OakMonster’s Den

…is half of a Max Burger at 410 Boyd.

(The EQUAL packet is for scale. AND Erin and I shared this puppy.)

+ a pint of draft Red Trolley Ale

+ laid back but attentive bartender/waiter Jared.  *Hi!*

+ great friends with awesome sense of humor

The four girls reunited for another girls dinner. This time, we feasted at Beachwood Barbecue.  Three of us did the appetizer-for-dinner with a skillet of the best Mac and Cheese on the planet, steamed clams, stuffed artichokes and a pot of cheese + beer fondue with lovely hush puppies, smoked meatballs, spicy sausages and some other fixings.  Aurora, who can’t even have a taste of dairy until she stops breastfeeding, nibbled on a few non-dairy items and enjoyed her plate of venison.

We had a fantastic time up until the very last bites when the Lakers took a turn for the worst, and until this dude interrupted us.

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Woke up feeling the blues and didn’t want to put on the happy, personal mask for the day, I stayed home and worked on designing web pages for work.  A combination of homesick, having talked to my dad last night and emailed with my brother this morning, feeling the odd sense of loss, and missing Brandon quite fiercely.  As it was proven, it was really good to be alone today.

Ate leftover pasta for lunch on the couch, watching re-run of Firefly on Sci-Fi channel.

Ran to Fresh & Easy to pick up single serving of rib eye steak, a little baggy of salad, a thing each of chocolate mousse, rattatouille and mashed potatoes, and other groceries.

Made steak and egg dinner with a little salad.  Had a glass of wine.

Watched…and watching all a girl would want to watch when she has the control of the television: Steel Magnolias, Sex and the City re-runs (I mainly watched the Aiden period), and, naturally, Monty Python and the Flying Circus on BBC America while waiting for Dr. Who and Battlestar Galactica.

Can you imagine what it was like for me when I was single and without cable?  LOL.

The past three hours, I remember nothing of my past and impending sleepless nights, of work, of life.

The past three hours, I made new memories with 3 girl friends over a bottle of wine, two buckets of garlic fries, a bowl of mussels, and a few plates of crepes.

Lupe, Aurora, Lee and I went out for the “not girls night out” dinner at Le Creperie in Belmont Shore.

It’s a totally Sex and the City moment, substituting sex talk with baby talk, work gossip and crazy observation of people.  LOL.

At some point, we almost forgot we were here.  The decor and the atmosphere didn’t quite transport us to France but it took us somewhere else entirely.  It was noisy in a good way–filled with conversations, laughter and piano music.

Once in a while, all you need is your girls to rediscover joy.

P.S. I was just talking to Brandon that I need to find a good piano lounge around here to go hang out at.  Me and a glass of wine, listening to the real master makes a baby grand sings.  Le Creperie is just the ticket.

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Originally uploaded by Oakmonster(TM).

NEVER pre-set a dessert because I WILL eat it before the main course arrives.

Good ol’ laughter.  It was unfamiliar.

I drove in to work this morning. Conveniently, an impromptu happy hour formed around Erin.

You see, Erin helped Dave with this big ol’ project. So he wanted to pay her back in alcohol for her good work. We jumped on that bandwagon and ended up at the Spring Street Smoke House. There we met up with Erin’s roommate and his friend…who are probably going to be reading this later on. So, hi guys!

We were bitching about work. We were talking about cats. We were talking about crazy friends. And the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch. We were talking about grease on your hands. Taking naps. Telling embarrassing stories about each other. And many other inappropriatenesses.  Over a face full of pulled pork sandwich and with a pint of Angel City Abbey ale, I realized, “Oh my god. I haven’t had this much fun in a long time.”

Seriously. I laughed my ass off. I had really good food. I enjoyed my company thoroughly. The only downside is that I AM the driver. Haha.

Afterward, I went to drop off Erin at her place and got to meet her and her roommate’s cats Munkin and Werm. And a yard that Athena would’ve been happy in if they didn’t have issues with neighborhood dog.

Dammit. I miss that cat.

Overall, it’s been a great evening…made me forget today at the office. Even if it was a blur of a day, it was still a hell of a day.

Live to fight another day tomorrow. To all, a good night.

Athena has stirred up a lot of emotions for a lot of folks.

The neighbor downstairs apparently gathered a petition to send to the landlady to get Athena back after hearing that she was released to CSULB campus. She said she has almost 80 people on the petition. (But, shouldn’t the petition came from the people who actually live in the complex?)

