Category Archives: Merlot

by | August 31, 2010 · 9:15 am

Retail Therapy and Pizza!

     It was an amazing Monday! I started off with a beautiful Monsta!

Gigantic! This had 5 cups of spinach, 1/2 of a cup of unsweetened soymilk, 1/2 of a banana, 1/2 of a cup of frozen blueberries, 1/2 of a lemon, 1/2 of a lime and a handful of ice. No idea why it turned out this color…
     I also had my first day AT THE GYM!!!! I got there early, spent 20 minutes on the stair-climber, climbed 79 floors, then hit up the weights. I basically sampled a little bit of everything. My all-time favorite weight set is the lat pulldown, so I revisited that a few times throughout the hour and a half. It’s strange being back in a gym after over 2 years without. I remember when I’d sit down at the lat pulldown and do three sets of 20 reps at 75lbs, and today I struggled with three sets of 10 reps at 45lbs. Sniff. I’m so ready to get stronger again!
     I did a crapload of crunches after all the weights, then attempted to stretch out. Afterwards, my arms were COMPLETELY dead. I had trouble lifting them to type and check my e-mail. I LOVE that kind of pain! Totally looking forward to doing a repeat tomorrow, then complaining to you all again about how much I hurt.
     After I showered and changed, I headed over to the Topanga Mall to meet up with my wonderful, amazing friend/cousin Allie! We did a little retail therapy, then headed out for some lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen.
They now have a calorie guide! I started to open this, and Allie grabbed it from my hands and threw it across the restaurant. Thank you, Allie :).
We ordered our drinks – she got the Prosecco split (I LOVE PROSECCO!) and I settled for the Mirassou Pinot Noir to abide by my red wine rules for August.
YUM! Me gusta Mirassou! I could actually taste and distinguish the tastes of cherries, strawberries and lusciousness. YUM again!
We split a Spicy Chicken Tanga Quesadilla from the Small Cravings menu. I could’ve eaten six more of these!
We also split the whole-wheat thin-crust chicken pesto pizza. Full of pine nuts, sundried tomatoes, fresh basil and onions and deLUSCIOUS cheese! I may have had half. I don’t regret it – I’m lucky my arms could lift the food to my mouth after that workout :).
     We shopped around a little more, then went out separate ways, full and happy. I headed home, changed for work, and headed off to my easy shift at work. Nothing special happened – I emptied stock boxes, got some gelato and ran through my sides for my audition tomorrey.
     Tomorrey = early gym, then off to my audish, then hanging with some wonderful friends in LA before coming back for pottery class. It’ll be a busy, wonderful Tuesday!
Do you look forward to your weeks like I do? I tend to dread weekends because weekends = retail. Let’s get real life STARTED already!

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Filed under California Pizza Kitchen, green monster, gym, Merlot, Mirassou, pizza, quesadilla

by | August 26, 2010 · 9:34 am

Back to Retail. Yay.

     Today I had to get back to the grind. It was extremely depressing to go back to retail after having nine days of pure bliss. I may have had a mini breakdown at lunch. Very mini…

     The day started off wonderfully! I had my first Monsta in DAYS and I needed it!

1/2 of a cup of soymilk, 5 cups of spinach, a handful of frozen strawberries and blueberries, 1/2 of a banana and 1/2 of a lemon and 1/2 of a lime. HELLO ENERGY!!!!
     My stomach has massively shrunk since beginning filming. I finished my Monsta, but it was a challenge. This baby kept me full until around 11:30am. I decided that I just hadn’t had enough veggies, so my roommate made us some Kitchen Sink Salads.
We were low on lettuce, so it was mostly warmed lentils, egg white salad and sauteed asparagus in Herbes de Provence. It was a perfect petite meal.
     And then came work. My friend Duck-Duck came to visit, which made it slightly more bearable. It was a pretty dead day, and I had to work in the women’s section. Utter hell. These women fight over sales and will bite you in order to get commission. I am most definitely NOT competitive when it comes to sales. If I ever feel the need to be competitive in my job, I will quit. This was meant to be temporary anyway, and this last week has put a hunger in me for the career I really want – acting.
     My mom came to visit me for lunch and helped calm me down after my mental breakdown. She helped me put together a plan for the next few weeks that involves lots of filmed auditions and focusing on the future instead of dreading my retail job. She helped so muchly. Thanks, mom!
Some Mini Spicy Tuna Roll with Brown Rice helped too. I asked for some avocado to up my healthy fat intake. I needed all the buffer I could get today.
     The day passed by very slowly. I met a new coworker and had some awesome conversations with her, and finally got to go home. I was greeted by this lovely sight:
A glowing glass of Merlot. I may actually be LIKING wine! Who woulda thunk?
     Tomorrow is a day off (already needed), so I’ll be filming some auditions, organizing my room and my life, and interning from home. OH! And I just remembered that it’s Thursday, so I’m going to try and hit up the farmers’ market too! It’s the little things in life :).
I survived my first day back at work. Barely. Time to join a gym and work off my anxiety!

