I’m spent. Totally drained. And I desperately need a day off.

Friday
Friday night I came home from work and baked a couple dozen cupcakes for Randi’s surprise bridal shower. After I cleaned up the kitchen, I got into bed to watch TV and promptly fell asleep with the TV on (something I rarely do).

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up to my alarm at 9:00 (too early for a Saturday if you ask me), then headed over to Nina and Will’s for the shower. All of the guests were there enjoying mimosas (alcohol at 11:00 a.m. was exactly what I needed) before Randi and Michael were due to arrive (under the premise that they were having brunch with Nina and Will), and when Randi walked in and began realizing the people in the room were her friends, the look on her face was priceless.

The shower was a lot of fun. The cupcakes were a huge hit, I got a chance to catch up with Nanette, Randi and Michael are just awesome together, and I’m looking forward to celebrating with them at their wedding in a few weeks.

Right after the shower, I got my eyebrows done, stopped at the hardware store for new fluorescent tube bulbs for my bathroom, then came home and futzed with the light for about an hour before giving up and wondering whose husband I could bribe with cupcakes to come over and help me. (Turns out my building manager says I need an electrician, so scratch the bribery thing.)

Once I admitted defeat, I got ready and headed over to Jen’s friend’s house where I met up with more people and chatted over wine. We then walked over to Cobras & Matadors (the new location on La Brea) and had a super fun and incredibly yummy meal (and more wine) and managed to totally embarrass Jen with a birthday cake and an entire restaurant of people singing Happy Birthday. It was a fun night, and I’m glad I was able to be part of Jen’s birthday celebration.

Sunday
I slept in until 10:30 and was beyond thrilled! The rest of the day has been spent running errands, going to the market, and catching up on bills, laundry, and cleaning.

I think I hear my sofa calling my name now. And don’t forget–Sunset Tan’s new season begins tonight. Oh come on, you watch it too.

Can anyone recommend where to get cute khakis? The ones I’ve been trying on kinda suck.
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I noticed that the earthquake IM screen shot I posted on Flickr had close to 1000 hits, and when I looked in my stats, found out it had been linked to by a USA Today blog. Kinda cool.
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Last night, Ryan, one of my best friends from college, was in town for business. He came over and we walked to Vivoli where we had a delicious dinner and caught up for more than three hours then came back to my apartment and talked some more. He’s spending the next couple of days in the Valley visiting old fraternity brothers, but if he sticks around for the weekend, we’re definitely going to get together again. While we chatted, we realized that although we’ve kept in touch via email and Facebook and such, the last time we saw each other in person was 10 years ago. Insane! We made a promise to not let that happen again.
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In TV news, what a crappy episode of The Mole (is anyone else still watching, or am I alone?). And Adam from The Next Food Network Star got his own show. Huh? He didn’t win. Also, I haven’t watched Project Runway yet so please no spoilers.
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In NetFlix news, I cried my way through The Kite Runner which was just as good as the book (total rarity). Next up, A Lawyer Walks into a Bar, a documentary about the legal system that follows six prospective attorneys getting ready for the bar.
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Have I mentioned how crazy busy work is? Oh, I have, huh? Well, it is absolutely nuts. And to top it off, a week from tomorrow I’ll know if I’ll have a job. Yeah, no stress.
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This weekend, aside from visiting a pastry school (yep, I’m finally doing it!), I have nothing planned. Absolutely nothing. I am so excited. Wow, I feel old.
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That’s it. I’ve been really busy and haven’t been jotting stuff down for my Thursday post. Sorry.
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This week’s question: What bad habit of your own would you like to change?

Friday
Came home, ate dinner, got bored, and made candied peanuts. Watched the Olympic opening ceremony while catching up on my Scrabulous and Scrabble games then went to sleep. God I’m boring.

