The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year??

It's Christmas time again.  Isn't weird how you are incredibly hard pressed to find one person who doesn't say "I can't believe it's already Christmas AGAIN so soon!".

It is equally a labyrinthine task to find someone, anyone, who isn't over-stressed, run down and complaining about this "wonderful time of the year".

Why do we put so much pressure on ourselves to accomplish the Herculean task of buying the perfect gift for every acquaintance, co-worker, friend and family member by the deadline December 25th or sooner depending on when one celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ collectively!!??

In a time when Christmas carols, eggnog, the smell of the cold and pine needles should reign supreme, we're busy in on line at Target at 3:00 in the morning mapping out our strategy and game plan to rip that new flat screen from the hands of the guy who got on line five minutes before we did.

What happened to the sheer excitement of it all?  The counting down the eternally long month of December on our little cardboard Advent calendars??  What happened to all of the parties and the fun of it??

Are we all just that broke that Christmas has become as insurmountable as a jaunt up Mt. Kilimanjaro?

I just want to smell the homey scent of pine needles and caramel corn and have all day to sit around in my pajamas making lists and writing Christmas cards, yet somehow I've managed year after year to turn it into an alarm clock-setting, up at dawn, plan of attack, have-to, nightmare.

Next year I'm starting in September.

For now I'll remember the real reason for the season, as they say, and realize that having too many wonderful friends and family and the ability to even buy presents is a wonderful problem to have!!

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and a very happy and, most importantly, healthy, new year!


~ Kate

Been A While :(

Sorry, ya'll.  I'm a really bad blogger, but every now and then I check in.  I'll work on it!!

This morning's 6:30am yoga class hearkened me back to an oldie [rant], but a goodie.

What's with the half-naked men at my gym!?? Is nudity necessary in public and before it's even light out!? Is that black super V that hot!? Reeeeeallly??  Your burn-out wife beater got you sweating to the point you need to strip that Kleenex-equivalent of a t-shirt off?

That's about it.  Like I said, I know I've covered this before, but it still continues and it's still gross.

OK, you get the idea ;)

Happy Monday!!

xo ~ Kate

Phenomenal = Kimbra

Innovative.  Brilliant video.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHV04eSGzAA

~ Kate

CEVICHE!!

I have nothing to rant about!!!  This ceviche was perfect.  Grrrr.  ~ Kate

Orange and Yellow

I have a bit of a expostulation with the candy makers of the world.  I LOVE love love sour candy, gummy candy, fruity candy of any kind, for that matter, but what's with the prevalence of orange candy!?  Yellow too!  Is that anyone's favorite flavor?  Sometimes it's actually banana flavor! Yuk. Everyone knows, blue, green, red and sometimes purple are the flavors of choice so why is that that most candies with multiple flavors are predominantly made up of orange and yellow?!  It's amazing.  Is it just me??  Do I have the luck of the draw that that nine times out of ten I'll reach into my bag of sour patch kids and pull out 4 orange ones and a random yellow one?  I think these bags are rigged and heavily weighted with an abundance of these unpopular colors.

I feel like someone should come up with a solution to this unsavory complication.  I remember that I always loved to eat the Crunchberries out of my Captain Crunch and sort of just tolerated the hard yellow things that used to tear up the roof of my mouth.  Then, the most wonderful thing happened!!  They came out with a cereal called "Oops!".  It was the greatest cereal ever!  ALL CRUNCHBERRIES!!!  If I'm not mistaken, another example of this idea was executed in the late eighties with the Life Savers release of the all-cherry-Life Savers-roll.

Why work for your favorite flavors?  Aren't we over the hunter/gatherer fad?  Think of the how much less food waste there would be if we actually wanted to eat every flavor.

The only negative would be that you would actually have to share the "good flavors" with your boyfriend instead of giving him all the orange ones that you didn't want anyway ;)

I <3 candy!!

~ Kate

Summer 2010??

Where the HECK is the Summer weather?? I say this amidst the last couple of days of over ninety degree weather, granted, but still.  It's basically been no warmer than room temperature since December.  Frankly, I recall a few 80 degree days at the beach in December that were better than what we've had this "Summer"!! Am I actually complaining about constant 69/70 degree days?  You bet I am.  Gone are the sweltering, asphalt-burning-your-feet, days when dying to get into the cold (and sometimes brown and smelly) So-Cal ocean water seems effortless and NECESSARY.  This is Los Angeles, not Seattle!!!  Why haven't I worn a single sun dress this Summer, trunked it more than one five-minute freeze session or even sat outside at night without my winter parka!??

