O, my, I can't believe it's been three weeks since I wrote! Things have been busy. First of all, Theo came to visit - you can see pix of him below. We had such a great weekend. He flew into LAX on Thursday night and we went straight to Bar Pinxo in Santa Monica - that's the tapas place I found with my friends Kathryn and Giampaolo when they visited. We had an amazing tapas with quail eggs - those little baby quails are so tasty! A much richer flavor than their larger counterparts, the chickens, as well as a creamier texture. On Friday, it was off to The Huntington Gardens for the day and then on to Shawn's house to pick figs! He has three treese where he's staying and he let us have the last big pick of the season. Then we headed to The Grove to walk around and show Theo the LA scene, and we met up again with Shawn for dinner at The Farmer's Market to celebrate his new job! He's now an assistant at a Literary Agency. Saturday we got an early start and headed to Griffith for a run/hike and then to the Silverlake Farmer's Market where we bought some great fish and were given a free jalapeno. Then, I spent the day at the Yoga Health Conference in LA while Theo had lunch with his sister Thaphne, who lives in LA, and explored the city on foot.

My favorite speaker was Dr.Timothy McCall who I first heard speak at NIH's Yoga Week a few months ago. He's an internist and a yoga teacher who studies yoga's effects on the body and teaches how to treat ailments such as osteoporosis, depression, carpal tunnel using yoga. There are some amazing studies out there, both about yoga and meditation. I remember one that shows a brain scan of someone with Ahlzeimer's before and after meditation and their brain had actually filled out a little bit - the empty spaces had gotten a little smaller after the mediation. So, Dr. McCall studies why that happens and how we can benefit from it. That talk, my time at the NIH conference, and completing my application for my 500 Hr Yoga Teacher Training (basically my Master's in teaching yoga) have helped me realize that I'd like to focus some of my study on yoga as a healing treatment. I think in Western medicine we often think we have to depend on doctors to tell us how to get better through prescriptions, but we may find we don't need as much of the prescription if we're self-treating with other forms of healing. verrry verrry interesting. I think we came home and took a nap and then made delicious Jalapeno Fish with Lime - see recipe below. Saturday night we may have done something, but I think we just made delicious dinner and hung out. It was a loooong day. Sunday we drove along Sunset Blvd aaaaaaall the way West as we headed to the beach, but first we stopped in Topanga Canyon for a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. We were told by fellow hikers to beware - they'd seen two rattlesnakes, but we were S.O.L. on the snake sighting. We finally made it to the ocean and popped into the cold cold Pacific to cool off. Then it was back home for showers and out to dinner for fish tacos on Vermont ave. at "The Best Fish Tacos in Encinitas". They were delish, and a great dinner for only $4 per person. We sat outside on the patio and got the local's shortcut to LAX which is where we headed next. After a tearful good-bye, Theo was headed back to the East Coast and I was headed back to Semi-Home.

Though I'd been liking LA, I didn't truly feel like I was part of it until after the weekend Theo came. I felt afraid and lonely and not very strong, but to show Theo what I'd found so far made me realize that I had learned a lot in month and it was time to stop being scared and start conquering! Which is what started to happen the week after he left. I got my first audition which I booked - it was an unpaid Public Service Announcement for a production company affiliated with the Scientologists, but it was a job none the less, and it felt great to be on set. Then I got a slew of auditions off of Actor's Access AND a short play that my friend Shawn wrote for the Serial Killers competition at Sacred Fools Theatre. I met some great peeps on the show and made my very first girl friend! Beth has been out here for a year focusing on theatre and getting to know LA and she hails originally from Maryland. I guess the East Coasters stick together out here.

More on Serial Killers soon, this time I mean it.

xox Jewel