Saturday
Went to Pasadena to take a tour of the California School of Culinary Arts. (Side note: I thought I was just going for a tour, but I had to take a 30-question, eight minute “quiz” and apparently I rocked it.) I fell in love with the Le Cordon Bleu Program and want to go to pastry school. And I realized that if I do get let go this Friday, it might not be such a horrible thing–I could go to school full time!

After the visit to the school, I came home and watched some of the Olympics and before I knew it, Jen and her friend were picking me up so we could head over to the Hollywood Forever cemetery for a Cinespia screening of Sixteen Candles. Yes, they show movies on the side of the mausoleum at the cemetery. But more importantly, JAKE RYAN! I realized the last thing I had seen Michael Schoeffling in was Mermaids, so I Googled him and according to Wikipedia, he is married with teenagers and makes furniture. Wow, not what I was expecting. Anyway, the movie was really fun, we brought food and cupcakes from Toast, and while waiting in line, I bumped into everyone’s friend (and my sister’s former boss), Drew.

Sunday
Slept in then went shopping in search of a dress to wear to a couple of weddings in the next few weeks. After trying on a ton of dresses (which by the way, isn’t easy to do when you stupidly go alone and have no one to help you with the zipper), I decided on this one. I asked the guy at Banana what color shoes to wear with it (I suck at this stuff), and he told me black. I knew that was wrong so I went to Nine West, and the salesgirl there told me gold. Still not convinced, I went to Macys, and was told “gun metal.” Huh? It’s kinda like a greyish silver. Incidentally, gun metal is very similar to the color shoe Banana shows with the dress on their website. So, gun metal it is.

Knowing I would need some sustenance for shoe shopping, I stopped at Boule for a macaron (or two, they are tiny) then tried a bunch of shoe stores and came home shoe-less and frustrated. Help! Where do I buy gun metal-ish colored sandals in August?

Now I’m going to search online while watching more of the Olympics. How great is Tivo when it comes to watching the Olympics? I can fast forward through beach volleyball and basketball and just watch swimming and gymnastics. I love it!
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In other news, I am honored to have been asked to be a witness for Randi and Michael’s ketubah signing! Unfortunately, I don’t think I’ve written my name in Hebrew since my bat mitzvah–I’m going to need to find someone to write it out so I can practice, otherwise my handwriting will look like a kid’s. Can anyone help?

How stupid was The Mole finale? Lame. I only watched the beginning to see who won, then it was back to staying up entirely too late for a work night to watch the Olympics. Speaking of which–how awesome are they? Back when I lived in Michigan, I swam regularly and watching all the races now makes me miss it so much. I think I may need to find a pool. In other TV news, I love Project Runway still.

In other Olympic news, did you notice the ads for the official Olympic soundtrack? Random. Also, did I ever mention my parents took us to the ‘84 Olympics in LA, when we were still living in Michigan? I hope I can go again at some point.
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In work news, tomorrow is the day I find out whether or not I still have a job, and if I do still have one, how much longer I’ll have it. Should be interesting.
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In dating news, I had a date the other night. He is very nice, funny, a gentleman, and cute, but he a bit of a past (uh, a very recent past and no I’m not blogging specifics) that makes me think he probably doesn’t have longterm potential. And even worse than his past is that fact that HE DOESN’T EAT SWEETS. But, being as I am giving everyone a chance, (sometimes too much of a chance) if he calls, I would go out with him again.
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Thank you to everyone who gave me shoe suggestions! I’m going to order a few pair from Zappos hopefully tonight and try to hit Nordstrom (The Grove or Westside Pavilion, is one better than the other?) over the weekend.
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I had a horribly disappointing baking failure this week. I found an incredible sounding recipe for a chocolate cake with caramel fleur de sel filling and chocolate ganache. Yum, right? Well, I’ll never know! All was going well until I went to lift the bottom half of the first cake (you have to cut it in half horizontally so you end up with four layers from two cakes) and it was COMPLETELY STUCK to the cooling rack. I tried to patch it back together but it was ugly and bumpy and just a terrible disaster. Sigh.
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This week’s question: What Olympic events/people/whatever are you enjoying the most?

