Helloooo!!

I survived my first day of work! I get paid to promote adult beverages….and then I get sent home with some more…what could be better?!

Yes, now we operate a wine bar out of the house. Totally normal.

In all seriousness, my day went really really well. I feel right at home at Michel Schlumberger and everyone I work with is really nice. Today I tasted the entire collection of wines….it was awesome. I think I’m going to do a little bit of everything, including fun social media stuff, so that’s good. Tomorrow I get to experience my first event at the winery and this weekend I’m pouring wine at the Sonoma County Harvest Fair. I can’t even believe that not even a week ago I had such a totally different life. Crazy!

I grabbed lunch with my boss at the most Jenna place ever!!

I LOVED this place!!!! It’s a really old general store with all sorts of fun foodie surprises inside. I spotted tea infused dark chocolate, kombucha, gourmet cheeses and the best sandwiches ever. I got a turkey sandwich with some sort of spicy spread, feta cheese and thick slices of tomatoes. It was delicious and I inhaled it!

SO GOOD! This place might be dangerous.

I left work around 5:30, wine in hand, and snacked on an apple on my way home. I got home, kicked off my heels, poured myself a glass of viognier and waited for the boys to get home.

We were going to cook tonight but everyone was too wiped out so we just headed downtown to Russian River Brewery for some PIZZA!

This had cheese, caramelized onions and black olives on it. It was deeeeelicious!

I’m one lucky girl with two dates:

I also got a half house salad:

I love how FRESH all the produce is here!!! Seriously, I’ve eaten the best tomatoes of my entire life since I moved to California. So, so sweet!

I’m totally wiped out!!! Ray Charles is still blasting on surround sound but I think I’m going to have to call it a night…..one of my coworkers is picking me up at 8am tomorrow and I really wanted to run first but honestly, exercise just isn’t my primary focus right now. Moving cross country, living out of a suitcase, relying on other people for rides and starting a new job is totally sapping all of my energy. I still have a long run planned for Sunday morning though!

The boys say they want me to film them having an Amazing Grass chugging contest in the morning. Get ready!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 85 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dinner out, Lunch, Snack, wine

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Hey hey!

I feel about 500 times better this morning…..thanks to a solid 8+ hours of sleep (with tylonel pm, ear plugs and eye mask), an early morning run, a jenna-breakfast and amazing grass, I think I’m almost back to my old self. I’m currently sitting at a little French bakery in downtown Healdsburg, drinking a cafe au lait and James Taylor “going to Carolina” is playing and I almost choked up….but besides that, things are going well.

This morning I set my alarm for 6:15 and for the first time, I actually felt like it WAS 6:15 and not 9:15. I ate a banana, laced up my running shoes and ran a COLD couple miles. I found a little park and track near the boy’s house and blasted my music…..it was wonderful to get back out there, break a sweat and clear my mind. Since I’m out here all on my own and don’t even have the comfort of my old car, my music is the one thing that makes me feel close to home. I couldn’t believe it was 44 degrees outside….I’m used to running when it’s 84 and humid. This is so weird!

When I got back, I made a comforting jenna breakfast of oatmeal with almond butter, banana and honeycrisp apple chunks:

Plus coffee! I have never in my life been in a boys kitchen that is SO well stocked. Both Adam and Rocky are major foodies and they have french press coffee makers, rice cookers, teavana tea infusers and, of course, a whole supply of hot sauces. What more could you need?!

I’ve been instructed to throw it out there that if there are any single girls who read this that would like to go on a date with Rocky, he is ready and available.

Ain’t he cute?!

I dropped Adam off at work and again took the big red truck for an adventure. First, we went to the gas station and discovered real fast that California gas is SO EXPENSIVE!!!! good lord.

Then, I parallel parked!!!!

Dad, aren’t you proud?!

Got a delicious cafe au lait and sat outside and worked on my laptop—

I <3 Healdsburg

And this WEATHER!!!!!! Oh, my heart!

Sigh. I can’t believe I’ve been brainwashed by Florida humidity for 17 years. California is extremely expensive and far away, but I’d move here for the weather and Trader Joe’s ALONE! I mean, come on!

For lunch I had a yogurt bowl with cinnamon puffins, almond butter and apple. You will probably see a lot of these as I attempt to save every penny I have…..

