Chapter 1

September 29

Well here I am.  LA life has begun.  My last morning at home consisted of finishing packing my 2 huge suitcases and 1 big suitcase (impossible!), going to Gryfe's to get some quality Jewish bagels to bring with me, and that was it.  Berkley was supposed to have to wait at home while my parents drove me to the airport, but he decided to run outside and jump in the car while we were loading in my suitcases, so we figured we better bring him.  At the airport I bid farewell to him & my parents, paid excessive overweight baggage fees, and got my F1 Visa no problem!  While sitting at the gate drinking a ginger green tea and ginger molasses cookie from Starbucks I noticed a girl with a Bichon sticking his head out of a bag!  I went over and said hi and saw that this dog was totally Berkley's twin!  Usually bichons all look pretty different but this one totally couldve been berkley 5 years ago!  (Quincy was only 4).  So strangely enough Quincy and his owner Kristen sat beside me on the plane and it was so fun!  I couldn't believe how good he was in his little bag - Berkley would NEVER sit in a bag for that long!  He'd unzip himself and march up to business class (and demand that a blanket be put on the seat before he jumped up on it). 

Anyways, so I hop off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan.  Oh wait, that's Miley Cyrus.  I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and a dozen bagels.  While waiting for my bags I caught the eye of a guy walking past me.  We made eye contact for a second too long, he gets the attention of his porter (he had a porter) and tells him to wait a second.  Mystery man then walks over to me and conversation goes like this:

"You were just in Toronto" 

"Yup... and I assume you were too?" 

"Yeah, I saw you going through security" 

He then started saying something about airports and I interrupted with "stop staring at me so intently!" while laughing.... cause his bright blue eyes were burning holes in my retinas.  

"Am I making you nervous?"

"Kind of" 

"What's wrong?  Do you not usually get spoken to by strangers?"

"Nope" 

And then he made some comment about how I must only talk to people that my parents introduce me to, I told him to stop making fun of me, he asked me my name, said it was very nice to meet me, and walked off.  Bizarre.  I thought he'd at least try to ask for my phone number or something.

Leigh was waiting for me outside, and we went straight to Beverly Hills to find her an outfit at Planet Blue for Ashley's rehearsal dinner.  She bought a cute skirt for the dinner and wickedddd ripped black jeans.  We then went home, I lugged all my suitcases inside and started the horrendous task of unpacking.  We had dinner, Leigh went to acting class, and I watched prime time tv (90210 is totally my fave show, fell asleep during melrose place).  

September 30

Woke up at 6:30, lied in bed til 7.  Ate breakfast with Leigh, hiked to the Hollywood Sign (to the top and back in 2 hours - definitely a personal record)!  It was SUCH a nice hike.  Hardly anyone on the trail, hardly any horse poo on the trail, saw a bunny, saw 2 pretty black horses and the weather was just so beautifully crisp.  After getting ready for the day and organizing my room a bit more Leigh came home from errand running and I drove her to the airport to catch her flight to Aspen.  After LAX I went to AT&T and was pleasantly surprised to find out that i could switch to a plan and still keep my pay as you go phone number!  But since I don't have a social security number, I had to give them a stupid $500 deposit that I don't get back for a year.  That sucked.  Stepping out of AT&T I realized that since I was feeling homesick, I deserved a cupcake.  So I got a vanilla hazelnut (limited edition).  I then went to get my blackberry unlocked at the unlock shop on Melrose, and noticed 2/3 OFF SALE signs all over Fred Segal!  The sale had started! I missed the first day!  So I dropped off my phone and kicked it on back to Freddy's.  Unfortunately most of the stuff was pretty picked over, however I did get my mom and I some free city longsleeve shirts.

Picked up my phone, went to Studio City (insert loving *sigh* here) to get 2 curling irons that leigh had ordered to give to dave to bring to the wedding tomorrow... I really love studio city.  Not as much as I love Beverly Hills, but I just love neighborhoods where everything you need is in walking distance.  Obviously.  That's what i'm used to.  Ummmm came home, went to Gelson's & got dinner, ate it in the backyard,came inside only to hear "Go Pax go! Go Pax Go!" being chanted outside the kitchen window!!!  So I scurried over and peeked out from behind the blinds only to see Pax Jolie-Pitt on a bike going off a tiny little jump (we're talking a 10cm jump made from a board of wood and a log).  Ohhhhh how I love living across from Brangelina!  I couldn't spy long enough to see if the man with him was Brad or a bodyguard because I didn't want to be seen.  I then organized my room more, watched Top Model and ate my cupcake (not so great - the icing wasn't very hazelnutty).  Now i'm researching California speed limits.  Driving test tomorrow.  Wish me luck!!

*I apologize for no pictures... been too busy to take them. 

