BECAUSE when I stop working, I have wonderful things to look foward to...

People ask me how I've been liking LA...and to be honest, I've quite liked my cubicle at the client and the downtown office because that's where I've spent about 85+% of the last month and change since I moved here. But here is my light at the end of the tunnel, the next couple of months are looking to be REALLY FUN/EXCITING. Here's what I'm really looking forward to doing:

1. Going to the Kate Spade outlet this weekend. I'll also be hired out as Mike's personal shopper for the day. Post and pics to follow :D

2. Family visits in mid April. IMMA BRING THEM TO CHURCH!!!! and take the twins to the beach! wowowowowowwwwwww post and pics to follow.

3. Watch Mike play in the volleyball tournament. I'm hoping for a free weekend so I can stop at a craft store for supplies bc I wanna make a fan shirt. cheesy or SO SWEET? so sweet...

4. go to prom with Mike. he hasn't asked me yet....but I'm hopeful....

5. go to a Laker's game

6. Go to a USC game!

7. FLY TO SPAIN FOR AUTUMN'S WEDDING! omgeeeeeeeeeeeee i can't even. I CANNOT!

now back to excel so I can get out at a decent hour. sigh

worked every single weekend since I came here, another saturday morning pre-commute and bf surprises me with flowers HEEEHEE! i love you honey bunny #lategram #in<3

~from me to you tired yet anticipating...
L from sunny LA

BECAUSE it takes an hr to get anywhere in LA...

whether you're driving 12 miles or 40. It'll take you about an hour to get there....Here's why:

highway bleeding...me trying to get on it.

my view every morning

my view every night

came home so late one night there wasnt a single car on the road. Oh Thank Jesus.

why....why?
L

BECAUSE I cheat...and I don't even feel bad about it...

I made it to day 4...and had dinner. The story began about a week ago.

My manager, accountant by day, health/workout guru by night, told me about a juice cleanse she did which did wonders for her skin and also helped her shed some unwanted lbs at work one day over our excel workbooks. Next thing I knew I was checking out online on Pressed Juicery's website. Come this past Monday, a carton of 6 juices were delivered to my door overnight and thus started 4 days of absolute torture.

The cleanse comes with 6 individual bottles of juices hand picked by me and delivered overnight to my door daily. They are LA based but I believe deliver nationwide via FedEx. There are 3 levels, after a brief questionnaire I landed in 2 (the 5 day one). I'm glad that I "did" it except I really didn't. I mean who was I kidding? If you knew me, you knew this was a bad idea to start...It was especially hard to stay on it when I was working past 10 every night and working in a confined room where everyone else's OT dinner smelled so incredibly mouth watering that my mouth started to, in fact, water.

So I made it to Thursday...then had Thai takeout and watched a movie with my roommates after I got home. I've never felt more hallucinatory than I did this week w/out a solid food diet...

and then this morning I did this...

and honestly I feel great that I cheated...I wish I cheated on Tuesday when I wanted to...Do I feel bad about wasting A LOT of money? sure....but you live and you learn and you give the last day's supply to your boyfriend, whom when I told how much the juice cleanse cost me, put his head in his hands and fake cried.

Mike will have to have my last day's supply HEEHEE.

my stash of empty bottles at work

Conclusion: impulsive buying is stupid and I have no self control.and I need to clean my car.

P.S. The almond milk was bomb.

Sorry but thank you Pressed...it's been an interesting week. I'm glad that's done and I'm celebrating with lunch at an all-you-can-eat Korean BBQ with bf and friends tomorrow!

All juiced out and stuff,
L

BECAUSE I wrapped up my first week here...

Here's a brain dump after my first week in LA... 

1. my client is 16 miles away. The commute's taken me up to 1.5 hrs. I prayed the entire way and still felt a bit of insanity setting in after the 50th minute. 
2. my pandora still plays ads for local businesses (ie, ones located on 57th and Lex.) 
3. I'm paying more for my car then for rent (and I lived in the east village)
4. I have to dry to drop off/pick up dry cleaning 
5. my stomach is still on east coast time although I'm no longer waking up at 4:30. but since I'm eating on west coast time, I'm having about 6 meals a day....not much different from when I was in NYC though. YUM. 

6. mike got me a bamboo plant for valentines day for our first valentines day in the same city (I'll devote a whole post about that later) AHEM. 

readers, Michael Junior; Michael Junior, my readers

6.5. I love my bamboo so much I named him Michael. I named my car Michael Jr. (Junior for short) my creativity's gone down the drain here....
7. my roommates are angels im in love with every one of them. obviously. 
8. i wish i had iphone 5 bc i need audio turn by turn. and will need it for the next 6 months. off to costco this weekend to purchase a gps. so old school 
9. trying to find my LA zocdoc. do they have one? 
10. completely ignorant about the food scene....i feel grossly incompetent in life right now. 
11. need to find LA radio stations since ill be spending my life in my car 
12. placing an amazon order for many car accessories bc see pt. 11 above 
13. cant wait to buy a red nose and reindeer antlers Christmas 2013 for my car see pt 11 
14. oh and completely unrelated but exciting news i found out: AUTUMN SET HER WEDDING DATE! mike and i are starting our flight hunt NOW. AHORA! 
15. LA office parking =$40 a day. im robbed. ROBBED. and i'm from NYC. ROBBED. 


notice that 90% of my brain dump is car-related. SIGH. stay tuned for more LA brain dump :) 

oh and HAPPY President's Day. working day for public accountants. sob.

lots of love from the WEST coast

BECAUSE there's still so much to get to in NYC...

