This pretty much sums it up:

I suppose in all fairness, I should explain that was in the Valley, where I volunteered at the Big Brothers Big Sisters booth at the Israel Festival. (Where, in typical Israeli fashion, the first word anyone said to me was slicha as they whacked me with their bag.) When I got back to Hollywood, the temperature was “only” 95. Summer hasn’t even started and I’m already over it.

In other news, when I wasn’t outside sweating like mad, I organized my linen closet, cleaned, talked to a Jdate boy on the phone, did laundry, ran a million errands, made a nice dent in my sofa, and went to Target and Angelina’s (best frozen yogurt!) with my sister.

And now I have to return to the couch to finish watching a Lifetime movie about a detective who is investigating the murder of her pregnant sister. There is also another pregnant woman, and I have a feeling the detective’s brother-in-law is the father of that baby too. But I missed the first 10 minutes so perhaps that was already explained and I’m way off. We shall see.

Saw a really good show at UCB with Karrin. Unfortunately, one of the stars, Jeff Garlin, was super out of it (drunk? high?). Went to the beach with Jen. Went to Milk with my sister and had some really yummy desserts.

Spent a long weekend in San Diego where I baked a gazillion Passover desserts and spent time with family and friends and went to seders. Had brunch with Julie (who is pregnant with baby number three, congratulations!) at the Shack, where we would go when we’d ditch class in high school. After Passover, went to Mozza with three fabulous women. And attended a good-bye party for a friend who is moving up north.

Speaking of friends, I learned that reading a friend’s friend’s blog may lead to reading something I didn’t really care to know. And also, that if someone is a true friend, they will help, not hurt, you. And they’d eventually get around to responding to an IM.

Got my candy swap package! Speaking of candy, anyone know where you can buy Pineapple Lumps in the U.S.? Had a marshmallow recipe failure. Had much more success with flourless chocolate-walnut cookies and chocolate chip sour cream pound cake.

Got a couple of texts and phone calls from the Brit all promising “I’ll call you” and/or “we’ll get together soon” just before he got hit by The Bus. Learned I am capable of not obsessing and not driving myself crazy with thoughts of “will he call?” and more importantly, that if he doesn’t call, amazingly, the world won’t end. More recently, went on a few dates, including a second one at the Getty (where the weather was gorgeous and the date was eh). Also, had a fun first date with yet another unemployed writer.

Received a letter from XM Radio saying if I sign up for automatic debit (for an annual subscription, weird, yes I know) I would get a $12.95 credit to my account. So, my $77 a year subscription just went down to $64.05. Not bad, huh?

Got back into exercising regularly and eating well and, with a little help from Passover, lost a few pounds.

Had a really bad four days where I tried to limit my crying to while in the shower only. Entertained the idea of going to pastry school. Thought about moving to San Diego once things filter out at work; more on that later. Speaking of work, remember that crazy deadline I had a couple of months ago? Currently going through it again, this time for first quarter 2008; not fun.

Realized that some of my blog readers are fabulous people who actually care about me; learned some of my blog readers think I am selfish for not blogging. And also, there is a plugin that will automatically upgrade Wordpress and it is awesome. And as a bonus, did you know you can now post videos to Flickr?
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Yes, I know, random stuff, totally out of order, and not very detailed. And of course, it’s only some of what I’ve been up to. The last month has provided a lot of introspection as well as re-evaluation of a friendship. And blog-wise, I was surprised to find that I didn’t miss blogging as much as I thought I would. I’m not sure if that means I needed a break, or perhaps this blog has lived its life. I guess we’ll see.

It’s 3:30 and I’m still in my pajamas if that’s any indication of what my weekend was like. Here are the boring details:

• Got out of work three hours early then proceeded to sit in more traffic than during rush hour on a regular workday.
• Spent entirely too much time fighting with a crazy woman online who eventually got herself banned from a cupcake discussion board.
• Went to the market and found tons of new Passover stuff and bought boxes of matzo cake meal for my mom as her local store in Del Mar doesn’t carry it.
• Made Hamantaschen.
• Got canceled on by my Little again, this time because she’s sick. I’m beginning to think I’m just not cool enough for her anymore.
• Caught up with Jen over salads at Tender Greens. We had planned to go to Akasha but apparently they aren’t serving lunch on Saturdays yet. Whoops.
• Hit the sale at Banana Republic and got some cute tops.
• Went to Target with my sister.
• Went to sleep with a horrible allergy-related headache and woke up with an even worse one.
• Wrote most of my letter to DirecTV.
• Finally caught up with Julie.
• Finished the redesign of my baking blog. I’m having a few issues, so if you’re good with Wordpress plugins and want to help, shoot me an email please.