Gone - Carl Sandburg

Everybody loved Chick Lorimer in our town.

Far off

Everybody loved her.

So we all love a wild girl keeping a hold 

On a dream she wants.

Nobody knows now where Chick Lorimer went.

Nobody knows why she packed her trunk. . a few old things

And is gone, 

Gone with her little chin

Thrust ahead of her

And her soft hair blowing careless

From under a wide hat, 

Dancer, singer, a laughing passionate lover.

Were there ten men or a hundred hunting Chick?

Were there five men or fifty with aching hearts?

Everybody loved Chick Lorimer.

Nobody knows where she's gone.

The Best Grilled Cheese Ever

So Sunday morning i'm driving from my cousins house to the cottage, and Beau calls me and tells me to pick up some juicy jumbos from Foodland. So I pull up to Foodland and notice that the parking lot is empty. Who do I see standing at the door but Darcy Holland, former flame, who informs me that it's closed because the power is out. "Don't they have a generator?" I ask. "This is Buckhorn Chris." So we have a nice little chit chat about tattoos, cars & making your dreams happen and I leave for the Fosberys. I get there and root through the kitchen looking for something to make for lunch, and suddenly I remember a dream I had the night before! I was at a restaurant and ordered Grilled Cheese with fries AND salad (who orders grilled cheese with salad???) and when my plate arrived, it was half a sandwich smeared with Cheez Whiz because the restaurant had run out of everything. I was so sad. So I decided that we'd make the best grilled cheese ever for lunch, and it really was the best grilled cheese ever. All they had was cranberry bread with lots of nuts and seeds in it and Beau and I had our doubts, but we used it anyways. I chopped up some marble cheese, and threw the sandwiches on the barbecue (the only way to make official "grilled" cheese). When we bit into our sandwiches, we could beleive the deliciousness that was inside. The crunchy sour/sweet/nutty bread mixed with the salty melty cheese and copious amounts of ketchup was just soooooo amazing. F juicy jumbos, the Grillmaster is officially changing her cottage meal of choice to grilled cheese!

I Want Jennifer's Body

So my Thursday morning began by me being jolted awake by my 6:00 alarm.  "This must be a mistake" I thought to myself, because it was still DARK OUTSIDE.  But alas, my phone was not playing tricks on me, it was indeed 6 am.  Time to get up and get my sweet ass down to Nathan Phillips Square and the TIFF Box Office.  Megan Fox was in town, it was the day of the Jennifer's Body premiere.

6:45 am - After skipping breakfast and waking myself up with an early morning singalong in the car, I got to the box office and was 29th in line.  When the clock struck 7 and the line started moving sooooo slowly, I started calling to try and get tickets, and bbm-ing Caleigh who was trying to get them via phone & internet as well.  We had no luck with phone or internet, but I kindly asked my guardian angel & spirit guide to let us get tickets, so I knew we'd be fine.  I got to the front of the line after about 20 mins and asked if there were any Jennifer's Body tickets left.  "Yup, there are two."  WHAT LUCK!  "I"ll take them"!  I walked outta there with a smile on my face (as well as zombie tired eyes).  

The rest of my day was filled with unimportant but fun things like getting new sunglasses (Oliver People's KVA), new specs (prada black rectangular... pretty similar to my old ones but a bit edgier.  More artist/interior designer), sushi lunch with Mom & Dad, a search for the Frye Owen Crepe Tall boots (non existant in my size), and watching Ellen with mom over tea.

It was then time to go to Caleigh's for dinner.  We (Caleigh, Steve, Tory, Kim & I) got Freshii salads, mine was pretty amazing and watched Vampire Diaries... and laughed the whole time.  After Vamps I was feeling a bit on the tired side, so I decided to take extreme measures.  I decided to get a COFFEE.  Now, the last time (and first time) I had coffee was in Italy in Mantua on a field trip, and all I remember is feeling like I was on crazy pills as we toured the Palazzo Ducale.  I figured that would be a good feeling to recreate in order to stay awake until probably 3 am (the movie was a Midnight Madness showing).  So I ran on over to Starbucks, got a pumpkin spice latte with an extra shot of espresso (and later added a shot of Bailey's thanks to Steve) and was feeling it after drinking like 5 sips!  Coffee is magical!  I wasn't tired the WHOLE night!  Usually i'm the most restless person EVER in movies and am always fighting with my eyelids to keep them open, but I had no problem this time!  Ok so back to the events of the night.  Caleigh and I got all dressed up (in leather: me - pants, her - jacket) and left her house at 10:30 (taking Elaine Copeman's advice to get there over an hour early).  We were less than an hour early, but thankfully it was a seated line thanks to a ledge stretching all around the Ryerson theatre block.  By the time the line started moving and we made it to the front, we saw my lady love on the red carpet!  Megan Fox in the flesh!  We also saw our friend Joanna standing directly beside her!  If only we could all have PR jobs...  We took some snaps, then went inside and took our seats.  The cast came out to introduce the movie and we got a good look at Foxy.  She's so tiny.  And she had the most beautiful dress EVER.  And we both had on peep toe-ankle strap shoes.  I felt kinda cool.  Ok so then we watched the movie, and it was AMAZING.  Funny horror is just the best genre EVER.  Especially when Megan Fox and Adam Brody are in it and are SO hot.  I love them both.  After the movie we watched the Q&A which was sooooo cool and then headed back to our car (but first stopping to take several snaps of ourselves - which we later realized was a mistake).  While crossing the street to the car (we just so happened to get a free street spot directly across teh street), we noticed a crowd by a side door, so we ran over and somehow there was all this space right at the front of the fence, and then Diablo Cody & Adam Brody were like 3 inches from us!  Caleigh was like "Ahhhhh Seth Cohen!"  His response:  "yeah... thanks...." and then she started humming the OC theme song.  It was hilarious.   We took some more good snaps, wished we had been there 2 mins earlier so we could've seen Foxy leaving, but just couldn't believe the crazy fun and luck that we'd had that day!  I love TIFF.  I love Megan Fox.  I want her body.

