people and things.

I was on the phone with my sister today and I mentioned “that’s surprising, because you’re by far the more diplomatic one between us…” and I believe that to be an accurate statement. Linds typically makes well thought out decisions and is not one to jump to conclusions due to emotions. She is pretty level-headed… but we all make mistakes.

[side note: the conversation progressed to how I should have beat up an old lady (I should have), but that is a story for another time.] 

Lindsay brings home much older man, hilarity ensues (almost like Tucker tries butt sex, but in a much cleaner, yet more twisted form). Despite his pseudo-bohemian appearance and vaguely leftist doctrine of beliefs…yea, no. The guy resembled a 45 year old man who purchased any and all of his wardrobe from Costco (fast forward 10 years: there is a meme about the kid with a trapper keeper and white new balances who won’t let you copy his homework) that is THIS guy. I’m not saying Costco is bad. In fact, where else can you get a couple bottles of wine, a Vitamix, 1000 Solo cups, AND a hot piece of cheese pizza all in the same place? Money. I digress…

Coming from up north, we were told that this gentleman would only be visiting for a few days, but I honestly feel like he was here for months. Is that wrong of me to think his presence was that painful? It seemed like Linds liked him though, so we sort of just let them be. He stayed in nice hotels, took her to fancy dinners, and genuinely seemed like he cared. Game. Set. Match. 

I suppose the only problem would be is that Lindsay would later find out that this man was crazy. As my dad would say, isn’t that the “pisser” when it comes to dating? You meet someone who is great, and then you meet their brand of crazy and you have to determine if that vibes with your own personal crazy (we are all insane…just to differing degrees). As luck would have it, this man’s crazy was on a whole separate wavelength. 

We found it odd that this individual just didn’t want to go back home. Do you have a home? Isn’t there somewhere you should be? Does someone miss you.. you know, where you’re from? Work? It took him weeks to finally leave San Diego, and then the psychosis set in. Lindsay’s phone calls with him were much longer in length and occurred more frequently. From the outside looking in, these were two people who liked one another and enjoyed speaking. Or was it?

Being the thoughtful girlfriend that she was (read: refused to be seen with this guy who wore dad sneakers), Lindsay purchased him a pair of Vans. A seemingly innocent gesture that later turned into a point of contention. Conversations turned weird when this individual started asking Lindsay who was recording their phone calls (umm… pre-smart phone era? No one, honey…) After attempts were made at assuring her boyfriend that she was not out to get him, Linds decided to make a visit up to see him (where he lived…with his parents… 😐)

After an overall awkward visit, the accusations started. Not only was Linds out to sabotage this man (we don’t know how), but she was out to get his parents, too (who were elderly and just as nuts), and she’d enlisted the help of all of us (who had no idea any of this was going on) just to take them down! This was the most elaborate un-plan I had ever heard of. I’m almost thinking maybe they were some sort of Zombie Apocalypse/Doomsday types thinking the man was out for them? 

The icing on the cake occurs when the guy flat out lost his mind. We’re talking put in a psych ward type ish. The only way this could possibly happen is if the shoes Lindsay bought him were drugged, thus turning him into an actual lunatic, and Lindsay’s dramatic scheme to bring him down was finally a success!! Good, I’m glad we got to the bottom of that one…

I don’t know what I was expecting from hometown dates, but last night was sort of “bleh” with a whole lot of “meh” and very anticlimactic. To start off the trip, Raven brought Nick to Hoxie Arkansas. Go ahead… I’ll give you a minute to point out Hoxie on a map. Any takers? Where in God’s name is this place? Oh, wait… Arkansas. Raven seems like a good girl (who deserves better than Nick), but probably a little too much sweet southern naiveté will steer her in the wrong direction with this moron. They start out on ATVs and attempt to sneak up to this tower area where a police officer promptly arrives and breaks up the situation. Grain tower? Water tower? Is a grain tower a thing? Who knows, but as luck would have it, Raven’s big brother just so happened to be that police officer (I know, I know… we could have never imagined such shock and awe). After Raven’s brother drives away, the following 2-4 minutes include lots of mud, awkward undressing in mud, mud straddling, and just a very uncomfortable looking situation. I don’t know if they were trying to recreate the infamous clay scene from Ghost, but they did a very poor job.

