Is greener grass necessarily a good thing?

As the saying goes, "the grass is always greener on the other side." I feel like I'm on that "other side" and indeed, the grass is pretty darn green here. The weather is more temperate than where I was a few short months ago and the sun shines almost every day.

BUT, (I never thought I would say this!) I miss Boston! Ok, so maybe I'm not missing the current weather conditions of weather that currently ranges from 28F to 45F....

or the lack of good Mexican food, but what I do miss (aside from the people, of course) is the diversity. Not only in the population, but also the food.

I found a new appreciation for Italian food that I have never felt before. North End was filled with good restaurants and boy do I miss Giacomo's!

Like many cities, the little communities that made up Boston were all different and unique. I have very fond memories of Allston/Brighton, Fenway, Cambridge, and other areas. Nothing makes you feel young again like going back to school and living in a college area. Harry's Bar and Grill was just downstairs from my apartment and with all the Boston fans and teams, we always knew who won any game, be it football, baseball, hockey, or basketball. Since there is no official happy hour out there (some rule or law that doesn't allow MA to discount alcohol), the Boston bars had some killer food specials. Wing Night was especially popular among me and my friends and at one point, we almost had weekly feasts that left a bone-yard mountain in our wake. Ahhh, those were the days.

Boston had a very bar heavy culture, and although I had not frequented bars often prior to grad school, I have to say, it's great walking into one where (as the saying goes) "everybody knows your name". Or at least about half the people do!

I'm still discovering Santa Barbara and I'm sure that I'll find some spots that feel like home soon. But even then, Boston will always be a home away from home.

"An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves." ~ Bill Vaughan

I'm sure I'm not alone in my amazement of how quickly 2012 has come. Truth be told, I've had some pretty amazing years in my life and 2011 was one of them!

Here's a year in review...

January: Jaipur, India

February: Quebec Winter Carnival

March: St. Pattie's

April: Red Sox Game

May: Graduation

June: Skydiving

July: Del Mar Fair

August: Coral's Wedding

September: Montreal

October: Drena Wedmitment

November: Boston Thanksgiving

December: Coastal Drive

I've definitely had a great year, even with the ups and downs. I'm grateful to be back in CA after an amazing 2 year stint in Boston. I've made some incredible friends and have had some great adventures.

Looking forward to 2012 and checking a few things off my bucket list!

♪♫ It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year ♪♫

Faneuil Hall, Boston MA

LAX, Terminal 4

I generally love the holidays. The decorations, the wrapping of presents, overload of desserts and other good food... (yum!)

Few things give me greater satisfaction than finding the perfect gift, having the perfect box for said gift and wrapping presents.

I used to work at a jewelry store while I was in college. Christmas was such a fun time of year. People would splurge on gifts and usually had us wrap their presents. Even now, I am a bit neurotic about it. Only my brother takes me up on the offer of wrapping presents. A win-win for both of us.

Even though Christmas is over, I still have more presents to buy... I'm a little behind, but some people are just really difficult to shop for.

Happy Holidays!! I hope you didn't get a lump of coal in your stocking!!

"Newlywed or Nearly Dead..."

"Newlywed  or  nearly dead", that's the unofficial motto of where I currently live. As they always say, "Home is where the heart is" and in any case, I know I'm not in Kansas anymore! (Or Boston, San Diego, Garden Grove, or even Indianapolis for that matter!) Ok, ok, I'm done with the puns.

I had never been to Santa Barbara prior to the interview for my current job. I wanted to come to visit while I was living in San Diego, but it just never happened. I remember thinking, "Even if I don't get this job, at least I'll have gotten a glimpse of the place so many people have raved about."

Don't get me wrong, it's a great place. Beautiful, secluded, not too populated and was featured in the NY times in their travel section just last month! With the beach to the south (so weird!) and the surrounding Los Padres National Forest , it is a unique place.