The Prologue: Days 8, 9, 10

Day 8
I woke up and tried to figure out if I could order my Frye's in time to be delivered the next day. The answer was yes, if I called in the order RIGHTNOW. But the customer service lady told me that the smallest they make is a mens 7 and if i'm a women's 8.5, the 7 might be too big. I didn't wanna risk paying $60 shipping to not have them fit. So while walking to Gelsons, Leigh and I decided to pool our wardrobes and figure out new outfit ideas. I would wear her red plaid shirt with shiny leggings and my black boots, she would wear the Abercrombie long plaid shirt-dress that she intended to buy with leggings and my Frye harness boots. Perfection! We then went to the bank where I opened up an American account, and also where I received several bbm messages from Roger, pretending to be mad at me for not letting him know I was in town. Our next stop was The Grove to get Leigh's shirt.

The afternoon was filled with birthday present shopping with Dave! We hit up Barney's, Saks, Neiman Marcus, Lululemon, the cute stationary shop in BH, Kitson & Burton. We ended up with black Uggs, Lulu crops, a Burton Feelgood snowboard, and a burton tshirt with a plaid logo - very fitting for the theme. We got home at dinner time, Morgan came over, Leigh went to a play with Christina, so Dave, Morgan, Terrie and I ordered Thai for dinner. It was a lovely dinner, and there was just something about having Terrie there that made it SO cozy. It feels like a real family house and all her candles keep it smelling wonderful (and add nice ambience)! Dinner was followed by 4 intense hours of cupcake making! Lemon Coconut, Vanilla with lemon icing, Chocolate with cream cheese icing and chocolate coconut. During the middle of my cupcake baking Dave & Morgan disappeared, arriving an hour later with Leigh and Christina who had been in a car accident! Someone had turned left right into Christina's rental car! It was sooo scary! Thank goodness they were okay - just a little shaken up. I didn't get to bed until 2 am, they all stayed up even later.

Day 9
I woke up at 6:30 and couldnt for the life of me get back to sleep. 4.5 hours of sleep is not good when you have a fabulous party that night! After lying in bed wide awake for half an hour I decided that i should just get up and do the full hollywood sign 8 mile hike because maybe that would tire me out and I could have a little nap. Did the hike, couldn't fall asleep because the sun outside my window kept calling me to get rid of the tan lines that i'd acquired on that morning's walk. So I went outside to tan for half an hour and maybe fell asleep for 5 mins. Then it was time for errands. I needed wrapping paper and a box for leigh's present (the LB anthropologie pillow that she'd been wanting since May), and had to get her Sweetheart OPI nail polish cause she'd been marvelling over my toes for the past week. I also needed to hit up Sprinkles becaues it was the first day of chocolate almond and my mom was desperate to try it! So I did those errands, gassed up my car for the first time (only cost $55! not bad)! and then met Leigh at Frederic Fekkai at 3 (she was fresh off the massage table)! We had a wonderful couple of hours with Kelly at FF, I wanted Barbie hair, Leigh wanted Shirley Temple curls, and did we ever get them! She also tipped us off that when the Melrose Salon opens they'll be gift bags with $1000 of free stuff in them! Amazingly the opening coincides with my birthday, so we booked blowouts and cuts for October 15th!

After hair we went home and started getting ready for the party. Oh but first! We dined on Birthday Sprinkles! But since I figured I better ease myself back into sugar eating (it had been 21 days) Leigh and I just split one. Pumpkin. Delicious. I wrapped presents and tied fancy bows, while dave played with stamps and wrote the cutest card ever. Dave and I also ran down to Gelsons to get beer & mojito supplies.

