A Great Adventure

One way to get the most out of life is

to look upon it as an adventure.

~William Feather

Short life update, Grilled Cheese love, That One Guy

Hello!

Happy...Wednesday. If I had a 9 to 5 job anymore this would be monumental 'cause it would mean it was Hump Day, or that the week was half through. As far as work goes it's Monday for me, I just got another reel of transcribing from Laurel Canyon Productions. Yay! This one may end up paying less, it's shorter. But whatever, it's money.

The Man is doing his part on it now, I work on the second half so it'll be a couple of hours before I can start. Which is fine, it's been a pretty blah day for me. I don't like this day. This fifth of May, this Cinco de Mayo, this Battle of Pueblo celebration day. Blah on that. Blah on you. But, it's better than it has been, best attitude in years actually. I thought about going downtown to Olivera Street and watching the parade, the aztec dancers, drink the margaritas. But, I don't have the energy, and I should go see my father. This is my mother's Death Day and my father should not be all alone. In six years he has only gotten crazier and, shouldn't be all alone. So we'll go to dinner later or something, I have to go find my younger sister and that's a whole other matter which may require hours of tracking I don't feel like doing right now.

SO!

Let's talk about happier stuff that happened earlier this week and of course last week cause I didn't recap about The Grilled Cheese Invitational and all it's rad-ness.

First I am gonna wind back to January, when I didn't have a computer and was doing all my blog posting (and blog reading, and other goofing off cause I had nothing better to do) from that amazingly boring temp job in Hollywood. So, I couldn't upload photos and I wanted to show you a few pretty cool ones of That One Guy. Mostly cause I need the ego boost today, but also cause I had a mild freak out last week (2 weeks ago? Fuck the old brain is starting to go...damn weed.) about my photography...and had a fit. I have since regretted said fit and am trying to convince myself again that I am capable of making a living as a photographer.

I have been pretty lazy about my own photographs since the computer died in Jan. and haven't water marked or edited at all really, these are straight out of camera...but I like them. So, there.

Also, our apartment building almost burned down when one of the microwaves upstairs caught fire, and I went to the beach with Jillian and we took pictures. Fun!

I have lots to upload, but I wanna talk grilled cheese before I forget all the damn details since I am such a procrastinator.

We had such a blast! I competed in the Karma Sutra category, but completely forgot to take a picture of my sandwich! Duh!

This year was Jim's Garden Dream, a name I made up at the last minute. I entered at the last minute cause I never got an email telling me registration was open...So without ample time to consider my endless choices I went with a sandwich my father used to make in my youth. Rye bread, sharp cheddar, tomato, onion, and DILL pickle relish and butter. YUM! It's SO freaking good. It's this weird tangy, sour, creamy taste. The rye, sharp cheddar and dill all play off each other so well, it's tangy from each one, then smooth from the cheese and sweet from the tomato. My dad's original had mustard (EW! GROSS!) and margarine, but I try not to use margarine very often cause...well, it's plastic.

There are 3 categories, Missionary (bread cheese and butter), Karma Sutra(bread, 60% cheese any other ingredients [meat, veggies, fruit, whatever] and butter) and Honey Pot (bread, cheese, any other ingredients and butter, but sweet, for desert.

I was in the middle of people with serious edge, and I had no gimmick. So I didn't win anything, and I didn't really try. I liked my sandwich, I was going to have fun, and all of that came together so beautifully.

The guy behind me was a professional chef at the Allston Yacht Club, which is on Echo Park Ave and no where near anyplace you should park a Yacht.

His sandwich was Guinness braised short ribs with horseradish mousse, grilled onions and melted feta cheese. The Man was floored.

The girls beside me were not pros I don't think, but they did make their whole grain raisin breadthemselves. With peppers that they grew at home too. Annnnnd...that's all I know about that one since they weren't very friendly with other competitors before grilling, which is fine, I just didn't get a picture or a taste.

Porkgasem had bacon, onion and cheese, these girls rocked! They were so happy to be there!

Some of the Honey Pot competitors:

Go Lakers had peanut butter, banana, mascarpone cheese, butter; and then they rolled it in cinnamon sugar. OH MY GOD! YUMMY!

Fudge You was also amazing:

Chocolate Bread (yes, I said CHOCOLATE BREAD!), a slab of homemade fudge and guerre cheese. This was surprising, the cheese was creamy, the fudge was very creamy (almost fluffy too, like thick frosting), then the salty was brought out of the cheese with all this sweet.

It was really, interesting. I was only disappointed by the chocolate bread, which was overpowered and had little flavor.

This one won best in show and best Honey Pot category:

I took this picture of a sample the lady next to us got though, she held it up for me. So, I didn't actually sample the sandwich, but I heard it was lovely. The winners look happy right?

