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!

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Post tags: dinner out, Lunch, Snack, wine

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Good evening

Today has really felt like my first productive day in a very long time. I got a big chunk of my inbox cleared, wrote my new Health.com post, wrote my latest True/Slant post on staying healthy while traveling (I need my own advice!), and even got time to lay in the sunshine and read my bible. Life is good.

I snacked on this bar around 3:00 this afternoon while working….

And then got served a glass of wine while on a call from work outside. Living with boys ain’t half bad and wine is one thing they AREN’T lacking….

Neither is turkey for snacks. Apparently.

Dinner was leftover enchiladas, obviously!

First day of work tomorrow!! I work 10:30 to 4:00 and am really excited to just get in there and learn everything I can. It definitely should be an interesting day!

Here’s a little teaser for you: guess who’s going to NYC on Sunday afternoon? ME! I have a top secret meeting on Monday morning in the City and I’m super stoked about it……that’s all for now! Don’t you just hate me right now??! muhahahaha

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Post tags: Dinner, Snack, wine

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Hello!

I can’t believe I’m here!!!!!!!!!!

How weird to say goodbye to Florida and the whole east coast….I’ve lived in Florida for the past 17 years and have been on the east coast my entire life. Incredibly excited for this new adventure out west…. Thanks for coming along with me for the ride!

It was bittersweet saying goodbye to my parents yesterday morning…..here’s my dad and I in front of my new car right before heading to the airport!

My parents are packing up my car to the gills this weekend and then on Monday it’s being shipped off to the west coast. Crazy.

I waited until I was on the plane to eat a banana and then later in my flight I tried this new Amazing Grass bar + a honeycrisp apple:

ohmygosh this bar was soooooo good!!!!!! 12 grams of protein and absolutely delicious. Probably one of the best protein bars I’ve tried and I love the simple, easy to read ingredient list. These were just released at Whole Foods so look for them there….seriously delicious.

One of my friends from yoga made me this amaaaaazing mix tape for my journey. Think iron & wine, bon iver, the national, nico stai, tiny vipers and more. Very “chill” airplane music. He also gave me a book of inspiring life quotations by Paulo Coelho, the author of The Alchemist. This one really hit me this morning as I was reading as my flight was taking off

whenever we need

to make a very important decision,

it is best to trust to impulse, to passion,

because reason usually tries

to remove us from our dream,

saying that the time is not yet right.

reason is afraid of defeat,

but intuition enjoys life and its challenges

Isn’t that awesome? I love this little book because I’m a quotation freak.

I made it to San Francisco right on time, changed my clothes and immediately got together with the fabulous BethT, who actually brought me CHAMPAGNE, chocolates, hummus and carrot sticks!!!

At the airport, I ate a veggie burrito the size of my head……..I was sooooooooo hungry!!!!!!

And then Kath and Tina arrived and we were off!!!! First stop to Beth’s house to drop off my whole life in suitcases and then we headed straight to Healdsburg and Michel Schlumberger!

I can’t believe I work here!!!

We totally got spoiled……right when we got there, us four girls were whisked away to taste some totally delicious Michel Schlumberger wines. I loved them all (and there were many!) and we took a total tour of the estate. Seriously one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been in my whole life. I feel like I’m on vacation and have to remind myself that I actually get to wake up and go here every day for work.

On Fridays there’s live music outside so after our tour we just sat, ate some delicious cheese and drank MORE wine!

Loved these cheeses……it was pretty much heaven on earth and everyone was so nice!

And, I got reunited with my Murphy-Goode friends!!!!!!!! It’s just so crazy to be back. Feels like just yesterday we were all meeting for the first time in July.

It’s so funny because now five of us live here out of the original top ten. Slowly but surely we are all trickling back in….I guess Sonoma does that to you; once it gets under you skin you never want to leave! I’m still pinching myself……I CAN’T BELIEVE I LIVE HERE!

As for dinner, we ate at Zin, which was totally fabulous. I love the whole concept of this restaurant—-everything on the menu is seasonal and all the produce is grown on the restaurant’s farm! Since everything looks so good, we just decided to order every one of the appetizers (hehe), split two more bottles of vino and I ordered a bowl of the butternut squash apple soup.

Everything was SO GOOD! I was so busy enjoying it all and catching up with friends that I really didn’t shoot as many food pictures as I should have….bad food blogger! Those little rolls are “figs in a blanket”, basically figs wrapped up in puff pastry……melted in my mouth.

And my soup, with lemon creme fraiche and bacon. This was divine. Y’all will have to refer to Kath and Tina’s blogs for more food pictures…they were much better at photo taking last night…!

At about 10:15 after all this delicious food and wine, we started to crash. Fast. What a whirlwind day!! The alarm this morning went off at 5:50 and we raced to get ready, head back to SF and make it to BlogHer Food 09 on time. Grabbed some quick breakfast at the hotel before jumping back in the car.

Banana, yogurt, hard boiled egg and peanut butter toast. I should have drank more water….feeling very dehydrated right now!

Finally……BlogHer Food 09!!!!!!!!

