blake's beluga headquarters.

oh. my. beluga.

2010-05-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

I was so stoked when Jerry stopped for a photo, even though we're way
behind schedule and trying to outrun a storm.....

sneak preview.

2010-05-28T16:16:00.000-07:00

Hello all.

My first night in Alaska was interesting. The long days throw me off. Even after a long day of traveling, it's confusing to have the sun shining at 11pm.

We made a costco run today. I'm posting quickly (for the second time....the first one I learned that you can't have text after the photos if you blog via email....) so here's what 4 flatbeds and a cart look like. All of that (plus another run) is fitting in one little boat.

That's my captain Jerry loading (super effing redneck style) into the freezer in the back of one of the two trucks it took for the first of what will be two runs.
We came in way under budget so the captain thinks we'll run out of food.

We're heading down to Seward tomorrow, then Kodiak. Then hauling over to Chignik. I don't get AT&T service in the village but the Captain is putting a phone and interwebs into the house in Chignik. So, goodbye iPhone until July. Then, it'll be hello 4th gen!

S--I miss you more than I can even tolerte thinking about.
J--I can't wait to get back to see you dance to gaga.
A--be good, you little mongrel. I love you.

me.

2010-05-28T15:38:00.000-07:00

Driving in Alaska.
Where it's not illegal to have a phone in your hand and drive.
Also, not a lot of lines on the road.
Interesting.

society.

2010-05-12T16:33:00.001-07:00

Someone on the panel I was just in at The Cable Show 2010 said: I think that blogging is what is killing society today.

Did you hear that?

DIE! DIE! DIE!

Fuck you, society.

terrified.

2010-05-11T10:23:00.000-07:00

Alright. My flight has been booked. I'm leaving May 27th at 10:30am for Alaska.
I'm downright terrified.
Once I get to Anchorage, I don't even know how I'm getting down to the village that we're fishing out of. But I guess my captain is arranging all of that.
It's going to be cold when I should be in a bikini next to Sky at a pool somewhere lovely. Like the Ace.
It's going to be lonely. I might be the only girl on my boat, although there's supposed to be another woman fishing in a different boat. And it seems like it's a close fishing community up there. Everybody helps one another and works together.

I've tasked my wonderful boyfriend with filling my new laptop with entertainment for the long summer. I'm also hoping to keep a regular blog of my adventure and put up massive posts whenever I have internet.
Hopefully I won't be too tired to write about what craziness we encounter this summer. I'm really hoping to see a moose.
I found my CyberShot and I'm working on getting my Flip up and running. (It won't charge. I got her for Christmas and it didn't even last for the whole battery before it just went black. I probably only used it a handful of times.) I really want to be able to take video while I'm up there, aside from the camera that my computer is equipped with.

I'm afraid that I'm going to be too lonely.
I'm afraid that I'm going to cry myself to sleep every night missing my puppy.
I'm afraid that I'm going to get seasick.
I'm afraid that it's going to be too hard.
I'm afraid that I'm going to fall overboard.
I'm afraid that I'll never be warm all summer.
I'm afraid that I'll look like an idiot since I've never been commercial fishing before.
I'm afraid that my puppy will be so mad at me for leaving that he won't snuggle when I'm back.
I'm afraid that I'm going to miss my human snuggles even more.

And I'm sad that I'm missing a summer with the best friends that I've ever had.

But, I'll be back. With a bit of summer to spare.
I really want to escape with S and visit the land of the food carts. AKA Portland. I'm looking forward to meeting friends that I've heard so much about. And seeing John.

Ack. When the tears start falling, it's time to end the blog post.

I love all of you.
Especially Sky. For being my number one supporter of this adventure.

the elusive sleep.

2010-04-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

I got 1.5 hours of sleep this morning. Disjointed, interrupted, terrible sleep. I didn't sleep at all the night before. The head wouldn't turn off. S got about 2.5 hours after going to bed at 4ish-am.

Here we are at 2:15am. I'm awake. I can't tell if I'm fighting the Valium that I took or the 45 minutes that it's been in my system isn't long enough. (I've never had one before.)
I was instructed to take it with a cocktail. (Not a doctor's recommendation...)

Whatever.

Could also be the big gaping hole of empty white sheet next to me for the first time in I can't remember how long.
Not even the mongrel is snuggling anymore. He's found his place at the foot of the bed where all the down covers are.

Happy Monday.

And now, back to Dancing with the Stars.
(I'm fairly certain that Pamela Anderson can do no wrong on this show.)

summertime.

2010-04-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Why does it always take so long for me to post new shit on my blog?
Well, it's been a month since my little incident with the asphalt and my arm still isn't onehundredpercent. It seems to be mostly better but I still get shocks of pain occasionally.
It just needs to be better before June. It doesn't have a choice in this matter. I HAVE to be able to go to Alaska. When am I going to get an opportunity like this again?