NOT FAIR!!!, but my gripe isn't with Mother Nature.  I mean, the weather is sort of up to her not me.  Here comes the rant.....Residents of So-Cal, what are you thinking??  Why the complaining about the heat!?!  Seriously?? Come ON! We have had exactly two weekends, wait, make that, one weekend and 3 consecutive days (not a weekend) of over 70 degree, beach-worthy, weather in the past 4 or 5 months!!  We have a real Summer day once (and that doesn't always include at the beaches where it has been consistently windy, hence blown out or walled out for the past 9 months from the South Bay to Malibu) and people are actually bitching about the heat!  I can't believe it when I hear weather people on every network spewing the following garbage: "finally, some relief from the heat".  "A much needed cool down for your weekend."  Who wants a cool down for their weekend??  That's when we want to get in the water!

I love it here in California.  I always will.  I don't want to live anywhere else and honestly it can be whatever temperature it wants, but let's just love it no matter what it is.  Scratch that....LOVE it when it's hot and sunny like the post cards and not complain the rest of the time.  We could be scraping our windshields or plugging in our cars, eeeeeyikes!

Happy August.  Here's to a blazing hot Halloween ;)

~ Kate

Curb Your Dog!

I am a dog fanatic.  LOVE LOVE LOVE dogs!  I don't love, however, picking up poo.  I mean, if that's your thing, fine, but I'd say I'm not alone in my adversity to touching feces even through a plastic bag. I do it anyway.  Of course!

I love hiking and running and even walking around my neighborhood, but everywhere I go, specifically Runyon Canyon AND MY OWN STREET, have become like strolling through a litter box.  It's horrific and can't be healthy.

I am perplexed by the people who stand idly by while their pet cops a squat, wait until they've finished, and then just march on like the mess left behind is not their problem.  Gross!! Seriously!  I have experienced the conundrum of being stranded without a poop bag or anything to scoop up the mess, but I don't just leave it there.  That's when I kick into MacGyver mode and find a giant leaf or go scrounging through a bag I may be carrying for some old paper.  I have even been known to leave the scene of the crime go for a bag and come back for it.  It's gotten so bad that I am actually compelled to pick up stranger poo.

People!, haven't you seen movies like The Road, The Book of Eli, even the short-lived Luke Wilson movie that was originally title 3001 by Mike Judge that gives us a glimpse of our world when people adopt the notion that taking care of the environment even on a small scale like picking up after their pets won't affect them.

The ocean is my favorite place on the planet and all of that waste goes right into it, so try and conjure up the notion of the pool scene in Caddyshack the next time Fluffy drops one and you feel like you'll leave it just this one time.  Eiwwwww!

 ~ Kate

Keeping Up With Ever-Changing Trends!

I threw away a pair of Prada wedges six months after I bought them because I thought they were hideously out of style and would never ever come back.  Three months later, they CAME BACK, grrrrr.  I find I do this with most things.  High-waisted jeans, skinny jeans, black jeans, MOM JEANS!!  I have long since thrown away all of my slouchy, Flash Dance-esque Genera sweaters which have now been back for 3 years and haven't gone anywhere yet.  Remember pashminas?  Yeah, had twenty of those, threw them all away and have now taken to replacing them with the $5 knock-off version from the guy on the street corner in Manhattan.

They craziest part is I remember my being told when I was little about how cyclical fashion is and that it all comes back around.  I remember liking my mom's old plaid mini-skirts from the 60's when I was in high school, but what is the deal with modern trends?  It used to be that it took twenty years for something to become kitsch or retro-cool.  Now wide-leg pants with nautical buttons up the front which I would normally throw in the trash can just be shelved for about 3 months and wait their turn for Kate Moss or Sienna Miller to resurrect them and see the entire world wearing them.  Amazing!! I mean it.  Trends go in and out within 6 months time.

These days literally anything goes.  I mean, my God, the 80's has reared its ugly head again!