When I think about leaving NYC, I want to just take off my socks, crawl under covers, and sob into my pillow until I pass out from dehydration and/or hysteria. one of MANY reasons why I'd burst into such an embarrassing but uncontrollable and inevitable emotional outburst is due to the fact that I can't leave all the untried restaurants behind. I mean....who has a food scene as vibrant and decadent and authentic as nyc? Let me tell you.

no. where.

not. anywhere.

And here's a spot I'm determined to try before I leave:

images from serious eats

Kiwiana

847 Union Street, Brooklyn NY 11215 (map)
718-230-3682
http://www.kiwiana-nyc.com/

http://www.yelp.com/biz/kiwiana-brooklyn

4.5 stars on yelp! looking promising!!

what are the chances I can get joy on this??

from us to you with all our love,

two best friends and lady liberty

BECAUSE I'm moving across the country in ONE weekend....

Are you chuckling? BECAUSE it's not a joke. So here's the story because I havn't had time to collect myself enough to eloquently describe to a single person yet what is happening (what my job demanded of me(again))

So iv been away on business since august 1 of LAST YEAR. I've been flying back and forth between NYC and two other states on a sun-fri(not mon-thurs) schedule. In the meantime, I've been requesting a transfer to LA for many many reasons although Mike was a big BIG one. Hi baby.

Then i was told on a monday morning(yesterday) that when I fly home this Fri night to nyc, I'll pack my stuff and be ready to start in our LA office the following monday (thats 7 days) in case I've lost you already. I listed all the reasons why that simply wasn't possible and got the start date pushed to Weds, (10 days away). I then called Mike but he was in a meeting, then my mom bc I was shocked and I still run to my mom when I'm shocked/scared/hurt/and of course hungry. Then i texted Tricia to ask if I can move in about a month and half earlier than expected then I sametimed Asher to book me a one way ticket to LA for monday, 2/11 bc after traveling for 6 months, the airlines still confuse me so much and Asher is the bestest friend ever in travel crisis and i was def having a crisis. 

Asher I love you so much. words cant describe my gratitude for all the times you patiently switched my seats to a better spot, checked me in early, and rerouted me during delays and cancellations, often before i even knew of the interruptions to my travel plans. God bless your heart.

Then I texted 2 batches of women who i thought in my shellshocked haze that might want to know that I have about 5 hrs left with them before I move across the country since i have to spend the next 3 days minus 5 hrs packing and forwarding mail and doing laundry and pay my bills...and pray and pray and pray. I've been fasting yesterday and today.....might fast some more.

By the time I left work last night, it sunk in enough for me to have the good sense to status the update on fb so I can alert just about anyone who might be interested to try to get time with people before I go. So that's all I can think of for now...24 hrs after receiving the new assignment, I'm sure i'll be answering a ton during my many meetups this coming weekend. I mean...I'll probably be back in 3 weeks to visit, just for the food alone....na'mean?

holdn onnnn holdn on to this. check it

Psalm 20:1-4

from me to you in richmond, VA and about to leave my beloved lady liberty for now,
one best friend who needs to see Joy soon.

BECAUSE here's what's on my mind...

engagements! is that kind of embarrassing? admitting in on the internet certainly is. but it is. I saw 2 of my friends married in 2012, attended 3 other weddings with Mike since we started dating, and have had about a dozen engagements come up on my newsfeed in the last 3 months alone. no exaggeration. so can you blame me?

this came up on my googlereader and i just had to share. I know I take this for granted...this meaning all the planning that goes into the surprise. I certainly wasn't expecting Mike to ask me to be his girlfriend the day he did or the way he did (see post about the day i wore my nyu tshirt), but it's certainly impressed a bunch of girlfriends from work. Thank you brothers for doing all that you do for us. We are so blessed.

In other news, still no final move date yet....if I announce leaving NYC a week before I fly, please don't hate me. Work isn't being as cooperative or decisive as I'd like... hoping people have a freed up Feb...I might need to get squeezed in last minute before a very hurried departure. and for a lack of a better up-date, here's life lately:

hotel for tax exp asso training in DC

dinner at the museum

date box from Mike

last day activity-I had to run to the table and take a picture of it(I was sitting at the TX/PA table)

bday present from mike. 

max brenner. Mike thinks it'd do well in LA, too bad ya'll don't have one. only the best in NYC, just say'n

From us to you with all our love,
Lucy in VA for work and dying to be blogging from LA soon...