Favorite Treat

Coffee Bean's Pumpkin Spice Latte...'nuff said...

Vote for You!

Election day is tomorrow and we're all getting bombarded with candidates, propostions and why we should vote a certain way. What we need to remember is that we all have a voice in this election and every voice needs to count-but you need to make sure it's your OWN voice.

Too often we may find ourselves swayed by what others are doing or voting for. We need to remember that in the end, we have to vote for what we believe in no matter what anyone else is doing. I'd feel more proud for standing by what I believe, even if it's the less popular choice, than by being just another one in the herd who's following the mass crowd.

There's nothing wrong with listening to both sides. Researching the issues and having an educated voice are what we should all strive for. But from there, we need to gather up the facts, weigh them out with our own beliefs and from there, make an informed decision. That is the true American way.

My vote counts. My voice counts. And so does yours!

The Crazy Life

For those of you who may not know, about a month ago I accepted a position as an editor with a corporate communications company here in the valley. It literally takes me ten minutes to get to work compared to the hour drive I used to make every day for four years...each way!

Having a stable job, especially in these times, has truly been a blessing. However, needless to say, my life has taken quite a dramatic change. I've gone from having late mornings, lunches with friends and writing when I was inspired to do so, to having packed days, trips, business meetings and cranking out stories. It's been great experience so far.

I've finished the play I had been rehearsing for for almost eight months, to much success. We had a great run and I was amused by the people who came up to me, very surprised and said, "Wow! You're REALLY funny!"

In all this chaos, I've really come to appreciate being in the moment, staying focused and taking one thing at a time. It's become my new rule of thumb. I also recently heard a quote which was incredibly inspirational and really changed my focus on a lot of things: "The direction that you're going is more important than the time it takes you to get there." As long as we're moving forward, in small or big steps, nothing can hold us back.

Hope you all have an amazing Monday!

Favorite New Beauty Product Alert!

Bed Head After-Party.

I stumbled upon my new favorite beauty product at a Stephenie Meyer concert tour at UCLA (yes, I'm a Twilight Fan), of all places. They were handing out samples on the way out and unbeknownst to me, it would soon become my new best friend.

Try to forget the packaging (you have to see it to understand) and just enjoy the fact that it leaves hair feeling so smoothe, tames frizzies and makes your hair feel soft and manageable. I have a few Bed Head products that I've accumulated over the years working for a beauty magazine, but this one is, by and large, my favorite!

Check out their website for more information.

"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres

She's 41 and she's an olympic silver medalist winner in swimming at the Beijing olympics. Not only did she come in just a hundredth of a second after her much younger competitor, but she only had seven minutes to go through the medal ceremony and gear up, both mentally and physically, for her next relay race in which she anchored the U.S. team to win another silver medal!

After they won that race, she was quoted as saying that your dreams should never have an age limit, and that just really hit home. So many times we think we're too old to do "this", or doing "that" is no longer possible. Well, Dara Torres has proven that with hard work, dedication and a strong belief in who you are and what you want, anything is possible.

I had a great-aunt, who was 41 years-old when she decided to learn to play the piano. She mastered it and went on to live to be 101 years-old! It's really never too late to do something that matters to you. Dara Torres was constantly described as being "young at heart" but still possessing the maturity and knowledge of an experienced athlete and olympian.

Don't stop dreaming. Don't stop reaching for your goals, as crazy or sane as they may appear to anybody else. Dara knew that she needed to work twice as hard as her fellow competitors if she was going to stand a chance with them. But she did what she had to. So, it may take a bit more work, but reaching your dreams, or at least not giving up because you think it's too late, will be well worth it in the end.

It's all in knowing that dreams can be attained so long as you believe it's possible.

Inspiring Inspirations

While doing some research for an article I'm working on, I came across this quote today and it really struck me:

"Fall seven times, stand up eight." - Japanese proverb

So many times we focus on the negativity of a setback or what we would see as a failure, that we don't refocus our perspective on where we need to go from there. We just need to reshift our thinking to not lose what our ultimate goals are. Maybe we just needed to take a different road or direction to get there?