After two crazy busy weekends (two weekends ago I was in SD, last weekend my parents were here), I finally got to catch up on stuff and laze around and be a bum.
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In other news, if you like the original formula Coke (made with real sugar rather than corn syrup), go to your store now–Passover Coke is available, just look for the yellow caps!

Also, I ordered XM Radio for my car because my coworker found the most amazing deal–$77 for the entire year.

Happy Easter to those celebrating today!

And finally, I’m going to Vegas in less than two weeks. Woohoo!

My mom came into town Friday night then my dad drove in Saturday. It was a super busy weekend and we did a ton of eating, as evidenced below:

• Did the Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure at the Rose Bowl on Saturday with my sister and mom. Fortunately, we had beautiful walking weather–mid 60s–and the rain and wind didn’t kick in until much later in the day.
• Had yummy salads with my mom, sister, and aunt Nan at Joan’s On Third. (Side note: they have amazing green beans, I think they’re in an XO sauce! And their vanilla cupcake was just sorta eh; it reminded me a lot of Sprinkles.)
• Hung out with my family once my dad got into town.
• Had dinner with my family and aunt at The Farm.
• Had brunch with my family, aunt, and Bethany’s friend Brittany at Jinky’s, where I bumped into my neighbors.
• Hit my side mirror on the pole again. Don’t ask. Not happy.
• Went shoe shopping and to Surfas with my family.
• Fought with my mom.

Have I mentioned how cool it is that I’ve been able to see my aunt so much lately? It’s always fun spending time with her and my family.
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In other news, the Jdate profile embellisher hasn’t read my email nor logged on since he emailed me corrected his height. Also, I got brave and emailed a cool sounding guy from the same town as me in Michigan who now lives in LA and received a rejection email in return. I guess I get an A for effort, right?

My Almost Fifteen Minutes of Fame
Thursday morning I received an email via my blog from a producer at The Early Show on CBS saying that she thought I would be the perfect voice for a piece on “non-Jews on JDate with the larger story of Jewish people intermarrying in general.” Other interviewees include two non-Jewish people who use JDate, a rabbi who will offer his opinion on non-Jewish people using JDate and talk about why he thinks it is important that Jewish people marry other Jewish people, the CEO of JDate and possibly an author.

After much consideration, I turned it down for a variety of reasons, but I am anxious to watch the segment. And I referred the producer to a few people I know so there is a chance of seeing some familiar faces when it airs February 4. Stay tuned!

Date
Thursday night was date number two with The Professor. We went for Indian food in Beverly Hills. The restaurant looked really cool, but the food was just sort of eh, kinda like the night itself. The Professor is a really nice guy, but we don’t really have much in common and there is zero chemistry. It was a pleasant night, just nothing special. Oh well.

Friday
Came home from work exhausted, made dinner, watched TV, then fell asleep before 11:00. That’s it.

Saturday
Slept in then saw Juno with Karrin at the new Landmark theater at Westside Pavilion. The theater is just like the Arclight–you get an assigned seat and there are no commercials. The only somewhat sucky thing is that you can’t print your tickets at home, you have to go to a kiosk. Aside from the that, it’s a cool theater and there is a Barnes and Noble about two feet away. Anyway, the movie was awesome! It’s one of those I know I’ll end up buying and won’t get tired of watching.

Saturday night I was supposed to have dinner with my friend Hilary. While I was in the movie, she left me a voicemail saying she got a last minute invite to the SAG awards (!) and was running around the city trying to find a dress and needed to get a manicure and pedicure and all that stuff. We’re going to reschedule for a night that isn’t the eve of the only awards ceremony that people are actually attending.

Since I had the night to myself, I decided to be somewhat productive and went to the hardware store and bought a wrench so I could put my new license plates on my car. When did license plates start fastening with bolts instead of screws? Silly. As am I, because after 15 minutes, I still couldn’t figure out how to put the stupid plates on. A new (and cute) neighbor offered his help, and even between the two of us, we couldn’t figure it out. Finally, after stepping away and coming back, I got it. All by myself.

