DeziGal

Why i love my mom

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Alinea, Chicago

Everest, Chicago

Sierra Del Mar, Big Sur

Viks, Vancouver

Matsuhisa - the original

Hirozen - unassuming facade in strip mall. Freshest fish and cozy yet chic neighborhood feel

Katana - great robata menu. Outdoor patio is very trendy overlooking sunset strip and the mondrian. Great for out of towners. Expect older men with younger surgically enhanced women.

Koi - always buzzing with hollywood wannabes and industry folks. this is the ultimate see and be seen place for west hollywood sushi. put those heels on,  pay for a blowout, and buy a sexy outfit on roberston before you go.

Hamasaku - chic white on white place with plasma wall behind the chef's bar. extensive two page roll menu each honored after a celebrity. unexcepted but exceptional rolls -- try the hamburger roll and  the sushi pizza roll. dressy but not like koi.

Bar Hayama - mellow little jewel. Beautiful outdoor seating with huge fire pit in the center. modest earthy decor give it a minimal but sleek look. Good food and great ambience for a romantic meal or a chill evening with friends. Food good but not memorable.

Giesha House - Very hollywood very buzzing. Bilevel megacomplex.

Tengu - quite forgettable. Great views of the pacific from its ocean ave location. Sexy decor, hot waitstaff, but utterly ok food. good for out of towners to get a feel for beachfront Santa Monica.

Sushi Roku (3rd street) - beware of a snooty attitude unless you name drop at the maitre de. Great food. Great date place.

Takami - best views, best decor, and best scene in downtown LA. Great food. Good for groups.

Blowfish - caught them on a dead night, massive place -- great decor. good food.

Lately, I've had opposing life goals. I touch-typed a list on my iphone, before the New Year high had worn out, titled 'life-goals'. In it are a few random desires -- fly a plane, sail a boat, read a book each month, post at least one blog entry a month, travel two countries a year, volunteer in africa, adopt a dog and eventually a child (if I come around to motherhood). The thought that keeps me up at night though, is how I am going to balance it all. And more so, how can a person come to terms with opposing lifeviews. How could I still love gucci when I've experienced true joy with charity. How could I enjoy luxurious hotels and their finely packaged amenities when I rally for recycling and hybrids. How will I climb up the career ladder while trying to ride a lama in patagonia. How can one woman make babies and money, all while not looking like a back of a bus, mind you. My hope, as I enter the third decade of my life, is that somehow god is kind enough to bless me with a life where I can experience both self-love and selflessness.

I lay in bed mulling these thoughts, until I came across the following in my lastest read, "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. She says," What if you could somehow create an expansive enough life that you could snychronize seemingly incongrous opposites into a worldview that excludes nothing? The truth is, I want to experience both worldy enjoyment and divine transcendence - the dual glories of human life. I want what the greeks called kalos kai agathos, the singular balance of the good and beautiful. I have been missing both during these last hard years. Both pleasure and devotion require a stress free space in which to flourish and I'd been living in a giant trash compactor of non-stop anxiety."

Thank you Elizabeth. For showing me that these tough decisions are not just my own. And thanks for writing about your life-changing journey that has been an inspiration to thousands of women who grapple between the "good and the beautiful."

SJP – I am a big fan of yours. Your care-free yet introspective attitude, your limitless wardrobe, your gifted sense of style, your wit and intellect. I loved you for Carrie and I loved you for SJP. I tried to emulated your style (though i can only pull off the H&M version of your couture wardobe).  Threw out the straightening iron (and wore my hair curly), started to write (though anonymously), drank way too many cosmos (until I found out they may be linked to breast cancer). Heck, I even bought your perfume and thought wrinkles communicated experience not age.

I have remained extremely excited for May 30, the premier of Sex and the City, but am disappointed that it’s just you on most of the posters. Where are your gals? Why the exclusion? SATC has always been about the four of you. It doesn’t matter that you’re a producer – I don’t think your audience cares as much as they care to see the four of you together. Facebook has an application that identifies which SATC character women most identify with. This implies that if all women were theoretically divided into only four categories – you would only get a percentage of the share. Then why would you isolate the women who might identify more with Miranda, Charlotte, or Samantha?

SATC was powerful, because it was about friendship and sisterhood between four women, with completely different values and personalities, that survived through jealously, romance, heart-break, illness, motherhood, and more. So why aren’t your sistas on the billboard with you?

My dear SJP, may I remind you the cardinal rule of friendship is that you never leave your girls in the dark.