The dinner party was fabulous, Birds - not so much. I made mojitos, we ate Terrie's awesome spaghetti, posed for rad plaid pictures, got high in the backyard, and ate cupcakes. This was my downfall. After not eating sugar for 3 weeks, 4 cupcakes was NOT a good idea. As soon as we got to Birds i started feeling SO nauseous (and I know I wasn't drunk because I only had 2 drinks) and had to leave after like, and hour. Sugar is Satan.

Day 10
The next morning I woke up at 7 as usual and was zombie tired. But I had packing and organizing of my room to do so it was alright. Leigh, Dave, Terrie, Jordan and I went to Toast for breakfast, and it was soooo wonderful cause I hadn't been there in 2 years! Then it was time to hit the airport - so I could catch a flight to YYZ and so Dave & Jordan could hop on over to Germany. My flight was delayed by two horrible hours... I spent them uploading pictures, finishing Skinny Bitch (which makes me NEVER want to eat meat again) and eating my chocolate almond cupcake - sooooooo unbeleivably delicious! On the way home the middle seat of the 3 was empty and it was soooo fabulous. I landed at 1 am and was in bed by 2:30 - with a wakeup call of 7 the next morning in order to make it to the cottage in time for Waketivis...

The Prologue: Day 7

Started off the day with a hike to the Hollywood Sign.  We then left for the beach.  We dropped Leigh's car for servicing in Santa Monica, then headed to Malibu & Zuma beach.  We tanned, Leigh swam (it was FREEZING and I had freshly washed hair so I didn't want to) and had a relaxing afternoon on the beach!  Post beach party, we stopped in Malibu to check out Planet Blue, Madison, etc.  I got our highly sought-after Splendid tank!  Yessss!  Then it was back to the dealership, on to Sprinkles (which was a HUGE test of my willpower - and I succeeded)!  The cupcakes went straight into the freezer!  I didn't even crack when I had to watch Dave eat one later that night.  I'm a sugar-free machine. After dinner, Christina came over and the three of us went for mani/pedis.  Me: Red. Leigh: Baby Pink. Christina: White.  I then discovered the most BEAUTIFUL Frye boots ever.  The Men's Owen Crepe Tall.  Sooooo badass.  But unfortunately I called Frye and NO ONE in LA carries them!  Soooooo frustrating :(

The Prologue: Day 6

Today was delicious.  In oh so many ways.  I rose at 7:00 to get ready and be outta the house by 8:15 to make it to the Palazzo for 9:00 pilates.  (Vino said to get there early because it was busy these days). Going back to the Palazzo is always so wonderful.  I miss CLR's 2007/2008 home sweet California home!  Pilates was especially hard today which was wonderful, but what was more wonderful was that Vino told me he'll only charge me $50/hour for training!  YES!  And that we'll do it out of Equinox gym which is the good spinning bike gym!  AND says I can come to Palazzo pilates anytime I want!  So i'm obvi gonna come every Thursday and spend the rest of the day at the pool!  Which was exactly what I did today.  Tanning and swimming a mile.  So lovely.  After Palazzo fun (by the way, i RESISTED freshly baked cookies... had raisins and an apple instead)!!! I went across the street to the Grove because there was this girl in pilates that had the most AMAZING sneakers ever.  Nike BRIGHT purple and fluorescent yellow!  So I had to have them (because i've been in the market for new sneakers since i need two pairs now since you can't wear dusty hike sneakers to the gym)!  So I got them. And I'm obsessed with them.  I wore them for the rest of the day.  I'm also obsessed with my lululemon "jog" skirt that I wore all day today as well. 

I returned home listening to static free tunes thanks to my auxiliary audio plug!  I eavesdropped on Leigh and her friend running lines (amazing & hilarious to listen to) and then Dave came home and we made big plans for my truck.  Black rims, black grille.  His friend Jordan's dad has a car dealership and is gonna do it for me.  I can't wait to have the most badass truck on the block!

We then decided that since Leigh was going to acting class (Hank Azaria is her teacher!) we were gonna go out for dinner.  So we went to the most AMAZING burger joint in the world.  The Counter.  Dave always has such amazing stories about it so I was pumped to go!  There were the most amazing choices EVER.  I got a chicken burger on an english muffin with herb goat cheese, craisins, sundried tomatoes, mixed greens and grilled onions, Dave got a beef burger, goat cheese, blue cheese, craisins, bacon, crispy onions and i forget what else.  We split sauces - half apricot sauce, half garlic aioli.  And we split chili cheese fries and sweet potato fries.  IT WAS AMAZING.  Best burger of my life hands down!

Fabulous day.  Can't wait for tomorrow and the beach!!