Farewell to the Land of Misfit Toys

As the days rapidly evaporate and my moving date looms closer, I have to bust out the whiskey to calm my nerves. Lately I've been reflecting on my adventures the past year and a half. I may not have found a niche here in Los Angeles, but I sure will miss it.

I fear that once moving back up north entertainment will elude me; having lived in such a magical city. Never have I not had something to do. Boredom doesn't really exist in Los Angeles. There is always some new place to explore, some event to go to. I'm not saying there is nothing to do up north, but it is on a smaller scale. One saving grace is the fact that I will have people to hang out with; something I didn't have here (other than Yano, of course).

What will I miss the most?

Sunsets on the beach.

Adventures around the city. 

The buildings downtown. 

No. What I will miss the most is spending time with my brother. 

We have the best conversations about...well everything. He has gotten me into the world of comics and in turn I have made him a fan of the Xbox360. We watched bad movies and drank a lot of beer. It was a wonderful year and a half. 

I'm not too sad though. I know I will be back to visit frequently. There is no way I am missing movies in the cemetery this summer. 

Last Days in Los Angeles

I am not very good at planning things. It's much more fun to throw out grand ideas and hope all the little details will work themselves out; which is precisely the reason why I am still in Los Angeles for another week. Since I haven't finished packing, it is probably a good thing. I mean, I could just throw all my stuff into boxes without discrimination and be done in a couple hours, but I would rather not do that.

Always true to my procrastinating ways, once I realized I had an extra week to pack, I switched to a more enjoyable task. Yes, I baked some more cupcakes. I have decided to only bake from scratch, which is great for portion control, but can be risky. The other week I made chocolate-carrot cupcakes that didn't turn out great.

Even though they looked delicious.

This time, I made sure the cupcakes weren't a failure. I found a promising recipe for lemon cupcakes here. The recipe called for buttermilk, which I didn't have on hand and really didn't want to go to the store for. After a quick search I found you can substitute it with a milk-lemon juice concoction. Who knew?

These lemon cupcakes turned out amazing. They are super moist and not overpowering. I couldn't decide on what kind of frosting so I made two kinds. Both were cream cheese based. The white one is lemon flavored and the other is four fruits (which was the flavor of the jam in my fridge). After putting the strawberries on top, they were almost too pretty to eat. Almost. 

About half of my room is packed up and it's really strange to see my life in boxes. For one thing, it makes me realize what a kid I am. Everything I own is either a comic book, video game, movie, or other random novelty item. Who wants to grow up anyway?

Not if it means I can't have glow-in-the-dark zombies. 

I know I should finish packing, but I can't bring myself to take everything off my walls. Leaving hasn't really hit me yet. Everything has happened so fast I haven't processed it all. I'm sure once my stuff is in the moving truck next week I will start to panic.

Hopefully it won't be too traumatic.

Dinosaurs!

I've been wanting to go to see the new dinosaur exhibit at the Natural History Museum since I moved down here. Unfortunately, it was under construction until last July. Then it was crazy crowded because, apparently, everyone loves dinosaurs as much as I do or something. Since this is probably my last weekend here, I HAD to go.

 For some reason we managed to walk in through the back of the museum and found our way to the dinosaur exhibit last. Which, in hindsight, was probably better because I wasn't nearly as excited about anything else. 

By the time we got to the dinosaurs, we only got about half way through the exhibit before we had to go to the Butterfly Pavilion for our time slot. Oh boy, I haven't seen people being so aggressive with nature like that since watching The Crocodile Hunter.

Either kids aren't used to being around butterflies in the city, or they don't quite understand the whole "look but don't touch" concept for observing nature. I felt bad for the frustrated staff and the accosted butterflies.

 We made our way back to the dinosaurs, Yano and I stopping to take pictures almost constantly (his are much better than mine). I couldn't decide which dinosaur I had a bigger crush on; the magnificent Parasarolophus or mighty Tyrannosaurus.

It was definitely a toss up.

Seriously, look how awesome they are. 