It's definitely the smallest town I've ever lived in as an adult. (As a youth, I had a brief stint in Tequesta, FL which is by far the smallest town that I've been in... ever...) When people ask me what I think of it, it's almost a reflex that I exclaim, "They don't have a Target!!"

To drive the point home, I am where the green arrow is and the Target website so effectively reveals that the closest one to me is only about 40 miles away. (Only...) To the city's defense, there is a Kmart here (which to date I have not visited because I have strategically hit up a Target on my way back home from a weekend away), but man do I miss having one around!

The other place that most people know about is UCSB. Known as a party school, it also boasts some Nobel Laureates and one Field Medalist. One of my good friends visited me for Halloween weekend. We decided to venture into Isla Vista (or IV) where, according to Playboy, UCSB is a Top Party School. We strolled through the streets and one thing we both agreed upon was that they had a very "fit" student body. I had to ask my friend, "Is there a BMI maximum on their application form?!"

Yes, that does say "I <3 Boobz"

We saw and heard a lot of entertaining things. In addition to the window artwork here, we also saw a drawing on a filthy car. Instead of the familiar "wash me" sign, it was a picture of a particular body part. Enough said. Sorry, no pictures were taken.

The "inner hoes" came out in droves, although, some of them might have been themselves... something I'll never personally know. The quote of the night could have come from any of them, "Is my a$$ hanging out?" and we weren't sure if it was something they WANTED or didn't.

We also came across some guys that held up "DTF?" signs on cardboard. Let me be honest, I had no idea what that meant, although we were pretty close and definitely had the right context in mind. One thing was for sure, they were going to have some fun parties down there that night, even with the police in full force. (We saw a Cookie Monster in handcuffs on the sidewalk, so sad.) I was warned by several co-workers to avoid the area if I wanted to steer clear of debauchery, but as a good host, how could I refuse my first visitor?!

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm guessing that's because of the SBPD.

Anyway, my temporary housing is coming to a close in about a month so I have to find a new place to live. Right now, I'm across the street from work, about 1.5 miles away from the local airport, and about 10-15 minutes away from downtown SB. Pretty darn convenient, but as a recent graduate with student loans, my current abode is just a wee (as in not at all, but actually a HUGE) bit too pricey for a gal like me. Wish me luck!

"Yelp Me, Yelp You!"

I started yelping back in May 2009, but was never really consistent with it. My first yelp review was not under my current account (and I don't know where it is now...) but it was to rant about horrible service I had in a downtown San Diegan Italian restaurant that I'm fairly confident no longer exists.

I use this site almost religiously whenever I'm in a new area. Usually, I'm passing through, but it's been a big help now that I've relocated.

Since I use it so much, I thought I would finally give back and let's face it: I'm opinionated and when it comes to food, I know what I like and I know what I don't like.

Mesa Cafe's Corned Beef Hash
Eggs Benedict

I was keeping a private list of favorite restaurants, which I would occasionally update, but this is so much easier to use, since it has all the information I usually need AND (as I'm sure most of you with smart phones know) it has its own app. I haven't reviewed all of my favorites, but I will so that I can remember them when I return. (I'm thinking about you, Boston and San Diego!!)

Taqueria Los Tarascos assortment 

of street tacos

I know many of you don't see what the big deal is about this site. But, just so you can see how helpful and entertaining it can be, I invite you to read a few of the posts from my friends, the Yelp Elite: Erica "Zombie Killer" P. (helpful) and her husband Chun "49% Gay/ 51% Cheapass" P. (entertaining, so much so that I'm usually LMAO!)

Goleta Sushi House's Chirashi

Feel free to friend me Kim "Kimikat" V. to follow some of my culinary adventures and to make some suggestions. I used to be all sugar and no spice on this account, but now, the truth comes out. After all, who wants to be lured into a crappy restaurant?!

Recent reviews by Kim V.

What's this?

A Phung-fastic weekend!

My good friend Erica Phung came to see me this weekend. I've had visitors every weekend I've been in SB and mostly we would walk around State Street and eat. This time was a little different.