It should also be noted that my new neighbor’s car, as well as two other cars in the garage, got broken into around midnight on Friday. The really bummer part is that the break-ins could possibly have been prevented as a bunch of us called our building manager numerous times during the past week to tell him the garage wouldn’t close. For whatever reason, he never got around to fixing it. Miraculously, he was able to fix it around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday; go figure. I felt really badly for my new neighbor (who by the way, is a writer from NY), as he just moved in a week ago.

The rest of my exciting night was spent spackling over nail holes in the wall (a 101 in 1001 item), browsing the new cookbook I bought earlier in the day, and watching TV and hoping the power wouldn’t get knocked out because of the crazy winds.

Sunday
Slept in yet again then went into the garage to do laundry and bumped into the new neighbor while I was in my pajamas with my hair in a ponytail and no makeup on. Figures. The majority of the day was spent on the couch (watching horrible shows such as something on a DirecTV channel about three girls who go on a road trip to meet people from online, yes seriously, as well as a show about a bridal boutique) in said pajamas, until about 4:00 when I decided it might be a good time to actually take a shower.

That night, Jami, Jenn, and Nanette ditched their husbands (and kids) for dinner and drinks at Simon LA. We all ordered (side note: it’s crazy dark in that place, good luck reading the menu) off the Dine LA menu–can you guess which dessert I chose? The service and food (appetizer, entree, dessert) were both outstanding, as was the company. It was so much fun to talk to a group of girls about fondant and baking and really horrible reality TV and it was a really lovely night. Nanette took pictures of everything we ate, so stay tuned for a link shortly. And Jenn sent us home with goodie bags of homemade mini donuts that are the cutest thing I’ve seen in quite a while!
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Also over the weekend, I found myself at three different grocery stores in search of Kraft Caramel Bits. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find them anywhere and am beginning to wonder if they’re not available on the west coast. Has anyone seen these at their market? If so, where do you live, and would you possibly want to mail me some?

My weekend actually began Thursday night when I met up with Kristin and Tamara (a fellow LA blogger whom I had never read before, but am now so glad I met!) at Edendale Grill in Silver Lake (Silverlake? I never know which way to spell it.) for martinis, martinis, and more martinis. Kristin was in town for business, and after getting to know each other via our blogs for the past four years, it was really great meeting her. She is just as sweet and fun in person as she is on her blog. And as we sat outside sipping martinis in the 50 degree weather on the patio near the heat lamps, Tamara and I in our jackets and Kristin sans one, I couldn’t help but laugh when she called our freezing cold weather “warm and balmy.” But I won’t hold that against her, especially because within her first hour of being in LA, her rental car broke down on the 405 and she had to deal with the asshats on the freeway. What a “welcome to LA” moment; at least things could only get better from there!

Friday I left the office and headed straight to everyone’s dream–a very empty Target. It was so nice to stroll through the aisles and not have kids running all over the place, or have to wait in a huge line to pay. I also happened upon a really inexpensive piece of art to hang in my kitchen. I love it in all of its cheesy glory. After Target, I hung my “art,” had sushi delivered, and scraped wax off of my menorah while watching bad reality TV.

I also had to search my apartment in order to find a piece of paperwork that allows me to make medical decisions for my Little while she is with me. (I was taking her Disneyland the following day, and it was one of those things I felt I should have, just in case. And it is now in my wallet, where it should be.) Aren’t you jealous your evening wasn’t as exciting as mine?

The next morning, I woke up right after the sun, packed some snacks, and picked my Little up and headed off to Disneyland. Amazingly, there was no traffic so the ride there was uneventful, save for me wanting to shoot someone after listening to about half a dozen Kelly Clarkson songs. When my Little is in the car, she somehow gains control of the radio.

Disneyland was a lot of fun, albeit expensive even with free passes (given to me by my airplane friend Hilary): Parking was $11, lunch (burgers and fries and sodas) was $20, dinner (skewers–who knew? and drinks) was also $20, and dessert (ice cream sundaes) was $10. Fortunately, I did a good job of packing snacks so the only extra thing we bought was $3 cotton candy. I don’t know why I felt the need to share that with you, I’m sure you don’t really care. So anyway…

Like I mentioned before, I had not been to Disneyland since college, and I have to say, the fast pass thing is amazing–no more having to wait two hours for rides! Except that Matterhorn didn’t offer a fast pass which ended up being alright since the line was only 30 minutes, but the new submarine ride was two hours and neither of us felt like waiting for that. We also didn’t get a chance to go on Space Mountain because when we arrived at our fast pass time, the ride was closed “for repairs.” Uhh yeah.