This was the best adventure to have before I move back up north. Yes, there are museums in San Francisco, but I am trying to do all the things I wanted to do before I leave. So after we had worked up quite the appetite walking around the complicated layout of the museum, I suggested we go somewhere new to eat. Yano racked his brain for ideas and finally came up with a microbrewery in Silverlake.

We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into by sitting down at Good Microbrew & Grill. It started with the giant beer menu. After finally deciding, our beers showed up in giant glass goblets. I had to hold mine with both hands.

Of course we find an awesome brewery to hang out at right before I move away. Isn't that how it always works? I definitely want to come back for Mystery Beer Night one day. $3 pints!

The problem with going out to eat after not eating all day is that everything on the menu looks delicious. I decided to throw caution to the wind and order the mac 'n cheese bacon bit burger. I mean, how could I not? It combines two of my favorite foods. Yes, I can be a food monster sometimes.

It is always fun being the smallest person at the table with the largest meal. 

Changes

Well that was a rather pathetic attempt at updating regularly. It has been almost a whole month! I promise there have been multiple extremely legitimate reasons why I have fallen off the map for so long.

It started when I hopped on a train to Santa Rosa to help my sister out the last week of her pregnancy. She went into early labor the night before, so I sat on the train willing it to move faster so that I didn't miss being at the hospital when our Little Miss showed up. Luckily, she waited for me and I got there about an hour before she was born.

Welcome Lily Eileen!

Photo courtesy of Yano.

She is the most precious baby ever. I even got to name her! It only seemed fair that I would get to name my sister's firstborn since she named me.

So I missed updating that week due to running around trying to get everything ready for Lily and family to come home.

Let's see...what did I do next...

Another reason I went home was to help my mom out at work and make some extra money. Wait. I feel like I am missing something...

Oh! The reason I need extra money is because I decided to be crazy and make yet another big life change.

Yup, it is official boys and girls. I am moving back up north.

Now, before you think that I am completely irrational and impulsive, let me explain my reasoning. After moving to Los Angeles, I've sort of just been floating along without any real goals in mind. So one day after randomly finding my old acceptance letter to SF State, I decided I needed to go back to school. Finally, a goal! Since my heart was still set on the Creative Writing program at SF State, I realized I was in the wrong city.

I swear, one of these days I will settle somewhere. Maybe.

So there you have it! I have been running around trying to sort out plans to move and freaking out about making such drastic changes (again). I've been back in LA for a week now and I haven't packed a single thing. My procrastination has reached pretty epic levels.

Alcohol always helps. 

Imaginary Snow Ball Fights

As a professional baby sitter, parents pay me to hang out with their kids. It is pretty awesome (except when work is suuuper slow). I get to play with Legos, sit at the pool, build sand castles at the beach and hang out at the arcade on the Santa Monica Pier. Sometimes I wonder why more people don't work with kids, but then I realize that most people can't. They just don't have the patience.

I make money while building card houses

(made out of dinosaur flashcards)

I, on the other hand, absolutely love babysitting. I get to do all the things I do in my free time (Legos, arcade games, nonsense conversations) and get paid for it. Maybe it is because I am just a big kid trapped in an adult body. Most likely. 

The only problem with having such inconsistent work (sometimes I go an entire month without getting any gigs) is having to work extra long to compensate. I just worked 20 hours in two days. It was the twelve hour day that nearly killed me. When I came home today I was totally ready for cupcakes and beer.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. I don't normally celebrate, but since I was making cupcakes, I decide to be festive, much like on the 4th of July. 

So there shall be green frosting!

Now, after deciding to make cupcakes, I realized that I didn't have any frosting. All of my plans, ruined! Then, like a light from clouds, Yano walked in and said, "can't you make frosting?" I dragged myself over to the computer, found a recipe and realized, why yes! I can make frosting. It was a beautiful moment. 

I was inspired to make four leaf clovers out of sprinkles on top of the cupcake while mixing the ingredients together. Did you know that frosting is basically just butter and sugar? Neither did I. 

Here is the first attempt. Not so successful...