Instead of just looking at different restaurants to try and roaming downtown SB, Erica and I looked for activities that could be fun in between all those meals. Our first crack was a boot camp that began at 8:30am on a Saturday morning. Well, at least according to the local paper, the Independent. We were so excited that we woke up early enough to give this a try, only to get to the fitness center and find out that the class had been cancelled... boo!!!

Crab Cake Eggs Benedict

Not to be discouraged, we decided to go to Cajun Kitchen for breakfast. A co-worker of mine recommended this place, and yelp gave it good reviews, so I thought, let's try it! (It was also right around the corner from the Boot Camp that didn't happen.) I got the Crab Cake Eggs Benedict and some OJ. It was good, but not as good as Erica's Hot Link Sausage. That in itself was amazing! (No picture, sorry.) The hash browns were indeed, awesome, as the reviews said.
After breakfast, we decided that we needed to commit to our earlier agenda of getting in some fitness in our day, so we ended up at Yasa Yoga for their "YASA Yin and Yang" course:

Enjoy a 45 minute YASA style flow, balanced by 45 minutes of yin yoga. During the yin portion of the class, students will explore longer holds, fewer poses and work with subtle energy to balance their yang practice. The perfect addition to any day to leave you feeling balanced and blissful. Suitable for All Levels.

Yeah right! That class was taught in a warm studio (about 85F) and kicked my butt! Granted, I'm working towards getting healthier, but this class was hard! So hard, in fact that all I wanted to do afterwards was take a nap. BUT, I had company, so that wasn't going to happen.

Pumpkin strip

After we freshened up, we headed to State Street for some shopping and stopped at Andersen's Bakery for a very late lunch. We were starved after that class! (At least I was!) The food was good, and the pumpkin strip was to die for! This may not look all that interesting, but the description peaked my curiosity: "A pumpkin pie in a pastry".  This was DELICIOUS!!! It was so good, that Erica came back the next day to bring some home! (If you want to know what I think of the service, that's a whole other story...)

This meal hit the spot. Full of delicious food, we returned to my place to take a quick rest. I had read in the Independent that they had a "Latin/Swing/Ballroom" lesson on Saturday nights at the Santa Barbara Dance Center. I'm still new to the area and wanted to try out the place for their Tuesday Salsa classes and asked if Erica was interested in going. We found out it was Lindy Hop night and even though Erica is pretty much an expert at Lindy, she was up for anything.

Don't judge me, but in order for me to make it out that night, I had to take a nap. I'm an awful host, but it just had to happen. To my defense, it was only about 15 minutes.

The lesson turned out to be fun. I learned the basics of a Charleston and Lindy Hop and felt like a Mexican jumping bean with all the hopping that was involved. It ain't called Lindy HOP for nothin'!!

Erica left in the late morning on Sunday after we had breakfast and I took the rest of the day and night to recover. All I gotta say is, what a great weekend!

Muchas gracias Beto!

Although I haven't mentioned it lately, my "to-do" list has been on my mind. I've been scouring newspapers and googling websites to see if I can fulfill some of those activities that I spoke of several months ago.

Today, I went for my first Zumba class. According to wikipedia, this class was founded by Alberto "Beto" Perez in Columbia. If you know me at all, you know I love to dance. I've been dying to try this class since I heard about it a while ago. It was a mixture of Samba, Tango, Salsa, Cumbia and Cha-Cha. I was the youngest person in there by about 10-15 years. I was fine with that, and had fun taking the class. However, I think I'm looking for a more advanced one. Considering the audience, I feel like I can find a younger crowd that can make the class a wee bit more ... let's say, youthful.

In any case, I think the idea of this class is awesome. What a great way to get some exercise in without feeling like it was a work out. And for that, I say, "Muchas Gracias Beto!" for accidentally creating a fun way to get exposure to different music and dance styles.

I'm still looking into Salsa classes, and other ways to check off that list, but stay tuned. =)