Not to gloss over the racial significance of Rachel’s hometown visit, but they’ve already determined that she is the next Bachelorette. So… somewhere down the road this will end, thus we don’t really NEED to focus on anything that happened during his time with her family. They seemed like lovely people (as does Rachel), and all were concerned as to whether or not Nick had dated a black woman (he in fact has not… duh), but I’d already blocked out what their potential thoughts of him could be because we already know THIS WON’T LAST. I think the strangest thing to come of this date though, was when Rachel’s brother in law says, “you’re a white…”. Umm, yes, yes he is. Weirdo.

Corinne’s hometown date couldn’t have been more Corinne. The couple went shopping in an upscale mall in Miami, in which Nick in real life could never have afforded anything, so Corinne purchased things for him in an effort to show him her super powers – using her dad’s credit card. After the successful shopping excursion, Nick was able to finally meet Raquel…her nanny. I’m not going to lie, I feel as though Raquel’s gofundme page is even more relevant after last night’s episode. If I had to deal with these impossible people 24/7, pour her ridiculous mom wine, and pretend to love the dad’s nasty looking Greek olives, I’d give anything for charitable Americans to bust me out of said hellhole. Corinne’s dad taught Nick how to properly hold his scotch glass, Nick asked for Corinne’s father’s blessing (should they decide to get engaged), and they all lived happily ever after. Seriously. The end.

Just kidding. The very last stop occurs in Montreal. I think the only part of Canada that is worth any relevance to me would be Whistler, or Toronto (because maybe there would be potential to run into Drake) but, I guess Montreal will do. Vanessa takes Nick to her Nonna’s house. I think that bringing any guy home to a huge Italian family means you have confidence in the guy being able to accept said giant group of Italians. So, kudos to Vanessa for thinking this putz can hang, but he clearly cannot. My disgust was at an all-time high when I had to listen to Vanessa pronounce things in Italian with a Canadian accent (barf). Additionally, for an Italian taking someone to Nonna’s for Sunday Lunch, I really didn’t see that much food (not kidding… step up your game fake Canadian-Italians). My favorite part occurred when Nick failed to adequately answer any of Vanessa’s parents’ questions.

“Why do you like my daughter?”

“Well, when she first stepped out of the limo…”

“No, I don’t mean looks!”

Oy. Things just get worst when  Nick meets the father. I mean, I didn’t think it was good at Nonna’s, and dad was just a strange, restingbitchface type of individual who I can see is struggling to find the English words for his thoughts and feelings. Dad, however, was able to manage the 64 thousand dollar question, “Did you ask all the other fathers for their blessings” (and that answer was…yes.  Come on.) I think Mr. Vanessa’s dad doesn’t really know how this whole Bachelor thing works. It’s standard protocol here to ask while you have the fathers in front of you. It’s standard life protocol really, to ask the father… except the guy usually isn’t dating a bunch of other chicks simultaneously. Oops.

I feel like no matter what we do, our pets catch on. They are these odd little internal magnifying glasses to our soul that see through all of the bullshit. They know when we hurt. Lulu especially the past few days has been such a loving girl. She gets it. I’ve had nothing but cuddles, and love, and when I want to hold her so close…she just stays (this is SUPER out of character for this girl)…

Back story:

A lady in my complex who had constantly asked me whenever we’d see her “when can I have a dog like yours” exchanged numbers with me when I found out Lulu’s parents had created another litter. She couldn’t have been more excited. For an older lady, I received non stop calls and text messages, and she seemed as though she could not wait to get this dog (a really adorably cute one, at that). Once she got the puppy, she lasted less than 48 hours with the dog until she took her to the pound without communicating this to me. To make matters worse, today I received a text from this woman who lied about the entire story, and after catching her in a lie, lied again. I can’t. I have so many regrets, I could have adopted the puppy… it’s over but it’s insane to me that people don’t think about the downside of adopting an animal prior to doing so. 

Front story:

I’m sad about the puppy/worried about her/she looks JUST like Lulu did and I couldn’t imagine Lu in a situation like that (I know I’m super overprotective of her and spoil the crap out of her…but still). Today has been two years since my friend, old roommate, best smack talker I’d ever met passed away. Losing someone is so strange. I spoke to him earlier today and asked him a question I won’t repeat (Jon, you probably will read this and laugh…but I did want to know that answer). I asked him to flicker the lights for a “yes”… but maybe it’s a yes and you don’t want to admit it. I think that somehow, he’s made my dog HATE everyone that knocks on the door so that I HAVE to answer the door (he always thought I was insane for being afraid to do so). I drove by his favorite restaurant today on the way to a store because the nearest ones to me were out of what I needed. I drove by his work when it was completely out of way and I’d never actually do that, but was on the way to where I needed to go. Jon would leave me the best notes on our whiteboard, he loved The League, bacon, cooking, and Dogsfishhead beer. He hated vegans (except for me), Pepsi, and had this way of making EVERYONE he met like him. It seems unfair that someone who I feel actually made the world a better place is gone. How does that happen?