I can't wait to be in the freezing Alaskan waters for two whole months. Feeling that sea spray me while I'm hailing lines in. Knowing that I more resemble one of the bears on shore then a southern california summertime girl. Ugh. I can't wait.
The guys I'll be going with are truly awesome. My friend Sean just found out that he's going to have his own boat for the summer so he's really excited. We'll be fishing the same grounds as his boat too so I'll get to hang out with him on the off days.
Chignik, you better get ready for this California girl!

On another note, I'm really looking forward to this weekend. I want to be a huge de-stresser for S and make it a nice relaxing one. We're having dinner at my mum's house tonight with a bunch of friends. And then tomorrow, my roommate and I are throwing a little shindig for the little birthday girl who's turning three! Sophie.....get ready for doggie ice cream!!
Sunday, I'm sure, you'll be able to find us poolside at the Ace.

Summertime is just about here. I can feel it.

bicycles.

2010-03-21T20:29:00.000-07:00

Stay on top of them while they're moving.
Please.
I had my first spill yesterday. I shouldn't have been riding at all. My brain was in a complete different place and I wasn't feeling well.
Now I know.
Now I know to not ride when I'm really not feeling it.
Terrible things happen.
We were stopping at the intersection of Portola and El Paseo to make a left onto El Paseo and I tried to slow down enough to be able to change gears safely (I was in the highest gear) before we stopped. I did this because I wasn't feeling well and I thought it would be better to go from a dead stop in a lower gear.
So I tried. And ended up going over the top of my handlebars when I thought I was going to run into Sky.
Luckily, I was wearing my weightlifting/riding gloves so I didn't scrape up my palms; but I landed hard on my left palm, then my right knee, then my left shoulder.
It was awful.
I felt numb when I first stood up.
And then my consciousness started fading into black.
And then I got a terrible nauseous feeling in the pit of my stomach.

When I sat down, the nausea persisted, and the darkness kept veiling my vision. I wasn't sure my legs would work. And if they did, my stomach and brain surely wouldn't have.
We called D to come pick me up in his truck but he wasn't available.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, I was able to pull myself together to walk up the street.
I wasn't able to use my left arm, (the one that took the brunt of the impact) so S walked both of our bicycles up Portola.
Thank gosh it wasn't too far from home.

I didn't cry until we were home.
The tears were mostly because I was convinced that I had done something terrible to my arm/elbow and had to go see the doctor. (I'm uninsured.) Also, because I was nearly completely helpless. I couldn't even hold an empty glass. Sky had to do everything/get everything for me. (Luckily, I was wearing yoga capris so I didn't have to unbutton to use the restroom. And I can handle spandex on my own, thankyouverymuch.)
Frustration.
Pure frustration.

That frustration carried over into today.
And my awful rush of hormones that come with shedding baby housing.
Today was bad.
So. Very. Bad.

Puffy eyes.
Puffy arm.
(I can barely type this two handed...)
Puffy knee.

It's almost over.

Almost.

halfaversary.

2010-03-15T14:23:00.000-07:00

This Saturday was our halfaversary. (6 months of amazingness.)
Sky surprised me with a bottle of champagne at the Hood at midnight. Everybody cheered and toasted with us. It was awesome.

During the day on Saturday, we went bowling. I hadn't been bowling in years.
When we walked in, I was expecting your average, everyday Saturday bowling environment.
No. We laser bowled! In the middle of the day! Kindov disorienting....
We shared a few Coronas and bowled a few games. It was really nice to spend some time with him out and about on a Saturday.

For dinner (ok...pre-dinner, since we went to the purple party right after) Sky made pepper and roquefort crusted filet mignon, and green beans sauteed with garlic. And we dished up some of the mashers for the purple party. (before they were purple.)

It was wonderful.
Sky is wonderful.

I can't wait to spend like, a million more months with him.

puuuuurple!