To wax nostalgic for just a moment, the minute I walked into Disneyland, I had a flood of emotions. I remembered going to the park in high school with Julie, Marisa, and Josh, all of us wearing high school sweatshirts and having a blast. And I remembered my first visit there with The Ex, and getting caught in a downpour and wearing yellow ponchos and walking around with soaking wet shoes. Then I remembered my last visit there with The Ex, and his horrible fraternity formal and us fighting and breaking up and getting back together. Thankfully, I have new memories, even if they do include a 14-year-old asking me, “Was the Pirates of the Caribbean ride the same back in the day?”

Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30 and couldn’t fall back asleep even though I was thoroughly exhausted. I watched TV then decided to throw some laundry in, and by 11:00 I had already done four loads and cleaned my apartment. I saw my sister briefly, then ran errands. Now my eyes are beginning to close and I’m quickly fading so I think it’s time to take a short nap. I wish I didn’t have to work tomorrow.
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In boy news, The Professor and I are going out next week, The Googler appears to be the latest victim of the The Bus, and there is a possible setup in the near future.

Friday
Came home from work and fought with my neighbors for the washing machines. Who knew Friday nights were so popular for laundry? Did a couple of loads, had dinner, and watched my new favorite horrible reality show, Miss America Reality Check. I still don’t exactly get the whole point of the show, it’s not like they’re picking Miss America, so why is it on?

Saturday
Slept in then headed out to the Valley for a mani/pedi and hair cut and color. I chopped off another two inches (!) and went darker. My natural color is close to black, and while I don’t want to go there, I was just getting tired of the light brown with blond highlights. I’m still getting used to it.

That evening, Jen and I had dinner, saw P.S. I Love You, and went for drinks. The movie was good, but of course, nowhere as good as the book. I think I cried throughout the entire book, and only found myself tearing up twice during the movie. And Jeffrey Dean Morgan with an Irish accent? Sucked.

Sunday
Slept in again then ran errands, including one that crossed something off my 101 list–I finally took my jar of coins to Coinstar at the CVS in West Hollywood. The machine has an option now that if you choose a gift card (rather than cash), you get the full amount back. So, I cashed in $19.07 in coins (mostly pennies) and now have an Amazon gift certificate for that amount. Pretty cool. It should also be noted that CVS had a display of Easter candy. In January. What the fuck? The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around and cleaning.

Sunday night, I met a new Jdate guy for drinks at The Well. As luck would have it, they were closed for a private party, so I suggested The Woods instead. As we were talking about the bar, a guy in the parking garage overheard our conversation and said he worked at The Woods, and after a few minutes of chatting with him, we discovered they were opening late. Apparently the private party at The Well was for all of their employees at all four of their bars, including The Woods. Of course. So instead, we ended up at (where else?) the Cat and Fiddle down the street.

Over a few hours, we had two rounds of drinks, shared some food, and had fun and interesting conversation. At one point, I was telling him about my Little and he referred to the award I was honored with last year. I asked him how he knew about that, because I didn’t remember sharing that information with him (and my immediate thought was that he had found my blog, which I’m still not 100% sure he hasn’t, so if you’re reading, then um, hi!), and he said he Googled me (he knew my first and last name). I was more than a little surprised, and thought it was really funny that right when I give up Googling, my Jdate Googles me. The date ended with The Googler giving me a hug, and honestly, I have no idea if he is interested in going out again. I thought he was nice and funny and cute, and if he asks me out again, I would go. If he doesn’t, then at least I had a fun Jdate.

And now I need to go to bed because it’s almost midnight and I have to wake up in about six hours.

I sold my car! And bought a new one! All within a few hours!

Friday morning, I met with the buyer at her mechanic’s shop. He looked at the car and declared it a “great car” and the woman said it had great karma (hey, this is LA) and made me an offer immediately so we made plans to meet at AAA at 4:00. As soon as I got to my office, I called the Honda guy (the one I made cupcakes for a few weeks ago) and said I’m ready to buy! Of course, he had none in stock in the color and trim I wanted (black EX-L), but he went majorly out of his way to help me locate the three available in southern California and totally prepped me on what to say. (Thank you Dave!) I called the closest dealership Internet person, asked if she’d meet his quote (she did), and got the out-the-door price and told her I’d be in later than night to pick up the car. This was pretty much done by lunchtime.

