OC Wine Trolley and start of a Pick a Thon...

e. Friday night my best friend and I hit up the OC Wine Trolley. My boss had won a couple of passes and since she couldn’t attend gave them to me. Um OK!!!!! I live in Orange and didn’t even know this thing existed. So here's how it works: There are 26 spots. They run this thing on Friday nights (I'm not sure if it's every Friday). The host is Al Ricci who is a big time realtor in these parts. He apparently owns this trolley. A fellow named Jeremy rides a Segway around letting the restaurants know we're coming. A boy named Sean talks about the wine and Al's kid helps out as well. The Trolley drives around the Circle and Old Towne while you are served wine and Al talks about the history of Old Towne and brags about some of the houses he has sold. All in all it was a very fun night! Lib and I arrive early and try to stake out the best place to stand so we can sit in the front. I'm slightly paranoid about my motion sickness. The trolley pulls up (There is a 6:15 ride and an 8:15pm - we were the later shift). We get behind a foursome that had the same idea as us of sitting in front. We file in and take our seats on these benches in the trolley. On the seat are a little paper plate, fork and napkin. We squeeze into our bench and realize it's going to be a bit of a squeeze and a bit of a juggling act because I have my camera and now I have a plate and we have to find places for our purses...anyway. A very loud and obnoxious woman asks the sweet quiet couple behind us if they will trade places with her because she wants to sit with her group. They oblige. Lib and I realize this error of ways throughout the night. Al Ricci comes on the speaker and starts chatting about how the night will unfold and introduces the crew. The trolley drive is a large man who actually backed into the fence scaring the shit out of all of us when we started. Um...I all of a sudden don’t feel very safe. We start the tour. Al is chatting about random tid bits of historical Old Towne while this woman behind us is shouting out opinions and answering the trivia questions before he is even done asking them. Think of her voice like Archie Bunker wife....Lord. Throughout the evening the wine kid chats about the wines we are tasting and all the restaurants that participate bring you samples of something. It ended up being a lot of food! They also get a chance to chat with you about their restaurants which I do think is awesome PR for these establishments. The winemaker is Cupcake. I don’t know if any of you have had Cupcake - but get it. So good!!! We tasted 7 different wines throughout the night: Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Angel Food, Prosecco, Pinot Noir, Red Velvet (my favorite!) and Cabernet Sauvignon (my 2nd fave!) I will now finish my wine trolley portion with photos! The Trolley!

My hot date:

1st food stop - Old Towne Grinder. They didn’t come out to chat so Al passed out the sandwich samples. If you got the red toothpick you got a $5 gift card which I thought was a really cute idea!

Here are a couple of shots of our wine kid. The poor guy had a horrible stutter and lost the attention of a lot of the passengers, especially as the night went on. But Lib and I thought he was adorable and knew an amazing amount about all of the wine!

We then stopped at Old Towne Diner and got burger samples!

Next up was Watsons and we got what I think was Bread Pudding. Kinda nasty actually, but here's a shot of Lib and I attempting a self-portrait with it and the little gal from Watsons pimping this Old Towne favorite.

Next up was Cherry on Top. We tasted a cinnamon bun flavored yogurt. Not bad. This was Jeremy our Segway guy chatting with the Cherry girls

Next up was Citrus City Grille. There was some screw up here because there was lots of Al and Jeremy running around and we waited a bit longer, so I didn’t get a shot of the people but tried an out of the window self-portrait. I know...I'm a dork.

Then we hit Ruby's. I won’t ever return to this establishment because of the horrible way I was treated when I left my debit card there awhile back and they served us jalapeno poppers which I can’t eat but here's the gal, who honestly was the worst speaker. She didn’t seem to really care at all and seemed annoyed to be doing this. Wasn’t surprised.

After that was Felix's. This chicken rice thing was the bomb. It also has plantains in it. The speaker was very cool and totally pimped his restaurant.

Next was Francoli Gourmet. I love this place, and the sample of pasta they gave was AMAZING. They also gave you a little basil/cheese/tomatoes snack. OMG! The man couldn’t come out to speak so Al's kid did a very cute job trying to pimp out Francoli's with an Italian accent.

