La Rosa Knows

#honestly I have to stop rewarding myself with a glass of wine just for making it through the day.

You can tell if someone is legit crazy by how often they change their FB profile photo. :’(

Okay, so I was doing this very silly thing where I had two blogs. One was LaRosaKnows.com, and the other was my Tumblr blog.

Essentially, I am not a computer wizard. I loved having a dot com because it made me feel important (legit, also?), but the Tumblr format was so easy to use and friendly and the beautiful layout…

Then I stumbled upon this blog that was a dot com address powered by Tumblr…

BAH WHA WHA WHATTTTT?!

To set up my dot com I had to hire a tech person, I used Wordpress which is allegedly the easiest format to use, and still I had troubles. But Danny solved all of those things and within 30 minutes BOOM! I was a dot com.

So, when I discovered that I could have Tumblr AND a dot com, I asked him if he’d help me out, to which I got the reply:

This of course made me feel like an asshole. So, I took to my own devices (dangerous), called an IT person, figured out how to alter an IP address, and VOILA!

LaRosaKnows.com on Tumblr is here!

The only problem seems to be that I cannot figure out how to get my old posts from the dot com back… but maybe that is the price I have to pay?

Anyways, WELCOME! :D

Okay, so, the “Supermoon” was on March 19th, right? It was the brightest moon we’ve seen in 18 years, and is extremely rare… blah blah.

Great, that happened. But you know what else happened? That moon has fucked up everyone’s shit.

I’ve had two friends go on a raw diet (wtf), Rebecca Black is famous and trending on Twitter, and Elizabeth Taylor died (why god??).

My friend Kristen said, “I’m super feisty and angry, and work was THE WORST THING IMAGINABLE!!!!! and I’M FAT!!!!!!!!”

And another friend, Ashley, told me, “i was driving to work, and i totally like got lost in my thoughts and thought i was on sunset but i was on santa monica, i thought i had missed the freeway. i’ve just had extra trouble focusing, and i keep having odd out of body experiences like forgetting where i am.”

The weather in Los Angeles has been abysmal, and Japan had a tsunami… I mean, hello, SUPERMOON!

My lady time is approaching this week (too much?), and my body has been going completely wonky. I have the usual cramps and I’m sleeping like crazy, but the cramps are somehow worse and even after sleeping 8 hours I need more. I’m breaking out and my hair has taken on a zig zag lightning bolt pattern on my head.

I’m just saying… SUPERMOON STRIKES AGAIN!

I’ve finally started reading the HARRY POTTER books, about a zillion years too late. I’m on Book 2.

Anyone have a favorite book?

I have been very hesitant to write about this because A) I’m afraid I’ll cave and fall off the wagon and B) I write for a green website and often about vegan issues, and I am fairly certain everyone I work with assumes I am already a vegetarian if not vegan.

But the truth is that the only meat not in my diet right now is red meat, and that’s only because I heard that it increases the risk of breast cancer— so I cut it out. But I’ve been toying with the idea of going vegetarian for awhile, because I really do love animals and would like something to hold over other peoples heads! Additionally, working at Ecorazzi has really shed some light on the benefits of nixing meat, so I decided that I should give it a try…eventually.

I’ve read that going veg for 30 days and setting a start and end date is the way to do it, I’ve just been looking for the right time to put down the turkey, cold turkey.

Enter the Genesis Awards! An event I attended over the weekend which honors celebs and media types for their work with animal activism. I got to sit in on the ceremony, which was catered by celeb vegan chef Tal Ronnen, and watch as presenters like Olivia Munn and Betty White awarded filmmakers and broadcasters for revealing the dangers of factory farming, or highlighting a story about a puppy mill, etc..

The thing is, this event was essentially like being forced to watch PETA videos for two hours while being served vegan ravioli. The footage that went along with each award included cows being beaten, monkeys dying in cages, baby chicks being thrown into grinders, that kinda fun stuff!

So, while nibbling on my vegan cheesecake (note: some things do taste better with dairy I’m sorry to say!), I decided that I would start my 30 day vegetarian diet that night. Meaning that from Saturday, March 19th until Sunday, April 17th I will be all veg all the time.

Today is Day 3 of being without meat, and so far so good. This morning I had whole wheat toast with peanut butter for breakfast, as a snack a banana, and my lunch (pictured) of hummus, pita, taboulie and falafel. Everything has been yummy, I don’t feel deprived (yet), and I’m pumping myself up with the promise of veggie burgers in the very near future. I’ve also started taking vitamins in case I’m not getting enough of something (though what, I couldn’t say).

Luckily I live in Los Angeles, and aside from all of the restaurants having veg options, I also am two blocks from a vegan Thai restaurant called Bulan, and four from a macrobiotic joint called M Cafe— going vegetarian looks like it will be pretty easy.

I’ve also promised David that if I went veg, I would cook a vegetarian meal once a week for us to try (yes, this is an easy way for him to get free food but I also suspect that he may be curious about going veg and eating healthy). So, every week I’ll be trying out a new recipe and seeing how I do in terms of cooking sans the meat, and I’ll provide David’s feedback on it as well!

If anyone has any recipes/tips/snacks that help make the transition into veg easier, I am all ears!

Ever tried to get drunk at an airport bar? They are the saddest places on earth and also, apparently, a spot where people go to make friends.

I made the horrific mistake of booking my flight home from Florida on St. Patrick’s day. So, after a week at home with no booze and cats for friends, when I got to the airport I decided that it was time to get my boozin’ on.

There is a gem of a spot at the Tampa Airport called, “Jose Cuervo Tequileria,” that looks not unlike your neighborhood Applebee’s. I rolled my carry-on in there, saddled up to a table, and ordered myself an Irish coffee.

