'Tis the Season

I totally stole this from FCD because it's been a while since I blogged and because my pictures from dinner at Providence came out really crappy. The meal itself, however, was awesome and if you need a place to go for a special occasion I would completely recommend it. If you do go, try to get Olaf as your waiter. He's so much fun.

A Christmas Meme

Eggnog or hot chocolate? Hot chocolate, preferable spiked with a bit of Bailey's, Godiva liqueur or Frangelico.

Does Santa wrap the presents or leave them open under the tree? Wrapped. What would be the point of unwrapped gifts under a tree?

Colored lights on a tree or white? White.

Do you hang mistletoe? No.

When do you put your decorations up? The weekend before Christmas, usually in a panic after realizing that Christmas is only a week away.

What is your favorite holiday dish? Lamb curry.

Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Not anymore, but I did as a child, after returning from midnight mass.

How do you decorate your Christmas tree? I haven't put up a tree in years. :'-(

Snow: love it or hate it? Love to look at it. Hate to fall in it or drive in it.

Can you ice skate? Well, duh! Do any of you not know the answer to this one?! ;-)

What is your favorite holiday dessert? Christmas cookies.

What is your favorite holiday tradition? Having mom's appam & lamb curry for breakfast on Christmas morning and spending the day visiting various family friends.

Candy canes: yum or yuck? Yuck. I only like the mini ones.

Favorite Christmas show? A Charlie Brown Christmas, the Nutcracker ballet & Love Actually.

Totally Smurfy

Lord knows I don't really need any more cosmetics, but I couldn't help myself. I had to order a couple items from this collection (eyeshadow and lip gloss). I adored The Smurfs as a child. I would wake up early to watch it, despite the fact I am not a morning person at all. A girlfight actually broke out at my 8th birthday party over who got to read a little Smurf booklet that had come with a Smurf t-shirt I had received as a gift. And now that we have the Boomerang network I have recorded an episode here and there. I can't wait until my smurfment arrives!

A Time for Change

How can anyone possibly be uninspired today?

It is no surprise to most people who know me that I have been an Obama supporter from the beginning. I still remember the feeling of awe I had after his 2004 speech at the Democratic National Convention. I recall thinking, "This guy has a great future in politics." I didn't think the future would come so quickly however, that a mere four years later he would be Mr. President.

While today's events undoubtedly mark changes for the nation and the world, part of his inaugural address struck me instantly and has stuck with me on a personal level:

"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America."

This statement sums up how I have been feeling about 2009 so far. I stopped making resolutions a few years ago, but after the mess that 2008 was I knew that I needed to make some changes for my own sake. As much as I tried not to let it affect me, the stress I felt at work last year had physical manifestations. I ate more, slept less and had a bottle of Tylenol on my desk at all times. I started the year by coming down with the flu and closed out the year by developing bronchitis. Most of all I didn't feel like myself. Instead I felt like I was trying to fit a role of what people thought I should be like: unbending, more aggressive, harsher.

It's time for me to pick myself up, dust myself off and remake me. I need to be true to my own character, not what others want me to be. If it means rethinking my career path and how I can accomplish certain goals, then so be it. I will just need to get creative. It's time for me to take better care of myself so that I can be a better person. I want to live in the moments that make a day, rather than going through the motions. The time for change has arrived, in more ways than one.

The Joys of Facebook

Back when I graduated high school in 1993, it was a bit tougher to stay in touch with people. Unlike today's teenagers no one had cell phones and e-mail & internet usage were in their infancy. Had anyone even thought of social networking sites at that time? The combination of busy work and school schedules, along with location changes made it difficult for me to stay in touch with some of my close friends from high school. Despite the best of intentions, we drifted apart.

Over the past few months I have found some of those friends again on Facebook. And while I was glad to see all of them again and catch up with their lives via photos and messages, there was still one person "missing" in my heart. She was the girl who I would consider my best friend in high school, the one that I had kept in touch with the longest post-graduation, the one that left me thinking "I wonder what she's up to." I had done a couple FB and MySpace searches for her in the past to no avail. (I swear I'm not a stalker!) But today, there was a wonderful surprise in my Yahoo! inbox -- a message requesting that I confirm her as a friend.

With this new addition, I have now reconnected with the core group of people I spent my high school years with. I'm pretty darn stoked about it. :)

The Omnivore's One Hundred

This list has been floating around the blogosphere the past few weeks. As a self-proclaimed foodie, it would be remiss of me not to answer it myself. The concept is simple: distinguish the items that you have tried from the items that you either have not yet tried or would never try.