2010-03-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

This weekend, the LA friends came into town and we had a purple party. What's that? It's a party that everybody wears something purple to (my and Melissa's favorite color!) and aallllll of the food is purple. I wish I had photos to share.
Let me set the scene for you: Jessalea, Kaley and I (Sky helped toos) did just about all of the cooking. Nick (from LA) made these incredible h'ors de oeuvres with brie on a toasted baguette and caramelized onions. Seriously delicious. I made a couple of beet root gratins. One featured my new favorite cheese, Dubliner, and the other with Roquefort. Never making it with that strong blue cheese. Dubliner from now on. I also brought some garlic mashed potatoes colored with the beet juice that accumulated after roasting. They were flavored with a package of Boursin and lots of butter. They may have been the best taters I've ever made.
Jessalea made purple mac and cheese, (colored with some of my beet juice!) purple cabbage coleslaw and purple chicken. I found the recipe for the chicken online. It got the purple coloring from swimming in a ton of red wine in the oven. They also had garlic and tarragon sprinkled on top.
Finally, Kaley did an amazing job making lavendar cupcakes, ridiculously delicious purple jello shots, and purple onion dip. I don't know how she they did it, but between her and Nick, they got the food coloring to cooperate into the perfect shade of lavender.
Drinking, dancing, friends, purple. What else could you ask for on a Saturday night??

Sky and I ended up in North Palm Springs with some friends of mine from Alaska. A little jacuzzi, a lot of beer and debauchery.
Boy, did we pay for that the next day. It took everything we had to normalize ourselves for a family birthday dinner. Which was nice. I love his family. :)

time flies.

2010-03-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

Have I really not blogged in an entire month?? For shame.
But, I have an explanation! I was without a laptop. Mine took a turn for the worst and her mousey trackpad was rendered useless. But the world is right again, as my shiny new purple Dell arrived via FedEx Santa Man. She's a real beauty. Inspiron 1545 with a free upgrade to 4 gigs of memory. And some dough off for president's day. I hope to be more diligent with my blogging endeavor, now that I have the proper equipment.

There has been so much excitement over the past few weeks that I'm not sure I'll be able to cover it all with the amazingness it deserves.

Two weekends ago, I packed up with the girls and headed into LA for Melissa's birthday. I had the most amazing gin martini which included gin, cucumber, basil, simple syrup, and a squeeze of lime. It was truly delicious. And hanging out with my lovely ladies was really nice.
On the ride up, Jessalea went into gross detail about the birth of her child. I might now know enough to not have one. Lucky you, Sky.

The next morning, me, Kaley, Jessalea, and Mark went down to Gelson's looking for breakfast burritos. We ended up getting sent to a little burger stand by one of the produce guys at the market. And boy, did we get breakfast burritos. They were huge. And thinking about them now is making me hungry. But the best part of breakfast was the woman behind the counter. She was a little Asian woman with a big sense of humor. She customized our take away bags for each of us.

And then........Sky came out to LA!
Best part of the weekend. Although he was stuck with just us girls until later on when our new friends met up with us, he made the best of waiting in the living room while clothes were being thrown and boobies were bouncing everywhere. All of my girlfriends love him. And it's not hard to see why.
So, I think that's when we rolled over to Liam's house and I'm pretty sure there were tequila shots there. And four other women our new friends were trying to get rid of. Really, they might as well have been couch ornaments. As soon as we walked in the door, there was dancing, drinking, and all around merry-making.
And then came H-Wood. We tried to get away with smoking upstairs. (Hey, the security guard was doing it!) We got a flashlight shined on us. We got locked outside the upstairs exit. We sparkled a little.
All in all, a good night that was followed by beers, as soon as we peeled our little eyes open.

And then we did it all again.
We were supposed to leave on Saturday.
We didn't get on the road until after 6 on Sunday.

But I learned some rad drinking games and met some even radder people. Best weekend I've had in a while.

____________________________________________________________________

And then there was last weekend. Saturday was dedicated solely to spending time and connecting with Sky. He's incredible. As always.
He woke up and strapped on his hat to run to the market for bread. Our favorite breakfast is an egg and a toast. And the lovely Kerry gifted me a little miniature egg pan. perfect eggs come out of there. And it's so easy to clean. (I think this weekend, I'm going to try to make little miniature frittata. I'll letcha know how that pans out.)
The rest of the day just lent itself to lots of quality time (and booze).

I won't mention Sunday because it was a sad one, sans the boy.

oh.
Kerry and I made tutus yesterday.
It was a spur of the moment arts and crafts project.
I'll post photos if I ever finish mine.

I'm really looking forward to Sunday and our frolic in the park. Much needed outdoors/friend time.

(I wrote this blog in about four different sessions, so please excuse any disjointed awkwardness.)

crazy face.

2010-02-03T14:07:00.000-08:00

That's what I have been. Picking fights. Being mopey. Being an ass.
Straight. Crazy. Face.

And would you look at that, I'm not single.
Not for lack of trying.
Well, that's not true.
But I sure do have an amazing gent by my side.

But the good news is that I'm back. There was light at the end of the tunnel.
And I learned for like, the bajillionth time that I'm one very lucky lass.

In other news, my grandmother is in the hospital. She fell at church (she goes every single day) and broke her hip. She's 90. The nurses don't listen to her because they think she's old and senile. The funny thing is, if anybody is confused or senile, it's not Mother Dear. She's going to outlive all of us.