Friday
Came home, ate dinner and watched more Olympics (what else is new, right?), straightened up a bit, did laundry, then fell asleep in the middle of 20/20. Why yes, I am a nerd.

Saturday
Slept in! Then headed out to the Valley for a haircut/color and mini/pedi and rushed home. Got ready to go for dinner with He Who Does Not Eat Sweets (HWDNES). We saw The Neighbor at the Laemmle then went for sushi at Sushi Dan and I had a surprisingly fun time. When we finished dinner, he asked me what we should do next; I suggested bowling, he suggested Vegas. (We ended watching part of a movie and talking at my house.) Uhh. I told him there was no way I was driving four hours to the desert with someone I’ve only met twice. On the way to the restroom, I jokingly told him if he could find flights, I’d consider it. When I got back he told me he checked out the flights but there weren’t any more until 6:00 a.m. Yeah, he was serious. At that point I told him I’d take a rain check.

Anyway, like I said, I had a fun time. Apparently he’s been making some major life changes this year in regards to his health and personal well being, so that’s a good sign. He’s fun to hang out with and who knows where this may or may not lead. Possibly to Vegas. Hah. We exchanged a few text messages today about possibly getting together later but he took a meeting and I am so exhausted I can barely keep my eyes open, so it’s unlikely that will happen.

Sunday
Slept in, but didn’t get a lot of sleep then started my great pewter/silver/gold shoe search. I went to one of my least favorite places in all of LA, The Grove, and found nothing. Nordstrom had only a few pair of metallic shoes under $300 (!), and none of them were what I was looking for. To make myself feel better, I went to the Gap and bought two pair of pants and a t-shirt, checked out a few more stores, bought a baby shower gift, then went to DSW and Off Broadway (a few more options, but nothing in a 10, waah). After that I bought three pair of potential shoes on Zappos and DSW.com, hit the grocery store, and in a minute, I’m going to hit my couch.
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In job news, I am employed through March 31. Between now and then, I can obtain a new position within the new company and stay with them indefinitely. If that does not happen, I can collect severance and be on my way (to pastry school). Unfortunately, not all of my coworkers are in this fortunate situation and it sucks. Big time sucks.

And in weird news, I decided to sign up for a month of Jdate because I apparently like to torture myself, and one of the emails I had waiting for me had the subject line of Blog Girl and the body said, Your blog is not boring! . So uh, hi Jdate guy. And this is why I stopped writing about Jdates.

Does anyone know how to make it so that all text messages from the same person remain one message rather than individual ones on the Blackberry? I can’t figure out how to do that.
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In dating news, I have a very normal and fun sounding Jdate next week. Speaking of Jdate, has anyone seen these t-shirts before? Hysterical. In other dating news, HWDNES is out of the picture. Next time I question my instincts, I will remember to not ignore the bright red mammoth sized flags screaming at me.
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In work news, I had a conversation with someone from the new company and told them about my interest in going to pastry school. Yep, it’s sorta official now and I’m hoping to start classes in April. I’m stoked but I’m also slightly freaking out about the money.
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I’m not sure what happened, but in the past couple of weeks pretty much all of my high school graduating class has joined Facebook and I now have ten billion friends I haven’t spoken to since my 10-year reunion. This also means that now whenever I log onto Facebook I am greeted by five billion pictures of engagement rings, weddings, babies, and kids. Blah.
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My Zappos shoes arrived two days after I ordered them. Quite impressive! And the DSW ones the day after that, not bad! I’m going to try everything on this weekend and decide which pair I’m keeping.
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In TV news, I’ve been slacking on watching the Olympics–I guess I was only interested in gymnastics and swimming. However, what an awesome episode of Project Runway, was it not? I think I want Joe to win, he’s consistently good and seems like a nice guy. Also, I will admit I watched The Hills and am still not sure whether Audrina or Lo is the bigger bitch. Thoughts, on any TV?
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This week’s question: What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you, regarding absolutely anything?