Have a bunch of work to do this afternoon in regards to my freelance projects….and tomorrow is my first day of work at Michel-Schlumberger!

To be continued!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 90 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cardio, Exercise, Lunch, musings, Snack

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Wow. I honestly feel like I’ve been hit by a semi-truck right now.

I guess that’s to be expected given the past four days have been the most insane of my entire life but wow, I need rest.

Adam is being brave and letting me use his truck while he’s at work (muhahah), so this morning we grabbed some breakfast before I dropped him off at the office. This could possibly have been the largest breakfast I’ve ever been served:

It was a greek omelet with feta and spinach that came with hash browns and toast…..and some interesting little pink pom-pom sticking out of the eggs. Interesting. I ate about half the omelet and 1 piece of toast…..this could have fed a family of six.

I find it humorous that I am driving around northern california in a truck with texas plates, not knowing where I’m going at all….I feel so far from home right now!

I LOVED the apartment though that I looked at 9:30 and hopefully will be signing the lease in a few days. The location is absolutely perfect and it’s very “me”….it’s a very, very large studio apartment on the top floor of a really old victorian home in downtown healdsburg. It has a ton of character and potential, now I just need furniture!

I totally crashed at about 10:30 this morning. I pulled back on my sweatpants and sweatshirt and slept for almost three hours. I thought I would wake up feeling better but unfortunately, I feel worse! Moving is very emotionally and physically draining! I feel like I need to sleep for about a week straight to be caught up and the next couple weeks are just going to be totally crazy as well. I’ll be drinking a ton of this for sure—-

When I rejoined the land of the living around 2:00 this afternoon, I decided to make myself relatively useful and go grocery shopping for dinner ingredients since I told the guys I would make something fabulous tonight (oh the joy of temporarily living with boys). I plugged the address to Trader Joes into the truck gps and set on my way!

Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First though, I stopped at Starbucks for some nourishment and got a chocolate banana vivanno with a shot of espresso:

I LOVE TJS!!!! Seriously, this might be one of the best things about moving to California. How have I lived so long without this store??! Everything is healthy and so CHEAP! I couldn’t believe it. I got a huge bag of honeycrisp apples for only $3.50, when at home like two apples would be double that amount. Amazing. Also got some almond butter, yogurt and puffins. Necessities indeed. I’m going to make my chicken enchiladas for dinner….boys love these!

I think I’ve done enough exploring for one day. About to change into jeans and plug away at some emails and freelance projects for a few hours. Thank you all so much for bearing with me during this weird transition stage….hopefully by this time next week things will be relatively back to normal. I just need to get my car, get my apartment and get settled. I hate living out of suitcases and having to rely on others for rides!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 79 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Breakfast, Lunch

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Blogging live from BlogHer Food 09!

Everything is really, really interesting….especially all the photography workshops! It really makes me want to take the dslr plunge, that’s for sure. Now I just need an extra $700. Hah. I’ll also say though that today is completely overwhelming for me. I had a few moments where I had to sort of step aside because there’s just SO many people, so much stuff, so much food….and I have about a million and one thoughts racing through my head and…oh wait, I moved across the country yesterday. I need to sleeeeeeep!

I finally met the voice behind the Mushroom Channel, Jessi!

Kath and I write mushroom recipes for The Mushroom Channel monthly. Yay mushrooms!

Lunch was HUGE….had no idea it was a sit-down event and there was WINE!

I drank the sauvignon blanc….twas good! Both of the reds were too big for me but I liked the white!

Bertolli catered lunch today and Rocco DiSpirito made a guest appearance!

It was just okay. I’m not a big fan of heavy pasta at lunch and this sure was heavy. Lots of cream sauces and meat. I took tastes of each course though and ate all my salad!

Tina and I shared dessert!

So far I’ve attended: Developing Your Visual Voice with Heidi Swanson, Principles of Photography, and The Meaning of Identity and the Value of Voice in a Crowded Foodblogging World. We have little over an hour left here and then Kath, Tina and I are racing back to our hotel, doing a quick wardrobe change and then heading back to the St. Regis for the cocktail party followed by another after party later this evening. ahhhhh!

I’m strictly running on fumes right now and can’t wait until tomorrow afternoon when I can head back up to Sonoma and relax a little bit.

Lots more pictures to come….plus a vlog, perhaps?!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 29 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Lunch, traveling

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