Snack Mountain Blog

Hi, hello,

I say “readers” because several friends have told me that they are now reading my blog so I thought I would address them, or you directly. To your dismay, you may have noticed that I have not been posting very frequently. Well! I’ve been busy. Yes, commuting and being sick and working and well, stuff. Anyhoo, looking backwards a bit I had a great week in mid-April where I met some rad people at work and went to an awesome secret pop-up dinner by my friend Leif Hedendal. Here are some photos from the event:

Moving on, I feel the need to mention that I have recently become obsessed with Marc Maron. His WTF podcast has seriously made commuting not only bearable but almost something I look forward to. Definitely give the Weird Al Yankovic episode a listen. I only wished that they had talked about UHF which is one of my favorite movies of all time. On that note, I will leave you with this. Everytime I drive by Seafood City, I think of it:

Dear Los Angeles,

You are so wonderful and I’m so happy to have found you. I never knew that I could be so happy living in a city as wonderful as yourself. That day when we had a picnic at the beach on my lunch break (see above) I realized you would be mine forever. Despite all the ups and downs of moving somewhere new and starting over, you have provided me with the inspiration and joy to carry on. I can’t wait to spend our first summer together. Just think of all the sights we will see and the delicious food we will eat. Now when I hear people in SF or NY say mean things about you, I just think to myself, they are just jealous! Los Angeles, I love you. Thank you for accepting me into your succulent landscape.

Love,
Lauren

What the hell? I thought it’s supposed to be 72 and Sunny everyday now…

Right now every plant, tree, or succulent I see is blooming! This is so different from New York where you have to go to a park or botanical to see exotic plants. I’ve been going on tons of walks in my neighborhood and discovering interesting “creatures,” picking fruit and getting sinus headaches from all the pollen! For example, the colors in this vegetable garden were so lovely:

On Friday, Maura and I went on a walk in the Silver Lake hills to explore secret staircases, catch great views and eat oranges:

Did you catch that? Haha. I’m such a dork. On another walk I saw a patriotic cactus plant and a tree whose flowers that looked exactly like Animal from the Muppets:

I just can’t get enough of it! When will LA stop amazing me with its beauty and charm? In other news, there is a lot of exciting ideas brewing over Snack Mountain and (CHEESE BALL ALERT!) I hope that soon my new ideas will be blooming too!

So yesterday I went with my buddies Maura and Caitlin to Joshua Tree for an exclusive art adventure. There are so many things to do there that we decided to just focus on the art sites that are listed on the High Desert Test Sites website. We first went to Wendy  and Amy’s Swap Meet but we were not feeling thrifty so we headed over to the Crochet Museum!!! I should also mention that my strong desire to head to the desert was inspired by Fashion Intel’s recent blog posts about the wonders of the desert. Stepping into the Crochet Museum was a blissful experience for a toy collector such as myself.

Outside of the Crochet Museum were these odd busts with sunglasses on them. This one was my favorite. There is something very Robert Palmer about her. It’s like Simply Irresistible meets Sledgehammer:

We then headed over to “Behind the Bail Bonds” where we saw two aluminum truck heads welded together that is pretty crazy looking and is an amazing site for desert photos (including one mock band photo).

Next, we traveled to Purifoy’s Outdoor Desert Art Museum which basically felt like a post-apocalyptic site from so many sci-fi movies that I love!

Sigh. I totally understand why people love Joshua Tree and fantasize about moving there to make art. Next time camping or thrifting (or both!).

Allow me to introduce you to my roommates’ dogs: Mamas and Chente. It’s so great to have dogs around the house and it’s especially great when they are INSANE! These dogs are unlike any other dogs I’ve ever met. I started a YouTube channel to showcase their crazy antics including wrestling, attacking the neighbors cat Luke and being total weirdos! I truly believe that these dogs are a cash cow waiting to blow up on YouTube to subsidize our house’s rent!

The Huntington is the most amazing place! I can’t believe I have lived here for almost 6 months and have not been there yet! They have a HUGE Cacti Garden with more cacti than I have ever seen in my life! I felt I was Disneyland for Cacti!