I'm trying to find inspiration in everyday things as well. In my nephew who is incessantly curious, always asking questions, and always sees the novelty in things. In the hopes of a younger generation who doesn't worry about every detail of why something did or didn't happen, but who relish what's happening right now. And in the person who can come across a major struggle or heartache and immediately searches the positive in the situation, stands up and moves forward.

It's definitely a way of life I can walk towards.

That Shakey's Feeling

Sometimes you're just in the mood for some yummy, indulgent comfort food. The kind you wanna have but never admit to eating. For me, today, it was Shakey's. I've been going to my local Shakey's pizza parlor, since I was a little girl. And hey, who can pass up an honest to goodness real pizza parlor? It's familiar, it's delicious and it's fun!

My mom, sister, nephews and niece decided to give in to our craving today and we headed over to grab some pizza. I decided not to change out of my workout gear figuring the Shakey's smell of grease would blend in perfectly.

So we sat, we ate our pizza, we had our decadent mojo fried potatoes with blue cheese dressing, and we watched the kids get sucked into the arcade games. Oh the childhood memories...

As we were leaving, my oldest nephew turned to me and said, "I feel like throwing up." I smilled to myself knowing that our mission was accomplished: We'd all sucessfully left with that all too familiar feeling you get after having just consumed about 25% food, 75% grease. (It's right up there with movie popcorn for me.) We affectionately call it, "the Shakey's feeling."

P.S. If you have the chance, checkout their "Bunch'A Lunch" buffet. It's a sprawl of different pizzas, mojos, fried chicken, buffalo wings, garlic bread and a salad bar, for a ridiculously low price!

I am a huge fan of movies and an even bigger fan of musicals. So when you put the two together, I'm in movie musical heaven...most of the time. Today, not so much.

I've seen the musical version of "Mama Mia" two times now, once in Las Vegas and once in L.A. It is a fun, feel-good production that literally keeps your feet tapping throughout. It just doesn't quite work as a movie. It has a stellar cast and some cute moments, but for the most part it was acted as a live-theater production on film: over-acted, overly choreographed with direction that really only works on a stage where you have to be "big" to make sure everyone in the audience can see.

The scenery is beautiful and the songs, themselves, are still fun. But you're left waiting for it to get better and it just never does.

I still walked out of there humming the songs and wanting to see it again, just the live-theater version instead of the film.

"Mama Mia" opens nationwide today.

Car Update

Just in case anyone was wondering, my boyfriend was able to purchase the car at Power for the price that was on their website. They had to bite the $2400 because they "felt so bad about all that had happened."

Regardless of their bogus reasoning, he got the car. It's in excellent condition. And he is uber-excited about it.

They're still getting a customer complaint though...

Power Buick - South Bay

Customer Service...if you work in a business like selling cars where you are pretty much dependent on your customers to make a living, wouldn't you try to provide them with the best service, treatment and respect that you possibly can.

My boyfriend has been car hunting and had an unpleasant experience with Power Direct of South Bay. He was told a certain car was available and spoke to quite a few sales representatives to verify the information. Well, come to find out, that someone had already put a deposit on the vehicle but they were going to take a look at it first before making their final decision. This transaction had already been made previous to my boyfriend making his initial calls. The dealership wrote it off as miscommunication within the sales department. We drove down to take a look at the car in case the first prospective buyers didn't want it. Once there, the salesman tried to sell us on other used cars at a higher price range. Was this their tactic all along? My boyfriend was told that he would be contacted, either way, once the first people made their final decisions, especially since it had caused such an inconvenience for us. No one ever called back. It wasn't until my boyfriend followed up that he was notified that the car was indeed sold. All in all, a really bad experience with them.