This is my first BlogHer conference and I am super impressed so far…..everything is so nice (obviously, since it’s at the St.Regis!) and I’m about to listen to my first session on developing your visual voice. Later, I’m attending a session on photography that I’m really excited about as well! Fun!

I ate a big plate of fresh fruit first thing:

Got to jet for the time being….laptop is about to die! Full BlogHer recap later!

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Post tags: Breakfast, dessert, Dinner, dinner out, friends, Lunch, musings, Snack, traveling, wine

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This is what spending hours at the Honda dealership does to a girl:

But……in the end I bought my first car and on Monday it’s being shipped straight to Santa Rosa, FULL of my worldly belongings! wooooahhhhhhhhh

Okay, I’m just going to say it: I feel like a real adult now! I can’t believe I just BOUGHT my first car and am moving across the country tomorrow morning. My life! This actually works out really well though because I’m packing the car FULL of books, kitchen stuff, CLOTHES, shoes…heck, even a bedside table and bookshelf. Saves a lot of money to ship stuff and I’m killing two birds with one stone. I’m hoping to get my car by next Friday so keep your fingers crossed! She’s a brand new white honda civic…..Abby! How very “california” of me.

I snacked on this bar while I was at Honda all afternoon:

Drank some coconut water to rehydrate!

And when I finally got home tonight my parents and I FINALLY uncorked my precious bottle of Cambria, which I have been coveting ever since I took the trip down to the Cambria Estate last July! When I was there, I was told I could pick any bottle I wanted to take home with me and I’ve been just staring at this gorgeous pinot noir for months now, waiting for the right time to finally open it…….well, tonight was the night!

Was it ever good. This might have been one of the BEST pinot noirs I’ve ever had. The three of us each had a *large* glass and toasted to my new adventure! I totally got the “go seize life” pep talk from the parents and can’t believe I’m about to embark out on my own for the first real time. I feel like in the past six months I’ve grown up soooo much and can’t even believe that, actually, five months today my brother passed away. I’m here to tell you that life can change in a very instant! Never in a million years could I have predicted this but I’m hanging on for dear life and taking it as it comes….life is meant to be experienced and I have to think my brother would think me moving to California would be pretty darn cool. I’ll admit, I’ve always had a pretty comfortable life with my parents living nearby to catch me if I fall….and I had the privilege of moving back in with them last month and living rent free for awhile. Well, friends, no more. If my food is less exciting, that’s because I might be dirt poor and picking vegetables from the garden. I also might be homesick laying on my floor drinking wine but it’s all good. And hopefully first I can actually FIND a home because as of right now I’m just staying with friends until the apartment thing pulls through, which it hopefully will next week. Sometimes I feel like my life is a country song, no?

Anyways, for dinner I requested my favorite meal—linguine with escarole and brie from Bon Appetit!

I’m still packing and packing up my car to be shipped but here’s how tomorrow will go down:

Flight leaves Tampa at 6:50 am

Get into Houston at 9 am

Get into San Francisco (!!!!) at 11 am

Meet Kath, Tina and the fabulous BethT at the airport and Beth is driving us straight to Healdsburg (new home!) where our destination will be my new place of employment, Michel Schlumberger! We are meeting Jim (new boss!) there and he is giving us a total tour the winery and vineyards….plus lots of tasting. There’s live music at the winery in the early evening and we have a 7:30 dinner reservation at Zin! We are staying the night in Healdsburg tomorrow night and then getting up at the crack of dawn on Saturday morning and driving back to San Francisco for BlogHer food!

***

Wheeeeeeeeeewwwwww!!!!! Don’t worry, I’ll be twittering and blogging, of course…..plus there may be a little FlipCam action that has already started so stay tune for a VLOG as well!

Tons of loose ends to tie up…..I’ve gotta kiss Dexter about a million times because I think my parents are just going to bring him out to me when they come for Thanksgiving. ahh! I know he’s in good hands though and he soon will love California, too.

Bye,bye Florida…………Hello, California!

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Post tags: Dinner, dinner by mom, Snack, traveling, wine

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Hey guys!

Hope you all are doing well this evening. I just got home after my shift at the studio and had a glass of some deeeelicious Murphy-Goode Fume. I love that wine.

I spent a big chunk of this afternoon cleaning out and going through all my stuff. I found some interesting journals from back in 05-06 and it was interesting to read about the stuff that I used to stress out about! Seriously, I would get hung up about the stupidest things. It’s crazy to go back and read your thoughts years ago then put together the puzzle of your life. I also found all my journals from my time in France and that was crazy to read as well!

I snacked on a waffle with almond butter and apricot preserves—

And then I had a late dinner of a slice of leftover lasagna

I’ve got a few things to take care of this evening before I can call it a night. Got some big exciting news today that I can’t wait to share with y’all, but alas, we must wait a little bit. Patience is a virtue.

Goooooodnight!

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

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Heck! I am t-i-r-e-d! Running 9 miles makes you a) really really hungry and b) REALLY tired. I swear!

This afternoon I was delighted to see THESE back at the store!

And these are always delicious….