Another lady who spotted Athena’s listing on Craiglist warned me about a local guy who’d go around “adopting” cats to torture them. Then she continued to help Athena find a home. If I can go get Athena from the campus, the lady and her friend would keep her overnight and take her to a shelter they volunteer at.

Pat O. at the office believes that if Athena loves us enough, and the campus is about 3 miles away, this weekend we might just see her on our doorstep. If that is the case, we can actually get her to a proper shelter.

I have been doing mad research to see campus policy on stray cats. I found an article a few years back that looks promising.

Trappings of the campus cats are conducted weekly during the spring and summer months, and monthly during the fall and winter months.

Trapped cats are taken to a licensed veterinarian, who provides a general physical examination, performs spaying/neutering and provides all vaccines and deworming.

Cats who are gentle (and were previous house or dorm pets) are kept and adopted out…

This article may be old, but that there makes me feel a LOT better about her situation. I am hoping to confirm this fact with someone at CSULB though.

*

With all of the madness going on, I still have time to enjoy myself a bit.

I baked like a mad pastry chef on Monday night to prepare for yesterday’s potluck. The theme was “Spring Buzz” with tinge of leftover Cinco de Mayo as the featured entree I had catered are fajitas. Nonetheless, I stuck with the theme and made lemon cupcakes with blackberry bumble bees on top. See?

And last night, Brandon took me to sushi and sake. Well, he had teriyaki chicken and green tea. *I* had the sushi and sake.

A big. Honking. Glass. Of REALLY good cold sake. (Mu is the brand. Thanks Brenda for introducing me to that.) That was soooo needed!

Nice and buzzed, we then went to browse video games, then booze at BevMo, and then we topped off the evening with frozen yogurt and 2 more hours of television.

I may not have a community cat to play with, but through Athena, Brandon and I seem to have found each other again.

I think I am now qualified as the High Priestess of the Cult of Fresh & Easy.

I just put the Fresh & Easy blog on my Google Reader.

ETA: I started a new blog - Temple of Fresh & Easy.  Join me in my obsession, won’t you?

Seriously.

Friday was a combination of hard work and fun. Nhien and I managed not to hurt ourselves while moving all sorts of boxes of our printed matter around the office and worked up a pretty good appetite. We grabbed Celeste and Pat and headed to Sushi Go 55 and the rest is over there.

We came back just in time for me to throw the office birthday party. With yummy stuff from Delilah Bakery, everyone had a happy afternoon, all hopped up on sugar! I mean, all 6′ 5″ of Canadian Greg scooted over to us on this thing that another coworker used during his recovery from a knee surgery.

Saturday was spectacular! My Adobe Acrobat class is still going at the pace of molasses, but at least there was something new to be learned. However, while I waited for the instructor to explain to the old lady in the front why she had restart her machine or something else, I managed to join the cult of Twitter, did the food blog entry, AND played a few games of Bejeweled on my iGoogle.

Hey, at least I managed my time well. If I’m going to get stuck there, not learning anything while the old folks catch up, I might as well do something productive, right?

Later on that afternoon, we FINALLY got to take Olaina to Las Brisas in Redondo Beach. Back in their high school days, Brandon and Justin would ditch school and drive around for adventures Brandon’s Jeep. It was destiny when the Jeep ran out of gas a few pushes away from Las Brisas. The boys have been eating here whenever they are in the area ever since.

Justin and Olaina were up in the area to hunt for their new place to live. And they found one today in Redondo Beach. Signed, sealed, and delivered! Woohoo!

And for dinner, I made a spectacular dinner without actually having to leave the house for the store: bacon-wrapped cod with caper-shallot sauce with a side of peas and carrots. Oh yes, I am good.

And on Sunday, she rests.

Like, until 10 a.m.

And then it was on like Donkey Kong for the rest of the afternoon, starting with a trip to Fry’s and a pit stop at Fresh & Easy. Then I helped Brandon patched my windshield seals back onto the car. Folks who replaced my windshield in September did a horrific job. A few months after the replacement, the seals around it started to separate. Finally this past week, the one around the top actually popped off in parts. I would be driving down the freeway with this thing flapping about, banging on my roof. The lack of seal also brought on a nasty howling/whistling, depending on literally which way the wind blows. If the homemade cure doesn’t hold, Brandon’s going to take the car back to the folks by his work.