Now several weeks later, my boyfriend finds another car, a hatchback Ford Focus, on the same Power Direct of South Bay's website. This time the car is listed for $4,550. It's within the budget, the specs look great and the car seems to be in great shape. Having learned his lesson the first time, my boyfriend takes all the precautions necessary to not get swindled again. He talked to several people throughout the sales department and was reassured that the car was, indeed, on the lot, available for purchase, no one had it on hold (my boyfriend was later informed that that is, in fact, illegal to put a hold on a vehicle) and that the price was indeed $4,550. Calls were made up until we left for the dealership. They had our cell phone number. Constant communication was going on. Constant verification of information. Constant reassurance that the car was available.

We made the hour drive to the dealership and once we get there we're informed that, A) Not only is the car not a hatchback (o.k., we could let that one slide), but more importantly, B) The dealership had "made a mistake and the actual price of the car was $6,950." What?! But they felt bad enough for their mistake that they would knock off a thousand dollars bringing it to $5,950.

Why weren't we told this sooner? Why was the original, ADVERTISED asking price of $4,550 verified over and over again to us? We asked to speak to the General Manager, Ron Blomquist. This so called salesman was rude, disrespectful and down-right arrogant. He smirked at us and said, "Now I know you don't want to hear bad news but we've already printed up a retraction that we will be posting." We were upset and let him know as much as we tried to explain where we were coming from but he blamed the phone service operator and when we told him what a horrible business he's running he said, sarcastically, "Thank you," and walked away. He never heard us out. He never let us explain the situation. And he turned and walked away from us, mid-sentence! No apologies. No understanding for our inconvience. Not even the decency to be courteous enough to stand there for five minutes so that we could explain our side.

That's customer service? That's how they expect to get more clients or even customer referrals? How do they expect to do business? And what is this man doing in any position of "authority" when he clearly is so ill-mannered? We got all their information and as we were walking out the door, we talked about how we would be reporting this to the Better Business Bureau.

Today my boyfriend gets a phone call from the same woman Ron blamed in phone service, to let him know that indeed, the asking price online was $4,550 and that this Ron guy felt so sorry and bad about all that happened yesterday and that he didn't know the whole story (NO KIDDING!), especially the fact that we had come from so far. But that they were more than willing to honor the online asking price and sell the vehicle to my boyfriend for that price. And this couldn't have been figured out yesterday when we were already there? Now he has to drive down AGAIN because they realized their mistake, or more importantly, that we weren't going to put up with it and they would get complaints?

My boyfriend contacted the Better Business Bureau today and as it turns out, this Power Direct has an "F" rating for customer service. They have numerous complaints and have little to rectify them.

So here's my two pieces of advice:
1) Do your research. Everything from the car you're buying to who you're buying from. You don't want to get swindled. And your time is certainly more valuable than to just have it be wasted by incompetent, asinine employees.

2) Do not do business with Power Direct - South Bay. They are unreliable, rude, disrespectful and clearly do not care about the customer in any way. Even if my boyfriend does walk out of there today with the car he should have gotten yesterday, it doesn't change the fact that we were treated very badly. Save your time and your energy and look elsewhere for a car. You may pay more for better service but believe me, after this experience, it would be well worth it.

Power Buick - South Bay
14610 Hindry Avenue
Hawthorne, CA 90250
General Manager: Ron Blomquist

Cash...BRILLIANT!

O.k., so my new favorite show is "Cash Cab" on the Discovery Channel. It is such a great show! Not only is it creative and entertaining, but it's educational, too. How great is that?!

Contestants randomly hail a cab in New York and are suddenly surprised to find themselves taking a ride to their destination but playing a game show for money on the way. Prize money goes up with each round of questions and contestants can use two "shout outs" during the game that consist of either calling someone or stopping a random person on the street to ask for help with the answer. Red lights can sometimes trigger the "Red Light" bonus round, which is totally cool. But beware, get three wrong answers before you reach your destination and you could be booted from the taxi.

I've seen people leave the cab with $1600, and I've seen people leave with nothing but a fun story to tell their friends. Tourists, locals, anyone can randomly have a chance to participate. I'm tellin' ya, it's pure fun and pure genius! At the end of the ride you can even choose to take the money and run or double it with a video bonus and possibly leave with nothing but what you got in the cab with.

