-TO-THE-YES! And also immediately afterward, WHY THE HELL HAVE YOU WAITED TWO YEARS TO BRING THAT UP, BUDDY? His reply was that he had pretty much gone every summer of his entire life up until he was about 16 and so he wasn't sure that Hawaii was anything I was that excited about.

(BLINK BLINK.)

(No really, BLINK BLINK.)

So once we had a very brief repeat conversation about my likes and dislikes (LIKES: Free Condos in Maui. DISLIKES: My boyfriend thinking I would not be interested in Free Condos in Maui. See? Easy) he explained that his parents and grandparents and some teacher friends from the bay area each owned 1/12th of a condo. We could have the condo for a month if we wanted, so pretty much immediately I began to plan. Of course as travel planning goes it took us a couple years to get our time/budget/act together, but surprisingly at the end of May this year I (FINALLY) found myself on a 5 hour flight that was Maui-bound. Only twenty years after my 10th Birthday.



It was kind of a moving experience, that flight, which I realize sounds totally cheesy, but really the whole time I just kept looking out the window and thinking I can't believe I am finally going to Hawaii. I had not only packed my entire closet (which actually turned out to be a totally unnecessary rookie mistake) but also a lifetime of anticipation! And let me tell you when that plane finally landed I just let all those emotion loose! I actually cried when the plane landed because I WAS FINALLY HERE! I was finally able to see the places I had dreamed about as a child, to feel the ultimate relaxation with my best friend that I had heard about as a teen, and to see the beauty that I had envied as an adult. I had a moment of sadness because neither my father nor my grandmother were alive to finally hear about all of the experiences I was about to have, but in that moment it was like they were right there. The rite of passage was right there under my feet and it was so much for my little heart to take and so I just cried and cried the happy tears of joy that were 30 years in the making. Of course Garrett finally looked over at me and said "Dude, all these people are going to think I'm being mean to you if you are crying" and so we had a huge tear filled laugh, I wiped my cheeks and the adventure began.



We stayed in that condo for 12 days, and it was probably the most blissful time in my life. Garrett recounted memories of his trips as a child and I finally got to reconcile the pictures in my imagination with reality and it was truly so much better in person. I felt incredibly close to my father and my grandmother during that time, and as Garrett and I spent our days walking hand in hand on the beaches or cruising the island highways off to our next undertaking, I would think of my parents, and the similar moments they must have shared in their early 20s with the gorgeous Hawaiian sunset as their backdrop. What were they hoping their future held? I felt connected to the past, connected to nature, connected to a family history that surrounds me with wonderful memories even though we are no longer able to all sit together around the table and tell stories. Around every corner there was a reminder of the connections that I have always had with this beautiful place, and it truly felt like coming home.



The weirdest coincidence of the whole trip happened a few days before we left when I went rummaging around in the condo bathroom for some Advil. Underneath the sink amidst years worth of sunscreens, community shampoo bottles, and expired medicine, I found a halfway used tube of Crabtree & Evelyn's Rosewater Hand Therapy. Immediately forgetting about my headache, I doused myself in it and took myself back to those Sonoma summers with my grandma and hearing about her trips with Mert and Don and enjoying the Maui Life. It was a special moment, and the coincidence was sort of overwhelming, so when I got back home I of course shared the story with some of my relatives. Through a series of conversations I ended up having with my aunt describing where we stayed and through photographs of our trip, we ended up connecting the dots to figure out that the condo Garrett and I stayed was the same condo that my Grandma and Mert and Don had stayed in every summer all those years ago. Completely unable to believe that possibility Garrett called his parents who had the original Condo-share agreement, and sure enough, Mert and Don's names were on the contract for all those years with Garrett's parents and grandparents.

And seriously? A moment like that not only makes a trip, it kind of makes your life.

What Can I Do? What Can You Do? What Can We Do Together?