After all of my busy weekends, I was really looking forward to relaxing and getting stuff done this weekend. I am happy to say that I accomplished most of what I wanted to do! I:

• Spent Friday night being a lazy bum.
• Slept until 10:45 on Saturday, and woke up to the most bizarre dream (nightmare?) involving HWDNES.
• Went to the dry cleaners and somehow got into a conversation with the owner about weddings and my singledom, and was told, “You 34? You have to marry soon.” Nice. Everyone is concerned about my marital status, isn’t that kind of them? Not really.
• Went to the bank and drugstore where no one cared that I was sans ring. Yay for Bank of America and CVS! Or something.
• Got spray tanned. What an experience and I don’t even want to know how many chemicals I inhaled while attempting to hold my breath for the 45 second spray. My skin is pretty much still white, but my knee caps are a little tan. Not exactly the look I was going for.
• Did laundry.
• Bought a necklace and a shawl for the dress I’m wearing to Randi’s wedding next week. Now I just need a cute purse and I’ll be all set.
• Watched half of A Lawyer Walks Into a Bar when the DVD stopped working. This is the first bad DVD I’ve ever had from Netflix.
• Went to Nanette’s baby shower. Had a blast chatting with her super sweet friends while avoiding the biggest flying beetle-ish thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Nanette looks so cute and I can’t wait to meet the baby! Also, I must point out Jenn made the best desserts and favors ever ever ever.

Now I’m going to attempt to make a pizza, using Trader Joe’s pizza dough and sauce and lots of veggies. Yum.
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In other news, I have a Jdate tomorrow night and he does eat sweets. Think good thoughts.

For those of you following along at home, I ended up buying these silver shoes (Jessica and Marissa, do you approve?) and I love them and can’t wait to wear them. And, they’re only a 2 1/4″ heel so a) I won’t tower over everyone and b) I won’t fall on my ass.
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My Jdate was…nice. He was polite, kind, and a gentleman, but we had absolutely nothing to talk about aside from our jobs, our dinner, and…traffic. And when you’re talking about traffic on a date, that’s not a good sign. I must note that the restaurant he chose–Katsuya in Hollywood– was fantastic. The service, food, and cocktails were all phenomenal. And no, we didn’t have any celebrity sightings.
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Monday morning as I was sitting at a stoplight in Beverly Hills, a huge swarm of bees surrounded my car. I am terrified of bees, and seeing dozens of them all over my windows freaked me out. Thankfully, none of them got in my car. But ugh.
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In baking news, I made Chocolate Chip Cupcake/Muffin/Cookies. They were a huge hit at the office.
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I had an allergy medicine related ENT appointment (side note: can you believe it’s been a year and a half since my tonsillectomy?) and he suggested I get a CT scan of my septum and think about getting it fixed. I made an appointment for the CT and will have my uncle read the scan, but I am in absolutely no rush to have another surgery.
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EB72 was right, this is the bug that attacked us at Nanette’s shower. At the time, the thing looked like it was the size of my head.
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Now that the Olympics are over I’ve been sleeping a lot more. Or at least trying to, when my asshole-music-blasting-drum-playing-neighbor in the building next door isn’t keeping me awake. The music and drums are so loud that I can hear it with my windows closed and I’ve left numerous polite notes but he just doesn’t care. Does anyone know how to find the building owner’s contact information so I can write a letter? It doesn’t appear they have a building manager on site or a building management company, so I can’t go that route. I’m beyond tired of coming home from work and hearing drums until 3 a.m.
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I’m taking today and tomorrow off of work (yay!) and am heading down to SD at some point for the long weekend. I hope everyone has a great one!
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This week’s question: If you had to choose between eating only green colored foods for an entire year or going without Internet for four months, which would you choose and why?