Thanks for making sure I’ve tried Phil’s. Thank you for forcing me to answer the front door (I know that’s all you). Thank you for giving me those subtle Jonathon reminders I needed after a week like this. It’s actually what I imagined you’d tell me about this dog lady that made me laugh and shrug it off instead of totally losing my mind on her. 

Stay close, friend. 

What a crazy couple of days both politically (OK, weeks…) and personally speaking (my business travel schedule for the upcoming weeks is a little overwhelming). I just keep playing in my head “let’s just stand in a circle around our shoes and our pocketbooks
and just dance” (if you don’t know Dane Cook, feel free to never read this blog again because he’ll come up… numerous times) and shit just keeps getting tossed in the way. Imagine yourself and your band of girlfriends get on the dance floor and said shoes and pocketbooks are tossed into the middle of the circle, and you’re dancing around them, and then a fucking asteroid lands in the middle of your favorite clutch and new heels. Bam. Gone. Burning ball of fire, lava, etc., encompasses your favorite accessories and you immediately regret going out. Is it bad that I have an actual fear of that? Not of an asteroid, but that I’ll take a favorite wardrobe piece and wear it out and something awful will happen to it? Sometimes I feel like my life just exists with these unexplainable fears, and I don’t really address them because I know they’re ridiculous… but they’re just there?

So maybe things aren’t that bad… or bad at all, just busy with no signs of slowing down a bit. Unfortunately I haven’t had a ton of time for multiple gym sessions/ day, trying out new clean eating recipes, and so on… but I know I need to make more of an effort on my end. In addition, I feel as though this is definitely a creative outlet for myself that I have sort of neglected and I am feeling that neglect.

I think they most important thing to remember is that your health and mental wellness should be of utmost priority to all of us. Everyone is busy. Sometimes, I feel as though explaining how “busy” you are is somehow like a pissing contest. Who has gone to the most meetings, the most hours put in at the office, or who has the least work/life balance is the winner. Why? Being busy does not make you a better employee, or better individual. In fact, taking care of yourself and making sure that your health and well-being are ranked #1 will make it easier to prioritize at the office. If you don’t believe me, then at least take some advice from Michael Scott:

You ever have a weekend where you think, “I was exactly where I was supposed to be, with exactly who I should have been with”? I am fortunate enough (extremely fortunate, at that) to have a pretty cool family. We make it a point to have fun together as often as possible, or at least when we’re lucky enough to be in the same city at the same time. 

We were at the Coin Haus (again) on Friday. This is roughly 3 times in 3 months… I’m so over it, BUT I’d gladly recommend it to anyone who wants to have fun in La Mesa (they’re opening one in OB soon). We had a cute little cousin night of fun, even though there were only 6 out of 12 of us… 3 are in other countries, and 3 are in other states ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.  My parents got to join in on the fun but I’m pretty sure my mom wanted to hang longer than my dad- Sorry, Pam. We had a fun little tour of La Mesa, ran into people from high school (shocking) and left hungover (seriously, I cannot take shots… stop buying them for me). 

We also got to take the SD Passbook out for a spin, and in one use it paid for itself! $35 for I believe 40+ restaurant promos around San Diego…such a good deal. Im fairly certain that the deals are all buy one, get one free entrees? First stop was Farmer’s Bottega – I’d been there before but this time for some reason it was so much better! Their menu is huge and offers a lot of Italian inspired dishes (photo is below but doesn’t do it justice). Braised short ribs with polenta and grilled veggies 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽seriously could only finish about a third but it was amazing (luckily Lulu doesn’t mind leftovers). I would definitely recommend the Passbook to anyone who eats out in San Diego, even if they only use it once or twice. Their Instagram handle is: diningoutsd and the link to the passbook is in their bio with a code for 65$ off 😱. During the summer I bought a boozy Passport and it definitely got me out to new places I would have never known about before, and I’m hoping this does the same thing. 

