What Dreams May Come

I've always had very vivid, colorful dreams. In my dreams, my usual mode of transportation is flying - or rather, swimming through the air. This is no joke - I was a swimmer for 13 years, and I guess it stuck.

I usually have water dreams that pertain to my job.

When I worked at The Bonnie Hunt Show, I hated it. And so I was drowning with my coworkers in a few dreams.

At Post Haste Sound, I mostly enjoyed it, but was sort of stressed a lot. So I was sitting in the water with my head and shoulders above - mildly comfortable.

Sometime around when I first quit and then started at my current job, I was high above the water at a resort, looking down on how beautiful it was. I guess I was pretty happy. :)

And last night, I had a bizarre dream where I was running a lot (another sign of dream stress I have), and I was late to pick something up. It was raining, and a city street was flooded, so I decided to swim. I easily swam through the water, but a boat was floating near by, so I pulled myself into it. I then paddled down the river that was flowing down a city street. At one point, I turned around and discovered elephants were swimming in the water. So bizarre!

So I guess the easy swimming, and my head above water was a good thing, but I wonder what floating on top of water means (and the elephants?!?!)? Hopefully it's good.

Cherry Blossoms

Yesterday I posted one photo, but below are some more of the cherry blossoms found on Sawtelle outside of Tsujita Artisan Noodle.

In honor of March:

Day Trips - Santa Barbara County Wine Tasting

I love wine, I love the beauty of Santa Barbara County - why not combine them into a great day trip?

Luckily, Jeremy and I have friends who live in Buellton, and we usually stay the night, making it much easier to drink a lot of wine and not worry about driving back to Los Angeles. However, with moderation - it can be done quite delightfully in one day.

If you are going to pack the 2 hour and 30 minute one way drive there and back (from LA) into one day, it helps to have some planning. Aim for 2 to 3 wineries, and look at a map to make sure they're near each other. That will eliminate a lot of hassle.

Leave early in the morning - maybe before 9am, and drive up PCH to the 101 N if you can - it's a much prettier drive and you don't have to deal with driving the 405/101 through the valley.

Get lunch in Buellton or Solvang, and then head out to wherever you want to go. Give yourself enough time to get dinner in Santa Barbara on the way back.

Also note - winter hours for wineries usually mean they close at 4pm. Make sure you get where you want to go by then.

If you're with a group of people, I'd also recommend buying a bottle of whatever tasting you liked the most, and enjoying it outside at the winery. If it's just two people - maybe take that bottle home. Driving buzzed all the way back to LA is not recommended.

Winery recommendations include:
Alma Rosa Winery - we're wine club members!
Sanford Winery
Melville Winery
Foxen Winery
Buttonwood Farm Winery
Brander Vineyard

It's also probably best to avoid wineries with signs outside that say you can see them in the movie Sideways. Not only do I not like that movie, but it's really just name dropping and not necessarily a sign of quality.

Colors of the Weekend - 2/21

Looks like a lot of yellows and browns...

(I found these cute color templates at Pugly Pixel - I had to try them out!)

Notes on Freelance

I'm now in the business of having my own business - or at least working as a freelance editor.

My full time gig (can I call it that?) is at Tao Creative. I'm an assistant editor and I'm learning more than I even thought I needed to learn (how ignorant is that?). I'm also the lowest person on the totem pole, so I'm trying to be a better editor. Example: working really hard to use more Final Cut Pro shortcuts. 

I also have edited 1.5 videos for Walks of Italy, a travel company based in... you guessed it - Rome. They're a really great company that provides tours all around Italy, and keeps their groups small. When we were in Rome, we had the privilege of taking the underground tour of the Colosseum and it was amazing. Our guide was super knowledgable and we had access to places the general public can't see. I'm hoping to do more videos for Walks of Italy soon (and work on the intro)! 

Here is my first major video debut for Walks of Italy - "On Artichokes":

2/12/2012 - Piano @ Cold Spring Tavern

Also happened to be my birthday...