Check your local listing for times and let me know what you think. I almost wanna go to NYC to try to find the "Cash Cab." Cha-ching!

The Long Hair Debate

So I've been thinking about cutting my hair for a while now. However, I am one of those girls who easily falls into the trap of seeing other girls' hair and wanting mine to look just like that; ie. one day short and the next day down my back.

I've had long hair most of my life except for the year-long period where my (then) hairdresser mistook my comment about being ready to go shorter and heard, "I want to cut ten inches off my hair." No joke! The bottom line is that I don't wear short hair well. Boy hair cuts? Well, I just end up looking like...you guessed it, a boy! I remember when I was about nine and I asked for the Valerie Bertinelli/"One Day at a Time" layered do, and ended up with the Mrs. Brady/"Brady Bunch" cut. Only, somehow, I looked more like MR. Brady!

And then there's the debate of what guys like? Do they really like the longer hair? Are they tired of seeing their long-haired girlfriends/wives constantly putting their hair up to get it out of the way? And why are we basing our hair decisions on what they men in our lives want?

My latest inspiration is Julianne Hough's hair. Super long, great cut, great style. Great hair.

In the end, I know I'll go to my hairdresser and want a drastic change but I'll only want her to cut about half-an-inch off. Hey, it can happen...

Hockey Update

Ladies, here's a sports tip in case you'd like to impress that man in your life. Guy's, just in case you're too engrossed in the Lakers game series, here's an update for you:

The Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburg Penguins are in the Stanley Cup (or Lord Stanley Cup, as my devoted hockey fan boyfriend likes to so respectfully refer to it) playoffs and Detroit is up three games to one winning the third game tonight in Pittsburg. I can only imagine the pain going through those Pittsburg fans right now. One more game and the Penguins could be out.

What's make this series more interesting is that, according to hockey fans, the Red Wings are the Yankees of hockey, and since I'm the type of fan who likes to root for the underdog, I'd like to see the Penguins win this one.

Here's some more NHL info. in case you wanted to know, last year the Anaheim Ducks won Lord Stanley's Cup making them the first California team to bring the Cup to the West Coast. Pretty cool, huh?

The Freelancer's Life

When I was working for a major publication all employees had to abide by the rule of never accepting gifts or certain perks based on said company's policy. Since working as a freelancer, those offers of perks are fewer and far between, but when they do come I can accept them freely because I am also researching and keeping up with what's new and fun to do out there.

So on a recent trip to Las Vegas, I was treated to one of the most amazing spa treatments ever. The Spa at The Wynn hotel offers a Good Luck Ritual treatment which is simply 80-minutes of absolute bliss. It includes a 50-minute massage, and 30-minutes that included a scalp treatment and a hand and foot massage. Pure heaven!

About a week ago I got a facial at the Fred Segal spa that was another 50-minutes of being pampered. The aesthetician was very experienced and knowledgeable and offered some great skin treatment advice and tips. I can honestly say it was one of the best facials I have ever received.

And on my way out of the spa, as I was walking to my car and truly enjoying the moment and the life I am blessed with, I see Clay Aiken climbing out of his car and heading into the store. O.k., so I'm a big Clay Aiken fan and it just made my day! I had to ask myself, "Who's life and I living?!" And I got an even bigger smile when I realized and answered, "Mine!"

Get Pampered with Everyday with Rachael Ray Magazine

Hey guys! Just wanted to let you all know that I'm very excited because I have a beauty story in the May 2008 issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine.

It took a lot of work, a lot of research but it was a ton of fun and the end product looks great. There are a ton of great tips on how to get beauty treatments in your hometown for a bargain. I have a byline, which is always exciting, and a lot of the pictures that are in the article were provided by me. Needless to say I'm very proud of the article.

