The End Of Phase I Has Come

It's been a long stint. Three years to be exact. If only I had caught the previous two years before that on file, I'd have a complete memoir. I suppose this is the best time capsule of a girl in her mid-twenties you can get. Shaken & Stirred...that's how it was. I had alot to say back then. And you let me say it whole-heartedly. Heck, you even made me feel like you enjoyed reading what I had to say. A truly flattering (and sometimes flustering) experience.

The time has come (it's been a long time coming) to move on to the next part of my life. Phase II, as I'm calling it. The bad news is, She Said What?!? has now officially come to an end. It was a huge part of my life for a time, but then life happened and I couldn't keep up with my own shenanigans. But with this bad news comes some good news. Wherever there is an end, there's always a new beginning.

This new beginning comes in the form of She Said Yes!!. The adventures of Stella transitioning from Rock-n-Roll Life to Rock-n-Roll Wife. So read on, my friends, I hope you enjoy. I figure we've all grown up a bit over the past couple of years, so why not?

Thank you for your support. You are are loved. (Some of you are even missed.)

Prelude To 2008

So Happy New Year and all that jazz. Is this blog really three years old? I feel like that's kind of a cheat, seeing as '07 brought me, well, not very much blogging at all. I suppose last year was a year of adjusting to change for me. Fully settled in Los Angeles, going steady with that boy of mine, working harder than I've ever worked before through a crazy year of transition at the office, trying to re-direct my antics into a more responsible life...it was an odd year, but a productive one at that. That's my excuse.

Spent alot of time writing for The Ledger and even more time working my business on the side. So no thinking I've been sitting here on my a$$ doing nothing, mmk?

2008 has been pretty rockin' so far. We rang in the new year with some good friends of ours. Grilled out, had the best homemade guacomole ever, and then crashed two parties; one being that of Michael Jackson's personal photographer, the other being that of some Hell's Angels. It was...interesting. And confidential. And I'll leave it at that.

At any rate, stay tuned, as I have a special surprise in the works.

Dandelions In December

One of the blissful things about living in Los Angeles is the fact that the weather is always pretty much perfect. So much so, that there are dandelions growing in December. Little yellow flowers sprouting up everywhere. The leaves are always green (with the exception of summer, in the event they get fried and turned brown) and the breeze is always perfectly cool.

Now I'll admit...I DO love and miss the seasons. But I say that only because I like change. When it comes down to it, I absolutely hate the freezing cold. And now, freezing means fifty degrees. Back in my childhood days in Michigan, fifty-five degrees meant that I didn't have to wear a jacket outside to play.

At any rate, it's pretty crazy seeing Christmas lights strung throughout neighborhoods and giant snowglobes on people's lawns...right in the midst of all the palm trees. I'm enjoying it while I can because this weekend, I will be headed to the Arctic Tundra once again for some down home blizzards. They have a foot of snow already. I'm hoping it gets up to two.

Yeah...that's FEET. Not INCHES. Brrrrrrrrr...

Sex And The... Movie?!?

Sex and the City: The Movie

Coming May 2008 to a theatre near you!!

Seriously

Circa 1970...

You Say It's Yer Birthday...It's My Birthday Too, Yeah

Two months later...this is what has kept me away for so long:

• Getting a promotion/raise at work = long(er) hours = making music videos
• Writing my nightlife column entitled She Said What?!? for the Los Feliz Ledger, my local newspaper
• Selling makeup and making people more beautiful than they already are
• Traveling to see my family across the country and having crazy parties with them
• Celebrating birthdays

Speaking of birthdays, it's mine today. Happy birthday to me...again. To celebrate, I had major festivities on Saturday night. Dinner at Velvet Margarita...drinks and more drinks with great friends at Blu Monkey Lounge... I've got over 80 photos documenting that one. Ha!

Although for more details on that night, you'll have to stay tuned to the September issue of the Ledger. It's got my name on it.

Cheers!

Movies In The Park Dark

You haven't lived life to the fullest in Los Angeles until you have attended one of the now infamous cemetary screenings at Hollywood Forever Cemetary. Better known as Movies In The Cemetary.

Some of you may think it's morbid to have a picnic (with a couple thousand others) in the middle of a cemetary and then follow it up with an eclectic, retro film that is shown upon the side of a mausoleum. In reality, it's one of the coolest things I've ever done on a Saturday night. A couple of weeks ago I went to the screening of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, but this week's Harold & Maude blew Vertigo away.

Everything about the night was awesome. Thanks to MSV's wild driving, Wes, Siobhan, the boyfriend and myself practically had front row seats and beat out the hundreds that were turned away. Wine, cheese and crackers, pizza rolls, sushi...we had the works. Some of us even did a photo shoot at Johnny Ramone's gravesite. It's a fancy one so there's alot to work with.

Just after 9:00p, the temperature dropped and the movie began. Little did we know it was going to be one of the best movies we had seen in a LONG time. Not to mention the soundtrack. Cat Stevens (now known as Yusuf Islam) shows us how it's done. It's one of the best "soundtracks done by one artist" I've heard. Actually, it got us talking about what other ones even came close. Here are a few examples that we came up with:

• Purple Rain by Prince


• She's The One by Tom Petty


• The Graduate by Simon & Garfunkel


• Good Will Hunting by Elliot Smith


• A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles

What other ones can you think of?