I think I'm going to go eat a strip of bacon.

spa day: part deux.

2010-01-28T11:45:00.000-08:00

He got included after all.
Post shower with moi.

When I get home, I have to post the video of crazyface puppy going
nutso after his shower.
It was h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.

spa day.

2010-01-28T11:13:00.000-08:00

Argo got a little green tea clay mask too. On his tongue.

For the record, we also have hair schtuff in too.

I hear nails are next.

God I feel like such a girl right now.

why, hello there.

2010-01-25T17:17:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since the last post. Whirlwind of a week and a half.
I was pretty bummed about missing the last week of press tour. All of the tweets from my writer friends didn't make that any easier. Apparently there was a 3 month old giraffe at one of the parties. He had a 6 foot tall stuffed giraffe as a buddy. I heard he was snuggling with it all night.
I missed petting a 3 month old giraffe.
fuck.
I also missed a set visit to Glee. They had a special performance for the TCA people prepared and I was really looking forward to that.
There's always July...

Tour was skipped for tending bar at Space 120. It was a good weekend, minus being asked every few minutes if I was alright. By the second night, things got better since I outsold and outtipped Ramon both nights. I guess an attractive woman can hold her own behind a bar.

had a strange weekend.
my window broke.
enjoyed monday pool.
crummy rest of the week so far.

that's all I can muster for now.

loves.

love. my. friends.

2010-01-10T09:50:00.001-08:00

I was really sad to have to miss Friday night out with all of my favorite people and just to make me feel included, they rounded everybody's drunk asses together for a photo. I'm sure this wasn't an easy task. Ahhhhh!!! I couldn't have gotten any luckier with any other people! I love them soooo much! (even Alex and his assshot.)

So, while everybody was having a grand old time drinking $1 PBRs, I was getting my ass handed to me by someone nearly twice my age. TV critic for the Toronto Star, Rob Salem. He's one of my favorite people here at tour. But that's neither here nor there...

Let's just say that Rob, Kathy, and I ended up in the club lounge for their 7am opening and requested extra spicy bloody marys.

On another note, I'm coming home tonight!

Sky, you better be in Palm Springs around 10pm.

location, location, location.

2010-01-08T16:50:00.001-08:00

This is the view from my bed. Not only do we have club lounge
privledges, but we had a fresh cheese, meat and chocolate plate
waiting for us in the room.
I can do this for a week.
I can do this for a week!
(if I make it a mantra, maybe I'll actually survive.)
(that and my two visits home. I just need Sky time. It's not a luxury
anymore...it's a necessity.)

More to come later.
First, let me nap off the oh, fourish glasses of pink champagne...

goof.

2010-01-08T13:43:00.000-08:00

So here I am, looking goofy as can be, getting ready for this ten day
long press tour adventure. I'm already missing the boy and the pups
like you wouldn't believe.

Tonight is the NCIS cocktail party, featuring Robert Wagner. Should be
fun.
I hope my liver is primed for this next week.
As a friend of mine puts it, I'm going to a Death March with Cocktails.

But right now, I'm 20 minutes from the Langham and really looking
forward to kicking this thing off.

Going to try to keep this updated so I'll have some tour memories that
won't be too fogged by the free booze.

the other night....

2010-01-07T16:28:00.001-08:00

I helped make a salmon pie and steamed king crab legs with some Alaskan fisherman friends of mine.

I'm not usually a fan of salmon, but with a little ketchup, it was actually pretty tasty.
And the legs with a bit of butter were deelicious.

One of them told me I could fish for him next summer in Alaska.
I think he was drunk.

monocle and moustace.

2010-01-04T19:33:00.000-08:00

everybody has to start somewhere....

2010-01-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are. I've always thought that I'd never be the blogging type. Now that I've pained over the creation process, I've no excuse. Maybe it's because I don't think that I have much to say. Maybe it's because I never want anybody to really know what goes on in this head of mine. But I've had a realization as of....last night.
You see, I was having an insomniac moment and the quietest thing I could do was iPhone. (Yes, I just used that as a verb. What?) After exhausting facebook, I decided to completely creep all over the blog of the beautiful boy sleeping next to me. I started from the first blog and read through a couple of months. This lead me to the aforementioned realization: what a wonderful way to remember all of the adventures of this short life. So...this blog is for me. Read it if you'd like, it might prove to be entertaining at times. Or it could just be a complete waste of time and I'll just enjoy reading it when I turn 30. Or something.....

On an additional note, expect to hear about my impending press tour adventure, and lots of my more than adorable pup.

So. Cheers to this endeavor and whomever feels like soldiering along with me.