garden of philosophy

i know i said i was doing a night run this past weekend, but life got in the way. specifically a co-workers going away dinner trumped a 7k for me, and it was totally worth it. instead of a 7k night run, i managed a 7k afternoon run to the foot of gellert hill and walked up to the garden of philosophy, something i've been wanting to do for months. totally worth it as well.

keeping pace

i've done some runs over the last 4 years, i've blogged about a few. they've been different lengths

disneyland half marathon

mom and dad explore europe - budapest update

the first thing i got asked when i told my friends and family i was spending the year in budapest was "when can i visit?" my parents have both been to europe but at different times. they've been planning a trip to selvacava, italy, where my dad's grandparents immigrated from, for as long as i can remember. they finally got to take that trip, bookended by weekends with me in budapest.

i have to say, budapest - italy - budapest was the right way to do this. they got to visit me and had something to do during the week while i worked. we managed to make it out to a few places i hadn't ventured yet.

fitness friday - my home away from home gym

my home away from home gym

fitness friday 6.3.16

today i'm going thru some of my favorite apps, free and not.

map my fitness: an upgrade of sorts from map my run, b/c you don't need more than one "map my" from the same company. my friends and i like to give each other transatlantic encouragement. i'll be tracking my bike rides soon as i plan to purchase a bike this weekend. love the 30 second delay on the "start" feature, gives me time to get myself situated before the playlist begins.

fitness friday

i'm getting a bit ambitions by naming this "fitness friday." it's put me in the box of posting fitness items on friday. i'm not a fan of boxes, unless i can make them into a fort, but here i am.

the official motto of 502

one pot chicken couscous

i had some friends coming to town last week which meant there would be no cooking during the week. to avoid the work commissary, i decided to try a big one pot meal that would take care of me for a few days.

i found this tasty (looking at least) recipe from brit + co (click for original post and recipe)

saturday after pilates i grabbed a water and headed to the central market hall, the largest market in budapest, which i hadn't visited yet.

it goes on forever

how to live in budapest and not gain 50 lbs

50 pounds may be an exaggeration, but i don't think it's far off.

weight gain comes from 2 places

1. my metabolism is in constant conflict with the overwhelming availability of pastry
2. my west coast aclimatized body doesn't want to run outside in the cold

seriously, every morning i come into the office and the assistants have got fresh baked goodies for breakfast. it takes everything in my to not eat them all.

the portion sizes here also put american portions to shame. the girls in the caffeteria laugh at me when i say "that's enough" as they're loading up my third pasta dish of the week. pasta and cheese sauce, it's a thing here. a very tasty thing.

packing for a year in europe ...

if you thought the ... would be followed by a "in 1 suitcase," you've come to the wrong blog.

there's no way i was going to budapest with just 1 suitcase. i have mallory with me after all.

i did pack for this trip to north carolina in one suitcse

budapest so far

i've been here a month and am finally feeling like i'm getting the hang of things.

i have a car and can now get from my apartment to work without google maps. obviously, i have an apartment so, no more tiny hotel fridge for me!

now thats a beer!

high end on a budget

while this post may seem unrelated to my move, it came about because of it. i've spent a great deal of time moving around various bank accounts, comparing fees and rewards, as well as holding off on some purchases to make them more cost effective so, here we go.

i'm a frugal shopaholic. i grew up pretty poor and while i learned the value of a good deal and coupon/sale shopping, i didn't get the talk on credit card debt. while i got in a little deep in college, i managed to climb my way out. i'm not going to go into all the hows, that's a little too personal for me, but i will share some personal insight i've learned along the way.*

rewards credit cards: check out points guy, he's got the most comprehensive run down and tips, especially with travel rewards. i haven't been traveling much the last few years but i'm about to start. i also love any rewards points. amex allows points to be turned in for cash, flights or (most bang) gift cards. i've purchased many a nike gear, william sonoma cookware, clothes from nieman marcus and shoes from zappos. the available store has gone down but there's still good value. about a year ago i cashed in all my points for my garmin.

my "slight" youtube addiction

it began innocently enough, i wanted to check out a video game before i committed to buying it. it devolved into me spending a saturday selecting "next" in playlists on youtube. the same thing happened with beauty.

one minute i'm watching grace helbig do a "sweater weather" tag, whatever the hell that is, and the next thing i know i'm on ingrid nilsens' channel who tagged her learning how to tightline my eyes. wow, i've always wondered about that. looks a little painful. oh look, there's a video about how to use the concealer, i knew i was doing it wrong.