Next up was the Bruery. They gave us a little meat and cheese snack. The gal talked for quite a while and apparently they have beer classes and tasting classes. I plan to "like" them on Facebook. It sounded like a pretty cool little joint. I've wine tasted there, but didn’t realize all the other stuff they apparently have going on!

Somewhere in here we took a break at Pitcher Park where we could actually exit the trolley and walk around a bit. It was really nice to get up and stretch out. Those seats are horribly uncomfortable! If I ever would do this again I will bring a cushion or something.

Then we hit up Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and got candy and Zitos Pizza and were given Garlic Knots. We were so damn full by this point!!!!

Last was Avila's. The two guys that came out were fantastic. They even said if anyone came back after the trolley they would get happy hour prices. They passed out tacos. Sadly I could only take a bite. I was so full by this point I just couldnt do it!

The very last stop of the trolley is Rod's Liquor where they were selling all of the Cupcake wines for a cheap price. I bought my 2 favorites and Lib walked out with a 12 pack of Bud Light. Yup. About sums it up. All in all we had a really great time and I didn’t get sick and aside from the obnoxious woman behind us it was a fun group! Now onto the 2nd portion of this blog. I was planning on telling you all about the Pick a Thon I was a part of that included a Lucy Stomp but it was sadly cut short because I got very very sick. But I can tell you a bit. So - my friend/co-worker had a team for this Pick a Thon and needed one more person. I of course was thrilled to join. The event raised money for the Southern California Hospice Foundation. The day was going to consist of harvesting/picking the grapes, a Lucy Stomp off followed by lunch and a tour of the winery. We had to be there at 7am. This was a little rough after coming home late from the trolley the night before. (Did I mention the trolley didn’t finish until after 10pm!). I was there and excited. The team arrived, we were given hats and checked in. They had some breakfast snacks which I nibbled and were then given buckets and garden shears and off we went. We were assigned zones. The grapes were beautiful and I of course sampled a few. Shhhhh. Everything was going awesome, I was having fun, our team was enthusiastic, I had seen some cute guys there, and I was just thrilled. One of the Lucy Stomp offs started and I darted over to watch! Looked like so much fun and couldn’t wait for our turn. After we had finished our zone of harvesting I noticed I wasn’t feeling very well. I sat down in the shade and hoped it would pass. It didn’t. It got worse fast. I told my friend I had to leave and as I cried the entire way home, ran in the door and promptly threw up like the godamn exorcist. I was absolutely heartbroken and confused. WTF!!! Later on, after thinking about and talking to some people we think it may actually be that I was cutting the grapes at just enough of the wrong angle to screw up my ultra-sensitive weird motion sickies/vertigo. I have no idea. The scary test is next week, so maybe someday soon I will have some answers and better yet solutions. So unfortunately my excited event got cut short, but Monday Michele showed me a video of the stomp off and it looked like so much fun! Hopefully we can do it again next year and I can be a little more careful when I cut. I guess? I don’t know. Anywhoo, below are some pictures I was able to take before all went to hell! :) The entrance to the winery. Random right?

Michele was late so I snapped a few fun shots

The beginning!

My shots of the grapes!! So yummy!!!

Our fabulous picking team!!

We did good!!!

Seriously I wanted to smash these in my face....

And the last shots I took at the winery before I got ill

Slow food BBQ 2012...

I had heard about this last year. My friend Wayan is on this committee and puts this thing together. I had heard about it last year and thought "Oh that might be fun and something different to do!" and I'm all about healthy eating and healthy what not. Well I didnt go. A bit pricy. Well - as you all know - I now am trying just to shut up and do stuff. So I did. And one of my best friends joined me. I have been excited for weeks! The food sounded amazing, the ticket price included unlimited alcohol, there was raffles and in order to make it a zero waste event you brought your own place setting and there was a prize for the best. Well, of course the competitive side of me comes out and I want to win the best place setting. Of course my mom had alot of what we could use and what we needed, Susan and I went shopping last weekend and got a few things, then Susan took it upon herself to make these fabulous wine glasses. Our place setting was the fucking bomb. I mean look at it:

We rule. So we had read there was a "hike" "walk" whatever at 3pm and the event started at 4pm. My friend had informed me the walk was not strenous and the event had a very casual rustic feel to it so I bought a fabulous little aztec print sundress and chocolate Toms for the event. I figured I could look cute in case there were boys and be smart with good shoes. So, Susan convinced me to throw a pair a flip flops (so thankful for them later) in the car, I threw on some sunblock and we packed up our place settings and off we went. The gates opened at 2:30 and we were there not a minute after. We wandered in and they were still setting up. Wayan told us to grab a spot so we immediatly snatched an end seat and set up our arrangement. Proud and pleased with ourselves Susan grabbed us a couple of the free cocktails which she finished (wasnt my thing) and the walk was taking off. We darted over and joined the little group. It was mostly older folk and everyone was given little cards to read when we came across those certain plants or animals to read about. Very cute. Here's our group:

About 5 minutes into the walk we were over it. It was a million degrees outside, it was dry and the sweat was pouring down me already. I was cursing myself for not bringing a hat as my hair was blowing in around angrily. Thank you Susan for letting me borrow yours later. It was very cute and informative but I felt like I was in Outdoor Ed and it was just too damn hot to give a shit. Another co-worker of mine - Rachel - and her hubs joined the walk a bit late so we all had a nice time chatting and joking. When the docent said we could turn around and head back, Susan and I promptly took the lead and ended up about 100 feet in front of the group, the thought of food and wine waiting for our return keeping our pace quite brisk. I did snap some fun shots:

When we arrived back we darted to the car where Susan changed and I spritzed some body spray hoping to cover up the now sweaty smell I was producing and back to the BBQ we went. We got some wine that was from Organic Cellars. We chose the red which was a fantastic Pinot Nero and back to our table we went. This was waiting for us:

We mowed through that pretty quickly - seriously some of the most amazing fruit I have EVER tasted. Soooooooooooooooooooooo yummy! The oyster appetizers were being served at a table near the bar and we grabbed a few. OMG. Seriously. Amazing. Sadly they went very quickly and everytime they brought back more it was somewhat of a battle to grab another one. But Susan is a tough broad, especially when it comes to damn good food so she snagged us a few more. We made trips back to the wine fellows many times throughout the evening and became known as the flower girls due to our fabulous wine glasses. Susan and I both ended up purchasing a couple of bottles from these fellows since it was so good. All throughout the evening we were complimented on our place setting and wine glasses. I mean seriously:

We bought some raffle tickets and placed our tickets into the chosen bowls of prizes we hoped (but didnt) win and anxiously awaited more food. I was a little disappointed in the possible date selection. Most of the crowd was older couples and older people but alot of them were very cool. Rachel and her man squeezed in next to us, and the couple next to them were very sweet and engaging. We had a really great little six-some for the evening and I was more than pleased meeeting some fabulous new folks. Then Susan gave me the look and jerked her head....there was a cute boy. He looked a little older than I and had leg muslces that wouldnt quit. He joined the group right behind Susan. She overheard him saying he rode his bike there. *Swoon* The 1st dish was served, watermelon, cucumber, onions and feta salad. An interesting mixture but quite good! Then came the chicken and potatoes and corn. I dont know what seasoning they had on that corn but Yummmmmmy! We ate and drank and chatted. They had a country band of a bunch of old guys that played a nice variety (Thank GAWD...you know how I feel about country) and the Slow Food man gave his speech (about 15 minutes too long) but was intersting to hear and dessert was brought. Some sort of upside down cake with fruit and honey. It was just ok. Not my favorite. The raffle was called and the place setting prize announced (Some jackass with a giant wooden chicken. Really!!!?????) and the event started wrapping up. We cleaned up our areas and got ready to head out. I thanked Wayan who was ever so grateful we came and I was ever so thrilled we did. She gave us fabulous basil plants in canvas to take home as a consolation prize and off we went. Susan was teasing me about not flirting more with the cute bike rider fellow and half way out of the park we turned around and drove back. Yup - we turned 15 years old. Susan ran back in while I sat moritified in my car and she told the guy I thought he was cute and gave him my phone number. He did know who I was apparently and off we went giggling and laughing at the fact that we just pulled a very junior high move. I seriously doubt this guy will call but the fact that she actually did that topped off my night perfectly. That is a damn good friend right there :) All in all we had a really fun time, tried some interesting new foods, learned a bit about the slow food movement and most importantly spent some great quality time with one of my best friends. Below is a few more pictures. I do believe we will attend again next year! Thier centerpieces

We claimed our spot

Love this girl!