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Filed under green monster, kitchen sink salad, Merlot, sushi, wine, work

by | August 13, 2010 · 9:39 am

Kale Chips and Dance Battles!

     Exercise of the day: An hour-long hike through the woods!

It was a beautiful day! The hike consisted of LOTS of steep inclines, and halfway through, I was limping on account of my screwed-up knee. I finished, but hopefully I’ll be fully healed soon enough so I can pick up the pace!
     The day started with a big Monsta, of course.
5+1/3 cups of spinach, 3/4 of a cup of soymilk, 2/3 of a banana, 1/4 of a cup of frozen strawberries, 1/4 of a cup of frozen blueberries and the juice of half a lemon.
     After we got back from the hike, I threw together a KSS for lunch.
1/2 of a bag of chopped lettuce, 2/3 of a chopped and sauteed zucchini, 1/2 of a cup of warmed lentils and 1/2 of a container of egg white salad.
     It was an itty-bitty salad. Something else was needed to satiate my stomach.
YEP! That ought to do it! A small Tutti Frutti with a scoop of peanut butter cups on top.
     I picked up a bunch of kale from the grocery store so I could finally try some of those Kale Chips that everyone’s been talking about in the blogosphere. I started with 8 gigantic kale leaves which I rinsed, tore into small pieces, then sprayed with a little olive oil and sprinkled lightly with salt and pepper and baked at 350F for about 18 minutes.
Before…
 And after. They shrunk to 1/3 of their size! These are very interesting: wafer thin and they melt in your mouth, but have a very spicy bite to them! Also, they smelled like broccoli while they were cooking – kind of disconcerting. Not sure if I’ll make these again.
     Next up: happy-hour at JJ Brewsky’s in Camarillo and Step Up 3D!!! Win-win-win!
Too much to choose from! And this is just the appetizer list…
Beer for him (that’s not a shot next to the Guinness, that’s a sample of their other beers that he was deciding between).
Vino for me! You didn’t think I’d stick to my no-beer-for-August rule, did you? This was a fruity, smooth Merlot. De-lish!
For fooding we split the ahi tuna appetizer…
and a California avocado-bacon burger with sweet potato fries.
I finished my half. I’m not sorry.
     We had to stock up on candy before we hit the theaters to avoid the overpriced stuffs, so we hit up the local RocketFizz – a retro-vintage candy shop.
This place has tons of old-fashioned and new candy, as well as over 700 different types of soda!
They also have some amazing gifts. I almost forwent the candy for these. Almost.
     MOVIE TIME!!!!! We got to the theatre a little early to avoid crowds, and were welcomed by this sight:
It was PACKED!
3D glasses on! Woohoo!
     Overall thoughts on the movie: Meh. The dances are amazing, but the movie was completely geared towards the 3D aspect. There was a lot of dancers thrown towards the camera, water being kicked towards the audience and Slurpees sailing towards the camera in the sky. There was nothing memorable to me, even though the effects were awesome. They should have gotten rid of the whole “story-line” they were trying to make, and just added more dancing! I guess movies in theatres just aren’t my thing.
Anyone want to go find a dance battle with me? Or make kale chips. Whichever…

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Filed under green monster, Guinness, hike, JJ Brewsky's, kale chips, Merlot, Step Up 3D