For my purposes I'll bold the items I've already had and mark the ones I would never try in red. There were about a dozen items that I had to look up to figure out whether or not I'd be willing to try it.

The list originated on this site.

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos Rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba Ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo Gobi (there's a really good recipe for this on the DVD of Bend it Like Beckham)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle (one of my most memorable meals in Italy: two fresh eggs sunny side up with tons of freshly shaved black truffles over it)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (but not Boones Farm I swear!)
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (there is a blackberry patch near my parents' place)
23. Foie gras (I'm going to eat as much as I can before CA's ban takes effect)
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de Leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna Cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (hasn't everyone who ever lived in SF been to a Boudin?)
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut (that hot dog from the street cart had to be topped with something)
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail Stew
41. Curried goat (didn't really care for it)
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Chivas Regal Royal Salute)
46. Fugu puffer fish
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (I'm a freak; I don't like it)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob Chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst (Sausage with curry? Sounds perfect to me.)
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail a.k.a. Escargot
79. Lapsang souchong (Type of Black Tea)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum goong
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky (I recently saw a box of Pocky Men's. The difference? It uses bittersweet chocolate. heehee.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (We will do this someday in either Napa or NY.)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (with rice for breakfast in Hawaii. And spam musubi for a snack.)
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee
100. Snake

So that's 59 items I have already had, 32 items I want to try (some more than others) and 9 items I'd never want to try unless I were under duress. Or stranded on a deserted island, on the brink of starvation. Looking at my list, I have tried all the Indian items on it. No surprise there. It also seems like I am a bit more adventurous when it comes to trying different forms of seafood as opposed to animal proteins. Do you think that's because I'm a Pisces? :-p

Past, Present, Future?

Last week, my supervisor walked into my office holding an envelope. Usually that signals something ominous, like a performance review, but instead I was presented with this pin.


It commemorates the completion of my 5th year of service to The Agency. July came and went without me even realizing that I had moved down here six years ago. So much has changed in that time. Not everything went according to the plan I had in my mind, but thankfully much of it was for the better.

Six years ago:

• I was at the start of a 2-1/2 year probationary employment period, never knowing if or when I'd be fired.
  
• I took a $10K paycut which left me barely making ends meet.
• I was in a toxic long-distance relationship.
• I had never stepped foot in a courtroom.
• I didn't know anyone in SoCal.
• I was living in an apartment that felt more like a temporary place to crash, not like home.
• I was constantly homesick.

Now:

• I have a very stable job.
• I earn a comfortable salary.
• I met and married a man who makes me laugh everyday.
• I have made good friends, both at work and outside of it.
• Not only am I comfortable in a courtroom, but there are some judges whom I truly consider friends.
• I purchased my first home.
• I have a dog again.
  

Did you notice how I didn't address my level of homesickness in the 'Now' list? ;-) That's because part of me still is homesick. It's not something I feel on a day-to-day basis like I once did. But every once in a while, especially if I haven't been up north in more than a couple months, it starts to eat at me. I feel bad that my parents are up there all alone. And as grateful as I am that I have maintained most of my friendships, I still get sad sometimes that I miss out on the random, spur of the moment meet-ups and events. I've reached the point where I can say that I have adjusted to life in SoCal, but still feel at times like I don't quite fit in here. Moving back to the bay area is probably not going to be an option in the foreseeable future. But in the meantime I can visit, hopefully more often, and appreciate my time up there.

Considering that six years ago I never even thought I'd still be down here, I'm curious to find out what the next six years will bring.

Mosaic Me

I totally copied this idea from FogCityDweller.
The Concept:
a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search.
b. Using only the first page, pick an image.
c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd's mosaic maker.

The Questions:
1. What is your first name? Ann Marie
2. What is your favorite food? Pizza
3. What high school did you go to? Lowell
4. What is your favorite color? Blue
5. Who is your celebrity crush? Johnny Depp
6. Favorite drink? Cosmopolitan (before SATC I swear!)
7. Dream vacation? Trip through Europe
8. Favorite dessert? Cake
9. What you want to be when you grow up? A traveler
10. What do you love most in life? Being with friends and loved ones
11. One word to describe you. Caring
12. Your flickr (or blog) name. Law and Disorder

Photo Credits:
1. ann marie, 2. Homemade Pizza, 3. Today LOWELL, Tomorrow THE WORLD, 4. Berlin blues, 5. La zen attitude par Johnny Depp, 6. Cosmopolitan, 7. map europe, 8. Wedding Cake Sampler, 9. traveler's notebook in flight, 10. Long journey with friends, 11. Tender Love and Care, 12. Law and Disorder