The band!

The gal in charge of Slow Food OC

The man who spoke about Slow Food

My beautiful friend who put it together!

Some ups, some downs, a shuttle and a comedian...

So I've had some interesting couple of days this week. I've had some tests. Some challenges. Some moments where I have been able to attempt some breathing and mindfulness to calm the F down. And I have to say...I did pretty well. Let's put aside the breaking down into tears because I couldn’t find a parking place in the Orange Circle to pick up my grandparents lunch on my lunch break. Then breaking into tears again when I left their house because my Papa is getting so much worse. Breathe. I tried my best to hold it together this morning when I attended one of my best friends mothers funeral. I wanted to be the strong stalwart friend and not cry. Impossible. I accepted it. I let them flow. As she was walking out she caught my red tear streaked face and welled up. Real good Jami. I arrived early running around this giant church/school place with melting cake pops and sweat dripping into my eyes trying to find the kitchen. My friend did find this visual hilarious this evening when we chatted. I wanted to attend the graveside service and could have before I had to go to work but I couldn’t bring myself to. I'm still so over emotional and sensitive and yes watching my friend hurt kills me and yes I kept thinking of my own mom and how I can’t imagine my life without her and yes of course this is a time for tears, but I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to keep it together. She was overwhelmed with family and friends so I knew it was ok. So I headed to work. I've been working through these emotions lately and I think I'm doing alright. I have moments of weakness, but it's ok. It's natural. So, onto the ups: Last Thursday I went for a walk with a good friend of mine and met her new little addition. She wants to start taking walks now that she's feeling better so off we went. She started telling me how excited she was to go to Disneyland tomorrow to watch The Endeavor fly over. "Ok, what is this Endeavor business? I have seen other posts on Facebook about it." She tells me it's the space shuttle and it's going to be attached to the top of a plane and it's doing its "Last Mission" on a tour of California. It was going to drop lower in the sky around Disneyland before it loops back around and parks it permantley somewhere in LA. Ok. Whatever. The next day a lovely gal I work with whom I'm becoming friends with wanders into my office hemming and hawing about should we go watch the shuttle. I laugh at her because Riley is the girl who does not like or agree with space travel. She (as well as my father) believes monies should be spent on more important matters rather than space travel. I honestly don’t have an opinion one way or another. It seems to me our money should be helping the starving children and abused pets and such but I don’t necessarily hate space travel, just really don’t care. So she mentions this will be a piece of history and maybe we should witness it. She wants to go to the top of the Law School parking structure. Personally I've never been up there and was planning on taking lunch and wandering over to see if they needed help at the Big Orange Book Festival on campus anyway so why not? More hemming and hawing. Finally we decide to go for it. We trek up to the top of the structure and mind you it's about 1000 degrees outside. And the top of a parking structure is anything but cool. There's a growing group of folks gathered around and I'm taken aback by the view. It's gorgeous! And you can see the top of the Matterhorn and the Angel Stadium. I'm making mental notes to come back here if cool fireworks or something happens in these areas. And so we wait. And we wait. And we fucking wait. Mind you it's getting hotter. Riley and I are bitching to each other about how hot we are, I'm worried a puddle is growing beneath me from the sweat dripping down my legs and I'm cursing myself for not grabbing my parasol from my truck. Duh. Or sunblock. Ugh. Riley is much younger than me but we have very similar personalities. We get along great and we are laughing through our bitching but getting to the point of saying screw it. Riley starts following it on Twitter and it the damn thing should be coming around any second now! Waiting. Waiting. Riley says let's forget it and go. But now I'm determined. We've been up here half an hour, we can’t go now. We wait. We complain. We are MELTING. All of sudden the group gets excited. "There it is!" I can’t see that far of course. But I hear it. Then I do see a little spec. Everyone starts to cheer. Riley and I can’t help but get caught up in the excitement. It comes closer, and closer and closer! We thought it was just going to fly over Disneyland but it actually did its U-Turn RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!! I was thrilled to see this giant plane carrying a shuttle with little military jets accompany it fly right in front of us. It was so fucking cool!!!!! Riley and I were shrieking and taking pictures with our phones and cheering along with everyone. It turned around and headed out towards the ocean and back towards LA. My heart was pounding and Riley turned to me with a huge grin and said "Totally worth it!" "Totally!" Again, I'm not a huge space program person but we shared something special with a bunch of strangers. Riley and I discussed later on how truly awesome the human spirit really is when everyone can come together in tragedy or celebration. We were on the top of a parking structure with about 50 or so other people sharing something really cool that made everyone excited and happy and thrilled. Later on I saw some people posting on FB about how annoyed they were and how stupid the shuttle sightings were. This made me want to repost saying "Oh just shut the hell up for one damn second and relish in the fact that something really neat just happened and it made a lot of people happy." I didn’t of course, because it's just not worth it. It was really special for a lot of people and for me it was just really awesome to witness something happy. Something special. And damn was that thing huge!!!!! Something not political or angry or negative for a few minutes and share that experience with so many others. I've posted the photos in order of my excited lameass jumping up and down and snapping away with my iPhone. I actually got some nice shots! Is that it?