Here are a few wardrobe staples that I wrote down for a gorgeous friend of mine who wanted a "trendy wardrobe update", but is in her thirties and didn't want to throw her entire life's savings at a bunch of clothes that were going to be out of style in a month and were not age appropriate.

1. Black boyfriend blazer. (3/4 length sleeve is a relevant look, but better to get full-length and push up in the interest of keeping classic)


2. Distressed (you can do this yourself and save about $100 give or take) skinny jeans.

3. Worn black (faded to grey, not grey) skinny jeans.

4. Racer back burn out and soft jersey tanks (A-line or long-waisted only.  NO ribbed.  It's for no one's pleasure!)


5. Slouchy sweater, off-white, heather grey, army green or khaki/taupe.

6. Boyfriend jeans (distressed or faded).

7. Plaid button downs.  Rails (www.railsclothing.com) makes really comfy soft, great color-combo shirts like this.


8. 3/4 length sleeve black or grey leather (or pleather if you are keeping green) jacket.  Madewell has an amazing blue/grey elastic waist jacket that I LOVE.  Mike and Chris makes an amazing leather jacket.  Love all of their leather.

9. 2 or 3 girly t-shirt dresses or tunics in bold colors like purple or blue.

10. V-neck (plunging V) burnout or soft jersey (ie. Splendid or Three Dots) boyfriend T's.

11. Pencil skirt and banging pair of concealed platform nude or black heels.

12. The YSL platform sandal in natural. (see www.ysl.com/sandals) You can also find a knock-off wedge.  Great trans/seasonal shoe and color for Southern Cali.

13. Two pair of trendy t-strap sandals, simple in nude or metallic and black (flats).

14. 1 pair of white Vans (lace-up) or low-top Converse All-Stars or Black or Red Converse All-Stars.

15. 1 pair of creme or black oxford wing-tips.  (www.stevemadden.com $60 bucks!!)

16. A pair of thick black leggings or jeggings. Three Dots makes a great pair that really suck you in.

17. Short trench or rain coat.   

18. White denim is great for Summer.  (I wear it all year with navy blue.) I know, I know....



Dolce Vita on Melrose PLACE is a great place for sandals and pumps.  They also have great boots for Fall/Winter.  Very moderately priced and have great sales.

Chain Emails!!!!!

HATE THEM HATE THEM HATE THEM!!!! Do you have a friend that sends you an email (make that hundreds of emails) with the subject line: "fwd: 

fwd: fwd: fwd: fwd:...." then a thousand published email addresses, including your own!??!  Umm ever consider bcc:?  Anyway, more annoying that having my email address advertised to the free world is receiving an email that literally insists I annoy 50 of MY friends by sending this email and if I don't, my family will die or I will suffer a horrible fate, etc.  NIGHTMARE.  

I'll admit.  I am more superstitious than the average bear, but not superstitious enough to actually believe that by breaking the email chain "that has literally never been broken, don't break the chain and ruin it for the world" I will cause actual harm to myself or my loved ones, but it sort of puts it out there, you know?  It's maddening.  

I would love to hear from the sender who is usually a friend I haven't spoken to in a while, but when I excitedly open an email from said friend and realize it is actually some preachy bulls%$t or a "send this to 100 fabulous women that you know or I'll have 25 years of bad luck", it REALLY IRKS me!  I have asked to be taken off of these chains.  I have enough bad luck.  I certainly don't need the brain damage of decidedly and purposely eradicating such a chain and hence posssssssibly inviting bad luck into my already hectic world.  Thanks a million you selfish, childish, have way too much time on your hands friend of mine who should lose my email address.  

The next time you feel possessed to send me an email that says if I "read the whole thing, don't skip to the end! Send to 10 people! Don't cheat!! Don't break the chain! Make a wish and spin around four times, send your personal info and bank account, this REALLY works!" etc, pick up your phone and call me, write me an actual personal email that maybe says, oh I don't know "hi, how are you?" or write me a letter OR don't write me at all!  If my name only pops into your head when you hit the button marked "ALL" then I want to be "none".  Another productive use of your time would be to reply to your own email about writing to Microsoft who is giving away free money if you send them your bank's routing number and your social, along with your blood type and the deed to your home.  Then when you get all that free money, you can buy yourself a life!!!!  Don't break the chain!!!

xoxo ~ Kate