several videos and "vlog" playlists later, i discovered fleur de force. the english accent, the english countryside, the dogs, that hair, i was hooked. there's something about having a person talk at you about a product that isn't going to make a commission off of it so much less annoying than a customer service rep.* and what's best, the person on youtube can't interact. if i decide i'm not feeling the product, fast forward, skip. no awkward "um, maybe something else" conversation while they desperately try and convince me that i really need this brand new $100 foundation.

it's been a while...

do i title a post like this every 6-8 months? it feels like it. i've been extremely absent and also extremely busy. the thing about life in freelance film is that the work can go from manic busy to snail slow from day to day. since march i've done the same job on 2 different shows and the work flow/pace are completely different.

in the spring i had a steadier, slower paced workflow that allowed for earlier nights and more time to write and plan. since mid-summer i've been on a higher concept show for a smaller production company that requires longer days and leaves little time for writing.

weekends are no longer just meeting up with friends, running, butt school or shopping. they're for getting all the chores done that fell to the way side during the week: dishes in the sink, mountains of laundry, crap i'm out of quarters, how did the milk go bad, why didn't i buy toilet paper last time and how am i going to make the random dreggs of food left in my fridge into a meal.... it can be a bit overwhelming. but i'm trying to make yet another come back. i'm like barbara, endless farewell tours.

i'm getting back into a groove. i've gone to butt school once a week and since my office is now 4 miles from home (the dream in la) i'm better at dragging myself out of bed for a morning run. i also managed to fit in a few fun activities with my friends. here's a brief update, more (hopefully) to follow.

used the force to get the psl a little early

week 2 of (f)unemployment

week 2 started off strong: went for a run on sunday, yoga on monday, run on tuesday and paid for it all on wednesday. it's time to accept that i am no longer as naturally fit as i used to be. i decided to take thursday as a rest day and return to yoga next monday.

monday and tuesday i did a lot of admin around the house. i repacked my work kit and cleared out all the non-office items. i had 5 bags of comic books from when i was walking distance from my favorite shop at disney, getting caught up on those trade paperbacks is on my to do for today. i also worked on a few post drafts from my make shift floor/coffee table "office".

mal likes to be involved

smoothie madness - karlie kloss breakfast smoothie

true story: about a year ago i fell asleep watching a doctor who marathon and woke up mid-nutribullet infomercial. 30 mins later i was in the check out line of the bed, bath & beyond with one of the hundred 20% off fliers and a 15 piece nutribullet set. best impulse buy ever.

i've tried a lot of smoothie combos, the karlie kloss breakfast smoothie is my favorite made with protein powder, originally posted at popsugar. i've changed it up a little, using mixed berries rather than just blackberries. while i'm (f)unemployed this has been my go to post yoga smoothie.

karlie kloss breakfast smoothie

1 cup unsweetened almond milk

1 scoop chocolate protein powder

1 banana

1 cup black berries (i used mixed frozen)

week 1 of (f)unemployment

this week began my first week of unemployment. it's also my first round of unemployment in 5 years, it's a little weird.

i work freelance in film and my show wrapped for some additional research needs. this happens all the time, sometimes they come back and everyone starts working again, many times the films go back to the shelf to be made at a later date. fingers crossed this one comes back again soon, but until then, unemployed.

this past week i took advantage of the down time. i binge watched some netflix, managed to finish fringe, get as far caught up on bones and criminal minds as i can. please release season 10 on streaming soon!

lately i've been

i was able to prep this post while on the plane from nyc so, here we go!

lately i’ve been…

since i’ve recently started posting again i decided to on this survey i saw on peanut butter fingers blog so we could all get better acquainted.

cooking: my own lunch for work. it’s mostly some lazy variations of chicken breast and rotating bases and toppings, ie. rice, salad, pasta. i’m going to get into that in next tuesdays post.

update - the self magazine 30 day summer challenge

so week 4 is here and everything hurts! ok, maybe not hurts, but there is definitely some aching, in a good way.  i’ve enjoyed the last 4 weeks of scheduled butt kicking, not to commandos really but i no longer fear the burpee.

new gear for 2015

i've been pretty good at curbing my gear purchases. i can be very much a gadget person and that just gets costly. but occasionally, purchases have to be made.

i upgraded my garmin thanks to american express. about 6 months ago i cashed in most of my rewards points and purchased the forerunner 15 in teal. it's a lot less bulky than my previous garmin, i love that i can wear it as a watch to track my steps during the day without looking like a deep sea diver.

so...um...yeah

it's been a long while.

i went back to freelance film work in september of last year and so my life is a tad less structured, which i happen to love. i can be a tad ocd organized but i'm also a problem solver so when the work gets flipped upside down, i dig it. that's probably going to be how this blog is going to go from now on.