SkinnyTaste: The Oxymoron That Transformed My Dinner Game

I was first introduced to the Skinnytaste cookbooks by Gina Homolka in February of 2018. John and I were wandering around a Barnes & Noble store, not looking for anything in particular. I hate to admit that it’s actually he who gets the credit for randomly pulling the SkinnyTaste “Fast and Slow” cookbook from its […]

My First Bachelorette Trip…and How I Planned It

This post is a bit of a follow-up to my recent post, How I Planned a Bridal Shower…From 3000 Miles Away, so I’ll spare you the details of how I landed my MOH gig and get straight to how I went about planning a bachelorette trip. Here’s my how-to, with hope these tips might be helpful […]

How I Planned a Bridal Shower…From 3000 Miles Away

It came as no surprise when my sister named me as her Maid of Honor, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that the task at hand was immeidately intimidating once officially presented. The feeling that came when Googling “How to be a maid of honor” was comparable to that anxious feeling that I […]

BottleRock vs. Coachella

I know, the title of this post in itself may seem silly because really these two festivals are not too much alike, but they are the only two that I’ve been to—minus Warped Tour 2008—so, I’m going to compare them and tell you which one I liked better…way better! Category: Hype For the past few […]

My Favorite Trader Joe’s Items

Having lived at six different addresses over the past seven years, I have to say the frequency of my Trader Joes visits has always solely depended on my current home location, often leading to seldom visits (as is the case now) even though it’s my favorite grocery store. Even so, I’ve developed certain favorites that […]

Iron & Why You Judgin’?

This one morning, I was walking out of my apartment building in the neighborhood of Koreatown. Some stereotypical-looking “hoodlum” comes walking by listening to music out-loud from his phone (more on this pet peeve below) and as he approaches closer I recognize the song that’s playing, and it wasn’t what I was expecting…It was “Naked […]

HR Temps Happenstance

So, there was this one time back in the fall of 2011, when I had recently started my new job as as HR Assistant in West LA.. As you know, I was taking public transportation to and from work. The neighborhood where I lived was a good 1.5-2-hour commute from my office building and I […]

Chantal, Still in the City

Hi, my name is Chantal and this is the first entry of my new blog project, “The Pointless Pen.” I know I’m typing and so there is no actual pen, but maybe that plays into the entire pointless nature of this endeavor. Which brings me to the purpose of this blog…well, you guessed it–I don’t […]