Yay for Grilled Cheese!

I could have sworn this was Gala Darling:

I thought I knew this girl, but was so tired I didn't feel like trying to explain if it turned out I didn't know her (I know, I'm lame) so I didn't go say hi. Instead like the weirdo I am I took her picture to ask a mutual friend later...it was her!

Opera singer Rachel Staples! Hi Rachel!

More grilled cheese loving rock-tacular people:

Me, with beer:

Mmmmmmm.....Beeer.

We also ran into The Man's friend/cousin in law Scott and his lovely wife Julia. Yay for pictures taken by others drinking in beer gardens! Beer gardens rock! (Actually, on a side note I was disappointed the first time I entered one cause there was little actual garden part. Silly me, I thought we were going to drink beer in a grass and plant filled place.)

I then dragged myself to the car and dragged myself home where I fell asleep by 7:30pm.

Cheese, Led Zep and plants

♥ Happy Friday! ♥

How was your week? What's new? Are you excited for the weekend? I am! Oh oh! OH! I am so excited! I have an action packed weekend with the people I love! Yay!

Tomorrow I am competing in The Grilled Cheese Invitational at Los Angeles Center Studios! I am so stoked! I have been really broke this month, really broke. But, Life has rocked. Rocked hard.

2 weeks ago The Man and I had a blast walking up and down our ally and around our block collecting rocks for our budding little garden. We have planted Basil, Orange mint, Sage, Jalapenos, Habinaroeos, annnd...I still have my beloved Aloe, all twisted and ugly, I love my aloe. It's a story for another time however due to how epic it is. So I have scraped by and sold some crap on eBay and was able to afford my registration fee into The Grilled Cheese Invitational this year, Pictures from last year:

Sammich was Sourdough with sharp chedder, fried in butter and then covered in Kraft Parm and fried again till golden. Drool.....And hey I got to cook next to the coolest nuns ever!

I have some amazing friends who have helped me out looking for work, bought me lunch, and Richie kicked in $2 so The Man and I could go see Instinct of Aggression's last show on Wednesday. It rocked. Pictures will follow if I feel like it.

Sunday I am heading over UCLA to listen to an interview (on KLOS at 12pm Pacific time) of one of Led Zeppelin's road photographers, so excited! This will also rock. The obsession with Robert Plant continues. Hehe!

Other than that, I am slowing going over dad's pictures with photoshop...I need to up res them and am being a huge lazy ass about it. Also, the organization of my crap is getting further along...selling stuff on eBay helps. I have realized I have a lot of crap I find value in but other don't and it has been hard to just let go of some stuff...I am such a pack rat!

Now onto Friday favorites, haven't done it in a while and so if anyone cares here is what I found most amusing on the bloggy world this week (I am still catching up on reading stuff since getting the computer back up and running, so some of this stuff is a little older and you may have seen it link elsewhere, whatever, I still think it rocks.)

EDIT:

For some weird reason blogger is not letting me cut and paste links anymore...so until I figure this out no links for you! Sorry darlings...I suck. Now to go grill come practice cheese!

Have a great weekend!

-Sydney ♥

Back at it

Hi again.

Been awhile huh?

I lost that office job I had in February, actually on the Monday following that last post. I came back from spending a bunch of money on a Valentines day that didn't really require so much fuss and was fired. Nice.

It's not like I was really upset, I was uncomfortable there and the politics between the ladies that worked in the office were really bad. They all just judged each other. That coupled with the fact that it really freaked them out that 2 temps were brought in 'cause it might mean that their jobs were at stake and...the tension was thick.

After that I was doing some more transcribing for Warner Bros. again and saving toward getting this computer fixed, I hadn't had one since January when the motherboard died.

I got the new one a week before the transcribing ended. I was asked to do another season of The Closer 'cause Warner Bros. loves all those mad transcribing skills I have, and now, I am outta work again.

BUT!

I have been so happy! I had no idea how much I missed the Internet! I have just taken in as much as possible, reading, reading, reading. I am working on getting a few projects together that will make some cash and selling crap I don't want on ebay and craigslist. 2 weeks till rent is due and I am halfway there. So, although I am still not homeless it's gonna be a close call this month.

Friday Faves

Hello!
Happy Friday!

Happy Lunar New Year, Valentines Day, President's Day weekend starting Friday!

Got any cool plans? Me? I am gonna hang out, fix my home computer, and go to the movies. I am really excited for this weekend cause it's a 3 day long one. I know that doesn't mean anything for the creative self employed types, or the unfortunately unemployed types, but if you have a desk job that is less than exciting it's fantastic news! It's less than fantastic due to the fact I am a temp and will not be paid for the day I miss...but I'm still excited OK?

