Jennifer M Lima

REVIEW for HUNGRY? City Guides 🙂

In a diverse city like Los Angeles, with food spots at every corner, ranging from Middle Eastern cuisine to Sushi heaven finding a place to eat is never an issue. Now deciding which one to eat at, that’s an everyday issue that riddles even the savviest LA foodie. Ever wish you could find a hip, low key spot to eat? Someplace that spoils you with scrumptious appetizers, mind blowing entrees and “call me a cab” drinks?

If so please give a warm welcome and say Hellooo to Jones Hollywood! Hidden deep in the West Hollywood streets, covered with brick walls and bright lights is where you’ll find it. This cozy hot spot will have you feeling at home from the moment you walk in and pondering on their always positive fortunes cookies on your way out. You can hang out in the lounge area or have a drink by the bar or even bring the family for dinner. It’s a one stop shop bringing you the best in Italian cuisine.

Jones may be hidden, but it’s no stranger to the limelight, not with local icons stopping in for a bite. Among them, other local celebs that have kept this yummy hot spot their little secret and for much longer than you might think.

Fifteen years to be exact. This past Tuesday, Jones celebrated its’ 15^th year anniversary with a packed house of loyal customers, new faces and your local celeb or two. Nonetheless, everyone enjoyed the special $5 menu, featuring some of their signature dishes and house favorites. Personally, since it was my first time that night, I started off with their signature drink “Jonesy’s Jukebox.” I’m not completely sure what was in it, but it had a citrus taste to it making it feel like you were being energized while sinking into pure bliss. After two of those, along with the fried calamari with a spicy sauce, I was in heaven.

Given that Jones is an Italian restaurant, I just had to try one of their pizzas. I opted for the BBQ Chicken pizza and I must say, that was the best pizza I have ever tasted in my life. New York and Chicago style pizzas don’t have a thing on Jones pizza. I finished off my night with an apple pie dessert. Now I’ve had homemade apple pie before, but I’ve never had one quite like this. Words cannot describe…I guess you’ll have to try this one for yourself. Oh and, let me know if you find the words.

When you ended it, I felt such an intense sadness that seemed to radiate down to my very bones. It was an emotional and physical pain that reached me on a soul level. Still, at the same time, when I realized you were serious. When I realized that you meant every cruel word that was coming out of your once heavenly lips. My entire world came crashing down on me, it crashed in a way that I didn’t even know was possible. It felt like I had build my castle with sand instead of bricks and you were my tsunami.

At that very moment, I let go of all the things that I had been holding onto so dearly. I let go of us. Of our dreams. Our goals. Our life together. In that moment, through my heartbreak, I knew that you were right. I knew that we were only holding each other back. Whether or not we loved each other was not the issue. We just weren’t meant to be. Maybe we never were…we just happened.

After that, I pushed all those feelings I had for you…my love, my pain, my sadness. I pushed them deep into myself. I hid them and locked them away where they could never get to me again. I thought this was for the best, you know to just put it behind me and quit cold turkey. So I did what I always do. I wiped away my tears, packed my bags and moved on. Well, I moved 3,000 miles away to be exact, but that was my point. To be far away, thinking that if I was far we could both have a fighting chance at having a new life.

And at first, it felt right. You were right, a huge part of me wanted to be in LA and I would have resented you for it if I had stayed. For that, I thank you. If I’ve learned anything from all this, it’s that you have to follow your heart. Always. When you think about something too much, you will always convince yourself to do what other people think is right for you. The mind is a tricky thing, and the reality of it is that no one knows what is best for you better than you. I had to learn this the hard way.

The problem? Well I didn’t exactly deal with the break-up, I just pushed it aside and kept busy. Now that I’m here and settled and not so busy, I seem to find my mind wandering back to those days. If that isn’t bad enough, I can’t feel anything about it. Which just annoys me because I can’t stop thinking about it either. Have I pushed it so deep that I turned myself cold? Was the pain so bad that I won’t allow myself to feel it? What really scares me is that when I do get sad and my eyes start to water, I snap out of it…whether I want to or not. I never had trouble letting myself get emotional, until now.