So you all know I like to cook. I come from a family that loves food and has about a million wonderful recipes all year long -- so as you can imagine, the holidays are a pretty good time of year. Well, not really for my waistline, but hey that's not the point right now, is it? My family has always served some pretty traditional dishes for Thanksgiving, and whether my mom was cooking, or one of my aunts, or grandmas -- it didn't matter, I always knew I could count on Thanksgiving to be amazing.

One year while living in Los Angeles I cooked Thanksgiving dinner for some friends by myself (OK full disclosure: I let Whole Foods cook the turkey and stuffing, but dammit, I made all the side dishes) and it was really quite comforting to be able to recreate some of the tastes of home, even though I wasn't. Food definitely is a powerful emotional currency -- ask any toddler who has been threatened with 'No Dessert' -- and although I did miss having my family sitting there with me wearing our special "stretch as you grow pants" and complaining that Lordy, we could not eat another bite if you paid us -- oh but wait, there's pie? -- OK, well maybe just a little slice, I mean it's Thanksgiving after all -- I felt lucky that I could create that same environment for my friends with just a few strategically prepared things. If you can't have your whole family together at home to celebrate, it's at least comforting to have a special meal.

So what about all those who don't have that good food and family, or hell, even a selection of the "stretch as you grow" pants of which I am so fond? What are their options on Thanksgiving -- the most comforting and gluttonous day of the year? (Also the 2nd most effluent if you want to know the truth. Only Super Bowl Sunday is worse, but you know, that's neither here nor there right now. I'm sorry, poop talk makes me laugh. I have the sense of humor of a 12 year old boy and I can't make it stop.)

ANYWAY. Back to the subject at hand.

As you probably know, homelessness is a big problem in Sacramento. You may recall hearing about all the tent cities on this little show called Oprah a while back, and there is no time that I feel a more pressing urge to Do Something, than during the holidays. What is hard for me is to see beyond the enormous big picture. I know that I can't solve the problem of homelessness. I know that I can't find all these people homes. That I can't find them safe places, warm beds, or good hospitals, if that is what they need. And it's heart breaking to me that those problems are too big for me to solve. But I'll tell you what I can do -- I can cook a mean a dinner -- and this Thanksgiving, that is just what I am planning on doing. For over a hundred people. Holy moses, what have I gotten myself into?

This Thanksgiving, my family, my boyfriend, and my friend Courtney are cooking what should be an amazing dinner for St. John's Shelter here in Sacramento. St John's Shelter is a homeless shelter for women and children whose sole purpose is to help women go from a state of crisis to self sufficiency by partnering with community resources that help reintegrate them into society in under 90 days. It is a wonderful program, and serving dinner there as a part of my involvement with Junior League of Sacramento has been a moving experience for me, so this year I thought -- why the heck not do Thanksgiving Dinner, since it is one of the most treasured meals that I am lucky enough to have each year.

Now I know not everyone can run out and ditch their families on Thanksgiving -- even though some of you might want to. Dysfunctional Families For The Win? I dunno. However, there are plenty of things you can do from that cozy little chair where you are sitting right this second. For example, if you are feeling generous, St. John's has an Amazon Wish List that automatically sends your purchase right to their door, or if you are local, maybe you'd consider volunteering to serve lunch or dinner? I can tell you from experience that doing this is so much more rewarding than you would even think. And it already sounds pretty rewarding! St. John's also happily accept monetary donations, and seriously every little bit helps. Just as a side note, St John's has a budget of 25 cents per person per meal without the help of others (Holy Budget Batman, did your brain just explode trying to plan a 25 cent meal? Because mine totally did.)-- so just think how far your $5 or $10 or $20 could go? I spent $4 on a peppermint mocha yesterday (which doesn't include the $40 parking ticket that I received along with it in the process -- ARGH), and boy do I feel like kind of a dork when I think of how many warm meals that could have provided to women and children in crisis.