As you can see, it looked more like a green blob than a clover. *Despair* Then again, Yano saved the day by busting out his graphic designer skills and printed me some clover stencils. I learned that I am not so good at making clover stencils freehand after a couple beers. 

Behold! Less blob-like and more clover-ish cupcakes. 

And look how cute the look in my cupcake carrier. 

Also note the pirate papers (pirates celebrate St. Patrick's Day too, right?)

Happy drinking and cupcake eating, everyone!

What's Going On Here?

I started writing this post yesterday, which was also the day I forgot to wash the conditioner out of my hair and didn't notice until my hair dried all greasy on top. So needless to say I didn't get very far. It was mostly just about how I didn't know what to write about. Unfortunately this has been happening more and more. It makes me a little sad.

What have I been up to lately?

Last weekend I hitched a ride up to the Bay Area to give my friends hugs and cookies. Saturday was the busiest day. It included hiking in the hills of Oakland, going to a little bar in Hayward that served Sierra Nevada Hefeweizen on tap (which I didn't even know existed) and ended in a sleepover with two of my favorite people ever.

Old picture, but it's the only one of all three of us (smiling).

They really are the best.

This weekend started at Canters after a babysitting gig in West Hollywood. In case you don't know of this wondrous place, Canters is a restaurant/deli/bakery on Fairfax that's open 24/7.

I didn't get off work until eleven, so we decided to go since not much else is open. I have never been, despite driving past it and talking about going since I moved here. Even being half starved from not eating for eight hours, my meal defeated me. It might have been the fries.

I swear there is a sandwich under there. 

The rest of the weekend was a blur of video games (I decided to restart Final Fantasy XIII) and futile attempts at writing this blog post. It only took me two days! I almost started posting regularly (Fridays). Maybe next time. 

One last thing:

Rocksteady perler bead craft: FAIL. 

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Ever

This was the title of the recipe that my sister emailed me last week. I am always skeptical whenever there are such wild claims as this, but I figured the only way to find out was to try it out.

If you are curious, the recipe is here.

I don't have an extensive knowledge of chocolate chip cookie recipes, so I can't really say if this one is the best ever. I can say, however, that it is pretty damn good. So good, in fact, that it is now my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe.

I probably should write it on something other than scrap paper. 

From what I can gather, one of the reasons that this recipe is superior is because it calls for two different kinds of flour; bread flour and cake flour. Apparently, the bread flour makes the cookie more chewy. 

I couldn't find any cake flour at the store, but according to the internet, you can just add cornstarch to all purpose flour. For example, if your recipe calls for 2 cups of cake flour, you use 1 3/4 cups all purpose and 1/4 cup of cornstarch. An excellent thing to know for the next time I make a cake. 

The second reason (and I can't believe I've never thought of this) is because it calls for dark chocolate chips.

This recipe was especially dense. It definitely tested the limits of my little hand mixer and I started to worry when it almost stopped completely. It made me really really wish for a KitchenAid.  

I would like a purple one. 

Anyway, after nearly killing my tiny mixer, I had to do the most difficult part of the process. I had to put the cookie dough in the fridge for 24-36 hours. Ughhh.

Exactly  24 hours later (it just sort of happened, I promise I wasn't waiting around counting down the minutes) I popped the first batch into the oven. I did, however watch them bake. Now the recipe says to form the dough into balls roughly the size of golf balls and sprinkle it with salt (it activates the sweet). I decided to up it a notch by sprinkling it with sea salt.

Fellow bakers know, the first batch is usually not perfect for any slew of reasons. Not with this recipe. At exactly 23 minutes, I took the cookies out of the oven; they were perfect.

Unfortunately, due to the size, you can only bake six at a time.

I couldn't wait for them to cool, I immediately poured myself a glass of milk and broke open a cookie. Let me tell you, it might have been the best cookie I've ever eaten. It was warm and chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. It was everything a chocolate chip cookie should be.

I am officially addicted. 

So if you are looking for an excellent cookie recipe, I urge you to try this one. I couldn't find anything I didn't like about it. The website has all kinds of delicious looking recipes, including one for Boston Creme Cupcakes.

I think I've found my next baking project.