Maybe this is corny but it makes me feel better:

Dearest Miaka aka Buddy,

Thank you for being in our lives. You made my relationship with Manny stronger. The minute we got you, we definitely fought a lot less. I will always appreciate the times you stayed in bed with him while he was recovering from surgery. You were a source of comfort to him and you made it easier for me to be at work and not worry so much. We've been through a lot together and you were a real trooper on your first plane ride and and the crazy move we made to LA.  Thank you for making us laugh with your weird cat behavior, for being so sweet and cuddly and for being a friend/roommate to Jelly. I know you are in animal heaven playing with the other animals and eating all the delicious food you want.

Love,
Meg

Gossip.

This week I vow to not gossip. Yes. I admit it. I do it. But perhaps I'm most guilty of listening to it and then either egging the person on by being an avid listener or asking questions. I hate this. I always feel a little gross after I do it. And I really hate it when it's about people I barely even know. One of my work relationships thrived on gossip. This girl/woman was a real devout gossiper. I noticed that whenever I complained about someone , she was always there to listen, contribute and then she would come back later and want to talk about it some more. When I stopped telling her things, she stopped coming around. Interesting. So starting this week, I'm going to keep my mouth shut and if someone wants to tell me some dirt, I'll be as polite as I can while disengaging. I want to be a better person. Hopefully this won't make life boring!

CSA

After year's of picking up other people's produce box while they were on vacation, I have finally become a member of my own CSA here in LA. This week was my second pick-up and it was so exciting! This is where I wish I had a better camera so I could take a photo of everything and post it up.

One of the veggies I got is Mizuna. I'm sooo excited to use this because I was first introduced to it while working at a Shojin restaurant in NYC. Mizuna is a green that has a slight mustard flavor to it. It can be eaten in salad form or sauteed, added to soup etc. Basically you can do almost anything with it. I'm still deciding if I want to go the salad route or the sauteed route. Being of Taiwanese-descent, my first instinct when it comes to a vegetable is to saute it with garlic!

I must admit that it did give me a bit of anxiety to have all this produce in my refrigerator. It means I have to cook it all. But at the same time, I feel like it's a challenge and a chance for me to be creative with vegetables that I'm not familiar with. Also, there's a decent amount of fruit in the box and since this is California, of course we have tons of citrus. I actually don't like to eat fruit so much. I eat bananas regularly but that's about it. I think I was traumatized by the horrible fruit in NYC grocery stores. The only time I had fruit was when I bought it from the Union Square Green Market but because it was kind of far from my apartment and always crowded, I only frequented it maybe once every 2 months and in the winter... NEVER. So joining this CSA has 2 really good perks, it's making me be more creative in the kitchen and it's also making me eat fruit!

Big Purchases

I used to love taking photos and uploading them to this blog... way back when. But my camera, which I bought in 2005 is really sucking and it is such a chore to get it working. So... plans for the purchase of a new one are in order. Laziness is really preventing me from researching. Also, after watching "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" we have decided that another big purchase we'd like to make is a juicer. I have mixed feelings about juicing. Most of those feelings are positive but my mother believes in yin/yang eating and according to her consuming too many fruits and raw veggies causes an imbalance. I know that fruits and veggies are good for you but I can see how too much of a good thing can be bad. However, I think if we purchased the juicer and had juice just once a day, that would be okay. I have coffee every morning so if I replaced it with a juice that would probably be a lot better for me.

Being healthy is hard but when I think about how I ate just 5 years ago, I realize I've come really far without sacrificing the enjoyment that comes with eating. As for exercise... well... considering 5 years ago I did um... NONE, I'm doing pretty awesome now. Baby steps I guess!

I have really good reasons to be super stressed right now. But for whatever reason, I think I'm okay. I guess that's good! I've really been staying away from dairy lately and it feels good. I almost got ice cream tonight but my valentine convinced me otherwise. He asked me if I would feel physically awful tomorrow morning and the answer was "yes." So instead I chose a coconut ice cream bar covered in chocolate and almonds and it was amazing! Who needs dairy? Not me! I'm no baby cow.

Balance

Work. Is. So. Busy. I guess that's a good thing. We had a new co-worker but she was let go after just a month. I felt bad for her but I think the job wasn't right for her. Our generation takes computer skills for granted but she was a little older and I think that made things a little hard for her. Anyway, for whatever reason it made me paranoid that my job was under scrutiny but I realize that's silly. Not to be all conceited but they really can't get rid of me because I do so much sh** I think they'd be kind of screwed if they suddenly got rid of me or I up and quit. Not that I think they'd do that because my office is actually really nice (with the exception of a few stupid, lazy and/or rude people).

Anyway, my life is going in all sorts of different directions. It's so unexpected. Improv. is still in my life and I applied to a post-bacc program I'm really interested in so hopefully that pans out. Other than that, I think I'm a lot happier than I was in NYC and that's very important to me. Life is just too precious and too short to be unhappy!

Also, I've been listening to this podcast called "Let's Eat In" and I guess the host wrote a book all about living in NYC and just eating in. It's really inspiring. I love going to restaurants as much as the next person but lately I've been enjoying cooking and eating at home more. Plus it's been good for my bank account. If I do take the school road, I will probably be broke for about 4 years so I might as well get used to it!

Simple.

Coconut oil is doing wonders for my hair and Lavender oil makes my apartment and car smell amazing. Today I'm going to get some Jojoba oil to moisturize my face. It's so exciting to use things that are so pure. It makes me feel free and connected to the earth. My brother likes to tell people that he has a granola sister but I just think of it as living a more simple life and simple is beautiful.

This work week was only 3 days but a very exhausting 3 days. I also ate out 4 times in the last 5 days. Ouch! But it was all in the name of socializing and that's always how it is at the beginning of the year. This weekend I just want to hangout at home with my girls and cook some healthy vegan food. Simple and nice.