TGIF... It's Friday, I'm In Love

All I can think about is how glad I am that it is the weekend. It's been a weird week. A fast week. A migraine week. Overall, this week has been a bitch.

There were, though, a few things that made it worthwhile:

• My guy's show at The Key Club was amazing and tons of people showed up. Even Andre' 3000 decided to stop by.

• The weather is warming up and spring is in the air!

• My dress that I'm wearing in this cat's wedding (in three weeks) FINALLY showed up. Sometimes my apartment is a blackhole when it comes to the postal service. Now the bride and I can rest easy. The extra good news...it fits perfectly so no alterations are needed. Yay!

• I got to do a photo shoot on a bad ass Harley. While wearing pink stilletos.

• I'm getting a tan.

• I get to see my Nashville friends and family very soon.

• My man came in town for one night only (from a business trip) to play the above-mentioned show. Without getting too mushy on here because A) I know you, the reader, only wants to hear about my crazy stories of things that make you go hmmm, and B) my man might be reading...but I just have to say...the guy is like a breath of fresh air. I was having the shittiest day, took a funky route in stupid traffic so I was even later to a dinner that I was already late to and I was hardcore PMSing. (Yes, I can say that on here.) I was in the mood to kick somebody's ass with my hot pink stilletos, just for the heck of it. But as soon as I rolled into The Rainbow Room and heard him call me over to the table, my heart just melted and everything was okay. He just does it to me. I can't help it. He's the best.

In hindsight, I guess it wasn't such a bad week afterall. But it's Friday now...time for the weekend. Good Friday at that. And I get to have dinner with a super hot guy who loves me tons. It doesn't get much better than that.

I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend and a Happy Easter!!

Cheers!

Rock Shows, Wasties, & A Lost Purse

In my week's absence I've been a bit busy. Spring must be finally getting to me, because I'm quickly coming out of my three-month hibernation. If my wireless router wasn't the biggest piece of crap ever, you'd have heard of the latest shenanigans sooner.

After a long week of working for the man came Saturday night. For the first time since I've been in LA, I was able to walk into a bar (Hotel Cafe) and know (almost) the entire crowd. High school friends, college friends, cousins, old friends, new friends and boyfriend were all there. The drinks were on. The venue was packed. The music rocked. The band was Zach Broocke.

A little bit of Tom Petty, a little bit of Black Crowes, Joe Cocker and Elvis Costello. Thrown together in a more modern, fresh way. The lyrics ring of life and loss, love and regret. Zach's songwriting is some of the most moving I've heard...it will touch your soul like nothing else.

At any rate, the show was also a release party of Zach's new EP, Last Call. A time to celebrate. Afterwards, a few of my oldest buddies ever (recently reunited over on this side of the world) hopped on over to Beauty Bar to continue with the festivities. From there we headed across Hollywood for a massive piece of cheese pizza (my fave) and then over to Edendale Grille in Silver Lake to meet the rest of the crowd.

About halfway through the night, or should I say halfway through the last part of the night, I realized my purse was missing off my shoulder. I always have it. Always. I casually glanced around and when I didn't see it, I decided that it must still be in the car. When the valet guy drove up and it wasn't, panic set in. The 2 o'clock hour was spent retracing our steps all night.

Yeah...I'm going to leave my purse in a Hollywood bar and it's still going to be there. Especially when it contained my $300 digital camera, my $300 phone, cash that I never carry, and a $100 signed check. Sweet.

While driving everywhere, I started calling my phone, non-stop, with my man's phone. At one point some dude answered and then hung up on me after I started talking. Bastard. A little while later, once we were on our way back home, my phone was calling my man's phone. Thank God!

Turned out to be at the last bar we were at, even though when we left they said they had nothing. After the shock wore off and the relief set in, I quickly dug through to make sure everything was there. By some great miracle, it was. An odd thing, though...they took a bunch of weird pics with my camera. Pictures of my purse sitting on the counter and pictures of wine bottles??? How bizarre, how bizarre.

Things turned out alright in the end. And once I erased the whole losing the purse thing from my memory, She Said it was a perfect, rock n' roll style, Hollywood night.

A Day In My Life With A Chili Pepper

There's nothing that makes for a good perspective check than when you're chillin' with the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the listening party for their new double disc album, Stadium Arcadium, which streets May 9th.

I remember back in 9th grade when Blood Sugar Sex Magik came out. Or in my record store days of One Hot Minute, circa 1995. Or when Ciaobella and I made our first adventure to LA while listening to Californication on the road. I remember sitting in my bedroom listening to music under the red and blue glow that had become my ceiling fan lighting. It was my favorite thing to do back then. To just sit and listen.

I wish we had the time these days to just sit. And listen.

At any rate, when I wasn't listening to my usual 60's/70's rock albums, sometimes I'd take a modern break with the Peppers. When you're fourteen years old and on the roller coaster of life, it didn't get much better than Breaking The Girl. It's funny how I can't remember what I did last weekend, but I remember those moments of listening in that bedroom like they were just yesterday. The smell of the Nag Champa, the sound of Mom cooking dinner downstairs and then yelling up to me when it was ready, the blinds closed, the dim light, the sadness and meloncholy of nothing, the staring out the window...

Single Artwork for Dani, California

...seeing a girl on a horse riding down Sunset Boulevard...

And now I'm living in Los Angeles, working where I've always wanted to work, making music videos and listening to the new Chili Peppers record with them sitting right there!, indian-style on the floor, next to me. Anthony and his new girlfriend and 18-year old twin (the chick on the horse pictured above) looking into the depths of each others souls, Flea jammin' out (yes, still indian-style) as seen on TV, and John and Chad just chillin'...all expressing their deepest gratitude and appreciation to us all.

It was a surreal moment, not because I was sitting there listening to their new record under red and blue lights with them, but because it was a reminder of how sometimes all the hard work does pay off and that sometimes, you really can make dreams come true.