FOODGASMS

**New~*FaBuLoUs*~ header courtesy of Peter Ngaou

     Everyone who knows me knows that food can sometimes bring me weak to my knees. Food is my drug. Give me basket of fries and I'll be transported to a state of eternal bliss until I'm reminded of all the calories & fat I just inhaled. Yes, I literally inhale my food. I've lost track of how many times I've burned my tongue from impatiently taking my first bite out of my fresh-off-the-stove meals. Yes, I know I should work on slowing down and really taking my time to let the different flavors overtake my taste buds with culinary delight. Well, today, I decided to do just that. I took a nice stroll down to the intersection of Food Lane and Delicious Blvd and let me tell you the scenery was beautiful beyond words.

I was at Lemonade today in Venice and was intrigued by all the different ingredients that they combine in their dishes. Many times if you were given a list of different ingredients, you wouldn't think to combine some of the food items that they do. In the end, they all complement each other in perfect harmony. Let's start off with the light blend of chicken breast cubes tossed with butternut squash, chives, grapes, and sprinkled with slivered toasted almonds. I take a bite into the juicy chicken when, low and behold, the crunch of that almond gives me that edge I like, only to be brought back down to earth with a delightful finish thanks to mr. grape. If that wasn't enough, I move on to the next treat: Israeli couscous tossed with wild mushrooms. Only this couscous is not just Israeli- he's mixed. He's got some Italian in him. Joined in the mix is a dash of Parmesan cheese & Italian parsley doused in lemon truffle. The lemon truffle gives you a nice kick, but it's ok, because I was then pampered by the next one. In the next dish, slivers of watermelon radish soaked in sesame oil joined with seared ahi tuna almost melted in my mouth. If it wasn't for the snap peas to give me something to cling on to, I might have drowned! At last, my meal wouldn't have been complete without the golden, scrumptious bundle of cauliflower coated in curry with some golden raisins and almonds once again added to the mix, bringing me back full circle. At the end of this journey at the corner of Food Lane and Delicious Blvd was an airport and my taste buds just boarded first class on Succulent Airlines. The destination? A place where all foods can live in perfect harmony. Where foods from all different parts of the world, shapes, sizes, and colors can all frolic and play together in my mouth. Grapes can mingle with squash- raisins can shake hands with cauliflower- and who said almonds can't be on the side with meat-eaters and vegetarians alike? Together, differences aside, they all somehow work. And it's beautiful. Maybe we could all learn from this.

LIVING LOCAL

I was making my way down to the coffee shop down the street from my apartment, Cacao Coffee House, taking in the slightly cool breeze in my bright red, yet comfortable sweater I got from Spain. It's times like these that really make me feel like this is my home; waking up on a lazy Saturday, putting on my most comfortable attire, and making my way to the local, artsy, hole-in-the wall coffee joint to sip on some coffee while attempting to send out more resumes.

There's something about getting to know all the nooks and crannies around my apartment that gives me a warm feeling inside. Whether it's my roommates and I stumbling into the local diner, Cafe 50's, to cure our hangovers while rocking the bed-head hair and still branded by the stamps from all the clubs and bars we hit up the night before or getting my fix of froyo from that tacky frozen yogurt joint a couple of stores down, Froplay, it's all just a hop and a skip away. 

Last night, my roommate Jess & I took a late-night stroll for some grub at another local joint, Delores'. Giggling at the awkward stories in the latest Sex Issue of LA-Weekly (Supposedly after at study at UCLA, on the top of the list of movies girls like to watch before sex, Shrek was on the list? wtf?) and having a laugh over the ridiculous pricing (4 slices of tomatoes for $2.99), I remember about 7 months ago when Vanessa, Tobit, Jess, & I all took a seat at this very same restaurant to enjoy our first late-night dinner together the first night we first moved into the townhouse. I was fresh out of college and this was all so new and exciting. I couldn't believe I was moving into my first place and starting my journey to a career.  Here I was, 7 months later in the same exact restaurant, and I feel at home. 

