Back to the Beginning

It's Memorial Day weekend, the "unofficial" "official" start of summer and I haven't posted anything since January. Typical. I could blame it on the fact that my laptop is genuinely dead now and I have to borrow Eric's, or I could blame it on working, getting used to California, or just plain laziness. But I'm not going to blame it on anything and I'm going to "get on with it."

I've been making some changes lately. I've started a "planking" challenge, where I'm stretched out on the floor on my elbows and tiptoes for a certain amount of time. At this point I'm supposed to be at a minute and a half. I can do about 46 seconds before my legs are shaking and my arms are screaming and I have to put myself back on the ground, but considering that just 16 days ago I could barely do it for 10 seconds, I think I'm making progress. I'm also doing 30 squats, 20 crunches and 10 "girl" push-ups every morning. So slowly, I'm getting into better shape, which is good. 

I'm also reading more. Eric's Mom sent me an Amazon gift card for my birthday so I was able to buy some more books and have been reading those at night and at lunchtime at work. I've always loved reading and am enjoying the fact that I am doing it more.

So now to writing more. I have issued myself another challenge. It's more of a goal than a challenge, but it will be challenging to accomplish so we'll consider it a challenge. When I started this blog things in my life were changing. I was living with someone for the first time in over 21 years and I was cooking in a kitchen that didn't have an oven. I survived that and even learned new things in the process. Now I have moved to a different state and am trying to get used to a new climate, a new grocery store, and a new job. I am learning something new every day about myself and about California. It's great. But when you move to the Los Angeles/Hollywood area...as they said in "Pretty Woman"..."everyone has a dream" and I think it's time to pursue my dream. I've been listening to podcasts a lot on the drive home from work, mostly "The Nerdist" from Chris Hardwick, "Adam Carolla" as well as "Dr. Drew," and the "WTF" podcast from Marc Maron. What I've learned from these podcasts (besides the fact that everyone in Hollywood used to have an alcohol or drug problem) is that you need to set small, realistic goals for yourself and grow from there.

So here's my goal...and one of them isn't small and realistic at all, but if I can accomplish the first one, then I'll be able to get to the second one with less trouble.  I want to cook dinner for Chris Hardwick and Benedict Cumberbatch. Now, these will be two separate dinners, and as I mentioned, cooking a meal for Hardwick will probably be a lot easier than getting Benedict Cumberbatch to have a meal with me, but it's a goal and being a stubborn Taurus, I'm going to try my best to accomplish this.

 Chris Hardwick lives in Los Angeles and is in town quite a bit. He's also monumentally busy, but he's got to eat, right? Chris has helped me in ways I'm not quite ready to get into yet, but let's just say he's been an invaluable guide to me in my personal life. I figure starting out with an email to him will be a start and probably the best way to reach him. I'd say I'd reach out to him on Twitter, but trying to invite someone to dinner in 140 characters right of the bat is a bit more of a challenge than I want to take. (He also has over 2.2 million followers.) I also know he's been eating a lot of vegetarian lately (his girlfriend is a vegetarian and she's invited to dinner as well). So that will be good. I'll start to cook more vegetarian meals for myself and Eric. Believe me, as much as I like to take pride in my cooking, I wouldn't invite over someone and have them be a guinea pig. So that's my first challenge and I'll keep you updated in the weeks to come as to whether I've gotten any response. I figure it may take me a year and I'm ok with that. One step at a time.

Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch will be the next goal as a dinner guest. I'm probably going to have to give myself 5 years for this one. But hey, at job interviews they always ask you what your long term plans are...well, this is one. I first "really" noticed Benedict on "The Graham Norton" show when he was discussing Cumberbitches and the pictures comparing him to an otter. Then I saw him in "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and the wonderful series "Sherlock" where I will admit, I developed a major crush on him. Every since I was old enough to notice guys, I've been attracted to tall men with deep voices. (Good thing Eric falls into those categories). Mr. Cumberbatch is also very busy and doesn't come to Los Angeles very often, so that will be difficult, although if I could manage it, I'd cook for him in London in a heartbeat. This one will have to be one I'll have to be careful with as well, I don't want to be considered a "stalker" and in the first year, I'll probably only try to get some contact information and send a small, introductory letter. I'm willing to take my time with this to make it happen. It probably won't, but I am determined to try.

So that's it. That's what I'm going to work on and that's what I'm going to write about. I won't promise a timeline for writing as I can't seem to keep those, but I will say I'm going to try to keep a weekly update on my progress.

Back to the beginning. It's like cooking without an oven and I've already done that.