Admittedly, there was a part of me that thought drinking alone at a bar might lead to some stranger interactions. The problem is that I don’t really like strangers, and I usually have enough of a bitch face to project that attitude. Like, when I was in the security line and the guard had to check my ID he asked me, “Why do you look so angry?” I wanted to reply, “Fuck off,” but instead I smiled and told him I’d “work on it.”

So, at Jose Cuervo Tequileria, I opened up my laptop and put in earbuds to try and discourage any undesired attention. But because the opposite of what I want to happen always inevitably does, I became the victim of some polite conversations.

“Want a little company?” A mid fortyish gentleman said as he stood over me. He had a receding hairline and a belly that hung over his business pants.

“No thanks,” I said and stared down at my keyboard. I felt badly but, come on, leave me and my booze the fuck alone.

After that approach the bar took on a new sad ambiance, as if the lights dimmed with this man’s deflated ego. Then I started to take notice of the people around me, of how tired they looked from traveling, or the prospect of it, the baggy sweatpants they all sported to be comfortable on the plane, how many tables had just one occupant either reading a book and drinking, or staring at the other single tables… It was depressing. My waitress came back, a woman that could have been my mother’s age but with braces and a hot pink scrunchie holding up her hair, she asked if I wanted fries to go with my drink. No, I didn’t.

That’s when I unintentionally locked eyes with a handsome black man at a nearby table.

“I bet you’re Irish,” he smiled at me widely. Maybe he wanted me to throw my head back and laugh, exclaiming “Yes! How did you guess?” and pull up a chair next to him, let him buy me a drink. But instead I nodded and pursed my lips, not amused. It’s not that I can’t feel flattered, having a good looking dude talk to me, but it’s just that I don’t know him, and he could be a serial killer rapist looking for his next redhead corpse to bury— I can’t be that corpse.

Whether it was my silent response, or my half snarl I’ll never know, but he gulped down the rest of his beer and left… I’m a horrible person.

Remember when I predicted Natalie Portman’s fall from grace a la Julia Roberts because the trick doesn’t know when to stop making movies?

Well, apparently she got my message.

In an interview with Collider, the actress talked about the fact that she’s going to be in a lot of films coming up, and said she feels kinda bad about it, because ya know, it’s kinda sucky (duh!).

“I did ‘Your Highness’ and then 'Black Swan’ and then 'Thor’ and then 'No Strings’. So it was really interesting. I feel bad for boring people with my face for a while.”

Don’t worry, we feel badly too.

The 29-year-old blamed the apocalypse, or something (classic backpedal maneuver).

“You have heard that the apocalypse is coming, right? 2012. The Mayan calendar,” Portman said. “I thought that I would get it all in right before. It was a great opportunity to get to do a lot of different things in a year.”

Listen, I don’t want to say I told you so, but…

I win.

That photo is funny, not only because this kid considers going to Applebee’s every night to be a great time, but because I grew up with people who would consider that a viable and cool spring break activity.

I am officially on Spring Break myself, and what will I be doing with my time… (!!!) Going home to Florida to party with my parents!! Yay!

Spring break for me used to mean going to the beach, turning pink from the sun, and drinking enormous alcohol-filled Hurricane’s in plastic cups. But the fact is that I’m getting older, and a lot of my high school friends who are still in Florida are either A) Knocked up B) Married or C) Engaged, none of which is terribly conducive to an Applebee’s nightly binge.

It feels weird to be surrounded by people my age who are for all intensive purposes more grownup than me. Especially since I don’t think of myself as anywhere near marrying age or ready for children. Don’t get me wrong, I am happy for my friends because all of them are in amazing relationships and the steps they have already accomplished seem fitting for them.

But where does that leave me?

I am apparently the 26-year-old friend without a husband or baby on my arm. Maybe I shouldn’t feel weird about that, but I can’t help wondering if my growth as an adult is somehow stunted.

I read this article in the New York Times called “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” where they reported, “The 20s are a black box, and there is a lot of churning in there. One-third of people in their 20s move to a new residence every year. Forty percent move back home with their parents at least once. They go through an average of seven jobs in their 20s, more job changes than in any other stretch. Two-thirds spend at least some time living with a romantic partner without being married. And marriage occurs later than ever. The median age at first marriage in the early 1970s, when the baby boomers were young, was 21 for women and 23 for men; by 2009 it had climbed to 26 for women and 28 for men, five years in a little more than a generation.”

So, I know that I’m not alone. By and large people like me who can’t be bothered with things like growing up, making money, and having babies before 30, are on the rise. In fact, my friends in Florida who have already accomplished these things may become a thing of the past. But still, maybe because I am southern or was raised Catholic or have Facebook to remind me of all the people I am slacking behind of, it’s hard not to feel a little out of place when I go home.

My parents didn’t get married until my mom was 35 and my dad was 32. So the issue of marriage has never been one of high pressure in my family, in fact I can distinctly remember my mother telling me that there were lots of fish in the sea when I relayed the idea of marrying my high school boyfriend to her at the age of 18. My brother and I have always been encouraged to wait until we are ready, told that we have plenty of time, and expected to put most of our focus on our careers rather tan love lives. I suppose that’s why, at 26 and 24, my brother and I are both pursuing higher degrees and have yet to be hitched. That’s not to say that you can’t be married off and get a master’s degree, that happens all the time, but I’ve always thought that marriage would come much later in life, after I’ve made my millions and have a comfortable estate surrounded by a moat.

I guess the idea of going home and seeing what I don’t yet have in my life reflected in the faces of my friends has gotten me thinking about these things (marriage, babies, growing up). But maybe that’s normal? Maybe I’m not the only chick out there who fears sounding like a bitter bitch just for bringing this all up?

I suppose everyone has something they have to face when they go home, mine just happens to be married couples and pregnant bellies.