Birthday Brunch

After some amazing weather in Los Angeles, I decided before I leaveI I would love to have lunch somewhere outdoors. Since I always head back to school right before my birthday, we celebrated a little early. Eveleigh is a great new restaurant off sunset, named best patio in LA, so we went for sunday brunch on sunny Golden Globes day. With an Australian themed menu in a beautiful cottage restaurant, it's very different than anything else in West Hollywood. From vintage lamps and furniture to large chalk boards and bird cages, the restaurant have a homey and rustic look. We started out with with a great cocktail, a chamomile-infused tequila with lemon juice and honey, making for the best lemonade I've ever had! I ordered corned beef and fingerling potatoes with a scotch egg. A scotch egg is a soft boiled egg, that is then fried and it was amazing. My friend got spelt pancakes with pear syrup and we also ordered french fries with truffle aioli, that no one could stop eating. Not only was the food really good, but it was also very different than your usual sunday brunch, which made it interesting. Between the food, the fantastic patio view, and most importantly all the Aussie/actor waiters I had so much fun trying out Eveleigh.

Happy New Year!

Looking back through my posts of this year, and my goals from last New Years, I can't help but to feel proud. I told myself I wouldn't have any regrets this year, and I haven't. I tried to push myself to become a better person, and find more balance to my life. Although there has been some hard moments, I have strived to find more joy and happiness. I have surrounded myself with more positive and motivating energy and learned more about myself and what I want out of life. My family and friends have been my solid support system and helped me every step of the way and for that I am always grateful every year. It has been a year of change and growth, but I will always be humbled by the wonderful people around me that teach me every day how to be a better person. I've been thinking a lot about what my goal would be this year, and I've decided that I don't want to set one. I just hope for health and happiness and to enjoy the journey along the way. This year I am putting more joy, love, understanding, passion, forgiveness, excitement, and laughter out into the universe and hope everyone else does too! Happy New Year everyone!

Celebration of Life

As I landed at LAX to see my family for the holidays I received an unfortunate phone call that my great-grandmother had passed away. While I walked through the airport alone, and found my luggage I tried to process the information and grasp the news I had just gotten. Although I thought the appropriate emotion was sadness, I could't help but to feel a sense of calm. My great-grandmother lived an amazing, adventure filled, exciting life for 99 years and enjoyed every moment of it. She was never sick and was loved by everyone she met. She was wise beyond her years and yet so relatable at the same time. She always had a perfect manicure and lipstick on wherever she went, and loved to dance, even at her 98th birthday she demanded a live band! I enjoyed every moment we shared and loved her very much. Born in Rhodes, Greece she lived her life very relaxed and used her care-free attitude in every aspect of her life. She taught me not to sweat the small things and enjoy every day and for that I will forever be grateful. Although I am of course saddened by the loss of our family's matriarch, I feel so lucky to have had her in my life. She truly was one of the most amazing people I ever met. Love you Nona Lucy!

Much Needed Mac & Cheese

After a very long night of fun at Formal with my sisters, we decided that we should probably eat something, and what better than some cheesy, gooey, greasy goodness from S'MAC. S'MAC in the Eat Village is a tiny restaurant the makes all sort of crazy macaroni and cheese concoctions that are addictive. After walking through the village and all the people dressed up for Santacon, holiday version of halloween for NYC, we finally got the S'MAC and all ordered our own crazy type of mac and cheese and tried to claim one of the few small tables. Although it is a bit of a hassle to enjoy these mac and cheese, trust me, its well worth it. I ordered the Mediterranean, which has kalamata olives, goat cheese and spinach, my friends ordered everything from the Parisienne, with figs and brie to the All American with four types of cheese. The serve them burning hot in their own skillets with extra melted cheese and bread crumbs on top. This was exactly what we needed after our night. Since we were already out and the city seemed to be in the holiday spirit already, we decided to go to the Union Square Holiday Market, your one stop shop for everything holiday related. You can find anything from hand made jewelry to children's toys. And since we weren't completely stuffed already, we stopped for hot chocolate and then for apple and pear cider and crepes of course. There's nothing like the city during the holidays

When Things Fall Into Place...

I don't want to give myself the evil eye, but I'm just so happy right now and can't help express it. I know there are people who have it worse, but I have had a challenging past few years and have worked really hard to change that and this is one of the first times I really feel like I am in a great place. I know without some struggle success wouldn't feel as gratifying, and I am humbled by my experiences that have brought me to this place. I feel very blessed and thankful for the opportunities and acknowledgments I have gotten. I am so content in this moment right now. I love my family, I love my friends, I love my work, and I love my education and the leadership positions it has set me up with. These are the things that fulfill me at the end of the day and I finally feel like they are all in good places for me and I couldn't be happier.

Finding the Connection

Since this year has already been a lot of change, I thought it was a good time to get a new job. I stumbled into a job working for a temple of all places. I was the kid who always ditched religious school, so when I was offered the job, I thought it was the universe playing a sick joke on me. I thought they would offer me an internship working in their office and with the staff, of all things they offered me a job teaching hebrew school, the class I despised the most of all as a teenager. As I was trying to find a way to politely turn them down, they then offered me a paid internship on top of teaching. I decided to give it a shot, it couldn't be any worse than retail. The more time I spent working the more I started to like it. New York is a big city, and it can get a bit lonely at times, being a part of a community has been a really nice addition to my week. Don't get me wrong, I've still got a lot of learning to do before I become a great teacher, but my kids are fun and they are learning with me. On the weekends I help out with events and its more of my sociological internship aspect of my job, I get to talk to the members and the staff and get feedback, see what keeps the place going on a day to day basis and what I can do to make it better. Some of my students come to my events and services with their families, which makes me feel like I did something right that week in class. I feel appreciated for my work and very much welcomed into the family and I didn't realize how much I was missing that piece of my life until I got it back. It has nothing to do with religion, because I don't find myself to be a religious person, I happen to feel more of a connection to my spirituality. Its all part of finding a balance for me, which I know is part of most people's lifelong goals, as it is for me, but has been a highlighted recently for me as something I should focus more on prioritizing.

As I go through all kinds of feelings and experiences in my journey through life -- delight, surprise, chagrin, dismay -- I hold this question as a guiding light: "What do I really need right now to be happy?" What I come to over and over again is that only qualities as vast and deep as love, connection and kindness will really make me happy in any sort of enduring way.

-Sharon Salzberg