In all honesty, it makes me nervous that I have no control over these feelings. What’s going to happen when I love someone else? Will that new love push me over the edge? I don’t expect you to have the answers, I just need my feelings to be heard. Known. Understood. Felt.

By someone other than me.

Take it from someone who has been, for the most part, unemployed for the past year. There is only so much to occupy your time with in the world.

At first, I slept. Naturally I realized how exhausted I was from full-time work and school. You may not notice right away, but it takes a toll on you. Then I wrote, caught up on my creativity. Got my juices flowing again. I painted. I drew. I even started making jewelry and set-up an online store.

I spent more time sleeping. I caught up on my pop culture and watched way too much television. I also spent way too much time with boyfriend at the time. Who was and is also unemployed. So not only did we live together, now we were both home. A lot. Needless to say, we got on each other’s nerves.

So now I’m in a new city, one which I have been blissfully exploring for the past month. And since I was ten years old as well. A city that I have loved since I first laid eyes on it. A place that feels like home. The only drawback? I don’t really have anything to do…at least not most of the time. I feel like I need a plan. A list of some sort. A do-to list would be ideal actually. It would give me something to do and a way to organize myself.

That’s funny. Organize what? What is it that I feel the need to organize? All my free time perhaps? I’m starting to think that this lack of activity is getting to me. Let’s see what kind of list I can come up with…any ideas?

When I was a child, I would dream of all the things I could be when I grew up I wanted to be a Veterinarian, but couldn’t watch animals die and well I didn’t like cleaning up after them either. I was going to a big time actress on Broadway, I always had a passion for the dramatic arts and loved being onstage. I’m not really sure why I didn’t stick to that, I had some trouble with my body image and lost my courage. I even wanted to be a Marine Biologist and live on a secluded island studying the marine life. That one still appeals to me actually.

Needless to say I changed my mind a lot. If it was up to me I would have a million different careers and love all of them. One day, in my high school English class, my teacher Mrs. Court asked me what I wanted to do after high school. I mean it was always a given that I would go to college, there was no doubt of that. But what would I study? If I had to choose one thing to do for the rest of my life…what would it be?

After thinking about it, the last thing I wanted was some day job I hated to be my future, I concluded that I loved to write. It was the only thing of my endless hobbies that I hadn’t out grown. I had never really thought that I would write for a living and actually make a career out of it. Mrs. Court told me that I could be a Journalist. How glamorous right? Me? A Journalist? My words? Published for the world to see?

She also recommended several colleges that were known for their journalism programs, but life got complicated and I stayed home and attended the local college. The thing was that from that day on, the day I decided to be a Journalist, there was never a doubt in my mind that it was the right choice for me. Don’t get me wrong, like any college student I considered other areas of study, but also as an addition to journalism. Never replacing it.

Until now. For the first time in 7 years I’m actually reconsidering my decision. I still love writing and continue use my words as my most effective form of communication. After all it is what I am, a writer. Words are my drug of choice. I have yet to find a better way to change my words than by writing. What I am thinking about it whether or not I want it as a career. I mean, I write because it makes me feel good, it allows me to clear my head and heart. It’s just that over the past year, I find myself struggling to write an article. I’m fine doing the research, preparing an interview and love attending the events and meeting the people.

The issue comes after. When I sit down at my computer and put it all together. It’s not that I can’t find the words…it seems I don’t want to. At first I thought maybe I was just having some writers block, there has been a lot going on in my life lately and I’m just dealing. But what if it’s not? Maybe it’s just the pressure…could it be a self esteem issue?

I’m just not so sure anymore….

Okay so not all of them generate deep thoughts and theories. I mean I’m not going to watch Transformers and convince myself that alien robots are coming to take over the planet and commence a full on war between themselves. That’s a bit much.

But other films, like Knowing, do raise quite a few thoughts into this head of mine. If you’ve seen it, I can’t imagine that the film did not make you think, so I’m assuming we are on the same page here. If you have not seen it, the basic idea of it is that all major catastrophes in the world are premeditated. Kind of like destiny, that all things happen for a reason or a greater purpose…the kind that reveals itself at a later date. That they cannot be stopped or avoided in anyway, regardless or who you are. What is meant to be will ultimately be.