We celebrated with some delicious Cambria Katherine’s vineyard chardonnay this evening—

What were we celebrating? Who knows. Life? Sunday? I rocked my sweatpants from freshman year so it was all good. I’m just going to say: I love dressing up but I reallyyyy love my comfy sweats, too. These are like the sisterhood of the traveling pants, but in sweatpants. They’ve seen me through some crazy times!

My mom made this mustard maple panko crusted chicken out of the latest issue of Bon Appetit and we had it with Annie’s mac & cheese and broccoli—

It was pretty much the perfect meal.

And then I went with my dad to the frozen yogurt shop after dinner and got a peanut butter/brownie batter swirl with oreo. No words.

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Post tags: dessert, dinner by mom, Snack, wine

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Good evening

I hope everyone enjoyed a restful Sunday. Around 5:30 I enjoyed a glass of one of my favorite wines ever…

I LOVE Julia’s Vineyard Pinot Noir. I still can’t believe I was there…and I even got the pleasure of meeting Julia! This Pinot Noir is incredibly light and easy to drink…almost TOO easy to drink. Lots of fruity flavors….it’s so me. I was very excited to see it was on sale at ABC today!

  

Dessert was an unpictured piece of Swiss chocolate with hazelnuts!

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Post tags: dessert, Dinner, dinner by mom, Snack, wine

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Well, unfortunately I’ve had about 10 cups of iced tea this afternoon so I’m still on a caffeine high right now and its 8:30….looks like it might be a late night :\

I did snack on some HUGE organic grapes and a mini bag of kettle corn!

I don’t really enjoy popcorn unless its kettle corn…..I love the sweet/salty combo!

Around 5:30 I had a lovely glass of one of my favorites with my mom—

Sigh. I miss Sonoma!!

We had the most INCREDIBLE dinner. I know I get pretty excited about food most of the time but this really was off the charts….as in, I’m making it again asap. It was probably the best dinner I’ve had in a really, really long time!

This would be linguine with escarole, brie and pancetta from Food & Wine magazine. The flavor combinations were out of this world…..I might have stood over the stove afterwards picking at all the cheesy pasta strands. Just thinking about this meal gets me excited all over again…..gahhh!

Dessert was Swiss dark chocolate!

My tummy is so happy right now. I mean, this might go down in history as one of my favorite meals……great wine, awesome pasta and extra dark chocolate. Can you even GET better?! I think not.

Since I’m so wired right now (dang iced tea), I think I will use all my extra energy to get more freelance assignments done.

Can’t believe tomorrow is already September 1st!

***

New True/Slant article on exercise related injuries!

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Post tags: chocolate, dessert, Dinner, wine

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Got my bags packed and I’m ready to go!!!

Tomorrow morning my flight leaves Tampa at 7 a.m. (!!!) but I DID manage to get a nonstop to Boston so I get in at 10:00. Super excited about that! I have lots of great reading material:

Lots of Summit paperwork!

Snacks!

And I’m sort of stuffing my carry on to the max as we speak. I have the tendency to pack, errr, my whole closet when I travel so this is difficult for me. But hey, its always better to overpack than underpack, right?!

Then on a little raw granola:

My “speech” tonight went well! Actually it really wasn’t hard at all….I spoke a few minutes about my fundraising successes (err the BLOG, obviously!) to the new group of TNT athletes for the winter season. I could see the fear in their eyes about how much they have to raise….its a tough task, no doubt! It was funny because after I was done speaking one girl raised her hand and was like “Are you “the” Jenna from EatLiveRun??” Small word, huh?! Funny stuff.

I got home rather late and ate a quick plate of shrimp (cooked with olive oil and garlic), steamed sugar snap peas and a biscotti for good measure

Mmmm wine!

Aaaaaand I’m off!!! I’m THRILLED to be able to meet some of you in a few days! I can almost assure you there will be another Summit in the future so those that didn’t get in, don’t fret! Also, we will be live streaming all of Saturday’s events from The Healthy Living Summit website.

No bloggie in the morning since Jenna has to wake up at 5:15! Once in Boston I’m meeting Kath at the airport and together are taking the T to our hotel then meeting Tina for lunch! I will be twittering the entire time so stay tuned there!

See you sooooooooooooooon!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 57 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dessert, Dinner, musings, traveling, wine

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Good evening!

I hope everyone had a good day! I actually got a lot done and was able to organize everything for Boston! My bed is covered right now with different lists and agendas…I’m so excited! I want to take a moment now to thank my sponsor, Nasoya, for their awesome contribution. I’m sure you all know, but Caitlin, Kath, Meghann, Heather, Tina and I dreamt up the Healthy Living Summit early last March and its been like our baby ever since….now she’s all grown up! Nasoya was incredibly gracious to us and covered some of our discretionary expenses and we are all thankful! Plus…their tofu rocks!

Midday I had the typical Oikos + raw granola snackie:

It tasted quite indulgent but really wasn’t all that heavy! That would be tartar sauce on my crabcake if you were wondering

I also picked up a bottle of one of my favorite wines, Murphy-Goode “The Fume”, to go with the meal. Everything worked perfectly!

I’m off to send a few emails and tie some things up. See you in the morning!

© Jenna for Eat, Live, Run, 2009. | Permalink | 40 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dinner, Snack, wine

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