Lastly, the squad got to reconvene today (minus Hill and CM 😢). I feel like no matter what we end up doing it’s always a good time, and never truly long enough (luckily this girl’s birthday is next week and I get to see them again 💪🏽💪🏽💪🏽). I’m pretty lucky to have friends who enjoy a good brunch, a cocktail, and minor (read: major) smack talking as much as I do. Also, Court deemed 1/29 as Squad Day… so that’s a thing now. Never mind my awkward outfit below👇🏽missed this today. Until next time, bitches…

I’m not entirely down… if we’re being honest, I’m not down at all, I just have this Drake jam stuck in my head as I sip my champagne (OK Champagne Papi…). So, as I sort of add different things that I feel will make a difference in my overall life/health/productivity while I read about them, I was introduced to Ashwagandha. Used correctly, this ayurvedic supplement can support overall stress relief, anxiety, energy levels, improve sleep, etc. I have done an ayurvedic test before that basically lists things you should stay away from in your diet, things you should eat more of, and what you should do to be the healthiest you. Unfortunately, that was 6+ years ago and I have no idea what that test even says/means any more. Being the Amazon Prime Addict that I am (yes, I have capitalized it because it’s a problem, and if there were meetings I should and very well could attend) I go onto Prime and order the highest reviewed Ashwagandha. I begin to immediately take this as suggested, and feel sick 30 minutes after I take it, every day that I take it. After consulting my best friend/PhD (not MD but definitely more D than me… get it?), she suggests taking it with food might make things better? It doesn’t, but I had totally disregarded all of the amazing things that have occurred since I began taking the supplement, and only focused on the negative (sick to my stomach isn’t exactly ideal, but there were some GREAT benefits). My sleep has been amazing. A-MAZ-ING. I go to sleep early. I do not wake up in the middle of the night. I wake up feeling rested. What more could a person really ask for? Overall, I’m less stressed, I have been able to focus in on one activity without straying to another, and without caffeine, my energy levels have been great.

Prior to looking into Ashwagandha, a lot of people recommended the Moon Juice dusts to me and I decided that rather than continue with the Ashwagandha I had ordered off of Prime, I’d look more into the Moon Juice dusts. They make SO MANY great ones that I couldn’t pick just one, so I decided to add the sampler box via Amazon. Prime has them for $5 more per dust, but does not charge shipping. If you order directly from Moon Juice it is $5 less, but a LOT more in shipping (anywhere between 12$-30$). Moon Juice does however give a 15% discount for their email subscribers, however, my code didn’t work, thus went to the tried and true Prime. Although some of these I’m not sure I entirely need; Power, Dream, Sex, etc., I figured why not look into their healing abilities and weed out what I don’t need.

I will post more recipes as I receive my cooklet in this starter pack, and circle back on recipes that I feel will work/dusts that didn’t work for me. If you have any suggestions in regards to anxiety/stress relief, supplements that cue in on focus but also help with sleep, PLEASE let me know!

Roasted veggies with cilantro grilled chicken

Basil chicken kabobs with bell peppers

Veggie BBQ’d pizza with fresh mozz

So, above are some recent recipes/things I’ve made lately in regards to that post a few days ago when I said I was eating clean (in moderation… yes, I fully realize that one of those is a pizza, but it’s covered in veggies! That’s good, right?!) I think an issue I had when I was vegan for so long was consuming the exact same foods all the time to the point where I’d get so sick of them that I couldn’t eat that specific item ever again (I will never consume stir-fried broccoli and carrots with brown rice and tofu anymore. Ever. Again.) Notice the above grilling trend – insert rolled eye emoji… needless to say I get stuck in ruts, and this trend will turn into a rut at some point soon too, I’m sure. But, is it bad if it’s a healthy rut? How does one combat this issue of constantly eating the same things all the time? I follow as many clean eating, no BS bloggers/chefs on Instagram/Facebook/SnapChat as I possibly can. I will literally take ideas from anyone who seems to know what they’re talking about (or at least know more than I do… which is probably most people). I know this sounds like an incredibly entitled first world/Whole Foods(whole paycheck) problem, as we get to pick and choose what we want to eat while some people don’t have food at all, thus making me feel guilty AF as I write this out… bleh.

