Put Some Pleasure In Your Business

Are you naughty?  Do you like to have fun during inappropriate professional times?  If so, can we be friends?  I really like to have a good time no matter what I’m doing or where I’m going and this includes business or business-like trips.  Just because you have to travel somewhere for serious reasons doesn’t mean you can’t have a little fun while there (that is if your boss isn’t breathing down your neck the whole time). 

I’ve had to take a lot of mini-trips to SoCal this last year for Grad school interviews, job interviews and apartment hunting (sometimes driving there and back in the same day).  But just because I’ve been going there for important life changing reasons and have had to drive from Sacramento to Los Angeles far too many times for not being a truck driver, doesn’t mean I haven’t made the most of it. 

When I went to Orange County for my CSU Fullerton interview back in April I asked my mom to join me and we made a mini trip out of it.  I found a deal on Living Social for a Pirate dinner adventure which included a 3 course meal and a Pirate adventure show.  So I bought the deal and we went down to LA the day before my interview.  We arrived to the hotel, got ready and drank Caribbean Mai Tais with some blimey pirates.  AND I was still fresh-faced and doe-eyed for my interview the next morning (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it)!!

The best part was this 3-course dinner adventure only cost me $66 total ($33 per person) when it’s regularly priced at $66 per person.  Plus I only paid $45 for the hotel (booked on Orbitz).  My total cost for the mini 2-day/1-night trip was $111.  If that price isn’t pleasurable then I don’t know what is!!

Then I just went to SoCal again to do some apartment hunting.  My friend Rachelle joined me and we made another mini-trip out of it.  Even though I wanted to make sure I spent most of my time finding my future castle (or a 25 square foot shack, whichever is available), I wanted to have some fun too.  We took a Friday off and drove down at the butt crack of dawn to search for my next humble abode.    Amidst the never ending apartment hunting we went wine tasting which included an appetizer ($11 per person) and to a dinner & drag show ($21 per person).  Total cost for these adventures was $32 per person whereas they are regularly priced at about $60 per person (both purchased on living social).  We got to taste some delicious wine and eat some fantastic food as well as witness life changing entertainment in the form of womanly-dressed men bouncing their body parts and lip synching to (and dressed as) Madonna, Lady Gaga, Dolly Parton, etc.  What could possibly be better than that?  

The only thing better than twerking drag performers was all the good food we ate!!!!!  The appetizers at the wine bar were absolutely delicious.  The best charcuterie plate I have ever had, yummy chicken sliders and such mouthwatering BBQ pizza made my taste buds dance like happy hungry hippos.  The 3-course meal that was part of the drag-show dinner package was actually pretty tasty and was a lot more food than I had expected.  All in all a very entertaining weekend with lots of good food makes for a pleasurable while productive weekend!!

Cheap Eats

Eat to live or live to eat?  That is the age old question.  Obviously we have to eat to live.  Without food we can’t survive.  That’s basic biology.  At least I think it, Bio was never my best subject.  I mean I just recently found out where babies truly come from!! (Hint:  NOT the stork!)

Now where was I?  Oh yeah FOOD.  I LOOOOOOOOVE food.  I have always had a hefty appetite and I don’t dare deprive myself from fulfilling my cravings.  Even when I was a size 2 I could eat my parents out of house and home.  My dad would even tell the guys I dated they better make enough money to feed me (rude right? Not at all embarrassing).  If I could find a job that would pay me to eat I would!!  Seriously, how do people get jobs eating?  I want their lives!!  But even though I have had the appetite of a 500 pound sumo wrestler doesn’t mean I have liked all food. I was a very picky kid.  My idea of gourmet was Kraft mac n cheese with hot dogs and I would cry if my food touched each other.  I didn’t touch a salad until I was 18 and even now I don’t like sea food.  But I do like a lot more variety now then I used to and I try to eat new food options all the time.

A great way to try new food experiences is to go on food tours.  I didn’t even know there were such things as food tours until about a year ago, but now it is my goal in life to go on every food tour in the world (except sea food yuck!).  Food tours are a great way to find authentic restaurants and learn about a city’s history and culture.  Whether it’s going on vacation or just trying a tour in your hometown, food tours are a great way to have fun while stuffing your pie-hole.

However, if you have ever been on a food tour then you know they can be expensive.  Which is why Groupon, Living Social and Travelzoo are such great inventions (who thinks these sites should start paying me for endorsements?).  I have only been on a few food tours but I have saved quite a bit money by purchasing them on these sites and have had a lot of fun on them.

The 3 food tours I have been on were in Sacramento, San Francisco and New York.  Here’s what I paid for each versus what Rachel Ray can pay:

	What I Paid	Rachel Ray Could Pay
San Francisco	$16	$50
Sacramento	$37	$60
New York	$29	$60
Total	$82	$170

A savings of $88.  Eating for cheaper is always awesome in my blog!!

  

The San Francisco tour was in the mission district and has been the best one I’ve been on to date.  We ate pastries, pizza, cookies, papusas, falafel, and tacos.

The Sacramento tour included Thai food, gourmet sausage (who knew there was such a thing?), cupcakes, wine tasting (any food tour that offers alcohol is automatically 5 stars!), charcuterie, kale, salad, soup, Portobello fries, and more that I can’t remember.  It also included history on local artists.

The New York tour was in the West Village and even though I am madly in love with the Big Apple it wasn’t the best food tour.  We ate pizza (the best stop on the tour), bagels, cupcakes, macaroons, cannoli’s and drank coffee.

Even though the NYC tour wasn’t the best tour I would still recommend it for the pizza alone (I could live the rest of my life solely on pizza).

Being able to try all these different types of food is so much fun and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to survive.  Biology says we need to eat to survive so might as well have fun with it.  Clearly 3 food tours does not make me an expert but I will become one eventually.  As long as I avoid a scale (scales are pathological liars) I can eat all the food in the world (except sea food yuck!).

BTW, just in case you were wondering, I LOOOOOOOOVE food!!!!!!!!  I definitely live to eat!!!

Time to go find something to eat!!!