So in the film, angels come down to earth to warn us of these events through numbers. They are sent to try and salvage the human race from extinction, the final event in the number sequence is the Sun releasing these fireballs that will destroy all living things on Earth. The thing is they only warn a select number of children. Children which they plan to take to another planet. A planet where they can start over and all will not be lost.

Although the film is more of a sci-fi thriller than anything, it has its tear jerking moments where a sap like myself ended up bawling my eyes out. I’m such a sucker for goodbyes

All of this made me think, what if we really don’t have any control of where our lives are going? I mean I know ultimately as human beings, we have free will…well as much as the government permits that is. But what if our choices were limited? Limited in the way that if we were supposed to end of in a specific city, things would happen that would leave us with no other option than to go to that city. How much control do you really have?

Like if you are meant to be in a relationship with someone in particular for whatever reason…karma, destiny, fate…but for some reason you choose to fight it. Wouldn’t it find a way regardless of what you wanted? For example, people who have trouble having children and then they break up and suddenly they have kids. Could it just be that you weren’t meant to have children with that person?

It’s the same with death. I am a firm believer that what is meant to be will be. Always. So if I’m going to die on a Tuesday and I decide that I will stay locked inside my house every Tuesday because I don’t want to die…am I really doing anything? How many people die in their houses? Or have freak accidents happen, like a car crashing through your living room? Is it fate or just coincidence?

I think fate. So I say, Live each day like your last. Never leave for tomorrow what you can do today. And be good to the people you love, you never know how long you will have them.

Today is a gift and tomorrow is never promised.

Why are some people so damn ignorant? It’s like, really you thought about it and still thought you should say that? Really???

The reason for my annoyance is due to an ad I just read on craigslist.org, a website I go on religiously. I go to find vintage items, or writing gigs and just for the sheer curiosity of knowing what other people give away.

Anyway, there was an ad for a free Spanish Bible and some jackass felt the need to reply to the post. Was his response beneficial to anyone, you may ask? No. It was not. He, for one reason or another, felt that he should share his dumb-ass opinion with the craigslist community.

What did he have to say? I tried to post it here but it was flagged, of course. In a nut shell, he said that the bible as in English and that GOD only replied to prayers in English. Stating that prayers in Spanish were marked as "spam" and that he knew that for a fact. 

Like I said, dumb-ass. It annoyed me sooo much, that I felt the need to post MY opinion. here’s what I posted.

RE:Re: Spanish Bible ((EVERYWHERE))

Date: 2009-09-22, 6:39PM PDT
Reply to: sale-ygmgm-1387808466@craigslist.org ^{[Errors when replying to ads?]}

Regarding your uneducated response to God speaking only English…blah blah blah.

If you weren’t so caught up in being prejudice against Spanish culture, than you might discover that God a.k.a. Jesus spoke Hebrew and the Bible was originally made up of Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew gospels. Given that those were the dominant languages during his time. Which is why the original gospels have been translated into so many, later developed languages, including English. And in case you didn’t know, he was also Jewish.

So before you try to be little other people, read up on the subject so maybe next time you won’t look like an ass.

• Location: (EVERYWHERE)
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

HOPE HE GETS THE PICTURE.

Okay, so the magazine that I started freelancing for right before I left Miami is going to have me cover events here in LA…what an awesome way to establish myself in the West Coast right?! I’m so excited. I already have a list of things I’d love to cover, artists that would make nice profiles and bands that I think the world should know. Well, at least the rest of the United States…the mag is national.

Other than that, I’m still getting settled…trying to organize myself and get some more furniture. At least I got my bed right? That was the most important…I think. Next is a desk, then maybe a vanity. Gosh, I’ve always wanted a vanity in my room or in my house. I never really had space before, but now I’m thinking I’m going to take advantage of the extra space in my new room. If I could only decide on layout…

Anyway, I’ve got some painting to do. Spray painting that is 😉 You know me.

Always restoring something old.

Sometimes life comes at you fast and you don’t have the time to analyze your choices. So you make the first one that comes to mind. It’s may not always seem like the best one, but it will always be your gut instinct. Which, in my opinion, is the best choice you can make. Ever. 