Then again, with the gas price the way it is, he is going to start driving my car to work anyway. Sheesh! $35 for 8 gallon? I damn near cried at the pump! But I digress.

I then started the laundry, including my bedroom curtains which had been pinning them double thickness…which I intended to wash then sew together after dinner…which I pulled out of the dryer and found a tag that said “Dry Clean Only”…and which are now slightly less green and when folded in half and sewn aren’t exactly the same length.

I am an everyday fuckin’ Martha Stewart, I tell ya!

At some point while waiting for the laundry, Brandon went to take a nap. Athena followed me up hung out in our apartment for a good half hour, a new record for her. I couldn’t do anything around the house while she visit because a) sudden movement still scares her and, b) I don’t trust her alone in a room just yet. After all she IS an outdoor cat that wondered in off the street. Who knew what kind of bad habit she had picked up.

But the half hour crawling around the floor after Athena (because getting up suddenly would freak her out a little bit), following this purring, paw-pawing, cute-as-hell black fluff ball of a cat was well worth it.

Pretty much just about anything “busy” I did this weekend is well worth it.

On my bus last night, one of the ladies asked the other, “Have you been to the Fresh & Easy market?”

“Oh my god, YES!” I chirped in. “I LOVE the place!”

The lady looked at me, stunned for a second. “Oh, I was going to say the opposite.”

Apparently, that might just be the opinion of most Americans of the brand new “neighborhood markets”, a creation of Tesco. The LA Times reported a few days ago claiming that the sales at F&E were 70% off mark.

Folks don’t want to change their shopping habits. The lady on the bus claimed that F&E has “nothing”. The store was too bare, she said. She wanted more variety and stuff. She hated the self check-0ut. And, she didn’t say it outright, but she wanted the groceries bagged.

I am one of the small number of people who is madly in love with the place because it is the exact opposite of what that lady wants in a store.

I don’t want that much variety because I don’t want to spend an hour in there wading through stuff I don’t need. I’m not stuck on brand to begin with. The less variety, the better.

And when I say the less variety here, it means the less of typical COMMERCIAL variety, but not in the range of products.

For example, last night I picked up a Greek style yogurt, a Swiss style yogurt, and a Goat Milk yogurt on the shelves among a wide variety of F&E brand yogurts. You just won’t find your regular Yoplait in the place. There may not be a fridge full of competing Tillamook and Land O Lake cheeses but there’s a wedge of Cotswold and other delicious cheeses you won’t find in there. And dear god, the meaty and delicious British cut bacon!!! But I digress.

The place is clean and streamlined. No giant display around the corner. No coupons needed. No member cards needed.

The best part? You check out your own grocery. Oh my god! No more wasting time waiting for somebody to bag your stuff while trying awkwardly to be friendly with the cashier. Absolutely no line to fuss with.

It was easy to get in and out of Fresh & Easy and THAT is exactly what I want. Sure, I would spend about the same amount of time going to my local Vons around the corner as driving a mile over to the closest F&E. But I spend a LOT less time in F&E than in a Vons.

Everything you usually come in for–produce, meat, dairy, and booze–are located in the first few rows, not buried in the back of the store like most grocery chains. If you want to stay and browse, go right ahead and saunter through the back parts of the store. Otherwise, you’re in and you’re out.

The quality of the meat from this place is definitely better than my local Vons. The chicken breasts were definitely fresher. The beef? Rival what I can get fresh at Ploughboy in Fountain Valley.

And the price? People assume that because it’s a British chain, or a brand new small fry that it’s going to cost more than the bigger chain. WRONG. The prices are very competitive. They even have a special sign to tell you when certain products are cheaper than anybody around.

Let me just say that Brandon has NEVER ask to go to the grocery store before. Last night, he actually wants to detour from our dinner run to go there. After all, he says they have the BEST pre-cut pineapples outside of Hawaii. He also loves the self check-out.

So while I let this older lady dissing the joint. I can see the younger generations flocking to this place. It’s perfect to pop in on the run.

If you like to spend time in the grocery store and getting your human interaction fix from your cashier, stay clear.

If you value your time and your money; if you’re an adventurous consumer; and if you HATE everything the normal grocery store stands for, you’ll love Fresh & Easy.

Find one near you.

Note: Yes. I’m supporting my local favorite store for the most selfish reason. I love the goddamn store! And if they go under, I have to go back to Vons again. And I DON’T WANT TO!!!