When we celebrated embarking upon Year 3 last year, I’d cheekily mentioned adding a blue jumbo classic bag to my collection. A blue bag did come and go this year (turns out navy is a hard color to get just right), but for this year’s anniversary entry, I thought I’d feature some of my favorite creepy crawly bags instead to mark numero cuatro.
For Year 2’s anniversary entry, I recapped the year. I can’t even begin to do that this year since it’s been a huge blur for me. Hours seem to get shorter while to-do lists get longer on a daily basis. But busy is fuel for a restless soul like me.
So as I enter Year 4 literally blogging from the road, I thank you for joining me on my trip through this thing called life. Travel and fashion are so much more fun when shared!
PS: I’m sorta thinking a matte gold gator to add to the mix… maybe for year 5 
…
Tags: anniversary, jumbo classic bag, year 4
There’s been a bit of a buzz about Ladurée opening in Manhattan last week. I keep hoping they’d think of us on the west coast as their next expansion target, but if it’s taken them over 100 years to cross the Atlantic I won’t be holding my breath. I suppose it’s still easier to get my Ladurée fix by popping into NY than Paris though.
But that’s not to say that other people haven’t tried their hands at the macaron game. Right here in Old Town Pasadena (and also Beverly Hills) we have Lette, which offers a smaller selection.
My first tries include violet cassis, lychee (seasonal), and coffee:
I can’t exactly say Lette has cured my love for Ladurée, but the lychee one was quite beautifully done.
So…who wants to go to Paris with me ?
Some of you are probably winding down your extended Labor Day weekend by the time I post this entry–and I really meant to publish this last Saturday morning–but as it turns out I’ve been laboring in L.A. the whole time, tidying up some contracts before my upcoming trip. No rest for the wicked as they say…but how can anyone be all work and no play in as great a playground as Los Angeles?
On a last minute whim I managed to spend a fun evening this weekend at the Hollywood Bowl with the rest of the Angelenos who made the trek up the hill then down the stairs into the amphitheater with their picnic baskets/bags in hand…
to enjoy dining al fresco under the fading sun…
From a high enough vantage point you could see the Hollywood sign behind the amphitheater’s shell. It was 80s music night and on the roster were Berlin, the Fixx, B-52s, and the Human League. The Fixx was the opening act for the first concert (remember Flock of Seagulls?) I ever attended when I was 13 or so, and they still rock now all these years later. I guess once a rock star, always a rock star. My least favorite band (B-52s) actually rocked the house (of 18,000 strong) down…
though that’s easy to do since by the time they made their appearance, half the crowd was already high and wasted and the other half was flying from second hand smoke. The guy to my left, slurring over his beer, told me I looked too young to know all the lyrics. Heck, if it takes a drunk guy to get that kind of compliment these days, I’ll have to go out to these concerts more often!
I have to say, as much as I don’t get the B-52’s music then or now, their one song Roam basically sums up my blog. But c’mon folks, we were all there for the one song that the final act, the Human League, finally got around to playing…
You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar
When I met you
I picked you out, I shook you up, and turned you around
Turned you into someone new…
Aaaahhhh, I can still hear the 18,000 voices singing along in my head now. Have a good week, everyone!
Tags: B-52s, Berlin, Hollywood Bowl, Human League, the Fixx
I love the 4th of July because even the moniker “Independence Day” is such a call to action. The legacy of this young country that I now embrace as my own is that we get to take freedom as a given. Every day that we wake up, freedom awaits us. There’s no greater luxury than that.
Not that it should ever be taken for granted, but the very fact that we do feel somewhat entitled to freedom while going about with our lives, unhindered by having to watch what we say or do as if our lives depended on our actions, is a true testament to all the sacrifices that have been made for our independence. So on this day, I’m going to celebrate my freedom as if my life depended on it .
Happy 4th of July everyone!
So all this shopping chatter has really gotten my appetite going. Once the eyes are stimulated by fashion candy, the belly follows suit and all I crave is some really good VN food. Or a sinful chocolate cake. The former reminds me of one of the spectacular meals (that my mom didn’t make, though she knows how to crank this dish out quite well herself) that I had with my parents in Dallas days ago. It was at an almost-hole-in-the-wall place that specialized in cá nướng, or grilled whole fish. My dad refuses to eat catfish–and if i tell you the reason why, you will also stop eating it–so my mom had called ahead and ordered the smallest fish they had for just herself and me.
And my oh my, when the fish arrived, my eyes jumped out of their sockets. The fish was the size of the state of Delaware. This was small??
Anyway, you’ve seen my posts before about how to roll the fish…
After 4 rolls or so, you feel like you might die. But it’s a pretty light meal and that feeling of bloatedness won’t last…it’s just grilled fish and tons of veggies and herbs. Now I may be biased, but I think VN cooking makes the best diet in the world–healthy, fresh, and so rich in flavor. If you have never tasted it, do it at least once in your life. Your tummy will thank you for it.
Look at my dad, a product of 70 years of eating VN food. The proof is in the pudding (or phở)!
I can only hope to look this good in my 7th decade. Without botox. Or the knife.
Tags: Cá Nướng, grilled fish, phở