So here's the deal -- I'm not trying to get preachy on you and tell you to go out and support my cause just because I support it (Next I'll be telling you to jump off a bridge just because I'm jumping off of it!) But I guess what I am saying, (a point! I do have one!) is that in the spirit of the holidays -- maybe just take a moment to think about areas in your life where you have abundance, and then figure out how you can share that abundance in your own community. Often times it doesn't take much but a little forethought to make a big impact. I provided those links above, because if you are anything like you me you are willing to Do Something, but often just don't know how to make it happen. So, you know, to my fellow overwhelmed friends with good hearts -- here are a few opportunity with St. John's to make a differences. But if that doesn't speak to you -- that's cool too -- I mean we all have our own priorities and causes that are near and dear to our hearts. So today, do a little internet research (if you are at work -- they typing will make you sound busy, right?) and check out your local resources today.

After all, 'tis the season, right?

A Completely Unorganized List About Organization

Last night my cousin Kelly tweeted that she needed to be more organized in her life and wanted some time management skills. Oddly enough I tweeted at THE EXACT SAME TIME that I needed some blog inspiration. Ok if I'm being honest, I was far too lazy last night to get up and tweet and besides Garrett was commandeering the computer and my cell phone is totally from like 1997 so that wasn't even an option , but I was totally THINKING about tweeting "I need some blog inspiration" which is almost like actually tweeting it, right? Right.

Anyway, I fancy myself fairly organized and I'm pretty OCD with some of the Standard Operation Procedures around our house. Granted, that doesn't mean I don't know how to procrastinate and avoid like it's going out of style, but the foundation is there, you know. Part of the reason I am so crazy for being organized is that I think it simplifies my life which in return makes me sooo much less stressed. With that in mind, I thought I would throw out some of my own philosophies and link to a few fun resources about organization for Kelly, and well, for you if you are looking for some inspiration. Come join my crazy organized world, friends! There is a place for everything and everything has a place!

*So, first and foremost, declare your intentions, and mean it. I find this is by far the most overlooked part of any life change that you are embarking on. So in this instance, think about WHY you want to get organized -- what improvements are going to come about because you are choosing to get organized? Is the clutter detracting from your quality of life? Are you finding you forget things or pay bills late? Think about how much better it would feel if you didn't have stress from (insert stumbling block here). Bottle that intention. This is so important is because in times of trial, you will be tempted to not stay on track so I find it helps to have a mantra or intention to keep you focused.

*Find some visual inspiration. Whether it is something like the Pretty Organized Flickr Pool that will inspire how a room looks, or a fun Mantra Poster to hang in your office or otherwise unorganized area, or a gorgeous, but functional weekly planner that actually makes you WANT to use it -- whatever it is, find a token or a tool that makes being organized fun, pretty or stimulating. You will have a better chance of sticking to it and staying on track.

Simplify! This is one of the easiest ways to have an organized life in my opinion is to simplify at all times. Whenever you are doing something, planning something, or scheduling something, ask yourself -- is this making my life simpler or more complicated? Is this necessary, or could I do it another way? A few Food For Thought resources on simplifying are: This list 27 Simple Ways to Simplify Your Life and this collection of quick tips100 Tips to Simplify Your Life

*Control Your Clutter. Unfortunately, in my opinion, clutter and organization are mutually exclusive. I am a recovering piler. I used to have very nice, neatly stacked piles of things all around my house that I rationalized were acceptable because, of course, I knew exactly what was in them! And I had put them in that very specific pile on purpose. But honestly, piles are just a euphemism for clutter, and clutter is oh so energy sucking! This article on clutter control is pretty enlightening, I think. And I especially love that this article calls out the "It's fine. I can always use another (insert item here)..." philosophy. To me, wrapping your arms around that idea -- that you don't need 500 of a certain item (thank you cards, notepads, pens, pencils, books, rolls of toilet paper, whatever your items are) no matter how useful they are -- is paramount when it comes to effective clutter control. Too many items leave you scrambling for space, and juggling that space management does NOT simplify life.