So run out and get a copy of the issue. And yes, I will be more than happy to autograph a copy for you the next time I see you guys. Oh look at that, I happen to have a Sharpie in my purse...

“Theater is a verb before it is a noun, an act before it is a place.” - Martha Graham

I've been doing community theatre for several years now and with each production, I am amazed at the talent I get to work with. I also recognize how blessed I am to be doing something I love so much. I absolutely love the theatre, and as a very shy young girl, I relished in just the sheer joy of stepping into a theatre. Now, to have the opportunity to "tread the boards" and play adult make-believe for a few hours is thrilling beyond belief.

What I love most about doing community theatre with the Theatre Repetoire of Our Lady of Lourdes (TROLL) is that it is made up of a group of people who just love the theatre. We are all there for the fun, the challenge and the committment to put on the best production possible. There are lawyers, teachers, government workers, writers, students, rocket scientists, mothers, caterers, you name it, just wonderful people who have this other, goofy, artistic side they can't express any other way but the through the theatre. And we all do it knowing that our gifts and talents are given to us by God.

The next productions we are doing this year are "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and "Snoopy." Jessie and I were cast as Charlie Brown and Lucy, respectively, in "You're a Good Man..." and I truly have no words to describe how thrilled I am to be doing a show with Jessie. This is the first time we will be acting and singing opposite each other. Jessie is the consumate actor, completely committed to a role, someone who really knows the character he is playing, and giving to his fellow actors. He stands out not just as someone who is blessed with a unique talent, but as someone who allows his fellow actors to shine, as well. I am honored to be acting with him and feel challenged to step up my game to try to meet him on his level. I have always felt proud to watch him on stage. I feel even more privileged to have the chance to be watching him, this time on the stage with him. I know we're going to have a blast acting off each other.

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and "Snoopy" will be running in September. We hope you can come out to see it and share in our fun!

Book signing at Borders?

O.k., it's been way too long since I posted a blog and there's just no excuse. Yes, life gets busy, there's too little time in the day. But writing is my passion and there can always be time for that which motivates, inspires and nurtures us, right?

So, for those of you who may not have heard, I am in the contributor's section of Tu Ciudad magazine in the February issue! Yes, that's my happy face in there 'cause I just can't believe I've reached a goal of mine to be in that section of a magazine. It's pretty great. I have a profile I did on a fashion designer, so look for that article, too.

Lots of adventures to tell you guys about, and I will be, very soon. In the meantime I need to pick out my outfit and Sharpies for the magazine signing I'm organizing for myself outside of Borders...It's not going to far, is it? ;)

Light at the end of the emotional tunnel?

I hate being a girl! No really, sometimes I just hate all the emotional...stuff, that comes with being a woman.

Do you ever have one of those days where you just wanna crawl up into a little ball, pull a cover over your head and go to sleep 'til you can wake up and your world is rosy again? Yeah, I've been having one of those WEEKS!

Oh no...or could it be that I'm going through "the change?!" I mean, a punk-ass kid did call me "ma'am" yesterday at Starbucks. And despite that my sister said that he said it because I was with her, he said it to ME!

Oh great! Yup, here I go under my little blankie now. Wish me luck that I see the light soon...

Tie One On!

Each winter I realize how much I love scarves. It's crazy, I know, but they are so great. Not only do they look cute and you can put them on in so many different ways, but it's amazing how warm they keep you!

I have some pretty great scarves but two of them, a friend of mine made for me, and I use them all throughout winter. They're cozy, stylish and sometimes all I'll need is a warm sweater and my scarf to keep the cold away.

I love checking out the different ways people some up to put them on. Some just have them slinged around their neck. Some loop them through. And some have ties so intricate, they look like they're impossible to get off. But in all those cases, the wearer looks ultra-chic and ready for winter.

So pick a scarf, pick a knot, and tie one on. Or better yet, knit yourself your own scarf and feel proud of wearing your own creation around town. So the weather outside is frightful? Doesn't mean your fashion style has to be, too.

(Check the web for tips on how to tie a scarf.)