I am also excited that I can provide you with a list of things I have been reading, obsessing over, or drooling about.

This post from Doe Deere linked to the Wikipedia about The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and the effects Heath Ledgers death had on production, post production, and everyone involved. In short, this film was cursed, or blessed, or both. If you haven't already (it didn't do as well in the US as it did overseas) GO SEE IT NOW! It was so much better on a full size screen, your T.V. is not gonna cut it.

Former Los Angeles punk queen Alice Bag give insight and her opinion on why we should stop using the hyphenated American label.

A look at American culture, based on Facebook.

This Picture of BLONDIE! (and nerdboyfriend rocks)

Warrior Development was inspiring, I can completely relate to The Paralysis of Doing the Right Thing.

And the best one all week? The one that made me think and then re-think my life was this post by 43Folders. I have realized this is my biggest hindrance in moving forward with anything in my life. ANYTHING. All of my project are half baked and probably always will be because I care WAY too much about WAY too many things. I have to widdle that list down. It's gonna suck, I'm gonna hate it, and it's not gonna feel natural to a person with Wonder Woman I can do everything tendencies. But, it's gotta happen.

Thanks to those that continue to read this thing, I know you are out there only due to my counter at the bottom of the page, but at least your out there.

~Syd

Joann of the bus

I take great interest in the way life unfolds; the little moments in life are endlessly intriguing. I could create a whole other blog about the bus rides to and from work, and the amazing people that accompany me on said rides. I probably won't just because I am trying to work on the thousand projects that I already am so overwhelmed by I avoid.



Yesterday I got on a very late La Brea bus to find my friend Julian sleeping near the front. I giggled as I took a picture, and then nudged him to say hi. It made my morning, getting to see a friendly face on a bus in the city of Los Angeles is not all that common. But, then it happened again this morning! I was startled. I am a friendly person. If I catch you looking, I smile. I say good morning, and thank you, and hello to people. Lots of other people just don't. I can't take it personally, I ride on 2 buses that run through major arteries of this great city, and many of those people lead less than glamorous lives.



Which is why I was also intrigued to see the well put together blond walk up to my second bus stop this morning, dragging designer luggage behind her. She had a huge suitcase, train case, and purse. Her skin was perfect. She looked older than I, but you couldn't tell how old. My imitate thought was "She's traveling here (versus going someplace), cause she isn't from Los Angeles". I was right. She approached me, and asked if I had change for a five dollar bill, she just got into town last night from Chicago and was still getting used to the bus system, oh, and she also had $.35. I said I didn't think I had it, but the bus is $1.25 so I'll just give you this dollar and you'll be set. I asked where she was going from here to figure out if there was a place to get change for the bus after this one (if there was one). She thanked me, introduced herself as Joann and shook my hand, she then told me she had flown here last night, and was on her way to Palmdale to take care of her sister, niece and nephew while her sister was battling breast cancer.



Wow. This is some story. Wow, this is some woman.

The children are still young (about 8 and 9 or so...I don't remember) and it's her baby sister (in her early forties) and they are close. She wants to take the kids off her hands completely, be the wonderful funky aunt that spoils them while her sister is at ceder-sani working on getting better. She uploaded tons of kids movies to her laptop, she's gonna take them on adventures, feed them sugar, and let them be kids while their mom recovers.



I almost cried.



I was impressed she was taking public transportation to Palmdale, and hadn't rented a car. It was a long way. She said she didn't mind, it was an adventure. She had taken 6 months off work, packed up just the essentials, and since her children were in their twenties (cause this woman I found out is just over 50. 50!! She looked amazing, I wouldn't have guessed 40) and it's freezing cold and everyone is up to their eyeballs in snow in Chicago, she left. I had told her she was in for a switch, she was on her way to the desert. It was gonna be nice and warm. I told her briefly about my mom, and that what she was doing was amazing (And all of it a surprise I might add. Her sister doesn't know she is just gonna show up on her doorstep!) and that it was a very important, heartfelt way to support her sister. When I went to get off the bus, I wished her a safe and happy journey into the desert, and told her her sister would be in my thoughts. She smiled and wished me a good day.



One more story of the city that makes me grateful for the little things in life. The short, human connections are important.

Sold Soul

Well, I am off to dance again. For a woman that drives me crazy. From an office that drives me crazy.

I did it again. Sold out for the almighty dollar. It's hard when the person you live with works very little due to his choice of career and you like to eat. It sucks when you have chosen to wing it as an artist and haven't the time or inclination to work on your art due to the bullshit of the day.

And that's why I have no other words right now. Except a big old apologie to myself, cause I suck.

I sold out. Again. Sorry.

But in the spirit of the blog, I am not homeless, still haven't been homeless in a long time. Last time I couch surfed was a long time ago, so...at least I got that going for me.