Closer to 4:00, everything seemed to be going so well that I assumed the buyer would flake out or the saleswoman would try to up the price when I got to the dealership. But no! I met the buyer and her husband and son at AAA, she gave me the money, we switched over the title, I showed them how to work some stuff in the car, and then we hugged. Yes, we hugged. The woman was so nice, and after the transaction was completed, she pulled out Hanukkah gelt (chocolate coins) from her purse and said we must celebrate. I said yum, I love gelt and we did that whole oh, you’re Jewish? so am I! thing and that was it! She and her husband offered me a ride home, thanked me for making it so simple, and I thanked them. I was so relieved the whole selling process wasn’t a nightmare.

DG picked me up from AAA and drove me out to Pasadena to pick up my new car. As soon as we left Hollywood, I called the saleswoman and told her I was on my way so she had the paperwork and the car (almost) ready. When it was finally done, they even put a bow on it! (I jokingly asked the guy if I got a bow like the ones on the sales floor.) About 30 minutes after arriving at the dealership, I took DG (in my new car!) for sushi as a thank you for taking me to Pasadena in horrible Friday night traffic. Anyway, the car is awesome–it has leather, seat warmers, an ipod hookup, dual things in the front so the passenger and driver can each have the temperature the way they want, and all sorts of other fun stuff!
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In other news, I forgot to mention some super cool Hanukkah gifts. My parents gave me an awesome knife set and block which is something I have wanted forever as well as the world’s softest pajama pants from Banana. My sister gave me cake pans (which were on my 101 list) and a cookbook called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth which I cannot wait to use (is that not the most awesome name for a cookbook?). In other 101 news, this weekend marks the completion of wearing my hair curly for two weeks straight. It wasn’t so bad and I got lots of compliments on it. Go figure.

Yesterday, I had a long overdue meal at Tender Greens with Jen and her husband and finally got to catch up with them. Then I returned the second pair of tall black boots and bought two new pair (for the price of one pair that I returned to Macys)–one from Banana for $71 (I know, quite the deal!) and another for $54 from a random shoe store at Westside Pavilion. And I braved Best Buy in order to get the cable needed to hook my iPod up in my car. Also, I got three calls about my car that afternoon; of course I did.

Finally, I spent about an hour sitting in my car with the book learning how things work, and today I am trying to find more errands to run so I can drive my car some more. I really do love it.

This weekend, I:

• Took my car to Carmax and got a really low offer for it.
• Test drove the CRV at the Honda dealership and finally met in person the very nice Internet sale guy.
• Took an order for a dozen red velvet cupcakes from the Internet sales guy, went home and baked, then returned to the dealership to deliver said cupcakes. (They were for a party he was attending that night.)
• Did not buy a car because I decided I will sell my Civic on my own rather than trade it in.
• Paid for a month of Jdate then immediately regretted it.
• Listed my Civic on Craigslist.
• Spent most of Saturday in my pajamas being a total bum and catching up on emails and blogs.
• Had sushi and rented a movie Saturday night with DG. No we are not dating again, although he did kiss me which was weird. And he also offered to come over when strangers want to test drive my car.
• Got massive compliments from DG on my curls and came to the realization that I spent entirely too much time flat ironing my hair before all of our dates.
• Used the heat in my apartment for the first time in forever.
• Like an idiot, went to a super packed Target.
• Was supposed to have an outing with my Little today but was unable to get her on the phone to make plans. Of course, she responded when I emailed her on MySpace. If that wasn’t the easiest way to communicate with her, I would not be on that site. Did I mention her best friend also requested to be my friend on there? I now have five million comments from two 13 and 14 year old girls.
• Added a 101 in 1001 list to the blog.
• Added Previous Entries and Next Entries links to the bottom of the page so now you can read the entire blog (from the current post to my first ever post) in order if you’re really bored.

In other news, next weekend I’m going down to San Diego to celebrate Hanukkah with my family. Also, if I haven’t sold my car by then, my dad has graciously offered to sell it for me down there and let me swap cars with him. I can’t wait to get the new car!