Hello, everyone at L.A. Cooking, Recipes, Dining (and French) Meetup,

Hope you're enjoying a nice holiday season. My name is Sally and I became an
organizer of this group just yesterday. I would like to introduce myself at first.

I joined this group a few months ago mainly because I love to cook and entertain. Although I've never been a chef, I started to cook when I was little and through high school and college I was the one who was cooking dinner almost everyday for my family as my mother was working. I am originally from Japan and I came to the US twenty years ago. My English is not perfect, so please bear with errors and mistakes I would make. I'm still learning the language everyday. I know I will until the day I die. If my language is not clear enough and you have hard time understanding me, please do not hesitate to let me know...

Anyways, I moved to the States because I got married to an American, and I am blessed with two boys. I've been divorced for eight years, but when I was married I used to cook five different dishes almost everyday as cooking was - still is, of course - my passion and I had to feed two very hungry and active little boys all the time.

I love to cook and invite people to my place in West LA all the time. I cook all kinds of food...Japanese (my background), Korean, Chinese, American, French, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Russian...you name it, I'm curious about everything...and people say I should start teaching how to cook or publish a book or open up a restaurant. I love to try new recipes and I have a huge pile of recipe cutouts to try...it would take probably another 20 years to try all of them...I just love food, I love to eat, I love to dine out, and do grocery shopping too! And I happen to know a lot of people who are chefs, restaurant owners, food critics, fanatics here in the US and in Japan as well, which I want connect all one day, that's one of my dreams.

I do many different things. I used to be a manager of a group company of Honda Motors and my job was mainly to hire Japanese/English translators/Interpreters and send them to American Honda Motors in Torrance and their manufacturing plants in Ohio, Alabama, and South Carolina. I quit in 2004 and became an insurance agent and a registered representative because I wanted to be in sales preparing to be an entrepreneur.. Then I created my own company last November doing Antiques, import/export, referral services, business counseling, etc. And then someone introduced me to Meetup.com this summer and I became a member of Japanese Language & Culture meetup group. There I was able to teach Japanese, and I realized how much I have missed teaching. I used to teach at a Saturday Japanese school partly funded by Japanese government. I have a passion for teaching too. So I got on Craiglist and got a part-time teaching job. I love children and to teach them not only language but culture, history, music, art, and cooking became one of my dream as well since I truly believe that children should be introduced to those beautiful things at an early age since they enhance and fulfill life so much..

So when I heard that this group was going to be closed due to lack of organizer, it killed my heart, and I hoped someone would step up. But nobody did and the clock started to tick, and I thought about becoming one myself...then I thought I couldn't do it since I already have so many things going on...but something told me to stand up. Something inside of me was telling me loud that I needed to do whatever I could and I shouldn't pass this opportunity to be of help to many people, and if I didn't act now I would really regret...if it becomes too much for me then I could always step down later, but once it's gone, it's forever gone...

So, on the last day I signed up, paid the due, and Voila! became an organizer.

Sorry for the long story, but this is the case with me and I haven't really followed the message board so I don't really know what was going on, who was active, why the original organizer decided to quit, etc. Please educate me so that I have a better understanding.

One more note: I was born on November 7th, and I proudly share my birthday with the great French novelist Albert Camus and someone I really respect, Madame Marie Curie. And I am a Scorpio, which makes me a perfectionist. Being a perfectionist has pro and con. I might be able to give great attention to details but at the same time I would be too much. Or I would simply do nothing because I know it's not going to be perfect...

I used to be an assistant chair of my Japanese college alumni association in Los Angeles (which I'm still a member), and the workload took so much time and effort I kind of burned out. However, I learned a lot from the experience and made so many friends and connections. It was a really rewarding experience but I could have done a little bit better..

So please help me so that I won't burn out again and this group will continue to exist. Please let me know what you can do and what you want this group to be like.

Some of the things I would like to add is that my policy in life is to have fun. I believe learning should be fun, and actually everything in life should bring some kind of fun or joy or happiness and hopefully it's coming out of love. I don't like to judge, I don't like to talk bad things about other people (though tempting!), I don't like to gossip, I don't like to tell a lie (most of the time..), I don't like to worry about things all the time.

I like to be positive, I like to be happy, I like to smile all the time, I like to be kind, caring, and understanding.

I learned there was another group formed out of this group already, and I don't know how each group co-relates, but I would like to co-exit if it's possible. Please give me your insight. Please advise me. Please guide me. Please show me the way, because I believe every one of us has unique ideas and good thoughts.

Thank you for reading this very lengthy message.

I have no worry since I know the food-loving people are basically good-hearted people :-)

I am really excited to get to know all of you, and here's my e-mail address: [address removed]. You can contact me anytime.

In my next message I will announce the first event I've been thinking about.

Merci beaucoup!



Sally Fujimoto