Squeee! It is!

It's coming right at us!!

It's coming so close!!!

HOLY HELL!!!!!!

And there it goes...

Bye bye shuttle!

Back to LA it goes.

Someday I get to say "I watched a little piece of history today!"

My shuttle watching buddy

So my other fun tidbit is I got to meet Lizz Winstead today. Lizz Winstead is the co-creater of The Daily Show. She's a comedian a liberal and an advocate for Planned Parenthood. Chapman hosted the Big Orange Book Festival Friday and today. I'm trying to get more involved so I had volunteered awhile back to help out today. They were going to have such keynote speakers as Lizz, Alice Seybold (author of The Lovely Bones), Mary Bedlam (The actress who played Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird) and Sapphire (The gal who wrote Push which was later made into Precious) as well as many others. There were exhibitors, a kid’s area and forums to allow whomever to read a piece of their very own. It was a festival I thought was a very cool idea and was happy to help out. I was assigned to Lizz. I was told I was going to introduce her and help with her book signing. This made me quite nervous. So many people think "You’re an actor! This should be easy!" Well we actors don’t actually like to be ourselves up in front of people!!! This woman is smart, funny and pretty freaking awesome and I didn’t want to look like an ass in front of her. So I arrived early and was hanging in the green room with fellow volunteers waiting for Lizz to show up. My friend Amber volunteered for the morning shift and I was thrilled to hear she listened to Leslie Klinger (one of the world’s most foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes and Dracula) and got her book signed. When Lizz showed up my stomach flip flopped. I played it as cool as I possibly could trying not to act like a nerd in front of her. I was thrilled when Amber stayed with us and the three of us chatted and got along very well. Lizz already had Amber and me falling for her as we walked her over to where she was going to be speaking. As we approached the George Bush Conference Center I about fell out realizing that is where they scheduled her! Hello irony. She laughed and took a picture of herself in front of the sign and promptly tweeted it. My hands shaking and palms sweating I read and re-read my intro for her. After about 15 agonizing minutes she said we could get started and I approached the podium and blurted out who knows what. I was told I did fine. (Thank GAWD) and my shaking self-plopped down next to Amber. Lizz was HILARIOUS! She spoke then read from her book (Lizz Free or Die) for about half an hour then took questions which went over her time but I don’t think anyone noticed. Everyone was having such a great time. I teared up a bit when she spoke of her father and it made me think of my dad. He and I are luckily pretty much on the same page politically but what she spoke of some memories they touched me. The audience had some good questions and there were even a good amount of blue hairs that are fellow lefties. The book signing went very smoothly. Since Lizz had accidently parked way off campus I had told her I would drive her in my air conditioned truck back to her car. So I hung back until all the books were signed and the last person headed out. She was so sweet and chatted with everyone and happily signed their books. When she signed mine she wrote "You make a great bodyguard” She’s someone I can look up to being a woman, a comedian, a liberal and have the mouth of a sailor. We joked and talked about Orange when I drove her to her car. As she left she gave me a hug and thanked me. It was pretty awesome! I can’t wait to read her book! The hilarious Lizz Winstead

A bit star struck