*Last but not least, I'm including a link on Scrapbook Organization because as you can imaging Scrap_girl77 does enjoy the scrapping once in a while, so Kelly, here is a quick link that not only tells you how to organize your oodles of supplies, but how to find more time to actually scrapbook. I thought the last part was sort of universally useful, I mean, even if you don't scrapbook, who doesn't want more time for...well, anything, right?

Weekend: At A Glance

I think this weekend at The Cabin can be summed up best in a few pictures.

Good Food:



Good Drinks:



Good Friends:







Good Times:









Oh and by the way...



You all know how much I (don't) love Ed Hardy, and Sarah was kind enough to grab me a cup to drink out of all weekend.

Such insightful advice, Ed Hardy. hahahahahahaha

Goodbye 20s, Hello 30s!

Well I survived.

Yep, that's right, I turned 30 this week and didn't die of absolute shock! Actually, I employed a strategy that included throwing a party last weekend that sort of numbed the pain, so I think that when Tuesday came around I was sort of at peace with everything.

None of it would have been possible without my adorable mother -- well, er, I was talking about the party, but I guess there's that whole, you know, fact that she bore me and all that other stuff, so I guess literally NONE of it would have been possible without her. But anyway, isn't she cute? She sure knows how to create a great party vibe!



She, and my aunt Yvonne, and my Uncle Mark have been been basically doing round the clock "Holly's Life" Triage for the past two weeks leading up to this event, and I have been overwhelmed with gratitude over this last week for what a great support system I have. It started with the fact that I moved into the guest house behind some friends' house the week before I threw this party (and they all three helped immensely). Then it continued through the next week with all the planning and the party preparations and such, which is not for the faint of heart. It was held in my friends' back yard, which is pretty cool because incidentally now it is my backyard -- and it is quite a happenin space if I do say so:



And here is my cute little pad, off to the side:



All of my favorite people came -- including my whole family, who are a ton of fun!















(I guess you get the idea that we like the Giants, eh?)

Some of my most fabulous co-workers came:



And even two of my friends from back in high school and all the cute boys in their lives came:





A great band called The Golden Cadillacs played a set after dinner and they were an absolute HIT! There was dancing, and hollering, and good times being had by all.









Overall I could not have had a better birthday, and the party made me realize that I am really blessed to have a lot of love in my life. I'm not going to go gettin' all Beyonce-at-the-VMAs on y'all and thank God for making my dreams come true, but seriously...it feels good to be loved!

And what better time to have that giant life hug then when you turn 30!

(Dude...I feel an "I Love You, Man" coming on!)

Row, Row, Row Your Boat

Not sure if I mentioned, but over Labor Day Weekend Garrett and I went kayaking with my family over at the Sac State Aquatic Center and seriously folks, I might have found a new hobby. Now for anyone who has ever been witness to how awful I am at watersports (Hi Angela! Hi Kendall Family!) you may wonder why I decided to partake, and I will tell you honestly that I was a bit apprehensive. I'm a good swimmer, but just pretty awful at things related to boats and such, but it was such a hot day and everyone made it look so easy that I decided to take the plunge, and BOY am I glad I did!


For the record, I can't believe I just posted a picture of myself in a bathing suit on this blog, so let's just move right along...mmmmkay?

Anyway, it was $9 an hour to rent the kayaks and once we got in and on the move and I got the hang of rowing it was SUPER REFRESHING!



We stopped for a bit to swim a little (and seriously, swimming with a life jacket is where it's at! I dig the lazy man's water-treading! haha) Even Garrett enjoyed the water workout.



Although I think secretly it was because he was in the company of three lovely ladies...



All in all though -- it was such a great time. I would go again in a heartbeat.


And the next day I had muscles in my upper body that I didn't even know existed. Also, a major sunburn, but my own stupidity notwithstanding it was an amazing workout and one Garrett and I plan to do in the near future. Also we found out that Sac State Alums get a discount. So these smiling ex-Hornets will definitely be kayaking again soon!