The few times I have gone against my gut, I’ve hit walls. No. More like walked into a demolition site with 20 seconds ’till explosion. Needless to say, it has not been pretty.

This time, while my decision was sudden, it was exactly what my heart wanted…it just didn’t know it yet.   

It all started with the end of my 6 year relationship with a boy I was really never compatible with, but loved deeply. I was about to start working on my B.A. at St. Thomas University and had finally landed a job at a local newspaper when he decided we just weren’t working out anymore. Let’s just say, I never saw that coming.

So I moved across the country to Southern California, to make a clean fresh start. The move wasn’t as hard as I had expected it to be. I mean, I have family here so I wasn’t really leave too much behind besides my friends…and him. The choice at first made me feel like I was losing my mind. how could I just pack up and move 3,000 miles away from the only home I’d ever known??? Did people actually do this? What if I didn’t like it…where would I go?

All these doubts and questions and worries clouded my mind for weeks. Until the day I booked my one-way ticket out of Miami. From the moment I printed my confirmation, this odd calm came over me. Like for the first time in my life I was doing the right thing. I was going to be exactly where I should be. Like, the right place at the right time.

I packed my bags, quit my job, transferred out of school and said "Hellooo City of Angels." And I have to admit, this city is exactly where I should be. Now lets just see, if its ready for a Miami girl like me.

I thought growing pains were only supposed to be during your teens….you know coming into your own. Fitting in…actually GROWING. Guess I was wrong.

It’s as if every time you’re faced with a new challenge, a new choice…another opportunity to grow a little you’re going to FEEL it. I’ve got so many things going on lately I don’t know what to do with myself much less what to think. I can’t even begin to contemplate what I should do. What choice I should make….what is the right path for me.

I expected my teens to be hard, but I wasn’t prepared for so many hard lefts in my twenties. I thought that these would be the years I could explore. Push myself to my limits. Expand my horizons.

So now, just when I started to feel like I was getting it together, that I’m starting to work on my B.A., that I finally got a job in my field….my whole family is moving away. Three thousand miles away to be exact. My initial decision was not to go…to stay here and see where my life stakes me. Remain on this path with my school, my job and my boyfriend. But the closer I get to the day they leave, the more anxious I get.
 
I almost feel like I’m falling apart…I cry at the tiniest thing and then I just can’t stop myself. It’s like a waterfall over spilt milk. The whole thing is also putting a strain on my relationship, but how could it not? He doesn’t understand how much this is affecting me. So naturally, we argue about it. About my mood swings lately, about my crying, about it all.

I know it’s not right to direct my frustrations at him, but I can’t help it. I can’t seem to get what I need from him right now and I don’t know how to fix it. Maybe a part of me sees him as the reason I’m staying…the cause for this heartache. But I know that he’s not the cause. He is not the one moving away, and the choice to stay was mine. No one else.

Yet, all of this brings me to question if we’re right for each other. I mean, we’ve been together for six years…shouldn’t he know how to comfort me by now? Can’t he see through my crankiness? Doesn’t he see that I’m just trying to get through this in one piece??? If he doesn’t see that I’m just having a hard time with all this change now, what can I expect from him if I do fall apart? Would he even know how to put me back together? Would he try?

Needless to say, I’m going through a rough time right now…so you’ll be seeing more entries on my blog than usual. Whether that’s a good or a bad thing, I don’t know but I don’t really care either. I need to get this stuff off my chest and for right now this blog is the only place I can do that….for now.

So, being the creatively driven person that I am, I’m developing my entrepreneur skills by opening an online shop at esty.com. It’s a store where I sell my original and handmade jewelry ranging from necklaces to charm bracelets and even rosaries. I also make father head pieces with Swarovski crystals. In addition to the accessories I have for sale, I am listing original photographs as 8 x 10’s, printed on professional photo paper and either matted or un-matted.

All my pieces are one of a kind designs that add feminine touches to any outfit. They are fun, flirty and fearless.

So give in and take a look.  www.etsy.com/shop.php

I also make custom pieces if you have an idea J Just let me know.