From following said individuals who know more than Meagan, I’ve been learning more about the healthy fats, oils, and so on that go into food preparation. This Sicilian was not ready to give up her Olive Oil… but reluctantly (and with much hesitation) made the change to Organic Avocado Oil and Avocado Oil cooking spray. We are going to just NOT tell Nonna, or my father about that one. Avocado Oil has a higher smoke point than other oils, and also has a lot more fiber (up to 7% more depending on the brands).  I’ve also crossed over to the land of Ghee (OMGhee is the brand I’m currently using) as far as butter products go (to be honest it just smells like movie theatre popcorn to me?). Remember how I mentioned that this leads down a rabbit hole?! My go to seasonings (get ready for this shocker) are Pink Himalayan Sea Salt, Paprika, and Red Pepper flakes (those are probably bad because I haven’t seen anyone use them, but I’m not sure why, so I’ll keep using them). In addition, I’ve been able to take a cilantro/lime sauce and sort of make it as clean as possible. Yes, yes… that cilantro sauce is basically used twice in recipes up above, except I switched cilantro out once for basil to make it more like a pesto and it totally worked. I give it a solid 6-ish months before I never want to taste said sauce ever again.

I had the best old fashioned this weekend, and I wish I could have ordered said drink (you know, like a little make believe waitress would come out of my kitchen and deliver it to the couch) while attempting to watch another round of “Corinne’s Stupid Antics” or, as it’s popularly known as, “The Bachelor”. I guess I’m just confused as to why girls are  UPSET that Nick isn’t giving them a rose? Join the show, show moderate levels of attraction towards Nick, go on Bachelor in Paradise, and meet the real person you’re supposed to be with. Right? GRACE. You couldn’t have GRACE without a little heartache (I know it didn’t last, but tattoos are for life. Give it a year, I bet they’ll be back). Girl with short hair and a terrible red dress was crying and fanning her face (I’ve certainly cried before, but never needed to wave my hands towards my face. What is the purpose of this action?) said, “I’ve been really, really patient to fall in love.” So, do you want an award? Do you think that said patience means (at 24, mind you) that this somehow buys you points towards winning the “man of your dreams”? I’m super curious as to how some of these contestants actually think. Or, maybe they just say something before they think it through? What a novel millennial concept.

The biggest indication of this season’s shit show/the reason behind Nick’s all around shittiness as a person came when he said, “Welcome to my home town. I grew up in Waukesha, just about 2 miles from here.” Bingo. Bango. He’s from WISCONSIN. They’re all nuts, all of them, every person from Wisconsin is insane. Two words: Jeffrey Dahmer. He brings them to the lavish town of Milwaukee on the 3rd date with 5975 more dates to go because he wants to preemptively show them what a shit hole this place is, that way when things get serious in about 4 weeks, they won’t be surprised. Then, while in Milwaukee, he asks the girls to shovel shit. Now, I normally am not Corinne’s biggest supporter, but when he’s seen you naked, touched your boobs, and continues to give you roses because he knows you’ll get naked, I’d refrain from shoveling shit, too. Some of the girls (mental health counselor; who clearly is not a real mental health counselor) thinks this manure date is a metaphor of some sort. I can picture my 10th grade Honor’s English teacher asking for “symbolism”like this episode was a freaking chapter in Bless Me Ultima. What is the symbolism behind this episode? Shit. 

That is all. 

Paying closer attention to the ingredients we put inside of our food and bodies can really lead you down a rabbit hole and leave you constantly wondering “what the fuck”?! After doing quite a bit of research, I’ve come to the conclusion that I still don’t know what the hell most ingredients are. So, there’s that? I find myself to be a fairly intelligent individual, yet I can’t look at a nutrition label and pinpoint something right off the bat and think “Nope, can’t do that. That causes____”. Who can? I’ll take all the help I can get. 

Until I become said expert, I’ll be sticking to a whole/ clean/ no nonsense/no bullshit type of eating plan (for the most part). I don’t like the idea of being so strict that I have to be one way or another forever. As a for-the-most-part vegan of 7ish years, I can tell you I did want a piece of cheese pizza every now and then. And dammit, I didn’t allow myself to indulge. Those years of restrain come back to bite you in the ass. Literally. What is the sense of depriving yourself of everything??

When I turned 21 my dad told me (while in Vegas…after I’d verbally accosted the waitress/was hours away from getting myself kicked out of the VIP area at PURE) “Everything in moderation”. As I get older, that statement reigns more true. Exercise, but don’t kill yourself. Drink wine, but not too much. Eat healthy, but if you need to, have some mac and cheese. 

✌🏼