VALUABLE

   For a while, It was a struggle at work to feel like my hard work was being recognized. Time and time again I would have days where I felt like everyone around me was getting added on responsibility while I was one of the very few left to do all the basic tasks and essentially have others tell me what I should be working on. While we all started at the same level, I slowly began attending to these very same people. Yes I know, why was I complaining when I pretty much had the easy way out? Less responsibility means less work in an office where I wasn't even passionate about the work anyway right? Well, for some reason, I almost took offense that my boss didn't trust that I had the capabilities. Being placed below my fellow coworkers who took pride in getting through the day doing as little work as possible doesn't exactly do good for your ego. These were the people who made an effort to come in at 5:00 AM before others show up in the office so that they could take their 3 hour nap before the rest of the office began to arrive around 8:00AM. Let's just say my department and the people who make up my department are a lot like middle schoolers. You know the days where it wasn't cool to be smart and do your work and get good grades? So you can imagine not only being almost ridiculed for doing my work but also feeling as if  I'm not getting any recognition for it.

I know everyone's thinking this is supposed to be an uplifting and positive blog right? Well, you're right! Enough of the negative thoughts! That was the past and I'm happy to say I decided to take a different approach at work. In the past, I came into work day after day, looking to please others. I was waiting for praise from my boss and feeing accepted by my teammates. We spend our whole lives trying to please others. We look to our parents and want to make them proud of us. We invest a lot of time and money into working out at the gym and buying clothes and products to make ourselves presentable to the outside world. I decided that rather than working to impress other people, I was going to work for myself. I was going to do my work effectively and efficiently because that would make me happy. To know that I'm a valuable asset to the company and that I'm doing the best that I can is good enough. Sure, my job is quite boring and repetitive but at least I can say I'm proud of my daily work. At the end of the day, I can say I made my contribution to the company.

Today, especially, one small incident made me smile. Today, especially, I felt like I made my mini contribution to my department. A few weeks ago, my boss sent us an email saying that she wanted to implement an internal slogan for our department to the rest of the company. She wanted to create a tagline that summed up what our specific department represents and asked for our suggestions. I decided to give my input and a few days later we were sent all of the suggestions from other people and were told to vote on our favorite. We never heard the results and this was slipped under the rug amidst all the workload during the busiest season at the office. Well this morning, walking into the office like any other day, we all sat down to name tags above our desks and the company logo followed by, yes, the tagline that I suggested: "Creating the perfect image."Taken lightly and mainly an act to try and induce excitement and a little flair to our mundane work day, this was really nothing to be worked up over. This was simply an internal slogan which may never even catch on with the rest of the company. No one would even know that I was the one who thought up this tagline except for the few people around me who I mentioned it to when I first sat down at my desk and saw the new name tags. However, for those few seconds, I was genuinely happy. We're all valuable in some way or another whether we see it or not. As little as this was, I made my small contribution to the department. In a symbolic sense, even when I'm let go or decide to leave this company, I left my mark on this company and a small part of me will still be left behind. I can always look up and remind myself with a smile that I am truly valuable.

BLOGGING

      I must put it out there that this post isn't the ideal "first post". I was working on this really elaborate, insightful, and creative entry as my first blog post when I realized one of the reasons I decided to start writing a blog in the first place. I, personally, am not good with words and being able to put into words how I feel. Through my quest to find happiness in the little (or big) moments of my daily life, I'm also on a secondary quest to become a better writer. Not only to become a better writer, but to be more comfortable with learning how to express myself through words.  I was attempting to write this really clever entry on acceptance and making a reference to my blog title Gay Living with being sexually "gay" but also being "gay" in a happy sense and was on my way to making this profound conclusion and ended up getting lost in my own thoughts and words. Four hours and one paragraph in later, I drove myself right onto a dead-end road known as Writers Block (There, I've made my clever statement of the day) Going with my original theme of being happy about acceptance, I am happy to accept that I am not that good of a writer...yet. However, I am happy to start this blog and make my journey towards being a more effective and efficient writer. I'm happy that someday I won't have to fish for the right word and end up finally settling for a word only to lose my train of thought. I'm happy that someday I won't be staring at a blank page in front of me for hours in an attempt to finish a cover letter for a job. Most of all, I'm happy that just when I was about to give up and go to sleep, I decided to stay positive (as this blog suggests!) and realize that if I keep putting off officially starting this blog, that I'll never get this blog started because I'll never be completely satisfied with what I wrote anyway. Today, I'm happy to finally start Blogging!